It has been A week...

So, Monday morning Jim left for a business trip and was supposed to come home Wednesday night but ended up coming home Tuesday night and I am glad he did. It has been a week of testing limits especially for Catalina. Monday morning she had been picking on John all morning and they continued to fight in the pool so I finally said that was enough and they had to get out of the pool. Well Catalina decided she didn't want to get out and I started with 10 minutes in time out then 30, 45, 1 hour, 2 hours and realized that wasn't working so I ended up having to drag her out of the pool which then started a 40 min kicking and screaming fit. After she was done, she spent the rest of the time on the couch in time out, and then Jaysa decided to throw up all of her lunch and then John wanted to join in and have a fit of his own. Tuesday morning at 7:30 John comes out of his room screaming with blood all over his face and hands. It freaked me out, but poor thing had a nose bleed and it scared him. Then Catalina decides to have another big break down among many other small things going on. Idios Mia!
Wednesday and Thursday went a little better but a lot of little tantrums from all 3 of the kids. Friday was the start of a tutor for Catalina to help her with English and she was so excited. She got all dressed up, and kept looking out the window waiting for her. It was cute. I got to spend some one on one time with John during that time and had so much fun playing cars. The rest of the afternoon and Saturday went really good. We had a lot of fun playing and the kids really helped us around the house. They really are great kids and we feel so blessed that God chose us to be their parents :)
This week I have come to really appreciate Grace. Our pastor has been talking about it for the past few weeks and it has been so refreshing for me to hear. Most people have said when you first become a mom you try to do everything for your child and then when number 2 or 3 comes along that usually gets thrown out the window. Well I have felt like I need to be super mom for them and have quickly realized that it is not possible. I can't be everything or do everything I want to for them, but that is OK because I serve a great God who gives me grace. None of us are perfect and never will be. It feels so good to know that when we mess up that God is always there pouring out his love and grace on us. It is so wonderful to know that we can't do anything to earn Gods love, He already loves us no matter what. I have seen Him provide in so many ways during this journey, it just amazes me.



The next Jose Calderon


Jaysa loves to put on sunglasses and will just walk around wearing them. It cracks me up :)



Kudos to Florence for putting in this fun water area and park. Music plays and the water goes up and down and you don't know where it will go. The kids had a lot of fun!



Our 3 little monkeys jumping on the bed :)

First week on my own...

Well, this last week Jim has been in full swing at work and both of our parents went back home. Things went better then I thought they would. I have discovered that Catalina loves to help me in the kitchen! She pulls up a chair and wants to help do whatever needs to be done to make the food and even enjoys washing a few dishes :) We have been trying to work on english and a few times I have caught her in her room trying to say certain words. It is so cute. She really has a sweet personality. We are still trying to work on when I say something she needs to listen and she doesn't get everything she wants, but I know most kids deal with that. Most of the time she really helps her younger siblings out and is very loving to them. I am still trying to get her to be the kid and not feel like she has to take care of John especially. She is doing pretty good at letting go of some of that.
John is such a funny kid. He loves to make people laugh and is just so cute. We have discovered he likes to lie, so we are working on that one. Today he started to tell me a lie and then I asked him a few more times and he had this look on his face like he wanted to tell me the truth but it wouldn't come out and then he just said he was sorry without answering me. It was pretty cute :)
Jaysa has always gone to bed without much of a problem but all of a sudden she fliped a switch and now will scream bloody murder if I am not with her until she falls a sleep.
We have still been very busy getting things done around the house. We were able to lay our front yard this weekend with some great help, and put together a swingset. The kids all received bikes this week! They thought it was the greatest gift ever! All they did was talk about their new bikes. How they received their bikes is a really cool story!! A new friend that has been watching our blog and has a heart for the Colombian people asked if he could buy them this gift. We have never met this man - but only God could ordain such a wonderful present for these kids in such a cool way. I don't know if he'd want is name on this blog, but thank you for the wonderful smiles you have given us and the kids this week.

Jim and I are so fortunate. We have had a few hard times this week but nothing from what we expected. Catalina had a rough go at it with the doctor as she was getting a shot. It took 3 of us to hold her down! What fun that was!!! They are all still very much water nuts and usually are in the pool from 5-6 hours a day. Catalina is already doing flips off the diving board and ever Jaysa is getting into the action.

Sorry my updates have been far from regular, but I am getting into a system now and should be able to post a little more as I learn to catch my breath. I am off to bed to tackle another day with the 3 best kids! We love these guys so much!

Sweet Home Alabama

It has been quite an emotional week. Since arriving home Saturday night, we have been non-stop with the kids. They are so happy. Our house is full of laughter and fun, fun, fun! The kids are really adjusting well and are very well behaved.

