CRAZY LIFE

As I typed in the title beginning with "Crazy," I realize that I've used that word in more than one title throughout this journey. I love my 4 kids, but with twin 2 year olds the terrible two's are EXTRA TERRIBLE and CRAZY!!!

I haven't updated here in over 3 months and I'm sorry!!! For starters in May we learned finally that we would not be returning to the US for our missionary furlough. This was due to the fact that after entertaining the girls with my pulled out hair, (see the last post) that we could not get visas for the girls to enter the US for more than 6 months. This would have made furlough virtually impossible and separated the family for a long time. It also would have cost us over $13000 in airfare for only 6 months and all the separation. Therefore, along with our pastor and regional administrator we have decided to stay here in Chile for another year and a half before heading back to the US for an extended time of reraising support.

Since we weren't moving to the states, I stopped packing up the house in May, only to find out June 4th that by July 4th we would be moving across town into the home of fellow missionaries to care for their home and our new church plant. Then the month of July was spent readying the old house for the new renters and storing all of our furniture and non daily use items in storage.

Now that we've entered August, I might have a bit more time to update you all on the girls. First of all, we've learned through contact with the embassy that the girls won't be able to have immigration visas until they have been in our custody for 2 years. Therefore, when we go back to the states in January of 2013, they will land on US soil and be citizens. We'll still have to readopt them in the states, but they'll have dual citizenship!!

As for right now, since April, they are growing like WEEDS!! They are talking in Spanish and English, but now that they spend most of their time with me here at home, mostly in English, but they FULLY understand everything spoken in Spanish too. Here are a few pictures from the past few months.

Eliana (left) and Esther (right) ready for preschool. They attended preschool 2 mornings a week so that I could pack a bit. They loved their school and look forward to going back once we move back to that side of the city. This was great for their Spanish and good for mommy to get a little break two mornings a week.

Eliana playing at an activity center for her friend's birthday. Eliana is constantly smiling, but has become more and more bossy as the older sister. One day her bigger yet younger and more easy going sister is going to really give it back to her.

Esther playing in the ball pit at the activity center for her friend's birthday. I think she played in this pit the whole 2 hours we were there. She is the hardest to catch smiling on camera although when she does her whole face lights up and she glows. She is SO BEAUTIFUL when she smiles!! Esther is my quiet curious one who will look right at you after you say, "NO!," and do it anyway.

Eliana (and Esther) LOVE(s) peanut butter. They may not be US citizens yet, but they are well on their way with their love of peanut butter!!!

When the girls first got home we had hours upon hours of listening to Esther's screams. Well we finally figured out what would calm her down. This position. She seems to have some MAJOR issues to digestive gas. At least that's what it started with. Now, whenever she can't communicate what she wants or needs she throws a temper tantrum and usually ends up in this position. We are working more and more with her on communicating her needs to us and we are gradually eliminating these temper tantrums.

The girls are learning how to pray too. For meals now they will repeat our prayer and sometimes they will even pray on their own.

Thanks for walking this journey with us and I hope to keep you updated more often. God bless!!

Pulling My Hair Out to Entertain the Twins

This past Wednesday, I ventured out alone with Eliana and Esther. I had to investigate getting them visitor's visas to enter the US for our furlough. Praise God we have a double stroller and the girls sit quite well in that! It helps to keep them constrained and some what occupied while we wait for something. Well, on this particular day, I had brought and tried through out the wait...Baby keys, Monster Truck match box cars, snacks, sippy cups, and stickers. Well, after all the normal things were exhausted and I STILL stood waiting for an answer about visas, Eliana happened to get a hair stuck to her sticker. She had SO MUCH fun dangling her sticker that when that sticker and the hair, which was really just a fuzzy strand of something or other, "died," she began to fuss. That gave me the BRILLIANT idea of pulling my own hair out, sticking it to one sticker and then laying another sticker on top of the other. She then had a "magic" star that dangled quite a distance. When Esther saw Eliana's "magic star," she wanted one too. SOOOOO, yes I pulled out more hair. "Pulling my hair out" with these girls has never been this easy!!!

First Haircuts

The girls had their "first" haircuts this past Saturday. We aren't ignorant to the fact that we're pretty sure that Eliana had had a haircut while she was in the orphanage and that Heather had cut Esther's bangs shortly after they came home, but as for a full blown haircut since they're now Amundsons, this was "IT."

Esther quietly went first without fuss...

First Haircuts

Then came Eliana with as much fuss as she is well known for. You've got to love those crocodile tears!!!

Parents only??? - NO!!!

Adoption isn't just a PARENTS thing - It's a FAMILY thing!!!
This is my background on our desktop computer. Hannah loving on Esther during the twins' birthday party. Hannah is SUCH a blessing and she truly loves her new sisters even if that means a little less time with Mommy and Daddy.

Thanks to Jenn Rubin (fellow missionary) for the picture - black and white and all!!

"Croc - s Pot"

So is this the up and coming new "Crocs Pot?" You've got to love Eliana's creativity!!

By the way, that's cereal in her crocs pot.

The B-I-B-L-E

We all remember the children's Sunday school song, "The B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me. I stand alone on the word of God. The B-I-B-L-E." Well, it's one of the regular songs that we sing with Eliana and Esther, that and "Jesus Loves Me." The girls have caught on really well to the tune, but now Esther sings, "B-I-B-I-Me." I love her enthusiasm to sing her special song and so I do hope that one day the B-I-B-L-E is the book for "me," meaning Esther.

