So much craziness....

Well, I've been working overtime dealing with the kids health issues, so I haven't posted. We started off the early part of last week with Max's severe eye infection. Not sure what caused it, but it wasn't pink eye or any of the "normal" things. So.... four of us had to hold him down and give him two shots, then he had to take an oral antibiotic, and STILL he almost ended up hospitalized for IV antibiotics. Not a fun situation, but at least the infection cleared up and he's great now.

After dealing with that, I was ready for a quiet weekend. Thursday, Lili and I went to visit my coworkers. She was a good girl and seemed to enjoy herself, although she did have a blow-out before we came home (thank GOD for baby wipes!) We had a birthday party to go to at Chuck E Cheese that night, but since Moe was working crazy hours, I sent him home with Lili and took Max by myself. Lili had a couple of more poopy diapers, but was otherwise fine. Friday morning, the same thing with just a low-grade fever added. Nothing major, especially considering I was also feeling a bit off. We figured it was just a bug going around. She was relatively happy, ate and drank normal, and played and slept normal. That night, Moe put her to bed at 9:00, got her up when she was crying at 10:30 (when she's sick, she doesn't like to sleep alone!), and had her downstairs with him and Max. The boys were watching a movie (until Max fell asleep), I was sleeping on the couch since I wasn't feeling well, and Moses was on the chair with Lili sleeping. A little after midnight, she woke up having a febrile seizure. By the time the ambulance got us to the hospital, her fever was 105.1..... very scary! I still can't get the mental image of her seizing out of my mind.

The hospital did lots of tests to determine why she had such a high fever, but everything came back normal. It appeared to be a virus. They gave her some IV antibiotics, just to be safe, and then sent us home at 4am. I took her to the doctor that morning to get rechecked, and they told me there is a 50% chance that she'll have seizures again anytime her fever spikes. I do not look forward to that... of course... especially considering she was fine all day and then all of a sudden her fever spiked! I've finally started to sleep again, although we did put her baby monitor back in her room so that we can hear her if she starts to have another seizure.

We went to Lili's physical therapy on Monday... she did well, but was really worn out afterwards. We were supposed to go see a Pediatric Neurologist on Tuesday to have a neurological exam for Lili, but they had to cancel the appointment due to some emergencies. So.... we'll go see them in early February.

All of these issues of course make us grateful that our kids are healthy and don't have any life-threatening illnesses, but it still scares us and causes a lot of worry. Part of the job of being a parent, I know, but scary nonetheless.

Gotta run... Princess Lili is getting into everything!!

Saturday Night

I'm feeling a bit under the weather, but wanted to post a message quickly before I head off to bed. We've had a quiet week.... other than off and on bouts of illness, we've pretty much just had quiet time at home. Moses and I were able to take down the majority of the Christmas decorations today, although we still have to dismantle the kids' trees and the outside decorations tomorrow while it's still "warm" (in the 50s!) Love having the house all festive for the holidays, but it's really nice to get everything taken down, reboxed and put away in the storage room. It will certainly make life with Lili a bit easier since I won't have to keep telling her to stay away from the trees!

Yesterday's mail brought good news for us.... our pediatrician approved the referral to the Physical Therapist that we took Lili to visit a couple of weeks ago. We'll be going once a week for a few months to get her muscles more "experienced" and to learn some of the techniques that we can use to get her moving. I was a bit worried that the insurance would require that we go through the state early intervention program, but was excited to see that the insurance company and our pediatrician agree that this should be handled through the insurance referral program. I really liked the owner of the pediatric therapy clinic that we went to, so I'm glad to know that we'll be able to continue working with her.

OK... gonna head off to bed. Hope everyone's enjoying the start of the new year and that all of the kids are READY to go back to school!!!!

New Year's Eve

Well, it's almost 10pm here and I just put Lili to bed... no way she could hold out until midnight. I'll actually be surprised if Max makes it to midnight, but we'll see! He's so excited about this holiday that he doesn't understand.... he actually can't seem to get the name right. He's called it Thanksgiving Eve as well as other things tonight. He had a special cocktail earlier tonight, with chocolate candy as an appetizer before dinner! He may not know what holiday this is, but I think he's really loving it! Weather here is not very good, so we decided to stay put this evening and just hang out at home eating, drinking and watching movies. Unfortunately, we can't seem to agree what movies to watch.... so far it was Lion King, then a little television, and now Roger Rabbit is on tv. This is actually better than Power Rangers (his original request) or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Maybe before the night's over Moe and I will get to watch something a little more adult. If not, we're enjoying just hanging out with the kids and reading books about Disney in preparation for our trip in February! Max is SOOOO excited.... as are we! Can't wait!

