Family of Three!

Holy Canolies! That's the only thing that comes to mind in summing up today so far. When Dave and I woke this morning, we anticipated a number of things based on our referral information, talks with Julie (the CHI program director), other parents, and materials we had been reading. I would say that all of the information we received was accurate in helping to prepare us for receiving Jonatan.

This morning we arose, both with little appetite! So sad, when our hosts went out of their way to make buñuelos for Dave since it has been years since he had them. Sunday is traditionally the day they make these here, so he, fortunately, will have another opportunity to savor them!

As for Jonatan, I will not ramble and keep everyone in suspense! He is with us and doing well! We left for the ICBF office around 10:00 this morning. We needed to stop by a store to pick up some silverware for the cake that we had bought yesterday, and then we were off to the ICBF. It actually did not take as long as Mauricio thought, so we got there in good time. It was definitely nice to not be flying right into the building, followed by a meeting with the psychologist, and then Jonatan.

The psychologist took great care to explain what we should expect. Jonatan has been with his foster family since he was two months old, so she shared that we should expect him to be very upset...on the other hand, he could suprise us all and come in rather calm...although she expected differently. We also had been prepared prior to this to expect the first reaction. Well, without saying more, upset he was! Initially, the tried and true bubbles, ball, and cars that we had brought helped to calm him...but not for long. All told, Jonatan was so upset that he ended up making himself spit-up (or, rather, erupt...and not a little, but a lot!), on me and himself...talk about a first introduction to each other! While all of us attempted to calm him, little helped, so we made the rest of our meeting and necessary paperwork short so that we could get back to El Cortijo.

Actually, the car ride was a blessing in disguise as the sound of the car and changing scenery seemed to calm Jonatan. When we arrived here, he began to cry a bit, but not much. Once in our room, with little confusion and not much going on, he seemed to settle down and enjoy some of the things we have here for him.

We have quickly discovered that he likes to do 'high fives'!!!! It's kinda challenging doing this while taking a picture...but is such a great picture of Jonatan!

A really cute and touching thing moment happened this afternoon...at one point, we decided to look at a photo album with Jonatan that his foster mother had prepared for him...in turning the pages, we first came to a picture of Dave (his foster mother had cut out the pictures we provided and intermixed these with photos of himself growing up...she included captions and everything...so awesome!). Well, when Jonatan saw the picture of Dave, he pointed, smiled, and said "Papa"!!!!! Holy cow! When we got to another picture of myself, he pointed and said "Mama"! I can't tell how those words melted our hearts! I wish I had that moment on video!

Oh my, lunch was certainly entertaining! Try eating toddler style every once in a while! Too cute!

(We tried to post this earlier, but the internet wasn't working, so sorry for the lateness of the post) This afternoon was rather uneventful...keeping things boring...little confusion, that is...and just trying to get to know one another. Right now, Dave is out with Jackie, the bookkeeper for El Cortijo, running some errands that we needed to complete, Jonatan is sleeping (shhh!), and I am awaiting our lawyer, Hector, to drop off our temporary custody papers as we were not able to finish them at the ICBF office this morning.

We will definitely write more, but wanted to make sure that we dropped a quick note to say we are doing well...I picked two cute pictures out from this afternoon that I thought friends and family may appreciate! We love you all, are excited that we can share this moment in our lives with you all...and look forward to sharing more of our journey as a family. A great big 'thank you' is being sent out to all of you who have continued to hold us up in prayer. We appreciate it, see your prayer at work here, and are so thankful for that evidence!

One last one of the three of us. We were having a hard time getting Jonatan to look at someone he was less acquainted with...