Our first wanderings

We went hunting for a grocery store this morning. First we had to navigate the maze of our apartment complex... which has pretty flowers and architecture.

 

 

We went across the street to the shopping mall, explored a bit and found... a grocery store. Lot's of fruits:

 

 

 

Most products are obvious, but for some we had to guess at the Spanish. I bought milk for cereal, but I don't know if it is whole, 2%, skim, or something else. All part of the adventure.

 

We didn't buy any cakes, but they really look good!

We believe that we are to meet the kids tomorrow, but don't yet know when or how we are to get to FANA. I emailed Maria Teresa, so hopefully this will become clear soon. 

Update: Received a call from Annette who will drive us to FANA at 10:30 am tomorrow to meet our twins!

Arrival in Bogota

Yesterday was a long day! Woke up at 2:30 am, van ride to MSP, fly to MIA, wait for hours while wishing we had a spot to nap, then fly to Bogota. The Eldorado airport is beautiful and Customs went quickly. We were happy to see Jorge, our driver, waiting for us. He is friendly, and proud of his city. He drove us directly to our apartment in his minivan. The apartment people are also friendly. Alejandre at the front desk is funny... He says that we will save money on birthday cakes by having twins, and if I like it here I can stay and Kim can go home to work and send me money - not a bad idea actually!

Not knowing Spanish will make things more difficult here, but so far everyone has known enough English, or Spanglish, that we have had no problems. Today is Election Day, and we were told there will be many police around. Hopefully it will be peaceful. Today is also cyclovia day, when some roads are closed for biking, running, or walking. It goes right past our apartment.

Our apartment is small, but will meet our needs. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, and a living room.

Today we relax, explore a little, and try to get used to the altitude of 8,500 ft.

I'll attach a photo of our apartment.

Lunch in Miami

Waiting for the flight to Bogota

Introduction

We are in the process of adopting twin teen girls from Colombia, and will document our adventure here.

As background...I read an article about what happens to US kids in foster care when they turn 18 and go out on their own without the support of a family. As you can imagine it is not good. So in the spring of 2014 we started on the long road to adopt a teen from Minnesota. We finally completed all the paperwork by December of 2014, but surprisingly few kids were available at that time. So we decided to wait, as more kids are added to the list every week.

Then Kim read a newspaper article about orphaned kids from Colombia attending a "camp" in Minnesota. She called the contact listed in the article and learned about Camp of Dreams and Friends of FANA Minnesota. She also heard about the delightful twin girls, Mayra (shown as Alejandra in the newspaper article) and Rocio. We thought about it and in January made the decision to adopt the girls.

We had to start all over again with a different adoption agency (Evolve), a new home study, fresh background checks, doctor visits, home inspection, and papers, papers, papers... We were eventually approved again, and yet the paperwork kept coming! We had to be approved by US Customs and Immigration, the kids had to be approved by them too. Then we had to travel to Chicago to get visas to travel to Colombia for the adoption. Finally, last week we were told to travel to Bogota on the weekend of October 24-25, 2015!

We have Skyped with the girls twice, with one more scheduled this week. They know about as much English as I know Spanish... which means almost nothing! But with the help of a translator we have had wonderful conversations. The kids are so excited to have a family. Rocio was so happy she was in tears the fist time we talked.

So us "old people" are adopting a couple of teens that we have never met in-person. Some people think we are nuts, and maybe we are! Yet from what we have learned about the girls from their paperwork, talking with the Director of the coordinating orphanage, talking with Minnesotans who spent a week with the girls at Camp of Dreams last year, and the Skype sessions we have had - we are confident that this is the right match. We are very excited to meet them, get to know them, and to become their forever family.

We have done many fun things with our two kids (Tim and Mandy), and our seven foreign exchange students (Carmen, Conni, Daniela, Bekki, Marcel, Dominik, and Nimdak). We love them all! We look forward to creating more great memories for, and with, the twins!

I invite you to follow along as we head to Bogota on October 24th. I expect quite the adventure as we are immersed in Colombia, with little knowledge of Spanish! I have high expectations for the Google Translate app on my iPhone.

- Dan and Kim MacDonald.