Mike is trying extra hard to get his Christmas present to work! Who knows if it will work or not! Gavin loves the new red "COPTER!"

Look out Mickey!

Christmas morning with two sweet babies. Nadia got a baby doll from santa she squealed as soon as she saw it! Gavin could not stop jumping for his train set. Trains are his favorite thing in the world.

Libby is my brother's doggie she is super small!

Ice sledding is great fun for Gavin and maybe even more fun for my dad.

Making Christmas cookies with Ethan and Ella was great!

Some funny Christmas memories Mike and Michelle are hilarious wearing Gavin's Lightening McQueen hat.

Gavin really enjoyed the Indiana State Museum and riding the train with his DADDY!

Visiting my Great Aunt Mildred, my grandfathers aunt who is now 100 years old was really quite amazing. She had many questions for me regarding Nadia's adoption process and was very interested in what it was like in Guatemala. We stopped in for a quick one night trip in Toledo.

Fun was had by all at her party and she had a great time with her cake too!

It is amazing and some moments a bit difficult for me to believe how quickly her first birthday arrived. The day was wonderful and to be together as a family back home in Indiana is a blessing I am thankful for each day. Watching her change and learn new things is wonderful and her own little personality is starting to shine through. She is determined and usually easily contented...especially if her busy brother is not bopping her on the head!

Grandparents LOVE! Wow, it is amazing to have such loving and supportive grandparents in our kids lives. The weekend was full of celebrating when we had Mike's parents, my parents and my grandma mae love on the kids. The ice storm allowed them to stay an extra day. I'm not sure who was more excited about the storm the kid's or the grandparents.

My proud little chef! Gavin is so great at cooking and enthusiastically asks about every 2 minutes.."I try it?" He is a sweet little helper.

So, I'm a little behind on bloggin! What exactly am I not behind on...let's see not much. It was great fun having our cousin Jacob and Aunt Deb drop by on their way through town. Nadia loved being held by him. He was stationed in Japan for the last few years but is now going to get to be stateside in WVa. He is so looking foward to bringing his soon to be new family to the US he is engaged and PROUD of it!

Having Aunt Chelle and Gamma in Indy was wonderful they helped so much with Nadia's room. She now has a whympsical tree, a canopy, a newly slip covered chair and a her sweet self making her room extremely beautiful. The most beautiful room in the house.

Halloween was a scream from a Lion, a Sweet Pea and a Baby bee my niece Sam!

Babies in a basket..it is great to have my sweeties together. Each day is a new adventure with two they are such happy and sweet children and they are keeping us on our toes.

It was also wonderful to get back to Indiana and spend time with our "Life Group" our small group from our church.

Kid's hanging out together...It was so nice to have Nadia and Samantha my 8 month old niece together to play FINALLY!

Being away from Gavin for 6 weeks was so incredibly painful. We skyped (webcammed) about 3 times per day. My mom, Mike's mom, and my sister all have webcams. The first couple of weeks Gavin did not want to cam but after that he adjusted and really enjoyed our chats. We even played together for about 1 hour on the webcam. Anyway, when Gavin woke up on the Saturday morning we arrived in Toledo. Mike and I came around the corner in the kitchen of my mom's house. He screamed and began shaking and crying for joy...he gave me one of the best hugs of my life and could not stop screaming, "I found Mommy and Gamma's house!"

Aunt Michelle and Uncle Matt were so happy and relieved to hold her for the first time! Nadia is just a bit sleepy..in these shots.

This was one happy moment! Landing on US soil with our baby was one of the greatest feelings ever. God answers prayers! It was unbelievable to us how God continued to protect and guide our steps through the last moments of this incredible odyssey to Nadia. So the last post (sorry for the blog silence our hard drive fried on our computer! not surprising eh? with all that happened) the last post explained that we were getting our visa the next day. Well that was not exactly what happened. Our visa was not ready on Thursday this brought another set of anxiety filled decisions for us to make again! Thank goodness Mike and I were together. We both felt like we were close to our breaking point but prayed and tried to ask our agency for advice. (which was once again a mistake) We find this information out on Thursday at 4:30 PM and the US Embassy is already closed. Basically, our Friday went like this: Our wonderful driver picked us up in Antigua at 5:00 A.M. we prayed this prayer together.."God we need two miracles one from the American Embassy and one from American Airlines." We knew that God would procide this for us because he has provided so much for us all through this "roller coaster." Mike dropped Nadia and I off with our 400 bags at the airport at 6:00 AM he then went immediately to the US Embassy to be the first in line. The day before...which was when we expected to receive Nadia's Visa we were informed that her Visa would be ready Friday at 7:30 AM. Well, cutting this close was the understatement our flight left Guate City at 8:30 AM for an Int'l flight you must check in 1 hour before or they give your seat away basically there was no possible way for them to check us in because we did not have the Visa. My role while Mike waited for the Embassy to open was to BEG and PLEAD with American Airlines to put us on the next available flight out of the city. As I arrived at the ticket in tears already and looking RATHER exhausted from my whopping 4 hours of sleep. The kind lady at the counter interrupted me to inform me that our flight was ALREADY delayed for 1:30! So perfect to think that God already knew this was what we needed was amazing to us. The night before there was a storm which caused the flight to be rerouted to El Salvador which meant the crew had to rest for an extra amount of time the next morning. I immediately called our driver who ran to Mike with his cell phone, the relief in Mike's voice was the such a blessing! He now could have waited for 3 our 4 hours for the Visa. Luckily kind individuals NOT from our agency just kind Guatemalan's helped Mike get the Visa right away. As we checked in at the ticket counter with Nadia's 10 minute old Visa we could not help but smile and smile! God has blessed us with 2 miracles in one morning. We even took our driver out to Pollo Campero Mike's favorite place for breakfast in Guate.


Boarding that plane in Guatemala on Friday put us home in Detroit at 12:40 which was too late for a huge welcoming party and too late for our sweet 2 and half year old but nothing has felt better to me than the good old USA! One of the things people like to ask me now is does it feel to finally be home? My favorite and truthful answer is amazing to be a family and the US just smells good to me..hee hee. Guatemala smelled stinky to me most of the time. Closing this chapter in our lives was not only one of the most rewarding experience but it was an experience that grew our faith, our families faith, and even the faith our friends that prayed relentlessly for us. We continue to be amazed by how many people this journey touched and how many people blanketed us in their daily prayers. God bless each of you. We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

It's official tomorrow Nadia's Visa is delivered and we can fly on Friday. What a relief to be finished..it was so nice to hold Mike and he is soo happy to be with his girls now we just need to get to Gavin. We are coming home! We love you all thanks again for your support and prayers.

We are coming home! I cannot believe it but it is true..we are coming home praise God! On Wednesday October 17 at 7:15 AM we have our U.S. Embassy appointment. The next day our visa will be ready and then we will fly into Detroit on Friday.

Gavin is now trying to dress himself! Great job a 2 year old skill off the checklist..he is simply brilliant.

Is he the cutest little man in the USA!

Miss you bad sweet baby boy.

Love,
Mommy

All I have to say is I miss my little man a lot!

Gavin...is having a great time with Daddy on weekends and really enjoyed his first camping trip.
Playing at the beach was great too!
Papa's are so important to hug too...
Thanks everyone for helping out..even baby Sam!

Who says being traditional is always better..Aunt Deb gave Nadia a green bean to teeth on. She loved nawing on the new raw texture. So cute..