Reflections on Guatemala, Part III

Wow, by now we have had Henry in the U.S. for almost 3 weeks; I thought I would have more time to post since then but most assuredly I have not! I also do not have my home computer available so pictures will have to wait! I'll make a few posts into January 2007 for that purpose.

Thursday, December 7

Not much happened on this day, besides the fact that Henry was getting gradually better. We fed him Pedialyte almost exclusively so the roto-virus could completely run through his system. Earlier in the week we had pegged this day as a good day to take a shuttle to market to buy some souvenirs, but we reluctantly held off because of Henry's virus. So it was another windy day walking Henry around the halls and outside, and trying to coax him to sleep. I tried to get on a flight out of Guatemala City much earlier for the next day, but those darn fees to change flights add up, and we didn't want to risk going standby. Although what we saw of the country was fantastic, we just couldn't wait to get out of Guatemala! We will go back of course!

Friday, December 8

Well this was the day we were all waiting for, the travel home. Henry slept fairly well the night before and the morning saw us rushing to pack our things. I brought breakfast back to our room (I had done that every day since Tuesday because we were really unable to leave our room), we scarfed that, and then took off to the hotel gift shop to buy some souvenirs. The gift shop had some good stuff, although we probably would have preferred going to a market, and we purchased a Christmas stocking, Mayan hooded sweatshirt, wallet, hat, small Guatemalan flag, etc. Oh yeah, and some M&M's. We herded all of our luggage (4 bags to check and 2 carry-on backpacks, the most ever!) to the lobby to await the hotel shuttle at 11am. We boarded the shuttle at that time but had to wait for 30 additional minutes. I think some guy who was supposed to be on the shuttle was instead in the bathroom! We finally pushed away, and I noticed Henry was seeming to intently listen to the Spanish conversations on the bus. I think he likes the sound of the Spanish language (too bad we only know un poco).

I tried to take in the surroundings on the ride to the airport. For most of the trip, Guatemala looked like any foreign city with its shops and markets, and even a few American-style chain stores thrown in. But in our last turn towards the airport, I saw a hillside full of shanty houses with tin for roofs and mud for floors. It was pretty eye-opening. We finally made it inside the airport and began our ride home. There was plenty of security to pass through, as well as a cumbersome airport tax to pay, but we finally made it to our gate. We stopped to ask an aiport worker if there was a bathroom we could use, but she replied that there are no bathrooms in the airport past the security checkpoint! Are you kidding me?! My son had a full diaper, and I'm not proud of this, but we set him on a pad on the airport floor to rectify the situation. What else could we do?

Erin bought a few more things at an airport gift shop with the remaining quetzales that we had and before you knew it we were on the flight. We sat next to an older Guatemalan lady who spoke no English. We also saw 3 to 4 other adoptive parents with their children on board. Our strategy was to stand up in the aisle and hold Henry facing out from us as much as we could, and that worked for a while. Then, he fell asleep in my arms for a good portion of the flight, even allowing Erin to watch the in-flight movie for a while (The Devil Wears Prada)! Henry was great until the end of the flight, when he understandably got a little restless, and then his ears were hurting upon landing. As soon as he got off the plane, he was great again.

The problem was going through customs. We asked three different people whether we should go through the "U.S. Citizen" line or the "Visitors" line. The "Visitors" line was about twice as long, but all three people told us to go through that line. It took about an hour to get to the front and Henry was getting upset, when another airport worker told us that we should have been in the other line! Luckily we went to the front of the line and passed through customs in a few minutes, but then we had to go to an auxilury waiting room to process Henry's visa. Henry promptly fell asleep. After exiting this room we had to reclaim our luggage (which was sitting off to the side after our long customs wait) and re-check it at another location (of course my suitcase popped open at this point). I told the baggage handler that I just might relocate to Houston after all of this commotion. After re-checking our bags, Henry had both a monstrous diaper and a monstrous appetite. We met both of those needs and got on the train to our gate. All in all, we had a 2.5 hour layover in Houston but got to our gate 10 minutes before boarding because of all of the delays. We had just about had it!

The flight to the Twin Cities was a little rougher for Henry because he was so tired, but he did fall asleep for a while (and Daddy absent-mindedly spilled crumbs all over the top of Henry's head while eating a sandwich). About an hour before landing, a woman behind me loudly asked me what time it was, and that set Henry off. Needless to say, we were quite happy to be landing in the land of snow!

The best part was when we exited the plane. We excitedly and hurriedly rushed down to baggage claim and as we came down the escalator, we saw 10 of our family members waiting to meet Henry! Henry was awake and a charmer, as he loved the attention. Almost everybody took a turn holding him. I could just feel a great weight being lifted off of my shoulders by the simple fact that we were home, and now others could watch him, if only for a few minutes! We took advantage of that fact quite a bit over the next few weeks!

We drove away from the airport and the next day went up to Duluth as a newly constituted family (dog and all). The next week was good for both of us to bond to Henry, and we got plenty of help as family and friends took care of all of our meals for that week. I had to go back to work the next week, which was pretty difficult, but now we are trying to get Henry into an eating, nap, and bedtime routine. Christmas festivities interfered in that process, and New Year's will too, but that's more than okay. We are seeing Henry integrate into our house and family more and more each day, and we are seeing those gummy smiles even more frequently! It is interesting, when other people hold Henry in front of us, I think his eyes lock on to one of his parents, as if knowing who we are already to him. I could write an entirely new blog on the growing pains of the transition (and the overwhelming feeling of suddenly being responsible for a 5-month-old infant), but it has all been worth it. Looking forward to 2007, I can envision Henry being even more immersed into our family and growing into his childhood. We certainly look forward to that while at the same time cherishing today's moments.

Again, I hope to post some more pictures soon. Thanks for reading.