Gotcha Day

Today is the day that we have been praying for and waiting for 3 years.  After getting in around 12:30 am last night we were all awake around 7:15am.  We spent most of the morning getting ready and unpacking our things.  We are running on little sleep and also trying to adjust to the altitude which is at almost 9,000 feet above sea level.

The owner of the hotel Katya was here to greet us this am.  She told us she had spoken with our in country representative Cecilia who would be arriving around 10:30 am to take us to the private casa where baby A has been staying.  We are so amazed by the friendly people we have met.  The 2 women who work during the day here are simply amazing.  They make all of our meals, clean, and do laundry.  It is so nice to not have those things to worry about.  I so wish I spoke more spanish as the owner and our representative Cecilia speak great English but others speak mainly spanish.
 
Isaac has done an amazing job at helping us in conversation.  At our hotel breakfast is made to order so after some french toast, eggs and fresh strawberry juice ( strawberries blended for juice) we were off to get all dressed up for our presentation.  It was a 20 minute drive to the casa.  Traffic here is very busy and cars with certain numbers can only drive on certain days.  The population here is 8 million people so it is a very big city.  Once Cecilia arrived we had some coffee before leaving.  It is very customary to have hot drinks often during the day.  Cecilia is a wonderful woman and has been assisting families in their adoption process for almost 20 years.

 Once we arrived at the casa we were greeted by many people.  Maria C is the director and we went in to her office where she spent a lot of time talking to Isaac in Spanish! :-) Baby A's nurse then came and went over her schedule, temperament, what she likes to eat etc.  It was very emotional for me to meet her nurse as she has been giving our baby girl care for the first 7 months of her life.  We signed a few papers giving us permission to have her in our custody until the court process is final and then Cecilia and Maria asked if they could take Isaac and my camera and head upstairs to get the baby.

 Jeff and I just sat in the office holding hands all by ourselves anticipating the moment when she would come down those steps.  I don't think we spoke a word to each other but yet knew the complete emotion the other one was feeling.  We felt that God was answering our prayers at that very moment.  Some little children were arriving through the front gate at that time.  They all walked by and smiled.  We were told they were coming from school and school starts at 6am.  That is very early.  They were darling and were headed to have lunch.  All of a sudden there were many people around and Maria came in carrying baby A.  I honestly can not tell you the exact details of what came next as I was completely overcome with emotion.  The tears started flowing, then Jeff started crying as they placed her in my arms and then Isaac got choked up.  It was the most beautiful yet tear filled moment.  I get emotional just writing about it now!  Cecilia took video, someone else had the camera.  People were congratulating us and telling us she is "muy linda" an expression they use to describe how beautiful she is.  Many hugs were exchanged.  It was a very beautiful moment.

We were given a bottle of warm milk for her and a bib.  She does have a bit of reflux so is on a special formula for this.  After about 10 minutes or so we were told that it was time to go.  We would be coming back for some shots and also for a tour of the casa in a few days.  We thanked Maria and the work that she does.  Jeff just recently hired a woman at work that has 2 siblings that are adopted from this same private casa that are now 27 and 25.  It is a small world and we are so thankful for this amazing place.  We gave Maria a gift and we were on our way.

 We then came back to the hotel for lunch, another wonderful meal made by Juanita of rice and a lentil gravy with bacon served with fried plantains and fresh pineapple.  It was delicious.  Isaac said he loves the food here so far!! :-)  We spent the afternoon playing with our sweet girl and napping.  She lays down and goes right to sleep.  A-mazing.  She was a bit fussy as I think she was a bit off schedule and a bit gassy but she was good as gold once she slept.  She is constantly moving and loves to move her legs.  I wish I had a jumper.  We will be working with her on tummy time and building that upper body strength.

The services here are amazing and we were able to have her formula delivered to us at the hotel.  So awesome.  Jeff and Isaac ventured to the grocery store today.  There are several things very close to where we are staying so we are looking forward to venturing out and exploring a bit in the next couple days.  For now our focus will be on getting to know this sweet girl.

