13 months today

Reed turns 13 months today December 7th. That is all for this post.

A visit with the Hatlestad's

A friend from high school, Jennifer, came to visit Wednesday, December 6th with her two boys, Quinn(5 almost 6) and Cade (8 months). She sent me some pictures today and I want to share those too. We have had other visitors as well and I promise to give everyone equal time on the blog. Be patient with me. Reed and mommy. We are having so much fun.
Reed and daddy. I think Jason enjoys fatherhood.
Reed and Cade. They are going to be good friends.
Cade (8 months) showing Reed (13 months) how to climb the stairs. He now knows how. A whole new world to explore up there and try to keep child proof. Quinn and Reed. Reed really liked watching every move Quinn made. Quinn will be the "cool" older boy that Reed can look up to along with Hunter and his cousin Cooper.

Thanks for the fun time and we look forward to many more play times together.

Reed visits with the Bloom family

The Bloom's came to visit on Friday, December 1st. They took many pictures and have a yahoo photos album. I borrowed a few of them to put on the blog. I hope you like them. They were able to get some of him smiling too. The red eye flash gets his attention and makes him smile.

Reed in his Guatemalan hat we purchased for him at the airport.

Hailey, Mariah and Kara with Reed.

Second cousin Mariah showing Reed the Mickey Mouse they brought him from Disneyland in Hong Kong .

Reed really can smile. It can be hard to catch though. He is very quick.

Second cousin Kara with Reed.

Second cousin Hailey with Reed.

Great Aunt LeAnn with Reed.

I know Reed had a good time playing with the Bloom's. Heather and Jason were glad they came. I think the Bloom's enjoyed it too. Next time Great Uncle Ray will have to get in the photos. It sounds really weird to have titles like that. Aren't you supposed to be really old when your a great aunt or uncle?

Thanks for the photos.

First doctor visit Monday, November 27th

Reed went to see Dr. Tom Stealey, a close friend of the Moberly family, on Monday afternoon. It was a hard day for Reed as well as mom and dad. The doctor looked him over as well as the paperwork we received in Guatemala. It was hard to hear but he had two slight ear infections, possible scabies (a rash he had been scratching ever since we got him), maybe some allergies, etc. The nurses came in and took some blood and I was ok until he was done and I picked him up and he was still screaming. I lost it and started crying myself. It was really hard. Then they tested him for TB. We have to go in and have it checked in 72 hours. We ended up going to the pharmacy on the way home and picked up 5 prescriptions for the poor kid. A couple of ointments and a couple of oral medications. This child will either be great at taking medicine or always hate it. Dr. Stealey wants to give Reed some of his immunization again. He had some too early and he wants to make sure he gets all the appropriate ones done well. We are so thankful for seeing Dr. Stealey since we had so many questions about his health. He said other than these few things we will be taking care of he looks to be healthy and developing normally. He was only 16 pounds yesterday but hopefully we can get him on the right track and he will start gaining soon.

Since he possibly has scabies which is catchy we will be limiting some visitors for a couple of days. It will be: come at your own risk. Jason and I are ok so far. Jason was scratching yesterday but I think it isbecause he knew Reed might have scabies. It is kind of like when you hear about someone having lice you immediately start scratching your head.

Reed naps in the morning mostly right now but the afternoon naps haven't been happening. He goes to bed about 8:30-9:00. If you are thinking about visiting we welcome you just give us a call before hand and give us a couple of days. Reed has been fine meeting our immediate families and we think he will be ok with others too. We just let him run the show. If he wants to be picked up he will let you know otherwise we let him be. It has worked so far and as long as he is comfortable we are fine too. It is all about him right now. Thanks you for your understanding.

Our travel to Guatemala

The first picture is of the family we stayed with. They were so nice. From left to right- Luisa, the duaghter-in-law of the King's holding her baby boy Tony, (her husband was still working), Mrs. King, Jose holding Chotsy the dog, Peter , and Dr. King. The next picture is the room we stayed in. It had a crib at the foot of the bed and a bathroom on the left side of the photo. I would have included more pictures but because our computer doesn't allow me to turn them the right direction I will not make you turn your head. Jason needs to be bugged to get a new computer. So any help would be great. The pictures next to our bedroom is the back side of the house we stayed in. The entry is through the dark portion on the left side and the window is the window to our room. We were able to look out at the beautiful flowers everyday. The last two photos were other homes in the neighborhood. It was a very nice neighborhood to stay in. We felt very safe and taken care of.

