Visas and a Poisoned Burrito

We have our Special Visitor Visas! 

We left on Thursday morning to make our way towards Chicago.  On our way, we stopped to stay with my sister, Vicki, who lives north of Milwaukee.  We rarely make it down to southern Wisconsin, and were so glad to get to see Vicki and her little dog, Patches.  We went out for dinner at a microbrewery, and had some great beer and some...poisoned burritos!  Well, Jason was the only one of us to get a "poisoned" burrito, but the poor guy really took a beating over the next 24 hours.  Jason later said to me, "In retrospect, about half-way through the burrito, I looked at it and thought something maybe wasn't quite right.  But I finished it anyways."  What?!  Oh no!!  I guess he must have been REALLY hungry!

Anyways, Jason spent the rest of the night and the following day recovering from the after-effects of the "poisoned burrito".  Food poisoning is never fun, but when you are traveling, and when you are a guest in another person's home, it is just so much worse.  We still had a very nice visit with Vicki, who was a gracious and sympathetic hostess, and left on Friday morning to make our way to Chicago.

Once we were in Chicago, everything went smoothly.  For others who may drive down there for visas, we had no problems at all.  The Intercontinental Hotel is directly across the street from the Colombian Consulate office, and they provide valet parking for a discounted rate - $14.00.  Pull your car up right to the front of the hotel (we had to go around the block to get on the correct side of the street), and they will take care of your vehicle.  Be sure to bring your valet ticket stub over to the Consulate building, and have it stamped by the security person in the front lobby right as you come in the building (without the stamp, the parking cost would be $36.00).   

We signed in and went up to the Colombian Consulate office.  We were expecting a crowded office, but there were maybe only 5 other people waiting there.  We were one hour early (we allowed extra time since you never know how traffic will be in the city), and we came in and just took a seat.  They have 3 windows, and visas are issued from "Ventanilla 1".  The woman behind the window called our names, we gave her all of our paperwork, and she told us that our visas would be ready in 30 minutes.  After about 20 minutes she called us back to the window, handed us our visas, and wished us the best of luck.  Piece of cake...it was easier than the DMV!

It does pay to have your paperwork organized and fully completed when you present it at the Consulate however.  For example, the guy in front of us was a wreck...disorganized, missing certain documents, filled things out incorrectly, etc, and his experience seemed much more painful than it had to be.  The woman kept sending him to the back of the line until he could get it together.  Good thing for him, Jason and I were the only other people in the line!




Us in Chicago


After we had our visas, we decided to head back out of town.  While our parking was good for 3 hours and we could have had a little bit of fun in Chicago, Jason just wasn't feeling up to it...thanks a lot, Poisoned Burrito!!  So, we scooted out of town and headed up to see our friends, Steve, Julie, and their son Calvin, who live near Madison.  Jason and Steve were roommates in college and we are usually able to get together once a year.  Our adventures these days are a lot tamer than they used to be, but always just as much fun...we have traded Recovery Room karaoke for watching "Cars" and eating chocolate chip cookies with Calvin!

Since things had gone so quickly in Chicago, we arrived at Steve and Julie's earlier than expected, and spent about an hour hanging out with their child-care provider, her 2 sons (ages 6 and 8) and Calvin (2 years old).  Talk about a preview of things to come...3 little boys racing laps around the house, yelling, giggling, sometimes bickering, and just being BOYS.  The *best* part was when the middle boy crashed a dump-truck into his older brother's ankle, and the oldest boy let out a few choice words.  (Note:  I say *best* since we weren't the ones to have to handle the discipline, and could just sit back in a state of over-stimulated amusement).  Jason and I looked at each other, took a big gulp, and kind of giggled.  We have since both agreed to really treasure our quiet times together in the next 2 weeks!

We had a great visit with our friends, even though Jason had to go to bed by 7:30...thanks again, Poisoned Burrito!  In the morning, Calvin was the star of a home video demonstrating how to use a car-seat.  We'll show it to the boys so that they know what to expect when they have to sit in a booster/car seat themselves, plus they will get an intro to our awesome friends.




