Pinch Me!!

Sorry to keep you waiting... we only added 33% more kids, but the upkeep feels much more than that (and so does the noise level)! :)

It feels like I am still in a dream, can it be true that we are all together!?! My emotions had been pretty steady throughout the trip, until we hit Atlanta and things looked good for making it home as planned. I was overwhelmed with the sense of so many praying for us and God's graciousness in answering those prayers in such a special way! They hurried us through immigration and we had plenty of time to make our "on-time flight".

Once on board, I asked Daniel the time, waited forever while playing with Ellie, then asked again, and only five minutes had passed. :) What a great feeling to turn the corner at the airport and see so many faces of those who had been praying for us and for our homecoming! And then, even better, to see our older three run to their baby sister!

I was prepared to see her liven up when we got home, but expected it to take some time. She was all over the house within minutes from arriving home. She loves the stairs (already doing well on going down on her belly) and passing out toys to her siblings. Ellie slept all night in her bed, ate from her high chair without complaint, got over her fear of the toothbrush, and only whimpered in the bath.

We savored checking on all four of them together, then each went back a few times before we turned in. At our home, all of the beds are full, the car is full, laundry basket is full, but so are our hearts!

She loved the music!

The Newest American Citizen! And she slept through it! :)

A cute posse of little girls were anixious to meet Ellie! We'll have to find a better shot of them.

A sweet posse of grown-up girls ready to see Ellie!

Settling down for bed (at nearly midnight)! No we didn't leave Ellie here very long, but it was too sweet!

Off for a family swim on our first day together.After bath, clean and snuggly.

She loved the little princess set she was given. Ellie also loves chairs! She keeps trying them out, then moving to try the other one...it was well worth my time to paint them! :) When I took this picture, I called "Ellie" and she turned toward me with this smile. (We go back and forth with calling her "Ellie" and "Vane".)

Playing "share" with Noah. She is giggling here. The posse of little girls made welcome home signs to give us at the airport. Today, Noah, on several occasions, would follow Ellie around the house with one, saying "Weh-cum home, Ahhh-EEE" over and over!

Our first set of pictures with all four of the kids together, they are laughing at Daddy's silly faces. They have done well together with the expected amount of arguing (between the littlest two). Noah kept asking for his "duck" blankie that was still in a suitcase last night. When we were able to get it for him, he promptly brought it and his beloved penguin to Ellie. We were so touched.

Thank you, thank you!!! For all of your prayers, sweet words and thoughtful actions. We felt so loved by all of you! Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Check out Daniel's blog for more of his thoughts and here for more pictures of the homecoming.

Flight Update

Hello everyone - Whitney sent me an invitation to guest blog so I thought I would take advantage of it while they were in the air. :)

According to Delta, Flight 4503 took off on time from Atlanta and will arrive in Peoria at 9:35pm.

We continue to pray for completion of this long travel day for Ellie and her parents and for their family to bond together - all 6 of them! The Lord has so graciously answered many prayers in little Ellie's journey. We trust that the Lord will continue to bless this wonderful family as they become truly a forever family.

"And whoever welcomes a child like this in my name welcomes me." Matthew 18:5

Flight Info

We are arriving in Peo. at 9:35pm on Delta #4503 (coming from Atlanta). You can be praying for flight #310 from Guatemala. We are up for people at the airport, but we know it is late and Wednesday night, and things are busy. We are on the last flight out heading home, so I would recommend checking with Delta online with the flight numbers or here before you go. :)

Thanks for all of your sweet comments and faithful prayers. We give praise to the Lord for how well things are going with Ellie and with the process!

In His Grace,
Whitney

PS Strange I have to sign my own blog...but the guest blogger has done a great job posting for both of us!

Ellie Gets Excited during Giuliani Concession Speech

[Note: I'm on probation, but I begged Whitney to let me give another update since she has a readership that is about 4 1/2 times as big as mine]

Right now, as I work on some upcoming lessons, we have the Florida returns on in the background. As Giuliani gives his concession speech, Ellie is clapping along with the crowd and raising her hands when he raises his. She said she has a hard time following US politics, but is strongly pro-life. Needless to say, she is not sad to see the mayor from New York get beat pretty soundly.

Ellie is holding an envelope that we picked up from the embassy today that we are not to open under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. We're supposed to give it to USCIS officials in Atlanta. But it's so tempting...what's in there? Why is it so thick? What would happen if I did open it? Would they really not let us into the country? Would they send us back to Guatemala? Would they pay for the ticket? Right now, Whitney has hidden the envelope so it won't tempt me.We've watched the flights over the past few days and the ones we'll be on have run on time, etc. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Ellie continues to become more animated. Tonight, we're letting her stay up a little bit because she's talking so much. It's really good to hear her voice....

