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“I’m OK,” she repeated to me softly. Mia was playing in the background and a rerun of Law and Order echoed through her little room as she began to recount her day to me. “I just wanted you to know that before I tell you about this day.” I felt some assurance from the fact that she was OK but the helplessness I already felt was about to grow exponentially.
Early that morning, Mia and Kristina picked up Jenny and our lawyer in the VW we had rented for them to take this journey. Off they went down the familiar roads and off to the west toward Chimaltenango, Atitlan, and Quetzaltenango. It was a fairly warm day and the car was quiet as Mia was occupied playing with Jenny in the back. Our lawyer knew very little English so he hummed along to the radio as it played just over the buzz of the tires below us.
Not far past Chimaltenango, Kristina was finally able to open the little VW up and cruise along making up time they had spent in traffic. Quickly they approached the mountains and an area called Tecpan. Though they wouldn’t go through the town itself, they decided to stop for lunch and then head all the way to Santa Maria Chiquimula from there. Kristina had chicken and fed some of the beans and rice to Mia. They quickly left and headed west toward their destination.
Arriving at “Cuatro Caminos” (The Four Roads), just north of Quetzaltenango, our lawyer instructed Kristina to go in a direction she had not been before. The road to Quetzaltenango had become very familiar to her. Now she was about to learn a new path. The one to the city where our daughter was born. It was quite a journey to say the least. The first 20 minutes were much like the last 3 hours. Kristina saw what she though was the sign to Santa Maria but the lawyer told her to go on. Ten minutes later, he asked her to slow as they approached some people on foot. Kristina picked up that the lawyer was asking for directions. In fact she was correct that they should have turned earlier. The locals pointed ahead however and motioned that there was another way, a shorter way, back to that road.
Don’t ever take short cuts!
As the pavement disappeared from beneath the wheels of their automobile, Kristina began to feel uncomfortable as the car bobbed up and down in the huge holes that had developed through years of usage, rain, and other events. The car began to drag on the ground no matter how much Kristina tried to avoid the holes. She said the sweat on her brow no longer was from the warm day but from the tension she felt in her body as she pressed forward. Finally after twenty minutes of driving over this rough terrain, their road met the road to Santa Maria Chiquimula. Though it wasn’t in much better shape, it was passable. Kristina felt sick to her stomach from the tension she had endured but she was glad to finally be in the place where Mia was born.
The time spent in Santa Maria Chiquimula was relatively insignificant in comparison with the rest of the day. They went to the town records and within a short time they had the original birth certificate and were on their way back to Guatemala City. Back through the difficult roads they ventured, though not through their previous detour. On past Cuatro Caminos and by Lake Atitlan. As they continued on into the department of Chimaltenango, Kristina’s sickness in her stomach began to worsen dramatically. Edwin gazed out of the passenger’s window, Mia slept and Jenny was reading. Kristina only hoped that her illness wouldn’t interrupt the trip and she could rest when she got home.
Suddenly as the car approached Tecpan, Kristina’s body contracted with pain as whatever was attacking her seem to reach every inch at once. She broke out in a cold sweat and tears threatened to release from the excruciating pain that besieged her now. She looked at our lawyer and said “Soy enfermo” or “I am sick.” He looked concerned but through his broken English asked if she could wait another hour until they were home. Barely able to speak as she continued to drive, Kristina said that she could not continue and she needed help immediately. She knew what he was about to say but the hopelessness hit her when he said there was nowhere to stop for at least 30 miles.
Just ahead Kristina saw a run-down abandoned gas station with bathrooms outside of the building. Knowing the condition she might find the bathrooms in from the look of the station, she still decided to stop, as her body was no longer completely under her control. Edwin said nothing and Jenny stared as Kristina staggered weakly toward the restroom. As she opened the door, she found it exactly as she had imagined. It was an abandoned restroom that had been used by people for years with no one to clean. The smell was putrid and knocked her back a step before she again entered to find solitude. Almost immediately she turned and ran back for Mia’s baby wipes in order to feel something was sanitary.
Edwin and Jenny sat silently not moving a muscle as this event came without warning and they were still somewhat in shock. Slowly the door opened and Kristina emerged pale and weak. She walked to the car barely able to put one foot in front of the other. Finally able to compose himself, our lawyer jumped out of the car and met her. As he approached, Kristina collapsed in his arms. He put her in the passenger’s seat and drove the rest of the way into Guatemala City.
Upon arriving home, Kristina lay down and drank water. Mia napped and Kristina was able to rest. Finally as evening approached, Kristina felt her strength beginning to return to her. She picked up the phone to dial me for our usual dinner conversation. Excited to hear her voice I picked up the phone “Hey Sweetie! How was the trip?”
“I’m OK…”
The Mummau Series
1. Choosing To Adopt
2. Why International? Why Guatemala?
3. The Call From Guatemala
4. The Process Begins
5. A Prelude To Mia
6. How Can You “Choose” A Child – Leaving Others Behind?
7. Peer Into The Heart – Journal Entries
8. Meeting Maria – Finding Mia
9. Leaving Our Daughter…is that…no way!
10. Rivers of Waiting
11. Mistakes, Intentions, and Naivety – How Hope Began To Die
12. Alone in Guatemala and Waiting
13. Time Marches On – Goodbye Mia for Now
14. Joyful Gringos in Quetzaltenango
15. Mia Mia
16. Abuela Comes To The Rescue
17. Doctors, Couriers, and Delays
18. Even So, You Won’t Believe This
19. The Summer of Frustration Ends
20. Fall Approaches with Broken Hearts…Teeth
21. 1600 Miles from Tecpan (pt.1)
22. 1600 Miles from Tecpan (pt.2)
23. Kristina Comes Home
24. Mia’s First Steps
25. December’s Momentum
26. An Angel In The Embassy? I
27. An Angel in the Embassy? II
28. A Christmas to Remember…and Forget
29. Daddy’s 2nd Visit
30. Clash at The Embassy
31. We’re In The PGN! OK Let Us Out!
32. Accomodations
33. The Pencil – Never Give Up
34. Exiting the PGN…sort of
35. Exiting the PGN…yet again
36. Daddy Has Enough
37. The Countdown Begins
38. Easter Brings Hope
39. Sit With Me in San Cristobal
40. T-Minus a few things and counting
41. My New Favorite Color
42. Hope Becomes Reality-The Embassy Interview
43. Mia Mummau Goes Home
More blogs about Guatemala Adoption.
