Walt Disney World 2009

In late November we went to Walt Disney World. The kids were so excited! They counted the days. The whole family had a lot of fun. While we were there, the girls got to be princesses as a birthday present from Brianne. That was the highlight of the whole trip for them. Unfortunately, the day we had reservations, it poured! We ended up going to the condo early. Granny and Papa came with us and also my great aunt Linda. It was wonderful that they could come too.

Eleven Is Not Enough Either!

Our family has been an ever changing adventure for 31 years now. We began our marrage in 1978 and had in mind to have two children. God however had other plans. For the last several years, He has not chosen to bless our lives with additional babies (other than grandchildren!), but he has clearly called us to adoption. As we began our first adoption, He showed us that we were following the course He set for us. We received answers to many prayers along the way as He provisioned for our adoption of Luke, Tatiana and Jason- monetarily, emotionally and spiritually. Those of you who have followed our blog have read about many of these answered prayers.

As soon as returned to the United States with these three children we sensed that God still had plans for us as parents. We struggled to discern where he would have us to go for our next adoption. We prayerfully considered a number of opportunities, but in the end we felt the call most strongly to return to Colombia. We waited untill now to announce our plans because our desire was not to cause all of you to ride our emotional roller coaster as we sought God's will in where we should go or how many children we should adopt this time. We have been working on the next adoption in one form or another since around June 2009.

We ask all of you to rejoice with us as we move forward with our second adoption. We submitted our application to Children's Hope International to return to Colombia and it was approved in late November. Having been through this before, we knew a lot of the hoops we needed to jump through and have been building a new dossier since November and have completed our update on our home study. As a result, we have 90 percent of our dossier ready. We will be mailing off our I -800 form tomorrow. By the time the I -800 comes back, our dossier will be complete and our request will be on its way to Bogota! And the waiting begins.......

When we were waiting the arrival of our biological children, everyone wanted to know - Is it a boy? Is it a girl? I think many of you might have the same response as we begin this adoption! So it's a GIRL- oh yea and it's another GIRL! We are asking to adopt a sibling group of two girls eight years old or younger. Two girls- if you are keeping count, that will be 7 girls and 6 boys. Showers of blessing! Some might even say a great flood. In our hearts we are ready to receive the children God has for us, and we pray that He will hasten the time for them to join our family.

We invite you to come along with us as we follow this calling. We invite you to join with us as prayer partners, emotional support and in any way you might like. These two children are not to be ours, but rather they will belong to their heavenly father, and it is ours to steward them on His behalf. By joining with us in any capacity, you also become a steward of these young lives and share in the joy of watching God work through them. We will also be sending out periodic e-mail updates in addition to this blog, leave us a comment with an e-mail address if you want to receive the e-mails. We deeply covet your prayers.

Now for those of you reading this blog who may be considering adoption. First, we say that the destination is worth the difficulties of the journey. Second, we say press on.

Jim and Betty

Thanksgiving

The whole family came over for Thanksgiving this year. It was the Colombian kids first real thanksgiving. It was good seeing everyone and getting to spend time with them.

Sisters

One year ago...

Then...

• They ran all around the apartment in Bogata going crazy!!!
• They spoke ALL spanish
• They woke us up at 4:00 am!
• Luke and Tatiana were very shy and hardly ever talked to us or anyone else
• They played more with each other than with us
• Wouldn't ever sit still!

Now

• They are calm and quiet around the house (not so much outside though!)
• They speak english all the time
• They sleep till 7 or 8 if we let them
• Luke and Tatiana will talk and play with just about anyone!
• They play with all their siblings (Tatiana and Ashley are like twins!)
• They will sit still at least for a little while!

One year ago was our Gotcha Day. I can't believe we have had them that long. Our family has been so blessed!

Broken Trees and "I'm not Howdy!!!"

Ok, so our family has all sorts of funny comments and such from all the kids. Here are a couple we have heard lately. A couple of weeks ago, Luke was sitting at the table and looked out the window as he does often. All of a sudden, he looked at Mom and said "Mommy, the trees are broken!" It took us a few minutes to realize he was talking about the leaves. The tree was bare. According to the kids, the trees didn't loose their leaves in Colombia and Luke hadn't noticed that ours did yet.

