Sentencia!!

So today was the day that we got the final signiture! I had been waiting around all day and everytime the phone rang here I got nervous. It was about 3:45 when the phone was finally for me! The office closed at 5 and the taxi came for me about
4:15. I got there at 4:45 and My lawyer met me there. They had spelt Johns name wrong and had to fix it and after the place was almost dead at 5:40 we were finished with the first part to get us home!!! My day starts really early as my lawyer is picking me up at 7:30. If we can get the birth certificates tomorrow and be able to get the kids passports and medicals done then I have a good chance of coming home on Saturday. So please pray that we can get all that done tomorrow!!! If somethings go wrong I am told I can't come home until next Tues. Sorry this is short tonight, but I am tired and have to get going early. Thank You all for your prayers and encouragement! Whoo Hooo! Home here we come!

May 12th

May 12th... Today was fun. We all slept in and had a great breakfast at the hotel here. We talked to our agency first thing and they think it could be tomorrow when we get our signature but unfortunately that doesn't guarantee we can come home this weekend. I am still holding out hope about it though...

So, we packed up Jim's things and got him ready to leave as he leaves at 6am tomorrow. We talked to the kids and made sure they understand why he is leaving and that we will see him in about a week. They started pouting but got over it pretty quickly with some candy. We played some games and Jim again played his favorite game - throwing the kids up as high as he can. They laugh and laugh.

We continue to work on their English and our Spanish. It is really a lot easier than I thought it would be. I bought a phonics book for Catalina and she really tries each day to work on learning. Every chance we get we are teaching them things. We went thru some pictures with them and they pointed out all the things they knew. John has a hilarious way of saying WOW when he sees something he likes. It makes us all laugh.

Last night was very special as Jim took me out for dinner and a movie. It was our first time that we have been without our kids in 3 weeks! 24/7 kids make you really appreciate getting out and spending time without them. We went to this mall where they said they had a California Pizza Kitchen - one of my favorite places to eat. Well, we looked and looked but could not find it so we went to plan B and had some Mexican. Not a bad 2nd choice... When you buy a ticket for the movie theater, they are assigned seats which is kinda nice. They also escort you to the correct seat.
Jim had a little culture shock there as the restrooms are a little more unisex here. They still have mens and womens bathrooms, but when Jim went to use the restroom, there were two women in the mens room just acting like it was no big deal. Apparently the men didn't care either.

Overall, it was a pretty good mothers day. The kids made me feel very special and loved and Jim kept reminding them all day to go abraso (Hug) Mami. I probably got hugged and kissed 100 times yesterday! They also brought flowers to my room in the morning. I know they have wanted a mami for a long time and I wonder what they are thinking as they know I am theirs and they are mine. We did have a time in the afternoon that they didn't get what they wanted and had a pouting fest. We were at the mall so Jim took them back and little squirt and I shared some ice cream and finished shopping. It was a really nice time and as Jaysa and I were walking around we heard some singing and realized they were having a church service in the middle of the mall. It really is amazing that God knows exactly what you need and meets you right where you are. Even when you are in a foreign country and don't really understand what they are saying HE can use it to still speak to your heart. I serve an awesome God! What a great day!

I took the kids shopping with me today as the next few days may get a little crazy without Jim. It is nice to be able to get out and have the hotel take care of the munchkins. They have been amazing and are really good with the kids. I see the way the kids listen to them as they speak spanish with them, and I know that once the kids have more English under their belt, things will get easier to deal with.

Sorry we haven't been able to post many pictures. Our flash went out on our camera and a lot of the pictures didn't turn out. Here are a few happy pictures and sad pictures. It isn't all roses here but it is most of the time. The kids like to pout but they are learning that it doesn't get them anywhere except an hour in bed. Please forgive me if I don't post a whole lot the next week but I will do my best to let you all know what happens as we finish our journey to Colombia.

Many blessings

Happy Mothers Day

Hey all. I'm giving my wife the day off - or at least I'm trying. The kids are a handful today. We are trying to take the day off but with three kids, it all seems impossible. I am getting a babysitter for tonight so I can take Jaime out for a nice meal... A luxury we are looking forward to.

It looks like our paperwork is delayed a few more days. Hopefully we will hear something on Tuesday now, but that is the best case scenario now. After we get the signature, it takes 3 business days to get the passports, medical clearances and visas. So, I have booked a flight back to the States on Tuesday the 13th as it doesn't look like we will be able to finalize everything down here until the 19th or 20th of May now - but of course, we still don't know anything for sure.

We have settled into another hotel - the El Refugio, since I am going back home early. They have everything here and will also babysit if Jaime has to go and sign papers with our lawyer. It is also located within a 10 minute walk of the mall which is easy to take the kids on a stroll if nothing else exciting is going on.

I wish all mothers out there a great mothers day but especially to my mom and mother in law. I have taken their jobs for granted until now that I see what it really entails. Jeeesh... Moms, I hope today is wonderful for you both and I can't wait to see you both soon.

