Bebé Sueño

White Christmas

2009-12-28T16:16:00.003-06:00

We had a great Christmas this year! Elkin had a great time getting his cookies and milk ready for Santa and carrots ready for the reindeer. He's come such a long way with his food issues and much to our delight didn't have any problems sharing the cookies with the big guy this year.

Santa brought Elkin a farm set this year and Elkin was a very happy boy.

Elkin loved lining up his presents from Mami & Papi and could barely stop himself from digging in before I could take a quick picture. I think his favorite was a Mack truck (from the movie Cars) and all the books he got.

We got a ton of snow on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning and we weren't sure if we should venture out to go see Grandma & Grandpa. We went ahead and went for it and made it there safely despite how treacherous the roads were. Elkin had a very fun time modeling his new "outfit" he got for Christmas from Grandma & Grandpa.

Elkin got some very cool finger puppets from Grandma Pat. Mami LOVES these finger puppets and puts on plays with them on a regular basis. Even if no one else is watching. Sigh. At least I got a captive audience for my first play.

We got stuck a few times while in Eudora so we decided to stay the night until some of the roads were clear. We got home to some pretty big drifts in front of the house.

Elkin had a great time sledding in the back yard with the sled we swiped from Grandpa.

Overall, despite the weather, we all had a very merry Christmas. Here's to many more!

Getting Ready for Christmas

2009-12-17T13:40:00.002-06:00

We've been busy getting ready for Christmas! First we had a photo shoot for Christmas cards. We took them a few weeks ago and it was actually pretty warm outside but Elkin was a trooper. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the shoot.

This was the winner...

and here's one where he's laughing at Mami's toilet humor... (hey a Mami's gotta do what she's gotta do sometimes!)

and one more with him looking a little ornery.

We went and saw Santa at Grandpa Snow's work. We took quite a few pictures but this was the only one that didn't turn out blurry. This is Elkin "smiling" when you tell him to smile. Can you see why I have to resort to toilet humor??

His present was an "Ants in the Pants" game which he wants to play ALL THE TIME. He didn't really talk to Santa, just looked at him a lot. Anyway, I think he liked seeing where his Grandpa worked even better then seeing Santa.

Yesterday Elkin and I decorated some cookies. We had a great time! He was in charge of the sprinkles and did a great job. While we were making them he kept asking me "Is Santa going to love these?". It was so cute!

Here he is at work. (This time I told him to smile like he was happy - a little bit better anyway!)

Here's all the cookies we made!

Elkin had to test them out to make sure they tasted good.

Happy 4th Birthday Elkin!

2009-11-09T12:42:00.003-06:00

On Friday, Elkin celebrated his 4th birthday! Here's a shot of him posing with the giant M&M cookie he requested Mami make instead of a cake. We of course had to have some Cars themed stuff in there too!

For his birthday, Mami & Papi got him a big boy bike! We managed to keep it a surprise and here's the video of the big reveal.

He's still learning how to ride it but I would say by this smile that it was a big hit!

Grandma & Grandpa Fisher threw him a train themed birthday party which was a big hit with Elkin and his two cousins. Here's a picture of them getting ready to dig into the very cool train cake that Grandma made.

Grandma & Grandpa Snow also threw Elkin a birthday party complete with a taco bar and cupcakes. Here's Elkin blowing out his candles.

I dug up this video from us singing Happy Birthday to him last year for his 3rd birthday and took a new one for his 4th birthday. He sure is growing up!

Elkin's 3rd birthday.

Elkin's 4th birthday.

Happy Birthday Elkin!

Fall Happenings

2009-11-02T12:45:00.002-06:00

We've been busy this fall! We started out the season by going to Mapleleaf Festival in Baldwin with Grandma & Grandpa Snow and Uncle James & Aunt Rebecca. We got a few good shots of Elkin with the turning trees.

Here's Elkin taking a break.

That same day the three of us went to the pumpkin patch. Elkin was pretty grumpy that day so we pretty much picked out our pumpkin and left.

Elkin was a race car driver for Halloween this year!

A few weeks ago we went to Boo at the Zoo at the Topeka Zoo with Grandma & Grandpa Fisher and Aunt Amy. Elkin got a sack full of candy and got to hang out with a bear...

and a robot!

On Halloween we carved our jack-o-lantern. Elkin wasn't thrilled about us electing him to be the one to get the guts out.

Here's Elkin & Papi showing off the finished product.

Elkin had a great time trick or treating that night. He would run from house to house and was great about saying trick or treat and thank you.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

2009-11-02T12:43:00.001-06:00

Now that Elkin's language has been getting so much better he's been able to learn some basic childrens' songs. Here is a very cute video of him singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider".

Gotta Getaway

2009-11-02T12:11:00.003-06:00

Before winter set in we thought we would take a long weekend and drive down to Branson. On the way we stopped at Osceola Cheese (what's a trip to Branson without stopping there anyway?) and well, ate some cheese. Here's Elkin posing with the Osceola Cheese mouse.

Probably the one thing that we all like to do together the most is hike. It was pretty muddy that weekend but we did get one in. We had a tough time keeping up with Elkin - he's a fast little runner! This was the view of him most the time we were hiking.

It was very pretty with all the leaves changing colors. We got Elkin to pose for just a second before he finished his run.

Tim & Elkin rode a go cart which Elkin was very excited about - at first anyway. After a few laps he got overwhelmed and a little scared of the whole thing.

We also played some miniature golf. Elkin was quite the cheat!

We spent our last day at Silver Dollar City. We all had such a good time. Once Elkin gets older I think I'm going to have someone to ride roller coasters with! Elkin's favorite ride was the train - of course :)

Our First Year as a Family

2009-11-02T12:05:00.003-06:00

On September 22nd, we celebrated our first year as a family. We had a great "Gotcha Day" or "Adoption Day"! We spent the evening looking at videos and pictures from our first few days together back in Colombia. It was a nice relaxing evening with just the three of us.

Here is our first family picture taken on September 22, 2008.

It feels so much longer than a year at times but sometimes much shorter. We look forward to all our future family anniversaries.

It's Super Elkin!

2009-11-02T12:03:00.003-06:00

Recently Elkin has been very much into superheroes. Elkin hasn't seen a super hero movie but he has a few books about a super truck and a super dog. Here's his superhero pose.

Here's a cute video of him helping his stuffed monkey, Manny.

Viva Colombia!

2009-08-23T09:58:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we went to the Ethnic Enrichment Festival in Kansas City. We had such a blast! There was music, crafts and foods from so many countries. Of course we were drawn to the Colombia crafts and food!

When we entered the festival we saw the Colombian flag waving high in the beautiful blue sky.

We then visited the Colombia mini-booth where they had crafts from Colombia. It was so cool to see some of the crafts that we saw for sale on the streets in Colombia. Elkin picked out a bracelet and some Colombian candy.

We couldn't leave without having some Colombian food! We had some arepas and empanadas. We were so glad to have arepas again, they were such a comfort food for us when we were in Colombia.

We all had such a great time! This festival is still going on today for any of you living in the KC area and if you can't make it this year then don't miss out next year!

Back to School

2009-08-21T07:04:00.004-05:00

Yesterday Elkin had his first day of preschool for the year! This year he will be going half days five days a week which will be a big jump up from the two days a week he went last year. He loves school and has been very impatient for school to start back up again.

Here's a picture of him waiting outside for the bus.

He was very excited about his new Thomas the Train backpack.

The bus is here! Elkin was so excited to be able to ride a bus to school this year.

Here's Elkin all buckled in on the bus looking a little bit nervous. Have a great day Elkin!

After his first day at school Mami & Papi anxiously awaited for the bus to arrive. Here it is!

Elkin was very glad to see Papi...

and Mami.

So how was the first day of school? Well we think it went well. We still have quite a hard time with the language barrier when he tries to tell us about something we weren't there during. He told us "Juice, Milk and Hamburger" and that's about it. The good news is he wants to back today so we will assume everything went well yesterday!

Adoptive Families Colombia Reunion

2009-07-13T09:47:00.004-05:00

This past weekend the three of us headed to St. Louis to attend the CHI Adoptive Families Colombia Reunion.

On Friday we had time to visit The Magic House which is a very cool children's museum in St. Louis. Elkin had a great time going from one interactive display to the next.

Here he is playing a big wheel that made music when you touched it with a metal bar.

Elkin's favorite part of the museum was the play auto shop. He got to change tires, fill up fluids and all that other car fix-up type stuff. Here's him and Papi filling up the anti-freeze.

I thought the coolest part of the museum was a little town they had set up. In it was a bank, pizza shop, water works, post office and grocery store. In all of these shops kids could pretend to be citizens or work at these places. They could be a waiter, get money out of an ATM, deliver mail or take on pretty much any role they wanted. Here's Elkin using the self-checkout to get himself some groceries he picked out. He was pretty disappointed to find out there wasn't actually any food in the containers!

On Saturday we went to a park for the reunion. There were around 20 families there who have adopted from Colombia! We had a great time meeting people who had followed our journey as well as people we have been blog stalking! It was great to talk with everyone and watch the kids all play together.

Elkin played ball quite a bit...

and liked chasing the bubbles.

Here is the group photo with all the children who have been adopted from Colombia and Guatemala or having siblings who have been. (Elkin is front row center in the green shirt - he doesn't look too happy right here - he had quite a meltdown right before!)

You can tell these kids are used to having their pictures taken - they all stood there so nicely just saying "CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE" while everyone got their pictures in!

We had such a great time and we can't wait to see everyone again next year!

Independence Day

2009-07-06T12:50:00.004-05:00

This Independence Day we celebrated Elkin's first year as a US Citizen! Not surprisingly Elkin thinks that every flag is a flag to tell the race cars to race. Here he is with the little flag we bought him earlier in the week.

Elkin & Papi wore matching shirts - I may be a little biased but don't they look cute!?

Before we indulged in the wonderful dinner that Papi & Grandma made, Elkin helped shuck the corn from James & Rebecca's garden so we could have some for dinner.

We also picked some of the beautiful zinnias from Grandma's garden.

After dinner we all had fun playing with Elkin's new sprinkler!

Here's Grandpa & Elkin...

and Papi, Elkin & Rebecca.

We ended the night with some fireworks which Elkin LOVED! He was a little scared of the dark and the bugs but thought the loud noises and bright lights of the fireworks were great!

Here Comes Summer!

2009-05-31T16:52:00.002-05:00

Since school has been over for Elkin we've been keeping busy! Here's a few pictures to let you know what we've been up to.

Memorial Day weekend we went to The Great American Barbecue Festival with Grandma & Grandpa. We had a great time eating barbecue (of course!), riding some carnival rides and listening to music.

Elkin really enjoyed the shaved ice while we listened to music.

It was a long, hot day and Elkin told us in his not-so-subtle way that he was done and ready to go home.

We've been spending a lot of time at the library the last few weeks and I imagine we will be frequent visitors as the days get hotter! Elkin and Mami went to the summer reading kick-off party where Elkin did some crafts and got his face painted. What did he choose? A car of course!

We broke out the pool for the first time! Elkin was thrilled to see it! The water was freezing but he had a great time. He seems to still love the pool now as much as he did in Colombia!

So Elkin acted like a robot in the pool...

Growled like a dinosaur at his beach ball...

and spent a lot of time just chillin'.

So writing this post really makes me think of that refreshing pool in Monteria.

So here's out little boy 8 months ago...

and now!!!

Awwww... they grow up so fast! :)

Last Day of School & Summer Haircut

2009-05-23T08:41:00.002-05:00

Elkin's last day of preschool was on Thursday... a sad day for Elkin because he LOVES to go to school.

Here's a pic of Elkin and his preschool teacher

On his last day of school, his class went to a local farm where they played games, had a picnic, and even rode horses!

Considering school is over we figured it was time for a summer haircut. (OK, his hair is completely unmanageable and we needed a break!)

Elkie Zoo!

2009-04-24T09:03:00.004-05:00

Yesterday we drove up to Kansas City to have some fun. We told Elkin we were going to go out to eat and going to the Kansas City zoo. He jumped out of bed in the morning and yelled "Elkie Zoo!".

Before we made it to the zoo we stopped at Habachi House at City Market to enjoy some Greek food. He had everyone in the restaurant charmed of course! Here's a funny picture of Elkin enjoying his baklava.

Here's Elkin on Papi's shoulders just outside the zoo - he can't wait to go in!

Elkin ran into the zoo and insisted we take a photo of him on this Elephant statue.

Here's a picture of Papi and Elkin watching the sea lions - they are Mami's favorite!

We had a great time looking at the animals but the highlight of the trip for Elkin was the train ride around the zoo. Here's a cheesy shot of him waiting to get on.

Here he is enjoying the ride...

