HOME

We are home!  It cost us a small fortune, but we bought tickets for seven and flew out of Port of Spain on friday morning and landed at Pearson at three in the afternoon.  We sailed through customs and immigration without any problems and my Mom and brother Greg pulled up the moment we collected our luggage.  It was awesome to see most of my family that night (my brother Scott and his family couldn’t make it as they had to very unexpectedly attend a funeral), and to meet my new nephew and get the news that my sister is expecting again.  Scott and clan did stop in last night, as well as Raleigh and Cari and Dave and Lisa, Val’s sister whose wedding we had missed.  We are heading over to Val’s family this aft and can’t wait to introduce Keem to grandpa and grandma and everyone else there.  Being gone for so long makes you really appreciate your family.  Its also very moving to see how everyone is so excited about meeting Keem.
Going to church this morning was good too although it seemed like a lot of people were missing, probably camping or cottaging and it seemed very short compared to what we had grown used to.  It was really good to talk to some of the other families there that have already adopted or are going through the process right now.  For my family, this adoption has been a mixture of trials, blessings, adventure, sleepless nights, moments of incredible joy and a whole range of other emotions I can’t quite put into words, but other adoptive families can easily relate to.
Every one keeps saying how good it must be to be home, and they are right, there is nothing quite like home.  But we both have to admit, Guyana also feels a lot like home.  There are many things that we miss already, especially all the people we met and got to know down there.
Right now though, my favourite thing about Guyana is sitting in a car seat behind me.  He is one hundred percent our son now and no judge or social worker or immigration official can say otherwise.  He has been really good here, mesmerized by the amount of space around our yard and the amount of toys in the playroom.  (He doesn’t even realize there are several more rubbermaid bins full in the basement still!)  He seems a little overwhelmed sometimes as everyone is so eager to see him, poke his tummy and touch his curly hair.  His hyper moods are getting more infrequent and shorter lived and he sleeps as though he doesn’t have a care in the world.  We don’t know what the future looks like, what kind of battles he will face, but for now he is safe and comfortable and happy with us, and we are thrilled with him.

CANADA Here We Come!!!

We woke up this morning feeling refreshed and ready to get things done today.  Derek took the kids to the zoo, while I went with 2 of the other parents here to the High Commission (the Embassy) in the hopes of getting our Visas processed.  The security guard looked skeptical when we came, and questioned why we were back so soon.  He mentioned that they had said they would contact us when they had news.  I had given them the wrong set of photos for the application, so at the very least I wanted to drop those off.  So the guard let us through, and we waited.  After about an hour they called us up and said the pictures we had left originally were fine, so we could go home and wait until they called with more news.  We offered to wait there until the applications were done, even if it took all day.  The guard looked at us like we were crazy, and mentioned that they would have to kick us out at lunch because they close down for an hour.  But we insisted on waiting anyway.  Within half an hour we had our processed applications in our hands!  Praise God!!  It felt like Christmas opening the envelope!  We were giddy with excitement as we walked to the zoo to tell the others.  When we got to the zoo, one of the fathers that was with us at the High Commission told Derek that "we have to go somewhere else for the visas now".  He with a deadpan expression as a joke.  Derek just about had a heart attack!
We all felt like celebrating after that, so we walked as a group to the Creole restaurant down the road for lunch, followed by ice cream from the market.  Afterwards we went for a swim at their hotel (our kids in their clothes since we didn't plan to do it).  They had such a good time and it was refreshing on such a hot afternoon.
At 6 we had to say goodbye.  This was harder than we thought it would be.  This group of people that we have gotten to know over the last 6 weeks have become very dear to us.  They have become family to us and we both got choked up saying goodbye.  It's not that we won't see them again, in fact we have already started planning our visits.  It's just that we've gotten used to seeing them, everyday.  We've gone through so much together, and we will miss them incredibly.
Kaylie was sobbing all the way home in the taxi, and again at dinner.  The kids felt how difficult it was too.
Yesterday, I had booked tickets online for a flight on Friday.  The airline allows you to book without paying to reserve a certain ticket price/time.  You have 24 hours to pay.  I went online tonight to pay (22 hours after I booked) and I was told that I couldn't get the original price anymore.  The tickets had gone up by $75 each.  We were very frustrated since we had booked them yesterday with the understanding that we were reserving the ticket price.  Since the price went up so dramatically, it added $600 to our already overly expensive flights.  We are hoping the airline will rectify this, but aren't too hopeful.  It's hard when you are already paying $4000 for a flight, but want to go home so badly that it doesn't even matter anymore.
But, we are coming home!!!!!  By the time we get home it will have been 6 weeks (to the hour) since we left.  We are so excited to go home, see our family and friends and spend the rest of our summer doing typical summer things....camping, swimming, relaxing, BBQ's.....

