First time in the snow

I finally got all bundled up with Claudia to play in the snow.  We got a little baby sled and I pulled her around the yard in it for a little while.  She enjoyed it, but we both got cold fast!  Here are some pictures of Claudia's first experience playing in the snow.

Snow pants and boots... check!

Hat and oversized mittens... check!

Winter coat that makes it so I can't move... check! 
I am ready to go outside!

She dipped her hand in the snow, she is not sure what to think of it.

Getting pulled on her sled.

Video from home

I am having trouble getting more to upload right now.

A long awaited update: the final steps of the journey

Sorry that it has been so long since we have updated!  Things have been SOOOO busy.  Jason got the call on Wednesday, February 6th that the judge was signing our paperwork.  He flew back to Pasto on Thursday and signed the paperwork only to find out that the child defender still had not signed.  They allowed him to get Claudia's new birth certificate with her new name :) and us as her parents :) on it.  On Friday, our translator went back to the courts at 11am, when the child defender was supposed to be there to have our Sentencia signed and stamped.  The defender was not there and our translator had to drive all over Pasto to find him.  In the end, he ended up at ICBF headquarters, found the defender, had him sign, THEN went to the notary, had the paperwork notarized and several copies made AND made it back to the hotel so that Jason could catch his 1pm flight.  This is a lot in such a little amount of time considering the airport is about 45min away from the city!  Jason flew back to Bogota on Friday and had to wait until Monday to continue the adoption process.

On Monday, our facilitator picked Jason up to go get Claudia's Passport.  There was a bunch of misprints on our paperwork, they had my name as Angelina... ugh, and had our address wrong.  They had all of that fixed and said we could have her Passport on Tuesday.  Our facilitator went to ICBF to get some more paperwork, which ended up being wrong as well.

On Tuesday, Jason and the facilitator went to pick up Claudia's passport and then to the doctors office to pick up here medical paperwork.  With that all in hand they could email the US Embassy to schedule an appointment with the Embassy to get Claudia's Visa to come home.  Late Tuesday night, Jason got a call from our facilitator that they had an appointment with the Embassy at 2pm on Wednesday! It usually takes about 2 days to get the appointment, so it was wonderful that they could get it so soon!

On Wednesday, they went to go get Claudia's visa at 2pm and were able to pick it up that same day.  They waited around for a little while until it was ready.  Sometimes, you are not able to get it until the next day.  This was the final step in the process in Colombia.

When Jason and Claudia got home from the Embassy, they called the airline and had their flights changed for that night!  They packed up and waited for the time to go by until they could go to the airport.  Jason and Claudia left Colombia around midnight and arrived home at 11am on Thursday, February 14th, Valentine's Day!  What a wonderful gift, to have everyone together again!Valentine's day will forever be the day that Claudia came home.

She is adjusting very well, she now has many more age appropriate toys and keeps busy with them.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves:

I will try to add videos later.

Videos from the Museum!

 

 

 

We Got the Call!

Finally!

We got the call today that we can travel back to Claudia's district tomorrow to pick up our signed adoption decree! The airfare is purchased, and we'll be spending tomorrow night in the city that Claudia used to live in.

Apparently the decree is not signed yet, but will be tomorrow, so please be praying that everything goes smoothly. I also have to make sure all the paperwork is correct, and get 47 copies of everything, for all the different offices and other paperwork that we need to do once we get back here.

If things continue to go well, we should be home next week! Diego thinks that we could be flying home Thursday, but I'm secretly hoping things go even faster than that.

In the meanwhile, please enjoy this video of Claudia, who managed to get stuck inside of my pajama pants.

Filling the Hours

There is very little of interest happening right now; Claudia and I just try to make the days go by as quickly as possible while waiting for the word that we can travel back to her district.

 

Today we went to UniCentro with Natalie and Sara. I was looking for a new backpack, because mine is completely done for. I don't actually have to open the zipper to get anything out of the big pocket because the side is completely torn. Unfortunately, the only thing I could find that's even close to what I have was 116,000 pesos (about $65 USD). Considering I'll probably never use it again, I thought I'd just get some tape to hold it together for a while longer. Apparently duct tape doesn't exist here either.

 

I also left the charger for my cell phone in the first hotel room we had, so I've been stretching the charge on it, because the only way to get a charger for this phone is to buy the phone brand new. We went to 4 different stores looking for a charger today, and found nothing but derision.

 

On a positive note, Claudia got to swing for quite a while today. I think if I let her, she'd just stay in the swing all day.

 

It's really hard to get good pictures or videos when it's just Claudia and I, but I keep trying. I also have a lot of trouble uploading videos that are more than 30 seconds or so long, but I'm doing my best to keep everyone up to date.

A New Video for Angie!

Claudia and I made this video the other day to cheer up Angie, but it's taken me forever to be able to post it. For whatever reason, I sometimes have loads of issues uploading videos from here.

On the adoption front, we've been praying for the judge to sign the decree this week, but he has until Friday next week (a week from today) to make a decision on our case. Everyone else that we know who is adopting here right now has had theirs signed very quickly; much more quickly than any of us were told to expect. We're cautiously hopeful to hear something this week, but are definitely prepared for it to be a full week (or more) longer.

We appreciate your prayers, and hope to be home much sooner than we expect, but until then, I'll do my best to keep posting pictures and videos.