U.S. Embassy Declares Whitney "Hottest Guatemama Ever"

They may not have used those exact words, but the interview did go well. (This is obviously Daniel guest blogging again, but with me going with the title I did, it may be my last).

That is not to say things went as smoothly as possible. Our embassy appointment was scheduled for 7:15 AM and our facilitator was supposed to meet us at our hotel at 6:45. Knowing Guatemala time, I was pretty uncomfortable with him showing up that late. I became even more concerned when he told us yesterday that: 1) The paperwork that he was supposed to fill out, we would now be filling out and 2) we needed to take some additional pictures for Ellie’s visa that our agency had not taken for some reason. We were assured that there was a photo shop near the embassy that could handle everything quickly.

At 6:35, we received a phone call saying that our facilitator was going to be late. I tried to pretend to be surprised, but wasn’t. His plan was now to meet us at the embassy. We were supposed to find the photo shop, take the pictures, get them developed, go to the embassy and find where we were supposed to be on our own within the next forty minutes. My type-A personality thought that was a great idea.

Surprisingly, we got out the door and found the photo shop quickly. Side note: Greenspan has some really interesting things to say about developing free markets in Latin America in his memoir I read last October. What we’ve seen here is that people work hard to fill niches in the market. The photo shop was a great example. Right by the embassy, several people have set up shops designed to meet the needs of Americans adopting babies who need visa photos whose agencies did not supply them with said photos. There is an entire economic system built around the adoption process. The hotel we are staying at, as another example, is populated almost entirely by families adopting. There is one guy we’ve seen who may be an exception.

Anyway, after getting the photos we needed, we made it to the embassy and a few minutes after 7:15 and waited in a line outside. They called for people who had 7:15 appointments to begin filing inside the embassy. Our facilitator had assured us that we would not be going in the embassy before 7:30. We were faced with the decision of waiting for him or going on in on time but without him. We decided to go on in. Now we were in the embassy with no facilitator and no idea if we had filled out our paperwork correctly.

The next 30 minutes were pretty nerve wracking. Every other family had their attorney filling out paperwork with them as they waited for their interview. I tried going around and looking at other people’s work to see how they were answering questions. At one point, I almost exited the embassy to look for our guy, but realized at the last moment I was going out a door I couldn’t get back in without paperwork that Whitney had with her. Ultimately, I had faith in Whitney’s ability to fill things out correctly. She was the type of student in school who always remembered to write their name and date on the top, right hand corner of the page first thing. In fact, she was so good at it, she still does it. I figured she had done everything right. She was less convinced and slightly worried.

As they began giving instructions in Spanish, I went with the rest of the attorneys and facilitators to the windows. It was at this time that our guy showed up. He smiled and said, “Sorry, bro.” He then proceeded to do an excellent job finishing things up for us. Our interview was short and we were done by 10:30. While we were waiting, Ellie came alive like we had not seen yet. We think being around so many kids made her more animated. She was laughing and smiling and just having a grand old time.

This afternoon we went to Antigua. For dinner, we went to a steakhouse near the hotel. We’re really ready to be home. Pray for our travels, especially our Atlanta to Peoria flight. If anything delays our Guatemala to Atlanta flight, our second leg is probably toast. We are more aware than ever what a community of faith endeavor this adoption has been. We are so grateful that you are helping us care for this precious one. She is still very upset if she is put down. We think she will continue to come out of her shell the next few days and be really excited when we get her around some more kids.

To check out photos, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/pastordanbennett/PickUpTrip

Things are going well, I thought I would just add a little about our day:

Praises:
1. She looks into my eyes, often, and it does not seem to bother her.
2. She is eating. I was glad to find out that she is still on 4 bottles a day. We get that bonding time with her and get to be the ones to transistion her to the next step. She ate baby food really well and she ate bits of pizza, chicken, and potates today. Our kids will like to know that she is also a vanilla wafer fan. :) On our visit trip, she did not really want to eat for us.
3. Loves to snuggle, fall alseep on me...had two great naps together and held her before we got her in bed. (Daniel actually gets credit for getting her to sleep and in her bed.)
4. When she cried this morning, she stopped as soon as I passed her back to Mimi...this gives me great hope that she will from such an attachment with us and even deeper.
5. The hotel has been a good choice...staff is very attentive, and this place is mainly adoptive families.

How Ellie has changed our parenting:
1. We are not concerned yet with her learning to sleep in her own bed.
2. Offered cookies first.
3. Have the TV on for background noice from time to time. She has gotten brief exposures to Pixar films that are hits in our house (Cars was on today. :) ) We limit TV at home, especially when the kids were little as she is, but she just seems comforted with some noise. Thankfully, the big kids will be great assistants in the background noice department once we get home. :)


We are off early to get visa pictures done, then to the Embassy appointment. Afterward, we are going to explore Antigua some, so updates won't be until evening, but we should have some great pictures!