Jason and Calvin...shouldn't you be IN the car, Calvin???


We headed back to good old Minnesota yesterday, and made it home by about dinner time.  Two visas in our possession, two great visits had with freinds and family...I guess it wasn't such a bad thing to have our travel dates pushed back after all.  Thanks Vicki, Steve, Julie, and Calvin for making our trip so much fun!! 

Hitting the Ice

Jason had the bug this past weekend to go ice fishing.  We woke up Sunday morning to a temperature of -10 degrees at home...and our fishing destination 3 hours north of here was about -25 degrees.  Sound crazy?  Just a little.  I think I had 6 layers on my top half alone (I am not kidding...I could hardly move!).

We packed up the truck, picked up our friend Tom, and headed for the Gunflint Trail.  Needless to say, we were the only people on the lake.  Ruby had a blast running around like a maniac, until her dog-booties froze solid, that is.  Poor little girl!  Ruby spent most of her time in the portable shack with me, in front of the heater.  Jason and Tom toughed it out on the ice, with short stretches in the shack to warm up.  In the end, we got skunked - not even a nibble.  Better luck next time, eh?





No News

Not too much has been happening here...just getting through January and counting down the days until we travel (25 to go!).  We haven't gotten any updates on the boys, and are thinking that we probably won't hear anything before we travel.  Kind of a bummer, but what can you do?

We did get a general update from our agency about the Colombia adoption program.  Apparently, the representative in Colombia that Lutheran Social Services has used for many years will be on temporary leave while we are down there.  Of course, they have identified a fill-in representative, and hopefully the change in personnel won't cause any difficulties for us...keeping our fingers crossed.

Nothing else to report as of now.  Just enjoying a little bit of down-time before things ramp up again!

Pain in the Knee

I have been out of sorts this week.  Now that we have had some breathing room added to our schedule, I have seemed to flounder somewhat.  I guess I am kind of in a funk...trying to regroup and work my way out of it. 

It may sound strange, but a big part of my problem is that I "tweaked" my knee in the beginning of December.  Nothing grand - no fall, trauma, or anything like that.  It just sort of started hurting, and I have been quite limited in my activities ever since then.  Oh, I can still walk around just fine, but what is really killing me is that I can no longer do anything strenuous.  I can't snowshoe in the woods with Ruby, I don't even dream of going skiing, and I can't work out anymore...and herein lies the real source of my angst.  Call me crazy, but I love working out.  I take all of the stress, worries, and negative feelings I may have, and pour them out into a really challenging workout.  I beat it out on the elliptical machine, or crush it with the weights.  In the end I always feel better, and you just can't beat the endorphin rush.  But for the past 2 months...no exercise...no physical release...no endorphins.  :(   Add the holidays and lots of decadent food in the mix, and now it really gets depressing.  Remember those tight pants I mentioned a few posts ago?  Exactly. 

I have had 2 trips to the doctor, and am planning to start P.T. next week.  At first, we thought the injury was no big deal, and that a little rest and stretching would take care of the issue.  While the knee is better than it was in December, it still nags at me any time I do anything more than walk on a level surface.  I am hopefull that the PT will help though, and at least get me back to a point of having no pain.  I anticipate a long, slow recovery, and patience is not my strongest suit...but what can you do?

On the adoption front...  We have re-booked our travel tickets to Colombia.  Our travel agent is a genius, and we will be able to fly in and out of Duluth for about the same price as we would have had to pay to go out of Minneapolis.  We leave on Valentine's Day.  Although presentation isn't until 2/17, we felt better about having a little bit of breathing room built into the itinerary.  You never know what Mother Nature can conjure up, and this way we'll have some added flexibility in case of really bad weather.  If weather is good and we arrive on 2/14, then Jason and I get to spend a few days exploring Medellin before we meet the kids.

No updates from our agency.  I will give a call today and see if there is any news or new information.  I can't tell you how relieved and happy we would feel to have news of the boys...but we aren't holding our breath.  In the mean time, we continue to wait in hope and faith.

