Skype Hilarity and an Adoption Update

Joyfully, we get to Skype with Jean once every two weeks for about an hour. It's great when we have a translator! We always have things to tell him, with sports and piano and school and Scouts and holidays and weekend outings. It's more difficult however when no translator is available. With our limited Spanish, it only takes 5 minutes or so to say the following:

Us: Cómo estás? (How are you?)
Jean: Bien. (Fine.)

Us: Cómo es la escuela? (How is school?)
Jean: Bien.

Us: Cómo esta su familia sustituto? (How is your foster family?)
Jean: Bien.

Us: Cómo está la clima? (How is the weather?)
Jean: Bien.

Us: Que hiciste durante el fin de semana? (What did you do over the weekend?)
At least this question elicits more than a one word answer! However, it is still always the same week after week:
Jean: Fuimos a la misa, jugué fútbol, vi televisión, jugué videojuegos. (Went to Mass, played soccer, watched TV and played videogames.)

Us: Qué comió para la cena anoche? (What did you have for dinner last night?)
Aah, now we're getting somewhere! He looks up, thinks for a bit, and tells us. (It sounds like his foster mother is a wonderful cook!)

And .... that's about all we can come up with without a translator. The awkward silence ensues while we each try to think of something to talk about. Which is difficult. So we end up resorting to things like this:

Or this:

But no matter what, it always ends like this:

ADOPTION UPDATE

In other news, some big things are happening and things are speeding right along. Our dossier was approved on 10/31, only one business day after translation was completed. This is almost unheard of for approval to happen so quickly! For one thing, the stack of paperwork that must be reviewed is at least an inch thick. And frequently there are requests for further information that delay matters.

I know one thing that is helping is that the Colombian governmental family welfare agency (ICBF) has decided to allow La Casa de la Madre y el Niño, the orphanage in Bogotá that coordinated the Kidsave hosting program, to handle the processing of the subsequent adoptions. This helps immensely, since La Casa already approved our pre-hosting mini homestudy and medicals and one of their psychologists stayed with us for 5 days during Jean's host visit, and of course they debriefed Jean after he returned to Colombia. They know us already, and they know Jean and how much he desperately wants to come back to us. This personal element helps so much. Add to this all the prayers coming from family and friends, and we are set to break the record in how quickly a Kidsave child comes home to their forever family!

Another exciting development is that late last week, Jean was transferred from his foster home to La Casa. He will live there for the remaining couple of months until he comes home to us, where he will receive intensive English classes while the staff psychologists help prepare him for the transition. They will help him with any grief he experiences due to the separation from his foster family, and they will help him learn more about what it is to be part of a family.

At this point we are waiting for the official referral, which will contain a more complete file of his history than what we previously received. After we accept that it will be about two more months of paperwork with the U.S. government and getting visas for Colombia. So at this point it looks like we will be traveling mid to late January! It will depend on how much things slow down with the holidays as far as paperwork getting processed.

FUNDRAISING UPDATE

The puzzle is now 83% complete! It has been so exciting to see the puzzle picture gradually disappear as we flip purchased pieces over to write donors' names on the back. So this time in the photo I am including the box cover so people can remember what the finished puzzle will look like.

We are so very grateful for everyone's support. It is especially timely as later this week we need to make a $22,000 payment - yikes!!!

If anyone else would like to make a tax-deductible contribution, more information on how to do so can be found here.

Muchas gracias!

October Adoption Update

We have completed several of the biggest milestones in the process! Our homestudy was completed mid-August. In mid-September US Citizenship and Immigration approved us as suitable to adopt. And our dossier was mailed off to Colombia in early October.

Now we are waiting for the dossier to be translated, which takes about a month (and costs $3000 - gulp!) After that is done it is sent to Colombia's adoption committee for approval. Next they will send us Jean's referral which we accept then send back to US Citizenship and Immigration for approval. Once that happens we will be approved to travel to Colombia for the actual adoption.

As far as when this will happen, we are not sure. Our best guess right now is January.

PUZZLE FUNDRAISER UPDATE

It has been two weeks since we kicked off the puzzle fundraiser and it is so wonderful to see the outpouring of support for Jean!

