Stir Crazy

Today we felt like we were going stir crazy.  It was a beautiful morning, but kind of muddy since it had rained quite hard yesterday.  We headed down to the pool at about noon, and in rolled the storm clouds.  Shoot!  It takes us a good half hour to get everyone in their swimming suits, covered in sunscreen, and out the door.  We were barely there at all when we had to turn around and head back for the room.

We knew that we needed to get out of our room, so we took a taxi to the Tesoro mall.  We walked around and around.  We didn't buy anything, and we didn't even go in any of the shops since the kids touch EVERYTHING, and they usually have dirty hands (How does that happen, by the way??  We are always chasing after them with wet wipes, but to no avail!)  We let the kids ride on the carousel in the center of the mall, and we have hardly ever seen them smile so big.

We had dinner at a restaurant in the mall, and it was tough.  We have a hard time knowing exactly what it is that we are ordering, and half of the time the kids don't like what we get.  Juan Manuel ate like a champ, but Christian and Santiago hardly touched their food.  When we got back to the hotel they wanted bananas, cereal, and bread with jam.  Go figure. 

Part of our frustration with staying in the hotel is our meal times.  I think I mentioned it before, but the hotel has an awesome breakfast buffet that is included in the price of the room.  They have a ton of fruits, juices, hot and cold foods.  It is great, and we can find something that all of the kids like.  But for lunch and dinner we have to either eat in our room or go out to a restaurant.  Going out to eat can be tough since service here is pretty slow, and the kids have a tough time sitting still for such a long time.  So we often opt to eat in our room.  Between things we have picked up at the grocery store and ordering room service, we manage to do ok, but it is tough.  Actually, we have ordered so much room service that the hotel has started sending us complimentary gifts...a fruit basket this afternoon, cookies this evening!

The hardest part about eating in our room is keeping things clean.  Each of the kids has a blanket, and we always spread the blankets on the floor and eat picnic-style.  Even so, the carpet and sofa have gotten spilled on more times than I care to admit.  It isn't so bad when the kids are eating a sandwich, banana, or other finger-foods.  When they try to eat rice on the floor though, we end up with rice everywhere...mashed into the kids' socks, mashed into their blankets, mashed into the carpet.  It's especially hard when Christian wants to eat everything exactly the same as the older 2 boys.  If they are having yogurt, he wants yogurt.  He ends up wearing half of it, and we have gotten to the point where we just strip Christian down and let him eat stuff like that in his bib and diaper.  At least that way we can just wash him off when he is done. 

Today we let Christian skip his nap.  It has been such a struggle, and it seems to be getting harder, not better, so we thought we'd see what happened if we let it go for today.  Surprisingly, he seemed to do just fine.  At dinner time when he was in his high chair, his eyes were pretty heavy and he was starting to nod off.  When we got back to the hotel though, he was running around screaming and giggling like he usually does in the evening. 

Santi had a tough morning again.  He can be so sweet and loving, but when he doesn't get exactly what he wants, he is extremely sulky.  Half of the time, we don't even know why he is mad or what happened.  He will just lay down on the floor wherever we are and make a pouty face to try and get our attention.  We have gotten to the point where we just let him lay there, give him the option to walk by himself or be carried by one of us, and go from there.  But when he is not melting down, he is so cute you just want to squeeze him and protect him.

Juan Manuel continues to chatter constantly.  After a while, it can actually start to make us feel kind of crazy because there is NEVER a moment of silence.  He talks and talks and talks some more.  He says "mama" literally about every 30 seconds all day long.  We try to be very patient with him, but I must admit that it is a challenge for us.  We are trying to teach him that it is important to sometimes let mommy and daddy talk to each other, or to just let us rest for a few minutes.  He wants us to play or color with him all the time, and feels very sad if we can't stop whatever we are doing and give him full attention.  We are working on it, but I think it is especially challenging for us when the weather is rainy and we are cooped up in our room for consecutive days.  But he had no time outs again today, and he is getting better and better about listening to us.

We are hoping for sunny weather tomorrow so that we can have a day at the pool.  We need to get out of this room!!!

Morning Meltdowns

Mornings seem to be a more difficult time of the day for our kids, and we can't exactly seem to figure out why.  Actually, the time between when the kids wake up and when we go to breakfast usually isn't too bad, and our routine is very nice.  After the kids first wake up, we usually play quietly or hold them in our laps until it is time to get cleaned up and dressed, brush their teeth, etc.  The 2 hours after breakfast are pretty reliably ugly though.  Usually during those 2 hours, Juan Manuel winds up, and Santi and Christian both melt down.  Today, Santiago and Christian decided to have simultaneous melt-downs in the bathroom.  Both kids laying on the floor, wailing.  Why?  We can't even remember for sure, but I think it was because they were mad about sharing the soap, or something pretty harmless along those lines.  Santi's melt-down continued on and off for the next 2 hours until he chucked a toy car at Juan Manuel and hit him in the forehead.  Yikes!  Time-out/in for Santi.  But, then all of a sudden, it is like someone flips a switch and things go back to being ok again.  We have come to sort of expect the turmoil, and I think that we are less frazzled when addressing the tantrums.  On the up-side, Juan Manuel didn't have even one single time-out/in today - Hooray!!

Today we went to the mass that they have here in the hotel.  There were a lot of people there!!  It was a little bit tough, because we didn't understand much of what was being said, but the order of the mass was familiar, and the kids really liked it.  We were told that they attended church every Sunday with their foster family, so we are very happy to continue that with them.  They asked if we could go to mass every day, but they only hold service here at the hotel on Sundays, so we will wait until next week.

Some funny things that happened today... 

• This morning, when we were all getting ready for church, Christian found an old french fry on the floor, or somewhere.  We can tell that we are really starting to relax our standards, because we actually let him eat it, and just laughed about it! 
• We found a dead dried-up lizzard in the bull ring/volleyball pit, and showed it to the kids.  They were fascinated, and carried it around by the tail, poked it with a stick, and played with it until they dismembered it. 
• The kids found a sheet of stickers that we had hidden (because they kept fighting over it).  Juan Manuel went to get their photo album and somehow knocked the stickers down in the process - DRAT!!  Oh well, we had to fess up at that point, and the kids actually played with the stickers and shared much better than they did even a week ago.
• The kids were playing with their teddybears, and pretending that the bears were them.  They were telling the bears the rules for how to behave in the restaurant (no shouting, no running, speak to each other with respect), giving the bears time outs/ins, and making the bears apoligize to each other after they jumped on each other's heads, etc.

Today we said goodbye to 2 of the German families that we have befriended during our time here.  One family adopted a little boy, Luiz Filipe, who is in need of heart surgery.  Their Sentencia came much quicker than normal in order to expedite his medical procedures.  We have watched little Luiz come out of his shell in the last 2 weeks, and he went from being very frightened and shell-shocked to walking around the hotel saying "Hola-hola-hola-hola-hola-hola-hola!" to everyone he meets.  Our little amiga, Wendy, and her family leave for Bogota tomorrow.  The kids all played together in the pool for the last time today, and I explained to the older boys that Wendy's family will be going to Bogota and then home to Germany.  Juan Manuel and Santiago asked me when we would be going to Bogota, and when we would go to the United States.  I did my best to explain to them, and they seemed to make the connection (they told me that they want to build snowmen when we go to the United States).  We will really miss both of these families, as it has been very helpful to talk to other families who are in a similar boat, and so much fun for our kids to play together. 

