Adios, Colombia

This will be my last post on this leg of our journey - I head back to Minnesota tomorrow, leaving my wife and baby behind.

We had a great day. More pictures that Angie will upload. We toured the Monserrate, a church on a peak overlooking Bogota. It was a great view, once the clouds parted. Bogota is huge.

Afterwards, we had plans on visiting the Gold Museum, and our taxi driver, Luis Alberto brought us there. Unfortunately, it was closed. Instead, we visited La Candelara (?), the old part of the city, that is being restored. Lots of lovely old buildings and churches. Luis Alberto was a great tour guide; he spoke in simple spanish, and threw in a lot of the english he knew so even I could understand what was going on.

We came back and grabbed some food with the other family staying here while Francisco slept in our room - he's been asleep for several hours, but that surely will end soon!

Good night all, thanks for reading.

Here's a little story

Last night, Angie and I met up with one of my very good friends from high school, Sally. She's been living in the Bogota area for about 2 years. She met and fell in love with a really sweet Bogotano named with Camilo. We went out with them and their friends for a few drinks and a burger, and stayed out way later than parents should. We had a blast. Sally always seems to find the sweetest people wherever she lives. She also found people proficient with English, so Ang and I had no concerns with communication.

When we got home, Francisco pitched a fit. I found out later that he was the perfect angel while we were gone, but got really angry at us for leaving him. He let us know most of the night that we need to be by his side 24/7. In combination with some roadwork being done on our block in the middle of the night, we have had very little sleep again, which is becoming very familiar.

Today Angie, the other family staying here, and I traveled with one of our respected cabbies, Jorge Rico, to a coffee plantation in a town called Fusagusaga. I think. He gave us an incredible tour of the process of making coffee, and some botany lessons of a few of the local species of orchids, bromeliads, and other assorted plants. It was really a neat experience - he knows his stuff. I'll post some pictures later.

We stopped a long the way at a lunch counter and sampled some local soul-food. It was amazing and cheap - the nice thing about traveling with Jorge-you get a tour guide who wants to show you actual parts of Colombia.

One thing he focused on was some of the ecological troubles facing Colombia. There have been several initiatives put forward, like planting trees and adding sewer treatment plants, but they have a long way to go. His main pet peeve was the ecalyptus tree; apparently, years ago it had escaped from gardens, and has been choking out a lot of old rainforests. He should us the difference between native forests and new ecalyptus forests. It's quite sad to see their native habitat disappearing.

I know a lot of people call this tree-hugging, but I'm of the opinion that God made this Earth a certain way, and gave us dominion. Our choice as His children is to decide what kind of ruler we will be to His gift to us. Do we act like dicators, or as loving as He has been to us?

Our first photos of Francisco, for comparison

Update

Just a quick post to let everyone know how things are going here in Bogota. We continue to explore our host city so we have some stories to share with Francisco when he gets older. The other family from Minnesota invited the folks from Betty's Place to go to a park a few blocks from the shopping mall on Tuesday. The park was pretty amazing - it apparently had once been a polo arena, but had since been repurposed. It was large enough for two soccer fields. There were also some playground structures put up for all the kids to play on. I ended up playing 500 with a few of the boys - felt good to toss around a pig skin.

We were supposed to go see our lawyer and the Defensor of Francisco on Tuesday, but the meeting was cancelled and rescheduled to Thursday. This was a bit of a bummer, since we couldn't get rolling on the court system until this meeting happened.

On Wednesday, Angie and I decided to go out for a little celebratory dinner. Our wonderful caregiver, Marie Elena, took care of Francisco for the evening. We went to a restaurant called Carbon de Palo, which had some wonderful food at reasonable prices. Angie had a shish kebab type dinner made of different sausages. I had a mixed plate of ribs, a steak, and chicken. We had some empanadas and platanos for appetizers. With drinks, it ended up only being about $55 or so.

We stopped by a gift store called Maku on the way there - it had some local trinkets to purchase. We've wanted to get items to pass on to Francisco in the future - little things to help him stay connected to Colombia. This store had just about everything. When we got home, a taxi driver visited us as well and sold us some beaded wrist bracelets his brother had made - they are neat little things with both the Colombian and American flags.

We finally had our meeting with the lawyer on yesterday. It was a short meeting, asking us a few questions about how things were going getting to know Francisco and our feelings about him. To this question, both Angie and I wanted to say that we love him. Unfortunately, we both ended up telling the Defensor that we love him. We all had a good laugh.

We've set up a tour of a coffee plantation for Saturday - more details and pictures to come!

