Hang On...

Christmas Day 2011

2012-01-02T18:00:00.001-06:00

We went to church first on Christmas morning, so didn't get around to opening gifts until afterward. Before you start feeling too sorry for our poor, mistreated children (haha) - you should know that they got (entirely too much) stuff from their Grandma Schoemig on Christmas Eve. And after we opened gifts at our house Christmas Day, we went over to Grandma & Grandpa Verhulst's house and they got more (a Nintendo Wii with a charger and 4 controllers).

Tim and I (okay, I - since Tim doesn't shop for any gift other than mine) didn't go nuts on Christmas this year. However, as you will see below, I think the kids were happy to get what they got from us.

Now she has the big pillow pet, the small pillow pet and the matching slippers...

Oscar with his iPod Touch and a new zip-up hoodie...

...and the matching slippers for Claudia too.

A penguin hat and gloves for Diana (she has a serious penguin addiction).

Dog treats and toys are unveiled for Hank and Hanai.

...and this is what we saw - pretty much for the rest of the day (or at least until the batteries died).

Photo Shoot

2011-12-10T17:35:00.000-06:00

In my never-ending quest to trim our family budget, I decided that I would take the photos for our Christmas card this year instead of hiring a photographer. Next I had to decide where we would take them and what the kids were going to wear. I bought some super-cute dresses off eBay for the girls - they aren't wearing all the same ones this year, but they all match in style and color.

I also decided that we would do a 'location' photo shoot at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in KC. The kids weren't real excited when we told them that we were taking them to an art museum (instead of a photography studio) to take their Christmas pictures. However, when we arrived at the Nelson they really liked it! What's not to like? The place is gorgeous inside... and full of some really cool stuff!

Once again, I won't post the actual picture we plan to use. But, I will post another one that we really liked - but didn't make the final cut for our 2011 card:

Cost for parking at the Nelson $5. Cost for forty, semi-custom, self-designed Christmas cards from walmart.com $16.68. Cost of hearing your kids say "Cooooool Mom, can we come back again some day?" - about a museum of art - ...priceless.

Thanksgiving, etc.

2011-11-28T20:37:00.004-06:00

As we have every year since about 2001, Thanksgiving was at our house this year. We were down 5 people though since my younger sister and her family moved to Florida back in May of this year. But we still had a nice family gathering with my Mom, my older sister and her family and two of my aunts (my Mom's sisters).

Looking ahead, I'm pretty excited about Christmas this year. Last year I had a hard time figuring out what to buy everyone for Christmas. I think they liked what they got, but I don't think they were 'blown away' by their gifts. This year I bought the kids each an iPod Touch (don't wig out - we didn't win the lottery, I bought them all off eBay so I saved more than half what the newest 4th gen costs). I think they are going to absolutely love them - just my gut feeling. I've found tons of inexpensive educational games and ebooks on iTunes - and also PBS kids TV shows. Awesome! Can't wait to see their reactions!

This month we also moved our old PC and the printer out of the 3-seasons porch (off Tim's and my bedroom) and put it in the dining room for use as a 'family computer'. I cleaned up the hard drive and added a gig of RAM to the motherboard. It was running very sluggishly - now it runs like a champ and didn't cost me that much to fix :). After that, I bought and loaded several kids learning games on it. The girls all ask me constantly now if they can play on the computer (they actually started asking before I even had a chance to get everything set up). The dining room is a little more cramped now, but it think it is well worth it.

In other news, our friends from church are leaving this week to travel to China to adopt their little boy Jesiah. Their family had a really rough time this past year, but are ending on a positive note by finally being given the green light to go to get their little one. Keep them (Nathan & Michelle) in your prayers if you are so inclined, they are leaving two small children behind here in the States while they travel. I know they are worried about all their children - near and far - at this time.

Mayerly's 10th Birthday

2011-10-23T21:06:00.001-05:00

I wish I had something witty and inspiring to write today in honor of Mayerly's birthday. Unfortunately, I've been fighting a chest cold for about 2 weeks now and I'm too wiped out to come up with anything. So, I'll just be posting some pictures before I call it a night.

Blowing out the candles

She's cheezin' in this one with her imaginary knife and fork ready to eat all the cake herself...

Bratz Leapster game from Grandma and Grandpa Verhulst

Furry green body pillow, also from G'ma & G'pa Verhulst

Incredibles Leapster game from Mom & Dad

Doll clothes from Mom & Dad

Doll from Grandma Schoemig

The Starfish

2011-10-02T22:06:00.002-05:00

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed
a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.

Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”

The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean.
The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”

“Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish?
You can’t make a difference!”

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish,
and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said,
“I made a difference for that one.”

Mega Post

2011-08-28T22:15:00.001-05:00

Here we are at the end of August. Where did the summer go? It's been so busy the past 3 weeks, I'm having a hard time believing we actually are almost into September. The run-down for this month is as follows:

Colorado Vacation August 15 - 20

Finally. We finally took a trip that was longer than just a weekend. Our first in over 3 years.

Tim's family has a cabin about 45 minutes outside of Colorado Springs at the edge of Pike National Forest. Tim and I hadn't been out there in over 10 years, so we decided we'd take the kids and go this summer since we had a week to kill between the end of summer day-camp and the beginning of school.

It's about a 10-11 hour drive out there from our house. We left home at 4:30 am, packed breakfast and lunch and ate on the road at rest stops. Here's a picture from our first stop for breakfast (pan dulce - Mexican sweet bread).

I don't have a picture of lunch because it was so windy it was literally blowing our food off the picnic table (western Kansas). We arrived in Colorado Springs at around 3:30 in the afternoon. The elevation (altitude) where we stayed is almost identical to the altitude of Bogota (where our kids are from) - I just thought that was interesting. Here's where the Great Plains meet the Rockies...

The Verhulst cabin is, a bit rustic. However, it has almost all the conviences of home - a kitchen (only missing a dishwasher), an indoor bathroom with shower and hot water, and a washing machine (no dryer, just an outdoor clothesline). This is about as rough as I care to go when 'roughing it'.

The view of Pike's Peak from the back deck is pretty awesome... and it never looked exactly the same any two times you looked at it. This is what it looked like one afternoon.

There were several things at the cabin that kept the kids occupied. We had a zip line, a wagon, a dirt bike and a bb gun. We saw black squirrels, deer, woodpeckers, elk, chipmunks, humming birds and rabbits - all without leaving our deck.

Mayerly on the zip line

Claudia on the wagon

Claudia and Tim on the bike

Doe with fawn behind the cabin

Herd of elk on a hill just down the road from the cabin

We did get out a few times. Our first outing was to Garden of the Gods by day and the Flying W Ranch for a chuckwagon supper and singing cowboy show by night. Another day we took the cog train up Pike's Peak from Manitou Springs. We also drove over to Cripple Creek and Victor (a couple of old gold mining towns) for a look around. Cripple Creek is mostly a strip of casinos now, so we actually liked Victor better.

Garden of the Gods visitor center

Balanced Rock Cafe - Garden of the Gods Trading Post (Tim, Oscar & I had buffalo burgers)

Waiting at the table to tie on the feedbag at our chuckwagon supper

The kids' favorite cowboy (L.J.) - he was the butt of most of the show's jokes

It was 44 degrees at the top of Pike's Peak, with a windchill of 39 degrees that morning.

Here are the girls in Cripple Creek, CO.

Here's a view of Victor, CO. They actually have an active gold mine there that pulls over $6 million in gold out of the mountain - weekly... WOW!

We drove home from Colorado on August 20th (an all day trip). I can't figure out why sitting in a car or an airplane for MANY hours makes me so tired - but it does. And I'm never ready for vacation time to end - but it ALWAYS does.

First Day of School - Oscar & Diana - August 22

Don't they look thrilled to be going back to school???

First Day of School - Mayerly & Claudia - August 25

3rd Annual Adoption Picnic @ Windhaven Farm - August 27

For the past 3 years Gerry and Teresa Rima have hosted a picnic at their dairy farm in southwest Missouri for families who have adopted. Most of the families who attend have adopted from Colombia, but there were children from Ethiopia and China too. It's a great time with lots of kids :). The Rimas have 17 (that's not a typo) children total, 15 were adopted - one from the U.S. and 14 from Colombia. They are amazing people and we are priviledged and honored to know them.

The Rima Family (minus their 2 adult children)

My little buddy Bella - she's taken a liking to me for some reason :)

Most of the families who attended the picnic (some left before we took this picture)

Who knew a hammock could be so much fun?

Oscar's Birthday - August 28

Last (but not least) our oldest (Oscar) turned 14 today. He has matured so much over the past year (and I'm not just talking about how tall he is getting). I'm becoming more and more proud of the young man he is turning out to be and so glad that we could play a part in shaping who he is and helping him achieve to his greatest potential.

The obligatory cake and ice cream...

PC games from Grandma & Grandpa Verhulst

Speakers for MP3/PC from Grandma & Grandpa Verhulst

PC from Mom & Dad (also Swiss Army type knife in his hand)

Diana's 11th Birthday

2011-07-23T22:29:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I didn't post for the whole month of June and broke my monthly posting streak...

But, we finally got around to getting our ISP changed over (thus saving us $45 per month), but it left us without internet service for several weeks while the old service phased out, the new service connected (took two trips to our house by at&t for some reason) and then working out our 'incompatible hardware' issues. I install everything myself, because I normally won't pay someone to do something I can do myself... but it does create some inconveniences.

As the title of this post suggests, today was Diana's birthday. We didn't do much today. It was so horribly hot outside, we just stayed in. I baked a pineapple upside-down cake first thing this morning before it got too hot. After that I made homemade pineapple sherbet to go with it. For dinner we let Dino pick out her own pizzas from Pizza Hut (cheese for one, super supreme for the other). Grandma Schoemig came over and ate with us. Then she opened her presents and we called it a day. Can't believe this is our 3rd birthday with her, time sure does fly.

9th Birthday

Diana's 10th Birthday

11th Birthday

Tim and Oscar goofing around with Diana's new doll clothes.

I think she liked the stuffed penguin we got her.

She got a double dose of 'Tangled' from the grandparents (Verhulst & Schoemig)

May in a Nutshell

2011-05-31T21:51:00.000-05:00

After we got home from Colombia, I vowed (if only to myself) to try to post at least every month. Here it is the last day of May and I haven't posted a thing :).

Earlier this month, I took a picture of my Mother's Day loot, and planned to post it, but obviously that never happened.
I've been to more doctor/dentist/therapy appointments this past month than I've ever been to (within a month) over the 2+ years since we brought the kids home. We had the 4 days per week of the usual therapies and then we all went to the dentist, pediatrician and Oscar went to the orthodontist.
Last week was the final week of school for all the kiddos, I had to go to software training for my job. Grandmas, Grandpa, and Dad got to run the kids to doctors and therapies. I actually got a full 40 hours in that week...
Summer day camp starts tomorrow. The kids are excited about swimming, visits to the public library and weekly field trips. This year all four kids will be at the same camp for the first time - that will save Tim and me a lot of driving.

In other news, Oscar and Diana have been on a mini-campaign lately. Oscar wants a brother, Diana wants a brother AND a sister. Tim and I haven't totally ruled out the possiblity of a second adoption - BUT WE DON'T PLAN TO ADOPT AGAIN AT THIS POINT IN TIME. I just don't know how I would fit the paperwork into my already packed schedule - and that doesn't even take into account the cost of adoption - or the fact that we are at our financial capacity right now (paying the private schools, doctors and therapists). I don't think my lack of availability at this time would be conducive to the bonding that needs to take place after a 'new' adoption either. We just keep telling them 'no' - for now...

The Wemmick Story

2011-04-24T14:22:00.000-05:00

At our church we sometimes have some fairly unusual services. Today, a young married couple (Thoric and Sarah) was in charge of the Resurrection Sunday service. They chose to do a 'child-centered' service. It went a little like this:

First, Thoric had all the children in the congregation bring a hymnal up to the front of the church. He told the kids that the hymnal would represent their sin; and then asked them to hold the hymnal out in front of them for as long as they could until it started to feel heavy. Next he asked one of the kids' father come up and started stacking all the hymnals onto his outstreached arms. It was then expained that this is what Jesus did for us when he takes away our sins. He carries the burden of our sins for us (if we let him).

There was also a puppet show that asked "What is this day about?". There were three puppets, the first puppet answered that this day is about bunnies, the next said that it was about eggs. The last puppet told the children that today is really about Jesus dying for our sins so that we could have eternal life.

Sarah also read the following story (I have seen the Veggie Tales version of this story, but hadn't actually read the book) to the kids as they all sat in the front rows:

The Wemmick Story
by: Max Lucado, You Are Special

The Wemmicks were small wooden people. These little wooden people were carved by a woodworker named "Eli." Eli's workshop sat on a hill overlooking the Wemmick Village. Every one of the Wemmicks were different. Some had big noses, others had large eyes. Some were tall and others were short. Some wore hats, others wore coats. But all were made by the same carver and all lived in the same village.

All day long, every day, the Wemmicks did the same thing. They gave each other stickers. Each Wemmick had a box of golden star stickers and a box of dull gray dot stickers. Up and down the streets all over the city, people could be seen sticking gold stars or gray dots onto each other. The pretty ones, those with smooth wood and fine paint, always got shiny gold stars! But if the wood was rough or the paint was chipped, the Wemmicks gave dull gray dots. The talented ones got stars, too. Some could lift big sticks high above their heads or jump over tall boxes. Still others knew big words or could sing very pretty songs. Everyone gave them shiny gold stars! Some Wemmicks had stars all over them! Every time they got a star it made them feel so good that they did something else and got another star.

There were many other Wemmicks though that could do very little. They got dull gray dots! There was one little Wemmick and his name was "Punchinello." He tried to jump high like the others, but he always fell. And when he fell, the others would gather 'round and give him dull gray dots. Sometimes when he fell, it would scar his wood, so the people would give him more gray dots. He would try to explain why he fell and, in doing so, he would say something really silly. Then the Wemmicks would give him some more dots!!!