We really hope each of you have a wonderful new year and are able to enjoy time with family and friends during the remainder of the holiday. We look forward to seeing you and staying in touch over the new year!!!

Lots accomplished....

My parents were in town the last few days.... and, as usual, we got LOTS accomplished. My dad loves to stay busy doing projects, so he took care of installing a baby gate at the top of the stairs among other things. My mom and I also stayed busy.... my OCD has been pretty bad lately, so my organizing has been a bit insane. My mom and I sorted the majority of my kitchen cabinets, my pantry, all of the kids toys.... Moses and I contined today and sorted through the playroom and all of the movies. We've downsized a lot and are planning to participate in the big garage sale up at my parents in Wisconsin in the spring. Garage sales here don't do so well, but up there a neighborhood garage sale brings TONS of people. So, we've been slowly shipping stuff up to my parents house over the last several trips to store in their basement until the sale. We're going to have to go up there several days early just to organize and price everything, but hopefully we'll make some good money (in addition to cleaning up some of the clutter in the house!)

The snow seems to have stopped, although it's still pretty cold. I ran to the store tonight (my couple of items turned into an entire cart!)..... tomorrow the boys will go out to run around a bit, but I think Lili and I will stay home all day! Nice quiet relaxing day!

One quick update on Lili.... her recent visit to a physical therapist for evaluation has already had an impact. She's been a bit delayed on rolling over, getting up from laying down, and attempting to pull herself to standing position. Until we get a report and authorization from our doctor for additional treatment, the therapist gave me some exercises to try with Lili..... less than a week and she's already making HUGE progress. She's rolling over from back to front, almost rolling from front to back, attempting to pull herself up and wanting to stand NON-STOP! Each time she approaches us, we reach out to pick her up and she grabs our hands to pull herself into a standing position! Amazing progress, but she's already growing up so fast!!!

Please, leave us messages by choosing "COMMENTS" at the end of the post. We'd love to hear from everyone! "Blog" with you soon!

Bad Blogger!!!

Wow, have I been bad about keeping this site updated! I just realized that I haven't posted in 2 months, so here I am! Things are going well, we've enjoyed our first Christmas together as a family of four and have survived the early stages of winter. Lili has experienced her first snow days (she's so cute in her snow suit, but she really doesn't know what to do!)

Moses is working like crazy, Max goes to pre-K two days a week and is home with Lili and I the other three days a week. We spend some days running errands or going for playdates or coffee with friends, but many of our days are spent hanging out at home... either just relaxing in our pajamas, or getting things done around the house that I don't normally have time to do when I'm working!

We've had lots of activities since I last posted. We celebrated Max and Moses' birthdays.... we also went to Evansville, IN to visit our friends Misty, Chris, Madisyn & Lyza Melvin. Lyza is exactly one month older than Lili and we were blessed to meet the Melvins in Guatemala when we were both visiting the girls for our first time. We've stayed in touch, become great friends, and were able to go to Evansville for Lyza's first birthday weekend! It was so wonderful getting to visit with them again, and especially to see our girls HOME TOGETHER!!!

Our first Halloween was great.... Power Ranger Max and Little Duck Lili were adorable. The weather was kind of cold, but Aunt Shelly (one of Lili's godmothers) joined us for a little trick-or-treating. Myself, Shelly and Lili headed home early while Daddy and Max continued on in search of more candy. After a quick visit with Grandma Arenas and our traditional McDonald's dinner, we headed home.

November was somewhat quiet... Moses and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. He had his brother Mike come over to watch the kids while he took me to a very nice dinner in Geneva. We had a great time at dinner, stopped for coffee afterwards, and then did a little Christmas shopping before heading home. In addition, some of Moe's coworkers threw a surprise baby shower for Lili and I.... they are such wonderful people and we are so appreciative of their love and support. Everything else in November was just normal daily routine, as well as Doctor appointments, visits with friends, trips to the mall and library, etc.

December brought us to Lili's first birthday. Her actual birthday was on 12/5/06. It snowed a lot that morning, so Max, Lili and I went outside to snowblow the driveway and play in the snow. Lili was fascinated by the snowblower, but otherwise just sat and took it all in. I have some great pictures of her sitting outside just looking around.... I'll try to remember to post one. That night, we went for Chinese food at the same restaurant where we went for Max's first birthday.... very sweet. That weekend, we had a small gathering for Lili's birthday just to have dinner and cake. Considering how many parties and events we've had in Lili's honor (her auction, her shower, her baptism, etc), we wanted to keep her birthday more simple. We had a great time relaxing with family.... and Lili LOVED her cake! She had a small smash cake and dug into it like no child I've ever seen! By the time we took it away from her, more than half of it was gone!!! When I took her to the bathtub to clean her off, I even found icing from the cake inside of her diaper!!!!

