Day 6!

Sorry our internet has been down all night...

OK, Jim again. Jaime has caught what I call a case of the three muchachos. Interpreted for you without 3 or more kids - she is completely exhausted. I think the frustrating thing for her is that the spanish that she knows - although I think is very advanced, is still not enough to keep up with these guys. They talk so fast and not knowing what they are saying sometimes makes it a little difficult. They are speaking a little english now and we are picking up more of what they are saying everyday. It is challenging but very rewarding. We are doing most of our talking in small spanish sentences. We use a lot of hand jestures and really it can be very effective. If needed, we can get with some of the staff and they can help us here but overall we are managing by ourselves. Leidy is especially wanting to learn English quickly so we say the word in spanish and then translate it to English for her and she repeats it.

Today was a long day though. We all were up early to go to the zoo - well actually it was more like a big petting farm. Not really any exotic animals but a ton of birds, pigs, sheep, horses and cows. They had a blast here so I know I can take them to quite a few places in our neighborhood and show them something similar. It was a very nice drive though - about 1 hour north of Bogota. Traffic is very crazy here and cars always have the right of way instead of people. I found this out - almost the hard way.

We were at the zoo about 7 hours, riding horses, seeing pigs race, and running after lots of birds and kids. The trip home was slow but very sweet. The kids fell asleep on us, Jaime had Jhon and Stefani and I had Leidy. It was fun when we got back as they were completely knocked out and we had to carry them into the casa.

Everyone went for a siesta except me. I decided to give the streets of Bogota a try for a run. It was challenging dodging the traffic but probably the more challenging thing was my my lack of exercise over the past 3 months. I stopped in at a phone shop to try and get my cell phone working but to no avail. I was able to amuse the entire store as I was in running shorts and NO ONE wears shorts here. It is amazing to me but in this beautiful weather, everyone wears jeans and sweaters and scarfs. Anyways, I struck up a conversation with Sergio there and he was so thrilled for what we were doing here. He asked me to bring the kids by his shop when I can. It was really amazing to me as he was literally moved to tears when I was telling him about the kids. They really cherish the family here and kids seem to be everywhere.

Can you guys believe we have 3 kids! It is still very hard for me to believe. I think that it seemed like such a dream but now such a reality. If I knew it was going to be this much fun, I would've pursued this a long time ago. I am already trying to convince Jaime to consider this again but she is always the rationale one... I guess it just breaks my heart to hear and see so many kids that grow up without a family and that we can actually make a difference in a few kids lives.

Tonight was jump on Jaime night. I had nothing to do with it, trust me. I taught the kids one of my favorite games - steamroller! I think I like it better then they did but we laughed and laughed and laughed. There are only a few times in my life that I have laughed so much - you know - like when snaught comes out of your nose and you start coughing until you can't stop. Yeah - that was tonight. Jhon has the most hilarious laugh and you can't help but laugh when you hear it.


Tommorrow should be another fun filled day. We are going on a bit of a tour of the city and who else knows what may happen. Our God is a great God and we thank Him everyday for all He has blessed us with. This is an awesome ride and we look forward more and more to each day. Hasta Luego