back from Belize

I just returned from an incredible vacation in beautiful Belize, and I brought back some good news. No, not the JOYful news I'm waiting for, but it's all pointing in that direction.

First, after watching for the stork for more than six years, I found him in Crooked Tree, Belize. In fact, I found lots of them--enoughfor all the waiting parents I know. My stork, the bird on the right in the photo below, is the endangered jabiru. He has an average wing span of 8-10 feet, which he will need to carry my girl across an ocean and half way around the world to me.

Second, 13--as in 2013--is not the unlucky number that we know in our culture. In the Mayan culture, which has existed in Central America for thousands of years, this number is sacred. For the Mayans, 13 is the galactic prime number and the key to time itself. They believe that there are 13 levels of heaven where sacred gods ruled the earth; these include the god of love and childbirth, and the gods of light, birth and dawn. Despite my paralyzing fear of heights, I climbed to the top of the temple below at the ruins of Lamanai and asked the gods to send me my girl this year.

After my mainland tour, I spent three days on an "unbelizeable" island called Half Moon Caye. The next photo is the full moon at dusk on my last night on a perfect moon-shaped island. Obviously I believe that the moon and stars have a central part in my adoption story, and this photo captures an amazing moment when I felt very connected to my girl, and amazed by the beauty of the universe. Between the vegetation and the ocean, there are giant round sea turtle nests where mamma turtles will return after crossing the ocean to lay their eggs under the stars. I wondered that night if the tide was turning on my daughter's side of the planet to bring her across a different ocean to the nest where she was always meant to be. I'll never know, but I do know that someday I will bring her to this island, to experience the magic of my new favourite place in the world.

I could go on and on about the wonders of Belize, but sometimes another person's words say it best:

To see the world in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour.

-William Blake