After a while, Punchinello had so many dots that he didn't want to go outside. He was afraid he would do something dumb such as forget his hat or step in the water, and then people would give him more dull gray dots. In fact, he had so many gray dots that some people would come up and just give him one without any reason! "He deserves lots of dots," they would say. The wooden people would agree with one another. "He's not a good wooden person," they would say. After a while Punchinello believed them. "I am not a good Wemmick!" he would say. The few times he went outside, he hung around other Wemmicks who had a lot of gray dots. At least he felt better around them.

One day, Punchinello met a Wemmick who was unlike any he'd ever met. She had no dull gray dots and did not have any shiny golden stars either. She was a wooden Wemmick and her name was "Lucia." It wasn't that people didn't try to give her stickers; it's just that the stickers didn't stick to her!!! Some admired Lucia for having no dots, so they would run up and give her a star. But it would fall off. Some would look down on her for having no stars, so they would give her a dot. But they would not stick either!!!

"That's the way I want to be!" thought Punchinello. "I don't want anyone's marks!" So he asked the "stickerless" Wemmick how she did it. "It's easy," Lucia replied. "Every day I go see Eli." Punchinello asked,"Eli? Who is Eli?" She replied "Yes, Eli, He is the woodcarver. I sit in His workshop and spend time with Him." He asked Lucia,"Why do you do that?" Lucia told him, "Why don't you find out for yourself? Go up the hill and visit with Him. He's there!" And with that, the sweet little Wemmick named Lucia turned and skipped away.

"But He won't want to see me!" Punchinello cried out to her. Lucia didn't hear him, as she was too far away. So Punchinello went home. He sat near a window and watched the wooden people as they scurried around giving each other gold stars and gray dots. "It's just not right," he muttered to himself. Then he resolved to go see Eli after all. Punchinello walked up the narrow path to the top of the hill and stepped into the big Woodcarver Shop. His little wooden eyes widened at the size of everything. The stool was as tall as he was. He had to stretch on his tippy-toes to see the top of the workbench. A hammer was as long as his arm. Punchinello swallowed hard and thought to himself, "I'm not staying here!" and he turned to leave. Then he heard his name. "Punchinello?" said this voice, so deep and strong. Just then Punchinello stopped. The voice said, "Punchinello, oh how good it is of you to come! Let me have a look at you."

Punchinello slowly turned around and looked at the large bearded craftsman and said, "Sir, you know my name?" "Of course I do. I made you," Eli said. All of a sudden, Eli stooped down and picked little Punchinello up and set him on the workbench. "Hmmmmm," the Maker spoke thoughtfully as he inspected the gray circles all over him, "Looks like you've been given some bad marks." Punchinello explained,"Oh, Eli, I didn't mean to; really I didn't!!! I really tried hard not to." The Maker said, "Oh, you don't have to defend yourself to me, my child. I don't care what the other Wemmicks think." Punchinello asked, "Really? You don't?" Then Eli said, "No and you shouldn't either. Who are they to give stars or dots? They are Wemmicks just like you. What they think really doesn't matter at all, Punchinello. All that matters is what I think. And I think you are pretty special." Punchinello laughed, "Oh, me special? How can I be special? I can't walk fast. I can't jump. My paint is peeling. I make silly mistakes all the time and I am not a beautiful Wemmick like some of the others. How could I matter to you?" Eli looked at Punchinello and put his hands on those little wooden shoulders of his and spoke very slowly, "Because Punchinello... you are mine. That's why you matter to me." Punchinello had never had anyone look at him like this before or say anything so nice, much less his Maker! He didn't know what to say!

"Punchinello, every day I've been waiting and hoping you would come to see me," Eli explained. Punchinello looked up at him and said, "I came because I met a sweet Wemmick girl who had no marks." Eli said, "I know. Lucia told me about you." So Punchinello asked, "Why don't the stickers stay on Lucia?" Eli said, "Because she has decided that what I think is more important than what anyone else thinks. The stickers only stick if you let them." Punchinello looked puzzled and said, "What?" Eli said, "Yes, the stickers only stick if they matter to you. The more you trust My love, the less you will care about those stickers." But Punchinello said, "I'm not sure I really understand. What you are saying?" The maker said, "You will, but it will take some time. You've got a lot of marks. So for now, just come to see me every day and let me remind you how much I care about you." Eli lifted Punchinello off the bench and set him on the floor. "Now remember," Eli said as the Wemmick walked out the door. "You ARE special because I made you, and I don't make mistakes."

Punchinello didn't stop, but in his heart he thought, "I think He really means it." And each time he remembered what Eli told him and each time he went to visit and talk with Eli, one of Punchinello's dots would fall off. They kept falling off and soon they were all gone!!!

So like Punchinello, we must remember one thing: "Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart."
(I Samuel 16:7)

I like it that they thought to gear this service toward the kids. It also helped explain what this day is really all about and what we should remember and focus on this Sunday.

An Actual Update

2011-03-19T20:02:00.000-05:00

I haven't blogged about what's been going on lately. Actually, I don't think I've done that for several months - so here it goes...

Oscar got braces on December 30th. He'll be getting an "appliance" soon that should help with his jaw alignment. He's generally doing pretty well in school. His reading is improving, but he still stuggles. He still has an obstinate streak, but the school is working with us to correct that when it comes up. He is also continuing with karate and went to his second tourney at the end of January - came home with some more trophies. He has now started learning his second kata and is training with a bo (a long stick with tapered ends) so he can enter the weapons category when he goes to other tournaments. Vision therapy is going well with Oscar, he is getting better eye teaming and can see 3D even at a distance now (could only see it at close range before). This is helping his reading skills too. We are doing speech therapy twice a week and his speech is getting much more intelligible, but he still speaks with an accent (our vision therapy doctor tells him not to lose the accent because the girls love it - he doesn't really notice girls yet, so the doctor's comment doesn't phase him). We start our second round of auditory processing therapy in May.

Diana started wearing her glasses full time in February. She has check-ups every three months at vision therapy with the doctor. The last one she had, we had a snow day that day - so she hadn't worn her glasses all day. She tested horribly on her 3D vision. The next week the doctor tested her again - she did a lot better, but she had been at school all day and therefore had been wearing her glasses most of the day. After that, I decided she needs to wear her glasses all day. We'll see how she does on her next testing coming up here in about a month. They are really focusing on 3D vision excercises during therapy now. She has started reading too with better fluency (she doesn't have to sound out every word anymore). The past 3 weeks she has gotten 100% on her spelling tests (which tells me her memory is getting better). The teacher has moved her up to 3rd grade reading. However, she started having tantrums at school when the teacher asked her to do anything that was the least bit challenging for her, so we are working with the school to correct her behavior too. She goes to speech therapy the same days Oscar does and will also return for a second round of AP therapy too. Her speech has improved also, but she is still hard to understand most of the time.

Mayerly continues to struggle at school, but we are seeing improvement with her too. Reading is still hard for her, but that (I believe) has a lot to do with the fact that she has eye teaming difficulties too. As soon as one of the older two 'graduates' from vision therapy, we will start her. I wish we could afford to start her now, but we can't. For now, we got her some glasses which should help her. She has had some minor behavior issues at school too. She was camping out in the bathroom, when she didn't feel like being in class (she does this at home too when she doesn't want to do what she's supposed to be doing). She wasn't bringing her homework home either (she just wasn't doing it and shoving it in her desk). The gig was up after parent/teacher conferences though. She only gets to go to to the bathroom with the class now and she gets busted big time if she doesn't bring her homework home every night. And if she "forgets" to bring her Friday Folder home, I print off a big stack of worksheets for her to work on all weekend and she doesn't get to watch TV either. Amazing how the folder comes home every weekend now - after only a couple of weekends of "forgetting" it. Her speech is the clearest of all the kids', so we should escape speech and AP therapy with her.

Claudia is doing well in her class. Lately, she has been taking a page from the 'Mayerly playbook' and acts like she doesn't understand things that I know she does (she's doing it with her teacher at school too who has the same opinion of the situation). We have ways of dealing with her acting out too. She got to do extra worksheets - in order to work on her "weak areas" - until she decided she really did know how to do that stuff. She had to finish them before TV or playing. Again, amazing turn around. Her reading fluency is better than any of the rest of the kids'. However, she also got reading glasses back in December. She has an eye tracking problem that the doctor gave me some at-home excercises (Michigan Tracking) to do with her. I'm thinking about getting an at-home computer program to work on auditory processing with her. I think she has a milder problem with AP than her older brother and sister, so we'll try at-home therapy first with her.

On a somewhat related note, as we drive around town lately I hear the kids reading outloud the signs on the buildings. Absolute music to my ears. I was beginning to wonder if we would ever get there (voluntarily reading things on their own). Oh me of little faith.

The girls are also beginning to express interest in taking up a hobby. Mayerly says she wants to take dance lessons (we'll see if we can work it in). Diana colors pictures or makes a card for me almost daily. Claudia really likes the skates she got for Christmas and practices in the driveway whenever the weather allows. I'm just glad they are finally showing an interest in something other than watching TV (which I don't let them do very much) and fighting with each other :).

Claudia's 8th Birthday

2011-02-17T22:28:00.000-06:00

Orange MP3 from Mom & Dad

Legos from G'ma and G'pa Verhulst

February 17, 2011

(it was 75 degrees here today, that's why she's wearing shorts)

February 17, 2010

February 17, 2009

On a Much Less Serious Note...

2011-02-14T12:56:00.000-06:00

Okay, the kids have been home for two years now, right? From any of you who already have your kids home for awhile now, is it safe now to put the trash can back in the downstairs bathroom in your opinion? We put the one in the upstairs bathroom on the window ledge - away from the toilet (we still keep it there, think we can take it down yet?). If you've already been to Colombia, you probably already know why we did this... for the rest of you, it will remain a mystery unless someone gets graphic with any comments to this question, because I'm not spelling it out!

Nevermind the hand-painted, Mexican talavera ceramic soap dispenser and soap dish - they may be seen again when all our kids have entered high school... I bought plastic soap dispensers at the $1 store soon after we came home. This is just "kid-proofing" the bathroom, it doesn't have anything to do with "cultural differences" between the US and Colombia.

Being Grafted into a Family

2011-02-13T14:50:00.000-06:00

So as I mentioned, I've been reading a lot of chat rooms and blogs lately. I came across one called Adoptees' Cafe. It is one of the more uplifting ones that I have read. I especially like her post which talks about the biblical analogy of horticultural grafting, as in how we all are "wild" and separate from God's family, but can be "grafted in" and become "tame" and nourished by His roots. The author goes on to talk about how adoption works in much the same way. (You have to click the link above to her blog. I can't copy and paste it into my blog because it is copyrighted material.)

Tim and I openly talk about life "before" with our kids. We talk with them about their lives in Colombia with their biological parent(s) and also the years they spent in the orphanage and their friends and caregivers there. We also talk about how things were with Tim and I before our "life with kids" began. One of the easier things about older child adoption is you don't have to ever have the "you were adopted" talk with your kids. They were there and very aware of what was going on as we were in Colombia finalizing. I think the time to start talking about adoption with your kids is in the very beginning, no matter how old or young they are.

The Director of the Colombia Program at our agency was herself adopted as an infant (domestically). She talked about how her parents handled talking to her about adoption in our last email newsletter. I think her parents handled it perfectly:

I was adopted at the age of two months from Catholic Social Services in South Dakota. My parents always told me that I was adopted. They used the word often and I grew up in a positive atmosphere. I learned that families are created differently and that mine was pretty unique. I was open with my friends about my adoption and in fact, in elementary school many of my friends told me that they wished they were adopted like me! Every year we would celebrate my “Special Adoption Day,” the day that my parents got me. My parents would let me pick where I wanted to go out to eat. My mom was happy when I stopped saying McDonald’s! My Dad would get off of work early and we would spend the day together. Not only did my parents talk to me about my adoption on this day, they did bring it up other times throughout the year as well. I remember once when my mom tucked me into bed on my birthday and she said, “Let’s say an extra prayer for your birth mom today, because she is probably thinking of you.” Because my parents brought my adoption up and talked about it, I grew up with the sense that it was okay to also bring the topic up myself, if ever I had any questions, because they were open about it. Mine was a closed adoption, so we didn’t know much about my birth family, but as I said, I was able to talk about the subject with my parents because we had such an open and honest relationship.

I know I probably don't do as well as I could at being as open as our Director's parents were with her. I do try. However, I also believe that our kids don't feel self-concious about being adopted by us any more than we are self-concious about being adopted by them... and they did decide to adopt us too. But they don't usually really "adopt" you until long after all the paperwork is finished. ;-)

Warning: Heavy, Taboo Subject Matter Below

2011-02-09T21:50:00.000-06:00

My husband is going to say (as he often does) that I have "over-shared" with this post. But it has been on my mind for a long, long time now, and I've never read this subject addressed in any other blog I've read up until now, so here it goes...

Everyone on the adoptive parent side of the adoption equation usually has a very rosy, almost naive view of the situation. I know I did. Kids needing parents, would-be parents without kids or wanting to expand their existing families - just put them together and problem solved for everyone, right? But unless you get below the surface of it, you can't see the loss. The loss of a former identity, of culture, of language, of friends, of a family that resembles you physically...

So, Tim and I adopted our four kids 2 years ago. There are probably a hundred blogs out there about families who have adopted much as we did. Some families have adopted more siblings, some fewer, some adopted a portion of a sibling group, while others adopted the remaining siblings (which I support because, while not ideal, it is better than the alternative - growing up without any parents to guide them into adulthood - and as long as contact is allowed with the siblings adopted into other families), and most families adopt just one child (mostly infants) at a time. All a good thing for all involved, right? And where am I going with this?

Does it ever cross your mind that your children may have more biological siblings "out there"? Do you ever allow yourself to think about such things? Does it drive you crazy knowing the unspeakable details concerning your kids lives "before" (usually in the case of older child adoption, but not always), and wondering if there may be others continuing to live in the same hellacious circumstances that your kids managed to survive and eventually escape? I do. Do you ever wonder if a sibling has been adopted by another family before or after you adopted your child/ren? I do.