At church this week Jason was standing around and one of the moms in the church walked up to him and said "Howdy". We don't use howdy very often in our house and he thought she was calling him Howdy. He looked at her and said "I'm not Howdy!!!" The mom told us about this story at a gathering that night.

Just thought I would share the stories with you. Hope you enjoyed them!!! Oh, and here are some pictures of the kids playing in the "broken trees".

One year ago, we first heard about my siblings. We had been told there would be some news soon and then all of a sudden we got the calll!!!! We were so excited! Next month will be one year. I can't believe how fast our year has gone!

Where has time gone?????

O.k. So... it hasn't been that long since I updated, has it? Anyways, the kids have been doing great. We never hear Spanish anymore, except a couple words. They can still communicate in Spanish somewhat, but not fluently.
All of the kids are now reading. Some are farther than others, but that is to be expected. They are also learning math and other such things.

The kids have had so many firsts in the last 10 months we have had them. One of those was when they met Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Nancy, Uncle Duane, and their cousins, Courtney and Nicholas, in Ohio for the first time. They loved it! They had a blast playing games and running around in the backyard with their cousins and snuggling with their grandparents.

We have a neighborhood pool. They got to spend the summer swimming all the time. Everyday they would get up and ask if we were going swimming.

Tatiana talked on the phone for the first time the other day to her father who has been out of town on business for 2 and a half weeks. She thought it was so funny. Things you take for granted and do not think of as firsts, you suddenly discover they have never done.

Another first is Awana. Awana is a program for kids where they come once a week and play games, have a devotional, and say the verses they learned through out the week. The kids love it! They work so hard on their verses during the week. When you have just learned English, it is hard to memorize those verses in New King James! This year I (Kaitlyn) am helping in Luke's group. It is so much fun!

Life is one big adventure to them. Every night they go to bed and ask what we are doing tomorrow! It really doesn't matter what you have planned, they are excited about it.

So anyways, here is the much needed update. I will add some pictures. Hope you enjoy them!



Here is a picture of us, Grandma, Grandpa, Courtney, and Nicholas.


This is us at Easter.

Brianne bought Gymboree watermellon outfits for the girls this summer. They were so cute in them!

Colombia Reunion

This weekend we went to the CHI Colombia Reunion. We had a lot of fun! It was so cool to meet the families that had followed our blog while we were in Colombia and also the people we have followed. There were somewhere around 20 families and lots of kids! Our blog name is Eight is not Enough and therefore everyone looked at us and said "You are Eight is not Enough!" or "You are the family with all the kids!" It is funny how it works. Anyways, here are a couple pics.

In June, we were able to travel to Missouri for a reunion hosted by a family we met in Colombia. There were five families including us. This is the family that we met while we were there. They were adopting five. It was great to get to see them again!

It is Finally My Happy Birthday!!!

Luke is 4!!!!! He has been counting down the days until his birthday and couldn't wait! It is finally here. We celebrated yesterday with the family at Pizza Hut while they were all here. He had a blast! Here is him and his much loved pirate cake.

Hi all! We have had a busy life the last couple of weeks! Yesterday we had the kids dedication! It turned out really well. Josh, Matt, Kevin, and I all read verses and dad shared a short testimony. I think Jason loved being up front! The whole family came to our church and it was really cool! We were so big between grandparents, siblings that moved out, my neice, my nephew, and us that we took up two rows of seats!

Tatiana, Josh, Matt, Jason, and Ashley are taking swimming lessons on Monday nights. Tonight is the last night and I think they will all be very sad. They all loved it! It was a new thing for Jason, Tatiana, and Ashley. They have all done really well.

Jason is already reading!!! he can read three letter words now and he loves that he is in "the yellow box"(our reading program is in multiple boxes which are all different colors). Tatiana is now almost done with her letters! She has less than ten left! She proudly shows me the one she passes when she passes it. Tatiana can't wait to finish. She counts how many she has left every time she passes one! Luke is getting there but is not as far as Tatiana. He will be there soon though!

