Home Sweet Home

It feels so good to be home after four long weeks in Colombia.  We were very tired on Wednesday after traveling since 1am on Tuesday morning and only getting a couple hours of sleep on the airplane.  Samuel did pretty good, but he was not very happy when he woke up in Miami and had to go through Immigration and Customs when he was still very tired.  It was also difficult because we had to carry him a ways and he is very heavy.  He went back to sleep fortunately and woke up in a much better mood.  We went to a gift shop and he got a Mickey Mouse which he carried with him all day at the airport and on the plane.  Our flight was actually almost 20 minutes early to St. Louis and we were greeted by my parents, the kids and my friend Amber and three of her kids.  They were all anxiously waiting for Samuel.  I couldn't believe how big my kids looked after being with Samuel for the past 4 weeks.  I was so happy to see them!  My mom thought Samuel looked smaller than he did in his pictures, but she always says her grandkids look older in their pictures.  They all thought he was very cute, I have to say I think he does look even cuter in person, but I could be biased:) 

When we got home the kids were anxious to see the souvenirs we got them in Colombia.  Then I had Dalton get dressed for his Christmas program and we all went together.  Dalton was so excited we could come and so were we!  I was so happy watching his program that I was almost teary eyed after being gone for so long and being so grateful to be there to see it.  It's funny how everything worked out so well on timing, because we could have had a later travel date and missed it or had a longer stay like some other families, so we were very fortunate to come home after 4 weeks verses the 6-9 weeks some families were there.  When we all got in the car we put Samuel in his car seat and he resisted some, but actually did better than we expected (in Colombia kids do not use car seats).

We let the kids have a day off school on Wednesday so they could spend time with us and Samuel and it was so nice.  Amelia and Dalton are so good with Samuel and they just adore him!  He is pretty crazy over them too!  They taught him ring around the rosies and played in their bedrooms and then showed him all the toys in the basement.  They played Beatles Rock Band and he seemed to like singing and dancing like he's just a pro.  The kids really get a kick out of him. 

Thursday morning when we said good bye to the kids he had a sad face and just stared crying, it was so sad.  He really missed them while they were at school.  He is afraid of our dog Lexie, so that has actually been our biggest challenge since we've been home.  He screams when she gets too close, we have to hold him or her and he seems okay if she's on a leash.  He is getting better though, so hopefully by next week he will be fine with her.  She's not that big of a dog (a miniature Australian Shephard), but to him she probably seems big since he's so small.  She is a very good and smart dog, so I'm sure once he gets used to her they will be buddies.  Amelia and Dalton are a lot of help with Samuel and it's so cute seeing them together.  Samuel was so excited when we picked them up from school and when we came home so they could play with him.

Samuel was so excited because he just got Mickey Mouse at the airport gift shop, a lady on the plane (from Miami), asked if we just went to Disney World and I said we were on our way home from Colombia with our new son:)

Samuel feel asleep in the car on our way home, he had a very long day and we were all so tired!

 

Samuel took Amelia's hat off her and put it on his head backwards, she thought that was pretty cute.

 Amelia and Samuel playing outside together, Dalton was at Cabella's with Grandpa and Daddy.

 Amelia is like a little mother to Samuel and he adores her.  I can not believe how crazy she is over him, it is such a neat thing for me to see how Amelia and Dalton are with their little brother.

Samuel singing "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", we love the Beatles so we're staring him early..lol

Samuel and Dalton playing in the basement together.

Samuel immitating Dalton instead of using the real mic...lol.

I was busy putting away our clothes in my bedroom when I looked over and realized Samuel feel asleep drawing.  It was so funny, he was pretty tired after playing hard with Amelia and Dalton yesterday.  He stayed up late tonight though, which he usually does when he's had a nap.

Tomorrow's a busy day!!!

