Maegan loves dancing!

My mom's clock plays music every hour and Maegan loves to dance to it! Her face in this last picture cracks me up. Wayland called his hairdresser today for an appointment!!! YEAAAA!! He looks just like his mom with his hair long.

**Prayers are needed for this sweet boy. He is my very good friend's cousin. His name is Trevor Tredaway and he is two years old and has been diagnosed with hypothalamic glioma and that it is inoperable. The tumor is in his nasal cavity, behind his right eye and around the hypothalamus. He recently underwent surgery and are awaiting the results from a biopsy they did on his spine where the suspect more tumors. He has a website that has pictures and a journal his mom Melinda and dad Todd keep updated. When you get a minute, visit his website. You'll need to set up an account but it's really easy. You can leave words of encouragement for the family too.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/trevortredaway

Lazy Saturday

Maegan spotted this Shrek balloon at Wal-Mart and HAD to have it

She loves watching Shrek

This is the blank look I get when I ask her if she needs to go potty

Then she turns drama queen and won't go. We've tried the little potty that plays music, which she used to love now hates. Today we bought a Dora one that goes on the big potty and she just wants to carry it around..........

Random pics of Guatemala

Nothing new to report with Maegan so thought I'd share these pics I found. I was hoping the potty training would go smoothly. Nope, she cries everytime she sits on her potty. Rhonda says she goes fine at her house??

Weekend pics

Maegan & cousin Jarrett

Maegan checking out her bedding for her big girl bed that she will be going to in the new house.

Happy Birthday Gabble! Wayland turned 15 Sunday. We've decided to do the community a favor and hold off on driver's ed. for awhile!!

Maegan blew out the candles several times while carrying the cake.

Guatemalan Adoptions on Dateline NBC

I copied & pasted this from www.guatadopt.com .

January 19, 2008
Welcome Dateline NBC Viewers

Guatadopt.com would like to thank you for wanting to learn more about Guatemalan adoptions. Admittedly, you've stumbled to the right place to do that.
An adoption attorney once told me "at its best, there is no adoption system as good as Guatemala's, at its worst, there is none worse". This statement is incredibly true.
Tens of thousands of families like ours have been formed through adoption from Guatemala. For many of us, our experience was far more than an adoption process, because our lives grew in ways beyond just the size of our families.
Many of us remain involved in the community of adoptive families through websites like this, local community groups, and other means. Many of us now have a devotion to help alleviate the extreme poverty in Guatemala that leads to children needing families. One such example is Do Good, LLC – a company created by this site’s founder and chief writer that sells ethically produced items and where every sale helps feed a child a Guatemala. You can find it here:http://www.do-good-stuff.com
Guatemalan adoptions were not all corrupt. It is horribly wrong and inaccurate to assume all children adopted from Guatemala came to this country through a corrupt process. More importantly, it is incredibly unfair to the children. But as is the case with any system, the combination of money and poor law enforcement created an atmosphere for corruption.
Guatadopt.com provided a good deal of help to NBC in creating this story. We knew that it would most likely show more of the dark side of Guatemalan adoptions that involved a small minority of all cases than it would how most of our families grew. But we felt that only by helping show all the truths of the system might the public be able to understand this institution so many of us hold dear. That goal shows true by the fact that people like you are here to learn more.
One of our writers, Troy Webb, was featured on the Dateline show. You can read his “Second Time Around” blog that chronicles his adoption and interactions with NBC in our writer’s corner here: http://www.guatadopt.com/WritersCorner/SecondTime/
Intercountry adoption is an incredibly complex issue. It is political. It can be easily sensationalized. It is heart warming. But as Dateline has demonstrated, something that is obviously a wonderful concept – children finding families despite border – can run awry if left open to unethical opportunists. The real debate lies in what should be done when unethical and abusive practices exist.
The global norm is to stringently reform intercountry adoption laws. For example, Romania has formally ended the practice. Through much of Central and Southern America the trend has been to create an underfunded, complex, bureaucratic system that keeps intercountry adoption open on paper, but in reality makes it virtually impossible. The latter has occurred. No one, not even the critics of intercountry adoption like Unicef, can say what the impact has been on children. In an effort to remove corruption, are we throwing away the baby with the bathwater?
It is quite amazing that we live in a world where countless children die each day from malnutrition and other curable diseases. This is a world where children languish in squalid institutions and orphanages because their parent(s) knew that was better than what they could provide. And this is a world where there are many thousands of loving adults who just want to be parents and provide a family for a child.
Our children are not our “adopted children”, they are just our kids the same as anyone else’s. They are our purpose in life. They are the sparkle in our eyes. We love them more than words could describe. Our families may have been formed through intercountry adoption and because of this we celebrate Guatemalan holidays, we sleep in cunas rather than cribs, and we drink pachas rather than bottles.
Thanks again for visiting.
Sincerely,
Kelly Caldwell and Kevin KreutnerFounder and Chief Writer for Guatadopt.com Posted by Kevin at January 19, 2008 06:40 PM

