Fin de Semana

This was a busy weekend. On friday we went to PANACA (Parque Nacional De la Cultura Agropecuaria). This was an outing we had planned along with some of the other american families adopting now in Colombia. We were joined by Thompsons, Kameraads, Housemans and Ahers. The day started out rainy and cloudy, but we were lucky to have no precipitation while at the park.

This PANACA place is very interesting. It is the second one in Colombia, the first one was established in the coffee growing region of this country, very close to the National Coffee Park and Museum (near Armenia, Colombia). The park is like a giant petting zoo divided into five sections: bovine, equine, porcine and canine. It takes hours to cover the entire place because there are lots of animals/species/ etc at each station, but also lots of activities for kids, such as learning how to milk cows, feed calfs, ride horses, etc.

We covered the cow/bovine section where the kids had a lot of fun doing some of the above-mentioned activities. We then visited the porcine section and saw a pig show, which consisted of a little piggy race, followed by some guys singing and by another piggy race where the kids in the audience could run behind the pigs. It was hilarious.

Jeff and I were impressed and proud of Santi. he went for everything at the park without hesitation. He is sometimes so shy, yet he was all over these animals and activities....

Our little Sebastian was just a saint all day. He just hung out and did not complain at all.

After PANACA, we went to Andres Carne De Res. For you Colombians reading this, you know this is an institution here in Bogota. It is just the weirdest, craziest restaurant ever, and it happens to be a really good steak house.

Friday was a great day. We had such a good time with our friends. We are grateful we could spend that time with them.

Saturday unfortunately did not turn out as good. Jeff woke up feeling under the weather. We had an invitation to join some of my friends from Medical School but because Jeff was not feeling good, he stayed home, and I left with Santi. My mom and sister helped Jeff care for Sebastian (thanks mom!).

Meeting my friends was great. We had a fantastic lunch and enjoyed an afternoon of catching up and good conversation.

Jeff is feeling better today.He is not 100% better, but close. We went shopping to Unicentro this morning, had lunch at my sister's and came home to a quiet afternoon.

We will be traveling tomorrow to a resort a few hours away from Bogota in Melgar. We will be there until friday. Jeff and I checked the forecast, and the temperature for the whole week is 97-100 f ! We are really looking forward to spending time with the kids at the pool and relaxing. My parents are coming with us, this is in fact an invitation from my dad (gracias papa).

We don't know if will have internet service at the hotel, so it may be until friday that I get to update the blog. Happy week everyone!

"Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a method of traveling" ~ Margaret Runbeck

ICBF y El Jardin Botanico

It's 3:00 pm on thursday and both my boys are napping, which is completely unusual because so far they've had completely different napping schedules. This is therefore a nice coincidence and a good opportunity to blog.

We had our interview at ICBF (Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar or "Colombian Institute for Welfare of the Family") on tuesday. This interview starts the legal process that takes our adoption case to the courts and therefore it was very important. Our appointment was at 2:00 pm and were picked up by Carmen Cruz (she works for Bethany Christian Services here in Colombia) at 1:00 pm. We made it there in only 30 minutes in spite of the chaotic traffic of Bogota and extensive construction work around the ICBF office.

The officer in charge of our case actually saw us early and asked us just one question: "how are you doing with the baby? " that's it. It was the shortest interview ever. She signed all the paperwork, gave us a favorable review for the court and sent us our way. Jeff and I were surprised because our interview when we adopted Santi took a good 45 minutes and was quite extensive. We are not about to complain; our paperwork is now moving to the judiciary system and the officer gave us both a favorable review and all the necessary documents for the American embassy for the baby's visa- once the time arrives.

We were back home before 4:00 pm, took a nap and then headed out to meet our friends the Thompsons for a fabulous dinner. We had such a great time with them! Santi in particular had a grand time with BFF Josiah.

Today, Jeff, Santi, Sebastian, my mom and I went to the botanical garden. I am embarrassed to admit that as a native of Bogota I had NEVER been to the botanical garden. Shame on me. This is a true gem of this city. Acres and acres of beautifully manicured areas of flowers, roses, native ecosystems, all kinds of gardens and a incredible arboretum. We were particularly lucky today for two reasons: One, they had a butterfly exhibit from the coffee-growing region of Colombia. What a treat to see over 600 butterflies representing 20 species of truly colombian butterflies. Two: we happened to see the flower of the Victoria Regia (victoria amazonica). Let me explain this one: the victoria regia is a plant native of the shallow waters of the amazon. The leaf is seen year-round, but it's flower only blossoms once or twice per year. Furthermore, once it blossoms, the flower only lasts for 24-48 hours. I guess what we saw today was a once in a lifetime shot at this marvelous flower.

