Waiting around

Their is not much going on around here just waiting,waiting ,waiting. I do want to tell you all a little about medellin. First of all it's almost impossible to believe I have never heard of this place,and that it's not a tourist destination.  The weather here is remarkable. it's mild everyday. They can leave all of the windows open to the outside all of the time. In fact the downstairs of the hotel is wide open to the outside. There are no bugs probably because of the altitude. It rains but only for a little while. Thier is no way for people to drive that are from America because of the utter chaos of the traffic,but the flip side is that taxis are everywhere and they are unbeleivably cheap. Food is a little expensive unless you go to the rural areas which may be dangerous for Americans. The views here are like none I have ever seen everywhere you look is a beautiful mountain. Im not sure of any weather dangers other then maybe mudslides close to the mountains. Anyone that wants a peaceful vacation without having to worry about weather should come to this place.

Day 9

Today started out interesting and happy for Logan as he got to Skype with his class at home,  for those of you that don't know what skype is, it's a video conference on the computer he and his classmates were very excited to see each other and his new sister. But I think they got a big kick out of seeing Tatiana there old teacher. Then we got some passport photos at 1 mall and we needed to get visa photos for Maria which meant she needed a dark shirt. after 2 exhaustive hours we found a black shirt she could wear for her photo. Thats when all H. E. double toothpicks broke out. Karen and Tatiana decided to leave me alone with Maria and our guide to get the photos. The guide explained to me in her barely exsistant english that we needed to take her earings out for the picture. I tried in vain to tell her I don't know how to take earings out. She then got upset and told me the Colombian govt requires the no earrings are worn. I told her I don't know how how to take earrings out. She showed me paperwork in english with the requirements. I told her I don't know how. She got the staff that didn'tspeak english involved. And I told them I don't know how. ON and ON this went for 10 minutes while I screamed on the cell phone for Tatiana and karen to get their Colas over there. By the time they got there I was ready for a bar.

more pictures

Video of our girl

Logan and Maria near the orphanage xmas tree

Another adventure tour with our guide

I Should start the blog with last night at the grocery store. Prior to going there Tatiana reminded me to tip the person thats bags the grocerys because they don't make any money just tips. Feeling bad about my previous not tipping I gave the girl that bagged the grocery's a nice tip, I wondered why she shrugged her shoulders and then giggled as she put the money in her pocket. Then Tatiana sprung the news on me that I tipped the wrong person, I was suppose to tip the person that brings the cart to your car(same as in America) Another tip later and I now have the system figured out no thanks to Tatiana. I am not sure if I can talk about todays car ride with our guide without throwing up and going into convulsions. So I will just say we eventually took a metro train to the north part of medellin and got onto the metro cable which is the same as the cable cars at the state fair only larger. From above the city where Maria was born and raised untill 11 months you could see everything clearly the people in the mountains are very poor and even on the banks of the river you see make shift homes.  The area does not appear scary to me at all. They have a huge library up there that had been donated by Spain it's perched high atop the mountain with a foot bridge going to it. after that we went to a mall and then out to eat, Our wonderful guide left us stranded there with no hope for a ride home other then a taxi. The taxi ride didn't however not take anymore years off of my life. I did find it kind of funny how Tatiana had no problem jumping in the front seat of the Taxi,because when asked to ride in the front seat with our guide she always refuses.

The final trip to the orphanage for Maria

Today we got up early to go to the Orphanage to have a short meeting with the Govt official to see if we could proceed with the adoption. He asked a few questions and seemed very pleased and now all our paperwork gets forwarded to the court and we wait for our court date. We then got to tour the orphanage and see where she has been living since she was 11 months old. The people there are fantastic and run the place like a well oiled machine. It breaks your heart being there you just want to take all of them home. I was especially drawn to 3 girls that were all sisters. I was relieved and happy to find they were going to a very nice couple in Texas. Afterward we went to the Botaro museum. If you haven't heard of him(niether have I) He is a famous Colombian artist that paints everything large all of his figures appear fat and so do his sculptures. I will say this he is now my favorite artist his painting are beautiful along with his sculptures and he is from right here in medellin although he resides in France now. Tommorow our plan is to see where maria is from. Because it is an extremly dangerous place we will be seeing it from the metro which we were assured is safe. To give you an idea how dangerous it is, this is where the famous drug lord Pablo escobar is from and not even the police will go there.