Prayer for My Little Girls

[Jennifer]

Congratulations! So exciting that you will be home soon! Have a safe trip.

[BabeAlert]

Hola, ladies. : ) Thank you.
So we should be flying out Thurs if all goes well. Just a cpl more things to take care of.
Pep...am so NOT looking forward to the now. But, we feel awful for what happened in Chile, hopefully the aftershocks won't be so bad...one of the moms on here lives in Chile, right? I'm sorry, bad with remembering name...prayers to their family.

Thank you for the restaurant recommendation...sounds PERFECT. Think we're going to try and get in this week if we can. I've got a whopper of a cold right now so trying to get over that and get the tastebuds back. ...meanwhile trying not to pass it on to the girls before we have to travel.

Ok, aching head...time to rest up.

[mallow]

I'm glad you're nearly ready to come home. for a speedy, safe trip and that you get better and no one else gets it!

Becky

[Camille]

A cold! That's not what you need right now! lol Hope that goes away quick!

Stephanie (on the forum) is in Chile. She was far enough from the quake not to feel anything. Her family is safe. Her sister & family was much closer but they are all okay too. Thank goodness!

Hope you get to go home so so soon!!

[BabeAlert]

Ok, I'm sure I've overasked already for prayers...but please one more...lol. We're now in the midst of a transit strike here in Bogota, which is not good for the residents and not good for us! The main bus lines have shut down and I think there are some public ones open, but minimal...the taxis are now getting in on the act and today supposedly there will be 21,000 less available. Anyway...it's a long story and trying to explain the traffic here is impossible...it's a very crowded city, which usually enforces driving bans every other day to cut back on the traffic and pollution...they've lifted that now so I'm imagining it's pretty crazy out there today.

We are suppose to go to the Embassy to pick up Helena's visa today...am hoping that hasn't been compromised by this...and then to fly out hopefully Thurs...again...just crossing fingers this doesn't impact our plans.

Pat - last night we tried to make it to the restaurant you suggested....was so excited, but they called shortly before we were going to leave to let us know, no go...their employees were not able to make it in with no transportation. Soo...we probably won't get there afterall. Thanks again for the help, though.
Glad to hear about Stefanie, Camille. Thanks. Sounds like things are still pretty bad there. Our hostess here has a friend who was in the center of it all and she said the best way to describe it is to imagine living inside of a blender for 2 minutes. Their apartment held up, but everytihng that wasn't locked down, smashed to the ground.

[mallow]

Becky

[Annabellz]

Anne

[Camille]

Wow! I hope you get to go home Thursday.

Praying for no delays!

[Pat]

S. I hope you could get to the airport. Belive me, I have seen transit strikes here before, but none as bad and long as this one!!. Oh my, you haven´t been lucky with your staying here ah?!

[PepRMntPatti120]

Welcome Home Sue! Glad to hear you're safe and sound in the comfort of your own home!!!!!

Congratulations on your family of 4!

X O X O

[BabeAlert]

Made it home Thurs. night. : ) Was a longgggg day. We had a ride to the airport so no problems there. And our driver stayed with us until we got to immigration, which helped. Both girls did pretty well on both flights...some ups and downs, but...at that age, to be expected. I think someone's prayers must've helped. Lol. Immigration in the states was really the only nightmare. They held us in a room in Orlando for over two hours and we nearly missed our connecting flight. Thankfully, a very nice gentlemen...not sure if he was a porter or security, but he helped us get our luggage and everything to the next checkpoint, got us to the two shuttles, and gave us a pass so we could bypass the HUGE security line to get back into the terminals. Otherwise, we wouldn't have made it...we got to our plane with five mins. to spare...hubby grabbed two hotdogs and a turkey sandwich...our first meal all day 12 hours into the trip (no thanks to airlines not serving meals anymore)...and we were off. The homecoming was very sweet. Lauren ran to her grandmother and jumped into her arms. Helena did well seeing some new faces. Was just good to be home. I couldn't hold back soem stress tears at that point thinking about how really screwed we would've been without that porter. HOME. Settling in. Two toddlers is another world. Lol. They are doing ok...we took Helena out into the snow yesterday and she loved sledding aound the yard. Touching the cold snow, not so much. Lol.

