This won't be a lengthy entry because I'm just exhausted and it's very late. We just returned from a nice evening out in Cucuta. After our 2 and a half hour swimming excursion in the late afternoon, we were surprised by a phone call from our interpreter Alexandra who at our attorney's wishes wanted to invite us for an ice cream or a coffee in the early evening. We rounded up the crew and went to the mall for a very enjoyable visit with our attorney and Alexandra at Juan Valdez coffee. MMMmmmmm, very tasty coffee and wonderful treats which I'm going to have to write the name down of what they were, but they were wonderful tasting! We found out our case may be progressing now and we could possibly hear something very soon regarding sentencia. We wait patiently as the Lord prepares us to proceed! And we continue to pray! As much as we enjoy Cucuta and all it has to offer, and enjoy the beautiful Colombia as we've grown to know, we certainly do want to continue this adventure and get home before the Christmas holiday travel goes berzerk!!!! Our flights are scheduled for Friday so it's looking like we'll need to change the flights to a later date. But what later date??
After the mall we went to this park with many decorations and lights displayed. It's just amazing how many light displays they had out there. Like a little town with little buildings that you could walk through and they were all decorated and lit up. A huge tree was in the middle of this arrangement. Just so awesome of a sight, that's for sure! We took tons of pictures so I hope they turned out okay and you're able to tell a lot from the pictures.
We took a drive around Cucuta which was very enjoyable! Then we went to grab a burger at Carritos, a very nicely decorated restaurant downtown decorated so nicely in periwinkle colored lights everywhere. An outdoor restaurant... and very busy... and very tasty... and even had a dog that took up temporary residence seated just under Marissa's seat, until Fabian kicked it one too many times (perhaps on accident but who knows, he's all boy and a little fiesty at times.) Marissa didn't even know the dog was there until halfway through the meal.
The kids made friends at the pool today and I'll have to report on that probably tomorrow because I'm too tired right now.
Well, off to bed now and more later. Ciao, Genece
WEATHER IN CUCUTA
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Still no sentencia but quite the celebration!
Still no word of when to expect sentencia but we feel the hand of the Lord very present in everything we do. AMEN! God has a very defined plan for us and we await His tender mercies! We are so thankful to be here in Colombia during the Christmas season. From what we've seen, Colombians do go all out for decorations and beautifully-colored lights. Rick's dad would love being here right now to view all the great light decorations and displays because that's Dave's thing -- Christmas lights and decorations -- oh yeah!! It's very fascinating and what a glorious time of the year to witness such sights. Thank you Jesus for all you do. You are the reason for the season and we are truly blessed to be here in Colombia at this time.
Yesterday was interesting. Little corrections had to be made and the day just happened to bring on many. We didn't set out to teach some lessons -- really -- however it just happened that way. There were a few very slight behaviors that we felt necessary to correct before they got too out of hand, and yesterday was the day when we were forced to put our foots down in order to let the children know we mean business. Granted these are all very mild behavior issues but it is our job as parents to show them the way. Anyways, long story short, their pool privileges were taken away for the day following many attempts to get them to conform to our wishes. So when it came time for the pool, only Marissa got to swim and they understood but didn't like that we followed through. Even more of a lesson, both Fabian and Karen had to sit and watch. As hard as it was to endure watching the sad twosome pouting a little as the watched from poolside all the while as Marissa swam, we have had much better behaviors coming from the both of them today. Hallelujah! In fact, this morning was a shocker when Karen got up and dressed with the first prompting from her dad. Fabian needs work on accepting responsibility as he blames others whenever he gets in trouble. Not really blames but it happens such as this... we'll say Fabian, no touching the baby, and he'll say in a very stern voice to his little sister, "Karen, no touching the baby!" Sort of a pass the buck type of deal, and he's not picky with passing the buck -- it usually gets passed on to the nearest person to him that he can turn to and repeat the corrective measures that were initially meant for him. He does it all the time so we figured we'd better get ahold of it and teach him a different way. Acceptance of responsibility! He does accept correction well and bounces right back and doesn't hold his anger. Karen can hold her anger for much longer and definitely knows how to pout to get her way. She's quickly learning to conform and we don't see the long outbursts of anger following the correction nowadays. Now Luis, even at 10 months old now, can hold onto his anger. He knows how to hold a grudge! Really! He has been so spoiled for so long and that's very clear, but he's learned that crying doesn't accomplish much. Don't get me wrong, he sure has tried to get his way by crying, but so far it hasn't worked much so he's giving up on that technique. He still has both his sisters trained for the "fetch" game when he wants them to keep picking up his toys as he drops them purposefully. Instead of crying to get his way he is now this super smily boy most all of the time now. What an absolute joy he is! Very gifted with natural charming abilities and just a happy-go-lucky kind of little guy! He doesn't like his siblings to invade his space and gets upset when they do so Mama and Papa have to run interference all the time for him.
There was a heartwarming speech I had to give yesterday to address to the children after we came back to the room after being at the pool. You could almost see it in their faces that they understood why they lost their pool privileges for the day, but they both had this look of concern that we must not love them anymore and possibly we were giving up on them. Rick and I have been very consistent whenever any corrective criticism is given to follow up with emphasizing how much we love them and how happy we are to all be family and trying to explain why we corrected them in the first place! I am so thankful that during this very crucial explanation following the pool visit yesterday that God placed the correct words in my mouth to get our point across! It really was amazing and Rick commented on how well it went and told me how amazed he was that I continued to rattle off Spanish. My Father above deserves ALL credit for gifting my tongue to speak to my children. What a heavenly experience and for it I am blessed! At that moment I had a TV program on a christian channel singing spanish songs when I noticed one we sing quite regularly in our church. It's a song by Israel Houghton and the new Breed, "Lord you are good and your mercy endureth forever, Lord you are good and your mercy endureth forever, People from every nation and tongue, from generation to generation, We worship You, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, We worship You for who You are ... and You are Good!" It was sung in spanish and it was so cool when the kids got up and started jumping around at the same exact moment as we did. What a blessed event! An outright expression of just exactly how awesome our God is! He let all of us know of His presence at that exact moment. Then we heard the loud fireworks being shot off from town and walked outside our hotel room to take in the beautiful fireworks display. See, the Colombians celebrate a holiday on Dec. 8th, but the festivities actually begin on Friday. It's Dia de la Imaculada Conception and it brings about many fireworks celebrations and the lighting of many Christmas displays. So cool to witness and left us with such overwhelming feelings. We had been told earlier in the week that Friday marked the day when people in Colombia lit candles outside but we had no idea of the exact significance of why they did this as a tradition. So on our trip to the store yesterday we picked up some candles and planned on participating. We almost scrapped our plans of lighting our candles and placing them outside our door because we didn't think anyone else in the hotel was going to, but then we saw the family next to us had lit candles marking their front entrance terrace, we decided we needed to also. The kids went nuts and jumped for joy as we lit the candles and placed them out in the front area. Definitely a treasured moment!!! Just this morning as I read another family's blog that are adopting and are now in Bogota, the Colombian people light the candles for the captives taken by guerilla forces. I knew when we lit them that it was truly a touch from God -- a very somber moment and one which will be forever preserved in my mind, but I had no idea at that time the importance or real significance of those lit candles!
Oh and by the way, there's a quick little story on the lit candles. Today as the maintenance guy went around to our front entrance way and as he scraped the dried candle wax left from our celebration, we felt compelled to leave him a tip. Rick and I opened the door to tell him of our appreciation for his services and he was so overwhelmed by our gesture. It was quite a humbling experience to know that the equivalent of $3 or $4 US dollars meant so much to him. He really didn't want to take the tip but we insisted. He didn't feel he was worthy of receiving it but it was so much of what God led us to do at that exact moment. I am sure he needed the money for something and God was providing for his need by working through us!
Well, I'll close now because it's very late and I need to get some sleep.
May God bless each and everyone!
