One week check in..

Well we've officially been home for one week and next week is Fern's 1st birthday! We've been having a great time. Finally today I cooked something she liked. Our neighbor, who is from mexico, has been helping me with ideas and giving tasty snacks to Fern. I made jasmine rice, cooked down with cinammon stick, raisins and whole milk. Yum...comforts of home for Fernanda.

Tomorrow she is going to help me deliver meals on wheels to the ole folks. gotta teach her about being socially responsible and helping others (never to early to learn those important lessons!).
Unfortunately bathtime is still NOT going well. She hasn't had a bath in 3 days - but she doesn't smell yet!

To all those folks that have called over the past week - sorry I've been SO slack in calling ya all back. I do really appreciate the calls and well wishes, but somehow all my free time that I used to have is GONE!

Marbles and The Conspiracy of Stoke

Had a fun trip to Marbles Childrens Mueseum today. Very cool Stuff.


Stoke - To be overjoyed, elated, hyped, extremely happy over a really good thing. (The Jer Dictionary of Urban Slang 2008)

You may have noticed that some of the pictures I've been taking are rather large and fisheyed, well thats because they're shot with a fisheye lens. As some of you know I belong to a community of skateboarders called Old Man Army. Old Man Army is a skateboard company based out of Arizona, but not just a skateboard company. A company that solely caters to skaters over the age of 30. The old dudes, the guys that shouldn't be doing this anymore but just can't let it go. Dudes who tear an ACL and require surgery. (HEY DON'T ROLL YOUR EYES!!) Even more than just a company, a community of older guys all over the world that just love skating but don't neccasarily always cater to the "corer than thou" attitudes. I've met some of these guys and skated, and have always been shown nothing but true hospitality. The Chandler BBQ is truly an amazing thing to behold. Young, old, guys, gals, everybody is there for one thing. Skateboarding.

I've shared our story of all our tribulations of adoption with "the army". These guys (and gals!) have given us a tremendous amount of support to Selina and I through this whole thing, and were overjoyed when we finally got home.

Through the web forums the "Conspiracy of Stoke" was born. Basically a way (plot?) for people to help other people, something to brighten anothers day. Someone gets hurt bad, loses a job, has a kid, a way to ease some pain or celebrate a great event. I was on the receiving end of that plot when I found a package on our doorstep earlier this week. One of OMA's owners had told me he was sending me some stickers I had designed for them. Mighty large box for some stickers. When I opened it I was surprised to find a brand spankin' new Nikon fisheye lens, something I've been drooling over for quite some time. I stood there mumbling incoherently for a while before it all really hit me. Folks that I've only met a handful of times, some that I've never met at all chipped in to do this for us. My heart just dropped, I can't really explain how touched I am by this. There truly is good in this world.

Am I Stoked? Yeah, you could say that. Thank you Old Man Army.

Attack of the Kitty Rex

Rex has gone with the old saying "whats yours is mine and whats mine is yours". The boy got up into the walker on his own and decided that was a good spot to chill in. Rex has been an excellent big brother giving Fern kisses and the occasional full body brush up. Its almost like he's in a protective mode these days. I'm so proud of him.

of course we took photos today

more pictures

ok - somehow we didn't have time today to take any pictures but we did overcome a HUGE roadblock - Fern hated the stroller. Well, guess who ended up taking a nap in the stroller today! Maybe tomorrow we can tackle the demons lurking in the bathtub - that girl hates bathtime

Anyway - I am sharing some pictures that were given to us by the Foster Mom. I'm so glad she took pictures of their time together. You can tell by the pictures that Fern has been a very happy and spoiled little girl over the past year.

(look at the book she is reading!)

sharing more photos...

North Crackerlacker

Home Sweet Home....

Ah...the comforts of home - we are so glad to be back.

We had a very easy day of traveling yesterday. Fern was a trooper (ok, little baby motrin helped!). We arrived home around 11:30pm and with all the excitement of being in her new digs, checking out all the toys and books in her room, she didn't go to sleep until 2:30am. Mommy and Daddy were exhausted!

