So I had a request to post again! Thank you!

How is life at the Linberger's? Well, good and not good all in one. Isn't that everyone's life? I'll do good: Gabriella is doing overall really well. In fact, she is playing with Barry right now, which is a BIG move. When she wakes up in the morning, she is laying in her crib peacefully, smiling and waiting. She is a doll- she doesn't scream nearly as much- hey I can handle the "Happy" screaming! She knows how to do a pig sound, which cracks me up! :) Barry seems happy to be home, especially since he has the week off. It's been nice having people drop by and really nice having dinners dropped off! Not too shabby not having to cook! :)

Now for the real life: I have been horribly sick since yesterday. I have had stomache cramping (and more if ya know what I mean), then it turned into a fever and then overnight vomiting all night. Lovely. I have been feeling sick and nauseaus like all day today, and my fever went up higher tonight than last night. Not too lovely. Antonio seems to have gotten worse with his adjustment- he is sobbing at the drop of a hat, a bit grabby with Gabriella ie taking toys from her, a little bit edgy and not too nice to others right now. Poor kid. Gabriella wakes up every two hours during the night. Not so lovely, especially when it is in between vomit episodes. SHove the bottle in the mouth- and dart to the latrine! Yuk. Despite the waking up, all she needs is her bottle put in her mouth and she immediately goes back to sleep, so that is nice! Some day we'll hit the "taking away of the bottle" but for now, she needs the comfort and security. I myself have hardly left the house since we got home. I am contented getting used to two kids not going anywhere. But that's all about to end since we have stuff going on this weekend. Yikes, back to real life! Huh? What's real life? Huh, there is an outside? Well, I dragged my aching body over to the playground for a bit today- bit outing! haha! Gabriella has been needing me to be right with her most of this week so far. Sometimes I can put her down without crying, but often she needs me right near her. This can get difficult. HOwever, I am watching her crawl herself into the kitchen right now, so perhaps there is a breakthrough! PUtting her to bed at night has been a bit of a difficulty. She has been screaming and crying each night when we go to put her to bed. I guess its transition and anxiety, but its weird since she doesn't do it at nap time. Hm.

Overall, things are going pretty great, but just not without its challenges. We are blessed, blessed, blessed and happy to be a family of four!!!

Hello from Pa!!

Just in case anyone is checking one last time- our trip home went pretty much flawless. The kiddos were great on the trip- it was a long day- but overall not too bad. We landed in Philly around 11 pm . Both kids slept on the plane most of the way from our flight from Houston. We had a little welcoming crew at the airport- thanks everyone! It was really nice. Apparently a little girl had just arrived home from China right before us and they got to see that, too! How fun!
The kiddos slept in this morning. Gabriella had a really good day, I think. She seems to like it here. She is still touch and go as far as emotion and I am quite sure she has a whole lot of adjusting to do over the next weeks. When I put her to bed tonight, she had a pretty long screaming fit. I guess its just adjustment- poor thing. It's hard to know what to do for her.
She is a beautiful little girl and a joy to have her in our lives. I am sure that as the weeks go on, she will become more and more a part of our little family- settling in and getting used to everything.
Thank you Lord for our gifts, our beautiful Guatemalan children. They are treasures and I pray that we treat them as the treasures that they are. Thank you for entrusting us with them. Thank you for a safe and exhilarating journey and thank you for getting us all home to settle in as a forever family. We dedicate our children to you and pray for wisdom is raising them as you would want. Amen.

Hello a final time from GC!

Hi Peeps and blogaholics! Sorry that I haven't posted all day until now! This was our last full day in GC and we had it packed to the gills! Overnight last night went ok- Gabriella gets better each night- but we are just beginning transition. Enter a new home tomorrow- enter soon a world where you don't suck on a bottle all night. Enter soon a world where you shouldn't have a bottle at all during the night at 9.5 months old. Enter soon a world where you have your own bedroom. Enter soon a world where no one speaks Spanish, not just your parents. But these things will all come in time. Eventually she will be fine. Poor thing has had a hard week and will continue to have one.

