Two children at once

I have seen a lot of question about people wanting to adopt 2 children at a time and hesitating about getting the help of relatives.
So, I wanted to write a little bit about our experience.

As most of you know by now, we came back from Moscow with 2 beautiful children at once 4 month ago and the day we arrived we were all tired.

My mother was with us the day we arrived and she says that in the middle of that night my one year old girl was crying and neither my husband or I heard a thing, so she knock at our door and nobody answered, then she went inside the bedroom and shake me gently for a while and I just did not respond. So, she went inside my girl’s room, and took care of her: changed her diaper, rocked her a little bit and put her back to sleep. I have no recollection of the episode!! How embarrassing! And how thankful that mom was there for the rescue. Yes, I felt guilty for a while.
We had been awake for 24 hours by the time we went to bed that night and there was an 8 hour difference and we also were exhausted from the week we spend the 4 of us in the hotel in Russia where we believe we became a family. I am so thankful my mom was there with us for the first 2 months.
While spending time with our kids, my mother just took her place as grandma which is her rightful place. We believe our kids did not get confused. Right now mom is not with us and will be back in a month or so.

It was overwhelming to suddenly go from an empty nest to a family of 4 with a 1 year old girl and a 2 year old boy … but looking back at the whole experience and still going through it, I would not change a thing and today I am so glad we adopted both at the same time.

Blessings to all of you that are considering taking this road with two at once!

If you do decide to adopt two at once, I would encourage you to accept the help of the people from your family you consider you can trust to help in this special way. What I mean is, people you can explain the attachment issue to and will be willing to help you as you need but be sensitive to leave the most attaching tasks to you; that is, if you are awake for it!.

Thank you Mom for your great help!!!

Peter pan & tinker bell

We went to Disney last weekend and all of us loved it.

Daddy and Mommy cried during the parade …the ”dreams come true …”song was kind of meaningful to all of us … we also made it to Epcot Center and visited “Mexico” with some other friends. The mariachis were great … David and Julia danced away with the music and pretended to be playing instruments … It was a short trip, just to experiment how difficult it could be. It really was marvelous the kids behave so well if you take into consideration their age and the amount of time: from 10 am to 10 pm.

Yes, we are crazy! We are very consistent with their routine and I believe the routine is part of the success with the kids but like everything in life, it is good to be flexible and teach them flexibility because once in a while things do not fall into routines and scheduled planning activities, you know, sometimes Disney happens and you got to be ready for it.

Daddy's girl

I love to dress Julia up and then put something pretty in her hair. The problem is to keep the hair pieces on. We usually play the game of let's see who gets tired first: me putting it in or her taking it out. Well, my tactic now is to put it on and then give her something to distract her hands. This picture here is one of the hundreds of Brian's attempts to take a picture of Julia where she is looking at the camera, she is actually smiling and she has the hair piece on. As you can see, she is already trying to get her hands free so she can take it off.

I love to see Brian after Julia trying to take a picture of her, he chases her and she knows she is the center of attention; Julia particularly likes it when he pretends to be cookie monster and just kisses her.

Today, at breakfast time, Brian was whistling and Julia would follow the music pretending she was singing. By the expressions of her face, the movements of her hands and the passion of the voice, I would say she was singing opera! In the background of this picture, you see David with his favorite toy these days: a broom.

They both love our new patio. We decided to add some pavers to the back of the house to make a big terrace so that the kids could play easier, but then we realized we needed to fence it. The second picture shows the final result. We will enjoy this space for Thanksgiving (we live in South Florida) when the whole family on both sides will be here to celebrate and give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and the special gifts we have received this year.

David calls me "Máaama"

This started on our long trip to Charlotte: David started to get a little fussy, so I would reach back and started to rub his feet. Well, guess what? He loves it!
So now when we are in the car and papi is driving, he says, Máaama!! I look at him and he wiggles his feet … I start rubbing his foot and he puts his fingers in his mouth just like in this picture … Isn’t he cute!!!

