The following was submitted to CHI for their March Noticiero.

I think it happened inside of five seconds.  Rena and I saw their picture for the first time and they went from being total strangers to being the most beautiful children in the world!  They immediately stole our hearts.  We were hooked for life.  We were theirs and they were ours.  What seemed like countless hours of preparation and years of prayer became flesh and fabric.

  

Then when we met them we were drop-jaw astonished at their beauty, blown away at God's grace on us.

The kids are integrating into our home quite nicely.  After four months into our relationship, each new day seems more and more like we have always been together.  We feel like the transition has been very smooth from going to a house of two to a house of six.  There really hasn't been much change around the casa from before the adoption with maybe the exception of:

~decibel level going from that of a whisper of an angel to the roar of a jet engine

~necessity of watching each step for fear of stubbing toes on toys in every thoroughfare

~finding hidden treasure in every nook and cranny (although we still haven't found Mami's new birthday watch).

Other changes would include:

~hearing from the general public how gorgeous our kids are (I just tell them they take after their Papi)

~hearing "You've got your hands full" one zillion times

~having a new found enlightenment on the word "consumer"

~paradigm shift of  new perspective from 17 years of tending to our own desires to having the kids best interest as our main desire - not to spoil them but to help them find true and lasting happiness and also to lead them into how they can best help the world around them and build God's kingdom

~pretty much resigning to the fact that we no longer have a life of our own...but relishing every moment.

We have been astounded at the generosity of people.  This journey has definitely shown us the brighter side of life.  It's got something to do with adoption/children...it brings out the best in people.  We have seen people who are normally calloused just light up when they hear our story.  In a world with a lot of ugliness, it is so refreshing to experience God's joyfulness in people.  We have found that mankind still has many kind men (and women).

We are so proud of our family taking in our children as their own.  Their help and support has been nothing short of awesome.  The kids are so enamored with the family that they often ask to call Abuelo, Abuela, Granny or Papa, or they ask to go and play with the primos.

The holidays were so much fun.  Kansas City has had a very white winter this year so the kids have had much play in the snow.  At first, the boys were not convinced that coats, hats and gloves were necessary, but they quickly changed their minds as they were running back into the garage yelling, "Fria!  Fria!"

The boys are doing very well in school through the ESL program.  We just had our first parent/ teacher conference.  Both boys were noted as "extremely bright" so we were "extremely pleased".  The girls are using complete sentences and adding new vocabulary all of the time.

By God's mucho grande provision, in our hearts and minds we know and feel that we are truly and richly blessed!