Thinking of all of the wonderful mothers I’ve met this year during my journey to become a mom.  I’m especially keeping the moms whose babies aren’t home yet in my thoughts today.   Also Happy Mother’s Day to my momma!

My sister-in-law, Krista, will be arriving tomorrow afternoon to hang out with Sabrina and me for a week. We are quite excited to see a face from home. We are also hoping to get news of our Embassy date while she is here.

Yesterday was Mother’s Day here in Guatemala. I went into one of the little stores I frequent and received a chocolate rose. It is my first Mother’s Day gift (well my mom left me one but I am saving it to open on Sunday) and I was struck by the fact that the world sees me as a mom even as I struggle to feel ownership of that title.

I spent quite a bit of time thinking about Sabrina’s birth mom yesterday. I hope that she has found some peace with her decision to allow us to adopt Sabrina. What a tremendous gift for this 19 year old to give us. I would like to have some way to honor her on mother’s day but haven’t thought of anything appropriate yet. Some people talk about releasing a balloon. I like that idea but it isn’t very environmentally friendly. Some people light a candle but that doesn’t feel like enough to me. I’ve thought that perhaps I will write her a little note with a current photo of Sabrina each year and keep them together in a box. She said she didn’t want any contact or photos because it would be too hard but I would imagine some day she and Sabrina will meet again. As Sabrina gets older, she could write her own note or color a picture to include if she wanted. It would be something she could share with her birth mom if they do meet again when Sabrina is older. If anyone else has any good ideas, please share them.

Tonight was was Friday night dinner at Cafe Sky. And I ended up with a photo for daddy that isn’t a self-portrait (thank you Sara). This is my mother’s day gift:

I was walking home the other day and admiring the beauty of this town.  I realized I haven’t shared many photos with friends and family so I spent some time today snapping some photos.

The flowers here are amazing.  They grow over the walls around the houses.  Here is a shot looking up at some (I know what they are called but can’t spell it and too lazy to google it – something like bourganvilla).

More pretty flowers growing over a wall.

I talk about the cobblestones a lot.  Here is a shot of one road I wander down – the sidewalk here is good so I go down this road when I am using the stroller.

There are a lot of ruins of old churches and buildings here.  I sadly can’t tell you what most of them are.

If McDonald’s in the US had courtyards like this, I would actually go there once in a while.

And a nice man carried my try to my table for me since I had the stroller.

This little girl was so cute hugging Ronald.

Sabrina tasted her first french fry:

And then wasn’t impressed when mommy slipped her a little piece of bread instead of another french fry.

She cracks me up – she sits in her stroller with her leg propped up on the tray at all times.  Exactly how I would sit in a stroller if someone would push my chickenbus around.

I’ve been tagged by Kristi and I haven’t done a meme in awhile so here goes.

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Okay, 8 random facts/habits.

1. I’m the person who will order the big ice cream sundae and a diet pepsi. I really just like diet soda. Oh and I’m obsessed with ice cream. Seriously, I’m in freaking Guatemala and have 5 things in my freezer. 4 of them are ice cream. And I don’t like too much stuff in my ice cream – those things with swirls and nuts and chunks and chips – enough already. Give me a nice fudge or caramel swirl and leave it at that. Was that one thing or should I separate that out into all 8?

2. I ramble (See above). I can’t just give a simple answer to a simple question because it all just depends. It depends on the situation, my mood, the weather, the barometric pressure, if I’m having a good hair day, etc.

3. I’m a food snob. I love good food. I will plan trips around where I can eat. But being a food snob doesn’t mean I only like frou-frou stuff. A good burger makes me as happy as a wonderful multi-course meal.

4. I’m afraid my dog is going to forget me while I am gone.  Seriously – I spend time worrying about this.
5. Did you know there is a learning curve for driving strollers? Well at least jogging strollers on narrow sidewalks? Yeah, me neither. I keep getting stuck with my wheel up against walls.

6. You know that annoying girl in high school who always thought everyone was her best friend but really no one liked her very much because she was always glomming on to other people? I’m so afraid of being that girl that I have trouble initiating contact with new friends – I don’t want to bug people.

7. I’m a fabulous cook but I can’t bake. You have to follow direction when you bake and I’m not good at following directions.

8. I worry about how to teach my daughter to respectfully question authority without teaching her to question MY authority.

Today was very uneventful but full because of dear Sabrina.   I actually missed her last night while she was sleeping – not enough to wake her but I missed her smile and her giggles.  I know Steve is missing her everyday.  He’s in our new apartment in our new city going to his new job but I doubt that he will truly start living there until we arrive.

A couple of walker photos because that was the only time I had a free hand today to snap any photos.

They all starting to look the same yet?

I also want to thank my friend Kendra.  Kendra saved my bacon a couple of times during the paper chase by taking things to the sec of state for certification.  Well after seeing my post about making baby food because I was running low on fruits, she loaded a bunch up and brought them down on her pick up trip for us.  We weren’t able to get together because her little one wasn’t feeling well but she still made sure the fruit made its way to Antigua.  Thanks my friend!  Sabrina enjoyed her fruit this morning.  Kendra should be returning home today with Braeden I believe.  Welcome home!

