History

Thursday, December 4, 2003 5:16 PM CST

This will be our last journal entry from Bogota. Hard to believe in many ways.

I arrived ‘home’ to Betty’s Place at 11pm last night after a two-hour delay from Atlanta … won’t bother you with the boring details, but I got back, that’s the main thing. Jorge’s smiling face was waiting for me at the airport, and that really did make me feel like I was back at our second home.

What can I say about the mountains the Caroline moved in three days – all the paperwork done, most of the packing complete, everything under control – she gets the MVP award for the trip! Plus she ensured that Jules and Alexandra are in great spirits too… Julia was skipping around the house all day, obviously anticipating tomorrow’s flight home, and Alexandra took about three seconds to flash me one of her goofy grins this morning when I first laid eyes on her!

Today was a mixture of emotions… we first went to FANA (including Alexandra) to say goodbye to the gang there, including Elizabeth, Maria Teresa and Flor. Maria Teresa’s connection at the Canadian embassy really paid off for us, and we were very appreciative! We looked around FANA one last time with sincere hopes we will be back here, all of us, in a few years for the 35th anniversary.

After FANA it was a dash across the city to pick up our revised tickets at Delta – all is ok and we are set to leave at 9:15 in the morning, meaning a 6:15 arrival at the airport. The Green Hornet will be here at 5:30 to pick us up. We will be glad to be in our own beds tomorrow night… likely near midnight when all is said and done. We look forward to seeing the London and Stratford Driving Co. at the airport… Jules has been talking about it all day. Gracias by the way, Mario, for your tips on the necessary steps in Atlanta for immigration and our connection.

We had a great lunch at Crepes & Waffles at 1:30 with the Jones and Cummings families, plus Barb and Francesca and Betty too. It was a nice way to wind down before retreating back to Betty’s in the rain and finishing off the packing, while Mom and Jules had a quick nap.

Tonight we say goodbye to a lot of people whom we hold dear:

• Mercedes and Arturo and their family, Cesar, Elena and Maria Lucia – for making all of this possible through their tireless dedication to FANA; more generous people we have never met; and they are undoubtedly proud of the same commitment and dedication that Jerri has provided through Families of FANA – WNY
• Betty & Rafa – our friends and emotional caretakers for one of the most special experiences of our lives… saying thanks isn’t nearly enough for what they have done for us; we will be back! Betty – te amo; Rafa, remember that Mt Tremblant awaits…
• Alicia – the guardian angel who was always there with tender care for Alexandra; Mucho much gracias!
• Okenis and Carmen – makers of delicious meals, including the fluffiest pancakes ever (I think I had them every day but two of our 36 days here!), plus always there to tidy our messes and flash us their adorable smiles; we will truly miss them and will never forget how hard they worked to make us feel comfortable every day
• The Cummings – Paul and Cheryl and Nathan – good luck guys and we will be watching with interest for your return! We enjoyed your sunny attitudes on life and your DVD expertise! Safe travels home… what a special Christmas you will have
• The Jones’ – although we were only here for a short time with April and Chris, we share a special bond through FANA and will always expect progress reports on Carolyn as she grows!
• (Last but not least) Barb and Francesca and Matthew and Antoinette… sniff sniff… we hope you know how special you are to us… we are sad to say goodbye… you have done so much for us, more than you will ever know… but we also know that the joyful reunion with Lou and Louie await and we will see you in July, count on it! (Jules and Louie have a date.)

Perhaps sometime in the near future, with some better time for clear thinking and reflection, we will post our best memories from Bogota and Colombia. For now, we most particularly remember the new friendships, the warm hospitality and courtesy of all people we met, the stunning beauty of this city, and the special place called FANA.

Hasta luego from Bogota…

Next update: from Canada!

Wednesday, December 3

All paperwork is complete. We’re definitely coming home Friday. Art, please turn up the heat in our house. Jenn, are there bottles of red wine in the house? If not, please get a few. I started my consumption at 4:00 today… so will want to jump in as soon as I’m home ;-) Mitch, get ready for some bear hugs from Julia.

To our family, here are the flight details:
• Delta 298 departs Bogota 9:15am; arrives Atlanta 2:10pm
• Delta 828 departs Atlanta 5:10pm; arrives Toronto (terminal 3) 7:23pm

There is also a new website of pictures. Please check the links below. Especially important is the picture of Barb and Norberto. What a hairdresser! Can we fly him back to Canada?

