Friday, 11/29
This is last day with Nana and Papa to help us! We have been so blessed by them being here. The kids were spoiled and Little One really began warming up to them. She is still a bit confused about Papa being called Papa since that is so similar to what she calls Brant. For several days, we just pointed to him and said "abuelo" (grandfather) to avoid the confusion. We will miss Nana's lasagna, pancakes, rice and beans and all the other meals. The kids will all miss playtime with both of them. They will be leaving behind some things we were glad to get from home: granola bars, brownie mix and gummies for the kids and a 3-lb bag of salted almonds and Pam cooking spray (which costs $8 a can here) for all of us! Nana and Papa also blessed us today with a huge container of ice cream which we have refused to splurge on. A 1/2 gallon is around $10. I won't even ask what they paid for our bucket! We love and miss you both!!
Brant took the boys to get haircuts nearby the apartment while Nana and Papa explored a bit on their own. In the afternoon, Nana and I had manicures and pedicures before they began packing up their suitcases. Later in the afternoon our lawyer, Raul, and his brother, Eduardo, came by our apartment. Raul had some adoption process updates for us but also wanted to introduce us to his brother who attends a Christian church nearby that we have been wanting to visit. We spent a little while in the apartment chatting before they suggested we drive to a nearby restaurant for some dinner. Nana and Papa agreed to get the boys to bed while we took Little One with us.
We ate at a restaurant called Fireburger in Sao Paulo Plaza. The burgers were great and so was the company. Little One could teach her brothers a thing or two about behavior in restaurants. She easily allowed us to have some adult conversation. Hope that behavior lasts! We found out from Raul that last week the judge signed our petition to adopt! One more piece of the great adoption puzzle under our belts. The next steps are a bit confusing to me, but I think these are the basics: the state attorney, the regional lawyer and the minor defender have 3 days to sign off on the petition to adopt. Then it is passed back to the same judge who has 10 days to sign the actual adoption decree. Once that is signed, one of us can travel back to Valledupar to pick up Little One's new birth certificate. We will all relocate after that to Bogota to complete the US Embassy portion of the adoption which includes medical examinations for Little One and the processing of her US Passport and visa. Are you exhausted yet??? The good news is we might actually make it back home by Christmas. I cannot believe it!
 |
| Reese eating pineapple faster than Nana can cut it. |
 |
| Crying because I won't let him eat the green Playdoh. Go ahead. You can laugh. |
 |
| After haircut rewards |
 |
| Balloon time with Papa |
Nana and Papa headed out around 5:30 am for an early morning flight :(
We explored and toured and walked our fair share the past few days. Today, we decided to lay low. The furthest most of us ventured was across the street to the park for a walk and some playtime with the kids. During their nap later, Dakota and I went to pick up groceries and have a little bit of girl time complete with a stop for a snack one of our favorite restaurants in La Frontera. Brant has been a trooper about missing a lot of his favorite season: Football! But he asked today for me to put out a public plea for access to stream the Alabama vs Auburn game. Access granted! Pretty sure Brant regrets making the request.
Tonight is what Colombian's call "La Alborada". At midnight, the entire city sends off fireworks to celebrate the beginning of December. And they do not stop at midnight. All. Night. Long. When I woke up at 5:30 am, people were still sending them off. There is always something to celebrate in Colombia!!
 |
| Got to strengthen her little legs. She struggles a bit with her endurance and agility. |
 |
| Like the rest of us, Reese is wondering what in the world could be wrong this time? |
 |
| Everyone loves football time with Daddy! |
 |
| Dakota captured some great shots of the boys being thrown into the air. |
 |
| The view on our way to the grocery store. |
Today we attended our first church service in Colombia! Eduardo, our lawyer's brother, picked us up in the morning and escorted us throughout our day. It was a special Christmas service of music and skits for several combined congregations in Medellin which they held in the auditorium of a Catholic school. When we arrived, they passed out little bags with crayons and paper to each of the children to keep them occupied during the service. The thought was nice. I wonder if they will regret that when they see the amount of coloring Jude did to the back of the auditorium chairs while the lights were down during the performance? About 30 minutes into the singing, Reese told me he was ready to go to his Sunday School class. Which they were not having. I alternated between trying to entertain them and sending them down the row to their father hoping they might not come back for a while! I really enjoyed the music even if the skit was nearly impossible for any of us to follow.
