Home Sweet Home!
We arrived safe and sound Saturday night. Still recuperating from the trip but everyone is doing well. Pablo Santiago is getting used to his new surroundings and the new people he keeps meeting :-) At some point he will figure out that he has a big family and lots of friends who already love him :-)
Estamos en casita todos contentitos. Nos fue bien de viaje; solo un poquito cansados. Pablo Santiago esta conociendo su casa, su cuarto, su familia. Mil gracias a los que nos recibieron en el aeropuerto: Nana, Tias Miri, Ceci, Vicki, Primos Beto, David, Monis. A Pablo Santiago ya le toco conocer la mayor parte de su familia y algunos amigos.

Ciao, Colombia!
Ultimo mensaje desde y no le hemos tomoda a Pablo ninguna foto en Bogota. Salimos a las 9:30 de Bogota. Nos recogen en el hotel a las 5:30 a.m. (3:30 hora de San Diego). Llegamos a Los Angeles a las 7:30 y de ahi a manejar a la casa....asi es que nos espera un dia MUY largo. El que quiere conocer a Pablo Santiago y felicitar a su hermana mayor, es bienvenido....como decimos: caiganle! [ahi disculpen los que estan cuidando acentos y ortografia; hay dias en que no hay tiempo para eso]. Dios mediante, nos vemos pronto.
So, Jose picked up the visa today, we bought plenty of coffee so we are good to go. The taxi will pick us up at 5:30 in the morning (3:30 PST) and we don't expect to make it home before 10 p.m. so a very long day is ahead of us but it will be worth every minute of it. I just realized that we haven't taken a single picture of Pablo Santiago in Bogota, so maybe Brooke can share the ones she took today. We'll miss the people we've met along this journey, hope to be in touch and more than anything, we wish that everyone gets sentencia very soon. I hope that Octavio, Sofia, Maria Fernanda, Thomas, Carolina and everyone else gets to go home very soon. For those of you close to home, you are welcome to stop by and meet Pablo and congratulate her very proud sister. They have both been great throughout the trip (no more problems than the expected) and they are truly the loves of our lives. It feels great to be a family of four. Again, we will be forever thankful to Chiquitines and this land that has given us our two treasures. Hasta la vista!

Today's post (hopefully posted TODAY!)

We had problems with the power today (which means no wireless access! among other things). So, I hope I can finish this post without further incidents.

We are done! Well, we have to go pick up visa paperwork tomorrow at 4 but, unless something very extreme were to happen, it is pretty much a done deal that Pablo Santiago's visa will be ready as promised. So, we have confirmed our flights for Saturday and will be arriving in LAX Saturday evening. A sister or two (THANK you!) will pick us up and we'll be riding down to San Diego that same evening -- we wouldn't want to spend one more night in a hotel for now.

We weren't so prepared to face the cooler weather and rain of Bogota but we'll manage. It makes it hard to go out, too, as we don't want to come back with a soaked baby. Thanks for everyone for reading our blog, sending your messages and posting comments when possible (I know that a lot of people have been having trouble posting comments and can't figure out why. Anynomous seems to work most of the time). If I don't get to post before we leave, I'll write we we've landed in the northern part of the continent :-)

Entonces....ya casi llegamos. Solo nos falta recoger la visa maniana, empacar y todavia ir algo de compras (claro, si la lluvia nos lo permite). Lulu ya cuenta las noches para volver a su casa. Dice que ya quiere su cama y quiere mostrar su hermanito. Dice que se lo van a querer quitar y que les va a decir que no, por si a alguien se le estaba ocurriendo bromear sobre ese asunto :-) Yo (mama) creo que Pablo Santiago ya anda estrenando diente. Veremos si lo puedo confirmar. Saludos y hasta muy pronto!El segundo domingo que estuvimos en Cali del hotel nos llevaron a todas las familias a este "resort" en un ciudad a un lado de Cali, llamada Palmira. We spent all day relaxing, some swimming. Lulu even had her first horseback riding experience and loved it!

