Kodiak Koehler's

Got info about his 4 month check up, which was on Saturday. He weighs 14.8 lbs and is 24.8 inches. His head circumference is 16.4 inches, which puts him in the 93-94th percentile for Guatemalan children. On the American growth charts he is at about the 25% for length, 50% for weight, 25% for head circumference, and 75% for lenght/weight ratio. I haven't found a Guatemalan growth chart for anything but head circumference, but I'm so glad that he is on par with American children. I think this will probably help him as he grows up. Most of the children we saw while on our visit were TINY. There were children close to a year old who were smaller than Gabriel. Some of that has to do with genetics, but a lot of it (I'm certain) has to do with the care they are receiving. I'm so glad I've got a healthy boy! He did receive some shots: his second dose of DPT and his first of Meningitis. Poor baby didn't look to happy in the pictures we got of him. I don't blame him e...

Here's a link to the rest of our pictures from our Awesome Guatemala Trip!! There are two albums, one from our visit with Gabriel (the first link) and the other is for the vacation portion of our trip. We haven't captioned the second one yet, but Gabriel's has been done. When you click on the link, if you don't have an account with Snapfish, you can either create one or you can skip that part and just click the "View now" button at the top right of the page. http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=167545626/a=57694574_57694574/t_=57694574 http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=167549702/a=57694574_57694574/t_=57694574

Chicken buses = "Holy cow did he just do that!?!?!" For those of you that don't know "Chicken buses" are the super cheap transportation around Guatemala and especially between villages. They are painted really vibrant colors and designs and are rather cool looking...until you watch them drive. They are CRAZY!!!! Literally crazy...they treat all road markings and signs as meer suggestions. There are a ton of them on the road and they are all privately owned and as such compete with each other like its the Indy 500. They will pass on double yellow lines, near curves, hills...doesn't matter. They hardly even slow down to pick people up. Which is wierd since the passengers are the ones paying their livelyhood. I can't tell you how many people I saw run up as the bus was pulling away and jump on the ladder in the back. The drivers have a helper that handles luggage, tickets, etc...and they ride hanging out the door. We saw the helper climb to the top of the b...

Answer: One big happy family, part in Guatemala, part in Alaska and all who love little Gabriel very, very much. We woke up this morning, went to bed last night in fact, expecting this to be the hardest day of our lives. While it was hard in many ways, it was also very refreshing and joyous. We got to meet our co-ordinator, Sonya, for breakfast as well as about 4 other families working with our agency. She is amazing and we couldn't be happier to have her working on our behalf. We did have to pack Gabriel's bags, which was very difficult and we took a family nap today. Of course, today was the first time he has actually taken a good nap and we all slept for an hour and a half, waking up in just enough time to finish packing his things and getting him ready to go back to the foster family. He definitely fits with our family! (see previous post about sleeping late on important days). The foster family came to pick him up and we took Gabriel down with all his bags and I was near t...

Ok so we're finally able to sit down and write for a few minutes. We finally made it to Guatemala after 24 hours of traveling. What an exhausting trip!! We barely made it on the plane out of LAX after waiting in the check-in line for about 2 hours. Everybody was already on the plane and were just waiting for the last few people. We made it though and we got checked into the hotel just fine. When Gabriel got dropped off we got the chance to meet his foster mother and sister. We could just see how much they love him and it sets our hearts at ease. We still don't look forward to him leaving on Saturday, but we know that God will bring him home in His time. As soon as we looked down at him he smiled right at us and the foster mom (Ana) pointed at us and said, tu mama, tu papa. I know the quotes are missing, but I can't seem to find them on this keyboard (it's a Spanish set up and the keys are a little different). We've been in heaven with our angel. I wish we could...

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day today! I'm busy washing clothes and packing for the trip. I can't believe we leave in only 4 days!!! Less than a week now until I hold my boy! I can't believe it! The excitement is really sinking in. I had a busy day yesterday. I had a Dr's appt and they scheduled me for an "emergency" 1 hour glucose test for later that day. Everything is fine, it must have been the Honey Nut Cheerios I had for breakfast that made my sugars high. Of course I don't eat very well while Zach is gone, so that probably had a lot to do with it to. Becca had her Change of Command, so she is officially the Commanding Officer (CO) of Fish School. It's a lot longer name than that, but I'm not even going to try it. She even made the front page of the paper. Check out the article . I wish it had a picture on there. She should have one on her blog soon. She better. CraftNite was last night too and it was a lot of fun, as always, with goo...

As I was driving home on this yet another GORgeous Alaskan night I noticed an interesting boat docked where one of the ferries was when I went past a couple hours earlier. As I got closer I noticed it had a rather interesting paint job and that is said "GREENPEACE" on the back. So of course I pull in to the ferry terminal parking to get a better look. Luckily I had my camera with me and got some shots of the boat. I'm not sure how long they are here for, but they were loading what looked like food on while I was taking pics. I am SO loving my zoom lens! Then I saw the crew coming out of one of the famous local bars on Marine Drive across from the marina. I know it's them because I looked at their website to find out why they are here and there were pictures of the crew and the lady was wearing the same outfit. If you want to know why they are here, look here . Just want to say too, that I don't necessarily agree with Greenpeace. I think their hearts are in the rig...