On March the 11th of 2008 / Hace exactamente un a-o

Greg and I flew early in the morning of the 11 to Guatemala City. We arrived there at midday, got to the hotel, had some lunch at one of the restaurants and settle down in the room waiting for Eli to arrive. She was finally there at around 730pm.

It's been a year already of having her, of getting to know her and getting to love her. Today, I'm thinking a lot about that day. Eli, I will always love you. Your Dad will always love you and we are so blessed to have you in our lives.

Arriving in Guatemala City

Waiting at the lobby
More waiting...She is finally there with Sra. Juanita

Saying good bye to her foster mother, Sra Juanita. They were both very sad

Looking at her daddy

Talking to Grandma and Grandpa / Hablando con los abuelitos en Bogota

I was able to capture these pics from a telephone conversation between Eli and her grandparents in Bogota. She was so much into the conversation and, although nobody understood what she was saying, everyone knew she really meant everything she said! I passed her the phone and she left my office. She kept talking all the way from the living room to the kitchen. She then sat down on the potty that my parents gave her for her birthday (and that by the way she hasn't started using yet) but anyway, she sat down and started talking up a storm, making faces, changing the phone from one hand to the other, and she just had a great conversation. I loved it and so here it is the sequence of the conversation in pictures.


Estas son fotos de hace aproximadamente un mes, de Elizabeth hablando con sus abuelitos en Bogota. Le pase el telefono y se fue conversando hasta que llego a la cocina en donde se sento y continuo hablando, pasandose el telefono de una mano a otra y haciendo gestos y articulando toda clase de palabras que tan sollo ella entenderia. Aqui esta la secuencia de esta conversacion en fotos.

Llego a la cocina y se sento en la taza o poseta de bano que mis papas le regalaron de cumpleanos y que a proposito no ha comenzado a usar.

Telefono en la mano derecha

Ahora telefono en la mano izquierda

Haciendo senas con las manos

Ahora mas seria y concentrada en lo que le dicen

Quien sabe que estaria diciendoles.

De llanto a risas

Elizabeth ha estado mas estable ahora, luego de tener un mal de estomago con diarrea por casi seis semanas. Ayer tuvimos cita con un gastroenterologo quien le mando varios examenes de sangre y materia fecal. La nina no ha perdido peso, pero tampoco ha ganado en los ultimos meses. Yo confio y pienso que fue un virus que la ataco de manera muy fuerte y espero que los resultados de los examenes nos den una luz o nos digan que esta totalmente bien. Durante todo su malestar Eli no dejo de comer o de jugar y de ser tan activa como siempre, asi que esto es otra cosa a su favor.
Con respecto a vocabulario, ya dice muchas mas palabras y pone juntas hasta tres al tiempo. Dice por ejemplo : mas agua mama, I'll do it, etc. En este momento estoy trabajando en los colores. Los repite pero todavia no sabe diferenciarlos. Los numeros los cuenta hasta veinte, claro que yo diciendolos primero, tambien nombra a toda la familia, amistades y amiguitos y profesoras del jardin a donde va de Lunes a Jueves.
Este fin de semana pasado, estuvo muy carinosa y se la paso dandonos besos y abrazandonos, claro que ella siempre es muy carinosa con nosotros y eso me gusta mucho.
Tambien me gusta mucho de Eli, que si llega a llorar por algo, el mal genio le pasa muy rapido. Esta manana por ejemplo, la levantamos temprano como de constumbre e inmediatamente la metimos al agua. Lloro por un momentico y luego ya estuvo bien, jugando y disfrutando del momento y ella es siempre asi, cambia un momento no muy agradable y lo convierte en uno agradable y sin problemas. Hasta yo tengo que aprender de ella!

Este fin de semana le terminamos de arreglar su ropita en un armario o dresser que era de Joyce, la mama de Greg. Nos lo regalo, Greg lo pinto del mismo color de la cuna y ahora ya tiene toda su ropa bien organizada y hasta nos sobra espacio.