When you are four years old and you have spent two wonderful weeks with other four year old girls who have become your best friends, it is hard to say good bye. Lulu was very sentimental when we left Cali because she was leaving her friends. Esta fue la ultima cena de estas tres bellezas juntas porque al dia siguiente una se iba de paseo. Esperamos seguir en contacto con estas familias que hemos conocido. Anoche estaba muy triste porque le hacen falta sus amigas.Lulu can give some pretty tight, well-intentioned hugs. This one was very well deserved :-) Hasta pronto Y, we hope to see you in the future! Esperamos que te estes divirtiendo en Cartagena.

From our days in Cali, heading to the pool area

Ya estamos en Bogotá (yesterday's post)
Es miércoles en la noche. Estamos sin luz en el hotel. En la tardecita que llegamos empezó una tormenta. Desde entonces falló la electricidad. Cenamos con velas. La luz volvió lo suficiente para poder darnos un baño todos.
Hoy llevamos a Pablo Santiago al doctor. Es una visita requerida para poder obtener la visa para entrar a Estados Unidos. Dice que pesa 16.5 libras y que se ve muy bien de salud. Mañana temprano vamos a solicitar la visa. ¡Ese es el único documento que nos falta!
Pablo Santiago y Lulú estan muy bien. Esta es su primer experiencia de nuestro bebé en un clima no caluroso. A ver qu ele parece. Dejamos Cali con algo de nostalgia pues uno se encariña con toda la gente, empleados del hotel, otras familias, Magnolia que tan bien nos atiende, etc. Ademas, es la tierra que nos ha dado a nuestros hijos así es que siempre tendrá un lugar especial en todos nos corazones. Esperamos seguir en contacto con gente que hemos conocide en este viaje.
So, I sit in the dark as I compose this message in my word processor. We have no electricity so no internet access. I hope to post in the morning. We go to Bogota in the afternoon and the hotel (and this whole area) lost power almost as soon as we got here (there was a storm). We had about an hour and half of power, enough to give everybody a shower, put the kids to bed and check email. Then, out we go again.
We will head over to the U.S. embassy tomorrow, with all the needed paperwork we have accumulated so far. For those of you new to international adoption, you have to get approved before coming to Colombia to bring a child home. Tomorrow’s visit is to present the child, all the legal paperwork, another form, and, hopeful, the end result will be a visa to enter the U.S. If all goes well, we’ll board a plane Saturday morning and head home.
We hope that Pablo will sleep a good night, with a new room and the cooler weather. Until the next time!

Two big sisters proud of their baby brothers

No pude resistir poner una foto casi iguaal a la de arriba porque la expresion de Lulu es hermosa!

Todavia desde Cali
Aqui andamos, paseándonos y pasando el tiempo. Si, el jueves José y la juez firmaron la sentencia, pero nos falta una firma. Así es que, estamos esperando en Cali la famosa firma hasta el martes. Si, Dios mediante, esa firma se nos da sin problemas, el mismo martes salimos para Bogotá para hacer el ultimo tramite. Asi es que, sigan rezando y cruzando dedos :-) El mismo jueves visitamos Chiquitines, que ha sido el hogar de ambos, Lulú y Pablo. Hablamos con la trabajadora social, quien trabajo y conoció a la madre biológica de Pablo. Recibimos información médica detallada de Pablo y algunos otras cosas para él. Chiquitines es un lugar impresionante, que solo nos inspira humildad, respeto, admiración. Ellos tienen desde bebés hasta los 11 años. Es un lugar muy limpio, ordenado, bien cuidado y se nota el amor con el que el personal hace su trabajo. Lulú quería ver donde y quienes cuidaban de su hermano, así es que fuimos a ver. Tambien vimos a los niños más grandecitos, y varios le pedían a Joseé que les tomara una foto. Hubo un par de niños que me impresionaron. Uno se acercó a mi, que cargaba a Pablo, y preguntó a la trabajadora si este niño era X (se refirió a el por su apellido biológico) y se le quedó viendo con una ternura. Otro niño me preguntó que si ese bebé yo lo había tenido o que de donde era. Salimos de ahíi con un eterno agradecimiento a Chiquitnes, quienes han puesto a nuestro cuidado nuestros más preciosos tesoros. MIL gracias de nuestra parte y de parte de Agatha, directora de Chiquitines, a todos los que enviaron algo para estos niños: Lety, Virginia, Cecilia, Eva, Miguel, Daniel, Miriam, Abel, Julie (y si alguien se me esta olvidando, MIL perdones).
So, even though most of our paperwork in Cali is done, we are still missing one signature on our sentencia. We are pretty confident we'll get it on Tuesday and that day we'll fly to Bogota to finish the process.
We have been keeping ourselves busy during this time. Last Sunday we went to a resort, off to the mountains. Lulu spent all day in the pool, in a playground and even riding a horse! Pablo and I just lounged around, basking in the sun. We've also been to the Zoo (which is small but pretty amazing -- you get SOOOO close to the animals). Today we went to a sugar museum. The owner of the hotel brought some folkloric dancers and so you get the idea.
I wrote a little more extensively about our second trip to Chiquitines, the adoption house, on Thursday. We continue to be very impressed and humbled by their work. We received some more detailed medical information about Pablo as well as some more documents so that, in due time, he'll continue to learn about his origins. You can see the love that the staff puts into their work and we are confident that our children were taken very good care of during their first few months of their lives. We took some donations and we, as well as the director, Agatha, are very thankful to everyone who contributed. A BIG thanks to Lety, Virginia, Cecilia, Eva, Miguel, Daniel, Abel, Miriam and Julie! We had never travelled with so many bags in our lives with all the sandals, school supplies, clothing, etc. that we had. It has all gone to a very good cause.
I leave you with a few pictures from our zoo trip.