Goodbye Guyana, Hello Trinidad

We said farewell to Guyana for the last time this morning.  It was a very bittersweet occasion.  On one hand we are very glad to be wrapping up our trip and hopefully coming home soon.  On the other hand we are very sad that we won't be coming back for a long time.  We met a lot of really awesome people and had a ton of really great experiences.  We hope to go back to Guyana one day to show Keem where he came from, but that won't be for a long time.
It's also going to suck not being able to see and talk to the other two families that are here everyday.  They have become like family to us, our kids call them "aunt" and "uncle" and we feel like we have new nieces and nephews.  We have really valued having their help along the way and it's been amazing to be a part of their adoption journeys in some way.  Since their kids are older it's really exciting to see them experience all the new things they've missed out on.  Even simple things like escalators, automatic toilets and hand dryers!  Keem is oblivious to all of these things and doesn't realize what he's even been missing out on.
We will really miss our new friends, but we will be visiting often.
Now we are finally in Trinidad.  It was a rough day.  We had been up since 2 am, travelling with 5 kids is very difficult especially when one of them is an unruly, wild maniac.  On top of that Val was feeling very sick and it's blistering hot on this island.  We got a cute little b&b on the outskirts of Port of Spain which is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to.
Val went directly to the High Commission this morning with our paperwork.  We are still waiting for them to finish but tentatively it MIGHT be done tomorrow afternoon.  It will be so nice to have the waiting over with.
Booking last minute flights is proving to be very expensive, but it would have been more expensive to book and then have to change 7 tickets.  After all this expensive travelling my next trip will involve just a mini van and a tent.
Please pray that tomorrow goes smoothly, or if it doesn't that we have enough patience to get through it anyways.  

Trinidad Tuesday

Tonight, we've officially been away from home for 5 weeks.  We are ready to go home.  It's bittersweet, there is so much about Guyana that we love.  People we have met, we will miss the other families that are here with us so much when we leave.  I will miss the hot hot weather, but Derek will be glad to see that go.  Both of us, and the kids are excited to go back to our Canadian life.  We miss our family, friends, our own beds, bug free living, free medical care, late night campfires, Derek even misses the firehall.  Our health is deteriorating at an alarming rate, every single one of us has had a painful boil, mouth infection, serious cut or missing half their skin from mosquito bites.  Some of us have a combination of many of those ailments. I think at this rate we might have to go right to the doctor's office from the airport. 
Yesterday we booked our flights to Trinidad.  We leave Guyana at 6 am on Tuesday morning!
Booking the flights is a bit of a risk.  We have yet to receive confirmation from Trinidad that our citizenship will be processed next week when we go.  No one is willing to give us a definite answer on that.  But we are anxious to get home, and so we are taking a chance on going now.  Being there in Trinidad, at the High Commission will likely get it processed faster than sitting here in Guyana.  We are hoping that because they have not said "No we won't be doing it" that means it's likely that they will.  If all goes well we plan to fly HOME on Thursday or Friday!!!  But we say that very tentatively.  IF the paperwork goes through, IF we get it all done by then, that is the plan.  Praying that it will go as planned!!  Staying in Trinidad is 5 times more expensive than staying here in Guyana.  We really don't want to stay there long because we are already low on cash as it is!  But we are confident it's a risk worth taking.
Things with Keem are going well.  He is a lot of work.  Derek and I are exhausted.  He is dangerously hyper sometimes and we have to watch him like a hawk.  He also has a very hard time in the apartment.  There are so many things he can reach that he should not be touching that it makes it very hard to be obedient.  There isn't a lot of things for the kids to do here other than swim, so all of them are getting very antsy in this apartment.  We are hoping that once we get home Keem will mellow out a bit, get into more of a routine, and things will feel more normal.
This week we went to a place about an hour from here called Splashmins.  It's a black water creek out by the outskirts of the jungle.  It was a great break from being here everyday, and the kids had a blast swimming.  We also took a boat ride through the jungle there.  We saw a monkey, some parrots and even bubbles from an alligator under our boat.  Derek caught an iguana there.  On the way home we stopped by a road side stand that was selling large iguanas for eating.  I was thankful to hear they were too expensive for us to buy because I didn't feel like skinning and cooking up a large lizard for supper.  I think Derek was pretty disappointed though.  Instead, I bought him salted shark at the market, which ended up tasting horrible and we threw half of it out.  I guess you get what you pay for!
Today we went out for ice cream for the third time here at Bruster's Ice Cream place.  The best ice cream I've had- ever.  For the same price as a small iguana we bought our kids and our selves massive double scooped ice cream cones and a mini bus ride to Georgetown.  

