Wed. 28th

Today was a much better day,   C has been happy all day long, is eating very well and showing love to everyone.  We are very thankful for the way she is adapting to us. We still have to wait for the mandatory 7 days to get our adoption decree, that is Dec 5th. We are hoping to be in Lima on Dec 6th and run with the US immigration paperwork
Here are some pics. Thanks for your prayers, still a ways to go...

 The famous rock with 12 angles

Goodbye party at the orphanage

Day? Monday...

Whew, it's been exhausting around here...but good : )  We spent all weekend with our little girl, returning her to the orphanage in the evenings to feed her dinner.  Dinner has been my most stressful time, trying to force-feed a 3 year old who has trouble eating because of her teeth is not my favorite thing to end a long day with... and that while sitting at a little table with about 20 other 3 and 4 year olds, all yelling for attention or alternately spilling their soup and crying.  My hat is off to the women who work there every day...wow.  C eats beautifully for us, we are able to cut up her food really tiny so that chewing isn't an issue and basically feed her all day long when she lets us.  She is super small...the orphanage put an 18 month outfit on her today that fits pretty perfectly.  She'll be 4 in just a couple of weeks!
Yesterday's party lasted about 4 hours.  C stayed at the orphanage last night after since she was beyond exhausted and hadn't had anything but chocolate and candy to eat--not sure about the wisdom of the party for our process with C but the people at the orphanage were very happy.

As of today, C stays with us, tonight will be her first time to stay over.  The Lord is giving her such peace.  He has given her such a sweet spirit...we have had a couple of fits (very short-lived) and yesterday afterward her Papi talked with her and told her to come to me and ask forgiveness.  She came over and hugged and kissed me.  I was fighting tears.  God is so good!  Thank you for your prayers.

Friday Nov 23rd

For the blog fans...this is going to be a much simpler less exciting post, meaning, Debbie is not the one blogging. The process with little C is going great, she is really attached to her new "mama" and slowly but surely to the rest of us... It is so cool to hear her call me "papi" and to know her brothers names now!! Big sister was a first from day one..We had her all day today, brought her to the apartment, gave her her new doll whom she named "Lala" and wanted to carry her just like the ladies carry their babies here in the Andes, wrapped around her back!. Took her nap home and then we went to the park where she proved to be quite the gymnist, she is tireless, climbs, balances on her legs, we were very impressed. We will have her goodbye party this Sunday. We are very thankful of her response to us, we hear from the orphanage staff that this is very surprising to them and it is much better than they could possibly dream of. It can only be God´s grace...We have tons of pictures, will try to upload them later.
Sorry about not being able to keep up. Debbie is really tired at the end of the day...
P.S. in case you are curious, our Thanksgiving dinner was peruvian corn, cheese and a peruvian chile sauce, everyone´s favorites.  No bird this year...

Gotcha!

This will be quick, we don't have internet at our appt so we've borrowed wifi from the office of a friend.

We arrived to the orphanage yesterday afternoon to some very nervous orphanage workers who wanted to explain to us that C would probably not receive us well because she has spent her whole life with them and is exceptionally attached to the workers and the home.  They were afraid she was going to reject us and had many plans for the trial meet.   "Papa" to go first since she responded best to his photo (I know, we're shocked : ).  He went to her a little ways off, started talking and she eventually came over and started watching and listening.  I came out a little later and sat down, she seemed interested in the gringa and came over and eventually accepted some chips from my hand.  The kids followed later and of course she took to them the easiest,  especially big sister.  (Another huge shock to all of you : )

Thank you for prayers!

She was crazy hyper all day until we left at about 7.  We were exhausted, had altitude sickness, all of us pounding headaches and Z had almost passed out shortly before we got there.  Not the best conditions but our God is big and this is His plan for all 6 of us.  We just have to stand back and watch Him make us into a family (well, with a lot of energy expended that we weren't sure we had!)  We dropped lifeless into bed last night.



 Our little one is expecting her Papas back when we gets up from her nap, which is about now...gotta run!
Abrazos

Day 2

We fly out tomorrow first thing in the morning to Cuzco, a city in the Andes at 11,000 ft.  Our little one should be getting up from her nap at about 3 and we're planning to be there soon after to meet her....Soooo excited!  I hope to have some good pictures to share tomorrow night if possible.  Thank you all for your prayers!!

Ready, Get set, Go!

It's midnight and I'm listening to the sounds of traffic, people walking home and a guard's whistle down the street...sounds I love because they mean we're finally in Lima!  
Yes, there has been a bit of a gap in my blogging.  What can I say?  I'll sum up the last month and a half since my last blog by saying that we did nothing but inch toward immigration acceptance and approval from Peru to travel for about 45 days.
On the 46th, we took off full speed down hill.  In one day we bought tickets for 5 to Peru, rented an apartment for 2 weeks in Cuzco and then purchased 5 more tickets to arrive in the city where our little girl is.  It was a record for us on money spent in one day to say the least!
That was one week ago.  The rest of the week is a bit of a blur, quite frankly so I'll fast forward to now.  We're staying with Tomi's folks her in Lima, enjoying time with family.  We hadn't seen Tomi's sister and her family for 4 1/2 years...everyone's grown up suddenly.  Lots of laughter, fun and good food were had in true Peruvian style.

In Miami, finally heading South!

                                                        Girl cousins...

                                                        Guy cousins....

                                                        This is freaky...who's who???

                                           The Ardiles cousins sans Grecia a little Luis Fernando

Tomi entertaining the crowds as usual...

Tomorrow we make phonecalls and try to get everything in place to travel on Tuesday.  Tuesday, God willing, we'll meet our little girl!