Colombian food is a beautiful thing

Solid poops today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Juanita continues to impress me with her cooking abilities. The other day we had patacones. I already mentioned the sopa de ajiaco and now today she taught 4 of us Moms how to make empanadas! I LOVE Juanita!! Oh! And we went to el Corral yesterday for lunch for some amazing hamburgers. So I guess it's been the Triple Crown of foods this week.

I just really dig the comraderie of food here, in Latin America in general actually. Everyone gathers, chats, laughs, chops, mixes, gossips. Things are still homemade. It reminds me of growing up on our farm. We didn't have a lot of money growing up but we ALWAYS had good food. It makes me nostalgic. Also, my motto while in Colombia, "what doesn't taste good fried in oil?"

Lucy is terrific. As I've said before, there are lots of kids here which is great. It's like a built in babysitter but then all of a sudden a bomb goes off. You can tell they are trying to figure it all out, new siblings, new friends, new beds. In spite of it all, Lucy handles it so well. They all do really. Lucy is even going to the bathroom by herself, closing the door for privacy. I love it! It used to be such a power struggle to get her to go and now she is so independent.

Bedtimes around here are a crapshoot as you can imagine. Four people in one room, all needing different things. It had been ending in disaster most nights with Mateo going to sleep first, then expecting Lucy to calmly and quietly walk in and go to sleep which of course doesn't happen. She's exhausted from the day and comes in kicking and screaming yelling, "I want Josiah!" (her Buddy here) Therefore waking Mateo up and we start all over again. Then we're so exhausted we end up going to bed the same time the kids do. This is wayyyy too tempting for Lucy. "I want to sleep in your bed Momma. I love you Momma. I want a lolipop Popi." It was like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole night after night. Meanwhile we have this extra room that we're using for storage. Finally we figured out to get Mateo down. Bring him into the extra bedroom and THEN do Lucy's bedtime routine. It's been working like a charm except for tonight. Lucy might beg to differ;) Kurt went into our bedroom to check on Lucy and she had turned on all of the lights, had raided the frig and was kicked back on her bed, legs crossed enjoying a juicebox! How can you not laugh at that?

Mateo is doing soooo much better. When we brought him back to los Pisingos yesterday we weighed him and he gained 200 grams in spite of all that sickness! Shows you what a little love can do. He sat up unassisted with Kurt tonight. He's eating like a champ. Lots of bananas and rice cereal (no cork). He's discovered his voice and loves to use it now. And the smiles....the sweet smiles he gives me when our eyes meet.

I'm in love...

Smooch
PK

No more diarrhea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have somewhat solid poops. It's the little things in life. No?

We went back to los Pisingos for Mateo's social history and a tour. I hate this part. It breaks my heart, Mateo's story, Lucy's story, ALL one hundred and thirty stories of the kids that are living there. There are 22 babies right now. I wish we could bring them all home with us. Somehow seeing the toddlers is the hardest for me. Maybe because they are almost the same age as Lucy. Maybe it's because there are so so many. Maybe it's because they're so darn cute. But mostly it's because they seem to need us more.

And then there is this little peanut of ours, Mateo. Our sweet sweet boy who has experienced so much in his brief life on this planet. Some would say that Mateo is so lucky to have us. Let me clear about this. WE are the lucky ones. We are blessed to have this little guy be a part of our family.

He is a gift.

Smooch
PK

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Defender of Minors

We had our meeting with the Defender of Minors yesterday. They were very busy, we were in and out of there so fast I forgot to take a picture with our Defender. I don't think it had anything to do with the fact that it was a 3pm appt and Lucy was coming unglued. She would barely allow Kurt to put her down long enough to sign the document. Cecelia was kind enough to take a picture of the four of us outside the office in the rain no less.

No sooner did we get home from our appt when Kurt started to get sick. We think he got what Mateo had. So Team Kern is still down a player. Mateo looks awesome, if we could just get rid of his diareha we'd be doing great. I wish I would of brought down more onesies and some rubber pants! Thank God the staff here do the laundry for us. I did start him on banannas and rice cereal. If I thought cork would do any good, I would add it to his cereal. He seems to like it but can't really figure out how to eat it yet. But Mateo is doing much better. He is eating and sleeping. We're even starting to get our routine established

Hotel Paris is packed tonight! We have 4 families from MN, 3 from MI, 1 from Spain and a couple from Rome with EIGHTEEN kids here ranging from 6 mos to 13. There is a pack of 3 yr olds that have been thick as thieves. It's been like herding cats:) Lucy especially loves Josiah, who is from MI. I think we may have to schedule a playdate in WI somewhere.

