Awesome kids!

I almost hate to jinx this by writing it down, but all of the kids grades have come in for the first quarter of school. No one has less than a B, with the majority being in the A's !!!!

Nancy has wow'ed us by getting only A and A+ 's and she's jumped in as an 11th grader at the same science and technology charter school that our 8th grader attends!!!

Diana has just advanced to the next level (after only 8 weeks) in her full-time ESL program and has B's in her other classes that are taught in english - gym, childcare and typing!

Miguel is getting all A's and a couple B's in his full-time 9th grade program at our neighborhood middle school, his classes include two Language Arts, Geography, Earth Sciences, and Math!

Marlon too is getting all A's and B's in his 7th grade full-time classes, even though Language Arts just about makes him crazy!

Jefferson is up to his 4th grade level on ready ability now (in Spanish) and is ready to tackle reading in English!

All of their teachers have the same thing to say about our kids "he/she is the best student in my class, works harder than anyone else, I can hardly believe he/she has only been studying English for 6 months!"

They are all really hard working and amazing young people and we are so glad that they are finally getting the chance to be recognized for it!

Adoption Finalized Today!!!

Hello All,

I know you haven't heard from us in a while. Things are really busy at our house all of the time! But, today was a really big day for us all. After holding our breath for the six month waiting period, Judge Medley of the Utah 3rd District Court signed the adoption petition! It's a huge relief to have that taken care, so we can focus on moving ahead now. I've posted a photo of us all with Judge Medley this morning.

Thanks for all of your support!

Robyn, Eddie and the gang

Flickr photos...OMG, I have no clue how to make anything on here work!

Since I cannot seem to get anything to work, here is the link to my Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/grandacause/

Paypal buttons temporarily off-line

For anyone who wants to donate!

We've had a snaffoo with our paypal account and need to close it. The way we set it up originally will not work, so we have to create a shopping cart option on SVUUS's account. This has not been done yet, but please see our other options for donating (our Facebook cause has a donation option) or just email me that you are interested and I'll contact you when they are up and running again.

Thank you for your generosity!!!

Grande Granda

Hello all,

For those of you who know our family, I wanted to let you know that Diana gave birth to her son this morning! His name is Joshua and he weighed a whopping 8 lb. 3. oz (which is huge for an Ecuadorian baby), is 21 inches long and has a full head of black hair. The labor was long and difficult because she had to be induced right away after visiting the midwife yesterday, she had a syndrome called H.E.L.P.P.S. (a complication of preclampsia and eclampsia) which put both her and the baby at risk for seizures and a lowered ability to clot. After a painful 18 hours, she was not able to delivery the baby herself and had to have an emergency c-section. Luckily, she and Joshua are doing well and are sleeping off all of the medications at the IMC Women's and Newborns Center in Murray.

They should be coming home on tuesday of next week!

A little early

Well, this morning was quite interesting. I took Diana to the U of U hospital to have a routine ultrasound this morning, while Eddie took Marlon and Jefferson to school. During the ultrasound the technician noticed that Diana seemed to be having contractions. In order to confirm that she was actually having contractions and not cramps, they hooked her up to a monitor for an hour. It turns out they were contractions and they hooked her up to an IV with meds to stop them. Three hours later, she was able to leave. She's not on bed rest, yet, but she's not supposed to be up and around for more than 30 minutes a day! So, now we're thinking that she won't make it until May 20th. So, we'll need to get ready a little faster...

Dentists, school and ESL, oh my!

I wrote a long posting yesterday with the latest updates and it's missing! I'll try to remember what I wrote down, but things are moving so fast that it's tough.

Miguel started taking classes at Butler Middle on tuesday, just an ESL class and two regular classes. He says it's not so bad!

Nancy and Diana did the placement testing for their ESL program at Horizonte Center. We told the testing center that they should just start them at beginning, and we were right. They won't start until April 20th, after spring break.

Diana had her first appointment with her spanish speaking midwife and everything looks good. She confirmed the May 20th due date and we go back again next tuesday.

