Jessica and Joaquin offically Hollis'

I promise there are a few pics after this windy journal...

I got up bright and early this morning, just about 15 min after Eric left. I wanted to be ready by the time the kids got up, because there is no confining them to the room while I am in the shower. They slept in a bit which was nice. It was great to sit in a room with 4 peaceful sleepers. Just the peace on their faces while they sleep shows me that they are doing well and feel safe and comfortable with us. Plus it was nice to have a few quiet minutes to myself. I have no idea how they sleep with me coughing and sniffling all night long, but they all sleep right through it. Everyone woke up in a really good mood and every time they heard a plane this morning they said “Papi” then counted the days we think we have left. The first plane Joaquin heard he ran out the door in his pajamas and watched the plane. He came back in and said “I see Papa in avion”. Nate replied with “That was really good Spanglish!” At 9:35 Emi gathered up Jessica and Joaquin to go outside and watch for Papi’s plane. Joaquin was in the bathroom but as soon as he heard the plane he came running outside with his pants down and toilet paper in hand. Everyone around cracked up at him, Joaquin could have cared less that we were laughing at him.

We knew Eric made his flight on standby status because at 9:30 Andres the driver showed up with Eric’s luggage. He said Eric got on his flight, but they held his luggage and didn’t send it because he was on standby. Not sure why standby status has anything to do with his luggage, but we will have to be sure and take care of that glitch before the rest of us travel home. Yikes, so that means we have two more suitcases to lug when we travel home. Luckily I don’t think there is anything in the luggage Eric can’t live without. One of them is full of souvenirs and the other is half souvenirs and half clothes. We are going to look real cute with all this luggage and me and Jeanie trying to lug it all. We have to check it in Colombia then claim it in Atlanta for customs and re check it again. So the two of us with 4 kids and 8 suitcases plus Jeanie’s one and all of our carry on bags is going to be a riot. If this is the worst thing that happens we are in good shape.

I told Jessica she could play on the computer after breakfast. I have Emilee log her on to girly games and then she goes from there. Well this morning she asked Emi to sit in the chair with her and said “mi turno, Emilee turno, mi turno, Emilee turno” In other words, let’s take turns, or for Emilee it meant I am willing to play with you nicely. She then reached over and gave Emi a big kiss and hug. Emilee hasn’t been more excited this whole trip. She looked and me and said “I think we’ve had a break through!” I about cried.

We lost internet connection here at the house today for a while. I was starting to worry a bit because I needed to email Eric’s phone to let him know not to hunt for his luggage in Atlanta for customs. We finally got internet back so I did email him, but it looks like his phone is full and may not be getting messages. My mom tried to call him but it didn’t seem to work either. We finally got a hold of him and he already knew about the luggage. I guess the plane was full that they couldn’t get his luggage on due to the weight limit on the plane. So that’s why we ended up with the luggage here.

Lucia called this morning at 10:40 and said David our interpreter would be here in 10 minutes to pick me up to go sign the paperwork. We were so anxious to take the next step and sign the final decree. The final decree makes Jessica and Joaquin real Hollis’, so today is very a very exciting day. Their birth certificates will officially be changed to Joaquin Alexander Hollis Balzer and Jessica Hollis Balzer. It’s law here to tack on the mother’s maiden name at the end, but once in America that will go away. We plan to give Jessica my middle name when we return to the states. So she will be Jessica Ann Hollis.

This part may be a bit lengthy. So stay with me…hee hee. I knew I couldn’t take the kids with me to sign the papers, and so because we had such a good morning I felt pretty good about leaving them with Emilee. Zuetana offers babysitting for thinks like this, so I told the front desk that Emi knows the rules and hopefully they are all okay, but to keep an eye the situation and not to hesitate to intervene. I laid down the ground rules, no computer, but TV and a movie are fine, we blew up the beach balls to play with and pulled out a bilingual memory game. The plan was to be gone for about an hour. I told the Jessica and Joaquin that Emilee was in charge and that if they were good they could have pop with lunch and a very special gift this afternoon. They both told me they understood and off I went.

So David and I loaded in a taxi and off to downtown Bogota. I knew immediately why no kids could go. The streets are packed with people and you have to try and weave in and out of people. Plus the court area is cramped and small, not a good place for kids. We saw Oscar just outside of the building and he waved us in. He said at this time of day we would have to wait 20 minutes for the elevator and would have to take the steps to the 7th floor. I started praying right away. I am used to doing 4 flights, from working at the college, but 7!!! Well needless to say you can see I am still alive. So we went to this little cove in a hallway with two windows, court 22 and court something else, I forget which number. So all these lawyers are waiting in line for their turn and Oscar goes right through the door into the office behind the window and waves me in with him. He grabs our paperwork and looks over everything before I sign. Well, he found two names misspelled and so we had to redo two pieces of paper. Oscar just told me to sit tight and he and David took off back down the steps. They came back a few minutes later, via the 7 flights of stairs and back into the office. I was so thankful he told me to sit tight. Then off again they went down the steps. Again 5 minutes later they came tracking back up the steps a sweaty mess. David was about to pass out. I felt kind of bad just sitting there, but they had it under control. We waited for another good 45 minutes before we were ready to leave. So all in all our trip ended up being 3 hours instead of 1 hour.

