Week 4: Enjoying Summer!

So all of my weeks are blending together now because we have been quite busy enjoying our summer with friends and family.  Our ginormous pool in the back has been getting a work out almost every day ;D!  Both girls enjoy getting in there and they are quick to invite everyone into the pool as soon as they get here.  Our primos (Gia, Devynne, and Jr.) came over on Thursday and then on Friday our other four primas came over (Sierra, Hayley, Emma, and Ava) with Tio Joe.  Hayley had a soccer tournament this weekend down here so we got to hang out with cousins all weekend long.  Amaya and Alejandra were in heaven!  They each had someone to play with and love on all day long!  Our girls partied hard this weekend and every night they would go right to bed because they were exhausted from so much excitement!

Amaya picked up some more confidence this week and has been venturing out without me by her side.  Mark can put her to bed with only minor crying now, which is amazing!  He can also pick her up at any given time without a fuss now, which is a HUGE improvement!  The girls are still working on how to play with each other in the same room...forget trying to play together for now ;).  Amaya's expressive speech is getting so much better.  She is babbling and will babble on and on like she is talking.  She still gets all of our names confused (mama, nana, papa, dada, hana) but she definitely gets her point across. She knows how to shake her head "no" and she still relies on signing the word for "more" when she wants something.  Today we were working on teaching her a word for "agua."  Alejandra is the best teacher when it comes to Amaya.  Amaya will mimic everything Alejandra does.  When Alejandra said "agua," Amaya said "a, a" or something like it :S.  You'll also notice that I am referring to her as Amaya more know and that is because she finally is understanding that this is her name :D!  We still say Fernanda sometimes and it is hard to just drop this name 100%.  It was the name given to her by her biological family and so it is a very significant part of who she is.  She went by this name for 15 months of her life and at a time when her family changed, we felt it wasn't right to change her name as well.  We left it as a little piece of comfort for her, but now she is more attached and familiar with us so we have been transitioning her name to Amaya.  Her name has been a little bit confusing for family and friends so hopefully this clears up our reasoning for referring to her as Fernanda for so long.  Alejandra still refers to her as "Amaya Fernanda" almost all the time, which seems so perfect!

Alejandra Sofia has been going through a bit of a tough time.  She is used to having her primas all to herself and now with a baby in the house she has to split that attention.  She had a tough time this weekend with sharing her primas attention and was acting out in negative ways to get them to notice her.  My heart aches for her as I see her struggling with this.  We've been continuing with her classes (gymnastics, swim, and preschool) and giving her positive feedback on how wonderful it is to be a big girl and have all of these special things she gets to do.  She is hypersensitive to Amaya and will yell as soon as Amaya gets close to her and run away.  Amaya has scratched and hit Alejandra a few times so we can understand her reaction.  The new plan is to play games together as a family so we can model a few different games they can play together.  Thank goodness for summer vacation and all the time it is giving me to be here at home and work through all of this!

This has been our life this past week in 3 paragraphs!  Full of lots of laughter and happiness, along with a few tears along the way.  Have a great week!

Week 3: Hi!

This past week was full of more family memories for our 2 girls!  We celebrated our prima Sierra's 15th birthday and Amaya got to meet more new friends and family.  She did well given her new surroundings and was excited to be in the mix with the family.  She is becoming a better walker and we are having less falling and tripping accidents.  We treated her for parasites again with a medication and it gave her a lot of gas.  I found a great pro and prebiotic specific for infant and toddlers and it seemed to be working for about 3 days.  Yesterday, she had diarrhea again so we'll see if today gets any better...fingers crossed and hoping we have found the answer!  She has 2 molars coming in on the bottom and they bother her on and off.  The rest of her lab results came back and they all were normal...YEAH!  She has started picking up words here and there...her newest words are "hi!" and "by" with a hand wave.  She loves to do this when we are out and about and getting a response from people.  She also loves to make dog and cat sounds "gua, gua" and "miau, miau."  Her confidence is amazing and she is getting more and more sure of herself, her family, and her role in the family.  She is laughing more and more every day.  She now lets her abuelita and dad pick her up without any crying even when I am in the room.  Her tantrums have gotten very minimal.  She still will let out a little whine when things don't go her way, but it is a normal toddler response.  She is an amazing sleeper and will sleep 12 hours at a time...thank goodness!  This kid LOVES the pool and is trying so hard to swim all on her own, it cracks us up!  We will be enrolling her in swim class next week because we notice she loves it so much.  Her relationship with her big sister is improving as they both learn about each other's personality.  She loves to copy whatever Alejandra is doing, which is both good and bad :)!

