A Sunday at the Market and so much more

Today we went on another outing, we went to the market that is open on Sundays and again enjoyed ciclovia. We went with a few other CHI families which was really nice. It’s so great to meet up with people you have only met on line. There is one other family that was also with us but not a CHI family. All of us are staying at the Zuetana houses because El Refugio had an outbreak of chicken pox. We are only a few blocks from each other. We met at 10 at our house and off we went. It is really a long walk so we took two strollers, and that worked well. Between the sun and the long hike, it was a bit taxing. The kids all did very well while we were out and about around the market. We let them each purchase a few small items and of course had to get an ice cream.

Lovely presentation

Mom, this one makes me think of you. Dad would have to pry you away from listening to this guy on the corner if you were here.


At one point Jessica and Nate had to use the bathroom, so I took them off to find and El Bano. Well we found a public restroom and I saw that same silly sign I saw last week. You know, the blue one with the guy standing and the girl next to him looking like she was loving on him. It obviously means it’s a unisex bathroom, but there are a few stalls, so boys and girls just help themselves in, very different. I told Nate to go on in first, I waited just outside the door, he had to go really badly, then right behind him followed some lady. I thought “oh poor Nate is going to die if he turns around and sees a women in here” I took Jessica in and it hit me that you have to pay for public bathrooms in South America. I knew it, it just slipped my mind. Plus I totally forgot to get some money from Eric before we took off. So when we were finished we had to stand there and wait for Eric to get a bit closer so Nate could see Eric and run after him for some money to pay for our potty usage. Note to those traveling soon, public potty use is about 500 pesos a flush. Eric sent Nate back with 10,000 pesos. Well let me tell ya, the poor folks who’s job is to collect the potty money don’t have that much change. Luckily we were at a parking garage and the parking attendant was able to give me some change. Aye, Aye Aye. (this has become one of my favorite sayings)

Once we were finished shopping we headed back into town to go to El Corral, a hamburger joint. We went with Peggy, Ed and adorable Sofia, one of the CHI families. We were all starving and beat from the sun and the walk. Today was one of the warmest days since we have been here. Ed and Nate talked the whole walk back. They talked about sports and video games. El Corral took forever and with starving children and parents and a Spanish menu, it was a bit tricky. We didn’t go to the fast food like one, we went to the more sit down, many options on the menu kind of one. Emi was so hot and hungry she wanted a salad with ranch dressing. Well they didn’t have ranch dressing as we know it. Their ranch is more like the sauce you get with onion rings at Burger King. Needless to say, Emi ended up eating Jessica and Joaquin’s left over chicken and fries. Nate ordered nachos, which were good, and cheese sticks, or so he thought. When they brought out his cheese sticks it was really sautéed sliced tomatoes with some kind of cheese on it. But mine and Erics burgers were delicious. More comfort food. Here at Zuetana normally lunch and dinner are some kind of fancy cooked chicken. They don’t divert much. We don’t know what its cooked with or what else we are eating, but we are certain that we have chicken twice a day almost every day.

Okay, so up to this point everyone was so good all day, I was proud of all four of them. Joaquin, no nap, Nate, needing Imodium, Jessica did awesome, and Emi she is always good. But by the time we were finishing up Jessica had had it and was ready to be back at the cabin. She got a little obstinate as we were preparing to pay the bill, so I decided I would just take her outside for a change of scenery. We were ready to go anyway. Well she decided, actually I’m not sure what she decided, but she started to cry and say “no”. Not loudly, but enough for everyone in the restaurant to watch me carry her out. She wouldn’t walk. It’s really so different in America. If a kid is not doing well, we just ignore it. Oh No Not In Colombia! Everyone looks. You don’t see discipline of any sort in public. I understand that kids basically get their way until they are about 8, when they start learning to keep house and do chores. So it was kind of a big deal for me. I thought surely someone would call the police and they would think I was stealing the child or hurting her. I was never so thankful to get out of a place. Once we were outside, I put her in the stroller and she fussed for just a few short minutes. Then it was over and everyone was happy again.

