GOTCHA DAY PLUS UNO August, 16, 2008

Hola! we are still a day behind in posting the blogs, but the 2 boys are keeping us very busy.

The first night with the boys went fantastic. The boys went to bed at 8:30 and slept until 7 AM the next morning. In fact, they went down very easily. The beds were dry and, well, everything was normal. Much to our suprise! Joyce and Eric did not sleep very well at all. Joyce did manage to get a brief sleep in during the night. Eric - Nada.

For those of you who may not know us that well, previously we sponsored three Foreign Exchange Students in our lives. They each lived with us for approximately one year. One is from the great Country of Colombia! Our Mucho, Mucho, moy moy moy bien AMIGO Jose Pablo, arrived around 8AM (this morning) Saturday morning- of course in Colombian time. He was initially due at 12:00 midnight, then 2:00 am, then 6:00 am. I think the listening to every breath, snort, rollover, fart!!!!! (Oh my God!) of the kids, coupled with the the anxiousness to see Jose created a "non-sleeping" atmosphere. Jose travelled from his home town of Buccaramanga, Colombia 8 hours overnight via a packed full bus just to come and see us and help in any way he can. He also WANTED VERY MUCH to met the children. He says he is certain of how great parents we will be due to his experience with us. We pray this will be true. It is great to see him again, and he has been a tremendous help in our transition, mainly to understand what the boys are saying. But we are slowly learning, and also teaching them the words in English. They are both very bright, and will repeat words that we say in English. The communication is difficult, and it breaks our heart many times when we can't understand what they are asking of us. Especially when they end their question with "por favor", as we know that means "please". We do tell them "no comprende mi amigo" meaning that we do not know what they are saying. Often we say "repeate por favor no rapido" and they do. They will sometimes take our hands and direct us to show us what they want. Otherwise they get Primo (cousin Jose) to translate.

They both drink a lot of water, and now carry water bottles they are constantly refilling with 'agua". By the way, DID I MENTION THEY TALK A LOT! I think I did but in a previous post, but we had no idea of how often the sing. AND THEY SING LOUDLY AND OFTEN. Possibly future American Idol winners - they do get enough practice in now.

Sometime after breakfast, Deido and Jefferson managed to change in the phonebooth (somewhere-we still have not found the phone both yet) and became Supeman. We never even saw it!. They just came down stairs, with their blankets tied around their necks and walla - the caped cruisader is alive and living in Bogota. The superheros are leaping tall couches in a single bound, seeing EVERYTHING with their expert vision, moving faster than a speeding bullet! How LUCKY everyone here at Zuetana is - especially the staff!

The boys are such big eaters, they eat like there is no next meal, and very rapido. We have to be careful about how much we give to them since they will eat everything and anything. In our meeting with the director of the orphanage on Friday, we were given recommendations for their schedule, eating habits, etc, and we are trying to follow it very closely trying to avoid any disruptions to their daily routines and eating habits.

Sometime after breakfast, the doctor who does house calls, came to the hotel to check on Diego's stitches. The wound is healing well - may not even end up with a scar. She will be back on August 21 to remove the stitches. Diego is being so brave about them. He did cry when the bandage finally came off. Eric initially was not impressed with the removal of the bandage. The wound side of the gauze bandage was stuck to the wound so we could not even replace the bandaid on the stitches the initial night due to this. The doctor quickly put our medical supplies to great use, but after about 15 minutes of attempting to slowly remove the stuck bandage, she just tore the thing off. Luckily it worked perfectly and did not disturbe the wound at all. Diego did break out into a horrific cry when this first hapened, but Papi was there with the doctor to make it all better. Maybe she did know what was doing after all, but you should have seen the look on her face when we pulled our "Pharmacia" out of the closet. She realized we are traveling ready for anything: sprains, strains, colds, flu, cuts, bruises, bumps, scratches. Possibly even a fracture or an amputation, but lets not talk about that - I just want to point out that Madre is ready for anything!

We have determined that Jeffersons clothes fit Diego. Shopping was certainly in order as Jefferson. They are all so big, as are the size 8 clothes that we brought for Diego are MUCHO Grande. So , we took a trip to the local mall to buy some clothes. Size 3T is a better size for Jeferson, and size 6/7 is a better size for Diego. We purchased a couple of outfits for Jeferson, and also a jacket for Diego. He was so funny in his new jacket. He put it on and then put on his sunglasses and baseball cap, and started singing and strutting around the store with them. We may have a rockstar on our hands.

I have to say that both nino's are suffering in the clothes category. I swear, the clothes sizes in compairison are 1.5 sizes off. As an example, in my opinion, a Colombian 4/5 is the equivalent of a 3T in Colombian. The Boys were fantastic in the stores - and this mall is HUGE. They were very patient, and just took in all the sights of the mall. They didn't ask for a single thing. They really are good boys, but don't get me wrong, they are still boys.

They have lots of ENERGY.

As you might remember from our internet meeting with them a few weeks ago, they talk alot, and we have learned that they talk very loud as well. They sing all the time. They really are happy boys, and are very curious about so many things. We are not able to leave Jeferson alone for a moment, without him getting into something that he shouldn't be. As an example, yesterday, I missed him for a couple moments, and found him in the bathroom, with the soap dispenser in his hand, and pumping soap onto him, and all over the floor. He is very quick and bright!! It is also very funny when they start chatting with each other in Spanish, as we think they are scheming their next moves.

For dinner we went out to dinner to an authentic Colombian restaurant, and met Jose's mother and her friend. It was very nice to finally meet Jose's mom. Although we can not communicate directly, we had a great time, and the food was fantastic. The boys sat and ate so good. We were so very pleased with their behavior, as this was our first dinner out, so we made no guarantees. They both ate A LOT, and then both fell asleep in our arms, as we continued to chat with everyone. Once back at the hotel, they were out for the night.

What an exhausting day. What great problems to have.

Adios Amigos

Eric and Joyce