Update!!

I received a call from Renee earlier in the week that Spc. Hardin has found someone to help him on his road to recovery!! Thanks everyone!!

Pretty Princess!

This girl loves stickers! Mom found more that were left over from our garage sale.

This morning when I was fixing her hair, she looked in the mirror and said,"pretty princess"!!!!

Maegan is practicing to be like her Guate-a-Auntie Carrie!! Can you tell she's been to the Dr. a few times?

The end of blowing me a kiss!! She is such a sweetie! She says,"Bless you" when someone sneezes, Thank-you when you give her something and "Saw-wee" with a cute smile and slight tilt of her head as soon as her little hiney hits the time out chair!!

22 months old!

Here is Maegan doing what she loves, EATING! She grazes from the time she gets home until she goes to bed.

We're trying to start potty training her, so she has Princess pull-ups. She pooped in them and I asked her why she pooped on the Princesses and she said "Nanny did it" She is constantly making us laugh!

Do you know anyone in the D.C.area

that would be interested in helping in the healing process for a soldier who recently returned from Iraq? This is a link to his story. Warning: there are some graphic pictures.


http://alt-legacy.coxnewsweb.com/palmbeachpost/photos/news/Hardin/

My friend Renee, her husband John,who just returned from his 2nd tour in Iraq,worked as a medic with Spc. Kevin Hardin while in Iraq. John found out about his partner's injury just as he returned to the States.

This past Friday, John traveled to D.C. to Walter Reed Army Medical Center to visit him.This was the 1st time Spc. Kevin Hardin had been out of the MedicalCenter since his arrival!! The injured soldiers that require daily therapy are housed here in a very nice suite. The only thing is they have to have someone live with them. Mostly to be there if they need anything, go with them to doctor appointments,offer as much encouragement as possible and the most important, go out in public with them to help with the healing process of being around people again and have them look and stare and ask questions.

The girl that is doing this now(not girlfriend, just someone his family found) does not do any of this. John said she stays to herself, IS NOT encouraging and does not go anywhere with him. He is looking for someone else to help him out during this time. If he doesn't find anyone, he has to leave this nice suite and move into the barracks!! I know this sounds odd, that is what I thought when John told me today. I thought maybe a widowed man or woman or a mature adult. The person they find to do this needs to live in the suite with him. It is like a little apartment. If you know of anyone please let me know and I will forward the information on. Please share this with anyone you think would be interested

Back to the ducks

Since Maegan loves feeding the ducks, we took her today since it was a bit warmer than it has been. The hat makes her look like a conehead, but it keeps the West Texas wind out of her fragile ears.

Maegan wanting more bread for the ducks.

We (me) thought it would be funny to start throwing the bread closer to Wayland's foot. Remember in the previous post about how mean the ducks are. He was preoccupied watching Maegan that he didn't even notice. Until the huge gray ducks started swarming him. He literally started high stepping away. It was so hilarious.

Here is Joel catching Maegan steps away from being in the lake.

Thankfully, no one had the camera for the first time down this slide with Maegan & I. I haven't gone down this slide in years!! I had on just thin cotton pants. I had to lean back to get under the tunnel thing to be able to go down. That sent us flying down like a torpedo! I guess I had a funny look on my face because Joel and Mom were laughing pretty hard. So Wayland was in charge of taking her down the slides.