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.

A video of landing at the Pasto Colombia airport

I found this video on You Tube and thought it was some great footage of what it is like to land at the Pasto Colombia airport. Just click on the following link to watch the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0H8D3XLG6I

Market

Yesterday we got to go to a Farmers Market, what an experience! The Dutch family that went with us asked us if we have anything like it at home. What a difficult question to answer. We have Mount Hope on Wednesdays where we can go and get produce and it is full and somewhat dirty, but to compare Mount Hope to the market that we went to, seems, well, ridiculous.

Our interpreter took us in the front door and we saw rows and rows of fruits and vegetables, some that we would see at home and some that we have never seen before. There was one lady who had what looked like wheat or rye that was picked out of the field that morning. Little children who are no more than eight are walking around carrying small bags full of goods; oranges, avocados, flowers, anything that you could sell. It was at that point when Franko the little boy the Dutch couple adopted decided he needed to go to the bathroom. The Dutch wife wanted to keep walking around and our interpreter told us absolutely not, he would not be able to find us again. The couple is tall, they are both about a head taller than anyone we have seen here. I thought it would not be possible that he would not be able to find us. At that point I had seen about an 1/8th of the market. Once we were all together we were taken to the chaos. Big baskets full of chickens, guinea pigs, rabbits, cats, and everywhere. Most were alive, some were close to dead, and a couple were dead. It made my stomach turn being in that space. We were taken out to the potato area where there is nothing except potatoes, people pushing potatoes on carts, people selling potatoes in small baskets and some people in front of whole rooms full of potatoes. During all of this you are walking through paths of mud. Then we were taken to a room where there was a peculiar smell. I thought it smelled bad, but Ken didn't seem to mind the smell. There were tan blocks everywhere, all of it sugar before it was refined. One lady gave us a taste, everyone thought it was fine, I thought it was horrible. We had been seeing these blocks in the supermarket before and we wondered what they were, now we know. According to the interpreter, all the fruits and vegetables that come to Pasto come from this market. The people from the country bring the brightly colored buses filled with goods from their region and then they also take a bus full of goods back filled with the things that are not common for their region. We are so glad that we got to visit the market.

Dancing - by Dad

I've been pushing off the idea of writing a post for a while now since my wife has been doing a great job and there is no sense in me interfering with that. But alas it is time for me write about my feeling in this whole experience (something men tend to do so easily ha ha). While the last three plus weeks have been some of the greatest memories that I will ever have there have been challenges as well. However, last evening was definitely one of the highlights for me. After our late dinner we came up to our room around 9:30 and decided that we would listen to the radio on the Internet so we could enjoy some American music. Of course the girls decided that it was time to do a little dancing. At first it was just the girls showing off there moves, until mom and dad decided to get in on the action. So here we were in our little 6 x 6 open floor space dancing to the music with big smiles on our faces even though they couldn't understand the music and we couldn't understand the girls. While we were dancing I thought about how happy the girls were living in our tiny hotel room and just spending time doing anything with us. They could care less about about the home we live in or what kind of car we drive or what jobs we have. They are feeling loved and that is all they care about. If we said that this is our home for the next ten years they would just go on with life happy as the moment before. I don't know at what point we as adults think that we need things to make us happy, but I certainly just want to be a kid again and get back to dancing.

English

The girls are learning more and more English. These are a couple of the words(phrases) that they know, some, thanks to Dora.
1. How are you? (They are also able to answer it with... good)
2. Clean up- (they usually sing the cheesy classroom song)
3. Song- The Itsy Bitsy Spider
4. Beautiful
5. Brush your teeth
6. Good Night
7. I love you
8. We did it
9. Oh man
10. Young lady (Tatiana picked that up first, it could have something to do with her attutude) :)
11. I'm the map
12. apple
14. They are working on the abc song, it still needs some work
15. jungle- The first English word which they still think is very funny!

Weather

Pasto is sitting on the Equator but the elevation is at 8,000 feet. The weather is unpredictable, to say the least. If the sun is out it is hot. If the sun goes behind the clouds, which it does quite a bit, you need that sweater or jacket right away, which explains why the girls are always wearing the one sweatshirt that we brought in every picture. We have actually run into a problem because the laundry service here takes a day and so the girls didn't have a jacket for a day while we had them cleaned. The last week or two the weather has been really nice in the morning but by the afternoon there are thunderstorms and a lot of rain. The girls are actually from a region south of Pasto and most of the people say it is very cold there and that is why they have the red cheeks. We are thinking it could be the cold, but it may also have something to do with the agressive way they wash their face.

