The next steps...

So, as most of you know we are in the midst of preparing for another trip to Guatemala. We have been working like crazy on house projects to finish prior to leaving. Most recently, we have painted Mateo's nursery and we are going crib shopping on Saturday. Thanks to our friends Greg & Angela Murphy, Megan Sprauer, and Frank Petrik for helping us get this accomplished. We will post pictures as soon as it is complete.

We leave in less than a week on the red-eye next Tuesday night, for the marathon journey. We expect that Filomena will bring Mateo to the hotel about 4PM on Wednesday so we can begin our time with him. We should get to have him until Saturday evening--so there will be many opportunities for pictures and video!

Matt will put me on a plane on Easter Sunday to head back home to work, and then he will board a bus to Quetzaltenango to go to language immersion school. It's a great deal with basically 5 hours of one-on-one instruction, plus planned cultural and social activities. He even plans to spend one week in a village for school where no one speaks English. He should learn alot (and of course, I will miss him immensely!!).

We also heard from our agency that the paperwork to request the DNA test has been processed. This means the DNA test can be scheduled now, and that is the next step in getting our adoption petition through both governments.

Check back soon as I will post pictures upon my return. As always love from all of us, Sarah, Matt & Mateo

We are so lucky that we get a regular update from our lawyer with pictures of Mateo William. These newest pictures arrived today from our agency. Filomena, the foster mom, is holding Mateo (and she clearly has been feeding him tons as he's getting a bit chubby!!) The middle picture features the blanket that our friend Julie Brown made. I slept with that blanket every night for two weeks prior to our last visit so it would smell like me. (Matt's did the same with another Julie Brown original). The shirt he is sporting was a present from "Aunt" Shannon Kelley from our first shopping trip.

We also learned that our dossier was submitted to Guatemala Family Court on Monday (it took this long to be translated). In addition, our attourney is preparing the necessary documentation for the US Embassy (for the DNA test).

We bought airplane tickets for our next trip this week. We fly out on the red eye on April 11th (just before Easter) for a 4 day visit. I'll come home on Easter Sunday and Matt will go to a language school for immersion Spanish lessons in Quetzaltenango (northwest of Guatemala City). I'll return to Guatemala City on May 11th for another visit (over Mother's Day Weekend) and then Matt & I will come home.

So that's the latest in Mateo's journey to our family...keep checking back for the latest & greatest.

Is it real yet??

So it's my turn to reflect on what it was like...most of you know that I was feeling a bit frazzled in the week before we left. I had started a new job just two weeks before and I was working like a million hours. We were overwhelmed with the fact that we had NOTHING for the baby at the point when the agency called us to match--so my good friends Sarah & Shannon stepped up to take me shopping for a couple of outfits--and then Marnie took me on the first serious look at things like cribs and car seats. I must admit, it all felt surreal.

Even the night we were driving to the airport to fly to Guatemala City seemed strange. I had worked all day, we loaded up all the luggage (it took four suitcases for less than 40 hours in the country!!), and headed to Portland. We had a celebration dinner at McCormick & Schmick's in Portland, and then off we went to the airport. We checked in at the Delta counter got our boarding passes, cleared security, sat at the gate, and stared at each other. "Does it feel real yet?" "Nope," we both agreed.

But how real it felt when we were there in Guatemala, holding our new son. He was absolutely perfect in every way. All the hours that we had spent memorizing the first pictures we had seen of him were tossed out, because now we had him in our very own hands--staring up at us with these very big brown eyes.

I think Matt & I were both scared that Mateo would be unsure of us, and maybe even cry at first...but there was none of that. In all the time we spent with him, he cried for three reasons: #1) I'm hungry, #2) There is something wrong with my diaper, and #3) I'm tired. The cure for #1 was easy (he eats 4-5 ounces every 3-4 hours). The cure for #2 was straight forward (although Matt still needs a bit of coaching about how tight to put on a diaper). The cure for #3 was an Eddie Bauer Front Pack (thanks Sarah) and a binky (thanks Marnie). Exactly three minutes in that and he was out like a light.

So you can imagine how our time was...sleep, eat, poop, sleep, pee, eat, sleep, etc...and every minute of it was glorious! The first night, as we were crawling into separate beds, we looked at each other and said, "Yep, now it's real." How blessed are we to have such an awesome experience to carry us through the weeks until we see him again.

We're planning on heading back about Easter time for a visit, and then Matt will probably stay for language school. I'll come home to work and go back a month later for another visit, and maybe, if we're lucky, we could be bringing him home shortly after that.

Keep checking back here...we will post more pictures from our time down there for your viewing pleasure. In the meantime, keep Mateo in your thoughts and prayers. All our love, Sarah, Matt & Mateo.

On Being Three

We flew a red eye down to Guatemala this weekend as a couple, and though just two people boarded the plane to Portland, we came back a family.

