Finally...Posting from Home!!

We made it!! We're home! And how nice to be here. We arrived at our house on Saturday, September 4th, at about 8:45 p.m. After being awake for nearly 36 hours with only dozing on the planes and a 3-hour nap during our layover, we were so happy to get home to our nice, comfy beds. The bumpy landing in LA, combined with being very tired, challenged our tummies to maintain!! It's nice to be back on the ground.

We've been home for about a week now, and I think we are starting to get ourselves figured out a little bit. Geof is working part days so he can be home more. He will ease back into full-time soon. It's so nice to have him around while we are trying to get used to a new normal. Our new normal includes using google translate to communicate important ideas and instructions. But when Geof is around he's our translator! Our goal right now is to help Yamile learn English, and we accomplish that in many different ways. We say as much as we can in both English and Spanish. She watches a show that teaches language, and we read bilingual books to her. Of course, total immersion helps! And there are lots of little girls that want to come over and play with her, so we are trying to include playdates as often as we can. Yesterday, Emma came over for a rousing game of Uno, and today Kate is here for some of the same.

Considering all the huge, life-altering changes Yamile has just been through, and is still going through, she has been a real trooper. It's not easy to change ALL that is familiar to you and still have a huge smile on your face, but somehow she is managing to do that most of the time. She is an amazing girl, and we love her!!

Thank you so much to all of you who have read our blog and cared about our story. Your prayers, posts, and encouragements have been a huge blessing. We look forward with eagerness to this new chapter in our lives. Our love to you all....Geof, Lenna, Annalisa, Rebecca, and Yamile!

Update on French Family

I wanted to update everyone about the French family's baby which I told you about earlier. The baby is still in the hospital and there is a chance he will lose both his feet and parts of his fingers. He had something that I think is called "purpurea" which interfered with the blood supply to his feet and hands. At first they expected him to lose his hands entirely, but they have managed to save them all the way down to most of the fingers. They are hoping to save his feet as well, but right now it doesn't look all that promising. He is out of a coma now (I believe they induced the coma), but he is still on a respirator.

It looks like the French embassy is working with the family to bring a French doctor here to Bogota. The hope is that they can stabilize the baby well enough to get him home to France. I think the doctor will travel with him. If they can, they will travel in about a week. Again, thank you for your prayers for this family.

Last Blog from Colombia

Well folks, all our bags are packed and we're ready to go. Amazingly, we won't need any additional suitcases for the trip home - 6 suitcases and 6 carry-ons is enough, I think!

Today we went to lunch with Martha and helped her out by donating a scanner/printer so she can more effectively continue to help adoptive families. We also needed to pick up Yamile's passport with her visa at the U.S. Embassy. We were told to be there at 3:30. We ended up getting there at about 3:40 and the place looked kind of deserted. We came to the main entrance and had to knock on the window to get someone's attention. They let us in and then we went to the window where we'd applied for the visa yesterday. There was no one at any of the windows and we had to keep banging on the bullet-proof glass to get someone's attention. The man who assisted us already had all of Yamile's information ready. He handed it over to us and we were done in about 5 minutes. What a relief! We were starting to sweat it out a bit, thinking we'd arrived too late.

We leave the hotel at 10 PM tonight (8 PM Pacific Time) so we can be at the airport three hours before our flight. This should allow time in case there are any unforeseen delays at the airport (and, with Bogota's traffic, you never know how much time you'll need to get there). We board the plane for our 7-hour voyage at 1:35 AM and we'll be at LAX at 6:30 AM Pacific Time. We look forward to seeing Gus and Melissa Pidal and their boys during our lengthy layover in L.A.

See y'all soon!

Go Zags

I forgot to post something from last Sunday (August 29th) that I didn't want to forget, especially for Mike, Jill, and other interested parties. When we went to the soccer game and were waiting for tickets, I saw someone walking toward the stadium with a red Gonzaga sweatshirt! Judging solely by this guy's outward appearance, my guess is that he had no clue what (or who) Gonzaga was. I thought immediately of the Zag fans back home. Go Zags!

We're Coming Home

Today's whirlwind just kept on going after we arrived back at the hotel. I interrupted my lunch to call our U.S. travel agent and see if we could rearrange our travel plans to return on September 4th or 5th. He emailed me back soon after and said that, because we were adopting, we could change our flight plans on Avianca (the Colombian airline flying from Bogota to LAX) with no fee for the change. To do it, however, we had to go to an Avianca office here in Bogota.

