Pictures and other updates

Here are the pictures I have been promising everyone:


Saturday: I took my car into the dealership for an oil change. While there, Little Bug was given a balloon by one of the salesmen. He refused to look at me when I was taking pictures, but he was a very happy, smiley Little Bug with his balloon. This is about as close as he would get and still look at me.
OK- I managed one picture of him smiling and waving his arms up and down in excitement.
After playing with the balloon, we headed up to the show room to see the cars (VROOM-VROOMs). Little Bug is giving me the keys to the car- wouldn't that be nice.

Very interested in the keys- he actually got them in the ignition and was turning them!!! Yikes, no wonder he loves to play with my keys.
Turning all the knobs, handles and such. He definitely gave this car a work out. No telling what everything was set to when he started or after he was done playing.
Momma- I can almost see over the steering wheel- I just can't touch the pedals!!! Help me, help me!!!
Sunday:

Backyard in the 90 degree heat.

Apparently, Little Bug has learned to climb up the slide- not sure where he learned this. Could it be Jason or was it the little girl in the mall a few weeks ago?

Getting ready to head down the slide- what you can't see are the 2 trains he sent flying off the slide right before this- they actually made it fairly far down the hill. Little Bug complained each time he went down the slide that the ground was too hard when he landed. But landing in the grass is softer than landing on the concrete patio, so he is going to have to deal with it.

He still wants to hold my hand going down the slide- go figure. He will climb up the stairs or up the slide without me touching him, but he needs me to hold his hand going down the slide. Love it!!!
He actually played soccer (football) with me for a few minutes. He was kicking the ball back to me and running after the ones I kicked to him. He lost interest in the game when I would not let him kick the ball off the steps to the side of the yard- they are not safe for him to play around.
Yes, this is him deciding not to play anymore with his mean Momma who does not let him play on the stairs.
For those of you who worry about him yelling for me after he goes to bed- this is what I walk into his room to find. A smiling, happy Little Bug who just wants to say hi to his Momma again. I get the same smile in the mornings too. How cool is that??

Yes, Momma- I told you I needed a clean diaper, but I really just needed to see you.

Tuesday night:

Dinner was pot roast, peas and mashed potatoes. Little bug was in heaven. He ate all but 2 tablespoons of the peas (I got to eat those). yes, you read that right, the Little Bug ate an entire package of peas all by himself- he loves his peas. He finished off the first 2 spoonfuls I gave him in nothing flat and then pointed to the bowl of peas and said "peas". He ate 2 bites of the meat and 1 bite of the potatoes. He and Pap are going to be fighting for the peas from now on.

Laughing because I am laughing at him- peas were everywhere!! he had peas down his shirt, in his shorts and yes, in his diaper. He immediately went into the bath tube after this. But he loved it.
This is how the peas get everywhere. Peas and corn are the 2 foods he insists on feeding himself with. Any other food, he will let me help to feed him - but not peas and not corn. Thus the reason for bath time immediately following dinner. I don;t even try to clean up the dishes or food until after he has been bathed and is sitting in the living room with his toys.

So far this week has gone well- Little Bug is adjusting to daycare with the other kids. I am enjoying the time to complete work and to be very focused. The only other issue that has come up this week has been a moral issue for me in relation to adoptions (in general, not specific to Little Bug's adoption). Many months ago, this issue was brought up on another blog I read and I posted a response on my then Private blog- so I am going to post that response out here since the issue has come up again. This is a post from 21Feb2007- when I was still waiting for a judge in Guatemala to come back from vacation just so our case could go back into PGN- it was a very dark time in my life- I was losing hope that Little Bug would ever come home.

Now on to what has been rolling around in my mind for a few days.There are a number of news stories in the adoption world that have prompted some questions out on blogs that I read. I would like to give you my thoughts.First the background:

1. A facilitator (US citizen) was arrested for bringing a child into the US on a tourist visa and keeping the child at her house for 9 months. The issue - the child's adoption was final in Guatemala and the parents were waiting to hear that they could come to Guatemala and pick up their child.

2. An Agency in MN is under investigation for deceptive practices-they are not disclosing all the fees upfront to parents, they are threatening parents with termination of the adoption when the parents question these new fees, they require extra classes for parents that question them, etc.

So with these ethical issues occurring with Guatemalan adoptions, the question has been raised "would you work with an agency/lawyer that you knew pays bribes knowing that children placed with that agency come home in 4 months"? Well this Guatemama can say the following: there is no way I would knowingly work with an agency/lawyer that bribed officials in Guatemala just so my child could come earlier. Now realize that there have been times in this process that I have wondered if someone was waiting for a bribe (heck I am wondering that right now).But I could not live with the doubts that paying a bribe would put in my mind. Bribes are part of cultures and I know in other countries "bribes" are paid as gifts during the adoption process, but you know about it going in and you know that everyone is paying them, so it becomes a fee. In Guatemala, the issue is that certain agencies/lawyers are paying bribes and the rest are not. So the system is not level, the cases are not equal. As these agencies/lawyers pay these bribes, they are pushing their cases along and circumventing the process, delaying others who are following the rules. This is one of the things that the Hague will hopefully end - there will be a straight forward process for adoptions and bribes will not be part of the system as such. But why you ask, am I not willing to consider an agency/lawyer that could get my child home in 4 months instead of the 12+ months that it is taking me now? Well, simply put, if someone is willing to bribe an official to move the case along, what is to say they that did not pay off a birth mother who really wanted to keep her child, or who wanted to reclaim her child. If you are willing to cut corners in one area, wouldn't you want to cut corners everywhere to speed the process up? I would never be able to silence the voice in my head that would be asking "is he really yours?", "is his birth mother crying out at night for justice because her baby is gone and she really wanted to parent him?" How would I ever be able to stand before my son and say without question, "everything was done according to the law and you are my son." I know there are folks in the adoption world that can and would be able to sleep if they choose an agency/lawyer that regularly offered bribes, but I am thankful that I am working with an agency that does not condone bribes, that works within the law, whose heart is for the children first, then the parents. They might not be prefect, but I have no doubts to their integrity in the adoptions that they perform. So no matter how long it takes, I would rather bear this wait then bear the thought that Little Bug was not legally mine due to unethical business practices.Thanks for listening to me today, I needed to say these things.



Have a great 4th of July-I will have plenty of pictures tomorrow- Little Bug is going to be in the parade!!!

Love to you,

Momma Bug