Things We Have Learned About Edison...

You can learn alot about a child's personality after being with them for a very short period of time. When I look back at the pictures of the first days we had him in Guatemala, he looks very "out of sorts". I'm sure the little guy was terrified with new people with light skin who spoke like aliens. As each day passes, we are learning more and more about Mr. Edison Underwood. He seems to be adjusting very well and each day comes out of his shell a little more showing us who the real Eddy actually is. I have to admit that I asked him today where the little boy we adopted in Guatemala was because the new little boy that is running around my house is a WILD MAN!

I like to call him Hurricane Ed and let me tell you, he may have arrived in the United States the same time as Hurricane Ike but Ike has nothing on my Hurricane Ed because he continues to search and destroy all that is in his path!

I would like to make my own list called...
"Things We Have Learned About Eddy in Less than Two Weeks"

• He has a mouth full of very pretty, straight, white teeth.
• He can bite really hard!
• He likes to play in the water (swimming pools, bathtubs and toilets!)
• He laughs really loud while unrolling a roll of toilet paper.
• He likes to eat cat food (Meow Mix must be quite tasty)!
• He picks up the cat by its tail (and thankfully the cat just looks at him).
• He can squeeze into tiny places when he has an object he shouldn't.
• He hates getting his haircut.
• He likes to eat most everything.
• If you give him a bite of something he doesn't like, he will spit it out for at least 5 minutes.
• He likes to smack people of all sizes - preferably in the face.
• He can smack very hard!
• He is down from 8 bottles to 3 bottles a day.
• He sleeps through the night in his own bed!
• He takes two naps each day - one very long and the other very short.
• He is frightened of dogs.
• His baby talk sounds "spanish".
• He is very smart and catches on to new things quickly.
• He enjoys being the center of attention.
• He likes to be held and rocked.
• He gives good "besitos" or "little kisses".
• He gets his money's worth at the KFC Buffet.
• He can scream very loud if he doesn't get his way.
• He is a very good dancer - he has the Latin rhythm going on.
• He likes to walk on his hands while you hold his feet up behind him (wheelbarrow)
• He has cleared everything from the end tables in our living room.
• He has forced us to keep all bedroom and bathroom doors closed down the hallway.
• He loves to sneak into Emily or Kensley's bedroom.
• He is partial to a real cell phone over a toy phone.
• He can run very fast and likes to run onto the soccer field during his sister's game.
• He is a whirlwind of activity!
• He is a good source of exercise for his mom!
• He is loved beyond measure!

An adjustment - yes! Would I change any of it? Absolutely not! (well - I would like to do away with the poopy diapers...)

If you haven't already, be sure to go to our shutterfly account to see photos: http://www.edisonisourson.shutterfly.com

We have a playdate tomorrow (Thursday) with Edison's friend, Kayma. We are going to eat at McDonald's and then play at the park. I hope to get lots of good pictures and hopefully can post some of them tomorrow.

To see pictures - go to this site...

http://www.edisonisourson.shutterfly.com

I'm sorry - I've had computer trouble

I know alot of you are wondering what is going on. We are fine - we made it into and out of Houston. I'll talk more about that later. If my computer will cooperate - I will attach photos very soon.

~Dana

Our little Tyke wants to come home Ike! Please don't mess with Texas...

For those of you wondering, Edison had a much better night last night. Paul and I have been trying to stay on Kentucky time and have done a pretty good job of getting Edison on our schedule. Of course that means we have been up since 4:30 this morning!

I also forgot to mention yesterday that Eddy loves the swimming pool. He was not scared at all and enjoyed splashing me. We floated around a little bit and he kept putting his face in the water until he took a big gulp and started coughing and gagging. Live and learn. He didn't try that again. We then sat in the hot tub and he was so relaxed. He layed back in my arms and was totally peaceful to the point of almost falling asleep. We took him to the room and he took a very good nap.

When he came to us he was drinking 8 bottles a day and had zero naps. Now he has learned to drink from a sippy cup, is down to 3 bottles a day and 2 naps!!!! He prefers the bottle when he is getting ready to sleep. I was the mother who took her kids bottles the day after their 1st birthday but I am not going to rush it with Edison. He has had so many changes and will have so many more, the least I can do is let him keep his bottle. Oh, by the way mom, if you are reading this, will you go to Wal-Mart and buy a couple of bottles so we will have them when we get home? He came to us with a Gerber that has Barney and Baby Bop on it and we hate it! We brought with us an Avent and he likes it - so 2 Gerbers or 2 Avents will be great!!!