We called Martha and she directed us to an Avianca office located in the mall that is a 10-minute walk from our hotel. Martha offered to serve as a translator over the phone if we needed her help. We walked into the Avianca office and almost immediately it was our turn at the window. I feel sorry for the poor gal who helped us because my Spanish sounds like a three-year old trying to talk - tenses are wrong; nouns, adjectives, and verbs are all used incorrectly; vocabulary is limited. Fortunately, she understood what I was trying to get across - we wanted to leave on September 4th rather than September 9th.

Unfortunately, we ran into a sticky problem - Avianca had seats to offer us, but our flight from LAX to Reno did not (that flight was on Alaska Airlines, not Avianca). To top it off, they could only make the change with no fee if the new flight had seats available that were the same "class" as ours, and they only had three seats in the same class (we needed five). While the agent spent a lot of time on the phone, we were trying to plan how we would do this. Maybe three of us could go on the 4th with the other two following on the 5th. Maybe we'd have to stay until the 9th. Maybe we'd just fly to LA and try to figure out how to get home from there. We didn't much like any of the alternatves.

After a long while, the agent said they found a flight from LAX to Reno that had seats for us in the same class. It would mean a 12-hour layover in LAX, but they could make the change for us. Alaska Airlines would charge us for the change, but it was still much less than five more nights in Bogota. The agent made the arrangements for us and we will be on our way home on the 4th, arriving in Reno at 7:15 PM.

As to what happened to allow the five of us to change our Avianca flights (even though there were only three available seats in the same class) I do not know. But I think that the long phone call by the agent may have had something to do with it. I didn't get her name, but I am so thankful for her patience and her help in dealing with us. Once again, the Lord has blessed us and we are praising Him.

Tonight I told Yamile we were traveling at 1:30 AM on the 4th (meaning we're leaving the hotel at 10 PM tomorrow night). She was very excited to hear the news, flashed her heart-warming smile, and gave me a big hug. Even twelve hours in LAX did not dim her spirits. We're coming home.

God is Amazing and Awesome!

God is definitely amazing, awesome, and sovereign. Thanks to God's sovereign hand (and the prayers of the saints), he used our adoption coordinator (Martha) to get everything completed today and we're working on coming home this weekend.

Today we embarked on a task that seemed virtually impossible - obtaining all the paperwork we needed and arriving at the US Embassy by 11:30 AM, in time to apply for a visa. We were supposed to receive (via courier service) new birth certificates for Yamile yesterday and begin the final paperwork process so we could apply for the visa today. It turns out that there was an error in the mailing address so the papers were not delivered like they should have been. This left us distraught, because if we didn't apply for the visa today, we would not be able to travel until next Tuesday evening at the earliest. At this point, however, Martha began working the phones and doing all she could to help us.

Last night she sent a driver across Bogota (think of sending a driver across Los Angeles or New York City) to pick up the birth certificates at the courier's office. She also spent much of the day yesterday making phone calls to set up arrangements for today.

The first item on our agenda was to obtain a new Colombian identification card for Yamile. We needed that to be able to get a new passport for her. The ID card office opened at 8 AM, but Martha arranged for someone to stand in line on our behalf. Martha and our driver for the day (Miguel) arrived at the hotel at 7:25 and we were off to the ID card office. (Martha also arranged for the driver to wait for us throughout the day, so we would not have to flag down a taxi every time we completed a task.) At the ID card office, our "place holder" was third in line. The office opened at 8 AM at the public servant arrived at his station at about 8:10 or so. Like I said, we were third in line, but Martha knew that every minute would count. She quietly spoke to the two mothers in front of us and they allowed us to move ahead of them in line. What a blessing to start the day. We were done by 8:20 and on our way to our next stop.