... and looking really depressed when it was over.

Before we called it a day Elkin and Papi rode the carousel...

and Elkin said goodbye to some new friends.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-13T13:46:00.004-05:00

Elkin had a great time on Easter. He woke up the morning and came out to see if the Easter Bunny had came. This is the look on his face when he saw his Easter basket.

He had a great time hunting for eggs in the house. Here's him showing off his basket with eggs.

In the afternoon we went over to Grandma & Grandpa's house and had a nice dinner followed by another Easter Egg Hunt outside. It was cold and a little rainy, but that didn't slow down Elkin. Here is looking for the next egg.

Happy Easter!

Busy Day

2009-04-11T18:58:00.002-05:00

We had a great day today!

We woke up early and went to Elkin's soccer game. We don't think he really likes soccer that much - he has no interest in chasing after the ball at least - he might just be a little too young still. So here is a picture of him looking super bored.

But then we had some fun and went to an Easter egg hunt. See Elkin, Mami told you there would be eggs in the grass! :) Elkin didn't get any eggs (lots of kids and few eggs) but a nice older kid gave Elkin a few eggs when it was all over.

Mami loved to see the Easter Bunny and Elkin thought he was just okay. Hey at least no tears :)

After Elkin and Papi had a nap we went to Melvern Lake just to spend some time outside since it was such a nice day. Elkin loved walking on the beach...

and writing his name in the sand.

Mami loves this photo of Elkin running towards her on the beach.

We ended the day with some fun time at the playground. What a fun day!

Coloring Easter Eggs

2009-04-10T20:03:00.002-05:00

We colored Easter eggs tonight. Elkin got the hang of it quickly and really enjoyed putting the eggs in the color dye.

After we colored Easter eggs we went to Smoke in the Spring - a barbecue contest and tasting in a small town south of us. We had a great time listening to the band and eating food. Elkin was just in awe of the live music.

On the way home from the festival we were talking about what we are going to do tomorrow, I was trying to explain that we were going to an Easter egg hunt. I told Elkin that there were going to be eggs in the grass he had to grab and put in his basket. Well, he thought this was hilarious. "Eggs in the grass - no Mami!" Which if you think about it, is kind of a strange thing. We'll see how the hunt goes tomorrow!

Yellow Flowers

2009-04-10T20:00:00.002-05:00

Today Elkin and Mami picked some "yellow flowers" in the backyard. Elkin had a great time picking them and putting them in both of our hair.

Elkin Counts to 10!

2009-04-10T19:48:00.002-05:00

Elkin counted to 10 today! In English as well! The last few weeks he has really been into counting EVERYTHING. A few weeks ago he was going "1, 2, 3, 1" and that lasted quite a while. Yesterday he was counting something in a book and got to six.

I was walking outside with him today and he all on his own started counting the steps. Before I knew he had counted all of them - 10! Of course when Papi came home Elkin had to show him how he can count the steps - and of course we got video of it!

Indoor Soccer

2009-04-05T10:40:00.003-05:00

Yesterday (Saturday) was the first day of Elkin's 6-week Indoor Soccer program through local Parks & Rec and he had a blast! Not so great at the actual gameplay part but that wasn't important. He had a LOT of fun!

Before his actual "game" there was some kicking practice. Here's a video of Elkin kicking the soccer ball across the court and then, with a little help, into the goal.

When it was time for the game, he wasn't totally sure what to do. He and another boy his age looked a bit confused. :)

Elkin's Goose Egg

2009-04-01T13:04:00.003-05:00

Today was Elkin's second day at preschool. I got a call about half way through that he had been running and fell down. I was told that he had a pretty bad goose egg and was very upset. They said I needed to come immediately and pick him up and take him somewhere to get it checked out. I was of course freaking out but not expecting to see something that looked this bad.

He was very upset when I got there but calmed down pretty quick. This was our first injury so I was pretty much panicking. I picked Papi up at work (the nurse told us to keep ice on his head and I had to drive) and we rushed him to the doctor's office. The doc said that it wasn't anything serious. He may get a black eye as well as it heals. He's in pretty good spirits now and so far still excited about going back to school next week.

Colorado Vacation

2009-04-01T10:16:00.003-05:00

Last week we took a long weekend and went to Colorado. We took a break from the long car ride and stopped at Casa Bonita in Denver for lunch. Here's Elkin in front of the fountain near the entrance.

It was such a warm beautiful day that we decided to stop for some hiking in Boulder. It was a very steep and crowded trail and honestly Mami and Papi had a little bit of a time keeping up with Elkin - that kid has some energy!

Papi and Elkin enjoyed another warm day, this time at a playground in Fort Collins.

Finally in the mountains! Here's a picture of Elkin in Rocky Mountain National Park. He had a great time climbing on the rocks and taking in the scenery.

To end our trip we stayed at a very cool cabin for a couple nights in Estes Park. The weather turned very cold but luckily we didn't get snowed in. Here's Elkin on the deck showing off his new hat and Mami's shoes.

Since it was cold we spent a lot of time in front of the fire in our cabin playing games. Turns out Elkin LOVES Jenga and is quite good at it. Here is a very cute video of him having a GREAT time playing "JENGA!"

School Time!

2009-03-30T19:35:00.000-05:00

Elkin had his first day of preschool today! He'll be attending a few hours every week so the local co-op can further observe him to see where he's at developmentally.

Here's the handsome guy all ready for his first day of school. He was so excited to go! He kept hugging me and saying "Thank you Mami!". So cute :)

I briefly talked to his teacher at the end of the day and she said he did a very good job. He took cues well from the other kids, didn't get upset about being away from me and didn't have any tantrums. He had a great time and he can't wait to go back!

Elkin's First Snow!

2008-12-17T07:21:00.004-06:00

Elkin saw snow a couple of times this year and thought it was "yikky" but all we got was a dusting.

A few days ago, however, we got several inches so we bundled him up and took him out in it. He loved it! I guess there just wasn't enough on the ground the last few times to be any fun.

And for anyone that isn't aware... no, it does not snow where Elkin is from in Colombia so he's never seen it before in real life.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T13:02:00.001-06:00

Elkin's first Thanksgiving!

Challenges & Successes

2008-11-25T13:25:00.002-06:00

I thought it might be good to write up a post about some of the challenges we are having with Elkin as well as the successes now that we've been home awhile. It's hard to believe that we've been home for more than seven weeks!

Eating
Elkin seems to like American food very well. His favorite foods are bread (which he still calls pan) and pizza. He loves bread and luckily will eat it with anything that sticks to it. I spend a lot of time pressing protein sources into the top of slices of bread! He sometimes will refuse to eat but we'll save his plate for later and he'll eat right up a few hours later. He's been getting much better at eating when we do lately.

Elkin eating pizza!

Sleeping
Sleeping is one of our greatest challenges right now. As far as nap time goes we have made a lot of progress. He used to be very upset when it was time to take a nap and it would take him sometimes hours to fall asleep. I tried letting him stop naps but quickly found out that he still needs them! After lunch we have some quiet time with books and then we go lay down in Mami & Papi's bed. He helps me turn on the fan, shut the door and get the bed ready. We talk and cuddle for awhile and then he quickly goes to sleep - about 10 minutes. Usually with me in a headlock hug :) I sneak out and he only sleeps for about 45 minutes but that seems to be all he needs.

Then he wakes up. That's when things go sour. He is very very upset to wake up by himself. I go in and try to comfort him and he usually rejects me. I think he wants me to love on him but is really mad at me for having left him when he's sleeping. It seems like nothing I can do will calm him down and he will not tell me what he wants. I'm hoping this will get better.

Bedtime is a little different. Sometimes he wants to go to bed but usually not. Papi goes in and lays down with Elkin in Elkin's bed. It usually takes about an hour for him to fall asleep. I go wake Papi up at that time (thank goodness he can sleep anywhere!) and we are able to get about half an hour alone before we fall to sleep exhausted. Around 2-3 hours after Elkin first fell asleep he wakes up. Screaming again because he woke up alone. Papi goes back in with him and stays the rest of the night because he's too tired to get back up. Papi has to get up for work early so he takes Elkin and puts him in my bed for the rest of the night. He usually sleeps pretty well and wakes up happy. We tried leaving Elkin in his room after Tim gets up for work but he would always wake up being very very mad at me and refusing to go back to bed with me. What we are doing now at least keeps me a little more sane.

We tried cosleeping but found it not to work very well for us. I'm a very light sleeper and Elkin's a kicker and whiner when he's sleeping. I'm concerned he wakes up so many times so upset at night and I hope he starts feeling more secure.

Elkin's favorite place to sleep is in the car!

Potty-training
Elkin was potty trained when we became a family but regressed some. He's been in underwear for 2 weeks now and has been doing fabulous. He's still in a pull-up at night and once in awhile will make it through the night dry. We try to have him go the bathroom when he wakes up in the night but he's usually already mad and trying to make him go usually makes him more mad.

Language
He is speaking a little more English. However he's understanding a ton of it! I would guess he knows we are talking about 80% of the time. I'm worried that he's not speaking more of it but I think that's just going to take some time. He's becoming a little more interested in books - in fact he let me read a story book to him for the first time today!

Independence
Elkin is getting more and more independent. He wants to do everything, and I do mean everything by himself. He's a very helpful little boy which is good and bad. For instance he wants to get into the car and buckle himself into his car seat which he just doesn't have the motor skills to do. He gets pretty frustrated at himself and at us for eventually having to do it. He's a very clean little boy - he keeps his room clean and himself very clean - we are loving it!

Elkin taking a 2-mile hike - all on his own two feet!

Attachment
We think this is getting much better. He starting loving us a long time ago but I think we are just now really becoming his parents. A few weeks ago we would go somewhere and I think he would have been fine with adopting a new Mami or Papi in a few hours time. However, the last few times we have went places we have seen a real difference in him "claiming" us. We have a ways to go but we are so glad we are seeing some positive results!

Happy Birthday Elkin!

2008-11-12T09:50:00.004-06:00

Elkin celebrated his 3rd birthday last week! Here's a video of him blowing out his birthday candles!

We've been very busy with pediatrician appointments, ophthalmologist appointments and blood draws. The poor little guy has been through all sorts of poking and prodding but I think the worst of it is over. We got all his test results in just last night and he's a very healthy little boy! But enough of the "icky" stuff as Elkin would say - here's some more pictures!

Elkin was a dinosaur for Halloween! We went to just a few houses but he really liked his costume.

Elkin is a little scared of bugs. Here's a picture of him trying to smash one with a little pumpkin.

One last picture of Elkin enjoying a nice day at the Emporia Zoo.

The Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-18T16:15:00.002-05:00

Last night was amazing. Elkin ate good, went to bed on time, stayed in bed most of the night, and woke up with a big smile on his face! Let's hope that's the beginning of a new streak!

We went to the pumpkin patch today - a very different experience than when we would go by ourselves. We always looked at all the families with children with a little jealousy so it was very weird being on "the other side" this time.

Elkin was overwhelmed as usual but he had a great time. Here are a few shots from the hayrack ride and with the pumpkin that he picked out.

¡Basta!

2008-10-17T22:54:00.002-05:00

During Elkin's tantrums, he yells over and over a Spanish word - ¡Basta! We had no idea what it meant and it certainly sounds like something bad in English (you have one guess) but we really had no idea.

We were doing some translating this evening and just for fun, looked up how to say Stop! What do you know - it's ¡Basta! That's what he's saying when he gets really upset. Makes sense... more so than that other word we thought he was saying :)

His English seems to be developing a little at a time which is great. He loves to repeat things he hears and ask what things are and then repeats them. We think he has down 'pumpkin' and he really has 'bye' and 'uh oh' and 'oh no' down (though the last two are probably the same in Spanish). It's really, really funny to hear him repeat everything... scary too! He's been repeating everything as we tell him what things are and it's so cute!

He's even been laughing when we laugh which causes quite the chain reaction! We were watching The Office on NBC this evening and every time we laughed he laughed just as hard right after us as if he got the same joke... so funny!!

When we were watching Survivor later in the evening, he went off on this long ramble in Spanish during the vote off like he was expressing his concerns/opinions/etc. about who was getting kicked off. Not sure what was going on there but the boy was very in to it!

Totally off the topic but I'm feeling one-post today... he falls asleep in the car like magic. Sometimes we'll be in there for not more than a minute or two and nowhere near nap time and he'll completely fall asleep. He's so excited to get in the car and go places and he tries so hard not to fall asleep during this favorite part of his day but he can't help it! It's so cute but we feel sorry for him because he misses out on all the excitement of driving around.

A Few Days at Home

2008-10-16T10:46:00.003-05:00

It's been a busy several days at home - lots of adjusting on everyone's part but things are getting better.

