Double Blessing

Double Blessing

We feel so very blessed this holiday season. We have two very special little boys in our life and love them dearly. In February of this year we brought home Erick, 8 years old, and Mario, 5 years old, from Guatemala. Our adoption of these two little guys has been such a blessing to us, we wanted to share our story and encourage others to consider the adoption of older children, especially boys.


Adoption is not new to our family. In addition to a grown biological daughter, Alisa, we have two adopted daughters from Korea. Rachel was adopted 20 years ago at the age of 4 1/2 and Elisabeth was adopted 18 years ago at the age of 3 1/2. We decided it was time we had a boy in our family, so we made the decision to embark on the adoption journey again, confident we would have our little boy in just a few short months with only one short to trip to Guatemala (did I mention I hate to fly) and everything going smoothly and problem free. How wrong we were! Two trips to Guatemala and 16 months later we came home with not one, but TWO little boys! Our adoption experience was a combination of joy and sorrow, frustration and delight, but it was an adventure we wouldn't hesitate to repeat..

After much frustration with getting our needed paperwork for our dossier (among other things, we had to wait six weeks for my husband's birth certificate from Texas, and the passport office lost all his paperwork), our dossier went to Guatemala on January 29. On January 31 we got our referral! We were told that TWO little boys had been selected for us! The incredible thing was that I had already been thinking about adopting a second little boy and we had just bought a big bunkbed with a double bed on the bottom. I kept thinking "what a lot of bed for one little boy". The Lord worked it out perfectly for us.

We got our first pictures of our boys on our anniversary and had the joy of spending Father's Day with them in Guatemala. They were just delightful. They were so happy and excited we had come to see them and kept telling everyone "our Mami and Papi are here! Our Mami and Papi came to see us!" We spent a happy two days visiting with them at the orphanage.

Eight months later we flew to Guatemala for a second time and spent a wonderful 50 days in our boys' birth country enjoying the sights and beautiful weather. We went to the zoo, the Children's Museum, to Antigua, and spent a lot of time eating, shopping and getting to know our two little bundles of energy.

Now nine months later the boys are settled in and enjoying America. They are speaking English and love pizza and McDonald's just like other kids. Erick is in 1st grade and learning to read, he is especially good at math, and he loves school. Mario is in pre-school three days a week and learning the letters of the alphabet and their sounds. He too loves school and is so disappointed on the days he doesn't have school. They are such sweet, affectionate little boys who love to help around the house. Erick's teacher describes him as respectful, obedient, and highly motivated. They are active and energetic, good at sports and loved by everyone at school and church. God has truly blessed us beyond our wildest dreams with a DOUBLE blessing.




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