Pat, hope the strike is OVER soon. As much as we're glad to be home, really love Bogota. It's such an interesting city. Interesting people. Next visit we will meet for sure. Will keep your family in our thoughts, too, for a speedy process. Can't wait to hear about it. : ) Colombian children are so strong of heart. Some of the other older children we met there just amazing. Somehow still smiling and positive after some pretty rough conditions. Ok...trying to pick up the house...guests coming later today!!

[PepRMntPatti120]

Welcome Home!!! So happy for all of you!!!

[mallow]

So happy to hear your home and settling in! Sending prayers for an easy adjustment for all.

Becky

[Pat]

Sue... I`m hoping the adjustment process is smooth for everyone in the family. How are you doing?.

As you say, Colombian children are strong of heart, so many people here are as well, as unfortunately poverty and rough conditions are very common. It is hard to see those things, i remember being touched by adoption very early in my life when my parents belonged to an organization that did some sort of social work. I remember that I was about 7 Y/O and they took me to a very poor orphanage. There was one little child there, a little younger than me, he hugged me so strong!! I still remember I asked my mom to take him home!!. The answer was "we can´t" of course" . I don´t know why, but I have never forgotten that kid.

Hugs to you, Helen and Lauren!

[BabeAlert]

Thanks, Mallow...Pat.

We're settling in great! Today Helena got to meet the rest of my family...and nieces and nephews, etc. It was a great afternoon. She just fit right in and was happier than she knew what to do with. It's such a sweet thing to see my nieces and nephews embrace them and treat them with so much love, too.

Still working out kinks at home, but I'm sure with two toddlers that's the norm with every family! Lol. Honestly, it's been a joy so far. Little tiring, but they are doing well.

It's so hard to describe Colombia/Bogota to Americans. The movies and news make it sound like a war zone. And of course it does have it's dangers, especially for Americans/Europeans...but despite that... I had a conversation today and it comes out sounding like such a contrast when you explain how beautiful and rich the culture is...the scenary...the foods...the people and then also try to explain how despite that, SO MANY people are still starving and living awful lives in the streets/outskirts. How sad, the story about the little boy.
: ( You're right...you meet these kids and you just want to know that they''ll all have a shot.

I don't think I mentioned before, but the night my hubby and I went to Balzak (the night before we finally got to the Candaleria)...after dinner, we were approached by a young man who spoke very fluent English. He told us a long story...he was so smart and seemed nice enough, but he was also selling flowers at 10 o'clock at night and so of course...who knows what the real story is or how he came to know English so well. He was going on and on and finally we shared with him that we we had adopted two little girls and his attitidue suddenly changed. He softened somehow. Just then an older man came over...seemed slightly drunk and cut in asking for money. Now, at this point both our guards went up realizing that one of them might try to be distracting us so the other could make off with my purse or the hubby's wallet. But the young one suddenly looked kind of ashamed? He put his head down and stood still. I told my husband to buy all of his flowers and let's go (there was a cab waiting for us so we didn't feel too threatened). The older guy got really angry at this and said some choice words. I hugged the younger one then and whispered to him that whether or not he had told us the truth we wished him well and hoped he would try hard to get out of his situation. He looked at me and said he would...and we got the heck away from both of them then. I kind of believe that he may have been considering robbing us until he heard about the girls...and didn't want any part of what the older guy was doing. It struck me then that there are soooo many unfortunates out there who live that life...and how awful that maybe he looked at the older guy then and saw himself in another 20 or 30 years. I do wish him well.

It was a disturbing moment, but a reminder of how lucky we are to have what we do...and how fortunate we feel to have the girls safely in our lives. We can't promise them perfect futures, but we're just so happy to get to be a part of their worlds and hopefull watch them grow into beautiful young women.