They are using so much English now! Especially Luke and Tatiana. I will walk by Luke and hear a pharse like "look at it" or "that is mine" and it is so cute! They understand almost everything now but aren't speaking it all. Most of it they can say and it is so much easier for us!

At dinner we go in a circle of whose turn it is to pray. When it is one of the Colombian kids, you will hear something like this. "Dear Jesus, Thank you for Mommy, thank you for Daddy, thank you for Brianne, thank you for Kaitlyn, thank you for Josh, thank you for Matthew, thank you for Jason, thank you for Tatiana, thank you for Ashley, thank you for Luke, thank you for amigos, thank you abeulo y abeula, thank you for otros hermanos y hermana, thank you for food, amen. We love it! It is so cute! Sometimes they add other things but that is the normal stuff they put in it. They also like to mention friends by name. They say "thank you for otros hermanos y hermana" because they didn't know the names at first and now it is habit to say otros hermanos y hermana.

The kids are thriving and we can't imagine life without them! We love them so much! It has been five months as of Saturday. I can't believe it has been that long! We have come so far since the first couple of weeks!

Chicago, Snow, and Other Miscellaneous Things

We went to Chicago this week. My dad had a business conference so we went with him. We stayed on the Navy Base and were like the only ones in the guest house. There were only about five cars in the parking lot and I think we were the only ones on our floor. That was not a bad thing because six kids under the age of ten, we are pretty noisy!!!!! While we were there we went to the Shedd Aquarium, Legoland Discovery Place, and The American Girl place. The Shedd Aquarium wasn't our favorite since all the dolphins, whales, and penguins were on "vacation" while they were remodeling. It was not worth the money for the rest because all that was left was little fish that were not very colorful. I think we spent about an hour in there. We then relied on our GPS to get us to the American Girl Place. The girls each picked out a doll and bought it with their Christmas money from our Grandparents and our great aunt. Then on Wednesday we went to Legoland. That was a lot of fun for the boys. It was really cool. First we went through a jungle with Monkeys, tigers, spiders etc. made out of Legos. After that we got to ride the Dragon Ride. You got in a car shaped like a dragon and rode through a medieval castle and eventually got to the dragon who was guarding the treasure. Luke was so funny when we got there because he just looked at the dragon and said "Hi dragon!" After that we did a few other things and then we left. We spent most of the day there. We are very glad to be home.

The day before we left for Chicago it finally snowed enough to play in. It was the first time the new kiddos got to play in it. They had a blast!!!!!! I thought Luke and Tatiana would come in super fast but they were out there from lunch to about three or so. We had to make Luke come in! Luke, Matt, and Jason were outside until about three thirty and then we made them come in so they could have baths and everything. There is a small hill in the common area of our neighborhood. We took them down there for a little bit to go sledding and they had a lot of fun there too.

The kids are doing great! They are fun and silly all at the same time. Luke is just a little goofball. He loves to be funny and usually is. He loves to be the center of attention. He is totally the baby and is definitely treated like one. Tatiana is also very funny and is such a girly girl. She loves dresses and all of that though she doesn't like getting her hair done very much. She takes her time on everything. Jason loves his Legos. He is always found playing Legos with Josh and Matt. He loves to remind people of the rules . All the kids are so much fun and we are so grateful for them.

This month will make 5 months since gotcha day! In some ways it seems like it has been so much longer but when I count it out on the calendar, I always think "has it really been that long?" Before we know it, it will be November 25th and we will be celebrating one year as a family. It is hard to remember what life was like before they came nor would we want to.

Well I better go figure out what else needs to be done but I wanted to update the blog. I have so much fun posting so my posts tend to be on the long side. Here are some pictures of Chicago, Snow, and the museum.

Matt, Jason, and Josh in front of Indiana Jones.

Luke took all the snow on the couch and piled more on it. He packed it down and called it his bed. His expression is a classic Luke expression. He wears it all the time.

Cereal Anyone???

