9-24-2008

Happy Anniversary to my mom and dad tomorrow (9-25)  They will be celebrating 37 years of wedded bliss!  Thanks for the great example Grandma and Grandpa Karels!

We had a busy day today. This morning we went to the Los Pisingos Mother's Home. This is the home where many pregnant women stay during some of their pregnancy. They receive prenatal care, counseling, job training and support. Some women stay at the home for up to a month after the baby is born. There were 5 pregnant women in the room and 3 women who had already given birth. A few posts ago, we shared with everyone the experience of meeting the pregnant woman in the waiting room at the defender of minors office. As chance would have it, she was also at our meeting today as well. She seemed to be much less emotional and smiling a lot of the time. What a great opportunity to see her again!

The meeting was very emotional for all of us. We feel so grateful that we were able to meet with these women and ease their minds and help with any questions they had about adoption.  Manny was passed around the room and received lots of attention : )

Some of the questions they asked were:

Why did you choose to adopt from Colombia?

What is your baby's name?

Did you keep the name his mother gave him? If not, why?

How do you feel about women who give up their babies for adoption? (They worried that the adoptive families and children would think poorly of them, like they abandoned their children.)

What was the process like prior to receiving the baby? What did we have to do while we were waiting?

How did you feel when you met your baby for the first time?

Will you tell your child that they are adopted?

Did you make the decision to adopt on your own, or did you receive support from your family?

Now that you have spent some time here, what do you think of Colombia?


Some of the questions we asked them:

Has meeting us, helped you with your decision?

When your child is 18, how would you feel about him/her contacting you?

Has living in the mothers home helped you?

How would you feel about leaving a letter or picture for your child to have?

The answers to these questions were varied between each of the women.  During the meeting, we found out that the law recently changed for birthmothers being able to see pictures and updates about their child. In the past, adoptive parents would send pictures and updates to the orphanage and the birth mothers could visit the orphanage to check for these updates. I guess they can no longer do that and adoption files are closed until the children are 18 years old. We feel really sad about this and wish that they would be able to do that if they wanted to. I'm sure there are some that don't want to, but I would think that it would bring them peace to know that their child is happy, healthy and with a loving family.  At the end of the meeting we hugged each of the women and thanked them and wished them luck.  It really was an amazing experience that we'll never forget!

After our meeting we were treated to lunch by the Haydens at Hotel Paris.  The lunch was fabulous!  We had rice, red beans, fried plantanes with shredded beef and salsa.  Yummy!  We received a tour of the hotel and we were able to see almost every room.  It was really cute, they told us to lay on the bed in each room to see which one felt most comfortable.  The Haydens and one other couple are the only people staying in the hotel right now, so we had our pick of any room if we were to move.  We got back to our hotel and talked about it, and ultimately decided to move.  We really enjoy the company of the Hayden family and really liked the atmosphere at the hotel.  We will save a little money as well.  We will be checking out tomorrow morning and moving in to Paris!  We're really excited.  

We had an appt. to go to the orphanage tomorrow, but it has been postponed until next Tuesday.  Johnny and I will take a look at whether or not we are going to the coast after that meeting.  Because the strike is still on, we want to make sure we are conservative with our money, just in case we end up being here longer than expected.  We didn't really take any pictures in the last couple of days, but I did take a video this morning of Johnny and Manny playing.  He's cooing and laughing and it's so cute!  Make sure your sound is turned up when you watch, so you can hear Manny.  

Love, Dulcie, Johnny and Manny