Appointments and Paperwork!!

We had a wonderful weekend here!! The weather was sunny and 70 and we spent a lot of time outside at the park and going for walks.  On Saturday night we had a party to celebrate our Sentencia with wine and whisky.  SO much fun but I think I had a bit too much!  HA!!  Imagine people with a language barrier laughing and drinking together.  It was nothing short of hilarious!! Whisky on the rocks is popular here.  I was not a big fan!! Even Valeria and Juanita joined in!! It was a great night filled with a lot of laughter.  Sunday was our last visit to the markets in Usaquen.  Freddy gave us a long list of restaurants in Usaquen to check out!  I have a long shopping list so was sure to check many things off my list!!

Monday Jeff headed out with Pilar to apply for a new birth certificate for Amelia.  Once we have this listing us as her parents we can apply for the rest of the papers to come home.  They told him they would need one day for processing so our driver will plan to pick this up for us on Tuesday am.  He was back around 11 so we headed out to WOK for lunch.  It is great chinese food!   We then stopped by a book store and went to Juan Valdez.  Juan Valdez is much like starbucks in the US.  We love it!!  Almost everywhere we go we ask for patio seating.  We are really going to miss the weather here and are praying spring has arrived when we get home!  :-)  We don't have a lot planned for this week as we need to be available to go to appointments when necessary.

Tuesday we were picked up by Pilar at 9:45 and made our way to the passport office.  Amelia will travel back to the United States with a Colombian passport and a visa for the US.  We will have more paperwork to complete once we are back in the US.  We waited about 30 minutes there and she had to have her picture taken.  So funny as she has a pouty face and crazy hair!! :-) We will go back tomorrow to pick it up.  We then stopped by the ICBF to check our papers there and will also go there tomorrow to pick these up. At 3:00pm we headed to her medical appointment which is not far from our hotel.  We met with a pediatrician who spoke great English.  She needed the influenza vaccination and he sent us on our way declaring her healthy stating that her ears look good and her heart and lungs sound great.  He said it is typical that kids have an X-ray to detect hip dysplasia at 4 months old.  We don't have any record of her having this done so we will follow up with our pediatrician with this as he did not think it was a problem.  We will go back on Thursday once we have her passport to pick up the doctors final report and  papers to take with us to the US Embassy.  It was a very busy day but we managed to squeeze in one last lunch at El Corral Gourmet.  Pilar told us that this process will probably be complete on Friday afternoon.  We originally booked tickets to come home 4/8 and got a stellar deal.  We are thinking that we may keep this date as if we leave this weekend the difference in price of tickets is 600$ each.  We have a few more things to see so may stay for a last weekend and do a little more sightseeing with our favorite driver Freddy!!

Today we were picked up by Cecilia's secretary another Cecilia and we went back to the passport office to pick up the passport.  It's official we have her passport in hand!!! :-) We then went to ICBF to get the final paper we need for our appointment at the Embassy.  Tomorrow we will head to the MD to get the final paperwork and head to the private casa to say goodbye and sign some papers and we will be set for our appointment at the Embassy.  We are so close to completing this process!! YAY!!!  It has been an answer to prayer that we have a lot of our paperwork complete and it has been smooth sailing.

As when we were getting ready to leave for this trip we have many lists.  We are compiling lists now of things we want to see, things we want to buy and places we want to go one last time.  We have many mixed emotions about going home as we are sad to leave yet excited to get home and in to a routine and to see everyone.  We are really going to miss this place.  I sure hope to travel back when she is a bit older.

As always more pictures for you! :-)

Bounce House at Archies

Crazy fruit!

Ajiaco Soup!

Usaquen

Entertaining people while they wait in traffic

Someone LOVES bath time!!

Signing for the new birth certificate

Applying for the passport

Central office for Bienestar Familiar

Colombian car seat?? UGH!!!

El Doctor!

Papers are signed!!

Hope you love the carseat when we get home!!!!

Helping daddy work!

We have her passport!! WhooHoo!! :-)

Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God ’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track. Prov. 3:5-6