The tantrums are better, we think mainly because there's a place for Elkin to go by himself. In the airport, when he got upset and wanted his space, there was nowhere for him to go - thus the spitting, hitting, pinching, etc. when we had to physically restrain him. And he's a very strong almost-3-year-old. Plus we're learning how to deal with him in specific situations - something that obviously had to come with a little experience with him.

The trips out have been almost perfect. He loves riding in the car and if we keep moving around in the store and around town (which is our natural state anyway) he seems very happy. He's usually fine coming home too. I don't know if there's any child psychology to back this up, but we like the fact that we're occasionally going out and coming back to the same place. That isn't something he's had with us much lately (hotel to hotel to hotel). We think it surely helps reinforce that this is home.

We're really looking forward to his language developing more. It's really hard to convey that something is his but he can't use it right now for a very good reason or that dinner will be here in an hour and we're not just saying no to more snacks because we're mean people. We know some of that is just three year old stuff but it would certainly be nice if he could at least understand even if he disagrees.

On a lighter note! He loves his new tricycle (which he calls a motorcycle of course - the kid's in love with anything on wheels) and he took a ride this morning in the driveway. It's extra cold here for mid October so we got him all dressed up in winter garb. Surely it's the first time he had a stocking hat or gloves on. It didn't get much below 80F where he came from.

Homecoming on Sunday

2008-10-14T18:26:00.003-05:00

Sorry for the late post (I've gotten several nasty emails for the lack of updates!) but it's been really crazy around here. Elkin has had a hard time adjusting... and so have we. But things are starting to look up.

Here's a few shots from Sunday... our arrival at the airport and then the walk in the house:

We'll post some more soon (I know, I know, I promised that last time) but we really will try.

Back in the US!

2008-10-12T03:34:00.002-05:00

We got back to the US last night after a very, very, very, very long day of travel with a very, very, very grumpy 2 year old. It wasn't at all a fun trip but we're almost home.

We'll post some homecoming pictures soon, we promise!

We're Ready to Go!

2008-10-10T16:43:00.003-05:00

I went by myself this afternoon to pick up Elkin's passport with his US visa in it from the US Embassy. Everything is fine but it was a bit stressful.

The taxi ride there was quite the trip. A heavy storm, heavy traffic, and a semi-lost taxi driver made for a stressful trip. We HAD to be there before 4pm. No exceptions. This isn't a pharmacy or the post office - it's an embassy.

When we arrived at about 3:40pm, the place looked deserted. It was crazy outside yesterday morning with all kinds of people doing all kinds of things. Not today. There was one guard which tried to tell us that no visa work was done on Fridays and to go home (panic #1) but the agency rep I was with just kept walking and smiled and rolled his eyes. He didn't chase after us so I figured we were OK at that point.

The security checkpoint that was next was crazy yesterday and was pretty much exactly like airport security except the embassy had a super high tech full body x-ray machine. Today, the "carry-on" scanner wasn't even on and they just rushed us through the x-ray. They didn't even ask for ID. It was 15 minutes before closing time on Friday - everyone apparently wanted to go home or something.

As I walked into the embassy, the 5,000 chairs that were completely full of people were COMPLETELY empty. It was bizarre. I thought we might have been wrong about the time or what we could do at this time and that things were closed (panic #2). No worries though - I went to the window, gave the guy the little pink slip, and about 5 minutes later came Elkin's Colombian passport with a shiny US visa glued inside, along with a huge packet for immigration when we get to the States.

(On a side note, it's kind of scary being at a US Embassy in another country. It's definitely the most dangerous place we've been in Colombia if you really think about it. US Embassys are regular victims of terrorist threats and attacks in many countries.)

The cab ride back to the B&B was yet another adventure. The taxi driver was yawning as he pulled over to pick us up. I didn't think anything of it until he started in falling asleep while driving through Bogota traffic! (panic #3) I seriously thought I was going to die for a few seconds there as he was weaving through traffic with his eyes closed. I made it here so obviously everything was OK but it was maybe the scariest cab ride yet even though it wasn't the crasiest driving per se.

Anyway, we're off for the aiport pretty early tomorrow and we'll try to blog as soon as we can in the US!

Oh yea, here's that kid again :)

The Dennis Family

2008-10-10T16:32:00.003-05:00

Before we left for Colombia and since we've been here, we've chatted back and forth with the Dennis family who is also adopting from Colombia.

They were headed here to Bogotá to say for a single day before heading off to the city that their new daughter is from. We joked that if things worked out just right that we might be able to meet. Well it did! Yesterday we met them just before heading out.

They posted here on their blog and even have a picture of all of us.

We're Coming Home on Sunday!

2008-10-09T14:28:00.003-05:00

We went to the US Embassy this morning and everything went very smooth. We're picking up Elkin's US visa tomorrow (Friday) at 3:30pm and then we'll fly to Miami on Saturday. We'll make the remainder of the trip on Sunday and arrive mid-day.

Anyone that wants to know exact times so they can be there can just email us at fishertimj at gmail.com.

For family and friends - please don't feel like you have have to be there on Sunday. You're all more than welcome to stop by anytime and meet him. On the other hand, we're not worried about the size of the crowd either so everyone is invited. Elkin is shy at first but he definitely won't be scared.

We're also thinking about meeting somewhere for lunch with everyone after we land so we can get something to eat :) and so everyone can have a bit more time to interact with Elkin. If anyone has any idea where we can do that near the airport, please drop us an email.

We couldn't take pictures of the US Embassy (duh) but it wasn't quite what we expected. It was all open (great climate here) and very easy to get around. Nice place actually. We were assigned a particular window to do our work which was in several stages. It was near the edge of the building so we were able to keep Elkin busy around some trees and stuff - the rest the place looked like an airport waiting area which would have been bad to be stuck in.

We first gave them all the paperwork, then had a short discussion about what we gave them about 15 minutes later, then we paid for the visa, and then a bit later I had a detailed discussion about Elkin and all his paperwork with some sort of US official (not sure her title). There were a few stressful questions but nothing too crazy. She did ask how we got our sentencia since the strike was going on and I assured her it was due to Elkin's lucky birth in a small town and not some under-the-table judge payoff. She believed me :).

The whole process wasn't more than an hour. MUCH better than we had been told about. We have our little come-back-tomorrow-and-pick-up-his-visa slip that we have been dreaming about! We're finally on our way home!!

Just in case you haven't been looking at our cute kid:

Doctors Visit a Complete Success!

2008-10-08T17:57:00.004-05:00

We left for the doctors visit at about 4:20... 20 minutes late (taxi was late). We're not sure when the appointment actually was but my guess is it was soon after 4:00 because we made high tailed it there like I've never seen. The taxi driver was weaving in and out of traffic like a maniac! I actually leaned over to Stacy and told her that this was just like a video game only I'd NEVER drive this fast in a video game.

I'm not exaggerating... it was INSANE! I wish we had had the camera to video this one. Remember - no seat belts here.

Then we hopped out of the taxi, literally ran into the clinic, up the elevator, down the stairs (wrong floor), and right into the doctors office. Who knows when our appointment was but we got in!

The visit was a little traumatic, only partly because Elkin slept all the way into the office. I had to wake him up, strip him down, and the doctor did a bit of everything to him to make sure he was OK. I'd say we were in there about 20 minutes or so. He prepared the medical documents that the embassy will need and sent us on our way. He did speak English.

So next up is the US Embassy tomorrow morning at 9:00am. It's the very last official thing to do so we can all come home. Well, we have to pick it up the next day but other than that.

Man we love Bogota. It's beautiful, lots of different kinds of people (read: no one stares at us), and the weather is amazing.

Poor Elkin thinks this is his new life... pictures all the time, different hotel rooms, uncomfortable people situations, very uncomfortable doctor visits, irregular meals... :( Poor kid! We CAN NOT wait to get him HOME!

¡Viva Bogotá!

2008-10-08T14:55:00.002-05:00

We're in Bogotá!

Our to-dos in Monteria this morning went better than perfect. Our interpreter begged her way into the building that the passport office is in at 8:00am (20 minutes before they opened). She and Stacy went up and got the passport, had to make some copies of it, return the copies to the office (why we don't know) and then were back down at the taxi at 8:30am!

We made it to the airport in plenty of time. In fact, our plane left 45 minutes late so we were actually quite early.

Elkin LOVED the plane ride. He just laughed at every bump during take-off and was enthralled enough about the inside of the plane to keep pretty busy on the 45 minute flight. We're glad he loved the plane ride because he didn't care too much for the airport wait. He threw quite a tantrum on the floor in fact.

The weather in Bogotá all year round is just amazing - 50s and 60s pretty much all day, every day. Exactly what we needed after the insane heat and humidity of Monteria.

We have a doctors visit for Elkin at 4:00pm today - a required trip before he can get his US visa. After that we have to get some pictures taken of him for his visa. Hopefully he's not too upset after the visit with the doc to get a decent picture taken. We'll see.

Tomorrow is the US Embassy visit to apply for Elkin's visa which supposedly a very long process. Friday, assuming what we're told is correct, we'll be able to pick it up. You can not pick up the visa the same day no matter how early you're done with the application.

So that means we could leave on Saturday. There's no way to get from Bogotá to home in one day on our airline if you leave on a Saturday. Fine with us. We'll stay over in Miami and head home on Sunday. Hopefully. :)

Wish Us Luck!!

2008-10-08T06:43:00.001-05:00

Our interpreter should be here at 7:30am this morning to help us check out of our hotel.

After that, it's off to the passport office at 8:20am where things will hopefully go smoothly and quickly. Then it's the airport (about a 15 minute drive) by 9:20am - well, assuming they let us on right before takeoff. We're not sure how strict they are at this small airport.

We're trying not to get our hopes up too high. Really, like we said before, if we miss it, we'll just take the one this afternoon. Killing time all day with all our luggage won't be fun but things could be worse. Honestly, we're most anxious about the passport being correct. If it's not, that will put our trip off at least a day or so which would be worse of course.

Hope you hear from us next in Bogotá!

Number Five

2008-10-07T20:14:00.002-05:00

Wow, 5 posts in one day. You'd think we were actually busy! :)

I called our interpreter at about 6:05pm (she was supposed to be here with the lawyer at 6:00pm) and she told us that herself and the lawyer and the ICBF representative would all meet us here at the hotel at 6:30 to 6:45. To my surprise, they were all here promptly at 6:30. Little things like that make us very happy at this stage in the game!

Everyone came up to the room to talk over all the last minute details before we head to Bogotá tomorrow. We even got our agency's representative in Bogotá (the woman we're told "is in charge of everything down here" and who I so far think really does have a grip on this whole process) on the phone to make sure we had all the paperwork needed for the US Embassy.

We're told we do and we're set to go! This was a big point of worry because we didn't want to get all the way there just to find out we'd have to fly back to Montería to do some other official business.

The only roadblock to everything working out here in Montería is that one hour we have to 1) Get the passport (long, long lines and the possibility for the office being closed without notice), 2) Pick up Stacy and Elkin at the hotel and 3) Check in at the airport and get on our plane. It's going to be very close.

Worst case scenario if we miss our flight (well, within reason I guess) is that we'll have to take the later-in-the-day flight to Bogotá which may or may not have a drastic affect on when we come home. It could (it's complicated - we'll explain later if it happens) but we just don't know for sure yet.

So as far as we can tell right now, the very best and most unlikely day we'll be home is this Sunday. The earliest day after that would be next Wednesday - not due to flight availability but instead to days that certain things can be completed. Then of course if anything goes wrong that we're not aware of right now (very likely), our return dates move further out from there. Our originally scheduled return flight is a week from this Saturday so at very least we'd love to not have to stay longer than that.

Although stepping back for a minute, we fully understand that we're very, very lucky to be able to come home at all. Many families whose adopted child(ren) are from larger towns where the judges are striking have been here for months and have no end in sight. We're in infinitely better shape than that and can't imagine being in that situation. We really feel for all of them.

We'll try to update everyone tomorrow night. Our Internet access may or may not be as easily accessible when we're in Bogotá. We won't know until we're there.

Wish us luck!!

Our Little Elkin

2008-10-07T13:45:00.002-05:00

This is how we know Elkin most of the time - laughing about some random thing! It's so easy to get him going. I don't know where he gets the energy to laugh so much, let alone run around a million miles an hour.

Can you tell we're just waiting around today? This is our fourth blog post so far in one day... I think that's a record.

Some Progress This Morning

2008-10-07T11:24:00.003-05:00

Our interpreter showed up EARLIER THAN SCHEDULED this morning which was great. We headed over the passport office, then to the bank, then to another office, then back to the passport office. All necessary to get the passport going.

