A slow day in Colombia...

We didn't do a whole lot today. We were supposed to have a meeting with the orphanage director this morning but it was postponed. Shawn and I are both fighting some sort of cold, but Laura is doing a lot better. We made a quick trip to the mall and had some ice cream. Fortunately, we decided to take a cab home since the weather changed very suddenly and we had quite a storm. We also got a visit from the American family we met the other day. It looks like we will be able to do quite a bit with them in the upcoming weeks. This picture was taken this morning...the hat cracked us up!! The rest of the pictures are just some of our favorites from the day...enjoy!!

Exploring our neighborhood

After yesterday and never leaving the room, we decided that today we would do some exploring. Before we got ready to go, we decided it would be good to see how Laura did in her stroller. As you can tell, she took to it like a fish to water. Before we left we needed to give Laura some fruit. We are really trying to follow the orphanage schedule for now and at 10:00 Laura gets fruit. Yesterday I tried to give her banana baby food from the US but she would have none of it. Today I just smashed up a banana and Shawn fed it to her. It takes about 3 times to get it to stay in her mouth but then she seems to really enjoy it. We finally got everyone ready and hit the street. As we were leaving, we had another family staying here take our picture outside of our hotel. Everything is very secure here at our hotel and we feel very safe both inside the gates of our hotel as well as in the surrounding neighborhood. Our plan was to stop by the bank and go to the grocery store. I have been craving American food...I even got a Pizza Hut pizza last night for dinner. We decided it would be nice to have some comfort food in the room when we are needing a pick-me-up...oreos, pringles, microwave popcorn, and Heinz ketchup (in a plastic type bag)!! We also found a really cool store selling lots of Colombian stuff. We will take another trip there to buy some things to bring home. After our walk it was time for some lunch and playtime with daddy...as you can tell she loves spending time playing! We also were able to meet another American family that is staying at a hotel nearby. The husband stopped by to say hi and introduce himself. It looks like we are going to go out with them on Saturday night to dinner and some sort of horse show...I don't really even know what that could be, but time with another American family will be nice! We had plans to go to the park after Laura's afternoon nap, but the weather looked a little iffy, so we decided to stay closer to the hotel. We just walked a few blocks to check out a Mexican place we might try for dinner one night and we were also able to find another shopping district. It probably seems funny to see me in short sleeves and Laura all bundled up with a blanket. The people here in Colombia think that they have cold weather...even though it is close to 70 during the day. They frown upon kids not being kept warm. We even saw a baby today with a hat, gloves, and winter coat on...and I was sweating in my short sleeves!! We ended the day with a little tummy-time practice. This is something we don't think Laura got before she came to us. She is making improvements already but we have started putting something soft under her head for when her head crashes to the floor...which it does every 15 seconds or so!! So far, we are really enjoying being parents. She has a very sweet personality and when she smiles she lights up the room. She sleeps like a dream...3 naps during the day and about 8-10 hours at night. We couldn't ask for a better baby. Her cold is getting better and the medicine seems to be helping...she especially likes when we come at her with the nasal syringe!! We haven't heard anything about how the judicial process is going. We have another meeting tomorrow with the orphanage director so she can see how we are all adjusting to each other...maybe we will find out more then. Thanks for all your love and support!!

We decided to post a few more pictures before we call it a night with the internet. This is Laura playing before she fell asleep for her nap this afternoon. It has been hard to catch a picture of her smiling...this is about as good as it gets today! She isn't feeling well and has been pretty fussy. But we've worked together to try to keep her somewhat happy. We also had a really nice time in the bath tonight. After we got her dried off and in her jammies...she was the calmest we had seen all day. We are doing bath time everyday!! Laura's favorite thing to do is suck on her fingers. The doctor that came by today to check on her cold told us that it would be good if we could get her to switch from her fingers to a pacifer...but so far she will have none of that!! Putting a pacifer in her mouth just makes her want a bottle, I think. Thanks so much for all your wonderful comments...we have loved reading everyone of them. I have cried several time while reading them out-loud to Shawn:) We appreciate all you prayer, encouragement, and support. We can't wait to get home so you can all meet Laura in person!

Day two with Laura ... and a hippo

Well, it's our second day with Laura and things are going well. She's still recovering from a little conjestion, but she seems to be doing better. We gave her some medicine through an inhaler and a hippo. Yea, a hippo. We use a typical inhaler and connect it to this plastic contraption shaped like a hippo's mouth. The hippos mouth goes over Laura's face so that she breaths in all of the medicine. I can't make this stuff up. There is a whole new world with raising kids that is pretty fascinating. Anyway, Laura seemed to do pretty well with it considering that we were pressing something to her face. She gets a little fussy here and there but she's a lot of fun. Her cry isn't that bad either. It's not like one of those gutwrenching hold your ears kind of cries. It almost has a song-like tone. Not what I was expecting. Anyway, here is a quick shot of Stephanie and Laura waiting for an interview with a Colombian social worker. It went well. Laura was probably the fussiest during the interview -- which really wasn't so bad. A crying baby has a way of wrapping up a potentially long interview in a hurry. We answered a couple questions, signed some papers and were out of there. The bad part was that we left our passports there, and I had to go back to get them. Stephanie and Laura stayed at the hotel while I also wrapped up some visa issues with our agency representative. The whole process is going really smooth so far. Keep praying that the fast pace will continue. We'll try to check back with another photo later.