Happy 6 months Gloria Grace

Gloria Grace is 6 months old today. While she has only been with us for 18 days now, it seems like she has always been a part of our family. She fits in perfectly! Truly God has blessed us beyond what any words can express.


We slept well last night. I choose to let her sleep in the bed w/me, because the crib is an older style. The wooden slats are about 6 inches apart. Her whole head will fit through, and she is a squirmy sleeper. I would not have been able to sleep w/her in that crib. We slept just fine in the full sized bed. She did stir/squirm a little around 3am, but went right back to sleep when I patted her bottom. She woke & ate a bottle around 6:30, but went back to sleep. I got up & got ready for our day. This is a picture of her asleep in the bed in our room. I had to wake her, so I could get breakfast before we were leaving to go to ICBF & The US Embassy. Sylvia came about 8:30 & took us 1st to ICBF. We had our first, and hopefully only little paperwork scare. I was checking the document & saw that they put the wrong birthday for GG. Her birthday is Feb. 5th & they had typed dia 02, mes 02---I said they typed the wrong date, and thought they would just look @ her passport or birth certificate (which I had with me) & fix it. Nope! They had to contact Chiquitines. Sylvia called Magnolia, while the man at ICBF was emailing Chiquitines. Magnolia talked to me & asked me what the problem was I told her, and like the angel she is she called Chiquitines & within just a few minutes we had the paper with the right date----I dearly love Magnolia. She is yet another gift God has given us during this journey.


We left the ICBF office went to the US Embassy. We got to skip the very long line outside, because I am a US citizen. It made me feel a little bad for all those people waiting, but I was happy not to have to wait. Sylvia presented all the paperwork, and a few minutes later I was called to the window. You talk to the lady on the other side by phone. She went over all the papers one by one. She asked me if I was aware of GG's heart murmur, and then had me sign the last page. She told me to go to the 1st window & pay, and then have a seat & wait to be called. You can pay the fee in US dollars, but must have bills less than $100.00. You can also use a debit/credit card. The fee is $404.00. I paid the fee by card, because I did not want to carry that much cash with us. The wait was probably about 30 or 45 minutes. They called GG's name & told us to go to window #5. I picked up the phone. The lady told me how beautiful GG was & congratulated me. She asked me to sign one more paper & said you can come back tomorrow @ 3:30 & get your daughters visa. She said when she is on US soil she automatically becomes a US citizen, and gave me information on applying for a passport in the US, for her :)

This is us on the way out of the Embassy. It's a little hard to see, but the US flag is flying behind us :) We went back to the hotel & decided we needed to celebrate. We will have the visa tomorrow & be ready to go home on Saturday, and today GG is 6 months. The hotel owner took me to Unicentro & we had GG's ears pierced. Isn't she just adorable!!!!