Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

December 25, 2006

Merry Christmas everyone. We hope that everyone is having a wonderful day. We are doing well and wanted to thank everyone for your kind words and well wishes today. It truly mean a lot to us and has made this day easier for us.

Our agency is closed for the holiday season. However, if we do receive our Pink information, we will be notified immediately despite the shutdown. Otherwise our next update will be on Lily's birthday, January 2.

Megan has made the most beautiful video for one of my Christmas presents about Lily and our journey to bring her home. So please copy and paste this link and take a look. It is truly amazing. :)

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from our family to yours.

Love,

Chris, Megan, Lily, Willie, Gus, and Dusty

Finally......

FINALLY.......

December 19, 2006

GOOD NEWS!!!! We received an email this afternoon from our agency stating that they (FINALLY after six of the longest weeks of our lives) have our birth certificate!!!YEAH!!!!! So what does this mean...... it means that we are about 2-3 weeks from bringing our baby girl HOME FOREVER!! Our agency states that our attorney is going to try to submit us into the Embassy on Thursday 12/21 (the day Chris proposed to me 9 years ago!! :-). We say try because there is only a certain amount of cases that the embassy will except on each day. If they are not able to get in Thursday they will try again next week. We are being realistic and while hoping that we get to go the week of her birthday, due to the holidays we are more then likely going to travel between the week of the 8th to the early part week of the 15th.

When we go to pick up Lily we wanted to give her Birth Mom and her Foster Mom something. But what do you give two women that have given us so much? We thought about this for a long time. During a visit about 6 months ago to Dad Henry's house we saw that Vicky is able to make Rosary's by hand. The minute we left I said to Chris that I thought that would be the perfect gift. We waited until we were out of PGN and asked Vicky if she would make two Rosary's using Lily's birthstone. Tonight on his way home Chris picked them up. All I can say is WOW!!! It is exactly what I wanted to give these two women. From Chris, myself and Lily we wanted to say a big THANK YOU to Grandma Vicky for all of her hard work to make these perfect for us!!

We will continue to update as we hear more. Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts :-)


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MERRY CHRISTMAS, Megan and Chris! We love you guys!And Merry Christmas to my precious neice, who we will soon have a lifetime of holidays and memories to share with. We love you so much already sweet girl!

Please don't be sad today. I'm thinking of you and I love you both very very much!!!
Posted by: Aunt Tracy, Joe and Brianna on December 25, 2006 at 07:04 A.M

Birth Certificate update.....

Birth Certificate update....

December 13, 2006

Dana from the POZ called Chris today and finally shed some light as to what the hold up is. She told him that 75 lawyers were caught submitting false documents to Mixco. None of which Poz is associated with (thank GOD! ). PGN got wind of this and made Mixco complete a full audit of paperwork. In the meantime no birth certificates would be issued. That explains why we were kicked out last week. Our attorney has faxed Kerry (Poz Director) a slip given to him from Mixco promising that our birth certificate will be released on Monday December 18!!We have asked that the slip be faxed to us. Now, she still won't be home for Christmas.... BUT we are on track to be in country with her on her Birthday!! We are not holding our breath for this... but the chances are looking VERY good!! Her new (and hopefully last) DVD was just mailed and we should get it by the weeks end!!

Thank you all for keeping our family in your thoughts!! We are soooooooooo ready to get off this ride and move on the Tilt-A-Wheel of parenthood!!

Hugs,
Megan and Chris

Unicef at it's best!!

Unicef at it's best!!

December 12, 2006

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16211511.htm

What is the most amazing to me is that Unicef doesn't want International adoptions to continue... ok... so help these children! Please go to this website and read the article.

Our intent was not to alarm anyone....

****This doens't effect Lily diectly but does show what goes on in her birth counrty.****

We need to ask a favor.....

We need to ask a favor.....

