The Whole Gang

Since the day Shawn and I knew we would be done with the adoption process before Christmas, our goal was to get to Missouri before all of Shawn's family left. This was the first year in more than 4 years that everyone would be together and we didn't want to miss it. After our Christmas Day flight was cancelled, we were scheduled to arrive in Richmond at 2:30pm on the 26th. Well, as you can probably guess, our flights were delayed and we didn't end up in Richmond until 6:30pm. We got our shuttle to our car and I focused on acclimating Laura to her carseat (she thought it was some sort of torture chamber!!) while Shawn got all of our bags. We got home as fast as we could, emptied all our suitcases, and packed again for our drive to Missouri. As we were pulling out of the driveway about 8:30pm, I asked Shawn where a particular suitcase was because I needed my glasses. Turns out that bag never made it from the airport shuttle to our car. A quick call to park-n-go revealed that bag was taken home by another couple! So instead of hitting the road, we headed back to the airport and waited on our bag. We didn't get started until 10:00pm...luckily by this time Laura had made peace with her carseat and fallen fast asleep. We drove all night, arrived at Shawn's mom's house about 11:00 Saturday morning and had a wonderful day with all the family. Laura was a hit with the adults and the kids. She was overwhelmed at first and clung to me and Shawn, but by the end of the day she was right in the middle of the fray! Two families left this morning and Kelly and her daughter will be here through the end of the week. We are enjoying letting Laura spend time with her Mema...but we also can't wait to get home so Nana and Grandad get to meet her!! More pictures will be posted when we get home...Happy New Year!

Home for Christmas?? Not Really!

Most people (including us) were expecting this blog to be from Virginia or Missouri. But....we are still in Bogota!! We got to the airport at 6:30 this morning to find out our flight had a 3 hour mechanical delay. After standing in ticketing lines for 3 hours and finally making it to the agent, we learned it was now a 6 hour delay. Laura was being a trooper -- not too fussy and easy to please when she got fussy -- but a 6 hour delay is huge!! We got over our disappointment of having to spend the night in Atlanta and decided to eat some lunch. While at lunch, a ticket agent came to tell us our flight had been cancelled!! At this point, we had been in the airport for almost 6 hours. Lucikly, one of the agents had pity on our situation and ushered us backward through immigration to get all of Laura's paperwork back, took us to the front of the line of people dealing with the cancelled flight, and had us on a bus to the hotel in about 30 minutes. It was great! We are spending the night in a really nice hotel and we fly out very first thing tomorrow morning. We are still planning on driving to Missouri right after we get home. It might be better to drive all night, anyway. That way Laura will be asleep and not fussing about her carseat! It wasn't exactly the way we had hoped our first Christmas would be, but we are so happy to all be together! This will be a family story to tell every year on Christmas...all about the one we spent in the Bogota airport standing in lines!

Merry Christmas!!

Well, we're all packed and ready to bring Laura home! We were out of space this morning when Laura woke up. Since there was no place on the bed to put her, we laid her in the suitcase. She seemed to really enjoy it! Don't worry...she isn't still in the suitcase!

We had a pretty uneventful day. Most of the day was spent packing, organizing, and giving away the stuff we didn't think we had space for coming home. It is amazing how many gifts and souvenirs we bought!! We had a great lunch at the Mexican place down the street, Shawn got a haircut and I got a manicure and pedicure with our American friends. Since the hotel is on a bare-bones staff, they ordered a pizza for us for dinner. Then we gave Laura a bath and had our first Christmas as a family. It seems to be tradition for Colombian families to open their gifts on Christmas eve, and since we are leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow, we decided to open our gifts tonight, too. Laura really got into trying to open her package. Several times it was put in her mouth and she kept trying to break the paper. We finally gave her a little help! She really likes her present and Shawn and I enjoyed watching her. We both got eachother something small and our Christmas was over in about 10 minutes!!

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas tomorrow with your friends and families. We have really appreciated and enjoyed all the wonderful comments, prayers, and support you have offered our family during our stay in Colombia. We can't wait to get home and introduce Laura to all of you. We will be printing out our blog posts and comments so someday Laura can read about all the people who were so involved in bringing her home. We have really enjoyed our time here in Colombia and will miss it in some ways. But, we are more excited to be coming home:) As our friend Katherine commented, Christmas Day will always be a double special day for our family...the celebration of the birth of our Lord and King as well as the day Laura came home! Merry Christmas!

