A New Chapter Begins

The adoption story has pretty much come to a close. Much thanks to everyone who welcomed us home. It was an amazing experience walking through the airport to see everyone there and to be a family finally as we were re-united with Ryan. I think the pictures below speak volumes so I will close with them and say a very heartfelt thank you to all of you for following our story, for your prayers and well wishes. A dream really has come true.

We are HOME

What an amazing amazing feeling to finally be back home.

Tuesday night was great. We had dinner with the Gerdes family as they prepared to move to Bettys from Plentitud. It was a great meal of Ajiaco and Empandas.

Wednesday was a crazy day. Jorge picked us up at 5:45AM for our 9AM flight. Everything went pretty smooth leaving Bogota. When we landed in Orlando though as we went through immigration we found out that the US Embassy in Bogota had not put in the medical information from the embassy doctor….

So no the immigration people have to do a bunch of paperwork to provisionally accept Paige into the country. Now we have to try to hunt down the paperwork at the embassy and have them send it up to the border people here. Should be an interesting process.

We missed our flight but were able to get on a later one thankfully. The homecoming was AMAZING. Thanks to all the family and friends who came out to visit us. Paige was awesome through the whole process and we got some great shots.

Paige and Ryan are getting along great. She is so entertained by him. We’ll post more photos soon but I think this one about sums it all up.

Visa Check, Bags Check, Baby Check

“The is the best place I’ve ever been” – Evan Gerdes about Bettys Place

Yesterday we went to the US Embassy and applied for Paiges visa and other then having to wait for a couple of hours it went with out a hitch and was approved. We picked it up today and we are all set to fly home (minus the scrambling of the last minute packing).

Last night we went out to Harry Sassoon with Rafa and Betty for our “sentencia” dinner. Great restaurant and atmosphere and amazing company. Spending time with Rafa and Betty has been such a wonderful experience for us and I don’t think this trip would have been as easy as it was with out them.

Today Jen and I went to Freddys to get her a sentencia gift. I promised her an emerald if we made it out before halloween. I didn’t want to go back on that one. After that it was off to the embassy to pick up the visa and we’re officially done with that paperwork!

Tonight we had our favorite dinner Ajiaco and empanadas. Nobody does empanadas like Okines. I’m truly going to miss all the amazing food we’ve had here.

Tomorrow morning we leave at 5:45AM for the last leg of this journey and to FINALLY be united as a family in Buffalo.

Last Ciclovia

Today is our last Ciclovia. As soon as Paige wakes up from her nap we’re going to head out to do some final shopping and enjoy a sunny day in Bogota.

The past two days have been a little crazy. Friday Jen and Paige went in the morning to get Paige her Colombian passport. Can’t believe its good for ten years! Everything went well there and she gave the camera a “Where are you taking me look” again. In the afternoon they headed out to the US Embassy Dr who gave the ok for her to travel back to the US. Now (assuming ICBF gives us the paperwork we need on Monday AM) we can get Paige her visa.

Saturday started off a bit down. Paige woke up around 3:30AM and wouldn’t go back down really. She was very congested and we could even hear it in her chest. We went with Ludes to the clinic here and they prescribed a new inhaler and a nasal spray to help clear her up. She seems to be doing much better today and she slept through till 6:15.

After the doctor appointment we headed out with Stacy, Jeanette and Josh to the Salt Cathedral with Jorge. Stacy, Jeanette and Josh arrived late friday night from Peru (they are from Minnesota) where they were on a mission trip with their church. Stacy was adopted from FANA 30 years ago and wanted to come to Bogota to visit and get some background information from Flor (which they are doing tomorrow).

The Salt Cathedral was quite remarkable (you can vind some information here) This was once a working salt mine but was turned into a tourist attraction not long ago. The architecture work is incredible and Jorge is a great guide (as he told us he’s probably been there 200 times). Jorge also took us to lunch at Jica in Cajica (we went there with Christina on our trip to Nemocon) and once again a fabulous meal. While I’m very glad I did both but the Nemocon mine I think was a better excursion as its a much more raw and natural place.

After we got back we headed out for a late dinner at Giorndelli again. Its nice to mix in some italian food with all the Colombian we’ve been having.

