We have a return date!!

Lenna posting...We will have everything we need to come home by Tuesday, but we couldn't get a flight until Thursday, so that is the day we are set to travel.  We will start out in the wee hours of the morning and arrive in Reno late in the evening.  Excitement is mounting as we get closer to being back home with our friends and family.

It has been pouring rain again today, after a sunny morning.  It's kind of cozy, actually. When we first got to Hotel Paris in Bogota we were here with only one other adoptive family.  Now there are about 5 families here, two of which are single parent families.  A single adoptive mom just arrived yesterday and received her beautiful 13 year old daughter, Camila, today.  All our girls have been getting acquainted with each other.  Camila is from a smaller region, too, so Bogota can seem a little overwhelming.  As is the case at these hotels, one family learns "the ropes", so to speak, and passes on what they've learned to the next family to arrive.  So we have been taking Marsha (the mom) and Camila to different places, helping them find the store, the bank, the mall, and some parks.  We bought a disposable phone for our use while here, and we will pass that on as well when we leave.  We will all hang out and do lots of stuff together while we wait out our different processes, and we will likely have some new lifelong friends! We also have the privilege of answering lots of questions from new adoptive parents. 

So that is the scoop for now.  Can't hardly wait to get home to all of the people we love and miss!

This is where we got the photo taken for Laura's new Colombian ID card. Those are all photos on the walls, and you can see the little paper cutter they use to cut the photos to the right size.

 

This is the civil registry office.

Laura and Daddy, waiting for the ID card.

They attached Laura's photo to her ID card, placed her fingerprint on it, and handed it back to us, telling us to take it outside and get it laminated.  So here is where we had to go to get it laminated. He first had to cut it to the right size with his scissors.

The sign says they laminate documents.  The man standing off to the left in the purple shirt is Maricio, our driver and helper.

Laura watching them place her card in their laminator. It had to go through 4 or 5 times before it was done.

This is the outside of the registry office where we received the ID card. It's a pretty small place.

I know this looks like a walkway, but it is actually the driveway into the parking lot where we parked.

And here is the parking lot.  I am standing at the end of that driveway above.

I shot a couple of pictures from the window of the car heading back to the hotel after applying for Laura's new passport. The mountains in the background are green and very beautiful. Oh, and this is the same day we had the gushing downpour...a few hours after I took this picture of the blue sky.

More beautiful scenery on the drive.

As we waited to make a u-turn, we saw a truck full of what appeared to be men in military uniforms, all standing in the back of the truck.