We've been watching "Adoption Stories" on Discovery Health these last few months, and the climax of each episode, even if it happens in the middle, is the day the new parents meet their new child. Usually it's the day they take them home. We felt fortunate that Guatemala is one of those countries in which the process is run such that families can take this step long before the actual legal adoption, displacement, and flight to another country. But that didn't make us any less uncertain as we boarded the plane. The exhilaration and aprehension of those "adoption stories" meetings, and agency caveats on the possibility that we could be met by our child as any stranger might be, merged with the realization that in a few hours someone we'd never met would come to our hotel and trust into our care for two days a child they'd fostered with love.

If you're one of the friends to whose children we have read the kids' adoption story "Over the Moon", then you'll know what I mean when we say we were like the parents in that book:
"...until finally they arrived and went to a hotel to unpack. Then they hurried and scurried about, getting ready for their new baby. 'Soon, soon. Our baby will be here soon,' they told each other as they waited." In fact, less that three hours after our plane hit the tarmac we had Mateo William in our arms. In the meantime we unpacked half a baggage allowance worth of clothes, bottles, toys and books into our room's dressers and shelves, and the hotel brought us a crib and a thermos of boiled water for formula. I was coming back into the hotel from a visit to the ATM when the desk staff told me guests were in the atrium(early!) Sitting there were a teenage boy and a woman with a baby in her arms. It took a moment for them to realize I was who they were waiting for, and for me to realize that neither of them was the interpreter the agency had arranged for. Then the woman said "William" and held up the child whose photo we'd been looking at these last three weeks. I looked away, stammering "uh...ehm...mi esposa" and pointing to our hotel room, reluctant to hog for myself this first full gaze at our son.

We were back in a minute, and as we held him in turn, we got to know Mateo and his foster family. Filomena is 41 and she and her husband have four young adult and teen children. Her oldest is married, and she helps Filomena with Mateo in the mornings. Her son Harrold, just finishing school, escorted her to the hotel. Elementary Spanish got us throught the initial introductions until Sonia, the friend of the couple who run "Journeys of the Heart", and our interpreter, showed up.

We got a wonderful sense for Filomena, and her affection for Mateo was plain. Sonia also considered her to be among the best foster mothers. In fact, Filomena had fostered 15 adoptive children before Mateo, the longest for 1 year, and talked about how emotional it can be to say goodbye to them. She said she begins praying with and for each child, as soon as she gets them, that they will get a good and loving home. Mateo, born at 11:20 pm, was in her care the very next morning. So the transitions he's had to deal with have been less difficult than for other children.

We spent time asking about his routine: sleep, feedings, how she soothes him - everything we could think of. He actually already sleeps 8pm - 1am, then till 5am, and finally till 8am. (We'd imagined a lot more awakenings). We got some of his formula, ordered more from a pharmacy (delivered by a motorcycle courier) and were left a bottle with formula and his accostomed nipple (from our copious selection we were able to find some that matched well!) We showed Filomena and her son a soft board book we'd prepared with pictures of his new extended family and friends, and which we would leave with him. We also left her with a token gift of thanks and a card in Spanish for her, and one to our son explaining that we'd call him Mateo William as he joins our family, since by then our match seemed meant to be, and Mateo/Matthew means 'gift of God' (you knew that, right? I mean, just look at me...) We were lucky to get good translations. Sarah wrote the text, then handed me the babel fish web translation. I cleaned it up some, but realized it was left with a lot of literally-translated idioms completely cleansed of their meaning. Fortunately the wife of a college buddy was able to translate for us at the last minute. Being from Guatemala herself, she was able to put our meaning and emotions into not just the correct language, but the correct cultural context as well.

We'd expected papers from the lawyer decribing our right to be in custody of Mateo, so we could go out together and justify the presence of this baby if stopped for some reason (there are members of official-dom who have a distinct dislike of foreign adoption - or even adoption in general.) But the request had been misunderstood and all we got was Filomena's papers, so we would have to stay at the hotel - but they had a restaurant, and we liked the idea of a safe, static and controlled environment, for him and for us, so we decided 2 days of cabin fever would be just fine. Then Sonia, Filomena, and her son left.

And all of a sudden we were Three.

All for now... (what, did you think we'd give it all away at once?) Check back soon for Sarah's installment on what it was like to suddenly be parents.....

Look what showed up today...

Matt called me at work today and said, "You have to look at your email right now..." So I opened my email and saw the most wonderful sight. A beautiful baby with dark brown hair and the biggest dark brown eyes in the entire world. Meet our son, the future Mateo William Miller, an angel from heaven, who we will go to see for the first time in person in about 10 days.

We leave for Guatemala on the red-eye flight on Friday, February 17th (we go from PDX to Atlanta then to Guatemala City). We'll arrive about noon on Saturday and then get to spend just over 48 hours in Guatemala visiting our son. I imagine taking as many pictures and video as humanly possible in 48 hours!!

In addition to the pictures we take on our visit, we should get updates on a fairly regulary basis from our lawyer with new pictures...so check back often for the latest and greatest.