July 28th

A bit rough last night. Alexander woke at 12:30 and stayed up until 3:00 crying most of that time. We think he is trying to cut a tooth. I understand all of this is natural and there are many more nights to come just like this one, but it is still heartbreaking to see your child in distress.

Daddy is still struggling with the diaper thing, Alexander is very squirmy when diapers are changed or he is being dressed. It's been a two person job to get the "onezies" on him. I'll get the hang of it though. We've only been with him for two days... I have a Master's degree but have trouble with diapers, go figure? :)

The hotel we are staying at, I mentioned Enrique in my first post, caters to adoptive families. There are many of us here. A few are couples from the US and there are also ones from Sweden, Norway, Spain and France. It's interesting that most of the couples speak English at least a little bit. We were talking with the couple from Norway the other night and I asked if many people from their country speak English because they spoke so well, the husband joked, "Yes, not many other people in the world speak Norwegian!" I really wish I spoke more Spanish, I think it should be a requirement for children in the US to be bi-lingual. I took some French in high school and Kristin and I began taking Spanish lessons a few months ago. We didn't expect to be coming to Colombia so soon, but it's a good thing that we did to get our little guy! It's interesting that when I am sometimes grappling with coming up with the Spanish phrase the French one pops into my mind first even though the only French I remember is "Hello" or "I am going to the library" or "No, I don't speak French!" The same happens to Kristin with German. Obviously language sticks better the younger you are. We want to continue taking Spanish and raising Alexander to be bi-lingual.

So, there are many adoptive families and we are all in the same boat more or less. There are around three babies Alexander's age and some older ones ranging between one and four. It's neat to talk with people who say, "Oh we are going to get our child today!" and then see them later in the day bonding with their new little ones. A couple from the midwest, Michigan or Wisconsin I think, came back with two children yesterday, one two years old and one four years old. They were glowing!

You can tell who had a long night at breakfast, the parents who look tired and disheveled are the ones who didn't sleep. Daddy DeLuna was that one today. Mommy was doing surprisingly well.

Sounds like my little man is about to wake up from a nap...