Letter of Intent

Friday
August 16, 2013

This is it.  Letter of Intent Day.

For those of you new to our journey or unfamiliar with the process, here's the rundown.  The kids returned to Colombia on August 2, 2013.  No one can apply to adopt them for two weeks after they leave.  Beginning on August 16, families can send a Letter of Intent, which tells the Colombian government that they are interested in adopting one (or more!) of the kids who visited the United States this summer.  ICBF - the child protection system in Colombia, similar to our social services/human services - reviews all of the letters, then notifies the families whether they can proceed with the adoption process.  If more than one letter arrives for the same child/children, ICBF decides who will be allowed to apply.  If no one applies for a child within two months, the child is then eligible for other advocacy programs to try to find a forever family.

If you've been following our journey from the beginning, I'm sure you're wondering about the "rest of the story."  Did Michel find a forever family?  Will our family be applying to adopt?

Knowing that Michel is old enough to navigate Google, and wanting to protect her privacy and that of our family, I'm going to leave you in a little bit of suspense.  Many of you who know us well already know how this part of the story ends.  But if you're curious, please feel free to e-mail me through the contact page, and I'll be happy to share what we know thus far.

Perhaps this is revealing too much, but I'll just say this:  Michel came with the Summer Miracles program.  We are hoping to be more than just a summer miracle for her.  And perhaps she'll be more than a summer miracle for us.

Thank you for joining us in one of the most unforgettable journeys of our lives.  It has been an honor to share it with you.

Quiet House...

Saturday
August 3, 2013

The house is quiet today.  Very quiet.  Michel's omnipresent radio has been turned off.  Her peals of laughter are too far away to hear (although I hope she is still laughing in Colombia the way she did here).  The constant patter of Spanish has faded away.

It doesn't quite feel the same.

There's a lot missing from our house today.  In some ways, it feels a little like getting back to normal.  But after this summer's hosting experience, I don't think we'll ever be the same.  We certainly miss Michel a lot.

As you follow our hosting journey, has anything stirred in your heart?  Maybe you'd like to try hosting a child for the summer?  Perhaps you've considered adoption of an older child for the first time?  Maybe Kidsave's new "voluntourism" program interests you - a chance to visit Colombia or Russia and interact with some of these amazing kids, who, through no fault of their own, are living in orphanages or foster care.  Each one is waiting for a forever family.  For some, that family will never come.

The thought moves me to tears.

I think a lot about the eight kids that traveled to Des Moines this summer.

One sidles up next to her caregivers, asking, "Are you okay?" if she senses someone is upset.

          One is a great student and wants to be a doctor.

                    One loves to swim, bike, and play outside.

                              One is an amazing artist.

One loves nature and being outdoors.

          One enjoys making her own jewelry.

                    One is intelligent, inquisitive, and eager to make new friends.

                              One wants to be a teacher, scientist, or psychologist.

Many of them will find forever families.  Others, maybe not.  The picture isn't pretty for kids who "age out" of orphanages.  I'm sure you can imagine the risks they face.  All of these kids have big dreams, but without the support of a mom or dad to love them, teach them, and guide them, the challenges are awfully hard to overcome.

These kids needs families, and Kidsave can use your support to help the kids.  Do you live in Iowa, Minnesota, Southern California, Chicago, or the East Coast?  You could host a child next summer.  Some areas have a "Winter Miracles" program, where orphans can spend a month with a family over the holidays.  If you're not able to host or adopt, you can volunteer for the program, or contribute toward the costs of bringing the kids to the United States, or cheer on those who are hosting or adopting.  The encouragement of friends and family has meant the world to us this summer.

Could you be part of the bridge to bring these kids home?

Saying Good-Bye

Friday
August 2, 2013

Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye, going away,

Seems like goodbye's such a hard thing to say.

Touching a hand, wondering why

It's time for saying goodbye.

Saying goodbye, why is it sad?

Makes us remember the good times we've had.

Much more to say, foolish to try.

It's time for saying goodbye.

Don't want to leave, but we both know

Sometimes it's better to go.

Somehow I know we'll meet again,

Not sure quite where, and I don't know just when.

You're in my heart, so until then,

It's time for saying goodbye.

