10-09-08

Updates in this blog entry

1.  Johnny is going home Oct. 20th : (

2.  We were on the evening news in Bogota

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. 

Click here to view the video on Bogota TV

The video we received before we traveled to Bogota isn't Manny

If you don't remember the video story, check out my posting from August 24th.

Click here to view that posting and the video

We met the actual baby from the video!

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.

Lots of Love,

Dulcie, Johnny and Manny