Integration

Today was our "integration" meeting with ICBF. For those not familiar, it is a meeting with Colombian Family Welfare´s social worker to see how things are going. They interviewed the kids first (two at a time) and then us (with David interpreting). The kids told them that everything was fine and that they want us to adopt them. Oscar made it clear to them that he does not want to go back to the orphanage.

They asked us about discipline and any problems we were having. We were truthful with them about the tantrum problems and what we were doing to deal with that. We also talked about a few other things and they asked us if we still wanted to adopt the kids. We said "yes" without any hesitation. They told us that they were going to go ahead and sign off on the "integration" paperwork (David said that this is good because it should not hold the process up), but want us to come back next week for a follow-up visit. They also told us to call them if we needed any help from them.

I (Anne) don´t know if it was the visit to ICBF or what exactly, but overall the kids were pretty well behaved today. Only a couple of mini-tantrums from Claudia. The last one was in the back yard behind the B&B. She wanted to swing and her brother and sister were already on the only 2 swings. She threw herself on the ground and did her thing - Tim and I pulled up two lawn chairs and just watched her and talked to each other until she quit...

Hasta luego.