Hello,
We've been home for one week... wow, what a whirlwind. I guess the last time I blogged, we were just getting ready to leave for the airport. Belicia continued to get sick... in the taxi, in the airport... just as we're going through security, a nosebleed... oh my!!! We gave her a Dramimine and she slept the entire flight. Then she got sick at JFK and on the way home. We were really concerned, so our doctor saw her at the hospital. Sunday morning was the last time she got sick and everyone feels it was from nerves. We had a fabulous party Friday night and she has settled in beautifully. She loves the United States, our church, and her new family.
We went to the beach after church on Sunday. She had never seen the ocean before; she really didn't know what to make of it. She said she really liked Rehoboth and all of the seagulls.
We took her to the eye doctor and come to find out she is blind in her left eye. A toxo-parasite has destroyed her vision. She is going to an infectious disease specialist to see if it's still in her body. Today she got her new glasses; these are just for protection of her right eye. Then we went to the salon and all had our hair done. We took her to Panera Bread and she loved it!!!
Things are going great. She's eating and sleeping with no problems. We're going away this weekend for Bethany's birthday... on Sunday we're going to Chocolate World at Hershey. I KNOW she's going to love it. Next week is Thanksgiving and I'll have to get Mandy to explain this holiday to her. I want to find a children's book on American history for her in Spanish. Barnes & Noble said I can order through their site. I just need to find a few minutes to do that.
Got to get to bed... it's GREAT to be home!!!!
Kathy
Friday, November 16, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
U.S.A. HERE WE COME!!!
Hola,
Ooohhh, our last day here in beautiful Colombia. I told Helena that I was a little sad because I feel as though Colombia is a part of me. I think this program is great whereas it requires the family to stay in the country until the process is completed. Even before arriving here, I thought it was a great idea. Now that we´ve been here for so long, I appreciate what Colombia is trying to accomplish by having us stay. Yes, it has been a long and crazy process, but it has been fabulous!! We have learned so much about the people here and have a much better understanding of this culture and Belicia´s background.
Today we went to the old city... it was okay. Later I went to the US Embassy and picked up Belicia´s visa. It´s so funny because when she looks at her passport and sees her legal Colombian name, she gets a little upset and says that is not her name.... her name is Belicia. Trying to explain to her that we are going to make the legal changes at home is a bit difficult.
Tonight we walked down the street to a great Tex-Mex restaurant and then headed to Baskin -Robbins. I know, I know we shouldn´t have, but it was very good. I haven´t had good ice cream since we left home.
Tina, I´m getting ready to go upstairs and tell the girls about the weather report. Boy, wouldn´t it be something to see some snow flurries!! Well, I´m going to go. Our cars will be here shortly to pick us up to go to the airport. I can´t believe I´m finally saying that!!!
Chao,
Kathy
Ooohhh, our last day here in beautiful Colombia. I told Helena that I was a little sad because I feel as though Colombia is a part of me. I think this program is great whereas it requires the family to stay in the country until the process is completed. Even before arriving here, I thought it was a great idea. Now that we´ve been here for so long, I appreciate what Colombia is trying to accomplish by having us stay. Yes, it has been a long and crazy process, but it has been fabulous!! We have learned so much about the people here and have a much better understanding of this culture and Belicia´s background.
Today we went to the old city... it was okay. Later I went to the US Embassy and picked up Belicia´s visa. It´s so funny because when she looks at her passport and sees her legal Colombian name, she gets a little upset and says that is not her name.... her name is Belicia. Trying to explain to her that we are going to make the legal changes at home is a bit difficult.
Tonight we walked down the street to a great Tex-Mex restaurant and then headed to Baskin -Robbins. I know, I know we shouldn´t have, but it was very good. I haven´t had good ice cream since we left home.
Belicia is still getting sick. She got sick at the mall this afternoon, when we arrived back to the hotel, and just now. I can´t wait to get home and get her to the doctor. Helena stopped by a drug store and bought me some stuff to give her for the flight. She said it will help her stomach during the flight and make her very drowsy. I hope it helps!!
Well, after being here for a couple of days, we can easily say we are extremely thankful that we spent the huge bulk of this trip in Medellin and at the Intercontinental. There is nothing wrong with Bogota, but it´s more of a typical city. It´s much colder and they get much more rain here. Luckily the short time that we´ve been here has been the best weather that they have had since the end of September. Even though this hotel is nice, Jim and I both are thankful beyond words for the Intercontinental. We had so much to do there; there is really nothing to do here.Tina, I´m getting ready to go upstairs and tell the girls about the weather report. Boy, wouldn´t it be something to see some snow flurries!! Well, I´m going to go. Our cars will be here shortly to pick us up to go to the airport. I can´t believe I´m finally saying that!!!
Chao,
Kathy
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Okay, rest of story...
Hola,
Okay, to finish where I left off before dinner... so we made it into Bogota and we went to Betty´s Place. She was so friendly, but to put it kindly, the place needed some serious updating. I was very unhappy about staying, but Jim insisted. After we were given some lunch, Helena (our coordinator) picked us up and we went to the doctor. He said Belicia was fine, but his concern for her eye was that she has a parasite or virus that is very common in Putumayo. He said that they find many times that if treated, the eye goes back to normal. The last doctor that came to the hotel seemed to think she may have a stomach parasite. We are going to have her checked when we get home because on the way to the US Embassy, she got sick in Helená´s car and then she got sick again tonight just before dinner. The doctor yesterday wrote down the names of the parasite and virus that she could have. He said that the US doctors can easily check her and treat her.
