Casa Quivira Agency and Orphanage

Although we didn't use this orphanage it's an orphanage in Antigua Guatemala that was heavily raided this past August. All charges have been dropped and all the children have been returned to the orphanages care, the orphanage has not gotten back their beds, cribs, diapers, formula, ect. The families of Casa have compiled a CD of 200 photos of Guatemala to use for fundraising. 100% of proceeds are going to Casa to help supply them again with daily essentials needed to care for the children and babies.

Here is the post:
Hello All,I'm happy to announce that the photo CD, "Guatemala in Pictures" is finally ready!This CD will be sold to raise funds for the Casa Quivira Foundation. 100% of the profits will go to CQ. I'm suggesting a donation amount of $20.00 with the check made payable to The Casa Quivira Foundation. Order forms (you'll find one in the"files" section of the CQWaiters site) and checks should be sent to me. I will send out the CDs and forward the checks to the CQF treasurer, Lisa Mantia.The CD contains over 200 beautiful, high-resolution digital photos of Guatemala including pictures featuring Antigua, Tikal & El Peten, Flores, Lake Atitlan,Guatemala City and more. There are photos of Guatemala's indigenous people,colonial architecture, landscapes, daily life, plants, animals, etc. It is a stunning and diverse collection of photographs. Email me if you would like to see a list of the photos.You can use the photos to make prints for creating photo albums, use in scrapbooks and lifebooks, get enlargements to frame, create a fabulous photobook, or just view them as a slide show on your computer. The photos may not be used for any commercial purpose, however.A big thank you to the Porters, the Lockharts, Dana Scott, Alicia Santamaria,Karen Peck and Dennis Kaiblinger for contributing pictures.Please help spread the word about this fundraiser! If you belong to an adoption forum, adoption support group, adoption list serve, or any other group that you think would be interested - let others know about the photo CD. If you have a blog or website, feel free to advertise this fundraiser there as well. Anyone interested can contact me at mayesfamily@... to get an order form or for more info.Thanks!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRITTANY!

Brittany will turn 9 years old at 7:15 pm tonight. She weighed 6lbs 4 oz and was 19 3/4 long. My beautiful baby girl is now turning 9! I want to cry...kids grow so fast.

Brittany's pregnancy wasn't the easiest..numerous hospital visits due to pre-term labor, gestational diabetes and so on. On one hospital stay the doctors couldn't stop labor, my room was FILLED with all kinds of doctors and nurses, specialist and machines. The neonatal specialist had informed us of their equipment and procedures, the doctors had given me steroid shots that went directly to Brittany's lungs to help her survive when she did deliver...doctors predicted by the next night we would have a baby born at 23 weeks gestation.

Everyone was praying and praying hard.

God listened.

Labor stopped

Doctors, specialist and nurses were stunned.

I knew my baby was strong and would be a fighter

Full bed rest was prescribed

Then partial bed rest

She made it the full 9 months...then didn't want to come out.

Doctors had to induce me.

Today Brittany's attitude is still "I want it now or forget about it". She's very strong willed and will fight to the end for what she believes in and wants.

Brittany "britter-bo-bop" we love you SO SO much!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Happy Holidays to Everyone!

With Christmas just a couple days away (still can't believe it) we want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. We pray all our family and friends have a safe and joyous time.

Jenny, Paul, Brittany, Andrew, Dominick & Marissa

Santa's Helpers

We decorated our tree the other night. As we brought out all the ornaments I realized not only how many we have, but how special each one meant. Our tree looks beautiful and although we have a lump of ornaments in the same general area, I wouldn't change it for anything.

Anyone under there??

So Cute

Two Thanksgiving Meals!!

We were lucky enough to celebrate two Thanksgiving's this year. We spent Thanksgiving day at Paul's parents house. Mark, Kristen, Sam and Yi Yen visited from Laramie, WY (Paul's brother) and Ruth and Oscar visited from Portland OR (Paul's sister and nephew). Some of Paul's aunts and cousins also came to Thanksgiving, all in all 24 people!!! This is all the great grandchildren from Paul's side.

When we got home Brittany and myself wanted to celebrate with my family, so we had a after Thanksgiving meal. All the great food and nothing beats moms cooking! My sister, brother and their families joined us as well as my aunt and her family. My parents have 8 grand-kids and 1 great grandchild. The "big" baby is my great nephew Dylan. He's a repeat of my Andrew!!

Marissa Turns 2!!

Marissa turned the wonderful age of 2 on Friday November 9. Terrible two's settled in long before she turned 2...at least we thought. We didn't think it couldn't get any worse WE WERE WRONG! I swear our child was switched in the middle of the night with a back talking, screaming, crying, does-what-she-wants-when-she-wants child. She suddenly wants to do EVERYTHING for herself, change her diapers, get dressed and undressed, dish up her own food and take her finished plate and cup to the sink (spilling all along the way). Deep down we are LOVING every minute of our life!

Marissa did have a good birthday. We celebrated Saturday with family at McDonald's. She loved all the attention. She still walks around the house singing "Happy birthday to you". She now loves dressing up and walking around in her "high heels".

It's hard to believe she's 2. It seems like we were just visiting her at Eagle's Nest and now she's running talking and acquired a HUGE attitude.

Church Choir

Dominick has joined our Church's youth choir with Brittany and Andrew. We had asked if Dominick could join yet (he's been waiting) the choir director was excited and even asked if we wanted Marissa to sing too...we won't do that to him yet...he is a Church goer!

Dominick knew some of the words and some of the motions. I thought he would of been shy, but he wasn't. He went right up front and loved the attention!