Late last night another family from Minnesota came in who are adopting a 2.5 year old girl (not from FANA) so we’re going to take them up to Usaquen this afternoon.

Tonight the Gerdes family comes in as well and we hope to hear from them as they are getting their baby tomorrow at FANA and we are hoping to see them over there after our trip to the Embassy because we have to get Paiges social history.

Whirlwind day

Crazy day in Bogota! I was sitting at the desk working when all of a sudden Betty comes into the room dragging Jen by the hand. She looks at us and Jen is like “What?” and she goes “you got sentencia!”

Jen was literally jumping up and down and I think freaked Betty out a little, I as usual was just stunned.

Maria Theresa Perez picked us up just before two and we headed down to the court to go sign. This court typically doesn’t give copies until the next afternoon but we waited and Dr. Polo was able to get them to give us the copies today so we could go get her birth certificate.

So Paige is officially a Hennigan now. Tomorrow She and Jen will go off and get her Colombian passport and see the embassy doctor. Saturday we have our last excursion, a trip to the Salt Cathedral with Jorge Rico. Sunday we’ll make our way back to Usaquen for some finally shopping; monday we apply for the US visa and go out to Harry Sassoon for our celebratory dinner; Tuesday we pick up the visa and Wednesday its back to the USA.

Jen called Ryan to give him the big news. He was super excited. He decorated the calendar at home marking us coming back and apparently has also planned out all the toys and books Paige will need. Its great to hear him so happy and looking forward to meeting his little sister.

SETENCIA!!!!!!!!!

more to come….

Back to Bogota

We made it back to Bettys today, Paige was very happy she celebrated with a 2+ hour nap.

We were lucky and had a good weather day in Cartagena yesterday. I took a couple hours out of the day so we could head down to the Old City. The architecture was amazing to look at at. Reminded me a lot of what we saw in Puerto Rico with the walled city, the spanish influenced architecture etc… We stopped by the Palace of the Inquisition, absolutely fascinating. Amazing to see the devices used for torture, can’t believe people would torture the way they did. Seems like the beheading and the noose were the most humane. We also toured some of the shops and had a couple of drinks at one of the open cafes. It was very hot and after a couple of hours Paige had about enough we decided to head back.

Afterwards we headed back to the Hilton so Paige could sleep and I could get back to work (and so Jen decided out to the pool). After Paige woke up we had lunch down by the pool. I decided to spend of the day working from the pool area. Hilton has great Wi-Fi coverage so it made it very easy for me.

We had another good dinner at the Las Chivas again, the service there is FANTASTIC. The wait staff was one of the most attentive I have experienced in a hotel restaurant plus the quality of the food was great.

This morning we flew back to Bogota (I love flying Avianca by the way) to go back to Bettys and get back to normal. Paige was a little out of sorts and it was very difficult to balance everyone in the smaller room (and really hard for me to work when the baby was sleeping). One of the things we found most amazing was the hospitality of the Colombians. Every time we are in line with the baby people always let us ahead (a woman from Avianca actually pulled us out of the checkin lane to check us in before the rest of the line) its very nice gesture to see.

We also got word that Christina made it back home safely last night. We were so lucky to be able to have as much time as we did with her and Nikhil; we are very grateful for their hospitality down here. Looking forward to seeing the Gerdes down here next week!

Anniversary, Planes and Cartagena

Saturday was a pretty good low key kind of day. Jen Paige and I went out to Archies for lunch. I had a craving to go there for the past few days and the food is pretty decent. It was kind of a rough day though as I’ve had trouble falling asleep the last few nights and I was pretty exhausted.

We had to go out that evening though to celebrate Christinas anniversary. After Paige and Aryan went to sleep we headed out to Pajares Salinas, which comes highly recommended from Rafa and the Kulagowskis. Betty made the reservation for us and I have to tell you it is definitely in my top 3 of places I have eaten so far in Bogota. The decor was beautiful and the service was great. Christina was able to find a fantastic vegetarian dish for dinner and Jen and I had filet which was delicious.
usand I would be getting up early to head out to Cartagena. Paige was great on the flight, she got a little fussy as we took off but we gave her a pacifier (for the first time) so she would be able to easily clear her ears and such. After that she was great for the trip. She mostly looked around the plane, watched the TV in the seat back and stared at a couple of kids across the aisle.