Do you ever wonder if your child/ren will some day ask you to help try to find siblings or other biological family in their country of origin (in our case Colombia)? What would you do if your child asked you to do this? Would you be willing to help, or would you try to avoid the whole situation, or even discourage it? What if your child was still a minor and asked this of you? Would you be willing to "open" your currently "closed" foreign adoption? For these questions, I don't have any easy answers.

Several months ago, I had a conversation with another adoptive mother concerning a biological sibling that was "left behind". This particular sibling could have been adopted by the family, but chose to stay behind. The family still has contact with this sibling and they were still considering adoption last I heard. This is only the second time I have ever even heard anyone talk about this happening.

Maybe I should just stop reading blogs and chat group posts from adult adoptees - many of them are searching for a part of themselves that they feel is missing (incidently, most were adopted as infants). But I'm always trying to get an idea of what things might look like from our kid's point of view, especially after they reach adulthood. And I probably just think and worry too much about things that I ultimately have no control over... do you?

Back on Subject Today

2011-02-02T18:30:00.000-06:00

I found this article on Rainbow Kids and thought it was great. Enjoy!

Older Child Adoption Does NOT = Attachment Disorder
For many parents, an older child would be a perfect match
June 01,2006 / Deborah Hage

Twenty-four years ago my husband and I adopted an infant from Peru whose behaviors were unusual. He arched his back and all but leapt out of my arms when I tried to snuggle him. He threw massive tantrums, smeared feces, refused eye contact and, in general, made it very clear he did not consider me anyone he wanted to get close to. With two children we had given birth to we knew this behavior was not natural. After years of trying different therapies we went to a national adoption conference in 1982 looking for answers and met Dr. Foster Cline. He described children just like our son and called them “attachment disordered.” Relieved to know we were not alone we began holding therapy and experienced miraculous results. Enthusiastic from our success we adopted seven more children, five of them with attachment disorders. This experience sent us on a promotional tour to find more information about this diagnosis and to help others whose children had it.

Initially, we were very frustrated to discover very little was known – and local practitioners knew even less. Adoption agencies appeared to be practically negligent in their lack of information about attachment disorder as they blithely placed children with severe emotional and behavioral disturbances into unsuspecting families. Informing the public became a crusade for me, to the point where I went back to school to get a Master's Degree in Social Work to gain credibility for my work and to become part of the therapeutic solution. IN short, for the last 20 plus years I have been researching the issue of “attachment disorders” and the process of “bonding” in order to help both the children and their families gain insight and find help.

For most of that time it has been a very lonely struggle, with professionals and peers who shared my zeal numbering less than a dozen. With the influx of children from Romania and the massive amount of media attention given them, the situation over the last few years has radically changed. Rather than “Reactive Attachment Disorder” being an unknown diagnosis, the public now look for it everywhere. The term “RAD” is bandied about with a familiarity that used to be reserved for the flu. The pendulum of public awareness and concern has swung from ignorance to fearful hyper vigilance . It is the disease of the day…and the cause of older children adoption has suffered for it.

While adoption of infants has been more common than adoption of older children, now, the adoption of a baby is believed to ward off the evils of attachment disorder. The statistics are not in, yet my private practice would indicate that is not true. All children who are separated from their birth mothers have abandonment issues. Most of them manage to work through them in good emotional shape when placed in healthy homes. Some, a truly small minority, lose their way.

There are older children whose bodies and souls have been subjected to cruelties beyond description that pull themselves together and grow up to be functioning members of society. Others have suffered only the mildest form of neglect and yet become scourges of their neighborhood. There are children in my private practice, adopted as infants into wonderful homes, who display severe emotional and behavioral issues. Similarly, the news is filled with children, raised by their warm, loving birthparents, who take automatic rifles and attempt to wipe out entire school bodies. There is no known test for what has become labeled “the resiliency factor,” that big unknown in children's psyche that allows some children to rise above their history of abuse and neglect and others to succumb to it.

Certainly, there are markers that everyone is well aware of. Lack of eye contact, inability to accept nurture, cruelty to animals, destructive, obsession with blood and gore, etc. coupled with an early history of multiple caregivers, raises a red flag of concern that the child may be prone to an attachment disorder. What is not acknowledged is that even without these markers many children display very “unattached” behavior!

So, how can orphanages, agencies and parents predict which children will navigate the path of living successfully in society and which ones will flounder? They can't! Most children adopted as infants will be fine. Some won't. Most children who are adopted at older ages who do not demonstrate the targeted behaviors will be fine, some won't.

What adoptive parents need to realize is that there are huge numbers of children in orphanages around the world who are no longer infants but would still make wonderful additions to their family and community. Being initially raised in an orphanage is not a death knell for a child's emotional stability. Age and history, while markers, are not the determining factor of whether or not a child's behaviors will be problematic . The number of moves a child makes is of far more critical concern then age or history and children in orphanages are not generally moved except from birth mother to the facility. The environment of the orphanage and the current functioning of childcare much more reliable markers. Is the child receiving nurturing care? Then the child, in all probability, will accept nurturing care from new parents. Is the child adjusted in the orphanage? Then the child, in all probability will adjust well in a new home. Is the child healthy, happy and curious? Then the child, in all probability will be healthy, happy and curious in their new home.

The care in most orphanages where I have been fortunate to visit is consistent, loving and very present. The news releases regarding Romania do not depict the norm for orphanages around the world. Orphanage care, particularly those supervised by NGOs and Adoption Agency staff members, are for the most part very good. Parents who hire personal nannies cannot predict their children will be cared for as tenderly as the staff in some orphanages care for their children of all ages. Furthermore, there is the possibility that children who are spending their first years in an orphanage are getting more of their attachment needs met than children whose birthparents leave them in poorly run daycare centers. Adopting an infant in order to avoid attachment issues, then placing the baby in day care is a poor recipe for success as it layers move upon move upon move – exactly what the consistent care of a single orphanage avoids.

The benefit of adopting a child who is already walking is that the orphanage staff can assess behavior more readily. Staff members can interact with an older child and can see for themselves which children have the qualities which will successfully enable them to make the transfer to a new home. Health risks and disabilities are more readily diagnosed in older children than in infants.

While in Nepal I met a beautiful girl, age 9, who, with her bright smile and lilting British accent, would be the perfect addition to any family. Is the family who has decided to adopt her fearful of “attachment disorder”? Not particularly. They have explored the possibility and decided it is not a predominant factor. This young woman is well liked in her orphanage by both the children and staff. She is hard working in school. She has no history of cruel or bizarre behavior. Yet, at some point in her life she fell in a fire and burned off the major portion of her right hand. She has endured great pain and has risen above it.

For many children in foreign orphanages this is the norm, not the exception . The orphanage environment and the resiliency and current functioning of the older children are far more important factors to consider than their early history of abandonment by birth parents. Certainly, if it had been possible, it would have been great to have adopted these children at younger ages. The fact of the matter, however, is they weren't. That does not mean they are somehow damaged and doomed to suffer from “reactive attachment disorder.” The reality is, more likely than not, they are vastly stronger. They know what it means to be alone, poor and uneducated. They do not want that for themselves. The orphanage has taught them the value of working hard and they are eager for success. They understand intuitively the reciprocity of healthy relationships. They have become attached to caregivers and other children in the orphanage and, rather than being rejecting of parents, they very much want parents. They are not unattached they are waiting for parents to attach to! Their resilience has been tested and they have come out winners.

Couples where both parents have meaningful careers would do well to explore adopting a child who is already old enough to be in school . Parents, whose children are adolescents, would do well with older children who are more capable of fitting in with their siblings. Children adopted at older ages often have language skill and an understanding of their culture; which will stand them in good stead as an adult. There is distinct possibility that the ego strengths of older children make a move less traumatic for them rather than more so. Rather than knowing less about themselves because they were adopted as infants and removed from their roots at fragile stages of personality development, they know more about themselves and who they are. Older children have more opportunities to consent to their adoption. They enter the new relationships willingly, rather than, as infant, having the sense that the adoption was something done to them.

Parents who have adopted older children report that they love their children and could not possibly have become more attached with them even if they had adopted them as infants.

Does this mean that adopting older children from foreign orphanages is all romantic, gushy good feelings, without problems? Absolutely not. The risks are still there. The personality evaluations still need to be done. The markers for attachment disorder still need to be searched out. The problems are just different and need to be worked through in partnership with the child.

Can it be done? Yes!

Successfully? Yes, beyond a parent's wildest dreams!

It is a risk to love… and what if it doesn't work out? Ah… but what if it does!

Evolution of the Car

2011-02-01T14:40:00.000-06:00

When the kids say something completely out of context in the course of conversation (usually interrupting someone else's conversation to divert attention to him/herself), I'll ask them "What has that got to do with the price of tea in China?". I get that from what my parents used to say to me when I did the same thing as a kid. You can file this post under "What has this got to do with the price of tea in China?", since I usually blog about adoption and our family.

I never used to be a fan of big vehicles. My first car was inherited from my granddad when he passed away back when I was sixteen. It was a 1967 Buick LeSabre. It was a super-ugly, four-door boat that was an unattractive shade of beige/gold. But I was the only one of my friends with a car, so it was cool - except I always had to drive those mooches around... but I digress :).

Not my car, but the same make, model and year...

When I was 20 I bought my first car. It was a 1986 Pontiac Sunbird, a sporty, red, two-door with black and gray pin stripes. I taught myself to drive a stick shift with that car. I also wrecked it twice, the second time I totaled it. My first wreck taught me the importance of wearing a seat belt (I have always worn one since that day).

Mine wasn't a turbo, but it was a GT

I bought car #2 soon after the second wreck in the Sunbird. My next car was a 1992 Hyundai Scoupe - teal green in color with a pop-up (not power) sun roof, also a sporty-looking little 5 speed! It had no air conditioner when I bought it so I had the dealer add a "bolt on" one. I bought this right after I started my first "real job" after college. It was still cool outside when I bought it, so I didn't get to use the A/C until that summer. The after market air was such a drain on the little motor that I had to turn it off every time I stopped so it wouldn't kill the car. This was the car I was driving when I met Tim. He was the one who came to get me when I totaled it by running into the back of a school bus (don't think I will ever hear the end of this from him). When it comes to a school bus vs. a Hyundai - in case you were wondering - the school bus will always win. Thankfully, this is the last car I crashed - knock on wood... I proved there is a legitimate reason (actually 3 in my case) why unmarried people in their 20s pay more for insurance.

Also, not mine...

My third car was a 1988 Nissan Pulsar with T-tops (anyone remember those?). It was the first car I paid cash for. I had to because I was also paying for our upcoming wedding (my choice so I didn't get unsolicited advice from any well-meaning "contributors"). It was also the car I was driving when my dad died unexpectedly right before the big day. We donated the Nissan to the Salvation Army when we bought our 2nd (but first chosen by us) car.

Also not my car - note the palm trees - we don't have those here in the midwest.

Tim and I took over the payments (and ownership) of Dad's car since Mom didn't need 2 cars (or 2 car payments). It was the first car that we owned jointly. We had that four-door, teal/blue, 1996 Pontiac Grand Prix until the year we started our adoption process (2008). I sold it to a co-worker and still see it in the parking lot at my job.

Once again, not ours...

I drove the Grand Prix, Tim drove the Nissan and we also had his black, 1991 Chevy Silerado 4x4 truck as a "back up" vehicle. That's how we rolled until 2003, when I decided I liked a Buick I had seen for sale in a neighborhood over by the mall. We didn't end up buying that particular car, but we did end up buying a white 2003 Buick LeSabre program car, we had an after-market, power sun roof installed in it (I insist on a sun roof ever since the Hyundai). Unlike my 1967 LeSabre, this was (and still is - in spite of it's lack of coolness) my favorite car ever. It's the only car I had been able to buy just because I wanted it and liked it, instead of strickly due to needing cheap transportation. I still love that car. We sold it to my mom when we decided to adopt four kids (the LeSabre seated 5 people max).

My boss called this car (not my actual car) my geezer-mobile. I didn't care, I still loved that car.

Tim sold his Chevy truck (it seated three people max) in 2008 too. He bought a white Ford, 4x4, extended cab truck that seats six (not really comfortably, but we fit). He was distraught when he sold it, he said it was like part of his family. I don't get that attached to vehicles, except the LeSabre.

Chevy

Ford

Tim actually takes pictures of his vehicles. I don't have any of them on this computer, so once again not the actual trucks.

After much research on vehicles, the main requirements being that it seat a minimum of six people and NOT be a minivan (yup, I'm one of those people who refuse to drive a minivan), I decided to buy an Acura MDX. We found a 2001 that we could afford to pay cash for on craigslist and drove to St.Louis to buy it. It was gold, had factory GPS, 3rd row seating and a power sun roof. It was a pretty sweet ride and I got tons of compliments on it - but I still liked driving my '03 LeSabre better.

You guessed it, not ours.

2001 MDX's have one major flaw, the transmissions go out early on them (they fixed this in the 2003 model, in case you are interested). So after getting a "check engine" light for several months (and ignoring it after we learned that it was the transmission going out), the slipping of gears was just getting too bad and it was also affecting the all wheel drive. So, I went back to craigslist and eventually found a 2002 Chevy Suburban that we could buy for less than the cost of a new transmission (trading in the MDX + less than $1000 cash); so we bought it back in November.

The Suburban has turned out to be a great vehicle. It gets around great in the snow (which, who knew when we bought it how much of a work out the four wheel drive would get this year) and isn't nearly as hard to manuever as I thought it would be. I have dubbed it "The Bus". It is burgundy (no, not yellow), has four wheel drive and a factory sun roof (but no GPS). It also seats eight comfortably :).

In the Media Again...

2011-01-26T18:57:00.000-06:00

Oscar and Diana's school (Restored Hope Academy) was on the 6 o'clock news tonight! We are up to four students (from three at the beginning of the school year). Here's hoping this helps recruit more students for the school :).

Two years ago today...

2011-01-15T20:24:00.000-06:00

GOTCHA!