This afternoon/evening it has been raining very hard here.  After talking to everyone back in Minnesota, we are really appreciating the beautiful weather here.  If it rains tomorrow, we are planning to head back to the Tesoro mall to get out of the hotel for a little while.  There is a carousel in the mall that Juan Manuel is bursting at the seams to try out. 

That's about all from here today.  Thanks again to everyone for the emails and comments.  The advice and support are so appreciated and helpful!!

Salmon and Hot Dogs

We had a good day with the kids today.  The weather was beautiful here again, which means we try to spend lots and lots of time outside.  Breakfast is becoming more and more routine, as we now know what the kids do and do not like to eat.  We are working on being able to use silverware, and that isn't going so good, but lots of the foods are finger-food kinds of things anyways, so no worries.  There are 2 business conferences going on at our hotel the last couple of days, so the restaurant has been crazy busy at breakfast.  The kids have been doing better and better about not yelling in the restaurant.

We saw Margarita this morning in the hotel (she was here to meet with another family), and Santiago was very afraid to see her.  He hid behind my legs and did not want to talk to her at all.  I think he might be afraid that she will take him away from us.  But, we only talked with her briefly and then went to play at the park.

Christian was super fussy this morning.  Jason went to help take Christian's jacket off, and he had a full blown melt-down, laying on the ground with his back arched and screaming.  He is definitely 2!!  When I put him down for his nap today, he was furious.  The last 2 days he had gone down for his nap a lot easier, so we were hoping that we were making progress.  Today was a totally different story.  I put him in the crib, sat closely by, and when he tried to get up I laid him back down.  He kept trying to squeeze himself through the rails in the crib and then would look at me to make sure I could see how "hurt" and "stuck" he was (he wasn't hurt or stuck at all!).  When I didn't pick him up and hold him, he just screamed at me.  Now that we are getting to know the kids better and better, I can tell that this is a battle of wills with Christian.  We know that he needs his naps - he sleeps 2 hours every time, but he is just so mad about being separated from all of the fun and action that he rants and raves.  We will see what tomorrow brings, but listening to a baby rage sure does test a person's nerves!  But after Christian got up from his nap, he was like a new child.  He was cuddly, playful, talkative...all of the best parts of his day were squeezed into the last few hours.

Santiago was very affectionate today and less sad and whiney.  Santiago has this toy that the foster family gave him for Christmas.  It is a plastic Transformer toy that plays a loud obnoxious song and has lots of blinking lights.  Of course, the kids LOVE that toy.  They also always fight over that toy too.  Somehow that toy remained tucked away all day today, and the none of us ever thought to bring it out...sweet mercy!!!  Santiago is learning to swim under water, and he told us again today that he can't wait to catch lots of big fish. 




The headache-enducing Transformer toy


Juan Manuel had a really good day today.  He was gentler with his brothers, and did a good job of talking to us with respect.  After dinner, Juan Manuel said he wanted to watch the video that we had made and sent down for the kids last November.  He had caught a glimpse of the DVD in our closet and remembered exactly where it was.  It was fun to watch it with the kids, and they had almost all of our dialogue memorized from it, and they spoke along with it.  Especially the part where Jason says in a loud booming voice "EL BANO".  Ha!  Then the kids made us watch Dora with them.  Juan Manuel and Santiago love Dora, but Christian is soooo not into it.  He squirms around like a little worm and won't sit still at all. 

I wish that I could understand more of what Juan Manuel is saying, because I think a lot of it is actually quite funny.  He talks almost non-stop and is very expressive.  The elevators here can be kind of tempermental, and on more than one occasion, one of us has almost gotten eaten by the doors closing too soon.  So the kids started slapping the open doors and saying something that sounded like "choque la" every time we would go in or out of the elevator.  I tried many many times to ask the kids what they were doing, but I could never get the hang of what they were trying to tell me.  I finally asked Margarita, and she laughed her head off.  She said that what they are saying is the Spanish equivalent of "Give me 5".  Who knew...so now we join in with the kids slapping the door.

I forgot to mention it yesterday, but we found out that our lawyer here in Medellin is going to be on vacation all of next week...groan.  Basically it means that nothing can happen for us next week.  Even if the judge happens to review and approve our papers, our Sentencia cannot move forward until Nora returns from her vacation.  We have been really striking out on that front lately.  First, our LSS case worker is out of the office this entire month, then LSS's usual in-country coordinator is on sabatical for 6 months, and now our attorney is on vacation too?  Oh well.  We can't do anything about it, so we will just sit tight and wait for her return.

Today for dinner we ordered room service.  While it didn't seem bad to us at the time, it later seemed atrocious when Jason told his mom that he and I shared salmon for dinner and the kids had hot dogs.  Hot dogs???  WHAT IS WRONG WITH US??!!!  We knew that they like hot dogs, and it was the easy choice.  So much for not giving our kids processed junk, right?  But, just so we don't seem TOO horrible, we did share the side dishes from our meal with the kids...they helped us with the salad and rice.  I must say that it will really be great when we have a kitchen again and can have "normal" meals.  Although we try to stock our room's mini-bar refrigerator with lots of fruits and healthy snacks, there is only so much we can do.  We are just lucky that the kids are little enough not to realize that a slice of baloney, some chunks of apple, and bread with jam are not a normal balanced lunch.




Grenadilla fruit that I mentioned yesterday

Tomorrow we are going to try going to church with the kids.  We wanted to go last week, but only having had the kids for 3 days and not really having any kind of handle on things yet, it didn't seem like a good idea at the time.  Hopefully we can sit near the back and can step out in case any of the kids has a major melt down. 

Here's hoping for another good day tomorrow, and stay tuned for more creative menu choices in our hotel room!! 

Swimming Lessons

Our attorney, Nora, presented all of our paperwork at the courts today, and we have been assigned to Court #5.  We don't know yet for sure if this is a "good" court, which usually just means it's a faster court.  We do know that the judge in this court celebrates every Sentencia with a party, because she sees the day as the birth of your new family.  Our papers will be presented to the judge early next week, and she then has 10 business days to review and complete our paperwork.  That means we are looking at having Sentencial in anywhere from 2-3 weeks.  We are hoping for less.  It can be hard for us to remain in this hotel day after day. 

We would love to do some sightseeing, but just don't know if it is a good idea yet.  It can be difficult for us to keep track of the 3 of the kids in our own rooms, much less wandering around in public places.  We sort of don't trust that they will listen to us yet.  They can tend to wander away from us, or sometimes get excited and run away from us, and it makes us nervous.  Combine that with the facts that the area where we are staying in Medellin is not good for walking, we have to constantly be aware of where the closest bathroom is, and we are a little bit leary of security, and we have opted to just stay put.  Next week if there are rainy days, we may head to the aquarium or maybe back to the mall.  We'll see.

