Busy week with friends

It's been a whirlwind of a week. We had our special friends the Petersons visiting making a total of eight kids in the house. It was so much fun! Loud and crazy and actually easier with two extra parents in the house too. The kids all get along really well, and they even got Cupcake and I out blueberry picking right around the corner from our house which we had never done before. #1 had soccer camp, The Spark had gymnastics camp for the 2011-2012 Evergreen team, and Zippy had Farm Camp through his school. Lots to do and now our guests have left for the beach in southern NH, J and the boys are headed back to Maine for the kids' triathalon tomorrow morning, and the girls and I are going to clean up and regroup and re-pack for one more stint in Maine before summertime becomes school time.

Here is Princess Eee with the largest blueberry of the day. Dad Peterson offered a prize for the biggest and she got it hands down. This blueberry in her hand weighed a whole ounce all by itself.

And we had a party while the Petersons were here. The boys took over the playroom playing Wii, so the girls took a break from running around to watch some Barbie in Mermaidia on the computer.

#1 had games to watch on the last day of soccer camp, and here he is post-goal:

Cupcake loved having Princess Eee around again for a bit. They were very sweet together. Here they are in the blueberry patch:

And as most of you probably know by now, Princess Eee has spent most of the spring and summer with the Petersons and is doing wonderfully. She is a perfect fit with their family and they are the perfect parents and siblings for her. This week we also went to court here in NH to make it official. M & B are now Princess Eee's mom and dad, and they will finalize her adoption into their family after the waiting period in the state of Arizona. Princess Eee will grow up next door to her biological sister in a family that immediately fell in love with her and can provide her with the unconditional love and acceptance she needs and deserves. The unconditional love that the trauma of the three and a half year nightmare process to get her out of Guatemala took from me. In the words of one of the attachment therapists we worked with regularly over the year and a half Princess Eee was with us, "It was not without tremendous effort, time, reflection, heartache and professional intervention that she and [J] have made a decision about how to proceed in [Princess Eee’s] best interest. [They] have made the decision to identify a new family for [Princess Eee] and have worked very hard to find one whom they believe will provide great love and permanency for her.

...All three families now have encircled one another. The biological sisters will now have regular contact and the [K’s] will become extended family to both girls and share an open relationship with [Princess Eee] and her new family.
[Princess Eee] will transition to her new family and will now have extended family in both Arizona and New Hampshire who care deeply about her. [J] and [L] as well as the family in Arizona are demonstrating the ability to transition [Princess Eee] in a manner that is supportive and guided by the advice of adoption professionals."

So it has been an emotional and busy week with both sadness and relief as well as lots of fun times. More pictrures to post soon...