Heading to Guatemala! Embassy Appointment at Last!

I say all of this, of course, with some regrets. Yes, we have our final step in order to bring Mariela home. If I had it my way (as all the other Semillas families that have been waiting since July), she would be on the plane home with us. But as for today, that just is not so. We are heading down there anyway, to get the visa and get her final adoption papers in order to do her readoption here. We are excited to see her, as it has been almost 6 months.

It will be a long morning at the Embsasy with a 7:15 AM appointment, as you are there for several hours with doctor's appointment, paperwork and interview. But we are thrilled to have her on our own, even if just for a few hours.

The kind of worst case scenerio is that this might play out in March 2009 when the entire orphanage has their court hearing. I pray nightly that is not the case, but I have to have faith this will all end with her in our arms. But let's think positive and have faith that it will all play out before then.

The other night we spent hours trying to find "cheap" airfair. Forget that it is international, that it is almost Christmas and we have less than a weeks notice. After fighting each other and fighting the American Express website, we finally found some decent deals. It seems the deals change from minute to minute or hour to hour on who has availability on the flights. We signed off one night, after we had tried to get tickets through Nicaragua and Panama City. But as we would click "ok", the price would jump up and they would say "price increase." Finally, we found some on Delta that do not send us into nowhere.

Let's hope this takes us somewhere closer to bringing her home. I can almost see the chicken buses now, and see myself in the courtyard running with Mariela. I cannot wait to meet a few more families that we have made friends with - this is always an adventure being in HER country the next to last time (at least for a while).