Prospero Año y Felicidad

Happy New Year!

We hope you are all enjoying the holiday season with family and friends. We wanted to post an updated photo-- these were taken this week. Seven new photos and an email message were sent to us on Christmas Eve from Mason's foster familly. It made for our best Christmas gift. He is doing well and has gained two pounds in the last month! If you look close, you can detect that he's grown another chin. It is crazy how much he's change since we were there. Mason was a hit at Christmas even though he wasn't here in person. He raked in more gifts than his mom and dad. His room is filling up with fun bilingual toys, clothes, books, and blankets. He is a lucky guy!

During our time off we are working on projects around the house and Juan is coaching. We were able to spend time in Winona and Chippewa and we plan to be with friends in Eau Claire for New Year's. We are trying to stay busy to keep our mind off you-know-who, but who are we kidding? We dream of him every minute. We are feeling positive and hopeful that 2008 will be a year filled with new adventures.

Feliz Navidad ---A Season of Waiting

We've been home now for almost 3 weeks from the trip of a lifetime. It is hard to put in to words what our trip meant to us. The holidays are proving to be an especially trying time for us as we are desperately missing our son. It was such a blessing to meet him and spend a week with him in our arms. There's no doubt that he's worth each challenge we encounter along the way.

The political news seems to be in our favor which we are grateful for. In process cases are protected under the new law. We pray that next year will be very a different Christmas at our house. We've been keeping in touch with the foster family on a weekly basis. Last night Mason was even able to babble back into the phone while we told him we love and miss him. His room awaits him as do friends and family to welcome him home.

Family Time

I think we have another Packer fan on our hands! Alisha loves that!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Mama y su hijo

I just thought I would post this picture to show Alisha in heaven. Oh yeah, they are both still sleeping this morning.

Quality time with Papa!

Here's our little talker! Part II

Here is our little man! Sorry about it being sideways.

Here's our little talker!

So because I (Juan) forgot a necessary part of our new video camera, this is some video taken with our regular digital camera. We were going to try to update this more and be more in contact today, but the internet has been down all day. We are thankful that it is working now. We are hopeful that it will continue to work the rest of the week.

Today was pretty eventful, we left the hotel room all together. We went out to eat at the restaurant here in the hotel for breakfast. Mason has been amazing. He has been putting up with us so well. He also communicates very well when he needs to be changed or eat:). Sorry the video isn't working here is a picture though!

One Happy Family!

Amazing pretty sums up this experience! Everything is going great. We met the foster mom and sister this after noon and it was easy to tell that they loved him. We will post more soon.

Love Juan, Alisha, and Mason

Vamos a Guatemala

Guatemala Here We Come!

We found out today that we are cleared to travel to meet our son this Saturday!!!!
We are elated. We have lots to do. It is really perfect timing with Thanksgiving break. We have flights and hotel and a plan to meet him on Saturday afternoon when we arrive. Then we will have a week to spend with him. Hopefully we can convince him to like us, since we are already in love with him...
We need to get packing!!!! Check here next week for video and pictures of all 3 of us.TOGETHER!

Life is good.

Love,
Juan and Alisha

Who is this little man?

We received an update today that we are in one of the final stages of the process. It is really exciting, but again we are trying not to get too excited. It is all really good news, but there is always the chance of being in this stage for quite a while. We hope to travel soon to visit. We have to discuss this with the agency first and we will update you all as soon as we know. Enjoy the pictures!

Phone Home, or Home Phoning!

Since our last update we were able to speak on the phone with Mason’s foster mother. She has been caring for children for many years. Often she takes care of two, but right now just has Mason. We were able to get to know her a little and thank her for caring for our son.

We learned some more about him and got some peace by knowing that he is well cared for. She reassured us that she would care for him well until we are able to come for him. He is sleeping and eating well. He is now 11 weeks old and growing. She said she sings to him and that he’s around a lot of family. He has a foster father, brother and two sisters, plus aunts, uncles and grandparents. He is easy going and doesn’t let much bother him. As first time parents, we hope this demeanor continues! :)

We will be getting a new update and pictures in the next two weeks. Of course we are very excited to see them and find out when we can travel to visit. We are also hoping that a more “official” statement will be made about continuing Guatemalan adoptions. What we have seen lately looks positive but we are still holding our breath.

Recent News

A lot has happened since our last post. Many concerned people have voiced their concerns to government officials in both the US and Guatemala. Thank you to all who helped us out by sending emails, making phone calls, etc... It is looking good for the adoptions in process, but we will have no confirmation until the Guatemalan Congress votes in November. There is a lot of information available concerning this. If you are interested check out the links, some are new.

On the brighter side, we are preparing to call the foster family this week. We are nervous and excited to do this. Alisha has also started painting furniture. We sent a package that should be arriving soon. We sent some toys, clothes, and a letter to the foster family written in Spanish.

Thanks for the support,

Casa Ramirez

As you read in our previous posting, there has been some bad news concerning Guatemalan adoptions. The statements that have been made affect 5000 families in the process of adoption. This could potentially leave 5000 children without permanent homes. We are trying to come together as one unified voice to influence the outrageous threats being made. We are also asking that you help by doing some of the following things.



Online Petition from Focus on Adoption: http://www.petitiononline.com/foafoa1/petition.html

How can you participate in Guatemala 5000 initiative (see below or click on link) http://www.jcics.org/Guatemala5000.htm#Participate

How YOU can participate in the Guatemala 5000 Initiative

Make six simple phone calls and one email.

1. Call your U.S. Senator.
· You can find your Senators’ phone numbers at www.senate.gov
· Ask to speak with the Legislative Director or Chief of Staff

2. Call your second U.S. Senator.

3. Call your representative to the U.S. House of Representative.
· You can find your representative at www.house.gov
· Ask to speak with the Legislative Director or Chief of Staff

4. Call or fax UNICEF Headquarters
· Ask to speak with Ann Veneman, Executive Director
· Their number is 212-326-7000
· Their fax number is 212-326-7758

5. Call or fax UNICEF Guatemala
· Ask to speak with Manuel Manrique
· Their number is 011-502-2327-6373
· Their fax number is 011-502-2327.6366
Please note that calls and faxes to Guatemala are international calls.

7. Send and email supporting Intercountry Adoption to guatemala5000@jcics.org
· Write briefly or at length
· Joint Council will use the cumulative email petition in our advocacy for Intercountry Adoption

When should you call?
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday (October 9th, 10th, 11th)
For maximum affect, we are asking you to make these calls within a 72 hour window!

Please email us if you have questions: alisharamirez@yahoo.com

Once again, thank you for your continued support!

Love, Juan and Alisha (and Mason)

The Glass IS half full!

The same day we received word of Mason's check-up and received his photos, we heard some bad news about Guatemalan Adoptions. The bad news was that there are some rough waters ahead for adoptions. The Department of State released a really scary statement saying that adoptions that aren't finalized by January 1, 2008 will not be allowed to continue. Although it is really scary for us, the scariest thing is what will happen to him and the waiting children. We continue to be optimistic and hope that this changes. If you would like to learn more about it, there are some links to the right of the page. Here is a short movie we made of pictures we received a month ago and a couple days ago.

More News on Mason

Today we received an update from Guatemala. He went to his well-baby check up and he is doing very well. He has put on a few pounds, and proudly wears his nickname of "chubbers!" This was lovingly given to him by our friends. He seems to already have taken after Alisha in the way he likes to sleep.
This site is a beginning and we are not sure if this will be the one, but it is a start to update our loving family and friends about the process. We hope this finds you all well and happy!