This morning we went off the the zoo to meet Anderson, our Compassion child, his mother and two compassion workers. They took a bus up here with an on site worker. His mother was very sweet- 24 yrs old and has two kids and her man just left her. Rough life. Plus, a one room house, shared electricity with the neighbor, no TV- WHAT?! hahah. We had nice time- it was a little awkward at first, but things got more comfortable. Anderson is a sweet little boy- he is 6. We took him some gifts- he was embarrassed at first, but later very excited to see what we brought him. His mother adored Gabriella- Anderson and Antonio played a bit too, it was cute. Funny enough, Anderson has two cousins- Antonio and Gabriella! We visited for about 4 hours- bought them lunch, took a bunch of pictures, etc. It was really neat to get to meet him and will help in praying for them, etc.

After that, we drove to Antigua to do some shopping. (Antonio took a nap in the car on the way there!!!!!!!!! Those of you that know, this is a small miracle!!) We didn't do any sightseeing there- unfortunately it was too late in the day. Would have liked to have gone to the jade factory and coffee museum, but alas- all I did was spend money on Gabriella and her future. In case you never heard this- we bought 18 gifts for Antonio's next 18 years of "Dia de Milagro" celebrations. Had to do the same for Gabriella, of course! I was let loose in the market doing the shopping, bargaining, etc. I bargained- they might have "taken me"but I didn't pay original price for any of it, at least, so I bargained a little! I got some nice stuff- but didn't get myself any jade- BUMMER!!! I wanted some desperately. Oh well. I have myself a daughter. Maybe she'll let me borrow some of her jade. Haha!

On the way home, it was dark. People walk all along the streets- you can hardly see them. We got into one small town and there was a traffic standstill. Unfortunately it was because there was a dead person on the road- he/she had just been hit by a car and killed. We watched them wrap the body up and put it on a truck. It was very sad. Lots of people gathered around- could see the stain on the road that they didn't clean up, etc. We couldn't tell if it was man/woman/child. Sad regardless.

Then we got stuck in more traffic on the way home, so we didn't get home until way late- like 7:30 or so. Gabriella was hideously tired, cranky, screaming, etc. Boy she let out a screech at the zoo today that shatted the diamond in my ring. Holy smokes. Anyway, poor thing- I am not sure if she isn't feeling well- she had a minor fever last night- doesn't seem to have one today but also still seems a bit out of sorts, maybe only due to the transition, or maybe not feeling well physically either. She got a lot of sun yesterday, so that might have been the small fever. So hard to know what's going on with any small child, especially one you just met!

So, tomorrow morning we get on the adventure of coming home! We are catching a 10:45 am shuttle out of here for a 1 :30pm flight. We will arrive home in Philadelphia at 11:11pm. I am not looking forward to the long day on the road, but at least we will be home sweet home! I am looking forward to getting back to our home, comfort and routine.

Thank you all for joining us in this journey. Life is a wild ride and I am glad we got to take this wildly wonderful detour. Thank you for your prayers, support, excitement for our daughter, financial support, thoughts, cat care, emails, blog posts, etc. You are all wonderful!! Much love,
B, J, A and G

WOW is my word for the day

Hello everyone!

Before I get to my word for the day, I'll back up a bit to last night and how overnight went. First off, I left off one of my listings from last night. I am also a bit fearful of what personality might lie behind Gabriella. She might have some strong willed tendencies (as told by foster mom and as already experienced.) I do believe it is too soon to really tell, but when I stopped her from doing something last night and she screamed and then refused to finish dinner, nor look at me, it made me wonder. Again, too soon to tell, but how will I handle a stronger willed child? Well, the Lord knows what he is doing.

Anyway, enough of that. On to overnight. Close to hourly wakings. However, on a positive note, she never had the same kind of screaming episode from the night before. So that was good.

