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.