Everyone has been to the dentist now, with a grand total of 35 fillings, two wisdom teeth removals and one root canal!

Custody

Oh, I forgot to post on friday that our petition for Temporary Custody was signed by the judge here in Salt Lake!

Quick updates

We applied for social security numbers for everyone on wed, no problems!

We got the estimate for a small addition to our tiny house (to add a 4th bedroom and a second full bathroom) and it was $17,000 more than we have left over in our savings account from our refinance. We don't have a plan of attack yet...

Jefferson and Marlon started school on friday and really enjoy it. We're still working on finding the right fit for Nancy, Diana and Miguel. For now they're doing a computer program at home.

We are just days away from starting our fundraising blitz, the hold up has been with finding the time to get the Paypal non-profit donation buttons ready and trying to get all the info for people put together in the same place while still living our lives! Since Eddie was laid-off early this winter, we aren't able to get a mortgage on a larger house, but we still hope to add on somehow. It's not so bad for now, but once the baby comes (March 20th), this house will feel twice as small!

The kids had their first experience with snow last night and though it was great, we have a snowman to prove it!

Home at last

They're home!

Eddie, Nancy, Diana, Miguel, Marlon and Jefferson arrived in Salt Lake City yesterday afternoon and were greeted by a crowd of family! We spent the rest of the day at home, getting them settled in. Saige showed the boys how to use the trampoline and pulled out ALL of our yard and pool toys as well. They played soccer and volleyball, jumped on the trampoline (sat in the sled and to be bounced) and chased each other with our floating pool "noodles". The girls got busy unpacking and organizing everything and went through all of the baby clothes we've been given.

We finally called the boys and Saige in when it was dinner time, ate, and everyone took showers. Then Ben showed the boys how to use the Nintendo and Eddie put on a movie for the girls. Next came bedtime!

Phew!

All in all the day went really well!

Houston we have a problem...

Oh No!!!! Eddie, Nancy, Diana, Miguel, Marlon and Jefferson did not get on their plane in Ecuador today at 4pm! Ecuadorian immigration would not let them through! They cannot leave until we get them Ecuadorian passports. We were told previously that they wouldn't need them, since they have U.S. Passports, so we never got them! Ugh, we have every document conceivable for them except that! So, now they are all stuck in Quito (4 hours away from where they were staying) until he can go to the immigration office. He's hoping they will be able to get some kind of "emergency" passports and leave on the 4 pm flight tomorrow. But we really won't know until he gets to that office. I guess it was asking too much to have everything as smoothly as it did the last trip. I'll know more tomorrow morning...

South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society you are awesome

The wonderful people of the church that we go to, South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society, have really given us tons of support! So far each sunday we've come home with our car filled with clothes, toys and blankets. We have also been given $1975 in gift cards and cash! xoxox

Check in

Eddie called, all is well at the equator. Change of plans...he and all the boys (ours plus their cousins boys) are headed down to Guayaquil to pick up Steven and bring him back to Santo Domingo for a few days. They're staying the night in La Troncal which is where their father is from. I think they also visited the cemetery where he is buried, but I forgot to verify if they did it today or were planning to do it tomorrow. Meanwhile, I've been trying to put the house back together since Eddie had to clear out the three bedrooms to do the rearranging. The beds, dressers, clothes and desks are all in place now, but there is somehow so much left over and most of it has overwhelmed the kitchen and living room! I'm glad to have lots to keep me busy, I think I'd go crazy waiting for five more days without something to keep me occupied!

Eddie is off!

Eddies off and flying now. I took him to the airport late last night and he should be in Quito by 1:45 EST. Then it's on to Santo Doming de los Colorados again to pick up the 5 older kids. They'll go down to Guayaquil to spend two days with Steven (the one who is staying behind for now) and then back to Santo Domingo to pack! The only thing we're still stressing about is whether or not the Dr. will give us the letter we need so that Diana can fly while pregnant. Ok, there's a bigger worry than that one...it's whether or not Diana is actually going to get on the plane. She's been a bit hesitant all along, but we really hopes she takes the leap and chooses to put what's best for her and her baby's future first. They will all fly back on the 11th and stay two nights in Los Angeles with Eddie's sister (and theirs) Maria. Then on to Salt Lake on the 13th (yes, I know it's friday the 13th, but I have bigger and more realistic worries to fucus on than that!). I'll keep you posted when I hear from Eddie!