I´m not even going to go into all of the details of what I didn´t like about our accomadations, but I do think Jim changed his mind about going somewhere else in the middle of the night. It was cold last night and there was no heat, so we asked for a little space heater. We turned it on and closed the door most of the way. I was getting a headache and after about an hour in bed I began to smell a horrific odor... it smelled like septic!!! Jim got up and tried to figure out what was going on and I took some Advil... my head was killing me. There was nothing we could do because Betty does not reside there and the one housekeeper that lives there, doesn´t speak or understand English. We had an absolutely miserable night, to say the least. I told Jim in the morning, we need to go somewhere else. He called Helena around 7:45 a.m. telling her we needed some place else for tonight. She called a lot of the big hotels and they had no rooms. She did call her favorite, as she calls it, petite hotel, The Halifax, and they did have one room available. She picked us up at 8:30 to go to the US Embassy, but let us stop and look at the hotel first. Belicia had just gotten sick three (3) blocks before we arrived. Since she signaled to me that she was going to get sick, I was able to put a couple of jackets in her lap. When we arrived, the lady came out immediately and helped with Belicia. She had her staff take her shirt and the jackets, they kept them here to clean. The hotel representative gave her a clean shirt to wear to the Embassy... very nice people. Anyway, this place is so much nicer!!! Jim called Betty and told her what was going on and she completely understood and apologized several times. Bogota had a horrible rain storm come through the night before we arrived and what happened was the water had seeped into our rooms. We didn´t notice the odor at first because they had our patio doors opened when we arrived. Anyway, after the Embassy, we went back to pack up our belongings (very little had been taken out) and Helena had a guide, named Jorge, meet us to pick up our luggage. When we returned, the girls room began smelling really bad too. Betty had professionals waiting for us to leave so they could get in and get everything taken care of. She felt so bad that she did not charge us for the stay.
We came over here to The Halifax and got situated and then Jorge walked us down to Avianc´s office. They had wanted to charge us $600 in penalties for changing our tickets, plus almost $400 in airfare rate differences. What a blessing... Jorge used to work with the lady in the office and they were good friends!!! She was VERY nice to us. It took about an hour, but she was able to waive all of the fees and lower our rate difference down to $37... thank you Lord!!!! It was also a blessing to find out that our tickets included the departure taxes for Jim, Bethany, and myself.... another $150.
Well, we are settled into a nice place and are preparing to turn in for our last night in Colombia... finally, we are coming home. Jorge´s wife is going to pick us up at 9:30 a.m. for a little sight seeing and then I have to go back to the Embassy at 3:30 p.m. to pick up Belicia´s Visa. It was strange today walking into the Embassy, seeing hundreds of people trying to apply for their Visas, we walk in, go to a special window for US Citizens, they wait on us immediately, and we´re in and out in 1 1-2 hours. You kind of feel bad for all of those who having been waiting, and will continue to wait, for hours.
I´m not sure if I´ll get a chance to blog tomorrow before we head to the airport (8:00 p.m.), so if not, I am MORE than excited about seeing most of you Friday night. Belicia is excited beyond belief. She keeps saying, ¨Bye bye Bogota, hello United States¨ She is sooooo excited about her fiesta, too.
FYI, once we get home, I will only blog once or twice for Belicia´s sake. I want to download this entire blog for her life book and I want to close with the first few days in her new home. When I get home, there is NO WAY I´ll have time to keep this up. Thanks again to all of you that have sent comments over the last several weeks and to all of you that have prayed for us during this journey. THANK YOU!!
God bless and Chao,
Kathy
Okay, to finish where I left off before dinner... so we made it into Bogota and we went to Betty´s Place. She was so friendly, but to put it kindly, the place needed some serious updating. I was very unhappy about staying, but Jim insisted. After we were given some lunch, Helena (our coordinator) picked us up and we went to the doctor. He said Belicia was fine, but his concern for her eye was that she has a parasite or virus that is very common in Putumayo. He said that they find many times that if treated, the eye goes back to normal. The last doctor that came to the hotel seemed to think she may have a stomach parasite. We are going to have her checked when we get home because on the way to the US Embassy, she got sick in Helená´s car and then she got sick again tonight just before dinner. The doctor yesterday wrote down the names of the parasite and virus that she could have. He said that the US doctors can easily check her and treat her.
I´m not even going to go into all of the details of what I didn´t like about our accomadations, but I do think Jim changed his mind about going somewhere else in the middle of the night. It was cold last night and there was no heat, so we asked for a little space heater. We turned it on and closed the door most of the way. I was getting a headache and after about an hour in bed I began to smell a horrific odor... it smelled like septic!!! Jim got up and tried to figure out what was going on and I took some Advil... my head was killing me. There was nothing we could do because Betty does not reside there and the one housekeeper that lives there, doesn´t speak or understand English. We had an absolutely miserable night, to say the least. I told Jim in the morning, we need to go somewhere else. He called Helena around 7:45 a.m. telling her we needed some place else for tonight. She called a lot of the big hotels and they had no rooms. She did call her favorite, as she calls it, petite hotel, The Halifax, and they did have one room available. She picked us up at 8:30 to go to the US Embassy, but let us stop and look at the hotel first. Belicia had just gotten sick three (3) blocks before we arrived. Since she signaled to me that she was going to get sick, I was able to put a couple of jackets in her lap. When we arrived, the lady came out immediately and helped with Belicia. She had her staff take her shirt and the jackets, they kept them here to clean. The hotel representative gave her a clean shirt to wear to the Embassy... very nice people. Anyway, this place is so much nicer!!! Jim called Betty and told her what was going on and she completely understood and apologized several times. Bogota had a horrible rain storm come through the night before we arrived and what happened was the water had seeped into our rooms. We didn´t notice the odor at first because they had our patio doors opened when we arrived. Anyway, after the Embassy, we went back to pack up our belongings (very little had been taken out) and Helena had a guide, named Jorge, meet us to pick up our luggage. When we returned, the girls room began smelling really bad too. Betty had professionals waiting for us to leave so they could get in and get everything taken care of. She felt so bad that she did not charge us for the stay.
We came over here to The Halifax and got situated and then Jorge walked us down to Avianc´s office. They had wanted to charge us $600 in penalties for changing our tickets, plus almost $400 in airfare rate differences. What a blessing... Jorge used to work with the lady in the office and they were good friends!!! She was VERY nice to us. It took about an hour, but she was able to waive all of the fees and lower our rate difference down to $37... thank you Lord!!!! It was also a blessing to find out that our tickets included the departure taxes for Jim, Bethany, and myself.... another $150.
Well, we are settled into a nice place and are preparing to turn in for our last night in Colombia... finally, we are coming home. Jorge´s wife is going to pick us up at 9:30 a.m. for a little sight seeing and then I have to go back to the Embassy at 3:30 p.m. to pick up Belicia´s Visa. It was strange today walking into the Embassy, seeing hundreds of people trying to apply for their Visas, we walk in, go to a special window for US Citizens, they wait on us immediately, and we´re in and out in 1 1-2 hours. You kind of feel bad for all of those who having been waiting, and will continue to wait, for hours.
