Black Friday ... in Bogota?

Whew.

It's been a busy week.

On Monday, I left off with our trepidation over when our case would be submitted and how long the process would take. Well, we were thankful to see our lawyer on Tuesday evening, with a document for us to sign. We had no translator, so we thought he had just submitted our case to court. We were happy things were moving.

About an hour or two later, we got a call from our agency rep in Bogota.

"It's done."

Um, what?!

That's right. Submitted and signed in one day. We received our "setencia" - our judgment approving our adoption - on Tuesday. Sooooo... welcome to the family Jhon Sebastian!

We were just floored. Mark could go home! We could move onto Bogota and the embassy process.  Wow! We booked flights to leave Mocoa on Thursday and for Mark to return to the US on Friday.

We still had to get Jhon's birth certificate. Our attorney was going to go on Wednesday. He had to travel to Puerto Asis, a town about 2 hours away, change his last name to ours and return with the new birth certificate. It is not usually a difficult process, and he expected to return around 2 p.m. We were then supposed to go to a notary to sign a power of attorney.  But 2 p.m. came and went. And 3. And 4... We were finally able to get in touch with our attorney around 4:30.

It turns out nothing is simple. :) Apparently Jhon's birth was never properly registered in the first place and the steps to fix that took ALL DAY LONG.  We started to get nervous about making our flights!  However, luck remained on our side (seriously, BEYOND lucky here) and he returned around 8 p.m. with the finished birth certificate.  We were able to take care of our notary business on Thursday morning and catch our flight yesterday.

Yes, we spent the bulk of Thanksgiving in a sweltering airport!  But we couldn't have been more thankful. Although our flight was delayed, we still made it.  Mark left early this morning and just arrived in Atlanta.  He will arrive in GR late tonight and see the kids tomorrow!  I'm not sure who is more excited!


As for me and Jhon, we expect another week or so in Bogota. We were able to apply for his passport today and he starts his medical process tomorrow. I'm not sure if we will have his visa by the end of next week, but we are thankful nevertheless. We are staying at a hotel with several other adoptive families and it's been so nice to have people to talk to!

Yes, we have much to be thankful for.