Tomorrow morning we go to the doctor's office and pick up Samuel's chest x-rays, please pray they will be there and the doctor has them signed.  This is very important because without that we can not get Samuel's Visa.  Our appointment at the Embassy is at 1:30pm, we pray that this goes smoothly so we can get his Visa and finally bring him home!  Obviously we are anxious to bring Samuel home to meet his big brother and sister and his Nana and Grandpa!  Dalton has a Christmas program Tuesday night at 6:30pm and Jeff and I REALLY want to be there!  If we get Samuel's Visa tomorrow and our flight is on time to arrive in St. Louis at 4pm, we should be able to make it.  The kids are very excited about Samuel and spent time today getting some things ready for him and Amelia made something for him.  She is a great artist, so I can't wait to see it!

Last night two more French families arrived at Casa Lanthana.  One of the families were here in 2005 adopting their older son from Monteria (where Samuel is from) and this time they were in another region adopting their 2 year old son.  The brother is getting ready to turn 8 and he is really good with his new little brother.  The other couple adopted their almost 3 year old son. 

Today we took Samuel to the park, on Sundays they close off one of the main streets for people to ride their bikes and jog.  I was surprised how many people there were and kids too. The park was busy today with people playing volleyball and basketball.  I also thought of Amelia when I saw two really pretty dogs playing in the park (she loves dogs).  After the park we came back for lunch and then Samuel played with the other boys.  Later he took a nap, so I walked to a Home Store nearby to buy a few presents for the nice people that have helped us here at Casa Lanthana.  Leena is the owner's daughter and she is very nice.  She speaks Spanish, French and English fluently and we really enjoy visiting with her.  Her birthday is tomorrow, so they are having a party for her here.  We have really enjoyed Bogota and staying at Casa Lanthana this past week, we will visit everyone if we ever come to visit Bogota in the future.  After being here Jeff and I are wanting to continue learning more Spanish and encourage the kids too.

Samuel always shakes his hand real fast when he's excited, we think its cute:)

Can't wait for Amelia and Dalton to meet their little brother and complete this family picture!

 Casa Lanthana

 Samuel and Leena

Leena is the owner's daughter and she is such a sweetheart!

 Leena and Miey

 Samuel and Miey

Amelia and Datlton are missing from this family picture, but we'll be taking one very soon in front of our Christmas tree at home, once we get it and decorate it that is!

 Casa Lanthana

Samuel loves noodles!  We could not believe how much he ate tonight!

Christmas lights at the park!

Since today was a Saturday we had no appointments and could actually enjoy a relaxing day in Bogota.  We started off by going for a nice walk to the kids hair salon to get Samuel's hair cut and then we took him to get ice cream.  He loves vanilla ice cream!  Then we came to Casa Lanthana and had lunch.  After lunch we walked to the mall, it was a couple miles away, but it was good to get some excercise.  Samuel enjoyed riding in the stroller, so that made it much easier for Jeff.  The mall was very nice and big, but we didn't get anything.  The mall was busy because it was Saturday and people are starting their Christmas shopping. 

The meals are included in our price here which is good and bad.  It's nice to have the meals, but sometimes it would be nice to go out.  The food is okay, but we don't know what we're going to get until they bring it to us and today it was tuna fish, I can't even stand the smell of tuna so I didn't even touch mine.  She asked me if I didn't like it (in Spanish) and I told her I wasn't hungry tonight.  After dinner we asked the French family if they wanted to go to the park with us to see the Christmas lights and so we all walked there together.  The lights were beautiful!  It was nice visiting with the French family, but it's funny because the wife and I speak mostly Spanish to one another and a little of French and English.  Jeff and the husband speak French and English to communicate.  I've heard of "Spanglish" but I'm not sure what the mixture of all three are...lol.  They are very nice and it's good for us to practice other languages.  Actually it makes me want to travel abroad more, but next time with all 3 of the kids of course!  I've always wanted to go to France to visit and see all the museums, maybe one day.