Here is a picture of Reed and mommy on "Gotcha Day". We got Reed about 11:30 on Monday morning. It was a very happy day yet a sad one too. The foster mom was brought to where we were staying and presented us with our baby. We were able to ask her some questions about his schedule and diet and what comforts him. She brought some powdered milk, cereal and a bottle he used. It was good she did because he really didn't like the bottles we brought. We presented his foster mom with a photo ablum of all the picture we received of him. We do not think she was given them while she had him so it will be something she can cherish and look at to remember our beautiful boy. The crib he slept in was in the background.
We did a lot of just eating and sleeping along with Reed. But I think that was best for all of us. We were thinking of traveling to Antigua but because of Reed's cold we decided to stay in. Another couple from Amarillo, TX came to stay at the same house with us. We met them on Wednesday morning. They were there to visit there little boy, Carter. Their names were Heather and Jason too. Weird or what?

Jason took some photos of the last sunset over Guatemala for Reed. I thought it was so sweet of him to think of it. You can also see the view we looked at everyday. It was awesome.

On Monday we received Reed. On Tuesday we went to the US Embassy for our interview. It was easier than I thought it was going to be. I was really nervous. We meet with two different women and they signed off on our paperwork and we were on our way. It was more waiting than anything else. Wednesday was kind of a lazy day since Reed had a cold and waited for Reed's visa to be delivered to us. Once we had his visa we were free to leave. Thursday was an early morning for all of us. Reed was up at 4:00am and so we just got things ready to go. Our flight left at 7:50am so we needed an early start anyways. Traveling with Reed was fairly easy. He did cry on the second leg of our trip because of a pooping issue but we fixed it and he was much better. We actually got him to sleep for some of the flight. When we touched down in Houston we were all tired but while I called home Reed and daddy tried to take a nap. We were so excited to be home and be able to share Reed with all of our family. We had about 25 people welcome us home at the airport. Thanks to those who took some time out of their Thanksgiving to see what we are so thankful for this Thanksgiving Day. We even had a couple offers to come for Thanksgiving dinner. It was very nice but we were so tired we went home, grabbed a bite to eat and went to bed. Reed slept about 12 hours that night.

Well we are home and have seen both sides of the family and have had numerous calls for others to come over and see the little guy. We hope we can fit all of the visits in. Reed took to his cousin Bella well. Here they are holding hands and looking each other over. Bella was being very helpful and putting Reed's bottle in his mouth and watching me change his diaper. She even went and got her stroller from her playroom. She will definitley be taking care of him at day care.






I only have one picture of Reed at home here because the ones of him smiling are all going up and down. Again a little help with Jason on the computer issue would be great. So I will take more picutres this week so you can see he does smile once in a while.

Thanks for following our story as it unfolded and I will try to keep current on this blog for as long as I can. It might only be monthly but I know the withdrawl you have from following something so closely and then it goes away. I will do my best.

Guatemala Update

We know you are all wondering how thing are going. We are all doing well. Reed has a cold but is doing ok. We are staying with a wonderful host family and they have the best. The man of the house is a doctor and help take care of Reed by giving us some medicine. The US Embassy interview went great and we will receive Reed`s visa tomorrow night. Then we will ready to travel home. Reed is a good baby and is content most of the time.
We miss home and all of our family and friends. But Thursday will be here soon. We will put our pictures on when we get home.
We look forward to seeing you soon.

We are going to Guatemala

Our appointement with the US Embassy has been scheduled. We checked our email late last night and had a surprise waiting for us. We will be leaving on Sunday, interviewing on Tuesday, picking up Reed's visa on Wednesday, and returning on Thursday. We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. We have started to make travel plans. We fly out Sunday afternoon and arrive in Guatemala around 10:00pm. We think we will get Reed on Monday sometime. The director of the program has a sister who rents rooms to adopting families. We thought we might try staying with her and meet some people from Reed's home country. If it doesn't work out it will probably be the Marriott.