Government office lines are nothing in the States compared to here. We'd give anything to wait at the DMV in the US. No problemo. Other people in line were very, very rude too. The men just stepped over the women and there was lots of pushing and cutting. Believe it or not, people in the States are WAY nicer in these kinds of situations. No comparison.

As much as our interpreter begged, our passport could not be completed today. Apparently this government office building is again shutting down this afternoon to show solidarity with the judges strike. We're supposed to be there again (actually just one of us) at 8:20am to pick it up.

So with this news, we bought plane tickets to Bogotá! The plane leaves at 9:20am. Yes, 9:20 - an hour after the passport office opens.

In that hour, Tim will get the passport, then head back to the hotel to pick up Elkin and Stacy, and then head to the airport, all with our interpreter. That's a lot to do in an hour. We're hoping we don't miss the flight. If so, we believe there's another one in the afternoon though that will mess up our tentative plans in Bogotá for the day. Hey - we have plane tickets. We're ecstatic right now about that.

So if the morning flight works out, we're planning on doing the doctors visit at the US Embassy in the afternoon (he only does them in the afternoon). That's Wednesday. So that puts applying for his US visa on Thursday. Visas are picked up the day after application. Since no visa work is done on Friday and Monday is a holiday, we'll be stuck in Bogotá until next Tuesday when all we'll do is pick it up. Then we can come home.

If things would have been done on time here in Montería, we wouldn't be facing the 4 day weekend in Bogotá. I'd say bad luck but it was certainly preventable.

It's all relative I guess. We'll still be coming home early so that's great... we just got our hopes up for earlier.

This afternoon we're meeting with the lawyer to get all our paperwork in order and get her paid. Hopefully that'll be OK.

The Many Moods of Elkin

2008-10-07T11:12:00.002-05:00

There are several that we've not taken pictures of for reasons you can guess but here's some recent pics we've enjoyed:

Happy!!! (man I love the playground)

Busy (those are Tim's glasses by the way)

Enthralled (he's watching some little girls swim)

Sad (waiting WAY too long for the interpreter to show up)

Pensive (when WILL the interpreter show up... really? when will she???)

A Frustrating Day

2008-10-07T07:05:00.002-05:00

Yesterday turned out to be a frustrating day. We did get Elkin's new birth certificate but didn't get his passport. The day was made up of our interpreter continuously saying that she would be here at a certain time and then not showing up because she was busy with her other job.

In order to get a passport here you have to turn your paperwork in in the morning, stand in long lines at the bank to go back and pay for the passport and then pick up the passport in the afternoon. We finally made it to the passport office a little after 5. When we got to the office building there were guards there that said the office building has closed as part of the strike and that they had closed just a few hours before.

So yes, if our interpreter would have shown up when she was supposed to we would have the passport. The guard said the building would be open this morning but needless to say we are pretty nervous whether that will happen or not. If they are truly participating in the strike we don't see how that can happen. If it is closed today we plan to find out if we can get a passport in another city for Elkin. We aren't sure if this possible and if it is if all the other passport offices are closed because of the strike as well.

So the interpreter is supposed to show up this morning and take us down there. So hopefully 1) she shows up on time 2) she shows up sometime today 3) the passport office is open and we can drop off our paperwork and 4) the passport office is still open this afternoon so we can pick up the passport.

We'll keep you updated!

Hopeful for Birth Certificate and Passport Today

2008-10-06T09:07:00.002-05:00

If things go well, we'll have Elkin's new birth certificate in hand in the next hour or so and then we can go get his passport. That's all we need to head to Bogotá.

We checked flights and realistically, if everything goes as planned today, we can leave for Bogotá in the morning and get started on the US Embassy stuff in the afternoon.

Wish us luck!

Passport Photos

2008-10-04T19:42:00.002-05:00

We didn't do much today - just lots of rummaging through paperwork, worrying if we have everything we need for the insane week ahead.

We did take another trip to the pool (or should I say the big bath tub since he won't clean himself any other way) and did our regular grocery run.

This evening, we did get something worthwhile done. We went to a photo place down town here and got Elkin's picture taken for his Colombian passport that hopefully we'll get completed by Monday night or Tuesday morning. We got enough copies so we could use a few for his US Visa - that should save another trip to a photo place in Bogotá.

We were going to go to the beach tomorrow but decided not to since this week will be so crazy. We figured a relaxing day around the hotel and a lunch out with the interpreter was a better idea. Elkin is not going to get to maintain any of his sleeping or eating habits for a while so we didn't see any reason to add a day to that.

Trip to Exito by Ourselves and... oh yea... SENTENCIA!

2008-10-03T17:55:00.004-05:00

The day started out innocent enough - our regular trip to breakfast in the hotel and then showers. We decided to quit whining about everything and just hop in a taxi by ourselves and head to the mall.

The mall trip and taxi rides by ourselves went well. We were there a bit early at 9:30am or so (stores seemed to open around 10:00 like back home) but Exito was open of course.

We strolled around, picked up some things that our grocery store doesn't carry, and got Elkin a new pair of shoes! (US size 6 if anyone was curious ;).

We hopped a taxi back to the hotel and the phone rang as soon as we walked in. It was the ICBF representative that we had met the day we got Elkin. She speaks no English by the way. All I understood was "Hi, how are you doing?" I answered and then she asked something else at which time I reminded her that I speak no Spanish - she laughed and hung up.

Weird.

Of course that got us excited. What if everything is done here and we got our sentencia (the final paperwork that no one else can get because of the strike)? We decided to call our interpreter in a few minutes.

Phone rang again almost right away. It was the interpreter. "Where have you been all morning? We've been trying to get a hold of you! The lawyer will be there in 10 minutes and you'll be going to Elkin's home town to get everything completed!"

Yipee!!!! BIG surprise. This is even earlier than they estimated. We were just hoping it would happen sometime NEXT week. Next Friday would have been awesome let alone TODAY.

A Colombian-10-minutes later (45 minutes) she showed up and off we were to get the remainder of the signatures on the sentencia and get Elkin's new birth certificate started. Our interpreter couldn't come with us so some of the details of what we did are a little sketchy due to our language barrier (I'm sure it's all fine - everyone has done this several times before).

Our first stop was in a small town to complete the sentencia. Several people, including a judge, had to sign this legal document which to our understanding is our legal adoption of Elkin in Colombia. So at this point, after this document, we believe Colombia sees us as his legal parents.

This document, the sentencia, is what everyone else adopting in the larger cities where the strike is going on dream about having in their hands. It required a judge's signature and since the judges aren't working in most places, the sentencia can't be completed.

Here's a pic of our lawyer and Elkin at this stop:

After we had the sentencia, we traveled to the very, very small town that Elkin was born in. This is where the records of his birth are located and where we had to get the ball rolling on his new birth certificate with our names on it. This will be complete on Monday and is the last legal thing we need to complete in Monteria aside from getting him a Colombian passport.

The government building in this very small town was quite the sight. It was a concrete square building not much larger than a department store bathroom. The ceiling was falling in, old electrical outlets were exposed, a single florescent bulb was the only source of light in the whole room. There were a couple of computers that were all tied into one overloaded outlet.

At one point, Elkin needed to get his fingerprints taken for his new birth certificate. We were led out back where, and I'm not kidding, his fingerprints were taken under a straw hut.

That was quite the adventure.

The birth certificate will be complete on Monday and we can go pick it up then at the same office. After that, we need to get his Colombian passport made up with his new name (which we obviously need his new birth certificate for). After we have that, we can fly to Bogota, get Elkin's US Visa, complete some other various tasks, and then head home.

So yes, this happened much faster than we thought. It's only a few days quicker than our lawyer quoted us last week, but we assumed it would take longer than that.

Best case scenario, we're home with Elkin the middle of next week. More likely it'll be toward the end of the week. So as long as we don't run into a big snag somewhere, this may turn out to be a less-than-3-week trip!

We're still planning on taking our day outing to the beach on Sunday and I think tomorrow we'll go for another swim and get some ice cream at the park again.

To Elkin From You

2008-10-02T12:29:00.005-05:00

We'd really like to turn this blog into something like a scrapbook for Elkin someday so if anyone wants to be a part of that, feel free to comment on this post or any of the previous ones.

So...

What do you want Elkin to read from you someday? What's going on right now? What do you want him to know about? What's the first thing you're going to tell him when you see him? You get the idea! (This isn't just for family either - everyone can join in)

Comment! Comment! Comment!

Stuff Mami & Papi are Missing

2008-10-02T07:33:00.006-05:00

We've been gone 13 days now (but who's counting?) and we're really starting to miss some things about home.

Our three little kitties
Cell phones (EVERYONE has one here - just not us)
Sonic (the restaurant - Route 44 Diet Cokes to be exact)
Our big TV
Our own washer and dryer (laundry is about $1USD per item here)
Driving
High speed internet that works all the time
Being able to easily call family
Hundreds of English TV channels
Homemade food
Hot showers
Our own bed
Access to a variety of clothing (you can only pack so much)
Autumn
Ice (we can't drink the water here)
A big refrigerator
Separate rooms (please don't read anything into this one!)
Air conditioning (only our actual hotel room and a few taxis seem to have AC)
Being able to brush our teeth with tap water
...several more but now we're getting REALLY home sick

We keep finding ourselves talking about the things we thought were such a pain or were annoying or "unbearable" at home that we would maybe even pay someone to be able to do right now just to enjoy the feelings of home. Things like standing in line for 1/2 hour at Walmart or having "nothing to do" at home (we had no idea). I think, at least for a while, we'll appreciate things more.

Our Little Bed Plantain (think Couch Potato)

2008-10-01T16:00:00.006-05:00

The bed itself used to be this big part of the hotel room that was down right evil to Elkin. It meant bedtime and everything bad that surrounded it - taking out his eye, going to sleep without his foster mami, etc., etc. He HATED being covered up even though it's pretty cool in the room and he would never, ever ask to get on the bed or stay there very long once on it.

Oh how things have changed.

As much as we'll despise this habit later, Elkin has turned into quite the little couch potato - we're in a hotel and in Colombia so we'll call him our little Bed Plantain. He constantly asks to be put on the bed (it's too tall for him to get on himself) and starting today, he even pulls the covers down and gets under them, pulling them up to his neck. It's like he's a different kid!

He's even started taking his shoes off and removing his hat more often - all without complaining. These items could have been considered natural appendages until recently. We're very happy to see the change.

When on the bed, he loves to watch cartoons. It used to be a right-before-bed indulgence only. The rest of the day the TV was usually on one of our two non-dubbed US based channels. Now it's cartoons all day long and his favorite activity is laying in bed, covers up to his to neck, with Mr. Maker or Lazy Town on. (We're very excited to hear what these characters sound like without deep-voiced Spanish dubbing!)

Elkin has also really taken to waving. We're not sure how it started but he loves to wave at the bell hops, housekeepers and restaurant staff. He's probably just more comfortable with everyone.

A wave is a bit hard to capture in a photo but a video seemed a bit overkill too.

Stuff Elkin Loves and Hates

2008-10-01T09:04:00.006-05:00

Stuff He Loves

Motorcycles
Going places
(have we mentioned motorcycles?)
(have we mentioned going places?)
Cars
Water (any type - pool, river, rain puddle, picture of water, etc.)
Potato chips
Dancing
Arripas
Vanilla wafer cookies
Coca Cola Light
Lazy Town
Mr. Maker
Picking out his own clothes
Picking out his own toys
His hat - his dirty, dirty, hat
His shoes
Being tickled
Playing at the park
His toy car
Shooing the iguanas
Suitcases
Throwing things away
Swimming
Screaming "Hey Papi!"
Playing tricks on people
Turning on and off the TV
Changing the TV channels way too fast
Being carried around like a baby
Smiling and laughing
Turning on and off lights
Juice
Pizza
Fried eggs
Playing with the laptop
Onions
Repeating things
Eating and drinking whatever mami and papi is eating and drinking
Going to the bathroom every 5 minutes
Pushing the buttons on the elevator
Waving at hotel staff
Nodding YES to... well... anything he doesn't understand

Stuff He Hates

Being messy
Anyone or anything else that's messy
The word "NO"
The word "STOP"
Oreos
Scrambled eggs
Coloring
Books (we're working on this one)
Going to sleep
The dark
(have we mentioned the dark?)
Peanut butter
Taking cold medicine
Showers (he was in to this the first day but hates it now)
Not being the center of attention
Being denied something he wants at the grocery store

Breakfast Music

2008-10-01T09:01:00.002-05:00

The "elevator" music during breakfast everyday is bizarre. It's score music to popular US songs. It's weird stuff though like the theme to Young and the Restless and weird 80's songs we haven't heard in years.

Integración Meeting Yesterday

2008-09-30T15:21:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the late posting on this - our Internet has been out since early yesterday evening. The TV was out for a while today too. No TV and no Internet in a hotel in Colombia is a recipe for super boredom. Trust me.