Dalton asked me tonight to post a bunch of pictures.  Since Samuel is always on the go and does not like his picture taken partly because of the bright flash so it's very difficult.  I have deleted many blurry pictures and pictures with Samuel's hand reaching out to block the flash or squinting his eyes.  I'm sure he's only had his picture taken a few times before November 7th verses the hundreds Jeff and I have taken the past four weeks!  So these are for you Dalton (and you too Amelia:)!

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Samuel getting ready to get a much needed haircut.

                                                                            Before

After

Samuel playing with Mr. Potato head.

Bogota, mountains in the background.

Samuel pushing the stroller around at the mall.

Samuel with us at the park seeing the Christmas Lights.

Jeff and I bought a lot of Colombian coffee today!  We are not coffee drinkers, but we hear it's the best and we had many requests to bring some home.



Samuel's sweet smile!

This is the first picture we saw of Samuel, he looks so much younger to me in this picture because it was probably taken at the beginning of the year.  He still has that sweet smile that we love so much!  I can not believe how blessed we are to have this little boy as our son.  I always looked for the waiting child section of the Colombian newsletters first, before I read them.  Usually that section was empty, but in March I was so excited to see there was a waiting child!  I was hoping all along for a waiting child and really had just about accepted the fact it may not happen, but when I saw this little boy named Samuel David words can not express how excited I was.  When I sent our social worker an e-mail saying we were interested I was told to wait two days to see if someone else that had waited longer came forward.  Those were two sleepless nights.  I knew there was hope since she said we were the first to come forward and I didn't hear from her until the 2 days when I decided to call her (I just couldn't wait for her to call me first) and that's when she said we could request to be matched with Samuel.  As many of you know it was a long wait to be matched (Colombia takes a long time to process everything), but once we were things moved fast and when we got our travel date it was only 3 weeks away on November 5th! 

 Samuel playing with his cars.

 Samuel waving and saying "chau"; one of his favorite things to do.  Today he saw a lady on a balcony when we were outside playing and he waved to her over and over saying "hola"!  She waved at him too and smiled, when she left he started waving again saying "chau".

 Samuel clapping, another of his favorite things to do.

 Hanging out at Casa Lanthana!  I know these are not the best pictures, but he does not usually cooperate for pictures and I know Amelia and Dalton want to see pictures of their little brother!  Also, we are hoping to take him for a hair cut tomorrow; his hair grows very fast and in one direction up...lol!   

This morning Samuel got his chest x-rays, it was not fun.  We basically had to hold his arms and waist and press him against the white board thing so she could take the picture, it took a few tries. When I went to pick the results up at the dr. office they were not there yet, so we have to go back Monday morning.  That was frustrating because we need the results with the dr. signature to get his Visa, so they better be there Monday morning.  Atleast the taxi ride was not a waste since I was able to do some shopping.  I was able to get Samuel a Mr. Potato head to play with, that we will keep here for future kids that come to Casa Lanthana.  I also bought me a warm sweater.  Services like taxis are very inexpensive, but clothing and retail items at the mall are very expensive.  After the mall I went outside to the booths for souveniers where everything is homemade and less expensive, however the same items were cheaper in Monteria.  Lucia's son David is an artist that makes sculptures and his wife makes beautiful jewelry, I bought a few things to bring home as gifts.

The St. Louis friends we made are going home on the 1am flight tonight that we originally had booked too.  Although we were disappointed not to be leaving on it, we were happy for them.  Especially since they have been here over 6 weeks now!  It's neat seeing the French family here with their baby, they are first time parents and are so happy!   Their son even looks like them and when I mentioned it they said I wasn't the first one to say that.  I need to ask them how long their wait was, because I'm sure they've waited years for their baby and he is adorable, so happy for them!