Genece
Yesterday was interesting. Little corrections had to be made and the day just happened to bring on many. We didn't set out to teach some lessons -- really -- however it just happened that way. There were a few very slight behaviors that we felt necessary to correct before they got too out of hand, and yesterday was the day when we were forced to put our foots down in order to let the children know we mean business. Granted these are all very mild behavior issues but it is our job as parents to show them the way. Anyways, long story short, their pool privileges were taken away for the day following many attempts to get them to conform to our wishes. So when it came time for the pool, only Marissa got to swim and they understood but didn't like that we followed through. Even more of a lesson, both Fabian and Karen had to sit and watch. As hard as it was to endure watching the sad twosome pouting a little as the watched from poolside all the while as Marissa swam, we have had much better behaviors coming from the both of them today. Hallelujah! In fact, this morning was a shocker when Karen got up and dressed with the first prompting from her dad. Fabian needs work on accepting responsibility as he blames others whenever he gets in trouble. Not really blames but it happens such as this... we'll say Fabian, no touching the baby, and he'll say in a very stern voice to his little sister, "Karen, no touching the baby!" Sort of a pass the buck type of deal, and he's not picky with passing the buck -- it usually gets passed on to the nearest person to him that he can turn to and repeat the corrective measures that were initially meant for him. He does it all the time so we figured we'd better get ahold of it and teach him a different way. Acceptance of responsibility! He does accept correction well and bounces right back and doesn't hold his anger. Karen can hold her anger for much longer and definitely knows how to pout to get her way. She's quickly learning to conform and we don't see the long outbursts of anger following the correction nowadays. Now Luis, even at 10 months old now, can hold onto his anger. He knows how to hold a grudge! Really! He has been so spoiled for so long and that's very clear, but he's learned that crying doesn't accomplish much. Don't get me wrong, he sure has tried to get his way by crying, but so far it hasn't worked much so he's giving up on that technique. He still has both his sisters trained for the "fetch" game when he wants them to keep picking up his toys as he drops them purposefully. Instead of crying to get his way he is now this super smily boy most all of the time now. What an absolute joy he is! Very gifted with natural charming abilities and just a happy-go-lucky kind of little guy! He doesn't like his siblings to invade his space and gets upset when they do so Mama and Papa have to run interference all the time for him.
There was a heartwarming speech I had to give yesterday to address to the children after we came back to the room after being at the pool. You could almost see it in their faces that they understood why they lost their pool privileges for the day, but they both had this look of concern that we must not love them anymore and possibly we were giving up on them. Rick and I have been very consistent whenever any corrective criticism is given to follow up with emphasizing how much we love them and how happy we are to all be family and trying to explain why we corrected them in the first place! I am so thankful that during this very crucial explanation following the pool visit yesterday that God placed the correct words in my mouth to get our point across! It really was amazing and Rick commented on how well it went and told me how amazed he was that I continued to rattle off Spanish. My Father above deserves ALL credit for gifting my tongue to speak to my children. What a heavenly experience and for it I am blessed! At that moment I had a TV program on a christian channel singing spanish songs when I noticed one we sing quite regularly in our church. It's a song by Israel Houghton and the new Breed, "Lord you are good and your mercy endureth forever, Lord you are good and your mercy endureth forever, People from every nation and tongue, from generation to generation, We worship You, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, We worship You for who You are ... and You are Good!" It was sung in spanish and it was so cool when the kids got up and started jumping around at the same exact moment as we did. What a blessed event! An outright expression of just exactly how awesome our God is! He let all of us know of His presence at that exact moment. Then we heard the loud fireworks being shot off from town and walked outside our hotel room to take in the beautiful fireworks display. See, the Colombians celebrate a holiday on Dec. 8th, but the festivities actually begin on Friday. It's Dia de la Imaculada Conception and it brings about many fireworks celebrations and the lighting of many Christmas displays. So cool to witness and left us with such overwhelming feelings. We had been told earlier in the week that Friday marked the day when people in Colombia lit candles outside but we had no idea of the exact significance of why they did this as a tradition. So on our trip to the store yesterday we picked up some candles and planned on participating. We almost scrapped our plans of lighting our candles and placing them outside our door because we didn't think anyone else in the hotel was going to, but then we saw the family next to us had lit candles marking their front entrance terrace, we decided we needed to also. The kids went nuts and jumped for joy as we lit the candles and placed them out in the front area. Definitely a treasured moment!!! Just this morning as I read another family's blog that are adopting and are now in Bogota, the Colombian people light the candles for the captives taken by guerilla forces. I knew when we lit them that it was truly a touch from God -- a very somber moment and one which will be forever preserved in my mind, but I had no idea at that time the importance or real significance of those lit candles!
Oh and by the way, there's a quick little story on the lit candles. Today as the maintenance guy went around to our front entrance way and as he scraped the dried candle wax left from our celebration, we felt compelled to leave him a tip. Rick and I opened the door to tell him of our appreciation for his services and he was so overwhelmed by our gesture. It was quite a humbling experience to know that the equivalent of $3 or $4 US dollars meant so much to him. He really didn't want to take the tip but we insisted. He didn't feel he was worthy of receiving it but it was so much of what God led us to do at that exact moment. I am sure he needed the money for something and God was providing for his need by working through us!
Well, I'll close now because it's very late and I need to get some sleep.
May God bless each and everyone!
Genece
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Still waiting wanting word of Sentencia
We still await sentencia which we have no idea of when it will come. We remain hopeful that it will be this week. We are going to contact our agency in-country representative early this afternoon with hopes of finding out if there is any news or any clue of when it might happen. Our attorney an her husband and our interpreter came to the hotel to visit us on Monday night and she had no word of when to expect sentencia. We have no way of contacting anyone locally as we have neither our attorney's phone number or that number to reach our interpreter. We are literally just waiting here and are basically on our own. Please bear with me for a moment as I vent just a little frustration here... I'm sure if we were somewhat in the loop on what to expect we might not be experiencing the frustrations we are. We are just wishing the sentencia to be signed so that we can get rolling with the other documents so we can go home.
Poor little Karen got feeling sick to her stomach last night (actually had a bit of it all day but she didn't want to miss out on any food or pool time). She didn't really complain about it or feel real bad until after we came in from the pool. She laid down for a bit and was better by dinnertime. This morning she woke up very nicely considering she still was sick to her stomach. We didn't realize she wasn't feeling well until at breakfast when she wanted to lay her head down on the table and didn't want to eat anything. She's relaxed in bed most all morning but just got up to eat a snack of kiwi, a little of a pear, and now they are munching on a few chips which the kids refer to as Cheetos which cover any sort of chips... they're all called Cheetos. Sort of reminds me of living in the deep South and growing up in Tennessee when we'd be out at a restaurant and we'd order our drinks and say we wanted a Coke, then the waiter would ask which kind and we'd say Dr. Pepper or a 7-up... ya know, all sodas were referred to as Cokes.
Luis is quite the character. As a baby he sure is gifted with such great personality traits and is sleeping better each and every day. He may wake up in the middle of the night and whimper for about a minute but then he falls right back to sleep without needing any type of interaction. For the past 2 days in a row he's slept in until just past 8 am when I have to wake him up. What a great little baby he is! We all slept very good last night as it rained lots in the night and that always has a lulling effect.
Luis is eating so well nowadays too. He loves his eggs in the morning and he loves spaghetti which we had last night for dinner. He has learned to chomp on his crackers and now he just swiped a cookie from his brother when he wasn't paying attention. We tried to get it back but he laid claim to it right away so there was no taking Luis' cookie from him! He's just our little man!
Alright, a funny thing happened on the way to breakfast today. As we were walking there, Marissa stopped to wait for us under a tree and for some reason she looked up. About that time we saw these droppings which came down and landed on her arms. She started whining about how yucky it was that some bird had taken a poop on her. At least it only landed on her arms and not on her hair or on her clothes. She just had to wash up very well before breakfast but we all got a little giggle out of her unfortunate demise. And fortunate for her that it was from a bird because just yesterday we were noticing some iguana poop that had fallen from the trees and were commenting on how unfortunate it would be to be seated below an iguana at that moment. Aaaaahhhhh, the memories!
