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!

FANA - Gabi's Home for Three Years

Here's a short, simple video of FANA, the orphanage where Gabi spent the first three years of her life. Daniel and I took the video during our tour on Wednesday. We took it mainly to show Gabi as she gets older, but we thought some of you might like to see it also.

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

Concert in Colombia

Here's a video of a concert that we went to in the courtyard of our apartment complex last Sunday. Gabi has rhythm. The rest of us...not so much. At least we had a good teacher (she makes an appearance at the very end). And sorry about the sound.

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