Daddy's on a Plane

Today was very exciting as we knew that daddy was coming back to Bogota today. Everyone was up and through the morning routine like clockwork. After breakfast I sat down with Maria and went over some homework with her. She is studing the alphabet, vowels, numbers, colors and shapes. We got through some of it and she said she would work on the rest later in the afternoon. We were pretty much killing some time because we were suppose to walk with Christina and Nick to a large park they found about 15 minutes walking distance from here. After they were all dressed and ready baby Mira included, we piled in the strollers and off we went to the park. The kids had fun playing for a while and it started to rain so we had to book it back to the residence. After some lunch I let the kids stay up instead of putting them down for a nap as the Dr. was to be here at 3:00PM to review their shot records. I didn't know if she would want to see the kids so, I didn't want them sleeping just yet. When she arrived the girls brought us some afternoon coffe and we sat down at the dining room table. After reviewing what was given to me by the social worker from Aguachica we came to the conclusion that Maria needed all her shots (Tuberculocious, Polio and Hep B she already had MMR) except chickenpox which we can give to her in the states (it is required by the Embassy but, we understand that they have been a little more lax about making the kids get it here in Colombia). J.P. has had everything except chickenpox and it is the same for him - he can get it in the states. The Dr. was going to double check about the chicken pox vax to make sure that the Embssy will allow it later. After the Dr. left I put the kids down for a nap. They both fell asleep and slept for about 2 hours. We had a half an hour to kill before dinner so I put in the movie "Free Willy". There was a part where they were showing a skateboard park and I told J.P. his daddy used to do that (Ms. Betty was in the room at the time and she translated for me) J.P. responded back to her "I can do that!". It was too cute. It really is a shame that we don't know more Spanish because I am sure there are so many more little cute things that they say that we do not know about. Dinner is Chicken, rice and delicious carrots and green beans. After dinner it was back to the room and I got the kids ready for bed. Daddy was gonna come in late and I didn't think it would be good for them to wait up for him. Well it's time....Daddy is coming now. Until tomorrow....Hasta Luego

I'm Back In Bogota

I flew back to Colombia. I had a good flight although it was a long day. I treated 10 pateints from 9am-11am, changed at the office, grabbed some quick food and hit the road by 11:30. I needed t0 be at the airport in Miami by 2:30 and it is a 3 hour drive. After some rain and construction slow downs I arrived ay 3pm. It tok about 1.5 hours to check in and get through security. My plane was scheduled to leave at 5:30 and was only a few minutes late. We landed in Bogata at 8:05. We deplaned on the Tarmac and took a bus to the terminal. Immigration was very busy and had taken about an hour to clear. Wendy was waiting outside. Long day but very glad to see Wendy and the kids.

Stroller Success & a Bright Student

Maria had her second English lesson today. They went over colors and shapes. Unfortunately I did not get a chance to speak with the instructor, Mario, before he left as I was in our room with J.P.. By the time I was getting ready to go over to where they were studying she walked in the door and the instructor had already left. I assume that she did OK. I spent about an hour today creating homework for her to do tomorrow. I want her to do it on the days that she is not with the instructor. After "class" the three of us walked over to the store and got J.P. his stroller. You should have seen his face. I do not think I have seen him smile so big. He likes it a lot. We came back to the residence and had lunch then back out to a couple of the parks for a little while. They were small but, enough for them to play on. They at least had swings on this one which Maria loves. We came back to the residence and it was time for siesta. After siesta I had gotten some foam shapes and 8x10 foam sheets so they could do a craft and glue them on. It was simple but, something to do. They said they were making them for their papi who was coming tomorrow. We still had a little time before dinner so we took a walk to the baby store around the corner with Nick, Christina and Joe. On the way home we stopped back by another park and let the kids play for about 15 minutes. Dinner was carne, plantains with quak, and rice. Very good. After dinner the kids came back to the room and watched a little TV then down for bed. The day was pretty simple, really. Tomorrow we are gonna take a walk to a different park with Nick and Christina. I understand the walk is about 15 minutes. Maria has the homework I prepared for her today to do. And the Dr. is gonna be here at about 3PM to look at their shot records to see what they still need. It is much cheaper to try to get their shots done ahead of time rather than wait for the embassy Dr. to do them. Besides we want to break the shot dossage up a little if they need a lot of them anyway. Don't want to put all that stuff in their little bodies all at once. I spoke to Nora (our agency rep here in Bogota) today and she said that our paperwork is still in Phase 3 person's hands. He was suppose to have a maximum of 5 business days to sign it and supposedly he has not yet. She said that it will go to the courts on Monday. Originally, we were told that we should expect sentencia (the paper we need to come home)on June 7th or 8th. Monday is the 7th so I am not sure what this all means. Please continue to pray for us. I will know more on Monday. Steve comes in tomorrow night so please pray for safe travels for him. Also, please pray for Melissa's little girl, Ariana (I don't know if I spelled it right but, I think she is only about 3 years old or so). She just found out that she is very ill with Mersa. I believe that she is back in the hospital/emergency room today and is not doing well. Poor little thing. Melissa, please know that our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. I would also like to give a shout out to Dr. Cooper's office. He has so generously allowed one of his girls to come over and lend a hand with some billing issues. Thanks for your help. Guess that is it for tonight. Buenos Noches.

