Sunday, April 26, 2009

Gotcha!

This is the 2 year anniversary of our "gotcha day". Two years ago I traveled to Guatemala to finally bring my sweetie home. I actually flew to Guatemala City on April 20 and toured for a few days first, which was something I didn't do at all on my visit trips. I had three tourist goals: the Mayan ruins at Tikal; Antigua, Guatemala's first capitol and UNESCO World Heritage Site; and Lake Atitlan. I was able to accomplish the first two of the three. Then, finally, on April 26, 2007, Maya was placed in my arms as my daughter officially. We stayed in Guatemala at the Marriott for several more days for our Embassy appointment and to receive the papers needed to travel home, and also one of the days we were there was a Guatemalan holiday so we had to wait one extra day to travel home. May 1, 2007 I began the journey home with my daughter. It is hard now to remember back to a time when Maya was not in my life. I truly believe that we were always meant to be each other's family.
Beautiful Antigua and probably one of its most recognized landmarks, Arco de Santa Catalina.
I would have loved to make it to one of Guatemala's big markets like the one in Chichicastenengo. This one in Antigua was small but nice.

The grounds of the Hotel Museo Casa Santo Domingo

One of the temples in Tikal
This was the stairway up to the tallest of the temples in Tikal. I am very scared of heights (i get shaking and dizzy) but I knew I'd regret it if I didn't go up.
Here is the view from the top. Trivia: This is a view in the movie Return of the Jedi
Lake Peten-we drove around this lake from the airport in Flores to get to Tikal.

The volcanoes we could see from our room at the Marriott hotel. Guatemala had 33 active volcanoes.

One of my favorite photos of Maya from my pick up trip. I don't have a photo of just me and Maya from our gotcha day so this has to do. an aside: Guatemala is an incredibly beautiful country. It reminds me a lot of Hawaii in it's terrain and vegetation. I definitely want to spend more time there in the future!





2 comments:

  1. Happy family day! Don't you find yourself wondering where the time goes?
    My husband and I spent a week in rural Guatemala back in 2005 and I left a part of my heart there. Lake Atitlan is spectacular by the way...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yay! Happy Gotcha Day! I can't believe its been 2 years already. It seems like just yesterday my sister was telling me about you and you were in the process of adopting.

    ReplyDelete