WE'RE HOME!! - KINDA

They all LOVE the piano

Temple Square Eva, Maria, Rocio, Ariana

La manzana de Templo

Ari insists on feeding herself these days

Easter dresses, Ari was still in Panama

Bath time at our house in Panama

Bath time at Grandpa and Grandma's house

As many of you already know, we're back! We were finally able to get the necesary paperwork for Ariana to be able to leave Panama. The timing was perfect because the visa that Maria and Rocio had from Ecuador only gave them 30 days to enter the states. I came ahead with them and Isaac and Ariana followed us 2 weeks later. It is such a relief, although bitter-sweet, to close that chapter of our lives. We miss our friends and family from Panama, but thankfully through skype, IM and video-conferencing, we can keep in touch.

We are not in our own home yet, we still have renters there, but we should be able to move back in by mid-June. In the meantime, we have been living at Grandma's house, Cherish's house and my Dad's house in Logan. We stay somewhere for a week or so, then rotate. It's so nice of them to let us invade their spaces, but it will be great when we can have a little more stability for the girls.

All of the girls are thriving. They love having so much interaction with their cousins and other family members. Maria is very quickly becoming bilingual. Alot of her sentences are now a spanglish mix, "donde estan mis shoes, hot afuera, eso es mine", etc. The funny thing is, she has so much interaction with her 2 year old cousin Eva that Eva responds to spanish now too. All of Cherish kids are learning lots of spanish with my girls.

Rocio is eating great! She is like a totally different kid than we picked up back in January. She actually really LIKES to eat now, as long as it is fruit, pasta or drenched in ranch. She actually ate a TON of spinach the other day totally bathed in Ranch dressing. Whatever works and gets the calories in (she had alot of nutritional issues when we first got her). She is also a lot more social than before. She used to have issues with anyone her age, other than Maria, getting near her, touching her or playing in the same area. Now she takes it all in stride. The only person she really has issues with now is Ariana. We are still working on that one.

Ariana is doing great. She is very social, loves playing with her cousins and sisters and is starting to talk a bit. She loves to bug Rocio, I don't think she understands that Rocio hates it, I think she just knows she gets a big reaction out of her, so she does it all the time. She doesnt bug anyone else that persistently. She is a delight, as always, though.

Overall, we are happy, healthy and home!!