We also received a couple of medical reports yesterday too. In October he was 16.11 pounds, 27.6 inches tall and his head circumference was 17.4. In November he was 16.14 pounds, 28 inches tall and his head was 17.48 inches around. He was healthy for the October visit but when the November visit came he was ill. I had to ask what the Spanish meant. It said he hadn't progressed. The reason the doctor wrote this is because Reed had had the flu and hadn't gained much weight. Reed's imune system is building already with the flu and the chickenpox.

We are busy making plans, gathering the last of our paperwork , and packing. I have conferences Thursday and Friday. I am not going to be able to think through those but will definitely try. Sunday will be here before we know it.

Update

Milena, the woman from our agency, emailed late Friday night. She said she should hear about our US Embassy appointment date early next week. She is thinking Monday or Tuesday. She will email us with the date when she gets the information. We will have much to give thanks for. It will be a Happy Thanksgiving.

No News Yet

I just wanted people to know we haven't heard anything this week of any final plans. If we hear something over the weekend I will update the blog. However it isn't likely since they do not work weekends either. We are guessing we will not be traveling Monday the 13th but hopefully the next week. So those watching from school, I will probably be available for conferences.

WE ARE OUT OF PGN!!

We are finally out of PGN!!! All of our prayers have been answered. Milena emailed us and called Jason at work. I was so busy at the end of the day I didn't know what messages were waiting for me. Jason calls and asks if I have been checking my email. I knew right away it had to be good news. It is such a great feeling to be out of PGN. It has been so long that it doesn't seem real. The baby we have been growing attached to and making a place for in our hearts will finally be coming home. We have a few things to gather tonight and fax to our agency. Milena says we could be traveling as soon as Monday, November 13th. She thinks it will be November 20th at the lastest. It seems like it is moving quickly now. I know I am ready but I am feeling the adrenaline pumping.

It is such a wonderful birthday present for us to give Reed. He turned one today and now has a home and Jason and me to love him. We are both so excited and can hardly wait to hear when we will be traveling. We will update the blog as soon as we know.

12 months old

We recieved some new pictures today. Our little baby is growing into a little man very quickly. He looks as sad as his mommy and daddy. We are both very anxious for him to come home and start our family. Good news is... he still has curls!

I want to take some time to thank all of you for all of your support. We will need to throw a huge party for all of our supporters when Reed gets home. You are all truely amazing. Many of you set some time aside for us on October 25th to say a prayer for us. I know God was listening and will answer our prayer very soon. You are all such wonderful people. Enjoy the pictures and keep watching because one day it will say in big letters "WE ARE OUT OF PGN". But until then we will try to keep our heads up and our spirits high. He will come home, it is just a matter of when.

And The Drama Continues

I am all about the drama but enough is enough. We received word today that the police in Guatemala are harrassing the foster moms when they bring the children to the hotel to meet their families. They requested that no more families travel for visitation right now. Only travel if you are finalizing your adoption. It isn't enough that these women take care of our children but they have to risk being arrested when delivering the child to their forever family. (As if we weren't intimidated enough by the travel to a foreign country) The Guatadopt site has more information if you would like to look into this with more detail. Again, thanks for all of your support. I am sure the drama is not over yet. Stay tuned for the next episode of the adoption story.

11 Months Old

"Holy Cow" does that kid have hair or what. It looks like they are styling it like Jason even. He looks so grown up and ready to be buzzing around our house. We will have to see more smiles though. He looks like such a serious baby with the serious looks on his face. The photos below have to be his foster mom, Rosa. They didn't say who she was but I can only guess that it is her. I am glad to see the jeans he was growing out of are gone now and he is wearing shorts. It must be a little warmer now down there since it is moving towards "summer" for them.












We haven't heard any news lately. If we don't hear soon we will have to update our fingerprints. They expire December 9, 2006 and it takes two months to get them through the process. We would hate for that to be the reason we don't get him. The people from Guatemala said we would have our baby by then but at this rate who knows. We would rather update them and have him early then slow down the process because we let them expire. Thanks for all your prayers, letters, words of encouragement, and thoughts. We appreciate every single one of them.