Now to re-cap today:

After a successful meeting, Craig left Atlanta at 4:00 to be back in Bogota at 8:00. Jules and I miss him and look forward to his return.

I went with Maria Teresa to the U.S. embassy for a U.S. transit visa. Barb came along to get a U.S. visa for Matthew and Antoinette. It sure is nice having Maria Teresa guide us through the various steps. Although there was a long line to get though the gates, Maria Teresa got us in right away and directed us to where we needed to be. Mara Teresa guided me through the application form as well as which window to submit the paperwork and what to say. For the Postons transit visa, the process took 3 hours. The Suraces needed to return to the embassy, as expected, in the afternoon to complete their process.

At home:
• Jules and Francesca were having a ball with Lilliana (Elizabeth’s daughter). We call upon Lilliana when we need babysitting for the older kids. The girls love her.
• I started to pack. I won’t complete packing as I know Postons love to complete the packing process, so it’s just right – I’d hate to take that away from Craig.
• I decided to have one more visit from Vivianna. Vivianna does awesome pedicures and manicures. With a strong US dollar we’re able to receive these services at a great price. So great that Jules and Francesca received a manicure and pedicure too.

Tomorrow we’ll
• Sleep in… we need it!
• Visit FANA – to say goodbye
• Pick up our tickets
• Get a good night sleep

Craig will be back at the keyboard so the better writing will happen again… good night.

Monday, December 1

Hello everyone! I’ve got some big shoes to fill here so please be gentle with my journal entry.

I believe Craig made it to Atlanta today. When I woke up this morning he wasn’t in bed so hopefully that’s good news (I’ll know for sure at 10:00 tonight (our scheduled phone date)).

Today was a happy day for the Studinski-Jones family. They received their baby girl - Carolyn Laura Selma Jones. Carolyn is a pretty name ;-). Carolyn is a doll with tonnes of hair and plenty of hiccups. For more scope on Carolyn reference the /mn/studinskijones/ caringbridge site. The presentation of Carolyn was made even more special in that the presentation was lead by Francesca Surace. Picture a 7 year old beaming with pride carrying a baby girl to her very nervous new mommy and daddy. Although I was not there, just the thought of that can bring me to tears.

Now the reason I wasn’t there. My goal for today was to complete the following:
1. Have a passport picture taken of Alexandra
2. Have the defenders of minors (DOM) sign our sentencia (which completes the court process)
3. Have the notary provide an updated birth certificate
4. Complete the passport for Alexandra

Not completing 1, 2 & 3 would mean the difference between coming home on Friday verses coming home the following Wednesday – that’s 5 days! Why? Because the US embassy is closed on Friday, Colombia has a holiday on Monday and having to work around when the various offices are open.

Taking the passport picture was a breeze. Both Matthew Surace and Alexandra had cute pictures taken. Barb was able to complete Matthews’s passport as she had an updated birth certificate. I could not because I had to wait for the completed sentencia (required in order to get an updated birth certificate).

Maria Teresa shared that the DOM works to 4:00 p.m. We hoped Pollo (our lawyer) could have the DOM sign by noon so we complete steps 3 & 4 by the end of the day. I received a “no signature yet” call at 12:15. I waited, then waited, then waited some more for that next call – which didn’t happen until close to 3:00. As time ticked on my hope to go home this week decreased and my anxiety increased. It was the first time I could feel a tear of disappointment – it’s time now to go home. At 2:45 Maria Teresa came to pick up Barb and Matthew for their US embassy doctor visit. She said I should come along just in case we get the “DOM signed” call. Sure enough at 3:55 we received the call. The DOM signed and the documents were on their way to the notary (which closes at 5:00). We were able to get the updated birth certificate but unable to complete the passport (which closes at 3:00). Maria Teresa said completing step 3, along with some news received this morning, we could risk booking a Friday return home flight. Craig will do that tomorrow. Friday is not a guarantee but we’re aiming for it.

Regarding the news, it's my understanding that getting a visa from the Canadian Embassy is a 2 to 5 day process. This timing would not allow us to go home on Friday. This was discussed on the weekend and it was discovered that someone had a friend in the Canadian Embassy office. That person called their friend and was able to request a favor. We were reassured that if we applied for the visa tomorrow we would get it back late Wednesday which leaves Thursday to get the US transit visit. Yahoo, Friday looks good again.

