Monday Morning Breakfast

We met up with our facilitator, Karla, on Sunday morning and went to breakfast with her at the place down the block and around the corner. It was kind of a big deal, because we don't legally have custody of Maria.

Vilma, the foster mother, has custody, and she carries around a sheath of papers all notarized, stamped signed and fingerprinted that shows this, in case she's stopped and hassled by the police or other authorities.

She'd given us these papers last time we visited, and I had made copies, but my copies of course don't have the stamps, etc. And they list her name and not ours. And there are adoption horror stories of the "wrong" people looking after children (neighbors, friends, etc.), getting stopped, not having the right papers, and the children being picked up and put in the care of the state.

Still, Karla thought the odds of any of this happening, on a Sunday morning, 1 block from the hotel (the Swiss Embassy was between the restaurant and the hotel), with her around, were very low, so off we went.

Which was fun, but we did get some stares. Not everyone in Guatemala is OK with Americans adopting their children (in 2006 something like 1% of the birthrate was adopted by foreigners). And parents taking small children to restaurants is a very American thing, but not a very Guatemalan thing. And watching men (that would be me) taking care of little girls is, again, not so much in the culture of Latin America.

But the staff there was very nice and so we went again on Monday, this time with out Karla.

Tuesday morning we're actually heading for a hearing in front of the Judge, so no breakfast outside the hotel.

Pictures from Michael's Camera All from Monday


Anne and Maria early in the morning ...



Walking, walking, walking. The main lobby of the Westin.

NEWS FROM GUATEMALA

Saturday

We got into Guatemala about 11:15am on Saturday March 24. At first, we were surprised by the time change, but then realized that Guatemala didn't make the DST change when America did.

Our "10-15 min" shuttle to the hotel ended up taking an hour to show up, but this isn't a big surprise in Guatemala. We're staying at the Westin Camino Real this time (we stayed at the Marriott last time). Both are big Americanized hotels (3 restaurants, huge swimming pool, health spa, tennis courts, hallways that go on like hotels in Vegas, etc.). The main difference between the two is that the Westin is in a much nicer part of town. They're actually not very far from each other, but there is a huge Boulevard that separates the two, and that seems to make a huge difference, sort of stranding the Marriott in its own neighborhood.

We called Karla, our facilitator, once we got to the hotel. She was supposed to come by with the foster family and Maria. But instead, she sent her cousin. She'd done this last time (last year!) but we weren't expecting it (either time). So we're sitting in the lobby and say "Doesn't that woman look like Karla's cousin?" but didn't go up to her. We then see Vilma, the foster mother, walk by and go up to her. She tells us what's going on, that her husband, Papi, and Maria are waiting outside. So out we go and BOOM there they are.

Of course Maria doesn't recognize us, and she's clinging to Papi like he's giving her oxygen. I imagine that the big hotel is kind of freaking her out. We chat with Vilma and Papi, with Danielle (the cousin) translating. Favorite food, what she's eating, naps, bedtime, etc. Then BOOM, they all go and we take Maria upstairs.

Big mistake. Maria is wailing, missing her Mami and Papi and crying, crying, crying. We expect this, but it does make it hard to follow any routine. Or show her off on Webcam. Or take smiling pictures, or ... do much of anything other than try to console her.

We eventually discover that she likes walking. Walking, walking, walking. So we walk her up and down the halls, and thankfully it's a big hotel with lots of halls. And this is pretty much our routine. We try to spend as little time in the room as possible since she cries there, so we're in the hotel, by the pool, anywhere but the room (but we have to go there to sleep, change, bath, etc.).

We did take a bunch of pictures, but they're mostly on Anne's camera, and sadly I forgot the cable, so we snapped a few with mine. I'll post them soon.

PHOTOS FROM FEBRUARY

Here are the photos from her February Doctor's visit. Enjoy!