Bumps in the road

Today was a little rough, we were told before we came down to expect glitches, though I didn't think they would happen so soon. First of all I got out our laptop to do some emailing and it died completely. So we went to the Colombian version of Target to get a new one since Ken has to have something to communicate with work. Now I am typing on a spanish keyboard which is similar to an English one, but certain keys we haven't figured out. Really, the computer was no big deal at all. So then we went to the airport to catch our flight to Pasto. Our guide here in Bogota took us all the way through until we got to the security check and then we were on our own. We sat for a while waiting for our plane and noticed that nothing was happening with the Pasto flight. Ken went up and asked and all we could come up with was that Pasto was having bad weather and our flight was delayed, some things were lost in translation. We sat for a long while and then all the people sitting around us got up and stood in line at the counter. So I went through and found someone who could talk some broken English and found that our flight was canceled. We will have to fly to Pasto tomorrow. It seems like they may only have one flight a day to Pasto since it is tomorrow at the same time as today. So we are not sure if we will meet the girls tomorrow or if we will meet them on Friday. That conversation was also lost in translation. The positive thing about this is the airport in Pasto is on a cliff, so I am glad they don't take chances. You can watch them land on you tube (crazy).
A couple things I learned today...
I need to be nicer to foreigners in th US, the people are really nice here!
There are certain things that I can't change, so I may as well relax.
Bogota is beautiful, and not hot at all.

We´re here

We arrived in our hotel in Bogota around 10:30. Every thing went really smooth, we especially love the Jet Blue snacks! Both of us feel rested. The only thing that woke us up were birds that were outside of the window. The windows have bars and a blind over them but no glass. Our 20 minute cab ride to our hotel helped us realize that we will never attempt to drive while we are here. Thay are "loco"! Today we will take another flight into the region of Pasto, it shouldn´t take more than an hour or so. It is hard to believe that tomorrow we will meet our girls and become parents.

Travel Day

We began at home at 5:00 and my parents took us to the Pittsburgh airport. We will be flying from Pittsburgh to JFK to Orlando to Bogota. An entire day of flying. At the moment we are sitting in Pittsburgh waiting to board. My stomach has been in knots for about a week now and Pepto Bismal has been my best friend. There are so many emotions that I am feeling; excitement, fear, anxiety. Today is the beginning of the rest of our lives.

Have Visas, Will Travel

I have been feeling really anxious about getting all of our things together before we need to leave on Tuesday. Two things I have been tracking for the last week: One our travel visa's, call me stupid but I didn't realize that a visa is simply a piece of paper stuck to a page in your passport. So sending our passports out, was very nerve racking. The other thing that took way to long according to me was our FBI fingerprints. I have been calling them about once or twice a day so they would get a move on, but I kept getting the same answer. "We will process them on the 17 and then you can call again." Anyway, today I came home from school, and both of them had arrived.

Things are falling into place. There are little girl clothes in the suitcase, toys that we can play with while we are there.

Labor Pains

I was talking to a friend at work today, telling her about all the cra...uh paperwork that we have to complete before we travel and she mentioned that those are my labor pains. I thought that was a pretty neat analogy and after today I am embracing the analogy. I left work as soon as I could today to take something up to Cleveland (2hr. drive) to get apostilled. Only to find out that our county had messed up the certification process. So I drove back home (2 hrs.) thinking about how I was going to send out our visas to Chicago tomorrow with those papers apostilled. So, as much as I hate it, I have to take a personal day tomorrow to make another trip to Cleveland after I get everything straightened with Holmes County. It is a really crappy feeling to have put in a lot of hours and be no further ahead than when you started. After feeling like I accomplished nothing at all, I sat down at the computer to check my email, and I saw the picture of our two precious girls, and realized this day was worth ALL the stress I went through today.

Happy Chaos

Our Colombian adoption journey started on January 12, 2007, when we signed an adoption agreement with Children's Hope International. On paper the 18 to 24 months did not seem so bad, to actually go through all of that and realize that in actuality the wait truly begins when Colombia has your dossier and has approved the dossier, is, to say the least, grueling. The hardest time of my life. So now two years seven months and 4 days later, we are here. Matched with two beautiful girls, ages 3 and 6. 25 days until we meet our daughters. The to do list at the moment is daunting...paperwork, paperwork, and more paperwork, Dr. appts., fingerprints, gifts for the girls foster family, gifts for others that will help us in Colombia, Clothes for both girls while we are there, two rooms ready, ect. ect. ect. In two words this time is truly "happy chaos".