Miguel took us to the passport office next (or at least took us close - we had to jump out of the cab, run across the street between the cars in rush-hour traffic, and run into the office). Martha led us quickly into a store where Yamile's passport photo could be taken. After the snapshot, Lenna waited in the store while Martha took me and Yamile into the actual passport office, giving Lenna instructions to come in as soon as she had the photos and tell the guards she was there for adoption and they would let her in. Martha wisked Yamile and me around the passport office from one station to the next, taking care of everything. She briefly stopped a woman and spoke with her. It turns out this woman was the director of the office and Martha explained the situation. Martha told me that as soon as we paid the passport fee, we would be expedited to the front of the line. At this time, Lenna arrived with the photos, after being asked something by the guard on the way in. I don't know if she knows what she was asked, but somehow she was able to enter. Martha paid the fee, Yamile and Lenna accompanied her to the window and, not long after, we had Yamile's new Colombian passport (with her new name!).

The next step in the process was for Yamile to be seen by a physician to make sure she was healthy enough to enter the U.S. Of course, this meant driving to some other area of the city. This doctor usually will not see children in the morning for these physicals after 9 AM. Martha had called previously and spoken with the doctor and he said he would see Yamile as long as she arrived by 9:30. At precisely 9:28 we showed up at the receptionist desk in the doctor's office! (Can you imagine the fix we would have been in if we hadn't had someone standing in line for us, if the two women had not let us go first, if Martha had not expedited the passport procedure? We would have been unable to proceed any further and our day would be done.) The doctor reviewed the vaccination and medical records and we chatted with him a bit (all the time knowing that the clock was ticking on us). After a brief examination and conversation with Yamile, he had some more items to let us know. Finally, he approved everything and we were out of his office by 10 AM.

Now, we had to get to the ICBF office to pick up more paperwork. Every time we got back in the car, Martha immediately began collecting and organizing all the documents we would need for our next stop. (And I am so glad for Lenna's organizational skills that made sure we had every document we needed! She has kept everything so well organized and complete from the beginning, and it has been a tremendous blessing throughout the one-year adoption process.) At ICBF, Martha led us into one office, where she talked to some people and got the paperwork she needed. Once we were done there, we had to run (and I literally mean "run") to another office in the same building. This office did not appear to be heavily staffed and Martha began asking for the paperwork we needed. Martha actually looked around the office a bit and found the paperwork she was looking for. We were introduced to several people who had helped Yamile at ICBF and it appeared they wanted to chat with us and Martha for a bit. Martha politely let them know of our predicament and we charged out the door on the way to our next venue.

The next destination was the U.S. Embassy to apply for the visa for Yamile to travel to the U.S. as our adopted daughter. Normally, you must be at the Embassy by 11 AM in order to put in your visa request. Martha called them yesterday and explained the situation to them. She was told that we could have until 11:30. We arrived at 11:05 and went past the long lines of Colombian citizens seeking visas right to the front. We were let in right away and submitted the paperwork. From this point forward, it was just a waiting game. While waiting, we encountered two other KidSave families. One family was adopting a 16-year old boy. The other family was adopting 16- and 17-year old sisters. It was neat to hear a bit of their stories and see the excitement on the faces. Finally, at about 1 PM, we were called to the window, answered a few quick questions, and were told that everything was approved. We get to pick up the visa tomorrow (September 3rd) at 3:30 - which means we get to come home ASAP.

The morning was a whirlwind, and Martha mentioned how stressed she felt throughout the morning. The driver commented (joked?) that he had a sore neck because of the stress from driving us from location to location in the maze of Bogota's streets and traffic.

What seemed impossible to us yesterday was completed in an amazing fashion today. And none of it would have happened without God sovereignly causing everything to fall into place. We praise Him for His great work (Martha was joining us in admiring what God was doing). We know that God could have chosen to cause us to wait, and we would have had to be patient with God's plan and His timing, but we are rejoicing that He is allowing us to return home now. Thank you again for your prayers, and we look forward to being home in Fallon again soon.

Mas fotografias

Okay, folks are asking for more pictures, so we'll post some for you. The first three are when we were still in Neiva. The photo of Yamile, Rebecca and Geof was taken right after we had our integracion meeting. We went out for a special dinner and everybody got to order some special Colombian fruit drinks. The last photo was taken in one of our rooms at Hotel Paris, where we are right now.

Waiting...............

Tall man Geof trying not to crack his head on the doorway of the bathroom!!

So here we sit waiting for paperwork to arrive by courier so we can go somewhere to fill out more forms. We were told our papers should be here between 10 and 11 am. Well it's now 11:45 and our representative just called to tell us that she is also waiting for the papers to arrive. They should have been here by now so someone is apparently trying to track them to see where they are. The Lord knows where they are and what His plan for us is, so we have taken our request to Him and we are trusting Him to work it all out exactly the way He means for it to happen.

