That's right ladies and gentlemen, we're going home at last. The travel warning has been lifted and with it, the authorized departure - as of today. That mean we can board a plane on Thursday night and be in La Paz on Friday morning. We are excited to get home and leave DC just as the cold weather sets in.

On a sadder note, Brooks was diagnosed with a severe speech delay. As a 25 month old, he should have a much larger vocabulary (50+ words) than he does. The initial concern of the therapists when they see a kid with this kind of speech delay is the big "A" word - autism. Luckily, Brooks does not show ANY signs of autism (not on the continuum as they say) and everyone thinks he's delayed because of a number of reasons, including the fact that we haven't made him talk to get what he wants. I think the clinical term is SPOILED. So, now we're hitting him hard with professional therapy every day and intensive work from both Robyn and me. He's a quick learner and is making good progress but we're going to have to keep at it for a while to get him back on track. The prognosis is very positive.