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."