So bottom line: it’s all working out. We’re so grateful to the many people who help and support us here in Bogota. Without them, we’d be lost in paperwork and bureaucracy.

As for the weather, it was the typical nice morning and rain, pour and at times hail in the afternoon and evening. Good night.

Sunday, November 30, 2003 7:24 PM CST

Today was the kind of day where anything that could go wrong, did go wrong, apart from the Bengals beating the Steelers. If this keeps up, I may have to convince the Canadian embassy NOT to issue us a visa this week… the boys haven’t lost since we’ve been here!

While we’re talking about what went right, let’s focus on Alexandra. She is like clockwork…consistently eats her 5oz every 4 hours, consistently sleeps through the night to 7:30am, consistently pees and poops, and even smiles when we sing her The Doors ‘Hello, I Love You’ song. Maybe she feels sorry for us. Best of all, her congestion is finally getting better. What a sweetheart. Hopefully we’ll be introducing her to the family within the next week or so.

On to what went wrong:

• The power went out at 8am. That’s not good… first of all, it disconnects the entire house from its computers (wiring here resembles the Pentagon) and makes us all cranky. It also means that you just don’t nuke a bottle when Alexandra needs one. Or pour yourself a nice cup of hot Colombian coffee from the dining room when you want one. Trust me – no coffee and no computers is not a good mix here. It turns out the power outage was a planned and deliberate maintenance thing that took most of northern Bogota down from 8am to 3pm.

• Once we realized the power wasn’t coming on soon, we all left for La Fontana. Today’s contingent included Chris and April Jones from Rochester, Minnesota who are the newest couple into Betty’s Place. They will receive their darling daughter, Carolyn, at FANA tomorrow. Of course, as soon as we got to the outdoor market at La Fontana the skies opened with a torrential rain storm that didn’t let up for at least a couple of hours. We had four consecutive days of no rain in Bogota this week and we were getting used to it. This put a real ‘damper’ on shopping the market and we basically shut down our efforts.

• Actually, the other thing that shut us down was a fire at the hotel! It seems there was a pretty significant electrical fire on the top floor of the hotel, which sent everyone scrambling and rumors buzzing. So picture this – the rain is pouring down, the craftspeople are madly covering up their tables, black smoke is billowing out the top of the hotel, people are scurrying all over the square shouting, and we and the Cummings and the Jones are huddled under an umbrella hurriedly stuffing the last remains of our hamburgersas and empanadas into our mouths! Luckily, Miriam the sweater lady rescued us (I would hope so, given that the ladies of the house spent a few million pesos on her merchandise over the past month!) and scored a couple of cars to take us back through the soggy streets to Betty’s. The power came back on shortly after we returned.

The poor Jones – I think they must be wondering what they wandered into! Trust us, it’s not all this bad. And tomorrow will be the most special day of your life, so enjoy.

As for us, Caroline is busy putting her running shoes and sweat suit on for the next three days. Tomorrow will be the notary’s office for the birth certificate, then on to get Alexandra’s passport photos taken, then to the passport office itself, and perhaps a personal visit to the Canadian embassy to plead our case. Each of these visits requires painstaking patience at each stop, plus the stamina to negotiate Bogota traffic as you criss-cross the city. Tuesday and Wednesday we expect that she’ll be camped out at the Canadian embassy full time to get that special piece of paper called a visa.

Jorge Rico is picking me up in the Green Hornet at 5:45am to go to the airport tomorrow. I will be back from Atlanta on Wednesday night – it’s a bad time to be leaving with all that we have to do this week, and I will really miss all three of “my girls” but we are also lucky to be able to keep the PathWay revenue coming in. We have to pay for leather jackets, no matter how cheap they are! Plus, Caroline has things under control.

It’s hard to believe that this could be our last Sunday night here in Bogota. If everything goes okay this week we will be home in Canada on Friday or Saturday. In so many ways we desperately want to be home, and in others we dread saying goodbye to Betty and Rafa and all of the special people at FANA and the friends we have made here and so many others. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Caroline will be taking over the writing chores for the next 2-3 days, so enjoy!