This has been a pretty long day. Anna Maria came and picked us up at 12:45 and took us to see God Bless the Children's orphanage. When we were here in February it was their offices and it still is, but they have set it up in anticipation of accepting children. I hate it that Guatemala has changed the rules and will no longer allow children to be fostered. Cinthya and Anna Maria and the rest of the staff at God Bless the Children truly want their orphanage to be like a home and I think it will be. They still need some things to fully furnish the orphanage but the biggest thing they need right now are monthly sponsors.

When Anna Maria and Cinthya were in the USA the last time, I invited them to eat with my family. My mom prepared a fabulous meal for Father's Day and she and my dad hosted. Paul's parents were there as well as my sister and her family and my grandmother. Our Guatemalan guests loved my mom's cooking and my mom's house. Today, they returned the favor. Cinthya prepared a traditional Guatemalan meal for Paul, Edison and I and brought it to the office. It was delicious!! It was a nice time to spend with all of her staff who had worked on our case. They knew Edison and obviously loved him. He made himself quite at home and walked around like he owned the place. It was a time I will never forget.

Afterwards, Anna Maria drove our family to the US Embassy to pick up Eddy's visa. We only had to wait a few minutes for them to call our name. We checked that everything was correct and left the Embassy with Edison´s Guatemalan passport, his United States immigrant visa and a sealed package that can only be opened by the Immigration officers at the Houston airport...

The Houston airport -- as I type this, our flight in the morning from Guatemala to Houston is still a go. We will take the 4:10 am shuttle from the hotel to the airport. Our flight leaves at 6:40 a.m. (8:40 a.m. your time). We arrive in Houston a few hours later. Also as I type this, our flight to Louisville is the last Continental flight leaving from the Houston Airport tomorrow. All others after ours have been cancelled. Southwest Airlines have already shut down in order to get their planes and employees out of Houston. So far - so good. Please continue to pray that Ike will stay out to sea so that we can get out of Houston. Our girls want us to come home because they want to see their little brother. We want to get Edison home to meet his sisters, and his grandparents, and everyone else. We also want to introduce him to his home and his bedroom and his toys and his new life!

We do have a backup plan in place if the airport shuts down in Houston after we arrive there. There is a rental car held in our names with a car seat and we will just start driving home - I can't even think about riding in a car for 16 hours now so I am convinced this is not going to happen. We also have two seats reserved on a Delta flight from Guatemala to Atlanta that leaves around lunch time tomorrow. I know the girls want us home and we are going to do all we can to get there. I just pray we stay on schedule. Times up.

Hurricane Ike

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly doo DOO doo DOO doo

Yes, I'm a Clint Eastwood fan and this sums up our first night...
Oh - and there will be no pictures until I return home (Sorry)

THE GOOD
We had our embassy appointment today and everything went very smooth. We made it through the interview with no problems and go back to pick up Edison's visa tomorrow. When the guy at counter 8 told us "Congratulations, on the adoption of your new son" I knew that everything was finally final - Although he was officially ours when we got down here, we still needed permission to bring him to the United States as a citizen and now that has been approved. What a wonderful GOOD day!

THE BAD
When I returned to the room last night, Edison was screaming and Paul said he had been crying for the past 30 minutes. He wanted me and only me and would have nothing to do with Paul. When I took him, however, he didn't really even want me but I was better than the other option. When I laid him down to change his clothes he went ballistic! When we laid him in the bed, it was even worse. He hit me and smacked me and would "growl" at me. He arched his back and threw back his head. I was really proud of myself as I had the patience of Job which in fact is a blessing from God because it was something I prayed for. When I would try to talk to Edison to soothe him he would get so angry! I would rub his hair or his neck and he would either start shaking his head side to side or push my hand away. His head was soaking wet from crying. He didn't want down, he didn't want a snack, he didn't want a bottle, he didn't want anything except his "mamamamamamamamama" which I knew was NOT me! Finally, I took his pajama shirt off, laid him down in front of me, with his legs over my legs and I got the lotion and just started massaging his belly, his arms, his hands and his face. Paul got a warm wash cloth and I washed his face and tried to cool him off. He finally settled down and made great eye contact with me, although he did have somewhat of a vacant look in his eyes. After a 20 minute massage, he was worn out and ready for sleep. I tried to put his pajama top back on but he did not want it. I stayed in the same position all night with my arm around him, afraid if I moved, he would wake up. I tried to keep the blanket and sheet on him because I was afraid he would be cold without a shirt, but everytime I would put them on, he would begin kicking with both feet to get them off. He did wake up around 4:30 in the morning, whined a little, found his bottle, drank it and went right back to sleep. I was exhausted and my body ached, but we made it through the first night! Before I fell asleep, Paul and I talked about how scared and confused he must be. We prayed tomorrow would be better.