Somehow I know we'll meet again,

Not sure quite where, and I don't know just when.

You're in my heart, so until then - 

Wanna smile, wanna cry,

Saying goodbye.

~The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)

Forgive me - I can't say it any better than the Muppets.  If you've never seen The Muppets Take Manhattan, Google the clip of this song on YouTube.  I know, they are just puppets, but this scene still makes me cry, almost thirty years after its original release.  My eyes fill with tears every time I hear this song, and when I am faced with a difficult departure, these lyrics always fill my head.  So simple, so true.

I admit, I was able to get through the day by focusing on the tasks that needed to be done.  I think today was much harder on Mike, because he had the privilege of just being with Michel.  They played one last round of Phase 10 (Mike finally won!), and enjoyed time together, which made her imminent departure so much more poignant.  Meanwhile, I was checking the laundry room one last time for anything pink or sparkly, uploading pictures we've taken in the last couple of days to print at Walgreen's for her to add to her album later, making luggage tags, finding something yellow to tie on her suitcase for easy identification, writing a note to Michel's foster parents, wrapping a gift for the foster family and the children in their home, helping Michel make final "swap-out" decisions about what to cram in her suitcase and what to leave behind, packing snacks for the airport and the plane, feeding everyone lunch, walking through the house one last time to make sure nothing essential was left behind...  The details probably kept me focused instead of dissolving in tears.  I won't tell you how Mike did today, but if you ask him, I'll let him tell you about how he started crying before he got out of bed this morning and didn't stop until he fell asleep tonight.

Michel's flight left at 4:49 this afternoon, which seemed like a late flight, but the day was surprisingly full until we left for the airport.  We had to be at the airport at 1:30, meaning we had to leave our house at 1:00, and everything had to be done before we loaded the car.

Just before we left, we gave Michel the letter we wrote last night, along with her own copy of Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator - in Spanish, of course.  She loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and has been talking about the sequel quite a bit, so it was a natural parting gift - and something to entertain her on two flights and a long layover in Atlanta.  We also sent her home with Phase 10.  I can't imagine playing it without her - it just wouldn't be the same - and she derives so much enjoyment from it.  I hope she's able to teach the other kids in her foster home, and that it brings them hours of delight.  I tucked Spot It! and Tell Tale into the side pockets of her backpack as well.  I would send her home with a backpack full of games, since she loves them so much, but there's only so much room in the luggage and only so much weight an 11-year-old girl can carry.

We lingered a few more minutes in the living room, with smiles and tears and stories and silly comparisons of foot sizes.  (Verdict:  Michel's feet are tiny, and Andrew's have been enormous since he was born.)  I think it was a stalling tactic by all of us, and one more chance to laugh, connect with her, and make memories.

Michel's feet are much smaller than Andrew's...

...about the same size as six-year-old Matthew's...

...but bigger than Mia's paws!

Finally, it was time to head for the airport.  The inevitable could not be prolonged.

Both boys have been fighting a cold this week.  I keep hoping and praying that Michel doesn't catch it, and so far, she has been symptom-free.  (Maybe it's something she's already immune to??)  Matthew started sneezing repeatedly in the car on the way to the airport.  He's great about covering his coughs and sneezes, but I still wondered how well Michel would fight off germs in such close proximity.  Michel looked at me in the car and said authoritatively, "He's sneezing because he has dog hair in his nose."  Um...okay.  If there's anything to "mind over matter" - somehow being less prone to getting sick if you're not obsessing about the germs around you or just don't believe that someone is sick - then I'll let her believe it's all dog hair.  Yep, it was definitely dog hair.

The one thing that was desperately bothering me all day is that we misplaced Michel's necklace.  When we bought it on Tuesday, I told her that it was a going-away present for her.  The butterflies seemed to hold such significance (see Tuesday's post for more sentiment about butterflies), and I wanted her to have more than just a book and a game to remind her of us and of our summer together.  But somehow, it disappeared.  Yesterday and today, Michel and I turned the house upside-down looking for the necklace.

