We Made it to Bogota!

We flew into Bogota last night. It was a lot of fun to fly with the girls. Paul and Vanesa sat together and I sat with Angee and Manu. Paul said Vani did really well. Angee would have little spurts of being really excited. She would cover her mouth and squeal and smile really big – it was sooooo cute! Manu did really well too. She loved playing with the buttons on the entertainment thing. She kept hitting the button for the stewardess. After a couple times, they told me there was a button on the remote – I kept a close eye for it after that.

We are staying at a place called “Hotel Paris.” It seems to be pretty nice. It is much more kid-friendly than the B&B – not better, just more kid-friendly. The girls each have their own bed and they helped me make them up this morning. This is good practice for when we get home.

We like that the food is served family style here; now we are able to fill the girls’ plates with food we want them to eat. In the past, the plates of food were served to each individual so it was hard to get the girls to eat meat if there was something else they liked better. Today Angee actually ate meat! We told her she had to eat the chicken before she could have fries and the chicken was gone pretty quickly. Manu has been the brave one when it comes to meal times. She is good about at least trying something. Usually she finds that she likes it and sometimes, okay rarely, this encourages the others to try it too.

There are several American families staying here. They all seem to have had a bit of hard time with something or another in the process. One family has been here over 5 weeks and their adoption isn’t even final yet. And their new daughter has been so sick that she has had to be on oxygen. I’m so thankful that we used Children’s Hope and that they have not dropped the ball on anything. I’m also thankful that we had to opportunity to be immersed in Spanish and the Colombian culture. In Pereira there were only a couple people that we could talk to because we knew just enough Spanish and they knew just enough English. Most of the time it was Spanglish, but we were able to communicate well with a German family on their limited English (they have 2 wonderful, adorable children).

Today we got photos for the girls’ visas. They turned out way better than the ones on their passports and we didn’t have to bribe Angee with a sucker :-) The girls were not allowed to wear earrings for the pictures. They were very nervous about me taking them out, but they did fine with it. We were hoping to find a way to take them out since they are so young and this situation provided the perfect opportunity. They have not asked for them back and I doubt they will after how squeamish they were to have them out.

We also had our doctor’s visit with the embassy doctor today. It went very smoothly and fast. He said the girls appear normal. He and his wife have also adopted too. We walked out and while we were waiting for our ride, someone came down and said we needed to go back in to the office. When we got up there they told us we forgot to pay. Three weeks ago I knew we were supposed to pay, but I forgot today (we have paid for a lot of services up front).

We also went to a huge store that has stuff made solely in Colombia. We were able to pick up some great souvenirs for the girls and people at home. I think the girls got tired of us asking them to stop touching stuff, but they did a good job of minding when they were asked.

Tonight Vanesa and I had a very good time talking (the other girls were already asleep and Paul was talking to one of the other families here). We talked about our next trip on the airplane and coming to the U.S. She is excited to meet all of her new family and friends. We went through the list of names and their relation to her. She told me that a baby from the orphanage, Stephanie, is here in the U.S. She is excited about the snow too.

Tomorrow we will go to the embassy to apply for the girls’ visas. We are hoping to fly home on Friday.

Other stuff:

Jose’s son, Juan, has been very sick. He went into the hospital on Saturday and as of yesterday he was still there with a high temperature and still throwing up. He could really use some prayers. He just turned 1 on January 9th.

This trip to Bogota has made a much better impression on us than the first night we were here (3 weeks ago we stayed one night on our way to Pereira). Today was a beautiful day. The weather was a lot like it is in KC in the autumn. The girls will have experienced all 4 seasons in a matter of about 8 weeks – Summer in Pereira, Autumn in Bogota, Winter in KC and shortly after that it will be Spring in KC.

Angee seems to really like dogs until she comes across one. Every time she sees one, she points and says, “bow wow!” The girls also point them out for her and she gets excited. There are 2 golden retrievers here that are so calm, but she is afraid to get too close. We have to pick her up when we go past them.

This hotel has play equipment outside and a playroom. The girls actually got to run around and scream. I was excited for them.