Here in Bogota!

I arrived in Bogota this afternoon -- totally easy flight, if your definition of easy includes waking up at 3:45 a.m. to get to the airport! But the flight left on time at 7 a.m. and arrived 45 minutes early at 12:15 p.m., I cleared immigration with no problem and not too long of a wait, my bag was coming out on the carousel as I walked into baggage claim, and our wonderful representative Manuela was right there to meet me when I came out of the airport. There was a last minute change to my hotel plans so I think she wanted to be sure I was well situated which is so nice. The new hotel is not quite as nice as the other, but it's still fine and the staff are lovely. Right now there's just a German couple with their adorable new 1 year old son, and me, so I have pretty much had the run of the place! Tomorrow I think 2 other adopting families will arrive, one German and one Swedish. The hotel also has a free phone line to the States so I was able to call Chris and my parents to check in.

And tomorrow I go to pick up the girls! I'm sooo excited to see them. I brought lots of fun and educational stuff for us to do (as Chris asked me when he saw my well-stuffed bags, "are you planning to open a school?") and there is a park and gym with a swimming pool nearby so I think we will be well occupied. This visit I think we will try to be a little more low-key as far as spending time just exploring the neighborhood and also trying to do some academic stuff every day. We are trying to guard against the kids thinking that adoption means presents every day and party all the time! I don't know how successful we were with that goal this past summer since we had so many activities and everyone we saw was so generous, but hopefully as we transition with this visit and then their visit to us for the holidays we can start to be more realistic about daily life.

I have my computer with me this time so I'll be able to post some updates, hopefully . . . check back if you want to keep up with how it's going!