court #3!

Yay! Thanks for all your prayers. We’re in court 3 and the other family who is here with us is in court 2. So our paperwork will be moving separately but hopefully both will be quick. The lawyer said that she will stop by the court again on Thursday and will find out what the approximate time line will be for the rest of the adoption to be completed. In her words (translated) “I’ll keep bugging them to make sure the papers move.” She also told us that we can complete most of the out of court paperwork here in Neiva instead of Bogota. According to her, the judges in Bogota can be really picky but the notaries and judges in Neiva are very nice and work fast. So, looks like we’ll have a shorter stay in Bogota than we thought. The only things we’ll have to do there are the visas for the girls.

I have to say, the city of Neiva is wonderful. I love everything about it so far. The people are very very friendly. It’s quite safe where we are. It has a small town feel, because it is kind of a small town. It’s population is about 370,000 compared to Bogota’s 8 million! It’s HOT here. Like in the 90’s every day and sunny and no rain. The pool is very warm. The hotel staff love the girls. They talk to them and call them by name. I guess a lot of adoptive families stay here. One staff member in particular really looks out for us and the girls. His name is Orlando and he showed us all his pictures taken with him and other children who have been adopted and stayed at this hotel. In fact, he said one of the little girls came  back 20 years later just to say hi to him. Isn’t that sweet.

The girls had kind of an off day today. We came up with lots of reasons why but really who knows. It could be because of all the social workers, lawyers, and translator showing up yesterday for our integracion meeting. It could be because they didn’t sleep well last night. Kelly cries out and talks in her sleep every night, but last night especially she was crying out like she was scared. We think her subconscious fears are in full throttle during the night while  Monica’s are clearly at play during the day. It could be because I held Kelly this morning  for a half hour while she hatched out of sleep and Monica gets very jealous any time I give Kelly any attention. It could be because it was really hot today. It’s 10 pm right now and weather.com says it feels like 96 degrees. Both girls ate differently today. Monica has been picky since we met her, but today at dinner we had to keep telling her to slow down because she was eating so fast and so much. It breaks our hearts because we don’t know why these mood swings, eating swings, sleeping swings happen. I think we’re all kind of feeling cooped up even though we go out and take walks in the city 3 times a day. There’s nothing exciting about eating dinner on the bathroom floor every night because it’s too hot out side and too messy to eat any where else. No one really eats out for dinner here. Lunch is the big meal and everyone seems to go out for that, including us. Then oneseems to go in for a siesta. That part is nice.

More about Monica: She likes to do Kelly’s hair. She loves to play with her dolls and have mami help her put their hair in ponytail bun-like dos. She loves to do her own hair and put as many barrettes in it as possible in as many places as possible. It’s really cute. She loves to look good when she goes out. She is a very good swimmer for her age and she learns fast! Today I showed her how to do the back stroke. She picked it up quickly. She’s always looking out for Kelly’s safety when we walk in the street. She makes sure Kelly is holding our hands and that mami and papi are keeping an eye on her younger sister. She likes to help mami and papi put on sunscreen and clean up after diner. She really likes having money. Papi gives them a coin every day and she saves them up. She kept saying she wanted to spend them on dulces but we told her she didn’t quite have enough. Then, yesterday she had to go to the bathroom in the middle of lunch at the supermercado (big surprise ;-)) and we told her she would have to use her own money to get the paper. We didn’t know how she would take that but she had no problem with it. Seems like she just wanted to spend her money mami! Today she gave all her coins to a homeless woman who was waiting by our table at a cafe. Very compassionate. She is good at coloring and tracing. I drew pictures last night and she spent a long time tracing them onto her own paper and was so happy when they looked just like mine. So today we bought her tracing paper. She didn’t want to use it when we got back to the casa! Go figure 😉 She likes to negotiate with Kelly and trade whatever she possible can. Kelly could care less so that works out well.

More about Kelly: She touches EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE! Aiy aiy aiy! She knows she’s not supposed to touch certain things but she just can’t help herself and I can’t help but smile even though I have to say “Don’t touch.” Usually, she beats me to it and says it before I do, in her broken English “no tuh.” How can you be mad at that? She’s missing about 3 front teeth. We asked the social worker yesterday what happened and she said they got knocked out somehow. I’m not surprised. She acts before she thinks, falls down tons, bumps her head, knees, toes, elbows all the time. It doesn’t phase her. She repeats things we say in English all the time. When it’s her turn to pick the peliquila before bed she either wants to watch “sweat” (Shrek), “lola” (Dora), or “mi prima Ava” our niece’s birthday video. She loves to watch Ava and wants to talk with her on Skype all the time. She laughs a lot, mostly at herself. She’s very twitchy. She’s afraid of trucks but not cars or motorcycles. Makes us wonder what happened to her. She’s very afraid of homeless people. She loves animals, except for butterflies and bees. She likes to shake her finger at you as she walks around the casa and chatters away. Who knows what she’s saying. She likes to mimic mami. She watched me take a pill the other night, pop it in my mouth, take a drink, then tip my head back to swallow. She pretends to do that all the time now and just laughs and laughs. She’s a pretender.