I have to say it was a good day

Posted on January 28, 2010 by NotoriousMLE

In all the excitement I forgot to mention that I’ve been spouting “travel advice” about Bogota all week over at “Raising Colombian Kids” to see the photos that Elian and I wandered around snapping of his beautiful hometown click here. God-willing today we will be at the Embassy finishing up the last details for Elian’s visa. We are currently experiencing a ridiculous technical problem that might prevent us from getting his visa on time to leave tomorrow night. Please pray that this will get resolved for us. Arnold and Carmen have to leave tomorrow night regardless of what happens and just the idea of having to make the 13 hour trip back by myself with Elian makes me break out in hives.

Okay. I will now take a break from freaking out to share some pictures. Unlike today monday was a happy day. We’d like to share it with you. In order to be fancy I will call this a photo-documentary!

In the morning we got finally got the CALL!

Elian and I do a Happy Dance. Yay! Soon we'll legally be a family!

We got together with our top-notch legal team! At a cafe of course... please this is Bogota!

The courthouse was dissapointingly pedestrian. No bench! No gavel. No judge! Just a ton of people going to family court to get divorced. Boo!

If court was boring getting Elian's new birth certificate with our names ROCKED! Our lawyer is greeted like a movie star at every bureaucratic office in Bogota. He is the kinder-gentler Ari Gold of the adoption world. And the icing on the cake? The lady that processed us said "I remember that little boy! He was one month old when we did his original birth certificate. Say hi to him for me!"

Good News=Celebrating at Crepes and Waffles. Elian enjoyed the crayons. We enjoyed getting to eat without drama. I love you Crepes. Truely. Madly. Deeply.

YAY! We are a family!

SENTENCIA!

Posted on January 26, 2010 by NotoriousMLE

Yesterday we signed some very important papers. Today I am very happy to introduce you to our son Elian Emmanuel. Thank you to each and every person who cared for us, prayed for us and encouraged us through this strange, difficult and wonderful journey. We love you all.

Sincerely, The Perez Family

Crossing the Street and Sentencia Update

Posted on January 25, 2010 by NotoriousMLE

Woo-hoo! At some point a few weeks ago I packed Elian in the Ergo and we went out to hit the streets in search of pics for a new series of Travel Tips for Raising Colombian Kids. It’s called Bogota for Beginners. Alliteration! Fancy! Today I blogged about Crossing the Street. Seriously I wrote a whole blog about crossing the streets in Bogota. Check it out here.

Last Friday we found out that our documents had been reviewed, approved and returned to the judge. Now there are two steps left 1) The judge must sign the papers and then 2) We will be called to court to sign the papers which will legally finalize the adoption. DUM DUM DUM! Our facilitator reports that she is “extremely surprised” at how quickly the process has gone. I hope that as you read this blog entry that we are signing those papers.

As I write this blog we’re getting ready to enjoy a lovely goodbye dinner of Paella for Andres’ mother at Maritza’s parents house. It is a wonderful drizzly grey day in Bogota. Maritza’s parents house is a paradise of wi-fi and extra adults to entertain Elian. Loves it. Pray that we’ll have good news to share tomorrow…

Yeah that's right. Soon we'll be related all legal-like! Until then we're hanging in La Candelaria.

A few details

Posted on January 21, 2010 by NotoriousMLE

1) Thank you everybody for your kind words and advice from yesterday. I have to be honest and admit that my recent health problems were actually not that bad. Not fun, but still not that bad. Nothing compared to some past “health events”: I’m looking at you Mexico City D.F. and Fiona Rojas-Clancy. Today I’m back on my feet and a steady diet of the two most delicious foods in the world: Saltines and Gatorade. Thank God because today was the day the family was going to force me to go see a doctor.

2) Our internet “friend” is still MIA. His network’s name is Omar. Please come back Omar!!! I need to catch up on Modern Family. On the flip side the waiter at the internet cafe is flirting with me. When I greeted him today he said “Oh your hands are so cold! Where’s the baby?” A little weird, but still love the personal attention.

3) And in totally un-related news today we found out today that Bienestar’s Family Defender has 3 days to review the file which means it should be back to the judge by Monday by the latest, perhaps even tomorrow. And then hopefully. Sentencia! And Embassy! And Visa! And back home! Woo-hoo! That’s news good enough to kill any amoebas!

4) And of course… your daily dose of Elian. I would hate to provoke the internet’s wrath by not posting pictures. And by the internet I mean Em D.

Rolling with my homies

Mami may be sick but Elian is just dandy

I'm not sure why everything I do is so funny?

Pensive Elian considers Downtown Bogota

Ups and Downs

Posted on January 20, 2010 by NotoriousMLE

I’ll start with the downs. The guy we’ve been pirating internet from in the apartment is AWOL and my stomach is in a precarious state. This means that everyone and their Mom has been attempting to ply me with various home remedies which is very kind but also extremely annoying. Yesterday I ended up yelling “I’m NEVER going to eat again so leave me alone”. I said this in English and then left the room for my husband to translate. Such good manners I have! No one was deterred by my outburst though, this morning Carmen proposed rubbing holy oil on my stomach.

I am currently hiding out from aforementioned home remedies in the internet cafe across the street.

The good news is that it looks like the court process is going “very well” to quote the very non-specific description of our facilitator. Yesterday we received word that the we had been assigned a court and that the judge had formally accepted all of our documentation as being in order. This is a great relief considering all the drama we had with our delayed FBI clearances. Apparently the judge accepting the documentation is the slowest part of the process. The next step is for our file to be sent back to Bienestar where the Family Defender will do a final review of our case. Then she will send it back for the judge to give us Sentencia. Everyone is demurring on an actual timeline but in our experience Bienestar has been very good about turning stuff around quickly so hopefully we are good to go soon for Sentencia.

And now that I’m done complaining, I’ll give you what really want!

Elian's been learning to sit on the stool by himself. I personally love this activity because it means he sits still for a whole 2 minutes at a time!

Sleeping Baby=Overwhelming Cuteness

Wrangling the wild beast!

Books, books, books

Posted on January 15, 2010 by NotoriousMLE

Today I posted about my FAVORITE adoption related book. It brought out the neglected Sociologist in me. Check it out here. Also, thanks to Carmen I was actually able to read a book for fun in Lebrija. A book, for FUN! I brought “Stern Men” by Elizabeth Gilbert, like everybody else in the world I really liked Eat.Love.Pray which I’d like to mention I read BEFORE the Oprah hoopla way back in 2005. Anyways, “Stern Men” was good, it’s fiction so very different than Eat.Love.Pray obviously but I really liked all the quirky characters and the little peak inside life on the Maine coast that it gives you. Even though it’s set in Maine the detail of each characters personality kind of reminds you of all the crazy people you have in your own life. Click here for more info about the book.