Tuesday the 6th

Hey everyone. This is Jim again. Jaime doesn't know I'm writing this as she is out with John and Leidy. She went to some virtual world for kids. I guess you should expect some cool pictures when she gets back. Once again, I am bonding with my little munchkin Jaisa Stefani. We played a little hide and seek and then I put her down for a nap. She has been a lot of fun and is very sweet.

Bogota has been a wonderful journey for us. We are having a great time and enjoying the Colombian people. It has been a very educational time for me as I have been studying Spanish and learning a lot about the culture here. These people like to party as they have a celebration for every day of the year. We were very sceptical when we came here as we were told many warnings about how to act here and obviously the kidnapping reputation that this country has. I have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised as time after time I have felt great courtesy, respect and have never felt in danger. Some of the areas here are by far the most beautiful I have ever seen, but because of the "Colombian" reputation, many people will never even consider this place as a vacation. There are many places here that would dominate as a tourist area if Colombia could clear up their image.

There have been quite a few things I have found out. I think this came to me as I was getting on the bus with my kids for a tour and the kids wanted to sit in the front seat. Now, if any of you know me, this has never ever taken place in my lifetime but because of their begging, I gave in. I immediately felt like I could work in an IT department as my nerd factor quickly quadtripled. People started looking at me differently and I kept thinking how cool it would be to sit in the back with all the cool guys. Of course, at the first stop, I bought myself some suspenders as I felt a belt just wasn't getting the job done. I'm sure many of you from Huntsville know exactly how this feels.

Anyway, I did learn some things.

#1. Colombians are taught in school there are only 5 continents - The Americas are only one continent
#2. Bogota is at almost 9000 ft, which make it one of the highest cities in the world.
#3. Colombians are more literate then Americans
#4. Average yearly wage is $8,400
#5. WalMart had more in sales last year then the total GDP of Colombia

Now this learning streak I am on may have something to do with the fact that I can't watch any of the NBA finals here because it isn't on. I have tried to follow it thru NBA.com, but it really isn't the same as yelling at Kobe Bryant for being the most overrated player ever. To win the MVP of the league is the most ridiculous thing ever and he wouldn't even be playing right now if it wasn't for Pau Gasol. I'll try to refrain from my sports bias though.

I also have a bone to pick with my wife as before we went down this road, we planned out the jobs portion of taking care of these munchkins. She drew the straw of changing diapers, but somehow I am beginning to dominate that task. She also has the gift of hearing if one of the kids moves at 3am in the morning in the next room, she is up making sure they are ok. She then wakes me up and lets me know that everything is alright. Why? Any guys out there? Any advice?

I will say that she has been absolutely amazing and this journey has been the best with her. She is doing great and her life is full with these 3 kids. She was born to be a mom and I see her gifts as a nurse, caregiver and nurturer coming out everyday more and more. I am lucky to have her as my wife as most of you have repetively told me over and over again!

Well, I need to go get little munchkin up and I'm sure, change her diaper. I think I'm in the mood to play "I will throw you up as far in the air as he can until you throw up". (My dad taught me that one) The kids love to wrestle and try to pin me down and jump on me like a trampoline but they ususally find themselves on the ground after too long screaming for their mom to help. I don't know how that happens, but I remember screaming for my mom when that same thing happenned to me?

So far we haven't found out any new news of our paperwork but I'm sure we'll know something more tomorrow. Life is great! Thanks for your emails of encouragement and comments. We couldn't be happier and look forward to coming home soon. You're prayers have made this journey what it has been!

The day the city shut down

It is Cinco De Mayo. We are staying at the Embassy Suites, near downtown Bogota. The area we are in is very, very nice - a beatiful area with shops, restaurants, nice walkways and waterfalls in front of buildings. We are enjoying some peace and quiet here as we have a suite and the kids all sleep in the other room. They have been so good.

Leidy and I have been going thru an English phonics book. She is really doing well and really wants to learn. Some people have told her that she won't be speaking any Spanish once we are in the US so I guess she is trying her best to get a head start. I gave John another new puzzle today. Oh my word, that kid went crazy. It was like the greatest gift anyone could give him. He has been playing with it all day!

Jim has been able to work here quite well as they have a fantastic business center. Most people understand English here also so that makes things a little less confusing for us as we are limited but it is really not too bad to get around.

