Our Journey to Adoption: Zona Rosa

On Friday we headed out via taxi to park 93 and an area called Zona Rosa. It is a large shopping area with many restaurants, store fronts and a large mall that is very modern called Andino. We first told the cab driver to drop us of at the park. When we arrived we found the entire park area under construction. It was kind of a bummer but it was great to walk around and see all the restaurants and shopping. We spent a couple hours wandering the area and ate at the Hard Rock café for lunch. It is a very fun and upscale area of town that many people have mentioned we check out. Freddy gave us names of many restaurants to eat at so we may venture back to this area depending on how long we are here. We spent some time at the mall and Isaac was excited to find a store with a lot of American candies. He started filling a bag full and when we went to ring it up it was almost 16$. He was happy and we were a bit in shock! HA!! He also found a Lego store. Legos are crazy expensive here. Almost double the cost!! So needless to say he did a lot of window shopping!

Today a few families decided to venture to the salt Cathedral with a driver and the other family went on a tour of downtown. Being we have been there we decided to call a cab and head to an area with many artesian gift stores that Katya recommended we visit. Many of our friends had been to an artesian store called Maku while they have been here. This store closed that was in walking distance from our hotel so we wanted to see something similar. The owner’s brother owns a store called El Balay. It was about a 15 minute cab ride to this area. We bought many little things and a few larger things to have in our home. To our surprise there were several stores like this one in the area. Katya described the neighborhood as a typical Colombian neighborhood with many people in the working class. We wandered through many of the shops and then picked our treasures. We then ate lunch at an Arepa grill. True authentic Colombian food. It was AMAZING as usual!! Being we are a little further out and in a less touristy area we did not drink the water or ice and did not eat the small salad. :-) It started to rain around 1:30 so we decided it was time to head back. We tried for almost 45 min to hale a cab from the street. We even had the restaurant try calling. One of the owners from the store saw that A and I were in the rain so she had us come in the store and sit down. She wanted to be sure A was not cold. She was so very sweet. Another experience of people really caring for you. Taxis are very busy on Saturdays and it was raining so when one finally showed up we were happy to get on the road!!

There are 4 other families here at the hotel now! It is so nice to have them here with us. It can get kind of loud at dinner time and the kids are having a ball together! One family the Bosley’s adopted 3 boys from Bucaramunga. They are here in the city for the next week as they have received sentencia and need to complete the rest of their paperwork. Jeff and Heather are here from Portland adopting their son Jefferson who is 10 years old. There is another family from Italy adopting their daughter Carol who is 8 years old. We also have one other family who is here on vacation with their children Sebastian and Sophia who were adopted in 2001 and 2004. They live in Shoreview!! They brought the kids back for vacation over spring break. It has been so fun to have some other families here to talk with and the kids are having a blast playing together!! A few will just be here a short time while others plan to be here for awhile. We are really enjoying the company and they are great people. I am sure we will stay in touch!! The kids are all really getting along and the adults have a lot of time to socialize and drink some cerbesa (beer)!! I will be sure to get a few family photos of them! :-)

Once back at the hotel we are making plans for tomorrow with some of the other families. We plan to hit the market at La Fontana hotel which we have heard is wonderful and maybe head to Usaquen. Katya thinks we should head to Andres Carne de Res in Chia tomorrow afternoon so we will have to coordinate a few drivers as if we all go it will be 19 people. This afternoon Isaac enjoyed hanging out with Sebastian, he is 11 and from Shoreview near our home, discussing all things Minecraft and A napped for almost 3 hours. We headed to Carrulla for some snacks and fruit. We are looking forward to a great evening socializing with our new friends on a similar journey!!

Psalm 104:34 May all my thoughts be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord.