And now we are FOUR!

Greetings!


I know many of you have been anxiously waiting to hear from us since our big day yesterday. It was a very long day for all four of us.


We left El Refugio at 7 AM with David (Lucia´s son and our interpreter) and Oscar (our attorney) and drove for about 3 hours to Chiquinquirá. We first stopped at the courts where Oscar had us sign some papers. Then we went to the ICBF office and waited...and waited...


There was a bit of confusion with the kids having visited the US last summer combined with our asking that they be told before we arrived about the death of Jeff´s mom. The ICBF people thought we had already met the kids and apparently even the kids were confused. So, we had to wait until that got straightened out to everyone´s satisfaction. Then one of the people left for a while and we had to wait for her to come back. It was probably about 2 hours before we finally met the kids.


Andrea and Juan Felipe were shy but willing to be hugged and greeted by us. We had practiced a few sayings for them, but of course they went right out of my brain when we saw the kids - especially with five or six other people in the room all talking at once!! Oh well. I´m sure we were all four feeling nervous and trying to figure out what to do. We managed though.


After a few more signatures giving us temporary custody of the kids, we headed back to Bogotá. We stopped for a late lunch along the way.


(writing continued on Wednesday morning...)


So lunch was good and then we continued to Bogotá. I think the kids were feeling a bit "shell-shocked" and frankly, so was I. We had dinner and the hotel and just spent time with all the other families until it was time to get ready for bed. It´s a bit challenging to my pride that everyone else can speak easily to my children but I cannot. But we continue on. The first night was hard as they didn´t really want to go to bed, but again, we managed.


Yesterday (Tuesday) we had a fairly good day. They woke up happy and we got ready in turn (uno baño para quatro personas!). We had breakfast at the hotel and played for a while in the yard here. In the late morning we went to the Unicentro (a very big mall near here) to get some clothes (everything we brought them is too big!) and some snacks to have here for them. We had a few missteps - due to language, of course - so next time I think we need to make sure we have someone with us who can help translate (which, again, is very frustrating).

I´m sorry for not posting any photos yet. I can´t use my laptop anywhere else in the building except the same small area where the wireless router is located, so it´s a minor inconvenience. Hopefully, I can find a time to bring my laptop here and put a few photos up - but it will probably be a few days still. :-)

One other thing I want to share is how wonderful Jeff is with the kids! He is so kind and patient with them and they respond to him very well. It´s a joy to watch!

Ok, they are probably all ready for breakfast so I´d better go back up to our room and see what´s up. Thanks again for all your prayers for us. Please keep it up because I´m sure we have many more challenges ahead of us.

Hasta luego!! :-)

We're here in Colombia!

¡Hola from Bogotá! :-)

We arrived at the airport on schedule last night and we were met by an enthusiastic Andrés who brought us to El Rufugio via taxi. It was probably about 10:30 PM when we were finally getting settled into our room and trying to figure out where we were! ;-) Everyone has been so kind to us already and given us lots of information about things to do, etc.

Lucia called at about 9 AM this morning to let us know that the lawyer and translator will meet us with a taxi at 7 AM tomorrow morning to make the drive to Chiquinquirá to meet Andrea and Juan. Our appointment is at 11 AM, so apparently it's a bit of a drive! So today we are getting unpacked and settling into our room and thinking about what tomorrow will be like. It's an interesting realization that today is our last day as just the two of us, but we know it's a good thing and we are excited to see what the days ahead will hold. Nervous...but excited!

There are two other adoptive families here in the hotel. One from France with their new 5-month-old daughter, and the other from Puerto Rico who will meet thier 3-year-old twin girls on Tuesday. It seems this currently quiet hotel will be not-so-quiet in a few days with two 3-year-olds, and an 8- and 11-year old!!

I started the day feeling a little bit lost, especially with the language issue, and feeling really bad that I didn't work harder at learning Spanish before our trip. The staff here doesn't seem to speak English, so it's a bit of a challenge, although we can catch a word or three now and then and try to make ourselves understood. I accidentally ordered warm milk for cereal this morning because I misunderstood what she was asking. And don't ask me why the poor lady didn't understand when I asked for "dulce" (candy) for my coffee instead of "azúcar" (sugar)!! ;-) Jeff is doing pretty well at attempting to speak to them in Spanish; I feel like my brain just freezes up each time I want to try. :-( Thankfully, the two other couples also speak English or it would be even harder. But, as I said to Jeff after our experience this morning, we had a taste of what life will probably feel like for our children when everyone starts speaking to them in rapid-fire English. It's not very fun to have that "deer-in-the-headlights" feeling because you really have no clue what the person just said to you, and you know they feel bad because they can't make you understand. But we'll just keep working on it.

The weather is nice so far. A bit overcast on and off but pleasant enough outside with a little breeze that keeps it cool. No rain yet, but our new French friends tell us it rains every day so maybe later on?

Ok, we're off to get some money exchanged and then a bit later to go do a little shopping, I think. And tomorrow? Well, only God knows what's in store for us tomorrow so we're relying on Him to walk us through it.