Moving

This is the bathtub that the girls will sometimes spend an hour in at a time. They are very disappointed when they don't get to take two baths a day. Are we spoiled or what?

View from the corner of our room (I had to stand on the bed to take the picture.)

Tatiana on her bed and Kathrine in her bed, Tatiana sleeps in a crib without sides. Sometimes her feet are hanging through the wood posts. Kathrine sleeps in a crib and it doesn't seem to bother her at all.

We finally got to move, although it wasn't to Bogota as I have been wishing. The French family who has been living across from us got to go to Bogota on Sunday and the hotel owner asked us if we want the room that they had. It is just a touch bigger and the girls now have floor space so they can play on the floor. When Kathrine woke from her nap I stayed in the old room and Ken was in the new room and the girls carried our things across the hall. Every time Kathrine would get something new she would walk over and say "dormae papa". She stretched out the papa and the last syllable would be pitched a little higher than everything else. Very cute to hear! I am thinking she was saying papa's bedroom, but my Spanish friends will have to confirm that.

La Cochia

About 45 minutes from the city there is a beautiful lake called La Cochia that we got to visit. Our hotel owner set up a little bus with guides who speak some English. Then us and a Dutch family who also speak English went to the lake. The town is really interesting because the houses and the inn that we stopped at have some Swiss influence. The elevation of the lake is quite a bit higher than that of Pasto. The "highway" according to the tour guide was a good road though it was gravel most of the way and one of the most bumpy gravel roads that we have ever traveled on. The town is set up for tourism with people beside the road selling thier goods. The guides told us we would probably need warm coats and rain jackets because it is always cold and rainy at the lake. We had a few drops of rain and it was warm and sunny most of the day. Perfect weather. From the little town we got a boat (glorified canoe) ride across the lake to a island with a rain forest and we hiked to the back of the trail to a place with a 100 meter drop off into the lake, with a beautiful view. We ate lunch, the speciality, Rainbow Trout, agian with the heads attached and again Tatiana ate it, she actually cleaned her plate, I have no idea where she put it all. I got a couple fish bones and had a hard time finishing my trout becuase of the bones. The heads must be pretty common, because the Dutch couples little boy also ate his own, his mom's and my fish head. Maybe we don't know what we are missing.

Saturday in the Park

Here, it seems like everyone will go to the park on Saturdays. The park we went to today has a couple soccer courts, basketball courts, they have a climbing wall, one of those huge blow up jumping things that people sometimes rent for a party. Some people will also bring a bunch of the little cars for kids that are battery charged that kids can pay to drive around. Today Tatiana and Kathrine drove their first car. Ken decided he is not looking forward to the girls turning 16. According to him they don't pay attention to where they are going. They ran into a light post, almost ran over me, and drove in circles for a while. Thankfully they chose a gutless car in which we could easily run after them.

Black and White Festival

From January 2 to January 6 the town shuts down to have a Black and White festival. It is a really big deal here in Pasto, the people celebrate the many cultures that are here in Pasto. We went to a museum to see some of the characters that have gone through the parades. The lady that took us through could speak a little English and we actually learned a lot. The cultures that are represented here are the Indian (three different tribes), Spanish, and African. On the 5th of January everyone will celebrate the white culture with white make-up and on the 6th everyone celebrates the black culture with black make-up. The characters for the parades are all made of paper-machie, they sure beat a balloon covered with newspaper dipped into flour and water.

Cultural Difference

Every week night the hotel provides a meal for us. When we first arrived, the hotel owner told us that we are served dinner at 7 every evening from Monday through Friday. Well the first night we decided that 7 was a very rough estimate- within an hour after 7 we would usually eat. So the other night we went down and were talking with our French friends, and the other French family joined us after about a half hour. We sat and talked and talked and sat. Finally at around 9 the hotel owner asked me if the girls would like to eat. I said sure and the French lady also acted very excited about eating. At that point, I thought all of us were eating, because I get confused with all the languages flying around. But a little later the waiter told me that the girls food was ready and they could eat. I helped myself to the bread on the table and the girls let me taste their fish soup. On Friday we had fish and then on Tuesday (the next meal because of a holiday) we had fish soup. By the time the girls were done eating they were more than ready for bed, so I requested my food to be brought to the room since the girls have never been left alone in the room, and I am still not able to explain in Spanish what was happening. Ken stayed downstairs to eat with everyone else, and finally came up to the room between 10:30 and 11:00. We have learned that any times given down here are rough estimates, if you are on time, bring something to keep the girls occupied, because we may have to wait for a long time to be served. It is ok, just not your way right away. :)

