News...Hope to be home NEXT Thursday

Well, I don’t know what to say, we are just sitting and waiting. The morning was long and frustrating. Every time the phone rang our ears perked up in hopes it was for us. I have the rest of the story at the end.

I think everyone is starting to get a bit board with the same old stuff here at the house, the same park, ice cream and my creativity has run out. I feel really sorry for the families who are not with CHI that stay 6 to 8 weeks with school age kids. We went to the park again today with the beach balls. We decided to go to the sand pit first to change it up a bit. Then the kids and Tia Jeanie played with the beach balls for a while which was fun. On the way back we stopped at Juan Valdez so Tia Jeanie and Nate could get a coffee. It’s been great to see the real personality of Jessica coming out, she is a stinker.






So here is our funny Joaquin story of the day. Joaquin loves to stick his hind end out at us and so today we were at the park and Jeanie and I were sitting on the ground next to each other watching the kids. Joaquin comes over, turns his back to us, sticks his hind end to us and just stands there for a few seconds. Then he turns his head towards us, puts up his finger and says, “Espere!” (in English, Wait!) Once he tooted he took off running and giggling.

Then Nate was pulling Joaquin like a dead body by his feet. All the sudden Joaquin’s shoes popped off and Nate didn’t realize it, so he kept walking and apparently Nate had a hold of Joaquin’s pants too because he pulled them right off of the little guy. Joaquin thought it was so funny he wanted Nate to do it again. I told you he wasn’t shy. Imagine my little latino in the park in his tighty whities. Luckily I had the camera on and got a photo. At least we have lots of laughs with all this waiting.


Yesterday Jessica was talking about my favorite words. She said Mami’s favorite is “Knock it off!” and “No”, hmmm, not sure what that says about me. It started because we were teasing her that her favorite words were ahora (now) and Ya, sounds like ja (not sure of the spelling, but it means whatever she wants it to mean, like now, no more, already etc) Joaquin loves to say “todo la familia” (all of the family). It’s funny to hear their accent when they say words in English , I love it.

Also, Jessica tells everyone that tries to speak to us in Spanish that we speak English. Jessica and Joaquin are not shy at all with strangers, so it’s kind of funny when she announces to the world that we don’t speak Spanish. Pretty soon the shoe will be on the other foot and it won’t be so funny to her.

Instead of saying shoot or something similar, Jessica and Joaquin say “ah shhh” (or at least that’s what it sounds like). And when Joaquin toots he says, “ oof” and waves his hand in front of his nose and laughs. So today Uncle Brian sent word to Nate to teach Joaquin how to do an arm pit fart. So THANK YOU Tio Brian, Joaquin is learning the skill and thinks its hilarious. Also, Brian they call you Tio Braujan (spelled as it sounds) and Jeanie won’t let us fix the pronunciation because she thinks it’s funny.

Well there’s nothing else to do but laugh and make the best of what we have.

About 5:45 we couldn’t stand it anymore and I decided to all Lucia. The news was not good. She still doesn’t have the birth certificates and is hoping to get them tomorrow afternoon. So the best case scenario at this point according to Lucia is to fly home next Thursday. Yep that’s right, one more week, which will put us here for 5 weeks. Yes, I cried, then pulled it together. I think we are going to send Jeanie back with Emilee and Nate this weekend, Saturday. Then Jess, Joaquin and I will be home as soon as we can.

So here is the breakdown of what has to happen for us to come home. First we wait on the birth certificates. Once we have them in hand we go to the passport office to apply for the passport. But the passport office is closed on Friday. We will apply for the passports one day and go and pick them up the next morning. Once we have the passport in hand we will go for the VISAs which we will apply for in the morning and pick up later the same afternoon. The following day we will go to the Embassy doctor. Then we are free to come home. The only flight out of here for us is 9:30 in the morning each day. So if we get the birth certificates on Thursday or Friday our days will look like the following.
Saturday - Send Jeanie, Emi and Nate off with kisses and hugs
Sunday - Spend Mother’s Day with Jess and Joaquin by ourselves
Monday - Apply for Passport
Tuesday - Pick up passport and apply for the VISAs. Go back in the afternoon and pick
up the VISAs.
Wednesday - Go to the Embassy Doctor
Thursday - Fly home

Jeanie is believing for a miracle tomorrow morning, but it’s all in God’s hands. I don’t know what His plan is, but He has it under control. I will just keep believing and will know we will be home soon. It was just tough having our hopes up for coming home this weekend and now knowing we will be here another week, well, that was a tough pill to swallow.

Don’t worry, we’re keeping our chins up. We’ll be home soon!