Welcome Home Johan Mateo

Welcome Home Johan Mateo
March 12, 2010 - Cars make me happy!

Feliz en los brazos de Mami

Feliz en los brazos de Mami

Todo la Familia

Todo la Familia
Enjoying the day at Monserrate

Our View on Adoption

Adoption is a wonderful metaphor for our salvation in Jesus. We are all adopted sons and daughters of God, brought fully into His family and loved unconditionally. We hope and pray that we honor God in this journey and come to know more deeply the depth of His love and our true identity in Him through this awesome experience.


"I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." 2 COR 6:18

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Heading home

We are happy and a bit sad as well to be heading home with Johan Mateo -- happy for him to get to know his new home, and sorry for all of us to be leaving our "second home" of Colombia. 

What a great month full of memories. We capped off our time with a visit from Gigi, and pretty quick she and Johan were buds. We stayed at Abuelita's house in Bogota for a few days and then spent a wonderful long weekend in Villa de Leyva, an old, preserved colonial town about 3 hours away in Boyoca. Pics to come. Now our last day is filled with packing and a last chance to eat arepas, roast chicken, papas saladas, REAL aquacate, etc. Tomorrow... enchiladas!



--
Mike Oakes
moakes343@gmail.com
210-325-6767

Monday, April 5, 2010

Sentencia Day, Florencia Caqueta, March 31






Sent from my iPhone

Diary: April 1 - Fools on a train


Thursday – Up early and took the Turistren from Usaquen to Zipaquera with Mariela, Tio Alvaro and Manuel. Fun 2 hour ride on the old steam train into the beautiful countryside north of Bogota – musicians played vallenato, ladies sold homemade empanadas, etc... 



From Zipaquera, we took a bus to the salt mine in Nemocon, a cute little town 25 minutes away. We toured the active salt mine, which was beautiful and interesting.



After a tour, we bussed back to Zipaquera, got takeout and ate in the train on the way home. Good times. 


Diary: March 31 - Sentencia Day


Wednesday – Mami flew in the morning to Florencia. She almost didn’t make it due to heavy rains in Caqueta but finally arrived, about 3 hours late, at 2pm, giving her 2 hours to get everything done. The Sentencia was finalized and JOHAN MATEO IS OURS! The civil registration office was closed, though, so Diego, our lawyer in Florencia, will finalize everything on Monday. Mami flew back and arrived at the hotel at 8pm. 



Meanwhile in Bogota, Abuelita came over at noon and took Papi and the girls to Santa Fe, a fancy shopping center. We had lunch and tried to go to Divercity, kind of a mall-based Disney land, but it was packed because of Semana Santa. So we had ice cream - Johan was crazy for the chocolate – and did a little shopping. Came home and waited for Mami. 


Diary: March 29-30


Monday – Mami went to the dentist, while Laura from Zuetana gave all the kids an empanada and arepa cooking class. Yummy stuff.



Tuesday – Relaxed morning. Papi took Johan to his last gymnastics class, while Mami took the girls – along with Antje and Paula - to Norberto’s for a fancy haircut and style session. The city is starting to slow down for Semana Santa, with shops starting to close and people leaving town.