TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS, AUGUST 20, 2008

Hi Folks

Today I start with a bit of a warning . . . there will be much boasting on our part, there will be much humor with the boys actions, and YES - we are the the most frustrated we have ever been in our life!

However, in our opinion, we still have the best match of two children ever in the history of adoption. Consider yourself warned, and read on if you like.

First, let me start by saying what an absolute treasure JOSE PABLO is with his visit. We totally believe his ability to speak Spanish was the reason the first three days were so WONDERFUL, and the last two - well, are we are getting tested! Just yet another example of how blessed we are to know him - and don't forget the 8 hours travel overnight on a crowed bus just to visit - ONE WAY. Boggles our mind. We hope that all our exchange students know we would also travel to the moon for them if need be. It is special we were able to share this MUCHO IMPORTANTE experience with him as well.

Our plan with Jose was to expose the boys to as much as we felt they could handle. We wanted to see them react to various situations. We did just that, based on the boys behavior, and they handled everything with much more patience and love than we could ever have hoped for. But, we were able to communicate totally with them about any situation that came up. Please read on if you dare.

First, a brief update on Monday (of which was a holiday here in Bogota - they have so many!). We went to a placed called Moloca (http://www.maloka.org/ if interested, Hispaniol only). This is sort of a childrens hands on experience with a museum. It is geared a little older than children 3 and 5 years old, but the kids had great fun anyway. A few of our favorite exhibits were the Electricity and Space exhibits.

First the electricity exhibit. This was very similiar to what you would find at that Tommy Bartetts Robot World place in The Wisconsin Dells. They had a generator that would run electricity from "someplace" through your body and have it do "something" at the tips of your fingers, feet, elbows. It was absolute magic to the kids. We must have heard "magico" 100 times, but once Papi was volunteered by the show host, the kids were transformed into paranoid schizophrenics as they were obviously interested in what was going on, as long as it did not hurt Papi. We assure you (and the boys several times) that Papi was just fine, but there was very slight pain, and weird sensations running through his body - nothing like a tazer from the police, but guarateed you do not want to go through that. The only part we did not like is the flash of the digital camera did not go far enough, and the pics without the fash are just too blurry for anyone to recognize unless you were there. Thus, sorry no pics of that portion. But the looks of concern on the boys faces, and Diego giving the "business" to the show host about hurting Papi, really made this portion of Moloca worth writing about. Diego must have given a two minute lecture to the show host on "several occasions". He had the people in "stitches" around us during the lecture. Although we could not understand at the time what he was saying, Jose was trying to interpret, and was not being able to translate quick enough. Upon finally hearing what he was saying, and what he was going to do about it if Papi was hurt. . . well, honestly, this made Papi so proud he wanted to run around like a Gorilla thumping his chest!!!!!!! Ever get lectured by a 5 year old????

We were able to get photos from a portion of the Electricity exhibit. They may also be blurry. Not because of the lighting, but because the kids run so fast. It was this sort of spinning circle type "thingy" - much like you would picture a horse walking around in circles tied to the little pole in front of it, and having no place to go but in a circle. Using this analogy VERY playfully

we have found two horses. OH MY GOD, did they run around in circles! The diameter of the circle is barely 5 feet, so they also got very dizzy. It was hillarious to watch them run, then want Mami and Papi (Jose too) hold them up by the hands so they would not fall to the ground (dizzyness). Boys will be boys - they would not quit! Diego's face never really did change in looks, but Jefersons face was so contorted, I bet you could have opened a bottle of coke in the folds of his cheeks, chin, eyes, and all other facial parts - I would have to think about it, but I bet even his ears were involved!

The other cool exhibit was the Space portion. This was also what you would expect from a normal childrens space exhibit. Alignment of the planets, the solar system, asteroids and what not. The kids were so enamorred with it, and spent a lot of time there, we decided late in the afternoon to catch an IMAX film there. It was titled "Fly Me To The Moon". It was not what we expected! In fact, we never knew that a fly (just a general house fly) was tucked inside of Neil Armstrongs suit when man first landed on the moon. We know now. It was animated, and in 3d like an IMAX movie would be (wrapped all around you practically 360), and had some great special effects. Diego loved it! It was a bit too old for Jeferson (or he ran around in circles too much) because he was not that intersted in the movie, and fell asleep on Madre's lap during 80% of the movie. TOTALLY OK WITH MAMI as she loves to hold him, and even better when sleeping (all you moms out there can relate!). Jose, Eric, and Diego were glued to the screen above. Did not even notice that Jeferson AND Madre were sleeping (Oh, the cuddling feeling with a new parent and their children). Did not find that out till after the movie. GOTTA LOVE IT!