I´m not sure if I´ll get a chance to blog tomorrow before we head to the airport (8:00 p.m.), so if not, I am MORE than excited about seeing most of you Friday night. Belicia is excited beyond belief. She keeps saying, ¨Bye bye Bogota, hello United States¨ She is sooooo excited about her fiesta, too.
FYI, once we get home, I will only blog once or twice for Belicia´s sake. I want to download this entire blog for her life book and I want to close with the first few days in her new home. When I get home, there is NO WAY I´ll have time to keep this up. Thanks again to all of you that have sent comments over the last several weeks and to all of you that have prayed for us during this journey. THANK YOU!!
God bless and Chao,
Kathy
We´re in Bogota, but crazy journey!!!
Hola,
This may take some time to type; I´m typing from a spanish computer and they have a slightly different keyboard than we have. Dinner is going to be served soon and my laptop is not connecting, so I´ll blog a little now and hopefully I´ll be able to get back on here later. Before I begin telling you about today´s crazy events, I´ll go back to us trying to get out of Medellin. We got Belicia´s passport with no problem, we were packed and ready to leave. Jim went downstairs to pay our bill and to send up a bell captain. After he left and I completed the packing, all of the electricity on our floor and the elevators went out!!! I´m wondering if Jim is stuck in the elevators and he is wondering is our luggage is stuck in the elevators. I took the girls and began going down the emergency stairs. As we descended, I began to check the doors leading onto the other floors.... they were all locked. As we continued to descend, I began to get a little nervous thinking we´re not going to be able to get out of the stairwell. Luckily, the first floor did have a crashbar and we made it to the lobby. Gloria was down there with Jim and we needed to move VERY quickly to get to the airport. I told the bell captain the electric was out and we HAD to make our flight. He realized we had been there a very, very long time and he was not about to let us miss our flight. He called some men to go up seven (7) flights of stairs and bring all of our luggage down (7 very large and heavy bags; 4 carry ons). I felt bad, but we weren´t going to miss that plane!!! After a huge whirlwind of getting the luggage and paying the bill (oh yeah, our credit card didn´t want to work!!!!), we finally said ¨good bye¨ to Medellin.
Forty minutes later (and two vehicles for our luggage), we made it to the airport. Before I packed, I asked about the weight of our luggage and were told we could pack 25 K in each bag. As we were rushing to check in, they weighed our luggage and said that we were way over our weight limit. They said we could only have 20 K. After Gloria and about four supervisors went round and round, they realized our plane was taking off in 10 minutes. They said to forget it and let our luggage go. They scambled to get our boarding passes and we rushed to get through security. As you can guess, we were the last ones on the plane, but we made it!!!
Dinner is ready, so I´m going to close. Hopefully, I will be able to get back on later and tell you the rest of the story... not a good night!!
Hasta luego,
Kathy
This may take some time to type; I´m typing from a spanish computer and they have a slightly different keyboard than we have. Dinner is going to be served soon and my laptop is not connecting, so I´ll blog a little now and hopefully I´ll be able to get back on here later. Before I begin telling you about today´s crazy events, I´ll go back to us trying to get out of Medellin. We got Belicia´s passport with no problem, we were packed and ready to leave. Jim went downstairs to pay our bill and to send up a bell captain. After he left and I completed the packing, all of the electricity on our floor and the elevators went out!!! I´m wondering if Jim is stuck in the elevators and he is wondering is our luggage is stuck in the elevators. I took the girls and began going down the emergency stairs. As we descended, I began to check the doors leading onto the other floors.... they were all locked. As we continued to descend, I began to get a little nervous thinking we´re not going to be able to get out of the stairwell. Luckily, the first floor did have a crashbar and we made it to the lobby. Gloria was down there with Jim and we needed to move VERY quickly to get to the airport. I told the bell captain the electric was out and we HAD to make our flight. He realized we had been there a very, very long time and he was not about to let us miss our flight. He called some men to go up seven (7) flights of stairs and bring all of our luggage down (7 very large and heavy bags; 4 carry ons). I felt bad, but we weren´t going to miss that plane!!! After a huge whirlwind of getting the luggage and paying the bill (oh yeah, our credit card didn´t want to work!!!!), we finally said ¨good bye¨ to Medellin.
Forty minutes later (and two vehicles for our luggage), we made it to the airport. Before I packed, I asked about the weight of our luggage and were told we could pack 25 K in each bag. As we were rushing to check in, they weighed our luggage and said that we were way over our weight limit. They said we could only have 20 K. After Gloria and about four supervisors went round and round, they realized our plane was taking off in 10 minutes. They said to forget it and let our luggage go. They scambled to get our boarding passes and we rushed to get through security. As you can guess, we were the last ones on the plane, but we made it!!!
Dinner is ready, so I´m going to close. Hopefully, I will be able to get back on later and tell you the rest of the story... not a good night!!
Hasta luego,
Kathy
Monday, November 5, 2007
Last full day in Medellin
Hola,
Believe it or not, this has been a bitter-sweet day. Yes, we are excited to begin our journey home, but this city and country is so fabulous, the people are wonderful, and the other adopting families are so interesting that we are sad about leaving. Yesterday as we were in the taxi going to the mall, I was explaining to Belicia that she will be Colombian American. She said no... she wanted to be only an American and did not want to be a Colombian. Yes, I realize that she truly doesn't understand what she is saying, but it made me a little sad to hear that. I kept telling her how wonderful it is to be Colombian... it's a great country. I understand that her association to her nationality is connected to her past in Mocoa. As she gets older, she'll realize what a blessing it is to have a dual citizenship.
Gloria is going to pick Jim and Belicia up at 7:00 a.m. to go to the passport office. We're hoping to be able to catch the 11:45 a.m. flight to Bogota, but if not, the next flight is at 1:00 p.m. Laura, unfortunately we will not be staying at the Embassy Suites. The other hotels we looked at wanted $300-$400 per night and did not offer an adoption rate. Embassy Suites did offer a special rate, but had no openings. We found out through Colombian Chat about a home called "Betty's Place". I found nothing but positive comments on-line. Actually the night I called to speak with Betty, an American, that had been there for three weeks, answered the phone. She said that they have been extremely happy with staying there, so we ended up booking a room. It's a huge house and we'll have a large bedroom with a fireplace and our own private bathroom. They prepare our breakfast and dinner; I've heard the food is excellent. Betty treats everyone as if she's known them for years. She's an American that married a Colombian 30 years ago and has run this home for adopting families for 15 years now.