Now, on to today's word for the day. WOW. Today is a big holiday in Guatemala- All Saints Day. It is a day to commemorate the loved ones that have passed. So, the traveling conneseur that I am- (haha) insisted that we partake in this cultural experience since we are here. So, off we were to Santiago Sacatapequez. Our guide from last year, Jacobo, was available, so he picked us up at 9am. And off we went.

Santiago is a small town, say, I don't know, 45 minutes from GC. We arrived early, which Jacobo said is the best, in order to find good parking. We walked through the entire town, which was very hilly and had lots of vendors lining the streets. We went up a big final hill to the courtyard and then large graveyard. In this graveyard is where the festivities really lie.

There are HUNDREDS, maybe thousands of people gathered into this graveyard. And in this graveyard are HUMONGOUS circular kites. I mean, 15-40 feet tall kites. And with the exception of the 40 footers, they FLY THESE KITES!!! They have huge, long ropes and many people holding on to them, to get them into the air. When one gets into the air, everyone cheers, yells, etc. They are handmade- made of tissue like paper, depicting religious scenes, activities, etc. They look like kaleidescope's, they are so pretty and ornate.

We were sitting right amongst everyone- actually, almost right in the runway of some of the kites paths. In fact, one time, the rope of one of the kites that was falling down smacked my right in the side of the face and ear!!! It was so fun and invigorating! There were so many people there watching all of this occur. First WOW of the day. Really cool.

So, the point of these kites? The belief is that this is a way to communicate with their dead loved ones. They arrive early to the gravesites, bring food, and pray that the spirits would come to their homes and visit them this day. The kites are a way of communication/and maybe even transportation. Our guide said that people still believe this, though I am sure that for some, its just good fun and tradition. They have judging of the kites, too. There were quite a few tourists watching the kites, but walking up to them, I thought we were the only tourists. But, we weren't.

We eventually left the kite site, heading back down the mountain through town. Ok, so here is more WOW. Little did I know that this event brings 70-75,000 people into this town of "20" as my guide said. As soon as we started to head down, we couldn't go any further. We were literally cram packed into the street, wall, to wall, shoulder to shoulder and closer packed with people. We were sardines in a can, going nowhere. People shoving to get through, people stuck, babies crying, everyone just sort of flowing every now and then. Holy cow. I know Barry didn't love that. Heck, I didn't either. I could totally envision a crowd crushing.

On the way down, I noticed a young girl that I could swear was Antonio and Gabriella's birth mother. I don't know, I doubt it was, but I sure felt like it could have been. I need to look at her picture again. I wished I had asked her her name. I couldn't stop staring at her. I am sure she thought I was a psychotic gringoe!

Anyway, we made it down eventually. Barry seemed to fare without any lasting damage. We got a little sunburned, FILTHY, but quite frankly, I had a blast!!!! What an experience!!! We were a part of a huge yearly Guatemalan tradition!

How did the children do? Gabriella was an angel. She slept on the way, slept up the mountain, slept down the mountain, in the car on the way home. That girl could sleep anywhere today! She cried a bit during the mob. I didn't blame her for that! It was kind of horrible in a fascinating way. Antonio also did great. He enjoyed the kites, of course fell asleep ten minutes before we got home (hahah!) and was an angel as well. He continues to adore Gabriella (except for just throwing a playdough dish in the air and hitting her! ah two year olds. hahah!)
Gabriella continues to adjust well- and even let Barry hold her just a few minutes ago! She was pulling her hair a bit though- which we think might be a fear reaction.

Well, I've blabbed enough for now! What a day! Barry just mentioned going to dinner outside of the hotel. What, he can handle anything now that he handled a Guatemalan mob crushing! You go Barry!! :)

Tomorrow we meet Anderson, our compassion little 'en and then Jacobo is going to take us to Antigua to go to a coffee museum, jade factory and do some shopping. Yeah shopping!! You speaka to my heart, shopping!

More later- and thanks to all for your kind comments after my thoughts last night!!
Love you all!
From the Guat gang,
B, J, A and G

Ps, I don't know what is going on, but pics don't seem to want to post lately. I'll keep trying!