We made it safe and sound! Manny is a very good traveler. He slept for some of the trip, and then played when he was awake. The takeoff and landing didn't seem to bother his ears. Thanks to everyone who came to the airport and gave us such a warm reception. It was so fun to see all of you meeting Manny for the first time. We are all laying low getting adjusted. Manny still has a cough and I'm still not feeling great. Johnny started getting a sore throat and headache today also, so I think it's making it's way around the whole family.
My mom is staying with us for a couple of days to help us get settled, which is such a blessing. Thanks Mom and hope you don't get sick! We'll probably bum around town tomorrow and visit a couple people and then make a trip to babysR Us. Make sure to stay tuned, because Johnny said he will be posting his third man blog soon. Thanks to everyone for all your support while we were away from home. A special thanks to Tom, Kelly and Andy for taking care of our zoo at home!
Here are the pictures from the airport homecoming.
Johnny picked up Manny's Visa this afternoon, and we are all set to travel! We have a very early morning so, I'll say good night for now. We will post when we are back in the good ole' USA!
We went to the U.S. Embassy this morning to apply for Manny's visa. We were able to cut through some of the lines, and our rep. told the clerk that our baby was sick, and could we please be rushed through. We were done in an hour. Manny no longer has a fever, but is still pretty congested, so we had him wrapped up for our outing this morning. They approved his Visa and we will be able to pick it up tomorrow afternoon at 3:30! That's it, nothing left to do, but come home : )
Manny and I have both been sick with fevers and a cold. The Dr. made a house call yesterday and said we needed lots of rest. Manny had a temp. of 101.8 at about 4am this morning, which made me very nervous. He seems a little better today, but is sleeping a lot, which is good. We were going to spend our last weekend doing some sightseeing and shopping, but instead we're spending it in bed.
That's ok with me, as long as we're all feeling better by Wednesday when we fly home! Monday, our representative will be picking us up at 8am to go to the Embassy. Manny is required to be at this appt. so hopefully he's no longer running a temp. This is the last step needed to go home. They will issue a U.S. visa for Manny to enter the U.S. Well, not much else to report, so I'll make this a short post. Can't wait to see everyone soon!
We just got the call! The judge signed our paperwork this afternoon, and I will be traveling to Ubate tomorrow to sign on behalf of Johnny and I! We're not sure what day we will be flying back yet, because we'll have to call the airlines to see what's available. We will post, when we know. That's it for now. Make sure to watch our story on Kare11.com if you missed the 5:00pm broadcast this afternoon!
We had a webcam interview with Kare11 news this morning. They said the story would air at 5:00 this afternoon. Make sure to tune in if you have access to channel 11. Also, if anyone has access to Tivo or if your DVD player can record on to a DVD, that would be great!
We heard from our representative that the Judge is planning on signing the paperwork this afternoon. She will be calling me at the end of the day to confirm that he DID actually sign. If so, I will be going to Ubate tomorrow morning at 6:30 to sign the paperwork. They only require one of us to sign, so Johnny and Manny will stay back in Bogota. If all goes as planned, we may be able to fly home on Tuesday or Wednesday! Lots of prayers are needed! I'll leave you with more random pictures. Enjoy!
Unfortunately, we have passed the window of being able to make it home on Saturday. So, we continue to wait for our Sentencia. We have to re-book our flights by Friday, so at that point, hopefully we will have a better idea of when we will be able to fly back. We'll keep everyone posted.
We have been contacted by Kare11 news, to do a story on our adoption. We were going to be interviewed yesterday, but there were some technical difficulties. We are expecting to have an interview with them at 11am this morning and will possibly be on tonight's 10pm broadcast. I'll post another message when I know for sure. That's about it for now. There are more pictures below from the Botanical Gardens. These are pictures with actual people in them! (Ha Ha)
Hope you all enjoyed Johnny's man blog. Back to boring ole me, typing about our day to day : ) Today Manny turned 5 months old. He's getting so big!