We're Coming Home!!!

It's official...we booked our tickets today. We are flying home on Thursday!!! We had a heck of a day. It started by waiting for the phone to ring letting us know the ICBF letter had been written. We got that call about 9:30, were picked up by the driver at 9:45 and we didn't stop all day!


First stop was ICBF to get the letter. We are always checking and double checking the information on these documents and for the first time, it was Shawn's name that had mistakes. I was getting really tired of constantly having to fix my name! We got the letter fixed and left at about 10:15 for the US Embassy. We had to be logged in by 11:00 to be able to start our paperwork today. With Bogota traffic, we weren't taking anything for granted and were thrilled when we got to the embassy in less than 15 minutes. Then we waited. Along with hundreds of other Colombians at the embassy. When we finally were called to the window, things went very smoothly. Normally, we would have had an appointment, but since no one knew if we would be able to go today, we had to wait just like everyone else. We were told we could come back tomorrow morning to pick up Laura's visa.

Next, we dropped off one of our agency reps and picked up the other. We all headed to the orphanage for some final paperwork that we would need to take Laura out of the country. All the staff oohed and aahed over Laura again while we finished the signing and documenting. Then we headed home.

Back at the hotel, it was time for a quick nap for Laura and a phone call to the airline to see if any tickets were available for Thursday...and there were! And, it didn't cost us too much to switch them, either. Laura wouldn't sleep and we had more errands to run, so back out the door we went. We stopped at El Corral Gourmet for a very late lunch (right on time by Colombian standards -- 2:30ish) and then hit two shops to finish buying all our souvenirs and gifts. We got back home around 5:00, fed Laura, ate dinner, and started packing.

Shawn and I are about to crash. Laura already has crashed. She seemed so relieved to be put in her crib for bedtime! We are just so excited to be heading home in time to drive to Missouri on Friday to see the rest of Shawn's family as well as my grandparents and aunt and uncle. Have a wonderful Christmas Eve...our last daily post will be tomorrow night. Then it will be back to business as usual -- sporadic posts about exciting things going on in our lives.

Our Little Colombian...and a Travel Update

We were picked up this morning at 8:00 (early for us) to go to the Colombian Passport Office so Laura could get her first passport. As you can see, she was very excited! So excited it took all my strength to keep the passport out of her mouth!! The passport picture was so cute we took a picture of it (with her little shoes covering the identifying information). She will be a Colombian citizen only until we touch down in the United States, and then she becomes an American citizen, too. We will get her American passport once we get settled in at home. This was the last document needed before we could request the "Letter of Conformity" from ICBF. This letter is needed for us to go to the US Embassy to get a travel visa for Laura.

We also took a trip to the US Embassy doctor today to get Laura all checked out. She passed with flying colors! No new vaccinations were needed at this time. She weighed in at almost 17 pounds and she was almost 26 inches long. The doctor was a very nice man who has spent time in the US for his residencies. We are getting closer to being done and ready to come home!

About our travel plans...We got a call this afternoon from our rep saying that there is a chance our ICBF letter will be done first thing in the morning. If this is the case, we will be able to go to the US Embassy to apply for Laura's visa tomorrow morning, too. The visa would be ready on Wednesday and we could potentially fly out on Thursday (Christmas Day). If the letter isn't done tomorrow, it will be more like December 30th or 31st that we are able to leave. We are really wanting to get home this week so we can go to Missouri to see Shawn's whole family before they scatter back around the country. Please pray that everything works out tomorrow and we are able to fly back on Thursday.

Saying Goodbye

Well, we started saying our good-byes today. Our favorite hotel worker, James, is taking a two week vacation over the holidays and won't be returning back to work until January 5th. Unless something goes wrong, we plan to be home long before then! Laura and James really liked each other...she always gave him a big smile when we walked by his desk:) He was also the one on staff who spoke the best English. We are really going to miss having him around the next week or so.

Most of our day was spent shopping, again! We hit La Fontana market and had some great buys. Then we went to the mall for a wonderful El Corral burger and some more shopping. We have decided that it would be nice if we all had one gift under the tree to open on Christmas morning. Shawn bought mine at La Fontana (and I'm pretty sure I know what it is...can't wait to see for sure), I know what I am getting Shawn, so that just left a toy for Laura. We thought it would be nice to get her something that talks or lights up since we don't have anything like that with us. Surprise, Surprise... all the good toys are double the price here as compared to the States. We left thinking we might just wrap up something that we brought with us that she has already been playing with!! There was one thing I really liked at the toy store, though, so depending on our week, we might go back and get it. We have a pretty busy day tomorrow that will kind of set the stage for how quickly we are able to fly home. Check back tomorrow for the details and more pictures!