An Easy Day

Today was sort of uneventful. After breakfast I had Maria do the homework I had written out for her the day before. I want her to review it every day. She has lesson again tomorrow at 10:00AM. (I want to thank everyone who has been praying for the practice. Steve told me this morning that we got 3 new patients in the office today. Very important for us. I thought it would be good to share as God is answering, prayers are working so please keep praying.) After homework we headed down to the mall so see about hunting for a stroller for J.P. I can't believe how expensive they are here! You have to get one with "huffy" wheels or the sidewalks and walkways here eat them for lunch. It was challenging looking for one without someone with me who speaks Spanish as I could ask how much but, not: do you have one in a box, do I have to take the floor model. do I have to put it together?? I thought I would have someone come back with me to get it. On the way home the crazy weather started blowing in- sprinkles then cool breeze then sprinkles again. We managed to make it home pretty dry. After returning the kids played for a little bit and then Ms. Betty told me of another place near by that I could look for a stroller. They did have some but, I wasn't sure how much I wanted to spend on one here they range from about $60 - $260. Isn't that a little expensive?? I don't know I've never had to buy a stroller before. I didn't want to do anything without talking with Steve first so I didn't get one yet. In the morning one of the locals is gonna be here to take the other family out and he knows where all the cheaper stores are so he is gonna give me some ideas as to where else to look first. Just thought it would be easier to get one here rather than have Steve try to drag one on the plane. (Besides there are luggage restrictions. ) We stopped at a little restraunt next door and got some empenadas to bring home for lunch. I also introduced the kids to apples and peanut butter (hey sis, they like it too! Teaching them the same crazy thing I taught Blake! :)) While they were eating Silvia and Jamier our agency people here in Bogata stopped in for a second. They brought me some forms that I needed for us to sign when Steve comes for the Embassy. They didn't stay long. Afterwards it reminded me that I still needed to check on the kids shot records to make sure that they had everything that they were required to have to "check out" of the embassy. As it turns out it looks like J.P. has had everything required but, Maria needs a lot of stuff I think. The Dr. provided to us by our agency is going to stop by on Thursday at 3:00PM to take a look at the records, give me her address, schedule the appointment for the visit and let me know how much everything is going to be. I plan to make the appointment for the office visit for one day that Steve is here in case one of them have a reaction to the shots. I received an email from Luci today that said that she will email me when she speaks to Dollys our attorney this afternoon. I have not received the email as of yet. I may try to call Luci tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last official day of phase 3. Then it is suppose to go to phase 4 where the judge gives his final approval called sentencia. He has up to 10 days to do so. I understand that the average timeframe for this part of the process is 3 to 4 days. Please pray for 1 or 2 days. Steve will be here the day after tomorrow and it would be neat if we can get it quick. It's about an hour or so before dinner and the kids were getting wild so I decided to take them to the indoor McDonalds "playground" as it was still raining on and off to let them play out some of this energy they had bottled up inside them. Dinner consisted of J.P.s favorite, soup (I think it was celery), CARNE, rice, potato/onion/cheese caserole and brochlii/cheese caserole. It was delious as usual. After dinner we came back to the room and it was our usual routine. Jammies, a little TV, we have implimented prayers then bed. I usually get my emailing and catching up with family done about this time as well. My mom and dad got to talk to the kids a little tonight. They stayed still for a couple of minutes in order to do so. Very unusual. Tomorrow, Maria has her lesson so I think we will skip the the mountain tour we were invited to go with the other family here. Will probably wait for Steve to do something if we decide we are gonna do any tours at all while we are here. While Maria has lesson maybe J.P. and I will go get his stroller. He absolutely loves it!! Maybe it is because he has never had one? He thinks it is a car or something! I think most children his age don't want to be in them about now but, luckely he does. If we get the stroller I may try to take them either to the other parks again or if it is raining maybe just to movies. I guess we will wait to see what tomorrow brings. By the way go to 6/21's date (I think there are 2 posts) as I have just added a video clip of J.P. and Maria dancing one of the last nights we were with Luci and Manuel. It's awesome. Good night all. Lots of Luv. W