The worst part?  She distinctly remembered handing it to me when we were at Megan's house Tuesday evening.  I took a phone call outside, and she brought it to me, so that it wouldn't get broken while she was playing with the boys.  So responsible and conscientious.  So I was the last one to have it in my possession, and at the time, I slipped it carefully into my pocket.  Then my poor little sleep-deprived brain left for vacation, and I have zero recollection of what happened next.  We checked the pockets of the shorts I wore that night and everything else I've worn before or since.  We looked in the washing machine and dryer.  I scanned underneath everything in the laundry room and moved the waiting piles of clothes at least six times, thinking it must have fallen out of my pocket that night.  She asked several times if I had found it but did not seem outwardly upset by it.  But I was sick that I had bought her this sentimental gift, and then I had lost it.  It was not expensive, but it was the thought
behind it!  I looked and looked and looked Thursday night and Friday, and prayed that it would turn up somewhere, but I never found it before leaving for the airport.  She asked one last time as we pulled out of the driveway, and I apologetically told her no, I hadn't found it.  As if I didn't have enough reasons to cry.

Where, oh where, has this necklace gone??

We pulled into the airport and took a ticket for the short-term parking garage.  Mike usually tucks these tickets into the sun visor, but that always makes me nervous, since it can fall out of sight so easily if you move the visor.  I went to place it on the little shelf in front of the dashboard display where our van has a rearview camera.  Last week's church bulletin was sitting there, so I moved the bulletin so the ticket wouldn't get lost among the other papers.  When I lifted the bulletin, guess what was sitting there...right where I had left it on Tuesday evening so it would be safe and not get lost.

Michel's necklace.

I wanted to cry with relief.  It was such a silly little thing, but she really liked the necklace, and I really wanted her to have it.  Just in time.  Thank God for all of the little "coincidences" that had to fall into place for us to find it, moments before we locked the car and walked into the airport to see Michel off.

The time at the airport was similar in pace to the morning for me:  busy with lots of little details, without a lot of time for emotion.  Michel wanted to be with her friends - normal for a social 11-year-old - and I was called into service to interpret for the many transactions at the airport - final comments between host families and children, organization of check-in and luggage drop-off, coordination of group pictures, follow-up between host families and the chaperone, last details that needed attention before the kids headed through security.  The time at the airport passed much more quickly than I had anticipated, and soon it was time to walk the kids to the escalator that would carry them up to the security checkpoint.

The tears finally hit me at this point.  The morning had been so busy, and I knew I didn't really have time for emotion, or else we'd never get Michel to the airport on time.  But suddenly, it was final.  No more errands, no more packing, no more interpreting, no more details to finish off...just goodbye.  And tears.  And hugs.

And goodbye.

Preparing for Departure

Thursday
August 1, 2013

August.  It's finally here.  It's been such a whirlwind since Michel's arrival, it's truly hard to grasp that August has arrived.  On one hand, I can't believe how much we've done in the past month.  I think we've visited more local attractions in the past 29 days than in our five years in Des Moines.  On the other hand, she leaves tomorrow.  I can't think about it too much, because it breaks my heart.

We have spent this week still trying to cram in new experiences and see friends who haven't yet met Michel and finish our month-long bucket list of everything Michel wanted to do and everything we wanted to show her.  At the same time, we've started preparing for her departure.  Buying a suitcase, assembling her photo album, washing all of her new clothes one last time, making choices about what goes back to Colombia and what she'll leave behind.  Her departure is definitely on everyone's mind.

Michel seems to be taking it in stride.  In our host family training session last weekend, we were told that some kids withdraw and become distant in the final days, as they mentally start to prepare to say good-bye.  Other kids become clingy, as if they need one last chance to soak up your love and care.  Michel seems to be tending toward the clingy side - not in a bad way, but she definitely wants more hugs and wants to be by my side during the day.  I'm glad she's not withdrawing, because it would be hard to not question whether we had done something wrong to offend her.  But her near-constant presence now will make her absence awfully noticeable after she's gone.

Michel joined the local Kidsave coordinator this morning, along with his daughter (a Kidsave Summer Miracles kid in 2011), another Summer Miracles "alum" who was adopted locally, and three of the children hosted this year, to visit a local home-building company that has donated money to help fund the kids' visits to Des Moines.  Huge thanks to Destiny Homes & Genesis Homes for your generosity to the Kidsave program.  You are changing the lives of children and families, thousands of miles away and in your own backyard.