Here are some pictures:

Enjoying the gardens:

The national tree of Colombia: La Palma de Cera (Ceroxylon quindiuense)

Sebastian and my mom taking a break in the shade:

The flower of the victoria regia:

At the butterfly exhibit (my mom and Santi)

Mom and I at a beautiful bridge:

Too much excitement for my little guy:

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but seeing with new eyes"

- Marcel Proust

Un domingo bellisimo

Greetings and salutations from Bogota, Colombia.

We had a simply beautiful day yesterday. For staters, after a gray, rainy day on saturday we woke up to a glorious sunny day. After breakfast we met with our friends from West Michigan staying at hotel Paris. Jeff, Santi, Sebastian and I walked from mom's home to their hotel. On sundays, some streets in Bogota are closed for people to walk and bike (it's a long tradition here, it's called "ciclovia"). In any event, because ciclovia, we had no traffic to deal with for the 15 minute walk. We met Thompsons, Housemans and Kameraads -who arrived friday night and will receive Maria tomorrow- as well as a family from Minnesota (Ahers) on a second adoption trip to Colombia. We all walked through ciclovia to a street market by Usaquen. It was a very nice walk.

Santi enjoyed once again meeting with his pals Josiah and Jacob (Jacob was an angel holding Santi's hand during parts of the walk).

In this photo: Santi and Jacob together with Tammy holding Luciana:

Jacob, Santi and Carlos:

Jacob, Carlos, Josiah and Santi

Sebastian really likes the stroller and was super well behaved. The market was beautiful and we saw a good number of things we would love to get for our home. We all commented that this would be a place we would all love to come back.

At around noon, we split from the "West Michigan Club" and left to meet my parents, sister Margarita and nephew Manuel for lunch. We drove to a restaurant north of Bogota called "El Portico". We had a very nice lunch and both my kids had a great time (I love saying "my kids"!!!!)

Sebastian smiled big time for mami:

This is my nephew Manuel. He is also Sebastian's future GodFather (thank you Manuel!)

Santi took a ride on a burro

Abuelito Papi and Tia Margarita

Manuel, my mom and Santi

Santi has had a couple of meltdowns today. Emily, if you are reading this, he told me he wanted to go to your classroom and play with Nolan. Twice today he has asked if we could fly back home today. He is doing better now and has finally agreed to a nap. Jeff and I are working hard on helping him adjust to having a little brother and we both continue to hope that he will enjoy this whole experience.

Well, this is it for now. He will post after our ICBF tomorrow with more updates.

"You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them"~Desmond Tutu.

Una semana....

I can't believe it's been a week since we arrived in Colombia. We have had our little guy now for five days! He is doing real well. For the past couple of days he has been sleeping more at nap time, which I attribute to feeling safer here. He is also eating a little bit better, and in fact we just increased his bottles from 6 to 7 ounces each and today I fed him a little bit of runny rice cereal.

Sebastian loves Santi and smiles BIG every time he sees him. Santi continues to have some rough moments but overall, each day is better for him.

We have been out and about quite a bit: we took Santi and Sebastian to a children's play area in Unicentro on Thursday, and yesterday we went to my parent's country club (Club Militar) along with our dear friends Thompsons and Housemans (both families from the Grand Rapids area adopting here in Colombia). We took the kids to the pool and had a nice lunch. Santi LOVED the pool, but I guess what we liked most was playing with Josiah Thompson and Jacob Houseman. He really needed to play and "release" some energy. Sebastian did not go into the water, but enjoyed watching the kids and babies around - especially new friends Gabriela Thompson and Luciana Houseman.

We have no big plans for today- Saturday- which is good, because is raining, but are planing on a nice walk tomorrow and perhaps lunch by "La Calera".

We have our ICBF interview next Tueday. This interview is what starts the legal process and takes our case to the courts. They will interview all of us (including Santi). We are supposed to be there at 2:00 pm, so please pray that everything goes well.

Here are some pictures of our previous' days activities:

Our two boys checking out car seats:

Tummy time:

Santi being silly:

Santi at the pool:

Sebastian (looking not so hot in the stroller):

Papi and Santi at Unicentro:

Abuelito Papi and Sebastian:

Dos dias

Well, it's been two full days since we met Sebastian Mateo. He have had a lot of fun getting to know him and getting to experience being parents of "two".

Some of the things we have learned about Sebastian are:

1. He loves to suck his thumb

2. He is a great sleeper (sleeps through the night .... YEAH!)

3. He is ticklish

4. He babbles ALL the time

5. He does not eat as much as Santi used to at that age (tall order anyway...)

6. He is very relaxed

7. He seems to have a very nice, quiet personality. He laughs a lot too.

We went on our first expedition to the mall yesterday and he loved the stroller.

He also loved the park and bath time.

Santi has had a couple of rough days. He goes from showing pure love for his brother calling him "Sebastianito" to acting out.

He has showed some signs of jealousy and at least once said to me "you are not his mami". Because of this I took him to the park earlier today to spend some mami and santi time ( we played soccer together).

