PEACE
Our time at the Coffee Farm in Finca Mont Serrat has been wonderful. It is quiet (other than the rooster that begins to crow at 3am), absolutely beautiful, and we’ve enjoyed the other family we are here with. It’s so good to speak to another English speaking person whose adopting!
Lanie actually went into the large pool with me. This was a huge step for her. She has enjoyed filling up bottes of water and pouring them on her and other people’s heads. She’s spent hours and hours doing this! We finally found something she can do independently for a long time! She and Alli have had fun together laughing and dancing. The other two boys here are very sweet kids. Scott taught them to swim. We’ve all had a wonderful time together. I have enjoyed the other adopting mom whom I’ll call Stephanie as well. Neither of us are great cooks so we’ve had lots of laughs.
Lanie has done well here most of the time. We took her nap away since it would be a battle to make her go to sleep while everyone played in the pool right outside her door. That did help her go to bed easier, but she also melted from exhaustion at times too.
HEAVY HEART
While this has been wonderful, our time there ended with a heavy heart. The two boys whom I’ll call Mark and Sam are 9 and 10 years old. The adoptive mom is a single lady adopting these two boys. After much consideration, she has decided she can not take the kids. She is a single girl and the boys are typical active 9 and 10 year olds who are transitioning through adoption. We’ve come to love the boys. Scott has spent a lot of time with them teaching them to swim and playing soccer with them. We’ve taught them Skip Bo and enjoyed hanging with them and Stephanie. They have engaged Alli even though their is a language barrier. All adopting kids come with struggles and a past and these boys do as well so it’s not always been easy for this lady whom I’ll call Stephanie to handle alone. She has decided she cannot give them what they need as a single mom so they will be returned to foster care this week. Scott and I are very very sad for all of them. They have hopes and dreams of being in a family, becoming a scientist and professional soccer player. They thought they were being adopted and now they will soon realize they aren’t. It was hard watching them yesterday and Stephanie. Reading about orphan care is much easier than dealing with it personally and watching the heart aches and struggles of it.
If anyone knows of someone who would want to parent these boys please let us know. They need an active engaged dad as well as a mom. From our time with them they will need a lot of guidance and care for a while, but they seem to be sweet well mannered boys that have great potential. Please pray for all three of them. This is an extremely difficult week. I told Stephanie and her translator that I would post about them and get the word out in case someone else was interested in adopting them. Let me know if you or someone you know is.
This also means I’m loosing my in country American English speaking friend this week as Stephanie will go back home to the US. Maybe I’ll meet someone else. Our host family has been great and will continue to be I’m sure. Our agency people also check on us often so we are taken care of here. It’s just been nice having another adopting American family around.
Today we are off to learn how coffee is made! Hoping for no meltdowns And the Spanish words to say when meltdowns do happen.