New pictures and medical update

Hello everybody, I can't wait to meet you!

Arabella had her doctor's appointment last week. She grew another cm and almost a pound and is doing great! No news about our case to report; we're in PGN as I wrote last week. Just keep praying for a quick PGN stay; they are doing some "restructuring" of sorts. Pray that the new people in charge will help get everyones' cases reviewed and approved so that we can all bring our babies home as soon as possible. I really miss Arabella today, but it was good to see her pictures. She is so much cuter in person, though. Mom and I have our airline tickets for June and paid our deposit today on the house we will be staying in June. One interesting fact about the house we will be staying in and lots of places in GU; we will have a washer only - no dryer. Because of the high cost of electricity, a lot of people hang up their clothes on a clothesline. It will be like the olden days - ha! ha! Our house has a great view of the volcanoes in Antigua and is furnished. Mom is going to have to buy a coffee pot when we get there, because the house doesn't have one. You can walk everywhere you need to go in Antigua, so hopefully this will help me get in better shape! 35 more days and I'll be with Arabella again, I can't wait!

WE ARE IN PGN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, you read it right. We are finally in PGN after waiting a month since our pre - approval (PA) from the embassy. That was a big hurdle. God is faithful! PGN (the Attorney General) is the place that processes and ultimately "approves" our adoption. The best case scenerio would be to get approved by PGN in about 8 weeks. (Worst case scenerio, many months). PGN is very picky as they go through all your documents, one small error and your case can be kicked out to fix the error. If you get a kick-0ut, you have to be resubmitted and the wait starts over again. So needless to say, we don't want any kick-outs! If you are inclined to pray for us, please pray for our "reviewer" in PGN to be fair, for us not to have any document problems, and to get Arabella home as quickly as possible. After we get out of PGN, we will be bringing Arabella home in about 6 weeks after that. We are still praying that she'll be home for us to throw her a big 1st birthday bash in August. If God sees fit to give us a miracle and bring her home sooner, we would fine with that as well. Another neat thing happened yesterday. Many of you know that I sell jewelry and do jewelry fashion shows for extra income. Two ladies at work did a show for me yesterday after work and it was a huge success! They sold so much jewelry that I made enough to cover my plane ticket to Guatemala to visit Arabella this summer. Thank you Susan and Esther (and everyone who bought jewelry) for helping me get to Guatemala to spoil my girl! My God supplies all my needs according to His riches in glory! I don't deserve it, but He is very good to me!

More visit trip pictures!

Not much to report today, just thought you might like to see some more pictures from our trip. Please keep praying, we still don't have the social worker's report that we need in order to get into PGN. We will go straight into PGN when we get it. Only 48 days until I will be holding my Bella girl again on my next visit. I can't wait!

Bella is 8 months old today!

Dear Arabella,

You are 8 months old today, we hope you have a wonderful day with your foster family. We had the best week with you last week and we miss you very much. Mommy and Grandma Charlene are coming to visit you in 7 weeks and we can't wait! We know that Karen and her family love you very much and will take very good care of you until we can bring you home.

Love always,

Mommy and Daddy

Here is an email that Daddy sent from Bella while we were in Guatemala that I thought you all might like to read if you didn't get the email:

Hola mi familia y amigos (Hello my family and friends)

Bella here, I just wanted to send a little note to all of you back home. When Karen, my foster mom, told me that Mommy and Daddy were coming to see me, I got a little nervous. I wasn't sure what to expect. Would they know how to hold me just right? How would they know what to feed me or how to change my butt when it got dirty? Would they be able to find my tickle spots? Could I go to sleep and then wake up to find that they were still watching over me?

Well, I wondered on these things until I showed up and met them. You all, they are wonderful. I could tell Momma really loved me the first time I laid eyes on her. She had the biggest grin on her face and I could tell she was just as anxious and happy as I was. I soon found out that they could take care of me just fine. Mommy was the best, she really loved on me so I didn't want to chance it with Daddy just yet. He has this really weird stuff on his face and I didn't know what to think of it. Then, I noticed that he took real good care in making my bottles and even changed my diaper a couple times - he wasn't too bad at it. So I thought I would give him a chance too. Guess what, he is almost as good as Mommy. I will let him do about everything except put me to sleepy. I even let him give me a bath one night.

Anyway, I just wanted to say hi to all of you. I know I can't come home for a little while but I think it will be grand when I do get to come home. Mommy keeps showing me pictures of my room but I don't think I will let her keep me there. I will want to stay with her all the time. I am really anxious to meet all of my cousins, too. I have heard all kinds of great things about you all. In fact, I want to talk to some of you about how fun Daddy can be. He throws me up and catches me and I just love it. He also takes me on morning walks. I just make him think that we are doing this so Mommy can get dressed but it is because I like to spend the time alone with Daddy.

Well, I am going to go for now, but I just wanted to thank all of you who sent me clothes and shoes and toys. I also want to thank everyone who gave money and helped out in making the trip for Mommy and Daddy possible. I believe they know that you are just as excited as they are. I also want to say thank you to all the grandmas and grandpas, great grandmas and great grandpas, uncles and aunts, cousins, friends of the family, and all those wonderful people at church for the love I can feel all the way down here. I haven't met you all yet but if you are as great as Mommy and Daddy, I know I will be just fine when I come home.

Love lots,

Arabella Josey Boster

WORTH THE WAIT!

