Lily Alejandra's Photo Log

Home where I belong!

2008-04-01T19:57:00.000-07:00

Check out our new family blog @ www.ladybugsandfrogs.blogspot.com

The end of one journey is the beginning of another

2008-01-22T12:51:00.000-08:00

Like I said on Aaron's blog, I'm sorry it took me 2 weeks to update the blogs. We really are not tired. We just have been enjoying the babies so much plus to keep things under control my attention has to be re-directed from the computer to the demands of our home and children and so far, we are doing well, we are happy and very well adjusted. Each time you bring a child home it seems there is a huge adjustment period but we don't seem to be facing that. Everything feels so normal, so right! We are thanking Jesus for that and all of you for your wonderful prayers and support.

Lily is doing so well. She sleeps through the night still. Both babies adjusted to the the new room and cribs very easily. They go to bed and down for naps without protest. Lily is eating very well and will try new foods we give her. She also loves our Bichon, Frosty, very much and he loves her. She yanks his hair and he licks her fingers. She really loves watching the big girls dance around and put on *shows*. She will get so excited, giggle, jump up and down and shake her whole body...especially when they played the guitar for the babies and sang them songs. The big girls love to touch nose to nose with Lily so that she will pull their hair. I don't know why but they like it and so does the dog!

Lily also went to the doctor with her brother, Aaron. Lily is also very healthy and doing fantastic.

Again, thank you for praying us through Lily and Aaron's adoptions. It's been amazing to see God's hand at work in this and to see how fast he brough our children home and to see that we have not one but two! We are still amazed at "How Great is Our God".

We will start a new web location for pictures and updates, for the next journey of our life....just being a family of 6. Amazing feeling! It's been a long 4 years since we applied for our first adoption in 2003. We have met many friends, changed our social circle and changed the entire tenur of our lives. We spent the better part of 4 years bringing our children home, filling out forms, being poked with needles, fingerprinted, interviewed and anxiously awaiting the arrival of the next child. It's been 4 years full of anticipation and emotional roller coasters. I am beyond greatful that God trusted us this much and gave us this calling and gave us those 4 years of our lives and I am now greatful they are over. It's a whole new way of looking at the future and we are excited about it. We will never close the door to God if he says "It's time to go back" but for now, there is no current calling but to be parents to these wonderul and amazing 4 miracles he's blessed us with.

Last morning nap in Guatemala. Lily is actually asleep here! And we couldn't move her.

Lily's first airplane ride - She's on her way home!!!

Lily is meeting her Meema and Aunt Hope. Protective Big Sis, Kya, is over-seeing the meeting.

First night home, all the kids are playing in the living room. We are so blessed to have a large family.

1st morning home! Lily's new Uncle Joel is giving her morning bottle. (Joel's actually really happy. He just doesn't smile for photos.) Again, Kya is over-seeing the situation.

Lily being so cute here on her first full day at home.

She easily went down for her first nap in her new crib.

Lily's first bath at home.

I have a picture of Kya just like this, in this very towel from our hotel room in China. I had to take this snapshot of Lily.

Here is big sister, Kya's, picture taken in 2004.

Lily is loving the new exer-saucer and is generally this happy! Thank you Jesus for these precious babies (all 4 of them!)

Lily's Embassy Day

2008-01-07T18:32:00.000-08:00

Ms Lily Bug's Embassy Appointment was today and way too early for us, 7:15am. It took just a little over 2 hours but, just like her brother Aaron, she was approved for U.S Citizenship. When the babies land in Ft Lauderdale on Wednesday they will become permanent Citizens. It feels so incredibly good to have all our appointments and paperwork completed. We are finished!

Lily Bug is 8 months old but she has 6 teeth!!!!! Both of the babies are on coffee already. They started them about 5 months old. They dip sweet bread in coffee for breakfast and dinner.

We had a good day today with the babies. Here are a few pictures to capture our memories from today.

You can click on the photos to see the larger images.

The restaurant we had dinner at last night on Gotcha Day served cough drops instead of mints.

Hanging out in our room. We have a very large living room.

Some Lily Bug first: first peanut butter cracker and first cappuccino.

Shopping at the market next to our hotel

Happy Mom & Dad at dinner tonight

GOTCHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-01-06T14:42:00.001-08:00

WOW!!!! IT FEELS GOOD! She's OURS!

Lily was brought to us at our hotel approximately at 3pm today, January 6, 2008. She is forever our daughter; the feeling is overwhelming and a huge relief. We are so incredibly grateful to our Father who made this dream come true. The foster family good-byes were terribly tough and full of tears. The foster family loves her so very much. We are so thankful that a family loved her so much and cared for her so well.

Here are pictures of Lily with her Foster Family. The first picture is Lily with the daughter of the Foster Mother. The second picture Lily is with the Granddaughter.

LILY IS COMING HOME

2007-12-27T12:02:00.000-08:00

Our last Visit Trip

2007-12-03T12:28:00.000-08:00

It was great to see our Lily Bug and to know it was our last visit. Next time we see her, we will not ever give her back. We look forward to returning very soon and bringing her home!

Click on the thumbnails of the collages to see the larger images.

Hello from Antigua

2007-11-25T10:48:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,
Sorry I have not been able to post. My mother posted for me on Aaron's blog on Thanksgiving Day. I have since been able to post there once myself.

We were lucky enough to get Lily on her 7 month birthday! She is teething! And, a bit cranky from it. She is now almost 16lbs. She is now eating Gerber baby food at lunch and some rice cereal at breakfast. I tried to give her eggs but she didn't like it. She is no longer waking up for feedings and sleeps great through the night.

