The land of the living...

...We are thankful to have slowly returned to the land of the living. yay! Austin and Logan are doing really well. Today was their first day back at full speed and in good spirits.

I am still holding on to my cough and a sore throat. And Gary is pretty much operating at 100% again...but he never seems to really go down like the rest of us. I think it's part of his "SuperHuman" powers.

We managed to also take down Nonnie. Pretty badly, in fact. Sorry about that, Nonnie. And she is also starting to feel more human today.

Believe it or not, it was not the flu. Just a (in hindsight) mild 24 hour puke/dirty diaper bug - with an extended fever. Not too bad (in hindsight) at all.


And I don't know what yall do when you're sick, but around here we sit on the counters in our pajama tops and make cookies!

Thanks for wishing us all back to health!

Help Needed for a GuateMomma/blogger

I don't know this woman or her family. I only just found out about her yesterday. I only know that she is an adoptive mother just like me and something has gone horribly wrong in her case.

When Austin and Logan were 8 months old and we didn't even have DNA yet, my case worker (in an effort to soothe me) said "Donna, when this is all over and done, I promise you will have a child in your arms, it may not be this one or these two, but I promise you will have a child."

And.
I.
About.
Fainted.

"These two" already were my children. Since the moment I saw their picture, they were mine.

Yes, I know you're not supposed to "get attached." But, I would have gone to the ends of the Earth for Austin and Logan. For my children.

So, this family has a daughter. Like many of us long to do, the mother moved to Guatemala to foster her daughter. And then, something went horribly wrong - paperwork, decisions, PGN, judges, lawyers. And they can't come home. Her timeline sites 17 months since the PGN nightmare began.

I
cannot imagine

and yet
it could have been any of us.

So, her blog friend, Andrea is asking for all of us to help out. If I were down there living this nightmare, I would hope and pray that there were angels out there to help us.

Understandably, this family is in financial crisis. And they could use some Angels.

Here is the link to Andrea's blog: http://theparentfiles.blogspot.com/
And here is Erin's blog: http://jesuswasnotarepublican.blogspot.com/

Donations can be made through Paypal. You will need an account which is easy to set-up if you don't have one. Then click on "Send Money" and type in Erin's e-mail address: Erinstoy77@yahoo.com . The rest should be easy.

And secondly, please add this family to any prayer list you are aware of.

What the February!?!

If you watch "Ellen", that title makes sense!

Austin has an ear infection, a fever of 102 for about 42 hours that Tylenol did nothing for. But Motrin finally seemed to do the trick.

Logan was fine until yesterday, no fever, but random puking. And it lasted ALL night long. Still has a huge appetite, though.

I have laryngitis.

Gary has a really bad congested chest.

Evan has had really bad headaches all week.

And Mason seems to be doing just fine for the moment.

ALL together, I would say we have the flu. Individually.....I have no clue what's going on!

Hope everyone else is doing better than we are!

Wordless Wednesday!

Thanks, Nikki!

How do you like my new look? Please be sure and stop by Nikki's blog(s) - she's doing great things, including helping out Mayan families this month!

Blog Under Contruction!

Please pardon the mess....Thanks for your patience!

In the meantime, maybe this will explain my difficulty at getting a "still" pictures of the boys:

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

FFF

This doesn't even really need an explanation for why it's one of my most favorite fotos (it's all the same photo, just zoomed in! ) but here it is anyway!

This picture captures the moment in time when nothing was wrong with my world. PGN, countless expenses, long days waiting, none of that mattered when looking over the crib at these two amazing creatures during our first visit trip (Christmas '06).

The world, my world was perfect. Every thing about my babies just blew me away - how incredibly perfect they were, their tiny heads, their perfect skin, their heartwarming perfect little smiles. The way they smelled, the feel of their breath against my cheek. I have never felt so incredibly blessed and humbled by God's amazing generosity and love for me than I did in those moments when I was just standing there, peering over the crib and soaking in every ounce of them.

Thank you, God. Thank you for choosing these two precious little souls to light my world every single moment of the day.

Models?

Well, last week we had some fun at the park, it was HOT!