Well, more later hopefully.
Sending our love, the Hefty Family!
Poor little Karen got feeling sick to her stomach last night (actually had a bit of it all day but she didn't want to miss out on any food or pool time). She didn't really complain about it or feel real bad until after we came in from the pool. She laid down for a bit and was better by dinnertime. This morning she woke up very nicely considering she still was sick to her stomach. We didn't realize she wasn't feeling well until at breakfast when she wanted to lay her head down on the table and didn't want to eat anything. She's relaxed in bed most all morning but just got up to eat a snack of kiwi, a little of a pear, and now they are munching on a few chips which the kids refer to as Cheetos which cover any sort of chips... they're all called Cheetos. Sort of reminds me of living in the deep South and growing up in Tennessee when we'd be out at a restaurant and we'd order our drinks and say we wanted a Coke, then the waiter would ask which kind and we'd say Dr. Pepper or a 7-up... ya know, all sodas were referred to as Cokes.
Luis is quite the character. As a baby he sure is gifted with such great personality traits and is sleeping better each and every day. He may wake up in the middle of the night and whimper for about a minute but then he falls right back to sleep without needing any type of interaction. For the past 2 days in a row he's slept in until just past 8 am when I have to wake him up. What a great little baby he is! We all slept very good last night as it rained lots in the night and that always has a lulling effect.
Luis is eating so well nowadays too. He loves his eggs in the morning and he loves spaghetti which we had last night for dinner. He has learned to chomp on his crackers and now he just swiped a cookie from his brother when he wasn't paying attention. We tried to get it back but he laid claim to it right away so there was no taking Luis' cookie from him! He's just our little man!
Alright, a funny thing happened on the way to breakfast today. As we were walking there, Marissa stopped to wait for us under a tree and for some reason she looked up. About that time we saw these droppings which came down and landed on her arms. She started whining about how yucky it was that some bird had taken a poop on her. At least it only landed on her arms and not on her hair or on her clothes. She just had to wash up very well before breakfast but we all got a little giggle out of her unfortunate demise. And fortunate for her that it was from a bird because just yesterday we were noticing some iguana poop that had fallen from the trees and were commenting on how unfortunate it would be to be seated below an iguana at that moment. Aaaaahhhhh, the memories!
Well, more later hopefully.
Sending our love, the Hefty Family!
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Bright and sunshiny morning for Karen...
As the title says, "Bright and sunshiny morning for Karen", well that's because the tooth fairy came and took her tooth and left her a US Dollar! She didn't wake right up for it but it was far better than we've been dealing with. Took her about 5 minutes to move around and finally open those eyes up... I wonder if she'll get the hang of this waking up thing before Christmas morning after Santa Claus has come. I've got predictions that she'll still be slow, but there's always hope -- yes indeed! Fabian is such a great morning person, wakes right up and is raring to go.
All of our kids have a loose tooth and we had been telling them to try to work their loose tooth out. Rick teased that he would pull the teeth for them which they all cringed and heavily guarded their mouths! Then when we explained to Karen about the tooth fairy and that if you leave the tooth overnight the tooth fairy would come and exchange the tooth for MONEY! Her eyes got super huge and a big smile across her face ensued! She said, "Aha, un minuto!" and off she ran to the bathroom to grab some tissue and she was focused on a mission to pull that tooth out. Actually it took her only 15 minutes to get it out & believe me that girl was determined! She wanted that money from the tooth fairy!
So this morning she awoke to a crisp $1 bill from the tooth fairy and she was so thrilled! Another funny thing about her is that she refers to Rick and I as millionaires. She thinks we are millionaires and when we explain to her that we are not -- that we're just normal people, she gets very upset and keeps saying, "No, mi mama y papa -- si, si millionaires!" The spanish accent marks aren't there but the gist is that she keeps repeating yes, yes, my mother and father are millionaires!
Well, I'll try to write more later. Finally, our internet is working but there's not really much for reception, Very low signal on the wireless.
I posted some more pictures yesterday to the picasa web album.
More later, and keep prayers up that we will receive sentencia soon (which is when the judge signs the adoption decree which then starts the process for completing the paperwork and being able to return home).
Genece
All of our kids have a loose tooth and we had been telling them to try to work their loose tooth out. Rick teased that he would pull the teeth for them which they all cringed and heavily guarded their mouths! Then when we explained to Karen about the tooth fairy and that if you leave the tooth overnight the tooth fairy would come and exchange the tooth for MONEY! Her eyes got super huge and a big smile across her face ensued! She said, "Aha, un minuto!" and off she ran to the bathroom to grab some tissue and she was focused on a mission to pull that tooth out. Actually it took her only 15 minutes to get it out & believe me that girl was determined! She wanted that money from the tooth fairy!
So this morning she awoke to a crisp $1 bill from the tooth fairy and she was so thrilled! Another funny thing about her is that she refers to Rick and I as millionaires. She thinks we are millionaires and when we explain to her that we are not -- that we're just normal people, she gets very upset and keeps saying, "No, mi mama y papa -- si, si millionaires!" The spanish accent marks aren't there but the gist is that she keeps repeating yes, yes, my mother and father are millionaires!
Well, I'll try to write more later. Finally, our internet is working but there's not really much for reception, Very low signal on the wireless.
I posted some more pictures yesterday to the picasa web album.
More later, and keep prayers up that we will receive sentencia soon (which is when the judge signs the adoption decree which then starts the process for completing the paperwork and being able to return home).
Genece
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Writings from the past few days
Since our internet is very sporadic and we never know when we might have access, I’ve started titling the entries with the day they were written. Today is Sunday, November 2nd.
Hello again from sunny (and hot and humid) Cucuta!
The weather here is absolutely beautiful by the way. It will be quite the change when we go to Bogota which is a much colder climate than here. I am told that the children are from a town that is much cooler than here in Cucuta so I don’t worry so much about them being so cold when they are there. Just wait until they get to Alaska! A quick lesson in what cold really means is imminent! Actually they may experience this while we are visiting relatives in the lower 48 states even before we get to Alaska because it’s very warm temperatures lately in Alaska and much colder in Oregon and other parts of the lower 48 now (from what we are told). The CNN channel is about all Rick watches other than occasional movies we find in English. Otherwise the TV is on one of the kids’ cartoon channels. Marissa especially was so excited last night when she found that High School Musical 2 was just coming on. It was in Spanish but the songs were all in English so she thought it was super cool!
The kids are very excited to go to a cold climate and are looking forward to snow! Karen wants to build a snowman and Fabian is much more interested in having snowball fights! I’m sure there’ll be hurling white balls of cold, wet snow coming my way in the near future. Hearing that Fabian’s interest was mainly on snowballs is almost a no-brainer!!! He’s truly boy through and through! Karen and Fabian both want to learn how to snowboard and they say they can’t wait to go to Alaska.
Karen wasn’t so bad waking up this morning but it still took some prodding. I mean this girl just loses all senses when she sleeps and does not wake up well at all. She is one-with-the-bed and how dare anyone come along and pull her from it! She’s our little grumpy-in-the-morning princessa! A true sleeping beauty, of which we haven’t quite conquered what it takes to break the spell of her being so much of a booger to get out of bed. Any ideas are very much appreciated and welcomed so feel free to email us or comment on the blog!
Knowing her personality, a chocolate bar first thing in the morning would definitely do the trick and get her to conform, but unfortunately that’s always been one of our biggest no-no’s for the kiddos! Not first thing in the morning -- no way! Any ideas are very welcomed so if you have any to offer up we’d love to hear them.
