Lazy(?) Day

Today was our first full day, practically, without a translator. She didn't join us until 5:30p.m. or so. The morning was somewhat of a lazy day. Yamile continued to read her children's bible voraciously and she has discovered the "joys" of an i-Pod, as she was able to watch a bit of a movie on Lenna's ipod and listen to music.

When the staff came to clean our room, we took a short walk to the pool patio, where we played a game of Skip-Bo. This was a new game for Yamile (and Lenna) - while Yamile did not show much interest, she was very patient and willing to learn (and patronize us). Since one of our favorite family past-times is playing games, we hope Yamile will learn to enjoy them as well.

We ate lunch on the patio outside our room - cold pizza from the night before. This time, we bought a jar of pasta sauce and were able to dip our pizza while we ate it. It was nice to have the tomato flavor, although I opted to eat most of it without the sauce. That was Yamile's preference as well.

The language issue continues to be a little bit of a challenge, although Annalisa said Yamile tried a bit more English while at the pool this afternoon. She is now proficient with such important phrases as "cannon ball", "piggy back", "monkey", and "my turn". I'm sure cannon ball and piggy back will be heavily utilized while we continue to use the pool. And ... I'm sure they will prove useful in everyday American life, too. We are very encouraged that she is willing to try and speak a new language, especially with virtual strangers.

Today she spent at least three hours in the pool. Rebecca and Annalisa took her out there and they were having a raucous good time by the time Lenna and I arrived. After a little while, she also made friends with a couple of little Colombian girls who were playing in the pool. She was able to work her way into their games and it was neat to see her play and talk with them. I am sure that she deals with some loneliness because she cannot fully communicate with us. But she had no trouble carrying on conversations with Marguerita and Maria Jose.

Yamile enjoys being carried around by me, to the extent that I've called her my little monkey ("mi mono pequeno"). She wraps her arms around my neck, wraps her legs around my waist, kisses my face over and over, and just holds on. It now appears we have a little bit of a ritual when we go out of the hotel. She reaches for my neck so that I can carry her out the door. Once on the sidewalk, she's ready to get down and immediately reaches for Lenna's hand, and we walk down the street with she and Lenna side by side, hand in hand.

I don't think we've mentioned that Yamile had a bit of a cold when we received her. She's had a runny nose and has been coughing quite a bit as well. We're not able to attack the thing with great nutrition, like we usually would, so it's been a bit frustrating that way. And we think today she may have overdone it with all the activity in the pool. She fell asleep just before dinner and while at dinner we could tell that she was kind of out of it. Eventually, we found out she had a pretty bad headache and just didn't feel well. She didn't eat any dinner, which is quite unusual for her. I carried her the whole way back to the hotel (about two blocks) and we tucked her in to bed. We hope she will be feeling better in the morning and that she will get over this cold pretty soon.

For the third night we ate at the Mexican restaurant called Tijuana. As Lenna mentioned, most of the restaurants here are in the open air, and this one is no different. The thing that makes this one a bit stranger than others is that cars drive right through the middle of it. It turns out this restaurant is located in the "driveway" of a new car dealership. So, you see new cars being driven into and out of the building. They just move the tables aside to make room for the cars. The picture to the right shows a car being pulled in.

Well, I think we'll be turning in for the evening. We continue to covet your prayers. Praise God that we were able to change our return flights to Bogota without any additional charge - we were thinking that would cost us about $500. Martha, who is our adoption coordinator here in Colombia, was able to work that out for us. Pray that Yamile recovers quickly from her cold. And pray for wisdom for us as we try to communicate our love to Yamile when words are not able to carry the message. We love you all and look forward to being home again.

Lenna's Turn

Buenos dias amigos,

It's Friday morning and we have finished breakfast, consisting of scrambled eggs "con tomates y cebollas" - with tomatoes and onions. Everywhere we eat, it is customary to be served some kind of fresh fruit juice. It is thicker than the juice we are used to in the states, and it does have sugar added, but it sure is delicioso! The hotel we are at in Neiva only includes breakfast for us, so we have to go out for lunch and dinner. We are having a great time trying out different places to eat, which are very different from what we are used to. There's no air conditioning and many of them are outside. But the food is great. Believe it or not, there is a Mexican restaurant (Colombian food is quite different from Mexican food) about a block away and they serve amazing food. We have been there for at least two meals so far. Last night we went out for pizza because we wanted to know how they eat it here in Neiva. Well, it was quite good, but they do not use any tomato sauce on it. What they did have on it was fresh cheese. Apparently, there is a cheese factory right here in Neiva. Mmmmm....!