The leaders of the company were able to meet the kids they have helped in the past and the kids hoping to find families this summer.  Michel enjoyed the outing, especially since she got to hang out with some of her close friends with whom she has traveled, and since they stopped for ice cream at McDonald's on the way home!

My best friend from college, Lizz, is in town from the Washington, D.C. area, with her husband and three kids this week. They came over for lunch to meet Michel - just in time before tomorrow's departure day!  When Lizz is in town, the tradition for our families is to order pizza or Chinese take-out, so I gave Michel the choice between those two for lunch today.  She loves pizza, but the other kids from Colombia that she saw this morning told her she had to try Chinese because she would love it.  I knew she likes chicken but not anything too spicy, so I figured sweet and sour chicken was a safe bet.  She loved the chicken, pineapple, and sauce.  The onions were a "no thank you," but she seemed to like her first tiny foray into Asian cuisine.

Lizz's job involves traveling and living in countries all over the world, so she was just the resource we needed to guide Michel's packing process.  Michel made a lot of careful choices - with less drama than I would have expected - about which items would go back in her suitcase, and which would be left behind.  We knew she couldn't take everything back in her one allotted suitcase and one backpack, so we helped her pick her favorite clothes and most of the souvenirs.  Lizz was full of international travel tips - shoes clipped to caribiners on her backpack, thicker clothing items worn instead of packed.  Without Lizz's advice, she probably would have had to leave a lot more behind.  However, I'm mildly concerned about how this poor kid is going to navigate when she gets to the airport:  she's currently planning to wear jeans, a tank top, a long-sleeved shirt, the yellow Summer Miracles t-shirt required for travel, and a fleece jacket, with another jacket tied around her waist.  If she doesn't die of heat stroke while waiting at the airport, she may collapse under the 48-pound backpack during her four-hour layover in Atlanta!

We are grateful this license plate was at our house today,
carrying a master international suitcase packer!

Michel played Phase 10 with our neighbor Elizabeth after Lizz and her family left this afternoon.  (Yes, the Elizabeths are taking over the world!)  I don't think they finished the game, but Michel was in the lead, as always.  Thanks, Elizabeth, for being a good sport about playing with the perpetual Phase 10 champion!

The five of us had a quiet dinner at home, and then we let Michel pick where she wanted to go for one last round of American ice cream:  Coldstone, Dairy Queen, or Baskin-Robbins?  (Ever hear the parenting tip - usually with toddlers - to give choices, but make sure you can live with any of the options?  Yeah, I thought I could live with any of those.)  She chose Coldstone, her new favorite.  So, off we went to Johnston for ice cream.  We talked, laughed a lot, and soaked up as many memories as we could.

On the way home, a song came on the radio called "Summertime Sadness".  It was especially fitting for our last night with Michel.  I think we're all feeling some summertime sadness.

I also hope we have given Michel a summertime of joy, of experiences she might never have had otherwise...and perhaps, we have built a bridge to her forever family.  On this last night of Michel's amazing summer vacation, we dream of what her future could hold.

At bedtime, Michel brought her (heavy!) suitcase to the hallway outside her room.  She pulled it back and forth and posed for lots of pictures.  I think she enjoys having her first "real" suitcase and looking like a grown-up traveler!  Now, if we can just get it to stay upright and not tip over from the weight of everything packed inside...

Tonight, after the kids were in bed, Mike and I worked on a good-bye letter to Michel.  It was so hard to convey everything we want to say to her.  We thanked her for spending her summer vacation with us and talked about her many gifts.  We included as much "parental" advice as we could - study hard in school, maintain good friendships, seek wise counsel from adults if you have a problem...trite, perhaps, but our last chance to impart a bit of wisdom before she leaves.  May these words encourage and sustain her until she can come home to a forever family.

As we composed the letter together, we wrestled with the unfairness of seeing such wonderful, amazing kids grow up without the unconditional support of a family.  Mike kept saying, "It's not okay.  No kid should have to grow up without a loving, supportive family."  I think it's fair to say that our boys were born into blessings they often don't even recognize, while some kids are hungry just for a dad to read them a bedtime story, for a mom to lie down and rub their back at night.  Michel isn't asking for the world.  Just someone to love her, to have fun with her, and to stand by her, no matter what.  Forever.

