Thursday, October 4, 2007

8 'ish' Families Ahead of Us


Okay, for those of you who don’t know I love culture and languages. I would love to know a handful of languages. I have wanted to learn Spanish for a long time and finally was able to take college courses at the college in the Spring. But because of my work schedule and the kids activity schedules I have not been able to continue with the classes and it’s driving me crazy. So I finally broke down and bought a Spanish series that I can do at home and it has practice CDs for the car…perfect! I know I won’t be fluent without some formal education and emersion into the language, but it’s at least a way for me to continue with what I have already learned.

The other night I was practicing some of my Spanish working with Nate. He finally started catching on and is a pro at the basic greeting paragraph. “Hello”, then if someone asks his name he can reply with “my name is Nate”, then the person may say “nice to meet you”, and he can say “likewise” (igualamente…his favorite Spanish word)! By the time Emi joined in, Nate was doing really well and Emi was a bit jealous. She said that I will have to use Spanish for Nate and Sign Language with her. She understands sign, but is having a more difficult time with the Spanish. They have learned a few key phrases like Good Night, I love you, time to go to bed, thank you, your welcome, please, sorry, bathroom and a few others. So I am hoping that having this series to work with on the computer, that it will help all of us to learn. Nate can mimic the accent really well, it’s funny.
Aside from the Spanish some other news is that we had asked if there was a way to find out how many Children’s Hope International families are ahead of us with paperwork already in Colombia and waiting. Our Ohio representative was able to tell us that there are approximately 4 families ahead of us for 2 siblings ages 0-6 and 4 families ahead of us for 2 siblings ages 0-7. So about 8 families are ahead of us. It will be kind of fun to watch the monthly notices we receive from CHI of who is traveling and who is soon to travel because they state the siblings and ages of the children that families are adopting. So we can kind of keep up and have an idea of how quickly things are going, by the monthly updates. The numbers she gave us are by no means a gage of the timing, when it’s our turn, it’s our turn and it will be perfect timing. But still the numbers are a kind of comforting as we see the folks who are traveling each month.
We did request a list of the children who are on the waiting list to be adopted. Some have special needs of various sorts, some are older children or sibling groups etc. We looked over the list with open hearts, but did not feel that any of them were our forever children. So we will wait, but pray for those on the list to find their forever families.

Also, several families from the Yahoo group will be traveling in October. Some of us meet in a chat room on Monday nights for chat time and prayer with each other. It has been the neatest thing. It’s great to rejoice with the folks getting ready to travel and to be able encourage those who are waiting. It’s a great way to get feedback on simple questions and to learn from those who have already traveled and are back home. I am glad I joined, it really is a blessing to be able to connect with folks all over the states also adopting from Colombia.

That’s all for now
Hasta luego (see you later)

1 comment:

Juniper said...

Sounds like your Spanish set is goin to be great for your family. Or at least until you can get back to classes again.

It was nice that they could give you numbers of families that are still ahead of you. At least now you can see on a monthly basis how many have come and gone and how many still wait.

(November still isn't here yet...who knows)

Much Love!!!