We've been waiting for Sentencia, which we thought we were told we'd have by yesterday or today. But as we've learned, Colombian time, is different than American time. We booked our flights for this Saturday, the 25th, but it alot of things will have to fall into place in order for that to happen. Please keep us in your prayers that we receive word of Sentencia tomorrow morning, so we can still make our flight. Yesterday, we went to the Botanical Gardens, which was breath taking! The amount of different flowers is amazing! Johnny got bit by a duck also! The ducks and geese were circling our picnic table for scraps of bread, when they got aggressive and Johnny fell victim to it's bill!
Today we hung around the hotel and waited for the phone call that never came. Hopefully tomorrow, will be the news we need and we can see everyone soon! We'll post a note, as soon as we receive word. I've set up a slideshow of all the beautiful flower pics at the Botanical Gardens as well as the pics from Ubate. Enjoy!
It occurred to me when I was on my 10 mile shopping spree with Dulcie that I should have brought a pedometer with me to Bogota. I think I have put on close to 100 miles since we got here. Just think of following your wife or significant other into about 50 - 100 craft stores, shoe stores, purse stores, jewelry stores, markets, art stores, etc.
I have to buy new jeans because of all the walking (shopping), I have gone down a pant size and my butt has temporarily vanished. Don't worry, I will do my best to regain my misplaced bum as soon as I get back...Taco Bell, Chipotle, Manny's Steakhouse and gobs of wonderful breakfast meats! Hello BACON, welcome back SAUSAGE!
Another word of advice, if you ask your cell phone provider if your phone will work in another country make sure they aren't just smiling and nodding. Sprint said my cell phone would work fine but I am only able to receive calls and not make calls or retrieve messages. I need what is called a SIM card. Unfortunately my cell phone does not have a spot for a SIM card, so I am SOL. I could rent or purchase a new cell phone and a SIM card and some minutes but I am a tightwad. I squeak when I walk. If you haven't heard about or set-up Skype please do. It is the cheapest and best way to communicate without a cell phone and a lot cheaper. Setting up a webcam is the ultimate way to see and talk to someone and is free between Skype users.
When traveling try to enjoy as many different restaurants as possible, we just went to Bogota Beer Company for a Margarita, Black & Tan, nachos and calamari. Good stuff. Crepes & Waffles has the best ice cream in Colombia and okay food. El Corral has darn good burgers and salads. The Beer Store is part of El Corral and sells pretty good beer. For pizza there is Archies and 1969. Both have really good pizza and salads. It is great to have traditional Colombian food but it is nice to take a break and have some other kinds of food. There is a Brazilian Steakhouse and a Chinese joint that we hope to eat at before we leave.
Speaking of beer as I often do, there are some good beers some decent beers and some not so good beers. For a good beer try Bogota Beer Company or The Beer Store, they have a pretty good porter, a decent red beer and a medium body beer. I haven't had a chance to order beers from The Beer Store but hope to this week. Store bought beer consists of Aguila which is like Miller Light or Old Mil Light, not much taste. Poker is a better beer, Pilsen is an okay beer. I haven't tried Costena or Quilmes an Argentinian beer. At stores like Exito, Curilla and Pomona you will find these beers and lots of imports. About Colombian wine, don't bother, it is pretty nasty. Colombians won't drink it. It is pretty much only bought by gullible gringos. There is huge selection of very good wines from Chile, Spain, France, USA, Germany, etc.
Try to plan some day trips to some small cities within a few hours of Bogota. You will spend plenty of time in your hotel room playing cards, reading, clipping your toenails, clipping you spouses toenails, checking for nose hairs and excessive earwax. How much earwax is excessive? More than 2 Q-tip loads, 3 loads, a teaspoon, a fingernailful? Is that even a word, fingernailful?
That's all I can think of right now, we are going downstairs for a nice evening of cheese, wine and homemade pizza. I think my rear end may re-appear after appetizers and dinner tonight.