In the early afternoon we decided to venture out on our own and go to the mall. We should have done this way before now. I think always before we were intimidated that our limited Spanish speaking abilities might inhibit our abilities to accomplish this successfully. Wow, were we wrong! The taxi to the mall which is just up the road only costs equivalent to about $2.50 for our family one way, and I was carrying on a conversation with the taxi driver most all of the way. Not bad at all! We got so excited the other day when we saw they had an El Corral in the mall. That night we had pizza which we had been craving so much and it was delicious! Today we had El Corral for lunch, then we went to another place for dinner in the food court there. It was great too! Rick and I had steak and chicken there and it was yummy! So much for losing weight here of which we both have taken off at least 20 lbs easily, but now we’ve found more of the real good food places to eat.While we were at the mall today we got some gifts and some souvenirs. The kids got a chance to go to the arcade and ride on the bumper cars again, and Fabian and Karen got to go in this huge play place for kids, then they all got to play some games and get their tickets cashed in (like Chuck E. Cheese). They had so much fun and we took some great pictures and filmed them doing all their fun stuff! Their elevator rides were much more calm today! There was only one time that they started their screaming and this elderly couple on there just cracked up laughing at them. Only when we were going down the baby started screaming. He still doesn’t like the feeling.
Today Karen learned some lessons, we hope. Fabian‘s so darn smart that he picks up on his sisters‘ mistakes and he so quickly learns our expectations so that helps us out. His sister is a bit more stubborn-minded. Anyways, back to Karen’s troubles… At mealtimes sometimes the kids slurp up their drinks and want more (quite like many kids I know), but sometimes they expect us to get them another one, and tonight was another round of this type of behavior from the both of them. They each enjoyed their juice box so much and wanted more. Marissa paced her drink through her dinner and I caught Karen sneaking a drink of her sister’s drink right before we were leaving. I let it go with only an explanation that we don’t accept that type of behavior, etc., and it didn’t stop there of course. When we got home we had snacks of cookies and Karen ate hers up and then grabbed one of her sister’s cookies and ate it up real quick. We had to quick explain again that it’s not acceptable to take items/food/anything, etc. from others. I think we might have taught a lesson with the repercussions from her inconsiderate acts when we made her go get her M&Ms she’d saved from her lunchtime treat at El Corral and give some to her sister Marissa with an apology also. This time the anger didn’t last as long and the pouting sessions are growing less and less in duration when she doesn’t get her way and has to follow the rules. Still all in all they are fabulous kids but just need a little practice in following the rules of our household. They need direction as every child does. We’ve been on Marissa a lot nowadays too. She’s learning how the rules equally apply to her as well and isn’t liking it at times, but her adjustment so far has been excellent. God has definitely prepared each member for their bonding and deserves so much credit for the smooth transitions we‘ve made! It‘s hard to remember what life was like without all my children around. The only rough times are just a little more prep time is necessary in the mornings, but that’s really nothing to worry about at all. We’re truly blessed in that each family member adds so much to this family. I am blessed to have a husband as helpful and eager to help out as Rick does! Together we make a great team!
ANOTHER DAY NOW --
Today is Monday, Nov. 3rd and as we were getting ready for breakfast this morning our interpreter stopped by. On both Thursday and Friday of last week she was going to come to take us to get the kids’ shots, but each day she wasn’t able to make it. This morning she came to look at their shot records which we only have the shot records for baby Luis. When we inquired at ICBF they told us the shot records of the older children were in their file. Perhaps the ICBF office was mislead to believe they were there in their records because for some reason our attorney thought we might have their paperwork. So it would appear they have to get several shots before they go. We asked how much longer they thought the process would be and any word on sentencia? There is no word yet on when to expect that and it didn’t sound hopeful to happen in the next day or so. We’ll take a welcome surprise any time now if that is in God’s will!!!!
Hey Sherri, perhaps we will share sentencia day also! Wouldn’t that be cool???!!!! For those of you who have no idea what (or who) I’m talking about, Sherri is a dear friend whom I met on a Monday night prayer group where a few of us who are adopting (or have adopted already) from Colombia. She and her family are in Bogota adopting a little boy named Isaac. For months now our families had been looking at similar timelines to be in Colombia for our adoptions, but we had no idea we would share both our “gotcha day” and our “integration day” as the same days for each of our families being brought together! Now we’ll try for sharing the same “Sentencia day”! I think when I read their blog lately they were predicting to hear something on Wednesday or Thursday of this week. That would be nice! Sherri and her family are keeping a blog and if you care to take a peek the link is at http://allglorybetogod.blogspot.com
It’s always a good read so enjoy, and add them to your prayer list as little Isaac could use a healing touch from above! We have witnessed God’s glory in our own little baby boy and wish that miraculous healing be extended to Isaac too. Please pray for them.
The girls are playing with their dolls on one of the beds right now and being quiet as the baby is napping. He doesn’t take much for naps nowadays so we grab them when they happen and try to get the other kids to remain quiet long enough to count as a nap. It’ll be nice when we’re not all crammed in a little 2-room hotel room and a routine can be more established. The kids will surely enjoy their space and being able to play alone with their toys instead of sharing them with everyone else at all times just because we’re in such close quarters.
Fabian got in a little trouble this morning after breakfast because I noticed some bite marks on the furniture he sleeps on. There are a few spots where the wood is worn down from his teeth biting at it. He has this thing about using his teeth for just about everything. They were probably his survival tool in doing so much before. I have to correct him several times daily about putting things in his mouth or trying to open things with his teeth. He has a tendency to not want to use his utensils for eating, and would much more prefer his fingers. Even for rice and things like that -- fingers are his preference. We just continue to give him guidance and correction at times, and follow it up with much love!!!
Oh, how the day unfolds… we just saw a commercial for some sort of castle with princesses and cats, and of course Karen told us she wanted that! I told her that was nice and told her sorry her papi didn’t much care for cats so a real cat was out of the question. Only dogs and she already has 2 of them. She got real bummed and kept begging for a cat. Now she’s a little bummed out, but just as I’ve wrote these few sentences she’s come around and is okay though she just rattled off to Rick that he needed to buy her 2 dolls at the store to make up for it. Just before the commercial came on they had planned to go to the store. Karen’s full of trying to get more at times but she is quickly learning our ways.
I do have to brag just a bit on another bit of huge progress and that is how giving thanks is coming more naturally nowadays. We are hearing “thank you” in English quite a bit nowadays and they are able to name the things they are thankful for and usually name them in English. It’s just awesome.
Oops, spoke too soon, I guess, on everyone getting ready for the store. Karen didn’t want to listen and obey just before they were walking out the door so she wasn’t able to go.. Right now she’s sulking with her hands covering her face as she lays on the bed. At least she’s not doing the crying bit. She still pouts but we will have her stubborn streak conquered sometime, I’m sure of it! You just have to stay firm on the rules for that little girl. She’s just like Marissa use to be so we’ve been down this road before and know firsthand how out-of-control things can get if we go lax on the rules.
It’s been 10 minutes now and she’s still angry that she didn’t get her way. I think sometimes she tries to act goofy and play around and we allow her to do that because it’s very much a part of her personality, but sometimes she tries to push it a bit and not listen when we are serious that she stop goofing off. She seems to know exactly when her dad is serious, but still tries to push it most times, but at least she acknowledges it. With me, she just tries to carry on as if nothing happened. She has much more respect for male figures than with women it seems. It’s really nothing outside of learning how and who they respond best to and that will come eventually. We’ve made great strides but still have little moments in the day where we have to stop and address whatever the issue is. Don’t all parents go through that? Nothing new here! We enjoy our children so much and I’m actually complimenting them in such a wonderful way by telling of just the very small issues which are all we’ve had to deal with thus far. It’s really nothing other than normal parenting. I’m just bored and running out of things to report on.
We’d love to go to the pool right now but there are little kids over there taking swim classes so I don’t dare go interrupt them. We’ll wait until later this afternoon to get the swim time in. We’re sort of hanging out in the room waiting for Alexandra to stop by to maybe accompany Rick to take the kids for their shots.
