James, Jerlin and Charley

James, who is now 7, knew what he wanted and wanted it badly!  Once they told him a family was coming for him he would go in every day to the orphanage office and say, "You told me my family was coming, where are they?"  The night before we got to Colombia they took the kids to where we would all be staying and James wasn't about to leave.  He said he was going to stay and wait for us to get there.  About a week after having the kids with us we went to visit the orphanage to say good bye.  James walked in to this quite hallway and yelled, "Hey chiquitinas (the name of the orphanage) Im here to visit!"  then looked at me and said that he used to live here but no more.  He left that life and has never looked back.  He looks at it as a place he was staying until his mom and dad came to bring him home.  He talkes of all the kids fighting there and of the food they got to eat at lunch time and of the kids that he lived with, that he was not very fond of. Once he was with us he was ours and we were his.  James is the most compasionate, loving little boy.  He loves our animals and is so gentel with them.  He sees a dog running on the side of the road and wonders if he is hungery!  A boy after my own heart!!!  He also loves to help tata in the garage to fix anything and everything.  He has a passion for life.  He wants to try everything there is to try.  Even with food.  He saw some black olives at one of our get togethers with friends and asked what they were.  He wanted to try them to see if he liked them.  He popped one in his mouth, tasted and tasted it.  thought about it for a little bit and decided that no, he didnt like them.  But he tried it!  Pretty good for a 7yr old if I do say so myself.  I would say without a doubt that his adjustment was the easiest!

Jerlin on the other hand was a different story.  She is now 6 and wasnt to sure of us.  Out of all the kids she was defentaly the one who took the longest to bond.  She cried every night when going to bed for about 3 weeks.  She didnt really want much to do with us.  So it made having her brothers and sisters there a huge blessing!  Even the foods we made she wasnt to sure of.  It was everything about the change that made her unsure of what was going on.  Now, one year later, things are much different.  She loves, loves, loves the attention she gets from mama and tata and her older sisters!  She is relizing that she is not going anywhere and that we are ALL a family.....forever.  And she knows that we will all be there for her through good and bad, no matter what.  She loves to show off and I would say her two favorite things are dancing and talking!!!!

Charley did not talk or smile or laugh at the orphanage and they told us this.  He has had ear infections his whole life and because of that has some hearing loss.  He has already had one surgery and is going to have another next year.  He tested positive for TB so he was on meds for 9 months.  Now that he is done with the TB meds and the ear meds he has finally started growing and gaining weight.  3 inches and 5 pounds in just the last 2 monts!  We have seen the biggest change in this little one.  He talks ALL THE TIME (even though we have a hard time understanding him), laughs, giggles and is one happy little camper!  His 2 favorite things are to take little play bugs and spiders and scare the heck out of mom and her friends!  And the other favorite thing that I think is so cute is that he has to dress like tata.  A blue flannel jacket every day like tatas and he has to wear a tie to church, just like tata!

They are all your typical little kids and love to taddle on each other.  Or when you ask who did it they all point to one of the other kids.  They love bath time, supper at the table together so they can all talk at once, playing outside on the trampoline and going to grandpas so they can have pie and ice cream for breakfast!!!!