We are staying at the Hilton for a few days just to mix it up a bit. The hotel is quite nice and the service is the restaurants is absolutely outstanding. The weather is being less the cooperative though as it has rained most of the two days we’ve been here only clearing up in the late afternoon.

We’ve got Paige in the pool both days and she absolutely LOVES it. Its quite amusing to watch her kick her feet in the water and splash around.

It has been pretty difficult though as the weather isn’t allowing us to do much outside and Paige’s sleep schedule is off a bit, plus I have to work during the day. At Bettys it was quite easy to handle these situations but here not as much (so we decided to just spend 3 days here rather then 5). Tomorrow I’m going to try to move my schedule around a bit so we can get down to the old city for a few hours as we’ve been told it is amazing and we don’t want to miss out.

Today was a Colombian holiday so the courts are not in session. Hopefully we’ll here about our sentencia soon. Christina heads back to Buffalo tomorrow night after ten and a half weeks here. We won’t be alone for long though as Betty has another family coming in on Friday and the Gerdes are heading down on Sunday. Looking forward to meeting up with all of them.

About to enter the water…

Pools at the hilton

Kick baby kick

Relaxing with Mama at the pool

Hanging out at the airport

Getting ready to take off

First high chair experience (not really a fan)

Paige ready for some pool time

A view of the city

A view out our balcony

Pools at the Hilton

Paige eating moms face

FANA Tour – 4 Weeks Complete

Well it’s been four weeks in country. Still amazed at how quickly time has gone by.

This morning Mike and I headed out to FANA for a tour of the facility and to drop some gifts off. We finally got to meet Maria Teresa Maldanado and a few other people whose names we had heard but didn’t know who they were. Flor wasn’t available to give us our social history for Paige but Elizabeth took us on a tour. It was great to finally see the whole complex. It is quite amazing to see where Paige spent the first few months of her life. The baby area is fantastic and we got to see the Gerdes baby (they will be coming down in about a week) and a bunch of newborns as well.

After that adventure we had some lunch and then Christina and I spent the next um, 5 or so hours at Norberto’s. This place is amazing! We both got an hour massage for 80,000 pesos (about $40 american) NOT BAD! Then, I got my hair done. This was a whole new experience. He colored me, he highlighted me, shampooed me twice and then spent over an hour drying and styling. To put the icing on the cake he did my makeup. I was only upset that I had nowhere to go but Betty’s Place. WOW..I felt so different. I just wonder what it will look like when I try and do it tomorrow:-(

Love that kid!

Daddy and his lovey

German and my new look

The front of FANA

Great day, and tomorrow we will get ready for our side trip to Cartegena! Very excited to do that and hopefully hear SENTENCIA very soon. My son needs me home.

She’s Mobile…sort of

So Jen just yells at me from the other room and as I come in Paige has completed her first roll from back to stomach. She was really close this morning and of course I was trying to video it so she wouldn’t do it. Now of course once she was on her stomach she was kind of like “uh oh what am I supposed to do now” but hey we can work on that too.

Yesterday was a great day in the house. Betty found out she has a few more families coming in soon, Christina got sentencia and we found out that the defender of minors signed for us. Since we got our signing yesterday we are now on the 10 day clock (business days) until sentencia has to be signed. This court has recently pushed another couple through pretty quickly so hopefully we will have the same luck.

Last night we went out to celebrate Christinas sentencia. Alicia watched the kids again (she’s absolutely amazing and if you’re down here you HAVE to use her) and we headed out to Parque 93. This has to be one of my favorite areas in Bogota, its amazing to just wander around in and the restaurants are great. Last night we decided we would go to Salto del Angel for dinner. The food was absolutely amazing. A nice mix of American / mexican influenced. A very diverse menu, prices are reasonable but the restaurant itself was amazing. The drinks were quite good and the ambience awesome. We had a great time as usual. Plus we had the added benefit of no issues with taxis!

Tomorrow we head out to FANA for hopefully our social history and tour and to visit with some people over there. Saturday should be a low key day and then off to Cartagena on Sunday.