THE GOOD (again)
This morning, when Edison woke up, I had just gotten out of the shower. I walked in the room and he looked at me and said "Ma-ma?" and then he popped his lips together with a kiss. I walked over to him and he held his arms up to me and when I bent down, he gave me a kiss!! I looked at Paul and said, "Did you hear that? Did you see what he did?" I think I was in shock but Paul confirmed what I knew Edison had just done. He and I have had a pretty good day except for ...

THE UGLY
As I said before, he "growls" at us when he is unhappy and doesn't like what we are doing. He especially likes to growl when we tell him "No". I guess he is trying to figure out our boundaries. When he doesn't like what we have told him, he likes to smack us in the face and he can get to your face quicker than you can imagine and he smacks pretty hard. Coming back from the Embassy today, he smacked me in the face and I held his hands and said, "No!" so then he bent his head and tried to bite my arm. I knew exactly what he was getting ready to do and stopped him. I said no again and he looked at me like he was surrendering. I still was not too happy about him smacking and then trying to bite me, so I sent him to the back seat with his dad. He has smacked Paul several times today too. Paul at first thought it was cute, but tonight, right before I came down here, he got pretty firm with his "No" and Edison looked like he was taking him pretty serious.

ANOTHER GOOD
Paul and Edison are doing really well together. Paul has kissed all over him and Edison has kissed back. He likes to be held by Paul and he loves it that Paul always has snacks! I had forgotten how sweet Paul was with little babies and it has been fun to see him interact with his son. Edison likes to play ball and has a pretty good arm. He is also good at throwing books, bottles, Cheerios, keys, etc.

Now for THE BAD and THE UGLY (together)
This time I am referring to Hurricane Ike. We are very concerned about his path and the fact that Ike is headed for Houston at the same time we are. Our travel agent said she is concerned about it too. Pretty much every flight from Guatemala goes through Houston. We would love to leave tomorrow but our visa appointment is not until 3:30 in the afternoon and there are no flights leaving Guatemala to the USA that late. We asked Debbie to at least try to get us to the US so we don't get stranded in Guatemala. She said she would try. She is going to keep a close watch on Ike tomorrow and let us know what to do. Please pray that we can get to Houston before Ike makes landfall. We are so anxious to get home and I know the girls want us home as well as the rest of the family. We have the earliest flight out of Guatemala on Friday morning but it still may not be soon enough. We also have to take into consideration the almost 3 hour layover we have to get through Customs and Immigration with Edison. We are not scheduled to depart Houston until after lunchtime. We really don´t care which city we land to come through Immigration we just want to be on American soil - let me clarify - North American soil, instead of Central American soil.

I better go back upstairs to make sure Edison is calm. I may have to become a masseuse again tonight. I wish I could get a massage...

So there you have it, the good, the bad and the ugly. Luckily, as in the movie, the Good overshadows the Bad and the Ugly! Buenos Noches everyone. For you Spanglish speakers, that would mean, Good-o Night-o!

Will try to find a way to add pics tomorrow!!!

We are in Guatemala and have Edison!!!

So much happened on Monday that there is no way I can type everything. To make a long story short, our pink slip was e-mailed to the wrong person and we didn't find out about it until monday at 8:30 in the morning! We spent all day getting the crisp money we needed, making flight arrangements and hotel reservations. Thank goodness for our travel agent, Debbie Sebastian at Carlson-Wagonlit - she was truly a lifesaver. I am going to go ahead and thank some of the people who made it all possible for us not to have to reschedule. My Aunt Joyce (mom called her and asked her to stop by the house and calm me down - you would have thought I had gone into pre-term labor the way Paul and I panicked at first. Joyce calmed me down, worked on my laundry and we went to get a bite to eat. Paul's mom made a trip to wal-mart for things we needed, my sister (Lea Ann sent an umbrella stroller to us to use because I had never gotten around to buying one and I didn{t want to take eddy's good one.) Lea Ann also offered to come to the house after she got off work but I had things under control by that time. My mom first told me to calm down and not to worry about my house, she picked up a prescription I needed and took care of the girls. I am so grateful she offered to come to the house to stay with them - that saved a lot of packing!!!

Fast forward - we left the house at 3:00 a.m. this morning and went to Louisville. Paul made the trip in 1.5 hours (in the rain) - I wasn't scared until we hydroplaned but Paul said he had everything under control. Anyway we made it on time and in one piece. Our flights from Louisville to Houston and Houston to Guatemala City were all wonderful and on time!! As soon as we got through customs, the shuttle to our hotel was waiting so we climbed in with three other adopting couples. Three of us had empty strollers so we all knew we had something in common. One of the families is another A Helping Hand family so that was neat.

