This is Lenna again.  I guess it is finally time to fill you in on the interesting 3 days of travel it took to get us here.  It began with me waking up on Sunday morning with a stomach bug.  No problem, I just didn't eat much for about the next 4 days.  Everyone else was healthy and raring to go.  Annalisa and Rebecca took us to the airport for the first little leg of our journey, which was a flight to LAX.

In Reno

 We had a 3 hour layover and then flew off to Miami.  After a 4 and a half hour flight, we made our way through miles of the Miami International Airport, dragging our six pieces of luggage behind us, looking for the rental car place.  The fun started when we attempted to find our way through Miami with the help of a rented GPS.  It was all in Spanish and I couldn't figure out how to change it.  Geof finally figured it out and we were on our way, we thought.  GPSs are tricky little things sometimes, and I personally think they have a "fooled you!" setting, which I'm pretty sure I found. We ended up taking the "scenic" route, not intentionally of course. Every time it looked like we were figuring things out, we took another wrong turn and ended up on the wrong freeway.  We had to laugh, or we would have cried...we were so tired!  But, praise the Lord, we finally found our hotel.  I think we got to bed around 1 in the morning. 

Our rental car in Miami

Palm trees outside our hotel room

The next morning we dragged ourselves out of our very comfy beds...

(this was Yamile's very comfy bed...), and got ourselves ready to go.  This was the day we finally got to meet the wonderful people at Adoption by Shepherd Care who have helped us adopt both of our little Colombianas. I have no pictures of this event, because I must have left my brain back in my very comfy bed at the hotel.  I did get a short video, which wasn't meant to be a video, but I was apparently pushing the wrong button on the camera.  So, at least I have a 3 second video of these wonderful people! It was such a pleasure to meet them and chat for awhile.  They enjoyed meeting all of us, and especially Yamile. 

Next, we headed back to the hotel, got our luggage, and found the airport.  We were running behind, but we finally made it to check our luggage in. Then we headed back to the parking lot so we could turn in our car.  We checked luggage before returning the car, thus saving ourselves the 100 mile walk through the airport dragging our six pieces of luggage behind us again. Once luggage was checked in, we turned in the car and made our way through the airport happily luggage-free.  We were still late, so we were sort of running through the airport---easily done without six pieces of luggage.........you get the picture. So once we got through security, I called Rebecca to say goodbye, I love you, etc.  She answered, but she had just cut her hand with a very sharp knife and was apparently trying to stem the flow gushing from her newly inflicted wound when I called. It was an odd phone call, ending with Annalisa putting the phone on speaker and saying, "Mom, Mom, I have to ask you a question before you go! Should I take her to the ER?"  I asked if it was that bad, and they both said, in unison, "It's bad."

So I told them what to do, where to find the papers they needed, and off they went, while I had to turn my phone off because we were boarding a plane to go to Bogota. (I spent a little time praying at this point!) We taxied out to the runway, the plane revved its engines, and then the pilot came over the speaker.  He told us one of the engines wouldn't start, so we were going to taxi back to the airport while they tried to figure it out.  After an hour and a half of hanging out in the airplane, the problem was fixed and we were on our way.  But guess what? Because of the delay, they let us turn our phones back on, so during that time I was able to help Annalisa and Rebecca figure things out in the ER, and I was able to give my verbal permission to the nurse for them to treat Rebecca.  Apparently, the dr's office had misplaced the signed permission papers I had given them, so they needed to actually talk to me.  That would not have been possible without the delay.  God had a plan!!

Waiting for our flight to Neiva

On the bus from the airport to our plane

We arrived in Bogota about 3.5 hours later, got through immigration quickly, and found our shuttle to our next hotel.  Whew.  We were finally in Colombia.  We stayed overnight in Bogota and then made our way to the smaller airport for our final flight to Neiva.  That flight got canceled, so we ended up being delayed by several hours, but we finally arrived here, much to our delight, and were greeted by a familiar face...Sorany, our translator from the last time we were here.  Yay!!  She helped us get settled into our apartment.  The owner came and showed us around the apartment.  He is so nice.  He has provided us with everything we need, even soap and toothpaste.  He had stocked the fridge with bottled water and yogurt. The table had a HUGE bowl of fresh fruit in it, and there were bowls full of snacky crackers and cookies.  We felt spoiled. 

At our favorite restaurant, Tijuana, on Tuesday evening

So now we are truly enjoying our two Colombian daughters, and missing our daughters who are back in the states.  Thank you to all of you who are loving our Annalisa and Rebecca while we are gone.  We are so thankful for you all.

Our translator, Sorany, on the left, her sister, Maritsa, and their mother. We are eating at the little outdoor restaurant right next to our apartment building.

Geof, Laura, and Yamile.  The food is amazing. The building directly above and behind Laura's head is our apartment building.  We are on the 5th floor.