Our Favorite Pictures

We didn't do much today...a trip to the Gold Museum (no pictures allowed) and some souvenir shopping. So we decided to look back through the pictures we have taken the last 3 weeks and post some of our favorites...Enjoy!

P.S. Look closely in the last picture and you can see Laura now has TWO teeth!!

Feliz Navidad...finally!

After two failed attempts in the last few weeks, we finally made it to Parque 93 to see the Christmas lights. We had decided earlier this week that regardless of whether we got Sentencia yesterday, we were going to go out to a nice dinner and see the lights. Fortunately, Sentencia was signed and the evening turned into a celebration of our big day! We invited the Meiers and we all walked the 40 minutes to the park. We arrived at dusk and the park was absolutely beautiful...the pictures don't really do it justice! We took a quick walk around and then headed to Crepes and Waffles for dinner. We had a great meal (I had a chicken, spinach, and cheese crepe, Shawn had a Thai Chicken crepe) and followed it with a great big, delicious banana split!! Laura enjoyed some manzana (apple) baby food. After we finished eating, we bundled up the kids (we had to make sure they met Colombian warmth standards!!), met up with our driver that would be taking us home, and spent some more time in the park. Once we had enjoyed the beauty and the crowds as long as we could stand it, we piled in the van and Freddie drove us around town to see some more lights. It is finally beginning to feel a bit like Christmas around here! We are going to make the most of our Colombian Christmas, and I'm sure we will treasure this time forever. We are really anxious to get home, though, too! Can't wait to see everyone -- sooner rather than later!!

It's Official...She's our Daughter!!

The judge singed our Sentencia today!!! That means that Laura is legally our daughter. It has been a really exciting and busy day. We got the phone call at about 11:00 this morning and our representative asked Shawn if we were ready to run around all day. Laura wasn't able to join us so either one of us had to stay home with her or we needed a babysitter...fast! The cab was coming in 20 minutes so fortunately our American friends (the Meiers) in the hotel were around and they agreed to watch Laura for us while we ran our errands.

First stop was the courthouse - up 5 flights of stairs to court 15 to sign the Sentencia forms. After lots of standing around and waiting, it was all official. Then it was off to the notary to get new copies of Laura's birth certificate with our names listed as her parents. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a cab so we started walking. After a few blocks, our representative decided it would be quickest if we took the bus. Now, we had heard that you shouldn't get on the bus unless you spoke Spanish and our rep confirmed that when she told us not to talk...she would do all the talking and we should just sit and try to blend in!! After about 15 minutes on the bus we got off and were picked up by one of our regular drivers. Apparently he had been busy all morning and was just able to meet up with us. The notaries office wasn't very busy, but it was very slow. We saw two couples get married while we were waiting for our documents if that gives you any idea how long it took. Our last goal of the day was to get Laura's Colombian passport, but we weren't able to get to that office before they closed. That will have to be done on Monday.

Originally, we thought if we got Sentencia today we would get to come home next week. Today we found out that isn't too likely. With the new rules we are adopting under, the process is a little more time consuming to get Laura's visa from the US Embassy. And since we are dealing with a really short week (due to Christmas) it looks like it will be more like 2 weeks before we are able to fly home. It would be great to be done next week, though, so keep praying!

We had a great time celebrating tonight with the Meiers. I'll post more about that tomorrow night...with pictures. We are exhausted from all our hurrying and waiting today and are about to crash. Thanks for all your prayers...they really paid off!

The Many Faces of Laura

Before I get to the sequential pictures of Laura's funny faces, I will say we had a really slow day. We had a very, very, very fussy baby last night who kept Shawn and me up probably half the night. The funny/annoying thing is that after her 5:00am bottle, she slept like a rock until around 9:30. Needless to say, Shawn and I weren't able to fall back asleep! We went back to the mall today to pick up Laura's picture with Santa...it is too cute! (I took a picture of the picture and put it at the end of this post.) We also did a little souvenir shopping and some grocery shopping.