December 10, 2006

We need everyone everywhere to PLEASE cross your fingers that they are able to get Lily's Birth Certificate tomorrow. We have entered into the red zone for getting her home before Christmas. We did get a response from our agency on Friday evening and they are doing all that they can. However, they were not able to get a hold of the attorney to find out anything. So PLEASE PLEASE keep our Lily in your thoughts tomorrow and pray that the attorney is able to get it and that we can be submitted to the Embassy no later then Wednesday. We do not get our weekly update until the evening. They have promised that as soon as they hear something they will let us know. Thanks everybody!!! We will post as soon as we hear anything.

We love you all,

Chris and Megan

Hostile!!!

Hostile!!!

December 8, 2006

This is the BEST word to describe how we are feeling at this point. What we thought was going to be a great announcement has fizzled out... Chris called the agency (I don't call because I become a tad too emotional! Gotta love that Irish blood!!) and asked what was going on since we were told last Tuesday that they "should" have our new birth certificate by Friday of LAST week and we still hadn't heard anything. Dana at the agency told us that there was something missing and that the Civil Registry in Mixco was given the needed paperwork on Wednesday and now we wait again. Chris is going to call again this afternoon and find out what the new ETA is for it. It is looking more and more like Christmas in Guatemala!! So needless to say we are totally frustrated and HOSTILE!! I will write more when we hear something.. no news = no BC and another LONG weekend!


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I can only imagine how the two of you must be feeling right now. Maybe Lily just wants to share Christmas "Guatemala style", with her mommy and daddy! How many people do you know that have had that experience? Where you spend the holiday doesn't really matter as long as you're all together!! I love you guys!!!!
Posted by: Aunt Tracy on December 8, 2006 at 07:37 P.M.

Picture Day!!!

It's Picture Day!!!!
WE HAVE TEETH!!!

November 28, 2006

We got a great suprise today new pictures!! She has her first two teeth!! Chris wants to bring her steak!! We also we given more news however we are not going to release that info until we know for sure what is going on. Don't worry it is VERY good news!! Please keep checking in as we will announce the info as soon as we know for sure!! Until then please enjoy our BEAUTIFUL Daughter!!

Oh, and as a side note, Chris is so happy to see that on her jumper is a picture of an UFO. Her love of SCiFi has begun!!!!

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She is SO beautiful! I can't wait to kiss those cheeks! <3
Posted by: Maggie on November 28, 2006 at 05:09 P.M.
What an absolute beauty!!
Can't wait for her to come home.
Posted by: Anonymous on November 28, 2006 at 05:55 P.M.
What a gorgeous gal! What a beautiful family. We love you!
Posted by: MomMom & PopPop Maloney on November 28, 2006 at 08:43 P.M.
SHE LOOKS JUST LIKE HER "GREATEST" AUNT TRACY.........of course she's gorgeous. Are you hinting to a christmas "gift"???
Posted by: Aunt Tracy on November 29, 2006 at 12:37 P.M.
aww.....my baby gurl has teefers!!aww..i cant wait for my little baby gurl..i love you and i miss you<3
Posted by: Brianna on November 29, 2006 at 07:04 P.M.
I have the cuttest neice in the whole wide world!!!! Look at her, isn't she perfect!! I love her love her lover her already!!!
Posted by: Aunt Sissy on November 30, 2006 at 06:48 A.M.
OOOhhh!!! Just look at my little Lily pie!! I can't wait to come visit her when she finally gets home. I'll wait at least 6 months before I try to steal her.
Posted by: Sherese on December 5, 2006 at 02:36 P.M

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

November 22, 2006

We are still waiting for our new BC to come through.We are been waiting 2.5 weeks today. Here is the good news.. we haven't seen anyone wait longer then 5 weeks for it. Bad news... it is Chris and I we are talking about here... we are planning on 5 weeks and hope that it is quicker! Once we receive the BC our agency is telling us that we should plan to travel in 2 weeks. We are biting at the bit to get her home!!

We wanted to take a minute to tell everyone Happy Thanksgiving!!! Chris and I have so many things to be thankful for. We are the most thankful for Lily's birthmom. Without her and her amazing gift we wouldn't have our duaghter. We hope that everone has a wonderful holiday!!

Love ya!
Chris, Megan and Lily!!


