bodner001

Our church hosted an adoption awareness concert last night, and it reminded us of why we felt called to adopt.  There are so many children out there waiting for their forever families!  The night was focused on  foster care and adoption, and what we can all do to help.  Some people feel called to adopt like we did.  Some people feel strongly about supporting a child overseas that is in need of sponsorship.  Some people are gifted to just help and support those who have adopoted or are foster parents.  We made a video of our kids to show last night, and we have been very blessed with the support we have received from our church.  Thank you for all of your support, prayers, and friendships!

Juan lost his first tooth yesterday, and was so excited!  The tooth fairy (Raton Perez in Colombia) left him fifty cents.  He is growing up so fast.  We are so glad we took as many pictures as we did in Bogota because all of the kids are changing so much.  They are all doing well, and we are still working on the transition of new rules, structure, and expectations.   Although it has been a lot to be new parents and teachers as we continue to homeschool, they are learning a lot and trying hard.

We bought a large aquarium before we left for Colombia.  Dainis loves fish and thought it would be a lot of fun for the kids and very educational for school.  The kids love looking at all of the fish every day, and they are so excited to go and buy new fish and help Dainis clean out the fish tank.

Although it is still very hot here, Fall is here, and we are starting our favorite time of the year.  As we look forward to all of the festivities of Fall and all the holiday season will bring this year, we can't wait to celebrate it all with our kids!  We took the kids to a farm this weekend to pick out their own pumpkin.  They had a great time, and we will all look forward to doing it again next year!

One of the kids' favorite activities is still to dress up.  After the kids have dressed up in their current outfits for awhile, we bring out the dress-up boxes and they can exchange their current outfits for new ones.  We now have a dress-up center with dress-up clothes for the kids, clothes for the girls' baby dolls, and dress-up clothes for all of their big bears!

My Mom celebrated her birthday this past weekend, and it was a special one.  It was her first birthday as a Grandma!  We had a very nice day and enjoyed the pool.  The kids are doing great job on their swimming.  It is hard to believe that when they arrived home at the end of July, they had never been in a pool.  It is finally cooling down so we probably won't be swimming again this year.  After the pool, we then went to dinner at our favorite Mexican food restaurant.  We came back home for presents, cake, and ice cream.  The kids sang "Happy Birthday" to Grandma in English!  The video is below.   -

The kids started Sunday school this morning and did really well.  We went back to our class, and it was great to see everyone again.  The kids are still really shy,and we wanted to give them time to settle in their new home before starting a new activity.  Juan is in a first grade class, Ingrid is in a third day class, and Angie is in a fifth grade class.  We all go together to church before Sunday school.  This is the first time they have been around kids their age, since we came home.  We plan to get them involved in other activities after the first of the year.  We are thankful for the Children's Ministry at our church and know our kids are in good hands,