We had another night out without the kids in December for Moses' work Christmas party, which was lots of fun. Also, drove to Springfield, IL to get Lili's birth certificate from the State of Illinois since our final adoption decree and name change came in from the attorney. The plan for an overnight stay in Springfield changed when we discovered at 9am that we were finished getting our paperwork and had nothing else to do for the rest of the day! Instead, we turned around and drove home 3 hours, then went to a get together thrown by Moses' boss that evening.

Christmas Eve morning, Max went to work with Moses. I went to visit for a couple of hours with Lili and we all shared goodies with his staff. That evening, we went to Moses' family get-together at his Mom & Dad's. This year was kind of rough.... Lili didn't want to sleep because of the commotion.... and Max (at 5 years old) had a hard time understanding why he had to wait until midnight to open his presents! We made it through the evening, then headed home and finished our last minute Christmas "stuff" before heading to bed.

Got up with the kids on Christmas morning to open gifts.... Lili wasn't very interested in the gift wrap (unless she was eating it!) She loved any toys, etc that made noise and got really angry and screamed loudly when we would take something away from her to remove it from a box or packaging. Max, on the other hand, was in seventh heaven! He loved EVERYTHING that he got and had such fun opening his presents, helping Lili with her presents, and helping us with our presents. He surprised us with his reaction to a couple of his gifts... especially his trip to Disney from Santa.... he didn't seem very interested. Probably because there was no package to unwrap?? Hopefully by the time we go in February, he'll be more excited!

So, day after Christmas, my parents came in town from Wisconsin and will stay until Saturday. We opened our gifts last night with them, and then today my mom helped me to sort through more toys, etc so that we can make room for all of the new stuff that Max got this year!!!!

New Year's Eve will probably be low-key, but that's ok with us. We really prefer just hanging out together as a family and enjoying all four of us being together this year! We hope each of you have a wonderful holiday season, and I promise to try to do better in the New Year about updating this site!!!!

Time flies!!!!

We've been so busy that it's hard to remember where I last left off... between the craziness of life and the fact that our computer was out of commission for 2+ weeks, I'm just now getting around to posting.

Things have been great with Lili home! We truly can't remember what it was like before she was here. She's adjusted very well, and fits right into our family. She's had many firsts with us... first trip to the zoo, first trip to Chicago (we went to court for her readoption), her baptism, her first family party (her baptism and Max's 5th birthday), first visits with many friends and family, first trip to a festival, etc., etc. She's really handled everything beautifully and has had no trouble adjusting to our lifestyle. Such a sweet and happy girl - she has captured the heart of everyone she meets!

Max is doing well, also, although he has had a few adjustment issues. Nothing directed toward Lili, rather it's all directed toward Mommy. He's had a lot of change recently.... Lili coming home, me staying home with the kids full-time, his school time reduced to 2 days a week, etc. He's slowly adjusting to everything and improving his attitude toward me.

His birthday is tomorrow, and it is such fun this year to see his excitement! He had his family party last Saturday night.... what a blast he had! His cousins and close family friends' children were here, and they had a ball playing, breaking the pinata, eating cake and opening presents. Today, after school, we are picking up Max and his best friend Tyler at school and going to Enchanted Castle. He went there for the first time a couple of weeks ago for his cousin's birthday party and had a BLAST!!!!! He still hasn't stopped talking about how much fun he had, so we decided instead of doing a party for his friends, we would splurge and take him and one special friend to the Castle. He is really looking forward to it, and was actually excited to get up this morning! Before we went to school, we stopped at the store to get a treat for him to share with his friends.... he picked Scooby Doo popsicles! Such a great thing for the kids to have even more excitement and another chance to celebrate and sing happy birthday! Tomorrow, on his actual birthday, we will do our normal family day. Moses will take the day off work, and we will likely give Max the choice of what we do. I can't wait to see what he decides to do!!!

Saturday night we're having Moe's coworkers over for the long-awaited bonfire. We discussed doing this earlier in the year, but it hadn't happened with all of the chaos of Lili's adoption. So, since Moe's birthday is Sunday, we thought it was a good time to open the door to his coworkers, let them come and visit, and have a campfire and some drinks (and smores!!!) Should be fun!