Saturday, November 29, 2003 7:54 PM CST

With the whirlwind events of sentencia behind us from yesterday, and with a frenetic few days ahead next week as we (Caroline and Barb, let’s be honest!) try to get everything done in order to go home to the frozen climes of London, Ontario and Lockport, New York, today was the ‘lull before the storm’ – a day to kick back, do some sightseeing, and contribute to the Colombian economy. Francesca and Jules were just as happy to stay behind at Betty’s Place and amuse Lilliana, Elizabeth’s daughter, who agreed to baby-sit for a few hours.

After Barb returned from the Delta Airlines office all of the adults crammed into Jorge Rico’s Green Hornet to go to La Candelaria, Bogotá’s beautifully restored old city. We finally made it there today after three previously aborted attempts, and though the skies threatened today they didn’t interfere too much with our activities.

La Candelaria is truly beautiful – think of narrow cobblestone streets lined with wonderful (and colorful) houses and shops that show off unique Spanish architecture… all set into the incline of the lower slopes of the Andes. It doesn’t really take much to imagine yourself there 450 years ago when the old city was founded.

As part of our walk around we also saw Colombia’s Presidential Palace (with immense security, not surprisingly), a number of beautiful churches and cathedrals, and Plaza Simon Bolivar, the principal square in the downtown area (full of pigeons a la Trafalgar Square in England). We finished up with a typically large Colombian lunch in the heart of La Candelaria – so large that none of us really felt like eating dinner later on (but we did).

The next stop was Bogotá’s infamous leather district – a couple of narrow streets crammed with tiny leather shops lining both sides of the road. After much shopping, comparing, modeling, more comparing, more modeling – and then eventually haggling – us, Barb, and the Cummings managed to procure 10 of Colombia’s finest leather coats for ridiculously cheap prices. That is all I can tell you – as with the golf scores two weeks ago, I am bound by confidentiality agreements from divulging how the 10 coats were split among the five individuals. (But Lou – cram a few more patients in next week if you can.)

All that shopping and haggling is tiring. Our wonderful driver and guide, Jorge, could sense that so he steered us to a typical Colombian coffee shop for a fast cappuccino. Jorge is the real deal – a self-taught guide who started out carrying luggage at the airport, learned English, studied thoroughly on all of the sights in the city, and now it is his full-time job driving and guiding adoptive couples in Bogota. Where else can you drive around in a lime green ’73 Dodge Dart that says “welcome aboard” on the dashboard?

Jorge spends most of his time working with couples from Betty’s Place like us, plus Norwegian couples who adopt from a different orphanage in Bogota and stay at a different place not far from here. Jorge is a tireless worker, never says no to anything, and has a big heart for the poor people in Bogota. Today as we left the restaurant we noticed that he had all of the leftover food wrapped up to take away with us (you can’t possibly eat everything Colombians place in front of you for lunch). On the way home he stopped at one of the major intersections and gave the food to some young children who were ‘working’ the intersection. As we drove away Jorge says one of the kids clapped his hands to signal to other children on other sides of the intersection to come quickly – they had dinner for tonight.

That’s about all the news for today. Tonight’s job – in addition to laying out the welcome mat for the new couple from Minnesota (who should be here by 10pm) is confirming all of our finances for the coming week – who needs to be paid what, and in pesos or US dollars. Plus Caroline has all of our developed photos spread out on the floor here in the TV room, slotting them into photo albums. I told you – she’s a project manager!

Maria Teresa Perez, our driver, was here for coffee this morning and we spent some time plotting strategy for the coming week in terms of influencing the Canadian embassy in an appropriate way such that we get our visa quickly and can get home by next weekend. We have a few tricks up our sleeves… now it’s left to see if they work!

We are hoping that the weather cooperates tomorrow morning so that we can all go to the mass at La Fontana at 11am. It is a nice 15 minute stroll from here and the main road there is closed to only bikes and walkers on Sunday mornings.

Continued thanks for all those e-mails and guest book entries from London, Melrose and other points north, south, east and west from here… they are like ‘vitamins’ for us that give us instant energy!

Buenos noches,

C & C & J & A

Friday, November 28, 2003 8:53 PM CST

Sentencia!

(Ah, we love that word.)

A month to the day that we arrived in Bogota we signed our sentencia downtown today at 2pm… and now starts the ‘jump through the hoops’ to see when we can get home to Canada.