2 years ago today...

2011-01-12T22:43:00.000-06:00

...we were packing to leave for Colombia - hard to believe it's been that long now.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-26T15:44:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas

We spent Christmas Eve at my (Anne's) sister's house with my family. Christmas morning after breakfast we open gifts at our house and then we go over to Tim's mom's house for Christmas dinner. Claudia and Mayerly sang a song with the other kids in their Sunday school class for the Christmas service at church this morning. They had to hold up letters that spelled out CHRISTMAS. Claudia had the letters R and I, Mayerly had M and A. The only part of any of this that I have pictures of is opening gifts at our house.

Before the ripping mayhem...

Mini remote control helicopters

Why do I need these?!?! (elbow and knee pads)

Roller skates all around for the girls

Even Hanai and Hank get a little raw-hide sumpin'-sumpin'.

Flying a tiny 'copter

The "big kid" takes a turn; and Hanai wants to catch that "dragonfly"!

Buy a Calendar

2010-12-18T18:27:00.000-06:00

The Woods family is pursuing a second adoption from Colombia. They are going to get a 6-year-old girl this time (they adopted 3 siblings the first time). If you haven't already, consider buying a calendar ($20) from her blogsite (link below). The proceeds will be used to support the family's adoption expenses. I already bought mine!

http://iwillnotleaveyouasorphans.blogspot.com/

Make it a Merry Christmas for them by helping them achieve their sales goal before the end of the year!

Life Lessons from Rover and Fido

2010-12-12T14:25:00.000-06:00

For Oscar's birthday this year he got a hermit crab habitat. Eventually, we bought him 2 crabs to go in it (took awhile because - we're kinda busy). One of the first crabs we bought died the day we brought it home, so we replaced it. The crabs were named Rover and Fido (why not).

Crab life was relatively uneventful. They ate, they drank, they played at night (we found out they are nocturnal), they took a bath once a week in the bathroom sink. Not a bad life for a crab.

This morning we awoke to tradgedy. Rover had killed Fido. No one could figure out why. It all seemed so senseless.

Oscar took Fido and prepared him for a burial at sea (don't have to spell that one out do I?). After said burial, he took Fido's old shell and was cleaning out what he thought were left over crab parts so he could put it back in the crabitat for future use. Then he noticed that the parts were moving. Then it all became clear - there were baby crabs inside the shell! Unfortunately, he killed a couple of them before he realized what they were. (Hermit crabs will allow themselves to be pulled apart before they allow anyone or anything to remove them from their protective shells.)

We talked about how sometimes male animals eat their own babies. We talked about how Fido (I guess we should have named HER Fida instead) fought to the death to protect her babies. We talked about how sometimes we have to be careful when we think that one thing has happened (because we rarely know exactly why things have happened) and that we sometimes cause more harm by making assumptions and moving too quickly without all the facts.

Now we have one adult male crab and one baby crab of unknown gender. Oscar said, he has a lot of work to do now(having to keep them separated until the baby gets a little bigger). It's rough being the new adoptive father of a baby crab :-).

Small Blessings

2010-12-07T21:58:00.000-06:00

Diana started to say "right" instead of "cierto" this week. Don't know where she was when it finally clicked, I'm just glad it clicked! Just another small victory in the Spanlish war.

I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard "Cierto mommy?" over the past 22+ months... times four...

Saturday Kumite

2010-12-05T20:15:00.000-06:00

Oscar was in his first karate competition this past Saturday in Topeka, Kansas (about an hour and a half from our house). There were two other boys on his team there also. Everyone did really well. Oscar got 2nd place for his kata in the 12-13 year-old novice division (beat only by his teammate who is a green belt - which in case you don't know, is two ranks higher than Oscar's yellow belt). He beat out another green belt and an orange belt from other teams to get second place.

He got 1st place (same division) in sparring. Once again beating out the green and orange belts. We think he did a great job! He even had other kid's parents cheering for him :-).

Here he is getting ready to do his kata for the judges...

Here he is getting ready to get his 2nd place trophy...

Here he is getting ready to accept his 1st place trophy... notice orange belt isn't clapping - Oscar beat him twice and he was a real sore loser about it.

Here's the team: Marcus (in the white), Sinsei (Tony), Conner (red helmet) and Oscar in front.

All together they got five first place trophies and one second place trophy. Conner got disqualified in his sparring match, so only got 4th place there (should've gotten 1st, but the brown belt - higher rank - he was fighting had a huge football-esque looking face-guard on his helmet and Conner got called for face contact because he kept clipping the kid's face guard with his kicks - he's got a killer hook kick).

I actually had a pretty good time and I'm not a sports fan :-).

Oscar & Diana's "School Pictures"

2010-11-24T20:14:00.000-06:00

Today all the kids were out of school for Thanksgiving Break. Mayerly went to our developmental optometrist for an eye screening in the morning. She has been having some trouble with reading, so we made the appointment last month right after parent/teacher conferences. She'll be getting glasses soon. She has a problem similar to Oscar's (a convergence insufficiency - sees double at close range). Hopefully, the glasses will help her with her reading. She is supposed to wear them anytime she is indoors according to the optometrist. We should get them in a week or two.

Hanai went to the groomer. She isn't crazy about it because it is in the vet's office. But she looks (and smells) really good now. :-)

I ran several other errands which included picking up pictures we had taken at the beginning of the month of the kids and all their cousins on my (Anne's) side of the family. I bought a CD of them with copyright release so I can post them. Since Oscar and Diana's school is so small, they don't get school pictures like Mayerly and Claudia did - so I had the photographer take some of those two by his/her self. Here are the ones I chose:

The rest of the pictures are Christmas gifts, so I can't post them now. I will post one that didn't make the final selection cut:

Thanksgiving dinner is at our house tomorrow, so I need to get the kids in bed so I can start some stuff tonight!

Cursed Auditory Processing Disorder

2010-11-21T18:32:00.000-06:00

I've read on other blogs about other parents being saddened by their children's loss of their first language (usually Spanish). I have to tell you, I can't relate to those feelings at all. We have now been home almost 22 months and we still often hear several Spanish words used in the middle of otherwise English sentences. And often the sentence in English is still structured as a sentence in Spanish.

We also hear words that are not English or Spanish ("made up" words that I now know came from not being able to correctly decode phenomes in Spanish before, and in English now). For example, there is the word "unday". Huh? you say - well me too... for over a year. I even tried to look it up in dictionaries and on BabelFish with no success. Only when the Spanish slowly started to give way to more intelligible English was I able to figure out what this mysterious word was supposed to mean. It is actually supposed to be "cuando" in Spanish ("when" in English).

Communication continues to be an issue at our house after almost two years - albeit on a much lesser scale. Memory and sequencing problems continue - and are also part of the auditory processing disorders we are battling.

Before we brought our kids home, I thought that it was important for them to become bilingual. Now, not so much. Now, I just want them to be proficient in English. I want them to be able to read in English. I want them to be able to write in English. I want them to be able to speak in English so that others can understand what they are saying. Yes, my vision of what is "important" has changed dramatically over the past couple of years.

We have been attacking the APD on three fronts: Therapy for the APD itself, speech therapy and through the special education school that we send our older children to - where they understand the roots of the problems our children are up against. The director of the school and his wife have a disabled biological daughter and a son (from Colombia) that they fostered when his adoption disrupted after his arrival in the US. Their son had undiagnosed learning disabilities too. Their experience with LD is first-hand.

So where does APD come from? 'No one knows for certain,' is the less-than-satisfactory answer to that question. Our audiologist (and APD therapist) believes that our kids had "unresolved" recurring ear aches/infections at very young ages. Our orthodontist says that the discoloration in Oscar's teeth is due to recurring high fevers. These (especially the recurring ear aches) are often listed as likely causes for APD.

So why did I devote an entire blog post to APD? Well, before adoption, I had never even heard of APD. We knew we were adopting one child with strabismic amblyopia. We thought we were prepared for a certain course of treatment and ended up going a completely different direction. We were briefed on tantrums and PTSD and RAD, but not APD (or VPD's) or learning disabilities that could have been caused by early neglect.

Post-adoption, I believe APD quite possibly may be linked with many educational/behavioral issues that many older adopted children have. For a long time, we summed up our kids' slowness at acquiring English to being able to speak Spanish to each other and being older and therefore having more "first language" already ingrained. As the months went by, and the English that was being spoken was poorly articulated (sounds added where they shouldn't be and left out where they should have been - or both) we started to realize that there must be something else going on. The public schools attributed any issues I brought to them were due to "language acquisition issues". I determined that I wasn't up for an uphill fight with the school (times four), so we took the path of least resistance and put our kids in their various therapies (the school refused to provide speech therapy for the reason stated above) and then pulled them from public school and placed them in private schools. We are blessed to have the means to afford these options.

It's still been uphill, but I don't feel like it's nearly as steep a hill or that I'm trying to push a boulder up that hill in front of me anymore. God created us to be incredibly resilient - if we choose to be. Incidently, our kids have all begun reading within their first semester since making all these changes. Coincidence? I don't think so.

More examples of "APD words":
peep = peed
hun-gedd = hundred
no brilly = not really
bi = bite
fi = fight
tie = tight
fodder = father
code = cold
hay-ope = help

Article in Our Local Paper About Oscar and Diana's School

2010-11-14T21:59:00.000-06:00

Click here for the story.

Day of Final Post Adoption Visit

2010-11-11T21:55:00.000-06:00

I was off work today for Veteran's Day - no husband, no kids. I get two days like this per year. I never accomplish as much as I want to on these days.

Today I:

took the kids to school
rushed home to get Hank to the vet by 9:00 for his annual shots and to have them check a new lump he has on his belly (couldn't confirm or rule out a new tumor, we'll just be watching it to see if it grows any more)
cleaned the kitchen, loaded the dishwasher and ran it
sorted through and somewhat organized paperwork
went to Walgreen's to buy shampoo, cough drops, toothbrushes, etc.
drove thru Mickey D's for lunch
came home, fed the dogs, gave them pills from the vet to kill fleas, took them outside and then back in
put stuff in the bread machine to make bread for dinner
cleaned the downstairs bathroom
unloaded the dishwasher and started dinner
left to go pick the kids up from school
came home and continued getting dinner ready
our social worker Nikki came over for our final post-adopt report (showed her how to make lasagna while we talked)
Tim came home, finished post-adopt visit
ate dinner
kids did homework and listened to each read for a little bit
watched Andy Griffith DVD Tim got from the library while checking my eBay auctions and researching items for my next auctions
turned off TV to go start showers
checked dogs for fleas (only found dead ones, yay!)
hugged and kissed everyone goodnight
downloaded picture for blog

Here is a picture of Nikki and the kids on our last visit. Tonight, I still need to make lunches for tomorrow and get myself ready for bed.

I really need a day like this about once a week, just to stay caught up... but I get 2 per year.

Mayerly's 9th Birthday - October 23rd

2010-10-25T22:15:00.000-05:00

Blew it out

Pink MP3... They saw these come in orange too - is there a pattern here???

It's a pillow. It's a pet. It's a pillow-pet!

Dad wanted to see if she fit in the bag or not. Turns out she's just a little too big.

Dad + 4 checking out the pictures Mom loaded on it.

I'll Admit It...

2010-10-21T21:51:00.000-05:00

...I'm a blog-stalker. I never really read blogs until 2008 when we started our adoption adventure. I started reading mainly to see stories of other families in "the adoption process" (i.e. the boring paperwork stuff, etc.) and also to try to get an idea of what we were getting ourselves into from those who had already brought their children home. I now continue to read them so I don't feel so alone concerning the issues that we face that are unique to adoptive families (especially the older child and sibling adoption blogs).

I occasionally read a blog by the LaJoy family in Colorado. She is a home-schooling mom of 5 kiddos (adopted, but not from Colombia). I linked to a recent post on her blog (above) that really struck a chord with me, and I couldn't have said it better myself. She asked her children to describe the purpose of family, then she goes on to talk about her fears and challenges. It was truly an excellent post.

School Pictures - Mayerly & Claudia

2010-10-14T20:54:00.000-05:00

Mayerly's 2nd grade picture

Claudia's 1st grade picture

Now that it's September...

2010-09-25T12:23:00.000-05:00

...I'm finally getting around to posting about what we did in August (and then what we've done so far this month)!

August is a big birthday month (always has been in my family). My niece turned 4, my mom's birthday was next, my younger sister's next, mine is after that and Oscar's is on the 28th. BIG birthday month around here.

Oscar has been taking karate since March. In August he got his first belt (yellow). He still needs to work on his kata, so the instructor gave him a provisional belt (white stripe through the yellow) until he can do it on his own without prompting.

I went on FMLA leave (intermittent) on September 1st. Why you ask? Mondays: I take Mayerly, Diana and Oscar to speech therapy; Tuesdays: I take Oscar and Diana to vision therapy; every other Thursday I take Oscar and Diana to auditory processing therapy; Fridays: I take Oscar and Diana to speech therapy. So far, so good. We don't have much time in the evenings for other activities. We kept Oscar in karate on Monday and Wednesdays so he gets some exercise and time with boys (only girls at home, and at school right now).

The new schools seem to be going well so far. There are 3 students (yeah, that's not a typo) in Oscar and Diana's school - including Oscar and Diana. The other student is a girl about Diana's age. They each have an individualized curriculum suited to where they are in each subject and a lot on one-on-one help. They also get extra therapy for their areas of weakness at this school. So far, it has been a very positive thing and we are seeing some scholastic improvements already.

Mayerly and Claudia's school has an ESL program (through December only). Mayerly is participating in Title 1 Reading (small groups that get extra help with reading) too. They were both in Spanish until ESL started, but something had to give and unfortunately it was Spanish - for now. It was so funny after Claudia's first Spanish class, she was trying to impress me by telling me all the colors in Spanish. She doesn't remember that less than two years ago she only knew how to say them in Spanish.