Roller coaster ride

Wow, today has been such a roller coaster ride of disappointment and excitement. It started off with two donation requests and english tutoring for the youngest all falling through and ended with getting a freezer, the rest of the mattresses we needed and a generous gift card to IKEA donated to us. Then to top it off, someone delivered a card to our house tonight with a donation in it that is large enough to pay for half the cost of the plane tickets for the kids! All of these donations have been a huge relief to us. When we started this process and committed to helping these kids Eddie and I both had jobs, so refinancing the house to pay for the expenses and to add onto it was reasonable. Since then though, I've been laid-off twice and Eddie has been laid-off since November (it's a terrible time to be in the field of architecture).We have realized that we're not going to be able to do this all on our own. It feels wonderful to know that there are other people that are willing to give these children a better life along with us!

You guys are good people

We've started receiving donations of clothes, bedding, books, gift cards and baby things from friends at our church and friends of theirs that have been forwarded a needs list that we sent to only three people. The generosity of our friends and their friends, who don't even know us, is amazing! We appreciate so much the love and support that is being shown us by our local community and this "virtual" community that we are all connected through. This is a huge challenge that we are taking on and it feels wonderful to know that we are not alone in helping these children on their way to a safe and healthy life.

Sincerely....Thank you!

Squishing everyone in

Getting ready update:

Our three small bedrooms have been rearranged into every conceivable set up possible! The boy's room fits the loft bed, bunk bed and desk okay, but the girl's room just isn't cooperating (I think the desk is going to have to go, but where?) and we still need to be able to put a crib in there in April, ugh!

We met with a contractor on saturday to start getting an estimate for a bedroom/bathroom addition (which would require taking out the half-bath) of aroundv380 sq. ft. We figure that would be the minimum that will be the most useful. He'll have some figures for us hopefully before Eddie leaves on the 5th.

Attorney from heaven

So, we met with the attorney today and it went very well. He thinks the Adoption petition will go very smoothly since the kids are already U.S. citizens and Eddie already has guardianship. He's going to write up a draft of a Temporary Custody order for us to look over next week. The kids have to live with us for 6 months before the Adoption will be signed by a judge. And the best part of the meeting was when he told us that we will NOT have to pay ANY legal fees, only the court filing and vital records fees!!! How amazing is that?

It's a ....VAN!

It's official...we are VAN owners! I never thought I'd own a van, even then if I did I figured I'd get some small fancy thing with lots of cool gadgets. But this thing is HUGE! So, I have give lots of THANKS to my Aunt Leslie and Uncle Greg for being willing to give us such a great deal on this van, which has a whole new engine and tires!

Also, I have more good news. We are meeting with an adoption attorney on monday to start the paperwork for temporary custody and then the adoption here in the U.S. The temporary custody order will do just what it says, it will give us custody here in Utah, so that we can add the kids to our insurance, register them for school, apply for their social security cards, etc. Since the kids are already U.S. citizens, we can do a regular adoption, rather than a international, so it should be almost as straightforward as the process was when Eddie adopted my 13 year old son last fall.

