The first day of School and our second anniversary

Everything going good Maria started school early and will maybe be going to 2 years of kinder

but thats okay because she is the youngest in the class.

Gotcha date

In case you didn't know by the title the gotcha date is the anniversary of when you got your child. Just as important as a birthday if not more. It has been a year this Thanksgiving since we got our little princessa from Medellin and so much has changed. Maria only speaks English now with a few words of spanish mixed in. We have no idea why she refuses to speak spanish but are assured it's quite normal.  We hope to start school next fall and then she will re-learn spanish again at the Immersion school.  We miss Colombia and wish we could afford a trip back every year. Our Joy right now is that our other adopted Colombian girl Tatiana will be here for the holidays bringing a little of Colombia to us. Maria has blended in to our neighborhood wonderfuly and is a big hit among the neighbors she loves to play outside and she loves her new pre-school. Although I have journeled a lot of the hastles of adopting We would not change a thing because of the wonderful person we have in our lives. Part of us would love to do it again If we had the time money and most importantly the room in our house.

Welcome to Bogota

Tatianas house is cool and unusual at the same time. Her family is wonderful and her mom is a great chef. We are
nearing the end of the process, we went to the U.S. Embassy today for Marias Visa and will pick it up tomorrow. We will then be free to leave the country. We are likely to stay until arepre-arranged flight which is for the 27th. We are going to check with the airline to se if they make exceptions for adoptions but I fear the costs will still be astronomical to fly out early. Today with advice from Tatiana we took the transmilenio or as I like to call it the Sardine can. Our goal was to make it  to Lacandalaria this is the oldest homes in Bogota, the transmilenio stopped way early though and we were forced into a 3 mile hike through the centro downtown Bogota ,a place that we were told never to go to as Americans. It was quite the experience,street vendors and people crowded every square inch for miles  shouting and selling there items. Imagine New York city but with street vendors on every sidewalk and street selling stuff. It was utter chaos I would not advise this area for anyone. We did meet some cool Americans at the Embassy that are gpoing through the adoption process and it was fun to speak english to someone else for a change. I may not be posting anymore pics until I get home as the internet is a little slow. I hope everyone has a wonderful xmas and we'll see you all when we get back.

The fun continues

After 8 days I was suppose to see our guide today. She called me to say she doesn't have a car and she could come get me and go by taxi anywhere I wanted to go. I said no I could do that if I wanted. My guess is either the car has been smashed into a billion pieces or on one of her many braking performances she pulled the hand brake right out of the floor of the car. Either way I will be taking a taxi to court today on my expence I suspect and then a taxi to get Marias birth certficate and then a taxi to the hotel and then a taxi to the airport to get the heck out of this insane asylum. At least I'll be safe from the crazy person. I don't think im exagerating when I say she is the worst guide in the history of guides. I would have rather givin the 700 to Osama bin Laden then her. I hope the next time you here from me will be from Bogota.

My new christmas song enjoy

Jingle bells this place smells but here im forced to stay.Our guides nuts lost her mind and here I am today hey. dashing down the road only in the day, to the store I go, frightened all the way. Through the cars I run hoping that they'll stop, I think I see a gap,I better hurry up. I'ts like the frogger game but it's really not Did that car just backfire or have I just been shot. etc etc

What we have here is a failure to communicate (cool hand Luke 1963)

By popular demand I thought I would explain the circumstances of why Im by myself in Medellin. The final court date was suppose to happen last week,because this didn't happen it was decided that one of us should try to have some fun and go on to Bogota. I could say that I was a selfless team player,but that would'nt be exactly true. Karen,Tatiana and the kids also took one for the team by taking a 9 hour bus ride to save us some money. Because with no income coming in at home and the hotel costing us a fortune not to mention the adoption expences we need to scrimp. Today our wonderful guide was suppose to pick me up and bring me to the house where escobar was killed, no real surprise when she called last night and told me that she had a luncheon to attend today and couldn't make it. She then advised me that we have court on wednsday at 3pm,which basicly means that I can't book a flight to Bogota yet because after court's done we have to get a new birth certificate and that late court time may cause a delay in getting the birth certificate done in time. Now maybe you all understand the frustration and sarcasm toward Our guide and the system here.