WHAT A TRIP!!!

We got back late Sunday from a 9 day visit with the Isaac & Cristian. WHAT A TRIP!!! An amazing one! Matt, Jordan, Jackson and I went this trip. The only thing that would have made it a more perfect trip would have been to have Jimmi & Sasha with us. We spent the first 3 nights at Casa Bernabe. It feels like my home away from home since I've been there 5 times in the past year! It always feels great to see everybody again :) It was great to see that all 4 boys got along as if they have been brothers their whole life! Isaac, Jordan & Jackson had soccer games while we were there. Isaac is so happy to have his brothers playing soccer with him. I think Jordan has even more fun playing soccer in Guatemala than home if that is possible. He got his first Guatemala yellow card this trip!!!! And he also won a $5 bet from Isaac for scoring the first goal in one of the games. I think Jordan will make him pay up on that bet when he gets home! LOL! The weather was great for being the rainy season. Only rained a few times while we were there and otherwise wonderful weather in the 70's. We went on a "mini vacation" to Lake Atitlan for 3 nights. The beauty of that was breathtaking! It was about 3 hours from Casa Bernabe in the Highlands of Guatemala. We were dropped of in the town of Panajachel and then had to take our boat to the Hotel de Tzununa just near the village of Tzununa. Oh my gosh...stunning! It was up on the side of a cliff......had to walk up over 400 steps to get to it! But the view was worth every step! The wall of our room that faced the lake was all glass with big sliding doors that opened to the balcony. And we faced the three volcano's on the lake! A very peaceful place, had a small frigid swimming pool! Restaurant had very good food. We would wake up in the morning with the view of the lake and 3 volcanoes sitting in our bed! Then we would start our day out after breakfast by going down and kayaking and playing in the lake......it was so much fun! After a couple hours we would climb the 400 stairs again to shower and then catch a boat over to one of the villages. One day we went to Panajachel and the other we went to Santiago Atitlan. These really show you the culture of Guatemala. After several hours it was back on the boat and back to the hotel, and back up the 400 stairs!!! It was nice having family dinners together, sometimes with the hotel restaurant alone! We had many laughs over those 3 days and our family has jelled very well together :) This trip offered a new adventure for us, a blessing I never imagined that we'd get! I have grumbled with every delay in our adoption process often asking God WHY?! It is something that I won't do again for God answered one of those why's! In the search for the death certificate, the orphanage ended up finding Isaac & Cristian's oldest brother.(Who is older that I am) We ended up going to meet him and his wife and 16 yr old son. What an awesome day! David took us to his house for a short visit there. They were so welcoming and hospitable! They took us to the cemetery so the boys could go to their father's grave for the first time. Then we took them to lunch. His brother spoke some English, but David (and Isaac) did most of the translating. I asked if he minded if I asked some questions about their family, and he said I could ask whatever I wanted! So I got the names of all of their siblings and grandparents, asked some questions about Isaac & Cristian's mom (their oldest brother has a different mom) and also about family medical history. After lunch they took us to dad's house, and to the house the boys last lived in! I never thought that I'd get to see that. We found out the boys have two older sister who live in Los Angeles and got their phone numbers so they could call them when they finally make it home. It was a great day and I think that they will keep in touch with their brother. Dad was very loving taking them to Casa Bernabe, because it is much nicer than where they were living. As always it was hard to leave them :( We did find out there has been progress with our process though. The paperwork has all been corrected by the judge in Guatemala and should have been taken to the lawyers office the day after we left and hopefully is now at the US Embassy. David seemed to think that we will be getting our PreApproval very soon and then back in to PGN(the last court). David's guess of when they would be home is the 2nd or 3rd week in September. (But I think it will be longer than that). We did get great news about the Chow's while we were there......They are out of PGN! So Miguel will probably be home in the next month! YEAH! Please keep praying for the completion of this adoption and hopefully everyone will get to meet my boy's soon! :) I've added two photo albums to the right of our trip...hope you enjoy ! (click on the album and it pulls up the photos larger)