Papallacta

one of the pools outside our cabin


f & n in our rustic cabin - no tv! what?


f, n & j on a bridge over a river we crossed to get to our cabin

f and c loving the warm water


they all want to hang on me at the same time - help!

Great weekend. It was chilly (50 Fahrenheit) for us to get in swimsuits, but the thermal pools all ranged from bathtub warm to hot-tub hot, and then scalding thanks to springs heated by two nearby volcanoes. The kids loved getting to swim and goof around. M didn't try to drown himself as much as he did the last time we had him swimming - progress. C and I got the opportunity to get massages and slathered in Andean mud at the spa and then wrapped in plastic wrap and left to soak - we loved it. From the hot spring pools we could see the clouds swallow the hillsides and hummingbirds in the trees. All the fresh air, altitude and fun = all 4 kids slept for the 2 hour ride home this afternoon.

Adoption decree

N,M,F & J with our cook's 4 mo. old baby. They LOVE this baby and fight over who gets to hold her.


All dressed up to go to court yesterday. This is our "backyard."


We met a judge yesterday and he was clearly smitten with our little family and our lawyers were able to persuade him to issue the adoption decree today! Unexpected great news! So late next week we'll have new birth certificates for the girls with us listed as parents, and after that - ID cards, Ecuadorian passports, and finally visas and home..... We're still gonna be here a few weeks - (these things still take time!) but it means that instead of being home Sept 1, we'll be back (dare I say) mid-August. I should not be writing this, because I don't want to jinx anything - hope there are no new roadblocks or slow-downs.

Tomorrow we are off to Papallacta - hot springs about 2 hrs away. We'll stay overnight - we learned our lesson driving at night when we went to Otavalo - no need to repeat that experience. The kids will have fun swimming and hopefully this time tomorrow I'll be immobilized in an Andean mud-wrap or soaking in a hot pool of therapeutic water (with a rum and coke, just maybe?).

Then Tuesday we fly to Manta on the coast. We have rented a house for a week or two (until we are called back to Quito for the next process). The home has a pool and is right on the beach and is about 3x the size of our current apartment. Oh, heaven! The kids are really looking forward to that.

Thank you so much for all your support and prayers! We were in such a funk earlier today and this good news has turned it all around for us! Woo!

Ice cream and playgrounds everyday!

A scene from our wanderings yesterday. Check out how moms here carry their babies/toddlers. Cool homemade contraptions - forget 'Baby Bjorns!' These moms are working - they're selling fruit from their baskets on the streets.


We scream for ice cream!


J & N - favorite - 'vainilla'

We seem to find a reason to get ice cream every day. What's not to love? It is so entertaining and as a bonus it takes our little ones at least 30 minutes each to eat a single cone. Maybe they are savoring it, maybe they are just slow-pokes. We visited 3 different playgrounds today. We're a tad bored here. We miss the indoor playgrounds at the malls, the amusement parks, the water parks, kids gyms, and general commercialized kid-friendly family traps the US offers on every corner. We're improvising here. It's building character - that's what Norm would tell us (wink).

Tomorrow (Thur) we have an appointment in the afternoon at court! Woot! It is our 'audencia' with a judge - our adoption hearing.

This weekend we're planning a mini- getaway to Papallacta - hot springs. Can't wait. We have much to look forward to.

Picture Gallery Link

There was a problem with my link from my prior entry. Click here to view pics.

A memorable weekend to say the least!!

How quickly we are making memories as a family of 6!! We had so much fun and are thoroughly exhausted. On Saturday, we drove ~75km along curvy, mountainous roads to Otavalo; the trip took nearly 2 hours. Once we arrived, we witnessed one of the largest, well-known artisan markets in Ecuador. Crafts included hand-made everything, sweaters, hammocks, pan-flutes, charangos (looks like a 1o string ukelele)...and lots more. The people, the food, the crafts, the sights, were all amazing. Once we left the market, we drove a bit to a nearby "cascada". We parked the car, then hiked for about 20 minutes or so to arrive at a beautiful waterfall. It was a beautiful sight.

From there, we drove through the town of Cotacachi and on to the reserve Cotocachi-Cayapas. There we saw the Laguna Cuicocha. This lagoon was formed by a vulcano that imploded into itself. Then some other eruptions formed two island peaks in the middle of the lagoon. We took an awesome boat ride around the lagoon and stopped near the islands to see the sulphur springs bubbling up from below the water's surface. This was a stunning sight to say the least. Saturday was a long day, pretty much 8 am to 8 pm. All enjoyed and were exhausted.

Sunday, we took the kids to the zoo and saw many animals. It was a nice zoo with many varieties of animals, big small, etc. After that, we headed to a state park to let the kids run around and have fun. There was a nice play area and a cold (and somewhat dirty) pool. Although today was tiring for all too, the kids really enjoyed a day of kids-focused activities.

The link to all the photos in our library since last weekend's gallery posting can be found HERE. Also, I compiled some video from this weekend for a few highlights.