Crepes N Waffles

Today Maria started her English class. Mario was her instructor. He started her with the alphabet, numbers 1-20 and vowels. He said she is very eager to learn and wanted to continue with homework as he left. He gave her home work of practicing these lessons and he will return on Wednesday for lesson #2. I have already gone through in pen and have written out for her what she needs to practice. We will work on it tomorrow @ 10:00ish in place of the instructor coming. We decided she will have lessons on just Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays instead of everyday. J.P. sat in with them for the 1st 1/2 hour however, it wasn't long I discovered he was sort of interrupting the study (I had asked at the start of the lesson if he wanted me to keep J.P. out or was it OK for him to sit at the table) so I decided to remove him from the room. He was a little disappointed so I took him into the family room with the 2 books I had here that were English/Spanish and tried to read some with him to make him feel better. Lunchtime rolled around and I warmed up the pizza we had left over from last night. After lunch Ms. Betty needed to take a ride to grab a quick light lunch and asked if we would like to ride along. The kids had not been out of the house yet so, I agreed and we piled into the car. She took us to show us a nice park where we could come when Steve got here (it would require a cab ride there and back) and then it was off to "Crepes and Waffles". This is a chain of restaraunts that are everywhere. It is very hard to get in due to parking issues - there isn't much of it. They have crepes and waffles of all kinds not just desserts. It was very crowded which ment the food was good. We sat out on the patio and I got the kids a really cool looking vanilla sunday complete with paper parrot, chocolate button eyes and mouth, and a waffle cone sombrerro. They loved it. After ice cream it was back to the residence and siesta. J.P. falls asleep and I take Maria into the other room and we do some water painting with the little kit that I got them. Dinner was amazing as usual with cocoanut blueberry rice & chicken. We had dinner a little later tonight as Nick, Christina and Joe had a late lunch. The kids had icecream earlier so it was probably better as they were ready for dinner when it was time. I have had them watching the Disney channel hoping that because everything is in Spanish here they would get to know the shows and characters so when they get back home...and everything is in English...they will be able to figure out what's going on and who is who much easier cause they would have already seen it. We had a little excitement for 2 minutes tonight. All the electric went out in the house - JUST FOR ABOUT 2 MINUTES. I was working on my computer so I had light, I gathered the kids up and we went to the other room where Christina was with Mira. Sonya, one of the staff, came in with a candle. When I went over Christina had mentioned that the guys had gone to a movie and were not home. A couple minutes later the lights all came back on. It was interesting. All are OK and snuggled in to sleep for the night. I am in the process of trying to get laundry done so will be up for a little bit yet. We didn't make it to the mall/movie today. Maybe tomorrow. I still am looking into getting a stroller for J.P. Just haven't gotten there yet. Until tomorrow.

