Gotcha Day

Where to start! What an amazing day. I know a picture says a thousand words - so tonight I want to speak mostly with the pictures of the first day. Our initial meeting with the children's social workers went very well. They said they were excited about being adopted.  Alot of the time was spent talking of their older brother. They plan to arrange a meeting with the older brother who we want to reassure he can remain in contact and that we will love Anyi and Jose. He is almost 16 and has been their primary care giver for part of their life sacrificing everything for them. He has agreed to the adoption, but we know they will miss one another.

With about 7 hours of having Anyi Camila and Jose Luis in our family our first impressions are:

Anyi Camila - is very sweet and nurturing, not just of Jose, but also of Makenzie and Isaiah already. We were told she is shy, but has not shown that to us. She has been very interactive, affectionate and has the most amazing smile- complete with dimples. She is very bright and has picked up the rules for games easily. Anyi Camila so far is constantly trying to help with everything that needs to be done around the apartment. She is definately a girly girl!

Jose Louis (yes he wants us to use both names :-) was very shy in our first day, but his social workers said he is very out going- so we are waiting for him to warm up to us. He was getting more interactive as the day went on.  Also wanted to help with the work around the house. He has very curly hair, is kind, but we sense a bit of a stuborn streak! 

This first day was much smoother than the last time we came to Colombia. This one will either be easier or we are experiencing the calm before the storm! We were very surprised when Anyi brought us a cd with around 150 photos from her time in the orphange - we looked at all of them together while she explained many things we did not understand. Each of them came with quite a bit of clothes this time. As I was looking at Anyi's things in her backpack, I came across an small photo album made of contruction paper. The photos inside were zerox copies of originals, as Anyi began to explain each photo my heart almost stopped. The first picture was her Mami who had been killed posing with Anyi at about 4 years old. There were pictures of her brothers, aunt, grandmother and a picture of her first communion with her Godparents, and more......  Very hard not to weep for what she has been through. These photos will be as precious as gold when she is grown. Yet all they have been through they seem happy and well adjusted.  What a blessing God has allowed us to be part of their lives.