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.