We absolutely love how beautiful of a keepsake this will be for him. After we frame it in glass on both sides, not only will Jean be able to enjoy this as a wall-hanging in his room, but he will also be able to see all the names of those who were a piece of his adoption story on the back of the puzzle. Our family will also pray for all who contributed each time we look at the back of his puzzle with him!

After so many years of feeling unwanted, being passed from foster family to foster family, and thinking that he would probably never be adopted, this is going to mean so much to Jean to see how many people - many of whom have never even met him - already love him from afar and want to help him to finally belong to a forever family. We can't wait for him to see it!

Here is what the front of the puzzle looks like:

And here is the progression as puzzle pieces have been purchased over the past two weeks, showing the names of donors written on the backs of the pieces:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3 

Day 6

Note that at this point the word "orphans" has disappeared! That's the whole goal here, right?

Day 14

As of now, about two thirds of the puzzle pieces have sold! We are so very thankful for everyone's generosity.

We are hoping to fundraise $15,000 of the $40,000 we need for the adoption. We are at $6,387, almost halfway there!

If you would like to participate in this fundraiser, each piece is $20. When you donate through our AdoptTogether profile (tax deductible!), we take however many puzzle pieces your donation represents and write your name on the back of the pieces. 

You can choose to buy 1, 2, 5, 10, or however many pieces you like. When you make your tax-deductible donation, please put a note for how you would like your name to read (i.e. "Jane Smith" or "The Miller Family"). If you donate anonymously online, but would like to have your name on the puzzle, please email or message me. If you prefer to send a check, let me know and I'll give you our address.

Thank you again for everything, especially for your prayers for Jean, that the process be speedy and smooth, and for all orphans, that they may find forever families too.

A Piece of His Adoption Story

Adoption is expensive. International adoption, even more so. This adoption will end up costing around $40,000. We are hoping to raise $15,000 of that through fundraising. The other $25,000 we are fortunately able to cover through Tom's bonus earlier this year and me teaching some extra cooking classes.

We are super excited about this PUZZLE FUNDRAISER! Here's how it works:

I had a 500 piece puzzle made from this design I came up with. We are "selling" each piece for $20. When you donate through our AdoptTogether profile (tax deductible!), we take however many puzzle pieces your donation represents and write your name on the back of the pieces. Once the puzzle pieces have all been sold, we will frame the puzzle with glass on the front and back and it will hang in Jean's room. 

I know Jean is going to love looking at all the names of all those who were a piece of his adoption story, helping to bring him home to his forever family!

You can choose to buy 1, 2, 5, 10, or however many pieces you like. When you make your tax-deductible donation, please put a note for how you would like your name to read (i.e. "Jane Smith" or "The Miller Family"). If you donate anonymously online, but would like to have your name on the puzzle, please email or message me. If you prefer to send a check, let me know and I'll give you our address.

Those who have already donated already have their names on the back of the puzzle! I will post pictures every few days to show the progress.

Here's what we have so far:

I goofed up and wrote one person's name upside-down (sorry Margot!) Thanks in advance for all your help and prayers!

We Finally Get to Tell Him!

The day finally came! The day that we could tell Jean that, contrary to what he thought, we DID want him to become part of our family!

The last couple of summers, it has taken about four months before adoptive families were able to tell their host child that they were adopting them, as they had to wait until they were very far into the official adoption process. Thankfully however, this summer Colombia has decided to allow families to tell their host children as soon as the the process has officially started, with approval of the Letter of Intent. This means that Jean only had to wait one month to find out. Still painful for him (and us!) but much better than waiting four or more months.

In early September we got word that our Letter of Intent had been approved, and that they would inform Jean that we were adopting him just before our next Skype call. We could not wait to finally be able to talk about it with him! I imagined how the call would go and prepared what I would say. We did a test run 30 minutes prior to verify that computer microphones and webcams were all working properly.

At the appointed time, the call came in, but neither Tom or Jean could see the boys and I. They could hear us, but not see us. We could not figure out what the problem was. I called my tech-savvy brother-in-law in Florida and he informed me that Skype had just put out an update, and that if we didn't all have the same version of Skype that might be the problem. Sure enough, my version of Skype was not as up-to-date as Tom's and Colombia's, so I downloaded the update. After installing it, a message popped up saying I needed to reboot my computer. I rebooted and watched the screen turn black, then come back to life with the blue screen. "Wait a minute," I thought, as a message appeared - OH NO!

