Fame has gone to her head.

Apparently the "Real Life Boo" post went straight to Izzie's head. She now thinks she's a movie star.

New pictures...

No update on the birth certificate, except that the Registrar is out of the office. Wish I had his job. He has better hours than a banker. Oh well.
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We had lunch at the Hotel Antigua today. Isabella decided she wanted to sit on the table. She thinks she's the boss. I have no idea what gave her that idea. Today she is sporting the beautiful dress that Aunt Pepper and Uncle Scott got her.


Here's Volcán de Fuego burping again...

The Real Life "Boo"

We were having supper with our good friends last night at Las Palmas (best Garlic-Lime Chicken in the World), and I realized something about Izzie. She is the spitting image of "Boo" from Monsters Inc. LOL.....

A few more pictures...

Mandie got her hair "done" on Monday. I think it looks awesome.



Fuego, one of the 33 volcanoes here in Guatemala, decided to spew some smoke the other day. We have a great view of it from our hotel terrace. Definitely something we don't see a lot of in Alabama.


We took a trip to "La Bodegona", which is the Antigua version of the Wal-Mart Supercenter. Actually, you could fit "La Bodegona" inside one of the bathrooms at the Supercenter. Not very big...but it has everything we need. As you can see, one of the things we "needed" was a 2-liter Coca-Cola Light. Izzie decided she wanted to carry the Coke. She would cry if we took it out. She just laughed and had a good 'ole time carrying around her Coke. It was the funniest thing.

Izzie's 1st Birthday!!!

No word yet on the birth certificate...so we thought we'd post some pictures from Izzie's birthday party we had on Sunday. We got together with a few friends we've met here and had a great time. We all met at Pollo Campero, which is kind of like the Guatemalan version of Chick-fil-A. Izzie was so much fun! She got the cake all over her face, and she smiled and laughed at every present. She even unwrapped her own presents. We can't wait to get her home so we can have another party with our family and friends.

Enjoy the pictures!!

Good day

Well, I got the call today that Izzie's birth mom went to the village, did everything she was supposed to do, and said everything she was supposed to say. I was told that the mayor should sign off on it today, and hopefully we will have a birth certificate on Monday. I'm praying that is the case. I should hear something on Monday. Tomorrow is Independence Day in Guatemala. There are supposed to be a lot of parades and activities going on tomorrow. We are going to get out early, have breakfast, and watch some. Here they carry a torch across Guatemala, and we actually saw them doing that while we were out earlier. It's really neat. Brandon will also be here tomorrow afternoon. I'm so excited and can't wait. It's going to be so great to see him again. Then Sunday is Izzie's birthday. We're going to have her party at Pollo Campero. It should be a lot of fun. We will be taking lots of pictures, and I will post them as quickly as I can. Be praying that Monday brings great news!!!!

And the verdict is.....

still no birth certificate. But it wasn't a wasted trip. Izzie stayed at my friend Stephanie's apartment while I went to Chinautla. I went to Guatemala City, met up with our facilitator, lawyer, and translator, and we headed out to Chinautla. We went to city hall. The mayor wasn't in, so we met with his adviser. I did find out that our facilitator had not been lying to us, which was nice. The adviser apologized over and over to me. He said that they are being extra careful because they have had 2 fradulent adoption paperwork come through. They received verification from PGN yesterday that our file was valid. Out of all the cases they submitted, he only got 6 verifications back, and ours was one of them. He even showed me the paper with the date. He said that they need to verify with the birth mom, and then they would give us our birth certificate. Our facilitator has contacted the birth mom. She will go to city hall in Chinautla on Friday, so hopefully we will have a birth certificate either Friday or Monday. From there, our file will have to be submitted to the embassy for her visa to leave Guatemala on. I'm figuring this part should take about 2 weeks. We are supposed to contact Mike Rogers' office when we enter the embassy. Hopefully he may be able to help things some. So, that is where we stand now. Hopefully I will have some good news within the next few days. It was good to go and see for myself what was going on. And because I'm getting fussed at badly, here are a few pictures. We should have more after Brandon gets here Saturday.

This is what happens when you play too hard.
Izzie swimming at Hotel Antigua
Daddy is never going to get the remote. Besides, how can he resist this face???
Central Park
I was at the market the other day. I looked up and this was the view. This picture just doesn't do the view justice.

Please pray hard!!!!

I am headed to Chinautla (the village Izzie was born in) with our lawyers, facilitator, and translator in hopes of getting closer to getting a birth certificate. This is a big event because they didn't want me to go before. Yesterday, out of the blue, they called and wanted me to go today. I don't know what the change was, but please pray that today will make a difference in us finally being able to come home. Thank you all so much!!!! I'll post how it goes.

Still no news

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. There hasn't really been anything to post. We still have absolutely NO news as far as our birth certificate goes. We are hoping that maybe after elections are done with on Sunday, that people will get moving and get this thing done. We'll see. Izzie and I have moved into another hotel. We are over here with our friend that moved out of our previous hotel. It's been a lot of fun being over here, except the big bug in the bathroom last night. I called Stephanie up here. We probably talked for an hour trying to figure out how to handle it. I must say, she did a good job at killing it :) In other news, Izzie turns one on Sunday, the 16th. I can't believe it!!! We're going to get her a cake and have her a little party here. Brandon is coming down on the 15th so he can be here for her first birthday. Izzie is just so amazing, and she's going to fit in so well with our family. I can't wait for the kids to meet her. Brandon went to the beach last weekend with the kids, his brother and his family, and his mom and dad. They had a good time, and Brandon took a lot of good pictures. I'll post more as I hear it.