This is the day we will finally get Holly! Exactly one year ago today we accepted Holly’s referral. What a roller coaster ride this journey has been! We Praise the Lord for getting us through all the tough times. We got up early so we would have plenty of time to eat breakfast. Our facilitator and foster mother are supposed to bring Holly to us around 9:00 a.m. in the hotel lobby. By 9:30 they had not yet arrived so we went up to our room to check for messages. Our facilitator had left a message that it would be 11:00 a.m. before they could meet us because she was in the process of driving to pick up Holly and the foster mother, who lived an hour away from Guatemala City. By 11:00 a.m. we had our beautiful daughter Holly in our arms!! What a precious gift from God she is! She is really tiny! Our foster mother (Esther) did not bring her because she had to work. Her mother had been caring for Holly so she was the one who came with the facilitator. Holly started crying immediately when the foster grandmother handed her to me. She is very attached to her foster grandmother and this is going to be a hard day for both of them. Tracy took Holly and Hannah for a walk around the lobby trying to distract Holly so that I would have an opportunity to ask questions about her current eating and sleeping habits, etc. Our facilitator translated for us. The foster grandmother told me that Holly is used to being held all the time. She usually takes a nap around 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. and sleeps for thirty minutes to an hour each time. She is used to sleeping with her foster grandmother at night. She drinks powdered whole milk in her bottle. She likes cereal with milk in it, bananas, apples, potatoes, chicken, eggs and especially loves bread. Our facilitator said she would bring Holly’s translated medical reports along with all of the necessary Embassy documents to us tomorrow. We gave the foster grandmother the gifts we had brought for her family and then she left with our facilitator. We took Holly back to our room. She cried pretty much non-stop for about one and a half hours. Tracy and I took turns holding her and trying to comfort her. Finally she fell asleep in my arms and slept for about an hour. When she woke up she still cried off and on but would take cheerios out of our hands and eat them. She has four teeth on the top and two on the bottom. Sometimes she would just gaze up at us with her big beautiful brown eyes. Things got better as the day progressed. Hannah was a real trooper through all of this! She would pat Holly and try to give her toys. Holly would accept the Cheerios that Hannah offered her. Several times Hannah would pat Holly and say “Hi, my name is Hannah.” So sweet! We did get her to take her bottles but she would not eat the baby rice cereal with bananas in it. We ordered pizza tonight and she loved munching on pieces of the soft part of the crust. By evening we have seen several glimpses of her beautiful smile. She has not allowed us to put her down all day but after getting her pajamas on Tracy was able to get her to fall asleep on our bed. We thank the Lord for giving us the privilege of being Holly’s parents. We thank Him and Praise him for all he has done and will do for these girls and the rest of our family! We thank everyone for all of the prayers and emails!
From Guatemala With Love,
Ann, Tracy, Hannah & Holly