P.S. Check out the video of my 1st diaper changing experience. I am still learning about trying to cover juniors private regions while changing him. I learned this after he peed on me while I was changing his poopy diaper. How about this for a new item to sell new fathers: Charcoal filtered face masks to keep out the smell. Or how about this: an FDA approved liquid additive to Juniors formula to make his poop smell like Jasmine & Sandalwood, yummy. Don't worry dear I think it's my turn to change Juniors diapers. How about grilled sirloin smelling diapers, what a marketing genius.
We are back to our home away from home, and got a very warm reception when we got back to Hotel Paris. What a great place! This will be a quick post since we are wiped out. I'll post more tomorrow with pictures after I've had a good nights sleep.
Manny is sleeping safe and sound in the suitcase. Yes, you read it right, the suitcase! We tried to put him down in the crib tonight and he was so fussy and squirming everywhere, so I decided to make up the suitcase and set it in the crib, and he fell asleep right away! Maybe it's just the familiar while he's adjusting to another move? Personally, I like the suitcase, because the crib here is not what you would call up to safety codes and I'm always worried that he'll get his head stuck between the 6" gap between the bars. A couple of times, I've woken up and seen that he's squirmed his way up in between the bumper and against the crib bars. (Too close for my comfort!) I'll leave you with a picture of Manny sleeping in the suitcase. Good Night.
Johnny, Manny and I arrived yesterday and checked into a quaint country hacienda where we were to stay for a couple of days. It turns out that someone stole their phone lines, and they would not have a phone for two weeks. Because the hotel was 6 miles out of Ubate, we would not have access to a phone. Their cook was also sick, so they were not able to provide meals. We decided to stay at a hotel in town that has a phone where we can receive in coming calls, but can not make calls out. We also do not have internet at the hotel, and I am updating this from an internet cafe in Ubate. Our hotel doesn´t have accomodations for babies, so Manny is sleeping in our suitcase! It´s actually pretty cozy, and it prevents him from rolling around. So, for now, it works pretty good. Hopefully he doesn´t get much taller, because he wón´t have much room left!
We met with our Lawyer at ICBF (Child social services). We then went to the court house, to sign papers and get our case entered into the courts. When we were at the court house, we were told that we would have to stay in Ubate for the full time it would take to get Sentencia. That usually takes two weeks. We had only packed for two days, and started to panic a bit. We had a hard night as Manny did not adjust to the new accomodations easily. The next morning, we called our representative and she helped translate some of our needs to the hotel and that turned out to be very helpful. She also called our Lawyer and confirmed that we CAN go back to Bogota this Friday after our case is assigned to the Judge. (Fingers Crossed : )
So, if all goes well, we will head back to Bogota on Friday or Saturday morning, and then wait for Sentencia. They are saying we could have Sentencia by Wednesday! (Again, Fingers Crossed : )
In the meantime, we won´t have easy access to the internet, but will try to make it to the internet cafe one more time this week to update. Thanks for checking in on us, and keep us in your prayers for a quick Sentencia!
Love, Dulcie, Johnny and Manny P.S. - I will post pictures when we get back to Bogota.
We received a call from our representative, Cecilia, yesterday afternoon. She told us that the orphanage, Los Pisingos, has been working with ICBF (Colombia's child welfare Office) to see if there is anything that can be done to help their families who have not been entered into the court system because of the strike. Almost the entire country of Colombia has been on strike for almost 40 days now, but there were some small towns that did not participate in the strike.
Our lawyer from Los Pisingos found a judge in a small town about two hours from Bogota who will be taking on adoption cases starting Tuesday (Oct. 14th) The families who would go through this judge would be required to travel to this small town on Tuesday, and stay for three days. After three days, the families would return to Bogota, and wait for the final decree of adoption, called Sentencia. Cecilia mentioned that this judge would give the families Sentencia no longer than two weeks from Tuesday!