Guatemalan President stopped by Guatemalan Congress

A really good friend of mine from St. Rose found this yesterday on the guadaopt page. I thought I would make it readable for all of you. Again I thank you all for the support through this process. Without your support I, Heather, wouldn't have made it through the week. Susana, the author of the article, really watches out for our children and makes us feel like they have an angel in Guatemala watching over them. It is definitely reassuring.

Sent by Toeknee:
Hey, I was just searching the web and found this article:
September 29, 2006
THE EXECUTIVE ORDERS ARE NO LONGER A THREAT
{Posted on behalf of Susana Luarca, Asociacion Defensores de la Adopcion}
President Oscar Berger withdraw the executive orders that he planned to approve this weekend "to celebrate the Children’s Day" , October 1st. The abuse of power that he intended to do by-passing the Congress to pass the Protocol of Good Practices , which is the same UNICEF law of adoptions, and reinstate the Hague Convention, was halted by the same Congress, who warned him of the consequences of usurping the legislative power.That Berger denied to the DOS that his intentions were to suspend adoptions and take them over by his wife who directs the Secretary of Social Welfare, was expected. He also lied when he said to the press, that Kofi Annan, General Secretary of the United Nations “told him that if Venezuela gets a seat in the Security Council, there will be trouble”. Annan denies having said that to Berger.The positive part of this experience is to see that the legal system works and that we are working under the protection of the law. The rights granted by the Constitution to the mothers to relinquish their children, to the children to be adopted and to the lawyers to work on adoptions cannot be taken away, by any law or international treaty, not even by the President of Guatemala.
The next step will be to set the record straight with the people at the PGN. We have waited too long to hold them accountable for all their delays, their rejections without legal grounds and their abuses of power. The thorough review of the adoption files is their duty, to verify the legality of the process. But when the files are rejected for no reason or when the review takes not the three days that they should take, but more than a month if they are rejected and much more if they are approved , it is time to make use of the legal actions that the law supplies for cases like these and file criminal charges against them. The worst enemy of an abandoned child is time. The time that a child spends without the love of a family, hurts the child in more ways that we can think of. If the PGN does not care for the children, we have to make them to care. If we don’t do it, we will be as guilty as them.
Best regards,
Susana LuarcaAsociacion Defensores de la Adopcion
Article at http://www.guatadopt.com/archives/000501.html#000501

Guatemalan President may stop adoptions

This is an email that was sent from our agency today:
"No cases came out today. I just called Guatemala and in my phone call I learned that yes the President is trying to stop adoptions. There was another meeting today with attorneys. They are trying to stop this. The Guatemala office is stating it should not effect the cases already in PGN. The law the President put forward is to take affect on Sunday. (October 1st) However the office believes this should not stop the cases from coming out of PGN or new cases being submitted now."

I have been reading daily on the website www.guatadopt.com. It has been very helpful. The last post on their page talks about this issue in more detail. It brings UNICEF into the equation. They are not helping the situation at all from what I read. They are donating money to the country but asking Guatemala to stop adoption in return. I think it would be helpful for others to read it as well. It can be hard to under stand. Many things I do not understand but by reading the posts and adoptive parent comments it may bring some light into the subject and someone can explain it better to me/us. They say there isn't much we can do right now. Boy is it hard to sit back and watch them take our babies away. Our case is uncertain right now until we hear more. I will definitely post more news as is comes to us.

Another speed bump in PGN

I emailed Milena Tuesday and ask her if she heard anything on our case. She replied by saying 200 cases came out of PGN Tuesday. When the orphanage/attorney went to pick them up they were asked to come back Wednesday because the people in PGN were not able to enter them all into the computer. They went back Wednesday afternoon and picked up the cases that came out. Our case came out with what they call a previo or mistake for the third time. The reason for the previo was that one of the pages was numbered incorrectly. What that means is the Orphanage and/or the attorney has to correct it and resubmit it onThursday. Remember what I said about being picky? It was not what I was expecting to hear from Milena today. We were both hoping for, "your case has been signed off on and get ready to travel." I know you all are as disappointed as we are. We have no idea of how long it will take for it to come back out again. The last time it came out with a previo was at the end of August, so it took them a month. I know we can't take a whole month of waiting. With all of the prayers being said I can't believe we didn't have him months ago. Don't give up yet. Keep those prayers coming.

