Lazy(?) Day

Today was our first full day, practically, without a translator. She didn't join us until 5:30p.m. or so. The morning was somewhat of a lazy day. Yamile continued to read her children's bible voraciously and she has discovered the "joys" of an i-Pod, as she was able to watch a bit of a movie on Lenna's ipod and listen to music.

When the staff came to clean our room, we took a short walk to the pool patio, where we played a game of Skip-Bo. This was a new game for Yamile (and Lenna) - while Yamile did not show much interest, she was very patient and willing to learn (and patronize us). Since one of our favorite family past-times is playing games, we hope Yamile will learn to enjoy them as well.

We ate lunch on the patio outside our room - cold pizza from the night before. This time, we bought a jar of pasta sauce and were able to dip our pizza while we ate it. It was nice to have the tomato flavor, although I opted to eat most of it without the sauce. That was Yamile's preference as well.

The language issue continues to be a little bit of a challenge, although Annalisa said Yamile tried a bit more English while at the pool this afternoon. She is now proficient with such important phrases as "cannon ball", "piggy back", "monkey", and "my turn". I'm sure cannon ball and piggy back will be heavily utilized while we continue to use the pool. And ... I'm sure they will prove useful in everyday American life, too. We are very encouraged that she is willing to try and speak a new language, especially with virtual strangers.

Today she spent at least three hours in the pool. Rebecca and Annalisa took her out there and they were having a raucous good time by the time Lenna and I arrived. After a little while, she also made friends with a couple of little Colombian girls who were playing in the pool. She was able to work her way into their games and it was neat to see her play and talk with them. I am sure that she deals with some loneliness because she cannot fully communicate with us. But she had no trouble carrying on conversations with Marguerita and Maria Jose.

Yamile enjoys being carried around by me, to the extent that I've called her my little monkey ("mi mono pequeno"). She wraps her arms around my neck, wraps her legs around my waist, kisses my face over and over, and just holds on. It now appears we have a little bit of a ritual when we go out of the hotel. She reaches for my neck so that I can carry her out the door. Once on the sidewalk, she's ready to get down and immediately reaches for Lenna's hand, and we walk down the street with she and Lenna side by side, hand in hand.

I don't think we've mentioned that Yamile had a bit of a cold when we received her. She's had a runny nose and has been coughing quite a bit as well. We're not able to attack the thing with great nutrition, like we usually would, so it's been a bit frustrating that way. And we think today she may have overdone it with all the activity in the pool. She fell asleep just before dinner and while at dinner we could tell that she was kind of out of it. Eventually, we found out she had a pretty bad headache and just didn't feel well. She didn't eat any dinner, which is quite unusual for her. I carried her the whole way back to the hotel (about two blocks) and we tucked her in to bed. We hope she will be feeling better in the morning and that she will get over this cold pretty soon.

For the third night we ate at the Mexican restaurant called Tijuana. As Lenna mentioned, most of the restaurants here are in the open air, and this one is no different. The thing that makes this one a bit stranger than others is that cars drive right through the middle of it. It turns out this restaurant is located in the "driveway" of a new car dealership. So, you see new cars being driven into and out of the building. They just move the tables aside to make room for the cars. The picture to the right shows a car being pulled in.

Well, I think we'll be turning in for the evening. We continue to covet your prayers. Praise God that we were able to change our return flights to Bogota without any additional charge - we were thinking that would cost us about $500. Martha, who is our adoption coordinator here in Colombia, was able to work that out for us. Pray that Yamile recovers quickly from her cold. And pray for wisdom for us as we try to communicate our love to Yamile when words are not able to carry the message. We love you all and look forward to being home again.