We got some good news!!! Our agency emailed us on Tuesday evening to let us know that Lily's birth certificate is in hand! We now just have to wait for Aaron's and as I posted on his blog it should be ready on the 27th. It will take about 1 to 2 weeks for the DNA process and then another 1 to 2 weeks for the U.S Embassy to issue us an appointment. We should be returning very soon! And, we are very happy about that!

We got a nice surprise this morning over breakfast. One of the volcanos outside our hotel room erupted! Whew, that was neat. Unfortunately, for us, it was only smoke. But still was something we never expected to see. Dale got plenty of pictures of that.

We will have to post pictures next week. We forgot to pack the cable to transfer the pitures to our computer. And, our computer cannot directly read our new cameras memory card. Sorry about that but everyone is doing great and I can't wait to share the pictures from this beautiful week.

Love,
Dawn

Video: Meeting Lily

2007-10-19T13:16:00.000-07:00

Returning to Guatemala!

2007-10-18T21:00:00.000-07:00

Lily, I'm coming back! I can't stand it without you and Aaron. I can't wait for you to get home and for our family to be complete here. But for now, our family is only complete when we are in Guatemala and I have to get back. We have been home only 4 days and already we have planned our return trip. We leave on November 20th for 7 days. Lily will turn 6 months old while we are with her on Nov 21st. How great is that! I won't miss it. And, Kya will turn 4 years old while we are there. It will be a special trip. I look forward to getting my babies back in my arms.

More Lily Pictures

2007-10-17T10:50:00.000-07:00

We are home and it's terrible being away from the babies. I don't want to post much about it but I did want to give you some more pictures of our precious babies. Here are some of my favorite of Lily.

First Full Day With Lily

2007-10-14T05:42:00.000-07:00

We cannot leave the hotel since we do not have custody of the babies. We were able to get a family of 6 (showers, bottles, etc) all ready though in 1 hour to go to breakfast. I thought that was pretty good. They have a nice breakfast buffet here. We hung out there until it closed down. We met and talked to several people down there to pass the time. Then we hung out in the hotel room for about 4hrs for naps and lunch. Dinner was again at the buffet restaurant but we didn’t really know what any of it was (Friday fish dishes) so we ordered club sandwiches off the menu.

Lily was great all day. She whines just a tiny bit when she needs something but that’s about it. We had her giggling out loud. She has such a cute laugh and she smiles back at you whenever you smile at her. She loves to dance and is just content as could be just about wherever you place her.

Here are a few pictures from our first full day with Lily, Friday – October 12, 2007.

Love At First Sight

2007-10-12T12:35:00.000-07:00

We arrived safely and uneventfully into Guatemala City about 3pm (5pm EST). Leaving the airport there were hordes of people in Mayan dress massively crowding the outside of the airport. I am embarrassed to say that even though I’ve been to such places before, I immediately went into a bit of culture shock. The people come from the countryside and come in crowds from the villages in flat bed trucks, chicken trucks, whatever they can all squeeze into to greet an arriving family member. It was quite wonderful actually just not what I expected and I was definitely not in Kansas (I mean Florida) anymore! Our shuttle was not there so we had about 15 minutes to immerse ourselves into this crowd and adjust. Everyone is so friendly here. I was getting antsy though. It was 4pm and were to meet the babies at 5pm. Even though I knew they’d be late, that is customary. And, they were late. We got the room all set up and went down to the lobby at 5pm.

Sometime closer to 6pm, in walked the woman that I’ve seen only in pictures over the last few months, Lily’s foster mom. She was a sight for sore eyes! I was thrilled to see her and I new under that bundled up blanket was my baby girl! Thankfully (and unexpectedly) our agency had arranged for a translator to be here who took pictures and interviewed the foster mother for us. He is a 4th year law student, a Christian, works with the youth at his Church and seems to be quite a nice young man. It was nice to be able to talk so openly about the Lord. We’ve only adopted in China thus far where you cannot mention anything about God or any religion.

So, what you really are reading this for is Lily! Oh my!!!!!!! You know how big we thought she was from her pictures?! Wrong! She is so small. She is a peanut and is very, very precious. Just big ole’ cheeks. And, I have to honestly say she is a million times more beautiful than her pictures allow for. She is just gorgeous. I have not been allowing myself to bond to her photos for fear of losing her. But that all faded away with first look. She became instantly etched in my heart forever. As I held her for the first time all my nerves from the past 2hrs faded away and a huge sigh of relief came over me. We spent about 1hr (or so) with the foster mother, chatting, and getting information. Aaron was still not here (we did get him a bit later though). We were getting nervous though and the big girls were tired, hungry and bored. They did warm up to Lily right away. Kya was instant little mommy and Lily smiled every time Kya came near her.

Lily is a beautifully behaved baby. She smiles a lot, moves a lot. She slept from about 9:30 to about 7:45 (or something like that). She woke up one time in the middle of the night (3am) for her middle of the night feeding (just like the FM told us). Dale and I both woke many times to check on both babies. Dale did not sleep well but I slept beautifully with all my babies surrounding me (and the hotel has wonderful beds and pillows).

Welcome

2007-10-08T21:10:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Lily Bug's Photo Log.

We will soon be visiting our Lily Bug for the very first time. (Just 2 more days to go!). We will be posting pictures of our trip to the new photo log. We will use this photo log to post any future visits and pictures of the final trip to bring home our baby girl. Don't forget to check out Lily's Main Website for all other great Lily Information.

We are also adopting a baby boy. Check out Aaron Gabriel's web site and photo logs!

We have also provided a link to our family page, as we have 2 beautiful daughters already at home that have filled our life with so much joy!

And, if you are interested in Adoption, we have given you the link to our adoption agency.

Many Blessings,
Dawn