The Adventure to Nowhere

Buenos Noches to all! I write tonight with a bit more energy than normal. Carmen told me that I have been tired not just because of the adjustment to a new family, but also because the elevation can make people tired. Not sure I quite understand but I'll take her word for it. She seems to know what she is talking about. As always, we wake up with grand plans and they always seem to change. It took forever to get around. You'd think that being in a small room would make it easier to find things. But we are constantly searching for things. You know how you always have that missing sock that you never find? Well, here we have the missing Kleenex packs. We have used more Kleenex in the past four days than I have in the past year. And everytime one of the kids needs their nose wiped, a pack is nowhere to be found. I finally dug into the last pack tonight. Looks like we'll be making a run for more tomorrow.

We had plans to go to Montserrat today, but Carmen basically told us not to waste our time because it was too cloudy. So, instead, we decided to go to Maku, a market not too far from here with Colombian arts and crafts. Well, long story short, after stopping at various corners, trying to read an already confusing map, and asking a number of people who had never heard of the place how to get there, we completely struck out! We never found it and opted to have fried chicken at Frisby's instead. It was pretty funny, at one point, we were quite confused on where to go. Matt stopped a couple to ask them, in his most perfected Spanish (with a lot of "umm's" in between each word), if they could help us. They just kind of looked at him and told us in English that they didn't speak Spanish. We got a big laugh out of that one. What a relief, but it still didn't help us find the place. Our first time out to eat went very well. For the most part, the kids are very well behaved and stay in their seats. Of course, I don't want to leave out the part that Andres was strapped down in a high chair. : ) They are such incredible eaters and drink juice and water like they are constantly dehydrated. I can see that my grocery shopping frequency is going to have to change and that Sam's Club may become my new best friend. Oh yeah, side note--can anyone help me out here? While at Frisby's we saw a number of professionals on their lunch break eating their lunch with plastic gloves on. Now, I'm hoping it has something to do with getting germs from their hands to their food to their mouths, but I have to admit I began second guessing the quality of the food that has to be eaten with plastic gloves. I don't know. Weird. After we finished eating, we let the kids go over to a nice play area when it started pouring down rain outside. Being the well-prepared parents that we aren't, we had no umbrellas as they sat comfortably on our bedroom floor back at the B&B. So, we stayed at Frisby's a little longer than we had planned. When the rain let up, we decided to head back home. It was getting close to nap time and we didn't want to get caught out in a downpour. Frisby's, like many other places, has security guards. Not sure why--seems quite safe. However, if it is raining outside, the security officer will take a huge umbrella (some picnic-sized) and walk the person from his/her car into the restaurant. The other interesting thing here is that they make the craziest things look appealing. For example, Frisby's drive-thru was literally in a little alley. However, the alley was covered with greenery and flowers, quite beautiful, actually. Once home, the kids (M&A) took a nap for a couple of hours while Luke and I played another 5-6 hot games of backgammon. Then, matt and I had to get our finances figured out as we have no idea how much we are spending and withdrawing. Trying to get a handle on this exchange is not always easy.

We continue to be amazed by all three of our kids. Luke had yet another great day and is getting quite a bit more open to trying foods than ever before. Can you believe we didn't even entertain the thought of a PB&J or popcorn today? It's a miracle! And for the most part, he's been quite helpful with Maria and Andres. As for Maria and Andres, their personalities are really starting to come through. They are so self-sufficient in many ways. They LOVE to brush their teeth and beg to do it after each meal. They'd do it more than three times a day if we'd let them. That's probably why their teeth are so pearly white. Maria is incredibly helpful with keeping things picked up. After I gave Andres his medicine today, I left the bottles on the desk to go wash out the syringe. When I came back, she had them all put away in the ziploc bag that I keep them in. For dinner we had an incredible version of Colombian spaghetti with chicken, salad and the most easily peeled orange I have ever had. We had some oranges left over and the bottle of Ranch dressing that we bring to every meal (for Luke and now Maria)was on the table. As I finished feeding Andres, she gathered up all of the oranges and the ranch and took them up to our room, placing them in the refrigerator. When I think about the fact that she just turned four, she blows me away. She seems quite responsible for her age. We are starting to see some signs of why she received language therapy or at least what we would call speech therapy. She doesn't wholly (sp.?) complete some of her sounds and we notice this especially when she and Papi practice English words each night before bed. (Thanks, Susan, for those incredible English-Spanish books. She absolutely loves them!!) Today, was kind of a break through day with her. Not only was she nice to me almost the whole day (and I even got a few brasos/hugs)she said Luke's name. It's really cute to hear her say it in her little Colombian accent; however, it sounds a little more like the French pronunciation "Luc." It was also a big day in that she let me put some barettes in her hair (that fell out within 30 minutes) and ended the day with "mi Papi" (it's never just "Papi") putting all of her hair in a ponytail. When the kids do great things, we have taught them to give knuckles--Mimi, we have them ready for you! So, there were knuckles for all after the ponytail. A little about Andres. . . I think I have already said it but he is such a love bug! Today was not his best day as he whined quite a bit. But he makes it so easy to handle when he throws in a whine or two with that grin that makes everyone laugh and smile. He is quite the ham and is constantly giving me brasos y besos (hugs and kisses). He is starting to understand English a little better than Maria. Now, if we can just work on his speech. His sounds consist of Mama, Papa, ba (ball) and sssss or sssslll or ssshhhh. And most every sound that comes out of his mouth is accompanied by a point of the finger. He has a great pout that makes you laugh. This morning, he and Maria both got put in time out for the first time. He's been hitting a lot so I gave him two minutes of time out. He sat with his arms tightly across his chest and his bottom lip hung way out, but by the time two minutes was up, he was all hugs and kisses again. Maria is a different story. That was the one part of the day that she wanted nothing to do with Mami. She definitely holds a grudge and doesn't snap out of it unless it's with "mi papi!"

