HOMECOMING!!!

WE ARE EXCITED TO BE HOME!!!

Our 5 hour flight from Bogota to Atlanta was very uneventful.  Amelia did great despite only sleeping for about 40 minutes at the airport and another 30 on the plane.  She was very content.  Isaac was so excited to be going home and was a great traveller also.  One thing she did do was decide to start feeding herself puffs while we were on the plane.  We have been working on this so it was exciting to see.

Once we arrived in Customs coming in to the US we were directed to go to a line for immigration packets.  The officer was very friendly and took our big packet that we were told not to open from the US embassy and opened it.  Everything was in order and it took 15 or 20 minutes.  He gave us the stamp of admittance on her visa and said "welcome to the USA cutie!".  Priceless.  We could not take pics with him though as security is very high in this area.  Bummer.      

The flight from Atlanta to Mpls was about 2 hours and was fairly uneventful except for the full diaper blow out involving a complete outfit change.  :-) When we touched down in Mpls we all did a little happy dance in our seat and Isaac was grinning from ear to ear!!  I was so relieved that Amelia did so well and that our day of travel was almost complete.

We gathered our things and our stomachs were full of butterflies as we knew in a few short minutes Amelia would make her debut with all of our friends and family.  We walked down the terminal and off the elevator to find my parents, Jeff's parents, Jeff's sister and 2 kids, our friends the Fischers, Fergusons and my coworker Esme waiting for us with open arms.  We were taking pictures and video of them and they were of us.  Once we saw everyone the tears started to flow.  They were holding 2  welcome home signs.  It was simply amazing.  The tears flowed again as we all hugged and said hello.  Amelia was a bit overwhelmed and also burst in to tears.  :-)   Lots of new faces and not a lot of sleep!  There were so many smiles, so many tears, so much joy.  The tears did not stop for awhile.  It felt so good to be with everyone.  There were many people who wished they could be there in that moment also but were there in spirit.  We are excited to be together with everyone and introduce our little bundle to you all.

So I have to say how amazing everyone has been to us.  We want to thank everyone for all their prayers for us on this journey.  It has been a long journey but we have enjoyed every step of the way.  We were very worried about being gone for so long and who would take care of our dog.  We had an amazing house sitter Ellie for 4 weeks who spoiled the dog and took amazing care of our house.  Our neighbor boy Will took care of ALL THAT SNOW while we were gone.  Buddy spent another 2 week vacation with some of our very good friends Fergusons who have loved him as their own since he was a young puppy.  Then it was another 2 week vacation for him at Grandma and Grandpa's house spending many long hours playing outside and exploring.  HE WAS EXTREMELY SPOILED THE ENTIRE TIME!!!

We arrived home to a clean house and a fridge full of food thanks to my mom.  Jeff's parents had balloons and a card on the counter.  My parents had made a canvas print of our picture when we met Amelia and brought more balloons.  Jeff's dad came and made sure the crib was set for Amelia to sleep in.   Our dog was extremely happy to see all of us!! My friend Tammy took photos and video of our homecoming for us and organized a calendar for meals so we don't have to worry about cooking for a bit.  A-mazing friends from church I have set up to deliver meals.  We have an invitation to our amazing friends Michael and Megan's home on Saturday to have dinner with them and also to meet our friends Carol and Steve who live in Michigan.  Both Megan and Carol have children adopted from the same casa as Amelia.  Megan had us over before we left to help us prepare for our journey.  Carol wrote an amazing blog while they were in the country that has been a TREMENDOUS resource for us.  We also want to thank Angie, Patsy and Mary for all of their suggestions, encouraging words, and input in helping us on this journey.  They helped us get connected with Freddy and we are forever grateful for that!  You ALL have been such a huge BLESSING to us and we are so thankful!!

We also want to say thank you to all of our amazing friends and family who have been praying for us during this entire journey.  We so appreciate your prayers, encouraging words, emails and love that you have shown us.  The best part of the journey is just beginning!!  We are so excited to share our little girl with you all.

It was an amazing homecoming and we are so thankful and so blessed!!  I hope to post more pictures as I get them from people!! :-)

Here we go!! 

Sleeping is a great way to travel!

Flying over Cuba

Flying over the Bahamas

The only picture I could take in Customs

Flight from Atlanta to Mpls..this was her favorite thing to play with!  Notice the outfit change! ;-)

Sleeping again!! YAY!

Hello Minnesota!! 

Esme, I don't see you waiting for us on the tarmac as you said you would be??

Look at all these people!!  

I hope to post more pics of our homecoming when I get them from a friend.  I will also update as to how we are all adjusting!! :-)

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.   Lamentations 3:22-23

It's so hard to say goodbye....