Okay, enough about food. We are constantly amazed at the politeness of the people here. They love to serve and it shows. The hotel we are at (Hotel Pacande) is often used by adoptive families and the staff clearly enjoy playing a part in the adoptions taking place. When Yamile arrived, they congratulated her and talked to her about her new family, giving her special attention. It was very dear. There is another family here with an adorable little Colombian boy who is 27 months old. They are Italian, so we sort of use Spanish mixed with their Italian to try to communicate. Muy interesante! (Very interesting!)

The hotel we are staying in here in Neiva is quite comfortable. We have a suite with a queen sized bed, another "small" queen sleeper couch, and a twin bed. There is an outside patio with table and chairs. The bathroom is enormous, with both a spa-style tub with jets (big enough to swim in!) and a shower with lots of interesting gadgets. We can adjust the water to come out from about four different directions, and we can add steam if we feel like using it for a sauna. The water can come out from directly overhead- like a rainshower; it can come out of a regular shower nozzle; it can come out on your entire torso, so you can use it for a back massage; or it comes out in something we aren't quite sure what it is, but you can remove it from the wall and put it at your feet. There is a built in remote in this amazing shower that we haven't even completely figured out, but we know we can use it to light up the shower stall, or even pipe in music. So...not to worry. We're all keeping very clean!! :)

Before we traveled, I managed to get ahold of a couple of bilingual children's books and a Children's Spanish picture Bible. I am so wishing we had brought a whole pile of books, as we have discovered that Yamile is a lot like her big sister, Rebecca. She absolutely loves to read, and she is good at it. She picked up her children's Bible and started at the beginning. I think she is about 3/4 of the way through it already!

Again, like her big sisters, Yamile appears to be capable of handling electronics very well....at least....my ipod! She's getting familiar with the game of Tetris. And she gets a kick out of the Spanish kid's music we downloaded for her.

Much to my surprise and delight, Yamile's foster mother prepared a little photo album for us and Yamile. I could harldly believe my eyes when I discovered a photo of our daughter when she was only two!! It's the only one of her when she was little, but it is one we will treasure. It's clear to us that Yamile has been cared for and loved by the people who have been involved in her young life. We are so thankful to the Lord for this. He is so faithful!

Geof and I want you all to know we love reading your comments. Keep them coming! It helps us feel connected. Our love to you all.

Together at last

Well, yesterday was the big day!! We were reunited with Yamile and, this time, we got to take her with us!!! She is now, "provisionally", part of our family. It won't be final until our integracion meeting next Monday and until we receive the sentencia a week or two after that.

We took two taxis (there is no way to fit five people, including our translator, into one taxi here in Colombia) to the ICBF (family well-being department) offices and arrived there about 15 minutes early. While we waited in the parking lot for our attorney we saw a vehicle enter and Lenna and Rebecca were quick to note that they saw Yamile inside. We quickly scurried away to another area where we couldn't be seen, but we could watch her enter the building with her defender (basically, her case worker who has handled her case and made sure she has been cared for appropriately). I was so excited just to see her that I got goose bumps.

The ICBF building was an interesting structure, a two-story brick building that has large openings to allow the breeze to pass through. (The receptionist was seated at a desk that was, essentially, out in the open with a roof over her.) We headed upstairs and were brought into a large conference room with our attorney (Olga Elena), our translator (Sorany), an ICBF attorney, and the ICBF psychologist. The ICBF attorney explained the process to us and prepared us for the introduction.