We had our Integración last night with the representative from the ICBF (social services). We've jokingly referred to this meeting as the "sure you want to keep him?" meeting! Really it's just to make sure Elkin is adjusting to us well and that we're adjusting to him well. We passed with flying colors, of course :)

Just like every other official meeting, it didn't get around to starting for about an hour and a half or more from when it was supposed to. If you missed our previous post about some of the things we like and dislike about Colombia, a big one is that no one is in any hurry at all. Being late is apparently perfectly acceptable in any situation. I know some people in the States that would love that :)

Our interpreter was there too and she and the ICBF rep asked if we would be interested in taking a day trip to the Caribbean coast. Uhh... yea! So we're doing that on Sunday. Our interpreter will go with us and we'll eat lunch (where exactly we don't know) and do all that beach stuff. Full day adventure it sounded like.

Tomorrow, if things go as planned, we'll be heading to a photo place to get Elkin's passport photos taken. We'll need those when we head to the town he was born in (hopefully early next week) to get his Colombian passport made.

The ICBF also reassured us that as far as she can see, the judicial strike shouldn't affect us at all and that we should be on our way to Bogotá soon. We may actually be able to leave as we planned - earlier if things go very well.

Before we came to Colombia, we decided "for sure" that we'd hop a plane to Cartagena (touristy coastal town) to eat up some of this wait time but we've decided not to because we've been told twice now that our process should move along very quickly.

We'll see.

Elkin has been going to sleep and waking up so much better than when we first got him. The only time he's getting upset anymore is when we tell him no. I say that's better than when he wakes up or goes to sleep.

Hope to catch you all up again soon... we'll see how the Internet cooperates.

Couldn't help myself...

2008-09-28T18:54:00.001-05:00

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com

A Week in Colombia... Upgrade / Downgrade

2008-09-27T19:11:00.007-05:00

We've been here for about a week now and have had a taste of several areas of this experience so we thought we'd share our feelings about several parts in an upgrade/downgrade style.

The housekeeper on our floor - UPGRADE

We have the most wonderful housekeeper ever. Stacy has to fight back the urge to hug her on a daily basis! She's very grandmotherly. She watches for when we go to breakfast or head to the pool so she can come in and clean up while we're gone. She's always engaging Elkin and she has the biggest smile we've ever seen aside from our little boy. I wish she could come home with us.

The sounds outside - UPGRADE

We might not have always said this, but the honks and the music and all the talking outside nearly all day long is actually quite soothing. It's like a state fair meets interstate traffic. Sounds horrible but it's actually quite nice to listen to.

When it gets dark - DOWNGRADE

Maybe someone can explain this to us, but it gets dark really early here. We're in about the same time zone and looking at a map, Colombia is directly below the middle of the States but it gets dark by 6:00pm. Really dark. So we have to be in early.

Café con leche, fruit and arepas - UPGRADE

The café con leche (coffee and milk) is very good. Colombian coffee is generally more mild than what we have in the States. Café con leche is that great coffee mixed with very hot milk. No sweeteners. It might not sound that great but it's very, very good. Trust us. The fruit is amazing too. Lots of choices, some we've never seen before and it's all available in juice form too. The pineapple and mango here is especially good. Arepas are white, fried, cornbread type things that are really, really good.

The wildlife - UPGRADE

There's iguanas and monkeys everywhere in the park. Iguanas and monkeys!

Our hotel restaurant waiter - UPGRADE

One of the waiters at the hotel restaurant has kind of become our personal waiter. He's learning English so he likes to talk to us as much as he can in English (which isn't much). It's actually quite funny - we'll talk to him in Spanish and he'll talk to us in English. Needless to say, the conversations are short and to the point, lacking any sentence structure. He's awesome though - he knows exactly how we like our coffee, always runs over with a high chair when we show up, and has even started bringing a plastic cup full of orange juice (Elkin's favorite - there are lots of crazy juices available here).

Two English-language TV channels - UPGRADE

They're Spanish subtitled, but we do have a WB channel and E! that are mostly non-dubbed. It's very nice. We brought some TV-on-DVD shows on our laptop to watch which has been a lifesaver but the TV is great too.

Several Spanish-dubbed US TV kid's channels - DOWNGRADE

Don't get us wrong, we love that there's stuff for Elkin to watch but we're really getting tired of hearing Barney and the Backyardigans and [name any popular kids show] in way-off-the-mark Spanish dubbing.

The park - UPGRADE

The park is great. Lots of food stands, lots of sidewalks, iguanas, monkeys, sloths (we're told), a big river to watch and a huge playground. We really don't know what we'd do without that park.

The language barrier - DOWNGRADE

This part is way harder that we thought it would be. Yes, pointing works but only if there's something to point to. Most people are nice about it but many are annoyed. NO ONE speaks English here. Montería isn't an international city like Bogotá. English speaking people don't vacation here (According to many locals on the Internet, Montería is kind of a joke of a town even to other Colombians). Little to any international business goes on here so there's no incentive for any English at all. Not that we think anyone should speak English here, it's just really hard for us.

Living in a hotel - DOWNGRADE

Imagine vacationing alone in a foreign country with your three year old nephew that you've never met. That's best how we can relate to friends and family back home. The kid doesn't know you at all and you're stuck in a hotel room. Especially here - we're literally stuck in a hotel room. Like we've said above, it's a huge challenge just to go out to eat or visit the grocery store. It's too dangerous to go out at night. It's so hot outside the room - yes, outside the room. The entire hotel is "open" to the elements so it's hot and humid even in the hallway. Our room is the only public place in the hotel that is air conditioned.

The weather - DOWNGRADE

It's very hot and very humid. Very hot. Very humid.

Having a 3 year old boy - UPGRADE

We have the greatest little boy ever. He's so cute, so lovable, and has the best smile and laugh ever!

Having a 3 year old boy - DOWNGRADE

I'm guessing anyone who's ever had a three year old can ad lib this one.

Being the only gringo y gringa in town - DOWNGRADE

We didn't stand out so much in Bogota - at least we didn't feel like we did. We sometimes feel like we're in a zoo here. We're the only gringos we've seen in the entire town and it's not that small of a town. There's always a minority somewhere so anyone who's ever been in that situation can surely relate.

Changing Internet passwords - DOWNGRADE

It's hard to say "What's today's password to the wireless internet?" in Spanish when the Internet doesn't work and you can't use Google Translate. (We have it written down now)

Machine guns on street corners - DOWNGRADE

Guards sometimes stand on the street corners with machine guns. I don't think I need to expand on this to stress the need for downgrade status. And before anyone asks, no, I will not take a picture. I'm assuming that's a no-no.

Machine guns on street corners - UPGRADE

They are Colombian military and not terrorist (we think) so they are here for our protection. Leading us to wonder... protection from what? I mean, we know about the terrorist groups but why are they only here on some days and not others?

Our interpreter - UPGRADE

Our interpreter is awesome. She even went to Exito with us one day. She's available 24x7, knows everyone in town, and is always super helpful.

Dreams of Bogota - UPGRADE

Wow do we wish we could go back to Bogota. If all the information we have is correct, the strike won't effect us so much or not at all because we are where we are so that's awesome but the weather and the people and the ease of moving around is being missed terribly.

The judicial strike - DOWNGRADE

We still aren't 100% certain that this won't affect us and at very least it's a downer to hear horror stories from other adoptive families here right now and stress about what that might be like for us. We really hope it ends soon.

Some Colombian tendencies - DOWNGRADE

In Colombia, showing up on time is not important. It's a culture thing. Colombians also think it's best to know things only when necessary so as not to worry about them in the meantime. We're control freaks so this is really, really tough for us.

We're sure there's lots of others but hopefully this gives you all a good idea about how things are going.

Last Night, Monkeys in the Park, Yummy Helado

2008-09-27T17:19:00.002-05:00

Elkin went to bed a lot easier last night. It was still a two hour process winding down but he did finally sit on the bed, then lay on it, and then dozed off while smiling at Stacy. It was nice. We think he fell in love a little bit last night.

This afternoon we went to the park and we finally saw some monkeys! They were way up in one tree so we didn't get any fantastic shots but you can see them in this video we took.

We stopped by the playground as well. Elkin LOVES sliding down any of the several slides. He's so cute. He needs help getting up the stairs and wants to make sure his papi is completely prepared to catch him but he always loves it.

There are a couple of ice cream stands in the park that we've been meaning to stop at since we've been here and finally did today. There were lots of different flavors to choose from. Papi had pineapple (very good) while Mami had lime (excellent) and strawberry. Elkin had vanilla chip with rainbow sprinkles. We thought it tasted more like coconut and bubble gum ice cream than vanilla. Here's a picture of him enjoying it.

Let's Take a Walk

2008-09-26T15:22:00.003-05:00

We were hoping to get a chance to do this at some point after the success of our taxi ride video in Bogotá (we'll try to do a taxi ride one here too if we can) so here's a first-person look at what it's like walking downtown in Montería, Colombia.

We did not add a sound track - what you hear is what it sounds like. Stacy was just saying how it's becoming more and more familiar and enjoyable to hear all the sounds all the time. Home is so much quieter.

Elkin LOVES all the noise. Usually he's so enthralled with all of it that he kind of zones out looking at everything. Overstimulated I guess. But when there's a big bus honk or something like that, he gets really excited as you can see.

Last Night, El Porton for Dinner, Another Park Visit

2008-09-25T19:28:00.002-05:00

The bed's a bad place for Elkin. He's always gotten upset when we start moving that way at night time. Plus he's very afraid of the dark so the whole going-to-bed thing is rough. But last night we did get him to sit on the bed with us and do some things like watch TV and eat some snacks.

He doesn't look very happy in this one (like I said, he hates the bed) but he was having fun making snacks for us - he wasn't too into peanut butter and crackers but had a blast spreading it on for us.

He only woke up once or twice but all in all it wasn't any worse than the night before.

This morning we went to breakfast at the hotel again and then went to the grocery store for the all important water and a few other things.

When we got back to our room, he does what he does almost every time he gets tired - he gets his shoes and socks and makes us help him put them on, puts all his things in his bag, and starts crying profusely for mommy and points to the door. It's very very sad and it's hard on all of us. Eventually he can't cry anymore and gets distracted and goes to sleep.

Later this afternoon we went out and decided to go to a little restaurant about a block away called El Porton (literally "The Gate"). The food was amazing. I took a picture but unfortunately it didn't turn out at all. We weren't totally sure what we were ordering but we each got a plate with half a large avocado, a big piece of what looked to me like pork flank steak, a big bowl of beans in sauce, some starchy rice with a big egg-over-easy on it, and two arripas (fried corn meal round).

This was authentic Colombian food, at least compared to everything else we've had to eat here so far. It was big and satisfying and I'm sure we'll go again. It was a little expensive for food down here (about $20 total) but it really was an awesome meal. Ordering was a challenge and is always intimidating but I'm glad we went in and gave it a shot.

After dinner we went to the park again. This time we walked the other way than we normally do (it's a very, very big park) and found the playground. He had a LOT of fun riding the slide over and over and over (and over).

We walked around a little more and got closer to the river where Elkin promptly yelled "Agua! Agua!" (the kid LOVES water) and started taking his pants off! He figured that much water must be the greatest swimming pool he's ever seen.

We're back "home" trying to get a very tired little boy to stop scream-crying "mommy vamos" which in 3 year old Spanish means "I want to go to mommy NOW". Some of this is getting easier and some of it harder. We're both hoping our lawyer is right when she said we have about a week and a half before we can head to Bogotá to wrap things up.

Iguana Adventure

2008-09-24T18:35:00.002-05:00

We went to lunch in the park today and had hamburguesas y papas fritas francés - very good. Same toppings and general flavor as your ball park burgers.

The unfamiliarity came with the little creatures that are obviously used to being fed scraps!

Elkin was a little scared... Stacy was really scared! Elkin put his legs up on my chair as they got close. He was afraid they'd bite him. No one else was feeding them so we certainly didn't. First it was just one and then it got closer and then it got even closer. I think he signaled to his buddies at that point that we might be suckers for hungry lizards so one by one they kept coming. At one time there were five or six surrounding our table!

A park ranger just walked by and they all scattered. They must regularly chase them off.

It was very cool though. We're still on the lookout for the monkeys (though we think we saw one a few days ago) and a sloth. Personally, I'm looking very forward to seeing a sloth. Weird animals.

We had another post today too about our swimming trip so if you didn't see it just scroll down.

