Tuesday - BOGOTA !

The baby is recovering nicely. Last night was not that bad. We actually took her out,against doctors orders, to dinner last night.

We finally got to experience real local cuisine. We went with another couple, who happen to speak great spanish.

We let them order everything. We had a little bit of everything. For all you spanish folks out there, we had empeñadas, buñuelos, pandeyuca, churizo sausages, plantains and a couple of diet cokes, you know to keep it real.

- - - - -

Enough of the small talk. Today around 9:30 we got the call that our case will be in front of the judge today. Our driver told me that we would be back by 2:30 pm.

So at 12:30 I took the baby, by myself, first to the notary. This is some run down little structure. This is where we get the birth certificate, with our names on it. We then went to lunch at some little roadside stand for some more empeñadas. We waited about an hour to get three original copies of the birth certificate. Each one had to be filled out with an old fashioned type writer. That is why it took so long.

Then from there, it was onto the court house. First we had to go to the passport office. There were probably 100 people in there. Today was the hottest day in quite some time. So Amelia and I were sweatin. We had to fill out a bunch of papers in order to recieve the passport. My driver, Eduardo does all the work. He had to stand on 3 different lines. This took about an hour.

From there we walked across the court yards to get to the main courthouse. Walked up 4 flights of steps. No elevators and no air = me sucking wind. At the main court house we met up with Fanny our lawyer. I had to add my signature to the final adoption decree. At which point, Eduardo says "Congratulations, it's a girl!" That's it, there is nothing anybody can do to take this baby away from me. She is mine! Hooray!

We still had to wait for the actual passport to be printed. But at this point, the baby was done. So she and I went back to the car for a daiper change.

We finally got back to the hotel at 3:45. From this point on it was nothing but crazy!
I brought the baby up the room, and sent Linda down to the travel agent to get tickets for a 7:10 flight to Bogota! We need to be downstairs in the lobby by 5:00 to get to the airport in time. By the time Linda came back we only had about 45 minutes to finish packing and go.

So here I am in Bogota.

We stopped by the couple from California's room to say goodbye. We felt very bad that they had to stay behind. They have been down here since Jan 15th. And because their case didn't go through today means they probably won´t come to Bogota until next Tuesday. That means almost a full month for them.

When we got downstairs, to load up the truck, the other couple from Denmark were just coming back from shopping. The look on the wife's face was so sad. She came and hugged Linda and we all said our goodbyes, even James and Simon. They were not happy of this situation that they are in. They have been here since the first week of January. They weren´t even allowed to see their baby until the day after we got Amelia on January 27th. Their baby, Julianna, was sick and at the foster parents house. The foster parents had no way to get the baby back to the orphanage because some roads were washed out or somethng. So these people actually went up to Cartegena, which is just like the carribean for a week. Anyway, they also won´t be going home until next week on their 15 hour flight.

We will miss the friends that we made here.

- - - -

On Wednesday, our driver is picking us up at 6:30 am to take the baby to the embassy doctor for a final checkup (more effing doctors). From there we will go to the American embassy to apply for a visa for the baby.

We will be back around 1:00 to hang out until 4:00 pm before going to pick up Amelia's travel visa. After that I can be on the next available flight home. The next flight after that time of day is 11:30pm which gets me home on Thursday at 5am.

We won´t be taking that flight. We will try to be on a flight on Thursday morning around 10:30. We should be in Newark by 5 pm. But of course we have to go through customs which means I won´t get home until very late Thursday.

- - - - - -

We are kind of contemplating staying here an extra day to do some sight seeing. We´ll see.