The Birthday Boys

Happy Birthday to my two boys who both have birthdays this week! Fabian turned 10 yesterday and Luis Alejandro will celebrate his 1st birthday on Thursday. It's a busy week for us here! Marissa has testing for her school both Tuesday and Wednesday and she's nervous for some reason... probably because she always gets nervous when it comes to testing!

I hope to have some pictures later of our birthday celebrations. This picture is one of my favorites. It was one of the first pictures taken when we landed on U. S. soil during our layover at Atlanta. And by the way, we processed through the Atlanta airport customs/immigration in less than 5 minutes start to finish-- which would have even been sooner (like 3 minutes) but the nice guy working there took one look at poor Marissa who was sick and went to get her a bottle of water to help her through her sick spell. What a thoughtful and considerate man! We were very thankful for his act of kindness. Bless her heart though, she really was so pale and sick feeling when we flew that day, but she made it through -- what a trooper she is -- just as tough as they come!! As we were enduring the long interrogation process from Bogota airport as we were checking out of the airport and getting our passports stamped, I was growing weary that they would not allow us to travel because that was probably when Marissa was at her sickest moment of the day. She couldn't hardly stand up because she was so ill feeling, and she did her best to smile and to answer the questions. It was definitely an interrogation process and rather lengthy! I think they asked each of the kids about 8 different times to reveal their sisters' names, and their brother's names, and point to them, and give their birthdates of their siblings, etc., -- just overdone if you ask me! This lady clearly wasn't in favor of adoption and kept asking why on earth we would want 3 at the same time, and why we would possibly want Colombian children? We were very offended by her rude questions and remarks which she continued to ask over and over as if the answer would change. Just nuts! We just wanted so badly to get home before Christmas so we were extremely tolerant!

I'm so very proud of all of my children! Each brings a special uniqueness of character that enhances our family in such delightful ways! They are little gems and I'm so honored to be their Mama.

Happy Birthday to my little guys!!!! Enjoy your cake, ice cream, the birthday song being sung, and the "muchos regalos" -- MANY PRESENTS (which seems to be the most exciting thing for Fabian and he's not afraid to tell you that's the most important part.) Ahhh, the innocence they possess is just awesome as they venture into new settings! What a whirlwind of a ride we are on! Each day brings forth such wonders -- How glorious indeed! Thank you Lord!!!