While things are going well with the boys and we are seeing improvements day by day, there are still a lot of hurdles before us.  Sometimes it feels endless, but then one of the kids will do something really sweet or cute, and it gives us hope to keep going.  Still one of the biggest troubles with the kids is sibling rivalry.  We aren't quite sure about how much to intervene versus let them work things out amongst themselves.  The biggest problems there are sharing, rough-housing, and Juan Manuel bossing the little ones around.  We keep a keen eye on Christian to make sure that he isn't hurt, but he is actually one of the worst for sharing.  He sees it, he wants it.  Period.  That doesn't go over well with his brothers and fighting/crying usually ensues.

Another challenge for us is Juan Manuel's desire for attention.  He wants to be the center of attention always, whether it is positive or negative attention.  He seems to crave my attention more than Jason's, we think maybe because I can understand what he is saying better.  He wants to drive the agenda and be in control all of the time, but we are trying to reassure him that that is our job as parents, and not his concern to worry about.  Our days are falling into a pretty consistent routine, and we are always very clear about what is going to happen, and when.  But still, he will try to have things his way.  Sometimes it feels like every little thing is a battle, and sometimes we are just tired and weary from being on constant guard.  But we know that it is so important for us to be consistent and do what we say, so we always try to stick to that.

Jason went to the Exito store today (similar to WalMart/Target) for some groceries.  He was trying to ask at the deli for chicken, but couldn't remember the word pollo.  He had to flap his arms and make chicken noises to get his point across, and the people at the counter laughed and laughed at him.  When he came back with all of the bags of stuff, the kids were all over the place.  He bought a few things that we wanted to have as surprises for later, and we had a heck of a time trying to keep them hidden.  The kids were tearing into the bags and oohing and aahing and telling us all of the things that they want to eat.  For example, Juan Manuel told us he wanted for lunch:  cereal, arepa, ham, chicken, yogurt, cheese, avocado, juice, bread with jam, and grenadilla.  Yikes!  Santiago just wanted his Choco-Krispies...what a doll!  And Christian just points and says "ooh!  ooh!"

By the way, grenadilla is a fruit that they eat here, and the kids love it.  You peel back a little bit of the skin, and the inside is full of seeds that you scoop out and eat with a spoon.  Delicious!

We spent a lot of time at the pool today because it was a warm and sunny day.  Our boys have made friends with a little girl, Wendy, being adopted by a German family.  At the beginning of the week, Wendy was afraid of the pool.  But after seeing our 3 little monkeys splashing around day after day, she decided to give it a try today.  By the end of the day, she was splashing around with the boys and even putting her face in the water.  It is so much fun to see the kids play together, although we are on constant alert that our boys be gentle with the other kids.  They did great together, and I think that Santiago may have a little bit of a crush on Wendy...too cute!

Integracion Approval

Today was a busy day for us.  At 8:30 we were picked up and had to go to the judicial building to sign a few papers.  The process only took about 15 minutes, and the taxi ride there and back to the hotel was about 45 minutes total.  We think that the kids must have been nervous about the change in our routine because both Juan Manuel and Santiago were kind of in a funk this morning.  At breakfast, Santiago was playing with his food, intentionally dropping it on the floor, and then threw some across the table at Juan Manuel.  That was the end of breakfast for him.  He was very fussy, had a mini-meltdown, and I had to carry him out of the restaurant while he fell apart.  Oh well, what can you do?

While we were at the judicial building, Juan Manuel was pretending to be asleep.  We had to drag him by the arm through the building, and he was difficult and uncooperative, and seemed to be taking great pleasure in giving us a tough time.  When we got back to the hotel, he magically reverted to being full of energy, but we made him lay in his bed for a "siesta" for 15 minutes, since he had supposedly been so tired.  Sometimes we are at our wit's end about how to appropriately deal with the kids' behavior.  We try to be reasonable and have natural consequences to their actions.

Christian went down for his nap a little bit better today.  Instead of screaming his head off for an hour, he only cried for 15 minutes before he went to sleep.  Thank you Steve and Julie for the advice on how to lovingly keep him in his crib without him feeling abandoned.  When he cries, I gently go to him, lay him back down in the crib, and then sit nearby on the floor.  Boy, does he get mad!!!  He stands in the crib and babbles and shakes the side railing.  When I go to the side of the crib, he stops crying because he thinks that I am going to pick him up and give up on the idea of a nap.  When I pick him up to help lay him back down...LOOK OUT!!  After about 10 times, he realizes that he is going to just have to lay down.  He still cries for a while longer, but eventually tires himself out.  He always sleeps at least 2 hours once we get him down, so he definitely still needs his nap.  We are hoping that every day will get a little easier once we all get the hang of the routine.

The afternoon was a little bit difficult because the kids knew that we had to go for our Integracion meeting at ICBF, and we think they were really nervous about it.  Juan Manuel was talking a mile a minute and copying everything that everyone said to him.  I think that even the other kids were getting frustrated with him.  Once we got to the ICBF building, the kids were definitely nervous, except for Christian, who didn't realize what was really happening.  Santiago kind of hid behind us, and Juan Manuel sat in absolute silence for 30 minutes.  Mind you, this boy hasn't stopped talking for more than 2 minutes since the moment we met him.

We met with the kids' psychologist, Ruby, our attorney, and of course Margarita.  Ruby asked us lots of questions.  How have things been going?  How are the boys responding to us?  What do we think about being parents to these boys?  What have our difficulties been?  We talked for about just under an hour.  Ruby said that she could tell that the kids are feeling secure with us, and are very receptive to us.  She thought that they all looked to be in great shape, and that we are all adjusting well to being a new family.  We were given approval, and now our case will be presented in the judicial building tomorrow, and we will be assigned a court.  We are keeping our fingers crossed for one of the speedier courts, but have no control over where we will end up.

At the end of the meeting, Ruby offered the kids a glass of pop.  We have been having a bit of a tough time getting the kids to drink enough fluids.  They want juice all of the time, but we would prefer if they also added water or milk.  They each chugged their pop in about 30 seconds flat - even Christian!  I guess that we now know that they like pop, but just can't bring ourselves to give it to them other than on rare occasion.  In the taxi ride on the way home, the kids heard us say the word "wow", and repeated it over and over all the way back to the hotel.

In between our appointments, we tried to keep the kids busy.  In the morning we went outside and played soccer in the ring designated for volleyball and bull fights...don't worry, there were no bulls there today except for the kids taking turns pretending to be "el toro".  We also spent some time at the pool as well. 

Tonight we all played in the room together.  Every night before bed, we all pile in the bed together and watch a little bit of a movie, continuing every day until the movie is finished.  First we watched Cars, then Toy Story.  Tonight Jason got to pick the movie, and he chose The Great Outdoors.  Juan Manuel was crushed - he wanted Dora the Explorer.  We watched all the way through the water skiing scene, but I am not sure whether the kids will tolerate another night of non-cartoon movie tomorrow night...we'll see!

Tomorrow we have nothing on the books, which I think will be good for the kids.  If the weather is rainy and we are stuck inside, we might head back to the shopping mall just to get out of our room.  If it's sunny out, we are headed to La Piscina, The Swimming Pool.  Hopefully the boys will be able to just have a fun day with no worries, they could use one of those!!

