Ecuador Day 19

I have learned in the past and I am learning again now that there is certainly such a thing as too much togetherness. And we are experiencing it. While I love my kids and I love my husband, all this time together is starting to fray everyone's nerves I think. The kids are having more meltdowns (over stupid things) and we are all just doing our best to not go crazy with boredom. I honestly have no idea how I survived here 10 weeks last time. I must have had angels helping me stay sane. This time, we are not at quite 3 weeks here and I already feel done. I want to hop on the next plane and come on home, back to the routine, the school year, the wonderfulness of going to work a few times per week...Yeah, all that. Unfortunately, we are no closer to getting a court date that I know of. This makes me want to pull my hair out. I understand completely the benefits of having bonding time in Ecuador, in Mishell's own culture and familiar surroundings, but much longer than 3-4 weeks and I almost think it starts to get detrimental to what REAL LIFE is going to be like. Take today for example...this morning we did our school time. Hallie was freaking out and left the table crying no less than 3 times. Mishell refused to read the book she is supposed to be reading and also got in trouble (she does not handle discipline well, we are finding. I think there has been a lack of that in her life. However, she is part of this family and right from the start gets treated the same way with regards to discipline as the other kids. We have told her each time we have had to discipline her that we have rules because we love her... and that is true. For her and for the other kids). Anyway, both girls were just being obstinate because they can. And this is for an hour of school time! Real life means 7 hours of school a day....

In order to break up the boredom, we are getting out daily and this means we are doing fun things all the time. We aren't eating normally (more eating out than normal) and we are eating ice cream often when we are out and about. Who says this is reality at all? It's not. But the alternative of sitting around and doing nothing in the apartment is worse. It's a rough spot to be in. I feel like we are almost spoiling the kids and allowing Mishell to get a picture of what life is like with our family that is not really accurate. So in that sense, the time here is really a detriment. Today we felt it.

After the rather rough morning, we discussed not going anywhere because  in real life, going out and doing something fun usually does not happen after negative behavior. But, Devin and I have to take into account our own mental health and we knew that sitting around the apartment wasn't going to work for us. We can't be the best parents we want to be when we feel bored, irritable, down, and yadda yadda, which is what happens with too much unproductive time on our hands. So, we opted to go to the Water Museum here in Quito (Yaku) recommended to us by the Baumers. We figured that was an alright option as it was somewhat educational.

We first went to Pollo Campero for lunch (again a sanity thing-- there are only so many times you can boil rice or eat potatoes for a meal). I am not sure how we missed this place before, but it was AMAZING! It is fast food chicken, but they have really, really good chicken. The best we have had here. Plus it has a huge play place (bigger and better than McDonald's) and the kids were entertained with that for a long while. It even had a ball pit that Flor played in for quite some time.

After that, we took a taxi to the water museum. We were told that it is essential that we take a taxi right to the doorstep there and wait right there for one back too. We were told that the neighborhood is rather sketchy. I kind of wondered why they would put a museum in a sketchy neighborhood, but when we got there and learned about it, I understood. It really is in a rather scary area...right on the hill above the old town Colonial Quito. We took some windy roads up and some windy roads down and some more windy roads up before we were finally there. Out of nowhere, this super fancy, modern building appeared amongst all the slums. It was really fun and educational. We learned that it is built there, because it is right where the old water processing plant was for Colonial Quito and has now been converted to the museum as well as the new water processing plant for that part of town. We watched a video to get some history on it and then it was filled with activities for the kids and beautiful scenery. The kids' activities included a huge bubble room, a life size board game about disaster prevention, water painting, visuals about hurricanes, etc. There is a huge outside garden area with fountains and beautiful walk ways. It was a very cold day today, so we only stayed outside for a short time. There were very few people there, so we had all the time we wanted in each of the areas. It was a good way to spend the afternoon and definitely worth the trip out there.

On the way back, we had to hire some guy to drive us down the hill ($1) to where we could catch a taxi. I was definitely heeding the advice of the Baumers as well as Angel and Jenny who said not to go walking looking for a taxi. :) Devin and I wondered if Mishell would bring up SVP while we were there, since this place is really close by her old home. The museum is up on a hill overlooking the valley below, and her orphanage could almost be seen around the hill of the Panecillo (statue on a hill that overlooks old town). She didn't bring anything up, though.

Other than our few (again, what I feel are NORMAL for someone her age) issues, she has still been very easy going. We will have to work on the discipline issue and instilling trust in her that just because we sometimes discipline, it is not a personal attack on her, nor does it mean that we don't love her or care for her. She hasn't said so much, but I get the sense that she takes it personally when we discipline her. We are trying to be good about communicating what we think and feel so that she knows it is not about her as a person, but rather about behavior. Adoption is always an interesting learning curve.

Now that I have rambled far longer than I should, here are some pictures from the day, including far more scenery than you want to see:

The bubble room! The kids enjoyed this room best, I think. You could even be enclosed completely in a bubble!

That's the Panecillo right there on the hill.

The video we watched talked about how this area where the water plant is was where the richest people of Quito had their second homes in the early 1900s. Well the tides have turned and this is definitely a poor area of town. Houses just crammed together on the hill.

The basilica is the big castle looking thing at the top. It's a fun site to see in Quito, also.

We think (but we aren't positive) that that's the government buildings down there, the white square shaped buildings. It's hard to tell from that angle, but that's what they look like, so maybe.

Water painting with what looked like wands from Harry Potter. :)

Hals thought so too. Here she is pretending to be Hermoine.

We spotted two cemateries from where we were-- the first is right there (the white wall looking thing). I am really not sure how they deal with death, if they are all cremated or if their bodies are stored in those slots above ground? Devin thinks a little of both probably.

A few of the museum from the back, garden area. It is huge!

Here is right outside the entrance to the museum. I just couldn't help but take a picture of that skinny house! Seriously- crazy to think that someone lives there!

 Okay, that's it for today. Supposedly MJB had a meeting with our judge this afternoon, but we haven't heard a thing about it, so who knows...

At least we have General Conference to look forward to this weekend! And boy are we looking forward to it! I might even make Devin make cinnamon rolls for us. :) That'll probably cheer me up.