A Long Overdue Update

I'm not sure where to begin as it's been so long since I've written.  The past couple of months have been full: full of activities, full of appointments, full of family, full of...life. 

It feels like we have now settled into a "normal" way of life, albeit a new "normal" from our life before Maria.  Although we've never been a family who has the same schedule week after week, month after month like most, it does feel like we have a natural rhythm going.  It feels good. 

Carlos has been in summer school over the past six weeks.  Tomorow is his last day.  Fifteen Kindergarten students out of the five Kindergarten classrooms were chosen to participate this summer, and Carlos was one of them.  His Kindergarten teacher was the one teaching the class, so it felt very natural to Carlos. He had no anxiety.  Plus, a few of the students from his school year class were chosen as well, so that made it much easier for him to go, knowing several of the students.  He had one week off after the school year was over, and then he has been going every Monday through Thursday morning.  With being absent from school for six weeks this spring due to being in Colombia and because of Eric's passing, summer school has really helped Carlos improve his writing and speaking in Spanish!  He will now be ready for first grade!

As I mentioned in previous posts, Carlos has been seeing a counselor once a week for several months now.  He has been making such great progress with the processing of his emotions, his fears, his security, his identity.  There have been no intense outburts for the past month, and he is enjoying his life more.  He is more at ease, more grounded.  He and Maria play really well together for good periods of time throughout each day.  At one point this week I asked him if he hated his sister still, and he said no!  Their relationship now seems like a typical sibling relationship.  Praise God!

Kevin has done a beautiful job talking with Carlos through all of his questions, thoughts, and emotions.  Kevin puts him to bed almost every night, and he has created a safe, loving space for Carlos to talk with him each night before going to sleep.  Carlos knows that he can ask any question, that they can talk about anything.  There are some nights where their talks last only a few minutes before Carlos drifts off to sleep, but there have been many, many nights where they are talking for an hour to an hour and a half.  This takes a tremendous amount of patience and strength and wisdom on Kevin's part as, even though we all want what's best for our kids and to give them what they need, we as parents do all look forward to the time each night when the kids are asleep and we can have some "me" and/or "us" time.  Kevin has sacrificed many, many hours of work and relaxation to give Carlos the time he needs to process through all that's going on in his little head.  What a blessing Kevin is to this family.  He is an amazing father.  I am so proud of him!

Besides going to school and counseling, Carlos has been enjoying our trips to the beach, catching toads in the yard, reading (he can read books in Spanish AND English!), drawing, playing with friends and cousins, and going fishing with Daddy. (Carlos LOVES fishing, and we're not sure where he got that from!  Kevin is NOT a fisherman, but bless his heart he has learned all about it and takes Carlos.  I tell ya, he's quite the dad!)

And now for Maria!  Over the past month and a half, she has seen the pediatric opthamologist and the pediatric endocrinologist.  Both said that everything looks good and is normal!  The endocrinologist did have us do more bloodwork to check Maria's hormone levels and also get an x-ray of her hand and wrist to check her bone maturation, which we did last week.  If everything looks good, then he'll just want to see us once a year for a checkup.  Same with the opthamologist.  So all is well on the medical front!! 

Oh, and we have health insurance for Maria now!  We qualified for Michigan's Healthy Kids coverage for both kids for the year, and they retroed it to start in March so all of Maria's appointments, blood work, x-rays, etc., are covered!!  This is a huge praise to God! 

A woman from Early On services of Michigan has been coming to our home once a month starting last month to give us support for Maria educationally until Maria is 36 months old.  She came yesterday for the second time and was amazed at the progress Maria has made in just one month!  Her language has really blossomed.  She easily has about 75 words now and is putting two and three words together.  Her play is more focused, her pincer grasp is strong...she is just learning and growing like crazy!  She's still quite behind her same aged peers in language, (which I don't notice until we're around other two year old little girls!) but at the rate she's going, she'll catch up in no time! 

In the past two weeks, Maria's independence and stubbornness have been shining through.  And a little bit of naughtiness too!  She has learned the word "mine" and really enjoys using it, even when it's not true!  She also says "this way" and likes to direct our paths whenever we're out walking.  It's so very cute! 

Oh, I almost forgot to report that she's been sleeping through the night ever since our curtains fell down!  We thought of everything that it could possibly be except that it was too dark!  Now that we leave the curtains partially open through the night, she sleeps great!  It's been wonderful not dreading going to bed!

This summer Maria has been enjoying playing in the agua (any agua!), going to the beach (she LOVES the sand, just like her big brother does!), mowing the grass with Daddy (she rides on his back in the Ergo), going for walks with Momma, and just playing!  Her favorite toys are cars, blocks, the train set, and costume jewelry - that's our well-rounded little girl!

Kevin has been keeping busy with library visits and collaborating with other local artists and creative thinkers for ArtPrize 2010.  If you want to find out more about what their doing, you'll have to contact Kevin.  You can check him out on Facebook.  It's very cool stuff! 

I have just been busy being a mom, wife, and home maker!  And boy do I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day!  I am excited to say that I cook a Colombian meal once a week - that's been delicious.  When we first got home I tried numerous recipes a week, but over the months we've narrowed down our favorites.  Our family's favorite meal is a Colombian lentil dish that we eat with white rice.  The kids want me to make it once a week, and it makes great left overs, so I've been trying to do that.  They both gobble it down!  There is a great cookbook that I use that was recommended by several adoptive moms called "The Secrets of Colombian Cooking."  Now if only I could find a great Guatemalan cookbook!  I have a few recipes, but all are with meat, so....my search continues...

I would love to have included photos with this post, but I'll have to save those for another day.  Until then!