Feeling A Little Better

Luke seemed to be feeling a little better this morning. He woke up smiling, as usual, so that was a good sign. I went out early to buy some gifts at the market downstairs while Luke napped. Then it was off to church. After mass we headed out to meet one of Kenny's colleagues, Edwardo, for lunch. Edwardo, his wife, and their two children invited us to where they spend their weekends. The place was great. It was like a little resort. There was golfing, swimming, 30 tennis courts, horseback riding, restaurants, and a great play area for the kids. We had a great lunch with Edwardo and his family. They have been so kind to us since our arrival. Luke did ok but you can tell he wasn't feeling too great because he wasn't his usual happy, content self. So we stayed in the rest of the day once we arrived home from lunch. Sorry there is nothing more exciting to write. We've just been relaxing a lot and trying to let Luke get his rest. I didn't even have a picture to post as of about 8:30 tonight but that didn't sit too well with our family. So we snapped some pictures of him playing right before he went to bed. So enjoy. Hopefully we hear something from the court this week. We'll keep you posted. And Lisa, glad to hear you guys arrived safely at Disney. Have a great trip!

Sick And Still Smiling

We knew when Luke started coughing and sneezing throughout the day yesterday, today would probably be a bit challenging. He coughed most of the night and woke up a little cranky so we knew he wasn't feeling too well. Being so far from home we thought acting quickly would be the best thing. So we called Elizabeth (Luke's wonderful nurse from FANA) to see how we should proceed. She was so helpful as usual and directed us back to the clinic where Luke had gotten his immunizations a few weeks ago. The clinic didn't have a doctor available to help us so we had to go through the emergency room to be seen. It was quite an experience, but it really could have been much worse. Our inability to speak Spanish at times poses a bit of a problem (we've promised ourselves that by the time we come back for a brother or sister for Luke, we will speak Spanish well). But God always provides and just when we need an English speaking person one just seems to appear (and this has happened more than once). So this really nice bilingual woman filled out our paperwork and arranged everything for us to see an English speaking physician. The doctor we met with was really kind and Luke just loved her. For as terrible as he was feeling, he was still such a flirt. She was listening to his lungs and he was just smiling up at her with this cute little face. But anyway, she said his lungs sounded good, thank God. And she prescribed some meds for his upper respiratory congestion. So we cancelled our dinner plans with Marty and Martha and the family from Texas so Luke can stay in and rest. He was a bit restless tonight. We gave him a nice bath, got him all ready for bed and thought a little Tylenol might help him feel more comfortable. Bad idea. After we gave him the Tylenol he threw up a massive amount of his dinner all over me and him. To those of you I work with who know my stomach around things like this, I have to say I did pretty well. You guys were right. When it's your kid it's very different. So Luke got cleaned up for a second time tonight and I did some laundry the old fashioned way. And I probably don't say it enough, but Kenny is such a wonderful father and such a huge help with so many things I'm quite sure some fathers never would do. But anyway, the important thing is that Luke is now peacefully sleeping and hopefully each day he will be feeling better.

A Great Day.............