As we were leaving the building, people were outside passing out cookies, juice boxes and chips to the kids. They are so sweet about catering to the children. We loaded up again in Eduardo's vehicle and headed out for a "typical" Colombian lunch at a local restaurant with all of Eduardo's family. We were quite the large group! We ordered a huge platter of different meats and plantains for our family to share. It was delicious as we expected it to be! After our lunch was complete, we drove further out of Medellin to Caldas where Eduardo and his wife have their weekend cottage. During the week, they reside in an apartment about 2 blocks from ours. But every Friday afternoon, they leave the city for their weekend retreat which they built in 1981. Eduardo's two daughters, his future son-in-law, Raul, Blanca (another sister) and her husband also came along. It was such a pleasant, peaceful, and beautiful home. The kids romped and played while we were treated to coffee, cake and some relaxation away from the bustle of town. Jude napped on a bed inside until the family's cat snuggled up with him and woke him. Reese spent the afternoon trying to escape their three large, but friendly, dogs. He was not impressed by their friendliness. We could tell the rain was heading in so around 4:30 we started back for our apartment. Two miles from home, Reese could no longer play nice. The pleasant ride ended with him laying in the floorboard of the back seat on top of all our feet screaming at the top of his lungs. This was not long after Eduardo commented on how well-behaved the children are :)
When we arrived at the apartment and stepped off the elevator on our floor, we stepped right into a HUGE puddle of water. There was not a dry spot between the elevator and our door. We waded through as best we could. Actually, Jude stomped through. Thanks Jude. It was even worse when we got in the apartment. The bathroom that had previously had a leak in the ceiling had a much worse leak. Completely flooded. It didn't stop there. Our master bathroom, also completely flooded. And the rain was actually pouring in the ceiling of the master bedroom. I attempted to call the manager of the property and could not get an answer on any of the phone numbers I had for him. I shot off a quick email. He responded saying he was on his way to Sweden. It might be Monday before anyone could come out. The upside, we did not even need the sound machine that night in the bedroom. Natural sound machine from the rain hitting the hardwoods.
 |
| Jude during church |
 |
| The auditorium for the Christmas service |
 |
| Eduardo and his buddies! |
 |
| The pictures of their home do not do it justice. It was exquisite. |
Monday, 12/2
Woke up this morning to a loud crash. That would be part of the master bathroom ceiling falling in. Happy Monday morning! Schoolwork with the Bigs took up most of the day. During the baby's naps, Brant and Gavin did the grocery run and picked up this week's penicillin for Little One.
Later that evening, Dakota, Gavin and I were picked up by Eduardo's wife to head to a local mall, El Tosoro, for a Christmas concert sponsored by the Medellin Rotary Club. I was so tired before we left, I really dreaded going. But afterward, I was so pleased I went. There were 9 vocalists (one who danced for some of the songs), a conductor/violinist and a second violinist who is the conductor for the Medellin Philharmonic. The music was beautiful. Much was familiar, but some were traditional Colombian Christmas songs that I was happy to become acquainted with. We had wonderful seats on the 3rd row thanks to Raul arriving early to save them for us. I was surprised how many young children were there for a 7:30 performance of classical music. But Colombians include their children in all events. And no one minds if the children wander up to the stage, dance around or talk during the performance. They are allowed to be kids and the parents are not judged. Love that.
 |
| My Monday morning wake up call |
 |
| Worth mentioning that I just love the parking system at the mall. Each entrance tells you how many parking spaces are available in that section of the garage. You can also look down each row and see if there is a space open based on the green or red lights above the cars instead of having to drive down the row searching for a space! |
Decided to try out a 3rd mall today in the city just to get out of the house for a bit. Stir crazy does not begin to describe the feelings of us all! Today's adventure was a walk to the Oviedo mall. We found Dakota a skirt and Gavin a shirt since we are all tired of seeing each other in the same 3-4 outfits! I also happened upon a music store where I purchased a children's Christmas cd with some of the traditional Colombian music I had heard the night before. We want to incorporate Little One's traditions into ours. This is a great way to start! We ate lunch in the food court and then found a playset for kids in a courtyard of the mall. The kids ran off some steam before we caught a taxi back to the apartment.