And then ... the moment we were waiting for. Yamile came in wearing a beautiful, new, yellow dress and came over to us and we were able to give her big hugs and tell her how beautiful she was. She was introduced to her new mama and papa and hermanas (sisters) and she sat with us on our side of the table. We brought a cake for a little celebration and we all shared in it together. During the whole time, Yamile was very quiet because she was nervous (and who could blame her? - her whole life was being turned upside down). We were very thankful for the ICBF staff, who had been ensuring her care for the last four years. She and her defender shared a big hug as they said goodbye and her defender held Yamile's face in her hands as she said something to her. We signed some legal documents giving us permission to have custody of Yamile. This way, if anyone questioned us, we were to show these papers. Then we were done.

After a bit of frustration trying to find two taxis in the middle of heavy traffic, we headed back to the hotel. Sorany was still with us and was able to help us with some translation with Yamile. We gave Yamile the suitcase we'd brought for her, which included a wardrobe that we'd picked for her (so far, thankfully, everything is the right size). We went on a quick shopping trip to buy a couple pairs of shoes and some socks for her and headed out to lunch. Through it all, Yamile was still prety quiet and, truth be known, so were we. The uncertainty of it all, along with the language barrier, contributed to the silence.

We then decided it was time for a little "play therapy" and headed to the hotel pool. There, we had a blast. We found out we've adopted a fish, as Yamile immediately took to the water and was all over the place. I was able to talk with her a little bit and she talked with us more. She climbed all over us and laughed and we generally had a ball. So far, our observation is that Yamile has a very quick wit and quite a sense of humor. We love it! And her!

Neiva

Well, I had planned on posting yesterday and had entered everything but then accidentally deleted it all. Suffice it to say, we made it to Neiva yesterday and checked in to our hotel. I will give you the details later, but the flight to Neiva was "interesting" (in the 50-seat plane and the turbulence) and we ended up with a nice suite at the hotel (thanks to our attorney's negotiation skills).

Neiva is the capital of the Huila region (the region where Yamile lives), with a population of about 300,000. As I've told people, though - don't think of Neiva as a small city, think of it as a large town - Fallon on steroids. Everyone warned us about how hot it is in Neiva, especially the folks in Bogota, but it's not much different than Fallon in the summer. The temperatures are in the mid-90s, but there is more humidity.

We notice eyes following us wherever we walk in Neiva. It is primarily because of Annalisa's and Rebecca's blonde hair. They are the only blonde-haired people we've seen. We also stand head and shoulders above everyone else around.

Not counting the hotel, it appears the prices in Neiva are very reasonable. Yesterday, we had lunch at a local panaderia - lunch for five (including our translator) cost us 12,600 Colombian pesos (about $7). Dinner last night was a little pricier as we went to a Mexican restaurant and paid about $30 (57,000 pesos) for a dinner for four.

Today isa very exiting day, as we get to meet Yamile at 11 AM at the "Entregada". More on that to follow.

We're in Bogota!

Can't even believe it. After over a year of thinking about it and planning for it, we're here! Let me (Lenna) recap our day of travel. Up at 2 in the morning so we can leave Fallon at 3, so we can get to Reno by 4:15, so we can go through the lines, so we can take a 6:15 flight to Los Angeles. That all went beautifully. (Thank you Amiee for the ride, the encouragement, the hugs and the prayers and thank you Jessica A. for the big fat hugs at 2:30 in the morning!) Our 4 hour layover in LA went "quickly", as we had more lines to get through and breakfast to eat. Then we boarded the plane for Bogota and settled in for a 7 hour flight straight through to Bogota.

The flight went just fine. Not surprisingly it was frequently bumpy, but nothing more than I guess is normal. We got a little tired of sitting, and I myself felt completely drowsy and mildly nauseated the entire flight and just wanted to sleep. Thankfully, the nausea went away as soon as we were on the ground. We got off the plane (8:30 p.m. Colombian time, 6:30 PST) and found ourselves in a huge line to get through immigration. Apparently, six other planes had come in at the same time as ours and everyone was in that line! The line took us an hour. Then we stood at the immigration booth for awhile waiting to get our visas stamped. Apparently, my visa had not gotten through to their system yet and they couldn't find me in it. But they figured it out eventually and we were allowed to go.

