We are a family of four!!!

Hola Mis Amigos!!

I've got so much to tell you; I'm going to start from the beginning. Sunday was a great day; we knew Jim's mom was coming to church, but his sisters and brother along with some of their children showed up. It was such a pleasant surprise and Bethany loved having her cousins with her in Sunday School. What should of been a four hour drive to JFK turned into a 6 1/2 hour drive... the traffic was so bad that when we came off the NJ Turnpike, it literally took one hour to get through the EZ Pass toll. We got to bed around 10:45 and had to get up at 2:30 a.m. We had a great flight, but the flight attendants spoke very little English. We knew we were in trouble with our Spanish when they tried to serve us breakfast. They told us that we had a choice between eggs and a sandwich. When we asked what kind of sandwich, she said, "cheese and dook". I said, "Duck?" She said, "Dook". I said, "Duck?" Again, she said, "Dook". I said, "Duck as in quack, quack?" She said "Si, dook, quack, quack". Jim and looked at each other and said, "We'll take the eggs!" Then Jim said to her, "Are you sure you didn't mean dog, woof, woof?" They cracked up laughing and said, "No woof, woof!" We've been reduced to animal sounds in order to communicate!! At the airport, the guy comes to pick us up in a small sedan, plus he brought his girlfriend. We had so much luggage it took two skycaptains to help us, so needless to say we were quite surprised to see this little car. After several attempts (and I was praying to myself), they finally squeezed our luggage into the trunk and the front seat. We rode for 35 minutes in the back seat with his girlfriend, Bethany on my lap (no seatbelts), carry-ons under my legs, and carry-ons on Jim's lap. This has been an adventure....

Flying into Medellin was absolutely beautiful. Our hotel is very nice; we have two connecting rooms which is really good because the girls have their own room with a king bed and their own bathroom. The view from our room is great; it overlooks the mountains.

Well, we went to court this morning and the petition to adopt was filed. We had some extra time before our appointment at the orphanage so Gloria (our guide) brought us to a very nice grocery store so we could pick up a few things. Then we headed off to pick us our new daughter.

We had a wonderful time speaking with the director and learned a lot of new stuff. During the last part of the meeting, Bethany stayed out with Gloria. The staff loved her and couldn't believe how mature she was and how willing she was to speak with them. When we were done talking with the director, she left the room to find Bethany. We noticed she was gone for awhile, but then we saw Bethany coming down the hall holding Windy's hand!!! She is soooo cute and much smaller than I thought she'd be. She gave me a huge hug and was somewhat shy for the first 10 minutes. She handed us a booklet that she made and we read through it. It told us her likes and dislikes. She listed Bethany as her best friend. She drew a picture and wrote that she loved us. We brought along little gift boxes, filled them with candy, and put a pretty gold seal that I had printed "Gracias!" on. We put them in Bethany's Upward duffle bag (I forgot a gift bag) and brought them to hand out to the staff. Bethany held the bag and Windy showed the way. She went around the orphange to all of the different departments and said her good-byes as she handed them their box of goodies. Before we left, she was saying "thank you" and "good-bye" in English!

Bethany has become "the little mother" and is communicating very well with her. Windy loved her gifts and they've had a good time playing with their dolls. Now they are in their room watching The Incredibles in Spanish, but with English sub-titles. It's nice having a few people here that are bi-lingual. They were a huge help as we were trying to order her something to eat and trying to find out what she likes and doesn't like.

I think we're going to sleep in tomorrow. We have to meet Gloria at 2:50 to go to our ICBF appointment (ICBF is the foster care system in Colombia).

Chao,
Kathy