The stay here continues to go well. Food is awesome, people are gorgeous, B&B is welcoming. However, today I had my first issue with another person staying here. Andres and I were downstairs playing with a ball. He kept throwing it instead of rolling it. Since his throws were out of control, I tried explaining that we wouldn't play with the ball anymore if he threw it. Well, he threw it. So, I took the ball away and he came over and hit me. So I picked him, carried him to a chair as he threw his greatest tantrum yet, and set him down letting him know he had two minutes time out. Well, this lady who is here from Spain and adopting a 9 year old who doesn't really mind her came over, picked Andres up out of the chair and told me that he shouldn't get timeout and that he was just mad. I was shocked that someone would step in and tell me how to discipline my child. But that's what they do here. they are quite outspoken and like to take initiative and show you what to do and not to do. Until today, that hasn't bothered me. All of you who know me know that I typically will let my peace of mind be known, but today I held it in. Pretty sure I won't be able to do it again! : )

Well, it's time for bed. We have a big day tomorrow morning at 9am. It is known as Integracion. We will meet with a social worker, I believe, who will interview each of us to see how things are going. If all goes well, we will be awarded official custody of Maria and Andres. Then, the official paperwork frenzy begins to make the adoption official. Thankfully, I feel pretty good. When our attorney, Oscar, came by tonight, I was sitting with Maria talking to my step-mom on Skype. He asked her if she was happy with her new mami and Papi, and she gave a huge "Si!"

Thanks to all of you who have been posting comments. Matt and I look forward to them every day. While we are thoroughly enjoying our time here, it's so nice to have contact with people from the US. Being the only US family in the B&B, we need that connection! Your thoughts, prayers and kind words of encouragement make our every day. Keep 'em coming and we'll do our best to blog daily.

Matt: I really don't have anything to add to the blog today. Traci pretty much said it all. However, since we purchased this new camera, it looks like it is my job to add pictures to the blog (Traci still hasn't quite gotten a hold of the 15 step process for moving pictures from the camera to the computer to the blog). So, here we go . . .


Maria and her new dress (thanks Barbie!). She absolutely loved it. I do not think litle girls wear too many dresses in this part of Colombia. Temps in Bogota range from the low 60's in the day to the low 50's at night. So, even though we are fairly close to the equator, because we are in the mountains it remains fairly cool. Nevertheless, I think people here go a little overborad. While I am out waling around in a t-shirt, local Colombians have on coats, sweaters and the like. In fact, we have been reminded a couple of times by the staff here that when we take the kids out we should bundle them up. We kind of ignored this warning for a little while today and let Maria wear her dress (along with he new shoes that she is still extremely pround of).


Our two new litle rock stars (to add to the one we already have). I just hope the U.S.A. is ready for these two characters.






These were taken on our afternoon trip to the local Frisby's restaurant. Hey, some visitors choose to go to the Museo de Oro or Monseratte while in Bogota - we choose to eat chicken at the local chain. We opted for this after several minutes of looking for the Maku market without success. We got three kids meals and each came with an actual toy. Not one of those cheap little plastic things you get at McDonald's in the U.S. but more like something you would pull off the shelf at Walmart. As Traci explained, we had another downpour and were caught sans umbrellas. So, the kids played in the play gym for a while. Maria and Andres weren't too big on it but, as you can see, Luke had a blast. You can also see that by this point in the day we had to put a pair of pants and a sweatshirt on Maria.



Maybe this is boring to most people, but these are a few pictures of the street outside of Frisby's during the downpour. It probably lasted about 30 minutes before it let up enough for us to leave. However, as you can see fom this picture, the edges of most of the streets were pretty flooded. So, between that and places where the "sidewalk" is either being worked on or practically non-existent, it was a little difficult to get the stroller back home. I also carried Maria most of the way. Luke kept asking me when it is his turn to be carried or ride on my shoulders. So, while he has matured a lot on this trip, I think he has forgotten how physically big he actually is (or how old his dad is getting).


The "garden drive-thru" Traci described earlier. It was a lot prettier in person.


Here is one of the street vendors selling flowers. I'm pretty sure we do not own a vase big enough to hold any of these. I do have a couple of those pastic buckets in the garage, but they probably wouldn't look as nice on the dinning room table.


Back at the ranch. I had the song "Maria" from West Side Story on my iPod and played it for Maria. She giggled and we danced around our little room. Kind of a cheesy father-daughter moment, but it was fun (and for the guys at work - this is the only show tune I have on my iPod and I downloaded it for my daughter. So go easy on me when I return). You can also kind of see that Maria has her hair in a pony tail. This is infinitely easier than barets and as long as I am in charge of hair you may have to get used to this look (man, show tunes on the iPod and doing hair. I'm really in for it when I return to work).

Ciao! (Phoentially that is "chow" for my uncultured friends. That is how Maria says goodbye and it always makes me laugh)