This was one of those random Windows updates that they don't warn you about, they just do without asking if it is a good time. It was SO stressful and frustrating, the whole time I was worried because it was towards the end of the work day, and I knew that the worker that Jean was with had to leave soon.

Thirty-five minutes later ....

The update finally completed, I was able to be added on to the Skype call and finally we could talk about the adoption! Jean had been told about the adoption just prior to the call, but then he had had to sit through about 45 minutes total of technical difficulty. So our "moment" wasn't quite what we expected it to be!

"So Jean," I said, "I think you know that we wrote a letter saying that we would like you to be part of our family." He smiled. "Does he say yes or no?" Tom asked the interpreter, "Sí, o no?"

Here is the video so you can see for yourself what Jean said:

But there was something else we needed to tell him.

"Jean," I said, "we want you to know that from the very beginning, we knew that we wanted to adopt you, but we weren't allowed to tell you. We knew we wanted you to be part of our family before we even met you in person. We so wanted to be able to tell you before you went home. It made us so sad that you thought we didn't want to adopt you, but we had to follow the rules and wait until we had permission to tell you. We want you to be part of our family forever, and we can't wait until you can come back to us!"

And now he knows!

The Backstory

It happened right after Easter, when we were discussing the possibility of getting a dog. Our cat had died last December and the kids were asking for another pet. I had spent days researching the perfect breed, and asked Tom whether he thought we should buy a puppy from a breeder (so that we could be relatively assured about what traits the dog would have), or whether we should adopt a dog from a shelter. My husband said "If we're going to adopt anything, it should be another child!"

I was surprised, as we are now in our late forties and early fifties and our children, adopted domestically at birth, are older too. We had always wanted more children, but after three more adoption attempts that all fell through, we assumed that God's plan for some reason was for us to have only two children. "Adopt again, now?" I wondered, aloud. We decided to pray about it.

The next day was Divine Mercy Sunday, and we attended a healing service after Mass. As the priest laid hands on me, I asked God to help us discern his will, and to make it clear for us what he would have us do. THE NEXT DAY, while the Gospel account of the Annunciation was being proclaimed at daily Mass, I heard the Lord tell me, a woman who was not expecting to be a mother (again), that he was asking me to be the mother of a very special child. Both the Psalm and the Old Testament readings contained the verse "Here I am Lord, I come to do your will."

Who, me?

That clear sign I had asked for? It was right there. Unmistakable.

I called my husband to tell him, he responded "You don't have to convince me, let's do it!" Only TWO DAYS from idea inspiration to confirmation in prayer. It was definitely from God. If it was from me, I'd still be hemming and hawing about it, researching it to death and stuck in fear, unable to make a decision.

But now what? We didn't feel the desire or call to adopt an infant or toddler. We wondered, could we be called to adopt an older child? This is something that in the past we would never have considered. Everyone knows that those children are too damaged, too hard, too scary.

Except that our God is the God who removes all fear. Who opens hearts and gives grace. Who calls us to care for the orphan and tells us all things are possible with Him.

I called a friend who adopted two orphans from China over the last couple of years. I didn't know which countries were doing international adoption right now, which agencies were good in our area, how to even get started. I asked if she knew anything about how to find older children. She told me that there was such a thing as older orphan hosting, where a child would come live with your family for a month or so during the summer, and you could meet each other to see if a match might be a good for both that child and your family. She suggested that I start researching this option at RainbowKids, an advocacy site for special needs orphans (being older is one type of special need).

I started visiting several of the eighteen different hosting programs and quickly became overwhelmed. I contacted my friend to ask:

I clicked on photolisting after photolisting. The blonde-haired blue-eyed kids from Poland, Latvia and the Ukraine were darling. The Chinese children were precious. And of course there were plenty of kids in the U.S. foster care system as well. Hmm, Colombia has a program? I'd always wanted to improve my Spanish, and had an affinity for Latin America, having vacationed in Mexico and Puerto Rico.

And then it happened.

Jean Carlos

Jean is an outgoing, agreeable, and affectionate 12 year old. He is in the 5th grade and is a good student. 

He currently lives in a foster home in Colombia and is in good health. Jean is helpful, cooperative, and attentive to his foster mom and others in the house. 

Jean Carlos is Catholic and drawn to everything religious. He attends Mass every Saturday evening with his foster family and prays the rosary every night before going to bed. 