Rainy Day

It rained for most of the day today.  In the morning we were able to get to the park for a little while before the rain started.  One of the German families here is adopting a 3 year old little girl, and although our boys love to play with Wendy, I think that her parents are worried that our kids are too rough and tumble.  We had to laugh...today the dad said that he is worried because when they had presentation day, Wendy was physically perfect, but now she has two scraped knees and a scraped elbow, and they are worried about that.  For our family with 3 rough boys, if we make it through the day without any major medical catastrophe, we thank our lucky stars...funny how different our perspectives are!  Wendy just loves to play with our boys though, and is kind of mesmerized by them, but we try to keep them from getting too wild when they play with her.

We took the kids outside to paint today and I think they loved it.  They kept asking why we couldn't just paint in our room, and I tried to explain to them that we didn't want paint on the floor, the walls, the bed, etc.  They don't seem to realize how messy they can be, and didn't seem to make the connection.  We found a nice spot at a table under an umbrella and stayed out there for about an hour.

We had to have some of our laundry sent out.  It cost about $30 for a big bag of laundry (probably about 2 loads of laundry).  Nice to have clean clothes to wear again.  We wash lots of things in the sink, but it just isn't the same.

We tried to keep ourselves occupied in the room, but it was tough not to be able to go to the pool or the park.  We watched Shrek, colored, played Memory, and ordered room service.  We kind of tricked the kids.  I ordered a salad off of the menu, and it comes with french fries...go figure.  But we kept the french fries covered and didn't let the kids know that we had them.  We made sure that they ate lots of healthy wholesome foods before we revealed the french fries, and then only let each boy have a few.  Juan Manuel came up and gave Jason the biggest hug and thanked him for the papitas...I don't think I've ever seen him so grateful for anything else yet!

The weather looks like it will remain rainy for the next couple of days, but we are hoping that there will be enough of a break to get out of our room so that we don't go too stir-crazy.  Tomorrow will be a busy day for us anyways though.  In the morning, we have to go to the courthouse to sign some documents.  In the afternoon we have our Integracion meeting with the Defender of Minors.  They will separate us from the kids and ask us all how it's going, make sure that it is in everyone's best interests to move forward with the adoption.  Hopefully there won't be any surprises and everything will proceed smoothly. 

We showed the kids pictures from some of our previous camping trips, and they were thrilled to see them.  Santiaguito always looks at the fish pictures and tells us that he wants to catch a fish much bigger than ours.  My dad has a new little fishing partner, I think.  I asked Santiago today which name he prefers, Santi, Santiago, or Santiaguito, and he said Santi, so we'll see if he still likes it in a day or two.  Things are always changing when you are 4!

Wish us luck tomorrow at our meeting.  If all goes well, our case will be submitted to the courts on Friday, and we should know our court assignment by Monday.  Then we just wait to get before the judge for Sentencia, and hope for lots of sunny days in the mean time!!!

Que Es Eso

The day started bright and early today when the phone in the boys' rooms rang at 5am today...a wrong number!  The kids never woke up, thank goodness, but we had a tough time settling back in after that. 

Breakfast in the hotel restaurant went a little bit better today.  When we first started together as a family, the kids would sit at the table and shout at me when I went in the buffet to fill up plates of food for them.  They would yell, "Mama!!  Quiero jugo de mora!!  Mama!!  Quiero arepa!!  Mama!!!  Quiero coco crispies!!"  etc., etc.  It is actually kind of funny because even Christian joins in chirping "Mama!!"  It is like a nest full of hungry baby birds!  I always go to breakfast in my tennis shoes because it is usually a race.  Jason typically stays at the table with the kids and holds down the fort there.  We have really worked with the boys on not yelling in the restaurant, so now they sit at the table and still say all of those things, but with more expressive faces and lower voices.  And we are SO glad when the waitress comes with coffee.  We always try to be generous with tipping there since we seem to leave a mess in our wake.

Today at breakfast we were talking with a Norwegian family that are here adopting their second child.  The man said that everyone looks at us and our 3 boys and think that we are very brave.  All of the families that are here now for adoption are adopting only one child, most are toddler age.  It is fun for our kids to play with the other kids in the pool or on the playground, and so cute when the little kids say to each other "Hola nino, hola nina."

We have been struggling with nap time for Christian.  They told us that he is accostomed to a 2 hour nap every afternoon, but when we try to get him to nap, he screams his head off.  We have tried letting him fall asleep in our lap and then moving him, but he always wakes up, and then starts that battle royale.  He stands up in his crib, throws everything on the floor, and yells at everyone and everything.  So, we have decided to stop trying to force the nap, and if and when he falls asleep, great.  We are tired of seeing him so upset, and truthfully, it is just exhausting for the whole family.  We think he is just really nervous about being separated from his brothers, because at night when all of the kids go to bed, Christian lays right down and doesn't even make a peep.  He is usually fast asleep within 2 minutes of putting him in the crib, before the boys have even finished their evening prayers.  (His crib is right next to the boys' bed.)

We played in the pool for a couple of hours, Juan Manuel had to have a 30 minute pool deduction today.  Jason stayed in the room with "napping" Christian because he needed a break from the sun.  Even though we put on SPF50, being at the equator, having no base tan, and being at 5000ft altitude, definitely makes it difficult to endure much time in the sun. 

We tried to play "old Maid" today, but Christian kept trying to steal the cards, and the kids just weren't getting the hang of it because I couldn't explain it well enough in Spanish.  They kept showing each other the cards in their hands instead of keeping them a secret.  We will put that one away for now and revisit it again later.  So we went back to memory, which is a huge hit.  In one game, Santiago was looking for a pair of moon cards.  He knew where one of them was, but kept turning over the wrong card when looking for the second moon.  After about the 10th time of doing that, Juan Manuel just couldn't take it any more.  He smacked himself on the head, started ranting in Spanish about where the card really was and flipped over the second moon and just threw both cards at Santiago.  As hard as we tried not to, Jason and I couldn't stop laughing.  Both kids took it in good stride.

Margarita came and took us to a shopping mall today, Tesoro.  She dropped us off and showed us how to take the taxi back to the hotel.  We had to go to the 1hr photo there and get some pictures made to give to the kids' foster family.  We were a little bit nervous that the kids would misbehave in the mall, but they actually did really well.  There is a grocery store there too, so we stopped and picked up some more food for the room.  When we were walking through the grocery store, Juan Manuel did really good at holding mama's hand, but he did not stop talking THE ENTIRE TIME!!!!  He was just rambling on about which things he likes, and asking what is this and what is that.  He is so extroverted and just loves to talk to everyone about everything. 

We had dinner at the mall, and the kids did pretty well in the restaurant too.  It is tough to order for them at the restaurant because they sit down and just start saying "papitas" over and over and over and over!!!  (Papitas are french fries)  Juan Manuel will eat just about anything, but Santiago is very very picky.  He doesn't like anything spicy, tart, or any kind of sauce besides ketchup.  He doesn't like cheese.  He said he wanted a hamburger, then took the hamburger patty off of the bun and looked horrified and said "Ques es eso"  "What is that"  Are you kidding me?  It's the hamburger that you just told us you wanted!  We just fed some of the hamburger patty to Christian, who loved it, and then Jason shared his dinner, salmon, with Santiago. 