Jeff and Isaac went out to play some football this afternoon before dinner.   Dinner was pork chops, potatoes and vegetables.  We were able to mash up some vegetables for her and that was a huge hit.  Tonight we laughed a lot as she loves to take a bath and splashed all over.  She was even giggling.  So precious.  She and Isaac went to bed around 8:30 after watching some of the olympics.  She just sat and stared at the TV.  It was an amazing day!

Baby A-
You are beautiful and an answer to prayer.  I have been praying for you every day since this process started.  Meeting you today was one of the best days of my life.  I have trusted God to bring us together.  I am so excited to have you become a part of our family, and have you meet all the people at home who are ready to meet you and love you too.  Your big brother Isaac has been waiting a long time to meet you and today he just could not get enough of you!! You are loved!! It is a blessing and an honor to be your mom.  Love you to pieces baby girl!!

Psalm 118:24  This is the day that the Lord has made, Let us rejoice and be glad in it!!

Buenos Noches!!

Travel Day

Well the day to travel has finally arrived.  I think this has been the hardest part of the journey thus far.  Once we received a referral it has been hard to wait to meet our sweet girl.  We had to wait until after the new year as the courts here close for an extended period over the holiday.  

It is 11:44 am and it has been quite the morning.  I am typing to you from the plane on our way to Atlanta.  My parents arrived at 8:45 am to pick us up for the airport.  We have 6 checked bags weighing almost 50lbs each, 2 roller bags, a laptop bag, a backpack, and my camera bag.  Lots of stuff.  We got about half way to the airport and realized that we had not remembered to bring our stroller…ugh.  Luckily we had planned for extra time so were able to turn around go back home and get it.  You can get these in country but we have been told they are expensive and not the best quality.  Once we arrived at the airport we checked in with the sky cab.  Being we are only allowed one bag each we were planning on paying the 75$ fee for each additional bag.  We explained to the sky cab that we had a bag of donations for the orphanage (private casa) and another bag with medications and things for baby A.   He proceeded to whisk Jeff inside and about 5 minutes later returned with tags for free baggage.  Thank you Delta!!  Needless to say he got a good tip and he wished us good luck!   Once inside we made our way to the family security line.  Slick.  No removing shoes, no taking out laptops etc.  5 minutes and we were through.  

 It was emotional taking off knowing we won’t be back for awhile.  It was very emotional for me this am saying goodbye to the dog too.  He is in great hands with our house sitters and friends though.  We told Isaac that we are going to our  new “home” for 6-8 weeks, we will refer to the USA as our “home home” just as our friend Maddie did when she was on this journey for her little brother over a year ago.  We are so thankful for this day.  We are running on high emotion and soooo excited to meet our little girl.  She is worth every second of the planning, packing, travelling, preparation.  We love you baby A!! Be there soon!!

12:30 am  

Our flights went smoothly.  We were on time to Atlanta and had about a 3 hour lay over before flying the second leg of the journey which is about 4 hours and 10min.  It was a good time to get a little lunch and have time to stretch our legs.  We ate lunch at TGI Fridays.  Our flight to Bogota was good also.  We were able to get 3 seats together but we were in the back row.    That was a bit tight but we were happy to have seats together.    We had screens in the seats so were able to watch a movie and play games.   Cecilia hired a driver to pick us up at the airport.  He brought a large van with him so it was nice to have the space for all of our luggage.  We exchanged our $ at the airport.  Sure wish we spoke spanish fluently.  

When we passed through immigration Isaac spoke to the young girl at the counter in spanish.  She loved him and gave him this huge smile.  He also had to ask a few girls that were working where the luggage carts are and thanked them for their help.  He told me he could understand they were saying he is so handsome!! 

:-)  We arrived at our hotel and went to bed around 1am.  Not sure I will sleep much as anticipation is so high!

