Merry christmas!

 Merry Christmas, everyone!

For those that don’t know Gary and I are in Guatemala right now visiting Austin and Logan. No, we don’t get to bring them home, but we are at least spending “Christmas” with them.

We did not arrive until about 7pm last night. We met the wonderful foster family who were waiting in the lobby for us. We didn’t bring the boys up to the room until 8:30 or 9ish. We had to run around and get their food and some other items. We brought a lot, but still needed more things. Ya know how that is.

The first 6 hours were a little rough, obviously they were a little offended being handed over to strangers. ;-) They are on a wonderful schedule and we pretty much held to it all night.

At times, it seems like the last 24 hours have felt more like 3 days, and at other times, it feels like 5 minutes. We’re washing bottles in the sink, changing outfits and diapers every 10 minutes, well maybe ever 12, bouncing, swaying and cooing in between feedings and diaper changes. Just like their pictures and video, Austin and Logan are true troopers. They’re very patient with us as we try and learn what they need/want.

Needless to say, we are more in love than ever before.

Oh, when we picked them up they were wearing the exact same outfits that they were in for their last photo shoot – it really seemed surreal to see the pictures come to life!
Their foster mother thinks that they are identical. We’ve done really well keeping them apart. Austin’s cheeks are the key each time!

I know some are wondering – so yes, I’ve balled like an idiot, several times, meeting them, saying good-bye to their foster mother (because I know she hasn’t been without them since Day1), when they cried because they were so upset at being left behind, when they fell asleep because they were so beautiful, when we snuggled together in the middle of a peaceful moment at night,, when we woke up this morning and they seemed okay to realize we were still around, at breakfast today because Austin reached out to me to pick him up, during bath time (her schedule is an 11am bath) because Logan purely delighted in the water, and just now because I was singing Silent Night to put Austin back to sleep and the words to the song just broke my heart.

So, I’ve included a few shots, we’ll see how it progresses – I’m not promising much because I’m not in charge of my life anymore! ;-)

So, God Bless everyone for your prayers and love and lifting us up to get us here. We feel your strength and love!

Meeting Austin and Logan - Monday Night, Dec 18th. We were so surprised to see them in the same outfits as their last photo shoot. It's like we just plucked 'em out of the photograph like we've been wanting to do!

The girl in the pink is their 11-year old Foster Sister and next to her is the Foster Mother's sister. They all seemed very invovled in the boy's lives and we're so glad we got to meet them all!

This is our frist night in the hotel. Both boys were very tired and had missed a feeding. This is Logan.

Another one of Logan....

Bathtime! We think it may have been their first full bath-tub experience. They seemed to be taking it all in. Once they got used to it, they just splashed and splashed!

Austin eating away at his toes!

Austin asleep with Mommy - pure heaven!