Wordless Wednesday

Finally! A room

Wow, what a day. Thank you for praying for us throughout the day. We've needed it!

They told us surgery would take about 45 minutes. After 1 1/2 hours, he was still in the OR and we were getting a bit anxious. Suddenly we saw his surgeon and went to hear the news. The tonsils and adenoids came out fine. His tonsils were "3.5-4" or 3+ (on a scale from 0 to 4+--the largest) and adenoids were 80% blockage (on a scale from 0 - 100%). The problems came when they tried to wake him up. He didn't want to breathe on his own and didn't want to wake up. That's what took the extra 30-45 minutes. Once we got to go back to the recovery room, he was quite upset and coughing quite a bit. But, once in Mama's lap he calmed down a lot.

We went from recovery 1 to recovery 2 after about an hour or so. Then we spent the rest of the day in recovery waiting for a room. At 8:00PM they told us they had a room ready. We're in a room with another little guy who had his tonsils out today too. His family arrived at 6:00 this morning, the same time we did. When we got to the room we said, "I guess the first shall be last, huh?" Anyway, both boys are sleeping soundly now so I suppose I should try to get a few winks before the medicine rounds start. We figure between the two of them we'll be awake every 2 hours! Yippee! I took a few pictures but can't find them on this computer, so I guess I'll try to post some tomorrow--wordless Wednesday. Good night everyone.

He's IN, tonsils coming out

Good morning everyone. It's 8:40 and Guille has been in surgery for about half an hour. He should be out within the next half hour. He was so silly this morning until they gave him the sleepy medicine, then he got a little apprehensive, but was tired enough that he went calmly with the anesthesiologist. He's a trouper! We'll update later today. Thanks for your prayers as he finishes surgery and through his recovery.

We're going to try something new...

We've noticed on several blogs that we follow something they refer to as

"Wordless Wednesday".

So, we're going to try to post one or two special pictures

that don't need any words.

Just priceless memories.

So, here's to "Wordless Wednesday"

Mid-Winter update

OK, so it has been a while since I've updated you. I've been keeping busy with my friends, preschool, speech and traveling. Let me share some of my favorite moments with you.

For Thanksgiving at preschool, we decorated our turkeys so they could hide. I decorated mine as a hunter with a pumpkin on his head, hiding in the leaves. You like him?

After we got all the leaves picked up, I still wanted to rake things,

so I raked up some rocks from our driveway and made a little rock hill.

Then I found a little mud puddle and played in that for a while.

Oh, how I love my boots and water and getting messy!

I had to have a sleep study. I didn't much like getting all those wires stuck to me, but I was a brave little boy and didn't cry at all. I sat very still and the nurse told me I did a great job.

One of the things we found out from the sleep study is that I need to get my tonsils out. I have to go to the hospital on February 1 to have that done. So, please pray for me that day. I AM a little nervous about it. One day Mama asked if I wanted to tell Gramma & Grampa that the doctor is going to take out my tonsils. With a very concerned look, I asked her, "And then put them back in??"

Meanwhile, we had our first snow. Oh how I've missed the snow.

And we decorated our Christmas tree.

I RE-decorated it several times and cried when we had to put the tree away until next November. Why can't we keep it up all year long?

My friend, Elizabeth, and her mom came over one day and we made gingerbread houses.

Yummy frosting, yummy decorations! M-m-mmm!

Me and my shovel (to the tune "me and my shadow"

I got to be the "calendar helper" at preschool.

I did such a good job helping my teacher.

Santa had a pretty fluffy beard by the time I got finished with him.

Before we left for Florida, I got to open a few Christmas presents.

Wow, a tool bench and tools!

More pieces for my train track! Yeah!

Building sand castles in Florida with my Daddy.

It was pretty chilly at the beach on Christmas eve, but Mama & Daddy had been telling me about this HUGE sand pile and the ocean, so we went to the beach for a while to have fun in the sun. It was too cold to swim, but we did get a little wet. Here are some of the pictures we took that day.