On a political front, we were very closely watching the outcome of the Venezuelan vote on the referendums yesterday and it looks as if the voters very narrowly defeated Chavez’ referendums which would have given him more power over various things in his country. So many of the cars here have Venezuelan plates on them however the people are truly Colombians. To license a car in Venezuela is much cheaper than to license through Colombia. Also, I’ve seen only 2 gas stations here in Cucuta which hardly get any customers. Yet there are individuals set up along the roadside with many gas cans and you just pull up and they’ll pump in whatever amount you request. Clearly it is an operation that works with several vehicles with larger gas tanks will move back and forth to Venezuela delivering gas to Colombian roadside entrepreneurs who siphon the gas out and sell it for a little more than they paid. Still a bargain from what we’re told but for the cheap gas everyone goes over to Venezuela.
Signing off for now but will try again later. Sending all our love and thank you for your comments. It really took faith in sending all of our pictures instead of picking through some of the best ones, but oh well... these are our memories even if I wasn't looking or feeling my best in a few of those pictures. Such is life! Ciao!
Yikes, as I type this poolside right now at 11am on Tuesday, a huge iguana just ran past my feet. No kidding! Crazy but what memories!
Hello again from sunny (and hot and humid) Cucuta!
The weather here is absolutely beautiful by the way. It will be quite the change when we go to Bogota which is a much colder climate than here. I am told that the children are from a town that is much cooler than here in Cucuta so I don’t worry so much about them being so cold when they are there. Just wait until they get to Alaska! A quick lesson in what cold really means is imminent! Actually they may experience this while we are visiting relatives in the lower 48 states even before we get to Alaska because it’s very warm temperatures lately in Alaska and much colder in Oregon and other parts of the lower 48 now (from what we are told). The CNN channel is about all Rick watches other than occasional movies we find in English. Otherwise the TV is on one of the kids’ cartoon channels. Marissa especially was so excited last night when she found that High School Musical 2 was just coming on. It was in Spanish but the songs were all in English so she thought it was super cool!
The kids are very excited to go to a cold climate and are looking forward to snow! Karen wants to build a snowman and Fabian is much more interested in having snowball fights! I’m sure there’ll be hurling white balls of cold, wet snow coming my way in the near future. Hearing that Fabian’s interest was mainly on snowballs is almost a no-brainer!!! He’s truly boy through and through! Karen and Fabian both want to learn how to snowboard and they say they can’t wait to go to Alaska.
Karen wasn’t so bad waking up this morning but it still took some prodding. I mean this girl just loses all senses when she sleeps and does not wake up well at all. She is one-with-the-bed and how dare anyone come along and pull her from it! She’s our little grumpy-in-the-morning princessa! A true sleeping beauty, of which we haven’t quite conquered what it takes to break the spell of her being so much of a booger to get out of bed. Any ideas are very much appreciated and welcomed so feel free to email us or comment on the blog!
Knowing her personality, a chocolate bar first thing in the morning would definitely do the trick and get her to conform, but unfortunately that’s always been one of our biggest no-no’s for the kiddos! Not first thing in the morning -- no way! Any ideas are very welcomed so if you have any to offer up we’d love to hear them.
In the early afternoon we decided to venture out on our own and go to the mall. We should have done this way before now. I think always before we were intimidated that our limited Spanish speaking abilities might inhibit our abilities to accomplish this successfully. Wow, were we wrong! The taxi to the mall which is just up the road only costs equivalent to about $2.50 for our family one way, and I was carrying on a conversation with the taxi driver most all of the way. Not bad at all! We got so excited the other day when we saw they had an El Corral in the mall. That night we had pizza which we had been craving so much and it was delicious! Today we had El Corral for lunch, then we went to another place for dinner in the food court there. It was great too! Rick and I had steak and chicken there and it was yummy! So much for losing weight here of which we both have taken off at least 20 lbs easily, but now we’ve found more of the real good food places to eat.While we were at the mall today we got some gifts and some souvenirs. The kids got a chance to go to the arcade and ride on the bumper cars again, and Fabian and Karen got to go in this huge play place for kids, then they all got to play some games and get their tickets cashed in (like Chuck E. Cheese). They had so much fun and we took some great pictures and filmed them doing all their fun stuff! Their elevator rides were much more calm today! There was only one time that they started their screaming and this elderly couple on there just cracked up laughing at them. Only when we were going down the baby started screaming. He still doesn’t like the feeling.
Today Karen learned some lessons, we hope. Fabian‘s so darn smart that he picks up on his sisters‘ mistakes and he so quickly learns our expectations so that helps us out. His sister is a bit more stubborn-minded. Anyways, back to Karen’s troubles… At mealtimes sometimes the kids slurp up their drinks and want more (quite like many kids I know), but sometimes they expect us to get them another one, and tonight was another round of this type of behavior from the both of them. They each enjoyed their juice box so much and wanted more. Marissa paced her drink through her dinner and I caught Karen sneaking a drink of her sister’s drink right before we were leaving. I let it go with only an explanation that we don’t accept that type of behavior, etc., and it didn’t stop there of course. When we got home we had snacks of cookies and Karen ate hers up and then grabbed one of her sister’s cookies and ate it up real quick. We had to quick explain again that it’s not acceptable to take items/food/anything, etc. from others. I think we might have taught a lesson with the repercussions from her inconsiderate acts when we made her go get her M&Ms she’d saved from her lunchtime treat at El Corral and give some to her sister Marissa with an apology also. This time the anger didn’t last as long and the pouting sessions are growing less and less in duration when she doesn’t get her way and has to follow the rules. Still all in all they are fabulous kids but just need a little practice in following the rules of our household. They need direction as every child does. We’ve been on Marissa a lot nowadays too. She’s learning how the rules equally apply to her as well and isn’t liking it at times, but her adjustment so far has been excellent. God has definitely prepared each member for their bonding and deserves so much credit for the smooth transitions we‘ve made! It‘s hard to remember what life was like without all my children around. The only rough times are just a little more prep time is necessary in the mornings, but that’s really nothing to worry about at all. We’re truly blessed in that each family member adds so much to this family. I am blessed to have a husband as helpful and eager to help out as Rick does! Together we make a great team!
ANOTHER DAY NOW --
Today is Monday, Nov. 3rd and as we were getting ready for breakfast this morning our interpreter stopped by. On both Thursday and Friday of last week she was going to come to take us to get the kids’ shots, but each day she wasn’t able to make it. This morning she came to look at their shot records which we only have the shot records for baby Luis. When we inquired at ICBF they told us the shot records of the older children were in their file. Perhaps the ICBF office was mislead to believe they were there in their records because for some reason our attorney thought we might have their paperwork. So it would appear they have to get several shots before they go. We asked how much longer they thought the process would be and any word on sentencia? There is no word yet on when to expect that and it didn’t sound hopeful to happen in the next day or so. We’ll take a welcome surprise any time now if that is in God’s will!!!!
Hey Sherri, perhaps we will share sentencia day also! Wouldn’t that be cool???!!!! For those of you who have no idea what (or who) I’m talking about, Sherri is a dear friend whom I met on a Monday night prayer group where a few of us who are adopting (or have adopted already) from Colombia. She and her family are in Bogota adopting a little boy named Isaac. For months now our families had been looking at similar timelines to be in Colombia for our adoptions, but we had no idea we would share both our “gotcha day” and our “integration day” as the same days for each of our families being brought together! Now we’ll try for sharing the same “Sentencia day”! I think when I read their blog lately they were predicting to hear something on Wednesday or Thursday of this week. That would be nice! Sherri and her family are keeping a blog and if you care to take a peek the link is at http://allglorybetogod.blogspot.com
It’s always a good read so enjoy, and add them to your prayer list as little Isaac could use a healing touch from above! We have witnessed God’s glory in our own little baby boy and wish that miraculous healing be extended to Isaac too. Please pray for them.
The girls are playing with their dolls on one of the beds right now and being quiet as the baby is napping. He doesn’t take much for naps nowadays so we grab them when they happen and try to get the other kids to remain quiet long enough to count as a nap. It’ll be nice when we’re not all crammed in a little 2-room hotel room and a routine can be more established. The kids will surely enjoy their space and being able to play alone with their toys instead of sharing them with everyone else at all times just because we’re in such close quarters.
