Friday, November 24, 2006
We made it here – the Marriott in Guat City. The flights and customs were fortunately uneventful – landing at about 8 pm Central time – and it didn’t take us too long to find our “van driver” outside of the airport in the sea of people wanting to help us with our bags.

After unpacking and securing a crib for our room, we went down to the lobby and ate dinner at Champions’ sports bar here in the hotel. The live band of Guatemalan men sang great renditions of The Outfield and U2 songs in English – a little loud actually. A little chilly here (maybe in the 50s at night, seems like they don’t have much for heaters), but sleep was good. This morning we noticed our balcony faces a mountain range complete with a couple of volcanoes (somewhat active I just read).

So, the big news is at 9 am we got the phone call from our translator, the local attorney, and the foster mother downstairs – they had our baby boy with them! Nervous excitement was high as we rode the elevator down from the 5th floor – there he was! We’ll call him “Danielito”, because that’s what they call him, and we haven’t decided fully on his American name just yet. Danielito is awesome – healthy, happy, good-natured, and handsome 6 1/2 month old. We conversed about his schedule – napping, bottle, middle-of-the-night activities, etc. So far so good – he likes the little toys we brought, seems to be ok with the blonde occupational therapist’s (Nikki) developmental evaluations, and he is happy being held by both of us (seems to laugh at Tom’s funny face). Danielito is REALLY cute. Thanks again for the support, we will have more later.