Little Red Riding Hood

Ok, I am the worst blogger in the world. Sorry, Lauren and all my other blogger friends who keep checking for updates.............. My only excuse is working full time, chasing a toddler in the evenings, and going to bed when she does. Here's a quick post with a very late Halloween picture. We took Bella by all her grandparents' houses and then she went trick-or-treating with 2 of her cousins. She had a blast. It got very cold that evening, but we bundled her up and kept going. She just kept grinning when she got candy from the nice people in the neighborhood. Afterwards, we went to my sister's friends' house and Bella attended her first bonfire/marshmallow and weeny roast. We also had chili; it was very good! Bella seemed to enjoy it. Unfortunately her momma has eaten most of her Halloween candy. I gave her the healthier stuff. I will try to do better and post some more pictures soon.

Blessings,

Tonya

Updates from the past month

I'm tired of smiling for the camera!

Our church had a welcome home party/baby shower for Bella a couple of weeks ago. We got lots of nice stuff and bigger clothes for Bella to wear this winter and next spring. It was fun to celebrate with many of the people who had been praying Bella home since the beginning. We had asked them to pray specifically that our paperwork would be perfect and that PGN would issue us no kickouts. God answered our specific prayers; He is so good to us!

Since the last post, almost a month ago, I have gone back to work. It was terrible at first. The whole week before I went back I kept crying every time I thought about it. I am happy to say after the first couple of days, it went better. Bella is staying at my grandma's on Mon. - Thurs. I have to drop her off at 7 a.m. to get to school on time. That is the part that neither Bella nor I like; we are not early morning people. My mom goes over and helps for a few hours when she gets off work. My grandparents live on a farm, and Bella loves to go outside with them and sit on the porch or to play. Several family members usually go in and out of the farm every day, so there are plenty of people to hold Bella and to love on her. She is so happy to see me every afternoon when I get there; it is the highlight of my day. She is being taken very good care of and has lots of fun at Grandma's. On Friday, Daddy is off, so Bella stays at home with him. Bella loves her daddy and they do all kinds of fun stuff together on Fridays.

Work is hectic, but it is easier for me to go to work knowing that Bella is loved so much where she is while I am work. I will update with more pictures as soon as I get a chance.

Blessings,

Tonya

2nd Baby Shower/Welcome Home Party

This is a picture of Arabella and me with my sister

and 2 of my nieces at the shower.

My mom had a baby shower/welcome home party for us at her church a couple of weeks after we were home with Bella. We had lots of good food and there was a large group of people there to celebrate with us! We were showered with so many nice gifts for Bella that is was almost overwhelming. We have been so blessed, and everyone has been so loving and supportive during our journey. Thanks to everyone who helped in any way at the shower and who gave us gifts!

Love and blessings,

Tonya

Arabella's First Birthday Party

Ok, so I finally have a minute to update the blog and show you a few pictures from Arabella's first birthday party. We invited our families over for a cookout, cake, and ice cream. As you can see from the pictures, she got lots of presents. The kids, Bella and her cousings, played corn hole and had fun with Bella's pink butterfly pinata. Bella liked eating her cake and loved all her new toys. We just had a really nice time celebrating with our family and even had a special prayer time before we ate thanking the Lord for answering our prayers specifically - to bring Bella home by her first birthday. I felt really blessed that day to have our whole family together and am thoroughly enjoying my time off from work with Bella. Please keep praying for all the babies in Guatemala who haven't come home to their forever families yet. Isabelle will be coming home very soon to be with her mom, Lauren. Keep praying for Lori, that Bethany will be out of PGN ASAP! Let's pray them all home.

Love and blessings,

Tonya

First Welcome Home/Baby Shower

Well, if you have been following our story, you know we got home a little later than expected. Our first baby shower was set a few weeks before we got home thinking that we would be home about a week before we actually made it. We made it home just in time. We got home on Friday, and the Welcome Home/Baby Shower was on Saturday afternoon. My sister, Tammy, and her friend, Mechelle, did a fabulous job decorating with a fiesta-type theme. Everything was very colorful and cheery. We had lots of friends and family come to meet Arabella and to shower us with all kinds of wonderful gifts. We got diapers, wipes, lots of cute outfits, toys, highchairs, baby food, cereal, juice, gift cards, and a children's table set. We got so much great stuff that I probably forgot to name something. Arabella was in a great mood and had fun meeting everybody. She especially had fun with her cousins. One 0f them, William, who is a couple of years older than Bella, kept crawling around on the floor so Bella would follow him. They were too cute! Thanks to everyone involved for the awesome welcome home and the wonderful presents for Bella!

Love and Blessings,

Tonya

Welcome Home Pictures (from the airport) Aug. 1st, 2008

Hey everybody, I am glad you all are here to meet me!

So this is my Great Grandma that Mommy kept telling me about. Here is my cousin, Lyndsey, and Aunt Tammy with welcome signs and flowers for me and Mommy. I know what to do when you all get all those cameras out!