Hi, it's me Kaitlyn again. Today a friend of ours went to the commissary(the grocery store for military families). While she was there she called us with all sorts of deals. We ended up with 45 boxes of cereal and 85 pounds of ground beef. The grand total was only 129 dollars! If eaten every day, the cereal will only last us less than a month. The ground beef should hopefully last longer since we usually eat mostly chicken! The cereal stacked from floor to celling. I had a lot of fun stacking it! It was like giant legos! With a big family we are always looking for deals and 68 cents a pound for ground beef is quite a deal! ;o) Thanks Mrs Ford.

Jason's "Happy Birthday to you"

Happy Birthday Jason! He is 8 years old today! Here are a few pictures of him and his Whirly Pop.

These were all the kids at the family celebration. From left to right is Matthew, Jason, Luke, Nora(granddaughter), Eli(Grandson), Tatiana, and Ashley. Josh is in the back. Jason's lollipop was twice the size of theirs and no one ate the whole thing except Luke and Nora who ate almost all of theirs.

Where has time gone????

We did it! We reached 100 days! Thanks for the great idea Hagerty family! :o) Things are going great for us. The kids are so much fun! We have our days but for the most part we have adjusted to having three more around the house.


Tuesday is Jason's birthday and he can hardly wait! He saw his name on the calendar and asked if it was his "Happy Birthday to you". When we said yes, he got a huge smile on his face. He then went on to tell us something he wanted for his birthday. Since he didn't know enough English to tell us what it was, it was hard to figure out! He kept saying it was circulo and white with mucho colors and lots of red. We kept asking if it was cake and he said no every time, he eventually started pretending to lick something. Maybe ice cream? No. Finally, he drew it. We realized he wanted one of those lollipops you can get at candy stores that is big, white, and swirled with lots of colors and also red. He is counting down the days until his "Happy Birthday to you"!

We are finally starting to get somewhere on our English! They are wanting to learn now and we are hearing more every day. Jason really surprised us when he said "Happy Birthday to you" because we have only sang it two times at most with them so we have no idea where he got it! Luke is really picking it up too! There is still a lot of Spanish but much less than there used to be.

Every Thursday we go to a friends house for a group writing class for Josh and Matthew. While they are doing that, the little siblings(and the big ones that aren't doing it ;o)) are upstairs playing and doing a craft. Afterwards, we all go down the street to their community park and tennis court. The tennis court has a couple of basketball goals along the side too. The older kids and anyone else who wants to, plays knock out. Jason has so much fun! He loves basketball! Luke discovered how much he loved basketball this week too!

The girls have been getting along great! You can usually find them somewhere with their baby dolls. They are easy to track down because if they are playing babies, you will hear them. Tatiana and Ashley always make their babies cry and so it is difficult to tell if someone is crying or if it is a baby doll! Many times we have gone to see who was crying and why and find two little girls with baby dolls in hand and their faces scrunched up in a mimic cry!

We started Jason, Tatiana, and Luke on the English alphabet after we got home. Jason knows all of the alphabet except for one and he will learn it quickly as he loves to learn! I think he will be reading before he knows what he is reading! It comes so easy for him and he wants more so we just found some easy math facts to try. Luke and Tatiana are having a harder time but are still picking it up pretty well. They both know about a third of the alphabet and the sounds the letters make.


The kids love to tell us thank you! At every meal, usually starting with Luke, then Jason, then Tatiana, they thank us for the food. They tell Mom first, then they go down the line. "Thank you Daddy, thank you Brianne, Thank you Kaitlyn." We hear it every meal. Also Luke sits at the table at lunch every day and sings Jesus Loves Me while he eats. It is soooo cute! I think that is his favorite song. It is the only one he knows in English.

Our first post placement meeting was today. It went great and it is a relief to have the first one done. This has turned out to be a long post so I better end here! I will put a few pictures as I know from experience, that is the best part of the post!

Kaitlyn







We stoped at a Gymboree clothing outlet a week before Valentines Day and found these really cute and very inexpensive outfits for the girls. We couldn't resist! And who can resist those cute smiles!




I love this picture of Matt and Jason playing in the backyard. Don't you love Matt's expression?