Tickets for trip #2

The plane tickets have been purchased! We bought tickets for Eddie to go back to Ecuador on March 5th and bring the five older kids back on March 12th!!! We've decided that Steven will stay with his aunt and uncle for now because of his attachment to them. It was a hard decision to come to, but since he is so young, he really isn't ready to leave the only family he knows, even if he could have a better life in many ways with us. We'll be keeping in touch very regularly and frequently from now on, so that he can get to know us and the rest of his family here better.
Today we also made that last payment to our lawyer, for a total of $2715 in legal fees for the Ecuadorian guardianship. Now we have to get started on the U.S. guardianship/adoption (we're not sure if we have to get guardianship first before we can do the adoption), work out insurance for Diana's pregnancy (our insurance won't cover maternity for dependents), get school in order (so far we have a dual-language elementary school for Jefferson this year, and a dual-language Jr. High for Miguel and Marlon for next year) and rearrange our two bedrooms to fit all of the kids in! Oh, we're getting a 12 person passenger van from my aunt and uncle next week, which is a big relief since both of our cars only seat 5 people. We've been watching the tv show "17 Kids and Counting" to calm our panic about having 7 kids (that's including our own two) and a baby on the way.

Home again

We just got back to Utah on sunday, but have both been sick since then so I haven't posted anything yet. The rest of our trip went really quickly. It was great to spend a couple of more days with all of the children, but then we were off to Quito to start our long trip home. Now that we're here, we've started working out their options for school, healthcare,and looking into possible social security benefits from their father.

We are anxious to buy their plane tickets to come the first week of March, but the family that the youngest, Steven, lives with doesn't want to let him come, so we're waiting to get the tickets. Legally Eddie is his guardian, but they only cooperated with the guardianship and citizenship because he assured them that we would force him to come. But once Eddie saw how they lived (8 people in a one room concrete block house in the campos outside of Guayaquil), he changed his mind. They have had Steven since he was born and really love him, so it is hard to consider taking him away. But Eddie feels that it is more important the he be with his brothers and sisters here where his has the chance for a better life. He is going to talk to them again today to see if he can get them to understand that Steven would be coming to a home where he is surrounded by family who love him and can offer him great opportunities as well. Everyday we wait, the tickets get more expensive since we want to get the kids here earlier than we had originally planned. In order for them to leave Ecuador, they have to be with Eddie, since he is their legal guardian. And he has to have a letter from the court giving him permission to leave the country with them. It would be too expensive to have them come in separate trips because of the legal and airline ticket costs, but we have to make sure that Diane (16) is here six weeks before the third week in April...because she's pregnant. Yep, we had hoped the girls would be able to avoid this exact situation by coming here, but we were too late. So, getting her here before her 34th week of pregnancy is driving our schedule. If she doesn't have the baby here, she won't be able to come at all. In order for her child to get citizenship if it is born outside the U.S., she would have had to live here in the U.S. for 5 years before the child was born. We have so much to do to get ready for them all to come here!

Success at the Consulate in Guayaquil!

We all went to the Consulate yesterday (by all, I mean all of the people that needed to be there and everyone who just wanted to cram into the van we rented, I think at one point there were 18 people in it) and everything went very smoothly. All of their Consular Report of Birth Abroad applications and Passport applications were accepted. So, they are officially U.S. citizens now!!!! (Endless thanks go to Shawn Tribe in Citizen Services for her endless patience with my endless questions). Their certificates and passports will come in 8-10 days. We´ll have our lawyer do the document with the local court that will give Eddie permission to take them out of the country, so everything will be ready for when he comes back for them in 4-6 weeks. While we´ve been in Guayaquil, we´ve been staying at a small hotel on a hill above the city, with just us and the children. This is their first stay in a hotel and they are enjoying the quiet of the garden here (and of course the pool). When we´ve been in Santo Domingo de los Colorados we´re surrounded by other relatives and friends (plus the constant noise of the city, radios, cars, chickens....), so now we are finally getting to get to know them better and to tell them more about what their lives will be like in Utah.

It's like being in another country....

Well, we made it safely down here without any problems. Eddie´s cousin, Fabian, his family and the children met us at the airport. It took two hours to get out of the Quito city limits and then two more down insainly steep and wet mountain roads. Lanes and road rules are optional here, so the trip was interesting to say the least. Santo Domingo de los Colorados is a medium size city, kind of like Framingham, Ma. or Salt Lake if you replaced all of the nieghborhoods and businesses with the most run down neighborhoods of a big city. We ended up staying in a hotel near Fabian´s house and it isn´t so bad, it´s more like a hostel back in the states.