There is another family here from France who is adopting twin boys who are about one year old. One of the twins ended up in the hospital in critical condition a couple of weeks ago. It appears he had some kind of allergic reaction to something and nearly died. He has had a cardiac arrest, a diabetic reaction, nearly lost his fingers to a strange sort of infection, and is currently on life support and in a coma. They believe he will live, but that family has been through a lot. The adoptive father is 55 years old and a very angry person. Everyone here walks on eggshells around him. One of the adoptive moms here from the U.S. is currently working on finding another place to stay because this dad has shown an open dislike of her 4 year old daughter. He scared us yesterday by yelling and slamming things around in the dining area while we were eating. We think we can wait it out in this hotel because we are hoping we don't have to be here much longer, but if it gets any worse we may decide to look for another place ourselves. We have been praying for them, the dad in particular, but it is hard to offer hope when we can't speak the same language. Please take the time to pray for this family.

Yesterday Rebecca and I had fun helping Juanita, the cook, in the kitchen. She gave us a cooking lesson, teaching us how to make the meal she was preparing for dinner. It was a super rich chicken and parmesan cheese casserole served in individual bread bowls. We also had a fresh green salad (my personal favorite). To top it off, there were two separate occasions for celebration which each required a cake. (Can't celebrate without cake, right?) One cake was needed to send off an adoptive mom who was finally getting to go home today. The other was required for a birthday. That is the third birthday we have celebrated here so far--the other two were Yamile's and Geof's. So the "going home" cake was a sort of tort with about 1000 super thin layers of crispy wafer with cream between layers (it really does work out to be about 1000 layers). The birthday cake was a rich, creamy chocolate. We had a little of each. Both were delicious. I really hope all our clothes still fit us when we leave this place!

Hope you all are doing well. Thank you so much for those of you who have taken the time to post your comments. It's wonderful to hear from you and it helps with the feelings of isolation that try to take over. Our love to you all.

Sentencia is done!

Geof left our hotel around 4:15 this morning to fly to Neiva so he could sign the sentencia papers. He accomplished that around 8a.m. His return flight was scheduled for 2:30 in the afternoon, but it is now 5:30 and he just called me to say they had boarded and were getting ready to take off. So he sat around in Neiva all day waiting for his flight! That's okay. We sat around our hotel all day waiting for him to return!! We will be so glad to have him back.

Yesterday, our representative called to ask us if we had looked at Geof's flight reservation for Neiva. She had taken a close look and noticed that it had him departing on August 30th, and returning on September 30th! Oops. So she had to do some fast leg work this morning in order to get him on a return flight for August 30th. We are soooo thankful she was on the ball! It would have been a bummer for him to try boarding a plane only to find he had no ticket!

So today we have eaten breakfast, read our bibles, taken a two-hour Spanish lesson, eaten lunch, painted with water color paints, played in the playroom, taken a walk to the park, walked to the store for some "pitahaya" fruit, and now we are waiting for dinner and Daddy's return. Walking to the park--in fact, walking anywhere around here--is a very interesting experience. It only gets more interesting when you have to cross the steet. In Colombia, the cars have the right of way and if you are a pedestrian you are on your own. So to cross the street, you have to be very sure there are no cars coming from any direction before you set your foot in the street. It can be challenging. It seems like there are never-ending cars everywhere you look!!

So now we are beginning the process to finish up here and get on our way back home. As I said before, if everything goes impossibly smooth, we could leave here this weekend. But you will all need to pray for that to happen, because there are many things that have to come together in order for us to get it all done. It does seem impossible, but if the Lord wills it, it will happen.

