Pictures

Well we feel like two busy parents because we haven't even blogged yet in the new year. We'll post some pictures here and then do a wrap-up post, then it is curtains for the ol' blog. It has sure been fun. Henry is a joy to have at home and has plenty of smiles for everyone. His two cousins from next door love to come over and see him. Tomorrow is his 6-month birthday! He has a pediatrician appointment for that on Monday. He spends some time each day learning to go on his tummy, to grab toys, to sit up, and to talk. We are also pleased to report that he likes baths now, after a rocky start. What a blessing he is. He doesn't sleep 100% through the night yet but is getting there. We'll keep working on it!

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.

Reflections on Guatemala, Part II

Tuesday, December 5

Well, as was posted before on our blog, this day was perhaps the toughest day of our lives. After a nice morning, in which Henry was letting us hold him and was even cooing, he took a turn for the worse around 9:30 or so and began crying hysterically. It was like he was in real pain. If you ever have had a child scream like this and not know what is wrong with him, it puts you in real pain too. The hard part for us was that we had just met Henry and we didn't really know about his likes/dislikes and moods! We were a little worried that Henry just didn't like us! The only thing that pacified Henry's screams was walking him around the hotel grounds, either strapped to our bodies or in a stroller. We went for many long walks this day. However, we were so upset at what was happening--our lunch and dinner consisted of a few Twizzlers and Goldfish pretzels--that at 9pm finally we asked the hotel to call in a doctor to see what was wrong. He checked Henry over and felt "gasses" in his stomach. He gave Henry some anti-colic pills and amazingly he calmed down within seconds. He was back to smiling and cooing again, almost like he was a different child! He went to sleep well that night, as did his parents, thinking the worst was past. Boy were we wrong.

Wednesday, December 6

What a wild day this was! It began very early, with our attorney Ivanna picking us up at the hotel at 6:20am, to go to the U.S. Embassy downtown. Henry had been sleeping beautifully that night and we were very hesitant to wake him up. He remained in a good mood on the drive into the Embassy, much to our delight. Once we pulled up to the Embassy, we could see mobs of Guatemalan people waiting in line to get into the building. It appeared that many people had been waiting for hours, as they were sitting in their places on cushions and were drinking coffee and eating snacks. Presumably they were all trying to get into the Embassy to get travel visas, although I don't know for sure. Luckily for us, we had a pre-arranged appointment to get Henry's visa. We met a handful of other adoptive parents in line who were very excited as well. Henry, amazingly, was sleeping. Because we had a pre-arranged appointment to get our travel visa, we went to the front of the line and after a few minutes went through security and through the front door, to another waiting area. We probably waited there for an hour and a half, of which Henry was doing great for probably 1 hour and 23 minutes, then he had had enough. An Embassy employee called us to a window where she went over our final documents and told us that Henry's visa would be available the next day. That was it! Someone from our agency drove us back to the hotel, and Henry fell asleep in the car. Then the fireworks began.

After Henry woke up he again was inconsolable. He wasn't eating and he had dirahea. His "happy drops" that worked the night before weren't working, so we broke down and called our attorney's office. She called back quickly and told us that she had made a doctor's appointment for us at an office they use downtown, and that her husband Francisco would drive us there. Soon he was at the lobby and away we went.

When we got to the doctor's waiting room Henry just erupted. Nothing could calm him down whatsoever. It was heartbreaking to hold his little body against us and pray that he would be all right, while watching other people in the office shoot concerned glances in our direction. After what seemed like hours we finally got called back to an exam room, where we met a nice doctor who spoke perfect English. He examined Henry and then ordered a stool sample (I'll spare you the details of how the sample was procured). After the sample was extracted Henry, who had been crying so loud my ears hurt, fell asleep on the table. Apparently some stress had been released from his body! We waited a while for the results of the test which came back positive for roto-virus! The doctor explained that the virus made Henry lactose intolerant to his formula; for the past few days we had been forcing formula down him to try and get him nourished, and as it turns out that was exactly the wrong thing to do! The doctor told us to get soy formula and something called Pedialyte for hydration.

