SENTENCIA!!!

Yes, it’s true, we are supposed to sign our final decree papers tomorrow afternoon if all goes well. Lucia is going to call in the morning to confirm a time. Eric leaves early in the morning for the airport and my sister is making plans to come in the next few days. We still don’t plan to be home until next Friday, but we’ll see. Because the kids were not born in Bogota we will have to wait a few extra days for their birth certificates to be changed in their birth cities and then be sent to Bogota. Jessica and Joaquin were born in two different cities, but were found in Bogota when the government took them in, so that’s why the adoption process actually happens here. BUT we also have two holidays, Thursday and Monday, so we basically have 5 days of nothing happening. We will see what Lucia says about the turn around time in the birth cities, apparently they have connections and we hope for a quick turn around. I tell you CHI has connections. Today when we went to the notary with David for Eric to sign his last paper, there was a line out the door and David took Eric right to the front of the line like he owned the place. Now that’s service!

We spent the morning hanging out around the casa. The kids had an English lesson at 11 and had a great time. Joaquin came down the steps giving me a thumbs up and a big grin when it was over. They will meet again at 9 am on Friday.


After lunch we met David to go to the notary and to get the passport and visa photos of the kids. We explained what the photos were for and Joaquin happily complied to have his pic taken. Once it was over he said can we go to the US now? Then we stopped at Maku to pick up a few last minute items so I don’t have to really do any shopping after Eric leaves tmw. They kept asking if what we were buying was for our house in the US or for our family in the US. They're getting just a little excited.

Then we had another cooking lesson here at Zuetana. It was some kind of soup that I can’t spell, but I have the recipe. And the kids made something too, I have no idea what it was, but it was very yummy, kind of sweet and easy to make. A new family came to the other Zuetana so they had a small party for her and her family at our house, since that’s were everyone was for the cooking lesson. Several families have gotten Sentencia so they kind of celebrated that too. We are hoping Peggy and Sofia get Sentencia by the end of the week, then maybe we will be on the same flight to Atlanta. That would be really cool.

Before we went to bed we explained to the kids that daddy would be getting up really early to fly home to the US and that we would have to stay for about one more week. I was really proud of all of the kids, no tears, no fits just lots of I love You. I am going to make the kids a count down after I talk to Lucia tmw and get a more clear idea of what she thinks the turn around time is with the holidays and all. I think it will help them to have a visual of how many days we think are left. They are so excited to go. Tonight, when we were giving kisses, Joaquin said, very clearly in English, I Love You! Then Jessica chimed in and wanted to count in English too. They are proud of themselves for the little bit of English they have learned, and very well should be. I am truly amazed at what they have learned so far and am astonished at how far they have come. I am expecting tomorrow they will be a bit whiney and there may be some tears, but we will just take it easy and see how it goes. They may surprise me. The last few days I have thought about the plane ride and dreaded it, but today I changed my mind. They are really looking forward to going and in watching their behavior I have a peace about it all. I really can’t explain it, but they are amazing, very smart little kiddos.

The owners stopped buy about 9 tonight just to tell Eric goodbye. They really like him and made sure he had their email address and told him to remember he will always have friends in Colombia. This place really goes out of thier way to take care of you, I guess that's why we pay what we do to stay here.

Joaquin and Emi got along fine today, woohoo, and Jessica and Emi are doing better everyday.

Oh and tonight Joaquin said he wanted to go to college to be a doctor…very impressive.

Sorry, not so many pics today.
And I felt a great deal better, thanks for your prayers.

Lucia is with us on this pic. We are wearing our shirts Uncle Brian had made. On the back of each shirt it says, “A Family is Made with Love”