Wednesday - Final Day!!!!!

I want to take this time to say thank you to everyone who has been reading along. Your comments of love and support have been very helpful to us here in Colombia. You all have made us feel like we haven't been that far from home.

Every night I would stay up until 12 or 1 in the morning writing our daily experiences. And throughout the next day I would read all the great comments from our friends and family, which made the late nights worth every second.

I didn't know what to expect when I thought about doing this daily blog. But after the first day, when we started receiving emails, I knew it was the right thing to do. Every night was like a little bit of therapy for me.

So you all got to see a little bit of what makes Dan Carman tick. What was inside me during these last couple of weeks. Hopefully you got to understand when I was happy, sad, pissed off or scared.

If anybody has any questions about our adoption experience, please do not hesitate to ask. If I left something out, I will be happy to fill in the blanks.

With that said, I will probably be the same old quiet and private Dan Carman the next time you see me. It has always been easier for me to write down how I feel, rather than sharing it in person.

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Today started very early for us. We were up at 5:30. Our driver, Mauricio, came to pick us up at 6:30 for a 7:00am appointment with the U.S. Embassy approved doctor. He basically had to put his final stamp of approval on all of Amelia's vaccinations and general health. Other than her cold, she got 100% approval.

-- let me interject here for a moment, When we first had our meeting with our attorneys to discuss "donations", they gave us a very specific set of dollar amounts for each step of the way. This new driver, we were told, does not get anything other than what is on the list, no matter what.

Our last driver, took care of everything, from buying us some sodas or coffees or parking. Never asked for anything. We were allowed to tip him anything we wanted on top of his regular fee.

This new driver, needed $10,000 pesos to pay for parking at the doctors office. We had to pay the doctor $120,000 pesos. We had to pay for Visa photos. Non of which was told to us by our Attorneys, so today we had to go find a ATM, because we need $50 U.S. each or $100,000 pesos each (airport tax) to leave this place.

Sorry for venting, I'll continue with the days events ---


From there, we went right to the U.S. Embassy. By the time we got there it was about 8:15ish. We stopped out front to get more photos for Amelia's visa.

The line to get into the embassy must've been 50 people deep. We walked right through to the front of the line. Apparently, Adoptions go to the head of the line.

From there you must go through two separate check points, before getting close to the embassy. The embassy has a 6-8 foot black metal fence surrounding the perimeter with another fence inside. Sounds like it is a fortress, but I only saw one American soldier seemingly getting breakfast. The place is actually parolled by a local private security company, and each one only carries a side arm.

Once inside, we discovered that Adoptions have to wait like everybody else. Inside the outdoor waiting area was hundreds of people waiting for one thing or another.

After giving our name, we waited about an hour before they called our name. Then going to the window, where you must speak through a telephone (like in prison), an interview is conducted. Linda was the interviewee, and basically answered simple straight forward questions about the baby. The interview lasted about 15 minutes. Then we had to wait to be called back for a final interview before we could leave. Now we had to wait a good two hours before they called us back up to the window for our closing interview. The whole time, we were waiting for a receipt that reminds us in six weeks to make sure we have our final immigration papers.

We came back to the hotel, and we all took naps, except James. After a while we went into the giant mall, that is attached to our hotel. This mall is twice the size of Roosevelt field mall, with inside and outside stores. We made a bee line for the food court and all had Cheeseburgers and fries.

Than we kind of explored the mall, but it was very difficult because it has about 5 levels, all of which are not on top of one another. They are spread out in every direction.

By 3:00 we headed back to the room, at which point Linda had to go back to the embassy to pick up Amelia's immigration docket. Which we need for customs when we get home.

James, Amelia and I kinda hung around watching cartoons in spanish until Linda got back. Linda got back just in time to feed Amelia, than the two of them went shopping again in the mall. James and I hung out some more.

It is now 8:19pm and the two kids are sound asleep. We just ordered room service and we are about to pack once again.

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By the time most of you read this, We will be on a plane flying back to NY!

As many of you have stated in the posts, sight seeing would be a fun thing to do. However, as you all could imagine, nothing is more important to us than getting home and getting some regularity in our lives. Besides, I think I might have to fly home "commando" since we have no clean clothes left.

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Again, Thank you all for your love and support. This is probably my last entry here at "thecarmans.blogspot.com"

It has been an amazing two weeks! I am so glad that you all got to join us in this amazing journey!

We are happy to start our continuous journey as The 4-Person Carman Family and hope you will all follow along until we are all old and grey!!!

Love you all,

Dan