Here's sweet Logan:

Here's one of Austin and Mommy:
And today, we were expecting some sleet! Gotta love the south! The weather changes every 24 hours! So, today was very cold and rainy. We just stayed indoors and had a photo shoot. If I ever had dreams of these guys becoming models, they're lack of participation for the job convinces me it won't happen!!

Here's what they did when I said, "Okay, sit down, and SMILE for Mommy!"

Little smart-elecs, eh? "Oh, that was SO funny Mum-ma!" Ha HA Ha! Okay, here's our "stud" poses.

Logan's over-the-shoulder look:Austin's looking-far-away look!My friend Erinn gave us these shirts. They're perfect!! Austin's appropriately says, "I do all my own stunts." And with Logan's beautiful smile, "I'm with Handsome" is very fitting! Thanks, Erinn.

And here's a video of them um, playing, I guess!?! These guys are just ALL boys!

Warning: For those of you with sweet girls and gentle boys, the following video may contain material inappropriate for well-behaving children to view. ;-)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This week, last year...

We were on our second visit trip. My hubby and I had left on a Thursday (Feb 1st). Then my mom flew down by herself to meet her grandbabies and to spend the rest of the week with me so Gary could come back to work. As luck would have it, she was on the same plane as my future daughter-in-law's parents, (http://www.ggaggle.blogspot.com/) who were coming to pick up Mira!! We surprised them all at the airport (even though we weren't supposed to leave the hotel. eeks!). I think it was one of the highlights of my mom's life and one of mine, for sure!

In December, the boys had to switch Foster Families during our first first trip. We didn't learn of this until we had already said goodbye to the first foster family. Gary was still in the lobby when the lawyer (who we didn't even know had been there because she never introduced herself) told Gary a new family would pick the boys' up on Friday. I was heartbroken! How traumatic for my babies, they had just been taken away from the only family they had known for 8 months, to be left with us, (loving, but) total strangers and then they were going to be handed off to another set of strangers. Plus, we had not really spent any time with the foster family (it was LATE at night, December travel had delayed us by hours!) and we had invited them to lunch on Friday. We had Christmas presents for them, plus lots of questions about the babies' life. And they were never allowed to say good-bye to their foster children. It was just all very, very heartbreaking.

However, as proof that we don't always understand what God is up to...just eight "short" weeks later on our second visit trip, we had completely different children! On our first trip, it was very clear that they had not been played with much (we sat them on the floor with toys and they just sort of looked at them and us) and I would say, developmentally, they were more like 4 or 5 months old (which truth be told, was fine for me then since I had missed so much babytime with them). Anyway, when we met the boys in Feb - they were thriving! The foster family had them in bouncy swings (in the doorway), and in walkers and there were several teenagers in and out of the house all the time doting on them constantly.

It was wonderful to see them so happy and so active. We'll never know the reason for the sudden change of foster families. We'll never know much about their first 8 months of life. But clearly God saw something better for them and we are grateful. We still e-mail the foster family and hope to see them again one day!

SuperBowl last year:

And Super Bowl this year:

Here's my mom, (a.k.a Nonnie), last year. Our makeshift play area in the hotel room: Austin showing an early interest in Mira!

Mira on her Embassy Day:

And Mira today - Happy One Year with your Forever Family, Beauitful!

First you, then me...

Gary and I were at the table sorting through mounds of paperwork. This is what the twins were working on. They had discovered a new game (notice my sleeping beauty on the couch, too!):

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Anyone ready for summer?

Well, if we're not gonna get any snow, let's get ready for summer!

My mom, my sister-in-law and I have been doing a LOT of shopping and snagging up sales on fall/winter clothing for the twins for the next few years! I think last weekend we probably bought over $900 worth of clothes for about $150! They're gonna be some stylin' boys, too!

However, while bargain hunting, we couldn't help but buy some spring/summer stuff for this year! ;-)

Here's Austin and Logan after a day of shopping! Had to sneak these cute pictures in, first, of them wearing their Guatemalan hats! (This time yall tell me who's who! Leave your guess in the comment section!)

Here's Austin modeling his new Spring '08 look:

And here they both are modeling their Beach Wear look:

And I am shocked by how much older they look in these pictures! They look like 4 year olds to me, not 21 month olds!