In August we also refinanced our house to a 30 year loan to help the 'ole budget. We are followers of Dave Ramsey and had originally planned to have our house paid off within the next 3 years (we had a 10 year loan). We have managed to stay debt free except for our house payment. However, with all the therapies that insurance won't pay for and the special education/private school tuition, we have had to do some serious adjusting with the finances in order to keep from borrowing money to pay for everything. We're dropping our phone land line soon and will only have cell phones. We probably don't/won't eat out much (if at all) or do much of anything extra from now on either. We never have had cable or satellite TV and our cars are paid for. I buy all the kids clothes off eBay or from consignment/thrift shops. I hope this doesn't sound all whiny and depressing, because it isn't meant to; we don't expect things to be this tight forever. Gotta do what you gotta do, right?

Tim started a new job last week. He wasn't looking, they came to him and offered him more money and better benefits, so it was kinda a no-brainer to take it. They even have overtime opportunities, which is much better than taking a second job (which we were considering before this job came along). He isn't liking the commute too much though compared to his old job (the old job was here in town, the new one is across the state line in Kansas). It puts all the responsibility of running the kids to all their therapies on me now too, since he isn't close enough to do some of it anymore. We are surviving the change though.

I'm starting to sell the kids outgrown clothes on eBay too as a little side business. I listed 3 "test items" last weekend and have bids on two of them - they end tomorrow. We'll see how it goes, hopefully I'll make enough money to make it worth the effort.

That's it. It's just plain crazy around here, but we kinda knew it would be. :-)

First Day of School - Oscar and Diana August 30, 2010

2010-09-06T09:15:00.000-05:00

We lost our phone (land line) service, and thus internet service, sometime either last Sunday night or Monday morning. We got it back on Saturday afternoon (way to be on top of things AT&T). Evidently, there was some utility service work done up the street from us that was the culprit. Still don't know why it takes a week to fix it...

Anyway, I'm finally getting to post our second "first day of school" - Oscar and Diana's.

Officially a teenager...

2010-08-28T22:41:00.000-05:00

We decided to go with numbers instead of 13 candles.

A hermit crab habitat from Grandma Schoemig, now we just need to get him some crabs to go in it...

blue mp3 player from Mom and Dad

Skateboard from Grandma and Grandpa Verhulst

...ER bills will be going to their house...

I'll post about what went on in August soon. Right now I'm about to crash in the middle of typing this because I was up until 3a.m. loading pictures and music onto his mp3 ;-).

Mayerly & Claudia's First Day of School August 26, 2010

2010-08-28T22:19:00.000-05:00

Happy 10th B-day Diana

2010-07-23T21:19:00.000-05:00

10 candles

We got her a purple MP3 player

Me giving a short lesson on how to work her new gadget

I think she's getting the hang of it

So Far, in July...

2010-07-19T21:47:00.000-05:00

On Independence Day we went to Tim's aunt's house in Raymore for a huge cookout with his dad's side of the family. Tim's dad is the oldest of ten kids, so when I say huge I'm not exaggerating. We left a little early so we could be closer to home for fireworks. We went to the one in Sugar Creek which is just about 5 minutes from our house. It was small, but pretty nice - until it started to rain on us... really, rain on the 4th of July???

Summer school ended on July 9th. The girls are now home all day with a babysitter (the same one who watched them after school since I had to go back to work full time in January). I hope they don't scare her off before the end of the summer...

On the 10th we left home at 7:00 am and drove to St. Louis for the CHI Reunion. I left my camera in the car so I don't have any pictures from the actual reunion. We had a good time meeting some of the other families (Duewels, Bakers, Armstrongs, Willetts - and I know I'm going to forget to mention others we met). We also saw some of the families that we have known for awhile like the Sinclairs, Bonds, Stottsberrys and Rimas. We were especially glad to Meet Julie E. in person!

After the reunion picnic was over, we went to America's Incredible Pizza Co. with our friends from Illinois who are thinking about adopting again (they are now considering Ethiopia instead of Colombia for their adoption due to the long wait time for Colombia) and came as our guests to the reunion. Our kids had a great time with their daughter. I actually got a couple of pictures before my camera battery conked out.

It's kinda dark, but you can see Claudia to the right, Diana to the left and Mayerly's leg to the far right.

This one is of Oscar on the indoor go-cart track - again kinda dark.

The day after the reunion we went swimming at the hotel pool after breakfast and before we left to go back home.

Tim throwing Mayerly

Tim throwing Claudia

Diana in mid-jump by the poolhouse

more pool fun...

Oscar's back since he wouldn't let me take his picture when he was looking at me... hehe!

At 8:00 Monday morning after we came home, I took Oscar, Diana and Mayerly in for their lingual frenectomies (tongue tie oral surgery). It wasn't as bad as I expected. We opted for laughing gas before the shot (don't think any of them even know they got a shot in their tongue...). The oral surgeon then cut the frenum with a laser. It wasn't as gross as I figured it would be, I even watched (and I can't usually deal with that kind of stuff very well). Not much blood because the laser cauterizes as it cuts. We were out of there by 10:00 after all three surgeries. Now we have to do tongue exercises after every meal. Oscar still can't get his tongue out much past his lips because it was stuck to the bottom of his mouth for so long, but he should get there with time and exercise. Speech therapy is now a weekly thing for these 3 ***update, Oscar and Diana are now doing speech therapy twice a week - so if you are still keeping score, we're up to 9 therapy sessions per week***.

This past Saturday Tim took the kids to an air show in Olathe/Gardner, KS so I could be left in peace to fill out paperwork for the upcoming school year (we're sending them all to private schools this year). Below are pictures...

Picnic at the Rima's Farm

2010-06-20T21:20:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we went to the second annual picnic at Gerry & Teresa Rima's dairy farm in El Dorado Springs, MO. They are super nice folks and have adopted nine children from Colombia and one from the U.S. Above is a picture we took right as the sky opened up and started to pour down rain on us (broke up the party really quickly). The Rima kids are all wearing green shirts (Teresa and Gerry aren't in the picture though). Our kids really liked going to the picnic again this year and we all had a good time in spite of the unfortunate weather towards the end.

Funny and Sobering

2010-06-16T22:18:00.000-05:00

Ever since our kids started to use English, they have had some pretty bizzare ways of saying things and trying to express themselves. Some of this stems from having learned Spanish first and trying to apply the rules and sentence structure to English - which sometimes doesn't work so well. Other times, it is just due to the severe deprivation of the early years of their lives coming through in their speech limitations.

Lately, Diana - when asking a question - will put a "yaah?" on the end of it. It's hillarious to me because she sounds like a Swede (imagine Wally Walrus). For example, she will say, "Mama, I do la rondie(laundry) good today, yaah?". To which I will usually answer "yaah!"...

Oscar on the other hand will say, "Yes y yes" - when he means to say "Yes it is". He says this so much (especially to his sisters) that Tim and I say "yes y yes" to each other instead of saying "yes it is". Yaah, we have warped senses of humor...

Mayerly thinks the word "look" starts with a "g" (glook). I think she had heard me tell her "go look" so much ***sidebar - Mayerly used to never look for anything she would lose, she just expected everyone to drop everything and help her find whatever she lost without looking for it herself first (if at all). So, I told her (at least once every day for awhile) to "go look" for her fill-in-the-blank-here because I didn't lose it.*** that she just runs the two words together now. "Glook at this mama!"

When Claudia tries to say "popsicle" it sounds like "bicycle". Now she just says "fruit bar" instead (but that actually sounds more like "fubar"). Can't win for losing...

************************************************************************

We have completed vision testing on Oscar now. He has a convergence insufficiency and will need vision therapy. He got reading glasses back in April and we will start his therapy in September when school starts. Diana has been doing VT since January and is progressing well. Her eyes are straight sometimes now - which means she is using them together when they are :-). Unfortunately, my insurance is refusing to cover it so it is about to get twice as expensive for us to pay for this therapy.

We had Oscar and Diana tested for auditory processing disorder. They both have this - which explains their slow aquisition of English and the repeated mispronounciations of words even with retro-feeding. We started APD therapy for that today (also not covered by insurance).

I asked our audiologist about getting speech therapy evaluations. He said that it would be a good idea since APD therapy only deals with the processing aspect, not with learning to articulate correctly. Soooo this month we took all four kids in for speech therapy evaluations. Oscar, Diana and Mayerly have ankyloglossia - more commonly known as "tongue tie". I'll be scheduling surgery for them this summer to "loose their tongues". Interestingly, I found this scripture referencing tongue tie, "...and the string of his tongue was loosed , and he spake plain." KJV Mark 7:35. At least 3 kids will be starting speech therapy after their surgeries (this should be covered by insurance). Claudia has the speech of about a 5 year old, but not sure if this warrants therapy right now.

So if you are keeping score, that will be three kids, doing three different therapies - or seven therapy sessions per week coming our way soon. I haven't figured out how we are going to do this all yet - financially or logistically. Keep us in your prayers...

Costume Party

2010-05-25T22:00:00.000-05:00

Claudia "Ingalls", Oscar (Millonarios Colombian soccer team), Diana aka "Miss Colombia", and a really big butterfly who answers to "Mayerly"

Tonight we went to a costume party at our church to benefit the Future Hope Orphanage in Liberia (Africa). Our kids were very excited about getting to wear a costume and go to a party. I'm glad we are actually able to go due to all our appointments and activities (therapies, doctors, karate, etc.).

We bought one toy for a boy and one toy for a girl (ones that fit into the palm of your hand and don't require batteries) that each of our kids will send to the orphans in Africa. The gifts need to be small so that the missionary taking them to Africa can easily pack them all in his suitcase.

2 Wheels are Better than 4

2010-05-06T21:32:00.000-05:00

As of this past weekend, we are training-wheel free! Mayerly got hers off in April and Claudia got hers off on Saturday :-).

Just Another Day in the Life

2010-04-30T14:31:00.000-05:00

So we finally had Mayerly and Claudia's annual visit to the pediatrician. Mayerly is still a little on the small side, the doctor wants to recheck her again next year and thought we may want to consider growth hormone if she is still in the 2nd percentile next year. Not sure I'm on board with that, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it - if we come to it. Who knows, maybe she will shoot up this year. Claudia's growth was more in line with what the doctor expected.

Mayerly got one shot, Claudia got two. Those weren't as bad as last year. One unexpected development, Claudia had a bead stuck in her right ear. It was kind of odd that she hadn't done very well with the hearing test (in her right ear only). I was a little concerned, but then it all made sense when the doctor actually looked in her ear and found a little white bead lodged in there!

The nurse put drops in first and then used a huge syringe with water in it to try to irrigate it out - neither worked. So finally the doctor had to take some instuments and pick the bead out. I have no idea what would possess her to stick a bead in her ear, but after having to have it picked out (with me and a nurse holding her down as the doctor picked) - hopefully she won't do something like that again. The doctor tried to reassure me that she has had to pick foreign objects out of many of her patients. I remember sticking a bean up my nose when I was little, so I guess she could be right about that. I just can't believe Claudia didn't tell anyone that she had a bead stuck in her ear... who knows how long it had been there - I suspect it was any time within the past 2 weeks, that's went Diana got a beading kit from her vision therapy doctor for therapy "homework". The pediatrician gave us the bead in a little cup as a "momento" of our visit today...

While I was at the doctor with the younger two, my mom had the older two (the girls' school is out today for some reason, so we sent Diana to Grandma's house with Oscar this morning). After we were finished at the doctor's office we went to get Diana. We took her and Oscar and Grandma and all went to lunch at McDonald's (they don't love the food, just the toy in the happy meal). We had a nice little visit with Grandma and Oscar and then dropped them back at Grandma's house so they could continue Oscar's lessons.

Next, we came home and Claudia fed the dogs (her daily "job"). After that we turned right around and took Hank to the vet to have blood drawn from him to send to MU for the chemo drug study. Hank hates the vet and will usually sit on my foot in the waiting room and just shake until we leave. We thankfully were not there very long, and Hank was never so happy. All this before 2:00 in the afternoon...

Spring Photo and Hank Update

2010-04-17T14:31:00.000-05:00

Above is one of the professional photos of the kids

(left to right) Claudia, Diana, Oscar & Mayerly

Photo courtesy of The Portrait Gallery

I took Hank to the University of Missouri in Columbia, MO on Thursday. We enrolled him in a chemotherapy drug study for his cancer at the veterinary school there. We have to pay for some lab work and some blood work, but the drug is free. Our local vet can do the work-ups and the university will mail us the drug as long as we continue to send in the log reports we have to do for the study. He started the pills on Friday, so far so good.

Recognition of Foreign Adoption Hearing

2010-04-09T21:15:00.000-05:00

We have now completed the next-to-last step in finishing up our adoption-related paperwork etc. Today we finalized our "recognition of foreign adoption". Woo-hoo! We only have one more post-adopt visit and then we are free from all our obligations regarding adoption paperwork. I can't wait (no offense Nikki, we love you, but it's just one more thing off the agenda - you understand I'm sure)!

Thanks to the folks at Krigel & Krigel who helped us knock this one out!

Good News and Sad News

2010-04-03T11:56:00.000-05:00

We'll start with the good news. I consider myself an pragmatic optimist (is that an oxymoron?), so we'll start happy...

Tim and I decided today that we will be going to the CHI Reunion this summer for sure. (I still need to send in our reservation). Some friends (my friend - from when I worked in Mexico - and her husband - from the states) are planning to join us there. They are not a CHI family, but are seriously considering adopting a baby from Colombia. They have a 4-year-old daughter adopted from Guatemala as a baby and would like to adopt another baby now but can't go back to Guatemala (because, as some of you know, that country is currently closed to adoption). I keep trying to get them to consider special needs adoption, but I know that isn't for everyone :-). CHI said that they would love to have them and we are excited to be going this year.

Last weekend we had family pictures taken. We went to an actual photographer this time instead of going to a department store. I wasn't really pleased with our department store photo experiences. I always feel rushed to make a decision and they don't tend to photograph large groups of people very well (bad composition, bad lighting, rush rush rush). We spent over an hour with this photographer just for the shoot. We then got to come back and spend another hour with her looking at and selecting the proofs (in a slideshow of digitals). Much nicer experience and much better pictures to choose from. I hope to be able to post one soon.