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My bag has been packed, just tell me when we leave :-) This is the home stretch guys. I can't think of a better Christmas gift for two people with so much love and laghter to share!!

I love ya both!!!!!!!!

Christmas at the Henry house

Christmas at the Henry house....

November 8, 2006

Yup that's right!! Chris and I decided that because we don't know when we are going to pick up Lily that we are going to take advantage of this time in between to get the house deep cleaned and arranged for Christmas. We are putting up the tree tonight!! I will post pics on the web site as soon as we are done. We are such goof balls!! Our boys look at us like we have lost our collective minds!!

We did receive our update yesterday we have been submitted for Lily's new birth cert. She will be Katerin Eliza HENRY!! We have to complete a name change once we get her home. It is all FINALLY coming together. Chris and I were talking last night about how GREAT this feels and how glad we are that we can enjoy this. We have been ready for her to come home since we saw her pretty face!!

I will update again very soon! Gotta get back to decking the halls!! ( Again such goof balls!!) :-)

Love ya!
Megan


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WHat a beautiful family. What a Merry Christmas the TEAM HENRY will have this year. I love you Mom
Posted by: MomMom Maloney on November 8, 2006 at 06:04 P.M.

We are a Family!!!!

WE ARE A FAMILY!!!!

November 3, 2006

We called today and found out that Lily's birth mom has indeed signed for the last time. We are going to be submitted on Monday to get her new birth certificate. Hopefully we will be home in the next 4-6 weeks.

Even though this is an extremely happy time Chris and I are keeping her birth mom in our thoughts. I just don't think that she will ever know how truly grateful we are to her. We wouldn't have Lily in our lives if it wasn't for this wonderful woman. As you all know music is very important in this house especially for me and there is a song that we found about adoption called '12 Angels' A verse of the song says

"The greatest gift, the greatest unknown, the greatest sacrifice, the love it took for her to place you in my arms, will we ever realize"

I wrote out the whole song on the front page. It it very tied into what we have gone through.

Through this whole process people have repeatedly told Chris and I how lucky Lily is going to be and what a great thing we have done for her to get her out of there. The reality is that adoption is very selfish. We wanted a child in our lives and this is the path laid out for us. We are the lucky ones!! We have felt pain that we wouldn't give to our worst enemy, and then experience the greatest joy all, holding our child for the first time. I feel lucky that we have chosen to do this.

I will keep on updating as I find more out.

Love you all!!

Megan

It is Official

It is Official....

November 1, 2006

Lily is insured!! LOL We able to put her on the health insurance effective today!! We are still in limbo waiting to find out if her birth mom has signed off. Today is a holiday in Guatemala (All St's Day) so we have decided to give them until tomorrow afternoon and call again. Kerry emailed us yesterday early morning stating that she will let us know when she knows something. From what we are being told from Kerry the birth mom is ok with it and ready to sign. There has been a delay in getting the paperwork completed by the attorney. The paperwork was supposed to be ready to go as of last Friday and she was to come in on Monday. This is the last critical step and until she signs Lily is not legally ours. This is VERY frustrating to say the least!

On a happy note a family from our Project Oz board went PINK yesterday. She will be leaving on Monday to pick up her son! So at least we see other families coming home!!

I will update again as soon as we hear something. Thank you all again for all of love and support through these final steps.

Our PGN Decree!!!

Our PGN Decree!!!!(anyone know Spanish??)
October 23, 2006
Today as part of our update from Kerry, we got a copy of the long awaited PGN approval. We are so excited to have this, just make it seem more real. We are going to have to dust off our Spanish to English Dictionary but the meaning is clear. We are just one signature away now, and hopefully we will get the news about that tonight as well. :)
Well lookie here. Just before we were to post this, we got another email saying that birth certificates are taking about 8 DAYS!!! Now there have been some delays in getting them on occasion so nothing is set in stone as far as a time table, but our fingers are crossed. :)

Our Big Girl!!

