Visiting Hannah's Hope and meeting Max's birthmom

This morning is best described in Max's own words:
"It was awesome possum radical dude! I got to meet my birthmom and I gave her a necklace and she really loved it, and she could barely even pick me up! She was really nice. I get to see her again on Sunday and I'm so excited. I can't wait until I get to see her 'cuz that's gonna just rock! And I get to meet my birth grandma and birth grandpa and Jefry and Werner, my birth brothers. Jefry is 13, and Werner is 9. Jefry likes to ride his bike just like me, but he likes to ride it with Spike, his dog (a Corgi). Werner to loves to climb things and jump on things."

Max asked all his questions, and it turns out he's probably not going starve because he really liked breakfast. I emphasize "probably" because he's asked if he can withhold his final opinion until later... he says he's "50-50" right now on the starving possibilities.

This morning was amazing, and it seems hard to believe the meeting really happened. Of course, sleep deprivation gives everything a rather surreal quality to begin with! Glendys was waiting for us when we arrived at Hannah's Hope and we spent close to 2 hours with her. Max was nervous and excited, but eventually relaxed enough to give her a fine dance/rap/song/entire rock band impersonation. We all thoroughly enjoyed the performance, and she was so happy to see him be relaxed enough to be silly and fun with her.

Personally, I am just overwhelmed with thoughts and emotions. It was such a delight and a treasure to see her again, and she was so thankful to see Max. She thought she would never see him again, would never know how he was growing or what he was doing. She had lost the contact information after we came home with Max, so was not able to get our updates. When HH was able to contact her again and let her know we were coming, she was so happy. She longs to see photos of him as he grows, and she misses him so deeply. I have tears in my eyes even now as I think of how she described missing him, wondering about him, and pouring over all the pictures she has of him, photos spread out all over her bed. I believe our entire trip was worth this one morning and the gift she was given in seeing her baby again, growing strong and healthy and hilarious! :-)

We are so thankful for the opportunity to host them all for breakfast on Sunday. Her sons and mother really wanted to come today, but were unable to because of their schedules. However, Sunday morning will work perfectly for them, and it just happens that we will still be in the city as the flight we were to take to Tikal that morning was cancelled and we'll be leaving in the afternoon, instead. I'm really looking forward to seeing the boys together- I hope they'll all be able to relax enough together to enjoy the time and get to know each other a bit. As we shared stories, Glendys and I were laughing about Max and Werner- they sound very similar. We thought that together they could probably get into quite a bit of trouble!

After our time with Glendys, we walked around Hannah's Hope and visited with the kids. We are not able to post any photos of the children there on our blog, but I do have a couple of photos of one particular little girl, "Y," who is very darling. Her mom knows who she is! :-) She played peek-a-boo with me for a few minutes, and otherwise was very busy running around.

We spent a few minutes out on the playground that we installed 6 years ago with some of you readers out there. :-) It's still standing!


Now we're back at the hotel enjoying a much needed "downtime" afternoon- the kids are having a blast in the pool, and Alex is astounding us with his amazing swimming abilities in about 1 foot of water. He's so funny- he can swim in deeper water, but he's loving the section of the pool that is raised up and very shallow. He's even "diving" (belly-flopping) in like a pro!


It has been heaven to my tired and very full mind to sit here by the side of the pool, try to corral a few of the thoughts in my head, munch on chicken quesadillas, and listen to the kids yell, splash, play and move to their hearts content!