Yesterday the kids were out of school for Good Friday so I was home from work and had scheduled appointments with the pediatrician. Oscar and Diana both had their appointments yesterday, Claudia and Mayerly go on the 30th (when school is out again). Oscar went from the 12th percentile in height and weight to the 25th percentile. Diana went up a little in height percentile and down a little in her weight percentile (which is good because she was a little chubby - said the pot about the kettle - when we first came home). Hopefully her height will catch up with her weight at some point. Dr. Kirby-Diaz said to keep doing whatever it is that we are doing and that she was very happy with their progress this year.

Yesterday was a busy day. We also had our 3rd post adoption visit with Nikki, our social worker. We had a pretty good visit. We also discussed our up-coming "recognition of foreign adoption" hearing that is next Friday. She gave us a run-down on what to expect, so we will be more prepared. We started this process back in October, but had to wait for a copy of the original adoption decree (the Spanish one that we did not have a copy of - we just had a translated copy) from Colombia. We finally got that at the beginning of March but couldn't get a court date until April. I'm just happy to be marking one more thing off our list of "post adoption things to do".

Now the sad news. We took Hank (our dog) to the vet last week to have a bump on his front leg looked at. Turns out it was a tumor that was growing very rapidly. We had it removed (also yesterday). The vet said that it was not a "good" tumor either (the kind that is encapsilated and just "pops out" in surgery). It was growing around the main artery in his leg and into the skin and pretty much everywhere. We decided to have it biopsied to see if there is anything we can do that won't cost too much. He more than likely has cancer, we just need to know what kind of cancer before we decide what to do next.

We have to keep poor Hank in a kennel for a day or so (which he is very put out about). He has to wear a "cone" (the vet calls it an "Elisabethan collar") to keep him from licking his stitches. We had to go back to the vet to get him some tranquilizers this morning because he would not calm down after we brought him home yesterday until after everyone (including Tim and I) went to bed last night. He's still freaking out - even with the tranquilizers - but it's not as bad as last night. It's very sad and hard to watch him have to endure all this. He has had to have surgery before, but it is harder now that he is older and we have four kids and another dog. Too much activity (that he wants to be a part of) going on...

CHI Reunion ... Anyone?

2010-03-02T19:35:00.000-06:00

We got an email about the CHI reunion this summer. Anyone out there planning on going? We'd love to meet some of our blog-buddies in person!

Claudia's 7th Birthday

2010-02-17T21:39:00.000-06:00

Toy veggies and fruit from Grandma & Grandpa Verhulst

A "laptop" from Grandma Schoemig

More educational electronic games

The kids (and Hanai)

*****************************************************

What a difference a year makes, hardly looks like the same kid...

February 17, 2010

February 17, 2009

It's hard to believe we are starting our second round of birthdays. There will be no more surprise celebrations now. They all now know when their birthdays are (everyone got their own calendar for the New Year and they all counted the days until "Claudia's Happy Birthday" this year) and what to expect (cake and presents).

Anniversary, Therapy and Education

2010-02-08T22:41:00.000-06:00

I finally bought a laptop! Yippee! Now I don't have to wait for a sunny or warm weekend to blog or check my email or do my household budget or ...

Just thinking outloud...
I often struggle with how much to "share" on the blog about certain aspects of our family's life. I feel a responsibility to keep much of our kids' information somewhat private, but then I also feel somehow compelled to be open and honest about the challenges and problems we have had over the past year. However, I also don't intend for it to sound as though everything is always rosey at the Verhulst house (we have our ups and downs). I usually err on the side of caution and hold back quite a bit, since once you post something on the net it's pretty much out there for anyone to see - forever. Just so you know. I have answered some specific questions occasionally by email.

Anniversary

As I said in our last post, we celebrated our one-year-at-home anniversary on February 4th. It wasn't anything really big, just pizza for dinner (which the kids cannot get enough of) and a "family" gift of a Vtech V Flash game system (it's an 'edutainment' system that I found on Amazon.com for $75 - including 4 games). It was a big hit because the kids love all things electronic and Mom and Dad are happy because it entertains and educates them at the same time.

Therapy

Things have been going very slowly with Oscar's home-schooling (mainly reading, he is almost caught up to where he should be in math) - to the point that we had him tested to see if he has some real learning problems. It turns out that he does. We are going to be sending him to an audiologist and optometrist for further testing. We started him on a therapy called Interactive Metronome this week. We are also looking into special education schools to possibly enroll Oscar in next school year. The schools we are looking at have small class sizes, incorporate occupational therapy, and other therapies as needed and have the goal of getting the kids ready to return to traditional school. We visit the first one this Thursday morning.

Diana started her vision therapy at the beginning of January. She enjoys going because she views it as "play time". She talks it up so much with her sisters that Mayerly asks me all the time, "When do I get to go to the doctor?". I told her that she goes to the doctor in April (time for shots again), probably not what she had in mind...

Education

We went to the girls' school tonight for parent/teacher conferences. Everyone seems to be making good progress. Mayerly's teacher even reported that she almost never has trouble with her not listening to instructions now (ah, finally a pay-off for all that discipline). Claudia's teacher just loves all the girls (they were all in her class April-May of last year). Diana's teacher is having a baby before the end of the year (she's due in April). Diana really likes her teacher, so I hope she does okay with the substitute that she will have for the last month and a half of this school year. She doesn't usually take too well to change.

Gotcha Day Anniversary

2010-01-16T17:06:00.000-06:00

Yesterday marked one year with the ninos (physically, not legally/officially). Looking back, we have made a lot of progress, but looking forward we still have quite a way to go.

We decided not to do a celebration for this (Gotcha Day) milestone. I did give each of the kids a new Leapster game, though they didn't ask why. Free presents for no reason, why not?

I'm not sure we will celebrate the Sentencia (Janurary 27th) either... I'm thinking we may celebrate February 4th (the day we returned home) as our 'Famiversary'. I didn't really feel like a parent until we got back home... on our (Mami & Papi's) turf - so to speak. Before that day I just felt like a highly underpaid, overly abused babysitter... just being honest.

On a separate note...
Our thoughts and prayers are with the Reppe's as they travel to Bogota to meet their 3 little boys! We appreciate their prayers for our family, even before we were thinking of becoming a family.

The True Meaning of Christmas

2009-12-27T16:25:00.001-06:00

We bought this at Maku (a store that sells nothing but handcrafted Colombian items) in Bogota. I'll just let the simplicity of this Nativity speak for itself.

Christmas Day - December 25, 2009

2009-12-27T16:04:00.000-06:00

We got all the kids "Leapsters" for Christmas. We also got them each a charger (will save us a fortune in batteries), 3 extra games each, and a bag (the girls got little purses) to carry and store them in. We hit a grand slam home run with these... which has not always been the case with gifts (if you've been there, you know what I mean).

For fun, count the number of times you see a dog's tail in these photos.

Kids with a stack o' presents each...

Let the ripping begin!

...and more ripping of paper...

Joke of the day... Claudia has joined the Canadian army... probably because the uniform was sooooo cute! (Thanks again for the clothes Wendy R. from Canada!)

Nothing left to do now except play...

Christmas Play - December 20, 2009

2009-12-27T15:35:00.000-06:00

I'll start this post with a sidebar...

We've had a lot of snow and very cold weather the past several days (since Christmas Eve). My PC (we don't have a laptop) is in a "three seasons" porch off of our bedroom, aka "my office". For this reason, when it's cold, I don't get on the computer too much. It's still freezing outside today, but the sun is out today, so I have the shades open and it is bearable to be in my office long enough to post some Christmas pictures ;-). A laptop is still on my wish list...

Below are pictures of the kids in the church Christmas Play last Sunday. I was joking with Tim that our two "angels" held their halos up with their horns - no matter how angelic they look ;-).

The Bonds, another KC CHI family - and good friends of the Sinclairs - were at the Christmas service too.

Mayerly is the angel on the left, Manuela Sinclair is the angel in the middle, Diana is the angel on the right, and Vanesa Sinclair is Mary

Claudia is the lamb on the left, Oscar is the shepherd on the left and Angee Sinclair is the lamb just to the right of Mary (Vanesa)

Where does all the time go?

2009-11-13T21:05:00.000-06:00

Holy cow, November already! Here's a run-down of the latest happenings:

Miss Mayerly decided that it is much better to listen to her teacher (and her Mom & Dad) than it is to never get to watch TV, do extra work around the house, and get your birthday celebration cancelled. - Okay, confession time, we ended up eating the cake the Tuesday night after her birthday (we'd already baked it and decorated it the night before her birthday) and we did pictures of her blowing out candles - but she had two consecutive good reports from her teacher before that happened. She also got her birthday gift after she had five consecutive days of good reports from her teacher. Actually, she now has over three weeks straight with good reports from her teacher! She can be a very good girl when she wants to be... she's just incredibly stubborn (and learning that her Mom is even more stubborn).

Oscar's face (remember the Bell's Palsy?) is back to normal now. He can eat and drink and blink and smile - the whole nine yards. Amazing the little things we take for granted... Thank you to all who prayed for his quick recovery.

Diana will start vision therapy soon. We had to take her to an osteopathic doctor first before we started the therapy. She has her second appointment with the osteopath next week and then I'll set up the weekly vision therapy appointments. Diana is really struggling in her 2nd grade class. She is in ELL, and is starting Title I reading and goes to 1st grade for extra help with reading too. I also talked to the school counselor about getting Diana (actually all the girls) tested to receive speech therapy. All our kids have Spanish language developmental delays and were receiving speech therapy in Colombia. I now know that the reason that I had such a hard time understanding them in the first few months is because they didn't pronounce things correctly in Spanish - and my Spanish wasn't good enough to pick up on that at first. That, and they talked really fast... Anyway, I'm thinking that Diana and Claudia especially need speech therapy. Now that they mix Spanish and English, I can't figure out if they are mispronouncing a word in Spanish or in English - right now I can't understand much of anything either of them say! Oscar and Mayerly have better pronounciation in Spanish and English, so I can usually figure out their Spanglish!

Claudia is doing very well in kindergarten according to her teacher (big change from last year), and is starting to spell some simple words. My favorite is when she says "M-O-M spewls Mama". Cracks me up. Oscar just rolls his eyes and shakes his head...

Last week, the girls all had bad colds and Tim and I got bronchitis and sinus infections. Oscar just had a very mild cold. Everyone is recovering now, but last week was pretty lousy on the health front. At least we didn't get the pig flu...

Mayerly's 8th Birthday

2009-10-24T11:49:00.000-05:00

Well, this is where I would normally post pictures of Mayerly's birthday celebration. Unfortunately, there was no celebration last night. We have had an ongoing problem with Mayerly listening to us at home and to her teacher at school. Without going into too much detail, I'll just say that the past 2 weeks she has had more bad reports from school than good ones.

She had been warned repeatedly all week not to continue this misbehavior (and grounded from her favorite activities and has had added chores to do around the house when she received bad reports). Well, yesterday (which was her birthday) she had another bad report from school - so we had to follow through with our threat to cancel her birthday celebration.

We are more disappointed than many of you probably are about not having happy birthday, candle-blowing-out pictures (especially since this is our first birthday with her). But we couldn't make our threat to cancel her birthday celebration an empty one either. She WILL start listening to the adults in charge of her, or her life is not going to be very much fun for awhile.

So, instead of posting birthday pictures, I'm posting the girls' school pictures. We just got all of them back this week. I think they turned out pretty well (better than any of mine ever were).

One dentist, one doctor, one lawyer

2009-10-09T22:28:00.000-05:00

Wednesday we went to the dentist. Oscar, Diana & Mayerly will all need sealant to be applied to their teeth. Diana will need a crown and Mayerly has a cavity. We go back in November for the sealants and will have to return for Diana's crown (she had a big old filling that fell out). Claudia was the only one who won't have to return until her next six month cleaning appointment.

Today Diana and I went back to see the eye doctor. She needed to do a couple more tests due to the communication barrier (even though we had an interpreter). Diana tends to want to try to give the "right answer" instead of telling the doctor exactly what she is seeing. We couldn't seem to convince her that there are no "right answers" to these test questions. Anyway, the doctor seemed to get the answers she had been looking for today. She also is a Christian doctor (which I didn't realize before). She made a comment to me about praying before this exam that she would be able to figure Diana's vision problem out - and this visit she was able to. The doctor believes that Diana can see out of her left eye and that the eye turn is likely developmental rather than congenital.

Tim and I will go to see the doctor on the 19th to discuss what we do next. First thing, Diana will be getting new glasses with a different prescription. Next we have a referral to an osteopathic doctor that Diana will see before she starts therapy. What more, I don't know...

I also called a lawyer this week about getting the re-adoption (actually it is a "recognition of foreign adoption" hearing) rolling. If we don't hit any snags, we may have that all done by Christmastime this year.

We also had another interesting thing develop recently. Unfortunately, I can't talk about it right now - mainly because we don't know enough to talk about it. Anyway, maybe someday soon we will know something. That probably doesn't make any sense... so, if you would, just pray for all our children and for us as parents.

Doctors, doctors and more doctors...

2009-09-30T19:26:00.000-05:00

The other day I noticed that when Oscar blinked, he was only blinking one eye. I looked at him more carefully and then noticed that when he smiled, only the left side moved. So, we were soon headed for the doctor. Turns out he has Bell's Palsy. The doctor says that no one knows what causes it and there is no treatment for it. However, it seems that this is a temporary condition and that it should go away in a few weeks. If he is still can't move the right side of his face in six weeks, we are supposed to go back.

Poor kid, he can't drink anything without it coming back out of his mouth and we have to tape his eye shut at night when he goes to bed. (If his left eye is open, the right eye opens, but then he can't close it again without using his hand.)

Pray for a quick recovery for him, if you are so inclined...

Diana had her second visit to the optometrist's office today where they did more testing. Today she was with the therapist instead of the doctor.

Next week, we are all going to the dentist...

