Christmas 2010

Unknown to all our friends and family who have logged on to get an update of our lives the past year this is a sentence that has been started, deleted, started and deleted again. These types of writings are very difficult to write. As the writer I want you, our friends and family to get a picture of our lives. Although sometimes as these things go, they portray a perfect life. I will be the first to tell you that being thrown into parenthood with two girls one who is now 7 and another who has just celebrated her 5th birthday is hard and rewarding and challenging and fun and tiring and exciting. As parents Ken and I have had to learn how to make time for ourselves (although I am not sure we have that completely figured out) how to make time for family things and of course discipline. Yes our kids do need to be disciplined. :)



Tatiana.



She is full of life and vivacious. She went though a period of time when the thought of being in a room without myself, Ken or even my mom could bring her to tears. Her little world has been rocked quite a bit. She was and is still in the process of learning to trust us that we would not leave her which we all understand and we can process in our minds. The hard part of it is to have the patience with her when she bursts into tears when you go to the basement to get something or even just walk into the adjacent room. With myself taking the year off we have really seen a difference in Tatiana, there is a lot of consistency which is what she needed. Taitana loves singing she has been singing Jingle Bells at every spare moment. She has had it stuck in her head for the last week. I have tried playing other songs, and teaching her other songs and she will incesantly go back to Jingle Bells. It has become a joke for all of us which she thinks is very funny. Tatiana thinks and talks about Colombia a lot, we told her we are going to go to Florida after Christmas which triggered her memory to Colombia, when we came home from Colombia we landed in Orlando to meet Ken's family. So she automatically thought that we would also be able to go to Colombia. She said she could show us where she lived and she could see her birth mother and her foster mom again.



Katherine.





Katherine has had the luxury of having a big sister to take care of her and be with her for her entire life. Because of that we have seen little of the fears of abandonment that we have seen in Tatiana. Katherine went through a period when Tatiana went back to school when she simply didn't know what to do with herself because she was accustomed to following her big sister. She has now learned to play and entertain herself. She especially likes when she can have the cat in the house with her, she will take it in her arms like a baby and cradle it and "read" stories to it. Yesterday she asked Tatiana and I to watch her while she danced with the cat. She really likes playing songs on the piano and will sit the cat on the keys while she plays. Sometimes I feel a little sorry for that cat. :)

Ken and I have felt very blessed with the family that God has allowed us to have. We wish everyone a very happy Christmas.

Ken, Sherri, Tatiana, and Katherine

questions

Hot Chocolate!!!

The girl's first experience with snow.

Heading out with papa to pick out a tree.

Katherine making chocolates with Dan and Erica.

Tatiana modeling one of her new outfits from the church shower.

This Christmas I had these great ideas running through my head, I would send a picture card I would update everyone and I would still have time to do those fun things that you do at Christmas with the girls. One of those things had priority beyond any of the others, making memories with the girls. Experiencing firsts. Everything else got the back shelf for a while. I got the picture cards the day before Christmas, it was somewhat my fault and somewhat the photographer's fault, but we did get them and I was not about to let them sit at home after we had paid for them. Since we came home on November 2nd we have had so many experiences. Friends and family have come to visit, Katherine had a birthday, and the girls now think if there is a present around it will automatically be for them. In a short 2-3 months people have made up for every missed Christmas and birthday they ever had, plus some. Through the holidays I got to talk to a lot of people who had been following the blog while we were gone and were a little annoyed with me for stopping when we came back home. First of all I never thought I would be a "blogger" but I thought with us being gone for that length of time it may be a nice way for friends and family to stay in touch and get to know our little girls. So now here is the update that some of you have asked for.

How is the adjustment going? Are they sleeping well? Do they like our food? What are you doing about school? Are they learning English? Are you getting used to having children?

These questions are questions that we hear every time we venture out into the public. Rightfully so, I completely understand that people are wondering how we are doing and what has been going on in the last 2-3 months. I would be hurt if people wouldn't ask.

How is the adjustment going?

The adjustment is going well, the girls take everything in stride, they usually are excited when they hear that we are getting company. They get tired, but usually they are not too grumpy when they are tired, we love it when Katherine says that we need to go home because papa is tired, she usually tries to reiterate that she is not tired, just papa. They love routine, or maybe that is just me, though at the beginning of the day they will make a list of what we are doing that day so they know what comes next.

Are they sleeping well?

The first night we were home we were all so excited and so tired, the girls explored their new room and they decided that they wanted to sleep in their beds that night. We put them to bed and in about 20 minutes they were fast asleep. That went on for about a month and in the last month for some reason Katherine has been scared. Sometimes we would have to hold her until she was asleep. One night the main light had to be on before she would sleep. So now we have a mattress over in Tatiana's room which seems to help, she will come down to see us about once a night, but then she wants to go back to her bed in Tatiana's room.

Do they like our food?

Yes and no, they love chicken cooked almost any way. They like fries a lot and Kathrine eats ketchup like it is a side dish. Tatiana likes Amishy noodles. They eat any kind of fruit and usually treat it as a dessert. Ice cream is still at the top of their list, although we have learned that they have had it before twice, once for Tatiana's birthday with their foster mom and once for Katherine's birthday with the foster mom. Tatiana told us that they did not have birthday's at their birth home. They do not like mashed potatoes or creamy potatoes of any sort, and they are not keen on anything that has spice. After pizza one evening Katherine wiped her tongue with her napkin because the peperoni were too spicy.

