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Wow. I´m here in our local internet cafe sending our last entry from Guatemala and someone else asked if I knew english and could I help translate one of his e-mails into Spanish. Actually did it too.
So this IS the last entry form Guatemala. I just picked up Mateo´s passport from the embassy with a visa to enter the US. About noon pacific time tomorrow, we´ll pass through customs in Dallas and he´ll offically become a US citizen, plus his adoption will be recognized by the US Govt. The only thing now standing in our way is the enormous packing job we´ll need tackle before leaving for the airport. It´ll be the longest travel day of Mateo´s life, but fortunately, we don´t think there´ll be a single flight of over 3 hours, so we can stretch our legs on the concourses.
We´re wondering just what the new ´liguid/gel -era´security will be like at the Guatemala City airport. We´re guessing that either it will be as iffy as we saw on our last return - or that authorities here will have gotten the TSA requirements for US-bound flights and be over-enforcing them. Just in case, I´ve printed here the TSA web pages ( in english and spanish ) which point out that infant formula, baby food, gel-filled teethers and essential non-prescription meds (please let us take the baby anbesol and daiper-rash cream!) ARE allowed. Lotsa luck.
The pictures above are our latest, favorite family pic, some great smiles we caught in his stroller, and his latest bath. Sarah was delighted to see his appreciation for duckies. When we get back, we hope to get a picture with the whole collection!

We´re looking forward to seeing you all during the coming weeks! We´ll let Sarah Fronza 873-1173(our local ´visit coordintor´) know when we´ve settled so you´ll be able to know good times to stop by, and we´ll keep all of you out of town-ers up to date about when we´ll be ready to travel for visits. We´ll also be sure to keep up the blog until all of you have met our incredible son. Of course, we´ll see you local Silvertonians this Sunday at mass. We´re certain Mateo will fit right in at the 10:30 at St. Paul´s. We went with him one Sunday to the Cathedral here in Guatemala City. He was perfectly still and quiet until the priest got up to speak. Then he decided the homily must be a dialogue......

-Matt