A couple of funny coincidences....while in a shop in Cotacachi, a young boy started talking to K in perfect english. He explained his aunt owned the shop and he was visiting her; he lives in Hudson County, New Jersey (where K and I lived shortly after being married). Then, while at the park today, a woman started talking to us in english; one of her children was born in New Jersey. Small world!

Accomplished something?

We verified our signatures today. We dressed up, went to court, waited in a crowded hallway, were led into a small room where a man (a judge? a clerk?) watched us sign our names and checked our passports.

It is one of the many steps, checked off......

We will go again to court in a week for our adoption hearing. Then another 15 days for finalization. Then visas, new birth certificates, passports, etc.

We are trying to be patient. We are frustrated.

We celebrated our court date with ice cream- like I said before, we find a reason daily for ice cream.

Another celebration- got all 3 girls showered together - done in 15 min. Amazing. Really! They were helping each other and happy to get to watch a movie tonight. It's the little things in life that make me sooo happy.

The children are a miracle. We are so blessed. We are so easily frustrated by this process and living in a foreign place, but seeing the kids all together snuggled in bed, holding hands on the sidewalk, playing with baby dolls.....it puts our whole life in perspective.

We're off to Otavalo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otavalo) tomorrow for the day: a large indigenous market, and the village of Cotacachi. So we'll have some fun pictures this weekend to share, I'm sure.

Love to all.

ps. If you are praying, pray for patience.

2 weeks down!

F & N, matching t-shirts "Ecuador, milagros todos los dias" (miracles every day - from F.M)

J's favorite time of day: "tina," bath

N - the princess -loves to blow-dry

C at the mercado

It's hard to believe that we've been here 2 weeks already! It kind of feels like forever! Maybe because we have done very little to accomplish our adoption. We are in the sitting-around-waiting for-our-competent-lawyers-to-make-things-happen-stage. We have gotten custody (unofficially though) and signed a petition to adopt the girls. We are hopefully going to court on Friday to "verify our signatures" on the petition. That's right. We go sign and initial in front of a judge that we indeed are the folks that want to parent N & J. Then hopefully soon after that we'll have our adoption hearing. We are not what you call patient people. This process is very challenging for us because every step takes so long (in our eyes only - our Ecuadorian lawyer seems annoyed that we want things to move faster).

Please pray for both patience and speed!

Today we stopped by an artisan market and checked out the local goods. Lots of colorful characters and beautiful handicrafts abound. Also too many child beggars to count. As we were walking towards the market a "mother" pushed her small child (smaller than M) towards us and this little child was "selling" candy. It is sickening.

Later I (K) took M to the grocery for some more eggs and rice (MUST have rice) and I got 3 separate cat-calls on the walk there! Ewww! It's like being in NYC, except here I don't have language skills and I don't know if it is complementary or threatening. Basically made me want to sprint back to the apartment and never leave without C again. I hate that feeling - being an outsider lacking communication - AND dependent on C to "help" me around town because he is so competent in Spanish.

Also today, I insisted on a quick trip to the mall in search of a new book to read and got the comments (in Spanish, this I can understand though) "Are all of those children YOURS?" I felt very proud saying, "Si! Todos son mis hijos" (yup, they're all my kids).

F and N came to me this morning and told me that they had been talking and they decided to surprise me with a day of no fighting, no whining, no complaining, lots of sharing and being nice so they could have gum (chicla) that C got them. OooohhhhhKaaaayyy. And they did! It was the most peaceful day we've had all week! They seem to be figuring out the sibling dynamics with each other. As I type they are all snuggled in bed side-by-side watching a movie as a treat because they were soooo good today.

N is my helper. She picks up whatever I am doing - cooking, washing dishes, folding clothes, straightening up, reining in M......she's "my sidekick." A very gentle and sweet spirit. Quiet, a bit timid in new situations, and afectionate. She comes up to me throughout the day to give me a hug and tells me she loves me. Melts my heart.

J is sweet and silly and naughty. She loves to stick her tongue out at F or N if they are being reprimanded. She is always the last one at the dinner table finishing her food. She loves to play on the monkey bars and hang upside down. Every morning we are wakened by the sounds of her giggle from the girls room. EVERY MORNING. She's a happy girl. She is a tough cookie - loves M and takes his rough-housing, but is quick to cry when her feelings are hurt. Well, she IS 4 years old. That's normal stuff.

I've been getting messages on Facebook/emails asking if I'm home yet. Um, no. Looks like we're here through August. Even if we get all of our court dates done soon, there is still a 15 day waiting period before our adoption is finalized and, oh by the way, the courts close Aug 1-15. So we're planning a trip to the beach during that time.

This is a trip of a lifetime and we are going to try to see everything we can and enjoy every adventure that comes our way..... and suppress our impatience and homesickness!

Thanks so much for all the kind words of support. We miss you all and can't wait to introduce the girls to you!

PS Tonight I got them all bathed in UNDER an hour! WOOHOO!!!!