We are home!

Well we have been home for a little over 6 weeks and I can hardly believe that it has been that long. It seems like Mia has always been here. Ok I suppose I will start from the begining....

our flight was uneventful and everything went really smoothly we had a lot less anxiety because we knew what to expect. We got to our hotel by 3 pm Guatemala time and we went up to our room, which was HUGE! We asked if it was a suite it was SO big, but no it was just a big room. Giovanni showed us around the room and then the phone rang, it was Maria! Her and Mia were waiting in the lobby for us, and we were very suprised because we didn't think that she was coming until the next day. So we went down to the lobby to greet them and we saw Mia again! She was beautiful and Maria looked very sad. I can't tell you how good it was to finally see her and know that we didn't have to give her back. Little did we know we would give her back. Mia was a crying mess and she was so scared. Maria and her daughter stayed with us for almost 4 hours. It was nearly 4 hours of Mia crying. Finally Maria could tell that we were tired and she offered to take Mia home and bring her back the next day. At first we said no then we decided that it would be better, because we would get some sleep and be more prepared. Some people might think, how could we do that? It wasn't easy, but we knew that Maria was taking good care of her and we would see her the next day. We slept went and picked up our bags and then called Maria to bring her back to the hotel. This time Maria dropped her off and only stayed for an hour. We invited Maria to come back in 2 days to go to lunch with us and Benjamin was to translate for us. Maria left and Mia cried, cried, and cried. She cried for nearly 2 days straight and would NOT eat a thing. We actually had to spoon feed her formula! It was a nightmare, but we knew that she was scared and greiving for Maria. When she would cry she would say mamamamama she was calling for Maria. It was very hard on all of us.

Then Maria and her 2 grandchildren came for lunch. Mia was so happy to see her and her face just lite up when she saw her. We had a great lunch and learned a lot about Maria. We learned that she was funny, intelligent, was a nurse, and really cared about the children that she took care of. It was a wonderful oppurtunity. We also got to know Benjamin, who translated for us. He is an expentional man and I even got to meet his wife and 2 adorable sons.

Fast forward to our embassy appointment. For those of you that don't know we had to go to the US embassy and make it official. We had to leave the hotel at 6 am and Mia was NOT happy about being woke up. We had to go have her photo taken for her visa and then head to the embassy. We drove with Mia on our lap, yes on our lap, they don't use car seats. If you know how they drive then you would understand the terror we had with her on our lap! We made it to the embassy and sat outside with all the Guatemalan people dressed in their best trying to get Visa's to the US, all of which would probably be denied. Don't even get me started on the whole stupid immigration thing... Anyway, the embassy opened and we were escorted in a special room just for us adopting people. We sat and waited as American families with Guatemalan children filled the room. There must have been 40 families in this room. Then we waited some more. Then the fun began, because being tired and grumpy Mia starts crying, but we can't go outside because we know our name is going to be called and we don't want to miss that. So in a room of 40+ babies we had the screaming baby! After 45 minutes or so of her screaming Jenny got her to sleep. Then we were called. We had to go into a room and they asked a bunch of questions and then we were sent back out into the big room again to wait. So we waited. We waited for her name to be called again. Finally it was they give you a recipet and tell you to come back tomorrow after 3:30 to pick up Mia's visa.

Day to pick up Visa. We called Maria to see if she would watch Mia while we went back to the embassy and to go shopping. It isn't safe to take the children out of the hotel, because there are many people who are not pro-adoption so we felt like it was best to leave Mia with Maria. She was excited and came to watch Mia. We had our favorite cab driver, Fernando, take us around and wait for us while we went shopping. We went to the artisian market and bought some traditional Guatemalan things. During the drive we got to talk to Fernando about Guatemala. He said that if we weren't adopting Mia she would likely end up being a domestic or begging on the streets. He was a wonderful man who truly touched our hearts, he works 15 hours a day 7 days a week to put his boys through school. Not college, but K-12, yes they have to pay for K-12 school and it is very expensive for the Guatemalan people to pay for so most kids never go to school. Anyway back to the story...we went back to the embassy to pick up Mia's visa. Jenny had to hold her hand up and swear to take care of Mia and then we were off.

Mia was adjusting better everyday and getting less and less scared of us.

Maria came back one more time to see Mia and it was very hard for her to say goodbye to Mia. It was bitter sweet, because we were happy to be going home, and Maria was sad because we were leaving.

Our plane rides home were also very unventful. Mia slept almost the entire time on the plane and didn't cry at all.

Since we have been home everyday gets a little better. She is sleeping mostly through the night and she seem to be bonding to us. She really won't go to anyone else, but us and that is a good thing.

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect little girl and we are so happy!