Barb Surace got the call yesterday… and last night at the Thanksgiving dinner here Maria Teresa Maldonado from FANA gave us the heads up that the same call might come for us this morning, and where could she get a hold of us urgently if she needed to? Sure enough we heard at about 11am today and so Maria Teresa Perez loaded up us and Barb and we all headed off downtown to sign... while the Cummings were off visiting Montserrate.

There are 27 different adoption courts in Colombia, and each of them has its own unique rules and regulations for signing. Barb is in Court 1 – and it requires the adopted children to be in attendance at the signing, so Matthew and Antoinette came with us. We are in Court 9 which doesn’t require the baby to attend, so we left Alexandra behind under the tender care of Julia and Francesca (and Alicia of course!).

Another interesting wrinkle is that Barb’s court asks the adoptive parents to bring pizza and drinks to celebrate the sentencia, so we all crowded into the judge’s office with his staff and heard him speak very kindly and eloquently (in Spanish, but interpreted for us) about how pleased he was to finalize the adoptions of Matthew and Antoinette, and how certain he was that they would have a great life with Barb and Louis. It was a neat touch, and the judge was really genuine. (There’s a pic in today’s photo album in website 4 in the link below – the judge is the one on the far right dressed in jeans! Must have been dress-down Friday). Then, when he was done, we all had pizza and coke, paid for by the Suraces!

Maria Teresa says several courts are starting this tradition, but our court isn’t one of them. In fact, it’s the polar opposite. We went up a few flights of stairs to a big counter and simply signed some documents, with barely an acknowledgement from the staff. But hey we signed, that’s the important thing! But we’re not without complications – there were a few minor errors in the papers so even though we signed today copies couldn’t be made until Monday, which means we missed the opportunity to get a new birth certificate this afternoon and move things along for next week. That will now have to wait until Monday.

What this all means is that Barb will likely go home on Wednesday and we will shoot for Friday, hoping that the Canadian embassy cooperates in issuing a visa for Alexandra in a speedy way, which has not always been their track record. I will also rely on Caroline to do all of the grunt work running around Bogota next week to get these necessary steps done while I am in Atlanta – but she is a project manager, I’m sure she’ll have a flow chart for how it will all transpire.

Finally, it was really special to sign with Barb today. There’s a certain symmetry to that – she and Lou were here to greet us on our first night in Bogota, and now we both sign our sentencia on the same day.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch… the house is definitely a bit quieter from its “peak” two weeks ago, when we had the Suraces, Berras, Henrichs and Postons all here with full families. It’s down to just three families, and 11 people including adults, kids and babies. That may sound large, but the babes make barely a peep. So that just leaves the adults (who are too tired to say anything!) and Francesca and Julia… the friendship between the two of them is great to see, and we don’t know how they’ll say goodbye to one another. By the way, we have another couple from Minnesota joining us tomorrow night... they will received their first child, a daughter, at FANA on Monday.

This is likely our last weekend here so we will visit the old town (La Candelaria) and the leather district tomorrow, which we postponed from today for obvious reasons. All of us will pile into Jorge’s Green Hornet for the tour and we are all determined to buy Colombian leather jackets, which are ridiculously cheap here.

To the Postons and Overmars Families: WE ARE IN THE FINAL STRETCH! HANG IN. (We hope that Mitch recognizes us, and that the rest of our families do too…)

P.S. Happy 16th Anniversary to Barb and Lou Surace. Don’t ask me how a dentist in Buffalo managed to have 16 red roses delivered to Betty’s Place in Bogota at 8am today, but he did. Barb also celebrated with turkey leftovers from last night. We expect that Lou and Louie did the same.

Thursday, November 27, 2003 9:47 PM CST

Thanksgiving Day in Bogota.

This morning Cesar Lopez took me golfing to a nice private club not far outside of Bogota. This course recently hosted the Colombia Open. Cesar is Mercedes’ son-in-law – he studied marketing at the renowned Kellogg School at Northwestern University in Chicago and spent a few years working for Leo Burnett, one of the largest advertising agencies in the U.S. He has just returned to Colombia with his wife Elena, and is considering a joint venture with another large ad agency here, Ted Bates Worldwide, so we had lots to talk about – and we had plenty of time to do it, as it was just and the caddies… we had the golf course to ourselves.

