Today was a fairly uneventful day, we waited around most of the day to keep the kids looking good as we were to meet with the case workers at the national level ICBF office. They had asked to meet with the three families currently in Bogotá. We were told that they wanted to talk to us about our motive to adopt given we all had biological children also. In the end it was a nice meeting where we met the social workers and psychologist that worked all of our files when they first hit Colombia. I think it was mainly a chance for these guys to see the end result of what they do. We never were asked about our motives, but it was a very nice visit and I hope God will use it to keep the relations between ICBF and Children’s Hope strong. We only stayed about 30 minutes, but it was nice to meet the lady who worked our file. On the way back we had 25 people in a 15 passenger van- no seat belt laws here. Picture attached gives you a feel for it.
This was a great day with the kids they didn’t test us at all today - very compliant and cooperative. This is particularly noteworthy since we spent almost the whole day in in the apartment. They are very very sweet children. Today we saw a continued progress with all the kids working together. Yeisson was asking Josh to draw him pictures. We also played UNO which was a good time for everyone ever though we couldn’t completely explain the rules. Ever try to explain how skip cards and draw two or draw four cards work without using any words! Try it sometime. Ashley just kind of follows Tatiana and Santiago around trying to play with them.
Tatiana has definitely been the most affectionate of the three. She is a constant source of hugs and kisses, and today she gave us her heart. On notebook paper she drew two whole pages of hearts – then she came to Jim and asked him to write Papi on one and Mama on the other then she presented us her heart. OK- maybe that is not fully what she intended but that is how we took it! They will all three say Te amo Mami or Te amo Papi with a tiny bit of prompting. We think the bonding is going pretty good. Tomorrow we go to our integration meeting and after that the kids are ours- God be praised!
The next big step is getting a court date. Please pray this will be more swift than anyone thinks possible. Please also pray for Yeisson, Tatiana and Santiago. The children often get very upset when the go back to their old home area for the integration meeting- they often feel they are being taken back to stay.. Tough time for kids who have been through so much.
God bless,
Jim and Betty
This was a great day with the kids they didn’t test us at all today - very compliant and cooperative. This is particularly noteworthy since we spent almost the whole day in in the apartment. They are very very sweet children. Today we saw a continued progress with all the kids working together. Yeisson was asking Josh to draw him pictures. We also played UNO which was a good time for everyone ever though we couldn’t completely explain the rules. Ever try to explain how skip cards and draw two or draw four cards work without using any words! Try it sometime. Ashley just kind of follows Tatiana and Santiago around trying to play with them.
Tatiana has definitely been the most affectionate of the three. She is a constant source of hugs and kisses, and today she gave us her heart. On notebook paper she drew two whole pages of hearts – then she came to Jim and asked him to write Papi on one and Mama on the other then she presented us her heart. OK- maybe that is not fully what she intended but that is how we took it! They will all three say Te amo Mami or Te amo Papi with a tiny bit of prompting. We think the bonding is going pretty good. Tomorrow we go to our integration meeting and after that the kids are ours- God be praised!
The next big step is getting a court date. Please pray this will be more swift than anyone thinks possible. Please also pray for Yeisson, Tatiana and Santiago. The children often get very upset when the go back to their old home area for the integration meeting- they often feel they are being taken back to stay.. Tough time for kids who have been through so much.
God bless,
Jim and Betty
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