The strike is still on after 29 days

Tuesday, September 30th

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!

Love, Dulcie Johnny and Manny