I'm off to unpack and try to organize while she is down for a nap. I'm starting to learn how precious free-time is when you have a one yr old in the house!

Here's Fern playing this morning..she really is such a happy, easy-going girl.

Sorry we haven´t posted as many pictures during this trip. There definitely is a BIG diffence beween being with a 5 mon old versus a 1 yr old! She doesn´t sleep as much during the day and requires a lot more of our attention.

She slept like a champ last night in her crib, but still has very sad moments in the morning pointing towards the door, longing for Ms. Rosa to come back. I have to admit, she really digs Jer. He has been doing such a great job reading books to her and comforting her (but of course he hasn´t changed any diapers yet!). Today is going to be a very long day -kind of yucky weather so looks like we will be spending a lot of time in the room.

here is a pic of the crazy fountain in the park in Antigua.

I finally have a chance to sit at the one computer in the hotel (I hate computer hogs - some guy has been using it for the past hour - I finally asked him nicely to share!)

I must admit, yesterday was a very hard day. Fern was definitely very upset with the transition from foster mom to her new family. She cried all afternoon with a big pouty lip - she was breaking our hearts. I felt soooo bad taking her away from Rosa - it was emotionally exhausting for all of us. She ended up sleeping in the bed with us, which meant I didn´t get much sleep.

Today was a MUCH better day. She was a saint at the embassy (ok, she slept through about an hour of it!) and then we had a nice afternoon playing outside. Tomorrow at 3:30 I had back to the embassy to pick up our package and then Wednesday we fly home. I´ve got the baby motrin ready!!! Unfortunately she has a bit of a bacteria infection in her tummy, which means BIG explosions in the diapers. How the hell do you change a diaper in the bathroom on an airplane - there is barely room for one person!

tried to post some pics..but the connection here sucks..will try again manana.

Its official

Its all official, we had our meeting at the embassy this morning, all thats left is to pick up the paperwork tomorrow. Things are going a little better now, Fern seems to be over her fussiness of yesterday, which was understandable, all of a sudden here she is with these two people who she´s only met once, and she doesn´t really remember that. Last night was a challenge, with little to no sleep, for her or us. I´d like to take this time to issue a formal apology to my parents, honestly I just had no idea things could be this hard. But its all coming together and we´ve had some big smiles today and hour by hour things seems to get a little easier.

Fernanda´s here!

Fernanda is finally here! The transition has been a little rough, but she´s having a nap now, I think we´re both realizing that this isn´t going to be quite as easy as we had anticipated, nothing in life is easy and this won´t be any different. But like all challenges you just have to accept them and do your best, and like all challenges we´ll probably learn a thing or two along the way. What we have learned so far is that we love this little girl with all of our hearts and we will stop at nothing to give her the best life possible.

Pictures are coming soon, but we need some adjustment time first. Stay posted kiddies.

Greetings from Guatemala

Well we´ve finally made it to Guatemala City, we had a great time up in Antigua on our "last solo vacation" the area is just beautiful, the picture you see here is the view from right outside of our door in Antigua. Kind of weird waking up and seeing a volcano right outside. We did a day trip yesterday up to Lake Aniticla (pretty sure I just butchered that spelling.)

Tomorrow is the day!! Fern will be here tomorrow around noon (you know she´s driving herself, she´s so advanced) We have our meeting at the embassy on monday and return on wednesday one big ole happy family. Anyway just wanted to post up real quick and let everyone know that things are going well. Tonight we´re going out for our last dinner as a couple, steaks and bourbon all around!!

And we're off to Guatemala..

Yes, folks our time is up..this is it..everything is about to change (for the good, of course!)

We fly down next Thursday. Our embassy appt is on Monday and we fly back to the US on Wed April 23rd.

Pretty exciting....not sure I will be able to sleep tonight.

more to come..