We left the doctor's office around 6 (Francisco paid for the appointment, what a nice man he is!) and took off for a pharmacy. Traffic was heavy but we finally found a store. Henry was having trouble in the car so Erin asked if she could stay with him while we went into the store. Francisco nicely replied that we could not do that, and we passed by an armed guard at the front of the pharmacy. You have to be careful in Guatemala City. Francisco paid for the items (again, how nice!) and drove us back to the hotel. At that point he had been with us for over 4 hours driving us around the city and waiting for us at our appointment. His cell phone was ringing constantly so we could tell how busy he was, yet he always had time for us. We could never repay him fully for how much he helped us this day.

It was a windy night as we were on our way back to our hotel room when we passed by a lady, who remarked on how cute Henry was but also the fact that he was not covered from head to toe in a warm blanket (his legs were dangling uncovered). She said that while we could maybe carry him like that in the United States, that is not how things are done in Guatemala. She was nice about it, but after the day we had just had, we were not in the mood to be culturally educated. We just wanted to get our crying son to the room. I don't really remember what happened for the rest of the night, but odds are that we were up and walking him around, trying to soothe him, for most of the evening. I kept thinking, in 48 hours we'll be home.


We have cute pictures to post of Henry enjoying some toys at home but right now I have no way of posting them. Look for those soon!

Reflections on Guatemala

This could end up being a long post, but I wanted to put some thoughts down before I forget them. As this blog is named "Guatemala Adoption 2006," it is only fitting that its existence will end with the end of 2006, so I better get started.

Sunday, December 3

On this day we left the cold Twin Cities and flew south. The thought that stays with me on this day is that, on the countless flights I have taken in my life, I usually follow a set routine: Bring stacks and stacks of periodicals on the flight and, if there is a layover, find some chinese food to eat. On this day, as I was digesting my sesame chicken and cracking open a Sports Illustrated in Houston, waiting for my connecting flight into GC, it occurred to me that hey, this is it. This is the last time I can follow my plane "routine" for a very long while. From now on, beginning on the flight home, I'm not living for just myself anymore. I will have to subordinate my needs and wants to someone else's, who is much more vulnerable than me. The thought was pretty compelling to me, at least it was before I read an interesting article about predicitions for the upcoming college basketball season.

We arrived at GC at 10pm or so and had to wait over 30 minutes for our luggage, as ours were the last suitcases placed on the line, which was a little nervewracking. Now we were at a nervous point in the trip: we had read on other websites that leaving the GC airport would be a challenge, as there would be masses of people converging in on you, wanting to help you with your suitcases, or call a taxi, all for a couple of bucks in return. There was also the great potential for mischief. We weren't sure if our hotel shuttle would be waiting for us as we manuvered through the airport's construction. Sure enough, the shuttle driver was there, as well as a few kids who pried our suitcases out of our hands. We gave them a few dollars and moved on. That wasn't too hard.

We then arrived at our hotel, what with its waterfalls and plush grounds looked more like a resort in the darkness. We nervously watched Spanish ESPN and eventually fell asleep, looking forward to the next day's events.

Monday, December 4

We had never heard from our agency when we were to meet Henry on Monday. We both figured it would be around noon time or so, and we nervously got ready for that moment (sleep had been okay the night before probably because we were so exhausted). Noon came and went. I finally broke down and called Ivanna, the attorney who was working on our case down there. Her office said that Henry would be brought over around 4pm. Given some time, we decided to take a taxi to do some shopping. It was a short drive to a shopping complex that looked a little bit like Southdale, or the Galleria in Edina! There was a Wal-Mart type grocery store where we got some snacks and bottled water, then an American-style mall where we picked up some knick-knacks and a book. What a weird experience to shop in that environment just a few hours before we were to meet our son! This is a picture of Andy waiting outside the "Wal-Mart" for our taxi driver to bring us back to the hotel.

We got back and wasted some more time waiting for Henry. Then, at 4:00, Ivanna called our room and said that Henry would be coming around 6pm! Two more nervous hours to withstand! As I remember, we watched a really stupid MTV dating show, and Jeopardy. 6pm finally rolled around and we decided to wait for Henry in the hotel lobby. Seems that there was a large dinner party entering the hotel, as well as a bus tour of some sort, so there were many people mingling about. We took a seat and tried to stare past all of these people but we just couldn't see anything! It was really crazy. FINALLY, at 6:30, a nice car pulled up, and we just had a feeling it was him. Once we saw a middle-aged woman get up with a bundle in a blanket, we knew it was time.