Our other option would be to stay in Bogota and get assigned to a court here. We have heard that the Notaries here in Bogota will be taking on the adoption cases, in place of the judges while on strike, but we will not know for sure until Tuesday, because Monday is Colombus Day and everything will be closed for the National Holiday. We only had a half hour to decide what we wanted to do, so we told Cecilia that we would like to travel to the small town to enter their court. It will actually be kind of nice to get a new change in scenery. The name of the town we will be going to is Ubate, Cundinmarca Colombia, which is a very small town in the country, so it will be quiet and the air will be cleaner.
We talked to Katya, the owner of Hotel Paris, and she said we won't have to check out of our room, during our short trip. So, we will only have to pack enough for three days. That's a relief, because we have enough stuff to fill 5 large suitcases!
So, looking at the Calendar, we figure, we will have Sentencia by October 28th at the latest. We will then have to visit the Embassy and apply for Manny's passport and get clearance to travel back home. That usually takes a few days, so we could be home by the first week in November! We haven't decided yet, if Johnny will still leave on the 2oth. He will have to check with work and those helping us out at home, to see if he can stay.
Manny had a round of vaccinations on Thursday. They did five vaccinations, but only in one shot. Thank goodness, because the way he cried, there is not way they would have gotten another needle in his poor little leg. We had a bet with The Haydens on who would cry the most, Emma or Manny, and Manny lost! He cried for a good 10 minutes, while Emma only cried for about a minute. She's a tough little cookie!
Here is a video of Manny getting his shot. Poor little bugger.
3. The video we received before we traveled to Bogota, isn't Manny
4. We met the actual baby from the video!
Johnny is going home Oct. 20th : (
Since the Judicial strike is the at 38 days today (The longest in the history of Colombia) We have decided we will need to conserve as much money as possible, and also decided it would be best if we had at least one income coming in the door. We are preparing for the worst, which is the possibility of me being here into the new year. We don't want to even think that it will come to that, but It's better to be prepared, just in case. Luckily, I will have the company of two other Minnesota families here at our hotel, and I've also met a couple of wonderful friends here in Bogota.
We were on the evening news in Bogota
Our representative received a phone call from the child welfare office (ICBF) asking if she had any adoptive families that are stuck here because of the strike and if they would like to be interviewed for the evening news. So, the news crew came to the hotel and so did a bunch of other families that are staying in Bogota. They were mostly from France and Belgium. Many families have been here for 3 months now. Johnny and I did not get interviewed by the reporter because we don't speak spanish, however, we are in the broadcast. Here is the link to the news station's website and the online broadcast. The adoption story is about 11 minutes into the broadcast.
When the news people and other families were at our hotel for the taping of the adoption story, we noticed a family sitting at the table next to us with their baby boy. I told them, I think your baby looks alot like ours, don't you?! They agreed, and we got to talking about their ages, which they are only a few days apart. They told us their son was from Los Pisingos Orphanage and so is Manny. I kept looking at this baby and then it hit me! He was the actual baby from the video, not Manny. So, Johnny went up to our room to grab the laptop, and we showed them the video and told them the story behind it. After watching the video again and looking at their son, we are convinced that it is Baby Hugo. How incredible! Here are a couple of pictures of the two of them side by side. I especially like the one where Manny is pulling Hugo's ear and Hugo is crying. What a big bruiser!
So, I told them I would try to email the video to them if they were to give me their email address. So we exchanged information and parted ways. When we went back up into the room, I looked into ways I could email the video, in a format compatible with Mac and Windows, but couldn't figure it out. I thought back to when we packed for our trip and realized that for some weird reason, I decided to bring the DVD of the video. (Must have been fate) That night I tried sending them an email to let them know that I had the DVD, but it came back as undeliverable. So, I tried a few other spellings, just in case I misread his handwriting and none of them went through either. I felt bad, because I didn't want them to think I blew them off.
The next day, Johnny went for a long walk, and he was about 6 miles from our hotel in a store, when he looked up and saw Hugo and his family! He told them about the DVD and they will be coming to our hotel to pick it up. What a strange sequence of events.