We took the taxi home, and the kids were sit-dancing in the backseat the whole way back to the hotel.  They all wanted to help me unload all of the groceries into the refrigerator.

Tonight the kids told us that they are afraid of the dark and they are afraid to get out of bed at night to go to the bathroom.  We put an extra light on for them, and told them to yell for us if they need us and are afraid.  They are just through the door of our adjoining room, and we usually wake up to any little peep that they make over there, so hopefully they will call us if they need us.

A pretty good day today, and we are tired from all of the fun.  Tomorrow we don't have anything scheduled, so are just going to hang out in our "golden cage".  Thanks again to everyone for the comments and emails, it is so helpful to us to hear supportive words from everyone back home.  We are hanging in here, and are grateful for all of the small steps that we can see every day.

A Better Day

Today we had a better day - there were no damages to the hotel room and there were no injuries to any of the children.  Yay!!  The weather was beautiful and we were able to spend lots of time playing outside, which is so helpful.  The kids are starting to remember some of the rules...no yelling in the hotel, treat each other with respect, no running in the hotel...at least some of the time anyways.

Today we changed our time-out consequences to deducting time from going to the pool.  This was extremely effective, and I suspect that we now have the childrens' full attention.  Juan Manuel had to stay in the room with Christian and I while Papa and Santiago went to the pool.  Mind you, he was only deducted 10 minutes today, but he seemed to get the point quite quickly.

We taught Juan Manuel and Santiago how to play the game Memory today, and they loved it.  They both cried when we said it was time to stop.  Tomorrow we are going to teach them Old Maid.  The older 2 boys both attended school, and I think that they enjoy learning and figuring things out, so playing Memory with them was perfect.

Tonight, instead of going to the hotel restaurant, we ordered room service.  The boys seemed amazed that a cart of food would just appear at our door (I had snuck into the other room to do the ordering!), and we ate it picnic-style in our room.  Meal times can be some of our most challenging times of the day, as our boys have ZERO manners...it is like feeding a pack of wild animals!  Always spilling their drinks on the floor, the furniture, themselves.  Using their shirts or the tablecloth to wipe their faces, crawling under the table in the restaurant to pick food up off the floor and plop it in their mouths.  We are trying to teach them better behavior with their food, and they are all ready starting to improve, but we have a very long ways to go.  In the restaurant, we try to seat ourselves near other families with kids, and give lots of space to the patrons having business meetings over breakfast! 

So, we are very grateful to have had a better day today.  We just realized that as of today, we have been in Medellin for one week...it feels like eternity!  We don't meet with the Defender of Minors until Thursday, and then if everything goes well in that meeting, we will be assigned a court and begin the judicial process.  We aren't even thinking that far ahead though, as our days are so busy just focusing on the here and now and running after the kids.

We are hoping for more sun and good weather tomorrow so we can get outside and play!

Challenging day

Today was very difficult.  We are having many challenges with all of the kids, but especially with Juan Manuel, as he is extremely rambunctious and has very little self control.  Jason and I are feeling torn in so many directions and are trying so hard to keep up.

In our hotel room there is a desk that is covered with a sheet of glass to protect the wood surface.  The glass sheet was not affixed to the desk top, and today Juan Manuel ran through the room, somehow knocked the glass to the floor and it shattered all over the place.  Mind you, the floor is carpeted, so he really whacked it hard.  He has gotten in the habit of laughing when he has done something that he knows he shouldn't, and he thought it was funny when the glass broke.  My first concern was safety.  Christian wasn't in the room when it happened, but Santiaguito was 2 feet away from the glass shards, barefoot.  I had to walk over and carry him to safety, all the while trying to make sure that Juan Manuel didn't come over to the broken glass.  Juan Manuel doesn't seem to have a good sense yet for what is safe and what isn't, and he doesn't always listen to us yet, this is definitely one of our biggest challenges with him.

So I put Juan Manuel in time-out and sent Satiaguito to the other room to play.  The hotel staff came in to clean up the mess, but here is another challenge we are struggling with...the people here give us the stink-eye every time we correct our children.  The maid came in, went and sat down with Juan Manuel in his time-out and was telling him that it is ok, it's not a big deal, the most important thing is that he didn't get hurt.  While that is true, it was just a stroke of luck for us that neither he nor his brothers got hurt or lacerated.  We know that we've only been together as a family for 4 days, but part of our challenge is not knowing what is "normal" for our boys.  We don't know if Juan Manuel is acting out, or if this is typical for him.  We have the feeling that it may be typical since the ICBF paperwork said that he can be "spontaneous"...hmmmmmm...spontaneous is putting it very very mildly!  He is still a very loving boy, and a good kid, but we are having a tough time getting through to him on his behavior. 

We are thinking that we probably need to modify our time-out theory.  We are getting the impression that he thinks time-out is funny, and he would rather behave badly and then just accept the time-out punishment.  We are thinking we may try deducting time at the pool, or time playing at the park...but we really don't know.  We are trying to be so loving in all of our interactions, but we have to find a currency that has value to him, or I don't think that he will stop and think about what he is doing.  Are we expecting too much?  We just don't know...   We are hoping that tomorrow will be better, or at least not any worse than it was today.

Today we learned that Christian goes poop in the potty!!!  He hadn't pooped since we've had him, and we were going to visit the pharmacist today to get some stool softener for him.  We've been trying to pump him full of fiber-rich foods in hope that it would help, but were starting to get worried about him.  Then this morning he started to whine and pull on the seat of his pants.  I asked Juan Manuel what was wrong with Christian, and he said that he had to go "popo en el bano".  REALLY???  He's so little, yet he sits on the big toilet with his bottom hanging in and hangs on for dear life.  Of course we helped him, and sure enough, he went poop in the potty.  Crazy!  They didn't tell us that in our meeting with ICBF, so we were pretty shocked by it.  But now we know what to look for, so hopefully we can help him out.

Santiaguito had a bit of a challenging day today also.  He is starting to come out of his shell, and like Juan Manuel, is testing the limits.  In general though, he seems more concerned about what we tell him is allowed or not.  Tonight he told me that he wants to learn English, too cute. 

So, we are surviving, but the days are definitely getting harder and not easier.  I was talking to one of the German couples that are here to adopt also, and they described our hotel setting as the "golden cage".  It is not real life, and there are so many times that you can walk around the "compound" before the kids look at you and ask, "mama, papa, donde vamos?".  We have been trying to burn off energy outside...playing in the pool, at the park, playing soccer, you name it.  Jason even tries to get the boys to run laps around the basketball court.  That goes over about as well as a screen door on a submarine!!

Here's hoping that tomorrow will be a better day than today was! 

We Survived Day 3

Here's the time-out count for today:

Juan Manuel:  4 time-outs before noon
Santiaguito:  1, 20 minute melt-down that ended in a nap for him and a headache for mama
Christian:  0

Actually, our time-outs are really more like "time-ins".  We keep the kids very close to us, and sometimes the time-out is spent with one of us holding the kids on our lap on the "time-out" bench.  Poor little Santiaguito...I think he is really struggling to make sense of all of the changes in his world.  All day today, he was very pouty, and very sad, from the moment he woke up this morning.  He earned himself a time out for stealing the Star Wars slap-bands from Juan Manuel.  I held him on my lap and the poor little thing just sobbed for about 20 minutes.  I have the very distinct feeling that his reaction is more due to the chaos in his life right now and less about brotherly love and sharing.  He eventually cried himself out, laid down for an hour nap, and woke up a much happier little boy.