We took them by Jim's work on Tuesday and they had a ball giving out candy and hugs. They were a little overwhelmed by all the people but love giving affection and meeting people. Again, they loaded up with treats, hats and shirts from TNT. It is crazy how happy this makes them. John especially loves it and everytime says, "WOW". It was so cute.

The rest of this week we have basically spent in the pool, in the new blow up slide or playing with toys. It has been great! Catalina is reading every night and learning new english words everyday. We are staying put for Memorial day weekend so if anyone wants to come and visit, hang out and meet the kids, please feel welcome.

I will keep this short and put some much requested pictures up. Our internet is very questionable at our house but I will try to update as much as possible when possible. Life sure is different with 3 kids! A very good different!

WERE BACK!!

OH it feels great to be back home! The kids did pretty good on the way back. They didn't like the fact that we had to wait to get on the plane. They wanted to get on right a way! They were so excited and kept pointing out all the planes they saw. It was a long day and on the last little flight from Atlanta they all fell asleep. Our parents and some sweet friends of ours met us at the airport and it was SO great to see everyone!! Thanks for the flowers and snacks and balloons and welcome signs! The kids loved it!
So when we got home the kids were so excited and were running around looking at everything. John loved his car bed and Catalina just kept looking at her room and smiling and went straight to looking at all the clothes! Our parents blew us a way with all the things they did while we were gone! Downstairs they turned our main room into a play area, and it looks great!!!! The kids were so excited to see all the toys and the "pool of balls." We went to church on Sunday and it was SO great to see everyone and have them welcome us like they did!! When we got home the kids went straight for the pool. They love the water! Between Sunday and yesterday they have been in and out of the water about 8 times and gone through all 3 of their bathing suits, about 20 towels, 6 different pairs of PJs, and about 10 different changes of clothes too!!! I think they don't know what to do about all the new things and just want to keep trying everything out. :) We will have to put a stop to that soon as I can not keep up with that much laundry.

Arrival

Well, we were able to change our flight so we get into Huntsville at 6:30pm!!! Hope to see whoever can make it. Everything has gone great today and the United States has 3 more citizens now! Can't wait until we get home!

Love you all!!!

The US Embassy

So things went better then excepted today at the Embassy. We were there for only about 2 hours. The visas were approved and I have to return tomorrow at 3:30 to pick them up. There were a lot of people there waiting. The kids got restless, but I am so glad we didn't have to stay another 2 hours. All morning Jaysa was very fussy and then just sat in the stroller the whole 2 hours, which is unlike her. I new something was up and when we got back in the car she was eating a cookie and up-chucked everything. She was also running a fever. Poor thing. She slept all afternoon but has not wanted me to put her down. I ended up having the doctor come tonight as she was very fussy and still running a fever. A few kids here had sore throats so I just wanted to make sure she didn't need meds as we are flying on Sat.

So a few of you have asked if you could come to the airport to greet us and we would Love it if you can!!! Here is the catch though. As it stands now we are getting into Huntsville at 9:43pm from Atlanta. There is an earlier flight that we would love to see if we can catch that gets us in at 6:37. We won't know until around that time if we can get on it. So, we will try to update the blog if we can get on the earlier flight. We also wouldn't mind calling you if you want us to. You can email me and make sure we have your phone number. www.jaimeboyachek@bellsouth.net
Also, Jim will have his crackberry so you can email him at boyaj@tntfireworks.com and he can get with you prior to 5pm on Saturday by email if need be. Thank you all so much for your support. It has meant a LOT to us!
Have a great night!


Our friend Debi Adelman helped translate with the doctor and took pics too! Thanks Debi!


The Doc let John listen to his own heart and he was so cute moving his hands really fast to show the Doc what he was hearing :)

We are coming Home!!!!!!!

What a busy day. I left at 7:30am and we had to go to 2 different Notary places to get the kids birth certificates. Usually you request it 1 day and then pick it up the next so we were hoping to get it done today. Well 4 an a half hours later we were able to get it done!! We then came back to the B&B to get the kids and had a quick bite and left to go get them passports. We picked up another couple at the other B&B and we all went together. We pretty much were running everywhere we went. David who took us to the passport office is great. We skipped a head in line of about 100 people. The place was filled with people but our guy knows some people here :) He then ran us to the doctors office and left us there. The doc was real nice and spoke pretty good english. We finally finished about 6 pm. What a great blessing to be able to get all that done today! SO that means we will be coming home on Saturday!!! I am so excited and so are the kids!!! Tomorrow we go to the US embassy to apply for visas which they say we will be there about 4 hours. So I am off to bed to get ready for another long day!




This is funny where they didn't tell me the kids had to wear dark colors and she had white on and so did I, but thanks to our french friends the husband let Leidy wear his top shirt. It was a bit big, but it did the trick!!