We spent the morning on Monday packing up.  We have A LOT of luggage and I have A LOT of things to bring back.  I have tried to bring back things that I can have in our home and one day hand down to Amelia when she has her own home.  One of the most precious things I have is an old window that a friend Mary told me about that Freddy took her to find when she was in Colombia.  Being I have completely fallen in love with the architecture here it is a perfect thing to have.  That being said it is fairly large so I had to be sure that I would have room to bring it back!  We left a lot of things with the private casa as Amelia has outgrown certain things that I brought in smaller sizes.  I also gave a lot of things to a little girl at our hotel that is being adopted.

Monday afternoon Cecilia invited us to her home.  We hopped in a taxi for a short ride not far from our hotel.  She served us a traditional small meal of hot chocolate with cheese and tamales.  It was wonderful.  Cecilia lives in a beautiful neighborhood beside the mountain in the city.  Her home was lovely with an indoor garden and beautiful landscaping in the back.  It was a great time to visit with her and her husband and thank her for all her help while we have been here.  We were also able to see pictures of her beautiful grandson.  She had just returned from Hong Kong a few days prior so we were thankful we were able to see her and hug her one last time.

That night we continued to pack and moved all our luggage to another area as we had a driver arriving at 5:30am to bring us to the airport.  We said goodbye to the Italian family who is also staying at the hotel, we also said goodbye to Katya our hotel owner and gave her a little gift from MN.  I don't think either one of us slept much that night as we were dreading saying goodbye to our home away from home for the last 8 weeks in the am.  At 5:30 we ventured out of our room to get our luggage and we were greeted by Valeria, Juanita and Camilla.  Camilla leaves for school around 6:00 am so they were all up.  There were many tears and many hugs.  We have grown to love these people.  They have made our stay here so wonderful and it was SO sad to say goodbye.  We told them we would be back to visit and we would connect with them for sure.  Emails were exchanged, pictures were taken and a few tears were shed again.

As I walked out the door I started to cry again.  Saying goodbye to the place we have stayed that has been our home away from home.  It was HARD.  As we drove away we were saying goodbye to many of the fun places that we have visited while we have been here.  What a mix of emotions we felt as I worried about how she would do on the plane, I was excited to see all of our friends and family at home and I was VERY sad to be leaving my daughters birth country.  I know we will be back again to visit but we are not sure when.

As the plane took off leaving Bogota I cried again as I looked out the window at the city.  I closed my eyes and prayed.  I thanked God for keeping us healthy and safe on this trip.  I thanked him for this amazing experience and for all the wonderful people we met.  I thanked him for the experience Isaac had and that he will be able to remember all of this and for him being able to use his Spanish.  I thanked him for Amelia and the gift she is to us.  I thanked him for the private casa and for the care they gave our sweet girl until we were able to come and meet her.  As I thought about the casa I prayed for all the sweet little faces that I saw there that day and for each child to be loved and find their forever family.  I thanked him for answering all of our prayers about our precious girl.  I promised to love and care for her to the best of my ability and asked that he would guide me in this.  I thanked him for the gift of being a parent and I also prayed for her birth mother.  I prayed that God will protect her and love her and give her peace.  I thanked God for her.  I thanked God for her sacrifice of love.  I prayed that she would feel my prayers and that God would bless her.  It was a very emotional time for me.  One that will take me awhile to process for sure.

Bogota was beautiful and it has a very special place in my heart.  I pray that we will be able to go back again soon and visit.

I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers.  Philemon 1:4

Isaac and Camilla (11).  They were very good friends.  Camilla is Valeria's daughter.

For those of you who think she is always smiling! HA!  Juanita had to "do her hair?" for the pic.  She is completely crazy.  I will so miss these ladies!

LOVE these ladies!! 

Our friends from Italy and their daughter Carol who I loved playing with and doing her hair.

Isaac and Carol.  She was a hoot!

Pics of our home away from home.  Finally picked up for pictures!! :-) Ignore the sleeping kids.  It was late and I wanted to make sure I took these pics! 

I am happy to be going home!!

Last minutes in Bogota!

Bye BOGOTA!! We will miss you!!

Things I Love about this city and things I will not miss!

