First Day in Bogota

It was a good day!  Breakfast is served until 9:00 a.m. and we got down to the dining room about twenty minutes to.  It was so nice to meet the other families who are staying here, and to meet more of the staff.  Everyone is so friendly!  At breakfast they give you a menu and you get to order off of there.  Lots of typical American breakfast-y foods: eggs, french toast, toast, cereal, etc.  I ordered scrambled eggs and toast and Kevin thought he did too, but mine came out and they said his would be another five minutes.  Five minutes later a silver platter was brought out with three hard boiled eggs sitting atop these vase looking things - very  fancy looking!  Oops!  It was fine, they were good, but next time he'll have to do a better job at pointing at what he wants on the menu! :) 

Last night the Thompsons stayed up to greet us when we got in.  It was so nice to see familiar faces!  Rachel and Tony live in West Michigan also, and we met them in November at the Tanner's house.  Let me backtrack a second: In my post last fall about how we chose Maria, I mentioned that I met Kristi VanderMaas because her son was in my preschool camp at Heritage Camp.  We connected again when I called her to tell her we were adopting a little girl from Colombia from the same orphanage that she and her husband adopted from.  Some time after that she invited us to be a part of this group of families who've all adopted from Colombia.  The majority of them live in Michigan, but a few outside of Michigan.  Anyway, the group meets twice a year, usually once in the winter at someone's house and then once in the summer outside for a family fiesta.  In November the Tanners, Adriana and Jeff, hosted an evening for the adults to get together.  The VanderMaas's weren't able to be there, but we went any way, not knowing anyone.  It was an amazing night!  The six other couples that we met were such incrediblely warm, friendly, welcoming, supportive, wonderful people!  We left that night with such an unexpected feeling of connection and joy and a longing to go to Colombia.  It was a beautiful night! 

A week before Christmas, Rachel and Tony Thompson and Adriana and Jeff Tanner both received referrals, and then we received our referral of Maria days after them!  We all started the process at different times, we're using a different adoption agency than they both are, and the Tanners and us are both adopting out of Los Pisingos but the Thompsons are not.  We are all here in Colombia at the same time!!  Adriana was born and grew up here, so she and her family are staying with her parents, but the Thompsons are staying here at the same hotel we are.  Over the past two months, Rachel, Adriana, and I have been emailing each other back and forth every few days, supporting one another during that final phase before coming to Colombia.  So it was so beautiful to see Rachel and her husband last night when we arrived at the hotel!  Having them here and the Tanners close by is such a huge blessing to us!  (The Thompsons have a little boy who's three whom they adopted from here when he was an infant, and now they are adopting a little baby girl.  The Tanners have a little boy who's two whom they adopted from here and they are now adopting a baby boy.)

And then another West Michigan family is here as well, who are also part of the same group of families that I mentioned earlier, we just hadn't met them before.  The Housemans, Tammy and Dave, have a little boy Jacob who just turned seven and they are here now adopting a baby girl.  We met them all today at breakfast and it's been a joy getting to know them today!  This afternoon, Jacob and Carlos played non stop for over three hours together! 

Most of the time while they were playing, this is what I was doing...

...taking a siesta!  After breakfast I was hit with altitude sickness that I was just not expecting.  I felt much better by the afternoon, but my body was quite tired.  I'm still not a hundred percent, but I've heard this is very common and by Monday my body will most likely be adjusted and I'll be back to normal.  We're so glad that we came a day early and have this weekend to adjust!

We have a couple of prayer requests:

That I will get the nourishment here that my body needs.  I have become a vegetarian over the past few months (it's been a slow and steady process for us over the past year), and I have IBS which means I can't eat fried foods or any dairy.  Guess what they serve a lot of here?  All of the above!  I was able to communicate to Juanita, who is the incredibly good cook here at the hotel, that I do not eat meat or cheese, but I haven't figured out yet how to tell her that I can't have cream based soups.  (Soup is served almost every day for lunch.)  I'll probably broach that with her tomorrow or Monday.  I just feel so badly that she has to cater to me, and I feel a bit anxious about the whole food thing.  I did bring quite a bit of food with me, but I would just love prayers for peace for me, and that food will not cause me any anxiety. 

Continued prayers for Carlos.  He did great yesterday, and most of today, but he was struggling with his emotions before and throughout dinner.  The three of us had a great time together at bedtime though, so we feel like his emotional tank is full again and ready for tomorrow.  (Actually all of the older siblings here are having times of difficulty adjusting to not being an only child anymore. If you could say a prayer for all of them, that would mean a lot.  I didn't mention them earlier but there is another family here from Minnesota and they have a little three year old girl whom they adopted from here and they are now adopting a baby boy.  We are enjoying getting to know them too, and I know they'd appreciate prayers as well.)

Tomorrow we are probably going to walk around the city a bit and just try to have another nice relaxing day!