Tuesday, May 31, 2011

This and That


Some photos from the last month or so, mostly just this and that.
And I am also of course doing an update on the adoption process....



Easter baskets home-made: woven paper heart baskets. We made them together and then they looked for chocolates in our Casita. This was a big hit and the first time we did anything with the girls for Easter at home. I didn't grow up celebrating Easter so it took awhile to figure out what to do here. In Costa Rica it's mostly just a religious holiday and not commercialized at all. However, when in doubt, adding in chocolate never seems to hurt anything, right?




Well! April came and went. We went to an Easter Egg Hunt over Easter weekend that friends had generously organized. It was fun, especially so to see some kids in their Easter finery (hats and gloves, oh my!), down here in the Central American tropics.

We also (top photo) got to see our cousin, Stacey, in San Jose for a nice long weekend at the beginning of May. She is the girls' Madrina/godmother and they were beside themselves with excitement waiting on the trip. We did some errands for our business but mostly just relaxed and enjoyed some dinners out, playing cards, swimming at the hotel pool, and going to the park. San Jose has a large park that is like their "central park" and it's a great place to hang out and people watch. The girls also got taken to see "Rio" with Madrina and Madrina informed me that she cried- she said it's a good movie.

I threw in some photos of Daisy because she is such a big part of our family. Wherever we are, there Daisy is. We are continually enamored of her and of course we think she is the best, smartest and cutest dog in the world. Above, she's jumped into a client's Tuk Tuk that Rick was servicing- ready for the ride she expects.

Adoption Update:

We went to our meeting with the judge yesterday. There was a court-appointed psychologist (different from the one who did the social study that took almost 18 friggin' months) and the appt. went fine. Started at 8:30 AM sharp and was over by 10 AM. The girls were each interviewed by the psychologist with the judge individually. Then the psychologist met with all three while the judge met with me to get all the "details" for her report. Then the judge met with Rick alone and then finally the judge met with all of us after the psychologist left.

I could list out the questions she asked the girls (as I read the report when we were done as we were given our own copy) or the questions they asked us, but they were all routine questions you'd imagine would be asked when going about to finalize an adoption. What are things you do with your parents? How are the girls now compared to how they were in the beginning? Stuff like that.

In 9 days or less, the report will be submitted to the department which is in charge of birth certificates and name changes and then it'll be about 3-6 more months before the names actually change. For our purposes, when we get the document that finalizes the adoption in about 9 days, that is THE DAY we are done! However, yesterday at 10 AM, we were informed that the adoption is being finalized so you could say yesterday was also a special day on this long journey.

It was a nice, non-stressful experience all around and we went out for lunch after wards to celebrate another milestone. We had trouble explaining to our girls that there was something still to be finalized. I mean, how do you say that we've been living and functioning like a family for well over 2 years, almost 3, and that there is something left to do requiring papers, that makes it more real than it already is? Well you can't. Not only did they not understand, I think it actually bothered them that there was still a step remaining to make us a legal "family". I understand, I had been thinking the same thing for at least almost 2 years myself! Ah well, we are finally there and the girls are for sure, worth the waiting.

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