What are you doing about school?

As I am writing this Tatiana is probably laying awake in her bed so excited because she is going to school tomorrow. I hope she sleeps tonight. In Colombia, I was positive that I would teach her for the rest of the year, but we came home and she started asking about school. So we visited and she got so excited we decided it would be a disservice to keep her at home. I am not sure how Katherine will react to all of it, she was acting out today, I think it could have something to do with her big sister going to school.

Are they learning English?

Actually we have had some people ask us if we are teaching them Dutch!!! So in order for the girls to be able to communicate and gain friends in the United States, we are teaching them English first. (imagine that) They are picking up English quickly. It took a conscious decision on our part to speak all English to them, we started one Monday about two weeks after we were home. The first day was so hard for us because we feel like this is just one other thing that these girls have to go through. But by the end of the week, we would has them to do something and they would be on their way. A lot of the time they will listen to what we say and then they answer in Spanish. They are understanding more and more.

Are we getting used to having children?

We have waited for a long time to have children in our lives and the pitter patter of little feet in our house always brings a smile to our faces. We love sharing our lives with our daughters. We miss taking our walks together, but we think we will have a solution to that problem once we find another treadmill. As a whole the transition has been smooth. We love being mama and papa.

USA

Our plane touched down in Orlando and tears came to my eyes, I can't explain all the feelings that I was having... excitement, anxiety, sympathy for the girls going through all these new experiences, and happiness for finally being on American soil. We got to meet Ken's family that lives in Florida. The girls were a little shy to begin with, but spending the night and eating, and swimming together was great for breaking the ice. The hotel we got had a swimming pool and a regular bathtub. This was very exciting for all of us to see how they react to all these new things. At one point I went into the bathroom to check on the girls and the door to the bathroom was dripping from all their splashing, oops!! So this morning Ken put the swimsuit on the Tatiana, she danced for us a little while before putting on the rest of her clothes for breakfast.

The pool... Tatiana was really scared to begin with, but she warmed up to it very quickly. It probably helped a lot to have her cousins swimming like fish in the pool. Kathrine did not seem to be scared at all, she has this trademark face slap she does to herself when ever she gets wet, which entertained the family who was watching. She also wanted to swim by herself, us holding her was not really to her liking.

Now the last leg of our trip, Orlando to Canton to home!

Thank you to everyone for your support and prayers during this journey, it seems like we are at the end, but really, this is a beginning, continue to pray as we begin our lives at home.

First Airplane Ride

When we explained to the girls that they will be riding an airplane to Bogota, they both squealed with delight. We thought that it could be a time that could really scare the girls. We went to the store to buy some new notebooks, colored pens, and snacks that they could have on the plane. We took them to the airport, which in Pasto, is small, one plane lands and then we all will get on that same plane and go back to where it came from. I am not sure how many planes land there in a day, but we were there for about two hours and the only plane that landed was ours. At the airport, since we were, American, the officials pulled us aside and then in a ledger notebook wrote our names and passport numbers. At that point we sat down and as you would guess the girls got really tired of waiting, as most people do in the airport. Once the plane landed, their eyes lit up and they watched everyone get off, then we got on. Tatiana sat by the window and I sat in the middle. They ate snacks and looked out the window, and drew in their new notebooks. When we landed they asked what day we will ride in an airplane again. They loved it!

Introducing the new Hochstetlers

It is official, after almost four weeks together, Tatiana Fernanda and Kathrine Estephinia are Hochstetlers. All this paperwork took a long time but it was worth every minute. We gain two girls on Ken's birthday, how is that for a birthday present?

Note: we have been very busy, and will post more about the last phase of our adoption soon. Keep commenting, they still make our days! :)

Random Photos

About a dozen people have set up a typewriter on the street, most of them are actually busy!

Personalities

We have had all this time with no other obligations to get to know our daughters and their likes and dislikes. One adoptive mother told me it takes about a year for the true personality to come out, but in the meantime I will do my best to learn as much as possible about these two girls.
Tatiana:
She has been sleeping much better now, we do not make her take a nap during the day, which helps her at night. She loves playing with playdoh, she will make "food" for us for hours, she even made some for my mom and brother on Skype the other evening. She really like to mimic the waiters here at the hotel when she serves us our "food". She loves watching TV, English or Spanish, she doesn't care. She will play with the first toy we gave her, an alphabet leap pad everyday. Sometimes she will listen to the abc song for a half an hour. She likes being at home, usually when we go away she will ask when we will go back to the "casa". She loves attention especially from her dad "papa".
Kathrine:
She is almost always happy. When we are at the park she bounces from the swing to the slide. She will do anything for a laugh, when Ken does push ups she will get down on the floor and stick her little butt in the air giggling the whole time. She wants to nap in the afternoon. She loves to dance, anytime we hear an upbeat song, she is dancing. She writes left handed. She also really likes to play with playdoh, she usually makes whatever her sister makes. She will ramble on in Spanish for a long time with us, but she usually doesn't talk much to the staff at the hotel, even though they would be able to understand her.

They are the prefect match for us, both a little stubborn like uh both of us, Tatiana has bonded very well with Ken and Kathrine has bonded very well with myself. We love them very much and feel so blessed that we get to be their parents.