These two best friends had a great time at the Cali Zoo, seeing all the animals

Why swim when you can ride?

Un impresionante Condor Andino

Los animales se ven de MUY cerca!

SENTENCIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YES, YES, YES....hemos pasado/firmado el documento mas importante de este proceso. El que dice que Pablo Santiago es legalmente nuestro hijo. El martes nos dijeron que firmariamos ayer. Ayer no se presento la juez asi es que nos dijeron que hoy. No quisimos poner nada hasta que el documento estuviera firmado. Asi es que, esta tarde, Jose fue al juzgado y firmo! Ahora a seguir con los documentos que falta. Si nuestra sentencia esta finalizada para maniana, podemos sacar acta de nacimiento y pasaporte.
Yes, we have a major acomplishment in our process. We have been given sentencia. Jose signed it today. Hoping that all goes well, tomorrow we hope to be able to have Pablo's new birth certificate as well as his passport issued. If we don't get this done by tomorrow, we'll have to wait until Tuesday, as this coming Monday is a holiday here. For now, we are relieved that this major part is done. We still think we'll fly home on the 24th but we'll keep you posted if there is possibility to get home sooner.

El Cerro de las Tres Cruces

Explorando Cali

Mientras esperamos la famosa sentencia, hemos andado un poco por Cali. Ahora estamos conociendo mas que la primera vez que estuvimos aqui. Pablo no duerme largas siestas como las dormia Lulu (esperemos que eso cambie cuando ya tengamos nuestra rutina en casa) asi es que cuando paseamos se duerme un rato en brazos y ya. Cali tiene dos cimas altas, Cristo Rey y las Tres Cruces. Hemos ido a las dos -- Jose ha corrido algo por aqui...aunque con tanto 'smog' es un poco dificil y el ha subdio "corriendo" a las Tres Cruces. Las fotos son del Cerro de Cristo Rey, en homenaje a Lulu.

As we continue to wait, we have been going out to see Cali a little more than we were here with Lulu. It is quite an adventure to take a walk around here as you have to wait for a long time for a respite from traffic! There are lots of traffic, noise, pollution. If I get to ride in the front seat of a taxi, I find myself closing my eyes A LOT (more so than I do in the U.S....he, he, he). Here, a stop sign doesn't necessarily mean stop nor does a red light. Enjoy some Lulu pictures with Cali in the background, from the Cerro de Cristo Rey.