Prayer

It is only hours before we start on our journey!  I am so elated!!  I can not believe we are at this point, today has felt so surreal.  I have been drafting these blog posts and it is finally coming together!! We have had a wonderful weekend getting together with friends, going to church, hugs, phone calls, and saying see you later!! Tonight we sat in the family room as a family of 3 and prayed together.  It was very emotional.  We have trusted God faithfully on this journey thus far and we felt we had so many things to say thank you for.  It was beautiful to hear Isaac ask God to help him be the best big brother.  I can not tell you how thankful I am to hear him say that.  I am so happy he will be a big brother soon!! We cried and hugged and cried some more.  It was a moment I will remember for a long time.  We know and we trust that God goes before us and will be with us each step of the way.

Specific things you can pray for us about:

Health: pray that we will be healthy on this trip.  Pray that we adjust to the altitude as it is almost at 9,000 ft.  It may take a day or 2 or 3 to acclimate.
Health of Baby A: (We will refer to her as this until we have our court decree) We will not be able to post any pictures of her on here until we have Sentencia which is our final decree stating she is our daughter.  We will hope to post pics of what we are doing and where we are at.
Safety
Bonding: Together as a family.  This is such a precious time for all of us and we are so thankful for the time we will have together
A smooth and quick court process.  We are told there are 20 some courts in the city.  Some are considered slower than others.

I will plan to post every couple of days or so.  It will take us some time to get settled in and we have a few appointments when we arrive.  The best way to communicate is email.
Please sign in to post comments.  We would love to hear from you.  Next post from Colombia!! :-)  Blessings to you all!!
We are coming baby girl!!!

Mark 11:24  Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Thankful

Tonight as I sit here my heart is full and I am feeling very thankful.  I am feeling very overwhelmed by all of the blessings we are experiencing in this journey.  Here are a few things that come to mind:

*Thankful to God for answered prayers!
*Thankful for the beautiful little girl who waits to join our family.
*Thankful for the caregivers taking care of our sweet baby girl until we are able to meet her!
*Thankful for our agency, our caseworkers, and our social workers that have helped us through this process.  We have felt so much support and are grateful for all of their help.
*Thankful for the fact that we are going on this journey together as a family and for the time we will get to be together and bond.
*Thankful for my amazing husband.  There are no words to explain his love and support of our family on this journey.   He has kept our entire paperwork process together, setting up meetings, booking tickets, keeping track of dates, making many phone calls, calling the embassy, he travelled to Chicago on his own to get our visas etc.  I am very thankful for him and for his time he has spent in this process.  He is truly in love with this sweet girl and is so excited to be her dad.
*Thankful for my sweet Isaac who has been so excited to become a big brother
*Thankful for our families and friends who have prayed for us and will continue to pray us through this process and for all of their love and support.
*Thankful for friends who have shared in this experience inviting us to their home and in to their lives to share their experience with us, emailing, facebooking, inviting me to coffee, calling us and all of the support we are shown by people who have walked this journey.
*We are also thankful for those who have written blogs with many tips.
*Thankful for my job and my coworkers and their love, support and prayers
*Thankful for Jeff's job and his coworkers, the support he has received from everyone and the blessing to be away through this entire process
*Thankful our dog Buddy is healthy and doing well ( he is going to be 14 years old in March)  He will be in great hands while we are gone and we are thankful for that.
* Thankful for wonderful house/dog sitters while we are away.  Such a blessing to have such wonderful people caring for everything while we are gone.

There are so many many things to be thankful for at this time in our lives.  These are just a few of many that come to my head right now!

Psalm 107:1 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!!