Lucy and I walked down to Uni Centro, the mall nearby, and loaded up on supplies. It was a beautiful walk outside. I think Lucy enjoyed getting out of the hotel and some Mommy/daughter time. I've been so focused on Mateo it was really nice to spend some uninterupted time together.

Juanita the cook here is FANTASTIC. Everything is made fresh in the kitchen. All the staff here are amazing so nice. We had sopa de ajiaco tonight with rice, avacado, cream and capers. It is a beautiful soup filled with at least 3 kinds of potatos, corn on the cob, chicken and guascas (Colombian herb). The cream and the capers go on top of the soup. Then you take a small spoonful of rice and avocado and dip your spoon into the soup. Que rico!


It's not letting me post any pics. Sorry! tommorrow:(

Smooch
PK

Photos

Rice cereal

Buenos noches,

Happy Sunday everyone! Let's see...everyone got dressed today and we went to the grocery store. Pretty exciting day:) The markets are in full swing today, tempted though I was, I stayed home.

Mateo is feeling better. He only threw up once today and 2 up the back down the leg blow outs today. Only he needed the wardrobe change, not us so it was a good day! We started him on some rice cereal today for lunch and dinner. He's not crazy about it but he ate it. I hoped it would stop him up a bit and it seems to have done the trick. His appetite seems to be picking up as well.

Lucy now has 2 buddies: Josiah 3 Michigan and Garret 3 St Paul. Mariana and her family are coming in from MN tonight. Mariana is about a month older than Lucy. We met them here for our first adoptions and now we're both back for our boys. Funny how life works sometimes huh?

Lucy has officially been dethroned from princess status. Thank goodness she has some kids here to play with. Kurt has taken over most of her care so I'm sure she feels slighted a bit. Once Mateo has more of a schedule, Kurt and I can take turns spending some one on one time with her. I think we will need some pampering at Norbert's soon.

For those of you that are unfamiliar, Norberto's is a full service salon for both children and adults. The kids sit in race cars watching movies or playing videos while getting their haircut complete with glitter colored spray or ribbons galore which ever you prefer. Lots of pampering for the adults as well.

We did see our friends Godfrey, Inez and Adriana yesterday. They came to pick us up in the afternoon and we went to their house for dinner. It was sooo good to see them. They feel like family to us. Mateo promptly threw up his dinner all over their nice couch so we went home after that.

Our meeting with the Defender of Minors is tomorrow afternoon. Then our court process officially starts. We will be free to leave Bogota (not the country) with Mateo. Here's hoping he feels better soon. I'd like to get him down to sea level and some humidity to get some more weight on him. We're shooting for Cartegena for a week.

We also have some other MN friends coming down soon for a vacation with their son Max. They've invited us to join them in Giradot where they've rented a house for a few days.


That's all for now
Smooch
PK

5 smiles and counting

Good morning everyone!

What a whirlwind these last few days have been! Our presentation was a total surprise and gift. Cecelia. our in-country coordinator, picked us up around 2pm on Thursday afternoon. We arrived at los Pisingos to meet Carlos the newest director of the orphanage. He is the son of one of the founding women. Presentations are done very different now since the passing of Rosa (another woman that started the los Pisingos foundation). First we met Carlos, the director and Andres, who facilitates the presentations. Andres is a LP adoptee himself! It was so heartwarming to meet them both and see how they interact with the children, talking with them, giving them their full attention.

They are very careful about germs so we had to suit up in scrubs before Andres brought us up to the 3rd floor where all the babies are. And there he was! Our sweet sweet boy! Poor little baby has a terrible virus. I guess most of the babies were struggling with it. We were in a little room off to the side all 4 of us! It felt so good to have him in our arms! After a short while we went back downstairs to talk more with Carlos and meet Mateo's caregiver. We were able to ask her questions about his schedule likes etc. What a gift to be able to get more information about him! We also brought some small gifts for Carlos, Andres and Adriana, Mateo's nurse.

The next 48 hrs were a tornado filled with vomit, diareha, very little sleep and lots of Colombian coffee! But last night he seemed to be feeling better and slept most of the night. Thank you Jesus! Picture the movie "Terms of Endearment" and me practically crawling in the crib, pinching him to make sure he was alright!

Lucy has been sooooo sweet with him. She likes to hold him and help feed him. Needless to say we've been in hunker down mode at Hotel Paris. But the staff are great, very attentive. Once Mateo feels better we'll be venturing out for a walk soon.

Just an FYI, I won't be posting anything on facebook while we're here. There is just too much to keep track of these days:) Plus this site is for Mateo so that he can have this as a record of our beginnings as a family. So don't forget to leave a note for us in the comments section! Hint! Hint! You don't have to have an account. Just click on comments and sign in as anonymus.

So...Please pray that he continues to get better and kick this virus, that he thrives, grows and gains weight under the care of his new family.

We are blessed!
PK