Starting Week 12 in Colombia

Well, today is the official start of Week 12 for us being here in Colombia. And we thought that 9 weeks was going to be a long time! This morning, the word from Cecilia, was the same as yesterday, and that our paperwork is in the Defender of Minors office that is in the courts. They have to review all the paperwork and sign off on it, and then it will go to the judge. Cecilia said she would contact us if she hears from our attorney today. As of the end of today, we did not hear anything, so we are assuming it has not yet been signed off by the Defender of Minors.

We also heard that there was an American family with another agency, that was only here 3 weeks, and received their Sentencia yesterday. This does tell us that things are at least moving in the courts. The other 2 families with our same agency, are still here as we are, and are also waiting patiently.

We spent the morning at the hotel. The boys played in the playground in the backyard, with all the other children who are staying at Hotel Paris. It is really a small park, with another building where there are many other toys for the children to play with.

However, the lawn care guy showed up, so all the children then had to play inside.

I couldn't resist taking a photo of all the kids looking out the window, waiting to be able to go out and play again.

In Bogota, since there is so little grass, people don't own lawnmowers, and just use weed wackers to trim the lawn. We even saw a guy carrying a weed wacker on his bike. It looked dangerous to us. I also had to take a picture of his broom that he used- it was like a witches broom, that you would find in a costume shop.

Two of the families from France left today. One of the families was here for 5 weeks, and the other family was here for 4 weeks. They have an excellent rep who was here daily, advocating, and making phone calls on their behalf. We are so happy that they are able to return home. The boys really enjoyed playing with the children.

Below is a picture of our room at the hotel. The room is small, but there are many common areas, where the children have room to run and play. And there is also a large dining area, and the food here is very good. They serve a combination of American foods, and Colombian foods. They also have the best French Toast that you can order for breakfast. The meals are served family style, and for breakfast, you can choose from a menu of breakfast items. The only disappointment that I have, is that they don't have yogurt on the menu. Jeferson and I really miss our yogurt. On a brighter note, they serve Coca Cola light with lunch and dinner, so I am really happy for this!

Jeferson and Diego playing with a balloon that they got from a vendor at the mall. Note: 5 minutes after taking this photo, Diego jumped on the balloon and it popped.

The boys spent some time on the computer again today. This is a rare photo where they are sitting together nicely.

After lunch we took a walk to a park. Even though Bogota is a huge city, it does have some nice parks. There is a canal that runs through the section of the city where we are staying, and this park is situated right on the canal. Along the walkway, there are some arches, with flowers blossoming on them. It is a very nice place to relax for me, and for the boys to play.

Bridge crossing over the canal.

Arches along the path throughout the park.

The boys really enjoy this park.

Wait until he does this in the Cold Wisconsin Snow!!!! I think Jeferson is practicing making snow angels!

So, hopefully we will have more positive news,tomorrow and know that our paperwork is moving.

Adios, Joyce, Diego and Jeferson

Paperwork update

Ok, so I am going to start with an update on the progress of our paperwork. I heard from our rep today, that the paperwork was reviewed and approved by the court. So the next step in the process, is for it to be reviewed by the Defender of Minors (similar to our Social Services). It is supposed to be in their office tomorrow. Once they review and sign off on it, then it goes to the judge to sign it , and send it back to the Defender of Minors, at which point, we sign it and the process is complete. So now you wonder how long this will take. Well, I am wondering the same! I have been told that the paperwork is moving quickly, but still no timeframe as to how long me and the boys will be here.

My two little monkeys!!!

The past few days, we just pretty much hung out at some local parks, and at the hotel. The boys are doing well, and their behavior has been OK. Yesterday, Diego wandered away from me at the mall, and I found him a few aisles over standing in front of a large screen TV watching a movie. When he watches TV, he tunes out everything around him, *just like his papi*, so he didn't hear me as I called his name. Then at dinner, Jeferson decided to have a tantrum, because, I cut up his meat for him, and he didn't like that. So, yesterday was truely a challenging day.

Don't they just look angelic!!!

A family from France also checked in over the weekend. They adopted a boy 5 years ago, and now returned to adopt 3 siblings- 2 girls and another boy. So, there are alot of children to play with here, and there is a park in the back of the hotel, where the kids can play.

Not really much sightseeing anymore for me, since Eric left. It is very challenging for me with having both boys , to take any trips, other than to the park. Even the mall is challenging. It is great that there is a playground here at the hotel, and alot of room for the kids to run and play.

The rep from several of the families from France has been here everyday for several hours, and yesterday she brought her dog with her. It is a large dog, and Diego spent probably close to 2 hours playing with it yesterday. Both boys just love dogs. Jeferson is a bit apprehensive around big dogs, but eventually gets up the courage to pet them. At one point, I looked out the window in the living area, where the Rep for the French families was sitting, and her dog was looking in the window-along with who else but Diego! It was very cute.