Dad, before I forget... my email came back, so here is our flight information:
Friday, November 9th, JFK
Avianca Flight #20
Arriving 5:00 a.m. from Bogota
Avianca's phone #800-284-2622
For anyone needing to reach us by cell phone, Jim's cell phone has died. I took it out of the safe this evening and it's not powering up. He even tried to put my battery in it and it did not work. If you need us, call my cell; it will work once we land Friday morning.
This morning we had a great time at the pool with all of the other adopting families. Unfortunately, Belicia ended up with another horrible nose bleed. Her hand was cupped and full of blood. Fortunately, the doctor couple from Germany was right there and the wife took care of Belicia immediately. She got it stopped and we came back up to the room.... it began to bleed again. She was on the bed with fresh white sheets and as it was bleeding, for some reason, she decided to blow out very hard. Well, you guessed correctly... no more fresh white sheets. Jim and I felt bad about having to call housekeeping back; they change the sheets every day and she had just left our room. If this continues, we will definitely have to see a doctor about it when we get home. Later tonight Eduardo picked the whole group of us up again. I wanted to go Panamericana; it's a lot like a Barnes & Noble and it just opened last week. It was very nice, but I do like Barnes & Noble better; they have a warmer, cozier feel.
That's it for tonight; hopefully I'll be able to blog tomorrow night from chilly Bogota. Belicia was by the pool this morning... about 77 degrees, under a thick towel, and saying, "Muy frio" (very cold). Muy frio at 77 degrees??? Boy is she in trouble!!!
Buenas noches,
Kathy
Believe it or not, this has been a bitter-sweet day. Yes, we are excited to begin our journey home, but this city and country is so fabulous, the people are wonderful, and the other adopting families are so interesting that we are sad about leaving. Yesterday as we were in the taxi going to the mall, I was explaining to Belicia that she will be Colombian American. She said no... she wanted to be only an American and did not want to be a Colombian. Yes, I realize that she truly doesn't understand what she is saying, but it made me a little sad to hear that. I kept telling her how wonderful it is to be Colombian... it's a great country. I understand that her association to her nationality is connected to her past in Mocoa. As she gets older, she'll realize what a blessing it is to have a dual citizenship.
Gloria is going to pick Jim and Belicia up at 7:00 a.m. to go to the passport office. We're hoping to be able to catch the 11:45 a.m. flight to Bogota, but if not, the next flight is at 1:00 p.m. Laura, unfortunately we will not be staying at the Embassy Suites. The other hotels we looked at wanted $300-$400 per night and did not offer an adoption rate. Embassy Suites did offer a special rate, but had no openings. We found out through Colombian Chat about a home called "Betty's Place". I found nothing but positive comments on-line. Actually the night I called to speak with Betty, an American, that had been there for three weeks, answered the phone. She said that they have been extremely happy with staying there, so we ended up booking a room. It's a huge house and we'll have a large bedroom with a fireplace and our own private bathroom. They prepare our breakfast and dinner; I've heard the food is excellent. Betty treats everyone as if she's known them for years. She's an American that married a Colombian 30 years ago and has run this home for adopting families for 15 years now.
Dad, before I forget... my email came back, so here is our flight information:
Friday, November 9th, JFK
Avianca Flight #20
Arriving 5:00 a.m. from Bogota
Avianca's phone #800-284-2622
For anyone needing to reach us by cell phone, Jim's cell phone has died. I took it out of the safe this evening and it's not powering up. He even tried to put my battery in it and it did not work. If you need us, call my cell; it will work once we land Friday morning.
This morning we had a great time at the pool with all of the other adopting families. Unfortunately, Belicia ended up with another horrible nose bleed. Her hand was cupped and full of blood. Fortunately, the doctor couple from Germany was right there and the wife took care of Belicia immediately. She got it stopped and we came back up to the room.... it began to bleed again. She was on the bed with fresh white sheets and as it was bleeding, for some reason, she decided to blow out very hard. Well, you guessed correctly... no more fresh white sheets. Jim and I felt bad about having to call housekeeping back; they change the sheets every day and she had just left our room. If this continues, we will definitely have to see a doctor about it when we get home. Later tonight Eduardo picked the whole group of us up again. I wanted to go Panamericana; it's a lot like a Barnes & Noble and it just opened last week. It was very nice, but I do like Barnes & Noble better; they have a warmer, cozier feel.
That's it for tonight; hopefully I'll be able to blog tomorrow night from chilly Bogota. Belicia was by the pool this morning... about 77 degrees, under a thick towel, and saying, "Muy frio" (very cold). Muy frio at 77 degrees??? Boy is she in trouble!!!
Buenas noches,
Kathy
Sunday, November 4, 2007
WE HAVE HER BIRTH CERTIFICATE!!!
Hola,
We got the call from Racquel... she has Belicia's birth certificate!!! We will speak with Gloria tomorrow to find out what time she will pick us up on Tuesday. Jim and I both agree... as early as possible. Hey, did any of you see on FOX News what happened in Bogota yesterday? They had a major hail storm; when I saw the video footage on FOX, my mouth literally dropped open. Jim went down to the gym and picked up the newspaper so we can bring home some pictures of it. Again, we thank the Lord that we were here this weekend... hummmm... 80 some degrees and sun vs. hail storm (bbbrrrrrrrrr cold!!)... man, that's a tough call; which would you choose?
We've had a nice and relaxing day today. Since Gloria is still gone, we got a taxi from the hotel and went over to the Oviedo Mall again. This mall is unbelievably huge (3-4 levels) and much of it is open air. When we left the hotel, the sky was blue. While we were there, it began to pour. It's very strange to walk along store fronts and it's pouring in the center between you and the other side of the stores. We found a nice shop with tons of hair accessories... very inexpensive, so the girls and I bought a few pieces. They had a nice bookstore; it offered very few bi-lingual books for children, but we found a gem. It tells a story along with pictures and sounds. It will really help her with English sentence structure and her prepositions. For example, if in the paragraph a sentence says, "The frog is sitting behind the dog.", it will have a picture on the bottom of the page showing that. The page beside it will have it in Spanish along with sound bites in Spanish and English for the nouns, frog and dog. It's a tremendous book and she loves it.
