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!