Jean would like an adoptive family that loves him, supports him, guides him, spends a lot of time together, and makes him feel like part of the family.

That smile. Those eyes. He shares our faith. And most especially, he looked like he would fit right in with our other brown boys.

I called Tom at work and told him I was sending him links to a few different photolistings from different countries and asked him to take a look. I didn't mention Jean, as I was curious to see if Tom would feel drawn to consider any other children.

He called me back a little later and said "Did you see Jean Carlos from Colombia? I really like him."

They say "When you know, you know." They are usually talking about finding your spouse. In this case it is about finding our child. We know. We have been called and we have been led to our child. We knew before we even called to get more information that he was the one. We knew so clearly that we started our homestudy before we even met him.

That not understanding why, years ago, those other three adoptions all fell through? Maybe, just maybe, it was because God had a different, better idea. One that required us to have space in our family, as it is not usually a good idea to adopt children older than your oldest child. One that necessitated us having some more parenting experience under our belts. One that foreknew that a very special child was going to need a family now, in 2016.

And thank God for that.

A Long Overdue Update

Those of you you follow Jean's Journey probably noticed that I haven't posted in a while. As the time approached for Jean to return to Colombia, I found it really difficult to think about. In four short weeks, Jean became a part of our family - we didn't want him to leave!

At one point, I asked him "Do you like our family?" to which he wholeheartedly replied "Yes!" I had wondered because we had some issues with one of the kids getting pretty jealous of all the attention Jean was getting, and because - let's face it - with a visit of four weeks, we could only be on our best behavior for so long, and he definitely got to see the real us. I pointed this out to him, saying "We aren't a perfect family." His response? "You are for me." That brought tears to my eyes!

As departure day approached, Jean hinted around, telling us "I don't want to go," "I want to stay here," and "I want to come back someday." The day before he left he told my oldest son at the pool "I want to be adopted, but mamá doesn't want me." Nathan didn't know what to say, since he knew that we actually did want to adopt Jean, but that we weren't allowed to tell him yet.

Kidsave has a lot of experience with this, and they know that such a big decision shouldn't be made in the heat of emotion. We had to wait until two weeks after Jean left before we could send in our Letter of Intent to adopt. Later we found out that the first two or three days after returning, Jean spent a lot of that time in tears. I can't imagine how that must have felt for him, thinking that we had rejected him, that his one chance to finally have a family was lost forever!

Three and a half weeks after he returned to Colombia, we finally got to Skype with him. It was wonderful to see Jean's smiling face and hear his sweet voice again. We heard about how his classes are going, how he's learning more English, and about the festival that is going on where he lives. He asked the boys and I to play some piano for him and we obliged. We remembered some of the funny things that happened while he was here and made silly faces at each other. Then he held up a hand-lettered sign that said, in English, "I REALLY NEED YOU" with a little sad face drawn underneath. My heart broke since we still could not tell him that we were adopting him.

But the next day we got word that Colombia accepted our Letter of Intent, and that they would tell him very soon that his dreams of having a family are finally coming true! Soon I will write about finally getting to tell him that he is going to part of our family - forever!

Fun in the Sun

Imagine our surprise when we learned that despite living in a country that enjoys both Atlantic and Pacific coastlines,

Jean has never seen the ocean, never played on a beach!

Well, that was easy to rectify. Living in Maryland, we are just a couple of hours from many great ocean beaches.

We arrived at Cape Henelopen, Delaware at sunset.

Jean REALLY enjoyed the beach! The boys were on the beach for seven hours straight and would have stayed longer if we'd let them.

DC Reflecting Pool

Foxhill Park

A local favorite neighborhood park - spinny things and looking at turtles in the pond.

Water Balloons!

Bombas de agua, as Jean calls them, are very popular around here, as evidenced buy the many pieces of brightly-colored rubber scattered around our yard!

Feliz Cumpleaños - to Jean Carlos and to the United States!

The last couple of days have been pretty jam-packed! July Fourth was Jean's 12th birthday - and he had a great time making his birthday cake with Grandma. We went to a cookout at a neighbor's house for lunch, where Jean enjoyed not only his beloved hot dogs and hamburgers, but tried a few new things as well, including tortilla chips and salsa made from TOMATOES - to which he said "¡Me gusta! And yet he still insists that he doesn't like tomatoes :-) So funny.

