we have a court date!

For those of you who don't know, we have been struggling to get the boys re-adopted in the US for quite some time. It is not a requirement to re-adopt in this state, so it was kind of hard to find a lawyer who specialized in re-adoption cases. But, we found an great lawyer and then focused on choosing developmentally appropriate birthdays for the boys. We then had to get all of the documentation to the lawyer so that we can finally get birth certificates. Hurray!

Summer has been a busy time for us--I am so looking forward to the beginning of school! Josua and Samuel will be starting at a new school in the fall and they are both looking forward to it. They have been having play dates with their new classmates and I will be working in Samuel's class as a class mom, so the transition should be pretty easy. Plus, it's a very small school so I think they will have the chance to really get to know their new classmates and grow up with the same people.

Josua is starting 1st grade and is learning to read and spell. He has started reading simple books and starting to spell the words he uses with us which is hilarious! He very quickly learned, "p-l-e-a-s-e" which always makes us smile. He is responding so well to the family environment, and has turned out to be the family cuddle-bug (he would not call himself that though because he is my big man).

Samuel is starting kindergarten and his favorite thing to do is his "homework" where we color and read books and he gets to go through his book with his big-boy pencil and eraser. He is so clever and is so excited about big-boy school he can hardley stand it! He's sporting his new sunglasses here--he LOVES them!

Santi will be in pre-school in the same school as last year where he is really starting to flourish. He is starting to get a handle on colors and he loves people so much that we can hardly keep him away from school. He has started announcing to anyone is hearing distance that he is Santiago and he is three years old! He doesn't know the meaning of the word shy. This is his new face when he's trying to be funny and get his brothers to laugh.

The boys are doing well. As hard as it has been over the past 11 months, the boys are responding well and we are starting to really find our way togehter as a family.

We know that we have been inaccessible to a large degree, but our beautiful boys have required an intense amount of focus. We think it has paid off--and are so thankful for all of the support, prayer and kind thoughts/words we have been receiving. As we are slowly coming out into the world agian, we are so excited to be seeing all of you and that we have such a happy family ready for the adventures of a lifetime together!

te quiero hasta la luna (I love you to the moon)

This was my favorite thing my boys used to say to me and I have to admit the one thing I miss most of their Spanish. We decided to name our blog after our favorite family saying.

We are back into blog-world, but with far less time and too much to say. We have worked so hard to keep afloat for these first few months that we had little time to do anything else. For our friends and family who have not seen much of us: please forgive us! We are re-starting a blog and promising to keep up on it so that you keep up with the regular antics of our daily lives.

Life has been tough and adjusting to a new family has been hard. It has rewarding elements, but it has been largely exhausting and emotionally taxing. We have been fortunate that my mother has been visiting regularly or the house would rarely get cleaned (she goes straight for the bleach and the shower stalls). The boys have had a bit of a rough adjustment too, but seem to be doing quite well and are happy. We laughed out loud the other day when Josua announced that he wanted to go to a "nice" family when we made him put his clothes in the dresser. We decided this was the ultimate proof of a settled and adjusted child--for the first time, he is not afraid that he might be taken away to an unfamiliar place and a new family. Of course a few minutes later he decided we were a nice family (probably because he wanted a piggyback ride from Papi).

The boys are settling down and now we are starting to remember more and more of their pasts and are learning coping skills, so life is getting a bit more complicated as we learn to navigate these memories, but easier as the boys are working to make sense of it all. We have also had to get deeply creative in our approach to discipline. Recently we introduced the "no touching" gloves--an set of bright orange gloves for dishes and cleaning and the like. We put them on Samuel for 30 minutes whenever he touches something he has been forbidden to touch. We had to figure something out when he walked into a store, ran for the first unstaffed cash register and began pushing every button on the thing. ugh. Good news is that he has been responding well. I think it's some combination of the visual cue to remind him not to touch as well how much he hates losing the tactile sensation. That coupled with adding in some tactile fun (corn starch and water makes a lovely gooey mess that he is particularly fond of) has at least started him thinking about touching everything, so that's nice.

Santiago is still our sweet little jekyll and hyde: often our precious Santi, but with no warning or pattern whatsoever becomes our Iago. Goodness--he is stubborn to a degree I didn't think was possible. Aside from that, he is doing well. All the boys were tested for their developmental level throughout the year to track progress and try to establish firm ages. Santi tested, for the most part, at his appropriate age level of 40 months with one notable exception: our little charmer tested at over 60 months for social skills! We laughed so hard--of course his talent lies in his social skills :)

We are all doing well and working to keep cool and busy over the summer. We'll try to keep blogging not only for our friends and family, but also because we enjoy reading so many other blogs that helped us get through these tough first months. Until next time. . .