Before I inundate you with pictures of our 4th of July I need to clear up something I mentioned in an earlier post. I have had several people ask me today why we had to have a paper notarized saying that we would send Dzintars back at the end of the hosting period. The reason for this is simply because this is a "host only" program, the kids come here on temporary Visas and must go back to their home countries even if a family here in American intends to adopt them. Statistically, 60% of the 185 kids here this summer will go on to be adopted but adoptions take time and have lots of hoops that need to be jumped through. In the past, families have failed to show up at the airport on the departure date and this puts the entire hosting program in jeopardy. Since the majority of these older kiddos find families via hosting, it would be detrimental to them if the programs were shut down! There is no way our family is going to jepoardize such an amazing ministry and with tears in our eyes we will return Dzintars to LAX on August 1st to return to Latvia. I'm thankful to those of you who questioned the "why's" of that so that I could further explain it.
This morning we headed to the annual Mayflower Village 4th of July Parade. Peter and the kids rode their bikes, all decked out for the occasion. I walked and got completely left in the dust! It's an "anything goes" type of parade, some ride scooters and bikes. Some ride dirt bikes, golf carts or dune buggies. I'm not quite sure what Dzintars thought of it all, but I do know he liked the bike ride quite a bit!
With his host grandparents.
Three of the four Maljian cousins.
Donuts after the parade.
Guess who had a cream filled donut.
With some of the crazy paradees in the background. I sure wonder what he thought of it all!
After the parade Dzintars joined in on a pickup soccer game with a bunch of the other boys. It was Dzintars and two other older boys against 6-8 younger ones. They were pretty evenly matched:) Dzintars even headed the ball right into the goal. He was very proud of himself.
Micah tearing in to steal the ball from Dzintars.
We spent some time swimming again today. I can tell we'll be doing a lot of it while he's here. It was great to see both Brennan and Dzintars motoring around the pool on their own:)
I think America suits him just fine!!
Each year before heading out to see fireworks we take pictures with the kids in the backyard, this year we got to add an extra kiddo to the mix.
He thinks I'm super nuts when I ask them to make silly faces:) Can you tell?
Waiting for the fireworks to start.
The kids rocked out to the live band.
Playing Uno while we wait.
We were told about something called "orphanage rules" for games and tonight we saw them, please take note of the card BEHIND Dzintars back:) He was really playful and silly tonight and cheating every chance he could get, but laughing about it with us. I think someone is starting to feel right at home:)
See that smile:)
Sadly fireworks are illegal in our city, but we still snuck a few sparklers into the backyard for Dzintars and the kids to enjoy!
The festivities were a hit with our favorite Latvian! He said "America yes!" A LOT today! And apparently the fireworks in Latvian are just so-so but the ones in America made our guy very happy! He was so bummed out when they ended! He also expressed once again that he doesn't want to go back to Latvia...all I could say in response was well we still have many more weeks:) And we'll fill them with as much fun as we can handle!!!!
Happy 4th of July:)
No comments:
Post a Comment