Divercity

Okay, we made it back from the kid's center called "Divercity." It was really quite amazing. Divercity is a huge kid's "city", where children get to interact in over 60 different activities. All the activities involve either spending "money" or earning "money". Interestingly, the spending activities usually cost three thousand "divis", while the earning activities usually paid two thousand "divis". So I think the lesson there is that you have to work more than you get to play. Every single activity required a significant waiting period before the children could participate because they observed a strict ratio of children to adults per activity. So there was always a line outside each activity with a clock counting down the wait time for each line. Oh, and did I mention that adults were not allowed to stand in any of the lines or participate in any of the activities? We weren't even allowed into the activity rooms, but we could watch everything through huge windows. So kids could get a driver's license; drive a car; put out fires; make yogurt, pasta, and chocolate; have their faces painted; sing with a rock band; go to the bank and open an account; shop in the grocery store; ride in a firetruck, ambulance, or bus; make jewelry; "work" on cars; etc., etc. Like I said, it was really amazing. We got there at 9 in the morning and left after 2pm. And we didn't even do half of the activities!

There was a very strict security system for the children. We had to use our passports to enter, and everyone had to have a non-removable bracelet (only the security staff could take them off of us) with a readable device on it for tracking purposes. In other words, whenever a person entered a new "station" or area of the "city", they had to pass their bracelet past a device that recorded where they were. That way, if we lost track of our child they could immediately tell us what activity she was currently involved in. And if our older daughters wanted to leave Divercity to wander the mall, Geof had to appear personally to give his permission to let them leave. The staff would then remove Annalisa's and Rebecca's bracelets and place them on Geof's arms. (I should have gotten a picture of Geof with multiple bulky bracelets on his arms. )Then in order for them to reenter, Geof had to be paged and appear again to approve their reentry. I tried leaving with them at one point and was told that the "head of our group" had to give his permission. So even though I am their mother, I couldn't leave with them unless Geof showed up to "free" us! Hey, at least our kid sure wasn't going to disappear in there!! It was like trying to get onto the military base! Quite impressive!

This amazing place was in a huge mall, so Annalisa and Rebecca wandered the mall for two hours of that time, getting up their courage to use the little bit of Spanish they know. They did great. Now we are back at our "home away from home", just hanging out until dinnertime.

Tomorrow is Geof's birthday and guess what we get to do? We are going to a professional soccer game in Bogota!! And since soccer is Geof's favorite sport, it will be a very special memory for him to have actually gone to a game here in Colombia on his birthday. We have to take our taxi driver with us, as it is very difficult to find a driver after the game is over. So we will pay for his ticket to the game as well as pay him for his time while he is at the game. But it will be fine. This particular driver is very nice (although he doesn't speak English) and it will be helpful to have someone who can help us navigate at the game.

On Monday Geof has a flight to Neiva at 5:40 in the morning, with a return flight at 2:30. Pray that all goes well and there are no hitches to this trip. We have to be sure he has every document with him that he might need, as he will not be able to just run back to the hotel if there is something else the judge requires.

Blessings to you all.

Buenos dias!

Good morning to all. We are off to a chilren's play place called "Divercity" today. We tried to go yesterday, spent $7 on a taxi (he overcharged us), and went inside only to find they were full and we couldn't go. So this morning we are leaving 1 1/2 hours before they open in hopes that we will get in before they fill up. I hope to be able to tell you all this evening that we had a great time there!

Sentencia!

We received word today that our sentencia is ready! Geof will fly back to Neiva on Monday morning to sign the papers, and then Yamile will be legally and finally adopted!! Yesterday we had been told sentencia would be ready on Tuesday, but our representative called us today to tell us it is already done. She said it's the fastest she's ever seen it happen. Our papers were submitted on Tuesday and were ready by Friday. It is pretty amazing, as the families adopting from Bogota sometimes wait for many weeks to get sentencia. We are adopting from Neiva, so for us it is faster.

Anyway, it is late and we are all headed to bed, but we wanted to let you all know that things are moving along. It is conceivable that if everything falls exactly into place and we get everything done we need to do, we might actually be able to come home in a little over a week. We would appreciate your prayers to that effect. We are anxious to get home, but we also know God's timing is absolutely perfect.

By the way, thank you Flisa for spreading the word about our desire to hear more comments from all of you back home. And so many thanks to those of you who have taken the time to post comments. We are encouraged by them!! Please keep them coming!

Our love to you all.