Jim and I have not been feeling good today. It is tough to keep up with 3 munchkins when you don't feel good but so far we survived today! All 3 of them spent an hour in the tub today. It was so nice to just be able to sit and rest and smile at how cute my kids are. Jim came up to the room when Stefani went down for a nap and I took the kids to a very good hamburger restaurant that has an awesome kids play area. The kids played for about an hour which gave me another chance to rest and watch them play :) Tonight we ran to the store for a few things and ordered chinese. It was very good. I don't think we have any plans for tomorrow yet. I am hoping to feel better to be able to do some fun things with the kids.
Here are some pics of our 3 little monkeys!




For a snack today they made themselves a picnic :)

Cinco de Mayo

Well tomorrow is the big holiday down here. We have been told things get pretty wild here so we are going to take it easy like we did today. There isn't much to report. It rained all day so we just hung around the hotel and watched movies. It was a nice break as we have been pushing ourselves a little hard and a few days of relaxation is nice.

We have been told that our paperwork maybe going a little faster then we expected but we still don't know exactly what that means. You can't get a whole lot done here on Friday but hopefully we can get a lot completed this week!

Leidy is really learning English quickly. When she wants to be excused from the table, she now asks, "May I be excused please". It is really cute with her accent. She can count to 20 in English and knows the Alphabet song. She also tells us she loves us every night in English. Very sweet. John is picking it up also as he follows closely to Leidy.

We wish everyone a great Cinco de Mayo. We will hopefully have more to report tomorrow night. Love you all,

Salt Cathedral!

Wow, what a great long day! We all woke up early and had a great breakfast. We took a taxi back to the B&B and took a bus with 4 other families first to the salt mines. They had a little room that had many different fosils extracted from the mines and some of the old tools that they used to work down there. On one of the fosils there was a big spider crawling around that the kids seemed to be most interested in though :) We then walked down into the mines and saw salt formations. One of the coolest things here was the optical illusions that they had. The kids were just a head of us and I saw what looked like a huge cliff and yelled at them to be careful but then the guide told us it was water with the reflection that made it look like that. I thought I was in the Indian Jones movie where he had to take the leap of faith. It looked so real. Everyone was so amazed by it! After seeing the mines we stopped in this cute town that had a town square with a pretty church and grapped a quick snack. For some reason Whiney the Poo was there and the kids just loved him. We then headed to the Salt Cathedral. Following the Catholic religion, they have the way of the cross which is 14 different stations of the passion of Jesus, carved in these caves with salt. I was bummed that some of the pics didn't turn out so well but it was so dark down there that I am just glad at least a few did. At the end they have a huge cross, atler and pews. It is really pretty! We liked it and the kids had fun running around in the dark and eating the salt off of the walls. On the way back we stopped at this great place for a really late lunch/dinner that had a kids play area.
One thing that we really love here is their love for family and making things family friendly. They have over 400 parks just in Bogota and they have so many reasturants that have a play area for the kids. Even with the adoption process we can see how much people care for the kids here. It is very inspiring.
I think tomorrow we are going to take it easy and maybe go to a mall and for a walk. Until then here are some pics from today!

At a different hotel...

Today has been pretty uneventful. We decided it would be nice to have a change of scenery for a bit. We had looked into going to Cartagena for 5-6 days but there are 2 holidays here. May 1st and 5th. So because the flights were full during the days surrounding the holidays we would of had to leave for 9 days and we thought that would be a bit much and it was even more expencive durring this time. We could go around the 8th or 9th but we are really hoping to have good news then and will be really busy the 12-14, so it wasn't going to work out for us. We are bummed but that is how things seem to have worked out. Plus we all have been sick the beginning of this week and flying with a cold is not fun. So we have settled for a nice hotel in Bogota. We will see how things go and maybe we will stay longer, but they don't have as much for the kids here so we'll see.
Last night Leidy and her friend Lucia were dancing for all of us. They were so cute :)


Also, the interpreter was addressing a name change for Lucia with her parents and Leidy and I were with them. Leidy first says "my parents aren't making me change my name" and then she says she wants to change her name to Catalina Jessica. We had the interperter tell her she needs to keep one of her names, because we don't want to change both. She said she doesn't like either of her names. So we are still trying to work on that one. She didn't like our suggestions of "J" names and we did have the interperter explain that all of us have "J" names but that didn't seem to bother her. Tonight she had John calling her Catalina. It was cute, but Jim isn't to fond of it so we will see where this one goes.

