Ecuador Day 17

We are starting to feel the boredom creeping in. It's so hard to be away from our own home, out of our own routines, and away from our normal activities. There are plenty of things to do in this city, and we make ourselves leave the house daily just so we don't die of boredom, but we are also trying not to spend a billion dollars while here, too (since you know, no one is working at the moment!). It's a fine balance. We had our normal school and cleaning this morning and then spent about an hour playing games. You can only play Uno so many times, though. We tried to teach the kids Phase 10 to drag things out a bit, but they are just a bit too young for that still (and Mishell's language barrier is an issue with that). We had lunch and were about at the edge of stir craziness, so we opted to leave and go for a walk. 

We were told there is a park somewhere behind our house, so we walked up the road in a direction we have never gone, just to find that there is only one road behind us that loops back to where we are. And no park. However, we did get some lovely views of the mansion across the street from us. It's HUGE. Our friends told us that supposedly the richest man in Quito lives there. You can only see parts of it from the street and it is heavily gated, but yes, it's very, very large. 

We walked down the street and over a block and found another little park to play at instead of the imaginary one above us. The kids played for a while and then we entertained ourselves by having them race the length of the basketball court as well as try to beat their own individual times. We even made Flor do it, just for fun. We are mean parents. :) So that burned some time. Then we continued on walking down the street, stopped at the mall for a bathroom break, watched a guy juggle on the street for a while (this is very normal here- to have people perform for the cars at stop lights and hope for some payment). We then walked on down to Carolina Park and burned a few hours there. Carolina Park is right in the middle of the city and sort of like the Central Park of Quito. There are a lot of things to do there, but the park is kind of run down and concrete-y, just like everything else here, which makes it not have such a warm and friendly park feel, if you know what I mean. How's that for horrible descriptions? Anyway, the kids liked the toys there, and that's what counts. 

at the first park. I wasn't trying to take a picture of Jace...I was trying to get Mishell having a good ol' chat with Flor in the back there. Too cute.

And helping her on the exercise machines. This is a common thing in parks here, exercise type play toys. This is a treadmill (duh), they also have stair steppers, a bike, an elliptical type thing, and a bench for sit ups. At least they promote exercise, right?

At Carolina Park. Lots and lots of toys here, but see what I mean about not being the warmest and most welcoming looking toys? Everything is made of concrete and metal.

Oh, the plane is still here! No idea why, but they have an old plane in the middle of the park. It's a bit run down too. But fun to look at.

This is new. Rock climbing! 

After the park, we took a walk down the road to one of our old favorite ice cream shops, Lekka Lekka. When we were here last time, our friends the Schinnerers were staying right close to there, so we ate far too much ice cream. We miss having friends here this time. Last time, we had three other families who we spent a lot of time with, the Harlans, the Schinnerers, and the Broadduses. The Schinnerers were long waiters to get out of here, like us, so we spent many a day with them. It was so incredible to have friends like them here. There is another family here this time, too. They got here a week behind us and are adopting a sibling group of 3 little ones, so they are having some bonding/adjustment time. I am sure we will meet them later and we look forward to that.

Since it's Tuesday, we continued our tradition of Papa Johns pizza. It's 2 for 1 night there and you can't beat that. It also doesn't hurt that we don't have to cook or clean up. :) That about sums up the day.

We heard from MJB this morning that she was not able to get an appointment with the judge today as she had hoped. She is hoping she can see him tomorrow. We are really, really hoping so too. She said she wants to tell him the importance of getting a date as soon as possible since Devin is leaving next week (WAH!!). I started reading my blog yesterday from our last time here, but had to stop because it was so depressing. It was seriously so discouraging. We'd think we were getting somewhere and then nothing would happen. Like at the stage we are now-- all our documents were turned in and we waited for a court date for WEEKS. Oh, we so cannot do that again. I am really praying and trying to have faith that what MJB told us about the court in Tumbaco is true- that they care more about adoptions and process things more quickly. Oh, please let that be true. I really pray for a judge whose heart is softened for us and for adoption in general. 

I suppose that's it for today. Maybe I will take pictures of our house for tomorrow. It's a great place to stay- so much better than where we were last time!