We headed toward the luggage area and found all but one suitcase. It was beginning to look like we would have to go without it until someone came along and helped us. Actually, I think it was Geof who ended up locating it. Then we wandered around looking for the driver who was supposed to take us to our hotel. We were told to look for someone with a sign saying "STARK" on it. Well, two hours after we landed we were finally through all the lines and looking for our driver, but there was no sign of him. Our concern was that he gave up on us. We didn't know if he was inside the airport or outside, but if we went outside to look they wouldn't let us in again. And of course we needed to go to the bathroom, but the only indoor bathroom was closed for cleaning. And we were all soooooo thirsty!! And soooo tired. And completely out of our element with only Spanish speakers around.

So we just stood around looking forlorn and confused, which seemed to work because an airport worker approached us and tried to figure out how to help us. Geof was able to communicate that we had a driver and needed to know if he was outside. The man went out and found him and came back in to let us know. Yay!! Now we could go!! Or so we thought. We got in the line that was going out the door only to find when we got to the front that there were more forms to fill out. This time it was customs forms and there was only one per person. That took another 20 minutes. Back into the line, it moved quickly and we were out! What a relief. At 10:30 at night, we were really lost as to what to do if we were stranded in the airport. There really wasn't anywhere to just hang out.

Our escort spoke pretty good English so we had fun talking as we headed to the hotel. He got us there in about 25 minutes, rang the security guy, and got us unloaded and in the door in no time. The security guy brought all our luggage upstairs, opened our door, showed us in, and said goodnight. That was it. Now we just had to arrange ourselves and get some sleep.

So that was yesterday. We all slept well. I think we'd have slept well if we'd had to do it on a pile of rocks, we were that exhausted. We went downstairs for breakfast (they serve all 3 meals at the hotel) and found a bunch of families eating and no table for us, different languages being spoken, and no one in the office to tell us what we were supposed to do. Again, we stood around wondering what to do next. Finally, Geof bravely went back into the dining room (you know that feeling of being a new kid in a new school and everyone is looking at you...?) and found someone to ask. So they set a table for us and we had an amazing breakfast, not the least of which was freshly made raspberry juice!

We have now made our acquaintance with three families in the hotel who are American. Each one has a unique adoption story to tell, and they are all so helpful and friendly. We have been given a walking tour of the neighborhood and the mall (where they have the equivalent of Burger King called Whopper King!). And we have eaten a delicious lunch, made by the cook at the hotel. The food is a big hit!

So tomorrow morning we will board yet another airplane and head to Neiva. That is where we expect to be most of the time we are in Colombia. Hopefully, tomorrow we can post again! Our love to you all.

We're Packed!

As you can see, all our bags are packed - 11 pieces of luggage and counting - I think only six will need to be checked. I don't think there is such a thing as "traveling light" when you're going to another country to adopt a child. You feel like you have to be prepared for every eventuality.

The excitement is building as we prepare to meet our youngest daughter again. We'll be heading out of town at 3 AM tomorrow - thank you, Amiee, for your early-morning dedication to get us to the airport bright and early. By 7 PM Pacific time (9 PM in Bogota) on the 15th, we'll be on the ground in Colombia. Hopefully we'll get a good night's sleep tonight so we'll be well-rested for our travel day. Or ... maybe we'll get some sleep on the plane.

Updated Photo

Here is a more recent photo we received of Yamile in July. She already looks so much older. We can't wait to be with her! (Aurora and Gonzalo, can you believe how grown up she looks?!!)

We're going to Colombia!!

For those of you who haven't heard, we've got a travel date to go to Colombia! We will be united as a family on August 18th, almost a full week before Yamile's birthday. We appreciate your prayers on our behalf. In fact, the day we found out when we'd get to be with Yamile, Lenna and I had just prayed that the Lord would allow us to travel on or before August 20th. The Lord answered our prayer in an amazing way!

We have now made our travel reservations - we'll be leaving the US on August 15th and arriving in Bogota that evening. After two nights in Bogota we'll fly to Neiva and then get Yamile the next day.

Our year-long process, which has felt like a slow but determined march toward a final destination, now feels like a mad dash to the finish. So little time and so many loose ends to tie up. Stay tuned for more details as our adventure continues.