We're finding Belicia is allergic to other medicines also. She's been getting a lot of hives the last couple of days. Bethany has a new friend that is 11 years old and is from Germany. They have just adopted a little five year old boy. Both of the parents are doctors and while I was talking with the mother this morning by the pool, Belicia had a horrible nose bleed. Belicia had four more after that, so the mother gave us some homeopathic medicine for treatment. She treats children for allergies and skin conditions and said that this is nothing to be alarmed about; it's not uncommon. I'm not sure, but we are definitely carrying tissues everywhere we go.
We did have a fabulous dinner last night with Daniel and the two dads. Daniel told us something that just blew my mind and I had to ask him again to repeat himself because I thought surely I misunderstood him. He said that here in Medellin alone, there are approximately 30,000 (yes, thirty thousand) children mostly between the ages of 5-15 on the streets. I asked him if most of them had parents with them and he said, "No, most of them are alone or with gangs." Like I had mentioned yesterday, he works on the streets with these children and he told us some of the most heartbreaking stories. Oh... you wish you could somehow help them all...
Oh, by the way, now that you've turned your clocks back, we're on the same time as all of you on the East Coast.
Buenas noches,
Kathy
We got the call from Racquel... she has Belicia's birth certificate!!! We will speak with Gloria tomorrow to find out what time she will pick us up on Tuesday. Jim and I both agree... as early as possible. Hey, did any of you see on FOX News what happened in Bogota yesterday? They had a major hail storm; when I saw the video footage on FOX, my mouth literally dropped open. Jim went down to the gym and picked up the newspaper so we can bring home some pictures of it. Again, we thank the Lord that we were here this weekend... hummmm... 80 some degrees and sun vs. hail storm (bbbrrrrrrrrr cold!!)... man, that's a tough call; which would you choose?
We've had a nice and relaxing day today. Since Gloria is still gone, we got a taxi from the hotel and went over to the Oviedo Mall again. This mall is unbelievably huge (3-4 levels) and much of it is open air. When we left the hotel, the sky was blue. While we were there, it began to pour. It's very strange to walk along store fronts and it's pouring in the center between you and the other side of the stores. We found a nice shop with tons of hair accessories... very inexpensive, so the girls and I bought a few pieces. They had a nice bookstore; it offered very few bi-lingual books for children, but we found a gem. It tells a story along with pictures and sounds. It will really help her with English sentence structure and her prepositions. For example, if in the paragraph a sentence says, "The frog is sitting behind the dog.", it will have a picture on the bottom of the page showing that. The page beside it will have it in Spanish along with sound bites in Spanish and English for the nouns, frog and dog. It's a tremendous book and she loves it.
We're finding Belicia is allergic to other medicines also. She's been getting a lot of hives the last couple of days. Bethany has a new friend that is 11 years old and is from Germany. They have just adopted a little five year old boy. Both of the parents are doctors and while I was talking with the mother this morning by the pool, Belicia had a horrible nose bleed. Belicia had four more after that, so the mother gave us some homeopathic medicine for treatment. She treats children for allergies and skin conditions and said that this is nothing to be alarmed about; it's not uncommon. I'm not sure, but we are definitely carrying tissues everywhere we go.
We did have a fabulous dinner last night with Daniel and the two dads. Daniel told us something that just blew my mind and I had to ask him again to repeat himself because I thought surely I misunderstood him. He said that here in Medellin alone, there are approximately 30,000 (yes, thirty thousand) children mostly between the ages of 5-15 on the streets. I asked him if most of them had parents with them and he said, "No, most of them are alone or with gangs." Like I had mentioned yesterday, he works on the streets with these children and he told us some of the most heartbreaking stories. Oh... you wish you could somehow help them all...
Oh, by the way, now that you've turned your clocks back, we're on the same time as all of you on the East Coast.
Buenas noches,
Kathy
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Wonderful day!!
Buenas Tardes (Good Evening),
So much to tell... I'll start at the beginning of the day. The two other dads and us met Eduardo at 10:30 a.m. and went over to the flea market; it was huge. We only had a chance to see maybe 1/3 of it, but all of us really enjoyed it. Some items were like yard sale stuff, but most of it was jewelry, hand craft items, clothing, etc. Eduardo dropped all of us off and said he would park his truck and then find us. All of us were like, "You're going to find us... in this large of place... with this many people???" He said, "Absolutely... no problem." We joked with him and told him that we hope he doesn't have to call his mom (Racquel of Casa de Maria) and tell her that he's lost eight (8) Americans!!! Sure enough about an hour later I was watching Jim and Bethany do something and glanced to the right of me and Eduardo was standing there with this smug look on his face as if he were saying, "Told you I would find you." He gathered us all together and said to follow him. He brought us to meet the fifth family that just adopted from Casa de Maria, but they are staying at The Four Points Sheraton. While all of us were standing around talking, Eduardo went and bought us all drinks... get this, pure sugar cane juice... yummy!!! I brought Bethany over to watch the extraction process... very interesting.
After the flea market, Eduardo brought us back to the hotel. During the whole morning and even standing in the lobby after our day out, we were able to be involved in some good dialogue with these two dads. All of us decided to meet down at the pool and let the children swim. This is where it got very exciting for us and we knew, that we knew, God had us here for this time. As we walked through the health club and I looked to my right, I saw a gentleman sitting there that I recognized from a couple of weeks ago and I said, "Hello". Of course his comment was, "You're still here!" He is from the U.S., has lived in Colombia for 21 years, is a professor at the university, and is also a single dad of two Colombian children that he adopted. His name is Daniel; he's 55 years old and is absolutely amazing. The children he adopted are actually off of the street. The oldest, now four years old, was a newborn. He found the mother of the baby, age 13, on the street and gave her shelter and food. She allowed him to adopt her baby. When she got pregnant again at the age of 15, he adopted that child as well. Now she is pregnant again and he will be adopting the third child as well. He, himself, is an orphan, was on the streets as a child, and knows all too well about abuse. In addition to teaching, he works with the children on the streets here in Medellin on a daily basis. He teaches English, for free, here at the hotel and is actually writing a book about a technique he has developed for teaching language. The class he teaches at the college has a two year waiting list and the US Army has approached him asking him to teach them his teaching techniques. I'm saying all of this because his background coupled with what he does now as an adult, is EXACTLY what both of these dads need; especially the one who just adopted the 14 year old who lived on the streets for 11 years and cannot read or write. When I told Daniel about the two dads, he said he wanted to meet them and since they were sitting over at the restaurant, I brought him over and introduced him to them. Daniel, the two dads, and myself talked for about 1 1/2 hours. Come to find out, Daniel is a very strong Christian and was able to give both gentleman wonderful advise concerning both of their situations. He is going to be a huge resource of knowledge to the dad of the 14 year old; he's been in the teenager's shoes, he works with street kids, he is multi-lingual, plus he knows how to bring a 14 year old that is on a fourth grade level up to where he should be academically. The teenager has no interest in learning English and has no interest in talking to adults. Daniel was able to little by little finally have a very small dialogue with him. He was able to communicate a few important things to him about education and about God. Hopefully over the time they are here, Daniel will be able to make a ton of progress with him. Several times throughout our conversation, Daniel said that all of us sitting there together was NOT by chance and that the Lord ordained it. Later on, Jim and I both said to ourselves that we only ran into Daniel once in 30 plus days. If we were not here today, we would of never run into him, and we would of never been able to introduce him to the other two dads that so desperately need his help in both raising the boys and spiritually.
