We got this picture today and I screamed out loud!!! SHE HAS TWO TEETH!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!! Are they not the cutest things ever??!! I just wanted to thank all of you for your comments about Tracy's necklaces. Thank you for helping us bring our precious baby home. Spread the word!
Check out the necklace below at the Junk Posse web-site:
Junk Posse
"Iria hasta los extremos de la Tierra por ti."
I would go to the ends of the earth for you.
(Tracy's Description) This Pendant is a Wonderful way to express your love for someone close to your Heart. I will gladly add a name or initials to the back for you. This unique pendant I created from fine silver and Finished it by Hand with a patina to highlight the depth.I paired it with a nice sterling silver chain & clasp.
I love you all,
Lindsey
27 comments:
OH MY GOODNESS!!! She's BEAUTIFUL!!!
Jadon only has 2 teeth and he's 1!!
This necklace is so cool too!!
Adorable!!!!
Clearly, I didn't read your last post close enough - just looked at the pics, which I'd already been drooling over on Etsy. How exciting! I love her stuff. I hope you get a lot of help from it.
Hope to see you this summer at the blog union in CA.
Kerri and Ruby
Oh Lindsey...she is beyond words. So precious! I love the new necklace. Praying I get one for Valentine's Day :) I have put in the hints!
TOO CUTE!!!!! Love the 2 teeth!
What a sweet picture. she is so cute. Love the necklaces. Courtney
I LOVE HER!!!!
Yep - the drew carey one is the one I meant. I saw your comment on there. Hope you guys make it.
Kerri and Ruby
Lindsey, she is the CUTEST little girlie ever! I love those 2 little teeth. Allie has some to match!
I love this necklace! I am trying to decide between this one and the Heart for Guatemala. I LOVE THEM BOTH!
Hope you have a great weekend!
Stacie
She needs to stop growing so much. Doesn't she know she is supposed to wait for you.
But, they are cute!!!
Those teeth are great!! They make her smile even cuter.
Gail
that girl is GORGEOUS!!! :)
I was thinking about doing something like this to raise money, but I had no idea where to start!!
oh, by the way... she is beautiful!!
Tracie~She is just the cutest little thing (other than Katelyn of course!) We need to bring these little girls home!
I just found your blog and had to say she is a cutie pie!!
Becky and Jack
Lindsey,
She looks so happy!! Her little teethies are too cute. Come on down, you can stay with me in Antigua~
Meghan
She is SO adorable! I just added your link and the ETSY shop link to our website...I hope you don't mind. :)
I love, love, love the 2 teeth smile!!! I kinda miss those days:)
Lindsey, I am glad you found our website. I have been following your story for a while, but I have only signed a time or two I think. Anyway, adorable picture! She is so precious. I hope that she is in your arms very soon! I have done it twice (plus have two bio. kids) and it is worth the wait. :)
Reba
Lindsey...Your daughter is precious. I love your blog and your family is beautiful. My email is cherifortner@hotmail.com.
I'd love to hear your story...let's get our girls home. cheri
SO STINKIN HAPPY you left that comment on Little Bits BLOG...I had computer issues...well I have a lot of those...and lost some of my BLOGS....I just did a LOT of cathing up...I am SO EXCITED you have another referral....and she is SO BEAUTIFUL...So now we keep the faith and keep walking on the path to bring ALL our children home...HUGS...you are on my Google reader now I will not lose you...HUGS
She is PRECIOUS!!! I LOVE this necklace!!!!
amanda
I love her beautiful little chiclet teeth!! What a precious baby!
And, I love the Junk Posse! I know exactly who I am going to get some of these for!