August 26

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit." Jeremiah 17:7-8

"Nor cease to yield fruit"..............what an amazing promise. God's word is a never ending source of strength to those who trust in Him. I am so grateful that He is always teaching me how to do that. He constantly reminds me that the one who trusts in Him will never be ashamed. And how true that is. In all this long journey of pursuing adoption, of filling out endless paperwork, undergoing the scrutiny of people who need to know everything in the world about your personal life, filling out more paperwork, waiting... and waiting... and waiting..., only to find out you have to wait some more.......and did I mention filling out paperwork...?...God has been faithfully fulfilling His promises. Promises to teach me patience, to teach me contentment, to teach me to constantly give my worries over to Him, and promises to teach me not to fear. So now, as the parenting challenges come, He is once again reminding me of His promises. His promise is that if I make the Lord my trust, I will not cease to yield fruit (such as patience, joy, goodness, faithfulness, etc.). I can't do this in my own strength, but He has promised me I don't have to. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13.

I am so glad for our faithful God!! And for all those of you who love us and are praying for us!! As you continue to pray, God continues to answer.

Bogota - Day 2

Yesterday we completed our first "official" tourist act since we arrived in Colombia. While we are in a waiting mode, we decided to occupy some of our time. We had a driver take us to a "small" community that is near Bogota. I say small, because that was his term - the actual population is 120,000. He was amazed when I told him the population of our local community was 25,000.

In this town there "The Salt Cathedral". It is located in a salt mine and is considered the first great wonder of Colombia. In essence, in 1958 part of the mine was turned into a large cathedral underground, with things carved out of the rock. They have the Stations of the Cross, a dome room, a choir loft, a chapel area, and the main sanctuary, which has a large cross carved out of the wall that is lit up. The cross is probably at least 70 feet high.

It was an interesting diversion for a few hours. When we returned to Hotel Paris in Bogota, we saw someone in the dining area who looked like a woman we met in Neiva named Kate. When we originally met her, she was in the process of receiving sentencia (the paperwork we are awaiting) and she spent a good part of the day with us. It turned out the woman we saw in the dining room WAS Kate - we had told her about Hotel Paris while we were in Neiva. They decided to move from their previous location to this one until they can catch a flight back to Denmark. We were able to meet her husband and children this time and now we all sit together at a big table for our meals. They are a neat and interesting couple - they are both Americans who decided to live in Denmark. He is a computer programmer and she is an English teacher. They have a four-year old girl and are adopting an 11-month old blind boy. Yamile has taken a liking to their daughter and they have been spending a lot of time playing together, despite the fact that their daughter only speaks English and Danish, and Yamile only speaks Spanish.

Another woman has been here for six weeks now. She and her husband are adopting in Bogota, where the process moves very slowly. Her husband had to leave after three weeks and she's been here, alone with her daughter, since then (although her father has been visiting for the last week). The judge in her court was asking for a piece of paper that did not exist and he refused to budge. After five weeks, they pulled the adoption out of that court and re-submitted it to another court. This could potentially mean starting over again. Amazingly, though, she received sentencia today (only a week later), and she should be able to leave within the next week. So far, we've not run into any similar obstacles. Our adoption coordinator in Bogota called me yesterday to let me know the adoption was submitted to the court and the judge did not ask for any additional paperwork. We just need to wait.

For another family, the wife had to say goodbye to her husband today as he returned to the States to get back to work. As you can imagine, it was a bit of a tearful farewell as she knows she will be here for a few weeks without him. Lenna gave her a big hug, let her know we would be praying for her, and reminded her that it will all be worth it. (She is the person who told me about Hotel Paris on the internet and now, here we are, together with her.)

Each family has a story to tell and it is very heart-warming to be with these people who are giving of themselves to adopt these precious ones who are in need.

Hotel Paris

Well, we are back in Bogota. Our flight went off without a hitch. There had been a concern that we would not be allowed to use the original ticket we had purchased for Yamile since it was purchased using her new name, and we are currently traveling with her before her name has been legally changed. They are extremely picky about such things here, and we were told we might have to buy a new ticket using her Colombian name. But our lawyer and our translator were both at the airport with us to advocate for us, and we had lots of documentation to show them, and they let us through. Yay!! Praise the Lord! That is one more complication we have been spared.

So, we have returned to Hotel Paris. What a blessing! There are lots of adoptive families here, many of whom are from the U.S. We spend time together, go walking together, and play with each other's kids. We also eat together in the family-style dining room where the food is always amazing. It really is quite a relief to be here again, as we were feeling pretty closed in by the time we left Neiva. There's only so many times you can visit the pool, or go for a walk when you have no idea how to get anywhere.

