Brian's Guatemalan Adoption

In November 2000 we attended a CHI information meeting. We did not really have any idea what to expect but after we walked out of the meeting we knew, without a doubt, that this was how we were going to build our family. While in Costa Rica the year before we fell in love with Central America so we were naturally drawn to a family who had just arrived home with a 7 month old little boy from Guatemala. He was so beautiful and the parents were just beaming. We decided to wait until after the holidays to begin our adoption journey and in early February 2001 we mailed our application to CHI to start the process for Guatemala. When we started we were told the wait for a little girl was close to 18 months while there were immediate referrals for little boys so we requested a little boy. In May 2001 we submitted our dossier to Guatemala and just 3 days later we received a referral for a 6 week old little boy...Brian Saul Garcia Cruz. We couldn't believe it. He was so cute and so sweet. Against our SW advice (because the birth mother could still change her mind), we copied the photos and gave them to all our family members. We received updates on Brian every six weeks or so. He was getting so big but it was obvious that his foster family was taking great care of him. On January 8th, Elizabeth called and said "Does anyone want to go to Guatemala?". It was hectic since it was Tuesday and our Embassy appointment was that Monday. As luck would have it, our close friend Pam's Embassy appointment was also Monday. We arrived in Guatemala on January 10th (we went a few days early because we had booked a tour to Tikal but it was cancelled for some unknown reason). On January 12th at 5:05 PM, Letica (our lawyer), Sandra and Joel (foster parents) and their daughter arrived at the hotel with Brian. Wow!! He was so much bigger than we expected but he was adorable. He adjusted fine and fell asleep the very first night in his daddy's arms. We were in heaven. We couldn't believe that we were finally Mommy & Daddy. The next day we met Pam's new daughter, Angela. She was only 5 months old and oh so cute. We spent the next couple of days shopping and getting to know our new children. Brian has now been home 6 years and he has changed our lives in so many ways. We now spend our weekends cheering him on while playing soccer (his coach says its in his blood) and baseball. He is also a great big brother. We are so proud of him and everyday we are reminded how blessed we are.