Those necklaces are divine. You will have a treasure to wear forever. Will you get one for Eliana to wear when she is older? Also, I read another persons blog who is shutting down due to fear in Guatemala and all the adoption corruption. Their link is http://www.olivermichael.blogspot.com/ temporarily until they go private very soon. The reason I mention it is they talk about the best decision they ever made was to hire adoption supervisors that made everything go super fast and made sure their adoption was ethical. Eliana isn't in PGN yet is she? Even if she is, it might not be too late to contact these people. The commenters on Shana's blog (Oliver is her son) swear by them. I thought I would post two of Shana's posts here since her page is going down soon and you might not get to read it before it does.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
I also want to mention (and there will be more later) that from what I know, PGN is not the black hole that people think it is... it is much more organized and methodical than some would like us to believe. Also, Sr. Barrios isn't the evil one he is made out to be. I know he doesn't take bribes and that he is a compassionate man who wants these babies home and is thankful to the families who adopt the orphaned children of Guatemala. (I know PGN is taking longer than it should- I just think it's not all Barrios's fault and that he doesn't do some of the bad things he is accused of....) If you have been asked for money to pay off Barrios, then I am quite certain the person and/or agency who asked you actually kept the money (sidenote: this did not happen to me). I know there are many many families who believe they have been stuck in PGN for many months, even years- but the fact is, unless there is a minor birthmother or another reason for investigation (suspicion of fraud, etc.), these families are probably not getting the truth about their cases. Some agencies lie to families.... some attorneys/facilitators lie to the agencies (who pass along these lies to their clients without any investigation), etc... These agencies don't hold their contacts in Guatemala accountable for anything and (imo) don't ask questions for fear that they won't get more baby listings. Many times, when you are told you are in PGN, you are actually not. Many times, there are kickouts and it takes the facilitator weeks or months to pick up the file and even longer to fix the previos (mistakes) that shouldn't have been made in the first place. Unless these previos involve something the adoptive parents have to fix, the family and/or agency may never even know about the kickout. All the while, families think they have just been stuck in PGN and/or waiting on Barrios's desk because this is what these agencies WANT people to believe. Then if you question these agencies or tell them the truth you have uncovered about your case, they punish you by threatening your referral, not allowing you to visit, lying to your homestudy agency/social worker, forcing you to get a psychological evaluation or counseling with your Pastor, badmouthing you to other clients, and/or telling you that you don't trust because "You don't trust God and don't have Christ in your heart". (And no, not *all* of these things happened to us personally...) These agencies are supposed to be our advocates, NOT our adversaries. They have a fiduciary responsibility and are contracted to represent us. Once they have your money, they don't even pretend to care anymore...
,
My advice if you are adopting from Guatemala is: HIRE HELP. Unless you have a great agency (and there are some) like Palmetto Hope or For This Child (please comment if you can recommend any others), then you will greatly benefit from hiring a private firm. I know we did. We hired Adoption Supervisors Group, and that is the ONLY reason Ollie is home at 8 months old. They saved our adoption, and we will be forever grateful to them for that. It was so comforting to find out the TRUTH about our case(s), to be communicated with on a frequent/consistent basis, and to know that our case was being monitored and cared about. Honestly, after what happened with our first referral (and please don't mention her name), we almost didn't want to proceed with Ollie's adoption because we had no faith that he would come home or that his adoption & paperwork were "clean"... especially after the Department of State started warning Americans not to adopt from Guatemala at all. But again, thanks to ASG (Marco), we regained our faith in the process, we were able to confirm the legitimacy of Ollie's adoption, and now we have our beautiful baby boy home where he belongs. I also want to thank the MANY families with our agency who recommended ASG to us, and I want to promise my continued support to my ever-growing group of friends using our agency who continue to endure the hell of what should have been a beautiful adoption experience.
Here is a link from yesterday that people may find interesting... it is about our agency & one of their current clients: http://forums.adoption.com/guatemala-adoption/300898-so-sad-my-friend-long-rant.html (make sure to read the comments too)
Here is the link for ASG (Adoption Supervisors): http://www.adoptionsupervisors.com/ I will be writing more about them later, but again- I HIGHLY recommend them-
*** I originally meant to show the PGN photo and simply give my opinion of PGN & Barrios, but then I started to ramble and just write what was on my mind. There is so much more to our story, but for many reasons (namely not wanting to hurt others or to have to worry about being hurt or worse), we are leaning toward not sharing it publicly at this time. Mainly, I just want families to know that there IS help, and that you are not alone....
and now her current post:
Recently, I have received comments and emails regarding the series of articles in Guatemala's newspaper "Prensa Libre" detailing accounts of children stolen from their birthmothers to be offered for adoption and a child trafficking ring allegedly involving our adoption agency (for Guatemala-not China) and the facilitator & buscadora associated with our cases (who is currently in Guatemalan jail.) And to think I used to argue that there was no such thing as a "buscadora"...
