We made it!

We are here in Medellin! What a strange feeling to be in the same city with Jhonatan. The girls were worried we might run into him (so cute) but Medellin is a huge city and his barrio is on the opposite side of Medellin from where we are staying.
The trip down was a breeze. The girls were amazing and we had a very smooth trip. One of our favorite parts was the view of the mountains outside of the city as we flew into the airport. Like one of the girls said, it didn't look real because it was so green and beautiful!
Our apartment is in a great location. We can walk to anything! Sunday afternoon we walked to Sante Fe mall and there happened to be a festival going on. There were tons of people, Latin music playing and people handing out free mini cupcakes (which, of course, the girls loved!). We definitely get a lot of looks here. You don't see many Americans and the girls really stand out with their blonde hair. We ate dinner at a restaurant that serves "arepas con todos". The food was tasty and the view of the city was gorgeous! On the way out of the mall, we grabbed ice cream from Mimo's and walked over to the grocery store which is almost directly across from our apartment. It was fun to walk around the store and look at the different fruits and the girls (and Greg) got a big kick out of seeing the milk. It comes in bags here! We grabbed some fruit and a few things for breakfast and I bought a Colombian cellphone that you can pay to add minutes as you need them.
The climate here is wonderful. We have had the windows open the whole time and are really enjoying the city views and noises.
Today started with a walk over to Oviedo Mall and coffee and pastries at Juan Valdez (yum!). We shopped around a little and then came back to the apartment so the girls could swim. For lunch, Greg walked the girls a few blocks over and they ate at the Hard Rock Cafe (nothing like traveling all the way to Colombia to eat in a restaurant that is in DC). I stayed back to write some emails and make phone calls. We made contact with our guide/interpreter today, Vicky and she was lovely. She already scheduled a meeting for us with her and our lawyer on Wednesday at 6:00pm. She also let me know that we are expected at the ICBF office at 8:30am on Friday to receive Jhonatan! We also got in touch with Ana, our brother-in-law's sister who lives here in Medellin. We are sooo fortunate to have her here! I asked her for a suggestion for a quick outing this afternoon and she had the perfect thing. We took a cab to El Castillo. It is a real castle right here in Medellin. It is very close by but uphill all the way there so we took a cab (all 6 of us shoved into a teeny tiny taxi). The castle grounds were beautiful and the view from there is breathtaking! We took a guided tour through the castle but it was in Spanish so I caught a few things here and there but Greg and the girls had no idea what was said. I think it was a great experience for them to get a little glimpse of what it is like for Jhonatan when everyone is speaking English. They still enjoyed the tour, Eva most of all. Every time we walked into a room, she said, "Wow!". I'm pretty sure she would be a princess and live in a castle if she could! We did meet another American at the castle, a girl in her early twenties that is living here for a month to work on her Spanish. As it turns out, her parents have adopted 3 children from Colombia.
We walked back instead of taking a cab. We are really enjoying being able to get out and walk around. We feel completely safe and the people of Medellin are so helpful!
We talked to Jhonatan tonight and ended up telling him that we are already in Medellin. He was so excited even though we can't seem him until Friday. I think for all us (including Jhonatan) our being in Medellin makes it all feel so real!
Tomorrow, our guide is meeting us at 10am and taking us to Parque Explora (a science museum with many really cool outdoor exhibits) and in the afternoon Ana is taking us to get the girls' hair braided.
I'll try to upload pictures tomorrow.
Chao!