Today is Yamile's 10th birthday and the hotel owner, Katya, planned a party for her. They decorated, made an amazing chocolate cake, and all the families and workers joined in the singing and the fun. It was so special. Yamile gets very shy around new people, but she seemed to enjoy the celebration. The women who arranged the party are also very good at bringing these kids out of their shells. They did that very thing with Yamile and she was quite a little chatterbox by the end of it all. She also loves the little kids and babies that seem to be everywhere here. And they love her.

Tomorrow we plan to take a day trip to the Salt Cathedral. Apparently it is a church made entirely of salt. I intend to take lots of pictures so I can share them with you all.

So, it is time for me to say goodnight. We are all pretty tired. It's been a long day. Right now, we are split up between two rooms, one upstairs and one downstairs. Annalisa, Yamile and I are downstairs and Geof and Rebecca are upstairs. In a couple of days we will probably be able to move into a large room together. It is currently occupied by another family.

(I just had to include a photo of the iguana we found meandering down the sidewalk in Neiva.)

Buenas noches and blessings to you all!

Integracion is done - Goodbye to Neiva

Today at 5 PM we had our integracion meeting, where we meet with the social worker to determine if we are integrating well as a family. It becomes a somewhat tense affair, not because they make it a high-pressure investigation or anything, it's just because it feels like there is so much on the line. If they think things are not proceeding well, they can stop the adoption or prolong the integration period. There is also the chance that the child can say they do not want to be adopted.

The social worker met with us as a family, Sorany, and Olga Elena (our attorney). She asked us how we were doing and what we were up to, how the family was bonding, if there were any concerns, etc. They also tried to talk with Yamile but she became very timid and quiet, not responding much, even in Spanish. She clung close to me (which I didn't mind at all). We were given opportunities to ask questions and then we were done. They said they were satisfied and congratulated us. We thanked them for taking such good care of Yamile over the past few years (which almost made me cry as I said it - I already have such a strong love for her). And that was that! It was over and done in about 45 minutes.

So ... tomorrow morning we leave the hotel at 6:15 AM for our 7:30 AM flight to Bogota. We should be in Bogota by 8:30 AM. While we are there we will wait for sentencia, where a judge in Neiva will process the adoption and I will have to return to sign the paperwork. That will pretty much finalize everything for the Colombian side of the adoption process. Sentencia could be done in as quick as a couple days, but we've been told not to expect anything this week. It could also take up to a couple weeks - we're hopeful it's somewhere in between.

We are all excited to leave for Bogota in the morning (Yamile included)! Please pray that we will have patience for the Lord's timing in the whole process. It has moved very quickly and smoothly so far - we just want to be faithful to wait on Him. Pray for safe travels and that we will frutifully occupy our time while we await sentencia. "Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to the Father."

Neiva is not New York

You know the song "New York, New York" where Frank Sinatra talks about wanting to wake up in the city that never sleeps? Well, he's definitely not talking about Neiva. Sunday is the day when the whole city seems to sleep, at least in our neck of the woods. We went out for a walk yesterday and there was virtually no traffic - vehicular, pedestrian, or otherwise. We planned to eat dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Tijuana, last night and it wasn't even open, nor were any of the other open-air restaurants in our neighborhood. We ended up eating in the cafeteria upstairs at the local hipermercado.

We decided, however, to take a morning stroll to the river called Rio Magdelena, where there is a park that follows along the river. It's probably 6-8 blocks from our hotel and Sorany met us at 9 AM to lead the way. (Sorany has been a great guide, making herself available at our beck and call, when she's not teaching English at her own English Institute.) As we approached the river, we noticed they had shut down one half of the street, opening it up to pedestrians and bicycles. It reminded me of Nava (in Spain), where the pasttime on Sundays was to walk up and down the main street of the town and stop and talk to your friends and neighbors.

Sorany took us to a "restaurant" that overlooks the river. This restaurant was a large area that looked more like a campground, with bridges leading past the cooking areas. Chickens, roosters, birds, wild cats, and even a goat wandered around. The eating area was a very large, open space with wood planks for flooring and thatching for a roof. There were no walls--it was all entirely open. The trees surrounding us were really amazing. The restaurant was not open for business yet but we were allowed to enter and watch them prepare the meal for the day. You can see by the pictures that we were up above the food prep areas, looking down at the workers. The ovens and stoves were heated with wood; there was a humungous pot of something brewing; rather than cover their food with foil or saran wrap, they used palm leaves; a woman was placing food into a large clay oven, there were mounds of produce everywhere. Yamile loved taking pictures of all the food. Everything was quite different from what we'd see in America.