OK, Princess Lili is fussing... not wanting to take her nap. Gotta run! Please post comments and let us know who's out there reading our blog! We'd love to hear from everyone!!!

Settling in at home....

Things are finally starting to settle down at least a little bit here at the Arenas house, so I have to get in a quick update. I'll do a quick rundown of the events that have transpired...

8/31 @ 1pm, we left Antigua for the last time to head to Guatemala City
8/31 @ 2pm, we arrived at the Grand Tikal Futura and got Lili's final paperwork, including her Immigration documents and Passport!!
8/31 @ 5:30pm, Moses, Max and Lili left with Angel (Lili's foster father) to go say a final goodbye to Ligia (Lili's foster mother) who had started a new job and could not leave work. I headed to the airport and wrestled the baggage and stood in line to checkin.
8/31 @ 6:45pm, everyone FINALLY was at the airport; said our final goodbyes and (through our tears) headed to our gate to board our plane
8/31 @ 9:00pm, the flight finally boarded
9/1 @ 2am, we landed in Chicago after a rather uneventful (but uncomfortable) flight
9/1 @ 3am, we passed through Immigration, collected our baggage, made it through Customs, and met our family and friends who were brave enough to greet us!!
9/1 @ 5am, got home and showed Lili the kitchen and then her room (she was FASCINATED by the kitchen countertops and by the DOGS!)
9/1 @ 9:30am, Lili was up and not doing so well... fevers and a cough all day
9/1 @ 10pm, Krista & Lili end up at the Emergency Room because Lili wouldn't eat or drink all day
9/2 @ 12:30am, we returned home and had Lili (with viral bronchiolitis) sleeping in our room
9/2 - 9/4 UMMMMM, can't remember much of anything.... I think we visited some family/friends, maybe got an hour or two of sleep, held Lili pretty much non-stop and worried about why she wasn't any better! Grandma & Grandpa Parollina came to town, the Emergency Restoration company came to work on cleanup of the basement from the flood (our basement is finished, so this was NOT GOOD!) and we FINALLY had a chance (with Grandma's help) to get the baby stuff out of the storage room
9/4 - took Lili to the doctor and discovered she had a double ear infection - started antibiotics
9/5 - back to the doctor for a recheck (looking better) and her first "real" checkup
9/6 - back to the lab for bloodwork (she had to fast, poor thing!)

While dealing with her health issues, it was so sad to see her feeling miserable and crying all the time. I don't think people really believed us, but she is SUCH a happy child and never really cries or fusses, so this was ESPECIALLY difficult for us. Now that we're past all of this illness, she's back to her normal self. She's adjusted beautifully, and I can't remember what it was like before she was here. She's in love with all of us, including the dogs. She's learning to do new things every day (she plays peekaboo, waves and will blink or squint her eyes to copy me when I do it to her). She's eating EVERYTHING!!! Thank goodness we got our doctor's blessing to use a minimal amount of baby food and really go straight to table food... she is an eater! Today, she had oatmeal, chicken, green beans, macaroni & cheese and peaches. And, of course, her formula! It's SUCH fun watching her grow and fall into a routine here at home. She's had the chance to meet many of our family and friends, although there are still lots more for her to meet. We visited Daddy at work (both of his offices, two different days this week). She was actually a little bit "shy" at one point and nestled her face into our shoulder when someone new would approach... that was a first. She's actually so laid back and easygoing that she'll go to anyone that wants to hold her.

So.... I'd better get going. We had a rough night sleeping last night and today, and I'm anticipating that we'll be up tonight again with her. Oh, well, another thing that I wouldn't trade for the world!!!! I'm SO glad she's home!!!!!!!!!

Our last full day in Guatemala 8/30/07

We're spending our last full day in Antigua packing, doing laundry, and some final shopping. We went this morning to the Park to meet one last time with our local friends (Ligda, Maira, and Clara). Then, we went to a cathedral and museum to visit the ruins. We came home, then, to get some packing and laundry done and to get Max some lunch. Later, we will head out to the Mercado to finish our shopping. Our friends and neighbors, Joanna and Alejandro, are going to shop with us, then we'll all go to dinner together.

I've really had to watch what I'm eating, as my stomach has been really messed up for the last 36 hours. I'm taking the prescription medication that I'd gotten from my doctor before I left the US, but thus far I'm still not 100%. Hopefully, I'll be better by the time we head home... nothing worse than travelling when you're sick!

