Tuesday, May 29, 2007




My neice Sam is really getting big! Sleeping all night and rolling over and being PERFECT too!


Babies, Babies, Babies, people in my life are havin babies all over the place! They are all so precious. This is Evie my best friend from 1st grade Natalie's baby girl.





Visiting Crane Creek on Lake Erie's Coast has been an ongoing tradition with my father and his parents each spring we go to see the new fuzzy baby gosslings. Gavin loved them and enjoyed the sand at the beach. Papa loved skipping rocks with you! So, I come by my green thumb naturally, I just wish it was as green as my DAD's! Gavin is great a planting gardens.


After returning home from Guatemala I stayed up North while Michael traveled on business and my sweet mother and father in law brought Gavin to me. It was so wonderful to visit with our great friends the Gills in Grand Blanc MI. Their children are so beautiful and fun! Kariana I cannot wait for you to come home and PLAY with NADIA someday soon! Congrats on your soon addition to your family


So, is she tiny or what? The size of a chair seat! We were out to pizza.

This is a view from my favorite little ice cream (helado) shop on Arch street.





This dress is really special it was my dress that I wore home from the hospital! Nadia looks so beautiful in it! It has little sweetheart roses and a slip with lace.

So it takes 4 atempts to get one bite in Nadia's mouth but she loves the texture and taste of her rice cereal!

Fuzzy BABY DUCKIE!

So, I had to give her a bath on the floor because bathtubs are a luxury and are uncommon in Guate!

So, I finally had the mental courage, time, and desire to bring your more pics of Nadia and my last trip with my mother in May Enjoy!

Saturday, May 12, 2007





You don't have my smile..
But I will give you my joy

You don't have my eyes...
But I will give you my insight

You don't have my nose...
But I will guide you

You don't have my hands...
But I will show you

You don't have my ears...
But I will sing for you

You don't have my feet...
But I will walk with you

You won't be with me for a while
But you will ALYWAYS have my HEART
and you will ALYWAYS have my LOVE...

Mommy loves you Nadia and Mommy will dream of you, pray for you and work to be with you again as soon as possible. Always remember I'll love you forever.

Mommy
Nadia Guate 5 months Roses

Click on the photo for an entire album

Tomorrow is another day that I have been in denial about during this trip. It is a healthy coping mechanism I think. I love central park and have great memories of Gavin there and NOW I will have a hateful memory one of giving Nadia back to her (loving and kind foster mother) Not having her in my arms and attached to me on Monday will simply STINK....The other aching piece of my heart is how much I miss Gavin and Mike. It hurts visciously. I cannot believe how fast our time went this time and how much I have loved constantly locking smiling gazes with this beautiful baby. It does feel nice that our process is moving (of course it WILL NEVER be fast enough until it is over)...however I have no return date to dream of our count down this time. I am uncertain of when she will be in my arms. I am praying that we are through PGN quickly there are rumors that things could move quickly but being among many families fostering/visiting proves that this process shows no favors to anyone and it is simply the luck of the draw. (WHICH IS AGAIN FRUSTRATING) On Monday though my little amazing man will be in my arms I will not get to see Mike again for what feels like eternity due to his travel. She is simply beautiful and I love her so much! And she will never truly understand how difficult this was until she becomes a mother herself...God bring her home soon...

Thursday, May 10, 2007



Girls about town..this is how we look as we traverse the cobblestone streets!



This is her first flower from a boy Habaner is a very helpful staff member...



Nadia is such a pretty girl!