Sounds

Just a little picture of the sounds that we hear in our hotel room...
1. Sirens (different from the US, a little more like sirens from an old movie)
2. Bike horn- a guy walks around the street outside our hotel with a bike horn yelling something- I am really not sure what he is trying to sell.
3. Bells- people down here cook with propane and the propane truck driver has rigged up a bell to his little truck which he rings while going down the street, so anyone who wants propane will come out and stop him.
4. Doorbell- If you want into the hotel you have to ring a doorbell and an employee will come and answer the door.
5. Motorcycles, lots and lots of motorcycles
6. Carhorns

notes

After a very rough night in our hotel room, one where Tatiana would simply not sleep and I was completely broken as to what I could do for her besides sob and hold her. I finally got into her bed and curled up next to her until she finally fell asleep. She has completely lost the world that she has known, people that speak her language, her friends at school, a foster mom who she will talk about sometimes, and even food that is "normal" to her. I am here thinking I cannot wait to go back to the USA where I understand the language, the food, the money and the culture. That is me, and I also have an understanding of why I am here and why I can't go home. For little Tatiana I am not sure that she completely understands what is happening to her. Sure, she says that she wants to go to the United States and see "Mickey Mouse", but I think that is probably where it ends, and she is wondering when these people that are taking care of her are going to go away. It will all take time. Usually during siesta time, I will journal, blog or read, but today I actually napped, when I woke up, Tatiana was laying in her bed talking to herself again. I asked her if she wants to sleep next to Papa and she immediately crawled up next to him. I then took the computer into the bathroom where I wouldn't bother her and opened my blog. After that rough night, your comments brought tears to my eyes, thank you for taking the time to comment, it means a lot to us here, in a country, where few people understand our language.

Food

We have had the girls for a week and three days now, we simply can't imagine life without them. They have proved over and over again to be a perfect match for Ken and I. In this week and three days we learned that Kathrine eats really slow, just like her mom, and Tatiana will eat super fast, in fact she will usually be done before anyone else at the table. Kathrine is also a little more picky about what she eats and usually does not finish her meals. So far we have been saying that Tatiana will eat anything. For example they other night at dinner they served trout and here it is custom to serve it with the skin and head attached. When they served it I pulled the skin of the fish back and cut up the meat so it was easier for her to eat. We were all eating when I noticed that Tatiana was really really enjoying what she was eating- the skin of the fish. I told her it was no good and the French lady showed her that she had not finished it on her plate either. That is when her husband asked us where the head of the fish was, we looked around on Tatiana's plate, and it was gone. So skipping ahead to today, we ate lunch at the food court in the mall and I finally found a vegetable pizza, anything I get I usually plan on sharing with the girls. The pizza was delicious, exactly what I wanted, thin crust, no sauce, plenty of veggies and cheese. So I gave Kathrine a bite and she spit it out onto the floor, a little shocking for both Ken and I. Then Tatiana wanted a bite she chewed it and swallowed it, but when I asked if she wanted more she wrinkled her nose and shook her head. The lesson we learned-according to Tatiana, fish heads are better than Veggie Pizza.