Our little Alejandra is back to preschool, gymnastics, and swimming.  She got an ear infection which kept her out of the pool for about a week.  I've spent at least 1 day at the doctor's office almost every week since we've been home.  I'm hoping for one week of no doctor's visits...thank goodness for medical insurance!  Alejandra has been going through some growing pains lately as she learns to share space with her baby sister.  She is seeking attention through negative behavior so we are working at trying to instill more self-confidence in her so she feels secure and starts to change her behavior.  She has been having a fun summer so far and has enjoyed playing with her primas and friends so much!  She was able to spend a few days with her Papa and Grandee and she was/is SO sad that they left....she had such a great time with them who could blame her?

We are finally starting to feel like things are coming together for us here at home.  We are extremely busy but it is summer after all and thankfully we have this time to be together with our friends and family.  Until next week...

Week 2: Father's Day and more!

We started this next week with a few different parties at home, so the girls were so excited to have a house full of friends and family.  Saturday we celebrated Father's Day with a potluck/BBQ, Sunday our friends the Hernandez came over, and Tuesday a few of my school buddies came over.  The girls have loved every second!

On Thursday I purchased an inflatable pool at Toys R Us because the one we had was a bit too small and it had a slow leak.  I ended up under estimating the size of an above ground inflatable pool and it was GINORMOUS!  As the water went in it kept expanding and at one point I thought it wasn't going to fit in our grass area in the backyard.  Mark came home and looked at it and all he said was "Wow, that's big."  Well, it actually has ended up working out SO well and has been used every single day since we got it.  Alejandra and Amaya Fernanda LOVE it!  Both of our girls love the water.  Alejandra can swim and Fernanda is not that far behind.  And Mark....well he is now convinced that it is perfect for us.  When Alejandra's cousins came over they were in there for hours, they came out to eat dinner and then they dove right back in.

The Father's Day BBQ was amazing!  Amaya Fernanda did so much better then I thought she would.  At first, she was clingy and wanted to make sure she could see me.  As the time went on she started to venture out and play with others.  Eventually, she was playing with all of the kids in the playhouse and I didn't see her for a good 30 minutes.  She is definitely feeling a lot more secure these days!

Mark has been able to put her to bed.  There are always tears, but once the books get opened and he starts to read she stops crying and listens.  Their attachment is growing stronger and stronger every day.  She will ask for him to pick her up now and she will give him kisses pretty freely.  When he gets home from work she gets a smile on her face and is excited to see him.  Their relationship has been growing by leaps and bounds!

Alejandra and Amaya Fernanda are continuing to bond as sisters.  They are learning how to play together and share ;).  Our little Amaya Fernanda likes to hit and scratch so Alejandra is sometimes apprehensive to play with her because she is afraid she is going to hurt her.  Alejandra is also used to playing with kids her age (from preschool) so she plays pretty hard with her little sister.  So we are all learning how to play respectfully with each other.  BUT....they adore each other already and we hear Alejandra often say "I love my baby sister, she is so cute."

We are still working through medical issues with Amaya Fernanda.  We had to take her on Monday for lab work.  They had to poke her 3 times to get the sufficient amount of blood for all the lab tests ordered by the pediatrician.  She cried and wailed...poor thing :( but stopped crying as soon as they were done.  We are thankful that all of her lab work results are back and she is super healthy!  We were concerned at the reaction of her TB test, but the doctor told us it was just an allergic reaction to the BCG vaccine she was given in Colombia.  To confirm, they checked her blood work and it came back negative as well.  We will also have a chest x-ray done just to be very certain that she doesn't have TB.   Her diarrhea is still present and after 3 days of specimens and ALL showing negative for giardia and "other parasites" we've decided to retreat her for roundworm.  So we are in day 2 of her treatment and we still have diarrhea.  Hopefully after 7 days of treatment we will be able to report good news on that end ;).  She is babbling and expressing herself verbally so much more lately!  Her pitch will change with her babbles, which shows us that she is certainly trying to communicate with us.  She still hasn't given each of us a name yet.  She says "nana," "mama," "papa," "nena," and "ma."  We are so excited to see her expressive vocabulary grow!