Bad news from Bogota

We got Samuel's results  and he needs to have a chest x-ray tomorrow.  This means we can't get his Visa until Monday afternoon and travel on Tuesday.  This is very disappointong because we were really hoping to see Amelia and Dalton Saturday.  We miss them so much and I know they are sad that they can't see us until Tuesday.  I wish we could have had them here with us this past week in Bogota.  The hardest part is being away from them for so long.

Samuel also had a doctor's apt today and we waited an hour for it, but atleast he took a nap.  The doctor was very nice and he said he learned English when he was a foreign exchange student in Sedalia, Missouri 20 years ago, what a small word!  He thanked Jeff and I for adopting Samuel and said he was very emotional seeing families like us.  We assured him we were blessed to have Samuel as our son!  He seemed surprised we had 2 other children too.  Samuel was so good partly because he was sleepy from just waking up.    After that we had to wait another 30 minutes for shots, poor Samuel had a shot in each arm.  It was sore at first, but thankfully we had children's tylenol to give him and he's fine now.

He's just relaxing now and watching Mickey Mouse.  He is such a good little boy, we've been on the go apt after apt this week, including one this morning we didn't know about until 10 minutes before David came to pick up around 9am, and he has been so good!
We got to the dr. today around 2:30pm and didn't leave until 5:30pm!  The only time he cried was for the 2 shots and it was brief.

The French family is very friendly, but it is challenging to communicate since we know about as much French as they do English.  Jeff is from Northern Maine so he grew up around some French speaking people, so he does okay.  It has been interesting being around  Spanish, French and English this week.  It's amazing to see Lucia, her son David and niece Leena speak all 3 languages!   Lucia the first day kept speaking to us in French...lol.  Everyone is very nice and I'm working on my Spanish with some of the staff that speak no English at all, but I think it's good for me to practice.

Jeff made his daily trip to the atm, we have to pay for just about everything in pesos here!  Jeff thinks we've spent around $200 on transaction fees alone!   I know that's crazy, but we had to even pay our hotel fee here in pesos.  Another reason it would have been better to leave Saturday.   And one more reason to not want to stay longer, Casa Lanthana is COLD!  Bogota does not get as cold as St. Louis, but it is cool this time of year, especially in the mornings and evenings.  Since they do not have a heater and I prefer being warm I'm thinking of buying a very warm sweater tomorrow, the ones I packed are to thin to keep  me warm.  Jeff on the other hand is comfortable in his t-shirt...lol.

Friends in Bogota

Today we picked up Samuel's passport and he though it was pretty neat that it had his picture in it.  Today we said good-bye to the French family and their two kids;  Samuel was sad to see his friends Ana and Afel leave.  He really enjoyed playing with them!  They are 3 and 5 years old and they are so cute!  Tonight another French family arrived with their 13 month old baby boy and he is pretty cute too.  We had dinner tonight with a family from Lake Saint Louis that adopted an eleven year old girl here in Bogota.  We met them the first day we stayed here before going to Monteria and were surprised they have not gone back home yet.  They plan to leave on the same flight as us on Saturday if all goes well.  They have been here for six weeks now.  They have 3 boys at home that they also adopted from Colombia several years ago.  They said they were only here 3 weeks when they adopted their sons and that short of time is almost unheard of here, so they were much more fortunate then.  Their daughter is very sweet and really nice to Samuel.  She is excited to go home to St. Louis with her brothers!  It was very nice to visit with some people that live pretty close to us back home and they are so nice.  We plan to keep in touch and it's neat our children at home are close in age too.  It has been a neat experience watching the other families adopting and seeing them bond like we have with Samuel. 

 Samuel checking out his passport, he thought it was pretty cool with his picture in it.

 Samuel learned to go on the slide by himself.

 Samuel playing with his friends Afel and Ana before they left to their new home in France!

Samuel is laughing while Afel pokes him with his little toy. 

Below Samuel is playing on the outside patio with Afel's toy Spiderman motorcycle, or as Afel calls him "Speederman".  He was very friendly and had a lot of energy, I'm sure he'll keep his parents busy!