Today, we just hung around the hotel. We have found a great computer program, Starfall.com, and Diego loves to go on the computer and work through it. It is an educational program, and it has a great section with the alphabet. Jeferson and I worked on making some pumpkins out of paper, and cutting out the eyes, nose and mouth. My english sentence of the day was "Be nice to your Brother!!!!" I think they understand what it means, but are ignoring its definition. Both boys can repeat it.

Now that we are around alot more English language, the boys are really starting to pick up some english words. I am trying to always say the english word for whatever they are asking for. Both of the boys are very good with "Mami, Please?" They have the cutest accent when they say it. Today, we played a game with peanut M&M's and they had to tell me the english word of the color of the M&M before they could eat it. It takes alot to keep their attention, so I am bribing them with candy. Bad mother!!

We have been talking with Eric over the internet, and also webcam every night, and the boys are always so excited to see him and hear his voice. Technology is amazing!

Well, I will update when I hear more. Thanks for all the emails and support.

Joyce, Diego and Jeferson.

Our Trip to Socorro October 10-12

Since we encountered computer problems, and our computer is working again, I am putting in 2 blogs from last week. One is from Jefersons birthday, (see next entry) and the other is from our trip to Socorro last weekend.

Our trip to Socorro last weekend was fantastic. It was a 3 hour drive from Bucaramanga, and we travelled there with Jose's family. We really enjoyed the scenery. We never tire of the view of the mountains. It was a cloudy day, so we could see the clouds forming below the mountaintops. It is such an awesome sight.



The boys slept most of the way so the ride was very good. The roads are very winding, so we had to travel slowly. Just before we arrived in Socorro, we stopped in another small town named Barachia. It was a quaint little town that was very old. All of the buildings in the main part of the city had to be painted white and trimmed in green, as part of the town ordinance. Also notice the stone streets, that are throughout the town.

We had lunch at a place that specialized in ants. Yes, you know that small little insect that invades your picnics! This is a very common food here. Deep fried ants. No we were not brave enough to eat them as part of our lunch, but Jose and his father did have a dish, that served them in a gravy on top of the meat. The restaurant was very quaint, and the chicken that we had was very good. As usual, the meat was served with rice. There were also some homemade chips that accompanied them. It is very common to have rice and another potato, usually deep fried- either fries or chips. Deep fried bananas or banana chips are also very common.

In the background of the photo, you will see the beef topped with a gravy, and you can see the ants on top of the beef. We stuck to foods that we would classify as "normal". (foreground plate)

We visited a few shops on the main street, as well as a church. It is very unique, in that every small town in this part of Colombia has a city center where there is a park, and most often, there is also a church adjoining the park.

The boys were so cute in the church. Diego took Jeferson’s hand, and they walked up to the altar, and knelt down. It looked like they were praying. At one point when Jeferson started talking, Diego turned to him and said “SHHHHHH” which was louder than Jeferson’s voice talking.

Next we continued on to Socorro. Many of Jose’s aunts and uncles own a 2nd home in a small subdivision in Socorro. With the exception of 1 family, all of the rest of the homes are owned by family members. His grandmother lives in her home in the subdivision year round, but the rest are used as vacation homes. The family was so very warm and welcoming to us. Jose’s mother, Lilliana, has 9 siblings, so it made Joyce feel like she was at one of her own family gatherings. Even though they speak Spanish, and we speak English, we managed to communicate and we truly enjoyed our time with them. They were very nice to both Diego and Jeferson, and the boys cherished the attention that they received from every one of them. They treated all of us as though we were family members as well. We are truly blessed to have met such a wonderful family.

Eric with Jose's mother and her sisters.

Joyce sneaking a Coca Cola Light from the refrigerator at the casa where we stayed in Socorro.

Lounging on the patio at our casa.

Photo of the casa from the front, with the beautiful mountains in the background.

Saturday, October 11

On Saturday, we visited the family farm that is located just outside of Socorro. The family still owns the farm, and they have workers tending to the crops, and animals.

Of the crops, oranges, tangerines, and coffee beans are grown. We were very interested in learning how coffee is processed. We were given a tour of where the coffee is processed. We found out that coffee really has 2 seasons here in Socorro. Also, we learned that when the beans are red or yellow, they are ripe, and if they are still green then they are not ready to be picked. The beans are harvested, and then put into a machine that removes the inside bean from the pod. The beans are then dried and roasted. Once they are roasted, the coffee from this farm are exported out of Colombia. They have many guidelines regarding the soil, and temperatures where the coffee is grown, that they have to follow in order to export the coffee. The process was very fascinating.

