Meeting Our Girl

Dear Friends,

As I speak there is a full scale wrestling match going on in my hotel room. She laughs till the tears run down her cheeks and smiles in a way that makes you feel her face may crack if she smiles any wider. She is already a Daddy's girl I think. I see in his face he is overjoyed! He keeps saying, "I like her..." So far she seems to be all that we imagined her to be.

Our trip was easy. 2 1/2 hours on the plane then 5 minutes to a beautiful hotel. The Marriott is VERY nice. I will try to take a lot of pictures of the hotel for my friends who are adopting from Guatemala. It is a wonderful and BEAUTIFUL country. Everyone has been so polite and kind. The area is very nice and clean. There is a zoo, a McDonald's, Burger King, Chuckie Cheese, an Imax Theatre etc. That's just what we saw on the car ride here.

We met our little Mirna soon after we arrived at the hotel. She came up, hugged us then burst into tears and ran to her foster mother. She expressed every overwhelmed feeling openly that we felt inside our hearts. We had the translator tell her that it was fine to cry and be scared or sad or happy. We let her know that she should only stay if she wanted to. She immediately said that she wanted to stay with us and then buried her head in her foster mother. So precious. This was not upsetting to me but rather a relief. It tells me she can freely express emotion and grief. As well as witnessing how bonded she is with her foster mother. So important.

After she calmed down we went to the hotel room and ordered pizza and cokes. We sat and talked and got to know all about her. The translator and foster mom stayed with us for 2 hours. We watched a DVD we had burned of a tour of our house and lots of family members. You should have seen her face as she saw the playroom at our house. At that point I felt she was too skittish for pictures but it's burned in my mind forever. Pure awe... She LOVED the DVD and especially seeing her sister Kaitlyn.

It turns out we can leave the hotel IF we are with the foster mother. YEAH!! The foster mother wants to hang out as much as we want to. Mirna asked if we could go to the zoo tomorrow. Her foster sister told her about how fun it was when her parents came to visit and she has never been to a zoo. So tomorrow we are off to the Zoo and McDonald's.

The foster mother seems so sweet! Meeting her has been wonderful. She is so patient and affectionate with Mirna. The whole time Mirna was upset she handled it so sweetly and with great compassion. AND she invited us to her church on Friday. She goes to an evangelical church and seemed very excited to hear about ours and the children's programs. Yet another answered prayer!!!

2 hours later we had a different little Mirna in our room. She was all smiles and hugs. We asked her if she wanted to stay. She told the translator and her foster mother that she was ready for them to leave her now. Since then has been pure joy!!! We've eaten fudge that grandma made, tried on 4 or 5 outfits, painted her toenails and dug through every single item in all our suitcases. We have giggled and played and as I sat with her the Spanish came from way back in my brain and started flowing. I lived in Mexico to learn Spanish so I used to be decent. I know I sound silly but I seem to be able to get my point across and we are having full out silly conversations!! What a blessing. Russ was like WHOA ANGEL where did all this come from??? He said my mommy instinct must have kicked in and I just spoke it cause I needed to! :0)

AND if all this weren't enough Mirna has a foster sister who is being adopted by a different family. Her foster sister's adoptive parents just STUMBLED across my blog and new our little Mirna. They e-mailed me all about there visit. WOW WOW WOW! What are the odds?? They just visited their little girl recently and had a wonderful time. While they were here they met Mirna and got to spend some great time with the foster mother. I am so excited. I just wrote them back and can't wait to chat more about our girls. How amazing if we could let the girls visit each other once they are both back. I can't get over it.

Well the wrestling match has ended and Daddy and Mirna are chatting and working on a puzzle. This is the first puzzle she has ever done. The things we take for granted. She is so precious. She just screamed with joy and clapped for herself because she got a piece. Earlier I showed her the drawers for her things and she ever so carefully folded up each item and place them in neat organized piles. If she was unsure she would ask me where it should go. When she saw the gifts for her foster sister and another friend of hers she was so excited. She also asked to give away a couple of her presents to her foster sister. What a heart!!! She has almost nothing and is immediately ready to give things away. We have struck gold my dear friends. Pure gold.

Well I better get busy uploading pictures. There will be a new album shortly.

:0) Angel

PS We asked about the sad Santa pictures. She said he kept taking pictures while she was blinking and she wasn't sad. She was happy. They just took them to fast!! Go figure. Silly worried mommy....