Feb 10 2010 Bogota -- Visit with Hugo and Leidy, Divercity!

We had a wonderful visit today with Hugo and Leidy, who came to our hotel to see all of us. Overall the day went better than we ever could have hoped. We had been prepared for a lot of sadness, but as it turned out, all the kids seemed happy to be together, and there wasn't the sense of devastation that we saw in November when the three girls were crying about being separated. In fact, no tears were shed the whole time!

When Hugo and Leidy arrived, the girls were playing on our computers, so they all played on the computers for a while before lunch and then spent some time outside playing on the swing set and on the patio. Then, we all had a really nice lunch together with our representative Manuela and their psychologist Natalia who came with them. The kind people of Zuetana went all out with a lovely lunch of lasagne and fruit salad, followed by an amazing typical dessert spread! The kids were all totally psyched (as were we) for the variety of "postres" (desserts).







After lunch, we had a bit of Christmas in February. Our girls gave Hugo and Leidy the presents we brought for them from the States. We discovered about 20 candy canes in the bottom of the bag -- apparently they raided the Christmas tree for some extra loot! Hugo and Leidy seemed to love their gifts, and our girls seemed so proud and happy to give them the different presents.







After present time, they went back to our room and Leidy wanted to try out Fer's skates. She is a skater, and whizzed around the patios and back and forth! Then Wendy decided to try on her skates as well to show them what she has learned.







Soon after that, it was time for Hugo and Leidy and Natalia to go back to San Mauricio. We sat with all four of them for a bit before Hugo and Leidy left and reconfirmed the plans to keep them connected (that they can call and write, and that they will see each other again) and they all seemed comfortable. So, we are feeling really grateful because it could have been extremely wrenching and it ended up just feeling like a really good visit. We are so grateful to the team at San Mauricio for working with Hugo and Leydi about accepting Wendy and Fer's adoption, and we also think our girls are much more attached to us and accustomed to the idea of their new life. So, from both sides it seemed there was more of an ability to see each other and enjoy it without (at least as far as we could tell) feeling traumatized by the separation. Of course, tomorrow is another day, but today went really well, so for that we are so thankful.

After Hugo and Leidy left, we asked the girls what they wanted to do. We had been prepared that they might be really upset, but they were just talking about going to the park, maybe going skating, so we decided to suggest going to Divercity. They really liked that idea, so we hopped in Manuela's car and she very kindly drove us there. Divercity is like nothing we've ever seen in the States. It's like a reduced-size city, with everything child size, and stores and offices and shops where the kids can go in and try out a version of the work in whatever place it is. We got some great pics, but they don't really do it justice. Here's a taste of Divercity!

This is Chris waiting outside one of the shops as the ambulance comes by, the girls getting their Divi-money to get started, and in the grocery store:







Pics of the girls trying out being dentists, newspaper writers, and outside the vet's office. Creepiest item in Divercity: the fake patient in the dentist's office. Apparently he has removable teeth! The girls assured us they used a tool to remove them and put them back, like that makes it all better. After seeing that we were wondering if the dogs in the vet's office were fake too, but no. Heedless of any possibility of lawsuits, bites or allergies, the dogs were abundantly real!







After getting their faces painted, they decided to play at being firefighters. This was the most dramatic opportunity, complete with fire-truck, a fake fire (but with real flames) and real water from a hose to put it out. Wendy then finished her day at the baby-care office, getting to bathe and take care of her baby before taking him for a walk.










We left around 7:30 and came back to Zuetana -- the girls were pretty tired. So we went over to Frisby's for a late dinner, they played for a bit on the play equipment there, and then we came home for Kitty and bed!

One more court update: apparently the defensor signing our case is not enough -- she also has to send a report. Sentencia will be issued once that report is received. So, we wait for the report and are still hoping we get sentencia by the end of the week.