The title and Bella's shirt say it all in the top picture , "WORTH THE WAIT!" All the years of waiting have led to the fulfillment of my dreams of being a mom. I firmly believe that God is in control, and it was His will that we would be Bella's parents. We are late bloomers when it comes to parenthood, but it is so "WORTH THE WAIT!" We have had the best week spending time loving on Bella. She is a beautiful, healthy, happy baby. She has already brought us such joy in the past few days that it is overwhelming to absorb. She is perfect in every way, and she will definitely light up the life of everyone who knows her. She still prefers mommy, but she has had fun playing with daddy today and even let him feed her and take her for a walk outside while I was getting dressed and ready for breakfast. Bella is a good sleeper. She sleeps for about 8 hours a night. She went to sleep about an hour ago, so I better go for now so I will get enough sleep for all the energy I will need to keep up with her tomorrow. I am not looking forward to saying goodbye this weekend, but am praying continuously that we can bring her home very soon so we won't ever have to say goodbye again.

Thanks for all your prayers!

We are with Arabella in Guatemala!

We made it to GU with no problems. We arrived at the bed & breakfast with about 1.5 hours before the baby arrived, so I had time to freshen up. I was a little nervous as I waited for Arabella and her foster mother to arrive, but as soon as they came through the door I was fine. Bella came right to me with no fussing (see the fist picture above). The lady in green is Karen, Arabella's foster mom. Karen could speak enough English for us to talk about the baby. I am very relieved after meeting her, because it is obvious that she loves Bella and takes very good care of her. She told me that Arabella is a gift from God. Karen had dressed the baby in the Easter dress we sent her, and she looked adorable. Karen was wearing the cross necklace we had sent her as a gift as well. We visited with Karen for about an hour and the baby didn't fuss at all when she left. Karen said that she is a joy to care for and usually only cries if she is hungry or sleepy. She also said that she sleeps all night. The first evening was spent playing and eating. Arabella seemed to take to us both really well. Bella and I had fun playing while Bob went to the grocery store. Because of all the excitement, the baby missed her late afternoon nap. Things were good until bedtime. She went to sleep after taking her bottle. I laid her in the crib and she slept for about 10 minutes. She woke up screaming and didn't want to lay back down. I think she was scared. She was thinking, "Where am I and who is this lady holding me?" She kept going back to sleep and then she would wake up and cry. Finally about 3 a.m., she gave in and went to sleep next to me on the bed. She woke up a little after 6 a.m. in a very good mood for having such little sleep. I put her in the bed with Bobby and me (in the middle) and she just laid there for almost an hour laughing and playing with us (see the last picture of Bella and Bobby). I think she might be starting to teeth again (she has 2 teeth on the bottom of her mouth - see the picture of her in the high chair above). She slobbers constantly and chews on everything! She also likes to give her mommy wet slobbery kisses. The cutest thing she does is when you ask her something she just grins and shakes her head no 2 - 3 times. The second night went much better. We gave Arabella her first bath and I got soaking wet! Then we played a while and she took a bottle. Bella went to sleep about 11 p.m. and slept until 6:15 a.m. YEAH!! I got about 5 hours of sleep and have more energy today. Arabella has bonded really well with me and prefers that I hold her (constantly), but that's ok. I don't mind, I have a short time to hold her before I have to come back home, so I want to take advantage of every second.

Arabella is a very good baby. She laughs and plays and sings all day. Karen told me that she thinks she will be a singer when she grows up; the girl does have a good set of lungs. She smiles a lot and is usually content (even with a dirty diaper) unless is she is sleepy or hungry. She is hot natured and continuously takes her socks off. She is infatuated with her feet. She plays with her feet, holds things with her feet, and even sucks on her toes occasionally. She also likes to sit up on the counter and talks and laughs at the "baby in the mirror." She has had us cracking up several times. I can't wait to get her home so all my family and friends can meet her; you all will fall in love with her instantly. She is irresistable!

Well, that is all for now. Arabella will be waking up from her afternoon nap any minute now. I will post more pictures when I get a chance.

PA and only 3 days to go!

The past week has flown by and I have not had time to post. Last week we received PA (pre-approval) from the USE ( US embassy in Guatemala). This is very exciting as it is another hurdle you have to jump over to proceed further with your adoption. We got our PA on day 39, and many times it takes at least 60 days, so we praise the Lord for this. We are still waiting on our social worker report (SWR), but the "interview" took place on 2/11, so she has had plenty of time to get it done. This and one more document, which should be ready this week, is all we are waiting on to be submitted to PGN (like our Attorney General's office in US). PGN takes anywhere from 8 weeks to many months depending on your case, how "perfect" your paperwork is, etc. This is the place where your adoption is finally approved. Anytime while your case is in PGN, they can kick your case out for a missing signature, typo, etc.... Then the documents have to be fixed and resubmitted and you lose precious time waiting. Please pray for favor from the Lord for us and our paperwork that everything will proceed smoothly and that we will not be issued and KO's (kick outs). After we get "out" of PGN, we will be able to bring the baby home about 6 weeks after that. Of course, we are very anxious to get in PGN, so we can get out and bring Arabella home with us for good! I can't believe in 3 days I will get to meet and spend a whole week with my daughter! I am so very excited that I am not sleeping well. I guess I need to get used to that. Please pray for our safe travel and that Arabella adjusts to us easily and can feel our great love for her in the short time we have to visit. Pray for us as it will be so hard to give her back to her foster family. The only thing I will be able to do to help me after that is to count down the days until my next trip to visit her. I am trying to stay positive and look on the bright side of things about our adoption, but it is hard. We are blessed that we can visit and spend this special time with her because in many countries you don't get to meet your baby until you go to pick them up. The time we get to spend with her before we bring her home will help her to bond to us. Look for lots of new pictures of Arabella when we get home to be posted here; don't be surprised if she is a different outfit in every one. You know she will be as adorable as ever. I'll share all about our trip when we get back; I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!