Things I love and will really miss:

The colonial architecture...I absolutely love this!!
The weather 65-75 and sunny most of the time.  Some days rain and some cloudy but overall beautiful!!
Not having to grocery shop, cook, or do laundry...will I have time for this at home?? :-)
Fresh squeezed juice every morning
The amount of family time we have had to just be together and enjoy each others company!
Juanita playing music, singing and dancing in the kitchen every day
Ajiaco soup whenever we want to order it
People speaking Spanish even when you tell them you don't speak spanish...they just keep talking to you! :-)
Made to order breakfast every morning
Not having to look at a clock very often or know what day it is!
Ciclovia on Sundays
The friends that we have made
The flowers
Going to the park every day
The amazing restaurants
The area we are staying in
Mountain views
Walking everywhere we want to go
Going to markets
Speaking Spanglish!! :-)


Things we won't miss! :-)

Watching TV in Spanish...less than 5 channels in English
Uneven sidewalks...random iron sticking up and holes everywhere and trying to push the     stroller..ugh! :-)
Crazy traffic...takes an hour to go anywhere in traffic
Pico de Placa..pollution from buses, trucks and all the traffic
Crazy taxi drivers and white knuckle rides, although most drivers are very friendly
Having no toilet seat and paying for toilet paper or sometimes to use the bathroom in public bathrooms
Having to throw toilet paper in the trash
People walking through traffic selling things (food, car phone chargers, pillows, umbrellas) and offering to clean your windshield
All of us sleeping in 1 room and hearing every little coo and Isaac talking in his sleep
Construction

We absolutely love this place and are going to have a hard time leaving that is for sure!!

One of many crazy sidewalks!! 

Museo de Los Ninos and US Embassy!

Thursday we got up earlier and caught a taxi to Museo de Los Ninos.  It is a children's museum here in the city that some friends had recommended.  Traffic was horrible as we went in the morning and when we arrived we were about 15 minutes late to enter.  They have sessions at 9 and 1.  They told us we would need to come back at 1pm.  It is different in the fact that they have tour guides that lead you through the museum and they had a lot of school groups visiting.  We asked if we could enter as we had just travelled so long and we had appointments in the afternoon.  The security guard decided to give us a personal tour himself.  It was SO much fun!!  We were able to see the entire museum.  He wanted to take pictures of all of us!! They have a full size airplane outside so we took some pics with Isaac as our pilot.  We also made chocolate, learned about the environment, learned about the food groups and healthy eating, learned about transportation and about science...depth perception, echoes, etc.  It was a lot of fun.  Isaac had a great time!  We asked the cost of the museum at the end and they told us it was free being we did not have a guide.  We felt our security guide was a lot of fun and better than a guide.  So, needless to say we gave him a good tip! :-)

We headed back to the hotel where Amelia took a nap and we went to lunch at the local Carulla.  They have a great salad bar, fruit bar and rotisserie chicken.  The girls said Amelia could sleep while we went to eat.  We have had to do this a few times this week.  I admit it feels a bit strange just walking to lunch with no bag, no stroller, no toys or blankets, or no baby!  She was able to sleep for about 2.5 hours before Jeff headed back to the medical clinic for her final reports.  Once he was back Pilar came to pick us up to head to the private casa to say goodbye and to sign some final papers.  We will have to send them a few updates on her health and progress over the next 2 years.  We took more donations of clothes that both she and Isaac have grown out of!  Need to make room in my suitcases for all of our treasures!! :-)  I am so thankful for Maria and the staff at the casa.  They have taken wonderful care of our girl!! We stopped off at the fruit and vegetable market before heading back to the hotel.  We said goodbye to Pilar and gave her a few small gifts from Minnesota.  She has been such a great resource and help to us while we have been here and while our rep Cecilia has been in Hong Kong.  She is working with another family from Sweeden that has been here a week less than us but has not heard anything about their process.  They have an 8 month old little girl also.  Please pray for them as she said they are getting anxious!!

Friday am we were up early to get picked up by Cecilia to go to the Embassy to apply for Amelia's visa.  Cecilia flew in from Hong Kong on Thursday afternoon so she was a bit jet lagged but wanted to help us complete the last step of our process.  We arrived for our appt at 10am and there was a line about 400 people long.  She said that we don't have to wait in that line that we are going to a different area!  Whew!!!  I could not bring my camera in to this area so I don't have a lot of pictures of the Embassy due to security reasons.  The building is quite large but there are several windows on the outside.  We checked in at window #3 and had a seat in a covered area outdoors.  The line was for Colombian people applying for visas to travel to the US.  We are applying for a visa to immigrate to the US for Amelia thus we walked right up.  The man at the window spoke English and was very friendly.  He took all of our paperwork and told us it would be about 2 hours to process her visa.  UGH!  We asked if there was anything he could do to speed up the process and he said he would do his best!! Muchas Gracias!! :-) 35 minutes later they called our name and it was ready!!! Whooo Hoo!!  This is the final piece we need to board a plane! We were given a large packet that we will have to turn in to customs once we reach Atlanta.  We were told DO NOT OPEN IT!! OK!! :-)  And we were off.  We stopped for one last lunch at Crepes and Waffles and had a low key afternoon with the girls at the hotel.

