Visit with birthfamilies

Titi's foster family

Carlos' birthfamily

Titi's birthfamily

We had a very nice time at the Aurora Zoo in Guatemala City. It is a very nice zoo!!

Yesterday we visited Titi's birthgrandmother in her house and we had a very nice day. We went to a park near the house and Carlos and Titi had a blast playing with Eduardo, Titi's brother, who is 8 years old.

Today Carlos' birthmother and birthsisters came to visit. Aracely had problems with her knee and she had to get a cast on her leg so she could not walk a lot. Vera and her sons came too so we had a full house at the hotel. The kids had fun playing on the computer center and the adults had time to talk and take pictures. We had dinner at Pasteleria Patsy's and we got a cake to celebrate Father's Day. It is incredible how alike Carlos and his little birthsister are. She is also a leftie and is so cute.

Tomorrow we leave for Panajachel and I need to go to sleep. I am exhausted, I can hardly keep my eyes opened.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

We hope you are having a great birthday Grandpa. We had fun celebrating with you last Sunday!

We arrived in Guatemala City without a problem. We spent the day with Titi's birthmother and brothers and we had a nice time. We are planning on going to the zoo tomorrow. We will keep in touch.

Love,
Carlos and Titi

Little doves

An update on the little doves. They are not that small anymore. Yesterday they left the nest but they have been staying close by, on the ground, right next to the mother. They are almost her size. I guess they don't know how to fly because if we go outside they just walk and hide under the plants. After a while they go back to the same spot.

It was so much fun seeing them grow. At first the mother never left the nest and then she started leaving them by themselves for longer periods of time. The last couple of days she was almost never there but she was watching them from the roof. I guess she was encouraging them to leave the nest and once they did, she joined them again on the ground. They are the cutest thing!

Another drama in the garden

We have some mourning doves that make their nests in the garden but they are terrible at making them. They always choose the leaves of the self pruning palm trees and they have fallen a couple of times. The first time we didn't put the nest back on a tree, we just put it in a bush and the dove didn't come back. The second time I picked the eggs with a spoon and put back the nest in another leaf and the mommy dove came back but we never saw if the baby doves survived or not.

Well, this year they made a nest in the worst place, in the front, where it is very windy and in a lower leaf, almost ready to fall. We have been watching them for days, hoping the nest will stay in its place. The leaf is almost brown so I put some tape to secure it to the trunk and tried to tie the leaf to a trellis so it would not move so much with the wind. It still looked very dangerous for the nest so Don put something under the nest to protect it but the mommy dove was too scared and it was unble to come back to the nest so I took it off. It was supposed to rain a lot and it was very windy so I had to make a decision yesterday. I decided to move the nest to a hanging wire basket and see if the dove would come back to the nest. When I moved it, I saw there were two little birds there!! They don't look at all like a dove, they are so dark. I was able to take a picture. The mommy dove made many attemps to land on the nest any it looked like it was not going to work but after many tries she got it. It rained all night and it has been windy but they look more secure now. We can't wait to see if the babies grow up.

Their new home

Titi's 6th Birthday Party

Titi's birthday is going to be on Monday but we had her party yesterday. It was at Chuck E. Cheese and she had a wonderful time.

She had been planning her party for more than 6 months. It was only for little kids, most of them her classmates, cousins Hailey and Andie and her friends Nico and Ally from Guatemala. This time we only had 16 kids but it was still a lot of people. Last year there were 31 kids! We will celebrate with the family tomorrow since it is Memorial Day.

Titi and Carlos were very happy and they are now busy planning Carlos' party! They spent the night at Luke and Mimi's so Don and I got to go out by ourselves. We had a nice diner.

Mother's Day

I had a very nice Mother's Day weekend. On Friday Titi had a small play at school and Don and I went to see her. She was very proud of being on stage and then she gave me some beautiful things she made for me. A nice box to store hugs and kisses, a book about me, a card and a drawing. She also served me milk and cookies.