Coffee beans before they are picked. Coffee bean on the right after it is picked, and the one on the left is after the shell is removed. On the left is the beans after they have been roasted, and on the right is the final coffee after the 2nd shell is removed.

We also had an opportunity to walk through the orange and tangerine orchards. When we returned to the house, we were treated to a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice. It was delicious!

In the afternoon, we went to a house warming party of one of Jose’s uncles. His uncle is an architect, and designed his own home, outside of the subdivision. Again, we were welcomed with much graciousness. We had a popular Colombian meal of Arepas, pork, yucca, grilled bananas, and salad with guacomole. The pork was actually roasted over an open fire. After dinner, we again enjoyed the Colombian conversation.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Today was a lazy day. With all of the family’s staying in the same subdivision, everyone tends to congregate at one persons house. However, after a while, everyone moves to someone elses home. We are not really sure how this happens, as we were at one family home, then we left to go visit the main area of Socorro, and when we returned, the family had moved one house down. Everyone just hangs around on the front porch, drinking wine, and chatting. It was such a relaxing way to enjoy the day.

We were hoping to visit some of the shops today, however, being Sunday, we found that the shops are not open. So instead, we just walked around the center city park, where there were vendors, and children riding bikes, and scooters, and people feeding the pigeons. We of course also stopped at an ice cream shop for some ice cream.
We made one more stop before returning home, which was a scenic overview, overlooking the town of Socorro.

On Monday, we left Socorro and travelled back to Bucaramanga, where we stayed overnight with Jose's family.

Jeferson's 4th Birthday

Hola, I want to update on some past events, so todays blog is from last week. We wanted to make sure to acknowledge Jeferson's 4th birthday last week.

Thursday, Oct 9

His birthday is actually October 10, but since we traveled to Socorro on Friday, we decided to celebrate it 1 day early. SHHH don’t tell him! We of course spent the morning and afternoon at the hotel pool. It was our last day, to enjoy such a beautiful pool.

After the pool, we went to a place called “Happy City” where there are arcade games and carnival rides, and go-carts. The boys loved the small Ferris wheel, and Diego never stopped grinning when he was driving the go-carts. All of you Minocqua go cart riders, wait until next summer; you will have some tough competition! Jeferson was not old enough to drive a cart himself, so he rode along with Diego. He was very brave, as Diego was very interested in looking around at everything as he whizzed by, that sometimes he forgot he needed to steer the cart.

Then, we went to Jose’s family’s house, and we celebrated with some appetizers, party hats, and a “ Compleanos Torte” (Birthday cake). Jeferson opened a couple gifts, and we all sang him Happy Birthday, and Feliz Compleanos!! Jeferson received a ‘shake and go’ car from mami, papi and Diego, and he received a Winnie the Pooh puzzle from Jose’s family. Diego became very jealous of Jeferson, and wanted to know when his birthday was. We told him that we would be celebrating his birthday in January. After some time of pouting because of the jealousy, he did rejoin the party. Jeferson was kind enough to share his new car with Diego, and they took turns racing it back and forth to each other.

Before going to bed at night, we needed to pack up everything as we would be checking out of Club Campestre, and traveling to Socorra on Friday, which is a small town about 3 hours from Bucaramanga.

Our laptop is working again.

Hola, I am just going to enter a brief update, that our laptop is working again, so I will be able to begin blogging again. However, I am exhausted from our day today, so I will try to blog tomorrow.

Eric returned home and is back in Wisconsin. He has used up his time off of his job, and needed to return. Also, financially, we needed for him to return to work. The boys miss him, but have adjusted OK. We did get to see and speak to papi over the webcam tonight, and the boys were so excited. We are hoping that by seeing and speaking to papi, that they won't feel abondoned by him. Diego is aware that Eric is back in the United States, because he has to work. Not sure if Jeferson is old enough to understand, but Jeferson is very resilient, and as long as mommy is in his sight he is fine with papi leaving.

Just to update on our court situation. The strike is over! The judges have returned to work and the courts have set up 2 courts to just work on adoption cases. However, since our case was assigned a court -Court 15 one day prior to the start of the strike, even though not yet delivered to the court, we did not qualify for one of the Emergency courts. Our paperwork was in a distribution pile and was supposed to be delivered to the court yesterday or today. Our attorney will be checking on Monday, to see if it had arrived in the court 15. So we have no idea how long it will be in the court, since it is a regular family court, and not an emergency court. We are hoping it is not going to take the normal, six to eight weeks to process. Since our paperwork was submitted to the courts, the day before the start of the strike, there are other families out there, whose paperwork was submitted to the court prior to ours, and have been waiting longer. The court is a also a family court, so the judge is not only working on adoption cases, but any family related cases.

