bodner001

   There is a mountain in Phoenix called South Moutain.  It overlooks all of Phoenix.  The kids loved it! Although it was very windy, we had a nice picnic lunch, and the kids loved climbing on all of the rocks.  We are constantly reminded how many things we want to do with the kids and all that is out there for them to see.     

The kids are having a great time on their bikes!  They have been very good at following all of the rules and trying hard to be careful and safe.  We live in a cul-de-sac, which is very nice.  We can stand in our front yard and watch the kids.  All three kids are now able to ride their bikes without training wheels, and they are so proud of themselves.  We just hope that there are no broken bones or quick trips to the hospital!

Adoptive families celebrate something very special each year, and it is called Gotcha Day.  This is the anniversary of the day you were united with your kids.  We received our kids on April 12th last year in Bogota, Colombia.  It is so hard to believe we have been a family for a year now!  The day we met our kids is called Presentation Day, and here is a picture when we first met our kids. We wanted to make our first Gotcha Day special for the kids.  We enjoyed presents, cake, and real Colombian food.  We made homemade arepas and arroz con leche for breakfast and lunch.  Arroz con leche tastes like rice pudding and is one of Angie's favorite foods.  The kids loved helping in the kitchen and had a great time and did a great job!     We found a store that sold Colombian food, so we were able to get some of their favorite foods.   For dinner, we made empanadas for the first time with plantains, and they turned out great....

We had a wonderful Easter and overall, the kids are doing really well.  We still have small challenges to work through everyday, but we have made a lot of progress.  We celebrated Easter last year in Colombia and had just gotten the kids. As we look back at all of our pictures of our time together in Bogota,our kids are so much happier now.  Here is a picture of the kids with the Easter bunny at the mall.  They had never celebrated Easter and heard about the Easter bunny.  It was also our first time to get ice cream at the mall.  This became one of our favorite activities. In school, the kids learned about the religious side of Easter and the real reason we celebrate Easter.  They completely understood and wrote stories about Jesus dieing on the cross to save us from our sins.  We read the Easter story in the bible together and made cookies called resurrection cookies.  The cookies represented the empty cave three days aft...