Fabian got in a little trouble this morning after breakfast because I noticed some bite marks on the furniture he sleeps on. There are a few spots where the wood is worn down from his teeth biting at it. He has this thing about using his teeth for just about everything. They were probably his survival tool in doing so much before. I have to correct him several times daily about putting things in his mouth or trying to open things with his teeth. He has a tendency to not want to use his utensils for eating, and would much more prefer his fingers. Even for rice and things like that -- fingers are his preference. We just continue to give him guidance and correction at times, and follow it up with much love!!!
Oh, how the day unfolds… we just saw a commercial for some sort of castle with princesses and cats, and of course Karen told us she wanted that! I told her that was nice and told her sorry her papi didn’t much care for cats so a real cat was out of the question. Only dogs and she already has 2 of them. She got real bummed and kept begging for a cat. Now she’s a little bummed out, but just as I’ve wrote these few sentences she’s come around and is okay though she just rattled off to Rick that he needed to buy her 2 dolls at the store to make up for it. Just before the commercial came on they had planned to go to the store. Karen’s full of trying to get more at times but she is quickly learning our ways.
I do have to brag just a bit on another bit of huge progress and that is how giving thanks is coming more naturally nowadays. We are hearing “thank you” in English quite a bit nowadays and they are able to name the things they are thankful for and usually name them in English. It’s just awesome.
Oops, spoke too soon, I guess, on everyone getting ready for the store. Karen didn’t want to listen and obey just before they were walking out the door so she wasn’t able to go.. Right now she’s sulking with her hands covering her face as she lays on the bed. At least she’s not doing the crying bit. She still pouts but we will have her stubborn streak conquered sometime, I’m sure of it! You just have to stay firm on the rules for that little girl. She’s just like Marissa use to be so we’ve been down this road before and know firsthand how out-of-control things can get if we go lax on the rules.
It’s been 10 minutes now and she’s still angry that she didn’t get her way. I think sometimes she tries to act goofy and play around and we allow her to do that because it’s very much a part of her personality, but sometimes she tries to push it a bit and not listen when we are serious that she stop goofing off. She seems to know exactly when her dad is serious, but still tries to push it most times, but at least she acknowledges it. With me, she just tries to carry on as if nothing happened. She has much more respect for male figures than with women it seems. It’s really nothing outside of learning how and who they respond best to and that will come eventually. We’ve made great strides but still have little moments in the day where we have to stop and address whatever the issue is. Don’t all parents go through that? Nothing new here! We enjoy our children so much and I’m actually complimenting them in such a wonderful way by telling of just the very small issues which are all we’ve had to deal with thus far. It’s really nothing other than normal parenting. I’m just bored and running out of things to report on.
We’d love to go to the pool right now but there are little kids over there taking swim classes so I don’t dare go interrupt them. We’ll wait until later this afternoon to get the swim time in. We’re sort of hanging out in the room waiting for Alexandra to stop by to maybe accompany Rick to take the kids for their shots.
On a political front, we were very closely watching the outcome of the Venezuelan vote on the referendums yesterday and it looks as if the voters very narrowly defeated Chavez’ referendums which would have given him more power over various things in his country. So many of the cars here have Venezuelan plates on them however the people are truly Colombians. To license a car in Venezuela is much cheaper than to license through Colombia. Also, I’ve seen only 2 gas stations here in Cucuta which hardly get any customers. Yet there are individuals set up along the roadside with many gas cans and you just pull up and they’ll pump in whatever amount you request. Clearly it is an operation that works with several vehicles with larger gas tanks will move back and forth to Venezuela delivering gas to Colombian roadside entrepreneurs who siphon the gas out and sell it for a little more than they paid. Still a bargain from what we’re told but for the cheap gas everyone goes over to Venezuela.
Signing off for now but will try again later. Sending all our love and thank you for your comments. It really took faith in sending all of our pictures instead of picking through some of the best ones, but oh well... these are our memories even if I wasn't looking or feeling my best in a few of those pictures. Such is life! Ciao!
Yikes, as I type this poolside right now at 11am on Tuesday, a huge iguana just ran past my feet. No kidding! Crazy but what memories!
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Try this link to pictures
Okay, not sure if this will work but I tried uploading some of the pictures from the beginning of our trip and gotcha day on Picasa. Sure hope it works. I can't tell much from my computer because it won't even bring most of the pictures in on my screen.
Sure hope you get to view them!
The web address is:
http://picasaweb.google.com/genece19
Sure hope you get to view them!
The web address is:
http://picasaweb.google.com/genece19
Again, internet intervals -- grab them while they're there!
It’s Saturday now and we’ve done our normal breakfast routine at the restaurant here. The staff all know us so well and are there to greet us each morning knowing exactly what we want. They know to bring over Rick’s hot sauce (not his normal Tabasco, but the closest he could find here which is Picante), and now they are delivering him 2 orange juices instead of one (since he’s had a cold for the past few days). There’s a lady who is always there at breakfast at the same time as us and we’ve said hello a few times, but just yesterday she offered us coffee and today she came to our table and talked to us. She lives at the hotel here and is a very nice lady. She did not realize we were adopting and thought maybe Rick might be Colombian. She spoke very good English and it was so great to have a conversation in English. Those very rarely happen here. The lady could not believe we were adopting the three children and commented on how well-behaved and mannerly they were. She said she’s seen many adoptive children here during their stay at the hotel and our children were by far the best she’s seen. She told us some horror stories of how unruly some of the other adoptive children have been and how their parents have reacted. She commented how each child even favored us in looks, which we told her we strongly believed that God had gone before us to prepare our family and had knit us completely together. She said how much it shows that God was in control which we see more and more of each day! Thank you so much Lord for the gifts you’ve given. Our God is so faithful and is the giver of good gifts!!!
The kids have been great so far. There have been a few times when they have gotten in trouble but for the most part, they are just being normal kids. Karen is not a morning person at all and is the very hard one to wake up and get going in the morning. She just refuses and wants to stay in bed. She does have a stubborn streak and every once in a while we’ve noticed she just reaches that very defiant point where she just wants to oppose whatever you desire her to do. She puts on the angry face and is noncompliant at that point, and we’ve had to correct her at times for this behavior. Like I indicated earlier, yesterday she refused to get up and get dressed and was just a grouchy girl for a good portion of the morning so she lost out on her privilege to go to the pool that day. She tried all day to pour on the charm with both her daddy and her mommy which we know were filled with hopeful intentions that we would cave in to our earlier decision to revoke her pool privileges for the day. When it did come time for the others to go swimming, she still thought she had a chance to go too, and when she was told she was not going because of her earlier behavior as we had reminded her all day of, she started bawling and jumped in her bed sulking. She even had to go over to sit poolside to see the others and that made her unhappy for a few minutes. She came around about 10 minutes later and was okay and said she wanted to be a good girl tomorrow.
This morning she woke up without us even having to go get her. She said she wanted to go in the pool today! She even had a smile this morning and got ready without any hassles. Wow, hope this holds out! What the heck will we do when we have no pool to barter with??? She really is a great little girl and has the most charming personality but it is apparent she just drags in the morning! We painted fingernails the other day and she loved that, and she absolutely loves fixing our hair. She loves pretending she’s the hairdresser and she does a great job of it. She loves putting on “la crema” lotion and always wants us to smell how good she smells with it on. She’s our little princess! And funny, she’s so funny with the cutest little charm. She likes to have fun and laugh and she fits so nicely in our family. She loves to cuddle too and favors daddy over her mommy, but with each day she draws closer to her mommy!
Fabian is all boy! He’s loud at times and loves to pick at his sisters! He’s very energetic and likes to have fun too. Sometimes he gets in trouble for bossing his sister. He likes to make faces at his little brother and they are usually really mean faces which make Luis cry. We have had to emphasize that Fabian (and Karen) must stay back from Luis at least one foot and not get in Luis’ face as they had been doing. He is picking up English at such a rapid rate. He does get scolded at times and when he does it’s almost funny. He does not like it at all! He either sits and listens to us explain why he got in trouble and all the time he’s shaking his head okay and his eyes get a bit watery (but he guards us from seeing that he’s almost about to tear up). He either has that reaction or sometimes he says, “Si Senora” and then goes off on singing very loudly about 2 bars of the first mariachi song that comes to mind. It’s cute. Only about 30 seconds of singing and he’s back to normal. His coping methods are just too cute!
