SENTENCIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We've been waiting 39 days to write that title above. We are so excited and it feels really great. So this morning Maria Teresa picked us up at about 8:30. After an hour of traffic we finally arrived at the court. It was not at all what I would have imagined it to be like. There is a long hallway and all these different courts fill it. So we found lucky number 13 and went in. It was a small room with a counter and a few workers behind it. The room was filled with shelf upon shelf upon shelf of papers. I don't think I've ever seen so many stacks of paper all together in one little space like that before. It makes you a little nervous to think that all of the paperwork you've worked so hard on is lying somewhere among the millions of others. But somehow I guess their system works. So Maria Teresa fought through the crowd at the counter and finally it was our turn. This young girl brought over a stack of paperwork with our name on it and the signing began. We've never been so excited to sign a document before in our life. So that was it. At about 10:05 this morning Andres Felipe officially became Luke Samuel, our son. So after we signed Maria Teresa and the girl helping us exchanged a few words, in Spanish, so we weren't exactly sure what they were saying, but it didn't look too friendly. What the girl was telling her was that she wouldn't have our next piece of paperwork ready for us until Friday. This would hold us up from completing the next step of the process until this letter was issued on Friday. Maria Teresa pleaded a bit for us and the girl finally gave in and said to pick it up tomorrow afternoon. So that is much better than Friday. Maria Teresa feels sometimes the workers do things like that to show their power or be difficult but we'll give the girl the benefit of the doubt and think she must just have a lot to get done before ours. The process is pretty confusing (to us anyway) so I'll try to do my best to explain to those who don't know what needs to happen the next few days for us to get home. I don't know if I understand it so clearly, so some things may be a bit off. So now that we signed Sentencia, we must wait for that letter from the court tomorrow. Then hopefully Thursday we will take that letter to the notary and have Luke's birth certificate changed from his birth name to his name now. Then we can get his passport, wait for Bienestar (like child social services) to issue some other letter to the embassy so we can start our business at the embassy, then visit with the embassy doctor, and get Luke's visa to enter the states. Sounds like a lot right? Well it will all get done. It always has and everyone always goes home. Maria Teresa is making sure of it. So we are thinking maybe next Wednesday at the earliest to travel, but we will see how things progress. As we've said so many times before, we'll just sit back and continue to enjoy Colombia. So that's just what we did after we left the courts. Since it was a bit too early for lunch, we stopped at Juan Valdez for a coffee and to feed Luke. Then it was off to Teriyaki (again) to celebrate. We had a great lunch and celebrated Sentencia while Luke slept. After we ate, we thought it was about time for Luke to get his first haircut. It was starting to grow over his ears. So we went to Norberto's Infantil ( it is the same place where Kenny got his haircut, but in the children's area). The place is great for kids. It is decorated really cute and Luke had his own tv to watch the Backyardigans in espanol. He didn't care too much for the decorations, the tv or the man cutting his hair. He cried the entire time. But thinking back we kind of don't blame him. The guy was dressed all in white and then puts a mask on. After immunizations, brace fittings, doctor visits, and breathing treatments, we don't blame him for being a little scared of some strange man with a mask and instruments. But he got through it and he looks so cute. The rest of the day we just relaxed and continued to celebrate this wonderful day. Well now we'll just wait and see what the next few days bring. And then, very soon, the three of us will be heading home!!!