At night when Brian and I are watching TV, I do the same, I wiggle my feet and Brian gives me a feet massage, I have done this for years and now is pay time for me!!

David’s favorite new word is “Por que?” and he also says it in English “Why?” it is so funny because he really does not speak sentences yet, but he would say “Máaama …” and then he starts this “pretend” talk and looks at me and says “Por que?”

A surprised visit to Grandpa and grandma – an update!

Hi everybody!

I am so sorry I have taken so long to write on our blog! I just realized how long it has been when we got the email reminding us to send our 3 month post placement reports!
We have finished the reports now and I am ready again to blog away!!!

It was more than a month ago, a Monday morning, we woke up with the news that Hurricane Ernesto was definitely coming to South Florida.
On the past, Brian and I just take it slow; we would get ready and sometimes make plans to leave the city. This year was different! Now we have David and Julia (besides our little dog Lola) to take care of.

I actually panicked and transmitted the panic to my husband. We rushed to the stores earlier than usual, bought so much food and water and still did not feel OK. So we decided to leave the city.

By 4PM that Monday, Brian and I took David, Julia and Lola on our minivan and traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina to visit grandma and grandpa Knowles!! An escape from the horrible hurricane coming our way. We slept the night at a hotel and the next day started again. Babies and dog behaved so well!! I was impressed.

On this trip we visited Vicky and Craig, we had a great time at grandpa and grandma Knowles and visited the Billy Graham Association to introduce our children to the dear people that prayed for them. So, let me tell you how it went:

In our way to Charlotte, I remembered that our good friends, Vicky and Craig, live in South Carolina and we would have to go by their city on our way to Charlotte, so we called her and she was so kind to change her plans for that afternoon, met us at an intersection and received us in her house.

What a great gift for us to be able to see them again. Vicky and Craig adopted a beautiful baby girl in Russia. We met them while they were on their last trip and we were on our first trip, so we have met her baby girl but they only knew David and Julia from pictures.
Their daughter is so beautiful and looks like she could be David’s cousin; she is also only 5 days younger than Julia: they are both walking great and getting into everything.

Grandpa and Grandma called us to hurry up to get to Charlotte for dinner. I can describe the feeling of being at their house. I could sense our children’s happiness and reminded me of the special times when I used to go to a little town in Colombia to visit my grandma Jadne.

We ate so well!!! Of course anyone that had the pleasure to eat Dick’s cooking, knows what I mean. Even his white rice tastes better than any other white rice I ever had.

Then on Thursday, we went to the Billy Graham association to introduce our children to Dick and Berenice’s friends and co-workers. What a humbling experience!! There were people coming from all over the place to meet David and Julia; these are people that were committed to pray for our adoption and we are so thankful for it. I just have to stop here and say, I believe in the power of prayer and adoption can be a very complicated process: so many things can go wrong! And we were adopting two, in two different orphanages! We were the witness of so many miracles on our way to adopting our children. That is why I would encourage any of you in the process to pray to God to bring to you prayer partners that will be committed to praying for your children and for you. I believe it is not so much so that God would “do” but that we would be able to trust and hope and wait as we get so many “worrying” news or possible scary scenarios and that we would keep the faith and do not quit right in the middle of the adoption process.

There were so many times I felt overwhelmed and second guessed if it was really God’s will to adopt Julia or David!!! I feel horrible to have to confess those feelings but I had them. Today, I am so thankful that (I believe because of prayer) we were somehow able to have the strength to take step by step and wait step by step and hope step by step, feeling the reality of the “out of our control” process but knowing that the Lord was in control and he knew where He was headed. I am so glad today because we are blessed to have David and Julia …

So, if you need a prayer partner to be available to pray for your adoption, let me know, I will commit to pray for you if you ask me. I have seen the power of it and I would love to be part of your adoption story!!!

After a great time at Dick and Berenice’s house, we decided to head back to Miami on Saturday and this time we did it in one day.

Julia and David love grandpa and grandma! They pretend to call them in the phone and blow kisses to them. They also love their “abuelita” or “abue” that is, my mother Carmen.