"Giddie Up"

Today we went with Nick, Christina and her brother Joe to the "flea market" located at the top of this huge hill. Ms. Betty took us in her car to the top and dropped us off around 12:30PM or so. There were many booths with lots different jewelry, handicrafts and art. The art is fantastic here. The weather was rather unusual...it was like it couldn't make up its mind whether it wanted to sprinkle, shine or cloud up and cool off. It would change literally ever 5 or 10 minutes. It was crazy. After walking the rows of booths we followed the main road down the hill back to Betty's place which was about a 35 minute walk. We were about 5 minutes from Betty's place and poor little J.P. mumbled 2 little words "chi-chi" mommy!! Joe knows some Spanish so he was able to tell J.P. to hang on for about 5 minutes and we would be home. I picked him up and carried him most of the way and Joe was nice enough to carry him the last block or so as he could tell I was getting winded. (It's that whole 2 mile high thing.) When we got home and J.P. got in the door he bolted to our room...didn't even bother to close the door. :) It was after 3:00PM so the kids went down for siesta. J.P. finally falls asleep and Maria and I slip out of the room to let him sleep peacefully. (Just so everyone knows I am just in the next room...not to worry about leaving him alone in our room :) ) He sleeps for about an hour and maybe 15 to 30 minutes and he comes sleepwalking into the room where Maria and I are. He has some cookies for a snack and then it's off to play with the playdo until dinner. For dinner we had decided to go to this pizza place up the block that has this slide on the premisis of the restaraunt. Once inside we discover that there is not just a slide but, this little outdoor kids playland. It was great! We ordered what else but, pepperoni pizza (they don't seem to like the pepperoni so they take it off I discovered). Then off they went to play. There was a 4 lane slide, a huge pool of balls, a jungle gym thing complete with tunnel slides, etc and a wooden, roped bridge to play on. They played for about an hour or so then it was time to eat. After dinner we let them play for another 20 minutes or so then we started back home. They didn't want to leave of course so we had to bribe them with icecream upon the return to "la casa". Joe was nice and threw J.P. up on his shoulders as Maria jumped up on my back. (Nick and Christina had little Mira in the baby carriage and were cracking up because all the kids kept saying was "giddie up horsie" or something like that in Spanish.) We raced each other to the corner and then it was time to put the horses to pasture....we were tired. Each of the kids grabbed my hand and we walked the rest of the way home...well almost. Poor J.P. was so disappointed that the horsie stopped I had to pick him up and carry him the rest of the way home...he wasn't keeping up..mostly I think the combination of all the walking we did today, the short nap and the hard playing they did on the playground plum wore him out. We get back to the house and the kids run to the kitchen where they patiently await their icecream scoop. Then it's back to the room. I get them in their pjs and let them watch TV for about 10 minutes or so to unwind (the Canuel thing again) then I put them in bed. They both give me a kiss and say goodnight. Maria asks me if she has English lesson tomorrow and I tell her yes. Now, all is quite and it gives me a minute to say good night to my honey (the kids say goodnight tonight too) and to some family. It also gives me time to return some emails I received and write the blog for the day. Tomorrow we will either try to get to this big park (if Ms. Betty has time to show it to us) or I might try to take them to a movie - Walle. We shall see. Good Night Moon!!

