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 tammy.gouge@sbcglobal.net
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Lazy American girls!!!! :)

Good Morning USA..........being in Brazil is really an eye opener about how different countries are. We had an appt. scheduled yesterday at the court house to have our first Social worker review about how things were going (again part of the 30 day cohabitation Brazil requires). Two weeks ago it was arranged and put on the books. Well we go into the court house yesterday after the "time" was rearranged several times already and we were told we would have to wait.......okay no problem. So in the mean time Mary Gibson (director of CLM) took us to visit Donei's English school he has been attending for the last 6months. It was a really nice school and focuses a lot on the USA. They were very happy for Donei when they heard he would have the opportunity to live in the US. We then called back to the court house to see if they were ready for us.......no~ Needless to say we never did get to do our appt. yesterday. Thats just how Brazil is~
Its been really cold and rainy here the last few days and Mike Cochran had to rearrange some of the things we had planned in the city (getting blood work done) because he said if its "too cold" people just don't go into work that day......wouldn't that be nice at home???? They just have this laid back attitude here and nothing gets done very quickly.

Delicious Meal cooked over fire pit at the Park

We then went to another appt that was scheduled to meet with Donei's psychologist he has been seeing for many years. She did not speak English so Mary Gibson came and translated. Donei's psychologist is Elnina (spelling?) and she obviously LOVES Donei so much! She asked for us at the end of the appt if we would do an "exercise" representing Donei coming into our family...............You never know what these psychologist are going to make you do in these "awkward" moments but it turned out to be a very emotional moving time for us.
She asked Steve & I to stand together....We were to placed two pillows on the floor in front of us representing Alyssa and Stephanie (almost as if we were posing for a family picture). She then asked Donei to find his place with us that he felt comfortable in. He was encouraged to "try" different locations around us and see which one he felt the most comfortable at. He was not allowed to move any of us or the pillows that represented the girls. He first went to Steve's side....then my side......he ended up staying by my side for the moment. She then asked us how we felt and Steve said it felt good but thats not where he (Steve) saw Donei in our family. So after a few moments of this Donei asked Elnina if he could stand in front of us between Alyssa and Steph....She said yes.......She said this represented him already feeling like he was in our family and comfortable......confident with his back facing us that he trusted us and knew we would always protect him. He then turned around and hugged Steve and I for quite a long moment. It was a symbolic moment of him entering our family. We were a little bummed because we had a gift for him to represent our forever love for him and wish we would have had it at that moment to give him. I don't know if my description of this exercise is making any sense to you or portraying the moment...........but it was a very touching moment for us and YES~ I cried!
We then headed back to CLM and yes~ went to the Cochran's where Alyssa and Steph spent the day. We played games and ate Mike's famous Cincinnati Chili Hot dogs!  

Love you all!!!

Dinner at Viktoria's (Missionary from Hungry...she loves Donei and is so excited for him!!!)

Okay Tim Yannone! Here is your picture of Brazilian dogs....they are not like American dogs...they are skin and bones, unhealthy looking things. Haven't seen a dog yet that we would want to curl up with and love on. Cochrans dogs are the healthiest looking dogs here at CLM and only dogs we would even think about curling up with.........but they like to roll in stinky stuff and jump in the ponds around here.