Also, tomorrow is the last day the courts are open until January 12th or 13th...so if we have any hope of getting home next week, we need to have the judge sign our papers tomorrow (preferably in the morning so we have time to get to the courthouse before they close). Please join us in praying the judge is kind and tries to get us done before Christmas. If he (or she) doesn't sign tomorrow, though, we are in good shape for when the courts re-open. We are much further along than we thought we would be at this point in the process.

Now onto Laura's faces. She makes more funny faces than any kid I have ever met! Sometimes Shawn and I just look at each other and laugh! Enjoy...

Laura's First Home

We had the opportunity today to tour the orphanage where Laura spent her first six months of life. We weren't really sure what to expect. People had told us the staff took very good care of the children, but until you actually see it with your own eyes, it is hard to imagine. We arrived with donations for the babies, older children, and mother's home and then were ushered upstairs to where the babies live. There were five babies in the infant room and we spent quite a bit of time talking and playing with each one. We were also shown the room where the baths were given, as well as the isolation room for sick babies and the doctor's office. As we were walking to the older infant area, we saw the staff holding 2 of these children and feeding them their baby food breakfasts. The only other child at the orphanage right now is a little 4 year old boy. I think if we could have taken him home with us too, we would have! The staff all doted on Laura and she seemed to recognize the head caretaker. We think that the babies receive good care and are loved by the women who spend each day with them. This orphanage is getting ready to move to a smaller facility out in the country so we took lots of video since Laura won't be able to return to this exact building if she ever has the desire to see it.

We also had a bittersweet dinner tonight with our friends, the Lee's. They are leaving in the morning to head back to the states. They have really made our time here much more enjoyable and we will really miss them. At the same time, we are so happy that they are able to get back to normal life with their new little girl. Congratulations Lee Family...and Merry Christmas!!

The St. Louis Arch?!?

No, we aren't in St. Louis...we are at quite possibly the biggest craft extravaganza we have ever seen!! We went to the XVIII Expoartesanias today - a local showcase of Colombian arts and crafts. They have it every year in December and it was quite a sight to behold. We walked through 7 large warehouses filled with booths and kiosks. We started out by just looking and making a list of everything we thought we might be interested in. After visiting every vendor, we went backwards through the buildings picking up our treasures. We were able to find seven of Laura's 18 gifts as well as some other doo-dads to bring home to share. It was quite an experience and I'm so glad we were able to go.

Once we got home, Laura took a long nap, woke up on the wrong side of the crib, and has been really fussy ever since. We think she might be getting the other front tooth on the bottom, as she is acting much like she did last week when the first tooth broke through. She has finally fallen alseep again...hopefully for the night! We'll have more pictures tomorrow. Have a great evening!

Shopping, Santa, a Signature, and Singing!

We went to a great new mall today called Hacienda Santa Barabara. Apparently, it used to be a convent and it is now an indoor/outdoor mall with great character. The outdoor part has cobblestone sidewalks, fountains, and large cobblestone steps. We don't recognize any of the stores, but it was a nice place to spend the afternoon.

Also at this mall, Laura was able to get her picture taken with Santa! She did great -- I don't even think she knew she was sitting on Santa's lap. I handed her to Santa facing me so she never saw him or had a chance to be scared. They even let us take a few pictures with our own camera. We have to go back on Thursday for the official picture...but I definitely won't mind another trip to the mall!

When we got back from the mall we had a message to call our representative about our case. When we were able to talk to her she gave us the good news that the first judge has signed/approved our case. If you are new to the process, check out this post. Hopefully the Defender of Minors will sign this week and we will be half way done!!

This evening our hotel had a party for a family who just received their new son. We had cake, coke, and a live band providing the entertainment. The music was great and all the kids were dancing and singing. Too bad Laura slept through the whole thing! We brought back the hat and poncho that we were all wearing to get a picture of her in it when she woke up...too cute!!

Sleepy Sunday

We went to our English-speaking church again today. This time we went with a new American family that checked into our hotel this week. It was a very nice time and we sang lots of Christmas carols. I don't really know how the pastor is because after the singing I always have to go to the nursery with Laura. She thinks when the singing stops that we all want to hear her voice!! After church, the three of us took naps since it was raining outside. A little bit later our new friends knocked on our door to tell us the sun had come out and they were going to an open-air market several blocks away. We decided to go with them. It was a nice walk and we were able to find a few things to buy at the market. We have decided to get Laura 18 little presents from Colombia to give her on December 1st (the day she joined our family)each year. We got started on that shopping today. We had helpy-selfy dinner tonight...hot dogs and mac-n-cheese!! It was delicious. We followed that with a Snickers for dessert. Very healthy, I know:) We didn't take many pictures today. We'll try to do better tomorrow. Hope you all had a nice weekend!!