Things we've learned about Amaya Fernanda after being home:  She loves to climb on everything!  She enjoys reading books.  She has to hug a stuffed animal in order to go to sleep.  She likes water, vanilla soymilk, watermelon, blueberries, popsicles, veggie chips, cocoa and vanilla puffs, waffles, pancakes, shoes, and yogurt.  She doesn't like cheese.  She loves to go swimming in the pool with her mama and big sister.  She loves to take bubble baths with her big sister.  She LOVES to brush her teeth.  She thrives on routine and structure, don't try to change things up on her...she doesn't like that.  She is a neat freak (so she fits in just fine!).  She will scrunch up her face and try to force the tears out if you do something that upsets her.  She enjoys having music play in the background and will start dancing spontaneously.  When she gets excited about something she will stomp her feet up and down like she is jogging in place :D....so cute!

I am so happy to be able to have this time here at home with my girls.  It has been challenging getting into a routine here on my end.   Thank goodness I haven't thrown work into the mix yet.  I still have a couple of months to work on creating a schedule that works for all of us here at home.  Mark has been amazing and has stepped into the role of being the dad of two girls with ease.  He has been the calming force here at home many times :).  We are growing and learning from our girls every day at how to successfully parent them.  Our family dynamic has changed and with that we must evolve as well and still be certain that we are meeting the needs of both girls.  We are a work in progress ;)

In other news....we took the plunge and purchased a mini van today.  We are the proud owners of a Toyota Sienna.  Alejandra, Mark, Fernanda, and my mom LOVE it!  I'm still working on "loving" it...for now I "like" it a lot.  It is the perfect car for the family and in the end that's what is important.  I was joking around with a friend the other day on what color would be the "coolest" and in the end silver won.  So silver it is!

 

 

Week 1: Home Sweet Home

There truly is NO place like home!  We have been home for 1 week now and have been growing together as a family.  We've had mostly ups and just a couple of downs, but we are all do so much better adjusting here at home.  We started our first Friday at Lew and Donna's house where Fernanda got to meet her Tio Brent, Tia Julie, and primas.  She did an amazing job of playing with the kids and she even sat in her Tio Brent's lap!  She let her papa pick her up for a very short amount of time (like 10 seconds) which was amazing!  Then at around 12:00 we packed up and headed home to San Marcos.  Fernanda cried in her car seat for about 2 minutes and before we could get on the freeway she was already asleep!  She slept the entire way home, which meant she got a 2 hour nap.

Once we got home she was trying to figure her way around the place.  We showed her, her room and the playroom area.  At one point she got lost trying to navigate the upstairs area and she started crying :(.  She slept well that night in her crib and every night since then.  She sleeps about 12-13 hours nightly...YEAH!  Alejandra on the other hand....got used to sleeping with us and she has been making her way into our bedroom at around 3:00 a.m.  She crawls right in, snuggles, and goes right to sleep.  Nap time took some time to train her to get to sleep.  Today was the first no crying nap day so I was very excited!

As far Fernanda's health goes we took her to the pediatrician on Tuesday and developmentally she is hitting all of her major milestones.  She is in the 92 percentile for height and 85th percentile for weight.  The doctor was not concerned at all about her weight.  Her speech is a little delayed but that is understandable.  We are going to monitor her speech progress and if we are concerned about it we will seek a speech evaluation in a few months.  She got a couple of immunizations and a TB test she cried (of course) but quickly stopped...she did REALLY well at the pediatrician's office!  We are still trying to figure out the diarrhea mystery.  We had to take stool samples for 3 days and return them on a daily basis.  So far they have only looked at giardia in the day 1 sample and it came back negative.  We were still waiting for them to look for "other parasites" and the day 2 and 3 samples.  We're hoping to get more news next week.  We still need to take her in so they can draw blood to run a series of tests, that is on the agenda for Monday.  

Her attachment and bonding is a work in progress.  We celebrate little steps here at home on a daily basis.  Her Abuelita and dad can pick her up and she will cry for about 1 minute but then will be fine.  She is venturing off on her own and is gaining independence at a quick speed.  She is climbing up on everything, which is scary at times.  She has enjoyed our warm and sunny socal weather here at home.  She has worn a bathing suit almost every day and enjoys playing in the inflatable pool in the backyard.  She is starting to let us know what she does and does not like to eat, which is SO new because she use to devour everything in sight!  We are seeing her smile and cute little dimples more and more these days which warms our heart and makes our love for her grow every day!  She is a toddler and still cries when things don't go her way....but we are learning her different cries and what they mean.

