Gotcha Day 2009

Playing putt putt with her big brother.

Enjoying her gotcha day cake with Grandma.

Hanging out in the pool with cousins, Erin & Katie.

It's hard to believe that its been 3 years since we traveled to Monteria, Colombia to bring home our little girl. While the wait for her was long, it was so worth it. We are definitely blessed! We love you, Angelica all the way to the moon and back! We celebrated with a pool party at Grandma & Grandpa's house with her aunts, uncles and cousins on Sunday. On Monday, as a family we went to play putt putt and out for ice cream! It was a great day!

NEW SCHOOL YEAR

Thursday marked the beginning of the new school year for us. (Yes, its only the middle of July but we are a year around district). I can't believe that Brian is now in the 3rd grade. He was very excited to go back to school even though he really only had 3 weeks of summer "vacation" since he attended our district's summer advantage program. Angelica is entering her last year of preschool. She is currently attending our district's early childhood special education program five days a week. We are so excited to see what the year brings because she has made so much progress. She has a long way to go to be ready for kindergarten next year but we just take it one day at a time and celebrate each new thing she accomplishes.

Brian is keeping us busy with baseball. Its the first year of player pitch so it means some LONG games (LOTS OF WALKS). The boys get so frustrated because they are not hitting much. They have improved a lot in the last few weeks. They won last night 18-9 and Brian was 3-4. His last at bat he hit a hard pop fly that somehow the kid caught! Either way it was exciting to watch and he was so proud. He has decided not to play fall soccer (his coach is taking a break this season) but will do indoor soccer in the winter with him. We are currently looking into either basketball or swim lessons for the fall.

Angelica is ALMOST out of pull ups (except for night time). She still needs lots of reminders but she is doing so much better. We are very optimistic by her 5th birthday that she will be totally pull up free. Her speech has also improved so much and they are even hearing sentences at school. She has been seizure free for several months now. YEAH!!

We recently took a family vacation to Orlando, FL. We did not see Mickey Mouse as we went to Universal/Islands of Adventure instead. It was fun though as Angelica got to see Dora, Spiderman, Curious George & Barney. Brian hit the "big kid" rides...the Incredible Hulk roller coaster and Dueling Dragons.

We also had lots of fun celebrating with other Colombian families at the 2009 CHI Latin American Reunion. It is such a cool thing to see all these beautiful kids running around and the families who's lives have been changed through international adoption! We had a great turnout and can't wait until next year.

I hope everyone has had a great summer!!

Happy Gotcha Day Brian!

Seven years ago on January 12, 2002 at 5:00 PM in the evening at the Marriott Hotel Guatemala City we met our son, Brian for the first time. He was so sweet, so cute and much bigger than we expected. It was a bittersweet moment though because his foster parents and their 5 year old daughter were obviously distraught. They had taken care of him since he was 2 days old and it was obvious that they loved him dearly. Our journey to become parents was just beginning and we were so excited. We fell in love with our son immediately.

Fast forward seven years and we are so proud of our little man. He is doing well in school, is sweet and loving and a GREAT big brother to Angelica! We still keep in contact with his foster parents and they do are so proud of him.

Happy Gotcha Day to Angela Phipps as well. Brian & her were together in Guatemala and they have fun celebrating this special day together.

Happy Gotcha Day Brian...WE LOVE YOU!!

The Holidays

Its so hard to believe that this is our 3rd Christmas with Angelica. It was great this year because she was so into it. She was not afraid of Santa this year (in fact, at the CHI Open House she sat on his lap AT LEAST 10 times) and was really into unwrapping the presents. She even opened some up early (although we think she got the idea from her big brother). She was not at all impressed with her baby dolls but loved 3 plastic balls we picked up at Toys R' Us (buy 1 for $1.99 and get 2 free) and that's pretty much all she plays with. Brian finally got a Nintendo DS but was a little disappointed that Santa forgot his Nintendo Wii. We are also still waiting for our first snow so they can try out their new sleds.

We are looking forward to 2009. We will celebrate Brian's 7th Gotcha Day here soon and Angelica's 4th birthday in February!

We Met A Major Milestone

WOOHOO!! Angelica can pedal a tricycle!! Why is this so exciting? It is the one milestone that her neurologist kept asking us about and that she had been working really hard on with her OT. She had been trying really hard to pedal but would give up and just start pushing it with her feet (she gets frustrated VERY easy). However, on Tuesday at school she got started and rode her bike all the way around the bike path TWICE without stopping. Her teachers were all cheering for her and mami cried. I was so glad I had my digital camera with me that day!

The other reason this is so exciting...the doctors told us when she could pedal a tricycle that she could potty train. The muscles needed for potty training would be strong enough. Our next big goal....TO BE OUT OF DIAPERS BY HER 4th BIRTHDAY!!

Great News from Eye Doctor

Today Angelica returned to Dr. Blatt's office for her annual eye exam. The GREAT news is she will require no further surgery on her eyes!! YEAH!! He said her eyes are perfectly aligned. Also she needs new glasses, but her new prescription is not quite as strong her old ones. The bad news is we were hoping that all of her falling, walking off the slides, etc. was because of her vision. (That would have been the easiest to correct). We now are thinking it is just development related. All of Angelica's therapists say the same thing...she has "on" days and really "off" days. On her "off" days she falls a lot, needs reminders on how to do simple tasks (e.g. chewing her food, swallowing her milk). The main goal of her OT is to get her to be more consistent. We'll keep working on it.

What We've Been Up To

Wow, its been a long time since we last posted. Here are just a few things that has happened since our last post.

- Angelica started early childhood special ed program at our "home school". She is doing much better there. No tears. She even has a crush on a little boy in her class. (Her teacher said its mutual). Her teacher also says she plays with the "dark" skinned children who look like her.

- Brian started the 2nd Grade. (Hard to believe). We had our 1st conference last week. He is not doing so well. I am requesting an OT evaluation due to sensory concerns. They want to give him another quarter before considering ADD. We are going to try some things until then (removing red dyes from his diet, more fruits & veggies, more sleep).

- On August 8, 2008 we celebrated Angelica's 2nd Gotcha Day!! She continues to be such a blessing to us.

- We traveled to Kansas City to stay at the Great Wolf Lodge (always a favorite). We also got to meet Nate & Rena and their 4 kids. Their kids are adorable!!

- CHI Reunion. It was fun (still very disappointed that not many Guatemala families show up).

- We got to hang out with Jennifer B & Nataly at the Magic House. Brian & her had a blast chasing each other around. Nataly is also from Monteria. It was so cool to finally meet her. She is SO, SO, SO cute.

- Brian finished Wildcats baseball and is now playing fall soccer. We love soccer. Angelica will get to play in the Spring league when she turns 4. The little girls look so cute in their pink jerseys, and head bows. Although she is developmentally delays we figured she can't do much wrong on the soccer field. The little girls team last week were doing sommersaults!!

- Angelica is starting gymnastics. She looks ADORABLE in her leotard.

Well, that about sums up our summer. We look forward to the fall...Halloween, apple picking.