Regroup

OK...so I was a little bit stressed out and grumpy when I last posted...sorry about that, and things are much better now.  We were indeed able to cancel our airline tickets with only a minimal penalty, thank goodness. 

A funny side-note about the travel agent we have been using..."T" was recommended to us by our adoption agency, and many other families adopting from Colombia have worked with him.  T has been really helpful and is super knowledgeable about adoption travel, especially to Central and South American countries.  BUT...he can be tough to get a hold of, and isn't the best at returning calls.  I am not sure if he is just a little bit forgetful??  Anyways, when I was trying to get our travel itinerary cancelled last week, I emailed once and called him 5 times before I caught him in the office and got confirmation that the cancellation had been processed.  Jason was afraid that T would start blocking my calls, but I was kind of freaking out, and T was very gracious about the whole thing.  Once that was taken care of, I could relax a little.

We also had to re-schedule our appointments at the Colombian Consulate.  After I got the news last week about our change in travel plans, I tried to cancel our appointment at the Consulate using their web page...didn't work.  I then called and left a voice message on their automated system, but have no idea if the message got passed to the proper party. 

So I went back on the Consulate's internet site to book new appointments.  Their web page cracks me up...it is in Spanish, but there is an option to view an English translation version.  If you push the English button, it refreshes the page, but only about 10 words on the page change from Spanish to English.  What??  Really??  Anyways, my Spanish may be a little bit rusty, but I was able to clearly make out the statement that "if you cancel an appointment with less than 24 hours notice, we will block you from re-scheduling a new appointment for one month".  Oh great.  I wanted to yell at the computer "But...it wasn't my fault!!!!  I tried to cancel my appointment, but your system wouldn't let me!!!!!  Why is this happening to me?!?!"  I tried to test the system and re-book our appointments anyways, and...no-go, it blocked me.  Shoot!  BUT, Jason stepped in, mid-meltdown, and came to the rescue with a great idea, and we were able to successfully get new appointments.  Whew! 

Once we had the travel itinerary cancelled, and the Consulate appointments re-scheduled, the rest of the weekend was spent doing the very important task of S..L..O..W..I..N..G  down.  Ever since we got our referral, it seems that we have been living at this crazy pace trying to get ready to travel in January.  Now that we have an extra month on our hands, and everything is pretty much ready, we can kind of chill out and have some time for reflection, relaxation, and fun before we go.  It is amazing how recharging it can be to spend a weekend lounging around in your favorite fuzzy-footed slippers and drinking hot cocoa.  It was great!

False Labor

The last few days have been quite an emotional roller coaster, and today I think we just plunged off of the summit.  Our social worker, B, called me at about 2pm today with news that there had been a mistake in our presentation date assignment.  Presentation is scheduled to take place on 2/17, not 1/17...oops.  BIG oops.  BIG oops as in:  we have all ready purchased our airline tickets for 1/14, we are minutes from walking out the door for our 8+ hour drive to Chicago for our appointment at the consulate, we have re-arranged our lives to accomodate travel a week from tomorrow, we are overflowing with anticipation, excitement, nervousness about meeting the kids in a week...and now...oops!  Somehow I didn't find much solace in the fact this has never happened to another family before and everyone is so sorry about the mistake.  I'm not trying to be crabby, it has just been such a disappointing day.

So, why the reason for such a long delay?  Apparently, things are backed-up in Colombia right now.  They tend to have a surge in the number of adoptions that take place this time of year, and combined with the fact that the Colombian courts are just coming off of a one month holiday, they are simply log-jammed.  No amount of begging or pleading can change these facts, and we simply have to accept the delay and move forward.

I have all ready spoken with the travel agent, and he was confident that we would be able to cancel the tickets with no penalty or just a minor penalty.

