Santiago 2

Well, pardon while i look for the shift key on this spanish keyboard.....Ok found it,.....we are not in Roanoke any more thats for sure; anyways, we hope everyone follwing this journey has been doing well, thanks again for literally lifting us up in prayer. Today was a good day for us.....we switched hotels (I´ll tell you tommorow if that was a bad idea) this one is within walking distance to many little stores and a Wal-Mart like place called Machitaso or something like that.....Maria has discovered a new hobby.....one that every girl seems to like.....shopping....she picked out some clothes (she only left with one extra set) and she got a Barbie watch. She has a fondness for Coca Cola, Vanilla ice cream and italian food.....its funny Italian is big down here. All of us have really begun the bonding process, It was really awesome to sit and watch Sena painting Maria´s nails today....they both enjoyed that so much. Maria did not cry at all today, although I am sure there will be other days. She is beginning to understand some English words and we are learning more Panamanian Spanish (a local told me that probably 60 % of the Spanish they use is found in our Spanish Dictionaries the rest are words of inigenous origin or Americanized words such as carro for car.) These past 2 days have really reminded me of the initial days after my other children were born

Well here is what we did today, we went to the court and met with a psychologist and a social worker, we piled into a car and drove to a little place called Atalaya...its one of only 2 official basilicas in Panama, we walked around the grounds and they watched us...then we went to a Mcdonalds and they watched how we ate together....by the way....we also met Maria´s court appointed lawyer and she took Maria into a private room and asked her if she wanted to go back to the children´s home and Maria said that she wanted me to be her daddy and for Sena to be her mama and she wanted to return to the United States and be part of our family....We all want her to keep the name Maria de los Angeles and take our last name. We have no new pictures to post we are just to busy running around to get many photos of the area, we can´t upload the few we have to this computor. There is not much to do in Santiago....many little groceries and auto places farmacias, lawyer offices judicial buildings but no mountains or beach or anything like that.....the people are wonderful though....hard working fun loving folks....we finished the day by meeting with the local Iglesia de Christo and we were warmly welcomed by these loving brethren. We had dinner at the hotel for about 13 bucks which is real cheap...try that in Roanoke....our room is 105 for 3 nights which I´m not so sure I can send my dogs to the kennel for that....those prices help a lot with as we have to have a driver for more than half the day at quite a fee.

Basically we have no clue what tommorow holds other than we are supposed to meet the same people at 8:30 tommorow.....we finished the evening calling our 3 children who we are missing more than I can begin to describe....they are holdng up ok....grandparents are keeping them busy which helps along with their friends. Bedtime went well, Maria enjoyed her second warm shower of her life and put on her new pj´s we held hands and said a prayer of thanks I told her Te quero (I love you) and kissed her on the forehead goodnight. She is really starting to open up with us showing us the beautiful flower that she is and we just can´t wait to see the continuing work of God in her life and ours. Sorry if my thoughts are scattered I´m on a pay computer in the hotel lobby and its about 85 degrees out here.... We miss everyone, we love you...God be with you all.