Moe started with a touch of an upset stomach this morning, too... but he seems to be doing better. Max and Lili are both doing great, although I think Max is ready to get home to his own space and toys. We are sad to be leaving Guatemala, as we've really enjoyed all of the time that we've spent here exploring. However, we are SO excited to get home to all of our family and friends and to get back to some sort of normal life.

So, if I can't check in for the next couple of days, please pray for safe travels for our family. Calm children wouldn't be a bad thing to pray for, as well... our first time travelling with two children, plus Lili's first flight experience, could make this a very difficult journey. We'll survive, though!

Hope everyone is doing well, and we will talk with everyone soon!

Love,
Krista (and Moe and Max and Lili)

Monday 8/27/07

So... we are done with all of the paperwork, appointments, waiting games, and bureaucracy. We went this morning to the American Embassy for our VISA interview. It took 2+ hours (spent mostly waiting)... a few minutes spent with the Consular Officers answering a couple of questions, paid our money, showed our passports, signed some forms, and then left. We will be able to pickup Lili's VISA and Passport on Friday before we fly home!!! The paperwork is actually going to be ready by Wednesday, but we're back in Antigua until Friday, so we will just pick it up when we return to Guatemala City.

The next few days will be spent just hanging out, exploring Antigua, drinking good coffee, shopping for local souvenirs and bonding as a family. Things are already going better than I expected.... Max adores Lili, and she's very intrigued by him. That said, she is a little spitfire and doesn't take any shit from him. She'll pull his hair and try to take things out of his hands if she wants them. Right now, she's hanging out with Daddy and fussing because he's trying to take his magazine away from her.... she's tearing it to shreds, but when he takes it she cries... so, of course, Moses will not take it from her! She's already got him right where she wants him!

I'm SO thrilled that our family is together forever! We had lunch yesterday with our foster family at a local Italian restaurant, it was a bit awkward (the foster mother and father are now divorced), but it was nice that they were able to spend some extra time with Lili. After lunch, our foster dad took us to Guatemala City to drop us off at the hotel. He plans to be at the airport on Friday to see us off, but we're not sure if we'll be able to see our foster mom again because she's just started a new job and will be working long hours.

Speaking of our return flight, for those of you who are interested, we will be arriving into O'Hare airport on Saturday 9/1 at 1:50a.m. We are flying on TACA Airlines flight #588. Please keep in mind that although our flight is scheduled to arrive at 1:50am, we will have to go through Immigration and Customs.... and since this will be Lili's first time in the US, our Immigration visit may take longer than normal. For anyone who can't make it to the airport, please get in touch with us after we're settled in and we'd love to make plans for everyone to see Lili.

OK... Princess is crying and calling my name. Gotta run!!!

Take care!!!

Love,
The Arenas Family
Moses, Krista, Max and Lili

We've got PINK!!!!!!!!

Yesterday was a terrible day here in Antigua... Lili had a very difficult day, crying, not sleeping, cranky.... not sure what was wrong with her, but it was rough. Add to that the fact that we were hoping for news from our Agency and we heard nothing. Thank God this morning brought good news.... our PINK slip was issued from the US Embassy and we have an appointment scheduled on Monday 8/27 at 8am to apply for Lili's visa to enter the US!!!!!!!!!

I got a call shortly after 9am saying that I had to have Lili in Guatemala City at 11am for her final Doctor's visit for the Embassy. We made a mad dash with our friendly driver, Cesar, got a few pictures taken for her visa at a photo lab, and then waited with 4 foster moms and the babies under their care to see the doctor. It was actually quite sad talking with them.... while I was beaming from ear to ear, so excited that our journey is ready to take us back home with Lili, they were all in tears because they are preparing to say goodbye to these babies that they have raised and loved since birth. It gave me time to think of everything that these women sacrifice so that our babies have what they need to flourish in their early days. I told them that I consider them to be angels in the lives of our children, and that our children's lives are blessed because they had these mothers caring for them until they were ready to go home. It was very sad, but it was also a good experience.... it gave me a chance to really see how much these women care, and how grateful we need to be for the chance to have our children loved by them.

So, after our Doctor's visit (Lili passed with flying colors), we came home and went to el Mercado with our friends Sara and Coco. What an experience.... we went way into the depths of the market, to the produce stands, the flower stands, the meat stands.... very interesting! We went to the artisan's market and walked around as well. Finally, because both of us were out of cash, we went our separate ways and Lili and I came home. I gave her dinner, made and ate my dinner, and then (thank God) she went right to bed tonight!

Once I'm done with this post, I will likely go to bed myself. Tomorrow, we may head to the pool at the Hotel Antigua with our neighbors Joanna and Alejandro. We'll check in again later and keep everyone updated!!!