The whole time I was worried about how the kids were doing with Emi and Nate. When I got out of the taxi at the door I didn’t even have to ring the bell, the lady working the front desk was looking out the peephole and opened the door pronto, before I was even out of the taxi. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Joaquin and Jessica came running at me and hanging on so I could barely walk. I told them it would only be an hour, so 3 hours was a bit of a surprise for everyone. As I entered the door the entire house was waiting for me telling me how bad Jessica had been for everyone. Oh how embarrassing. Emilee was quite tattered, but still standing. Apparently Joaquin checked the peephole every 5 minutes for the last hour and half. He asked the frond desk lady if I decided to get on a plane and go with Eric. She explained that I was working on the paperwork and that it’s just taking longer than we expected. Jessica however thought the entire 3 hours would be a time to see how bad she could be and even rebelled against all the adults at Zuetana. She screamed, not crying, just screamed every word she said, turned up full blast everything that had a volume button, crawled thru windows to other peoples rooms, broke a glass on purpose, hit and smacked Emilee and Nate, She ran wildly through the place, refused to eat her lunch and basically just refused to listen and obey. So knew she was in big trouble when she saw all the adults telling on her. Even Joaquin gave me a funny face, shook his head, pointed to Jessica and gave me a big thumbs down. Then he went on to tell me just how good he was for Emilee and gave me a big thumbs up. He pranced around for a long time like a proud peacock and even went over and gave Emi a great big kiss.

It was past lunch time, but they saved me some food, so I told Jessica I was not happy with her and she knew it. I told her she had to sit with me while I ate and no computer, no TV, and no movies for the rest of the day. Joaquin asked for his afternoon candy and I told him how proud I was of him and that he could pick out a piece of candy, he gave me a high five. Jessica watched the whole deal and didn’t even budge, not once asking for a piece for herself. She knew she was in for it if she acted up with me. She has been an angel ever since and hasn’t asked for anything special. She had to sit with me for a good long time on the couch, drawing, looking at books, etc, but no funny business. Holy cow! There will be an early bed time tonight, Emi and Nate deserve some alone time on the computer or watching a movie or whatever they want. Nate’s only comment was “I know one thing for sure, I will never be a babysitter. She was worse than we have ever seen.” They both said Joaquin could not have been any better, and I believe them, he was so proud of himself.

Later Joaquin asked for pop, and I had to say yes, he was sure to tell Jessica she couldn’t have any because she didn’t behave and gave her a thumbs down. I had to tell him to hush and let me take care of Jessica. But really Jesscia already knew and it didn’t bother her at all that we all had pop and not her. She’s a smart cookie, I think she figured out the pecking order today. Emi is the oldest and is boss when mom says she’s boss. But my real concern was that she wouldn’t listen to any of the adults in the house. Aye Aye Aye…smile.

It’s really kind of funny now that I am looking back on the day, but at the moment I was utterly embarrassed.

Okay, enough of that.

Today there was a big soccer game between Colombia and Venezuela. It was to reiterate the peace between the countries. It was all over the news for the Colombian people to be extra polite and on their best behavior today, which I thought was funny. The Colombian people are very competitive when it comes to soccer, so you can imagine how on edge the city was. Needless to say we didn’t venture out today, just in case of trouble. There is another big match coming up against a huge rival, Brazil, so the city will be one big party that day. We were offered to go to a match last week and we thought about sending the boys, but the tickets were $60 each and we decided against it. We would have loved to have gone, but no one else from the Zuetana houses were going, and we didn’t want to go alone. Brian, we did get you and Brandon jerseys, they are not just like the National team, but nice, but it’s the best we could do without going today to the game and buying an original from a vendor. Can you imagine me trying to buy a jersey from a vendor in the midst of chaos with 4 kids and little Spanish, plus we would have had to take a taxi…no thanks.

Okay, one last tid bit regarding our time line. Oscar our lawyer has friends all over the place. He was going to fax our paperwork to the two birth cities so his lawyer friends could get started on the birth certificates. He will then overnight the official paperwork today to them. Once they cities have received the official paperwork they will send us the revised birth certificates. Ocscar said his friends in both cities work fast and should be able to get things done by Friday, which means with the holidays, we hope to be ready for the next step sometime on Tuesday. Our goal is to be home on Friday, 4 weeks exactly. We will not have a definite idea until we get the birth certificates. We will let you all know for sure early next week.

Tia Jeanie will be coming down soon and Nate especially is really looking forward to that. Looks like Saturday or Sunday she will be here.

Also, Eric has been stuck in Atlanta. He hopes to get on 9:45 pm flight to Cincinnati, hopefully that works out.

Tomorrow should be a lot less exciting…I hope! …again I smile!

Jessica and Joaquin building what they think their house looks like in the US with popcicle sticks

Emilee winding down with a hot cup of tea after dinner

What a sister, after a long day Emilee is still willing to share with her sister

This explains Joaquin...see what we are dealing with???

And last but not least, here is Nate pretending to "toot" out popcicle sticks to make us all laugh. Jessica and Joaquin thought it was the funniest thing ever.