We had a good day!

Gloria took us to an open-air, thatched roof restaurant in a small town outside of Medellin. Since we had recently eaten a big breakfast, we just got dessert... very good!!

The horse came out and "danced" to Colombian music...different, but very interesting.

Call me crazy (and Jim did when I came out of the bathroom, grabbed my camera, and headed back in), but I had to take pictures of their bathroom. Between the sunshine (remember... open-air) and everything painted bright blue, I literally had to squint when I walked in... it was sooo bright. Get this... the wooden table with the blue pad is a Colombian baby changing station; Gloria said they are quite common throughout their country. I thought it was so cool, I had to show it to all of you.
These two pictures are of the town the restaurant was in. It was really nice to see something different than the big city. Cattle along with high rises... again... different, but very interesting. Bethany keeps calling everything weird and I tell her it's not weird... it's just different and that's what makes other cultures so very fascinating.



Hola,

The photos above tell about the first part of our day. When we returned to the hotel late this afternoon, it was blue skies and warm, so the girls wanted to go swimming. We thought it would be a great night to eat by the pool. By the time we got down there, the temperatures dropped and clouds were rolling in. The girls still went swimming, but after awhile Jim and I ordered a pot of coffee with hot milk and I wrapped up in a towel. It was absolutely crazy around there; there's a lot going on here. Tonight was the grand re-opening of the pool-side restaurant,the medical convention is still going on, and there's something tomorrow having to do with the President of the United States Chamber of Commerce. While we were out by the pool, an official Colombian helicopter landed on top of the hotel; the girls, and everyone else standing around staring, thought it was the coolest thing. Earlier in the day, a lady at the front desk told Jim that security was going to be raised considerably because of his arrival; we figured it was probably him arriving. They had pool guys all over the place scrubbing down signs, tables, etc. "Big-wigs" had on their headsets checking all details. Sadly, we have found many of the medical people are extremely rude to the children. You can tell they are annoyed with the girls as they push their way ahead of them off elevators and through doorways. Luckily the staff treats them as princesses and are absolutely wonderful.

Something quick and funny that I wanted to share... Windy's trying her hardest to speak English. She keeps telling people "thank you very much", but it comes out "thunk you verrrry mows"... she rolls that "r" and the "much" almost sounds like "mouse". A couple people have commented thinking she is saying "thank you very mouse". Bless her heart, she is trying.

Yes, Jim's ear is feeling much better. He's able to hear again! I just hope Bethany hasn't caught anything because of the pool's lack of chlorine. She was not feeling well at all during dinner. She did not have a fever; I gave her some Advil and she was fast asleep by 8:15 p.m. I'm hoping she'll be back to herself in the morning.

Monday is a holiday here, Columbus Day, so with the long weekend, we really did not want to leave the hotel and deal with the crowds. We're going to hang out here for the next three days and on Tuesday we're going to head back to the orphanage; Windy wants to visit again. We'll most likely get her photos for her Colombian passport that same day. I spoke with Gloria privately today and she told me she spoke with our attorney. Gloria is saying that Fannie didn't really say a lot, but Gloria says that she (meaning Gloria) really believes that we are going to get Sentencia (adoption finalized) on Tuesday. I looked back at Gina's blog and it was 1 1/2 weeks from Sentencia until they were back in Houston. It doesn't take many business days for the process, but it's the weekends that really spreads it out. Pray that it will come through Tuesday or Wednesday so we can get out of here on time and not need to have new airline tickets issued.

Marie, yes, I am receiving your emails and your posts. I will try, again, to call you over the weekend...love you, sweetie!!

Chao,
Kathy