The Park

We went to a place similar to The Wilderness Center to hike and eat with our two French family friends. We always like going with them, because it is much safer for us to venture out as a group. We found the trail and followed it through the woods, a very thick dense woods. About halfway through the trail it started to sprinkle, which soon turned into an all out downpour. The path we were taking was a mixture of a grass path in the open areas and a black sandy dirt path in the wooded areas. When the rain started, the black sandy dirt stuck to our shoes and for Ken and I who wore sandals, our feet. We would stand under trees during the really hard rains and them we would take a run for it when it slowed down. By the time we were almost through one of the French couples with a young baby took and run for it and we did the same. I had Tatiana's hand and Ken carried Kathrine and we ran to the shelter, which is when it stopped raining. In the shelter we wanted lunch, after a lot of motioning the server decided to show us what they serve for lunch, and from there we told them how many we wanted. The "carne" that they gave us came with a butter knife and it was the texture of rubber. I found the easiest way to cut up the girls meat was to pull it apart with my fingers. They started eating and thought it was very delicious. I also started eating and decided I was going to stick with rice and a yellow fried pattie. They gave us a drink, and I was thirsty, so I drank, stupid, because I got sick later that evening. To go home from the park we decided that we would take a bus, as the one French man said "a new experience", for all of us, maybe not the girls. The elevation of the park was quite a bit higher than that of Pasto so the whole way down the brakes on the bus were grinding metal on metal. We got off about a 1/2 mile from the Hotel and just as we got off the bus, it started to rain again. We stood under a shelter for a while then we decided we were cold and wet already and we would just take a run for it. Up in the room I put the girls into the tub and then I threw our shoes into the shower beside their bub since they were filthy. The next time I checked on the girls they were scrubbing their shoes in their bathtub. I added a little soap to their shoes that they were in there for and hour and forty-five minutes. Their shoes were sparkling by the time they were done. Needless to say they had to shower after their bath, which they also thought was great fun!

ice

We have found one more "new" thing for the girls. Sometimes on our strolls around the city we will stop at a restaurant to have a Coke, though we have learned that the girls go absolutely bonkers with caffeine, they usually have a pink drink called Postobon. When we do this the servers bring the soda in glass bottles and cups of ice. We were properly educated before we left to take all ice out of drinks so we would not get sick. It was during one of these times when we were talking to each other and we looked at Tatiana who had her cheeks puffed out, squealing. She held the piece of ice for about 10 seconds when she could no longer take the cold, then she spit it back into her glass. For us it was very difficult to explain why she shouldn't eat the ice when it was a new novelty, so we let it go, both girls squealed and tried to hold their ice cube in their mouths the longest. It was so much fun to watch, they are such a blessing.

rough days

After reading a lot of your comments, I realized that I was doing exactly what I do not like people to do, paint a picture as if everything was rosy. We are truly having a great time, but that does not come with some hard times along the way. I will try to compose a list of the hard times that we have had here in Colombia. Albeit, I am not looking for sympathy, I just want all of you to know that things are not always peachy keen.

1. We were walking the other day in the center sidewalk of a four lane road, when we realized that we were being followed by a motorcycle. He had circled us a number of times and then stopped to wait and we took another sidewalk to the hotel. A good wake up call to always be street smart.
2. Last evening I walked into the bathroom while the girls we bathing when I caught Tatiana pushing Kathrine's head under the water, it was all in fun, but she got into trouble, which caused tears and I had a hard time with it because I couldn't explain properly why she was in so much trouble.
3. Tatiana is dealing with a lot of emotions, which is really hard for both of us. She has such a hard time falling asleep. Once she is asleep she is fine, in fact last night she fell out of bed and never woke up.
4. Minor issue: You have to pay to use the pubic bathrooms here and they never have toilet paper in them, if you forget to take tissues along--well...
5. Mystery meat
6. pillows- they are very similar to rocks
7. Lack of space- we are in a room about 14x14, our bed and two small beds for the girls take up the floor space, though we sometimes take over the living room in the hotel.

So there are seven things that have been difficult, we are human, and have rough days. :)

First Tears

We had our first tears, if we can even call it that. So far warm running water has been the highlight of the girls' days. So we came back into our room before the hotel staff was ready for us because Edgar came into the room in a rush with our soap dispenser refilled. The girls squealed with delight and immediately wanted to wash their hands with soap and "calente" water. Tatiana had a hard time with the pump and so I pushed it down and accidental pinched her pinkie. She laughed and then she cried, and I held her thinking here comes the flood (she has been dealing with a lot of emotions). It was hardly worth it because something else happened in the room that made her laugh, and it was over in a flash. The girls are so strong, it scares me that they don't cry.

Ice Cream

This was the girls second experience with ice cream (I remembered the camera this time). In the first picture Tatiana had ice cream all over her mouth and she wanted me to take a "photo", I didn't think it turned out great, but it shows a little of her personality. Of course the second picture Kathrine wanted to do exactly what her big sister was doing. They told the lady what kind of ice cream they wanted and in the middle they had green. Ken and I wanted to taste the green and neither one of them wanted to give us a bite. Have they had ice cream before they met us? Will we ever know?