Juan Manuel was very mischevious and rambunctions this morning.  Four time-outs before noon.  We were trying to skype with my mom and he tangled himself up in the curtains, then tripped, ripping the curtain and curtain rod off of the wall.  He fell on top of Santiaguito, and the both of them ended up in tears.  We were practically speachless, as we envision dollar signs to pay for the repair.  We have the feeling that Juan Manuel is familiar with time outs though, because he just sits on the bench like a trooper, doesn't pout or cry, and comes off and is very sincere and apologetic.

On a totally different topic...Juan Manuel lost a tooth this morning at breakfast!  We were eating when all of a sudden Juan Manuel dove under the table.  We had no idea what he was doing and thought that he had dropped a piece of food down there.  We told him to sit back down please, and he did and didn't say anything.  We continued to "eat" for another 20 minutes (can you call it "eat" when you are chasing after 3 kids and throwing down cold food and lots of coffe?) when all of a sudden I noticed Juan Manuel's tooth was gone.  He had all ready lost most of his front teeth and had only the one remaining on the top, so it was totally obvious once he smiled.  We all laughed and then dove under the table to help him look for the tooth.  I am not sure what the staff think of us, but we are doing our best!  We never did find the tooth, but we had a great time looking for it. 

Speaking of teeth, these kids love to brush their teeth, even Christian.  We have got to get a picture of it.  They line up at the sink and all brush together and it is just adorable.

Christian is the cutest little thing.  He always wants to sit on my lap.  If I am sitting on the floor, he will just plunk himself right down on top of me.  It is funny, because if we are sitting together, and then I get up, he follows me around and keeps sticking his little butt out at me as if he is just waiting for me to sit down again so he can sit on me.  What a little sweetie!  We finally got him to go in his stroller today without fussing.

Today had a lot of ups and downs.  We are all adjusting to each other, and it is not always easy.  It is funny though, that as Jason and I sit here and try to remember what happened today, we can hardly think of it all because in some ways each day feels like 3...or 10!  We are prepared for more difficulties, but we know that many good times are on the horizon. 

Thank you again to everyone leaving us messages and emails...you feel like our life-lines as we flounder our way through our first days as a new family.

Day 2

Another exhausting day.  Whew!  The kids slept all the way through the night last night.  We put them to bed at 7:30, and they didn't wake up until 6:30...not one peep all night long.  These kids go to bed so easily.  They don't fuss, they don't whine, they don't pop out of bed multiple times, they just play quietly in bed for a little bit and then they crash.  They say a prayer together in Spanish before they go to sleep, then there are kisses and "good-nights" for everybody.  It may have something to do with the fact that they don't stop moving from the time they get up till the time they go to sleep at night.  Christian does have about a 2 hr nap each day (we were advised of this by ICBF), but he gets very very nervous when he is separated from his brothers.  If we can get him to fall sound asleep and then put him in the crib, it is ok.  Otherwise, it's a big problem.

So, for the most part, the kids are very good.  They are a ton of fun, they are very happy, energetic, smart kids.  They are eating like champs.  They are very affectionate towards Jason and I, and towards each other.  Their biggest challenge so far has been sibling rivalry and sharing, especially with Jaun Manuel.  Juan Manuel can be very rough with his brothers and very possessive of ALL of the toys.  We have had to be swift and firm, but always loving, with Juan Manuel regarding sharing.  Santiago becomes very sad when Juan Manuel won't share with him, and will try to hide under the bed or behind the couch.  Juan Manuel had a tantrum today and needed a "time-in"...the first for any of the kids.  I was the one to sit with him, and it gives me a whole new appreciation for parenting and people who are good at it.  But, after that episode, Juan Manuel was much better about sharing for the rest of the day.  He can still be very rough with his brothers, who are quite a bit smaller than him, so we need to stay on top of that as well. 

Christian is a sweet little baby who is content to play by himself or his brothers, but you can tell he is on the cusp of his "terrible twos".  He is fiercely independent and wants to do everything by himself, hence most of the time the front of his shirt is covered with water, or juice, or whatever.  We brought sippy cups for all of the boys, which are awesome, (thanks for the advice, Steve and Julie!) but the boys couldn't get the hang of the cups with the rubber seals in them, because they had to suck too hard, so we took the rubber seals out.  The cups still work pretty well, but Christian usually misses his mouth half the time, or drinks out of the wrong side, and water flows out of the air hole and down his shirt.  Oh well, it's just water, right?  The bib with the little catch-tray at the bottom is awesome too.  When we are in the room and the kids are having snacky-finger food stuff to eat, we just load the bib tray up with some for Christian, and then he can feed himself and doesn't get mad at us for trying.

Santiago is showing the most sadness of all of the boys.  Like I said above, there are times when he will sort of withdraw from everybody and go off by himself and hide his head in his arms.  It just breaks my heart for him.  Whenever we see it, we go and give him a super-big hug and tell him how much we love him.  Santiago is a daredevil!  He will jump onto the monkey-bars and just hang there, even though his arms are not long enough to swing across.  We have to watch him like a hawk, or we turn around, and there he is just hanging there, and we don't know for how long!  In the pool, he is like a fish.  Today he learned how to hold his breath and put his head under the water.  Once he figured it out, he was dunking his head down every couple of minutes.  And then guess who tried to imitate him...yes, Christian even dunked his face in the water a couple of times to make sure that his big brother didn't out-do him.

The boys LOVE the photo album that we had sent down to them last November.  They want to look at it again and again, and they know everybody in it.  They know their abuelos, their tias and tios.  They got to skype with my mom and my sister Vicki today, and they thought it was awesome.  Tonight they were asking to talk to Abuelo, but we couldn't get through before it was time for bed.

The afternoon here was very rainy, but at about dinner time the rain stopped, so we thought we would go out and play futbol or frisbee.  The kids were disgusted with the mud...I don't know if I've ever heard of that with boys!  They were showing us every little speck of mud that they got on their shoes or pants.  So playing in the park didn't last too long today.

Jason had to venture out to the Exito store today.  The room we are staying in doesn't have a kitchen, or a kitchenette, or even a microwave, but does have a refrigerator.  With 3 hungry boys, we desperately needed to get some food for our room.  Papa came home with lots of fruit, peanut butter (which the kids hated!), and lots of good miscellaneous stuff.  We are having a hard time telling what the kids like or don't like to eat.  They will tell us that they do or don't like something, and then they end up eating the things they said they didn't like, and leaving the things they said they did like.  Who knows?  We aren't too worried about it, and figure that until we get back home, we are just kind of stuck with whatever we have access to, which isn't much. 

Again, we are exhausted!  We are hoping for sunnier weather tomorrow so we can get the kids out running around to burn off some of their energy.  Thank you so much to people who have left emails or messages for us, we can't say how much it helps to hear words of encouragement.  Hasta manana!

