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!