Little Luis -- our little man! Poor little guy now has a rash all on his face mainly and we are suspecting it to be caused from the laundry detergent they use here at the hotel. It seems worse when he rises from his naps and from his sleep, or when he rubs his face on shirts we’ve had laundered here at the hotel. We’re hoping it gets better and it does seem to be doing better today, but poor baby looks pitiful.
We have witnessed so many firsts for him lately and prayers have definitely been answered! See, when we met the kids Luis had a fever and wasn’t feeling well for the next day or so. With medicine his fever broke and he’s been just fine since then. There are days that his teeth are bothering him and he does seem to be cutting more of them. He already has 4 on top and 2 on bottom. So back to when we got him… he had very poor muscle control and wasn’t very strong at all (or so we thought). I had been silently praying that God give him strength and bring him along in his maturity, and I remember how that second night Rick said to me, “Honey, why do you think Luis is so developmentally delayed? “ He was asking if I knew of any medical reasons why he wasn’t strong. I remember saying that his paperwork didn’t indicate any delays and that we should pray for him. (Little did Rick know that I too suspected something might be causing a delay and I too had been secretly praying for our young son’s health and strength). Almost within a day we witnessed miraculous turnarounds from Luis and he has now shown us so many of his new tricks. God just entered that boy’s body and strengthened him immensely! Of course, at the same time we stopped feeding him the all the baby food and he now gets to eat real food so I’m sure that helped! He loves his morning eggs and especially loves spaghetti noodles and meat sauce when we have that for dinner! He slurps his noodles up so cute and chews up really nicely. He’s just our little man!
Upon meeting Luis he would not even sit without assistance and his progression to that meeting the goal of sitting on his own looked to be at least another month or two away. That sure changed overnight! Thank you dear Jesus for your miraculous touch to our baby! He supports himself now and sits on his own with great balance. The next day he learned to stand and keep standing with assistance. The next day he learned to roll over and roll over. Now we have to let him wear himself out at night by just making ourselves the barricades on the bed and let him roll all around in the center. He loves it! He’s also learning to pull himself up and it won’t be long until he’s pulling to a stand. He’s beginning to crawl too. He can scoot backwards but hasn’t completely mastered the front ways action. He lunges toward sometime from a sitting stance if he wants something or wants to go to someone.
Each day brings a new achievement for Luis and he now smiles all the time. He really is a good-natured little baby and sleeps all through the night real well. He tends to not want to nap during the day. With his body strengthened we’ve noticed he doesn’t go down for long naps any more. I think he’s afraid he’ll miss out on anything or he’ll miss a meal maybe. Ahhh, the life of a baby. What joy!
He talks all the time nowadays too and has been doing that for the past few days. Each day he talks more. A real charmer he is -- even with his rash on his face, there were many other babies at the mall (mostly girl babies) that had their parents wheel them over to see Luis! And our little guy poured on the charm and made eyes at each of those little senoritas when they’d come over to meet him! I just wish my pictures were able to load on so you could see exactly what I mean! He’s just so cute and has the most beautiful eyes and a captivating smile.
Rick’s got a cold now and says it’s because he’s been without having his Tabasco on everything he eats. Right!!! Wink-wink… I’ve had it too but I think it’s more from having to leave the A/C on at night. It’s most worse at night and not bad during the day when we’re active.
The kids have really picked up on the blessing we say before the meals. They are just sponges for the English language and have really learned a lot so far. They are so cute when they say the prayer all by themselves nowadays. They’ve learned the one that goes: Come Lord Jesus Be Our Guest, Let This Food To Us Be Blessed! Amen!
We are so proud of their accomplishments and each day we thank God for His blessings! They are true little Colombian gems of children! I am uncertain how much they know or believe in God. At times we have had a christian television show on and they seemed to poke fun at the lady singing, and at that time I silently prayed that God anoint their souls and open their minds to receive His words instead of casting Him out of their lives or mocking those who believe. Our God works in ways unknown to us, but as I said that prayer for the children to be open to our christian beliefs, I was about to turn the channel because I wanted to avoid their unappreciative responses. The pastor was now speaking and had invited guests up to the stage for some powerful anointing for whatever ailed them, and I noticed our 2 older children were both turned with much interest in the TV. Thank you Lord for how You show me You are in control and even when doubt enters me You always make it clear You are in control! It’s just unbelievable at times how blessed we truly are and how well prepared our children were to join our family! We know God is at work and will continue to work with our family as He so desires!
The kids got to go to the pool a little earlier today because we planning a late afternoon at the mall with our interpreter Alexandra. We normally don’t let the kids swim until at least 3pm because the sun’s intensity isn’t so bad then as it is at mid-day. Today we broke with the rules and let the kids swim a little earlier. Wow did they get dark in that timeframe. Even with the 60 SPF on they certainly did dark.
Rick was out there with the kids in the pool and I was in here typing this blog entry for whenever we get the internet back up, and Luis was in here taking a nap when Marissa came banging on the door saying her dad wanted the camera right away. I didn’t know what to think, but then she explained there was a huge iguana in the trees over next to the pool. Actually there were 3 iguanas gathered right there at that time and one of them was very aggressive towards Rick and a few more of the braver guys. Of course our Fabian was right in there with his daddy. Got some great photos though! Maybe that many huge iguanas in the mango tree will stop him from climbing to pick fruit. He doesn’t really like those iguanas and one of the boys who was poolside with them told of how he’d been chased by an iguana who bit him in the butt before.
Well, better run along. Throughout the day I’ve come back to write a paragraph or two of this entry and we just got a phone call from the interpreter who cannot come today to accompany us to the mall. I’m not too disappointed but the kids sure are. The malls get very crowded on the weekends and I really didn’t want to be in that mix. The kids wanted to go to the arcade with tons of rides and fun stuff just for kids. They have a few rides there too and we have tickets already and they were able to do just a few things the other day when we were there. They even said they liked it better there and they would be willing to give up a day in the pool for a day there!
Speaking of the pool, I just have to comment on how well they swim now. Their first time ever in a pool was just under 2 weeks ago and for a week now both kids have been swimming. Fabian is far better a swimmer than his sister Karen but still, not bad for only one week in a pool and to swim in the deep end as he does. He even dives in. Again, not the best but we’ll work on his form. Karen likes to do flips under water and she loves to float on her back. They just amaze me at how quick they learn new things!
More later but for now I want to get this entry in because we haven't had internet all day until just now and it's almost 8pm Sat. night. Our love goes out to everyone and thank you so much for the comments on the blog. It's certainly a treat to read them and to know you're praying for us!
The kids have been great so far. There have been a few times when they have gotten in trouble but for the most part, they are just being normal kids. Karen is not a morning person at all and is the very hard one to wake up and get going in the morning. She just refuses and wants to stay in bed. She does have a stubborn streak and every once in a while we’ve noticed she just reaches that very defiant point where she just wants to oppose whatever you desire her to do. She puts on the angry face and is noncompliant at that point, and we’ve had to correct her at times for this behavior. Like I indicated earlier, yesterday she refused to get up and get dressed and was just a grouchy girl for a good portion of the morning so she lost out on her privilege to go to the pool that day. She tried all day to pour on the charm with both her daddy and her mommy which we know were filled with hopeful intentions that we would cave in to our earlier decision to revoke her pool privileges for the day. When it did come time for the others to go swimming, she still thought she had a chance to go too, and when she was told she was not going because of her earlier behavior as we had reminded her all day of, she started bawling and jumped in her bed sulking. She even had to go over to sit poolside to see the others and that made her unhappy for a few minutes. She came around about 10 minutes later and was okay and said she wanted to be a good girl tomorrow.
