Say no to....

UNICEF!!!! I never meant to use this blog as a sounding board for anything other than my adoption process and following Charli and I as we grow as a family. However, after today's news I had to say something. There is an organization called Guatemala900 that in all honesty should not even be in existance. Why? Because the 900 waiting children they are working so hard to help bring home should already be home. These children are the ones paying the price. You see back in the spring of 2008, I was a member of the Guatemala 5000. Charli was one of the 5000 kids who had waiting parents and was considered "in process". We were promised that if we had our referral by December 31, 2007 we would be allowed to complete our adoption process under their old rules. That did not happen as many of you know from following my blog during the process. Now there are still 900 children waiting. What saddens mean, is that some of these families were in process before me and some at the same time as me and they are still IN PROCESS!!! And now UNICEF has made a very large donation to Norma Cruz and her organization. Granted what Norma professes is that she is working on behalf of women's rights in Guatemala, but that does not seem to be the whole story. She is also promoting extended family in country adoptions. They are investigating and digging up supposed family members to bring them to the courts and claim they want custody of the children. I can NOT imagine the torture of being in process for 3 and a half years as one person I used to chat with on my forum has been only now to be waiting for a court hearing in August to see if these people really are the biological grandparents, if they are fit to be parents and if the judge will rule that they get to proceed to adopt my child or if I will be granted the right to proceed.

What can you do?? Keep these families in your prayers and well, pass the word that UNICEF is NOT an organization to support. You can also follow the progress of Guatemala 900 at: www.guatemala900.org

4th of July 2010

I had Charli go out on my parents' deck to take some pictures. She's become quite a little turkey. She poses and it's not that easy to get a natural smile.

Here she is playing with the turtle we bought mom and dad as a thank you gift.

Red, White and Blue from eyes to toes.....
playing with her flag

a natural look

I love this serious one

and hamming it up....

a great smile

She was being a stinker and I told her "NO" so she was crying. You can even see the tear running down her cheek and the lip sticking out is so appropriate. I'm sure she'll like this one in 10 years or so.....

I had my dad snap a couple of the two of us.

Me and my girl!!!

Papa giving her a spin in the pool

floating with cousin Emma

and Eric hamming it up with the girls....

First ever sparklers with Papa

she thought they were pretty cool

and the only fireworks shot I took as we didn't really have any this year. I may go to Lumberjack days to watch some and will attempt more pictures then.

Hope you all had a good 4th.

July 2, 2010 - First trip to the dentist

Charli and I went to the dentist on July 2. I needed to change dentists and thought this would be the ideal time to take Charli. I had been talking about it for quite a while so she hopefully wouldn't freak out. I told her they'd count her teeth and clean them. She was really excited. I had to go first - her orders but I had to anyway. But then she climed right up in the chair.


Missy, the hygenist put sunglasses on Charli to protect her eyes, but they didn't last long. But otherwise she was a real trooper.

She's getting the "sugar bunnies" removed from her teeth.

We weren't sure how she would do, but she even went for the polishing. She had cherry flavored paste.

And she thought that "Mr. Thirsty" was pretty cool. I didn't get the pix taken fast enough so she was game to do it again.

And she continued to do really well even when Dr. Lawton came in to verify everything and give her a once over. She'll tell you "I a rock star". And to be honest, I think she was for a first visit.

Now if all the rest of them can go this well..... I will try to get our 4th of July pictures up in the next day or so.