Gotcha Day celebration...

Inspiration for the cake

The cake

Uncle Al


cake at the house

The 2 Grndma's

at dinner

Rachel's godmother Donna

mama & dada

My parents

my brother John & sister in law Michelle

Grandma Rose

The Infante Family

Me & Rach

It's hard to believe that one year ago today Rachel became a U.S. citizen when we landed in Houston. We traveled all day & she was a great traveler.. When we got to the luggage area to meet my mom, aunt & uncle Rachel began to cry uncontrollably & this lasted for about 4 hours. I remember it like it was yesterday... today we calebrated gotcha/homecoming day with dinner & cake at the house. I wanted to keep with the Guatemala theme cake, it isnt what i wanted but it looked good anyway. Dinnner was with Rachel's grandparents & godparents..& them we had cake at the house.. I also had a food basket& dinner sent to Telma, Rach's foster mother on Tuesday, it was a year that she gave Rachel to us forever. Here are some pics.. i realize everything is backwards but oh well...

Happy First Gotcha Day!!!!

Today is Rachel’s 1st Gotcha day.. what else could I say but OMG!!!! Where has the time gone.. I remember so well getting to the Westin to get ready for her arrival… We got into the room & about 30 minutes later we got the call that my baby girl was downstairs.. I just couldn’t believe that this time she was coming home with us FOREVER!!!! Telma (Rachel’s foster mother) looked so sad , I really felt for her, the baby she’d been caring for for all of these months was now leaving her. When we were in the elevator going back to the room, I just kept thinking WOW.. this is really happening…

To start of Rachel’s celebration, I used a service in Guatemala, not forgot in Guat & am having dinner sent to the foster family. They were a big part of Rachel’s life & I just wanted to show my appreciation.
Our celebration will happen this Saturday, the day we all came home..I am taking Rachel’s grandparents & Godparents to dinner & then having cake at my house afterward. I am really excited about her cake, it has a Guatemala theme… pictures this weekend..


Then



Now

happy first gotcha day Marla

Yesterday March 17th was Marla's(aka Lallie) first Gotcha Day. This is the day that Marla was given to the Maron family forever... Being that Annette doesnt blog anymore(hint hint) I told her that I had to post these pics.. I cant believe its been a year already that we were in Guatemala together... they are all so cute I cant decide which is my favorite.

HAPPY 1st GOTACH DAY SWEET LALLIE... we miss you !!!!!

Its Official...............

Chunk is now legally Rachel Carlisa. We had our court date for her legal name change yesterday. Rachel didnt even have to be there & it took all of 10 minutes. now we have to wait for the final judgement & then I can get moving with changing all of her paperwork to say Rachel.. I am ALMOST done with adoption paperwork..

Rachel's first Easter was good, nice & quiet. her basket consisted of books & puzzles, so if you ask her what the Easter bunny brought her, she says boops (aka books). The night before Easter, I told her that we had to leave carrots out for the Easter bunny, so I gave her the carrot to put on the dish, & in true Rachel fashion.. she popped the carrot in her mouth.. she figured, hey its food, so its for me. I didnt want her to have raw carrots so I had to pry it out of her mouth.

In other news, Rachel has the snotty nose this week, its the first time shes showed any kind of being sick since her birthday, shes not cranky at all but HATES to have her nose wiped. Last week we had an "incident" rach dislocated her elbow.. I was swinging her & then she threw herself back so I grabbed her & so it goes..
I felt so bad for her, she was just laying on my going ooooooouuuuuuuch!!!
the next day we took her to the doctor & she was fine.. poor baby.

I had her evaluated by Early Intervention for speech therapy & they willl be starting in a few weeks, she says a few words & does lots of her animal sounds but shes not talking real well., but her new favorite word is STOP!!!!, especially when shes having her diaper changed.
pics soon