Columbus Day Weekend Pictures: Saturday afternoon

After visiting San Mauricio, we took Wendy and Fernanda and their siblings Hugo and Leidy to lunch at an outdoor restaurant, and then to the Salt Cathedral in Zipaquira. The restaurant had a playground so the children had a chance to play outdoors while waiting for lunch. As you will see, the Salt Cathedral is all underground -- carved into an old salt mine.

Columbus Day Weekend Pictures: Saturday morning

We visited San Mauricio on Saturday morning, and were given a tour by the girls' social worker and one of the psychologists.

Bogota Visit; Dossier Update

Big news: I'm going to Bogota on Friday to see the girls! :) :)

We have Monday off for Columbus Day, and I received permission from the girls' defender to visit them. Chris can't make it, so my sister Christine is going to join me. We will arrive in Bogota Friday evening, go to the fundacion on Saturday morning to visit and then take the girls with us for an overnight and bring them back on Sunday. I can't wait to see them! Chris and I spent yesterday morning getting some different treats and activities for them -- new coloring/activity books & colored pencils, some card games, cute new pajamas (couldn't resist at Costco!). I also went through the children's books we have and picked out some new ones to bring as well as some old favorites from the summer. I was a bit verklempt organizing it all last night -- it brought back some wonderful memories.

Our agency's representative, Manuela, has been fabulous in arranging everything for our visit. She is going to meet us at the airpot and has also planned some fun day trips for us to do with the girls. On Saturday, after we visit the fundacion, we are going to see the Salt Cathedral, a cathedral carved into the side of a mountain in an old salt mine. On Sunday, weather permitting, we will go to Monserrate, a mountain near Bogota that has a cable car to the top. Afterwards on Sunday we're going to tour the colonial city and visit the Museo del Oro, the most famous museum in Bogota.

We are staying at Betty's Place, a guesthouse that caters to adoptive families. Some of the Kidsave families that we know have stayed there when they travelled to visit or adopt. It sounds very down to earth and welcoming.

And, update on our dossier! We have been told that the Regional committee will consider it this Wednesday, October 7. If they approve us at that meeting, then a referral should be issued by next Tuesday (Colombia observes Columbus Day too so Monday is a holiday) and hopefully translated and sent to our agency within the following week so we can get started on the immigration paperwork which is the last step. We are still hoping to travel to adopt in November but we are cutting it close . . . so keep those prayers coming!

The Power of Prayer :)

Well, that's one explanation, anyway. After sending an email out to family and friends updating them about our plans, and asking for prayers for a smooth and swift process (as well as requesting those same prayers in my last post here) we learned yesterday that our dossier has been approved by ICBF National! This is huge. They processed it in a week!! We were expecting closer to a 6 week wait for this first part of the process.

The next step now is the ICBF Regional office reviewing our dossier and the girls' paperwork, and issuing the official referral. While we don't want to get our hopes up too much, our agency's representative thinks this could happen by the end of September, which would put us on the right track time-wise to travel in November! So please keep the prayers coming -- they're clearly working!

And if we do end up travelling in November, we realized last night that we have about 6 weeks to prepare ourselves. Some of the needs that occurred to us this morning (in no particular order) are: winter clothes, a school, a pediatrician and assorted other helping professionals . . . we have lots to think about, research and organize! But it's a wonderful "problem" to have. If the girls could be home by Christmas it would be the best present ever.

Letter of Intent Approved, Dossier Filed!

Yesterday and today have been big -- we heard yesterday afternoon that our letter of intent was approved, and we received confirmation today that our dossier has also been filed with ICBF! We are really pleased to be this far along in the process. We are still hoping that we might be able to travel to adopt in November, but we are prepared for the more likely scenario that we will be travelling in January/February (the courts close from mid-December to mid-January, so travel must be planned around that). It could even be later, depending on whether ICBF requests any more information as they consider our dossier. But at least we've done what we can to move the process along as much as possible. Now it's in ICBF's hands. For the praying among you, please pray that things will more along speedily and efficiently (words not usually associated with international adoption, but we're hopeful anyway.)


We were able to talk to the girls again on Monday -- we called as we were driving back from Tivoli. They are still very shy on the phone and mainly have one-word answers to any questions. Though I did get a little more out of Wendy this time -- I was telling her that Happy (Feliz) was in the front with me because he always wants to ride on my lap, etc. She answered, "Donde esta Suertudo?" ("Where's Lucky?") I explained that he was sleeping in the back, as usual! Overall, the dogs have been great in helping keep our spirits up, not that they know that's what they're doing. It was wonderful to be the six of us this summer, and we hope it will be that way again soon.

Email Received, Package Sent, Dossier Translated!

We received our first email from the girls today -- their psychologist Camila read our email with them and they wrote us back together. They wrote that they are doing well in school and that they miss us and hope we can talk soon. We miss them too! We're hoping to call them again tomorrow.

We also drove to Jackson Heights in Queens which has a large Colombian population to look for a travel agency that sends packages to Colombia. We found one, and sent our first package to them with books and some other little treats we thought they would enjoy. We also found a birthday card that plays music when you open it for Fer, and a card for Wendy with a cute picture of dogs on the front. She loves dogs and one of her favorite activities was to "consentir a Feliz" (pet our dog Happy). Both girls actually told us when they were here that when they grow up they would like to be veterinary nurses or doctors so that they could "consentir" the animals.

Finally, great news about our dossier! We heard from our agency on Friday that it has been translated and registered! This is big news because this step can take awhile but our agency's representative in Bogota is clearly on her game and working hard to have our paperwork ready to submit in a little over two weeks since she received it. We were very pleased to hear this, as you can imagine! The next step is to confirm with ICBF that our Letter of Intent is approved and that we can officially submit our dossier. Hopefully we will be able to do this early in the coming week.

Happy Birthday to Fer!

We were able to call the orphanage this evening and speak to both girls and wish Fernanda a happy birthday! They are both very shy on the phone and pretty much stick to one-word answers. However, it was wonderful to hear their voices again after almost four weeks and to be able to assure them that we now can be in touch with them frequently.

We were also very lucky that their psychologist came to the phone to speak with us after we talked to them. She was very gracious in expressing gratitude that we called, in taking time to advise us about best times to call in the future (apparently calling in the early evening is not optimal because the buses stop running and certain staff need to be on their way home), and, best of all, in giving us her personal email address so we can send emails to the girls. She also told us that she would be giving Fer a cake and a present to help celebrate her birthday.

Happy 10th birthday Fer! We miss you!!