A Cat and A Butterfly

Ok. I understand from Steve/Doc that you guys want more pictures. I do not have any "new" ones from Bogota but, I did put about 50 more pictures up via albums. Take a look they are from when we went to the picnic with Lucy's school, Miscelaneous pics and from when we went to dinner with Lucy, Manuel & family at this authentic Colombian Indian restaraunt. The food was fabulous! You basically walked through this whole cut out of a brick wall the shape of the opening of a door. There was this tinned roof pavilion which seated about 3 eight foot tables under it and one small table out in the open. The area where the food was being prepared was pretty cool, too. It was really neat to see the people cooking. Today it was raining when we woke up so the planned walk to the other parks was out. I didn't feel like taking the kids to the "Flipper" place yet via taxi on my own. Maybe next week we shall see. Instead I decided to take them back to McDonalds. We got J.P. back into this ridiculous stroller (I think we wore the thing out last trip) and off we went. It wasn't until about 15 minutes or so into the walk did I realize that I had gone the wrong direction. Now, you have to understand this was no easy road to travel. There are not really sidewalks and most of the walkways I needed to travel on are torn up. We turned around and walked all the way back to Betty's Place. The kids kept asking are we going home? I kept promising them that we were not but, that we needed to go back this way so I can get us to where we need to go - in the right direction. We finally got to McDonalds. I got the kids their happy meals and we went into the play area. After they ate I turned them loose and they ran around, up, down and every other which way the play place went. A lady came in with 2 girls I think she said that they were 2 and 8 years old. She was French. Her husband worked for ICBF and all I really got was that he signed off on a lot of adoptions. She worked in the Belgium Embassy re: Visa department. She obviously (you probably figured it out by now) spoke English. Not very well but, well enough that we could talk some. She had told me that she has been in the country for 10 years and they were leaving to go back to France in August. Her husband got a job there. She had mentioned to me that she also needed to get the girls out of the house before they drove her crazy. We talked for about a half and hour and then it was time for her to go. She asked where I was staying and if I would like her to give us a ride home. I thanked her but, declined her offer as some of the folks from McDonalds had come in to draw on the kids faces and J.P. had been patiently waiting for his turn. I didn't have the heart to make him leave right then despite the fact that it would have been much easier on me with that stroller walking back. J.P. returned to me with a black nose, whiskers and 2 triangles painted yellow (I think for ears) 1 over each eyebrow. Maria returned as a butterfly. I didn't have a camera so I took a picture of each of them with my phone. Now, if I can just figure out how to get them off my phone - the country thing is an issue. It appears that I can not call out on my phone but, I can receive calls. We try not to use my cell phone as it is VERY expensive. Only in emergencies (i.e. Steve trying to track me down) or something like that. Oh, I almost forgot!..Thanks Uncle Don and Aunt Janet for your call today! It was nice of you to take a minute to call. Sorry I couldn't talk longer but, it would have been really expensive. I did try to call you guys from my computer but, for some reason it wouldn't let me. I am not sure why. I will try one other thing tomorrow to see if that works. Else, will have to catch up with you when I get home. After we returned home the kids had some water and a lollipop from the girls who work here then it was off for siesta. We got a little off our schedule today because of the little detour getting to McDonalds. It is now about 3:00PM. J.P. finally falls asleep and Maria of course is wide awake. I shush her ( I know you love that term Jen) silently with my finger over my lips and pick her up along with her DVD player. I had put pillows under the covers to make it look like we are both still sleeping in our beds. We both slipped out of the room and I shut the door. I guess I got almost 1 1/2 hours before J.P. came hunting us. If he wakes up during his naps and he usually does, as long as he sees someone there he will go back to sleep. Else he is up.
I have them go back to the room and watch TV for about a half and hour because dinner is at 6:00PM. Tonight was a bean, rice and ground meat soup with plantains and guak. They made this awesome dessert which was made of passion fruit. It was sort of like a thick solid pudding served inside the empty fruit skin. I wish I had my camera. It was really cool. After dinner and dessert we made out way back to the room where they wanted to watch a little more TV. I let them watch until about 9:00PM tonight as it is a weekend night. They went to bed with no problem. We explained to Maria today that I have given her a privelage....at siesta time she needs to lay down until J.P. falls asleep (he will not take a siesta if she doesn't). After he falls asleep if she is good that morning then she may get up. If she was not then she looses the privelage of doing so. Also, if she gets up and purposely wakes him up then not only does she immediately go down for siesta but, she looses the privelage for the next day. She smiled when we explained it to her so...I think she gets it. She is so stinkin smart and so is he. We talked a little with family via skype today which was nice. Thanks again for everyone who is keeping in touch. I miss everyone terribly and it takes every ounce of strength not to burst into tears at the stupidest things. Like a couple of days ago during the first McDonalds trip we were leaving the house and I saw a dalmation walking up the sidewalk. At first glance I said Awwww and then it hit me like a ton of bricks and I burst into tears. Ms. Betty was there to see us off and she immediately put both hands on my shoulders and turned me away from the dog. She was talking to me the entire time...giving me strengh and encouragement. The children didn't see me and she straightened me right up so it went unnoticed by them. I have my moments I guess but, all I have to do is look into my childrens eyes and see their smiles and I know that it's all worth it. I guess this is my "Labor" time. Even though it is extremely hard I am sure once it is all over that I will only remember the parts of us laughing and having a good time. I won't remember how much I missed everyone. OK enough of that!! It's almost 10:00PM my time and I guess I should get myself to bed. Tomorrow we are gonna go and walk the local "flea market". Ms. Betty is gonna drive us up the hill and we are all gonna walk back down. Monday, Maria is suppose to start English lessons and afterwards we might try to go to a movie. We'll see. Luv to all. Hasta Luego - Chow for now.