Shopping, Consulate, Finding out, and Minutia

Shopping..................
The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of shopping, shopping and more shopping! The kids are sick and tired of it and so am I! I'm not a shopper to begin with, so this is killing me! Finding complete wardrobes for 7 children (and a few new things for me since I have put on a few pounds through this "paper pregnancy") in a few short weeks is overwhelming! BUT, I think I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  The last pair of sandals and package of socks were bought today. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah! I don't want to ever have to shop this much, this fast ever again.

Consulate...............
Tomorrow we head to the Colombian Consulate in Washington DC.  Normally, you can travel to Colombia without having to get a visa, but since we will have legal custody of a Colombian citizen (or three!) while we are there, we have to get "Special" visas! So far neither myself, another adoptive mom, or our agency can get through to them on the phone line to find out if we need an appointment or whether we can just show up.  So we are PRAYING that they are friendly and let us get our visas easily. I've read a few horror stories recently of other adoptive families trying to get theirs at other consulates around the US so it has me cautious. I'm going OVER prepared with my entire traveling file box of every single paper they could possibly ask for!

Finding Out...........
Last week we learned that Luisa, Jhonatan, and Cindy found out about us the same day we got our travel dates! They were shown our photos and the dvd we made and were given the little gifts we sent. Raul, our agency rep, told us that they were jumping up and down all weekend, they blow us hugs and kisses each morning and night, and are very excited! You have NO IDEA how thankful we were for this news. With older child adoption, you never are fully sure that the children will be glad to be adopted. So hearing that they were so ecstatic was a relief to us. 

Today, in another phone call with Raul, we found out a few more details. Luisa is understandably nervous and a little scared but still super excited.  She asked the social workers which one of us they thought she looked like? Did she look like her big sister? (Is this not the most precious thing ever!)   Cindy liked her little Strawberry Shortcake doll we sent. When she was asked if she wanted to come live with us, she asked if Luisa and Jhonatan would come. When they said yes, she said she would like that! Jhonatan asked to see pictures about where they would play once they came to their new house. You'll never believe this... their foster home is in a rural area with woods and hills and dairy farms, just like here! Here, we're going to the second largest city in Colombia thinking we're getting children who are going to have an adjustment to country life, and we end up getting countryfied kids! God is so awesome!

The more we find out, the more we realize how they are meant to be in our family. I can't remember now if I wrote this before, but we learned a while ago that according to his foster mom, Jhonatan likes doing "karate type moves". In case you don't know our family well, Karate is a very big part of our lives! Even Brent takes it with all the kids. This is a match made in heaven- literally!

Minutia that nobody really cares about....
*Airline tickets are purchased (boy was that a crazy 3 days!) We fly out of JFK in May and will come home in June to Dulles
*We are planning to be out of the country for 5 weeks. (never been away for more than 10 days, so it should be interesting!)
*It will be cheaper to live for another MONTH in Bogota than for us to change our 9 airfare tickets to come home if we finish sooner.
*Apartment in Medellin is located and our agency is putting a security deposit on it tomorrow
*Shopping is "almost" finished
*Vaccine updates are finished- without too much drama (blood draws for our homestudy was a traumatic event I'm still recovering from...)
*We are still looking for luggage to borrow before I can begin packing
*The whole house needs to be cleaned from top to bottom
*Still need to buy a vacuum, Cindy's car seat, and a bathing suit for me (yuck!)
*I HAVE to find a time to work on our family scrapbook we are taking down with us!
*Need to figure out the phone situation
*Need to find a way to kill ants and stink bugs once and for all so they don't take over the house like in some horror movie while we are gone
*I have only had one "melt down" moment with the kids, which I think is remarkable!
*I am really hoping we get to meet some other adoptive families traveling around the same time as us! A few have blogs!
http://theperfectsummerforamiracle.blogspot.com
http://babyadelman.blogspot.com/
http://www.journeytostefania.blogspot.com/
 http://ouradoptionjourneytocolombia.blogspot.com
*I think I might forget every single Spanish word that I've learned when I see the chico's faces.