What a great day! We returned to visit FANA today. The couple from Spain, Marty and Martha, who received their daughter, Carla, two days after we received Luke, so kindly invited us to a birthday party at FANA. They are a really great family whose apartment is actually right next to ours. It was Marty's birthday and Carla was celebrating her 5 month birthday. In all honestly, I think their birthdays were just an excuse to do a really kind thing for the children of FANA. (And what a great birthday gift for them- they received sentencia today!) We arrived to FANA about 10:30 and Marty and Martha had one of the rooms all decorated and lots of cake and different snacks for the children. There were about 20 kids between the ages of about 3 and 7 who were having such a great time. Marty and Martha had even called ahead to get the names of each child who would be attending the party and they had a gift for each and every one of them. How sweet are they. The smiles on each of their faces were priceless. They enjoyed every moment of the party, the attention they received from each of us, and the wonderful presents. They thought the little plastic dolls and jump ropes were the greatest things in the world. It really makes you think how raising your children to appreciate even the smallest of things is so important. Even though Kenny and I have this horrible language barrier between us and these children, we were able to clearly communicate with hugs and kisses. The children were all so sweet and we are so thankful to Marty and Martha for doing this for the children and inviting us to be part of it. While we were at FANA we spoke with Maria Teresa to check on our status with the courts. I'll try to briefly explain how I was told it all works. There are three phases our adoption case needs to go through. The first one the judge has a ten day period to accept/approve our case. Then it goes before the defender of minors who has up to a five day period to sign off on our case. Then finally back to the judge who has another ten day period to give us sentencia. Things can move through each of these three phases in a matter of a day or two or they may take the maximum time of 10-5-10 days allowed. Ours is through the first phase, should be through the second phase either today or first thing on Monday and then we wait to see how quickly it moves through the third phase and we get sentencia. So we may be home in two to three weeks. But who knows if we even understand this correctly. So in the mean time we'll just keep enjoying our time in Colombia. So to keep enjoying ourselves, this afternoon we decided to stop by the Andino mall area. I think this is one of our new favorite places here. The area is full of great restaurants, cafes and shops and is very stroller friendly since a large area around the mall is closed to traffic. So we had lunch outdoors at this little Italian place called Luna. The food and the service were both really great. Then we made our way home and put Luke to bed by about seven since he was exhausted. Oh, and we wanted to tell our nephews, Micheal and Nico, and our niece Morgan (and you too Lisa and Mike) to have a really great time in Disney! Safe travels and have fun!!

A Lazy Day

Well, we finally made it to breakfast downstairs this morning. And it was really good. We had nothing planned to do today. We wanted to make sure Luke had good naps today since he stayed up so late last night. So we stayed in most of the morning and early afternoon. I ran quickly to gym during Luke's afternoon nap and Kenny got caught up on some work. Later, we did head out for a late lunch at Guiseppe Verdi. It was Italian obviously. The food was good and we had a nice time despite the odd variety of 1980's American love songs playing in the background. We walked around for a bit and decided to stop at Crepes and Waffles for dessert. You know it's not a good sign when you walk in to order your ice cream and the cashier already knows our order. Now that I read back over this blog, I guess all we really did productively today was eat. But what else are we supposed to do here. Going out to eat gets us out each day and allows us to try great Colombian restaurants. But anyway, the story behind today's pictures: Kenny and I bought this onesie for Luke the week before we left when we really were exhausted packing and getting ready for our big trip. We figured when we got Luke we would still be exhausted, since that is my nature anyway. But surprisingly we feel better than ever and Luke is such a terrific baby that the onesie really doesn't apply. We thought he should wear it anyway since he is growing so quickly and won't fit in it for too much longer. We think the onesie applies more so to him today. He was exhausted tonight and fell asleep taking his bottle. It was a cute picture so we thought we'd include it. Oh and just a quick update: Luke's first tooth is through (the bottom,center) and he said mama for the first time today!

GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well as you may have guessed from the title we went to our first soccer game tonight. We went with the two families (who are adopting the older children from the summer magic program) still here from New York and the Kuligowski's (Mark and Susan) who are also still here but signed sentencia today. That's wonderful news for the Kuligowski's who have been here since early January. They can now finish up a few paperwork things and then they will be heading back to New York with their two beautiful girls. But back to the soccer game. Jorge picked us up about 6:30 and then we all headed over to Betty's place to pick up Susan and Mark and drop Luke off with Alicia. Then we were off to the game. (Lynn, a good friend of mine who actually introduced us to FANA, a great soccer player and Luke's future private soccer coach, you would have loved it here.) The two teams playing, Santa Fe and Equidad, are both from Bogota. It was interesting to see the many similarities and differences of professional sports here vs. back at home. It started with security. You get the old pat down at games at home, but we've never been patted down like this before. Kenny even looked over at me and said "I feel safer here than at the Linc (Philadelphia Eagles stadium)." Which is quite a strange statement to say in the middle Colombia. The concession stands, which is what I look to first, were also quite different. Take for instance the pig, with it's head still on, being served. We of course had to try it and it was surprisingly good. The soda here is not sold in the form of a fountain soda or bottle of soda, but in a plastic cup right from the two liter. There were also beverages being served from coolers, but I don't know what kind of beverage was in there. There were no nachos or cheese steaks, but they did have empanadas and chicken chips (they really are potato chips that taste like chicken). The fans here are really into supporting their team. If you could even imagine it to be possible, but there was even more energy in these fans than the energy felt in rival football teams back at home. These fans jumped up and down and sang songs to drums and chanted and cheered for their team for 90 minutes straight. And I mean they really jumped up and down without taking a break. We learned a lot about the game and about Colombian soccer in general. It was neat to be surrounded by screaming fans, and you have no idea what they are even yelling. The game itself was scoreless until 89 minutes and 50 seconds into the game, (they play for 90 minutes) the Santa Fe team scored, twice actually. So we had a great time and headed back to Betty's Place to pick up Luke. It was about 10:30 by this time and we thought for sure Luke would be fast asleep. But no. There he was, fully awake, just waiting for us. He again went wild with the jumping up and down in his brace, which we just love. So it was a late night out for all of us, but a fun night. Well, the boys are fast asleep, so I'm off to bed too.

Caught In The Rain

Sorry we don't have too much fun stuff to share today. It was a quiet and relaxing day. We tried to start our day with a great breakfast from the hotel downstairs (it always looks so good), but since Luke slept until after 8:30 and breakfast ends at 10:00, we'll have to try that another time. We really had nothing planned to do for the rest of the day so we headed out this afternoon to this taco place Kenny had been wanting to try since the Kuligowski's mentioned it last week. It is called A Todo Taco (I think). It wasn't too far from our apartment, maybe a fifteen minute walk in a nice area. The food was really good. When we were just finishing eating it started to rain, actually it was hailing. So we spent some time at the taco place until it finally stopped. We amused ourselves and Luke by taking pictures of each other, so enjoy them. We know football season is over, but we thought we could sneak in one more time with his Eagles outfit/bib before he starts wearing his great Phillies gear. Once the rain stopped, we walked around a bit and picked up some gifts for our family. We were almost back to our apartment when I thought we should stop in one more grocery store in my search for pretzels. It's strange, but I don't know why it's so hard to find pretzels here. We've tried everywhere: exito, carulla, cafam, little grocery stores along the way, and no one carries pretzels. I take that back. Carulla carried pretzels but they are all out. I even tried on Sunday with my very bad Spanish to ask one of the workers why they were out of pretzels. But enough on the pretzels. The point of it all was that we found a Carulla express right up the block from our apartment and I thought just maybe I could find what I wanted there. And just then it started to rain again. Not a good situation when you have no umbrella and a baby in a stroller. So we walked very quickly and made it back before we got too wet. Mom, no worries, it was only a light drizzle at that time and Luke was dry under the cover of his stroller. And by the way, no pretzels at Carulla express either. When we got back we had a great time skyping with our family. It was my grandmothers 80th birthday today and our whole family gathered to celebrate with her. We were fortunate we were able to skype with them and wish her a happy birthday from so far away. Well, Kenny is sleeping and Luke is teething and is fussing a bit, so I'm going to check on him. And thanks for posting a comment Jennie. It's nice to meet you and thanks for sharing about your FANA family. It's pretty neat that our sons share the same birthday and name.

Great Art

Last week Kenny and I asked Jorge Rico if he knew of any local Colombian artists we could visit and possibly purchase art from for our home. So today when Kenny got home from work, Jorge picked us up and took us to meet with two local artists. It was really neat to actually see where these artists live and work and to find out what inspires different pieces of their collections. The first artist we met with, Victor Raul Betancourt, (picture included of him) is an established artist not just here in Colombia but in Europe as well. He was very kind and we actually really like two of his pieces. We then went to meet with the other artist, who had really great work but not too much of it was our style. We don't think Luke enjoyed the art just yet as you can see by the picture of him fast asleep. We asked if Jorge would take us for a great meal, and he surely delivered. The restaurant was in the furniture district of the city and the food was great. I had pork and Kenny had a combination of steak and chicken. Each was served with arepa, potatoes, and yucca and a side of guacamole. The portions were huge and Jorge, being Jorge, took our leftovers for someone in need. Well we're in early today and looking forward to a relaxing night. Oh, and thanks Steve for letting us know about the other market at Santa Barbara. We'll be sure to head back up that way on Sunday.