Our big girl...
October 19, 2006
We got an updated medical last night from Kerry. Below is a copy of the email that she sent us:
Date of Exam: 10/16/06Weight: 18 pounds 10 ouncesLength: 68 cmsAbdomen: round, normal bowel soundsFontanel: normalEyes: normalEars: symmetric, well implantedMouth: normal, oropharynx normalNose: normal, without rhinorrheaLungs: well aerated Heart: normal rhythm, no murmursGenitalia: age appropriateHips: symmetricExtremities: symmetric with good range of motionHead Circumference: 42.5 cmsSkin: without lesionsNeurologic: reflexes present, active movement in all four extremitiesComments: Healthy childVaccines given today: Polio, DPT, Hep B and MeningitisSignedDr. José Napoleón Castillo Mollinedo
This is a long way form the 3 lbs 10oz she started out at!! Yeah!
One last thing... If I may ask that you keep the babies in Guatemala and their adoptive families in your thoughts. Right now there are approx 4000 other American adoptive families in this process, and Guatemala is in some disruption at the moment. This should not affect us in bringing Lily home. Our agency has assured us that this is all rumor. Even so, if everyone could just take a minute to remember all of the babies not just in Guatemala but all over the world that are waiting for their forever families. :-)

A new day has come

A New Day Has Come!!!
October 17, 2006
That is right... I woke up this morning and asked Chris If it was all true... his response... If not we are both on some good stuff!! (true Chris!!) :) We are so incredibly happy we can't even describe how this feels.. I think we are both in a form of shock! Ok so now what happens???
We have to confirm that Lily's birth mom has signed off for the 4th and final time. We are pretty sure that this has already happened. This means that it is final. No one can come knock on our door and take her from us! Once the attorney gets the sign off he will them submit us for her new birth certificate. This will be done in Mixco, Guatemala her birth town. The good news that this should only take about 3 weeks or so. After 21 of waiting I am sure that is going to fly!! Once they get the new birth certificate our case will be submitted to the U.S. Embassy for Visa processing. Since we were able to visit her in May she will come home as a U.S. citizen!! Once they submit the case into the Embassy it takes about 2 business days and then we will get our "PINK SLIP"(-the one time in life this is a good thing!) The Pink slip tells us when we need to travel. Most people get about 1 week between being notified of PINK and having to travel!
So now after waiting for sooo long for movement we are FIANLLY going to be running around like busy bees!!
I am going to work on posting some more pics on here of our trip and her nursery!
We are going to get ourselves together today and try to calm down and we are going to put a call into Kerry @ Project Oz to see where everything is at.
Keep checking back in! It is going to get hoping now!! Chris and I love you all!! edit
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I can't begin to tell you how excited I am! Finally, our prayers have been answered. I knew from the very first picture she would be coming HOME!! I am also very excited to learn of this web site today. What a wonderful way to keep everyone updated. Please know that you each have a very special place in my heart. So...can I be the first to babysit?!?!? PLEASE!!! Muga hugs, kisses, smiles and love to you.
Posted by: Grammy Henry on October 17, 2006 at 10:35 A.M.
Atta girl Lily! Big and strong!!!! oxoxoxoxo
Posted by: MomMom Maloney on October 19, 2006 at 03:23 P.M.

First Entry

First entry

October 15, 2006

We decided today that we were going to begin our online journal. I already keep a journal for Lily that is just for her to see, but I also wanted to share what we are feeling these days. Just to bring everyone up to speed we have now been in PGN for 21 weeks 2 days, or 149 days, or 3576 hours. Not that I am counting or anything! I am just ready to get out of there!! PGN should a four letter word! We are hopeful that we hear something as soon as tomorrow but who knows really. All I do know is that now we are in a day-by-day time frame! So in a way that is VERY exciting, but in the same breathe EXTREMLY exhausting! I am going to continue to work on our site daily.... so stay tuned!!

