A Running Memory

I just sent the .pdf file of our old website to Kinkos to have it copied and bound.  While I was on the phone asking how on earth this would all work, I started reading some of the old posts and stumbled on these from the week AJ became ours forever.  Since this week is "the week" that began our journey of bringing AJ home from Guatemala, of course I'm sentimental. I thought I'd share, since this very moment is why I chose to start a website, and then later started this blog.

It is a running memory of our lives with AJ.  So when I forget simple things, like when he went off the bottle (which I swore I would never forget), my words are right there to remind me.  My words reminds me of a time when I "wasn't" a special needs mom and watched my baby boy sleep for hours.  When our world seemed perfect and we could think of nothing other than holding AJ and never letting go...

7/27/2007
Sorry this is so late...we've had quite the day/evening. We were

supposed to be on our way to the orphange to pick up AJ between 10-11am.
After 11am we called and were told that we would not be getting AJ until
around 5pm. What?! Long story short, it was a #@*(& of a day and at 5:45pm,
he was placed in our arms forever. He was sleeping---tiny as ever-we always
think he's going to be bigger :) He was dressed in a stripped onesie, a long
sleeved fall themed onesie over the stripped one, khaki pants, and socks. He
was dripping with sweat when we got him and of course, continued to do some
since he was sleeping....we took a moment to enjoy what God had just given us
and to sort of stare at him in awe. Jeremy opened our "packet" of documentsholy
cannoli-he comes with paper!!! We have his Guatemalan passport, new
birth certificate, and lots of other documents....
We made our way upstairs to our room to lay him down on his Quilt of Love....
and he woke up. We stripped him down to his one onesie and since he was
super hungry, so we fed him-ok, he downed 6 ounces like a champ. He is doing
extremely well. We "tripod'ed" him-and he stayed upright for about 10 seconds...
he's grasping objects and following things with his eyes-especially his bottle
when its all gone :) He holds his head up higher now when he's on his tummy,
and we give him a week or two and he'll be army crawling....He's got a couple of
new teeth coming in, and is still Mr. Smiley pants like he always has been. We
grabbed a blanket and made our way to the lobby to wait for Pete and Tomas,
they came walking over and we had Pollo Campero for dinner. . Translation:
really good fried chicken chain that originated here in Guatemala-their version
of "KFC" but so much better. The boys (AJ and Tomas) kept starring at each
other-we are really wondering if they realize who each other is.
We finished dinner and made our way upstairs again, and just hung out,
playing and getting him used to a spoon. He is down for the night...
Today was the longest day ever...and we are so glad that at the end of it, a baby
boy is now all ours. More tomorrow-Mommy and Daddy are exhausted, but
thrilled at the same time :)


7/29/2007
Ok then....so its Sunday. We have sort of lost track of what day and
what time it is...its raining right now-its 5:01pm-holy cow I didn't realize it was
that late...well, lets back track for a moment....
Yesterday was our first full day with AJ. He went to be the night before at
9:30pm and then didn't wake up yesterday morning until 9am. Whoo hoo! He
probably had an exhausting day and then to wake up in a strangers arms
probably threw him for a loop. So, he got up and he got a bath and then we ate
breakfast....he went back to sleep around noon and slept until 2pm....then he was
up till about 830pm. Pete came over from the hotel next store with Tomas and
we hung out...the highlight of our day-we managed to have him eat some rice
cereal and Pete and Jeremy logging onto Yahoo live to "watch" the Brewers
game. We had a pretty laid back day yesterday-since he had woken up with a
wicked cough......so he slept most of the day. In the afternoon, we had AJ and
Tomas playing on our bed and Tomas decided that they should wrestle-AJ got
pinned-naturally-we got a picture so we captured the moment!! At night, we put
him in a sleeper that says "Daddy's Little Helper" and it has wrenches, hammers,
saws all over it. Grandpa Doug would have loved to see him in such a
"HANDY" outfit.
He went to bed around 830pm and as I suspected, he woke up around 1am. We
had a bottle and then he restled around in his crib for about a 1/2 hour and fell
back asleep. He woke up again at 9am. Daddy gave him a bath and just as we
were getting ready ourselves, Pete and Tomas came to visit. We all had
breakfast-and then I heard someone say "Heidi?!"
I turned around and it was Wendy....those of you that are in our immediate
circle of family and friends probably saw the video that we received from our
adoption agency with AJ's referral. The family who shot the video is here and
we hugged each other to death when we saw each other!!! Her husband flew in
this morning, so we were able to meet him as well. It truly is a small world.
They meet their daughter tomorrow.
So we sat outside, all of us, and talked-its so beautiful to just sit outside and
listen to the fountains in the front area. Not as much traffic on Sundays either....
which is nice. AJ decided not to nap until about 1pm today-which is extremely
late for him. He is showing signs of stress, which is to be expected. We suspect
that he has finally figured out, hey-this is not normal. All children that are
adopted go through a period of grieving, and believe us it is hard to watch, but
it will pass....this we know. He's a bit ornary today-but we still love 'em :)
I got to hold Tomas today-which was exciting....Molly, his mommy, will be here
in 2 hours and Tomas' Daddy can't wait....!!!! We all have our Embassy
appointment very early in the morning-715am which means we have to ready
and rarin' to go by 645am. Yikes!! When they dropped AJ off, he came with his
adoption packet, which has his Guatemalan passport, pink slip, copies of all
reports, vaccine records, etc. Very interesting paperwork he came with :)
Most of it goes with us to the Embassy tomorrow.
Well, there is a lot of noise in the dining area and I should go upstairs by Jer and
little man, but we just thought we'd update everyone...more after our Embassy
appt tomorrow.