The kids just played around the B&B this morning while I packed up and Jim worked. We had lunch at the new hotel, which was very good and then I took the kids for a walk while Jim stayed with our sleeping beauty. Tomorrow we are going to the Salt Mines and Cathedral, which I have really been looking forward to so it is going to be a very very long day. Good Night!

Life on the road

Last night we went to a Mexican restaurant and had a great time with the kids. They haven't had Mexican food before and Colombian food is very different. Colombian food is very bland and most of what they are used to are beans and rice. They enjoyed a few hot things last night but we tried to keep it at a minimum as they are not used to it and who knows how they would react to it. John likes to try new foods but when it has some kick to it, he makes the funniest face like he is eating a lemon. For some reason, he always smiles and says yummmmy! I guess he is like Mikee that would eat anything. Jim has been taking this a little too far and seeing just what he'll eat or drink. At some point Jim will have a mess on his hands to clean up I'm sure.

Today we were able to get things packed up a little as we are moving to another hotel here in Bogota tomorrow. We have been very busy juggling playful kids with washing clothes and packing suitcases. Of course, Leidy was a great help with the laundry and packing things up a little. I am already starting to write down tasks that she could do at the house. The kids have made some friends here so that has helped keep them occupied.

We have talked to our lawyer and we were assigned court #14. We have been told this is a pretty good court and our lawyer seems to think we can get everything taken care of by around May 13-14th - so hopefully we will be flying back into Huntsville in less than 2 weeks. We will know more as we get closer. That is great news as we are finding out how expensive it is here. WOW! A lot of items are 2-3X the price of buying it in the states. We look forward to seeing a Wal-Mart again! The kids are doing a little better. They continue to push the limits but are now quick to realize when they have crossed the line. It is fun to watch this.

Another family left to go back today to the states today. Leidy was sad to see her friend go but knows her turn will come soon. It is incredible how much different it will be for them. This city is full of life with people everywhere and thick smog. What a difference they will see when they are in Alabama out in the country where they will breathe clean air and see stars! We have been showing them pictures of family and friends and they are excited to meet everyone.

I think tonight is movie night so we'll see how easy it is to put the kids to bed. So far we haven't had too much problem and have at averaged about 6 hours a night. Before coming to Colombia, we both thought that sleep was a luxury we would no longer have and were really expecting a lot less. Talking with other adoptive parents here that only have one child, they say we are very blessed and looking at them in the morning, I feel bad for them. I can't say enough how much we have been blessed with such great kids with amazing personalities and habits. Thank you my faithful family and friends for your prayers. I know they have been answered. Have a great night.

Pool day

Well, I've tried 4 times to post a video but it doesn't seem to want to go. It has been a little different today. We are seeing that the kids are trying to push the limits in a lot of different areas. We are using time outs frequently now and they seem to work but only for a few hours. The word "no" is becoming a common word out of our mouths as they are seeing how much they can get away with. So far so good though. We have been told this is a phase most adoptive children go thru so we are prepared for it.

Stefani has had a tough day. This is the first day that she has cried and cried and cried. Again, this probably has something to do with the honeymoon stage coming to an end and the fact that she has had a cold. We have a doctor here and he thinks she is fine so we feel better about it. It is tough to hear your kid cry though.

We had McDonalds for lunch. Quite the experience here as there are only a few things on the menu and they were out of chicken nuggets. I am not sure how you can run out of 25% of your menu, but somehow they did. We made due and the kids had fun playing in the double decker play area.

Leidy and John had swimming lessons today. They had a blast. I took them while Jim babysat Stefani. This was the first time for John swimming in a pool and he didn't want to get out. Actually both kids wouldn't get out until they were forced to. I guess we got ourselves a couple of water nuts...

We're going to take it easy tomorrow and get some laundry done as well as organize our stuff. It is amazing what gets lost with 3 kids around. I can't seem to find anything in our room! Another long day and I'm hitting the hay. Love you all!