In a few minutes, the Dr. will be here to give Manny his next series of Shots. I'll report back on that tomorrow, with some pictures. In the meantime, here are more pictures from the last few days.
There hasn't been much going on here the last couple of days, so I really haven't had anything to write about. October is the rainiest month of the year in Colombia, so we've been hotel bound for the most part. Yesterday, Johnny, Manny and I went to the mall again. It was raining, so we put the rain cover on the stroller and headed out in our rain coats. We just did some walking in the mall, out of the rain. When we were heading back, the sun was out : ) We had lunch at 1969 pizza, which had great thick crust that Johnny just loved. I'm more of a thin and crispy girl, so Archies is still my favorite. When we got back to the hotel, Manny was a little fussy and seemed pretty gassy. (Just like his daddy) So we took it easy for the rest of the day.
This morning we went for a long walk and Manny has been down for a long nap this afternoon. He must have needed to catch up from yesterday's lack of napping. Johnny went for a power walk by himself and came back with stories of having to use the bathroom at Crepes and Waffles as it was an emergency! Then he said he "HAD" to buy an ice cream cone because he felt guilty about what he did to their bathroom! I wonder if that was the reason for his quick trip to the bathroom when he got back to the hotel. hmmm.
Since we haven't had much going on, we don't have any pictures to post. I do, however have some video of our fiesta in the kitchen the night we all cooked dinner for the staff. It was a great time! Enjoy!
Hope you are all enjoying the beautiful fall weather in MN. Since Johnny and I are missing the turning of the leaves, we would love to see some pictures of the fall scenes! You can email them to our msn email account: dulcieandjohnny@msn.com
We sure have been busy here. Wednesday, we were scheduled to go to Monserrate, which is a mountain that is 10,341 ft above the sea level. We were going to take the aerial tramway to the summit. We left Manny with a babysitter, since we weren't sure how he would do up that high in elevation. I have to admit I was pretty freaked out as we were driving up into the higher elevation. Well, the weather did not cooperate and you really need to have a nice clear day to be able to see the view from the top. So, we decided we would reschedule for a clear day. We changed our plans at the last minute and decided to go to La Candelaria which is a historic neighborhood in downtown Bogotá, Colombia that dates back to the 15th Century!
The architecture of the old houses, churches and buildings is mostly Spanish Colonial. There are also several universities, libraries and museums. We visited The Bolívar Square (Spanish: Plaza de Bolívar) which is located in the heart of the historical area of Bogotá. In the center of the square is a statue of Simón Bolívar sculpted in 1846 by the Italian Pietro Tenerani, which was the first ever public monument in the city. There are vendors that sell bird food, so you can imagine the amount of pigeons! They would actually perch on peoples arms and eat out of their hands! I wasn't brave enough to try that, but we did get a picture of it.
On the northern side of the square is the Palace of Justice, a big modern building where the Supreme Court works. On the southern side of the square, is the National Capitol, which is the seat of the Colombian Congress. We were only able to spend a few hours there, but Johnny and I would love to go back and really explore! Here are some pics from our outing.
We spent Thursday walking to the Uni-Centro (A mall). We had lunch at Crepes and Waffles. Johnny and I both agreed, we like the desserts there, better than the food. We spent a couple hours walking around the mall, and then headed back to the hotel were we had a little R&R.
On Friday we traveled to the Coloma Coffee Plantation with The Haydens and our wonderful tour guide, Freddy! It's a two hour drive from Bogota. We first drove up into the mountains, until we reached 10,000 ft. We then descended into the valley where there is a small town called Fusagasuga. The coffee plantation is located on the outskirts of this small town.
