GOTCHA DAY!!!

Gotcha day is finally here. We got picked up at the hotel at 0930 and drove across town to the ICBF office. Driving in Colombia is like being on a thrill ride at Disney world, you never know what's coming around the corner. On the good side, I didn't notice any elderly drivers. (I don't think they could keep up the pace). The "Encuentro" meeting was very informal. We were brought into a small office, within 5 minutes the social worker brought Ruben in. It was so sureal (sp), it is hard to explain in words. I guess that is why we were told to have the interpreter video record the meeting, so when we can pay more attention later, we can watch and understand what happend. Ruben with his big brown eyes appeared very happy and as if it was just another ordinary day. Even though I'm sure he has never heard english spoken. I would say the majority of the clothes we brought are going to be too big. I will just put Ruben on the Daddy diet, and he will be in those clothes in no time. I asked to have Ruben weighed and measured. He weighed in at 21 pounds and 75 cm., but appeared healthy. The Montana chocolates and carmal was a big hit with the ICBF staff (thanks grandma). We went back to the hotel and in moments Ruben was exploring the new place. Tracey and I forgot what it was like to chase a toddler. For a moment, I was wishing I packed the duct tape. I thought of a new use... That stuff works for everything. lol... We were told the next meeting "Integration" is on Thursday :) After that, we wait for the legal process to work. We can then travel anywhere within Colombia. Enough info for now. More to come...

Hey everyone, Tracey here, Matt finally is letting me blog! just a few things he forgot about our arrival. when we arrived in Bogota at the Airport, we did make it through custom, and security without any physical pat downs and our luggage did not even get search once in our presence!! Keep the prayer chains going!
Also if you can believe it there is another US couple here adopting and their room at the hotel is across from ours, soooo nice to hear a bit more english! more later

BOGOTA

We made it to Bogota... We flew out at 630 in Billings and connected in SLC, New York, and eventually to Bogota at 1030 last night. Just like in the Wizard of Oz, "were not in Kansas anymore". We arrived to a steady rain and no english. We hauled all of our bags through immigration and customs. Our driver Andres was waiting out front with his sign"MILLER" we drove 30 minutes to our casa. la lanthana. We were greeted by the staff who let us in the locked gait, and given some orange juice. "hugo de naranja". it was watered down, but we were greatful for something cool and wet. This morning we woke up to kiddos playing downstairs loudly. we had breakfast here. toast and fried huevos. staff speaks no english, so i hope my rosetta stone pays off. i was surprised at how much i could understand or make my self understood. Tracey is basically at the mercy of my translation, which is good enough to be dangerous... we met one other family from France who are adopting 3 kiddos. they speak a little english and spanish, so together we are trying to communicate. It reminds me of dances with wolves and kevin costner trying to speak to the tribe. They showed us the local atm and grocery store. we took out some money, but still trying to figure out how much i was charged. we get picked up later today at 2pm to go back to the airport to fly to Monteria, where we will be the majority of our stay. Then on Monday we meet Ruben at the "Encuentro" meeting. Will post later...

Ruben

Well, two weeks and closing into our journey to Colombia. I thought I would attach the latest picture we have of Ruben. He is in the same clothes as the last picture we recieved, but his hair is all shaved off. He is still smiling, so this is a good sign. Tonight we had our 2hr phone call meeting with our adoption agency. I didn't think it would actually take two hours, but it went the whole time. Pretty much a run down of paperwork we needed, and step by step process of the general routine, but this is an international adoption and in a different country. Things are bound to be a little off routine. Tracey and I are excited, scared, and nervous all at the same time. We are looking forward to meeting our new son, but yet sad to leave our girls and family behind. It kind of reminds me of college, and studying and stuffing as much information into my brain as possible before the test. The difference, is in college you took the test and then could talk to someone in english about it. This will be a 5 week test with not many people speaking the same language to ask how you are doing afterwards.

Travel Date...

We finally have a set travel date of September 24th! We took our last summer weekend getaway over the labor day holiday to visit family and friends in Boise (Go Broncos...) We got the confirmation call about half way between Billings and Boise. I don't even know how we got cell service, but very glad we did. It's confirmed. We have an Encuentro date on Sept. 26th (this is the date that the Colombian officials bring us Ruben). We drove straight to the Boise airport to firm up our tickets. This took about an hour. Delta has an "adoption rate ticket", most delta staff don't even know what this is, because it is very rare and complicated. The wait was worth it, as the two round trip tickets for Tracey and I and a one way ticket for Ruben saved us about 1/2 the price. Well worth the wait, also it is %100 flexible, so we can change the date if we happen to get done sooner. Wishful thinking I am sure. We booked our return ticket for 5 weeks as instructed. As soon as we finished with our tickets, it was off to the nearest Fed ex, so that we could send passports and other necessary documents to the consulate in San Francisco. We hope that this is a speedy process and we get our travel visa's and passports back in a week. Much preperation and packing to do. Stay posted. the adventure is about to begin...

Size Doesn't Matter...

The girls and I got in one last excursion before school starts. We drove up the beartooth highway and dipped down into Wyoming and fished one of the mountain lakes. Tenley, Bree and I had a blast. It wasn't about size or who caught the biggest fish. This was about spending a little time together and teaching the girls some basics on casting and reeling in fish. The girls caught a half dozen little brooke trout. Getting up early at the crack of dawn paid off.

On the adoption front, we found out that USCIS (immigration) approved our paperwork on the 15th, slightly quicker then usual. Now they send a wire or something to Colombia, where we wait another 3-4 weeks for the "article 5". Not really sure what that means, but that is the next hurdle we await. Then, we can get a travel date 3-4 weeks after that and apply for the adoption visa in San Francisco. Looking like early to mid October to travel to Colombia. It has been such a long up and down process, but it is kind of exciting to think we will finally get to meet Ruben soon.

Immigration Paperwork

Well our I-800 paperwork was sent to USCIS on Friday. Hopefully, everything goes smoothly. we did receive notice that Colombia only sent scanned copies of Ruben's file, and not the original paperwork. We hope this was just an oversight, as we will need it to apply for our Colombian adoption visa. However, we can't do that until we have a travel date. Still looking like October to travel. As much as we would love to go now to pick up Ruben, we feel like we are not anywhere near ready. Do you ever feel ready? Our girls really don't have a clue as to understanding that mom and dad are going to be gone for a month. Their aunt has offered to stay the majority of the time at our home, and get them onto the bus during the week. This will be really nice, as to not disturb their routine too much. The local bookstore "Borders" is going out of business. We are eyeballing a few key books on Colombia for our trip. Otherwise, nothing too new to report. Off to listen to more Rosetta Stone...

Referral !!!

We have been waiting along time to publish this post. REFERRAL!!! As many of you know, we have been reviewing information on a little boy from Colombia for a few months. We asked to be matched with him back in May and finally received the email from our social worker, that he "Ruben" has been assigned to us. It has taken along time to get our paperwork from the main ICBF office to the region, and having both places approve the assignment. Now we wait some more. All of Ruben's information will be gathered and sent to our social worker, translated, and then off to us. Then we start filling out the Hague paperwork and narrow down to a travel date. We will wait to send our official acceptance letter and receive our designation letter before publishing pictures and specifics on Ruben. We will be headed to Monteria to meet our little guy. At this point, it looks like October to travel. We were hoping for August, but timing isn't always in our favor. Sacrifices will be made, and we are very greatful for family and friends to help with our girls during our time away. Dad is glad he was able to hunt several days last year, because this year it looks like hunting season is in Colombia. It will be well worth it.