Going back in time

...to the two "relaxing" days we had in Bogota. We visited Montserrate one day and the Salt mine/Cathedral. One lets you see an amazing view of the city below you; the other takes you into the depths of a mine where a wonderful cathedral (or so I'm being told -- I was too sick and only lasted about ten minutes inside the mine). We actually don't have photos of the mine; it was too dark and we hope we can see something in the video (we haven't checked) but a full church is there, where mass is still celebrated. Everyone says that it was pretty amazing :-)

Los dos primeros dias que estuvimos en Bogota, paseamos un poco, antes de venirnos a Cali. Bogota tiene un cerro, Montserrate, donde esta una iglesia y una vista magnifica de la ciudad. El otro sitio que visitamos fue la Catedral/Mina de Sal -- hay una catedral dentro de la mina. De esto no tenemos fotos porque estaba muy oscuro. Yo me enferme y vi solo la entrada a la mina pero todos los demas que fueron dicen que estaba increible. Aqui van unas fotos:

De esta foto estamos viendo desde la plaza de la iglesia. El edificio blanco del lado derecho es un restaurante (ahi almorzamos). El edificio del lado izquierdo es otro restaurante. In the backgroud you can see another mountain top. That's another church/viewpoint which we understand is much harder to get to.

Tlittle 'car' you see in the middle of the picture, suspended by cables, is what we had to get on to get to the mountain top. En esto nos subimos para llegar a la cima.

A view of Bogota.

Saludos desde Cali!

Otra vez aqui. Todo y todos bien. Hoy tuvimos nuestra entrevista con el Instituto Colombiano del Bienestar Familiar y conocimos a nuestra abogada. Desde hoy empieza el reloj para que nos den sentencia. Mientras esperamos, compartimos mas fotos de nuestras dos bellezas.

Greetings yet again. Not much new to report. Lulu gets to go the pool almost every day. Mom forgot her bathing suit -- oh, so very convenient! We are in hot humid weather but the water in the pool is cooold....at least according to dad. We are enjoying getting to know the other families here. There are several of us who started the process on the same day and the countdown begins today. We'll see who gets to go home first. Some more pictures to enjoy.

Muchos besos y muchos te quieros....

Cuatro nuevas amigas. These four girls are all from Cali; three returning for a brother or sister and one being adopted. U.S., Sweden and the Netherlands are represented in this picture. They are having a wonderful time playing, becoming friends, language issues notwithstanding.

Listo para la alberca...pero solo mis deditos, please...que el agua esta muy fria :-)

Tres amigas

Todavia faltan fotos y notas de lo que hicimos los primeros dias en Bogota. Por ahorita, les presento a Lulu con dos de sus amigas de Bogota. De izquierda a derecha, Luisa, Lulu y Diana. Ellas dos estan en proceso de adopcion. Luisa va para Estados Unidos (no recuerdo exactamente donde) y Diana va para La Francia (asi dice ella, con su dulce acento Colombiano). Aunque volveremos a este mismo hotel para nuestros ultimos dias en Bogota, lo mas seguro que estas nenas, ya esten en sus respectivos paises.

The picture below is from our stay in Bogota. We also stayed at a place where adoptive families stay. From left to right are Luisa, Lulu and Diana. Lulus' other two friends are with their brand new families as they are being adopted. Luisa will be going to the U.S. and Diana to France. Diane and Lulu hit it off right away and enjoyed every minute of playtime they had. Though we will be going back to the same hotel in Bogota when we return for the visa, most likely these two girls will already be in their new countries. It is truly amazing to meet so many families from all over the world.

Pablo, Pablo, Pablo!