We got to our hotel before noon, got everything situated and had time to take a nap since we had only had 2 hours of sleep the night before. We woke up at 2:oo and we were both starving. We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant. It was really good. We went back to the hotel and waited. Around 4:00 the phone rang - Paul answered. It was Anna Maria telling us that Eddy was waiting for us in the lobby. As we were walking out the door - I had a slight panic attack and said, "Paul, when we go down there our lives will forever be changed" He gave me a hug and said, "come on, let's go!"

Edison was sitting in his foster mother's lap and when he saw me he just grinned. I don't even really remember all that happened. I know we chased him around the lobby and that he can run. He loved his Diego backpack - put it on and tromped around. He was so cute. He is such a beautiful child and I cannot believe he is ours! I am truly blessed. Fast forward again because I am paying for internet at 15 minutes at a time. I am 8 minutes into my second session ...

Edison cried when his foster mother left. Oh yeah, the foster mother he has had all along had to have her appendix removed three weeks ago and could not take care of him so he was with another foster mother. She was crying and said she couldn´t believe how attached they had become to each other in 3 weeks. She told me he was "muy intelligente" which means he is very smart. Obviously he belongs in my family! We carried him to the room and he cried non'stop for about 15 minutes. I told him in Spanish to not be afraid and he calmed down. I don{t know if he understood or if he was just worn out ' but he did calm down. We had a wonderful evening together - he laughed, smiled, would growl and say mmmmm when I tried to get him to say Mama. I knew the crying and grief would be good for him and I thought we were doing great. That was until 7:30 tonight. He was exhausted. He cried after we put his pajamas on him, he smacked the bottle out of my hand (oh yeah he still takes 8 - 8ounce bottles each day and one of those is at 1:00 a.m. That is the first thing on our agenda is to reduce the number of bottles and try to get rid of that middle of the night feeding. We will work on that in the next few weeks. Anyway, he smacked me and fought me and kept yelling for his mamamamama but he was not talking about me. He would look at me and just get mad. Paul offered to try and when I handed him over, he through an even bigger fit and reached for me. I finally got him to sleep and he was "snubbing" when I came down here. Times up ' will add more tomorrow.

Depression caused by Gestation Period ...

We received our DNA results early Tuesday morning (like - they were in the fax machine when I got to work). Late afternoon, we received 2nd DNA results for another family. Well - that family received their consulate appointment yesterday (Thursday) and will be in Guatemala on Wednesday to pick up their child. I just knew we would get our appointment and of course, checked my e-mail 1,000 times to make sure I had not missed the message. Just a few minutes ago, I learned that "Pink Slips" are not issued on Fridays because the Guatemalan Embassy closes on Fridays at 11:30 a.m!! So, I have checked my e-mail all day for no reason. My heart is broken because we just knew we would be traveling on Wednesday and have our appointment on Thursday and be home on Saturday! Now, the earliest we can get our pink slip will be Monday at 5:45 p.m. our time and 6 days from then will be Sunday, September 14th (Embassy closed on Sunday) which means appointment will be on Monday, Septembe 15th and that is IF they give us the soonest appointment! I have been so excited all day and now I feel like I have been punched in the stomach.

This paper pregnancy is going to pass the 1 year mark. Today, we are at 11 months, 3 weeks and 4 days or Day 359! Let's look at the gestation cycle of other mammals.

Human baby gestation is approximately 280 days or 9 months -

With my previous pregnancies, I waited longer than:
Black Bear (210 days)
Grizzly Bear (225 days)
Polar Bear (240 days)
Buffalo (270 days)
Deer (201 days)
Elk (240-250 days)
Gorilla (257 days)
Hippopotamus (225-250)
Moose (240-250 days)

This "pregnancy" has surpassed the following:
Otter (270-300 days)
Seal (330 days)
Sea Lion (350 days)
Cow (279-292 days)

Horse (330-342 days)

We are very close to overtaking the following:
Donkey and Zebra at 365 days gestation period

Maybe my new prayer should be:
"Lord, please don't make me wait as long as an elephant!"
How long does an elephant wait for a baby you ask? 645 days!!!

Now Waiting for PINK!

Edison's 2nd DNA results were in the fax tray this morning. The results indicate a positive match. Now - we wait for our PINK slip! As soon as we receive this from the US Embassy in Guatemala, we can buy plane tickets! It is possible we could be in Guatemala at the end of next week, if not, it will definitely the following week!

I'm getting kind of nervous!!!