Video-a-go-go

First meeting video:



Hangin' with Mom



Momma kisses:



Holding a bottle

I'm checkin' in

Another semi-sleepless night.  I'm glad, though, that Francisco is getting more and more comfortable with us.  Angie and he went down around 8pm and he woke up around 10pm for a bottle.  It was really a 'bloody murder'-type scream.  I could still hear him in the kitchen while making his bottle.  As soon as he had about 4 or 5 ounces, he fell back asleep.  He got restless around 2 am, so off to the kitchen I went.  After he had his bottle, neither he or I could go back to sleep, so we just kind of stared at each other.  He didn't fuss; just rolled back and forth, looking for the comfortable spot on the bed.  Just like me.  I hope he doesn't get 'blessed' with my insomnia.

He got tired right before breakfast, and went back to sleep - still sleeping now, going on hour number 3.

We've been laughing that we are in a really neat city with a lot of wonderful tourist attractions, but we might as well be in Minnesota.  We get out a little bit here and there, but we mostly have been taking the time getting to know the wee one.  He's pretty fun.  The other night, he held his bottle as he sucked on the last little bit of formula.  So neat to see him try to take charge in his feeding.  The same night, as Angie was rocking him to sleep, he decided to show some affection back to mom by sucking on her face.  It's really cute to give him kisses, because he hasn't quite grasped the concept.  He opens his mouth, and out comes a three-foot long tongue.  You have to be careful, or he'll get ya!

Yesterday we went to a baby-shop in the area.  We had heard about it from the other family that lives at Betty's Place.  It was really neat to be in a baby store with a baby, but I was a little disappointed that it seemed very commercialized - not a lot of local stuff, just things you could get at Babies R Us and Toys R Us.

I hope we have more to report later on!

This Colombian Life

Well, it's been a quiet couple of days in Lago Woebegon.  Not a lot to report.  We continue to have a lot of fun getting to know our Colombian angel.  We bid adios to the family that had been living in Betty's Place with us - they flew back to Virginia this morning.  It's funny how quickly people can become such an integral part of your life.  However, we have been getting to know a new family from Texas.  They moved in a few days ago, and are in the process of adopting a 16 year-old.  She is really special, and loves Francisco.  Francisco seems to be taking a shining to her as well.

It's really neat to get to know people from all over the world and hear their adoption stories.  The key theme running through every story is this: not only are we adopting Francisco, but we are adopting Colombia as well.  Colombia will always be our son's first home, and consequently our home as well.  Even though we are late to the game, we are Colombian.

There's a little something I've wanted to get off of my chest, and it's taken me a few months to figure out how.  Not really sure if I still do, but here it goes:  I don't want people to feel like we are doing Francisco a favor.

A year or so ago, a co-worker mentioned how wonderful it is that we are choosing to adopt, giving a home to an orphan.  This same theme has been repeated by many people.  It's a great sentiment, and I appreciate the words.  But it is definitely not why we are adopting.

We heard this theme from adoption professionals prior to pursuing adoption as the means to form our family.  We were cautioned to take it too seriously.  A child who hears what a great thing it was that their parents adopted them feels like they always have something to owe to their parents.  They feel like the can never repay them, and can never live up to their adoption.  They may feel that if they aren't perfect, their parents may send them back to their birth country, away from those they love.  Or they may resent their parents for acting like saviors by taking them away from their original home.

Francisco could have been adopted by anyone. He's a healthy, fun little guy, and would have been a wonderful addition to any home.  We are the lucky ones.  We are the ones who've been blessed by his presence in our lives.

Additionally, Colombia isn't that bad.  It has its problems with crime and government, but what country doesn't?  The people here are wonderful.  Very loving and caring.

We aren't taking him out of Colombia when we leave.  Rather, we are bringing part of Colombia to the US.  We will raise and provide for his security when he is young, but he - like any other child - is not our property.  He will get to decide when he is older how he wants to be involved with both his birth country and his adoptive country.  Indeed, he will continue to have citizenship in Colombia.  Our job will be to give him enough access to both cultures so he can find his place in this world. It won't be an easy job for him, but we will be there helping hold his hand if he stumbles along the way.

So if you tell me it is a wonderful that I've done for him, I may not correct you.  I will thank you, and tell you we believe he has done more for us than we for him.  He helped complete our family.  But know that adoption is not a one-time event; this will be a defining moment in Francisco's life, and every situation that he faces will be seen through the adoption lens.  Like I said, it won't be easy for him to discover who he is, but we hope to offer him enough opportunity to do so, through books, food, culture camps, and eventually, return trips to Colombia.