Alejandra has been loving her home and going back to her classes.  She started back to swim class and gymnastics this week.  She thoroughly enjoyed both activities.  Next week she goes back to preschool 2 days per week and she is so excited to see her teachers.  Every time we drive in the direction of her school she asks "are we going to my escuela?"  Alejandra has grown so much through this adoption....just looking at her you can see how she has blossomed.  She LOVES her baby sister and is learning how to share her space with her sister.  When Fernanda is sleeping she will say "Mami, Fernanda is awake let's go get her."  Their fighting has decreased since we've been home :D...THANKFULLY!  Alejandra's bond with her Dad has grown so much since Colombia.  She looks for him all the time and wants to play and play and play with him.

Mark and I are doing so much better now that we are at home and feel more at ease.  We feel like we can parent better now that we are not exhausted over lack of sleep OR scared that the police will come again.   This is not to say that every second is rainbows and sunshine over here....but it is manageable and every day it gets better.  We are so happy that we were blessed with Amaya Fernanda and that we were chosen as her parents.  She is a sweet little girl who has faced enormous challenges in her short life.  We are extremely grateful that we get to see this little one grow up, gain confidence, and blossom.  We can't wait for her to meet all of our friends and family this summer! 

Day 32: Travel Day

We got up nice and early, packed up the rest of the things around the house, had a small breakfast and then Andres showed up ready to take us to the airport.  We left the house at 9:30 a.m. thinking that we would have an overabundance of time but between check-in, lunch, immigration, and check-in our 3 hour window was just enough time.

Our first flight to Miami was uneventful.  Fernanda ate some crackers and just as we departed she fell asleep for about 40 minutes.  She woke up in great spirits and played with a few toys.  When we arrived at Miami we went through an obstacle course to get to our gate, thank goodness we gate checked our stroller so we were able to pull the girls on the stroller through our entire process in Miami.  First, we had to pass through immigration and of course Fernanda became a U.S. citizen!  That process was relatively quick.  I helped speed things along by letting Fernanda cry "enough" so that the immigration officers would want to process our paperwork quickly.  It worked because I heard one of the officers say "we need to get the little kids out of here ASAP."  Immigration took about 30 minutes.  Then, we needed to get all of our luggage and turn it in for inspection.  A short shuttle ride later we were in the right concourse.  Our gate was found quickly but then we needed to feed the girls and get them changed into their pajamas.  At this point the girls were on fumes.  It was 9:00 p.m. for their little bodies, so both of them were pretty delirious. We were so glad to have had my mom flying with us to help out.  It would have been very difficult to maneuver everything without her there.

This next leg of our flight was rough.  The 5 hour flight felt like an eternity.  Fernanda was exhausted and could not get to sleep.  I would have been fine with that but she was crying and throwing a tantrum so I knew I needed to get her to sleep.  I basically had to hug her and rock her until she fell asleep.  She cried for almost 20 minutes straight until she finally fell to sleep.  Alejandra did well, all things considered, and she ended up falling asleep for the last 3 hours of the flight.  Both girls woke up for the landing and they were both in good spirits.

We were greeted by Papa, Grandee, and Tata!  Alejandra was so overjoyed at seeing her family and Fernanda was so tired so she was just taking it all in.  We were so happy to have so much extra help at that point because we had 6 pieces of luggage plus all of our carry-ons!  My mom left with Tia Nena and Tata.  Mark and I drove our own car over to Lew and Donna's house.  We were very concerned about putting Fernanda in a car seat for the first time.  At first she was fine with it and when we started to move she started to cry.  I put classical music on for her and she stopped crying for about 5 minutes.  Thankfully our car ride was short :).

When we got to Lew and Donna's house both girls were up and partying!  It was 1:30 a.m. PST but 3:30 a.m. Bogota time.  Alejandra claimed she wasn't tired, but we all headed up to bed anyway ;)  We all tried to sleep on the bed together but the girls kept playing with each other so I took to the floor and a couple of pillows with Fernanda until the girls fell asleep.  We were SO excited to be almost home in San Marcos.

Until tomorrow!

Day 31: Visa...check!

We started our day by calling Tia Nena and wishing her a happy 21st birthday! :)

Today we headed out to the Hard Rock Cafe.  Mark was craving some nachos and a burger.  When we got there it was very busy and they were setting up for something.  We asked the waitress and she told us that they were celebrating the Hard Rock's 40 year anniversary.  The paparrazi was there and they were waiting for the Bogota musicians to arrive.  Some musicians arrived but we had absolutely no idea who they were.  We tried to make out who was there but no such luck.