He LOVED blowing out his candles and getting gifts - a Simon game and another game from Uncle Chris, a Star Wars puzzle, shirt, and Lego kit from Grandma and Grandpa, and a Colombian soccer jersey, coloring book and gel pens from us. Plus later in the evening when we saw Cami, a sweet girl being hosted by our new friends the Rogers, she gave him a basketball shirt, and an Adidas ball cap. She knows how much he likes sports from their time together at the preparatory camp in Colombia.

In the evening we attended a Kidsave Fireworks party in the Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. It was perfectly situated to see the fireworks on the National Mall. The low-hanging clouds obscured the view somewhat, but it was still spectacular. The kids had a great time, enjoying the gourmet hot dog and hamburger stations, cupcakes, cotton candy, caramel corn and s'mores.

One of the great things about these events is getting to see the past participants of Kidsave's Summer Miracles program. It's plain to see that these are great kids who are thriving and blossoming and happy now that they are in families. In just two or three years they've learned to speak almost pefect English - it's amazing.

While the kids watched the movie Up in the theater, the adults enjoyed getting to hear the stories of a past Kidsave adoptive mom who adopted three kids from Kazakhstan around ten years ago. Two of her now-grown and very successful kids were there. It was very moving to hear their stories of what things had been like in the orphanage before their adoptions and how much better their lives are, and how much love and appreciation they have for their mom - they had tears in their eyes as they described how she had truly saved them from a horrible future after growing up with no family and no potential for an education or a means to support themselves as adults. One of the kids is now a highly decorated military sergeant - so inspiring to hear her love for our country and desire to give back in gratitude for all she has received here in the U.S. It was also truly amazing to see the outpouring of support for Kidsave during the live and silent auctions - so many generous people stepping up to give these great kids the families they deserve.

Speaking of which, if you've been thinking about giving, now is a good time because a very generous donor is matching every donation that Kidsave gets up to $75,000! Not only can you feel great about helping to support Kidsave's life-saving work, but you can feel doubly good as your gift is doubled!

If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation with a 100% match, click here.

Yesterday was a little more laid back, but did include a pro-bono eye checkup from Lenscrafters courtesy of their Gift of Sight program. The doctor determined that Jean could use a mild prescription, but recommended not bothering with glass right now, not just because he can manage just fine without them, but because it's entirely possible that as he continues to grow, things will improve. The doctor did diagnose a pretty severe eye allergy though, and prescribed some prescription drops to give Jean some relief. He said it wasn't visible to the naked eye, and that it could only be seen with his digital eye microscope, so I'm really grateful again to Lenscrafters for this great program.

Kudos also to Michelle Wissman who generously and gladly came to the appointment to translate. She is a sweetheart and Jean is always excited to see her. We finished up the day with Grandma and Grandpa treating us to dinner at Outback (where he discovered that he actually does like ketchup - again, made from TOMATOES), and a visit to the pool.

Los Abuelitos Arrive!

Grandma and Grandpa have arrived! During our Skype call two nights before he arrived, Jean asked what all we'd be doing during his visit. The mention of my parents coming to visit made him very happy. On Thursday, before we even left the airport, he asked when los abuelitos would arrive. You should have seen his face when he heard it would be on Sunday!

Mass in English was nice. He was a little concerned on the way about not being able to understand it, but I let him read along with the readings in Spanish on iBreviary on my iPhone, and he followed along with the rest of the rite in English with the missalette. He was excited about getting to receive Holy Communion.

After communion he asked if we could go the pool after lunch. This is probably his most frequent question - it gets asked multiple times a day every day! The day before our friend Michelle Wissman (who is fluent in Spanish) had offered to teach him to swim, and he was excited to begin. Plus we had told him the pool would be giving out free hot dogs and hamburgers today which was also a cause of great excitement.

He was a very eager student! It will take him a while to learn to coordinate the arms, legs, and breathing, but he wanted to learn freestyle, backstroke, and breaststroke all in one day!

He also learned to play Marco Polo today. He liked being tagged so he could be "it" - it was funny to watch him purposely put himself in arms reach. It took him a little while to understand that he had to keep his eyes closed when it was his turn though!

It's amazing how easily he plays with the other children even with the language barrier. They just seem to figure things out. The English-speaking kids seem to think he's interesting because he doesn't speak much English!

