Day 6

Day 6

*****Posted a day late because blogger was being tempermental….sorry for the delay!******

I think today has been our best day yet! Not perfect, but so much more pleasant than before.

Our morning started slowly with the kids coloring around the coffee table and eating cereal as they felt like it. Brent and I were trying to get showered and dressed to go to court to sign power of attorney.  I felt like I was holding my breath waiting for the first tantrum that would delay us, but nothing happened.

Oh, wait. That’s not true. While I was in the shower, Brent found Luisa trying to call her foster mom on the phone again. He was able to secretively unplug the phone all while he was telling her he understood how sad she was that she couldn’t call. She was a little moody after that, but never had a tantrum. 

Gloria #2 came over to babysit while we went to the court. I’m bummed that we couldn’t bring any camera in the building because it would have been neat to get a photo of us signing papers.  It was fairly quick- only 4 pages- but we stood and talked to Nora our attorney and ICBF liason about some of our issues and questions. Then we made a short trip with Gloria #1 to Exito for a few fruits (ha! How’d we end up with half a cart full of stuff again?).

When we came back to the apartment Gloria took a photo of all of us to give as a gift to the foster family. The kids had worked on cards for them while we were gone. I just need to write a card to the foster mom and we’ll be done with their gift.

We figured that with all the talk about the foster family that the kids might easily melt down, so we decided to head to the pool as soon as we could get out the door.

Then the most crazy awesome thing happened! A total God-thing! As soon as we arrived at the pool I heard my name being shouted. I looked around and saw Amanda and her girls standing on the balcony on the other side of our apartment complex!  So amazing!  Amanda and her family are adopting an 11 year old boy, Jonathan, that they met through Kidsave. We have been emailing back and forth for months supporting and encouraging each other. They live in Maryland also and have 4 beautiful girls near our kids ages.  We knew we’d be in Medellin the same time, but they had an apartment in a different section of town. Turns out, they needed to find a new apartment… IT ENDED UP BEING IN THE SAME APARTMENT COMPLEX AS US!!!!! What are the odds??? It is only God who could have orchestrated such an amazing “coincidence”!

A few minutes later they all came down to the pool. Their family is wonderful and sweet and already the kids are getting along well. We were able to exchange bits of conversation in between dealings with the children, but it will be wonderful to have other friends nearby. They receive Jonathan first thing tomorrow morning, so please keep them in prayer that all will go well and the transition will be smooth. We can’t wait to meet him. He sounds like such a cool kid!

At one point Luisa was getting a little hyper and I still don’t know if she was angry about something or just unable to control the excitement, but she roughly jumped on top of one of Amanda’s girls. I thought for sure that me making her get out of the pool would be melt down material, but she quickly went back and apologized.

We decided to head back to the apartment for a late lunch just in time for the rain to start. We had hot dogs (a favorite) and then they played quietly with markers and crayons while we watched a movie.  I felt miserable- I think I have an ear infection- so I was lying down on the couch most of the time. I am continually amazed by their long attention span when it comes to craft/coloring time. It was so cute because Jake and Quinn were making themselves paper Knight armor to tape to their bodies and Jonathan wanted some too, so Luisa, Jake and Quinn all worked together to make him paper armor. He was happy! Sometimes he will find a towel or sheet and tie it around his neck as a cape. He’s so adorable! I am thinking he is trying to be superman.

After the movie, the rain had stopped so we decided to head down to the playground. They did well playing, but partway through Luisa started to throw a tantrum when I asked her to give back a toy she had stolen. Back to the apartment for the two of us! In the process, a 3 foot sheet of glass covering the desk in the room was broken into three huge pieces. She wasn’t trying to break it, it was accidental.  However, when she finished her tantrum, she willingly helped clean up.  We had a second tantrum shortly after the first, but it was much shorter and we were able to practice saying “Si, mami” a bunch of times afterwards. After hearts were restored,  we headed back to the playground where everyone else was. Amanda’s family was there too and the kids had an awesome time in the sand/dirt pit. 

Cindy didn’t want to hold my hand in the street/parking lot and melted down when I insisted. That little girl

has a set of lungs! BUT, it was much shorter than last time AND we went outside to practice walking the sidewalk holding mami’s hand.

Because of the rain, the kids were filthy. They all got baths as soon as we came in. Thankfully, Brent was able to get dinner started while I bathed the kids.  Dinner was peaceful and I learned that Luisa and Jonathan like carrots! Score! Another food they like that I’ll be able to find at home!

A little more coloring and then devotions as a family. Cindy fell asleep during devos and Jonathan went to bed without any trouble, as usual. We decided to let Luisa have some special one on one time with us and stay up later.  With all the foster family talk this morning and knowing we have a meeting tomorrow, we thought she needed some extra special lovin’.  We google translated  our conversation and again asked if she liked our family. Thankfully she is still saying yes, (earlier in the afternoon when we asked she wasn’t so thrilled!LOL!) and she wants to go to the US. She fixed herself hot water to drink- gross- so we offered for her to squeeze some lime and add some sugar. Yum! Very good! After snuggles and songs, she went to bed with no problems.

So, even though we had a little bit of drama, overall it was a good day.  Tomorrow I expect to not have such a great one since we will all head to the ICBF office for interviews with the psychologist and staff and that might dredge up some of the ugliness of the past week. That’s ok. We are bracing ourselves! LOL!

Random Comments to remember:

-Luisa likes to talk to herself. It is so cute when I am blow drying her hair, she’ll stand and talk to herself in voices to the mirror. I have no clue what she’s talking about but it is adorable.  Cait does…er…um…did this (LOL!) too and I love it!

-Cindy is doing great with telling me when she needs the potty. She says she has to go “chi, chi”. So cute!

-I keep finding Jonathan trying to do a kata when he is in his room, but he won’t do it in the living room with all of us. I think he feels insecure since everyone else can do it but he can’t.

-Jake and Cindy are meshing very well together- they are both as silly as you can get!

-On the dot at 6:15am a child in the apartment complex starts crying and yelling for mami. It lasts for a good 45 minutes. Heaven help me!

-I’m done with boiling water to drink. We’re going to drink from the faucet. If it is good enough for the people  of Medellin, it is good enough for me.

- I am so extremely thankful for my dryer at home (even though it pooped out on me the 3 days before we were leaving and took 3 cycles to dry one load).  Most people in Medellin don’t use dryers and they just hang their clothing. That’s fine, but it takes a full 24 hours to dry them! And I’ve had some jeans take 2-3 days to dry. With the climate and the rain, it never feels fully dry! This can be tricky for us since we have limited clothing. Nine people’s clothing and a small drying line.

*****Note for friends and family…I am sooo sorry that we are not skyping more frequently. We are extremely busy for the whole day. 6:30 am to 11:30pm we are on the go. We are also noticing that skyping puts the kids in a bad mood. I think it is because we are chattering away in English and they feel left out. It is a cool thing to do, but they can’t participate. Also, they don’t understand skype fully and aren’t yet interested in talking to “strangers”. Thank you for understanding. It isn’t that they don’t want to talk to you. They just can only deal with new people in small doses and we are it for now. We miss you all a ton and would love to skype as often as possible, but for now, the kids’ hearts are our main concern. That, and avoiding tantrums! We love you guys so please be patient as we wait until we are at a point where skyping is a healthy thing to do with them.********