Art Day!

Wednesday
July 31, 2013

Michel started the day working on a puzzle with Matthew.  It was one of those nine-piece square puzzles, where you have to line up each side of each square to match up with the other half of an image on another square.

So close!

This type of puzzle is deceptively difficult.  It seems super-easy, until you get to the last couple of pieces and realize you are in trouble!  Matthew and Michel managed to get eight out of nine pieces to match.  Michel patiently perseveres when faced with a challenge!

We took a field trip to the Des Moines Art Center today with my friend Wendy and her daughter Olivia.  Over the course of the month, when we've discussed possible outings, we've mentioned the art center to Michel.  Several times, she has asked, "When can we go to the art museum?"  Now that we are down to the last couple of days, when I asked what she still wanted to do in Des Moines, the art center topped her list.  The boys and I had never been to this art museum before, so it was fun to finally check it out!



We all really enjoyed our outing today.  I wasn't sure what the boys would think, but they were very interested in the variety of artistic styles and offered thoughtful commentary on the pieces they liked.  Andrew turned to me at one point and said, "This museum is really cool!"  Michel identified pieces in almost every room that resonated with her.  I would love for her to have the opportunity to explore different art media in the future.

We had almost as much fun in the gift shop as we did in the museum.  Michel tried on various hats, and we all enjoyed browsing the unique gifts offered.  Thanks to the friendly and patient staff who made us feel welcome.  Somehow, we managed to escape without spending any money, but I will keep this store in mind when it's time to start my Christmas shopping!

After the art center, we dropped Michel off at our church for an art class with a member of our congregation who is an art teacher in the schools.  Our pastor's two daughters attended the class with her (one of whom was adopted from Colombia, and the other who has learned quite a bit of Spanish!).  Another child adopted locally through the Kidsave Summer Miracles program and another girl in this year's program rounded out the class.  I'm sure Michel enjoyed the time with current and former Summer Miracles kids, speaking mostly Spanish and sharing cultural commonality for a couple of hours.  It's neat to see the connection among the former Summer Miracles kids who have been adopted in our area.  Michel says she really enjoys art projects, and she did a beautiful job on her flower painting!  Huge thanks to Karen Kehoe for spending the afternoon sharing your love of art and teaching preteen and teen girls to paint!

Yes, Michel painted this!  Gorgeous!

Haley and Dani (our pastor's daughters) and their mom invited Michel to stay for youth group after art class.  Michel enjoyed pizza (one of her favorites!) and time with the other kids.

When we picked Michel up from youth group, I asked how the evening had gone.  She said she enjoyed youth group, but that "church is very different here" in comparison to Colombia.  Even setting aside the language difference, I'm sure a contemporary evangelical-style youth group would be very different than a traditional Catholic mass in Colombia!  She has a deep faith, and she said she appreciated both environments.

After Michel got home this evening, Mike asked her to play Phase 10 while the boys were playing with the neighbor kids.  I told him that she needed some time to work on her photo album if she was going to finish embellishing all 79 pictures before Friday.  Michel quickly jumped in to say, "No, I can do both at the same time!"  Multitasking didn't seem to affect her ability to beat Mike at her favorite game.

Not surprisingly, we had one very tired girl at bedtime.  Mike carried her upstairs to brush her teeth and get ready for bed.  I'm sure she did not have enough evenings of being carried to bed as a young child.  I'm so grateful we can give her these experiences this summer, and I hope that her future will be filled with field trips and bedtime routines and the love of a forever family.

From Butterflies to S'Mores

Tuesday
July 30, 2013
Part Two of Two


After buying not one but three sweatshirts (I couldn't resist the fun over-the-head mask/hood designs for the boys), we headed for Reiman Gardens, one of my favorite places in Ames.




Reiman Gardens is a 14-acre facility with indoor and outdoor gardens on the Iowa State University campus.  Michel loved the butterfly emergence cases, where you can watch butterflies leave their cocoons.  She also enjoyed posing for lots of pictures in the conservatory.  The gardens are perhaps best-known for their butterfly wing, a 2,500-foot indoor space with up to 800 live butterflies!

