Birthday, haircuts and tour of Los Pisingos

It's only been a few days since we returned from our vacation and we have packed quite a bit of activity.

We celebrated Santi's third birthday last saturday. We had our friends from West Michigan join us (Thompsons, Kameraads and Housemans) as well as my cousin Sergio and his family. The kids had a wonderful time playing around and watching movies while the the rest of us had a good time catching up. It was a very nice afternoon. Jeff and I were grateful for our friends as their presence meant the world to us.

Here are some photos of his party:

Blowing up his candles (Photo courtesy of Tammy Houseman)

Jeff returned to Grand Rapids on Sunday morning. It was a sad and subdued morning for all of us here. He will only return once we receive sentencia.

I took the kids for haircuts on monday. Santi needed one badly and I wanted Sebastian to get a trim because his hair was all uneven. Santi's haircut was very nice, but Sebastian ended up "tuzado" (Colombian for completely bald!)

I had my tour of Los Pisingos today. LP is the adoption house that cared for both Santi and Sebastian. We owe them a big deal of gratitude and we will forever be indebted to them for taking such good care of our children and all children that have gone through their doors. This meeting was therefore very important, not only because of what LP means to us, but also because often times this is when you get some additional information about your recently adopted child.

Up until this morning I had no appointment whatsoever, and them at around 9:00 am I received a phone call from Carmen Cruz (Bethany's representative) indicating to me that my appointment was at 2:30 pm. I had made plans to meet with the Thompsons for a trip to the pool, but because of the appointment, we decided to stay close to home and hang around at a closeby park. The plan was to come home and eat lunch together, and then go ahead and go to LP. Well, it did not quite worked like that; when Rachel and I got back from the park at around 11:45 am, I had a message waiting at home that my appointment had been moved to 12:30 pm and that Isabel was going to pick me up at 12:00 noon!! That was 15 minutes away. Needles to say I had to rush to get Santi, Baby and myself ready in a heartbeat. Rachel was here with me and she had to take a cab to return to the hotel without lunch..... I felt sooo bad..... (Rachel I will make that date up to you and your kids!)

Somehow I managed to get everyone ready for pick up. Once we arrived at LP, I met with Andres and then with Carlos. The meeting with Carlos was great; we spend almost 1 1/2 hours together and had the opportunity the go over Sebastian story and to talk about ways to support "Friends of Los Pisingos" which is the charitable arm of the adoption house. There is a lot of work to be done!

I received good news during my meeting regarding our court process: the judge gave his initial approval of the case earlier this week! this does not mean we have sentencia, but is a necessary initial step. After the judge gives this initial approval, the case goes to a "defender of minors", who has also to sign off. Once this happens, the case goes back to the judge, who can then sign the decree (sentencia).

After that we had our tour. Being a weekday, the majority of the older kids were at school and because it was right after lunch time, most of the little kids were taking naps; because of this, the place did not look too crowded, but in reality -as of today- they are housing 143 children ranging in age from 0-12 years old. There are no words of course to describe what it feels to walk through those doors and know what all these children are going through. Some of them are awaiting for forever families, some are there for protection and will return to their birth families, some have been in the foster system for long periods of time...... I have to tell you I made a huge effort to fight tears back the whole time.

For me it was also very emotional to see that two of the workers recognized Santi. One of the ladies came to me and asked me "is he from here?", and I said yes. She asked what his birth name was and recognized the name immediately. Again, my eyes just welled up with tears.

These are some of photos I took today:

This is Andres, the person who runs "Friends of Los Pisingos" and coordinates presentation of the kids (an adoptee himself):

This is where they make the bottles for the babies (300-400 bottles per day)

This is where the babies sleep

Dormitories for little kids:

Library

Dinning room

Well, this is it for now. I will be traveling to Barranquilla with the kids and my parents on Monday. I will try and update once more before we depart.

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. ~Mark Twain