Finally, "It's my Happy Birthday!" and much more

Well, a lot has happened as you will see below. But mostly, for the past 6 weeks, we have been fighting colds, ear infections, bronchitis and then crazy weather changes that induce allergies. I had to take a week off of work when the kids were sick, and then two weeks after that, I went in for "minor" surgery that ended up making me miss two more weeks of work. Thankfully, I am finally starting to feel like I am recovering! That will be the last time I translate "minor" surgery as meaning short recovery period! So, I have not had a lot of time to update. Anyway, as I mentioned, Maria and Andres were pretty sick at the beginning of February. Here is Dre, as always, with a smile on his face. He was a real trooper enduring three weeks of these breathing treatments, three times a day!

Before all of the sickness began, Luke participated in the annual Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. For all who have never done this, there is a LOT of fretting and stewing (mostly by Matt) as to what the car should look like, how it should be shaped, where the weights should go, etc. More than I'm sure I can understand. Also, Matt has organized this event for the Pack the past two years. So kudos to him as well for pulling off the event. Andres especially loved it due to all of the cars racing in front of his eyes.

This kids are really enjoying spending time with their grandparents. It is so fun to see these relationships deepen and all of the great times they are sharing together. Maria is constantly asking us if she can go stay the night with the grandparents, and most of the time they oblige which makes her sooooo happy! Here are a few picks with the "Papa's" and the kids.

Dre loves Papa Ronnie!

And Papa Bill is extra special, too!

We've also had the pleasure of continuing to introduce our kids to various people. Most recently, we were able to get together with another family from Kansas City who just brought two kids home from Colombia--the boy is Luke's age, the girl is Maria's age. We had a great time with the Bond family and hope to continue building that friendship.

Our first Valentine's Day together was wonderful! Maria and Andres really enjoyed it. Maria mostly due to the fact that she adored her heart dress, earrings and necklace that she got to wear. Andres loved the Valentine's bags that their gifts were in. I don't even know if he knew there were gifts in them, but hey, his enjoyment helped me to get my money's worth out of the bag. ; ) After going to Luke's basketball game, which is always fun, we were fortunate enough to be able to take the kids to Border's to pick out a special book for each and then to the Cheesecake Factory that evening. It was a very special day and so much love was shared by all!

All three kids are doing so well. Luke really enjoys teaching the kids new things and reading stories to them. I constantly hear him working with them on how to say words correctly. He is such a great age to be a big brother and Maria and Andres adore him. We would have missed out on so much of Luke's compassion if he had remained an only child. Maria continues to grow like a weed. The other day, I was looking at pictures from when we got her in Colombia. She looked so little then, but there are still days where I see glimpses of that fragile little girl who longs to be loved. She follows me every where I go just because she likes to be close and give me hugs. Not a day goes by where she doesn't tell me that she loves me at least ten times, and she constantly seeks approval. We are so proud of how well she has done with learning English. While she doesn't speak it 100% clearly due to her speech issues, she has an amazing command of it in such a short time. Andres is really beginning to take off with his speaking, finally. He is much more difficult to understand as he has many speech issues, but he's really beginning to get the cadence of syllables and emphasizes the right parts of words. He has even said some 3-4 word sentences which is HUGE! We are so proud of him! As Luke continues to have interests in his sports, Maria loves her dance and soccer. And Andres, well, he loves everything and will participate in whatever anyone wants to do. Most recently, though, he has become infatuated with dressing up in hats, gloves and snow boots. This can cause problems at times as we are potty training! After Andres was really sick, the doctor requested that we take him off of dairy, and what a huge difference it's made. He's been going "popo" (the Colombian word, not ours) in the potty for about two weeks now. So while we've been on Spring Break, I have had him in underwear running around the house. I think I pressed my luck yesterday when we went out to run errands. As we stood in the check out line for our final errand, he had an accident. But each day brings a clean slate, and so far today, there have been no accidents. So this story will be continued. . .nevertheless, we are proud of him!

Dre in potty training mode

One of the most exciting things to happen over the past month was Maria's 5th birthday on March 14th, and what a day it was! For the month leading up to her birthday, she was constantly going around telling everyone--us, her friends, teachers, grandparents and strangers--that, "It's my HAPPY BIRTHDAY on March 14th!" I tried to teach her that we leave out the "HAPPY" when telling people, but she kept doing it, and honestly, it's just too darn cute to change it. She is really into princesses right now so we went with a princess theme even though she is a real tomboy at times!

Soccer princess

So we went with it! I thought she'd have fun dressing up in a pretty dress and I surprised her with some princess accessories before her party which included--sparkly shoes, a tiara and a princess sash. She LOVED it! She also loved her cake that I made. We watched the video on how to make the cake over and over again on BettyCrocker.com and she could barely contain her excitement each time. It was a very special day that brought so much joy. However, at the same time, I was a little heavy-hearted because there was no doubt in my mind that her foster family had to have been missing her that day. After they spent her 2nd and 3rd birthdays with her, they know how special Maria makes the day with her smiles, squeals and laughs. I can only imagine the hole that they felt in their hearts that day was equivalent to the fullness that mine felt by being a part of her special day for the first time.

She made a beautiful princess and insisted that she be called Princess Ariel since that's her favorite one

What a hit this "princess" birthday card was from Nana Judy and Papa Denny. Maria took it to bed with her the first three nights so she could listen to the music as it played over and over again. And even more precious, she still dances to it over and over again with such heart-felt movements. Truly priceless!

What a beautiful little girl--how lucky are we!!??

Ok, I have to admit the princess thing was taken way overboard, but oh did she eat it up!

And this may have been her most prized possession of the birthday party. You would have thought that I gave her the moon. She continues to tell people that her birthday was fun, that she's five now and, "My mommy made me a princess cake!" SHe even seems to think in her mind that BECAUSE I made her a birthday cake, she turned five. ; )

The only other member of the family I tend to leave off in the updates is our 15 1/2 year old dog, Max. He has been so good with the kids and they went from being scared of him to loving him. Unfortunately, he is really starting to show his age. (Wouldn't we all at 108 1/2 people years?) In the past year, his vision has begun to fail as has his hearing. It wasn't until about a month ago when he started randomly losing full function of his back legs. It doesn't happen all of the time but he is clearly getting to that stage that I have dreaded. After all, before Matt and all three kids were here, Max was in my life. So say a few prayers for him (and me) as it will be a difficult day when he has finally had enough. The only comfort I find is knowing that my grandparents will be there to scoop him up when he arrives in heaven.

Max

Finally, to end on a positive note, I once again, have to point out what an incredible journey adoption is. It has profoundly changed my life in ways that I can not understand or express. However, I occasionally take a picture where I sit back and say to myself, "This is how adoption enriches." Without God leading us down the path to Colombia, I never would have had the honor of feeling the joy that events like this bring to me. Thank you for continuing to follow us through this AMAZING blessing!

Brothers forever