Home Sweet Home!

We made it! We got home just before midnight on Saturday night. The flights went well, except for a 2 hour delay in Atlanta in which we had to sit on the airplane waiting for a thunderstorm to end. Gabi seemed to enjoy the trip and she loved the welcoming faces when we arrived in Minneapolis. After a good night's sleep, we went to church and Gabriela got to experience her first worship service ever. It was great! We are having a good time introducing her slowly to our neighbors and friends. She seems to be especially comfortable here already, almost more than at the apartment in Colombia, so we think she must sense that we are comfortable here as well. We are getting unpacked, attempting to decrease the mountain of laundry, and David is hard at work making Gabi a new toddler sized crib. We got the health insurance tasks completed and yet another miracle from God...Gabi will be seen by the doctors tomorrow morning to start the process of assessment for all her needs! Here's some more pictures.

Gabi and her serious face.

She can't get enough of babies.

A blast with some fun new jewelry we just got from some friends.

Dress up and pretend fruit cutting.

Practicing ballet.

Nap time with a baby on each arm.

Coming Home!

We booked our tickets to fly home on Saturday! We will fly on Delta Airlines and arrive into Minneapolis/St. Paul at 8:13pm from Atlanta, if all goes well. Friendly faces are welcome to meet us at the baggage claim for a brief moment of hello, but don't feel obligated. Please feel free to hug us (meaning the old Minnesota VanAckers), but keep in mind that this whole day will likely be very overwhelming to Gabi, so we plan to keep contact with her very minimal...lots of smiles and waves will be best for her right now. Thanks for understanding! We hope to see you very soon!

Almost home

Sorry we haven't posted much in a while...been busy getting everything done to come home.

Walking to the park. I was trying to get a picture of that man walking all the dogs. I was impressed with how they all walked so obediently.

Gabi playing with all my kitchen supplies. This is her "job" while I make dinner.

Reading with her big brother.

Monday-

Gabriela and I (Gerri) were escorted to the Colombian passport office where we applied for her new passport. It was a crazy day! When we got to the office it was bursting with people (all of which needed a passport) and every seat was full and lines were out the door. We got in line just to get a number. Adoption passports are a priority, so we were hopeful that it wouldn't take very long. According to the number we got there were 68 other people in front of us! We had no choice but to get comfortable and wait. A few minutes into waiting, a man came out and announced that there was a major computer problem and that everything was shutting down. He said they did not even have phone lines running. He said it was unlikely, but we could check back at the end of the day and see if the system was back up. I looked at Gabi and said "oh man, we need to pray." She immediately folded her fingers and bowed her head! We asked God to give us patience and to help us know what to do next. (It takes 2 days to get a passport and this is just the first step in the process of what we needed to be able to bring Gabi into the US.) I asked our driver if there was anything else we could do in the meantime, so we ended up going up the street to get Gabi's Visa photos taken. As we walked back to the car, we decided to check back at the passport office. The system was back up and running! Praise God! We still had to wait for a few hours, but it went quicker than it would have because many people had left and we were able to complete the application on time.

Tuesday -

We went around getting other documents and appointments finished. It took several hours, but it was nice that everything worked out that we needed to get done.

Today -

Gabriela and I (Gerri) got picked up at 8:30am and we went straight to the passport office to pick up Gabi's new passport. When we got there the office was packed again and every seat was full in the waiting area for "pick-up." Our driver went up to the desk to get a number and when she came back she said we had been given a "priority number" and hopefully it would work. Just then the sign blinked our number and we went to the desk to request pickup! Five minutes later we were on our way to the US Embassy to apply for Gabi's Visa. This was great timing because we had to get to the embassy before 11am in order to apply for a visa. When we got to the embassy, there were more than 3 huge lines out along the streets full of people waiting to request entrance. We were able to show my passport and go right in without waiting. We turned in our paperwork and expected to wait. Thirty minutes later we heard "Parents of Gabriela Liliana VanAcker Rollins please come to the window." There were two quick interviews, some papers to sign and we were done.

I'll make another post for what's up next, in case someone wants to skip all the details and find out when we are coming home!

VanAcker Girls

Gabriela is officially a VanAcker girl!

(I had a request for a few more pictures with me in them, so here you go.)

Sentencia today!

We got a totally unexpected call at lunch today from FANA letting us know that we could come and sign sentencia! This means that our court process is finished! We will hopefully get Gabriela's new birth certificate today (they needed one more signature)and then we can proceed with getting together details to travel home. It will take a few business days to get passport, visa, and go to the embassy doctor's appointment. If all goes smoothly, we could get tickets to fly home mid to late next week!

Another step.

We just heard word that our case was signed and passed along to the last step in the process yesterday. Now the judge has 10 business days to sign the papers and then we can go and sign the sentencia. It feels good to be in the final stage!

A few other exciting notables...Gabi said, "Anna" the other day, so she is now up to three words! She has learned about 25 signs and is using them consistently and rightly. Also we have been waiting for her to give any of us a kiss since day one (0ver a month now). She has allowed us to kiss her cheek, but she has not returned the affection to any human until yesterday. She was being especially close with me and I got down at her level and she gave me two kisses, right on the lips! I could tell she was excited and nervous because her cute little fingers moving back and forth like crazy. There were witnesses present, so we all cheered and hugged her. We hope that this is only the beginning of her trusting and loving us.

Have a good night,

Gerri

Happy Anniversary! #13

Today was a good day. The weather was beautiful and we walked to the park this morning. We went to Crepes and Waffles for some ice cream to celebrate our 13th anniversary. They even had some sugar free strawberry for me!

We were invited to have dinner at "Betty's Place" again, so we walked there to eat and enjoy some time with the families staying there. We had fresh juice, rice that was cooked perfectly, empanadas, beef and beans. It was so delicious and such a treat to not have to cook. I think I (Gerri) might have set a record for number of empanadas eaten...I just had to keep eating them until the cilantro type salsa was completely gone! It was a holiday here today (although no one really seems to be able to tell us what the holiday is!), so the courts were closed. Hopefully they will be up and running again tomorrow and we'll hear more news about our case soon.

Filling our days

Last night we walked down to visit with the families staying at "Betty's Place" again. We went with them to a place they recommended called "Archie's Pizza." It was a very fun time out!

Jeremiah, Daniel and Anna got to make their own pizzas!

All the kids got balloon animals to take home.

Anna helping her sister with lunch.

The girls smelling the beautiful flowers that seem to be everywhere here.

David's favorite part of the day...siesta time!

On to Phase 2!

Good morning!

We heard that our adoption case was admitted to phase 2 (of the three part process) yesterday. Our lawyer was able to speak to the judge and request for understanding about our need to get Gabi home as soon as possible. This is good news! Now we just continue to wait.

More pictures and update later.

~Gerri

Happy Memorial Day

It really didn't seem like Memorial Day, but we got out and enjoyed the weather today. We took a good hike to another park (there are so many here!)

The boys found their first Colombian Geocache.

Climbing at the park.

The girls on a merry-go-round with seat belts.

Gabi on another neat swing.

Posing during a break.

A teeter totter built for two!

We got some hamburgers for dinner since we would have liked to be grilling today.

We are a little sad to report that we heard today that we have still not passed phase one of the court process. That's all we know about that!

Thanks for continuing to pray. Gabi has been a little congested the last day and a half. We are watching her closely and hoping so much that she will continue to stay well.

We hope you all had a great memorial day!

~Gerri

More pictures

Gabi and Anna taking care of their babies.

A butterfly they caught at the park.

Gabi loves pretending to take care of babies, pretend food and dishes. She will be a great helper to me at home I'm sure.

First trial run with having an "at home date time." David and I got to hang out while the kids watched a cartoon. It was pretty successful, so we might try it again.

Anna's Perspective

Anna Naomi VanAcker - 3 years old

We have gotten the opportunity to continue being a part of our church while we are here in Colombia by using skype on Sunday mornings. It has been great to hear the sermons and feel a small sense of worshiping together. It has also been an added blessing to say "hi" to friends via skype after the service. Last Sunday, after the service was finished, Anna was particularly emotional. I asked her what she was feeling and she said, "I'm glad we came to Colombia to get our sister, but I'm just so sad that we can never go to our church again. I just miss our church so much." Apparently, she thought that when we made the decision to adopt Gabriela that we were committing to moving here to live with her! I explained to her that we would only be staying in Colombia until the adoption was finished and then we would be returning home to Minnesota and our church. She cheered up at this news and immediately began collecting a notebook, paper, and several pencils. She climbed up on the bed next to me where I had been reading and starting making herself busy with all her supplies. I asked her what she was doing and she said, "I'm ready." I said, "Ready for what?" She said, "I'm ready to help you with all the paperwork we need to do to go home." I laughed so hard realizing that she thought that all the paperwork I had to do before we could leave for Colombia also needed to be done in order to get home!

One another note...Anna was excited to go on our tour of FANA the other day. On the drive there she asked if it was ok if we could bring home another sister. I guess that is a good sign that she is enjoying the one she has!

~Gerri

Sleep! Praise Report

Thank you all for praying and for your encouragement and support in trying to help Gabi fall asleep. I was able to speak to the head nurse at FANA and she gave us some insight into the situation. After talking to this nurse, she said that Gabi usually goes in her crib every night at 7pm and then takes however long she needs to fall asleep...usually 1-2 hours! She suggested we try the crib. (There must have been some miscommunication because we thought we were told that she would climb out of a crib.) We have done this for 2 nights now and it is working well! The first night she went right in the crib without being upset at all. She laughed and babbled for about a 1/2 hour and then fussed for a minute or two and went to sleep! Last night she cried for a minute or two and laid right down and went to sleep! Apparently she wasn't ready for the freedom of being in a bed yet and I was probably making it harder for her to fall asleep because she was loving all the attention. We are so thankful to have found something that will work for everyone (at least for the time being). In order to make sure we are still getting snuggle time with her we are laying down with her at nap time and holding her for a while just before bedtime. All of which seems to be going just fine.

Tour of FANA

Jeremiah, Anna, and I (Gerri) got to go for a visit to FANA today. David and Daniel stayed "home" with Gabi. (They will get to go on the tour another time.) FANA is the institution that Gabriela lived in for the first 3 years of her life. It seemed much like a school building to us. There were many rooms, with many women, babies, and children all busy with their daily activities of life. We got to see where Gabriela spent her days and meet the women who cared for her so well. We could see that there has been much effort to promote the well-being of children here and how support from Friends of FANA Minnesota, over the years, has done so much! There were many hugs and tears as we thanked everyone and promised to do our best to love and care for Gabi.

This is a view from the back of the building.

This is one of the girl's rooms. This picture shows half of the cribs in the room.

There are rooms on the other side for boys.

One of these beds was probably Gabriela's!

This is where daily showers took place.

The rest of the pictures we took either didn't turn out, or they have children, etc. that can not be posted on our blog. Sorry! We will enjoy showing them to Gabi as she gets older. If you would like to learn more about FANA, you can visit the website at http://www.fundacionfana.org/

Adoption Process Update

The way we understand things, we have 3 steps that need to be completed before we can get Gabi's visa and bring her home. Each step requires a different person in the court system to sign or approve that step. Each person has a certain amount of time to complete their step (up to 10 days). We hope to hear something about step 1 this week. In the meantime, we are staying busy and growing as a family. We are enjoying our time here (for the most part!) and looking for ways that God would use this time for His glory. This week we look forward to a tour of FANA and seeing where Gabi spent the first 3 years of her life.

Prayer request: Overall, Gabi is doing very well and we just love having her! One area that I continue to pray about is her sleep. She sleeps very well once she is asleep, but getting her to fall asleep at bedtime has been a challenge. She seems comfortable and is not upset, but she just can't fall asleep it seems. It has been taking 1-2 hours many nights. As I lay there with her I have been asking God for wisdom as to how best to help her. Staying up until 9:30-10pm is not good for her (especially when she gets up at 5:30 sometimes!) and it is getting hard for me as well.

~Gerri

A new park

We spent a good part of the day Saturday at Polo Park. (Thanks Christophersons for letting us know about it!)

It was a beautiful day!

Court # 7!

We heard today that we were assigned to court number 7. It is said that court #7 is a "good" court, not the fastest, but not the slowest. "Good" can also mean "in favor" of adoption. We continue to pray for God's perfect timing, that we would enjoy our time here together and that Gabi would continue to stay healthy. So far, so good! Thank you God!

Here are some more pictures.

Gabi and Anna taking their first nap together! Up until this point we have had Gabi in our room, but now we think they might be ready to make the transition into roommates, at least for nap time. It went well. They both fell asleep and and slept for 2 hours.

Gabi wearing a hat of a boy we met.

We went to "Betty's Place" the other night for dinner. There were 3 other families that are here for adoption staying there. We enjoyed an amazing Colombian dinner and hung out with the families there. We hope to do it again soon!

Last hugs with Papa before bed.

Jeremiah and Daniel using their free time to get a little silly. This was the sign they hung on their door. Don't worry, David and I started charging for entrance to the kitchen (200 Pesos). It works out just about right!

Gabi playing in the rocks. We aren't sure if this is a cheerleading stance or if she might eventually try the hurdles.

Anna looks up from playing too.