We made it to Atlanta and are now waiting for our flight to Bogota. All is going well so far. :-)

We're on our way!

Thanks to our wonderful friends, we have enjoyed a yummy dinner and are now sitting quietly in a beautiful hotel room, relaxing a bit before getting up at "o'dark hundred" (about 3 AM) to get ready to catch the shuttle to the Portland airport to be there 2 hours early for our 6:05 AM flight. It was a busy day getting ready, but now we've done all we can do and we are headed to Colombia to meet our children!!

I'll do my best to keep this blog updated during our trip - we would love to share the experience with those who are interested. We'll just see how the days go. :-)

Thanks again to all our dear friends who have walked with us thus far on this journey. We continue to be so grateful for all of you. Thank you for your continued love and support for us - we appreciate it so much.

Next stop - Bogotá, Colombia (by way of Atlanta)!! :-D

Update - Visas

Ok, I guess I should have waited until I had actually spoken to the Colombian consulate before making my last post. Here's the news:

It's all ok. *blush*

The man I spoke to at the consulate said as long as the names are correct (which they are) and the expiration date is ok (which they set, so I guess just that it's the same?), then we are all ok and shouldn't have any problems at Immigration in Colombia. And just to confirm, Julie called Lucia and she said the same - the dates are no problem and the visas are ok!!

Whew! So, um, never mind. ;-)

A bump in the road...

Well, I guess things were going too smoothly?

We received our passports back on Friday, with our freshly-issued Colombian adoption visas affixed inside. As I excitedly examined them, I noticed that our birthdates were written in different formats. One had the month/day/year and the other had the day/month/year. Now, I know that other countries sometimes use the latter format even when writing the dates with numbers, but I was pretty sure they should have both been the same - whichever format they were using.

Unfortunately, it was too late to call the consulate (they close at 2 PM) and it was also too late to call Nichole at CHI. So, I sent her an email and figured I'd just have to wait until Monday (today), thinking it through a bit that in theory if we had to FedEx the passports back to the consulate today, they'd have it Tuesday morning and if they can fix it right away and send it back we should be able to have them back by Friday. Oh, did I mention we are leaving our house on Friday afternoon?

Yep, it turns out that's exactly what needs to happen. Nichole called me this morning and told me that, yes, one of them is wrong but we're not sure which one! I need to call the consulate this morning (they open in about 20 minutes), find out which way it was supposed to be, FedEx the one that's wrong and tell them we are leaving on Friday and need to have it back by then, por favor!!

So, instead of going to work this morning, I'll be taking care of this "bump in the road" and giving FedEx more of our money! ;-) Thankfully, my supervisor was wonderfully understanding (which I knew she would be)! I'm hoping we don't need another set of photos and an application, but if that should be the case, then I hope it's mine that's wrong because it would be harder for Jeff to get off work this morning to do all that.

Ok, so that's the news for today. Otherwise, the sun is shining and it's supposed to be around 80F today (it was pretty close to that yesterday), so that's a welcome change from the cold, rainy spring weather we've had so far. Hope you have a great day wherever you are!!

One week to go!!!

Last night we had our travel prep phone call with Nichole - nearly 3 hours! Bless her heart (with the time difference between Oregon and Missouri, I know it was realllllly late for her by the time we finished). Good and helpful information though.

As of today, we are eight days from our early-morning departure on April 25. We will actually leave home next Friday evening and spend part of a night in a hotel near the airport, thanks to a generous friend, so that we can hopefully catch a few hours' sleep before heading to the airport at 4 AM for our 6:05 AM flight! And then we're off to Bogotá by way of Atlanta and the adventure really begins!!

Still feeling like there is LOTS to do but slowly coming to the realization that I won't be able to get it all done. That feels a bit discouraging, but in actuality, it probably doesn't all have to be done - I just want it to be done. ;-) Oh well. As my dad used to say, "A hundred years from now, no one will know the difference" so I guess I'll just do what I can and try to be satisfied with that.

So, better keep this short and get busy with my to-do list. Have a great weekend!! :-)

test blog by txt msg from phone

A & J are OURS!!! :-)

Yesterday, I received the call from Nichole to say that ICBF had "accepted our acceptance letter" which means that Andrea and Juan are really ours!!! :-D

We are scheduled to meet them for the first time at 11 AM on April 27 in Chiquinquirá (about 3 hours away from Bogotá)!! Therefore, we are aiming to depart the USA on April 25 - our last time to go anywhere as just a "couple." (Well, ok, maybe not the last time, but you know what I mean!)

And now, I can finally share a photo of them with you! Aren't they beautiful?? :-)

We are so excited to meet them and hope they will feel the same. We are praying for them as they face this huge transition in their lives and we can't wait for them to be part of our family.

But for now, of course, there is the paperwork for our visas to be completed, and plane tickets to be arranged, and details to take care of for while we'll be gone, and work projects to finish up... Yikes! What am I doing writing on this blog - I have things to do!! ;-)