We are all doing well and we are starting to adjust to our life here and we have a ryhthm to our day. Nadia is so sweet, she had a bit of a stuffy nose yesterday but is much better today. Today we are visiting my favorite charity www.commonhope.org here. We will hopefully get to visit a village where they are working. Last night we had Tre Fratelli deliver our food they are so hospitable down here that they personally delivered the menu and took our order and then returned with the hot yummy Italian. We had a 2 AM feeding and she stirred at four but no wakies (thankfully) until 7:00. She gets very tired quickly in the AM as her morning schedule is a nap from 8:00-12:00 or something like that.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007



Melissa and I are having a great time in Guatemala, Nadia is beautiful and so sweet I can hardly stand it. We are both going to be basket cases on Sunday when we have to give her back. We have had beautiful weather and the hotel we are staying at is very nice when we walk out of our room there is a large square with a fountain and gardens all around with beautiful blooming flowers they are so pretty it hurts your eyes. The geraniums are about 3 foot tall because the growing season is year round.

Monday, May 07, 2007






She is sitting in my backpack hee hee no stroller because the city is too bumpy no even sidewalks ANYWHERE :)
See the cobblestones...my mom cannot believe how beautiful our courtyard Garden is..she loves reading near it.

Hello again,

I just can't help but blog about our day again. I am super sleepy and cannot wake up. Nadia is simply fun, she is laid back and enjoyed being the girl about town. Few things have changed in Antigua this city is like visiting an old friend. The people are very kind and ready to please most things are exactly the same. I am still exhausted and we are attempting to get Nadia to take a nappy in her pack n play she would much prefer to be glued to me in the Bjorn. We ate at Frida's for a quick lunch http://www.vivafridas.com/ on Arch street. Nadia enjoyed sitting in my backpack while we ate. I activated my old cell phone (which was Gavin's toy for a long time) for $7.00 US dollars (so amazing that we kept it and it was not broken). Well, enjoy the entries and please leave comments. Miss you all...My Spanish is SLOWLY returning I have conversations with everyone unsure of what they understand from me. I understand most of what others say and have had no problem getting everything that I need which is a blessing. Nadia continues to get more comfortable with us and constantly wants to make us smile.

Melissa, Nadia Y Gamma Sharyl


Buenos Dias! This morning we were startled while all still in bed by a small earthquake. Antigua is surrounded by mountains volcanoes actually and (some are active) We climbed and active one with Gavin at 4 months (because we were STUPIDO) yes Mike you were right that was the wrong choice...hee hee Anyway every 25 years there is a MAJOR earthquake here. I cannot remember when the last one was exactly but I know we have a while. Anyway Gamma Sharyl and I (mostly gamma's idea) changed Nadia's sleep schedule last night and for the first time in 3 days I feel as though I am at 70% energy wise. Her schedule was...bed at 8:00 PM up at 12:00/feeding and 5:00/feeding for the day (YUCK) Last night though we tanked her and had very different results. We feed her a patcha (Guate slang for bottle) at dinner at Don Luisa http://wikitravel.org/en/Antigua_Guatemala Then at about 7:30 we gave her as much cereal as she could handle. Then she stirred for a while about 1 hr instead of 2..and she woke up at 10:00 for another Patcha, and 3:00 and then is still waking up as we speak and it is 7:35 AM. THANK GOD for new methods. She now weighs 11.9! Keep growing girl. I promise better and more photos to come..my photographer is not here. I love you and miss you MIKE!

Sunday, May 06, 2007




We are here, we are safe and she is amazing. The Westin was great, but I felt like I was home away from home as we pulled into Antigua. Our hotel is quaint and comfortable. http://www.hotelauroraantigua.com/ We are very comfortable this evening temperature is cool as a rain system passes through. It was very cloudy today Volcano Agua was not even visible. We ate dinner at Dona Luisa a very local and simple restaurant we enjoyed our cheesburgers and fries with strawberry milkshakes. Nadia, is smiley sweet and a little more difficult to figure out this time. She has been happy most of the day and loved swimming for about 1 hour while mom and I traded off our 1/2 hour massages. Mom's back is not perfect but she is such a blessing and a tropper. Right now Nadia is enjoying her rice cereal however she spits out each bite but wants more..We had the chance to meet with our attorney Hector and really enjoyed him. He is kind and seems genuinely interested in helping us in every way. Stay tuned for more updates. Love you all....

Melissa, Nadia and Gamma Sharyl