So, our wait continues.......We appreciate all of the positive emails from everyone.

Adios

Joyce, Diego and Jeferson

We are back in Bogota

Hola,

This is going to be brief, as our laptop did not want to turn on last night, and we have no idea why. If anyone has been in Bogota with computor problems in the past, please let us know of a computer repair person that you may have used.

We are now back in Bogota, and waiting for more information regarding the emergency adoption courts that were to be put in place on Monday. Still no news. We have a meeting with the orphanage and our attorney tomorrow, to learn what the problem is. We are seeing other families get the final adoption sign off, and getting ready to go home, but we have not had the same fortune. We are hoping to learn more tomorrow.

We had a great weekend in the small town that we visited. Jose s relatives welcomed us as one of the family. They were all so wonderful. We visited their family farm, where they grow coffee beans, oranges and tangerines. We even got to see how coffee beans are processed.

Sorry no pictures, as they are on the laptop, so we hope to have it looked at soon, so we can be using it to download photos, skype, blogging and keeping up with emails.

It may be a few days before our next entry. but please keep us in your prayers for a quick resolution.

Adios

Pool at Club Campestre

Hola, this weekend there was a huge party at the hotel that we are staying at. They have been undergoing renovation of their terrace and pools, and the reopening of it was this past weekend. It had been fun watching the day to day activity in the reconstruction. The pool area is absolutely gorgeous. They have also added a new poolside restaurant and lounge area.

Below is a picture of the pool that we took when we arrived a month ago.


Here is a photo of the pool this weekend. It is fantastic.

On Friday night, we went out for dinner at the hotel restaurant, with Jose's family. Then after the dinner, we went to see a movie, Eagle Eye, for a night out. The movie was actually in English. When we returned after the movie, we went to the pool area, where the party was. There was a stage set up, and a band playing poolside, and it was nice to hear the Colombian band. The party itself, reminded us of an American Wedding reception/New Years Eve Party. Lots of people drinking and celebrating, and balloons and a band. There were even those people dancing, who only dance about once a year, dancing the best they know how. At midnight, they passed out party favors, and masquerade masks, and tiaras.

On Saturday, we spent the entire day at the hotel pool. All of us love the new pool. It has a shallow area for the kids to play, and they just run and splash. There were also many other children for the boys to play with. We stayed at the pool until 6 PM, so the boys totally exhausted themselves. In fact, we went to dinner at the pool restaurant, and Diego fell asleep in his chair, before our food even arrived. Jefferson went to bed shortly after we returned from dinner., with no problems. We truely believe, that exhausted children are good children!

Jeferson relaxing at the pool.




Diego is always happy when he is in the pool. I think he would be there 24 hours a day if we allowed it.


Mommy enjoying the pool with the boys.




The boys below are eyeing up the new floatation device that a family brought into the pool. It is a boat that has a motor on it, and sprays water!!! They thought that their elephant and frog inflatables ( in the foreground of the photo) were cool, until they saw this!


On Saturday, there were 2 musicians playing the keyboard poolside. They played Colombian music, and it is amazing how many songs the boys know. They will sing and dance to many of them.


Since this coming week is going to be our last week in Bucaramanga, we are going to spend as much time as possible at the hotel pool. It has a very tropical feeling to it. However, Joyce has been unable to find any daiquiris or pina coladas at the pool. It seems that people here drink only beer, soda or juices at the pool.



On Sunday, we spent the entire day at the pool again. Jose joined us for some fun and sun.



The boys also were brave enough to go in the water, without holding on to mami or papi, or the wall. They were so excited to be able to swim on their own. So much for us being able to only look at the waters edge for them now. They are going to be everywhere in the water. They are becoming little fish.



This weekend was very calm, compared to what our past weekends have been. Sunday is going to be another day at the pool. However, when we find something that tires out the boys, we tend to repeat it!

Our plan is to stay at the hotel until Saturday, and then we are going to travel with Jose's family to a small town called Sucora, where Jose has several aunts and grandmother living. We are going there next week on Saturday, and since the following Monday is a Colombian holiday, we will be staying there until Monday, and then travelling back to Bucaramanga. On Tuesday, we will fly back to Bogota, to get Joyce, Diego and Jeferson situated in the hotel, and then Eric will be returning to Wisconsin later that week. Joyce and the boys will wait out the judges strike in Bogota, and return to Wisconsin when the adoption is final. They are planning to stay at the same hotel as 2 other US families from Minnesota who are also adopting.

We are not really planning to hear anything from the courts this week, as they are not planning to meet again until October 15. But please continue the prayers and positive thoughts.

Adios.

Joyce Eric, Diego and Jeferson