Tuesday, we woke up to mucho Mucho MUCHO different children. The morning ritual was virtually the same, no problemo, but throughout the day the kids just got more and more wild. They would not listen to us very well, the limited Spanish we speak only seemed to make things worse. At lunch, Papi was siting with Diego. Madre was chasing Jeferson trying to get him to sit and eat. He would not, despite the wonderful people fluent in Spanish speaking to him as well. He simply would not sit much less eat. Well in the mean time, with Papi sitting with Diego, Papi noticed that Diego simply kept on chewing and chewing, despite hardly ever putting food in his mouth. All of a sudden Papi notices Diego is only using one hand to put food in his mouth. Papi asked him what was in his hand. Diego promptly showed him a pack of Chicklets Gum. Neither Madre or Padre know where this came from - we did not give it to him. Papi asked for it, which turned into disaster number one. After a bit of quite non forceful removing the pack of gum from his hand, Diego started pouting. And Pouting, crying a fake cry, and pouting some more. You swear that Papi would have stolen his livlihood, but we guess in some ways he did. Here is where the real problem came in.

Papi noticed in the pouting that Diego still had two pieces of the gum in his other hand. We may have a "slight of hand" artist in our midst. No clue how that happened. Well, through an interpreter, simply because Papi would not be listened too, Diego finally gave up one of the pieces of gum to James, the wonderful front desk clerk here at Zuetana. Papi informed James that he was looking for TWO pieces of gum and not one, as I had seen two in his hand. Diego absolutely lied and lied and lied about this. Papi held strong - and told James to tell Diego that I am not angry with what happened to the gum, but MUCHO NO FELIZE that he is not telling the truth. Diego hung to his story, until Papi started "lecturing James" about what he wanted James to tell him about telling the truth has virtually no consequences, but NOT TELLING THE TRUTH IS MUCH WORSE! While Lecuring with Diego compaining at lot, all of a sudden Diego told James that he now wanted to tell the truth. Diego came clean with James in that he chewed the second piece of gum while Papi was talking to James, but that is the reason why there is no second piece of gum.

WE SWEAR WE COULD HARDLY STOP FROM CRYING BECAUSE HE HAD GOTTEN PAPI'S MESSAGE AND CAME CLEAN. BRAVO DIEGO!

Upon recollection of this, hours after, this may have been a milestone, the first baby step if you will, but none-the-less, MUCHO IMPORTANTE!

Lunch really did not continue, but that was OK.

We went to the park with the boys. We felt they needed to blow off a little energy. The trip to the Park was horrible as well. Jeferson was now playing off Diego's emotion (as expected) and they each fed off each other. Well this ended up with Papi holding Diego's hand the entire way to the park with Diego eventually throwing a temper tantrum on the way. Jeferson was great once he got away from Diego a bit walking ahead with Madre. A good "old fashion temper tantrum" erupted - just like the ones your mom told you about! Lots of throwing himself to the ground, not walking, crying a fake cry, kicking etc, etc, etc, the entire walk to the park.

Oh, I forgot to mention this was because Diego threw the soccer ball into the street and it was Papi's turn to carry the ball.

Once at the park, Papi kicked the ball into the park which always ended up with Jeferson and Diego chasing the ball at breakneck speed. Off went Jeferson! Diego too, but in the opposite direction, the temper tantrum continued.

Finally Papi got to Diego, and picked him up, walked to a rock and sat holding Diego screaming and crying for about 1/2 hour. Seemed like 5 hours - the entire time holding Diego firmly whispering anytthing he could think of. Eventually it ended up in a bit of a tickling issue. When Papi was certain this was "over" this time, Diego ran off to the swing set where Madre was playing with Jeferson, but with that watchful Eagle Eye on both kids that mothers are so good at.

After the park, we returned to the Casa, and a movie was in order. We hate the idea of using a movie to babysit a child - this was needed for all parties. Two hours of simply staring at Shrek saving the Kingdom. Absolute joy! Diego and Jeferson were enjoyable (really for the rest of the night) and went to sleep without further serious incident.

This brings us to the end of the day, which brings us to the next day (Wednesday). Same thing but this time it was Madre's turn to deal with the same temper tantrums over nothing. As was with Papi, Madre was pushed to the brink of a nervous breakdown. Jeferson too got in the tantrum mood, but he is either not as strong willed as Diego, or is simply younger - with a shorter attention span - as they seem less severe and not as long. Diego's "attention to detail" is going to be legendary - at least in this category - hope it transfers to math!

Although these temper tantrums described above seem dramatic and they are, the love and joy these boys bring to our lives really shadows these moments. We believe most of these stem from our lack of communication directly with the boys!

As an example - look below:

Keep on praying for us, send the all the encouragement you can. We live for the blog replies.

MUCHO GRACIAS

Eric, Joyce, Diego, and Jeferson