So...on the up-side of things...
-  Due to the long delay, we may now be able to get updated information on the kids.  New photos, or maybe an updated "progress report" from their social worker.  I think that they are trying to throw us a bone here, but at least it's something, and it would be great to have any new news about the boys.
-  Maybe our airline tickets in Feb will be less expensive than the ones we had booked for Jan.  The price for our tickets was a lot higher than we had hoped, and we'd love to have an extra thousand bucks in our pockets to spend with the kids instead of giving to the airlines.
-  We have lots of time to accomodate a trip to the consolate in Chicago now.  Maybe we can even make a vacation weekend out of it, stop and see some family/friends on the way.
-  We have a lot more breathing room to finish up on our "to do" list, and maybe we can even add some new items to it!  (I know I'm pushing my luck here)
-  We might have a chance to get out and do some skiing or some ice fishing.

So...I guess it's not all bad.  Mostly we are simply emotionally exhausted.  My sister, Vicki, told me that today was my version of Braxton Hicks, or false labor.  And the treatment?  Drink a beer.  Cheers to that, but can I make mine champagne instead???

Presentation Date Set!!!

We are officially cleared to travel...YIPPEE!!!!!  We will be meeting our sons on January 17th...just a week and a half from now.  We will be flying to Medellin on January 14th, one week from tomorrow.  Holy smokes.  We'll land on Friday afternoon, then have Sat and Sun to rest, recuperate, and get our bearings before meeting the boys.

We are really flying around like maniacs.  So much to do...so little time!!  We still have to get down to Chicago for our special visitor visas, but will cram it in the mix somehow.  Thank you to Mom, Dad, Vicki, and everyone else who is helping us behind the scenes through this very busy time...we appreciate it more than we can say!!!

Car Crash, Rat Poison and Typos

Remember my post from this morning...all was bliss...we were feeling "ready" and pretty good about our general situation???  Well, shame on me for being so cheeky.  Life reared up and smacked us between the eyes in the last 24 hours...should have known better.  Here's how it went down:

1.  Jason had a minor car crash.  He is not injured, nor is the other driver, but our poor little commuter car is in need of some TLC.  While it was extremely stressful, we are thankful that no one was hurt.

2.  Ruby got into some rat poison this morning.  The poison was tucked far away in the bowels of the garage, and she squirreled her way behind some structural obstacles to  "discover" a wonderful treat.  She brought it to me with a big smile on her face, and her tail wagging.  I screamed in horror and told her to "drop it", which she did, and looked at me with a confused expression.  The next 2 hours were not fun.  Phone calls to the vet, Jason 911 page at work, and a quick trip to the grocery store.  Lo and behold, after force-feeding Ruby 2 tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide, she barfed up everything that was in her stomach - GOOD GIRL!!!  She has been pretty quiet and traumatized for the rest of the afternoon.

3.  Mini-melt-down as I realized that I had introduced a minor typo to ALL of the paperwork we have submitted since we received the referral for the boys.  There were a few moments when I panicked, but shortly realized that I THINK we are still ok...am waiting for a call back from the adoption agency to confirm though.

What a day.  They say that bad things come in 3's, and I hope that the saying is true and that we are done getting spanked for our over-confidence.  I have a funny little cartoon taped to the front of our fridge that says:  "If everything seems to be going well...you have obviously overlooked something"!  On the other hand, we also know that good things can come in 3's too...3 darling little boys.  Here's hoping to better days ahead!!

Ready

There was a moment a few days ago when I looked around me, and finally, after months of preparation, felt that our house is "ready" for the kids.  Whew...what a great feeling.  There are a few small things that need to be done yet, but we are pretty much ready to hit the ground running.

We hosted a little New Year's party at our house on Saturday, and had such a nice time.  Nothing too big or fancy, just a few great friends, great food, and great conversation.  Yvonne brought her chocolate Kahlua bundt cake, Carol brought divine angel food candy...no wonder all of my pants are tight!  With the holidays past, and our party over, we took down the Christmas decorations Sunday morning.  If I had my way, I would leave them up until March, but practicality won out this year, and everything is tucked away in the attic.

We are still waiting to hear about our travel dates, and are getting a little bit antsy.  Hopefully we will know more in the next couple of days.  We are starting to pack;  that will be a process in and of itself, I am sure.  It feels like everything is coming together, and we are ready to get this show on the road.  Stay tuned for more information, and hopefully the next time I post, it will be with news of when we get to meet the boys!!