Michel liked the butterfly wing, but I was very surprised to find that she was a little skittish around the butterflies...and perhaps more afraid of flying critters than I realized.  She stayed close to me, clinging to my arm, throughout our walk with the butterflies, and she jumped and squealed nervously every time one would approach.  (I, however, held as still as a statue, with one arm extended, hoping that a butterfly would land on me!)  Despite my red t-shirt and the boys' brightly colored new sweatshirts, we didn't have any "passengers" land on us this time.  As jumpy as Michel was, that's probably a good thing.

Several of these moths were just released today.  They are huge...and gorgeous!

We didn't make it to the outdoor portion of the gardens today.  Andrew wasn't feeling well, and all three kids were tired.  I was disappointed to miss out on the children's garden, the rose garden, the ponds, our favorite dancing chimes, and everything else Reiman Gardens has to offer, but I also knew that it was time to head for Des Moines.

When we got back into town, we headed for my friend Megan's house.  She made an awesome dinner with lots of Michel's favorite foods (grilled meats! pineapple!).  Michel and the boys played beautifully with her kids while Megan prepared dinner.  Michel fashioned a great "face" out of the food on her plate, then proceeded to eat her creation - hamburger, hot dog, bacon, pineapple, tomatoes, grapes, and Sun Chips!

After dinner, we made S'Mores over Megan's fire pit.  Michel tried S'Mores last weekend, when we made them with Mike's sister's family on our gas grill, but we hadn't really given her the authentic S'Mores experience until she could roast marshmallows over an open fire.

After S'Mores, it was time to get all the tired kiddos home to bed.  Matthew fell asleep on the way home, not unexpectedly.  Michel spent some more time sharing her photo album with Andrew before going to bed.  It was another late bedtime, but it did not take long for her to fall asleep!  May her dreams be as gentle as butterflies and as sweet as marshmallows.

Stretch Your Wings and Fly!

Tuesday
July 30, 2013
Part One of Two

Today was a full day with lots of tales to tell, so I'm going to break today's report into two posts.  Come along with us for dental appointments and butterflies and S'Mores!  Enjoy!

We headed to Ames this morning for dentist appointments for all three kids.  Dr. Debbie Grandgenett - our amazing pediatric dentist who we have seen since Andrew was a year old - had previously agreed to see Michel at no cost while she is here.  We weren't sure what to expect, as far as what kind of dental care Michel would have had in Colombia or if she would have ever seen a dentist.  (I've worked with many immigrant kids who have never been to a dentist upon arrival in the United States.)  However, the child protection system in Colombia seems to be very on top of medical and dental care.  The kids have regular check-ups every six months, and problems are addressed right away.  Knowing that Michel's last dental visit was in February, I was hopeful that this would not be a lengthy or traumatic appointment!

Michel did great at the dentist.  She said it was similar to the dentist in Colombia, except the office was nicer here and the Colombian dentists do not have flat-screen TVs on the ceiling showing cartoons.  (That's okay - my adult dentist doesn't have cartoons on the ceiling, either.)  She was very cooperative for the cleaning and check-up.  I think she may have been a tad anxious - or perhaps just eager - during the appointment, because every time an adult walked into the room, she asked, "Is that the dentist?"  You don't realize how many adults (dental assistants and hygienists and other office staff) pass in and out of a dental appointment until you have to answer the question every two minutes.  But eventually, she had the chance to meet Dr. Debbie, who was kind and caring and wonderful, as always.

Michel had no cavities or other concerns, and the only surprise was that she has an extra permanent tooth!  Dr. Debbie she sees about one patient every day (out of thirty on an average day) that has one extra tooth.  Once she pointed it out, it was obvious, but otherwise, I never would have noticed anything unusual about her beautiful smile.  Nothing needs to be done about it, it's just one more little thing that makes her special!

Just like our two boys, the hardest part of the entire appointment was picking a prize at the end.  Before the appointment, I had told her that the boys almost took longer to pick prizes than to have their teeth cleaned.  I naively believed that she wouldn't take as long, being older than the boys and also being forewarned about the prize-picking process!  Silly me.  She narrowed it down to two favorite items, and then couldn't make a decision.  I tried every negotiating and compromising skill I have, but she just wanted both.  I admit - I wanted to tell her to just take both prizes, but I really didn't want to take advantage of an already-free appointment.  It probably wouldn't have been a big deal, but it sets a rotten precedent for the next time the boys go to the dentist.  So we waited.  And discussed.  And deliberated.  And finally, finally, finally selected a sparkly pink notebook.  Hopefully she will enjoy it!

