Ecuador Day 16

Today was rather slow again. Devin has been kind enough to wake up with the kids in the mornings at 6:30 ish while I sleep in until 7:30 or so. Good husband I have, huh? Hallie woke up numerous times last night and I was also awakened every time as her air mattress is on the floor right next to my side of the bed. The girl talks in her sleep, I'll tell you what. She also gets angry in her sleep. Yikes. Her reason for waking up so many times last night was that her head was too close to the bed and it was bugging her. Oh geez...a bit of a drama queen we have here.

Anyway, no throw up all day yesterday or last night, so I think she is on the mend. The D situation is also improving- thank you Pedialyte. We spent the morning lazing around the house. We watched Tangled for the 1200th time (Hallie's favorite). We had lunch and then attempted naps, which was hugely unsuccessful, except for me. I slept. I think Jace slept a little bit, but no one else did. I don't know why I am so tired all the time! Honestly, we go to bed at 9 pm every night, 10 at the very latest. We have become such old people here. ha ha.

After the attempted naps, we took our ornery brood out for a walk. We walked to a huge mall here, the Quicentro, which is just down the road from us. We really are in a prime location. The mall is very modern and generally expensive. It has three floors and has many name brand stores, like Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. We were looking for birthday gifts for Flor as her birthday is Friday. We went to a toy store first, but didn't find any books (which is what we were looking for.) We found a clothing department store next store and stopped in to get some underwear for Flor since we are taking on this potty training thing. We had looked at the MegaMaxi the other day and a pack of three was over seven dollars. YIKES. No thanks. This store in the mall had some on "clearance", meaning they were $1.90 per pair. I thought that was the best we were going to do, so we got some there. (I know, I know, most of you really don't need to have documented the purchasing of our children's underwear, but oh well, there it is!)

We did find a bookstore as well where we purchased Flor four books. We were able to find a series that has both Spanish and English translations, so that will be good for her. While in line, the clerk was asking me some information he needed for tax information (?) which was rather confusing, especially given my limited Spanish. Luckily, the man behind me in line spoke fluent English and stepped in to translate. He just told me to tell the clerks "no" when asked such information. Good to know. That was the first time it had happened. Odd, very odd.

We stopped next at a Hallmark store to try to find some wrapping paper. All they had was a Christmas roll, which (not that big) cost $8.95. Whoa. I opted for bags instead, though that didn't save me any money. One medium sized bag cost $5 and a small one cost $3. However, the store throws in the tissue paper for "free" and they also gave us 2 balloons for "free" as well. I am not sure if that is common practice or if my eyes were just so far popped out of my head due to the prices that the clerk felt bad for me, but oh well, we got two balloons.

We then headed home as the children were not doing so well, particularly Jace. He has become quite the mama's boy and if I am in eye shot, he wants me to hold him. He was in the stroller with Flor, so I tried to stay behind and out of sight during the walk home. If he spotted me, he would begin twisting in his seat and crying. Poor thing. He is probably feeling a little bit displaced and honestly I think he is having a rougher time with the changes than Hallie. I think we prepared Hallie fairly well and she understands what is going on. But Jace's little life has been thrown a curve ball and he is not the only "baby" anymore, which is an adjustment for him.

We often see these two taxi drivers sitting there playing cards on this road right by our house. I snuck a picture of them today as we went by. We wonder how they make any money?

We got home, had dinner, and put the kids to be early due to the lack of naps during the day. They were ready and so were we!

I did get this cute picture of the girls in their pajamas before bed. Hallie has taken to mimicking whatever Flor does as their method of play and Flor thinks it is hilarious. So here they are laughing about whatever it was they were doing. 

We finally have a little bit of news as far as the adoption process goes...Apparently our report from the orphanage about bonding went in mid-week last week as we were promised, but the person who is handling our case from INFA went on vacation and just got back today. Love those vacations. So, she (the INFA lady) promised Maria Jose (our in country rep) that her report would be done by Thursday this week. Maria Jose called tonight to tell us that we can't go anywhere Friday as she is going to stop by sometime with a lawyer to have us sign some documents, which then allows her to get us in the court pool to get a judge and a date for court. Of course she can't pin-point a time, but requested that we keep the whole day open. Friday is Flor's birthday and we had planned with the orphanage to have her going away party and a birthday party for her there. Of course...the one day we have anything planned! Oh well, of course we will do whatever we can to get the process moving forward. I texted Pamela to see if we can move the party to Thursday instead and she will let us know tomorrow. We hope to know our court date at the beginning of next week if all goes well. Please pray with us that all will go according to plan and that we can get this process moving along! We would sure appreciate it.

Anyway, that about wraps up today. The internet was out all day long, but luckily came back on tonight. Yay for that. It has been spotty lately. I hope that does not continue!