"Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You"

Our first week together with Alejandra is drawing to a close and we've greatly enjoyed the experience so far. The first three days we visited with her in her orphanage, giving her a chance to get to know us in her environment. We would play with her for a few hours and then return to our hotel. In the process, we learned about her routines and her personality. Last Wednesday night, Feb. 8th, the orphanage held a "going away" party for Alejandra (pictures below). Tim and Ben had a great time dancing and playing with the toddlers.

The following day, Thursday Feb. 9th, we picked her up from the orphanage as a family of 4, put her in new clothes (leaving her old ones with her caregivers), and walked away a family of 5. It was surreal. We went for a walk around town:
This past Sunday we took her to our favorite church in town that we used to go to when we lived here in 2008-09. The Catholic priest, "Father Freddy," was still there and as engaging as ever. Alejandra sat through the entire service peacefully, which did not go unnoticed by Tim and Ben. We had lunch afterwards at the local bakery (below) where Tim did so much home-schooling with Jen three years ago (at Table #7).

Thanks to everyone who has sent us such kind, supportive and encouraging emails and FB posts in connection to our adoption of Alejandra. We can't wait to bring her home to Richmond and, in due course, introduce her to all of you!

Meeting Alejandra -- First Two Days

First Two Days With Alejandra!

T-Minus

We will be meeting Alejandra next Monday, February 6, at 3:00pm!

Here is the website of the orphanage where she lives:
http://www.artworkers.net/amantani/indexeng.html

The Forgetful Club

We were at a meeting last week with the school counselor at the boys' school. She had asked us as a family to join a team to help evaluate and come up with new ideas for her action plan. At one point she was telling us about current clubs and groups that are either meeting or have met in the past -- ways to offer support to children in certain areas -- and she asked us if we had any other suggestions. Ben (8) raised his hand and asked, "What about 'The Forgetful Club?'" No one knew what he meant, so we asked him to elaborate. "You know, for kids from families that forget things all the time." Thanks, Ben. We had a particularly bad week last week -- I'm quite certain that we won the 'Most Absent-Minded Family of the Week (Year?) Award"!

That said, we are especially busy and distracted these days as we prepare to go to Peru. We keep commenting that while we are going about our daily lives here, there is a little girl going about her everyday activities who will soon be part of our family!

Ali's first birthday was on October 19th, so, God-willing, she will be a "Mayes" by the time she is 16 months-old. (As an aside, we have decided to keep her name as is, with the Spanish pronunciation and spelling, but we are going to call her Ali.) From the four current members of the "Forgetful Club", we appreciate your patience and especially all of the kindness and support you have offered to us!

¡Alejandra!

Admittedly a bit corny, Rick and I keep a "Book of Memories". We started it while we were still engaged, and it contains a yearly update of highlights of things that have happened in our lives and also a list of hopes and aspirations. On the first page, when we started this book over 15 years ago (!), we recorded our shared desire to have children, both biological (if possible) and through adoption.

Our growing interest in adoption meshed with our love of the country of Peru about five years ago and since then we have been preparing, praying, and waiting for a match with a child from there. We were told early on that Peru doesn't do a lot of adoptions -- for various reasons -- and that our desire to adopt a little girl under the age of two was very unlikely, if not impossible. As a result, over time we changed our parameters to either a girl or boy, 8 years-old or younger, and the possibility of a sibling pair. We were open to all of these various scenarios, but in all honesty we were still hoping for a little girl.

It has been a long, unpredictable, and at times difficult process and so we consider it a small miracle that on Thursday, December 29, we received word that we will have the opportunity to welcome Alejandra into our family and lives! She is 15 months-old and lives in an orphanage in Cusco (one that we visited in the summer of 2007) where she has lived since she was 5 days-old.

Needless to say, we are extremely excited and eager for 2012 and can't wait to have Alejandra here with us!