Carlos also made some nice presents at school. A really nice flower pot and cards.

On Sunday I did not feel like doing anything. I just wanted to relax. The truth is that I wanted to just sit and read a new book and not be bothered with cleaning or cooking. I had to do some things but I tried to do as little as possible. Don took the kids to the store for a while so I could have some quiet time and then brought good food and a cake. They also gave me a beautiful necklace and an electronic picture frame. Very nice!!

Don wanted to invite his family over but I didn't feel like doing anything. I thought we were going to go to a restaurant later in the day but we didn't do anything and we didn't see anybody. I guess I was still tired from working in the garden and then driving to Homestead the day before.

A party in Homestead

Casta and her daughter Aleeya.

This is Roque and his little daughter. He was so little when we met him!

On Saturday, the kids and I went to a party in Homestead. Don went to a concert with a friend. It was a party for Casta's daughter. She is the girl we met after Hurricane Andrew in 1993 (?). She is married now and has 2 daughters and we have stayed in touch with her and her family. Her daughter was turning 3 years old and it was a really big deal. Her family is from another part of Mexico so I am not sure of their customs. It was a mini "quinceanera" or wedding. The people in Homestead and I guess in the small towns in Mexico share the costs of all their parties so there is people -mainly relatives- that pay for each part of the party, cake, pictures, drinks, food, etc. The family having the party is expected to contribute when the other people have parties in the future.

Anyways, it was a fancy party, in a party place with lots of guests. The theme was Cinderella and the birthday girl was wearing a beautiful dress and they took hundreds of pictures of her and all the guests. There was a clown and then a D.J. Casta's mom made some of the food and it was great. She gave me some to bring to Don. Carlos and Titi were intimidated at first because everybody was speaking Spanish but later they had fun playing with all the kids since most of them speak English among them.

Titi loved the music they were playing. When she saw that some people were going to dance she asked me to dance with her. We danced "cumbias" and she loved them. We got home at 10:30 but it was worth it.

Getting ready for our trip to Guatemala.

Our trip is only one month away! I am very excited and I can't wait to be there.

We are going to Guatemala City for some days to see Carlos and Titi's birthfamilies and then we will go to Panajachel, in Lake Atitlan, to vacation and volunteer with Mayan Families (http://www.mayanfamilies.org/), a wonderful small organization that works within the Indigenous Mayan Communities on projects ranging from enrolling and keeping kids, especially girls, in school, helping single parent families deal with HIV/AIDS, Malnutrition, Basic Health Care, Organizing Medical and Dental Clinics, Animal Rescue and so much more.

We will be working with them to improve the conditions of the school in a town called Tierra Linda. I am making a blog with information but I haven't finished it. http://www.mayanfamiliestierralinda.blogspot.com/

This rural school is located in a small town up in the mountains, near Panajachel and the Lake Atitlan. It is an agricultural town at the end of the road where most of the population speak a Mayan dialect and do not know how to read or write. The school has 250 students and Spanish is their second language. The majority of the students suffer from malnutrition.

We are collecting donations of pencils, pens, paper, crayons, pencil sharpeners, erasers, chalk, three-ring binders, glue, scissors, paint sets, pocket charts, shoes, children's clothing, puzzles and raincoats to bring to the school. Don and I will paint a classroom or two and we have funded the repairs of the roof in some of the classrooms.

Another member of Mayan Families Connection (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MayanFamiliesConnection/) might be able to join us there. That would be great since I only know her through email. I also hope to do some tutoring so I am making and buying Spanish educational materials. Hopefully Carlos and Titi will learn some Spanish too.

We will also investigate the possibility of opening a library in the town of Tierra Linda. Mayan Families has bought a piece of land that will be used to build a junior high school and they will have room to build a small community center. It would be a very simple library, just a room with some bookcases, tables, chairs and books, puzzles, board games and crafts. Hopefully we would be able to hire somebody to help the children with school homework and when the school is on vacation. The school year in Guatemala runs from the end of January to the end of October and the kids don't have anything to do when there is no school.