As I said, my agency rep says that she told me 10:30 when she called last night. We must have had a bad connection because I repeated 6:30 twice because it seemed so early. But, other than some annoyance and lost sleep, no big deal. We were on our way to Guatemala City. First we went here:

The passport office is in a strip mall. It was relatively painless – amazing that the turn around time to issue a passport was about 40 minutes from entrance to exit but it takes weeks even when expedited in the US. We stood in line. The lawyer gave the man at the window a stack of papers. We stood in another line. Sabrina got her picture and fingerprints taken. We sat down and waited. Then we picked up her passport. I got a copy of it and the lawyer took the original for the visa application at the embassy. Her name is incorrect on the passport which leads me to believe it is incorrect on her new birth certificate – it lists her birth name (first and middle) and then Steve’s last name and then my maiden name. Oh well – we have to have it changed to Sabrina when she comes home anyway. All the names are there and spelled correctly so I guess that is all that matters.

Then we headed to a photo place behind the US Embassy to have photos taken for her visa. They require all jewelry to be removed so we had to take her earrings out. Thankfully she didn’t mind in the least. She was really a trooper all day despite getting up early and missing most of her nap time. After those photos were taken, we headed back to Antigua. The agency rep and her husband doted on Sabrina all day declaring her beautiful and charming – I had to agree of course.

Next step that we are involved in is the embassy physical which we will do after our pink appointment has been issued from what I understand.

My agency rep asked the gardener about the garbage situation. No wonder he and I couldn’t mime it out. It turns out that the tenant used to pay someone to take the trash to another house for pick up. After that stopped, the next person paid someone to pick it up in a truck and do who knows what with it. So I have to try and track down this random person in a truck on the street on Thursday or Monday and pay him to make my trash disappear as there apparently isn’t city trash pick up. We’ll see how this works out.

And my momma tells me that the “nests” on the power lines are actually a fungus like spanish moss.  Who knew?  I guess mommies do know everything.

** They did come and pick me up at 10:30.  My agency rep claims that is what she told me on the phone last night.  Reception isn’t always great so who knows?  Might have been my bad.  I will post later to fill you in on our day.

Last night, one of my agency reps here in Guatemala called me. She said “Good news! Sabrina has an appointment tomorrow to go get her passport. Be ready to leave at 6:30 in the morning. I’ll take care of your transportation to Guatemala City.” Short notice, but okay. I was happy to see some progress toward going home after my lack of water whine yesterday.

Drag my chickenbus out of bed at 5:30 this morning. Shower. Get dressed. Break the cardinal mommy rule and wake a sleeping baby to get her ready. We are in the dining room at 6:25 ready to go – diaper bag stocked. I was pretty impressed with us. So we wait. And wait. It is now 9:30 and no one has shown up. I keep calling my agency rep and it goes directly to voicemail. Poor Sabrina was so tired she passed out in her walker. The music kept playing and I looked over and found her face was on the buttons.

Of course I had to take a photo before I rescued her. So now we have a tired and cranky baby and a tired and cranky mommy. I’ve left several voice mails for my agency rep but haven’t gotten a response yet.

Yesterday turned out to be an okay day. We ran into town and picked up some water and since mommy didn’t have to carry it (love the basket under the stroller) we got some Pepsi Light as a treat. I really miss soda. Sabrina took a little nap in her stroller then put her feet up and kicked back.

I was surprised. I loved not having to carry her and the groceries – and my back loved it too. But I felt so disconnected from her. I’m used to her being right under my chin – we talk and play while we walk. I couldn’t do that with the stroller.

When we got home, Sabrina spent some time playing.

She is contemplating the fact that there mustbe a way to move forward to get toys out of her reach but she hasn’t figured it out yet. Mommy is hoping she doesn’t become mobile until we get home.

For the second week in a row, no water delivery. I have exactly enough water in the house to make one bottle for Sabrina. Another week of schleping water and a baby through the streets of Antigua. woohoo. It is amazing how much clean water in your home effects your quality of life. I really want to go home. Antigua is much more charming when you live somewhere that they regularly deliver water and pick up your trash (imagine a month worth of dirty diapers in your driveway). I can’t seem to get either. Yes I would like some cheese with my whine.

A couple of agency friends were leaving Antigua today. One of them sold us her jogging stroller (nope, still don’t jog but the cobblestone streets and sidewalks here necessitate that sort of stroller – the regular ones can’t handle the bumps). My back will never be the same after strapping 16 lbs to my chest every day, walking a lot, then often adding groceries on the way home. The stroller certainly can’t go everywhere – the sidewalks are very narrow here and sometimes very crowded. But I’ve been here long enough to have a better idea of where I can take the stroller and where I can’t and my back will be very thankful.

Sabrina checking out her new ride:

Yes, I am still in my jammies at 1pm…our brunch date cancelled due to illness and I just woke up from a nap. Don’t judge me. (Thanks Aunt Deanna for the cute jammies. I hear you used to call mommy jammie girl – you’ll have to tell me about that someday.)

And on a completely random note – what in the world build nests on power lines?  The nests are about the size of a softball.

I didn’t confirm but several of you picked up on the fact that I was right – my ninera quit last Monday.  She didn’t show up on Thursday so I apparently did understand what she was saying.  I wish her well – she found someone who need her daily which will allow her to make more money.

I mentioned yesterday that I hadn’t spoken to another person, except Sabrina, in several days.  I did manage to end that streak with Friday night dinner at Cafe Sky.  It was nice to talk to grown ups – although some day I do hope to resume grown up conversations that don’t revolve around PGN, agencies, poop and sleep.  A girl can dream.

And finally, this round of Secret Blog Pals is about to wrap up.  I’ve seen some posts around the blog world – seems like everyone has been enjoying this round.  I will declare this round of SBP officially done on Mother’s Day.  So you have 1 more week if you haven’t sent your SBP a little something fun to brighten her day.