Lawyer Stuff Yesterday, Swimming Trip Today

2008-09-24T12:07:00.006-05:00

Yesterday was yet another adventure (seeing a pattern here?). Our interpreter showed up around 3 and we went to Exito and picked up some groceries and two pairs of pants. Most of the food was very inexpensive but the shorts were around $20USD each. Nothing special, just shorts. The clothing at Exito in Bogotá wasn't nearly that expensive. In fact, we thought the prices on the non-food stuff in Bogotá was close to the stuff in the States.

After that, we sat and waited with our interpreter for the lawyer to call... nothing after an hour. So we all took a walk toward her office and through the park. Elkin fell asleep on me as he did on our last park visit (must be exhausting for him). We finally met up with her about three hours after our scheduled time! Colombians are never in a hurry we're told... and are seeing!

At this "meeting" with the lawyer, we gave her power to represent us legally through our adoption here in Colombia. The office was right next to the courthouse (it was part of it I think) so we walked right by the judicial system strikers and their big banner. It was really surreal doing that - all the reading about it in these "foreign" newspapers and here we were, 12 inches from it. Bizarre.

The office that we needed that power-of-attorney document made up was locked and showing participation with the strike. However, our lawyer said they were willing to do this for us. Believe it or not, the whole thing was done through a window open about 6 inches. In went our passports, out came our completed document and our passports. It was crazy. Not the normal way this goes but they had to show they were supporting the strike even though they were willing to do this for us.

We asked our lawyer about how the strike would effect the rest of this process since a judge is involved in the rest. She said (with the help of our interpreter of course) that it would not effect us AT ALL because our legal proceedings will be in the nearby very small town that Elkin was born in. We thought that our judicial stuff would be done in the capitol of the region (Montería) where the strike was taking place an arm-length away. So that was the best news we could possibly hear. We're told that we have about 12 to 15 more days (give or take) before we're done here and can finish up our few days in Bogotá.

Last night was SO much better than the night before. He slept almost the entire night through. He only woke up once or twice. We all felt much better this morning than yesterday. He's still very much on a bottle and we got exactly what he's been used to while we were at Exito yesterday so he's eating and feeling better. His cold is only bothering him a lot at night and when he wakes up from his naps but other than that it's OK.

We went swimming this morning - what a blast!!! He had SOOOO much fun.

He likes to jump in and he thinks he can swim but he's not real good at it - it's more of a sink-and-ask-for-help move. He'll jump in, get water in his nose, laugh super-hard and then choke, cough it out, laugh some more, and repeat. Over and over and over. Apparently it's all worth it to him. We did that a thousand times. He wouldn't pee in the pool either (?? that's the best place!) - like I've said a bunch already, the kid is very, very clean. Pee goes in toilets I guess.

He took a nap as soon as we got back for a good hour or so. He's so cute when he's sleeping... we'll try to take a picture for everyone soon. He often puts both his hands under his head before finally falling asleep!

We're going to try to grab some lunch, hit the park and the grocery store again.

We're not publicly uploading pictures to Flickr that have us all in it until we get home but we are going to upload several (and some video) that family and friends can see but you'll need to sign up for a Flickr account first. After you sign up or if you already have one, email me at fishertimj [at] gmail.com with the email you signed up with and I'll add you as a friend/family user and you can see the other stuff too.

Our 40lb Baby

2008-09-23T09:12:00.002-05:00

Last night was an adventure. I got four hours sleep max and Stacy got about half that. Elkin woke up several times during the night very, very upset. He just kept screaming for "mamá" and Stacy would just keep repeating "Yo soy tu mamá! Yo soy tu mamá!" (ENG: "I am your mommy") He wasn't very happy with that. :( I'm sure he wants to go back to everything familiar to him (hey, we understand that completely).

As the night went on, he regressed quite a bit. All he wanted was for me to hold and rock him while he drank his bottle. Not the big-boy Elkin we saw yesterday or this morning after the sun came up. This happens a lot and is actually a good thing. He's being a baby all over again for us - part of his attachment. Even when he was screaming for mamá, he let me hold and rock him. He seems to be taking a bit more to me than Stacy - very, very normal we're told. The only problem is that he's 40lbs! My back is a bit sore this morning :)

Elkin is SO HAPPY otherwise. All he does is run around and laugh. It's hillarious! He'll come up to me and put his finger up to his mouth and go "shhhh" and then sneak up behind Stacy and touch her or shut the light off when she's in the bathroom. Such a prankster!

He also says vamos a lot - litterally "come on". He puts all his things in his back pack and heads for the door. I think sometimes he just wants to go ride in a carro but other times we think he's wanting to back to his mamá that he remembers. It's tough for the poor little guy but we're sure he'll get more comfortable soon.

Breakfast was better today, even though we had Elkin. We had some problems ordering yesterday because the hotel restaurant staff knows less English than we do Español. This morning was buffet style so that was easier and they already knew how we liked our café. The first-time things are really difficult because of the language. Yesterday we went to a burger place, ordered a soda at stand in the park, and had to pick up eye drops for Elkin. Difficult things to do when no one knows English. Pointing and our excellent Spanglish get us by, it's just a little intimidating.

Last night he took his prostesis out by himself which we were told he would do. They told us he needed help putting it in though. His eye lashes in that eye were all gunked up from crying all night and the natural stuff that comes out all day so we cleaned him up and popped it in. Easy as pie. It's way too small for him now so the first thing we'll be doing when we get home is getting a new, larger prostesis for him.

He wore his first clothes we brought for him this morning - he's a 2T. We convinced ourselves before we left that he was big for his age so most of what we brought is 3T but he was swimming in the 3T shorts we tried on today. We might get by with what we have but we can always go to the store and pick some stuff up.

We're off to see the lawyer this afteroon to get some paperwork rolling. That usually happens at the same time as the meeting yesterday but she couldn't make it for some reason.

We'll try to get some more pictures up today if we can. Everytime we try snap one of those super big smiles he puts on a fake one - he's obviously had his picture taken a lot and knows the drill.

Introducing Elkin!

2008-09-22T13:55:00.002-05:00

Here he is! Just took this a few minutes ago in our hotel!!!

Wow, that was quite the experience! It was pretty fast, in and out, but everyone was great. Thank goodness for our interpreter! We went to the ICBF office in Montería with our interpreter, met the director of the agency, and then in came Elkin with the psychologist.

They introduced him to us as mami y papi and he was very, very shy. Not upset, just shy. We brought him one of those cars that you push a bit and then it takes off - that was a hit. Elkin LOVES cars, they even told us that today as part of his personality description. So he's had a blast with that on the concrete floor here in the hotel.

The whole process was only 1/2 hour or so and then we were back in a taxi to our hotel.

He started crying when we got to the hotel. We finally got in the elevator and to our room but the maid was cleaning!!! Bad timing!! We took a stroll around the hotel and finally got him laughing when we started driving the car all over our body! He loved that :)

Since we've been here, we got him to drink and eat some, went to the bathroom for the first time, and he even insisted on a shower! We found out he showers three times a day! We're told he's very, very, very clean. He wants clean clothes and will not tollerate being dirty or having food on him. Who knew you could be obsessive compuslive at 3? - he must have gotten this from his new parents ;)

Lots and lots of stuff just in the last few hours - we're exauhsted!! He's quite the handful. And a smile that'll break a lot of hearts, we're sure. We'll try to post some more tonight.

There are a few more pics of Elkin - just click on the Elkin link under the photo of him on the right.

We're Not in Kansas Anymore

2008-09-21T21:56:00.005-05:00

As we said in our last post, we landed in Bogotá last night and stayed at a really nice B&B called El Refugio. It's a B&B that many adoptive families stay at from all over the world. While we where there last night/this morning, there was also an American family there and two French families. And some darn cute kids!

Here's some shots of the B&B:

After breakfast this morning, we took a walk to the Unicentro Mall in Bogotá. It was as nice or nicer than any mall we'd ever been to in the States. It's amazing to see what stores are international and some of the crazy places we've never heard of. We would have gone every day had we been staying in Bogotá. We absolutely loved this city - the weather was amazing, the people were the friendliest we've ever encountered anywhere. Everything was beautiful! We could probably move here and be very happy.

Here's some pictures we took around and in the mall. If you click on them as they show up, you'll go to Flickr where you can see some more detailed info on them.

After the mall trip, our driver came and picked us up and took us to the airport to fly to Monteria. Driving is an adventure in and of itself in Colombia so we took a little video of our taxi ride. We're just glad we're still alive! The drivers are crazy!! I just stuck the camera out the cab window so you can see a lot of downtown Bogotá in this:

So we're finally in Montería late on Sunday night. It was too dark when we got situated to take any pictures but we promise you'll see some tomorrow or the next day. Oh yea, and pictures of Elkin! ;) That's tomorrow for anyone who's keeping track!!!!

Talk to you all soon!

We´re Here!

2008-09-21T08:00:00.002-05:00

We arrived in Bogota really late last night and are staying at a B&B today. We have a flight that leaves later this afternoon for Monteria.

Then tomorrow we meet Elkin!

I´m sure we´ll be posting tons of pictures tonight and definately tomorrow.

Packed and Out the Door!

2008-09-20T08:07:00.003-05:00

It's been a crazy few days but we've finally got everything together and we're off to the airport!

We got up really, really, really early today. I think we got a combined 6 hours sleep last night but planes are for sleeping on (I think).

Poor little Abby wanted to go really, really bad :( We're going to miss our three little girls while we're gone!

We'll be posting pictures later today I'm sure.

I can't believe we'll be in Colombia TODAY and we'll see our little Elkin on Monday!!!!!

It's Official - We're Leaving on Saturday!

2008-09-18T12:57:00.002-05:00

We just talked to our adoption coordinator and everyone involved thinks it would be best if we continued on with our plans for leaving on Saturday!!!!!!

We found out that the region that we're adopting from isn't quite as on strike as many of the other regions. The court system in that region is certainly not shut down though it is running slower. However, the whole thing should be over tomorrow or soon next week, plus we're not due in court until the very end of September.

Our agency has several full time folks in Colombia that work very closely with the ICBF, the Colombian governmental agency that we're working directly with to facilitate Elkin's adoption.

So enough of that...

WE'RE GOING! WE'RE GOING! WE'RE GOING!

Strike Update

2008-09-16T10:10:00.002-05:00

The judge's strike in Colombia is still going on. Good news is that they met for some negotiations yesterday and decided on some terms. From what I understand from the article in El Tiempo (Bogota newspaper) the judicial union is going to have some meetings and then accept or not accept the agreement from the government. I'm assumming that if they don't accept it they will enter into more negogiations. The union will give their answer at the earliest tomorrow and the latest on Friday morning. Here is the translated article for anyone who is super interested in the details.

So how does this affect us? Well, our adoption agency yesterday told us that at this point we are still a go to leave on Saturday. This can change if negotiations break down or things just aren't looking good. Even though we meet Elkin on Monday, our case won't enter the court until a week after that. So that gives a week for everything to get up and running if negogiations are accepted this week.

Some Recent Montería Pics

2008-09-12T09:30:00.006-05:00

I found quite a few Montería photos online but here are several from a pro photographer that took some around town in April of this year.

Here are some great shots of Bogotá as well.

Enjoy!

Travel Meeting

2008-09-11T18:06:00.002-05:00

We had our travel meeting with our adoption coordinator this afternoon and discussed pretty much everything from flying down there to flying back and everything in between. LOTS of details but it sounds like everything should go well.

We did chat a bit about the court system strike in Colombia but for the time being, we're not going to change our travel plans. Our adoption coordinator will be talking to her contacts in Colombia and we'll be making a decision about that later next week.

We also received some updated information on Elkin! Everything we knew about him previously was from February and what we have now is from July! So that was really neat to have some more information. We learned some more about his biological family, his weight and height, and some updates on his personality and how he's progressing.

The most exciting thing we saw was that he's now potty trained!!! :) :) Of course who knows to what degree so we're still planning on packing some diapers.

It was a really great meeting and now we're REALLY excited to go!!

(And since you all will ask, in July he was 34lbs and 2ft 11in)

Better Than Good News!

2008-09-10T10:43:00.003-05:00

My fingerprints arrived in our hands from the FBI about 10 minutes ago with that much anticipated NO RECORD FOUND stamp!! We're back on schedule!

We were pretty down all weekend about my fingerprints because we knew the FBI wouldn't even receive them until Monday morning. Well they did show up there on Monday and I called that afternoon asking for a status.

The woman on the phone at the FBI asked when FedEx showed that they were received there in West Virginia and I said "10:30 this morning". She laughed (I'm not kidding) and proceeded to tell me to call back in about three days because "it takes three to five days just get through security and in the pile to get processed. Then it'll be another few days to process even with your adoption priority."

That was not what we wanted to hear.

Stacy talked to our adoption coordinator and we decided not to make any plan changes until Thursday, just to give it a few more days.

[Good news begins here!]