Family Day

Ok...the kids are in bed asleep.  What a crazy, amazing, overwhelming day!  I was a nervous wreck all morning.  I only slept for a few hours last night, and Jason had a case of traveler's diarrhea, so he was short on sleep as well.  I have never in my life felt as nervous as I did this morning.  Thankfully, the morning went pretty fast, and once Margarita came to pick us up and we were on our way, we kind of settled in and tried to just go with whatever would happen.

We got to ICBF and first had a meeting with the children's psychologist.  She gave us lots of updates on the kids, as well as original photos that ICBF had taken of the boys - adorable.  The psychologist and everyone in the office were laughing, because the boys had been there the day before so that they wouldn't be afraid today.  And everyone said..."Wow!  These kids have a lot of energy, they never sit still!"  It couldn't be more true!

Anyways, towards the end of the meeting, we hear a great big ruckus...they were bringing the kids into the building.  There was a little window, and Jason saw Juan Manuel go by, then Santiago stopped and looked in the window at us, and we just saw the top of Christian's head.  We still had some legal documents to sign at that point, so the kids were being kept in the play room, and we could hear all kinds of noise and banging around.

Finally, it was time to bring in the kids.  This part is all kind of a blur.  The boys came in the room, and Santiago lept into my arms and gave me the biggest hug.  Then Juan Manuel, and then they handed me Christian.  They all did the same with Jason.  The boys were so brave and called us mama and papa right from our first moments together. 

They really weren't kidding, these kids are just a bundle of energy.  We cannot turn our back for one second because they are running here or there!  Here are some of our first impressions after one day with the kids.

Juan Manuel - They told us that he thinks of himself like "superman".  He is very helpful to his brothers, but needs to be reminded that he must share, and that he must be careful with them as well. 

Santiago - He is called Santiagito.  He is as sweet as can be.  He kept coming up to us and giving us big hugs all day long.  At times today, he looked very sad.  When I asked him if he was sad, he said yes.  I told him it is ok to feel sad, and that today there were very many big changes for him, but that we will have a good and happy life together and we will always take care of them.  He and Juan Manuel love to draw pictures for us.

Christian - He was such a good baby today.  The only time he cried was when we tried to put him to bed, but he settled right down once his brothers came to bed too.  He seems kind of tentative about what in the world is happening to him, but he has been very tolerant.  If he can be together with his brothers, he is very content.

We went swimming at the pool, played at the playground (and at dinner!), and played in the room.  It was a very full day, and Jason and I were often left looking at each other in dismay wondering what in the world we are doing.  Honestly, it often felt like complete chaos.  I think we lost our room key about 10 times today!  We have no idea what the days ahead will bring, but are going to just love on these boys like crazy.  Hopefully we will be able to start a daily routine and try to bring at least a little bit of order to our state of being.

Sorry I can't post pictures yet...our agency and ICBF strictly prohibit it, so we have to wait until we have Sentencia.  But the stories will keep coming, and the pictures won't be far behind.

Now it's time for bed.  We are exhausted!  Thank you everyone for your emails, comments, and continued love, support and prayers.  Good night!

We Need HOW Much CASH?!?!

We had a very stressful morning today.  We had a meeting with our representative, Margarita, and our attorney, Nora, and found out that almost all of our expenses in Medellin, not including our hotel, and totaling about $4000USD are payable only in CASH, Colombian Pesos only.  We had been told by our agency that we could use a personal check for our attorney's fees, and credit cards for the other fees, hence we brought a limited amount of cash with us.  We could go to a bank and do a cash advance on any of our credit cards, but the fees and interest are very high for that kind of transaction.  The ATM's here have daily withdrawal limits of $200.  Thank goodness we will be staying here for several weeks, and we will just have to make the maximum withdrawals every day until we have enough money to cover all of our fees.  Another really good thing is that we brought 2 different bank ATM cards, and 2 different credit cards, so we have many options, if needed.

The part that was the most frustrating to us though, was that this all could have been avoided with better communication.  Margarita and Nora were very upset that we hadn't been given the proper information from the start, and we were very upset, period.  Well, we contacted our agency and Margarita did as well, and things finally started to happen.  The agency was extremely apologetic and owned full responsibility for the misinformation.   They even offered to wire us the money, if necessary.  We are really glad that we have their support, and hopefully this will all work itself out.

So, on to the fun parts of the day...

We met another American family that is staying at our hotel.  It was really fun...Jason and I were walking through the hotel lobby, and a lady stopped us and asked us if we were Americans.  When we said "yes", she said that she has been reading our blog!  How cool is that?!  Here is a link to their family's blog http://www.theperfectsummerforamiracle.blogspot.com/  Amanda is here in Medellin spending a week with Jhonatan, who their family is in the process of adopting.  We ended up spending some time together at the pool.  Jason and Jhonatan played ball in the pool and Amanda and I had some great conversation.  We had a great time with them hearing about their journey as a family!  Jason and I both got a little bit of a sunburn...this pasty white Minnesota skin is just not used to the sun this time of year!

We had an early dinner, and here we are, resting up for our big day tomorrow.  I am extremely nervous about tomorrow.  Before we left for Colombia, my mom asked me what exactly I was nervous about.  Oh, let's see...will the kids reject us?  Will I be a good mom?  How will the kids handle the transition?  Will this all be OK?  I need to just try to calm myself, or my mind kind of spins from it all.  We are trying to just remain very flexible and be ready for the kids tomorrow. 

Margarita will pick us up at the hotel at 10:30, and then we go to the ICBF office to meet first with the social worker, and then with the children.  I keep telling Jason that I hope I don't faint, or throw up, or any other embarassing things like that.  I am sure that it will be an overwhelming day to say the least...and then the real transitions begin. 

Wish us luck, thank you for your continued prayers, and the next time we blog...it will be as Mami and Papi!
  

Settling In

We have spent today getting settled at our hotel in Medellin.  Our assistant/translator, Margarita, met us after breakfast to take us to the bank and the grocery store.  She said that she prefers to drive us to places like this, but we can take a taxi instead if she isn't available to go with us.  We are still trying to get a sense for safety issues in and around Medellin.  For example, when Margarita came to pick us up at the airport last night, she brought her gardener along with her so that she wouldn't have to drive alone at night.  When we see a "local" person concerned about safety, it definitely makes us think twice about how we should be careful and cautious here.  As much as we try to be inconspicuous, we definitely stick out as foreigners, and don't want to attract any extra attention or trouble.  The hotel is great and we are definitely safe and secure here and anywhere we go with Margarita, but we don't know that we will be going venturing off very much, or even at all while we are in Medellin.

View from our hotel room








View of Medellin from the shopping center


The driving here can be very confusing...lots of curvy roads that connect with lots of other curvy roads.  We have absolutely no sense of direction yet.  The neighborhood that our hotel is in doesn't really seem good for walking around, so again, we may have to rely more on Margarita, or get brave and take a taxi ourselves. 

There are 4 other adoptive families at our hotel, 3 German families and one Swedish family.  We met all of the German families today, but it can be difficult because their English is only fair, and we know no German.  Each family has adopted one child, and the kids are adorable, but you can see that each family has their own struggles in adjusting to the big changes.

