Busy Week!

TICKETS
So...after we heard about our date to receive Jhonatan, we got on the phone and computer to get our airline tickets. A few hours later, we had worked out the logistics of how we were getting everyone back from Colombia on the dates we needed and purchased all of our tickets for the trip.

VISAS
We needed our Visas by today (Friday) and they take 3 business days to process so the next morning we planned on heading to the Colombian Consulate in DC to drop off our Visa applications and supporting documents. The problem came with the pictures we needed. The Colombian Visa application requires 3cmx3cm passport-style photos. We decided to have them taken at the local Walgreens while we were in North Carolina. That way they would be ready when we needed them (thinking ahead!). Well, the size was wrong and they couldn't figure out how to make them the right size. I decided I would just scan them in at home and adjust the size myself. I should have predicted that I would wait until the night before we went to the consulate to actually do that (which I did) and we were out of color ink in the printer. It being 2am at that point, we decided we would just stop at CVS on the way to DC and get the pictures. Long story short...2 CVS's later, a lot of waiting and explaining we finally had the photos we needed a little after 11am. The only problem was we were in Gaithersburg and the Colombian consulate in DC closes at 12 noon. We drove straight there, pulled up 10 minutes before noon and happened to find a parking place right out front, walked in and up to the 10th floor, handed over our applications, were interviewed and walked out at 12:02 (phew!).

KIDSAVE'S MAIN DISH EVENT
That same day, Kidsave had a great fundraising event in DC. So, back down the road we went. It was a very cool event and it was amazing to be able to share our good news with many of the people who got to know Jhonatan over the summer. We also got to hang out with fellow host families who are also going through the adoption process right now.



Here we are with our friends, Craig and Beth at the event. Hopefully, our next picture together will be of a reunion with our little colombianos!

PACKING AND TO-DO LIST
I spent Wednesday and Thursday working through our to-do list, while still keeping up with the normal activities of the house! Sometimes I felt like the list was getting longer rather than shorter but I think we have crossed off almost everything on the list!

VISAS (AGAIN)
This morning was back to DC to pick up the Visas. My navigation system in the car was telling me to take Connecticut Ave. but I wanted to take the GW Parkway. I headed that way and the navigation was telling me to get off on River Road but I wasn't paying attention (I was thinking of the aforementioned list, especially the apartment that we still didn't have). I'm so glad I ended up taking that route, it led me down Wisconsin Ave. past all of the embassies....it was a beautiful drive! Picked up the visas and was back on my way to Frederick.

APARTMENT HUNTING
We decided to rent an apartment due to the size of our family and wanting to be able to cook, walk around and have our own space. I had been searching and searching on-line with no luck. The apartments we needed in the part of Medellin where we wanted to be were rented or the companies that had some available were slightly (or more) sketchy. I happened to mention that we were still looking for an apartment to Terry Baugh (Kidave president) and she put me in touch with the lovely Monica in New York who volunteers with Kidsave and happens to be from Medellin and a realtor. She not only found a great apartment for us right where we want to be but her mom is meeting us to give us the key.

We have our tickets, our visas, an apartment and our on our way to being packed. All we need now is our boy!

Stay tuned....next post is from Medellin, Colombia!!