Derek's Kaieteur Falls Video #2

It was the trip of a lifetime, something I dreamed of doing ever since I heard of the falls two and a half years ago when we started researching Guyana, but really an the kind of adventure I've dreamed of my whole life!   I went with Brock, one of the other Dads here, and we flew out of Ogle Airport, just down the road from our place.  The flight itself was worth the price.  ($27,000 or $140 Can)  Flying over the vast jungle,winding mudy creeks, tiny villages and the mighty Demarara and Esequibo rivers was breath taking, and you realy get an idea of how remote and rugged this country is.  After forty minutes the flat, swampy rainforest turns to mountainous plateaus covered in thick jungle.  And then you see it and its almost surreal.  Our pilot did a fly by and landed on an airstrip close by.  After a twenty minute hike, this was our first view from land.

We hiked along the ravine and took in the view from several vantage points.   What is really awesome about Kaieteur is that there are no gates, fences, garbage, graffiti, security guards or crowds of people.  The Falls and the whole area is completely pristine.  The canyon walls have a sharp edge and concave walls which gives you a great opportunity to lay on the edge and peak over it!

To give this perspective, Kaieteur is 741 feet high, making it the highest single drop water falls in the world.  It is roughly five times the height of Niagara!  Just being that close it stirs up so many strange feelings.  One is in complete awe at its power and it makes you feel pretty small and insignificant. Getting up after laying on the edge left me trembling!



Years from now, I want to take the family back to Guyana, and show Keem where he came from. And take the boys back to the falls, maybe by boat part way up the river and then hike the rest of the way in.  (Its a five day trip if you take a plane back home.)

Derek's Kaieteur Falls Video #1

BBQ's and Boils

Not a lot new to report today.  We are currently waiting on the Guyanese birth/adoption certificate to come in, which hopefully will be done by Wednesday at the latest.  Then, we will apply for a Guyanese passport.  The waiting is tough, we love it here, but now we are excited to get home.
We are all dealing with skin boils, which I think are just from the unbelievable amount of mosquito bites/open wounds on the kids especially, combined with foreign bacteria.  They are extremely painful for the kids especially and we can't seem to stay completely healthy here!   I am also very much looking forward to eating healthy again as it is a challenge to do that here.  A lot of the food here is amazing, but I miss salads, and my stomach will be very thankful to be back home.  Aside from all that though, things are going well here.  Last night we were treated by the owners of the apartment building we live in to a real Guyanese BBQ by the pool.  It was so generous of them, and so much fun.  We had some of the best beef, chicken, mutton and fish that we've ever had, BBQed over a hot coal/wood BBQ.  There was so much to eat that all five couples there went home with enough for a full meal for their families!!  Afterwards we had a karaoke night, complete with the mic and screen.  It was so much fun, and we all had a great time!  My favourite was watching Derek, the owner of our apartment, his friend and the two other dad's here sing their version of Queen's "We are the Champions".  Very entertaining to say the least.  There are so many things about being here that we love, it will be very hard to leave.  But home is looking very good to us at the same time, and we will be thrilled to come home.
As I write this, Derek is soaring high above the clouds in a mini plane on his way to Kaieteur Falls with one of our friends here.  This is, for Derek, a trip of a lifetime.  He's wanted to do a trip like this for as long as I've known him.  They will fly to the waterfall, which is about 5 times taller than Niagara Falls, without barriers.  I think they get a few hours to explore the falls, and then fly home around 4 pm.  I would have loved to go with him, but it's not easy to get a sitter around here (unless you count the fish lady who offered a few weeks ago I don't think I know any teenage girls who would be willing around here!  I knew I should have brought Rachel or Macayla!).  I also felt a bit nervous about both of us going on the same plane.  I am sure it will be a very exciting and safe trip, but I didn't want to go with him on the chance that something happened, or even delayed them coming home.  Praying they will return safely and I'm so excited for Derek!  He will be in his element.

Promising News

This morning, after countless emails and phone calls to almost everyone we could think of who might have connections or pulls, we received our first glimmer of hope.  An email, addressed to us, and the two other families here, stating that the High Commission in Trinidad will look at our documents as soon as we get them.  They said they can "make no promises", but that they will do their best to accommodate us as soon as it is possible to do so.  We don't want to get too excited but they asked us when we were planning to come (and we told them our July 15-19 date we were given here for the finalization of the birth certificates and passports), and they said they would see what they could do!!
So, although it's not concrete, there is HOPE!!!!  Thanks for all the support we've been getting from all of our readers, we appreciate it!  Hopefully we will be able to go home mid July as originally planned....I'll keep you posted!
Also, for those of you who have been trying to Skype us and have not been getting through, sorry!  Our internet has been very unreliable, especially in the mornings.  There has also been a few nights without any power here and that seems to have an affect on the internet as well.  Keep trying as it's still hit and miss.

This morning, Derek is off to the adoption board with the other men.  We are getting some kind of certificate signed and I think applying for an official document, although I'm not really sure what it is.  I'm not sure if they are coming home with the document we need, or if this is just the application for that document.  Either way it's the first step of this end of the process.  Next week we will be able to apply for a Guyanese passport.