Thanks for your faithful prayers and loving comments!


In His Grace,
Whitney

Guest Blogger Daddy

It’s around noon and Ellie and Whitney are sitting in a chair by the window.

We slept fitfully through the night and had a hard time getting out of bed this morning. We weren’t tired but it was just difficult to think about waiting all day for Ellie to show up. I was thinking that the longer I stayed in bed the shorter the wait would be. Eventually, I got up and picked up a book and the T.V. remote. I climbed back in bed and put the book and remote on the nightstand. We just continued to lay in bed as the time slowly ticked by.

Thus it was that when the phone rang at 8:20 we were both still both in bed! It was the guy at the front desk. “You have visitor,” he said cryptically. We flew out of bed, wondering if it was Ellie or our guide for the embassy appointment tomorrow. As we came downstairs and turned the corner, we could see Ellie and Mimi, one of the mamas at the orphanage, through a window. When Whitney picked up Ellie, our little girl started crying. Things were somewhat awkward because Mimi wasn't sure if she should stay or go. She was really sad to leave Ellie but didn't want to intrude. We all had breakfast and then Mimi left.

After Mimi left, Ellie continued to cry on and off (mostly on) for the next hour. She finally settled down and fell asleep, but you can tell that even now that she’s awake, she is still rather...hesitant. She is in a strange environment with strange people (I don’t think she really remembers us from our week in July). She clings to us and snuggles us very tightly. Every now and then she will sit up a little bit and look at us. She looks like she’s not sure if she wants to continue to cry or not.

We are grateful that the Lord has brought Ellie to us again. Please pray for her as she leaves the only home that she has ever known and these strange people take her to the tundra that is the Midwest.

You can check out some pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/pastordanbennett/PickUpTrip

Love to all,

Daniel

We're Here!!

After a slow start (flight delay, extra ticket counter time, being selected for "extra screening", more flight delays, extra stop, more flight delays) We have arrived with all of our luggage...a huge bonus!

We plan on a slow morning as we wait for Ellie. Lord willing, she will arrive early afternoon!

Pictures tomorrow should be lots better than what we took today...of two tired travelers and of our luggage that was pitched out of the plane into a puddle. :)

The hotel is definately more authentic and should be fun to explore tomorrow.

A Few More Delays...

It's international adoption, so nothing is more common than delays. My phone rang at 3am to inform us that our flight to Atlanta was canceled, preventing us from making the flight to Guatemala. I am currently on hold with Delta seeing if I can fix our flights. As of now, we are going to Chicago, then Houston, then arriving in Guatemala at 10pm rather than 12:30pm. :(

If you talked to me lately, I was trying to stay prepared for the fact that we might not get Ellie today. (Thought it would be on the Guat end though. :) )

Off hold...new flights are the only way to make it to Guat today, so we will take it. God is sovereign over the Atlanta weather as well.

Happy Birthday Austin! We love you!!!

Our little boy is now FIVE!He was born on Super Bowl Sunday, just in time for the game, so it is fitting that he is a football fan. :)

AHHH!!

Doing the last minute scrambling around to get ready! Daniel has been such a trooper to deal with the emotional roller coaster I have been on. :) The hotel advertises that they have internet, so we will try to post. So if the Father wills,


NEXT POST FROM GUATEMALA!!!

God is Sufficient, Even in the Cold Midwest!

It snowed last night, nothing too unusual for us. However, I do cringe a little at the fact that we are bringing Ellie home in the dead of winter. Those of you who have visited EN know exactly what I am talking about, as I am sure she has almost NEVER experienced the sensation of being cold! (The children's home is a sauna, steamy windows and all.) The snow is not the rough part, it is the crazy cold temps (Sat night, a time/temp sign read ZERO degrees!) But, as I posted in the title, God is sufficient, even in the cold Midwest!

Hannah made a snow chair.

Helping Mommy shovel (Yes, I shovel, but because I like to!) :)

Givin' it a taste.

I thought our TX and AL friends would enjoy seeing our snow, from the excited posts about snow in 'Bama this weekend. :)

Lasts

Lord willing this was our last Saturday without Ellie.

Last Sunday morning getting just three kiddos ready for church, last sermon preached by Daniel without Ellie, last Newcomer's lunch, last House-to-House Ellie is absent for(small group ministry).

Last weekly update to our adoption ministry prayer team without Ellie.

Looking forward to a wonderful week of lasts!!