Many will remember how naive I was when we first decided to adopt from Guatemala. I defended our agency and the Guatemalan adoption process in general, despite stories I'd heard in the media and even warnings from our own Department of State. Well, my naivity soon faded as we discovered the awful truth about the reality of our cases when we moved down to foster in Antigua more than a year ago. We had not been told the truth about almost anything... many terrible and tragic details unfolded, and we left Guatemala disillusioned and very fearful. We are still fearful (thus not too many details posted here)...
While in Antigua, we met several families who warned us about our agency and urged us to hire Adoption Supervisors (a group of ethical adoption attorneys who will supervise your adoption on the downlow.) I've said before that hiring them was the single best decision we made in this entire process, and we will never ever forget what Marco of AS did for us. We owe a debt of gratitude to him and remain friends with him to this day. I trust him with my life, and I know that we wouldn't have Ollie today had it not been for him, his work, and his advice.
Without sharing the awful details, we also sought help from a well respected psychologist who, among other things, confirmed some of our worst fears and told us of the child trafficking & adoption fraud that does indeed happen in Guatemala (particulary with toddler & older girls). I remember, even then, NOT believing her. I remember defending the system and believing that the birthmother/child DNA tests were all the proof I needed. But, as these recent articles describe, birthmothers (many illiterate) can be fooled, papers can fabricated, and social workers & others involved in the process can be paid off (my agency director even admitted to this one). This same woman reports to her clients that she is currently in hiding outside of Guatemala- claiming "safety issues" which one can assume are related to the Prensa Libre article which linked her to the story of two girls reportedly stolen from their mother and referred for adoption to her clients. I am not trying to scare adoptive parents, and I really doubt most have anything to fear. I still can't believe that it happens all that much. I really do think it's a rare occurence- but like in any country, I must sadly admit that it does happen...
I truly cannot provide more details, but what I will say is that we started with two cases and had both cases investigated while in Guatemala. The good news is that Oliver's case is legitimate. We have verified that his birthmother relinquished him of her own right, and neither his nor his birthmothers documents are fraudulent. We are very thankful to know this, and we sleep well at night with our decision to complete his adoption.
.
Nevertheless, for our safety and privacy at this time, we are closing Oliver's blog for several reasons (some we can't say). Oliver and our other referral were in the same foster home at the same time with the girls who were reportedly stolen (with the woman who is in jail now). Also, the potential adoptive mother identified in the article has become a very good friend, and I know this blog was linked to hers (although now she and other adoptive families w/ our agency have now gone private). Aside from the comments and questions, this blog has received many questionable hits from Guatemala. This frightens us as we have information which puts our family's safety at risk. We have been advised that certain people involved are very dangerous, and it scares us that our first dossier was never recovered (and who knows who has it and what they will do with our personal information).
.
Although his blog will be private, we will not be inviting anyone other than our family at this time. For now, we are choosing to keep Sophie's blog public- mostly because I just don't have the time for the work it would require to issue invitations, etc. (I once mentioned the possibility of Sophie's blog going private and received over a thousand heartfelt invitation requests). We have been advised, though, to remove information and photos of Oliver from the internet altogether. My friend (the potential adoptive mother) in the Prensa Libre articles is being hounded by the Guatemlan and the international press. Since we did use the same agency & facilitator and the kids were in the same home at the same time, we have been urged to stay off the radar. Hopefully, we will not feel compelled to privatize Sophie's blog and Oliver's blog will be able to reopened soon. I'm really uncomfortable even posting this much and will be removing this post soon.
.
Thank you to everyone for your understanding and support, as you know we love Oliver so very much, and his safety and privacy are our number one priority.
Regretfully,
Shana
I know this is very long but I read your blog a lot and want to help you in any way I can. Best wishes to you.
The link in Shana's blog is not a good link.
She posted the link as:
http://forums.adoption.com/guatemala-adoption/300898
You have to go to:
http://forums.adoption.com/guatemala-adoption
and then it was a post from either page 460,461,or page 462
Have you already checked out this amazing forum?
Aww, she is beautiful.
And this is the necklace I bought!! I am SO excited to wear it!!
Nikki
Wow! This picture really is adorable. Two teeth! Wow!
Lisa
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