We didn't actually get a good luck at Henry until we got back to the hotel room. Words cannot really express what we felt and what we saw, you've seen the pictures. It was interesting because his foster mom continued to hold him, so we felt a little like outsiders, even though Henry was officially our son. We began to chat about the process over the next few days and what Henry was like. The foster mother didn't speak any English, so Ivanna translated. A short time into the conversation the foster mother began to cry, and we all did. It was very evident that she loved Henry very much. At one point she said that she never considered herself to be a foster mother, but instead a real mother. It was probably the most emotional moment we'll ever have in our lives.

When the time came to go we gave the foster mother a final moment alone with Henry. We have promised to send pictures and information on our little guy so she can keep up with him. I walked the foster mother and Ivanna to the lobby while Erin had her first time alone with our son, I think he was on the verge of sleep. I sprinted back to the room, closed the door, and we looked at each other as new parents. Finally. Kind of a freak-out happy moment, tempered by the foster mother's sadness.

The rest of the night was actually pretty quiet. If you can believe it, we ordered in Domino's Pizza, since we were tired and didn't know what else to eat. The hotel staff brought the pizza box in on a very nice tablecloth with silverware folded nicely in heavy white napkins, which I thought was kind of funny. Henry slept in the crib for most of the night and then we eventually moved him to our king-sized bed. The foster mother thought he would be sort of out of it because he had received an immunization earlier that day. All in all, a wild day.

Congratulations if you have read this far! I'll post more about the wild week later.

Pictures, Part II

Hello all, it is great to read your comments about our little guy. I thought I would have more time to post as I'm off work all week, but that is not the case! Henry is taking up all of our time, but in good ways, i.e. cuddling, playing, feeding, rocking to sleep, etc. We went to the pediatrician yesterday and he got a clean bill of health, the roto-virus should be officially gone from his system in a few days. Now we will attempt to work to get a consistent sleeping and feeding schedule, but really with all that's going on this will start in earnest after the holidays. In the meantime, more pictures! The above two are from the airport homecoming (featuring two grandmas and a grandpa) and were taken by my cousin Heather. The good-looking kids on the bottom are Henry's cousins, Isaac, Sammy, and Lincoln Bailey and a very loving cousin Clare Fresvik. Her brother Eli didn't seem to make it into a picture!

Pictures, Part I

Hello everyone, I have finally posted some pictures from our time in Guatemala. These were taken in the few moments when Henry wasn't ill. Later I will post pictures of Henry's first moments in the United States, if I can get them from assorted family. I would also like to memorialize all of the things that happened in Guatemala that we didn't have the time or energy to talk about before. Things have gotten so much better in the last few days.

HOME!!!!

Well folks, I am writing this message to you from Henry's grandparents' house in White Bear Lake. Henry is sleeping only a few feet away from me. Although he is not officially home yet, words cannot describe the elation we both feel with having Henry in Minnesota. It is amazing that we woke up today in our tired old hotel room in GC and are ending it at "home". Tomorrow sometime (when the parents feel adequately rested) we will head up to Duluth with Henry and Rosita in tow. That will be another in a series of emotional moments for us.

Henry was really a trooper on the plane today, which was something we were worried about. He was terrific on the flight from GC to Houston, until the very end when his ears hurt. Then in Houston we got stuck in customs for 1.5 hours (got put into the wrong line), had to re-check bags, go through security, etc., and that took a lot of starch out of him. But included in that ordeal was Henry's official entry into the United States as a permanent resident. Now he can get a social security card! Henry slept for half the flight to the Twin Cities then had a rough patch. It was all worth it when we came down to the baggage claim and saw our small gaggle of family there to welcome us home. After all Henry had been through that day (which included soiling 2/3 of his outfits) he loved being introduced to his family, and had smiles for all.

I can't believe that we don't have pictures up yet, but that will be something to do for the weekend. In the meantime, good night and good luck.