Estas fotos son de la primera semana de Enero cuando ya estabamos empacando y desarmando todo lo de navidad. No orecuerdo por que fue que la reganamos y le dimos "time out" o sea que se quedara quieta mirando la pared por un minuto. Aunque ya lo ha hecho varias veces porque este es el castigo que les imponen a los ninos en el jardin cuando hacen algo indebido, esa noche Eli no lo resistio y lloro terriblemente. Pero luego, al ratico ya estaba contenta y jugando de nuevo con el papa.

Poniendo cara de consentida

El papa cambandola de panal.

Castigada por un minuto

No resistio mas

Lagrimas de cocodrilo

Con papa pero todavia llorando



Y ahora jugando

Encantada jugando

Ayudando a desarmar el arbolito del segundo piso

Que juicio de nina

El balcon da a la cocina

Y ahora ayudando a que?...

Menos mal que todos los adornos eran de peluche o bolas de icopor

Christmas Pictures!

Thank God I'm finally back to normal! It was such a difficult time to do my everyday routine feeling sick and without energy but I'm very happy that I'm feeling much better and that the persistent cough and general discomfort have gone away.
Going back to where I left off a month ago, I'd like to say that we had a very nice Holiday time with the family. First Tim, Beth, Joyce, Hannah, Jacob and Molly arrived and then Barry, Kathy, Rachel, Kaleigh and Brett came home. Eli couldn't have been happier with the visit. She loved every minute of it and had no problems interacting with the big crowd. We all helped with the cooking. Some of us stayed home while others went shopping at the outlet located 4 minutes from home, so in general we were all content and happy to be together.

I also want to give and update on Eli's development. She is now counting up to 20 in Spanish, she is putting up to three words together, she now runs faster than ever, she is also much bigger and can now reach further on my desk and kitchen counters. Eli kisses me in the middle of the night in many occasions when she is in bed with us, she likes jokes, loves music, likes to ask for a facial tissue to clean her nose, she says words like I got you, I'm done, no way, Guatemala, she names all her uncles, grandmas and grandpa, cousins and friends from day care. She also eats very well and likes soups, rice, tangerine, raisins, broccoli, avocado, plantain, melon, crackers, greens, eggs, etc, etc. Eli knows all the body parts in both English and Spanish, she understands both languages without problems. I talk to her in Spanish all the time and her vocabulary is pretty extensive and not because she is my daughter but Eli is a very smart girl. Oh, and she is a daddy's girl. She loves Greg or nene or baby as she calls him. And she loves daddy's jeep too. The other morning Greg says that he was putting her in the other car when she started crying and saying: no, jeep, jeep and did not want to get in. Eli is our compliment and our everything and I cannot picture my life without her. The Lord bless her and protect her today and always.

And these are some of the pics from Christmas.

Our house. The back is the barn, the middle is the kitchen and the front to the right is the rest of the house.

These pics were taken at the beggining of December. Never the amount of snow we saw last year.

The guest house to the left

I baked a carrot cake and decorated it with fondant. It was good but there were other sweets more appealing to the crowd.


Tree decorations

My other baby.

Beth loved her present from husband Tim...and so did we.

It was a whipped cream maker!

Eli in her Santa dress from uncles Tim and Beth.

This is the wrapping for my present. Greg painted it and it looked very nice.

Making faces






When she is ready for a diaper change, she opens the drawer in the kitchen where we keep the diapers, takes one and goes straight to the living room where she knows we usually change her.Smelly girl.

She is huge! At her 2 year old medical check up, the doctor said tha she is now in the 30th percentile for lenght and in the 50th percentile for weight. Before she was off the chart for lenght, she was way down. So she is huge now.

With Grandma Joyce.

Nice album she received for present.

With Godmother Rachel.

Just guess who we are looking at...

Reaching further and further...When Eli arrived from Guatemala she was as tall as the desk's height.

Here she is looking at the calendar godmother Rachel received from her.

Ajiaco time.

Brett and Kaleigh.

Tacos/ Fajitas time.

Eli and Molly

Eli loves gramma's company.