Also on Monday, after reading a comment from Nicole about what she did when they had some fingerprint issues, we took the advice in the link she sent and we sent an email to the FBI.

So here it is Tuesday morning, and I get an email at about 6am from a Gary at the FBI. He says he found our envelope [in security] and would do everything he could to expedite the request. And boy did he. Over the next hour and forty minutes, Gary got our package through security, up to processing, got it processed, and had it in a FedEx overnight envelope.

Gary needs a raise.

A supposedly 2 week process was done in under two hours because someone took the time to understand our situation. He's getting quite the Christmas gift from Elkin, Stacy and I this year! :)

So now we have to get some things notarized, apostilled, and mailed off to our agency and the paperwork should be done. We'll have our travel meeting tomorrow with our adoption coordinator that will spell out the details of our trip.

Then it's packing, lots of odds and ends, and we're off - IN A SHORT 10 DAYS!!!

More Bad News

2008-09-06T10:54:00.004-05:00

Apparently we got some incorrect information from the FBI when we called yesterday because according to FedEx this morning, the FBI does not accept packages on Saturday.

I tried calling the FBI this morning about it and it turns out they don't accept phone calls on Saturday either. Both facts that we were told otherwise about yesterday.

So this means that they won't get my fingerprint retakes until Monday. Meaning, for us to be able to go to Colombia as scheduled, they'll have to process them in a few days or less and then mail them back to us immediately. Not likely.

So it's looking like we'll be changing flights and plans (not at all cheap and not at all a good feeling). I know it'll all work out because it has to but talk about discouraging. My fears now are that even a third submission of prints will get rejected and I don't know what would happen then. We can't just keep rescheduling this trip. It's not like this is a dentist appointment or something.

We'll be talking to our adoption coordinator on Monday. Hopefully she'll be able to make us feel better about this.

Thanks for all the well wishes everyone!

FBI Fingerprints Rejected

2008-09-05T13:45:00.006-05:00

My [current] worst fear came true today - my set of FBI fingerprints was rejected. Stacy's was OK - mine were not quality enough to read.

So I left work in a panic and we went to a different police station than last time to get them done. I got two copies made just so they have more to look at and we sent them FedEx overnight w/ Saturday delivery. Yes, the FBI processes prints on Saturday - 24x7 actually - so that's good. They should get them tomorrow morning. We used a red sharpie and marked ADOPTION / URGENT all over it so hopefully it gets some quick attention.

We need to have both of our cleared fingerprint reports in hand, cover letter notarized (trip to the bank), and then apostilled (trip to the Secretary of State) before we leave. We leave in 15 days so this could very easily become a problem. We can not under any circumstance go down there without this.

We may have to reschedule the trip which means requesting a new date from the Monteria ICBF office and then changing our flight reservations. The worst part of that is that someone has to go tell poor little Elkin that his new mami and papi won't be here when they said. We don't like the thought of disapointing him before he meets us.

Anyway - we'll keep you updated. Hopefully we'll hear something Monday or Tuesday.

Where We'll Be in Colombia

2008-09-04T16:34:00.006-05:00

Here's a quicky map of where we'll be in Colombia. We'll fly into Bogotá at first and then head to Montería where we'll get our little Elkin and spend the majority of our time.

View Larger Map

Scratch That Last Post (We Think)

2008-09-04T16:16:00.003-05:00

Okay, I was looking at our visas again... :)

Ever notice how countries other than the US swap around the day and month? Yea... I think that's what happened.

Long story short - my head is spinning from paperwork and I freaked out. I think it's OK. I'm still going to check with the Colombian consulate tomorrow because it does look a bit funny but I'm guessing it's OK.

Deep breaths... deep breaths...

Bad News on the Visa!

2008-09-04T15:33:00.003-05:00

The visas showed up today. And they're wrong :(

The expiration date printed on both of our visas says March of 2008. Yes, 2008. I'm guessing it should be 2009. Regardless, it appears to be expired already so that does us no good.

I'm just really, really, really glad I noticed it now. I can't imagine the panic that we might have felt as we hand our passports to the receptionist at the airport and he tells us that we can't fly because our Colombian visas are expired. That would have been a disaster.

I have no idea what we'll need to do to fix this. The consulate closes at 1:00 every day. I left a frantic message but we won't hear back until tomorrow sometime. More overnight shipping, who knows how much more paperwork...

We're still waiting on our fingerprints too. We leave in two weeks so there's still time to get everything (and get everything fixed) but the 20th is getting closer all the time.

Wish us luck!

Good News on the Visa!

2008-09-03T18:52:00.002-05:00

We don't need to go to Chicago now!

The reason we had to drive to Chicago was to pick up our visa. The Colombian Consulate's website clearly says that you must have an in-person meeting either when dropping off your visa application or when picking up your completed visa. Since we mailed our visa app and documents, it was pretty obvious that we'd need to have a meeting at the consulate in Chicago when our visas were complete.

Well I called this afternoon to make sure they received them yesterday since FedEx showed that they left them at the door (our actual passports were in there - that was kinda scary). The voice mail system was all in Spanish but I worked my way through to the operator (dial zero is the universal operator button by the way).

Someone finally answered... in Spanish. So with my 2 years of high school Spanish I try to say something about speaking with the visa people. After a good little laugh by the woman on the other end she says "Would you like to talk in English?"... (geez...).

Long story short - our visa app was received this morning, they processed it today, everything was fine, and it was going back to us Fedex this afternoon. WOW! It was supposed to be a 3 day process plus that face-to-face meeting. Awesome!

No trip to Chicago required! (I'm sure Chicago is nice but we just don't have the time). We should have our passports with our Colombian visa stamps in them tomorrow. We couldn't have asked for a better outcome on this one.

We Have a Travel Date!

2008-08-27T19:09:00.005-05:00

Things are moving quickly!! We have a travel date!

After speaking with the FBI about when our fingerprint results would be back to us, we were finally just this afternoon able to send an official request for a date to pick up little Elkin. Based on what's left to do, we requested Monday, September 22nd as when we could pick him up in Montería, Colombia!

Things moved really fast after that - our letter with our requested date was translated, faxed to Montería, and then our agency heard almost immediately that the 22nd would work out perfect!! We didn't waste any time - we bought our plane tickets this evening and we're working to fill out the paperwork for our Visas. We'll likely be driving to Chicago (about a 9 hour trip - one way) sometime between now and then to pick them up.

So we're REALLY excited now! We actually know what date - for sure - that'll we'll be meeting our little boy!!! We booked our return flights (yes, we did remember to buy one for Elkin on the way back) for about a month later though it's very unlikely we'll return on that date. It'll probably be later though it could be a little bit sooner, who knows. We won't know until right before it's time to come back.

We'll leave the US a few days before we pick up Elkin (Saturday the 20th to be exact) and fly to Bogota (Colombia's capitol). We'll stay there for a night and then get up early and take an intracountry flight to Montería.

It's crazy having an actual date to look at on the calendar!

We're working tirelessly around here - getting the house in shape for a three year old and turning what is now our office into his bedroom. A lot of work, along with preparing all the other paperwork outside our Visas, Tim getting stuff situated at work, etc., etc. Who cares though - we just bought our plane tickets! We're really going to Colombia to get Elkin and it's SOON!

INS Visit Today

2008-08-26T20:22:00.002-05:00

We took a trip to US Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS). We needed to get our fingerprints updated because they expire toward the end of October. That's not real soon but we may very well be in Colombia when they expire - not good. We can't legally adopt Elkin if we're not up to date on our prints.

It was no big deal and it was one of the many, many, many things we had to get done before we can leave so it felt good to cross that off the still growing, never-ending list.

On the way back in to town we had a chance to stop by the Secretary of State office to get our medical letters apostilled (official notary verification, if you didn't know what that was). Check. We'll be back several more times I'm sure.

Lots of around-the-house stuff, papwork, and other stuff tomorrow. We feel like we're just starting to really tackle some things. I'm still not sure how it's all going to get done but I'm sure it will. In between the "wow there's so much to do"'s are the "wow - we're going to be Mom and Dad!"

WE HAVE NEWS! Wow... Where to Start?

2008-08-23T14:11:00.006-05:00

We'll just cut to the chase and get to the good stuff - WE HAVE AN ASSIGNMENT!!!!

Yep, that's right. So we know we went on and on about how it's going to be three more years until we get a referral. So how did this happen? Well we found a waiting child that was the perfect fit for us and we were lucky enough to quickly get him assigned to us.

So here are the details. Our son is Elkin John and he will be three years old in November. We are told that he likes music and can be quite stubborn at times (he must get that from his new mami!). He lost one of his eyes to an infection when he was a baby and has a prosthesis which we're told he has adapted very well to.

If all goes well we should be leaving in about four weeks to go to Montería, Colombia to get our new son!

As you can imagine we have TONS to do before we go. We just found out for sure that Elkin is ours a few days ago but we've been able to get some of the paper work together, updated our medical letters, and get our FBI fingerprints sent off. The list is mind boggling!!

We'll be posting more soon - info on Montería, our schedule as we find out about it, and all the crazy stuff we have to do before heading down. And then of course we'll blog as much as we can from Colombia and post all the pics of the cutest little boy the world has ever seen!!!

We are APPROVED!!!!

2008-06-06T18:19:00.002-05:00

We got an email from our agency today that we are approved for a 0-2 year old! We are thrilled! We turned in our dossier almost a year ago and have been having a lot of anxiety about not getting approved. We feel like a big weight has been lifted off our shoulders.

So now we settle in for the long wait. So how long will it be until we get our child? Well, we are hoping three years from now, it could be shorter or longer. The ICBF is giving referrals now for parents who who were approved for an infant in July 2005. They have been giving out those referrals for July '05 for a few months now. Things slow down and speed up so it's difficult to predict just when we will get our child.

We are so happy that we can share this news with all of you! Have a great weekend (because I know WE will)!

Information But No News

2008-04-22T17:07:00.004-05:00

I sent an email to our agency last week seeing if they had heard any response after we sent in the addendum for the dossier. They said the addendum only got sent down there on April 8th and it usually takes at least 8 weeks to receive a response back from the ICBF. I'm glad to hear it got down there (although I thought it got sent weeks ago). So hopefully, we will receive word that we are approved sometime in June. No other news to report, we've just been trying to keep ourselves distracted as much as we can until we hear word. Thanks to everyone who left comments to my last post, we feel much better about things now!

Not Approved

2008-03-20T07:00:00.002-05:00

Well, yesterday we got the news. Our dossier was sent back from Colombia and they want some additional items from us so we are not approved at this time. They have two items that they want us to address before they will consider us.

The first item they want is a more detailed explanation of our motivation to adopt. Our agency finds this request abnormal and feels, as we do, that this was outlined clearly in our home study. So we are sending a letter to the ICBF basically repeating ourselves on why we want to adopt a child.

The second item is that they don't want to approve us for a 0-12 month old infant. They want to approve us for a 0-2 (which is really 0-2 and 12 month - so basically 0-3) child. They did not state why, and our agency isn't sure as well. Colombia has always matched the youngest children with the youngest adoptive parents and since we are not yet 30 (you have to be at least 25 to adopt from Colombia) we aren't sure why we are getting this restriction.

Needless to say we are upset about the news. It makes me nervous that they are asking for information we have already provided and they seem to be telling us that we won't get a young baby. I can't help but have a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I made myself wait until this morning to write this post but I still don't think I'm ready to delve into my feelings about this right now. I do still hope that we get approved but any confidence I had on that happening is gone. I'm just not sure what will happen next - I feel a lot of uncertainty and sadness right now.

Weekend Colombian News

2008-03-10T08:04:00.002-05:00

The situation between Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador has seemed to really cool off over the weekend. Not that they are going to all be buddies anytime soon but we are very thankful that the situation is being resolved. It's in my opinion that Latin American will not be able to start getting rid of FARC until Chavez gets chased out of there... and by the way he is treating his people and and the rest of the world I don't think it will be long.

In other news over the weekend, there was a riot at a soccer game in Cali. At least 80 are injured with ten of them being pretty seriously injured. We hope everyone has a speedy recovery, apparently a pregnant woman was hurt as well. You can read a short article and see video of the brawl here.

Possible War Brewing in Colombia

2008-03-03T07:28:00.002-06:00

A few days ago, Colombia bombed a group of FARC (see previous post) 1 mile into Ecuador and killed the second-highest ranking FARC official. Ecuador sent troops to their Colombian border and now Venezuela has done the same. They are now threatening war against Colombia. We praise Colombia for taking a stance against terrorism that has threatened their country and all of Latin America for decades. Hugo Chavez (the - let's be honest here - dictator - of Venezuela) has been the biggest bully on the block for too long. We hope that this situation gets resolved peacefully and quickly. Our hearts go out to to the Colombian, Venezuelan and all other people in Latin America during this time of difficulty and political turmoil.

