Jeaneth (Janet) the Hotel Manager had flowers for us a week ago when we brought Dana home. They are still looking beautiful a week later.
Yesterday we took a walk to Baby Ganga and had a shake at El Corral. Jodie and Andy took a nap, and Dana and I went. She slept the whole time in the Baby Bjorn.
Here is a picture of the typical traffic. This road had about 3 lanes of traffic, but as you can see no one stays in their lane. Motorcycles are everywhere and they zip right inbetween the cars. I am surprised that there aren't more accidents but people just move where they want to and there isn't a lot of organization.
Family picture when we returned from our Defender of Minors meeting yesterday morning.
Here is the office building of the ICBF where the Defender of Minors has her office. The building is typical for the area.
Here we are with Gloria the Defender of Minors, who fell in love with Andy and Dana. Blonde hair kids are very rare here, so she had to get her hands on him. The other gentleman is our Colombian Attorney (forgot his name). This is our only meeting with him, and he filed our paperwork with the court yesterday.
Andy and Dana prior to our meeting. Posing on the Pool Table.
Happy Friday! I hope that everyone had an enjoyable short work week. Last Monday (26th) in Colombia there was a holiday for Corpus Christy which I think is the Holy Spirit. This Monday June 2nd is another holiday. From what we heard there are 23 national holidays all on Mondays-good thinking on their part. Can you imagine having a 3 day weekend every other week during the year. Perhaps we should take this on in the US!
Yesterday was our Defender of Minors meeting at 7:30 a.m. in downtown Bogota. We were up at 5 a.m. getting Dana and Andy ready as well as ourselves. We pulled it off, and were ready about 5 minutes prior to Helena picking us up at the hotel.
The meeting itself was very quick and more or less a formality. Gloria the DOM couldn't help commenting on how "Lindo" (beautiful) Andy is and "Linda" Dana is. She had a few questions for us on why we chose Colombia for adoption, and if we were happy with Dana. Pretty easy questions to answer. I think they are just making an observation that we are bonding together as a family. Gloria took Dana around her office and showed her off to everyone. We should know later today which court we are assigned to. We heard that Court 17 and 20 are the slower ones, so hopefully we will get another Court. From what we know we may have another 3-5 weeks here pending Sentencia.
We are thinking of going to Santa Marta for a week. They have a beautiful all inclusive resort there, so while we are waiting might as well see the country. Some of our fellow hotel guests may go there as well. So we will let you know our plans when they solidify.
Today Dana was up at about 4:15 and Jodie couldn't get her back to sleep so her first bottle was at about 4:45 a.m.! An early morning for everyone. By the time breakfast was at 8, she had her second bottle and took her morning nap. Everyone is taking their afternoon nap now (Jodie, Andy, and Dana).
We are going to try to do the City tour this weekend, and perhaps the Botanical Gardens.
Have a wonderful weekend, and keep in touch. If anyone wants to come and visit us we will be here for a while yet, so come on down if you want! :)
Take care.
3 comments:
Dana is so cute. I hope she grows up smiling as much as she is in the picture.
Hi. My name is Crystal Carstens and I adopted a little girl with LSS of MN last year. We, too, were traveling with a 4 year old little boy so I wanted to suggest a few outings for you. Cecilia may have already told you since we raved about them, but here they are just in case.
1- Divercity - this is a "city" with about 50 occupations for kids to try. Colombian businesses sponsor it. There is a Coke bottling plant where kids pretend to make coke, a grocery store where they can be the clerk or shop for groceries, a bank where they get out money, a fire department where they ride on a mini fire truck and put out fires, a hospital where they do pretend surgeries, etc. It was very cool and my son still talks about it. Be sure to give yourself plenty of time. I think there is a morning session and an afternoon session so you may want to have the hotel call ahead for you to get the scoop.
2- Panaca - this is a "farm" that is huge with all kinds of Colombian animals. It is really clean and modern. They have a section with cows and then put on a show, then they have a section with pigs and do a pig race, then they have a horse section and kids can ride the horses, etc. We could have spent 5 hours there.
3 - Children's Museum - he also loved this but I didn't think it was as nice as the others....a little run down. A tour guide takes everyone in a group of about 10 throughout this interactive museum so you have to wait for the next "tour" and I think it took 2 hours to complete.
Also, Cecilia knows someone with a lovely condo right on the beach in Santa Marta. It had a balcony overlooking the ocean, a pool, 2 bedrooms (which was a nice treat so my son could sleep in his own room!), air conditioning, a washer, and a nice Italian restaurant in walking distance. We enjoyed fixing our own breakfasts and eating on the balcony every day. We went to Iritoma (sp?)for the day to swim in the pool and eat there...take bug spray!
I hope you don't mind that a fellow LSS friend shared your blog with me. We love following everyone's journey....we miss Colombia!
Best of luck,
Crystal Carstens
(Mom to Mason - 4 and Silvana - 1 from Bogota)
crystal.carstens@experian.com
We are so enjoying your blog and seeing all the photos! Your family is precious and so are all those other Colombian bambinos!!! Makes us just want to hop on a plane and get down there!!!
We would HIGHLY recommend taking a trip to Santa Marta! A great way to pass a week or so and relax in the tropics outside of the hustle and bustle of Bogota! We also stayed at Cecilia's condo that Crystal Carstens was referring to and really enjoyed it. Irotama is also a great option for an all inclusive get away--you can't go wrong either way!
You guys are doing such a great job of getting out and enjoying Bogota as well as getting to know all the other wonderful families! Enjoy your day tomorrow...aren't Sundays the best days in Bogota?!? There are so many treasures to be found at the markets! :0)
Brian, Mary, Lauren & Ben Jaenisch
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