Father's Day Party at School

Today Gabriella's school had a Root Beer Float Party to celebrate Father's Day. Ken accompanied Gabriella and I tagged along for the photo opportunities!

Gabriella created this beautiful masterpiece for Ken:

The picture of her is precious! The teacher said they tried to get one of her smiling, but she didn't want to smile.:

Gabriella LOVED the root beer floats!:

Say "ahhh"!:

Some for Gabby,...:

...some for dada,...:

...and some for mama!"

Article Following Yesterday's Guatemala 900 Demonstrations

Following is a link to a "The Washington Post" article triggered by yesterday's demonstrations: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/17/AR2009061703641.html

Visiting the Children's Museum with Ava and Aunt Kathy

Today we visited the Children's Museum in Easton with self-proclaimed "sister" Ava and Aunt Kathy and had a great time! We have family membership to the Museum and enjoy visiting. It was a rainy, dreary, cool day, so being that it was not an outdoor weather kind of day, it was a great way to release some toddler energy!

Gabriella, Aunt Kathy, and Ava getting ready to go:

We had stopped and had lunch at Papa Gino's and went to Home Depot before the Children's Museum. Gabriella and Ava had a great time riding around Home Depot in the car buggy.

Checking out the "Pirate's Den" at the Children's Museum:

Putting on "make-up!:"

Ava had a blast with the make-up. She covered her face with it! Gabriella only put a couple lines on her face and did not want Aunt Kathy or I to put any on her. Both Gabriella and Ava, though, loved putting make-up on Aunt Kathy and covering my face with the make-up! Luckily we didn't get any photos of that!

Gabriella carried this doll around the Museum for quite a while. She would sit it in various places around the Museum, sit next to it, then pick it up and find a new place to seat it!:

Then, she decided to lay the doll down for "night night" and decided to try take a little nap herself! Gabriella is used to a significant (2+ hours) nap each day, but only took a power nap during the ride from Home Depot to the Museum.

Rolling golf balls down the ball chute:

Playing in the Museum kitchen:

On the way home we passed a garden store that had lots of ducks, roosters, etc. in its yard. I had the brilliant idea to stop to show the girls! They enjoyed it while they were behind the fence, that is until...

...a rooster snuck up behind them. As the rooster walked closer to them, both girls lunged toward Kathy for Kathy to pick them up. They clung on to her and were petrified. It sounds horrible, but I haven't laughed as hard as I did at that moment. It was priceless.

We went back to Aunt Kathy's to play a bit more with Ava. Then we came home, had dinner, and Gabriella was sound asleep by 6:30 PM! She is not used to such an active day with no naps.

Feliz Día de Los Padres

Today is Father's Day in Guatemala. Happy Father's Day to Daniel who was such an amazing father figure to Gabriella for the first 13 months of her life.

2009 Summer Portraits

These photos were taken today. The beautiful dress was a gift from Aunt Danie. Gabriella was camera shy, but we managed to get a few cute shots!

Say "Cheese!"

This past Sunday, Gabriella said "Cheese" for the first time! I was trying to take a picture of her and I said, "Say Cheese". She said "Cheese" and smiled and this was the picture that I got!It was great! So now, when she sees the camera she says, "Cheese" even if she just touches the camera and nobody is holding it or taking a picture. I love it. She has a rather pensive and serious personality, so saying cheeses makes her more silly and her photos are so much more animated. I took these pictures today at the playground at my grandfather's apartment and thought they were so cute. She is such a blast.

Guatemala 900 Vigil in Providence, RI on Wednesday, 6/17

On December 31, 2007 adoptions as we knew them in Guatemala ceased. There were 5000 in-process adoptions at the time that were “grandfathered” to finish under the laws in which they began. Gabriella's adoption was one of these 5000 cases. The Guatemalan government promised to process all of these grandfathered cases in a timely and reasonable manner, but there are still approximately 900 children still waiting to come home. The Guatemala 900 campaign was launched to bring attention to these 900 children stuck in limbo and to demand that the United States and Guatemalan governments work together to complete these remaining grandfathered cases and bring these 900 children home. You can read more about the campaign at: http://guatemala900.org/wp/.

On Wednesday, June 17th, there will be a series of events held to raise awareness for the campaign. The main events will be held in Washington, D.C. but additional vigils will be held concurrently outside of various Guatemalan Consulates across the country. There will be a candlelight vigil held outside the Guatemalan Embassy in Providence, Rhode Island at 5pm. I am hoping to be there. If you would like to show your support as well, the Guatemalan Embassy in Providence is located at 754 Branch Ave.

We need to bring these children home. My hearts go out to the children and their waiting families. I waited 13 months for Gabriella to come home and every minute of those 13 months was painful; I can only imagine how these families are feeling. Precious time is being stolen from families all because of political nonsense. Enough is enough.

Once these 900 children are home, the next step will hopefully be a demand to reopen Guatemalan adoptions. Children are living in dumps, babies are being abandoned in trash cans and on the streets, orphanages are closing and putting older children out on the streets to survive on their own. It nauseates me to think that if Gabriella was born five months later, she could have been one of these children. It is disgusting, wrong, unforgivable, and breaks my heart. These children need homes and there are thousands of families who want to provide those homes.