Cuidado Personal

Today, we were officially granted custody of the girls!! We are SOOO excited and a bit relieved. It was nice to know that if this judge didn´t like some of the reports and needed more information, that we had 3 ladies who knew our story, know us and know the girls waiting to testify on our behalf. During the proceedings, I took out 2 of my most favorite pictures from recent days that have each girl smiling. They smile so often now and even Eliana is attaching well. This morning when we left, Eli cried for about 5 minutes and she kept holding her arms out for me to hold her again. Now that is IMPROVEMENT!! Praising God!!

The next MAJOR step is the adoption. In order to finalize the adoption we must have our permanent residency. This should be granted to our family sometime in December or at the latest January, but here in Latin America you never count your chickens before they hatch. So, being kind this judge gave us foster care custody (cuidado personal) for 6 months and then we can extend it basically until we get our visa. We hope and pray that we won´t need to use that full 6 months because we also have to leave for the states in late June/early July. This will require additional paperwork, which will need more time to be completed, so we are praying for the finalization of the adoption in January or February. Please keep praying for the 6 of us!!

The girls

They are doing GREAT!! Today we all went to Sunday School. It was so nice to see the church PACKED out for Sunday School and then even more people showed up for church!! Praise God!!


The girls did well, although Eliana still goes completely emotionally blank and it's as if she transports herself to a whole nother world. I worry about this, but know that all I can do is continue to hold her, protect her, and tell her over and over, that I will ALWAYS be here and that I'm NOT going to leave her!


Here are a few more recent pictures...
Esther
Eliana

Eliana

Esther

The 2 girls on our stairs playing with Daddy's shoes.

Break Throughs

So attachment... Most parents don't think anything of it. I know I didn't until a friend of mine brought her two boys home from Haiti and blogged about it. For many of these kids that are adopted from orphanages, they have no concept of what is a mommy or daddy. Most of them have hardly ever seen a man, let alone had one hold them or give them love. Every woman they see is just someone else to meet their needs. Attachment is hard to achieve. You've got to consciously work at it. I, Heather, have been holed up here in the house for over 2 weeks trying to form a schedule and connections with each of our new daughters. For their future security and emotional wellbeing they need to begin to identify me and Doug as the ones who will take care of them. Well, we've seen a few possitive indications of them becoming attached to us.

First, about a week and a half ago, I was over at our neighbor's home checking in on Hannah and Caleb. I had Esther in my arms and Eliana was asleep in the house, and Doug was home. I decided to try and "experiment" out on Esther. I tried to "pass" her to my neighbor and she would have none of it. She wanted to stay with "MOMMY!" YAHOO!!

Second, my wonderful missionary friends threw the girls and I an adoption shower. What a blessing!!! I'll post pictures in another post hopefully soon. At first, I wasn't planning to take the girls, but after being holed up the house for over 2 weeks, I decided, let's try it. They did GREAT!! At first they stayed REALLY close to us, but then after a while, they branched out and used Doug and I both as "bases." They came back to us when they needed/wanted anything. Eliana was so cute. When Esther wanted to go see her daddy who was sitting just a little ways away, Eliana decided that she would come back to sit with me. Well, she came with arms outstretched virtually running to me. What a wonderful sight for me!!!

The third happened just today. My friend and fellow missionary Jenn had brought us pizza for dinner, but since her husband was still "working" in ministry, she had 3 out of her 4 kids and still had to go buy more cheese for her pizzas at home. Well, I suggested that she leave the 3 kids with me. Her youngest, Kendra is such a sweatheart. She doesn't like big dogs, and Kiwi, our dog is a BIG dog. Well, Kendra started to cry when Kiwi would approach and so I picked Kendra up to consol her as her good "Aunt" Heather should do. I walked into the living room holding Kendra and Esther looked up, got this betrayed, jealous look on her face and was ready to throw a temper tantrum. I explained to Kendra that I had to put her down, but that she was now safe and away from Kiwi. I immediately picked up Esther and loved on her and told her that she is MY little girl and I will NEVER leave her or trade her in for anyone else!

I think this Sunday we'll attempt the crowd at church and see how the girls do! During my research I've found that if a child is under the age of 4 before they "come home" that it only takes 1 year for the complete attachment process, if done correctly that is. So, sometime in Fall of 2011 we should be well on our way to raising emotionally secure and loved little girls.

Adoption Quote

Did you know that November is adoption month and that yesterday was orphan Sunday? Well, in honor of this month, my friend and fellow adoptive mom posted this quote on her facebook page. I love it and so I'm sharing it here. It truly represents the reason we are here on this earth and why we do what we do here in Chile!

"My friends, adoption is redemption. It's costly, exhausting,
expensive, and outrageous. Buying back lives costs so much. When God set out to redeem us, it killed him."

~ Derek Loux

Esther LOVES water

Video of Esther playing by the pool we just set up. I love her excitement. This was taken after over 20 minutes of her doing the same thing. I can't wait to see her actually get IN the pool!! Have to buy floaties first!!!


Esther's Video