Day 19

What a sweet, pleasant day!

We didn't have to go anywhere, so we literally spent the greater part of the day at the pool. It was good weather so we didn't get run out by the thunder and rain. The kids played pretty well for the most part. A few sibling squabbles, but no major tantrums.

We had found that any time Luisa gets frustrated, hurt or disappointed, she deals with it by getting angry. She doesn't even let us take the time to figure out what is the matter so it usually spirals down into an immediate tantrum. Well, today we had a few breakthroughs that we were pretty happy about. Simple, little things, but important.

Cindy had been demanding all the cups and plates that they were playing with in the pool and Luisa had finally had enough. She started screaming at her and swam off in a huff and ignored us when we called her. Brent had to pull her out of the pool and make her sit out. BUT, the awesome thing is that a little bit later I had her come sit with me and was finally able to ask what was the problem. She explained,( rationally!) that Cindy wanted ALL the toys. I told her I understood that wasn't nice, but she couldn't get angry. She needed to be gentle with her words. If she was having a problem she was to ask for help from mami or papi and not just get angry right away. (All this was done in my most limited spanish, but she got the point!) She actually responded well to the conversation and the tantrum ended there! AND, a few minutes later two of the boys were pulling on her inner tube and she hollared, "Ayudame, mami"! I was soooo proud of her remembering to get help from me instead of getting angry!! Score for Luisa! and us!

After some quiet time in the apartment (play food, playdoh and broken phones are a hit right now!) they all headed out for some futbol with the Mason family. Every five minutes (or less) Luisa melted down because she either got hurt (not really, but lots of drama) or someone made her mad. She had several time outs on the log with me. Finally, the fake crying was driving me (and everyone else) crazy. So I told her she couldn't play futbol unless she was strong and stopped crying. Well, I guess she got the message because she didn't have any more issues. Even when she got hit pretty hard a few times she toughed it out and said she was ok. A few times I knew it really hurt, (small field and strong, competitive kids!) but she hung in there and was a Colombiana fuerte (strong Colombian woman!).  Whew. Glad that worked! She is our little drama queen! LOL!

I don't mean to harp on the issues with Luisa, but I am just so excited to see the little bits of progress here and there with her. She definitely sets the tone with the other two so having the oldest learn and obey trickles down to the other two.

Caitlin got invited by the Masons to go to dinner at the Tesoro Mall. Their 2 kids still in Colombia are both close in age to Cait so it was fun for her to go! I didn't think she would since she's never done something like that before, but she did! And she had a great time! Brent sent her with money and a cell phone and I think she was a little worried about all the responsibility! So cute! I think she has needed a little break with all the chaos, so thank you, Amanda for inviting her!

Cindy was so tired tonight that she only wanted Brent to carry her around or else she'd whine. So, while I was on the phone with our attorney, Brent fixed most of the dinner with her in his arms! He is total mush with toddlers... I love it!

Nora, our attorney, called tonight and said they got all the birth certificates and some other paperwork we had requested. Yay! Because the kids' file is so huge, we aren't sure if we will get all the copies before we have to go to Bogota, but if not, it will be mailed to us.  They wanted to know if we wanted anything translated, but it is $10 a page and there are 350 pages of essential documents! Uh,.... no. I'm disappointed because I thought that was included in our fees with Gladney, but I guess not. So, does anyone at home that knows spanish want to translate for us? LOL!

Tomorrow, Luisa will need to sign her new name for her identification card so just she and I will go for that appointment. Then hopefully in the afternoon we can take all three kids for their passports.  Then we have to start packing and purchase airfare for Bogota!

So far it looks like we will not be able to get our change date fee waived. It is going to be soooo expensive for us to change the date, but a whole week early is a big deal right now! Several people have suggested not changing the date, but just purchasing new tickets might be cheaper... I'll have to see...

Right now we are looking at coming home next week, sometime between Wednesday and Friday if all goes as planned. We are all very anxious and can't wait to get home. The chicos ask us several times each day how many more days until we fly to the United States. It's funny, because Jonathan will try to bargain with us. We'll say, 2 more weeks and he'll say 1 more week. I'll say 5 days until Bogota and he'll say 4 days! So funny!

Note to self: at home, buy lots of bandaids, tape, ketchup, and paper....LOL!