All the stars have aligned...well most of them.

Yesterday we got the ID cards and passports. This morning, K flew to Guayaquil with N & J. I waited for our attorney to hopefully pick up the last certificate from the National Council for Children & Adolescents this morning. My flight with M & F was at 12:15PM, the last possible time for me to get the certificate and fly to Guayaquil to get the visas at the US Consulate. Our attorney got the certificate!! The only problem was she got it at 11:40AM and was 20+ minutes away. At 12:03pm, my attorney came running up to me at outside the airport. I grabbed the docs, gave her a hug and sprinted to the security checkpoint. Oh yeah, I was pushing a stroller, carrying two carry-ons and holding F's hand. Long, story short....we got the certificate, made it to Guayaquil with 8+ suitcases, and got the visas. We're headed home!!

It was one of those days where everything was too good to be true. That is, until we went to get on our flights. We were supposed to depart from here at 11:10PM tonight (Friday) arrive in Atlanta at 6am and connect to MSP, arriving at 10:30AM Saturday. At the moment, we are sitting in the airport with a delayed outbound flight, delayed until 2:50AM. Our connection was changed and we will now get home at 1:45PM Saturday.

Frankly, if we get home on Saturday some time, I will be happy. So far, 1 of the 4 kids is sleeping. Hopefully, soon all will be!

I've never been so delayed by a flight, so inconvenienced and yet still so happy and content. There is tremendous sense of relief and completeness that we are on our way home. This has been an amazing and trying experience. We are so grateful for our new, expanded family and can't wait to get home and make more memories.

The last 24 hours!!

Have been rather insane!! Yesterday, after much waiting and running around from place to place, we got new ID cards and new passports for N & J. The civil registry for the ID's and the passport center made a NJ DMV look like a well-oiled machine of the 21st century by comparison!! But that's ok because we got it done!

Later today, we hope to get one last certificate we need. Then, we are off to Guayaquil this afternoon to get the visas so we can travel home. I am knocking wood as I say this, but it looks most certain we will be home by 8/15 and possibly even sooner if just a little bit more luck comes our way! Cross your fingers!!

last day at the beach

Another day in paraiso

We got word of more progress today; we have new birth certificates! We won't be able to meet with the Council for Children until next Tuesday, August 11th. We should get new ID cards and passports the same day. Then off to Guayaquil on Wednesday, August 12th for their visas at the US Consulate. Then we should be able to depart Thursday or Friday depending on potential delays and flights; we're getting so close!! We are anxious to be home.

The beach house is fantastic. So much space, pool, great park in the development, steps to the beach, a chef and a butler. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. At the same time, all I want is to sleep in my own bed. It's a long time to be away from home. The ambiguous process doesn't help much either. On the bright side, it looks (dare I say) nearly certain that K and I will be home to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary on August 21st.

Here's a link to all pics since my last pics link.

OK, so while I was writing this post, our lawyer called. She now wants us to return to Quito on Wednesday of this week, 8/5. On Thursday, we will get the ID cards and passports. She is going to try and get us in front of the council on Friday. We will still need to go to Guayaguil for visas on Tuesday 8/11. It might not necessarily speed up the process, but I do like completing at least 2 more steps of the process this week. We'll see what happens....

Cause for Celebration!!!

We received the written judgment this afternoon confirming and legalizing the adoption of our two youngest daughters!! It's official, we are a family of six!!! This also means we should be able to come home soon, about 2 weeks!! We're very grateful for the help of our attorneys here, Ximena and Cumanda. They managed to complete the lion's share of the legal work before the court holiday from August 1st through August 15th. We have to get new birth certificates, ID cards, passports, a visit with the National Council of Children and then we head to our embassy for visas to go home.

Life is good at the beach

King of the beach

Panama hats are made here! Cool. Crafting!



Manta is the 2nd largest port city. Tuna is a big business here. Don't ask me what that fish is, but we saw lots of fish being sold -and carved up - out of carts in the street this morning.

Heck yah! Ice cream, baby!


We are relaxing for a week in Manta. Life is good here for us.
We'll likely head back to the city on Wednesday. We had to have help to get the upload speed fast enough to bother posting. We've been without Skype and blogging for a few days - hardship!

Here's a link to more pics

Click Here!