Monday, November 19th

Post date: Jan 1, 2011 4:55:13 AM

It's our good news day -- we get to sign the final papers tomorrow and begin doing all of the other necessary things to get home.

We have had a pretty eventful few days here. Our biggest news, besides getting to come home soon, is that we have someone else coming to stay with us for a while. One of the teens from the church graduates from high school this month and has been looking for a way to spend some time in the United States. She and a friend who speaks better English approached us on Wednesday night after their prayer meeting about her interest in coming to help out and to work on her English. Her name is Paola and she is 18. She speaks some English, but not enough to work at the camp at Wisconsin where she had hoped to work. She is going to come in January and plans to spend 6 months with us. While she is in NC, she is going to try to take English classes at Durham Tech. and help Kim out with the kids and the house. We had dinner at her house last night and were able to get to know her family a little bit. Her parents, Nelson and Miryam Carreno, don't speak any English, but between Kim's limited Spanish and Paola's limited English, we were able to communicate pretty well, considering. She has an older sister, Johanna, who attends the university here studying to be a kindergarten teacher, and she also has a 9 year old brother,Nelson. It's amazing how well we got along, all thanks to the common bond of Christ. They had been praying for her to have some time in the U.S., and our family had praying for us to have some help and not be overwhelmed by 6 children. By coming in January, she gives us time to get a space ready for her, and she is able to spend Christmas with her family.

Yesterday was quite a day. Before going to dinner with Paola's family, we went to church, which was great. Then a man from the church, his son, his brother and friend?, and another American family that lives here took us to a terrific place for lunch that served traditional Colombian food. We ordered the food and it was served on one huge plate for the entire family. It's eaten with your fingers. We tried carne (very good strips of steak,) mazorca (looks like corn on the cob -- but tastes different,) platanos (plantains,) papas (potatoes,) and arepas (cornbread type of bread filled with white cheese.) Everything was muy rico!(very delicious!) We skipped all of the intestinal fare.

After lunch we got to go for a short hike up one of the mountains -- so Jason and the kids can say they've hiked the Andes. Kim wasn't dressed for the occasion because we weren't completely clear on the plan for the day. After the hike, we went to the a place run by the main dairy brand here for desserts. We got to try some new things there, too, that were very good. On this adventure, we had 17 people in a mini-van, if you can imagine that. It technically seats 11, and they don't sell it in the United States, or we would probably own one of them instead of the huge one that we will be driving again, soon. We got back to the church with 15 minutes to get ready for dinner. We all were exhausted by the time the evening was over, but it was a great day.

This morning, we had breakfast at the orphanage, Ayudame, where the kids lived for about 2 1/2 years. Another sibling group was just adopted at the same time, and they were good friends with our kids. The director wanted a chance to say goodbye to the kids (the others left for Italy today) and to say thank you to the staff for taking such care of the kids for so long. We were able to tour the orphanage and see where they had been sleeping for so long. Kim even got to hold a couple of babies who are waiting for parents. Don't worry, we aren't bringing any extra babies home with us.

We are going to be very glad to get home, but we will miss some things about being here, too. We've made some neat friends here, Americans and Colombians. The weather is hard to beat -- cool at night and warm during the day for the most part. We hope to come back some day and see more of the countryside and visit with the people again.