she smiles!

Forgive the quality...I took a picture of the picture we got in the mail today. Baby Sara smiles! She seems way less intimidating now!

Here is a peek at the big "updates" we get every month. The only thing that ever changes is her height and weight (she's 13 lbs 12 oz and 64 cms for those of you keeping track at home).

The legal staus changes, but we already always know the news before this paper arrives. We imagined something a bit more detailed when we heard we would get monthly updates.

other things we're up to

OK, we have to prove we do think about non-adoption things. So in no real order, some things that have been occupying our brains & time lately:

- Beth has been reading the 5th Harry Potter & agrees with her brother-in-law Sean that things get a lot more interesting & dark after the third one
- Mike has been planning his trip to Costa Rica in the spring, where he'll be helping teach a class for about 12 days...and has got us thinking about spending sabbatical in Costa Rica in a few years
- Beth & her mom & friend Julie girled-out & fixed up the baby room. It's cute. Dark wood floors, white furniture, light green walls, red art. I'll put up a picture.
- Beth & Mike have been enjoying their newly insulated upstairs, which is now only a few degrees colder than downstairs instead of (literally) 20 degrees colder.
- The stairs are still waiting to be refinished. Well, Fred & Ruth did some work on them
- Beth has been learning to play Worms, a dumb game, on the xbox
- Mike & Beth signed up for yoga...which has been going fine for Beth, but Mike isn't having as much fun. Except when the lady plays the Hare Krishna song, which Mike secretly likes
- The Next Great American Band has been shockingly entertaining. Light of Doom! The Clark Brothers! Even the generic country band Sixwire is kind of growing on us.
- Frankie! the dog is missing Fred, who took her on a walk every day.
- Frankie the cat thinks he's hungry.
- Mike is looking handsome with his new haircut.
- Beth has been spending some good long quality time on the bus, now that it's started snowing
- Beth & Mike have been listening to lots & lots of records...Off the Wall....Loretta Lynn...good stuff
- Mike is learning to poach an egg (harder that it sounds), makes a mean Croque Monsieur, and Beth is learning to make crepes (easier than they sound)
- Beth has been taking pictures around the neighborhood, which is changing quickly...and betting her dad that the gas station that got torn down on the corner will NOT be rebuilt as another gas station...we're hoping for a fancy food market

OK, here is one...La Guapa! the dressy clothes store! Where Sara will get her prom dress! ha

More (good) adoption news

I realize that we are sticking to an adoption related theme here. I promise you that we do other things besides obsess over the adoption, like ..... Okay, in reality we spend our time obsessing over the adoption. We've become one of "those people", I suppose.

We have good news: We were "pre-approved" by the US Embassy in Guatemala City yesterday. This means that our case has passed one of its biggest and most throurough reviews and little Sara will be approved for an immigrant visa and passport when the adoption is finalized. The case now enters "PGN" which is the agency in Guatemala that reviews and regulates adoption. This next few steps will take about 60 days, or so, if nothing goes terribly wrong. Also, what we originally thought was a very strict adoption law was not actually passed in Guatemala, so our adoption will happen as long as the US or Guatemalan governmets do not do something drastic over the next few months.

In other news:

Fred and Ruth visited us for Thanksgiving. We had a great dinner with our friends David and Lisa (also friends of Fred and Ruth). I took Fred out fishing on Sunday and Fred caught a nice 8 inch brown trout on the Blue River near Breckenridge. Actually, he sort of snagged the fish, but let's give him credit. He'll never know how hard it is to catch fish in Colorado now. I was skunked, but had a few good looks at my flies.

We'll be back for Christmas. We'll be in Toledo on December 21st and in Grand Rapids by the 25th. Trout club dinner! But, do they have 7-Up Salad on the menu?

We got insulation put into our walls. It turned out that our upstairs walls are not made of brick like we thought, but are framed with shingles on the outside. There was no insulation between the shingles and old plaster walls. It is getting cold, so I hope this helps keep our bedroom warm. Sara's bedroom is well heated ... so, hopefully little Guatemalan girl won't suffer too much by coming to Denver in winter.

--Mike--

thanksgiving

Well, not to get all self righteous on ya'll, but with thanksgiving upon us, we've been reminded of how very much we have to be thankful for. All the stuff we take for granted every day: clean water, enough food, education, shoes, clothes, medical care, closets, beds, tables, electricity. Mikey found this site from some folks in Guatemala who've been doing quite a variety projects to help out in a few villages there. This isn't really the same area that Sara is from, but we're guessing the lifestyle is pretty similar.

http://www.mayanfamilies.org/

You'll notice that there are also plenty of little donations you can make that have a big impact. We're trying to sponsor a kid for school for the year (school itself is free, but the cost of shoes, uniform, books, etc often make attending cost prohibitive).

http://www.mayanfamilies.org/SCHOOL%20AND%20STUDENT%20SPONSORSHIP.htm

Pretty hard to look at all those cute kids & not want to help a bit!

So, that's our thanksgiving thought for the year.