Bogota Visit November 27

We had a very productive meeting this morning with our representative Manuela. She is incredibly organized and efficient and has been wonderfully helpful with all our arrangements for both visits and also as we look forward to returning in January. We have been given permission to extend Wendy and Fer's holiday visit by a week! Then, we will return to Colombia with them and keep them with us until the legal process starts, so they will not return to San Mauricio after they leave for the States next weekend. Everyone we met with at ICBF was in agreement that it could be very hard on them to transition to being with us and then go back to the fundacion for only a week and then come to us again, so we are very glad it all worked out.

Gigi and Grandad sent the girls an Advent calendar, which I'm pretty sure they have not seen before. At first they were kind of non-plussed but after we explained, they wanted to start opening the windows. They each did one, and they were so amazed at the picture inside ("ooooooh!!")
Wendy was very interested in the paper before we headed out in the late morning for a visit to the planetarium and then lunch.

At the planetarium, we saw the space show, and then went to lunch at "La Casa Vieja," a restaurant with typical Colombian food. We enjoyed empanadas (meat turnovers), chicharrones (fried pork), bandeja paisa (a mix of meat, rice, beans and fried egg), and aijaco de pollo (chicken stew) -- all delicious!! The girls really had a good time.

After returning to the hotel, we had some down time, and then it was off to Fitness Infantil for a gymnastics class. We have become huge fans of Fitness Infantil, and we are hoping to sign the girls up for the day camp there for the last 3 weeks of January -- they would have the chance to do a mix of swimming, dance, karate, roller skating and arts and crafts for several hours each day. We think it would be great for them to have some structured activity with other kids rather than hang around the hotel all day with just us to entertain them.

Tomorrow Wendy and Fer will have one last swim lesson, and then we will take them along with Hugo and Leydi out for lunch and time at a park with a petting zoo and rides. Then we will take all four back to the fundacion and come back to the hotel to pack and get ready for our night flight. It has been a great visit, and we are looking forward to seeing the girls again very soon!

Bogota Visit November 26

We visited the fundacion this morning, as Chris had never been there. We met with Angela, the girls' social worker, and also with their teachers. They both passed to the next grade, and the celebration will be next week!


Chris and I brought gifts for their siblings Hugo and Leydi -- photo books from my visit in October and new sweatshirts. They were happy with the presents!

After the visit, we went to a Thanksgiving dinner at our hotel with some other American families.

Then, after some down time at the hotel, time for swimming!

We have a lot to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

Bogota Visit November 25

Our day in pictures!

Bogota Visit November 24

The girls slept until 7 this morning, which was great as I definitely have a cold and it was so nice to have the rest. We started our day today with coloring and hangout time in the room, then went down for some breakfast. The girls are certainly good eaters -- cereal, eggs, toast for both! Afterwards, we came back to the room and they did some pages in one of the workbooks that I brought for them.

Then we went downstairs for some playtime -- the girls love spending time with Mateo and with Juan Pablo, another little boy who is here with his adoptive family from Sweden.

We then ventured out to go to a local pool (there's a kind of kids' gym nearby that has a pool and gym and karate classes) but got lost on the way as the street numbers were a bit confusing with new and old numbers on many buildings. We found it (actually, Fer did!) when we were retracing our steps but as we walked in, the receptionist handed me the phone. Manuela had tracked us down with an urgent message that we needed to go immediately to get visa pictures taken for the girls' December visit. By the time we finished with that (and the girls were very patient waiting!) the gym was about to close for lunch. So we went back with the driver Julian (who is incredibly nice -- great with the girls and so friendly and kind) just to understand better how it all works and signed the girls up for a late afternoon lesson. We went back to the hotel for lunch and then after more playtime, finally it was pool time!

After the pool we came back for dinner and a bit more playtime downstairs but the girls were really tired, so we came upstairs to get ready for bed. One very nice cuddly moment: after being somewhat standoffish on and off today, Fer climbed into my lap to hear the first book (Clifford) and when I started the second (Corduroy), Wendy joined her! So I ended the day snuggling my girls. :)

Tomorrow Chris arrives! I'm really looking forward to seeing him and sharing all this with him. The girls are nervous, I think, as they haven't seen him since August. Manuela is going to come with Julian to take us to the airport, which will be really nice as they love her and she can help animate and reassure them.

Bogota Visit #2 -- November 23

First day with the girls! I woke up early and changed rooms at the hotel to a much nicer rooom -- bigger, with a huge window and a queen bed and a smaller bed for the girls to share. I also unpacked some of the toys and activities and workbooks that I brought with me -- some of which are new and some of which are familiar from the summer and October.

After breakfast, I got to San Mauricio around 9:45 and went to find the girls in their classrooms -- it was so exciting to see them both again!! Apparently school is officially over, but there is some sort of make-up week going on. This is great because we will be able to meet with their teachers to get a sense of their academic level when Chris comes on Wednesday and we go back to visit the fundacion. We had to wait awhile after I found them because the person who was going to pack up their things and get them ready was in a meeting, but the wait turned out OK because I got to spend some time with their psychologist Natalia and hear how they have been doing since my visit in October. Overall she says things have been going very well and they are very happy about the adoption, but it is also hard for them to face the separation from their siblings, which is totally understandable.

We got back to the hotel around 12:30 and had some time to unpack and explore the new goodies in the room before heading out for lunch to the local chicken place. After lunch we relaxed at the hotel -- we played some cards, the girls colored and did some workbook pages and played in the hotel's quite well-stocked playroom, and we went to a local park for some outside time before dinner. At dinner they had a great time interacting with Mateo, the little boy being adopted by the German couple at the hotel.

After dinner we came upstairs for showers and getting ready for bed, and then they spent a little more time downstairs in the playroom and playing with Mateo before coming back to relax with Kitty. They were both asleep by 8:15, yay!!

Overall it was a really good day -- they seeemed really happy to see me and comfortable coming back to the hotel and being with me here. Tomorrow we are going swimming in the morning and then in the afternoon we will go to a local science museum which has a planetarium and a special show for kids. Should be fun! I'll try to post again tomorrow night.

Bogota November 23 pictures

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!

REGIONAL APPROVAL! Yes!!

We've been really excited and really busy -- we heard last Thursday that we were finally approved by the ICBF Regional Committee! The one week that we are not really thinking about it because we just thought it would definitely be at least one week more, it happens! So our official referral to adopt the girls has been issued, and we should receive the translation of the referral letter within the next week. We also have more forms to fill out to get all the immigration approvals we will need. Hopefully everything will be approved in time so we can begin the adoption process when the Colombian courts re-open in January.

Amidst all this, we are also getting ready to go to Colombia for Thanksgiving week -- I will be there for a week and Chris for 4 days. We will be staying at Zuetana, an adoption hotel that I visited when I was in Bogota in October.

AND, the girls are coming for the holidays! We received permission for them to visit from early December to early January, and it may be that they can just stay on with us and we all travel back together to begin the adoption process. We should find out in the next week or so if that will be possible.

So, it's all happening! We are very excited, a bit nervous too, and have lots of hopes and plans for the time ahead.