You Say Tomato, I Say Tomate

 Our first evening home, I discovered that Jean (pronounced "Gian") doesn't like tomatoes. I asked him to take a taste of the raw sliced tomatoes with salt and pepper and he obligingly did, but politely informed me "No me gusta". The next day I served homemade cream of tomato soup with bean and cheese quesadillas for lunch, and again, he willingly tasted a spoonful, but again, "No me gusta".

Later I was unpacking groceries which included multiple cans of tomatoes. And that is when Jean's sense of humor manifested. "Basta tomates, basta tomates, basta tomates!!" (Enough tomatoes, enough tomatoes, enough tomatoes!!) So Tom immediately started saying in his best Spanish "Tomorrow, tomatoes for breakfast! Tomatoes for lunch! Tomatoes for dinner! Tomato water, tomato milk, tomato showers and tomato swimming pool!" To which Jean replied each time with a huge smile "No, no tomates!" And it has become the running gag all of yesterday and today. If he says "Tengo hambre" (I'm hungry - which he says a LOT), we say "Quieres tomates? (Do you want tomatoes?", which results in a huge grin and a resounding "No, no tomates!" Such fun!

At one point I reminded him, since he'd said he likes pizza, that pizza has tomato sauce on it. I informed him that we were having pizza for dinner at the pool and he wasn't thrilled about that. I don't know if the pizza he had in Colombia didn't have tomato sauce, or more likely - he just didn't realize that it was tomato sauce. When the pizza came, there were even tomatoes pictured on the box! More distress! But when he tried it, mmmmm ....

Funnier yet, later in the evening he was thirsty and asked me what there was to drink. I opened the fridge and said there was water or milk. He spied some small cans of V-8 in the door that I had forgotten were there and asked if he could have one. I said sure, grinning. He opened it up and chugged it. I asked if he liked it (Te gusta?), he said that he did, and when I informed him that it was tomato juice you should have seen his face!

In other news, Zachary returned from Webelos camp today, tired, happy and hoarse from all the yelling they did. He and Jean immediately hit it off. I think Nathan will be happy to be back in his own room tonight. He had generously offered to take Zachary's bunk for the first couple of nights so that Jean would not have to be alone.

Tomorrow is a day Jean has been excitedly awaiting - getting to meet los abuelitos (aka Grandma and Grandpa) who fly in tomorrow morning.

Hasta mañana!

Swimming and Biking and Minecraft, Oh My!

Another fun-filled day. This boy is active! After breakfasting on egg and cheese arepas,  he wanted to get out on las bicicletas. I wasn't sure if he really knew how to ride, but I needn't have worried. He says he doesn't own a bike, but clearly he has access to one because he knew what he was doing. He and Nathan enjoyed zooming around the neighborhood.

Later in the morning we were invited to swim at the neighbor's house. Which was good because Jean really wanted to swim and did not want to wait until after lunch to go to the neighborhood pool. I was able to ascertain that Jean is quite comfortable in the water, but I couldn't tell if he can really swim any distance.

After lunch he wanted to go to the other pool but I needed to get a few things done so I had him watch a Muzzy video to learn some English. The Spanish subtitles helped him to understand what was happening. At one point some of the characters tell each other that they love one another. Jean turned to me and said, in English, "You love me?". Oh my goodness ... "Yes!" I said. "I love you!" he said. Swoon!

Then off to the big community pool. He wanted to go right over to the diving well. I don't think so! Sure enough, the swim test revealed that he cannot truly swim. And sadly, lessons are completely booked up until July 18th. I need to find a way for him to get lessons right away. He's only here for four weeks!

It's fun for me trying to figure out what he likes to eat and attempting to make things that I know he'll like, and that he is familiar with, but to still expose him to some new things as well. He seems to like to know while eating one meal, what the next will be. Last night when I was making the chicken legs he asked who else was coming to dinner (probably because I made a lot extra). When I said "No one", he asked if we were going to eat more chicken tomorrow. Nathan explained that in our family we don't eat meat on Fridays. I thought it might be hard to explain that to him, but he knew just what we were talking about. I asked what he wanted for dinner tonight - eggs, fish, or beans. He got super excited and said "Pescado, pescado, pescado!" Ok, so this boy really likes fish! So that's what we did - grilled salmon with lemon butter, rice pilaf, and zucchini. Jean ate everything, had an extra helping of fish, then sat back and called himself a little piggy while patting his belly. Adorable.

