Tried to dress the princess up for halloween, but she would have none of it. So here she is in half of her costume. :)

We had a good day with lots of giggles, most of which did not get captured on film.

As promised, here are some pics of the precious.

Well I called PGN this morning, and the good news is that I am finally on the Director's desk! Those of you who have been following the mitutia of this process may remember that I've been on the Second Reviewer's desk since mid-September. The Director is the final sign off in PGN. Once he signs, we get the final sign of the birth mom, and then we get the birth certificate, and she is mine by Guatemalan law. Then we go back to the US side. We'll get her a passport, and submit a bunch of documents to the US Embassy. But I am getting ahead of myself here. First, we need to get out of PGN. There is still a chance I could get a previo, which is a kick out, or a bad thing. If that happens, (if the director doesn't see an accent over someone's name or if he decided that a signature is smudged or something) then we have to resolve it, and then I get resubmitted and probably face another 8 weeks or so in PGN. Hoping hoping hoping to get out next week. PGN is closed tomorrow for All Saints Day, and then Friday and Monday for the elections. They will reopen on Tuesday.

Liana is wonderful, but this transition is hard for her. Harder than the last visit. She is sleeping more than the foster mother described, so I think she is mourning a bit. Sometimes she is her wonderful silly self, and sometimes she seems very sad. She is very clingy, and gets terrified if I try to use the bathroom, or do anything without her. She is also very cautious of strangers, and sometimes starts crying if someone she does not know touches her. :( Poor sweety.

With babies, however, she is mostly herself. Scared a little boy in the playroom yesterday, giving him a great big hug that nearly knocked them both over, even though the little boy was leaning against his dad's legs. So she is quite an agressive little flirt when she wants to be. :)

I'll post more pictures later.

The first night was rough. Lots of tears and lost keys and no diapers and no purified water in the room and little sleep. This morning, however, she woke up all smiles, and we had a great morning! And the princess Liana is being very patient with my silliness. This morning I mushed up bananas at breakfast, and fed her spoonfull by spoonfull. At a certain point I took a break to take a bite of my own breakfast, and she picked up a piece of sliced banana that had not been mushed up yet, and took a bite. LOL. She has teeth! Six of them. No more banana mushing for me.

She is taking cautious steps, with a little help from me, or those sideway steps around a low table. She falls on her bottom a lot, which doesn't seem to phase her a bit, but sends me running. I need to try not to be overly protective.

We are getting to know each other, and there is a lot to know. :)

I have piles of things sorted out and spread all over the place... stuff for feeding Liana, stuff for diaper changes, Liana's bathtime stuff, clothes for Liana, clothes for me, my toiletries, laptop and accessories, and the long long to-do list.

It is a chilly, dark, rainy morning in NYC. I fell asleep last night with the TV on, and woke up this morning late, with some silly movie on. I looked at the clock, dismayed that I slept so late, and that I have so many things to do out in the nasty rain today.

And do you know what I did?

I stayed in bed. And watched the silly movie. And played with my sweet cat, who has no idea how drastically his life is about to change. I leave for Guatemala on Monday morning, and I'm staying until Liana comes home.

When I finally got out of bed, I puttered around a bit, got a few things done fast. Still haven't been able to face going out in the rain to buy the last few things on my shopping list, mail some bills, and get that facial that I promised myself I would squeeze into the day's schedule.

Last night I had strange dreams that my mom, my grandfather and I were inter-galactic tourists, visiting rather seedy outposts on distant planets, of which my grandfather disapproved. (Probably the influence of falling asleep with the tv on... lol)And now it is noon, and I am sitting at the computer and drinking coffee and trying to get myself out the door to face the rain, knowing that my failure to move might mean the facial is not happening.

There will never be another Saturday like this. My whole world is about to change....

I've become so frustrated with the press on Guatemalan adoptions. There has been lots of sensationalist garbage on the topic, half truths mixed in bizarre supositions, and most of it did not phase me much. I guess the NPR piece, in which they quoted the UNICEF guy saying that Guatemalan adoptions were "popular" because they were so easy is the one that really sent me off the edge. At the end of the story, it seemed that someone could just take a load of cash, fly on down, and come back with a baby. Honestly, I'm getting kind of tired of explaining the situation to so many people. So here I am, setting up my first blog. Maybe you are here reading this because you asked me a question.....