Rolling right along...

Our Embassy appointment yesterday went great. We had to get up early, so Max was a little off his schedule, but he adapted very well. In fact, once we got to the Embassy to wait for our turn, he fell asleep in my arms and slept for about an hour. We were laughing remembering what it was like with Catalina and Gus almost two years ago...lots more families waiting, so it was more crowded. And, it seemed like Cati and Gus waited to get to the Embassy to do their business...Catalina went to the bathroom about six times and Gus had two dirty diapers!

Anyway, back to yesterday, it was uneventful, in the best possible way. His Visa has been approved, now we{re just waiting to pick it up today. Then, we{re free to go and baby Max will be a U.S. citizen after he goes through the immigration office in Atlanta tomorrow. I choke up everytime I think about it. I know that we all have our complaints about the U.S. government, but we sure are lucky to be citizens and I{m very proud that my children have the opportunity to grow up in our beautiful country. And, I{m also very proud to live in south Tampa and to have the friends that I have, after talking to my mom while we{ve been gone. Mindy took the kids on Saturday and fed them lunch. Merritt came over and played yesterday with Gus and brought my mom Diet Coke and cookies that Connell made. Mom walked the kids to the park on Sunday and got to visit with lots of our sweet friends. Sorry if I{m missing something sweet that others have done. We appreciate every single bit of it! Oh, and right before we left for our trip, I was talking to Carey about the clothes that we have for Max, saying that we needed 12 to 18 month pants for him. The next day, I{m not even kidding, Carey brought over 10 pairs of pants - really nice, barely worn - pants. That{s all Max has been wearing since we got here. They fit him perfectly! And, Merritt, the fleece you gave us is perfect, too! Okay, so many people have done so many nice things for us, if I get into thanking everyone on the blog, it will get quite lengthy! I will say first that the biggest thanks goes to my mom, though. There are no words to express how good it feels to have someone like her caring for my precious Catalina and Gus while we{re gone. Bibi, we are so, so thankful for you!

Something else that we did yesterday...had lunch with the foster family. Our foster mother, her daughter and son, her sister and mother, all came to have lunch with us. They speak no English. We speak little Spanish (Louie did a great job, actually!). It made for an exhausting couple of hours, but we are so glad that we did it. The most important thing about it was the family got to spend a little more time with Max. It{s always a little chaotic when they are dropping him off at the hotel to be with us, so we didn{t want that to be the last time they saw him. Better that they had a little more time to say goodbye. They were so sad, but always reminding us how happy they are for Max, that he will be with his brother and sister and be part of our family. God blessed us beyond measure when He put Max in their care. Max was so happy to see them. He fell asleep right before lunch and woke up right in the middle. He sat up, rubbed his eyes, saw Julieta, and his face just lit up with a huge smile! It was precious to see! He loves her so much, loves all of them so much, and I just pray that God will help him during this transition and will help us provide exactly what he needs. Steph, don{t count your grieving before it hatches...I{m quite sure that it{s coming and I{m going to need a lot of advice from you. We didn{t go through it with Cati and Gus.

Okay, got to run. I don{t think I{ll have time for a post tomorrow, but I{ll definitely let you know on Thursday or Friday about our trip and Maxito{s homecoming. Love y{all and thanks for everything!