Well, I have lots of ideas and want to do a lot but probably will do just a little. It doesn't matter because I hope to do this for a long time.

AIR SHOW

Don and Carlos went to the Air Show in Ft. Lauderdale and they had a good time. Carlos said it was too loud but he had fun in the water. I think Don has gone every year since they started the show there.

I haven't posted much lately but here are some pictures of things we have been doing lately.

Don and Mema took Carlos and Titi to the Loxahatchee Natural Reserve in the Everglades and they saw some cool animals and insects. Carlos loved the grasshoppers (lubbers). I am glad they didn't bring one home. They are the worst insects. They can eat some plants to nothing and they reproduce like crazy.

Epcot Flower and Garden Show

This past weekend we went to Disney and I got to see the Flower and Garden Show at Epcot. It was wonderful, like it always is. I was not able to take many pictures but these are some of my favorite ones. Titi and I walked around the park while Don and Carlos rode the Test Track ride lots of times. It is Carlos' favorite ride and he doesn't mind waiting in line for hours.

Titi loved Tinkerbell's garden. There were fairy houses and Titi loved every single one. I told her we were going to make one so I need to gather all the materials.

Happy Birthday Don and Larry!!!

Today is Don and Larry's birthday. Carlos and Titi have been talking about this for days and days. They put a lot of pressure on me talking about daddy's party. Unfortunately, we didn't do anything really special, we just celebrated at home, with dinner and a cake. Dinner was a special treat for Don. I made veal. I haven't bought meat to cook in months so it was very special for him. Poor Don gets tofu and strange vegetables most of the time.

It is also Lolly's birthday. She is not having a good day because her mom is in the hospital again and she is not feeling well. I hope things will get better.

A new baby in the family!

Congratulation to Beverly and Steve on the adoption of their baby girl. We can't wait to meet her!!!

Happy Birthday Mema!!!

Today is Mema's 83rd birthday!!! She looks so much younger!! Carlos, Titi and I went to see her today and we brought her some flowers. She had also received flowers from Steven, Richard and Larry's families. They were all so pretty. Carlos and Titi loved going to the condo and seeing Mema and grandpa. They were going to have dinner with some friends and I am sure they had a good time.

We love you a lot Mema!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everybody! We are having a good day. Carlos and Titi got up at their regular hour and they were happy to see the baskets the Easter Bunny left for them. I thought they were going to get up really early but I guess they were tired. They have been off from school this past week and the have been going to bed later than usual.

They algo got the eggs that the Easter Bunny left for them in the garden. We usually do it with the girls next door but this year we haven't seen them. They are also going to search for eggs at Luke and Mimi's. It is early and they have already eaten a lot of candy.

Passover

Once again we had Passover at our house. This time was easier and we had a good time. Don did a good job leading the Seder. We missed uncle Izzy and aunt Mary but it was difficult for them to come.

I made matzo ball soup, vegetables and cake and Keri made delicious brisket and macaroons. We were happy to be together and celebrate with Mema and grandpa.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MEMA AND GRANDPA!!!!

Today is Mema and Grandpa's 61st Wedding Anniversary!!! Congratulations!!!! We love you a lot.

Tennis - Sony Ericsson Open

Last night we went to the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne. Larry and Laura were there too. It was a beautiful night and we had a great time. Mimi stayed with Carlos and Titi. She is an incredible sister!! We had tickets and hospitality suite passes curtesy of Bulova and we were able to have dinner there. It was very good food. They also had drinks and dessert. We could not have asked for more.

We wanted Rafael Nadal to win but he lost to Novak Djokovic, who played a much better game. We also saw Serena Williams play. Our seats were very good and we enjoyed our time there a lot.