Have a great day, from Jim, Jaime, John, Stefani and Catalina.

May 9th 2008

Well, it was another unproductive day. The kids stayed in the tub again for a long time while Jim worked. I got a lot of one on one with Jaysa Stefani today which was really nice. She is such a cutie! She deffinatly loves attention. We didn't want to go out because we were waiting for a phone call today and didn't want to miss it, but unfortunatly it never came. We have been told that all of our paperwork is ready to go, it just needs the last signiture from the Judge. We are really praying that we get it on Monday.
Tonight we went to El Correl for dinner. It has really good hamburgers and it has a great place for the kids to play. We relaxed for a bit while they played. We came back and just goofed around a bit until we put the kids to bed. The only pic I have to share tonight was when I was playing with Jaysa and she stuck her fingers under the door to try to get to me. It was really cute :)
Hope you all have a great night!

Our little prunes and a nice Surprise!

Well today was another one of those days we didn't do a whole lot. We were hoping to hear from our Rep. today and didn't want to be gone for long. After breakfast the kids wanted to go in the pool (bathtub)again. So about 10:30 they got in. Stefani was only in for about 10 min and at 12 Leidy got out but then rejoined John about 2:30 as he had stayed for the entire time. He loves to show off his pruny hands and feet and thinks it is the funniest thing. At 3:30 we got a phone call. It wasn't exactly the phone call we were waiting for, but it was welcomed with much excitement. The front desk called to say we had a package. I went down to get it and it was huge! It was from Jim's work. You guys are awesome!!! SO, I finally got the kids out of the bath after 5HRS by telling them that a gift (Regalo)was here for them!! Their little eyes widened and big smiles came across their faces. The box was full of all differnt kinds of candy, and games and coloring books and stuffed animals, t-shirts and chips. The kids were SO excited and kept saying WOW to each thing. They are so cute! :) Thanks you guys at TNT so much!! What a great surprise!
We went to the wonderful Crepes and Waffles for dinner and ice cream. This restaurant is a must to everyone coming down here. I am addicted to their ice cream and their dinners are great! We then came back where the kids went into the bath again for just 45 mins this time. They are in bed now and we are hoping to sleep well tonight!

Oh, and I finally called our rep and she didn't have good news. Now she says maybe we will hear something tomorrow or next Monday. Last week she was saying we would deffinaltly hear something by Thursday or Friday. So please pray that we hear something tomorrow. We would LOVE to come home next week.





Catalina (Leidy) wrote "Muchas gracias for the regalos TNT" on the board!

Not much going on...

Well today didn't go as I had planed but that's how it goes sometimes. Jim and I both had taken something like night time thera-flu to help our achy bodies and sinus issues last night and for some reason we were both up and wide awake until about
3am. That has never happened before And yes it was for night time. So, today we were both so tired and still haven't felt well. Jaysa Stefani was very fussy all morning then decides to throw up her lunch all over the floor. Poor thing. I put her down for a nap and took care of Jim and the other 2. She woke up early from her nap crying and I held her for a little bit. They are so sweet when they first wake up and lay on your shoulder. Well then I started to feel something warm and realized she was going chi-chi as they say it here. She went all over me. At first I thought it was just in the diaper, but oh no. :) She has been better this afternoon though, so we will see. It was a very nice evening so we went for a long walk to the Atlantis mall where the Hard Rock Cafe is. We had dinner and then walked back. So not much going on today. We are still waiting to hear from our representative here about our paperwork. I think I will call her tomorrow to see if she knows anything. Have a great night!




Jaysa stood under there for a bit just saying WOW..... It was funny

What a great day!

Ok, so this is Jaime writing now. Wow, 2 posts in one night! We just got back and settled the kids in for the night. Today I have been feeling a little better and decided to take the kids to this awesome place called Divercity. It is a small city for kids where they first go to the bank and cash their check and get a credit card. Then they get to work and do different jobs. They earn money then they also have many other fun things for the kids to spend their money on. I can't even begin to explain how cool this place is. They got to be doctors and EMT's, firefighters, postal workers, pilots, farmers, actors, models, futbol players, librarians, paleontologists, cashiers, artists and construction workers. They also got to work in a coco cola plant and actually make a bottle of coke and at a kelloggs plant and put together a bag of chips. When they worked and got money they could use it to do fun things like ride rapids, rock climb, race cars and more. They had a lot more like being a dentist, vets, working for a paper or radio station, but after 5 hours you just can't do it all. It is also very reasonable. I paid about $20 for both of the kids and me. Adults can't really participate in the activities, but it was so fun to watch most of the stuff the kids got to do. If you want to let the kids go, they have a place for parents to go and can get dunkin doughnuts and use the internet or watch movies. So here are a bunch of pictures!!!

The Grocery store




The Salon



Art Studio



Modeling



Race cars




The Farmers



Telecommunications



Librarians




Actors



John is the lion and Leidy (Catalina) is the black cat
The play was SO cute!


My Doctors and Firefighters!






My Construction worker



The Bottle factory


Riding the Rapids!