Signed-
A completely devastated "again" mommy and daddy

Reed got a hair cut.

We received some photos today. It looks like he had a few chickenpox on his face but not too many. Someone gave him a hair cut as well. I hardly recognized him without his long curly hair. And now teeth... We are missing so many things.

We still haven't heard anything about our case. Milena still says we are waiting for the final sign off. I have been reading a lot about this on the web and everyone's case is so different. The system is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Some cases are in and out within weeks and some have been in longer than ours. If you can believe that. We are contacting our agency every week and talking to Milena as much as possible. It is getting much tougher than I ever thought it would be. The closer his birthday gets the more anxious we become. We will update with any news as it comes to us.

September Medical Report

We haven't received any photos this month but the medical report came today. He is 16.3 pounds, 27.2 inches tall and his head circumference is 17.24 inches. It also said he either has or had varicela en resolocion, which from looking it up on the internet means the chickenpox. I didn't get an explanation of what it was so I am just going off of my own research. I wish I could have been there while he was sick. I want to be the one taking care of him when he needs a mommy. I never expected it to be so hard. There is still hope for some pictures but I don't know when. Please keep praying for us. We need them all.

Some Good News and Some Bad News

We sent some questions to Milena, the woman we are working with here, and she sent them down for the foster mom to answer. We were interested in hearing how he was progressing and what he was doing. We asked some basic questions like what is he eating, what size is he wearing and can he crawl yet. He is eating rice and wheat cereal, salty and sweet baby food, boiled vegetables and fruit. His favorite seems to be the mixed fruit baby food. Another thing in common with his father, he likes the sweet stuff too. He is wearing clothes for a 12 month old. I thought he was smaller than that but the clothes do not look that big on him in the pictures. Not sure what to think on that one. He is not crawling yet but they are teaching him. He is making noises and laughs a lot. He is trying to say papa. I am sure it will be mastered by the time we get down there. A good thing about getting him when he is older is he is sleeping through the whole night. I love my sleep.


A couple things on the paperwork and PGN. PGN requested an up-to-date medical report so our paperwork was resubmitted in early August. Then they came back and asked that another paper be worded differently. They resubmitted it again on August 16th. They are being awfully picky in PGN and it is slowing the process down with everything they request. We are at the step just before the final sign off. I am not sure what that means other than we are close. We have no idea of how long each step will take but we do know it will take another 3-5 weeks after we are out of PGN to get everything lined up for us to travel.

August Medical Report

We just received the August medical report. Reed went to the doctor on the 7th of August and the doctor said he was healthy. He is about 27 inches tall, his head circumference is about 17.24 inches, and he weighs about 15.9 pounds. He is still a little peanut. Again, we hope to hear something this month but you know how that goes.

9 months and still growing

Reed turned 9 months old on August 7th. We cannot believe he is the same boy we got the referral for 9 months ago. He has changed sooo much. Our big boy looks like he has some walking shoes on. We are only speculating because we do not know if he is walking or not. Heather is a little worried about his pant being so high around his middle but she can change that when he comes home. We will update the blog if we hear any news on when we travel but nothing as of today. Only pictures, which we love. We are still hoping to hear something this month.

Medical Translation

The medical report for July stated that Reed had a common cold. Nothing big but when written in Spanish it is hard to tell if it would be something of more concern. Paper work is still in PGN and no new news as of today.

8 month pictures and medical report

Reed has turned 8 months old already. He is getting so big. He is looking a lot like his daddy, Jason, while he relaxes on the couch. We were sent some pictures this weekend along with some medical information. He went to the doctor on June 9th and he was 15 pounds, 26.6 inches long, and his head circumference was about 17 inches. I t also said he was a healthy boy. He went to the doctor again on July 7th. He was 15.7 pounds, 26.7 inches long, and his head circumference was about 17 inches again. There was something written on the illness line but Milena needed to ask for a translation. I am not sure what it says myself since I took French for many years. I asked my sister to look into it as well so we should have an answer soon. I will definitely update the blog when I learn what it says and/or means.