The adoption

SO SORRY that we haven't posted about the adoption last Wednesday. Everything went VERY well!! Normally the children aren't allowed in the courtroom, but all 4 of ours were asked by the judge to be there. Soooo, even though the girls were EXTREMELY fussy and the older two were EXTREMELY board, the judge was VERY nice and even took a photo with us afterward. Out in the waiting area to celebrate with us, we had our national pastor, his wife, some close Chilean friends of Heather's, Jenn Rubin, a fellow ABWE missionary, and some of our personal supporters and friends the Kollerts. It was SUCH a blessing to have so many people there to celebrate our BIG day with us!!

With the judge

With Phil and Lillie Kollert - long time friends from Rittman, OH

With our national pastor and his wife Sandra

With our lawyer from our agency - Lorena

Adoption Update

Adoption papers signed and filed with the court. Next step the final hearing to finalize the adoption. This is scheduled to take place on January 12th at 9:30 Chilean time or 7:30am EST. We are SOOOOO excited!!! As my mother just said today, "When God moves, HE MOVES!" We are SOOOOO blessed!!!
As for the adoption tax credit, we have paid all of the agency fees already, so maybe we can claim those for 2010 since we actually paid them in 2010. We'll see.

ANOTHER step closer

We have our permanent residency!! Actually the adoption agency lawyer alerted us that we needed to go pick them up, so we ran downtown with all 4 kids in tow, and got them!! This was last Tuesday. Then we had to get notorized copies of all of our certificates, before dropping off those copies and copies of our permanent residency to the adoption agency. Now, there are 2 steps left.

The first step with happen tomorrow. We have to go the courthouse and sign the legal petition for the adoption of the girls. We have to do this in front of a judge. Then we'll have one more audiencia with a judge to finalize the adoption. We are still praying that this will happen NEXT week, so that on our tax returns we can claim the girls and we can get our adoption tax credit/refund back. This means we'll get back all the money we've spent thus far in the adoption (because it's been less than $10,000 - which is the credit amount per child). Please pray with us!!

My girls are 2

My princesitas, Eliana and Esther,

I have to say that as your birthday is here today, I'm not sure how I feel. On the one side, I'm excited that we can finally celebrate your special day. But on the other side, there is little significance of this particular day for me. I also don't want to admit that you're 2. I want you to grow and learn, but I want you to stay little. What does make this day special is that you two are here with us and we can celebrate together. You are FINALLY home!!!

On this day, December 15, 2008 your biological mother, gave birth to you after 37 weeks of carrying you two around. As active as you are now, I'm sure you were pretty active in her womb too! I'm glad that she was able to "hang on" for 37 weeks so you two would have the healthiest start possible! She gave you life and loved you both enough to know that she couldn't provide the kind of home that you needed. I'm thankful for your biological mother and her sacrifice to allow us to know you and to mold you into the image of Christ. I'm thankful that God decided from the beginning of time that we would be blessed to give you the kind of home that your biological mother wanted for you.

For me, our special day is October 25, 2010, the day you finally came home!!! You are both extra special and in this brief time, I have seen you grow and learn new things. I love hearing you talk to us in either Spanish or English! I love hearing you talk to each other in your special twin language. Eliana, you love to watch and know how things work or why things stay together or come apart. There isn't a mystery you won't try to solve. Esther you love adventure with boundaries and security. You'd try anything once.

I pray that as this birthday passes into another and another that we will look back on these past months and realize how much you've grown and what a blessing you both are to our family.
Happy Birthday my dear babies, who really aren't babies anymore. Grow strong and healthy!
I love you!!
Mommy

Steven Curtis Chapman-All I Really Want for Christmas

Updates and BIG NEWS!

First of all - Yes I am planning to post an adoption shower entry, but my friend and fellow missionary has all the really great pictures and we keep missing each other to pass the CD that she made for me.

Second, I got a call this morning from the adoption agency lawyer. She apparently has been checking on-line on our permanent residency status. She said that they are ready!! She also says that once this is done and we've got copies of all of our documents then we're good to complete the adoption. All that being said, we could complete the adoption by the END of 2010!! WOW!! HOW FAST!!

Third, a few notes for future reference. Caleb and I were remembering the day we brought the girls home and the roller coaster of a day that we'd had. Caleb remembers "running up to us to ask if we'd gotten foster care custody and if we were going to get the girls. Then we had to tell him that we were going to wait one more day." That's when he confided in me that, "when we told him that we were going to wait one more day, he went to the bathroom and cried and prayed to ask God to bring his sisters home that day." Low and behold, the director of the agency called and told us that the girls were ready for us and to go and get them. Caleb's prayers and heart cry were answered. I praise God that Caleb and Hannah have such a heart for others!!

Eric Ludy - Depraved Indifference

An AMAZING video

The last month or so in pictures

Esther all dressed up for her first Sunday at church.

Eliana on a Sunday about to visit church for the first time

and playing with her big brothers soccer goalie glove.

Eliana reading a flyer from a local pharmacy.

That smile is CONTAGEOUS!!!

Esther in her new "Lumpilo" (Columpio = Swing)

Just after taking a tubby

Esther, Mommy, and Eliana

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