So, I have to tell you about the kids. It is very hard to think of them as Eddie´s siblings, they are soooo small ! The oldest, Nancy, will be 18 in three weeks and is the same exact size as Fabian´s 9 year old daughter! None of the clothes we brought for her fit at all and a few fit Diana (almost 17), but that´s only because she is pregnant. Nothing for the boys over the size 12-14´s fit either. They are all kind, considerate and get along with each other well. If any of the girls want to sit down, a boy immediately pops up out of their seat. They are used to having chores to do, and don´t complain when asked to do something. They are content with their lives here and feel that they are being taken care of really well, especially compared to their last guardian. Fabian says he took them from the last place when he saw how sick and small they all looked because they were hardly fed and slept on the floor. Let me tell you a little about each of them. Nancy has always been the caretaker, she is shy, kind and a very good student (she has had two english classes as well). She and Fabian´s daughter are always together, talking and holding on to each other. Diana is more independant, doesn´t like to do the cooking and as Fabian says, she seems to rely on her good looks too much. Miguel (15) seems comfortable with himself (his hair is always carefully gelled) is friendly and helpful. Marlon (13) just goes with the flow and watches everyone else. Jefferson (11) is quiet, but smiles easily and enjoys being around the older kids, he is never more than two feet away from Eddie. We haven´t met the youngest boy yet, Steven (8), we´ll meet him tomorrow in Guayaquil. Eddie could tell you more about the kid´s personalities, because he´s spent more time with them (while I´ve been in bed) and usually rides with them in the bed of the truck to go everywhere. We took them to buy new shoes yesterday morning, their choices were very telling about their personalities: Nancy - functional slip on keds, Diana - silver flats, Miguel - beige leather dress shoes, Marlon and Jefferson - sneaker/hiking shoes. We ended up buying shoes for Fabian´s three kids and his wife and even his god-son, the total was $90. We have lots of pictures so far, but no way to download them from our camera!

I will write more if our next hotel has internet. Sorry this is so short and choppy, but it´s almost weird to be writing in english. I´ve already gotten used to speaking in very simple spanish, since I have a limited vocabulary I have to be really creative in expressing what I want to say. Like when I was trying to say that I have a twin sister, I had to explain that I have a sister who was born on the same day as me and we are identical. Anyway, I hope everything is going well for all of you. Feel free to write to us!

On the move...finally!

Eddie and I are leaving for Ecuador tonight. We'll be at the U.S. Consulate all day tuesday to submit the 13 separate applications we are doing. I've been having the most vivid dreams the last couple of nights that I find the perfect sized luggage (the restrictions are so tight now!), finally meet the children and then miraculously move into a mansion for the same price as our 1100 sq.ft. house costs us right now! It's so exciting to get to see one of those themes become reality. Keep your fingers crossed for us that our nine months of hard work pay off at the consulate and they accept our applications without any problems and that our lawyer can get the final guardianship papers delivered to us before our appointment! We'll be posting during our trip if we have internet access.
Thanks for the support you've given us and for being interested in helping these children have a better life!

Are we there yet?

Four days and counting down until we leave for Ecuador!

Last night Eddie got to speak with each of the five older children briefly for the first time ever. They finally got the package a couple of days ago that we sent last month. Eddie says they all sounded shy, but excited about our trip to see them. We were going to be staying at a hotel the first night, then the cousin they live was going to come get us the next day from Quito, but now they all want to come meet us at the airport and have us stay with them.

Guardianship:
Our lawyer emailed us a copy of the custody papers signed by the Judge on thursday!!!!! She's having them translated to English for us to use here in the States.

Citizenship:
After a few moments of panic when the Consulate emailed us that they'd be closed on the day we'd planned to go in (the 19th), put us with a totally new caseworker, then said they had no appointments the next day either...they finally worked it out for us to come in on the 20th and have the casework that we've had for the last 8 months.

We are half packed and I can't wait to get going, the waiting is miserable!