Abuela fixed us an amazing meal for Christmas and Aunt Juani had the day off, so we got to spend some time together.

Presents, presents! What could this be?

Maybe duplos...nope, doesn't rattle. Maybe a book?

It's a pillow pet! Just what I wanted!

Hey, it's a pillow pet!

My pillow pet watched me open my other presents.

I got this awesome remote control car from Juani.

Daddy took me outside to the neighbor's driveway to learn how to drive it.

We made our annual trip to the park to feed the ducks.

This year some geese were pretty aggressive and wanted all the food.

Did I mention that it was pretty chilly in Florida while we were there?

We celebrated Daddy's birthday at a Cuban restaurant

then went and looked at Christmas lights.

On the drive back home, we stopped at Jupiter beach and walked along Florida's only rocky beach. Unfortunately, the tide was going out so the "blowing rocks" weren't doing their spectacular show, but we did get to see some waves crash into the rocks.

This wave surprised us all!!

Daddy grabbed me just in time!

A rare family photo.

Picking up shells was quite fun!

We stopped at this plantation house for a little break in our trip.

It was a beautiful place, though they had it set up more as a visitors' center and store than an old plantation house. Even so, we enjoyed our stop there.

And in North Carolina we had to have some famous NC Bar-B-Q.

Can you tell that I liked it a lot?

I serenaded Mama & Daddy for MANY miles.

Mama kept a close eye on my in the mirror.

Though it was a long trip, we had a good time together.

New Year's Day brought warmer weather and a bit of rain.

All the snow melted and there were HUGE puddles in the back yard.

So, what's a boy to do but put on his raincoat and boots and go play in the puddles?!

And, when one gets tired of splashing in the puddle, simply sit down!

Oh, was THAT funny!??!!!

More snow! I love helping shovel the driveway.

(Mama has mentioned that she hopes I still like to do that when I'm older.)

Uncle Tom & Aunt Judy sent me this very cool towel.

I like being a little shark.

A pretty cute one too!

Working with Daddy.

Some of this plastic food is so tough, I need to use my chainsaw to cut it.

Always wear safety glasses when using a chainsaw!

A snow angel... and me (a real angel!)

Thanks for checking in on me again. I'll let you know how everything goes on Feb. 1. Thanks for praying for me.

Mama's Christmas present, 2 years ago

Two years ago today, January 6, these images captured our hearts:

Our adoption coordinator called to ask if we'd like to review the file of this child.

She told us a little about him and we anxiously reviewed his file. Since he was on a shared list, it meant that any agency around the world had access to his file and that anyone, at any time, could "lock" his file. Basically, we had 24 hours (if that) to decide if we wanted to pursue this adoption.

We talked to my brother, a doctor, about his medical condition and had several people pray that we would know for sure that this was the little guy that God had designed just for us. We decided to pray about it over night and see what the next day would bring.

As I lay in bed that night, I asked God to give me some assurance that this was our son, and if not, that He would not let my heart become more attached to this little boy. As I prayed, I felt the Spirit ask me, "What day do Christians celebrate today?", I responded, "Epiphany" to which He asked me, "And what is the significance of this day?" "It's when the three kings took their gifts to the small Child, Jesus." Then SO VERY CLEARLY, Jesus said to me, "And today, that very same Child, the King of kings, is presenting YOU with a gift." Of course, I wept and wanted to wake Guillermo up and tell him, but I waited.

In the morning we called the agency and left a message that we would like to "lock" the file. We emailed our coordinator. There was no response to either one. TWO hours later, she called and said his file was locked. My heart sank for a moment, before she said, "Congratulations, you have a son!"

Moving ahead to this past Christmas:

We were riding in the car and opening pretend presents. We would get so excited about the little presents that we imagined. After handing me an imaginary gift, Guille excitedly asked, "What is it?" I said, "I don't know, what could it be?" He giggled and squeaked out, It's GUILLE!" Of course, I had to tell him that he was my best Christmas present, and that when Jesus gave me that present He said, "Can't open until May." And on May 4 we got to hold that present and bring him home--for keeps!