The river itself was a swift-moving churn of brown water (and there was quite a bit of trash washed up along the shore). As we meandered down the sidewalk, we passed some people who were selling fresh fish, although I would be a bit leary to try any of it. They also had quite a few shops along the way that reminded me a bit of booths at flea markets, 95% of them were empty. Sorany explained that, during holidays, all of these shops would be open to cater to the folks who travel to Neiva for holidays. We were able to find a couple vendors selling their wares and bought a few souvenirs from Neiva.

Eventually, we came to some playground equipment, and Yamile immediately wanted to go play. She had to accept a "no" from Daddy at first while we found a little bit better place to play. She wasn't all that thrilled with my answer but didn't throw a fit or anything - she just got quiet. That was soon resolved when we came to some more playground equipment where she could swing and play on the teeter-totter. (Unfortunately, Daddy's 45-year-old, surgically repaired knee couldn't tolerate the deep squats for too long on the teeter-totter.)

We finally decided to return to our hotel and walked back along the park. When we arrived at the park's main square we heard music and someone calling out instructions into a microphone. There was a large group of people who appeared from a distance to be doing some sort of dance. When we got closer we realized this was an aerobics class where anyone could join in at any time. We chose not to join and just watched. These people seemed to be having a blast working out in the 95-degree heat. (Something tells me Chatta would jump right in and join the party!) The music made us want to dance.

We finished the walk back "home" and took a dip in the pool and ate a lunch of tortillas and beans on the patio of our room. Ahhh ... delicioso!

Ahhh...Colombian Food!

What an amazing lunch we had yesterday. We found out that our hotel restaurant serves a traditional Colombian main meal at lunch time, so we opted to give it a try. We then found out why they serve it at lunch and not dinner. There's no way a person could even sleep at night if they had that much food for dinner. You need the whole day to digest it! It was so delicious, and so very different. The meal is called Sanisocho de Gallina. It began with a chicken broth type of soup called "Caldo", then quickly moved on to the main dish. This consisted of a chicken leg & thigh sauteed in oil seasoned with onion, cilantro, tomato, salt and pepper (you all know how much I love oil!), boiled potato (papa), fried banana (platano), 1/8 of a cob of corn (maiz), yucca (I have no idea), and yama (squash). On the side was a plate of rice (arroz) with an enormous chunk of avocado (aquacate). The avocados here are enormous! (See the photo of me holding one I've cut open? I ate off of it for about 3 or 4 days.) Along with all this, we were served a drink called "Cholupa", which is made from a tiny fruit that grows in the region of Huila, where Neiva is. It was delicious. We were determined to eat the entire meal, since this was our opportunity to experience this amazing traditional Colombian food. We managed to consume most of it, but I think we rolled out of the restaurant. The meal was served at 12:30, and I don't recall feeling remotely hungry for most of the remaining day.

We have learned that Colombians like their food very bland. Surprisingly, there are very few seasonings in most of the traditional dishes we have been served. Meats, starches, and sweetened fruit juices are common. It's been a challege to find ways to eat high fiber types of foods, but our best way to do that has been to consume lots of fruits. We go to the "Hipermercado" every day to pick out our fruit. It breaks up our day, which can tend to drag as we don't have much to do. One of the more interesting fruits here is called "pitahaya". It reminds me of kiwi in its texture, but it is softer and even sweeter. It is also nearly a clear, whitish color on the inside, and full of tiny black seeds. Quite tasty.

Late in the afternoon, after swimming, we took the girls out to ice cream. Yamile likes strawberry flavor....I like chocolate! Annalisa, Geof and Rebecca got something that I can't remember, but it tasted like butterscotch. (Yes...I ate ice cream Jessica!)

The Streets of Neiva

The white building with bars directly in front is the entrance to Hotel Pacande, where we are staying.

Most stores here open out directly onto the street, you can't really go "inside" because the sidewalk puts you nearly at the cashier's counter. You basically shop from the sidewalk. There are taxis, motorcycles and bicycles everywhere.