Three Weeks In

It was a pretty laid back day today. We went to mass and then again roamed around the outdoor market here. We ran into the couple from Spain, who are adopting Carla from FANA, and had a nice time catching up with them. We then met a nice couple from Texas, who are adopting a 5 month old baby boy through another orphanage here. They are here about a week now and are just beginning the court process. Kenny, Luke and I then left the market here and headed up to the Santa Barbara Mall to explore that area a little bit. It's not too far, maybe about a 25 minute walk. The mall was really nice with a lot of high end shops it seemed. We walked around for a while, had lunch there, and then checked out another outdoor market next to the mall. They sold a lot of jewelry, bags, and handmade souvenirs. I found a great pair of sandals from a very "earth loving" man, who was really kind. I don't know if I bought them because they were really nice or because the guy selling them was so sweet and working really hard. After we left he market, we stopped at Carulla to get some groceries. I wish we had a free hand on the way back to take our picture because it was a pretty funny scene. We had Luke in the stroller, our bags from the mall, our diaper bag, and a ton of groceries we knew we needed but didn't give much thought to how we were going to get them to our apartment on our 15 minute walk back. We were about 5 minutes into our walk when we realized we needed to pick up one more thing: our rotisserie chicken we were having for dinner from this place the Kuligowski's said was pretty good. So we added to the chicken to our bags and went on our way. Another five minutes into the walk, in a really busy area, our potatoes fell from the stroller and we rolled over them with our own wheels. We laughed at ourselves, which we do quite frequently and Luke laughed along with us. Well needless to say it was a tough walk back and next time I think we may grab a cab. But anyway, it's really been three weeks already since we arrived in Colombia. And I think it's been the best three weeks of our life. Our family keeps asking "do you really miss us?" We really do! We wish you could all be here enjoying Luke with us and seeing and learning so much about his culture. But we look at it this way: whether we sit in our room and cry everyday or go out and enjoy ourselves, it won't change how quickly or slowly the courts work. So which would you opt for? I just said to Kenny this morning while I was making Luke's bottle that I'm really having a great time. What could be better than being on an extended "vacation" with your two favorite people?

The Norberto Experience

We started today by skyping with some of our family. It's nice for us to see them and wonderful for them to be able to see Luke in action. We headed out rather late because we were waiting for the rain to stop. When we did finally get out, we headed to, you guessed it, do some laundry. It seems to have become our thing to do on Saturday, since by this point in the week we're all pretty much out of clean clothes. While our clothes were being done we took a walk to Norbertos. For those of you who don't know, Norbertos is a 3 or 4 floor salon in Bogota that a lot of FANA families go to for haircuts, etc. Kenny was in need of a haircut so the Kuligowskis were kind enough to show us where the salon is and today we thought we'd try it out. Well actually Kenny thought he'd try it out. It wasn't just a haircut, it was an experience. It was extremely busy, full of workers everywhere in crisp white uniforms and Norberto himself buzzing all around the floors making sure everything was going just as he wanted. There were clients everywhere receiving haircuts while getting manicures (guys too). Poor Erica (she cuts Kenny's hair at home) because Kenny had a great time at Norbertos. He got a 45 minute haircut. I think the guy cut every single hair on his head. He was also served a nice beverage and had his own personal flat screen TV to watch golf. And all this for $13.00. After the haircut experience we headed out for a nice dinner at the hotel. We started with caesar salad and Kenny had chicken parm and I had penne pasta with pesto. We finished up with guava pie with ice cream. Everything was really great. We laughed a lot at Luke. He was so tired at dinner but refused to give in to it. Did you ever watch someone in a car or plane (or anywhere) falling asleep with their head falling back and forth. This is kind of what Luke looked like. He was so tired and would be almost asleep and then some noise or movement in the restaurant would catch his attention and he'd wake himself back up to investigate. It was quite funny to watch him keep doing this over and over again. He's so curious about everything and doesn't want to miss a thing (which is a great thing). Well we're off to bed. Mass and the Santa Barbara mall tomorrow.