Update on Diana

2009-09-27T21:34:00.000-05:00

Thursday was our first visit with the vision therapy optometrist. Diana just loves her. They spent 2 hours "playing games" (really, they were vision tests) and the doctor told her that she would not have to wear a patch or use atropine drops again (I think that is what really won Diana over). The doctor is a former teacher and has a wonderful "bed side manner". So different from the opthamologist we were seeing (although our new doctor says that he is an excellent surgeon). Diana even WANTED to wear her glasses to school the next day. Before, I had to practically threaten her life to make her wear them.

We should be finished with the evaluation phase by October 19th. We'll keep you informed of the progress.

Also, I'm reading a book called "Fixing My Gaze" by Susan R. Barry. She's had strabismus since birth and had it surgically corrected several times. When she was 50years old, she underwent vision therapy and she was finally able to see in 3D (stereovision) for the first time in her life. Her experience goes against the conventional wisdom that if strabismus isn't corrected by the age of about 6 or 7, it cannot be corrected. Gives me hope for Diana's eyesight.

Diana's Eye

2009-09-21T21:37:00.000-05:00

We went for Diana's 3rd opthamologist appointment back on August 29th. The news wasn't good. He could not see any improvement in her left eye and wants to do corrective surgery. I asked him about any alternatives or therapies and he said that there were no therapies and that surgery was the only way. However, after surgery all he was going to do was patch her right eye again. Being me, I wasn't convinced and decided to do my own research. What did parents ever do before Al Gore invented the internet? (hehehe)

From what I've read, Diana's condition (amblyopic strabismus) cannot be corrected with surgery. Sure her eye may not turn in anymore, but she still won't see any better out of it. What causes the eye to turn in is a disconnect between the brain and the eye. Surgery can't fix that, but I think therapy could. In fact, surgeries usually have to be re-done after a few years - sometimes several times because the real problem is not being addressed.

There is something called "vision therapy" done by a few optometrists. It turns out that there is one in Kansas City that does it. Long story short, we have an appointment this Thursday for testing and another next Wednesday for more testing and then the doctor will write up an evaluation. After that we will likely begin weekly therapy.

The reason that there are not a lot of doctors who do this is because it is not widely covered by insurance. In fact, we will have to pay for all the testing out-of-pocket and then try to get reimbursed by our health insurance company. Incredibly, most insurance companies will cover eye surgery to correct the strabismus (eye turn). Crazy! Who cares if the kid can see, let's just make her "look normal"! Oh yes, health insurance does need reform... but I'm still not in favor of "Obamacare".

I'm off my soapbox now. We'll keep you informed about Diana's progress.

El tiene 12 anos hoy!

2009-08-28T20:04:00.000-05:00

Today is Oscar's 12th birthday. Of course, everyone had school today. But after school we all went to Red Robin for dinner. Oscar had pizza (yeah, I know it's a burger place - but it's his birthday). We then had a quiet celebration back at the house with cake and ice cream.

Enjoy the pictures!

After Dad set fire to the cake...

After he put out the fire...

Las Quatro

Can't get rid of Hank's 'blue eye' with my picasa freeware...

He says it is his dream to be a 'bombero', we'll see...

Short Happenings

2009-08-19T21:20:00.000-05:00

*** Hankie boy ***

We brought Hank home the last week of June. He has done much better with the kids than we expected. We did have to have a few lessons on "when to know when Hank has had enough of you" and "where Hank will let you touch him so you don't incur his wrath" and "why it's never, ever a good idea to take Hank's toys away from him". They have been good about not pushing him past his limits, and he has been more tolerant of their intrusions on him than we thought he would be.

The kids all went to summer school in June. In July/August the girls went to a day camp that is run by the county parks and rec department at a local lake. Oscar spent his summer (after summer school) with Grandma Schoemig learning more reading, writing and math. He also started playing soccer on a team with his cousin Neil in August. The girls went back to school this week. Diana is in 2nd grade, Mayerly is in 1st grade and Claudia is in kindergarten. Oscar is still being home schooled by Grandma right now. We're hoping he'll be caught up enough to go to school next year, but we aren't going to rush him into something we feel he isn't yet ready for. He still has a lot of ground to make up.

Happy 9th Birthday - One Day Late - Diana!

2009-07-24T22:55:00.000-05:00

This week has been completely crazy, so I didn't get this posted yesterday on Diana's 9th birthday. We had our 2nd post-adopt visit on Tuesday, I also had to finish an article for the newsletter at work and I'm also working on some neighborhood stuff that needs to go to the City Planning Commission before next Tuesday. I'm also working full time these days (until the kids start back to school on August 17th - then I'm back to part time). I am sooo ready for the weekend! Enjoy the pictures.

Grandpa Verhulst, Claudia & Oscar

Diana blowing out her candles

Mom, Diana, Grandma Schoemig, Luke, Mayerly, Blakely, Aunt Val, Grandma & Grandpa Verhulst and the back of Oscar's head...

Dad setting fire to the cake (his favorite job)

The happy birthday girl

Got "turned in" to the Media by our Neighbors...

2009-07-07T21:43:00.000-05:00

Yup, we are now minor celebrities in our community. It's so weird... Anyway, below is a link to the newspaper article that ran July 4th.

http://www.examiner.net/homepage/x737355458/Theres-no-place-like-home

Bunnies y Flowders

2009-06-12T13:02:00.000-05:00

Every morning we give the kids 3 pills; one OTC Claritin (actually it's Costco brand), one Flintstones (also Costco brand), and one calcium chew (chocolate flavor, also from Costco). ***sidebar*** The kids take calcium at the pediatricians' recommendation. When we first took Oscar to the doctor, he was complaining about his elbow (and before that feet in Colombia until we bought him some shoes that fit him better) hurting him. The doctor took an X-ray of his arm and found no damage, but did find his bone tissue to be very thin. Henceforth, calcium.***

Anyway, the calcium comes in a foil wrapper. Every morning I get 4 flowers (or flowders as Oscar pronounces them). One from each kid. Below is a picture of my flowders from this morning.

Flowers by (left to right): Claudia, Mayerly (es una copa today), Diana & Oscar

**********

Our yard seems to be a bunny haven. This is the second clutch (it's a clutch of bunnies, right?) to be born in our back yard this year. The kids are facinated by "los bunnies". I took this picture yesterday over my lunch hour. It's a good thing too, because by the time I got home from picking the kids up from school, they had all left the nest. Hanai (our dog) found one in the yard and was carrying it around in her mouth which led to shrieks from Mayerly and Claudia that "Hanai esta comiendo un bunny!" (Hanai is eating a bunny - if you no habla espanol) -sidebar- Hanai doesn't eat bunnies, she just wants to play with them, the bunnies just fail to understand that... Anyway, I retrieved the bunny from Hanai and it was completely unharmed. Everyone gave a little pet and some picos (kisses) on the bunny's head (which it really did not appreciate) and I set it free under the firewood rack.

Six Flags - St. Louis, MO

2009-05-28T19:15:00.000-05:00

Over Memorial Day weekend we met my (Anne's) good friend Dalila, her husband Jeff and their daughter Nicole in St. Louis. It was our first first family trip out of town. We went to Six Flags and to the St. Louis Zoo. The kids had a great time and so did we (I hope we weren't too much for Dalila and Jeff, since they just have one kid right now :-).)

Claudia and Mayerly were too small to ride most of the roller coasters. I rode the Evel Kenevel (don't know if I spelled that right) with Diana and the Screaming Eagle with Oscar. I don't think Diana was real crazy about the roller coasters. We all rode the Tony Hawk roller coaster - Mayerly rode with Tim and evidently screamed to be let off the whole time. Claudia rode with me and laughed her head off the whole ride... I tried to talk Oscar into riding Batman with me, but he decided that he didn't like the idea of his legs dangling on a coaster. Maybe we'll get him to ride the one at Worlds of Fun. Oscar must have told me 'Thank you, Ma' (-sidebar- he's trying to say "Mom", but he has trouble getting that last consonant on most English words) at least five times. I asked him 'For what?', he said 'For dis (making a gesture for the whole park/zoo)'. I ask you, when was the last time you heard an 11-year-old boy thanking one of his parents for a trip to the amusement park or the zoo?

In other news...

notice Claudia's new hairdo. She can pull any barrette that I have bought out, so as soon as her hair got long enough, I started putting it in teeny, tiny pony tails. She looks like a toddler, but at least she looks like a girl.

Diana's eye isn't hurt. She's wearing an eye patch for her strabismus. The doctor said to try that first. She has to wear it all day for a month and then we go back in July to see if that is working at all. It's hard to get her to wear it, and the silly things don't stick very well to sweaty skin (it is almost summer here in the humid midwest). We're doing the best we can with it.

Claudia, Mayerly, Nicole, Diana & Oscar w/ Pepe LePew

Claudia, Mayerly, Diana & Oscar

Oscar, Claudia, Diana & Mayerly with Taz

Mayerly and Claudia

Nicole, Tim, Mayerly, Diana, Claudia & Oscar with Tweety (this is toward the end of the day)

Bikes, Parque and Fiesta

2009-05-04T19:45:00.000-05:00

I'm just posting some recent pictures with this one. The girls (except Claudia) got their faces painted at school this afternoon.

The girls on the swingset

Diana with a 'tigre' face

Mayerly with a 'mariposa/gato' face

Our swingset that the kids call 'el parque'

This is the view of it from my office window upstairs

Diana, Oscar and Mayerly on their bikes

Short Update

2009-04-06T10:55:00.000-05:00

We finally got the immunization thing squared away last Thursday (at about 4:30 pm). The girls started school on Friday and they absolutely loved it! Their teacher is bilingual and there are kids in their class that speak Spanish. I only hope that this does not slow their learning of English, since that is the main reason we put them in public school.

I go back to work tomorrow (5 hours per day). Things haven't gone exactly as we had planned, but when does anything? We've just kinda rolled with it and we are surviving.

-Anne

Ode to Hanai

2009-03-31T20:17:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to give some credit to our 2-year-old Golden-Retreiver-mix Hanai. She was (is) not used to having children in the house (except for the occasional nieces and nephews). She has been sat on, hugged, kissed, dragged around the house by her collar, paws stepped on, fur pulled, fur rubbed the wrong way, screeched at... you name it, they've done it to her. She has been very tolerant in my opinion. We brought her home first since she is pretty laid back. Our other dog (Hank) is a 7-year-old terrier- mix. He will be living at my (Anne's) mom's house for awhile... he would not tolerate any of the above - at all.

Hanai (han-eye)

Oscar (ohz-car)

Diana (dion-ah)

Mayerly (my-airly)

Claudia (clow-dia)

First Professional Family Picture

2009-03-31T12:44:00.001-05:00

Pictures!

This one is of just the kids...

Tim doesn't like this one, but I do...

While we were in Bogota, we bought all the kids handmade (Colombian, of course) sweaters. Before it gets too warm, and before they all outgrow them, we got our picture taken. We also got individual pictures taken of each child in his/her sweater. I'll put those above this post (if the kids can refrain from calling me in to referee their skirmishes long enough).

School

We finally finished shots for all the kids... so we thought... so I turned in the paperwork yesterday morning to enroll the girls in school. They said everything looked like it was in order, so they should be able to start today. However, last night at 4:40pm (when it is too late to do anything about any problems) the school nurse called Tim and told him that their shots are not current and that we need to get more shots. We had blood drawn and testing done to make sure that the shot records from Colombia were correct - and our pediatrician said that they were. The nurse also wanted to know when (month and year) they had all had chicken pox. We don't have that information - again - that's why we had blood drawn on each of the kids. I'm going to the school tomorrow to see if they will accept the shot records from the US Embassy doctor. I'm also going to see what I can do about the chicken pox thing . What a pain...

English

The kids are all starting to pick up more English. Here are some of the funnier things that they say...

Goose nigh (Good night)

Vamos a la house (We're going home)

A-goo ghoula (Good girl - to our dog Hanai [pronounced Han-I])

Seent-ow (Sit down - also to Hanai)

Comb on (Come on - Hanai has been very useful in teaching them short phrases...)

Noooo Can-I (what they usually say to Hanai about a hundred times a day)

Estop it (Stop it - this one is not always directed at the dog)

Feliz Cumpleanos a Claudia (6 years old today)

2009-02-17T20:35:00.000-06:00

Here are the pictures first, since I know that's what everyone wants to see anyway...

Here she is with her cake

She's pretty pleased with her candle blowing abilities (I don't know why Tim has a fist in this picture, he didn't hit her... really)

Claudia with her new 'Viewmaster' and Mayerly (don't know exactly what she's looking at...)

Just in case you didn't think the other two (Oscar and Diana) made it home with us, here's a picture of them too

So you are probably asking, "What happened to Claudia's hair???" To protect the innocent and the guilty, we will just say that there was a little problem and we had to cut it all off. If I (Anne) don't dress her in pink and put barretts in her hair, she looks like a little boy - I hate it. Here's hoping it grows out fast...

Back to the Birthday. We went about the day just as we normally do, get up, get dressed have breakfast, do our school thing, eat lunch, play all afternoon... point being - no one had any clue that today was Claudia's birthday. We had dinner (ham and bean soup and cornbread - 'rico' according to the kids... that's good in case you don't know) and then I brought out the cake I baked earlier while they were playing upstairs (only Mayerly saw me because the TV is downstairs...). It was kinda like a surprise party because everyone was surprised... too funny.

We started homeschooling with 'Abuelita' (Grandma Schoemig) last Monday. The good news is that the kids are doing well, and are even starting to pick up some English words. The bad news is that they are all very far behind where they should be scholastically. My hope is that we can get Mayerly and Claudia in school by September at a grade level not too far below where they should be for their ages. I think Oscar and Diana will be working with my mom longer than that.

I also found a preschool close to our house that will take Claudia (even though she is now six years old and doesn't speak English). I'm going to take her on Friday to see how she does there. If she looks like she will be okay, we will enroll her for the 1/2 day classes (5 days a week).

That's it for now. Hasta luego.

Weeee're Heeeere!

2009-02-05T16:45:00.000-06:00

Just a short post to let everyone know we made it home okay. It feels good to be typing on an 'English' keyboard again (I used a Spanish and a French one in Colombia and couldn't find the @ on either of them most of the time...).