After lunch, we decided on Panchero's.  One of her traveling companions loves Panchero's, and Michel wanted to try it.

"Stand for something," says Panchero's slogan.
Could you take a stand for a child in Colombia
who needs the love of a forever family?

Wow - I wish we had visited Panchero's earlier in her stay!  She loved Panchero's and devoured every millimeter of her large burrito.  It's the largest lunch she's had in a while, and I'm glad she had a relatively balanced meal.  I figured she would be full, but she still had room for ice cream when we stopped by Cold Stone Creamery next door.  We have certainly made the grand tour of ice cream stops this month, but Cold Stone is Michel's favorite so far.

When we left Cold Stone, we saw a Chevy Camaro with decorative calligraphy decals parked in the parking lot.  Apparently some of our boys' fascination with vehicles has rubbed off on Michel, because she immediately led the boys to the car to admire it.  She turned around, posed against it, and motioned for me to take a picture.  Watch out, potential adoptive families:  this girl may want a sports car when she turns 16!

Before Michel arrived, we had been advised to keep a jacket or sweatshirt handy for her, since she might not be accustomed to air conditioning.  At home, that has not been a problem at all, but we don't exactly set our thermostat to 68 degrees, either.  However, I have noticed that Michel gets chilled in public places who set their air conditioning to "frigid" all summer long.  Somehow, I still haven't learned to remind her to bring a jacket along if we are going somewhere that might be overly air conditioned.  So, inevitably, Michel was cold at the dentist, cold at Panchero's, and still mildly chilled at Cold Stone (although eating ice cream probably didn't warm her up much).  Thinking that she might start to show signs of frostbite, our next stop was K-Mart to find a sweatshirt to take the chill off.

Oh my goodness, I had forgotten what it's like to be a preteen girl on a shopping trip.  We tried on every sweatshirt, every size, in the entire girls' department and some of the boys' as well.  She had a great time, but I was starting to wonder if we should check out the sporting goods section to buy sleeping bags, in case we had to spend the night in the aisles of K-Mart!  Fortunately, the boys found these great sweatshirts that form a face if you zip them up over your head, so they had plenty of entertainment trying those on and taking pictures of each other while Michel enjoyed all the riches of K-Mart.

After forty-five minutes, she had selected a sweatshirt, and on the way out, she found a butterfly necklace that she loved.  I told her we could buy it as her going-away present, since I had been planning on picking out something special for her.

I thought the butterflies on Michel's necklace were very fitting.  Not only were we headed to the butterfly pavilion at Reiman Gardens, but there's a beautiful, oft-quoted inspirational story about butterflies as they emerge from their cocoons.  Here's one version of the story I found online:

The Story of the Butterfly

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.
One day, a small opening appeared.
He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours
as it struggled to squeeze its body through the tiny hole.
Then it stopped, as if it couldn't go further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly.
He took a pair of scissors and
snipped off the remaining bits of cocoon.
The butterfly emerged easily but
it has a swollen body and shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch it,
expecting that any minute the wings would enlarge
and expand enough to support the body.
Neither happened!
In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life
crawling around.
It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste
did not understand:
The restricting cocoon and the struggle
required by the butterfly to get through the opening
was a way of forcing the fluid from the body
into the wings so that it would be ready
for flight once that was achieved.

Sometimes struggles are exactly
what we need in our lives.
Going through life with no obstacles would cripple us.
We will not be as strong as we could have been
and we would never fly.

(Found at http://www.motivationalwellbeing.com/motivational-stories.html#ixzz2c0gCpOq5 on August 14, 2013)

Michel has faced many obstacles in her life, but they have not left her damaged beyond hope.  The support she has received from her current foster family has strengthened her; hopefully, she will someday receive the loving care of a forever family that will help her stretch her wings and fly.

(To read more tales of butterflies - with pictures! - head for Part Two of this post...)