Segundo Día con Pablo
[Nota: esto lo iba a poner ayer; Pablo esta muy bien; durmio como 13 horas anoche, solo despertandose para una botella a las 4 y a las 9 lo tuvimos que despertar]
Ya tenemos más de 24 horas con nuestro nuevo bebé. Cuando recibimos a Lulú ella no resintió tanto el cambio. Como Pablo es casi tres meses más grande de lo que era Lulú, úl parece que si esta extrañando su ambiente. Nada alarmente sólo que de repente se nota que nos desconoce. Aparte, anda un poquito enfermito de gripe. Sonríe mucho, estáí en constante movimiente, platica (aunque su prima Daniela le gana) y NO, NO tiene dientes… para aquellos que tenían duda. Su hermana lo hace reir.
Lulú, como era de esperarse, hay momentos en que quiere ser la bebé. No quiere que su hermano llore porque ella se pone triste. Dice que ya le demos medicina para que se alivie. Ayer ella fue la asistente de baño. A Pablo Santigo le encanta el agua y está acostumbrado a bañarse dos veces al día.
De aquí para adelante solo nos toca ir a una cita que otra y esperar. El viernes tenemos nuestra cita para que nuestro caso pueda entrar a la corte. Esa cita no la dan hasta por lo menos el quinto día que uno ya tiene con el bebé. De ahí se va nuestro caso de adopción a la corte, donde esperaremos que un juez se apure a firmar la sentencia de adopción.
En el hotel donde estamos hay varias famlias. No creo que tenga correcto el inventario pero somos 3 de Estados Unidos, 2 de Noruega y 1 de Suecia. Entre hermanitos que vienen a recibir hermanitos y los nuevos bebés y niños, hay bastantes…de seis años para abajo. La noche del domingo cenamos todos sin nuevos hijos y ayer ya todos habian recibido a sus hijos. A ver si Lulú aprende algún otro idioma! Es muy bonito el hotel, la gente es muy amable y nos atienden muy bien.
[Note: a day late with this post; Pablo is doing great. He slept for thirteen hours straight last night, just getting up around 4 for a feeding]
Our second day with Pablo has started. Our first night as a family of four wasn’t as smooth as our first night as family of three but we are doing well. Pablo has a bit of a cold, was bit by mosquitoes, and I think he is missing his old environment – who can blame him…he’ll be five months old next week.
He is such a joy to have. We’ll try to snap some more pictures of him today to post, as well as of the hotel.
We are in an international environment in a very lovely hotel with caters to adoptive families. There are families from the U.S., Norway and Sweden as of today. I haven’t counted the children but I think there are at least six families here, all coming for a second child…so about 12 children, speaking a variety of languages, ranging from age six to infants. As I type, Lulu is in the pool with dad, I’m sure making some friends.
I posted yesterday’s pictures without words because there are really not enough, appropriate words to express how we feel and felt yesterday. Profound joy is all I can think of.
From now on, we mostly wait. We do paperwork, have meetings, wait some more. The key accomplishment here is SENTENCIA. When you see a posting with that word, it will mean that Pablo Santiago is legally our son and we can move on to get the needed documentation to take him home. Sentencia is decree…as in adoption decree signed by a judge. Our case can’t go to the judge until we meet with the defender of minors, and that meeting will take place this coming Friday, on our fifth day of having Pablo with us.
So, stay tuned. Drop a comment if you can.

Esta con nosotros...Yes, we got him!
In case you've been wondering, as of this morning, we are a happy family of four. Pablo Santiago joined our family and was promptly waiting for a meal. Big sister Lulu is excited beyond words. Pictures coming later.
Si, lo tenemos y es un bodoquito, como su hermana. Es un bebe precioso, que solo ha llorado cuando nos tardamos con su comida. Ya pesa 7 kg. 600 gms (ay, que mama tan chismosa!) y se bebe, rapidisimo, 7 onzas de leche cada cuatro horas. Se nos queda viendo, conociendo a su nueva familia ...y ni siquiera sabe lo que le espera. Ya tenemos internet desde el cuarto asi es que mas tarde hoy esperamos poner fotos. Ahorita le esta cantando Lulu y se nada mas se le queda viendo...

¡Una noche mas, solo una noche mas!
Saludos a todos desde Cali, Colombia. Llegamos bien a Bogota, llegamos bien a Cali. Por falta de tiempo, falta de acceso a internet y/o falta de buena salud, no hemos podido escribir nada. Despues ponemos algunas fotos de los dos paseos en Bogota. Por ahorita, a descansar que mañana biene lo importante: a las 7:30 de la mañana nos recogen para ir por Pablo Santiago.
Greetings from Cali. For a variety of reasons, we haven´t been able to update the blog until now We had some uneventful flights (except for some turbulence from Atlanta to Bogota, which Lulu thought was great entertainment). So, bright and early tomorrow we meet THE boy. Stay tuned!