Tuesday, November 27, 2007

One Day Closer to Home!

This morning we were picked up bright and early by Andres, a new driver/representative that helped us with our Sentencia signing! We met our lawyer Graciela at the court (Juzgado 21) at around 10 am this morning (after a very long drive in thick Bogota traffic!). We reviewed the Sentencia - which is a several page document that officially grants us custody of the children and gives the children our last names. After making sure that the items in the document (ie - names, birthdates, etc.) were all correct, we signed! The kids are OFFICIALLY our children!

After signing, we walked several blocks to an office where we were going to get
Angie's birth certificate changed to reflect our last name (Angie was born in Bogota) but it turned out that the one individual that does that step was sick today - so it couldn't be done. Not a big deal, because we will go back tomorrow to get it done. But then we had to walk back the several blocks to where the car was. We enjoyed the walk, but my feet did not...I had chosen to wear my 'fancy shoes' which is code for 'shoes I shouldn't walk more than one block in'. :) Thankfully Robert was there to be my stabilizer!
The appropriate documents were FedEx'd to Villavicencio to the Records Office in that region today so that we can get Laura & Juancho's birth certificates changed to reflect our last name also. Juancho & Laura were born in Cumaral, which is in the Meta region, about a 4 hour drive from here. It would be fun to see where the children were born, but the roads to travel on are not safe, plus we would have to stay overnight there and would incur extensive costs for the travel and extra stay...so overall it is better to do the FedEx route. We hope to have the amended birth certificates back by Thursday. If we do, that means we will be spending Friday at the US Embassy obtaining passports for the children (they do it same-day!) and having the children in for their US Embassy doctor appointment to make sure none of them are bringing any crazy bugs to the USA! (They've been pretty darn healthy though, so we aren't concerned!)
After we got back from our eventful morning, we went out with a couple of families here. Sarah & her husband John are adopting 2 older girls that I've posted about - Diana and Jamie; and Tamara and Baby John who you have also heard about! We all walked down to a large four story Artisan's store called Maku. Maku has a bunch of great handicrafts made by local craftsmen...much like the things we saw at the market this past Sunday, but with several more items as well. We did some shopping for Christmas presents and spent some time at Frisby's across the street...the kids loved playing in the playplace they had for children there...and it was a great way for them to burn off some energy!

We got home and shortly thereafter dinner was served...our cooks here - Ana and Okenis are WONDERFUL! They make amazing food, keep the home and our rooms clean, and are here to help with whatever need may arise...we love them! For dinner tonight was soup as a started (yum!) with rice, broccoli & cauliflower, and turkey (we think a leftover bit from Thanksgiving...but very good). Dessert was Key Lime Pie!

The kids all went to bed amazingly well tonight...it is usually pretty difficult to get them to sleep in the same room...though we have found putting Angie to bed a bit ahead of the other two really helps! It will be nice to have them in separate rooms soon though...that will make a world of difference with bedtime!

Tomorrow we will probably get Angie's birth certificate taken care of...then we believe that
Mario, one of our drivers, is taking us on a city tour...that should be interesting!
We are one day closer to home...yeah!
Love, the Dressel Familia!

PS - A few photos for you to enjoy!

All four children at the fountain behind Maku. They loved the large koi fish in the pond, an the fountains in the background (apologies for the half naked mermaid!)
Laura and 'Snake Eyes' the Slide!
Angie & Monster Juancho - having fun in the ball pit at Frisby's!

Juancho buries himself in the balls while Diana & Jamie come down the slide!
The Motley Crew...Robert with the bags full o presents, our friend Tamara in the black, and Juancho, Laura & Jamie throwing their toys (balls) in the air!

Juancho - aka Superman with his cape (aka - Daddy's suit coat!)

3 comments:

LaDonna said...

We are super excited for you all. It is cool how God works and makes things happen! We are excited to meet your kids and see you all again!! love ya all

AJ said...

I am so excited for you!! I've been reading your blogs (almost) daily and hope at some point I can see you again and meet your beautiful family! Will be in MN over Christmas, but knowing how busy that time is... maybe in the spring! Will be back for Audrey's 1st birthday - if not before!! Bring that sunshine back with you but please leave the bugs!! My prayers are with you!! Godspeed!!
Jean Sizemore

Laura S said...

That is so great that you got Sentencia so fast! You'll be able to get the Colombian passports on Friday but the US Embassy is closed on Fridays (unless Monday is a holiday). If the passport office is anything like in Medellin be prepared for a long day. Get the passport photos done Thursday so that is one less step you have on Friday. And get to the office as early as you possibly can (even before they open as there will likely be a queue).

Congratulations on your new family!