Laura Sits Up!!

Today was an exciting day. Not only did we have great tummy-time practice...Laura sat up on her own today!! She is still a little wobbly, but she can sit unassisted for several minutes. She likes the new freedom this gives her as she is now able to play with bigger toys that have more fun things on them! Other than that, we don't have much to report about today. So, I thought I would take this opportunity to explain why we are in Colombia so long for the adoption process.

Colombia is a country that doesn't start the adoption process until the adoptive parents get to the country. Once you receive the child, you have an interview with the Defender of Minors. This person is like a social services representative. That interview is what gets the judicial process rolling. Each family is assigned to a court...some are slow, some are fast, and some just are normal. We have learned we didn't pull a fast court, but we don't know anything else at this point. In this first court, the judge has to review your file and approve it. Sometimes he (or she) asks questions of your lawyer before he does this approval. By law, the judge has 10 business days in which to sign. Next, the file is presented again to the Defender of Minors for approval. This time they have 5 days to sign. The case now enters a second court (but it is really the same as the first court). At this point, the judge again reviews the case (having 10 business days) and issues the final decree, called Sentencia. This is a very exciting day for adoptive families because it means the child is finally legally part of their family. After Sentencia is signed, it goes back to the Defender of Minors where they have 5 days to sign. Usually the Defender of Minors signs the Sentencia the same day the judge signs. After Sentencia, things get pretty busy. The following 3-4 days are filled with trips to the notary, a visit with the US Embassy doctor, and several visits to the US Embassy for passports and visas for the child. Once all that is done, it is time to come home!!

I say all that to say this...we have had our interview with the Defender of Minors and we think we are still waiting on the first judge to review and sign our file. It has potentially been 7 business days since the judge got our papers, so hopefully we will hear something this week. Even if we don't get Sentencia before Christmas, it would be nice to at least get through the 1st court. That would mean we only have about 2-3 weeks left after Christmas judges break. Hope this all makes sense...and enjoy the pictures!!

Coffee anyone?

Today we were invited to go to the Coloma Coffee Plantation with our American friends as well as an American father and daughter (who was adopted from Colombia 20 years ago). It was about a 3 hour ride (but it was probably only 80-90 miles out of the city)...the traffic was horrible and it took forever to get out to the countryside. Once we got to the mountains, though, I was shocked at how lush and beautiful the countryside was. It was like a night and day difference from what we see everyday. We drove through many little villages selling everything from candy to pig carcasses! We stopped at a little roadside restaurant for a potty break and to get some snacks. It was almost time for Laura's bottle so we asked them to heat it up for us. Instead of heating it up, they dumped out the water, washed the bottle, and gave it back to us empty!! It took a lot of help from other Spanish speakers to help them understand what they did wrong and what we actually needed them to do! When we finally got to the plantation, I was amazed at all the vegetation. I expected it to look like a vineyard but the coffee trees grow among orchids, lime trees, and a whole bunch of tropical flowers that I don't know the names of. We had a great guide who told us all about coffee - from planting it as a seed to bagging it for resale. Coffee beans start out green and once they are red the are ready to be picked. The picking is all done manually...talk about hard work! We got a tour of all the machinery that is used to separate the bean from the shell, to dry out the bean, to size select the beans for the best taste, to roast the bean, and then to bag it. We also had a coffee tasting. Shawn only likes his coffee with milk and sugar and I don't really like coffee at all, but it was neat tasting coffee that was grown in the area we just walked through. We bought a couple bags to bring home. Our drive home was a little faster and Laura was able to sleep through some of it. We were very glad to get back to our hotel for dinner though...we had been gone almost 8 hours and had only had some bread for a snack around 2:00. Fortunately, tonight was spaghetti night at the hotel so we were both able to eat pretty well. Laura was an absolute angel the whole day. She hardly fussed at all and when she did it was just because she needed some food or a bottle. If she stays this easy when we are out and about our life with a baby is going to be a breeze!!