Our New Family

I started out my morning eating half a banana - not too hungry.  We hailed a taxi to take us to the orphanage to visit with the children since we had several appointments today that we thought wouldn’t interest them.  Plus, Angela’s not too keen on walking everywhere (again, like her madre).  Dave and Xavier played football and Xavier kicked it so well, it went in the basketball hoop!  The girls and I watched Bratz cartoons and we gave all three niños a little chocolate.  Afterwards, Dave and I hailed another taxi to take us to Plaza de Armas to meet Maria and Raul.  We got there a little early, so we did some light shopping.  Dave bought me an Incan cross necklace, similar to his.  I’m not sure, but I think the children may have some Incan in their heritage.  Then, we bought some gifts and had lunch at Capricio’s.  I had a classic Peruvian dish:  Lomo saltado.  It was delicious!  It’s bits of steak, purple onions, tomatoes, and cilantro, stewed, so everything is tender and served with real rice and French fries stacked like the game Jenga.  I’ll have to recreate that when we get home.  I attempted to use the Internet café upstairs, but no luck as two German girls were using them.  While sitting in the center of Plaza de Armas, Dave bought some birdseed from a woman.  I began feeding the pigeons and ended up with two eating out of my hand, and one sitting on my shoulder.  I take after my grandmother, I suppose.  We then went to City Hall to retrieve their birth certificates… very quick line.  Afterwards, we met with Maria and Raul and walked to LAN Peru Airlines to book our flight for August 9^th to Lima, and found we are able to change it to August 6^th, if we get their new birth certificates early;  then, to SNA (Sistema Nacional de Adopción) to sign our legal guardianship paper.  We returned to San Jose to attend the farewell party for the children.  It was quite bittersweet… lots of different emotions.  The children are happy to have a family and parents who love them, but at the same time, while they were performing their songs (in English, no less), they started crying… along with some of their close friends.  I lost it… again.  After a few piano solos from our children, Maria Perez served us cake and cokes and we visited and played.  My new Peruvian friends are enjoying my blog too, so they have asked that I please keep doing it.  They want to keep in touch somehow with our lives, which I completely understand.  I think I will enjoy documenting these memories.  So, no problema.  Once our taxis arrived, some of our missionary friends, the priests who are also friends, and our new family came to our house to deliver all the shopping and their personal possessions.  All of us went out to dinner to Brunno’s Pizza.  I have to say, again, this is the best Italian food I’ve had and we just had pizza!  Padre Juan Carlos suggested we pick up something at the pharmacy since the children aren’t used to eating that much cheese, or eating that late.  So, Padre Juan Carlos and Dave went to the pharmacy while Padre Juan Ayala, Juan Carlos’ wife, Maria, our friends, and the children waited in Juan Carlos’ van.  They drove us home so we didn’t have to spend money on a taxi.  Our children are now home with us and in good spirits. Naty prepared their beds beautifully, but we’re kind of playing fruit basket turnover, since the girls want to sleep with me and Xavier wants to sleep with Dave.  Lizet asked if we could do this every night, but I told her, “No, only tonight to celebrate.”  So, Dave and Xavier are sleeping in the girls’ twin beds, while the girls and I will be sharing the double bed.  Since Lizet is so fascinated with the flashlight, I’m letting her sleep with it.  When the lights were out, I saw this round light dancing across the ceiling.  She is so funny.  I was lying in bed between the girls (that’s where they wanted me) and now, I just can’t sleep since I smell like smoke… pollution.  So, for the rest of you out there… buenos noches.