Well, I'm going to get ready for dinner. Daniel will be joining us tonight for dinner. I told Jim that I really don't know any single dads, especially dads that have adopted children. Now, we're having dinner with three (3) of them...we're excited!!
Chao,
Kathy (No longer "Captive in Colombia"... we're excited... God's using us!!)
So much to tell... I'll start at the beginning of the day. The two other dads and us met Eduardo at 10:30 a.m. and went over to the flea market; it was huge. We only had a chance to see maybe 1/3 of it, but all of us really enjoyed it. Some items were like yard sale stuff, but most of it was jewelry, hand craft items, clothing, etc. Eduardo dropped all of us off and said he would park his truck and then find us. All of us were like, "You're going to find us... in this large of place... with this many people???" He said, "Absolutely... no problem." We joked with him and told him that we hope he doesn't have to call his mom (Racquel of Casa de Maria) and tell her that he's lost eight (8) Americans!!! Sure enough about an hour later I was watching Jim and Bethany do something and glanced to the right of me and Eduardo was standing there with this smug look on his face as if he were saying, "Told you I would find you." He gathered us all together and said to follow him. He brought us to meet the fifth family that just adopted from Casa de Maria, but they are staying at The Four Points Sheraton. While all of us were standing around talking, Eduardo went and bought us all drinks... get this, pure sugar cane juice... yummy!!! I brought Bethany over to watch the extraction process... very interesting.
After the flea market, Eduardo brought us back to the hotel. During the whole morning and even standing in the lobby after our day out, we were able to be involved in some good dialogue with these two dads. All of us decided to meet down at the pool and let the children swim. This is where it got very exciting for us and we knew, that we knew, God had us here for this time. As we walked through the health club and I looked to my right, I saw a gentleman sitting there that I recognized from a couple of weeks ago and I said, "Hello". Of course his comment was, "You're still here!" He is from the U.S., has lived in Colombia for 21 years, is a professor at the university, and is also a single dad of two Colombian children that he adopted. His name is Daniel; he's 55 years old and is absolutely amazing. The children he adopted are actually off of the street. The oldest, now four years old, was a newborn. He found the mother of the baby, age 13, on the street and gave her shelter and food. She allowed him to adopt her baby. When she got pregnant again at the age of 15, he adopted that child as well. Now she is pregnant again and he will be adopting the third child as well. He, himself, is an orphan, was on the streets as a child, and knows all too well about abuse. In addition to teaching, he works with the children on the streets here in Medellin on a daily basis. He teaches English, for free, here at the hotel and is actually writing a book about a technique he has developed for teaching language. The class he teaches at the college has a two year waiting list and the US Army has approached him asking him to teach them his teaching techniques. I'm saying all of this because his background coupled with what he does now as an adult, is EXACTLY what both of these dads need; especially the one who just adopted the 14 year old who lived on the streets for 11 years and cannot read or write. When I told Daniel about the two dads, he said he wanted to meet them and since they were sitting over at the restaurant, I brought him over and introduced him to them. Daniel, the two dads, and myself talked for about 1 1/2 hours. Come to find out, Daniel is a very strong Christian and was able to give both gentleman wonderful advise concerning both of their situations. He is going to be a huge resource of knowledge to the dad of the 14 year old; he's been in the teenager's shoes, he works with street kids, he is multi-lingual, plus he knows how to bring a 14 year old that is on a fourth grade level up to where he should be academically. The teenager has no interest in learning English and has no interest in talking to adults. Daniel was able to little by little finally have a very small dialogue with him. He was able to communicate a few important things to him about education and about God. Hopefully over the time they are here, Daniel will be able to make a ton of progress with him. Several times throughout our conversation, Daniel said that all of us sitting there together was NOT by chance and that the Lord ordained it. Later on, Jim and I both said to ourselves that we only ran into Daniel once in 30 plus days. If we were not here today, we would of never run into him, and we would of never been able to introduce him to the other two dads that so desperately need his help in both raising the boys and spiritually.
Well, I'm going to get ready for dinner. Daniel will be joining us tonight for dinner. I told Jim that I really don't know any single dads, especially dads that have adopted children. Now, we're having dinner with three (3) of them...we're excited!!
Chao,
Kathy (No longer "Captive in Colombia"... we're excited... God's using us!!)
Friday, November 2, 2007
After MUCH prayer, God obviously has us here for a purpose
Hola,
Where do I begin??? Today was a day of excitement, patience, disappointment, and ultimately excitement again. Since we were waiting for phone calls, Jim and I took turns going down to breakfast. Our day began with a phone call early this morning from Isabel (in Bogota) saying that our papers were on the bus and she will see us in Bogota later in the day. Bethany and I were so excited; we were running around finishing up packing. About 10-15 minutes later Racquel (director of Casa de Maria) called and said she did not know whether or not the papers were on the bus. She was confused as to how Isabel would have that information. She said even if the papers were on the bus, it's very possible the bus won't make it in at all today. She said there was a ton of rain in the southern part of the country and some roads were washed out and there were mudslides causing roads to close. Since we didn't know what was going on and needed to stay by the phone ready to leave on a moments notice, we literally stayed in our room, with our bags packed, until close to 3:00 p.m. When it got close to 3:00 p.m., we knew it really didn't matter because the office for passports closed at 3:00 p.m. Around that time, Racquel called and said that the papers never even got on the bus yesterday, but she would call us and let us know if anything happens today. Gloria had to leave for her sister's wedding, so we took a hotel taxi just down the street to get some more groceries. After the girls had some yogurt, Jim took them down to the pool so I could make some calls to Bogota. While up in the room, Racquel called and said that the papers were completed and were in the office at the bus station ready for tomorrow's bus at 1:00 p.m. (she was given a routing number). The bus should arrive in Medellin around 7:00 a.m. Sunday and after the driver sleeps, Racquel should receive the papers around 6:00 p.m. She said she will call us Sunday night when the papers are in her hands.
