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!! :-)