This morning she woke up without us even having to go get her. She said she wanted to go in the pool today! She even had a smile this morning and got ready without any hassles. Wow, hope this holds out! What the heck will we do when we have no pool to barter with??? She really is a great little girl and has the most charming personality but it is apparent she just drags in the morning! We painted fingernails the other day and she loved that, and she absolutely loves fixing our hair. She loves pretending she’s the hairdresser and she does a great job of it. She loves putting on “la crema” lotion and always wants us to smell how good she smells with it on. She’s our little princess! And funny, she’s so funny with the cutest little charm. She likes to have fun and laugh and she fits so nicely in our family. She loves to cuddle too and favors daddy over her mommy, but with each day she draws closer to her mommy!
Fabian is all boy! He’s loud at times and loves to pick at his sisters! He’s very energetic and likes to have fun too. Sometimes he gets in trouble for bossing his sister. He likes to make faces at his little brother and they are usually really mean faces which make Luis cry. We have had to emphasize that Fabian (and Karen) must stay back from Luis at least one foot and not get in Luis’ face as they had been doing. He is picking up English at such a rapid rate. He does get scolded at times and when he does it’s almost funny. He does not like it at all! He either sits and listens to us explain why he got in trouble and all the time he’s shaking his head okay and his eyes get a bit watery (but he guards us from seeing that he’s almost about to tear up). He either has that reaction or sometimes he says, “Si Senora” and then goes off on singing very loudly about 2 bars of the first mariachi song that comes to mind. It’s cute. Only about 30 seconds of singing and he’s back to normal. His coping methods are just too cute!
Little Luis -- our little man! Poor little guy now has a rash all on his face mainly and we are suspecting it to be caused from the laundry detergent they use here at the hotel. It seems worse when he rises from his naps and from his sleep, or when he rubs his face on shirts we’ve had laundered here at the hotel. We’re hoping it gets better and it does seem to be doing better today, but poor baby looks pitiful.
We have witnessed so many firsts for him lately and prayers have definitely been answered! See, when we met the kids Luis had a fever and wasn’t feeling well for the next day or so. With medicine his fever broke and he’s been just fine since then. There are days that his teeth are bothering him and he does seem to be cutting more of them. He already has 4 on top and 2 on bottom. So back to when we got him… he had very poor muscle control and wasn’t very strong at all (or so we thought). I had been silently praying that God give him strength and bring him along in his maturity, and I remember how that second night Rick said to me, “Honey, why do you think Luis is so developmentally delayed? “ He was asking if I knew of any medical reasons why he wasn’t strong. I remember saying that his paperwork didn’t indicate any delays and that we should pray for him. (Little did Rick know that I too suspected something might be causing a delay and I too had been secretly praying for our young son’s health and strength). Almost within a day we witnessed miraculous turnarounds from Luis and he has now shown us so many of his new tricks. God just entered that boy’s body and strengthened him immensely! Of course, at the same time we stopped feeding him the all the baby food and he now gets to eat real food so I’m sure that helped! He loves his morning eggs and especially loves spaghetti noodles and meat sauce when we have that for dinner! He slurps his noodles up so cute and chews up really nicely. He’s just our little man!
Upon meeting Luis he would not even sit without assistance and his progression to that meeting the goal of sitting on his own looked to be at least another month or two away. That sure changed overnight! Thank you dear Jesus for your miraculous touch to our baby! He supports himself now and sits on his own with great balance. The next day he learned to stand and keep standing with assistance. The next day he learned to roll over and roll over. Now we have to let him wear himself out at night by just making ourselves the barricades on the bed and let him roll all around in the center. He loves it! He’s also learning to pull himself up and it won’t be long until he’s pulling to a stand. He’s beginning to crawl too. He can scoot backwards but hasn’t completely mastered the front ways action. He lunges toward sometime from a sitting stance if he wants something or wants to go to someone.
Each day brings a new achievement for Luis and he now smiles all the time. He really is a good-natured little baby and sleeps all through the night real well. He tends to not want to nap during the day. With his body strengthened we’ve noticed he doesn’t go down for long naps any more. I think he’s afraid he’ll miss out on anything or he’ll miss a meal maybe. Ahhh, the life of a baby. What joy!
He talks all the time nowadays too and has been doing that for the past few days. Each day he talks more. A real charmer he is -- even with his rash on his face, there were many other babies at the mall (mostly girl babies) that had their parents wheel them over to see Luis! And our little guy poured on the charm and made eyes at each of those little senoritas when they’d come over to meet him! I just wish my pictures were able to load on so you could see exactly what I mean! He’s just so cute and has the most beautiful eyes and a captivating smile.
Rick’s got a cold now and says it’s because he’s been without having his Tabasco on everything he eats. Right!!! Wink-wink… I’ve had it too but I think it’s more from having to leave the A/C on at night. It’s most worse at night and not bad during the day when we’re active.
The kids have really picked up on the blessing we say before the meals. They are just sponges for the English language and have really learned a lot so far. They are so cute when they say the prayer all by themselves nowadays. They’ve learned the one that goes: Come Lord Jesus Be Our Guest, Let This Food To Us Be Blessed! Amen!
We are so proud of their accomplishments and each day we thank God for His blessings! They are true little Colombian gems of children! I am uncertain how much they know or believe in God. At times we have had a christian television show on and they seemed to poke fun at the lady singing, and at that time I silently prayed that God anoint their souls and open their minds to receive His words instead of casting Him out of their lives or mocking those who believe. Our God works in ways unknown to us, but as I said that prayer for the children to be open to our christian beliefs, I was about to turn the channel because I wanted to avoid their unappreciative responses. The pastor was now speaking and had invited guests up to the stage for some powerful anointing for whatever ailed them, and I noticed our 2 older children were both turned with much interest in the TV. Thank you Lord for how You show me You are in control and even when doubt enters me You always make it clear You are in control! It’s just unbelievable at times how blessed we truly are and how well prepared our children were to join our family! We know God is at work and will continue to work with our family as He so desires!
The kids got to go to the pool a little earlier today because we planning a late afternoon at the mall with our interpreter Alexandra. We normally don’t let the kids swim until at least 3pm because the sun’s intensity isn’t so bad then as it is at mid-day. Today we broke with the rules and let the kids swim a little earlier. Wow did they get dark in that timeframe. Even with the 60 SPF on they certainly did dark.
Rick was out there with the kids in the pool and I was in here typing this blog entry for whenever we get the internet back up, and Luis was in here taking a nap when Marissa came banging on the door saying her dad wanted the camera right away. I didn’t know what to think, but then she explained there was a huge iguana in the trees over next to the pool. Actually there were 3 iguanas gathered right there at that time and one of them was very aggressive towards Rick and a few more of the braver guys. Of course our Fabian was right in there with his daddy. Got some great photos though! Maybe that many huge iguanas in the mango tree will stop him from climbing to pick fruit. He doesn’t really like those iguanas and one of the boys who was poolside with them told of how he’d been chased by an iguana who bit him in the butt before.
Well, better run along. Throughout the day I’ve come back to write a paragraph or two of this entry and we just got a phone call from the interpreter who cannot come today to accompany us to the mall. I’m not too disappointed but the kids sure are. The malls get very crowded on the weekends and I really didn’t want to be in that mix. The kids wanted to go to the arcade with tons of rides and fun stuff just for kids. They have a few rides there too and we have tickets already and they were able to do just a few things the other day when we were there. They even said they liked it better there and they would be willing to give up a day in the pool for a day there!
Speaking of the pool, I just have to comment on how well they swim now. Their first time ever in a pool was just under 2 weeks ago and for a week now both kids have been swimming. Fabian is far better a swimmer than his sister Karen but still, not bad for only one week in a pool and to swim in the deep end as he does. He even dives in. Again, not the best but we’ll work on his form. Karen likes to do flips under water and she loves to float on her back. They just amaze me at how quick they learn new things!
More later but for now I want to get this entry in because we haven't had internet all day until just now and it's almost 8pm Sat. night. Our love goes out to everyone and thank you so much for the comments on the blog. It's certainly a treat to read them and to know you're praying for us!
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