After lunch Mark and my mom headed to the U.S. Embassy to pick up our visa.  My aunt, Alejandra, Fernanda, and I headed to Maku and then on to get Alejandra's hair done.  She has been talking about getting her hair done since we got here.  I had mentioned to her that they do beautiful hair styles at the hair salon and she remembered. She did not like getting her hair washed, but she loved getting her hair cut and then styled.  When we walked out of there her confidence was at an all time high and people kept complimenting on how beautiful she looked.  At one point she looked at me and said "mami, everybody thinks my hair is so beautiful."  I reminded her that not only was she beautiful, but she was smart and kind as well ;)

We ended up meeting up with my mom and Mark on the walk home.  I could tell by Mark's smile that he had succesfully picked up the visa and we were all set to go home!  We came home and finished up packing the last of the last of the last....Tonight we got a few visitors and calls to say good bye and good luck on our new adventure home. We are so excited!

Fernanda had another rough tantrum filled day today.  We are super excited to get home and continue to build a secure attachment with all of us.  This will be another change for her and we are hoping that she will be able to grow and trust us as her family.  The environment will change, but we will still be there with her.  We are looking forward to the positive changes to come with little Fernanda.  We see glimpses of her silly personality come out and we are excited to continue to see more of it!

Alejandra is excited to see her Papa and Grandee tomorrow night.  Today she said she wanted to see them and when I told her that tomorrow we were going on the plane and we WOULD see them she got so excited!

We have the most amazing security guard in our building.  Our girls go crazy for Luis Fernando, they smile at him and giggle.  He has a family but he has decided to take advantage of a scholarship opportunity so he has been studying at a university trying to get his business degree, while working 24 hours shifts as a security guard.  He is also Suachuno (just like Fernanda!).  Tonight we gave him some money for all of his help and rather than keep it, he is going to donate it to a charity dedicated to the education of children in Soacha.  HE IS AMAZING!  He thanked us for giving our girls a better life...that was a touching moment.  We of course feel like our life is better because of our girls, but we knew what he meant.  We are so happy we ended up moving apartments, this place was such a better fit for us....


Good night!

Day 30: Embassy Trip

We got up bright and early for our trip to the U.S. Embassy this morning!  We were excited to finally get the last requirements completed.  We arrived at 9:00 a.m. and were asked to stand in a line about 20 deep.  Our agency representative was insistent and told Mark, Amaya Fernanda, and I to go back up to the embassy representative with our U.S. passports in hand and inform her again of our reason for being there.  Thankfully a new representative heard the conversation and had us go straight inside the embassy.  Once inside the whole process took under 1 hour.  We turned in our paperwork, they called us up 10 minutes later, we were chit-chatting with the embassy representative, we paid, then they called us up 5 minutes later and told Mark to come at 3:30 pm tomorrow to pick up the visa....YEAH!  Amaya Fernanda was very well behaved at the embassy BUT the afternoon was a different story :S

After lunch we tried to get Amaya Fernanda to take a nap and she decided that she wasn't having it.  She threw a tantrum for about 30 minutes in her crib.  Finally, I pulled her out and I needed a mental break so Mark took her and calmed her down.  I closed the door to the bedroom and got some more packing done, as I wished the time would somehow pass quickly and we could fast forward to Friday when we will be back in our home.  The issues we are having with Amaya Fernanda will not magically go away once we get home, but a consistent routine will help immensely!

Mark then decided that we ALL needed a mental health break so we went for a walk down to Maku.  On our way back we stopped and got ice cream at Crepes & Waffles.  Mark was right...the girls enjoyed their own ice cream cones and everyone had smiles on their faces for the first time today.  I had the absolute best beer called Monserrate Red from a micro-brewery here in Colombia...it was a well deserved drink!  We took our walk back to El Batan and at that point both girls were tired. 

Amaya Fernanda and Alejandra Sofia played together in the bathroom tonight.  It was GREAT to hear them laughing together and interacting.  After bathtime it was time to put everyone to bed.  I was able to get Amaya Fernanda to sleep without any major crying.  Alejandra Sofia is still up and giving her dad EVERY excuse in the book as to why she cannot sleep....water, bathroom, ghost bunny, Clifford, Gnomeo and Juliet, I'm not tired...etc., etc.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Bogota.  Even though we constantly say we are ready to go home...we will miss being here.  It is hard to explain how we feel about leaving because we are saying good-bye to our daughters' birth country.  There is so much history for them here and we truly do love Colombia.  We look forward to coming back in the future for vacation and to just enjoy our time here.

Until tomorrow!