Brant opted out of his Tuesday night tejo tonight. He is feeling my stress and was probably afraid to leave me alone with the children tonight!!!!!
 |
| Playground at Oviedo |
Enough staying at home all day!!! The smell of the dampness in here is overwhelming. Sent a nice but insistent email requesting the stench and water be removed!!! Today we set out via taxi and metro to Parque Explora, the aquarium in Medellin and Jardin Botanico, the botanical garden. We arrived at the aquarium at the same time as a group of hundreds of children on a field trip. Schools here are already out for Christmas, but these children are a part of a camp that sponsors children from impoverished areas of Medellin. I am pretty sure they enjoyed our family being at the aquarium much more than any fish they saw. We were surrounded by sweet children asking us questions, staring, following us from tank to tank and asking us to adopt them! Every time this happens, I am taken aback by the openness and friendliness of the kids. Even the preteens and teenagers seek out conversation with adults. They are just so genuine and happy. At first I was a bit bothered by the crowd and maybe a bit overwhelmed. But I realized how much they were enjoying themselves talking to us and I began to enjoy myself too.
After finishing up with the inside part of the aquarium, we found a Dunkin Donuts! We all had a treat. My choice: arequipe. Wow. The visit continued with hand-on science type exhibits outside before we left the aquarium and crossed the street to the botanical gardens. While I found the aquarium a bit pricey on admission compared to other places we have visited in Colombia, the botanical gardens was FREE! It was a nice stroll while Jude and Little One took naps in their strollers. Jude's nap ended suddenly when I accidently tipped the umbrella stroller back too far and dropped the stroller. Trip to the gardens over. Metro to apartment with full Jude tantrum.
When we got home from the day's activities the manager of the property had sent someone to clean up the apartment. We can once again use the bathrooms. They also pulled up the wet carpet in our master closet. The smell is getting better or has at least been temporarily masked. I'll take it.
Grocery trip ALONE for me. I walked very slowly.
 |
| Our new friends |
 |
| Tarantula |
 |
| The upside to the evening included my find of these at the grocery store. A bag for each of us. |
More school. More tantrums. We are all done. Brant escaped with Little One and Jude to two different malls in search of another shirt for Gavin. Yesterday, he got blood on his brand new shirt he was wearing. I had him take it off so I could stain treat it and I put it right in a puddle of bleach the cleaning people had left on the counter of the laundry area. Brant was wonderful enough to try and make the world right again by finding the replacement shirt. Mission successful!!!
I escaped to one of the bedrooms this afternoon for a nap. I'm sure every one else in the apartment appreciated that as much as I did! It was as apparent that I needed one as it is when a toddler does. Tantrums and all. *blush*
We were able to Skype with my parents a little while this evening. Babies were tired though so they missed out on most of that. Hoping for a better day tomorrow!
Friday, 12/6
Today, Brant and I have been married for 10 years! We always wanted to take a big trip for our 10th anniversary. I guess this can be considered big since we are 5 weeks into a trip to South America :) Reese and I grocery shopped together today while the Bigs got started with school. He loves to be the one chosen to have alone time with Mommy. It is hard to get one on one time right now and they all know it! The Littles have had a relatively better day today. Everyone had nice naps which enabled me to do this blog! We are heading out in a bit for Jaime and Stella's house for an "asado" which I am guessing is a cookout of sorts! Excited to celebrate our anniversary with a new adventure. I'm sure I'll have good stories tomorrow about our evening since it begins at the Little's bedtime. Bring it on Jude and Reese!!!
One anniversary gift I received today was a phone conversation with Raul, our lawyer. He said the minor defender, regional lawyer and state attorney all signed off on our petition to adopt. Now we are only waiting on the judge to sign the actual adoption decree before we can move on to Bogota and the final steps of the process. This is answer to prayer. We could actually be in Bogota as soon as NEXT THURSDAY!!! That is great news. I am praising the Lord for these developments. Continue to pray with us for fast processing. We still have a chance at Christmas at home!!!
Please continue to prayerfully consider donations to our process as our expenses continue. You can make tax-deductible donations via credit card, PayPal or check at Adopt Together. Thank you!
No comments:
Post a Comment