Graveyard

During the week our interpreter will take us to places around the city, so we can experience the culture of the Colombian people. Yesterday he took us to a couple places where we had awesome views of the city. The city of Pasto is located in the middle of the Andie's Mountains. When you are standing at a good vantage point of the city it is awesome to see the city with the multicolored houses and the green mountains in the background. The other place he took us was a graveyard. It was such a neat experience. Once a week the families of the deceased come out to the graveyard to buy fresh flowers to put at the headstone. Some will even decorate the entire grave with flowers. My pictures will not do it justice. (side note: Tatiana thought it would be fun to pick the flowers off of the grave to give to me, but she seemed content when I redirected her to the dandelions growing beside the sidewalk. By the way, our Colombian children do the exact same things with dandelions as my Amish students in Ohio. Her face looked a little jaundice by the time she was done.) :) Most of the graves are raised anywhere between 4 to 6 inches. So the families come out once a week to mow the one grave, so interesting. Our interpreter who has a Colombian wife said they will come out on Mother's Day to eat the favorite meal of the deceased while sitting around the grave.

Typical Day in Pasto

1. Wake up- ask the girls to join us so we can cuddle
2. Go downstairs for breakfast (this takes about an hour)
3. Come back up-get dressed for the day- the girls love baths so sometimes to eat up time we let them bath
4. Play with the girls
5. Walk somewhere (the park, Exito, mall)
6. Lunch
7. Play with the girls
8. Nap (aka: siesta)
9. Play with the girls
10. dinner- this last about two hours
11. bath
12. Watch Dora- Tatiana rolls the r when she says Dora
13. Pray- They usually just stare at us
14. Sleep

This is the one time in the girls lives that we are completely focused on them, no cooking, laundry, cleaning, etc. Bonding is essential during this time in Colombia. We explain to the girls in this same list format, what is happening during the day since we can count in spanish, it makes it easier, espeically for Tatiana who needs to know what comes next. They both are picking up words in English, they often repeat a word or phrase that we say, though I am not sure if they know what all the words mean. It actually hasn't been a big problem the way I thought it may be, we can usually get our point across by acting out. They usually follow suit and act out or actually take our hands and move them. Last night Kathrine put a crayon in my hand and moved my hand to the picture I was supposed to color.

Funny Park

About two blocks down the road there is a mall that we can go to during the day, and inside there is a place they call the Funny Park. There is an arcade, trampoline, ping pong table, and they also have something set up like a McDonalds playplace, with the balls and tunnels. This morning it was cold and it looked like it would rain so we decided that we would go down there instead of walking to the park. We let the girls go into the playplace and we sat and watched them. Since we we were not inside the playplace we could see how they interact together, something we had not picked up on before. Tatiana our six year old watched out for Kathrine our three year old. There was a long tunnel that Tatiana went into and Kathrine was at the top of it, she just sat there until Tatiana came back through so they could go through together. There was also a slide in there and normally at the park, either Ken or I would be at the bottom to catch Kathrine, but here we noticed that Tatiana would go down the slide and then wait to catch Kathrine. It was awesome to see the sisterly love.

Volcano pictures

Hola Beautiful

Every since we got the girls I have been saying "hola beautiful" whenever I see one of them. Usually when I say something in English to them, they just look at me with those big eyes. This morning when I came out of the bathroom, Kathrine was sitting on the floor playing with Polly Pockets. Since there is only a small path through the room to our closet I had to step over Kathrine and all her dolls. I was trying to figure out what I was going to wear when I heard a little "hola beautiful" from Kathrine. They are so precious.

Novelties

A couple novelties we have noticed with the girls...

1. Flip Flops- they have no idea how to walk in them!
2. Gum-we realized they were eating it so we show them how to actually chew gum
3. Warm water- both washing hands and the shower. The hotel brought us a little baby tub since we only have a shower, tonight they both got in and played in it for about an hour. They kept saying caliente (warm)
4. New socks- they look surprised every morning when we get out clean socks
5. Computer- (The French girls taught them how to play a simple computer game, they loved it)
6. Dora DVD's (It actually taught them to count to 10 in English yesterday)
7. Pop- Tatiana's eyes got huge the first time we gave her a drink, then she giggled like crazy and rubbed her chest.

They have been so much fun, we are seeing much more of their personalities come out as the days go by. Kathrine is happy all the time. Tatiana has her ups and downs, this morning she had those sad eyes again which make me cry, but she never does, but about an hour later she was playing and giggling. Sorry about the one picture, I could not read the Spanish on our computer to rotate the picture, just turn your head. :)