Adoption file is finaly finalized

This will probably be my last post here. Our last post adoption home visit has been completed and Jon's citizenship papers have been sent off to Colombia to close out his file. We've moved to NW Iowa to begin new jobs in a new town and Jon and his siblings are enjoying their new schools and are doing well. Here is a video of Jon singing one of the songs he learned while living at Ayudame in Bogota before he came to live with us.
Dwight


If you want to keep keeping up with our family you can jump over to Kathleen's blog at kvtea.blogspot.com

The Big Flood

Most of you who know us know about the flood we had in Holland last June. Here are some pictures from our house the day after, the water had already receded a couple feet by then, it was up the the bottoms of the window glass at it peak. The flood was caused by three inches of rain on Thursday and then 7.5 more inches in three hours Friday evening. The damage meant we had to spend most of our summer repairing our basement before our planned move to Iowa (more about that later) so we didn't do much exciting to blog about unless you're into drywall and painting. (I don't know why this is all underlined)

It's Spring Break so we've been doing yard work and fixing up the house, yea!
Tomorrow we head to Chicago to drop the kids off with Grandpa and Grandma and Kath and I will head on to Sioux Center, Iowa for a romantic vacation, Ha!

Had the neighbors over for dinner tonight and Beatriz who's from Mexico taught the kids a new song.



Jon is doing great and has had enough of this vacation stuff, he wants to get back to school. I guess we aren't structured enough for him.
Dwight

It is time for Special Olympics swimming again. SO started a couple weeks ago and Jacob and Luke are both helping out this year, making it truly a family affair. Jacob explained the importance of donuts in the swimmer's diet, so we did kick off the season with donuts for breakfast the first week. Jon Felipe is wondering if he'll have to shave his head like Luke and the other boys on the swim team (Jacob went short, but not completely bald).

Here are Maria and Luke and the athlete Luke is working with.Jon is really getting into swimming this year, he's becoming more confident and working hard.

And he loves wearing cool goggles.
Last Sunday night we went to a celebration of adoption hosted by Bethany and Ginny our adoption coordinater. One of the featured speakers was Elizabeth Stone (and her mom). She won a silver medal in swimming at the Paralympics in Beijing last summer! She was adopted at the age of 4 as a special needs child with only one leg from the Republic of Georgia (Russia). It was a good program (thanks for inviting us Ginny) and Maria really enjoyed hearing about other kids like her who are successful in spite of their disabilities.

Swingin' the Night Away

This was a busy week at the VanTol's. Here are pictures from the BOC (Band Orchestra Choir) fund raiser Swingin' the Night Away. We had a great time. Maria and her friend Lily showed off the skills they've been learning in their after school dance class. Jon Felipe danced with mom and checked out all the yummy desserts. Earlier in the week, we all went to the swim meet to cheer Jacob and Luke on to their team's win over Byron Center.

Winter weather advisory

Exams ended last Friday and 2nd semester doesn't begin until Monday for our high school kids, so this weekend has been homework free and the kids are enjoying being able to just hang out and play Rock Band or other games. Of course they still had swim practice on Saturday but it wasn't until 10 so they still got to sleep in. It warmed up a little today, the thermometer said it was 20 deg. F. It was in the single digits for most of last week, so 20 with no wind felt almost balmy while I was out blowing snow off the driveway. The piles on both sides of the drive are so tall, taller than me and I'm 6'2", that my little Toro can't shoot it that high and so I have to scoot it to the edges and finish up with a shovel. Makes me feel old when I am done, achy joints and sore back. At least I can pretend that I am losing a little weight.

Jon Felipe is convinced that we have so much snow because he asked God for "mucho nieve". He loves to play out in the snow making angels and sledding down the snowbanks. Perhaps it is still a novelty for someone who was born where it is always summer. Big Luk, Our "Lost boy of Sudan," liked winter too. He said that Africa was too hot and it was nice to live where the weather wasn't always trying to bake you. I know that by the end of my stay in Bogota I was really ready to get back to Michigan, but right now I am dreaming of that ever warm Colombian climate.

It has stopped snowing after coming down hard for most of the day and the firmament has lightened to the point where I can almost believe that I can see blue sky. But the weather bug on my computer tells me that more "lake effect snow" is on its way and the kids are starting to talk hopefully about a snow day tomorrow. Time to go make something hot and comforting for dinner.
Dwight

Happy Holidays

We got a lot of snow in December. The kids enjoyed playing on the huge snow pile next to the driveway. That's Jon in orange, Maria in the dark blue, and their friend Karis in purple.Everyone got new winter hats from Santa. Don't Jacob and Luke look handsome.
Maria and Jon can't wait to open the presents at Abuela and Abuelo's house. Guess what everyone got? New clothes because they are growing up so fast.
Goofing around at the otro Abuela & Abuelo's casa. We enjoyed visiting lots of the relatives. The kids kept asking, where are we going today?
It was a good vacation, but now that we are all back to school and life is back to the regular routine, life is much simpler.