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.

I-800 Application Going in today!

Just this morning, via email, we received our referral documents translated to English, which allows us to send in our I-800 application. This is the last major bureaucratic step before we can plan to travel to pick up Yamile. This approval can take anywhere from two to four weeks; we've been told it's taking about three weeks right now. (We can pray that it goes faster!)

Once the approval comes, we could travel as soon as two weeks after that. That would get us to Colombia before Yamile's tenth birthday - a goal we've been shooting for.

Heading up to this translation of documents, this week we received copies the referral materials in Spanish. They included a couple more recent photos of Yamile - she is so pretty! (Of course, I'm not biased or anything.) And she looks older (imagine that!). Sometimes you get caught up in a "time warp" kind of thing and keep imagining she is the same as she was when we met her last August. But she keeps growing up. All the more reason for us to get to Colombia ASAP and have her in her forever family here in Fallon.

Another Step in the Process

We found out on July 2nd that our "contact" on the ground in Colombia has now received Yamile's referral paperwork so she can begin translating it into English now. This information is critical - until we have it we can't apply for our I800. And we know the I800 takes probably four weeks to process. We're hoping the translation will be done by July 9th so we can keep moving forward. Yamile's birthday is August 24th and we'd sure like to be there to celebrate it with her!

We are now pulling items together for a care package for Yamile. We've been given the go-ahead to get the package ready. We'll be putting together a DVD that she can view about her new home and family. Lenna's already made a photo album for her as well. We'll probably send her a couple small stuffed animals and some clothes. And Rebecca (and the rest of us) is getting her room set up to be shared with a sister.

Every little thing we do now makes the adoption that much more tangible as the "Gotcha" day comes closer.

Learning Spanish

Well, it's been a month since I wrote anything. During that time we've been extremely busy. We decided that the four of us would take a semester of college Spanish in a five-week period during the summer. That meant driving to Reno four nights a week, sitting in class for two and a half hours, and driving home. Tack that on to whatever else we were doing each day, and it doesn't leave much time for anything else.

The class only had eleven students, so we got pretty comfortable with each other during the class. Believe it or not, our instructor was adopted from Colombia when she was 16 months old. She was a great encouragement to us throughout the class and we appreciated her work in helping us pick up the language.

Spanish class ended on July 1st - and it appears that all the Starks received A's for the class. I think it's provided us a great foundation for talking with Yamile and for our time in Colombia.

Because of where we are in the adoption process, we think we're going to "pass" on the second semester (and another five weeks of busy life) of Spanish. We'll continue to work on the language on our own and our girls are very motivated to continue on officially and receive more college credit. We need to use our time to continue our adoption preparation.