The grocery store was fun.  We got a few things to keep in the room...juice and yogurt and crackers for the kids.  We are going to be situated in 2 adjoining rooms.  Right now we are in one of the rooms, and on Thursday, once we have the boys, they will open up the adjoining room for us.  We aren't sure about the set-up for a couple of reasons.  First of all, we may prefer to have the boys all sleep closer to us and not in a separate room, we will have to see.  And second, this means that we actually get charged for 2 rooms instead of one.  So take the price quote that you get for lodging at the beginning of an adoption, and double it.  YIKES!  On the other hand, we have heard from other families that keeping 3 newly adopted kids in one small room for 3+ weeks can be very challenging, especially if the weather is rainy.  We are going to talk to Margarita about what our other options may be, and see what's available.

Tomorrow morning we have a meeting with our lawyer, and we also found out that presentation will be at 11:00 on Thursday.  We don't have anything else planned for today, probably just going to take it easy and get rested up!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles



Us getting dropped off at the airport in Duluth

After a very long day of travel, we arrived safe and sound in Medellin.  We are at our hotel and Jason is unpacking as I write this.




Jason in the airport in Medellin


It was a pretty uneventful travel day, which is the BEST kind of travel day!  All of our luggage made it here in one piece, our representative/translator, Margarita, was at the airport ready to meet us, and everything really did go pretty smoothly.  Margarita is a stitch!  She is a petite lady with kind of a raspy voice, and she calls everyone by pet names, like "mi amor", etc.  She seems to be very well connected, and when we walked through the airport and hotel with her, many people greeted her like an old friend.   

We are now in that state of over-tiredness, where we can't quite settle down to sleep yet, but are starting to become incoherent.  We woke up at about 2am this morning and couldn't get back to sleep - too nervous and excited to settle back in.  Needless to say, we are very tired tonight. 

Margarita is meeting us tomorrow to show us around the neighborhood a little bit and help us get acclimated.  For now, I think it's off to bed for us!!  Goodnight everybody!

Packing Success and a Leaky Toilet

Another busy day here!  We finished up on our packing, and were able to make our goal of 3 checked bags, 2 carry-ons and a stroller.  It feels pretty tight, but there are a lot of things in there that we hope to "use up" during the course of our time in Colombia, or just leave it there if we need room for the return trip.  Plus there are gifts and items that we will be donating to ICBF.

We followed the packing guidelines provided by our agency, and I also consulted The Complete Book of International Adoption, but just couldn't bring myself to pack quite as spartanly as the author recommended...we may come to regret that when we are lugging our suitcases around!  




Packed and ready to go!!


Other exciting happenings today...one of our toilets started to leak.  Jason had to take the whole works apart and put a new seal on it.  It was a total inconvenience, but we are glad to have that taken care of before we leave.  On a more positive note, Yvonne and Tom came over for one last visit, and came bearing a homemade apple pie still warm from the oven...YUM!

We are ready to go to bed soon, as we will have an early morning tomorrow.  Somehow I don't quite feel tired yet...too nervous and excited to sleep.  I always feel that way the night before a trip, but especially before THIS trip! 

Thank you to all of you who have helped us to get ready, and thank you for all of your prayers.  We appreciate it all!

Packing Progress

Well...2 days later, and how are we doing with our packing?  Looks like we will make our goal of 3 checked, and 2 carry-on bags.  It hasn't been pretty, but we are very close to being finished.  Good thing since we are almost out of time, right?



Presentation Day gifts for the boys...lots of fun kid stuff!


 

Packing in-progress...what a mess!


I am sure I will still be throwing things in the suitcases up until the very last minute.  We still have more than enough room, but have to watch the weight limit.  We are busy, busy, busy taking care of all of the last-minute things before we leave.

School's Out!

Today is Jason's last day of work before we travel.  I was skipping around the kitchen this morning singing "school's out, school's out, teachers let the monkeys out!"  We are starting to get giddy - can you tell?  We both woke up at about 2am and had a tough time getting back to sleep after that.  Hopefully it won't be too rough a day for either of us.

Today I have to work on packing.  We have had all of the boys' things packed for about a month, but I have packed very little for myself.  I am a procrastinator when it comes to packing...always wait until the last minute...always throwing in "one last thing". 

Our goal:  3 checked bags and 2 carry-ons, oh, plus one stroller.  We'll see how it goes!

Bring On the Noise

Five days until we travel, 8 days until we meet the boys...Wow!!!  Almost everyone we see these days asks us how we are feeling.  Still oscillating between being crazy-excited and somewhat terrified...but as it gets closer and closer, the excitement is taking over and mostly, we are just so ready to get this show on the road and meet our kids! 

My mom is coming up tomorrow to get situated at our house.  She will be house and dog sitting for us while we are away, and we are hugely thankful that she and my dad agreed to help us.  Anyways, as Jason and I were waking up this morning, I looked at him and said, "Do you realize that this is the LAST day of just you-and-me at home for...who knows how long?"  And then he said, "Yeah, and this is your last day of peace and quiet at home by yourself for a LONG time.  Because even once the kids are grown up and move out, hopefully I'll be retired and I can be here to bug you too."   Ha ha!

As I go through this last day of "peace and quiet" as a soon-to-be-mom, I will definitely appreciate the day and the time I have.  But I also look around and see how ready we are to be parents, how we have waited and prayed and hoped for that day to come.  In many ways, this last week of waiting has seemed the most agonizing...

Lately, I have also been thinking a lot about the boys' foster parents.  I can't imagine what they must be feeling.  They have been parents to these 3 little guys for the last year and a half, and now in just a few days, they must say goodbye.  How do you fill the space, the noise, the chaos that three little boys leave behind?  So this week I have been praying for them and the kids - praying for ease in the transitions ahead.  I hope that we can meet the foster family while we are in Colombia, and maybe we will even be able to maintain a relationship with them. 

One last day of peace and quiet...call me crazy, but I say...bring on the noise!!!

New Friends

On Monday night, Jason and I got to meet some new friends, and they were so cool!  The family consists of a mom and her 3 sons.  The boys were adopted from Guatemala, one as a baby, and the other 2 about a decade later as adolescents.  They were so gracious in telling us all about their stories, and we had a great time listening to them and asking about a million questions!  The brothers are all highschool-aged now, and it was really great for us to get to talk with them and hear about their experiences.

Like I said, we asked so many questions...here's a sampling

Q:  Did it feel weird when you were all first together, and you were a family, yet you were complete strangers?  What did you do to help it?
A:  Yes!  We played "Go Fish"  over and over and over and got to know each other. 

Q:  What did you think about America before you came here?
A:  We thought that you ate everything out of a can. 

Q:  What did you think about snow?
A:  We LOVED it...it was awesome!

Q:  What can we do to help our boys to not be afraid when they first meet us?
A:  Bring them presents.  Candy is good too.

We got to ask about being a minority in the community and at school, questions about birth families, questions about "culture camp", questions about foods, questions about language challenges...the list goes on and on. 

The guys are all in sports, and we hope to bring the kids to see them play once we are back home and settled in.  The oldest brother offered to help act as a translator for us if we need help understanding our little ones - Thank you!  And Mom offered to help teach me to make home-made tortillas...so cool!!! 

I can hardly say how great and helpful this was for us as we near our travel date.  We want to thank you so much for taking the time to meet with us!  We can't wait for our kids to meet your family!