In the midst of renovations, adoption updates and home-schooling, we decided this year is actually the best time to take the boys back to Guatemala for their first birth-country return trip.  They’re old enough that they’ll remember it, we’re hoping our next adoption will complete in the next year (meaning we’ll need to be at home with a strict routine again for a while, while we and the newbies adjust to one another), and we don’t want to let too much time lapse before we re-connect with the people we (sort of) know there.

So that’s the boys’ “big” birthday item from us up there in the picture: personalized carryon luggage ($20 at Walmart, plus $1.50 for the letters I hot-glued on).

We found great round-trip flight rates with Air Mexicana ($332.70 apiece, total!), and we’re planning to stay at the hotel in which we first met them three and a half years ago.

Squaring away our site-seeing itinerary now.  Can’t wait to see them seeing Guatemala again.  They’re definitely excited to be going back!

It’s the truth in our house!  I even have Guatemala City programed into my iPhone’s weather app, and the twins check the weather there every day, right after checking our local weather to see if they can wear shorts or not.  But this last week takes all the humor out of ”just talking about the weather there.”

photo courtesy of JackieSue

photo courtesy of Baltimore Examiner

photo courtesy of MSNBC

photo courtesy of Blindloop

photo courtesy of Guatemalan President’s Photo Gallery

last 3 photos courtesy of Boston. com

photo courtesy of Star-Telegram

last 7 photos courtesy of Prensa Libre

A friend of mine asked me today if I’ve told the twins about what’s happening.  Yes, I did, and they’ve seen the pictures.  Why, at 5?  They have people there they care very much about – their birth mom, birth dad, foster mom, and two little boys they sponsor.  So we did what we can for now: pray. 

As we find more ways to help, I’ll post those, too.

Stand-out words of the day:  former slur terms that are now used as national identification slang (often with pride) by the various people of Central America.

Happy to share.

I am already the proud mother of two of the cutest Chapines (chah-PEEN-ays) in the USA.  “Chapin” or “Chapina” means someone from Guatemala.  Having done some cursory research online, I believe the term comes from a type of shoe that the Maya people wore hundreds of years ago which made them easily identifiable by people from other regions.

Our future kids from El Salvador?  “Guanacos.”   Or “Guanacas” if they’re girls. 

It’s always good to know these things, right?

As for the Complete Central American Slang-Term List:

Mexican – depends on the region.  “Chicano/a” is a U.S.American of Mexican descent, “Chilango” is someone from Mexico City, “Chollero/a” is someone from Los Cabos  (refers to a type of cactus there)

Guatemalan – Chapin/Chapina  (after a type of sandal worn by the Maya in this region in pre-Columbian times) 

Belizean - ???  (I thought my friend was just being coy when she said there is no term, but it appears that her native country somehow escaped without one!)

Salvadoran – Guanaco/Guanaca (derived from Maya tribal band, refers to brotherhood)

Honduran – Catracho/Catracha (after a 19th century military leader, Florencio Xatruch)

Nicaraguan – Nica, Nicoya or Pinolero/Pinolera  (the former and second are shortened versions of the country name, the latter refers to a drink made in Nicaragua called “Pinol.”)

Costa Rican – Tico/Tica (refers to the use of diminutives in speech… similar to when we add “ie” or “y” to the end of a word like “birdy” instead of “bird” … apparently Costa Ricans are stereotyped as very likely to over-employ these.)

Panamanian – Pana (abbreviation for the country)

I, of course, remain and ever shall be a “Gringa” (most commonly ascribed to the Mexican-American War era when U.S. soldiers wore green uniforms and those fighting against them wanted them to leave their turf and return home…”Green, go!” = “Gringo” and now refers to anyone of light complexion from North America or Europe).

Lest anyone wonder what kind of Hispanic Bible study I’ve joined, please keep in mind that I didn’t learn these till today.  In the woods.  They’re not part of our every-Sunday vernacular.  But at least if someone wants to toss me a teasing ”Gringa!” now, I know how to retort, country-appropriately!

Yeah, street cred.

Today is our kids’ 3^rd “Gotcha Day.”  For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s the third anniversary of when we “got” them, the day we first met our sons.

January 22, 2007.  Even when I’m old and senile, I’m pretty sure I will not forget that day.  Two little men came toddling into the lobby of our hotel in Guatemala City, clutching their foster mom’s hands with one hand and photos of us in their other.

Tiny two and a half year olds (the size of one year olds by U.S. growth chart standards).  Huge brown eyes, chubby cheeks, dark brown hair, bow-shaped lips.

And when they stopped in front of us, they looked down at their pictures, up at us… then up some more, since we’re so tall compared to what they were used to in Guatemala … and declared “Mamá.  Papá.”

And so our names were assigned to us by our own kids.

It’s the adoption equivalent to the just-after-birth moment.  Not everything sank in right away.  We felt like we were just the babysitters or something for the first week.  And they didn’t know what was going on.  No, it was a long while before “We + They” equaled “Normal.”

But that was the day that we became a united family.

So every year on January 22^nd, we look back and celebrate.  We let them pick how we celebrate, each time, so this year we’re going to Medieval Times, since they’re really into knights and battles… and eating. 

And every January, I pull out their “treasure boxes” which I filled with souvenirs from that trip, pictures, the outfits and shoes they were wearing, and the first toys we gave them that day.

Then we grab their scrapbooks and re-read their stories.

Amazingly, they can still fit into the outfits.  Yes, the pants are way too short and their tummies show, but the only ridiculously-tiny items are their old shoes.  Any year now I’m going to have to settle for the “hold them up in front of you and smile!” shot, but not yet.  Still, how quickly three years have passed.

On the other hand, though, it seems like they’ve been with us forever.

“Happy 3^rd Gotcha Day!” to two of the greatest loves of my life.  I’m so glad God gave us the privilege of being your parents.  You are more than we ever could have dreamed of in sons.

Los amo con todo mi corazón,

- Mamá

Thankfully, unlike Haiti’s quake, this one occurred 64.2 miles underground, and no serious injuries or damages have been reported.

It was on January 18th three years ago that we got the call to head to Guatemala City immediately to finalize the boys’ adoption, so their birthmom and foster mom were already on my mind when I read the news, yesterday.  They both would have felt this quake, so I’m thankful to be able to lump them into the “no serious injuries” category.