We will go to the passport office very early Tuesday morning, fly to Bogota, and then go to the US Embassy doctor in the afternoon. As of now, we have a flight scheduled for Thursday night arriving Friday morning. Can you believe another flight change... another penalty. When we changed the tickets to Wednesday night, there was not a difference in airfare. Unfortunately by changing it to Thursday night, there's airfare difference on all four of our tickets (yes, I have a sad face as I type that sentence).
Now, to the exciting part I mentioned in the beginning. We had a TON of prayer yesterday and last night regarding our situation here. Jim and I said this afternoon that it is very obvious that the Lord wants us here this weekend. It's very interesting because after I made a few phone calls, I went to join Jim and the girls down by the pool. Jim was in a conversation with a gentleman in his late 60's that just adopted a 14 year old boy from Casa de Maria a few days ago. His wife and him never had children and she passed away in 2006. He retired as a professor when he was 55, went to law school, and now runs his own practice on Long Island for the last eight years. Sadly, he knows nothing about parenting and is really struggling. The 14 year old lived on the streets with no family until a couple of years ago when Casa de Maria took him in. This teenager is a major, major challenge for this gentleman. He is only in the fourth grade, so the father was extremely interested in learning about homeschooling. We talked a long time about different issues regarding parenting. If he does not get a handle on this boy, it's very likely he will run away when he gets to the States. He has a lot of "street smarts" and feels he can take care of himself. Then we ran into another single man (around our age) from Atlanta that just adopted a seven year old boy from Casa de Maria (Belicia knows both of these boys, so they're having fun). Tomorrow all of us (the two single dads and their boys) are going to pile into Eduardo's (driver filling in for Gloria) Land Rover and head over to Casa de Maria and then to a flea market. Apparently this market is only open the first Saturday of the month and features a lot of hand crafted items. We're not really interested in buying, but it will be a nice change of pace. Get this... the two dads want to get together with us for dinner tomorrow night down by the pool. Could they be part of the reason we're still here....????
I can honestly say that I am very happy to be here. When powerful prayer warriors are in prayer for you, and God doesn't answer that prayer the way we ask, then you KNOW He has more important things to accomplish... things that could be eternal. Even though we may never fully know what it is or to what extent we are used, it is exciting!!
Going to get some sleep...
Hasta luego,
Captive in Colombia
Where do I begin??? Today was a day of excitement, patience, disappointment, and ultimately excitement again. Since we were waiting for phone calls, Jim and I took turns going down to breakfast. Our day began with a phone call early this morning from Isabel (in Bogota) saying that our papers were on the bus and she will see us in Bogota later in the day. Bethany and I were so excited; we were running around finishing up packing. About 10-15 minutes later Racquel (director of Casa de Maria) called and said she did not know whether or not the papers were on the bus. She was confused as to how Isabel would have that information. She said even if the papers were on the bus, it's very possible the bus won't make it in at all today. She said there was a ton of rain in the southern part of the country and some roads were washed out and there were mudslides causing roads to close. Since we didn't know what was going on and needed to stay by the phone ready to leave on a moments notice, we literally stayed in our room, with our bags packed, until close to 3:00 p.m. When it got close to 3:00 p.m., we knew it really didn't matter because the office for passports closed at 3:00 p.m. Around that time, Racquel called and said that the papers never even got on the bus yesterday, but she would call us and let us know if anything happens today. Gloria had to leave for her sister's wedding, so we took a hotel taxi just down the street to get some more groceries. After the girls had some yogurt, Jim took them down to the pool so I could make some calls to Bogota. While up in the room, Racquel called and said that the papers were completed and were in the office at the bus station ready for tomorrow's bus at 1:00 p.m. (she was given a routing number). The bus should arrive in Medellin around 7:00 a.m. Sunday and after the driver sleeps, Racquel should receive the papers around 6:00 p.m. She said she will call us Sunday night when the papers are in her hands.
We will go to the passport office very early Tuesday morning, fly to Bogota, and then go to the US Embassy doctor in the afternoon. As of now, we have a flight scheduled for Thursday night arriving Friday morning. Can you believe another flight change... another penalty. When we changed the tickets to Wednesday night, there was not a difference in airfare. Unfortunately by changing it to Thursday night, there's airfare difference on all four of our tickets (yes, I have a sad face as I type that sentence).
Now, to the exciting part I mentioned in the beginning. We had a TON of prayer yesterday and last night regarding our situation here. Jim and I said this afternoon that it is very obvious that the Lord wants us here this weekend. It's very interesting because after I made a few phone calls, I went to join Jim and the girls down by the pool. Jim was in a conversation with a gentleman in his late 60's that just adopted a 14 year old boy from Casa de Maria a few days ago. His wife and him never had children and she passed away in 2006. He retired as a professor when he was 55, went to law school, and now runs his own practice on Long Island for the last eight years. Sadly, he knows nothing about parenting and is really struggling. The 14 year old lived on the streets with no family until a couple of years ago when Casa de Maria took him in. This teenager is a major, major challenge for this gentleman. He is only in the fourth grade, so the father was extremely interested in learning about homeschooling. We talked a long time about different issues regarding parenting. If he does not get a handle on this boy, it's very likely he will run away when he gets to the States. He has a lot of "street smarts" and feels he can take care of himself. Then we ran into another single man (around our age) from Atlanta that just adopted a seven year old boy from Casa de Maria (Belicia knows both of these boys, so they're having fun). Tomorrow all of us (the two single dads and their boys) are going to pile into Eduardo's (driver filling in for Gloria) Land Rover and head over to Casa de Maria and then to a flea market. Apparently this market is only open the first Saturday of the month and features a lot of hand crafted items. We're not really interested in buying, but it will be a nice change of pace. Get this... the two dads want to get together with us for dinner tomorrow night down by the pool. Could they be part of the reason we're still here....????