Caroline will tell me I need to exercise more (or exercise period?), but after fours hours of walking around the course, I was totally winded, and that’s without even carrying clubs! I definitely notice a difference at this altitude. It was another great sunny day in Bogota, so the weather cooperated. It was a great way to spend the morning, and we were back at Betty’s Place by noon.

Tonight we had a big Thanksgiving dinner for Mercedes and her family, plus a lot of the wonderful people from FANA who have made it possible for all of us to have such special children come into our lives. All of the couches were cleared out from the living room and we had two long dining tables – one in the living room and one in the dining room. All told we had about 30 people for dinner! Wonderful Alicia stayed all day and most of the evening to tend to the babies – Matthew, Antoinette, Nathan and Alexandra – on the upper level of Betty’s Place, far away from the noise and activity.

The invitees were treated to a U.S. style thanksgiving – turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans and salad, with great apple and pumpkin pies that followed. And a fully stocked bar, especially for Rafa and Arturo! It was great to have everyone over – the ladies in the house did a magnificent job helping the staff here (Carmen, Okenis and Maria Antonia) pull it all together. And the taste of turkey and gravy brought a bit of home to us.

The highlight of the night was a special presentation of cheques totally $95,000 from Families of FANA – WNY to Mercedes by Barb Surace... and personally presented by Francesca and Julia in front of all of the others. The girls performed their duties well, and Mercedes was obviously very appreciative of the gifts, actually quite emotional. The funds will be used for FANA's medical staff and equipment, with a promise of an additional $50,000 by the end of the year.

NEWS BULLETIN: Barb Surace got the call today and will sign her Sentencia tomorrow at 2pm! That means she will be home sometime next week – awesome news. Very selfishly, we will miss everyone in the Surace clan, but having met Louis and Louie, we are also thrilled that all of them will soon be reunited. As they say, Happy Thanksgiving.

As for us, tomorrow we have an outing planned in the morning to La Candelaria and Bogotá’s famous leather district, if the weather cooperates. The Cummings will go with us.

Wednesday, November 26, 2003 9:52 PM CST

After nearly a month in Bogota, today dawned bright and sunny and crystal clear – and stayed that way all day for a change – what a way to mark Alexandra’s three-month birthday. She is such a delight to watch these days... I think she is the only one who laughs at my jokes, so she’s tops in my books.

Suzanne left early this morning and the Berras left mid-morning, so the house is a lot quieter and a bit lonelier tonight, but the Suraces, Cummings and Postons are still holding down the fort! Let us know that you got home safely guys.

First thing this morning I went to Santa Fe hospital to retrieve the neurologist’s final summations on Julia’s EEG (all is normal) and we now have a nice stack of medical documents to bring home for the nurses in the Postons family to peruse.

Otherwise it was a nice slow day – the weather made it great for a walk, so that’s what we did. After the Berras left for the airport we loaded up all of the kids, including babies, and took a nice stroll down to Jacques Café and Bakery, about 30 minutes away along the walkway behind Betty’s Place. We all enjoyed great cappuccinos and delicious melt-in-your-mouth pastries. We had heard so much about Jacques’ from other FANA families and it didn’t disappoint. We’ll be back.

It was nice to get Alexandra out for a couple of hours – the sun was super strong today, but we kept her protected, and this has been one of the first days in a while that the weather cooperated at exactly the time we wanted to go.

Along the walkway we stopped and talked with another foreign couple pushing a stroller who had obviously just adopted a child and it turns out that they are from Lahti, Finland of all places. I’m sure they were happy to see the sun as well (sorry, Mallu.) I asked them if they knew the infamous Ojamo family from Lahti, but they did not (Jussi has obviously been ‘retired’ for too long). They sure lit up, though, when I mentioned that I had a sister-in-law from their home town. They were a really nice couple and in fact we kept meeting them on the street throughout the day.

After lunch Caroline and I and Julia went back the same way to do some shopping at Maku, which is a like a supermarket of artisans selling crafts all under one roof. We must have been in there for two hours, and Jules actually cooperated pretty well – mainly because there was enough horse-related merchandise to keep her enthralled.

The rest of the day has been spent getting ready for the tomorrow’s big Thanksgiving dinner at Betty’s Place. We think our current count for attendees is about 25 adults and 10 kids – all of the occupants of the house right now, plus Mercedes and Arturo, Cesar and Elena, Maria Lucia and her daughters, