From Florencia
Sorry we haven’t been unable to update! Florencia is everything you would imagine a tropical Latin American city to be, and there isn’t all that much internet access. More on all that later…
But first, someone wants to say hello: “Hola this is Johanna!” (Which was a major feat, because she knows a few words, is VERY shy about using them, and she types with two fingers!)
Kelly Johanna has been with us for a whole night, after we picked her up at ICBF yesterday morning at 7:00. It was a very interesting experience, meeting the people who have worked for so long to look after KJ and find her a new family. We met her social worker, her ICBF representative, and the manager of the Florencia ICBF office. They were very pleased with the letters Braden and Joie sent her, and even though the email we exchanged was apparently “forbidden” (a very frightening word when you’re sitting around a round table at 7:00 in the morning with five or six people who are connecting you to your new daughter) they thought that was good, too.
Shortly, they showed Kelly Johanna in. Difficult to describe the experience—maybe Joie will be better at it. I thought: Holy cow! She’s a fully grown young woman! We had been forewarned that Colombian girls mature fast, and can now believe it. This was amplified by her effort to look “pretty” for her new mami and papi, and by the fact that she’s actually 2 inches taller than Braden. But she’s really just a shy, giggly 12-year-old girl, as we found out two hours later when we all went swimming.
It was an interesting experience, this first day of getting to know each other. It was possibly compounded by Georgia falling into the pool, and Joie dropping—in the midst of rushing to get Georgia—our handheld translator into the water. Needless to say, the translator is not “transducil” any more. It was a mildly alarming experience, especially as we four were arrayed around her to keep it from happening and it happened anyway!
Over the course of the day we showed her pictures on the computer, watched the “Finding Nemo” DVD with Spanish subtitles, and she discovered Braden’s Gameboy, which she has now totally taken over. In the afternoon we went for a walk in Florencia with our translator, a very bright young guy named Carlos, and his wife Sylvia. He is an engineering consultant and owns and internet café here in town. We saw the thing I most wanted to see, the Plaza San Francisco and its imposing Cathedral of Lourdes. We went to a pastry shop (Georgia LOVED this: “Me want CAKE!”) and I had “oat milk,”” which is much tastier than it sounds.
Just a quick insert from Joie (or Johanna Marie), meeting our daughter was definitely something words can’t describe. Here you are “accepting” your new daughter with 6 people standing around watching you, fortunately they were all laughing and smiling! We were accepted, as it turned out! Kelly Johanna (yes, it is Johanna, officially) is quite a young lady!!! She adores her brother and her sister and has no problems attaching herself to either, and they seem have to accepted her without reservation! She comes with the clothes she was wearing, her school records (she’s an “honor” student!), pictures of herself and friends and foster family. She has a beautiful smile and laughs without reservation ~ God has blessed us more than we thought possible! Note to Poppa: Pink High Tops- sz. 8. Momma Sue: Like Mother, like daughter ~ mittens and gloves – she gets COLD even when it’s 80+ degrees!!!!! (her hands are about my size, probably a “med” if you can still find them.)
About Georgia falling in the pool, one of my worst nightmares!!! She decided to walk the ledge (against the wall) of about 2-3 edges and as I was running to get to her, she fell. Here are 4 able bodied people all around her and none of us could get to her fast enough……she recovered after a minute or two and has been back in swimming like a fish!
I love watching my two oldest ~ I think there is a very strong bond forming even now. Johanna keeps herself close to Braden at all times and we have some great pictures of the two of them ~ best friends already!
Michael Here Again: It’s now day three of our life as a family of five. (We didn’t get a chance to post yesterday, either, but I have an appointment in 2 hours where I should have access.) Yesterday was busy again. First, we had a noon appointment here in the hotel with Kelly Johanna’s counselor from the “defender of Families” office, Dr. Montoya. She’s a great lady who has been with Kelly for 5 years, so she cares a great deal for her. She calls her “Mi angel,” or “My angel.” The purpose of the meeting was to see how Kelly was adjusting to us, and vice-versa. We showed her some pictures of Kelly smiling and playing in the pool with Braden and Georgia, and that seemed to make her happy. Carlos our translator was with us, and Joie and Dr. Montoya had an animated and emotional discussion around the experience of telling Kelly that a family in America wanted to adopt her. After so long! Neither Kelly nor Dr. Montoya thought, I think, that she would be adopted at her age. Anyway, that meeting went well.
At 2:30 we had a doctor’s appointment, where Kelly was examined while Georgia, Braden, and I played in the courtyard during a tropical rain shower. The kids waiting at the doctor’s office seemed fascinated by Georgia! She sat on a little slide/gym and they surrounded her like a blond-haired princess. I think she loved it, because she just stayed there at the top of the slide for a long time, looking at them around her.
After that, we had to go to the courthouse to sign the initial paperwork. There’s a lot of detail here, but basically: There is supposed to be a five-day period between the first visit and the decree, but that would mean that we couldn’t get back to Bogota until maybe Tuesday, which might have been too little time to get done what needed to get done and get our current flights. Our lawyer, Oscar (who was recently a mayoral candidate for Florencia) is pulling all kinds of strings to get the time shortened so we can fly back to Bogota Saturday, relax, and get our final embassy paperwork and Kelly’s U.S. passport.
Later still: after swimming for an hour, we met Carlos in the lobby at 7:00. Sylvia had invited us to her mother’s house for a dinner of pizza. So with Carlos translating we answered all sorts of questions about what we thought of Colombia and why we wanted to adopt one of their daughters… they were very supportive and kind, though. Of course the neighbors (who are Sylvia’s sisters) were there, as the houses are literally right next to each other. Sitting in front of the house with our pizza, we could talk to neighbors who were leaning over the fence cooing at Georgia.
Georgia! She was impossible. She was shy, but when she realized she was the blond-headed center of precocious attention she turned into a low-grade terror. (Sylvia likes us, I think, but LOVES Georgia. I suspect she invited us so her family could see the “little blonde girl.” I have seen no other blonde in all of Florencia.) She had me running around after her, and when I threw her up in the air a few times (huge mistake!) she could say nothing but “Again! Again!” Pretty soon everyone was laughing and saying “Otro vez! Otro vez!” (“Again! Again!”) Then she wanted to run and hide in the neighbors landscaping across the alley and wouldn’t come out… Grrrrr.
All of this happened at various spots across Florencia, so I feel compelled to try and describe this place. I’ll try to do it with as few words as possible: Hot. It’s 84 in our hotel room at 8:00 in the morning. Muggy. Tropical rain showers. Tight. Everything is built right next to everything else, as if the builders were afraid of having any open space between things. Noisy. Buses and trucks and taxis and mopeds (Braden rode with Carlos on the back of his moped yesterday, and Joie LET him do it!) everywhere. Also stick-thin donkeys pulling flatbed carts with sacks of rice, concrete, or fruit, driven by boys or old men. Tropical fruit for sale everywhere: I actually saw a real live starfruit tree yesterday.
Lizards, huge moths (“Mariposa” says Kelly Johanna), hundreds of circling vultures she calls “chullo.” NO HOT WATER. Anywhere. Nowhere in the city. It makes for interesting showers. Great meals (Joie didn’t eat the beef tongue we had for lunch yesterday. ) Very engaging and warmhearted people.
So as you can see, we have not followed the advice to stay in our hotel. Who can stay in a hot stuffy hotel for one week with two pre-teens and a toddler? Madness!
Kelly Johanna is, in all respects, typical pre-teen. She likes MTV in Spanish, dancing, eating, and swimming.
[Now at the Internet café, getting ready to upload.] We hope to be home as scheduled, but everything here runs on Latin American time. In Bogota we will have high-speed access and can update you on all the details of the adoption process.
That’s all for now. We’re thinking of all of you, constantly.
PS: The translator dried out and is working now. Hooray! (But Carlos has no fear of losing his job.)
But first, someone wants to say hello: “Hola this is Johanna!” (Which was a major feat, because she knows a few words, is VERY shy about using them, and she types with two fingers!)
Kelly Johanna has been with us for a whole night, after we picked her up at ICBF yesterday morning at 7:00. It was a very interesting experience, meeting the people who have worked for so long to look after KJ and find her a new family. We met her social worker, her ICBF representative, and the manager of the Florencia ICBF office. They were very pleased with the letters Braden and Joie sent her, and even though the email we exchanged was apparently “forbidden” (a very frightening word when you’re sitting around a round table at 7:00 in the morning with five or six people who are connecting you to your new daughter) they thought that was good, too.
Shortly, they showed Kelly Johanna in. Difficult to describe the experience—maybe Joie will be better at it. I thought: Holy cow! She’s a fully grown young woman! We had been forewarned that Colombian girls mature fast, and can now believe it. This was amplified by her effort to look “pretty” for her new mami and papi, and by the fact that she’s actually 2 inches taller than Braden. But she’s really just a shy, giggly 12-year-old girl, as we found out two hours later when we all went swimming.
It was an interesting experience, this first day of getting to know each other. It was possibly compounded by Georgia falling into the pool, and Joie dropping—in the midst of rushing to get Georgia—our handheld translator into the water. Needless to say, the translator is not “transducil” any more. It was a mildly alarming experience, especially as we four were arrayed around her to keep it from happening and it happened anyway!
Over the course of the day we showed her pictures on the computer, watched the “Finding Nemo” DVD with Spanish subtitles, and she discovered Braden’s Gameboy, which she has now totally taken over. In the afternoon we went for a walk in Florencia with our translator, a very bright young guy named Carlos, and his wife Sylvia. He is an engineering consultant and owns and internet café here in town. We saw the thing I most wanted to see, the Plaza San Francisco and its imposing Cathedral of Lourdes. We went to a pastry shop (Georgia LOVED this: “Me want CAKE!”) and I had “oat milk,”” which is much tastier than it sounds.
Just a quick insert from Joie (or Johanna Marie), meeting our daughter was definitely something words can’t describe. Here you are “accepting” your new daughter with 6 people standing around watching you, fortunately they were all laughing and smiling! We were accepted, as it turned out! Kelly Johanna (yes, it is Johanna, officially) is quite a young lady!!! She adores her brother and her sister and has no problems attaching herself to either, and they seem have to accepted her without reservation! She comes with the clothes she was wearing, her school records (she’s an “honor” student!), pictures of herself and friends and foster family. She has a beautiful smile and laughs without reservation ~ God has blessed us more than we thought possible! Note to Poppa: Pink High Tops- sz. 8. Momma Sue: Like Mother, like daughter ~ mittens and gloves – she gets COLD even when it’s 80+ degrees!!!!! (her hands are about my size, probably a “med” if you can still find them.)
About Georgia falling in the pool, one of my worst nightmares!!! She decided to walk the ledge (against the wall) of about 2-3 edges and as I was running to get to her, she fell. Here are 4 able bodied people all around her and none of us could get to her fast enough……she recovered after a minute or two and has been back in swimming like a fish!
I love watching my two oldest ~ I think there is a very strong bond forming even now. Johanna keeps herself close to Braden at all times and we have some great pictures of the two of them ~ best friends already!
Michael Here Again: It’s now day three of our life as a family of five. (We didn’t get a chance to post yesterday, either, but I have an appointment in 2 hours where I should have access.) Yesterday was busy again. First, we had a noon appointment here in the hotel with Kelly Johanna’s counselor from the “defender of Families” office, Dr. Montoya. She’s a great lady who has been with Kelly for 5 years, so she cares a great deal for her. She calls her “Mi angel,” or “My angel.” The purpose of the meeting was to see how Kelly was adjusting to us, and vice-versa. We showed her some pictures of Kelly smiling and playing in the pool with Braden and Georgia, and that seemed to make her happy. Carlos our translator was with us, and Joie and Dr. Montoya had an animated and emotional discussion around the experience of telling Kelly that a family in America wanted to adopt her. After so long! Neither Kelly nor Dr. Montoya thought, I think, that she would be adopted at her age. Anyway, that meeting went well.
At 2:30 we had a doctor’s appointment, where Kelly was examined while Georgia, Braden, and I played in the courtyard during a tropical rain shower. The kids waiting at the doctor’s office seemed fascinated by Georgia! She sat on a little slide/gym and they surrounded her like a blond-haired princess. I think she loved it, because she just stayed there at the top of the slide for a long time, looking at them around her.
After that, we had to go to the courthouse to sign the initial paperwork. There’s a lot of detail here, but basically: There is supposed to be a five-day period between the first visit and the decree, but that would mean that we couldn’t get back to Bogota until maybe Tuesday, which might have been too little time to get done what needed to get done and get our current flights. Our lawyer, Oscar (who was recently a mayoral candidate for Florencia) is pulling all kinds of strings to get the time shortened so we can fly back to Bogota Saturday, relax, and get our final embassy paperwork and Kelly’s U.S. passport.
Later still: after swimming for an hour, we met Carlos in the lobby at 7:00. Sylvia had invited us to her mother’s house for a dinner of pizza. So with Carlos translating we answered all sorts of questions about what we thought of Colombia and why we wanted to adopt one of their daughters… they were very supportive and kind, though. Of course the neighbors (who are Sylvia’s sisters) were there, as the houses are literally right next to each other. Sitting in front of the house with our pizza, we could talk to neighbors who were leaning over the fence cooing at Georgia.
Georgia! She was impossible. She was shy, but when she realized she was the blond-headed center of precocious attention she turned into a low-grade terror. (Sylvia likes us, I think, but LOVES Georgia. I suspect she invited us so her family could see the “little blonde girl.” I have seen no other blonde in all of Florencia.) She had me running around after her, and when I threw her up in the air a few times (huge mistake!) she could say nothing but “Again! Again!” Pretty soon everyone was laughing and saying “Otro vez! Otro vez!” (“Again! Again!”) Then she wanted to run and hide in the neighbors landscaping across the alley and wouldn’t come out… Grrrrr.
All of this happened at various spots across Florencia, so I feel compelled to try and describe this place. I’ll try to do it with as few words as possible: Hot. It’s 84 in our hotel room at 8:00 in the morning. Muggy. Tropical rain showers. Tight. Everything is built right next to everything else, as if the builders were afraid of having any open space between things. Noisy. Buses and trucks and taxis and mopeds (Braden rode with Carlos on the back of his moped yesterday, and Joie LET him do it!) everywhere. Also stick-thin donkeys pulling flatbed carts with sacks of rice, concrete, or fruit, driven by boys or old men. Tropical fruit for sale everywhere: I actually saw a real live starfruit tree yesterday.
Lizards, huge moths (“Mariposa” says Kelly Johanna), hundreds of circling vultures she calls “chullo.” NO HOT WATER. Anywhere. Nowhere in the city. It makes for interesting showers. Great meals (Joie didn’t eat the beef tongue we had for lunch yesterday. ) Very engaging and warmhearted people.
So as you can see, we have not followed the advice to stay in our hotel. Who can stay in a hot stuffy hotel for one week with two pre-teens and a toddler? Madness!
Kelly Johanna is, in all respects, typical pre-teen. She likes MTV in Spanish, dancing, eating, and swimming.
[Now at the Internet café, getting ready to upload.] We hope to be home as scheduled, but everything here runs on Latin American time. In Bogota we will have high-speed access and can update you on all the details of the adoption process.
That’s all for now. We’re thinking of all of you, constantly.
PS: The translator dried out and is working now. Hooray! (But Carlos has no fear of losing his job.)
posted by Michael Thelander at 9:31 AM
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