Megan
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I'm so excited! I can't wait to kiss her cheeks and tell her how much I love her, and I can't wait to see her in your arms :-) LOVE YOU, Maggie and Jewely
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Posted by: Maggie and Jewely on October 16, 2006 at 05:23 P.M.
After reading all your updates and knowing you for 13 years and what you have waited for,I know that you and Chris derserve nothing better and Lilly is going to be the most loved human on the face of the earth. I am so happy for you and wish you all the best.
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Posted by: Kirstie on October 16, 2006 at 05:57 P.M.
We love you so very much and we are thrilled that very soon our new grandbaby will be here. It has been a long, hard journey but the joy that Lily brings with her makes it all so very very wonderful No child could have better parents then you two will be. We love you. Now let me at those cheeks!
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Posted by: MomMom & PopPop Maloney on October 16, 2006 at 06:46 P.M.
congratulations!!! We can't wait to see the three of you soon. You two are going to be wonderful parents!!!
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Posted by: Jessica and Don on October 16, 2006 at 07:03 P.M.
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Posted by: favorite big cousin Brii on October 17, 2006 at 04:26 A.M.
No couple more deserving. I am in awe of your strength and faith....you are my new heros! Counting down the seconds until you formally introduce me to your precious daughter, Lily. I love you and I am SOoooo very happy for the two of you!!
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Posted by: Aunt Tracy on October 19, 2006 at 03:40 P.M.

Easter Bunny Time!

Easter Bunny Time!

March 18, 2007

We took a trip today to see the Easter Bunny. Lily did great! We didn't really know how she would do. She patted his hand and rubbed his nose (she has a thing for noses!!). Then I sat her on his lap and as you can tell we couldn't get her to smile but she is soo darn cute no matter what! We were thrilled. Anyone looking to see a good bunny with good customer service we highly recommend the Arundel Mills one. They took their time and took pictures until they got one that she was looking forward for!

I know it has been sometime since we had a update. Lily is adjusting wonderfully. As far as her bonding I think that we are there. She is freely giving Chris and I hugs and kisses and will seek us for them as well. Right now she is a little miserable because/ she is cutting 3-4 teeth. She can now say Mama, Dada, Dog and her newest word Baby! Everything right now is a baby. It is really sweet. She loves to be read to, and will bring books over to us and climb right up on our lap to read them to her. We have been working with her on animals. If Chris or I say "A cow says Moo" she will respond back OOOOO and when we say the Sheep says Baa she says AHHH!!! She will also read to herself she will flip through her book and tell us about every page!

She and the dogs are doing much better together. I think that Willie has put a hold on the pool outside. Lily is completely fascinated by them and will hug on all 3 of them. She has a push toy that she rolls around the living room that the dogs have learned to dodge from! We call her tank for a reason!!

As a small side note we are asking that from now on no one calls our house after 7pm. Lily's bedtime is strict at 7:30 and we start her bedtime routine at 7pm. With her cutting her teeth in sleep can sometimes be a precious commodity for her. If it is a true emergency then by all means call, but if it is something that could wait until the next day please call them. We also check our email frequently.

As far as what is coming down the pipe for us these next could of weeks. Lily goes to the doctor for her check up on the 27th. We are all going over to see the new baby through u/s this Thursday, and we go back to the doctor on the 29th for another check up. My hormone levels are still on the low side of things but other then that everything is right on track. We will be posting the picture of Lily's little brother or sister on Thursday! Until then enjoy her Bunny pictures and newest ones from around the house!

Hugs and kisses!!!

Megan, Chris and Lilster!!!

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I WANT HER!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Aunt Tracy on March 18, 2007 at 12:02 P.M.
Back off you GreatAunt you! We have to play nice and share!!!!! Me first!!!!!!!
As always what a beauty! Can't wait to see
the sono too! Love and kisses to all. Mom
Posted by: MomMom Maloney on March 18, 2007 at 01:31 P.M.
She is Cuter than ever! And congrats on the new addition I heard about!
Posted by: Toni on March 20, 2007 at 06:15 A.M.
uhm..you all need to back off .. shes mine .. i was the first person she smiled at , at hte airport .. (:
shes beautuful
ily soo much guys !!

fav. cousin Bri xoxo
Posted by: fav. cousin Bri on March 22, 2007 at 11:40 A.M.