The kids traveled pretty well. We didn't have any tantrums, but we did have to tell them to be quiet on the airplane more than a few times. They were pretty wound up.

We got home about 9pm here (that's 10pm in Bogota). The grandparents were very happy to meet their new grandkids (even if they can't understand anything they say). The kids didn't go to bed until 10:30.

Later,
Anne

Going Home

2009-02-03T20:31:00.000-06:00

All of us in the back yard at El Refugio The kids with Rosita, one of the ladies who works at the B&B

Sorry, we haven´t been able to post for a couple of days. The computer at the B&B got a virus and was out for repair. We didn´t do it...

Over the weekend we just hung out at the B&B waiting to go to the US Embassy on Monday. We did a little last minute shopping and took the kids out for ice cream at Mimi´s and pizza at Pizza Hut (yeah there is one here within walking distance). Sunday was cold and rainy.

On Monday we left for the embassy right after breakfast (about 9am). There, we gave them all our paperwork and waited in line to be called up to one of the windows. They called our name and we went up to the window where the agent had to lay eyes on each of the kids. She then told them they could sit down. Then I (Anne) had to answer a couple of questions and sign my name four times (once for each of the kids). We then got to pay for all the visas at another window. After that we had to sit down and wait again for them to call our name again. When they did, the lady told me that they would have the visas ready the next day at 3:30pm and she also had to look at each one of the kids again. Then we went back to the B&B - that was at about 1pm.

Today I went to the embassy and picked up the visas and paperwork for US Immigration in Atlanta (Tim stayed home and entertained the kids at the park). The guy at the window remembered me from the day before. I don´t think it is often that they see people adopting four kids. He wished us the best for our new family.

That was the last piece of paperwork. We are done here. Our flight schedule was confirmed this morning. We are leaving Bogota early Wednesday morning. See you in KC...

-Tim & Anne

Facatativa and South Bogota

2009-01-30T21:16:00.000-06:00

These pictures are from the town of Facatativa (or Faca to locals) this is the town where Oscar,Diana & Mayerly were born. It is a small town (those in Bogota told me) of about 100,000 people & very scenic, with brick streets leading to the square.

I (Tim) spent all day Thurs with our attorney, Oscar. We had to pick up all four birth certificates & then have these changed to our last name. The day started out in south Bogota at the Civil Registration office, for Claudia´s birth certificate, she was the only one born in Bogota. We then had to drive 45 minutes west to Facatativa, where the other three were born. We had to go to two different offices, wait to get their last names officially changed, then to the bank for notarized copies. We then headed back to Bogota to pick up Claudia´s changed birth certificate & to the bank.

We left the B&B at 7am & I got back around 4pm, but their last names are officially changed to Verhulst. It was quite interesting dealing with Colombia Civil Registration, it takes a lot of patience. It sure helps to have an attorney like Oscar, it was amazing how fast he could get things done & how he seemed to know everyone.

Sentencia

2009-01-30T20:50:00.000-06:00

Below is a picture of the B&B where we are staying. Our room is the one on the second floor that is brown and has the big window. Everyone else staying here is French. We are the only Americans (and also the only ones with four kids who are older).

Wednesday we signed the final adoption paperwork (aka "sentencia"). Lucia called us that morning after breakfast and told us that Tim needed to be ready in a half hour to go sign the papers.

Thursday, he had to go with Oscar Abril ( our attorney) to get new birth certificates for all the kids (I´ll let him tell you about that since it took almost all day). I had the kids by myself all day and had to take them to ICBF for our second (and final) appointment - which went fine.

Today we went to get all the kids their Colombian passports (which they will need to leave Colombia). After that we took all the kids to see the doctor (which is required by the US prior to bringing them into the country). He did four reports, which are sealed, that we have to take to the US Embassy on Monday. Tuesday we will do laundry and pack. Wednesday (Feb 4th) we should be coming home!

Below is a picture that one of the French families took of us inside the B&B:

Passport Photos

2009-01-27T20:37:00.000-06:00

This morning we decided to go out for ice cream as a snack between breakfast and lunch. So we are out walking down Calle 116 (a street here in Bogota) when a man comes up to us holding a cell phone up to Tim and talking to him in Spanish. After listening to him, I (Anne) understood him to say that his name was Andres and that he had Lucia on the phone. Tim tried to talk to Lucia, but the traffic and the kids were too noisy - so he handed the phone to me (I still couldn´t hear her very well either). I did pick out something about passport photos and Andres was making camera gestures with his hands - so we went back to the B&B with him. Three of the French families (who are all also adopting) were waiting for us. I had to change Claudia´s shirt because Andres said that is was too light colored for the passport photo. I also had to take out the ponytail holders I had in the girls´hair because they can´t have anything in their hair for the pictures.

After everyone was fixed up, we all walked to the mall. The people on the street were all kind of looking at our little procession of foreigners a bit funny. I guess we did look unusual.

At the mall we went to "Photo Japon" and all the kids got their pictures taken. After that we went to McDonald´s and got ice cream (as promised to the kids earlier) since we didn´t make it before to the ice cream shop (Mimi´s). Below are pictures of the kids eating their ice cream cones.

Mayerly - always the slowest eater...

Me Gusta Helado

Later, after lunch we went to Maku (a store that sells only items made in Colombia). We decided to leave the kids with the ladies at the B&B due to the fact that there are MANY breakable items in the store. When we left, they were outside playing. We didn´t say good-bye to avoid any tantrums or clinging-to-Papi Claudias. We were gone for about two hours. We came back with snacks for us and the kids. The kids met us at the door (except Mayerly, who was glued to the TV like a little zombie). Papi took them outside while Mami hid the stuff we bought in our room. While we were eating our snacks, Oscar told me that Diana had gone looking for me while we were gone. She thought that I was in the bathroom. We all had a big laugh about Diana thinking that I had been in the bathroom for two hours. Don´t worry, she laughed too - she doesn´t take too many things very seriously (that can be good and bad).

Mas Tarde.

Tim y Anne

Parque Jaime Duque

2009-01-26T16:02:00.000-06:00

This past weekend we went to Parque Jaime Duque. It is a very small amusement park with very simple rides - nothing like Worlds of Fun. The kids had a great time and there were no real tantrums on this outing (yahoo!). Jaime Duque was a pioneer in Colombian aviation and he had the park built for the people of Colombia to enjoy. It is north of Bogota about 45 minutes to an hour and it is a beautiful setting because you can see the Andes Mountains to the east and west. It usually rains here everyday for at least a little while, but the day we went it didn´t rain. It was just gorgeous. A good day to get out of the city.

The main boulevard in the park

Papi and the kids in front of an Avianca airplane

Claudia and Mayerly on the carousel

Diana and Oscar on the carousel

Inside Parque Jaime Duque

-Ciao de Colombia - Tim & Anne

Integration

2009-01-22T21:37:00.000-06:00

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.

Pictures from Monserrate 01/20/09

2009-01-22T20:57:00.000-06:00

View of Bogota (population almost 9 million) from the top of Monserrate

...from the Gondola going down Monserrate

...from the Gondola looking at the tracks for train we took up

This picture was taken by David (he has served us well as interpreter and driver) at the top of Monserrate. Bogota is at about 8,000 feet, Monserrate is even higher - I (Anne) had just gotten used to the altitude of the city. I was back to not being able to breathe again up here, and all the walking was uphill.

Pictures First

2009-01-18T20:06:00.000-06:00

Claudia

We´ll drag this picture out to show all her friends when she´s a teenager...

Mayerly
Stylin´with Papi (and wearing his "gafas")

Diana
Just hanging out in "el parque"

Oscar
His self portrait (musta learned this from Papi already)

The Gang

and this one for Julie... he really does smile more than you think...

Encuentro

2009-01-15T20:33:00.000-06:00

Sorry, no pictures with this post. We just got all the kids into bed and are not taking a chance on waking them up by digging through the closet looking for the camera ;-).

I (Anne) have got to say that I could definitely live in the Latin American culture (this being my second major trip in that region). The people tell you that they will be there to pick you up at 8:45 and they may show up by 9:00. My mother used to tell me that I would be late to my own funeral - so this is not a problem for me. Tim on the other hand, likes to be on time and therefore spends a lot of time pacing and looking at his watch. My kind of people, Tim (in this regard) not so much. He´s handling his American tendencies well though.

Anyway, back to the Encuentro, we arrived a little late. As it turns out, that didn´t matter because the kids arrived very late. We did a little interview with the psychologist with ICBF and she did a run down on each of the kids. The only piece of information that we got that was new was their reactions to Tim and me wanting to adopt them. The first thing they said was "all four of us?" and they told them yes, all of you. They have evidently been very excited and counting the days until we came for them.

They made for us a little picture album with pictures of them at the orphanage. The front cover has what I can only describe as a "claymation" rendering of us all as a family. It´s very cute and they put a lot of thought into its design. Amazingly, they also still had the toys we sent to them for Christmas and even the photo albums (well worn and with pages missing) we sent with our dossier back in September. They also had a few other toys that (I hope) the orphanage sent with them. No clothes, only what they were wearing.

After we were finished with the ICBF people, they brought the kids into the room. They were so excited, and in such a hurry to get to us that they all got stuck for a second in the doorway. It was kinda funny and also very cute. We did our hugs and Oscar and Diana started talking to us a mile a minute in Spanish - just enough to make me realize again how bad my Spanish really is. Mayerly (that´s how she identifies herself and what the other kids call her - yes! I love that name!) and Claudia went straight for the toys that were in the room.

We gave them their backpacks that were loaded with all kinds of things. They loved that too.

Then we left to go back to the B&B. The kids all thought we were going to "los estados unidos", so we had to break it to them that we were only going to go to a hotel (B&B) for now. Lucia´s son (who drove and transated for us today) explained to them that there are many papers for us to complete before they can go to los estados unidos. I still don´t think any of them (except maybe Oscar) get that. But that´s okay, we can deal.

All in all, things have gone pretty well considering. Oscar and Diana are both pretty well behaved. Mayerly is very quiet and sweet. She will wander off and play alone by herself until we take a head count and have to go looking for her. And Claudia, whoa - where do I start... the child does not like to hear the word No - EVER. She´s had three major (throw herself on the ground kicking, screaming and crying) tantrums since we got to the B&B. All those began with us telling her No. No, you can´t go outside to play unless you put your shoes on. No, you can´t wear your new pajamas (over her clothes no less) to dinner (this was a problem for some reason with all the girls, but the other two took them off when I told them to). And finally, No you can´t jump from the top bunk down onto Mami y Papi´s bed and you really need to go to sleep in your bed now...

We´re really hoping tomorrow is better for Claudia... and us with her.

After about 5 visits to the baño to "chi-chi" in about 20 minutes, turning the lamp on about a half dozen times (Tim finally took the bulb out) and again trying to climb into Oscar´s bed (the top bunk). Tim finally just laid in bed with her until she went to sleep.

Hopefully, pictures tomorrow! Hasta Luego...

We Made It!!!

2009-01-14T13:32:00.000-06:00

We arrived in Bogota last night at about 11:00 PM (eastern time in the US - that´s 10:00 central). It took us forever to get our luggage (we were some of the last people out of there). It was probably closer to 12:00 by the time we got through customs (we didn´t have the correct paperwork, so we both had to fill out a new customs claim form). Then we changed our dollars for pesos and saw the cab driver holding our name on a piece of paper - so we went with him. We were so tired from the travel that we didn´t even unpack last night. I (Anne) just went to bed with my clothes on. The four hours sleep we got from packing the night before really caught up with us! I also don´t sleep on airplanes, and Tim only slept a little on both flights.

This morning we got up after 8:00 and went to breakfast around 9:00. After that we did a little paperwork with Carmen (the director?) of the B&B. There are only a few other couples here to adopt right now, and I think that they are all French (but they were nice and speak a little English). Before lunch we went for a walk to look for a store called Maku that sells Colombian items. I bought a really bright colored purse and a shot glass for an associate that told me that is all he wanted for the help he provided us with our adoption. We plan to go back later to get some more things for family and the kids.

I took a couple of pictures so far. I will post them later. We are going to the mall now to check it out. Hasta luego.

A Short Intro

2009-01-11T22:06:00.000-06:00

Okay. We are now roughly 36 hours from actually flying out of Kansas City to Bogota to meet our children Oscar - 11, Diana - 8, Angelica (or Mayerly - her paperwork uses both names) - 7, and Claudia -5. It's almost unbelievable that we are actually this close now.

I had planned to do the whole "date and timeline" thing on our adoption blog, but just haven't had the time. So here's the condensed version of our adoption journey: February 2, 2008 applied to Children's Hope International adoption agency; February-April worked on paperwork; in April first saw our kids on the waiting children list in CHI's 'Noticieros'; May-June worked on more paperwork and finished our home study, and our house got struck by lightning (yippee); first of July inquired to the Colombia Program Director about kids on waiting children list - found out that the siblings were still available, then sent a letter to ICBF (Colombian Family Welfare) requesting them and started the paperwork for our insurance claim; July-August kicked the adoption paperwork into high gear in order to be first in line to get our kids, began remodeling to fix what the lightning fried - and some things it didn't (that extra work thanks to termites of yore); September sent dossier (that's French for 'a ton of paperwork') to Colombia, dossier was translated into Spanish and delivered to ICBF, got ICBF approval to adopt (we're told this part doesn't usually happen that fast) and started taking a Spanish class; October waited for official assignment of our children (which came on the 31st); November '08 to January '09 readied the kids' rooms (yup, more remodeling), prepared a bit more paperwork and for travel to Colombia.

It's all gone much faster than we expected. That's why I used the picture of us on the speed boats on Lake Michigan in Chicago a couple of years ago at the top of our blog. It pretty well sums up what we have felt like since we started this little adventure.

Stay tuned... we plan on blogging from Colombia about the rest of our adventure! Below are pictures of their rooms:

Oscar's closet and bedroom

Diana's bed

Mayerly's bed

Claudia's bed