Just a note, Joaquin is a very picky eater. The info we were given, which was reiterated by the social worker when we met them, was that they love chicken and will eat most anything. Boy was that wrong info. We are trying to sort our their likes and dislikes as far as eating goes, because chicken is definitely not a favorite. Eggs, cereal, fruit and candy are favorites for sure. Oh another funny thing, the kids call all cereal “kelloggs.” They must have had corn flakes at the orphanage often and called them kelloggs. Well they have since discovered fruit loops, the new favorite kelloggs.

Okay, well anyway, we returned to the cabin and the kids perked right up from the taxing sunny day. You could see the comfort in their eyes to be back “home’. But we realized we had forgotten to put sunscreen on today…big oops. We have been so good about putting it on, but it slipped Mami’s mind this morning. Again I say “Aye Aye Aye!” Note to those of you fair skinned people getting ready to travel, BRING SUNSCREEN! You forget that you are sitting right on top of the equator and the sun is hotter and closer here!


So we are all back and everyone is happy. Tomorrow is our big interrogation day so we thought we better begin to prep the kids for what is going to happen. We needed to tell them that we are going back to the same place we went to meet them to sign some papers so that they could stay with us forever. We weren’t sure if they would really understand but they did. Again Joaquin is in it for the ride. But Jessica got so excited! She wrote each one of us notes, including Emi and Nate, made each one and envelope and gave them to us. They basically said, “I love (insert name) very much. I am happy with all my heart.” She has been the happiest little thing all evening and giving lots of kisses. Eric’s comment about it was “I think this is all part of her last minute negotiations!” Of course he wasn’t serious, but it was cause for a good laugh.

Here are pics of Jessica delivering her notes to Nate and Emi



On a more serious note, we even noted a different look in her eyes at dinner. It almost made me cry, it was like she allowed us to see right into her eyes and into her heart. She suddenly had a comfort about her and it showed in her eyes. She made comment that she and Joaquin are different than us, she was comparing their skin to our sunburned skin, in a fun way, but this lead to me being able to say how pretty we think they are. She thought it was funny that my skin was so hot. She pointed to Eric, Nate, Emilee and then me and called us red, she thought it was funny, then pointed to herself and Joaquin and shook her head no. She had the sweetest aura about her at dinner, I think the real Jessica has been released to come out and play. The difference in her eyes was so much so that Eric even wondered if they had been through this before and it didn’t work. Surely they would have told us that, if it were so. Just her knowing for sure that we were totally accepting of her and wanted her to be our daughter forever, and knowing that tomorrow was a big day did something amazing in her.

Now for a quick explanation of what we expect for tomorrow. We will go back to the place where we met them for a few questions and some paperwork. The ICBF just basically wants to see if we are bonding and if the kids are happy. They will take Jessica and Joaquin in another room and question if they re happy with us. They will want to see us interact with them. They will also ask Emi and Nate if they are okay with everything. Then we will sign papers and have full custody of them when we leave. Our paperwork will go straight to a court/judge in the Bogota courts. We should hopefully have a better idea at that time how much longer to expect. It’s known that certain numbered courts take longer than others. They can’t give us an exact date to expect the final decree, but they can maybe give us an idea.

I have several other things that I wanted to blog but this has gotten kind of lengthy. So I have made myself some notes so I didn’t forget, I have a few funny stories about Joaquin to show you just how funny he really is. For example tonight he decided to turn off the lights on the girls in the bathroom taking a shower, then run and laugh his head off when they screamed. Between him and Nate, I should live a good long life, laughter is great medicine.

Oh and one last thing, they no longer take showers with their underwear on. Thanks Wendi for the heads up on that being a trust issue. We have let Emi and Nate be in charge of showers with them, trying to allow bonding between siblings. Seems like an odd task to give Emi and Nate, but for some reason it just happened that way and has ended up being a real good thing. Joaquin ran around for 5 minutes in his underwear yelling “Bamos Nate, Bamos Nate” wanting him to come take a shower tonight. The kids have no trouble saying Nate’s name now.

Looking forward to tomorrow. According to Lucia on the phone tonight, "Tomorrow it all starts!" We will be picked up at 9 am.

And the last pic is of sweet Lucrecia that I speak of. She is delivering fresh cut flowers to each room. We love when she comes in to work in the afternoons.