Colombians March Against FARC

2008-02-04T15:33:00.000-06:00

The march protesting the activities of FARC, one of the terrorist groups that calls Colombia home, has begun in Colombia as well as many other cities around the world. The march calls for a stop to the kidnapping and murders that have been committed by the group. See this news article for more information on today's march and pictures of the march. It is with our sincerest hope that the violence that infiltrates the beautiful country of Colombia is soon brought to an end.

Think Warm Thoughts...

2008-01-21T18:13:00.000-06:00

It's cold here! I found myself trying to think some warm thoughts today and thought of a beach on a hot summer day. I found this beach guide video which highlights the Islas del Rosario, which are right off the coast of Cartagena. The video's in Spanish but you don't need to understand Spanish to appreciate the beauty of the islands. Anyone want to join me for a quick getaway? :)

No Word Yet & Timeline Update

2008-01-16T16:03:00.000-06:00

Just an update to say that we don't have an update! Although our dossier has been in Colombia for almost the full five months we haven't received word of an approval yet. I have to admit I'm starting to get a little antsy! I feel sure we will get approved but part of me is a little nervous that we won't for some reason or that our file has been lost or well a 100 other scenarios - but 99.9% that everything is fine and just behind because of the holidays. Those of you who know me, know that this is a normal part of my personality to worry about these things :) So I'm just going to hang tight and try to get my mind on other things for awhile.

The wait for an infant has officially been moved up from 30 months to 32 months. The timeline shifts can be frustrating and this is the second time it's happened since we started this process only 8 months ago. I am glad to have an accurate update but I sure wish things would move faster. We went into this figuring that it would be a 3 year wait for an infant because of potential slowdowns along the way and I'm very prepared to make that wait. But it got me thinking... what if they keep increasing it? What if it gets to 4 years? 5 years? Yes, I know I'm being pretty pessimistic here. Once again, I'm a bit of a worry wart! So I'm just going to take a deep breath and concentrate on some happy thoughts. Just like anything, the adoption process has it's ups and downs and I'm having a bit of a down. The up side of the situation is that so many people want to adopt those little bebes and ninos, and I'm so happy that they are finding homes and forever families! I can't get too upset about that, now can I?

The Year in Review

2007-12-31T12:18:00.000-06:00

It's been quite a year! We started this year trying to conceive a biological child on our own. We had been trying for the year before this one so we were quite frustrated and heartbroken to start the year without much hope of having a family this year. Not long after the new year started we began what seemed liked endless doctors appointments, prescriptions and tests. We didn't get very far before we realized that this was not the path we wanted to take. We began to care less and less about having a biological child and more and more about being able to have a child without having to face that monthly disappointment. We began to research adoption and was soon on the process on deciding to adopt a child from Colombia through Children's Hope International. The sense of relief and excitement we felt was thrilling. The paper chase was on and we wanted to get our paperwork in as soon as possible. We submitted our dossier to Colombia the end of August this year. We have spent the rest of the year on a roller coaster of emotions from being excited, anxious, melancholy, happy and everything in between. We face the new year knowing that we won't have a child this year but we look forward to taking the days one step at a time learning all that we can about how to care for our child and incorporate the Colombian culture into our household. We know there will be good days and bad days but we know that the journey will be well worth the wait when we get to hold that precious child in our arms.

Feliz Año Nuevo!

2007-12-31T11:10:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year! All around the world people gather together tonight to ring in the new year, and the same holds true for our Colombian friends. Friends and family get together to eat a huge meal, to dance and watch fireworks. Here are a few of the colorful Colombian traditions to ring in the new year:

The whole family make a large (almost life size) male doll that represents the old year and name him "Mr. Old Year." The doll is dressed with clothes from each family member and stuffed with any items from the last year that may bring sadness to the family. The doll is burned at midnight as a way to put all the bad things about the past year behind them.
Some families will pack a suitcase and after the clock strikes midnight they will walk around the block. It is believed that if you do this you will travel a lot in the upcoming year.
It's believed that if you eat 12 grapes (one grape for each month in the upcoming year) you will have good luck the next year.
Colombians prepare New Year's Bread which contains a coin or charm baked within the bread. The bread is cut into at midnight and whoever receives the piece with the coin or charm will have good luck the rest of the year.

Here's a video of a New Year's celebration in Cali, Colombia which shows a Mr. Old Year being made and lit on fire. Looks like quite a party!

Dia de los Inocentes

2007-12-28T08:48:00.000-06:00

Today is "Dia de los Inocentes" or "Day of the Innocent" in Colombia as well as many other Latin and South American countries. This day is very similar to April Fool's Day which is celebrated in the United States. On "Dia de los Inocentes" Colombians play inocentadas (practical jokes or pranks) on family and friends. When the joker gets caught they exclaim "Inocente, Inocente!" ("Innocent, Innocent!"). Sounds like fun!

Christmas Eve in Colombia

2007-12-19T14:24:00.000-06:00

Christmas Eve, December 24th, is the main day of celebrations in Colombia. Adults and older children stay up until midnight to open their presents and then spend until dawn playing with gifts, feasting and watching fireworks in the night sky.

Tim & I would like to wish everyone happy holidays and we hope that everyone has a wonderful time with their friends and family this holiday season. We want to give some extra big hugs to all the waiting mothers and fathers out there like us who are yearning just as bad as we to hold their little bebe in their arms by the glow of the Christmas tree. Our time will come! Happy Holidays!

Christmas Novena Begins Today

2007-12-16T15:18:00.000-06:00

Today is the first day of Christmas Novena making this is the official start date of the Christmas season for many Colombians. These nine days of Christmas are filled with prayer and celebrations for the families. The houses and cities are decorated with el pesebre (nativity scenes) which are made or plastic or hand crafted figurines. The nativity scene is setup sans the baby Jesus, which is added to the scene on Christmas Eve.

Christmas trees are put up and decorated very similarly to Christmas trees in the United States, with bows, lights and ornaments. They of course have their share of "unique" decorated Christmas trees as well. Here's a picture of a Christmas tree in Bogotá decorated by a cheese company.

Día de las Velitas

2007-12-07T18:15:00.000-06:00

Today I received the monthly email update about our agency's Colombian program. It had some interesting details on the holidays that Colombians celebrate this time of year. I read that today, December 7th, is Dia de las Velitas, "Day of the Candles." I did some more research on the Internet to learn more about this special day.

Dia de las Velitas is the unofficial start of the Christmas season in Colombia and streets, porches, balconies and public parks are decorated with candles, paper lanterns and Christmas lights. The city illuminates itself in a beautiful glow to honor the Immaculate Conception, which takes place tomorrow on December 8th. Besides the decorations, it's a time where families and neighbors get together to put up light displays, light off fireworks and listen to music. I found a great picture of fireworks above a building in Bogotá at last years Dia de las Velitas and video (below) of the celebration taken at a popular park in Colombia.

Look for more posts this month on other Colombian Christmas celebrations!

Back to the Daily Grind

2007-11-14T13:27:00.000-06:00

Just a little update to say nothing new has happened. Our complete dossier got sent down to Colombia about 2 1/2 months ago and nothing has happened since then. The next step is for the ICBF (Colombian Family Welfare Institute) to approve our dossier and then place us on "the waiting list." This normally takes 3-5 months after the dossier has been sent to Colombia. I do know that a lot of other dossiers got sent down there around the same time so it may be awhile until we hear anything. We do expect to be approved, our agency would have almost certainly caught something before this point that they would foresee as a problem. So that's where we are now.

Tim and I are planning to take a Spanish class through Topeka's Park & Rec program and we have loaded Rosetta Stone onto our computer so we are all ready to go. We probably will not start the class and program until January because all the holiday stuff will be keeping us pretty busy. I have been planning a few craft projects for the baby and will be sure to post pictures once I have those finished. I will be trying to update the blog more, I hope to include some information on what we are learning about adoption, Colombia and how to be parents!

We hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

The Wait

2007-09-04T12:09:00.000-05:00

Our dossier was sent down to Colombia last week and we are now on the waiting list. The wait for an infant is currently 30 months - so we are looking at March 2010. Of course this number can change and I'm sure will change. Things are always slowing down and speeding up but of course most the time they are slowing down - that's just how things seem to work in the world of adoption.

We received a packet of travel information from our agency in the mail today. I haven't had a chance to sit down and read it all but it seems to be basic information on everything from Colombian court appearances to what to pack. We will be staying for 3-4 weeks in Colombia. A lot of couples aren't thrilled about the long stay but we are actually very excited about that. We love to travel and we have always wanted to travel to South America. Staying for so long we will really be able to get to know and appreciate our child's home country.

Dossier Complete!!!

2007-08-28T13:54:00.001-05:00

Our dossier is complete! We received Tim's apostilled employment letter from the Minnesota Secretary of State today and quickly overnighted it to join the rest of our dossier. I spoke with our agency's office yesterday and was told that everything else in our dossier looks great and is ready to go. This means that our dossier will be sent to Colombia TOMORROW for translation!

Unfortunately I'll be celebrating by myself tonight, Tim's away for work and won't be back until late tomorrow. We are both very happy to have the dossier done and we are keeping our fingers crossed that the translation and approval process with go smoothly and quickly.

A Tiny Snafu

2007-08-23T21:05:00.000-05:00

I *almost* cried at the Secretary of State's office this morning. I mean I was thisclose. We took everything that needed to be apostilled to the Secretary of State and she was looking through it and handed us back a paper. Tim's employment letter had to be sent by headquarters, which is in Minneapolis. So of course it was notarized there as well. I mean duh, we know that whatever state the letter was notarized in it had to apostilled in, but we just didn't even think about it. It came from Tim's work and that's all we thought about. So, we had an appointment this afternoon to turn all of our dossier paperwork in and to be so, so close and having that happen, well yeah, I got pretty upset.

My main concern is that some states can take a really long time to apostille documents. We've heard California can take MONTHS. So I called up the Minnesota Secretary of State and was relieved when I was told that it's only a few days turn around. So we overnighted our letter and they should get it tomorrow - so hopefully, we'll have that letter in our hands next week.

Luckily our local agency let us go ahead and send everything to the main agency branch so they could start getting that all together for us there. So when we get that letter, we are going to get it to them quickly so our dossier can be sent down to Colombia as soon as possible for translation.

We really know that this is not a big roadblock at all, we consider ourselves very lucky that this has been our only hangup so far. The adoption process is full of potential hangups and pitfalls and things have went very smoothly for us so far.

I-171 H Received!

2007-08-19T15:52:00.000-05:00

This is some good news for us! We received our I-171H in the mail on Friday! We are officially approved by the US Government to adopt 2 children from Colombia (we were approved for 2 in the case of twins!). This is a very important document and was the last missing item for our dossier. We will bring the original I-171H with us to Colombia and will need it in order to bring our baby onto US soil.

This week we will be getting the I-171H notarized and all of our notarized items appostilled at the Secretary of State. We hope by the end of the week to be running up to hand deliver our dossier to our agency in Overland Park - we're just too nervous to mail it! After that, it's up to our agency to get everything filed and translated and get us on the waiting list.

Home Study Complete!

2007-07-23T09:27:00.000-05:00

On Friday we picked up our completed home study! This is the biggest chunk of paperwork that is included in the dossier that will be sent to Colombia. After we picked up our home study we went to KCMO to visit the Homeland Security Office to file our I-600A - otherwise known as the "Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition". This is the form that the US government will use to determine if we are fit to be parents in their eyes. We were surprised how quick the process went when we go there - we handed an immigration officer our home study, birth certificates, marriage certificate, and our completed I-600A. We paid our fees, got our fingerprints done, and we were on our way! We should get I-171H back in 90 days or less and this will be the final document we need to include in our dossier. Everyone cross their fingers that it will get back to us sooner than that! While we are waiting for the I-171H we have some additional paperwork we need to finish along with some photo layouts for both the Colombian government and our new baby and his or her foster family.

The Shopping Begins!

2007-07-16T14:02:00.000-05:00

Well, I can't believe I made it this long without making a purchase for our poco bambino (little child). We were at Target yesterday perusing the Dollar Spot section (gotta love the Dollar Spot!) and we found some very cute cardboard books that teach children shapes, animals, and colors. We bought all three of them and we thought they would be great books to take down with us when we pick up our child in Colombia. There's a picture of an animal, such as a turkey, with caption of "Turkey". I had the great idea of writing the Spanish word equivalent below the English word. (Turkey is Turquía in Spanish in case you are interested!) It's very important to us to incorporate Colombian culture into our child's life and we both working on our Spanish so we can raise our child to be bilingual. Vive Colombia!