The Nicaraguan Gods

To be honest, I was a bit apprehensive about today. Other than a “short” meeting at Mi Familia scheduled for 10 AM, the girls and I had absolutely NOTHING planned. There was good reason for this actually. Given Lesa’s experience with Mi Familia and Nicaragua in general nothing happens when it is supposed to and a “short” meeting could mean hours. Also, Lucie and Martita can be wild cards relative to their ability to stay focused, polite, and not be complete “hellions”, so we left the day open leaving a lot of room for error. We told our taxi driver yesterday to be at our casa at 9:30 AM…this would get us to Mi Familia with plenty of time to spare. He was there at 9:20! We arrived at Mi Familia at 9:50 and we were escorted in to see our case worker at 10:05! Okay so it was 5 minutes later than planned…this is still an absolute miracle. Our case worker immediately put three documents in front of me to sign. It took me literally 10 seconds to sign them!

At this point, I am thinking I overslept and this is all a dream…NOTHING goes this smoothly. Then as Lucie was attempting to sit in her chair she flipped it over and with a big BANG, a “sorry Dad”, and a goofy giggle from Martita, I realized I was actually awake and everything actually WAS going very smoothly!

I handed the documents back to our case worker and she said thank you and goodbye...I said “come on nina’s… vamonos (lets go)” and we were out in the street, into the waiting taxi and home by 10:35.

As we pulled up to our casa, we saw Jonathan and his family walking with swim suits towards the pool so immediately the girls said, WE HAVE TO GO TO THE POOL…NOW!!!! Well actually Lucie said it, Martita said something in Spanish over and over but she kept hitting me on the shoulder and pointing towards the pool so I figured she was agreeing with Lucie! Don’t you love the way kids can craft a simple thing like going to pool into a life or death situation? I of course said….sure! I mean what else were we going to do…read books? Do a little home schooling? Some crafts? Maybe make Mommy a nice picture for when she GETS HERE IN LESS THAN 132 HOURS? Not on your life…pool means Daddy gets a break! I don’t even have to keep an eye on them because we are gated in, Lucie swims and Martita…well I attach anything that holds air on to her arms and chest, give her a shove, say haste la vista and then find a lounge chair! Except for an hour or so break at lunch we spent the entire day at the pool…them swimming, me doing some work and talking to the people from our little community who came and went throughout the day. And the bonus? By 7:30 BOTH Martita and Lucie asked me if they could go to bed! Leave it to a guy to figure this whole “fostering period” thing out in a couple of days!!! Okay I am laughing at myself right now knowing the Nicaraguan Gods are reading AND because we are headed to the Masaya volcano tomorrow! Ugh…the last time it erupted was in 2001. Ah…what are the odds?

Love you guys!!!!