Now Nathan is showing him how to play Minecraft. Here's hoping Jean is able to sleep a little better tonight - he is excited to meet Zachary tomorrow upon his arrival home from Cub Scout camp!

Jean's First Day in the USA

Yesterday was amazing! Jean (he prounounces it "gee-ahn", kind of like Gianna without the last syllable) is an amazing kid and we are absolutely enchanted.

As soon as he saw us yesterday he came running to us with a big smile and even bigger hugs! I had tears in my eyes. Then he immediately opened up his backpack and started handing us gifts. I did not expect that! Drawings, an illustrated letter, and rosary bracelets for all four of us. Mine has blue beads and Tom and the boys got wooden ones. Then it was time for pictures, a little paperwork, and him saying goodbye to his chaperone and the other Kidsave kids. He wasn't anxious at all, but excited to go to our house!

Zachary missed out on the airport greeting because he is still at Webelos camp. But he made a video to welcome Jean and to tell him he couldn't wait to meet him on Saturday when he gets back from camp.

Jean did great on the car ride home. We were told that a lot of the kids aren't used to riding in the car, and that we should bring supplies in case he got ill, but thankfully he had no trouble at all. It was a LONG commute home from Dulles Airport, over two hours because of rush hour Beltway traffic. But he enjoyed looking at all the gifts we brought him, had a snack, and then we used a whiteboard to play something like Pictionary. We took turns drawing something, then writing the name of the item in Spanish and English. He also took a nap for about an hour and was refreshed when we got home.

It was magical to see him explore the house! It was like watching a little kid on Christmas morning, wide-eyed with wonder at all his presents, except for Jean it was his excitement about all the fun things he found in our house. He flitted from one thing to another with Nathan - piano, Pokemon cards, ping-pong, magic tricks, and catching fireflies. He found the telescope and wanted to look at the stars but it was getting late and we told him perhaps tomorrow.

It is SO nice to have Nathan here to play with him - that allowed me to get dinner on the table. Jean was excited at the menu: pollo asado (grilled chicken drumsticks), rice, beans, plaintains, sliced tomatoes and melon. He had very good table manners and kept saying how delicious everything was and thanking me.

In general he is very polite and well-mannered. It is obvious that his foster parents have taught him well. The first thing he did before entering our house was to wipe his feet on the welcome mat, then he took off his shoes at the door and put them in the basket with the other shoes. When playing with the toys in the basement he puts them away before getting out the next thing. He washed his glass after having some water, which led me to show him the dishwasher to explain to him that he doesn't need to wash his dishes himself.

He had a little difficulty falling asleep. I don't know if it was the fact that he napped in the car, or if all the excitement just made it hard to wind down. Perhaps a little of both. But eventually he fell asleep, looking forward to the next day's planned activities: bike riding and going to the pool!

Tomorrow is the Big Day!

I don't know if I'll be able to sleep tonight! I hope so, because I was so excited last night after our Skype call that I got very little sleep.

We are ready to go to the airport tomorrow! See?

I really, really like Juan Camilo, the kids' chaperone/social worker from Colombia. He really seems to care about the kids and is getting to know their personalities and strengths and weaknesses. He just sent us a few more helpful updates on Jean, such as:

• He lives in a farm town outside of a big city (he is not used to the big city life and may be overwhelmed by some things). (Good to know, maybe taking him into DC to see the fireworks for the 4th isn't such a good idea, will have to wait and see ...)
• He is a perfectionist. This can be his flaw sometimes because he can get mad at himself if something isn’t done perfectly, but it is also a good thing since he tries hard and puts effort into everything.
• In order to deal with the above, the coordinator suggested that he needs to be given personal space and he will snap out of it very quickly. He likes to process his frustration on his own time. It most likely has nothing to do with you, it’s frustration with his own perfectionism. (So helpful to have this figured out already ...)
• They told us he is the most educated/cultured of the group with the best manners! All of the children struggle with table manners, which is something to keep in mind, but Jean Carlos is very polite and always saying thank you. (How nice!)
• Very funny, loves jokes, music, and singing! A joy to be around.

ONLY ONE MORE DAY!!!!!! Now, off to see if I can get a little sleep ......