I can honestly say that I am very happy to be here. When powerful prayer warriors are in prayer for you, and God doesn't answer that prayer the way we ask, then you KNOW He has more important things to accomplish... things that could be eternal. Even though we may never fully know what it is or to what extent we are used, it is exciting!!
Going to get some sleep...
Hasta luego,
Captive in Colombia
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Still up in the air and house call #4
Hola,
Thank you so much for those of you that have been praying for us this afternoon and this evening. For those of you who don't know what's going on, here is a quick review. We got no answers this morning; Racquel was supposed to call us first thing, but when we called the orphanage, they said she wouldn't be in until tomorrow at noon. No one there could understand English, so we called Isabel in Bogota. She checked into what was going on and come to find out the papers were not on the bus last night. When we saw Gloria, she said that Fanny and everyone at the orphanage were very concerned and had been on the phone with Mocoa. Fanny said that she was told that they would have the papers on the bus tonight.
Our problem now is that if the papers are on the bus, the bus needs to come in around 10:00 a.m. I spoke with Isabel and she said that we need to see the US Embassy doctor in Bogota by 5:15 p.m. or we cannot see him until Tuesday afternoon. If you read this tonight, please pray that the bus gets in early. We need to get Belicia to the office for her passport (1 hour process), get loaded up from the hotel, get to the airport (45 min. drive), fly to Bogota, get luggage, clear airport, then go straight to the doctor. What a whirlwind... one that none of us will mind. If we get to the doctor tomorrow, we may be able to get home Wednesday. Isabel called me this morning and said that the US Embassy will not be closed on Monday. As of right now, we have plane tickets for Wednesday night (11:30 pm Bogota - 5:00 a.m. JFK) arriving Thursday morning.
Melinda, thanks so much for your offer! Hopefully everything is taken care of and the papers are out of Mocoa.
Baker Family - Yes, we want grapefruit and/or oranges. You can email us at jamesbaker348@comcast.net and give us the details and we can email you back with what we want. Thanks so much for thinking of us... we love the fruit!
Your asking, "What's the deal with house call #4?" This morning Belicia was playing around and fell off the bed and twisted her ankle. No big deal, but I gave her Children's Motrin along with some water and within minutes she was at the toilet vomiting. The rest of the day she didn't have much of an appetite and said her stomach bothered her a little. We went to the Oviedo Mall for awhile and she was fine, but a little tired. When we got back to the hotel, she felt hot and had a fever of 103.3 and complained of a headache. I gave her Advil and within a 1/2 - 3/4 hour she had some bumps on her arm. Since she may have to see the US Embassy doctor tomorrow, Jim and I really didn't want to take any chances, so we called for the doctor. By the time he got here (40 min.), the bumps were gone. Come to find out, she has the same virus that Bethany and many others had a couple of weeks ago. The doctor thinks the same as we do... she's allergic to Ibuprofen. By bedtime she was back to her bouncy, silly self.
When we went to the mall, we got to go to our first Juan Valdez Cafe... YUMMY!! Most of you know I'm a Starbucks fan, but this beat Starbucks. We got a sampling... Jim got coffee, Bethany got a frozen brownie coffee, and Belicia got hot chocolate. All three were great!
Going to get some sleep...
Buenas noches,
Captive in Colombia
Thank you so much for those of you that have been praying for us this afternoon and this evening. For those of you who don't know what's going on, here is a quick review. We got no answers this morning; Racquel was supposed to call us first thing, but when we called the orphanage, they said she wouldn't be in until tomorrow at noon. No one there could understand English, so we called Isabel in Bogota. She checked into what was going on and come to find out the papers were not on the bus last night. When we saw Gloria, she said that Fanny and everyone at the orphanage were very concerned and had been on the phone with Mocoa. Fanny said that she was told that they would have the papers on the bus tonight.
Our problem now is that if the papers are on the bus, the bus needs to come in around 10:00 a.m. I spoke with Isabel and she said that we need to see the US Embassy doctor in Bogota by 5:15 p.m. or we cannot see him until Tuesday afternoon. If you read this tonight, please pray that the bus gets in early. We need to get Belicia to the office for her passport (1 hour process), get loaded up from the hotel, get to the airport (45 min. drive), fly to Bogota, get luggage, clear airport, then go straight to the doctor. What a whirlwind... one that none of us will mind. If we get to the doctor tomorrow, we may be able to get home Wednesday. Isabel called me this morning and said that the US Embassy will not be closed on Monday. As of right now, we have plane tickets for Wednesday night (11:30 pm Bogota - 5:00 a.m. JFK) arriving Thursday morning.
Melinda, thanks so much for your offer! Hopefully everything is taken care of and the papers are out of Mocoa.
Baker Family - Yes, we want grapefruit and/or oranges. You can email us at jamesbaker348@comcast.net and give us the details and we can email you back with what we want. Thanks so much for thinking of us... we love the fruit!
Your asking, "What's the deal with house call #4?" This morning Belicia was playing around and fell off the bed and twisted her ankle. No big deal, but I gave her Children's Motrin along with some water and within minutes she was at the toilet vomiting. The rest of the day she didn't have much of an appetite and said her stomach bothered her a little. We went to the Oviedo Mall for awhile and she was fine, but a little tired. When we got back to the hotel, she felt hot and had a fever of 103.3 and complained of a headache. I gave her Advil and within a 1/2 - 3/4 hour she had some bumps on her arm. Since she may have to see the US Embassy doctor tomorrow, Jim and I really didn't want to take any chances, so we called for the doctor. By the time he got here (40 min.), the bumps were gone. Come to find out, she has the same virus that Bethany and many others had a couple of weeks ago. The doctor thinks the same as we do... she's allergic to Ibuprofen. By bedtime she was back to her bouncy, silly self.
When we went to the mall, we got to go to our first Juan Valdez Cafe... YUMMY!! Most of you know I'm a Starbucks fan, but this beat Starbucks. We got a sampling... Jim got coffee, Bethany got a frozen brownie coffee, and Belicia got hot chocolate. All three were great!
Going to get some sleep...
Buenas noches,
Captive in Colombia
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