What a beautiful place! The entire plantation is filled with exotic flowers like orchids, and many we've never seen before. When we started to tour the gardens, a small puppy decided he would be our tour guide! He was so cute! He followed Ellie everywhere and let Manny pet him. We walked through the greenhouse, which is where they grow the seedlings. They can not be planted until they've matured. We then walked through the grove of coffee plants that had just been picked. They have two major seasons. (February/March and August/September) So we had just missed the major season and most of the ripe beans had been picked. All of the beans are picked by hand. Each year, they prune the trees so they stay at the ideal height for picking. We tasted a ripe bean, which is very sweet and didn't taste like coffee at all.
We then learned how they shell, rinse, dry and roast the coffee beans. They have two different processing sections. One is the old fashioned way of making coffee beans and the other is the modern way, which includes machinery. After our tour, we were able to sample the coffee as well as a tasty coffee liquor. Both were delicious! (Especially together) Johnny and I bought a sample of both to take home with us.
After our tour, we went back to Fusagasuga to eat lunch. The view was spectacular from our table! There are several open air huts where people dine. Salsa music played in the background. We had our choice of a traditional Colombian meal of meat, chicken or fish with fried plantanes, yucca and rice. We arrived back at the hotel about 8 hours after we left. It was a long day, but well worth the trip! I've posted two slide shows below. One contains only pictures of the flowers and vegetation at the coffee plantation. The other contains pictures of us on our tour and at lunch. Hope you enjoy!
Sorry, I'm still a day behind on posting. It's hard finding time to blog in between site seeing and Manny's schedule. Well, first off, wanted to fill everyone in on the strike situation. There have been many negotiation meetings and they have made no progress. Last week there was a meeting with the Colombian President, Uribe, where he offered to increase the government's original offer, but they did not accept his deal. They have another meeting scheduled for next week, and they want the government to triple their last offer, so who knows if they will get anywhere with the negotiations then. The only saving grace will be that if they do not accept an offer to end the strike, they will not get paid September's salary. That should be incentive enough. Also, Uribe is saying that if they do not end the strike, they will start firing people.
Now on to the fun stuff! We visited the Orphanage (Los Pisingos) where Manny lived in his first three months. We first visited with the same woman who presented us with Manny on our second day in Bogota. She spent about thirty minutes telling us about Manny's birthmother. It was kind of sad story to hear and we hope someday, we will find the best way to tell him his story. Johnny and I will be keeping the information private until we can share it with him. Since it is his story, it will be up to him to share it with others, if he chooses to do so.
They gave us a picture of his birth mother and also an ultrasound picture of him! That was such a great surprise. After this, we went to the map of the U.S. and placed a pin in the map. Each pin represents a family that has adopted and where the pin is placed, indicates where the family is from. You should see all the pins placed in Minnesota. There is barely room for more! We then took a tour of the orphanage and got to see the nursery. There are currently 25 infants in the nursery! I truly hope that means more referrals coming soon! When we were outside the nursery, a woman who was Manny's main caregiver during his first three months came out to see him. When he saw her and heard her voice, he instantly lit up and started smiling and cooing. She took him in her arms and hugged him and talked to him for a couple of minutes, while he smiled. It was so great to see, because you realize how much he was loved before he came to us.
We also were able to see the toddler section of Pisingos and of course I wanted to take all them home with us! Johnny made friends with a little boy who was playing with a toy car and zooming it around on the floor. They were high fiving and the little boy then proceeded to follow us. We talked to the Director of the Orphanage, Carlos, and he was so kind and told us if there was anything we needed to feel free to contact him. While we were talking to him, several children came up to him, and he knew all of their names, and would ruffle their hair or talk to them. It really shows the level of care, even from the person who is in charge of the entire place!
After lunch we went for another walk and found a beautiful park filled with gardens and a playground. Check out the pictures.
P.S. - Since we haven't been getting many comments on our blog, we were thinking that it may be hard to figure out how to post a comment. Below each of our posts, we have a picture slide show or a video. Below that, there is a link that says 0 Comments. If you click on that, you can write us a note : ) We really look forward to those notes, as it keeps our spirits up when we get a little homesick. Thanks for checking in!