Ok, so this is a little late in coming. It is only 2 weeks late, ha! ha! I am a busy new mom, what can I say? We arrived about 6:48 p.m. in Louisville on August 1st. If you read the previous post you know about all the fun we had the night before and our delay in Atlanta. I was so glad to finally be home and for everyone to meet Arabella. Since I had been out of the country for 2 months in Guatemala with Bella, I was even more ready to get home. We were coming down a long corridor and I could see my family and friends in the distance, and I got overwhelmed with emotions. We had to go around a little corner before we reached them and I stopped to pull myself together. They all had huge smiles, flowers, signs, stuffed animals, and various other goodies for Bella and us. It was wonderful!

Since I had been gone for 2 months, I was so happy to see all my family. We visited at the airport for a while, then we went to get a quick bite to eat together before heading home. Everyone had a great time getting to know Bella, and she even let a few people hold her.

It didn't go so well on the way home in the car; she didn't like riding in the carseat. She only rode in one part of the time in Guatemala; most babies don't there. It isn't law and most people can't afford them. She is doing much better riding in it now.

We got home after dark, but we had a yard full of pink flamingos with pink bows. Our mailbox had balloons on it, as did the chair on our front porch. There were "Welcome Home" and "It's a Girl" signs on the front door, too. Finally when we got in the house, there were balloons, streamers, and signs all over the place. I was so relieved to finally be in my own house after 2 months and especially because Bella was with me. We gave Bella the tour of the house. She loved her room; she rolled around and kept rubbing her feet on the fluffy rug in there. I sat down in the glider with Bella on my lap in her room, and the tears started flowing. I have waited so many years to be a mom and for this nursery to actually have a baby occupying it. So much of the time during infertility treatments and the adoption process you feel like you are limbo. Even after you begin the adoption process, you feel like you are planning for a make-believe child. Not until they are yours and home does it all feel truly real.

We are adjusting to life with a busy girl, who is trying to walk and into everything!

In the next post I will tell you about our first baby shower and then her birthday party.

Thanks for going along on this journey with us!

Love and blessings,

Tonya

Our long journey home......

Daddy is sharing his Pringles with Bella at the airport in GU.

She loves them!

Bella and Mommy are ready to get on the plane to go home to KY.

Mami Karen came to the airport to tell her "princess" bye.

Hello everone! Yes, we are home. Sorry it has taken me so long to update my blog. We have been home a week now. We got home a day later than expected. The first part of our journey went well. Mami Karen came to the airport to tell us goodbye. It was very emotional. Her and her family were angels in Bella's life. They love her so much and have been so good to her. Karen's daughter, also named Karen, had made a beautiful card for Bella with a sweet message from Mami Karen on the back. Bella cried and reached for her when she went to leave. We were all crying. We promised we would bring Bella back to GU in a few years to visit.

We flew into Atlanta about 1/2 hour later than expected, then it went downhill from there. Last Thursday Atlanta was having bad thunderstorms. When we got in, there wasn't a gate open due to the storms and delays, so we sat on the runway for about 40 minutes. Bella had done great on the flight, but started getting fussy. When we finally got off the plane, we had to go through immigration to turn in Bella's immigration papers and to get her passport/visa stamped. Then we made a mad dash to our gate that said our flight was still on time. A little later they said it was delayed, then finally about 10 p.m. when we were already supposed to be home, they cancelled the flight. Delta had a line about a mile long with people trying to book new flights that Bob had to stand in for over an hour. They tried to book us on separate flights home first. Needless to say, we weren't happy campers. They finally found us a flight for 4 p..m. the next day, but they couldn't even find two seats together (thank goodness some nice guy let us trade seats with him when we got on the plane).

So after 11 p.m., we had to figure out how to find a shuttle to take us to a hotel to stay the night.

I had a little meltdown outside looking for the shuttle. I was upset that we weren't home where Arabella was supposed to spend her first night in America. We also didn't have any idea where our luggage was or when it would get to Louisville. So after midnight we ended up at the hotel with only our carry on luggage. We had most of what we needed for the baby, but I had no extra clothes. Then I discovered that the immigration offiicer had forgotten to stamp Bella's passport. We tried to make the best of it. We showered, put on the clothes from the day before, and left the hotel at checkout time, 11 a.m. We had to go all over the airport until we finally found someone to take us to immigration to explain that they had forgotten the stamp. We had to have that to prove when Bella became a U.S. citizen. After we got that done, we had lunch and just walked around the airport. They changed our gate a total of 3 times, so we kept having to pack everything up and lug Bella to a different part of the airport. Finally about 30 minutes before we were supposed to leave, they changed the gate again. The new gate was in a different concourse and we had to almost run to get there. We should have taken our time. We found out that our flight was delayed when we got there. We finally took off about 45 minutes after we were supposed to.

When we finally made it off the plane in KY, I could see my family and a few friends from a distance when we were walking towards the baggage claim area waiting for us and I almost lost it. They had brought flowers, balloons, stuffed animals, and other goodies to welcome us home. It was the sweetest thing. Bella didn't know what to think at first with all these people staring at her and hugging us. She warmed up quickly and started smiling and laughing. It was a great welcome home!

I'll update you on the rest of the past week ASAP.