Coffee, Fruit, And A Wonderful Baby........

What a day! We were greeted at our door at about 9:45 by Jorge Rico (wonderful tour guide). We set out for the coffee plantation tour. Those of you who know me well know about my great love for coffee. So I was really excited about our day. It's funny now looking back upon the day and realizing the coffee part of it was great, but there was so much more. On the way to the plantation we stopped at a little roadside restaurant and had arepe and some pappas. Arepe are similar to a pancake filled with cheese and pappas are potatoes. We fed and changed Luke while Jorge took a little siesta in his car (he said he didn't sleep well last night). It was quite a long ride, about two hours, but we learned and saw so much along the way. We rode through Southern Bogota, which is a stark contrast to where we are staying in the northern part of the city. It is an extremely poor area, where many of the homes are in ruins and many of the people homeless. Jorge was telling us that 50% of the people in Bogota earn 500,000 pesos a month, which is about $250.00 dollars. During our ride Jorge educated us on the politics of Colombia, the social/economic issues the people of Colombia face, and Colombia's health care system. Our conversation was eye opening and we learned so much. We arrived at the coffee plantation and Jorge took us through the entire process of producing coffee, from the time it was still on the plant to the finished product. After our tour we enjoyed a great cup of coffee and helped some of the workers package the coffee we purchased to bring home (picture included). While we were there I think we received a bit of good luck. We were standing outside near Jorge's car talking before we left the plantation, when I felt something hit me in the head. I thought it may have been a berry or some fruit falling. But no, it was a bird pooping on my head. We all got a laugh out of it and Jorge said it was a first for anyone touring the coffee plantation. I wiped it off and thought positively. This happening is said to bring good luck, so maybe a quick court number 13? Jorge then took us to lunch. Kenny and I weren't able to be too daring with what we ordered since it is Lent and no meat on Friday. So we each tried cream of trout soup (We now know we don't like trout soup). We also had salad, fried yucca, and more potatoes and they were all really good. Jorge gave us a choice of what to see next: the orchid garden or a huge food market. Since it was starting to rain and Kenny loves to check out different food markets, we decided to stop at the indoor market. We were outside of Bogota in a town called Fusagasuga. The market was great. Jorge thought it was important for us to see the everyday life outside of Bogota. We included a picture of the main area of town of Fusagasuga where the market is and several pictures of the market itself (the hooves pictured are used to make soup we are told). The market is local families selling their goods. We could not get over the price of things. We bought 2 whole pineapples, a ton of little bananas, and a bag of raspberries for $3.00. Jorge was telling us that a lot of the families may only make 5,000 to 20,000 pesos a day there ($2.50 to about $10.00/day). Jorge is a wonderful environmentalist and humanitarian. I think this sums Jorge up very well: the market is very important to him because it directly benefits the local family farms instead of paying extra to the supermarket. But Jorge takes his support one step further and spreads out where he buys from at the market, including buying a lot from the second floor vendors since they get less traffic being on the second floor as compared to the first floor. He's a really thoughtful guy. But anyway, we enjoyed the market and then started our trip back. We hit a ton of traffic and it took us nearly 3 hours to get back. Jorge was kind and started to give Kenny and I some Spanish lessons while we were waiting in traffic. (Kenny learned how to order pizza correctly in Spanish and actually came home from Pan Pa Ya with exactly what we wanted). And you would think Luke would have started to meltdown after about 5 hours in the car and most of the rest of the day in his stroller. But he was such a good boy. We were so amazed when we pulled up to our elevator at about 7:45 tonight and Luke was still smiling. We are so blessed!