Who is 19 months now? And Dateline....

A year ago today the packing was in full force. We were submitted to the Embassy on Wednesday for our PINK appointment so we KNEW on Monday we would know when we would be traveling to pick her up. We shopped, laughed, over-prepared, and just relished in the excitement of our impending trip. Surreal is what it seems like now. A year almost...I will post more about how I feel about all of THAT on our Forever Family day which is next weekend:-)

Mikayla turned 19 months old a few days ago. I wanted to post that day but Kris has been very, very sick and Kayla is still sick as well. I just haven't had the time. But I wanted to let everyone know what she is doing since pictures don't tell the whole story!

She is a climber. She can get UP and DOWN the steps without any problem and she is quick too! She also enjoys crawling up on the coffee table and the couches. She has effectively learned how to do this by pulling all the pillows OFF the couch, piling them up, and using them as a stepping stool. She is still very much in love with Elmo and "sings" the song when it comes on and does a little dance too. We have decided that she is our water baby. She truly is opposite of Alec in so many ways. Alec hates the water, Mikayla LOVES it. We fill the tub about 6 inches or so and she will literally try to SWIM. She also tries to float on her back. I have no doubt that she could swim if we taught her how to. This child has NO fear of things like this. She is still very much the loving, huggy child that she was when she came home. She will give you a kiss on the cheek if you ask her to and she loves nothing more then to be snuggled up in your arms when she is tired or just wants attention. She is losing a little of that "on the go" that she had. She is becoming more "settled" and is taking time to actually SIT and enjoy her toys and the things around her...which is GOOD. Her speech has improved by leaps and bounds. She says the following words:
Bye Bye (complete with wave)
Hi
Ball
Bow
Light
Thank You
Baby
and some other's I am forgetting....and of course Mama, Dada, and BuBu (brother)

I just adore her. She is doing so well and I am so proud of BOTH my kids.

I want to now take a moment to address something that I have put on the back burner for MONTHS. It's not that I didn't want to approach the subject, but rather didn't know how to exactly. On Sunday evening, Dateline on NBC, will be airing an hour long segment on Guatemalan Adoption. I would like to say that it is going to show wonderful things and show happy families with their children, but I can say with quite a bit of confidence that this won't be the case. Luckily, I haven't had family or friends ask ME or KRIS point blank about our adoption. But I know there have been "whisperings" among our family and friends and I want to address them now. A lot of you will watch the Dateline show, you will see the corruption that plagues the Guatemalan Adoption Process, and then you will think of those you know that have adopted from Guatemala. Were THEIR adoption ethical? You will wonder that. You will question that. And I can understand why you would. First off...I want to say that there IS and HAS BEEN corruption in Guatemalan Adoptions. I will not sit here on my blog and lie. I know numerous families that have been subjected to unethical adoptions and I have seen it tear at those families. It is a reality that I can't deny. It has happened. With that said, I want to make is CRYSTAL CLEAR that not all adoptions from Guatemala are unethical. I cannot give you statistics, I don't even know if there ARE any. But I will tell you this about OUR adoption. Mikayla's mother was very young, only 18 when she gave birth. Our process was cut and dry without a single red flag or issue. We have been able to send letters to our birthmother and pictures of Mikayla in the months following her adoption. We feel very secure that Mikayla's adoption was a completely legal and ethical adoption. There are more reasons why I know this, but they are personal and that information will be shared only with Mikayla. I just wanted to let everyone know that no, Kris and I are NOT blind to what happens in Guatemala and NO, going into this we did NOT realize it was like this...a lot of people didn't. Would we have done it again? Absolutely yes. Without a doubt. Guatemala is now a country that is no longer open to adoption. This means that you cannot start an adoption now in Guatemala. Period. No one knows if and when Guatemala will ever open back up to adoptions but one thing is clear, because of these wrongful adoptions, the Hague Treaty, and lovely UNICEF (which my home does not support this organization...more on that another time) thousands of children will now suffer because they will not be able to find loving, permanent homes. Thousands of children may very well end up on the streets because there is NO ONE to take care of them. The situation there is now dire. Children that were once able to find homes, like Mikayla, now cannot. It is both sickening and saddening to me. How many Mikalya's will never know what it's like to have a family now? Please keep in mind as you watch the Dateline show that the media loves attention. The media shows what SELLS. The media usually does NOT show both sides of a story. I hope that they DO mention the THOUSANDS of children that came to the US in 2007, adopted by families like ours, that were legal, ethical adoptions....but I am NOT counting on it. That said...Kris and I decided to post picture to Dateline's online Guatemalan Adoption Page. We wanted to show the HAPPINESS of adoption, rather then the negativity that has plagued Guatemalan Adoptions in the past months though the media. Our pictures are at the end of row one and the beginning of row two at this link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22666763/nPage/7

That's all for tonight....I just needed to get that out...