Got a report about Ellie, with an actual shoe size, rather than inches her foot measures. :) This is what they told me she is eating:

Paches (what the kids are eating below, a potato and meat tamale type-thing, I had to Google it to know what they were, a traditional Sunday dish), eggs, black beans and rice. Chicken noodle soup. She loves cookies and chips, and juice.
This shot was on the EN site, I think she is right in the center, but zooming in is too fuzzy to be sure. :)

Guatemalan Pics

These are pictures that some of our team took while we were in Guatemala. I plan on putting these up in the girls' rooms to remind us to praise Him for bringing our family together and to pray for the people of Guatemala.

We serve an amazing God who created these wonders!

What a beautiful country to be born in...Volcano near the children's home

View of Lake Atitlan from Eagle's Nest

A farm down the hill from Eagle's Nest

Nesting

This post is mainly for my mom and sister, who spent so much time making new bedding and curtains for the girls' room. I told them what colors and patterns I wanted, and they came up with this beautiful bedding!

You know that I am nesting if I am up at 11pm sewing a table cloth for the room with the extra fabric, as I am no seamstress! :)

I plan on adding some pictures of the girls together above the bed and pictures of Guatemala above the crib.

The table got painted.

We left a small tree out with Ellie's Christmas presents.

Doing the girls room involved switching rooms with the boys, and setting up bunks for the boys.

I painted the small shelf and the crates.

Surprise Shower!

Some sweet girlfriends from church surprised me with a shower yesterday. It was under the guise of a "discipleship meeting". As they were yelling "surprise", I was grabbing for the "decoy's" arm to duck out of the event we were interrupting. :) Thanks so much! I felt so loved and blessed to know how excited you all for Ellie to come home!

P is for....

Praising Him, Pretty Excited and PINK!!!!

Our USE appointment is January 28th, so we will get her January 26th!!!

There is lots of laughing and crying at our house! Thank you, Lord for this wonderful blessing!

Our Last Monthly Update...Lord Willing

"This one should be the LAST one...and you will have her home!" to quote our case worker, but we'll see what God's perfect plan is...

"She is healthy, likes to play and stand up in her crib". She weighs 21.11 lbs (5-10 %), is 30" tall (5-10%) , head cir 17.6" (5-10%), and foot is 4.5" (have no idea where this falls!... I did my best to guess her shoe size in July, but struck out with the 4 pair that I brought, at that time her foot was 5". :) )She is looking at the photo we sent for her crib of the Family picture at the top right corner of the blog.

Agipina, the mama in the red apron, is one of her regular mamas. One day on our visit trip, when we were in the office emailing team pictures, she came in to see Ellie. Agripina asked if she could hold her and it was obvious that she had missed Ellie while she had been with us.

I love how she is so clingy...I look forward to lots of snuggles out of this one!

"But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness. " Psalm 69:13 ESV

Help! I've got finger fatigue from hitting the refresh button!

I am stalking my email for word of our visa appointment, it should be here any moment! It is a struggle against the flesh not to get anxious over these final steps.

These were the first verses I read of the new year:

"For God alone my soul waits in silence, from him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress: I shall not be greatly shaken." Psalm 62 :1-2

A pretty powerful reminder for a day like today (add two sick kids, little sleep tending to them at night, lots of phone calls, and strong tornado warning in January to my finger fatigue aliment) :) !

Added: Monday, I had twice as many "visits" as I did "visitors", so you all must be getting finger fatigue as well! :)

Happy Three Kings Day!

I was thrilled to find photos of Christmas morning on the EN site. There are some of Ellie getting the package that we sent down, complete with the Santa hat she is wearing. They also have a DVD of Christmas memories they are sending to the families! It will mean a lot to have these pictures and video in the future for Ellie.

That reminds me, if any EN families want to send something to their kiddos when we go down, shoot me an email (it's on my profile). We are not going to EN, but I believe that I can pass things off to the mama that brings Ellie to GC.

A Cool Gift and A Wal-Mart Trip

We got this in the mail from a Deedee, who went through our first youth group. She sent this "buff" as a "getting out of PGN gift". Her suggestion was for Daniel to wear it to the Embassy appointment. :) We thought it was hillarious! Thanks, Deedee!

The diapers and toothbrush set were are result of my Wal-Mart trip today... I was nearly giddy over them. She's actually coming home! :)

Wonderful Wednesday to You!

Lord willing, we will be submitted to the Embassy today! This involves the attorney, or staff he pays, to stand in line over night. With the shut-down for the holidays, I am sure that the line is pretty long. We were told it would take about a week to get our appointment, and the appointment could be about a week out from that. We are so close, sweet Ellie! Pray for Pedro and the Embassy employees in Guatemala today!