Later this evening Jeff, Santi and I went out for pizza and milkshakes. My mom was kind to stay with baby for a couple of hours over supper. It was a nice date for Santi to enjoy with his mami and papi.

We are continuing to enjoy this time very much. It seems like we have our formal legal interview next week, and then we have a short trip planned for the first week of March.

Bienvenido Sebastian!

Happy adoption day!

Today, shortly after 3:00 pm, we received Sebastian Mateo forever into our family.

Isabel and Reynel came to pick us up at 2:30 and we were driven to Los Pisingos (the adoption house that cared for both Santi and Sebastian). Today's process for meeting our baby was quite different from when we received Santi 2 1/2 years ago. Back then, the baby was presented to you by the director of the orphanage at her house. The baby was literally brought to you. Things have since changed, and it was explained to us that they now want the parents and siblings to meet the babies in their environment. To this end, we met with Carlos (the director of the adoption house) and Andres. Andres is an adoptee himself, and he now runs these processes. He came into the room and explained to us that he was going to take Santi first upstairs to meet Sebastian, and then come down and get us. I have to admit to I was hesitant and I did not quite think Santi was going to go with him freely, but Andres was wonderful, and sure enough Santi took his had and left. Jeff and I were literally bitting our nails. After a few minutes Andres returned for us by himself and took us the third floor where they house the infants. We stopped by the second floor to wash hands and get gowns and masks (standards in the infant room). Once we got to the third floor, we found Santi kneeling in a chair by Sebastian’s crib. It was the sweetest sight ever..... Santi was gently stroking his face.... I have to admit I just burst into tears.

The rest is history: we came in and held our beautiful baby. We had some private time as a family there by his crib,

and then downstairs where I fed him his very first bottle. I was -still am- chocked up.

We came home and enjoyed a quiet afternoon. Santi got somewhat hyper at the end of the day (no nap, too much excitement), but he just fell asleep.

We have spent only a few hours with Sebastian, but he looks like a relaxed little baby. We are all looking forward to getting to know him better.

So long for now, we’ll post tomorrow again.

We made it to Colombia!

We made it safely to Colombia yesterday. Our flight from Grand Rapids to Atlanta was delayed by two hours because of bad weather the evening before, but we were lucky to make (b-a-r-e-l-y) our connection into Bogota. Santi did great in both flights except for a minor meltdown towards the end of the last flight.

My parents were waiting for us at the airport. Because we were traveling with five pieces of luggage plus a double stroller (traveling light was not really an option for this trip) , my mom had hired a van from a tourist service to come pick us up so we could fit everything and everybody into one vehicle. It was quite a sight.

We took the day today to unpack and relax. Mom had a wonderful lunch for us, and we all took nice long naps.

Towards the end of the afternoon we went to visit our dear friends Tony and Rachel Thompson. They live in West Michigan and four days ago adopted beautiful Gabriela. They are also the parents of Josiah, who is Santi's age and one of his best buddies. We had a great time visiting with them and meeting Gabriela. Santi had a lot of fun playing with Josiah.

I spoke with Isabel Romero earlier today (she is the representative of Bethany Christian Services here in Colombia) and she told us we will receive Sebastian tomorrow at 3:00 pm. There is a lot of excitement building here. I personally know I won't sleep in anticipation of meeting our new little guy. We are all excited and happy.

I'll sign out now and will post again hopefully tomorrow.

And presentation date is.......

February 15th!!! That's right... in just another 13 days we will be reunited with our son forever! We are traveling to Bogota on Saturday February 13th !!

Jeff, Santi and I went to Chicago yesterday to get Jeff's visa. It was a long day, but we made the best of it. We took Santi to the aquarium (thank you Thompson's for the suggestion) and had a wonderful lunch. We came back tired but happy last night.

This morning I e-mailed our agency and was told Colombia was not ready yet, but only a few hours later Jeff received a call from our case worker telling us Los Pisingos were expecting us on the 15th!

We have now lots of things to do (nursery is NOT ready) and lots to pack, but in reality none of these things matter. We are more than ready for Sebastian Mateo with arms wide open and hearts filled with love. We can't wait to go!

As we embark on this part of our journey, I would like to specially thank a few people: Laura and Jackie (Thank you for hearing my constant rambling at work and putting up with me. I will always be grateful for your support and friendship); Rachel Thompson and Stephanie Kaameraad: ladies I will never forget our daily rounds of e-mail and the constant support both of you gave me. Thank you Rachel for so selflessly sharing everything you knew... I will never forget.... and, I can't wait to see you both In Colombia- how amazing that we will get to share this journey together. I could never thank enough my parents (mama you'll have guests now for 6-8 weeks... alista la escoba para ponerla detras de la puerta), and my siblings.

We will post before we got to Colombia once more.