Checking out Hotel Zuetana

Great guest house specializing in adopting famies, where we will stay
for 2 weeks after getting Johan Mateo. Playground, lots of kid
activities, 3 meals a day and basically all we need, and in a great
location. We spoke to Johan from here for the first time, he heard our
voices but didn't speak much. It felt like getting a single cracker
after a weeklong fast.

Enjoying Bogota with Family

We had a safe and easy trip to Bogota and are enjoying a few days of down time in Mariela's house before moving Thursday to the hotel and our reunion day on Friday (2:30pm). Yesterday, Sunday, Romel and Alejandra and their kids came over and spent the day. It was "cylcovia" in Bogota -- every Sunday they close many major roads to cars and the people get out on bikes, rollerblades, etc.. to enjoy the day. We took a nice long walk with the girls and stopped at a great, public park and recreational area. Bogota has great parks. We came back after a couple of hours with a pretty good sunburn. The weather is crazy these days, hotter than normal by a god 5-10 degrees, probably part of an "el nino" phase. Today we had the first day of "Discovery School Bogota" in the living room, so Camila can keep up with her school work. We hope to arrange a phone call with Johan Mateo later today or tomorrow. Also tomorrow we'll visit Hotel Zuetana for the first time and get prepared for the move on Thursday.

Vamos al aeropuerto!

Ya nos vamos!

In just over 24 hours we will be in Colombia. Heppppaaaa!

We're somewhere in that foggy area between ecstatic and exhausted. Half-packed and half-baked, and all drugged up. Gisele has an ear infection and Camila has strep throat. Mom and Dad are just trying to steer clear of the germs (good luck!). Just to make things exciting, Liliana traveled overnight to Dallas last night for a filming of some teaching videos... lookout Hollywood.

All that said, everything seems to be falling into place. Cleared the last major hurdle when my passport and visa arrived just in time from the Colombian embassy in Houston. Whew!

We had a great talk with our Gladney reps yesterday to go over the final details. We'll be staying at the Zuetana guesthouse in Bogota from the day before we receive Johan Mateo until 2 weeks after. The Zuetana is specially designed for adopting families, so its very family friendly and knows what we'll be needing. Its in a great location, near parks and swimming pools and other activities. After that we'll spend 3 weeks at Liliana's Mom's house. And then hopefully we'll be on our way home. Beth and Raul gave us some more info on Johan Mateo's foster situation that was really encouraging. Word is he's a real "muneco" (doll) and quite spoiled by the foster mom. God bless her for taking such good care of him!

OK, back to the packing. First time we've ever packed little boys' clothes. Looking forward to trying on those little shoes for the first time.

March 12

Finally, we have an entrega date! Friday March 12 in Bogota. We will
fly this coming Saturday, get acclimated and ready for the big day.

Picnic in the Park

Picnicking to pass the time...

Mañana?

Still no confirmation on our entrega date, which appears to have
fallen into a bureaucratc black hole. Thought certain we would hear
today. Now we are REALLY certain we will hear tomorrow. Still holding
off on our ticket purchase and other details. The wait is rough but
will soon be over.

We spent some of the day today getting his room together. Yesterday
the church had a very nice blessing over us and the trip and everyone
there is very anxious to meet Johan Mateo. After that we had a big
Colombian lunch at La Fonda Latina with another couple adopting a
little girl from Bucaramanga in a couple weeks, as well as a two
families who have already been down the road ... All very encouraging,
informative and filling.

There is still some chance we will get to Skype with JM sometime this
week. We really hope he can get some sort of introduction to him
before entrega day, at least the video and pics, so we are not total
strangers for him.

Hasta mañana.