Cecilia and Pilar have really recommended that we visit a place called Villa De Leyva while we are here.  She said it is beautiful and lots of great things to see.  We originally had planned for Freddy to take us to La Calara and Guativita this weekend and maybe to Hacienda Margarita restaurant.  They both strongly recommended that we see Villa De Leyva.  It does not sound like there is going to be a strike either so we could go without difficulty.  We quickly emailed Freddy and he said he was free to take us and he would plan to stay over night also so he could show us around.  He arranged a hotel for us there and will pick us up at 9 on Saturday am.  YAY!! Should be a lot of fun and we plan to make a lot of stops on the way there!!

And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. (Colossians 3:15 NLT)

As always more pictures for you!! :-)

A 300 year old train at the museum!

Saying goodbye to the director of the Casa Maria C.  So thankful for the work that this woman does!

Pizza for dinner!! We are going to miss Valeria and Juanita!

Isaac got to play pilot of the plane!

Look grandma! We learned to brush our teeth here! 

YAY!!!

A new pouty look! Ha!  She has also discovered her tongue!

OH we are going to miss these beautiful women!

One last trip to Crepes!!

FLIGHT INFO!

For those of you who have asked if you can come to greet us tomorrow we would love to see you!!
Delta Airlines
Here is our flight info:
Bogota-Atlanta #980
Atlanta-Minneapolis #1108

Weekend in Villa de Leyva

Freddy picked us up on Saturday am and we headed out for Villa De Leyva.  We have heard so many great things about this town so we were happy to go and visit even if it was for just 2 days.  It is a Spanish colonial town full of white buildings with tiled roofs, the streets are all cobblestone and there are many restaurants and shops.  There are beautiful court yards and buildings that are very old.  The central plaza is huge surrounded by a large church and many colonial buildings.   There are 2 routes to take to get there so Freddy thought that we should take the long way around stopping in several small towns one day and take the freeway back the other day.  There were several beautiful churches we wanted to visit along with going to Raquira which is a small town full of handicrafts and known for pottery.  We were able to find a lot of nice things to bring back home with us.   Freddy decided to stay over night so that he could show us around both days.  As always he was giving us the tour and was a wealth of knowledge about the history of all the towns we visited.  We took our time getting there as it is about 3 hours outside of Bogota.  We arrived in Villa de Leyva around 4pm and got settled in to our hotel that is right near the main square.  The town is very old as is the hotel we were staying at but very nice with a beautiful court yard, spa, and restaurant.  We ventured out to do some sight seeing, shopping and find dinner.  Freddy has been here several times so was able to recommend some good places to eat with live music.  We decided to meet up with Freddy the next day after lunch so we could do some exploring in the morning and shopping.  We knew we wanted to visit the ostrich farm, the mud house and the fossil museum for sure.  At the farm for ostriches we learned all about them, and got to go in to the pen and feed them.  They are big and can be very assertive finding the food.  They are very tall and their necks are kind of snake like so just when you thought they were not looking you would look up and there they would be.  We laughed so hard many times and have a lot of good video!  It was hilarious!  We would highly recommend anyone visiting to check out this great little town!  We were excited that we were able to visit and that there was not a strike.  It was a great ending to an amazing 8 week visit in this beautiful country.  It is going to be very hard to leave. Tonight was another tough goodbye as we said thank you to our amazing friend and driver Freddy.  We are so going to miss him.  He has been SO SO good to us.  We have shared a lot of laughs together and we all grew to love him!  We told him if he comes to the US he needs to tell us so we can go and visit him.  We ended our weekend with a great trip to Teriyaki as a goodbye dinner.

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.   Numbers 6:24-26

Ubate Square

A stop for fresh strawberries and cream! Yumm-o!

Chiquinquira Square

The church where the pope visited

One of many colorful handicraft stores in Raquira

Raquira main square

Outside the hotel Freddy recommended right near the square!

Villa De Leyva was beautiful!

The main square

Beautiful gardens

Doing some shopping in Villa De Leyva

Proud big brother!

An entire house made out of terra-cotta.  The inside was simply amazing!

Isaac  at the ostrich farm with the buffalo

Freddy did not know what he was getting himself into when he came on this adventure with us!

Isaac's expression is about how we all felt.  We laughed so hard we cried!

Just when I thought I was in the clear I look up to find this staring at me!

They were surrounded!

Isaac with the fossil of a  dinosaur they found in this region

We saw a lot of homeless dogs while we were there.  Isaac felt so bad for them so he bought a doughnut and fed it to one of the dogs.

Dinner at Teriyaki to thank Freddy and tell him goodbye!

The bridge where Colombia gained their independence!