Isaac

Many people have asked how Isaac is doing.  He is very excited to become a big brother.  He is also excited to travel and be together with us for an extended period of time.   But as with all 9 year olds, he asks questions and wonders what is going to be like, will he like the food, will there be things to do, is the baby going to cry a lot, how long will we be there.  Isaac is a very gentle spirit, sweet, and tender hearted.  I know that he will do his best to have a good attitude but I very much expect it to be a time of adjustment for him.  He has been the one and only for the last 9 years.   He has made clear some of the things he would like to be in charge of once the baby is here and those he does not want to be in charge of.  For example, reading bedtime stories especially in spanish he would love to do, changing diapers...not even on his list! :-)

He has done some really sweet things lately.  The other day I went in to the nursery and on the shelf found a bunch of his books.  He said he wanted baby A to have these to read.  He had also put a few of his stuffed animals in the crib that he wanted her to have.  Melt my heart.   He prays every night for her and keeps a picture by his bed.  He thanks God for the people caring for her and prays she is healthy.  Melt my heart again.  He has asked a lot of questions about what we can bring for the kids living in the private casa.  I know he is thinking about many things.  He says he is a bit worried about using his Spanish while he is there fearing that they will not understand him or that he will say something wrong.  Many people have told him to just speak slowly and tell people that he is learning and people will speak slowly to him and be more understanding.

I am grateful to be his mom and I am so thankful he will be along on this journey with us.  Please pray for him on this journey.  He is going to be the best big brother.

TRAVEL DATE!!!

It's official!  We have tickets booked to fly out on 2/10.  We have a presentation day to meet our daughter on 2/11.  So EXCITED!! Praising God!!!

Lists

With the holidays over now I feel like I am really focused on getting ready for our trip!  I have been planning things for months but now it feels like the time is getting so close and I am so EXCITED!!

Anyone who knows me knows that I love working off a list.  I love getting things crossed off my list and love being organized.  Sometimes I just write things on a list to cross it off.  These days my list is long.  Our agency provides us a travel packet of all things to get ready to pack and to bring.  It has been super helpful to know what we will need.  There are many details not in that packet though that I need to still complete such as completing the list for a house/dog sitter, planning Isaac's school work while we are gone with his teacher, travel appts, calls to the bank, credit card companies, work HR, and to our insurance companies etc.

We are anxiously awaiting a call from our agency with a travel date of when we are invited to come to the country and have heard that there may not be a lot of turn around time once we have that date so we want to be prepared.  I have been keeping busy gathering things that we are going to need to take on our trip.  I have a few friends that I have met along this journey that have been wonderful resources and have travelled to meet their children a little over a year ago.  I have been sending a lot of emails or messages their way with many questions!!  I was also able to connect with another family who was just recently in country and talked with them while they were there!  It has been so helpful talking with each of them and messaging when I have a quick question.   I spoke with one friend Megan on the phone for a few hours one night.  She was so helpful and so insightful.  She lives locally so we hope to get our families together soon!!  My friend Carol lives in Michigan and her blog has been helpful.  She even created a list of what she wished she would have known to bring.  We are so thankful for people's eagerness to help us along on this journey!

This weekend we had a family church retreat scheduled but being that Jeff is taking a J term class on Friday night and all day Saturday for the entire month of January we figured we probably would not be able to make it.  Our friends volunteered to take Isaac with them for the weekend so we would have some time to get things in order.  What a blessing that was!! I spent Friday night getting paperwork together and making lists of all that we need to get done in the next couple of weeks.  I spent Saturday finishing small projects around the house, cleaning, shopping for gifts to bring with us for people that will be helping us once we are in the country.  I also layed out the things that I have for baby A and made a list of things that I still need to get.  Jeff was teasing me that he thinks the nesting is setting in! HA!  We were able to sneak in a a date night to Stella's on Saturday evening.  Many of you know how we are groupon junkies and we want to make sure we use them up so they don't expire!  It is on the list!! :-)

It is so fun to look through the little girl things that I have.  It moves me to tears when I sit in her room almost every time I go in and I find myself just sitting in there rocking and praying.   I pray that she is safe and healthy and pray that we will get to hold her in our arms soon.  I also thank God for those caring for her while I am not there.  We have been told by several families that have adopted their children from the same private home that she is in great care.  This was such a blessing and so comforting for me to hear.

Please continue to pray for us while we wait to hear.  Please also pray for us to stay focused and enjoy our time as a family of 3 in anticipation of being a family of 4 as schedules are a bit hectic!!