Guatemala Trip #4 – Part One

Here we are again in Guatemala. We arrived on Saturday at 8PM, checked in to the hotel and rested up for the next day. We were both very anxious with the excitement of seeing Paulo again. He arrived the next day in the afternoon with his foster mother Teresa. We inquired through our Coordinator Maria as to his eating and sleeping routine. We were provided a lot of information regarding his development. We noticed that he was more “mature” looking and had filled out, yet he is still a small little boy. We discovered that he eats all of the time just like Teresa had reported. We took a shuttle to Antigua where we checked into the Dos Loros Inn where we have been the only guests so far. Dos Loros is newly remodeled with spacious rooms, a common kitchen and a giant courtyard for playing! (http://www.doslorosinn.com)

We spent the first night settling in and the next day walked a block away to visit Lee Anne, Eric, Emily and Samuel. We have also dined at the most affordable, quaint restaurants you will ever find in a 12 block “city”. There will be more of that along with daily cappuccinos.

It took Paulo a day to warm up. He smiles and laughs all of the time. He plays HARD, sweat coming from his head. He sleeps all night long (8 PM – 6 AM) and takes a short nap in the afternoon. He takes a bottle before his nap and at night. The rest of the time he is drinking out of sippy cups. We dined last night at the reliable Rainbow Café and learned that Paulo knows candles. You see, when the waitress began to light all of the table candles, Paulo began to blow profusely at them from across the room. This continued for about 30 minutes until we left; we had a good laugh while we ate. We guess that Teresa must light candles at her house and she has taught Paulo to blow them out. Last night before we gave Paulo his bath, we Skype’d his Aunt Stacie and cousin Natalie who live in Virginia. They got to see Paulo run around the room, play peek-a-boo and smile a lot. Natalie said she was so happy we are adopting Paulo. Here are some photos of our trip so far.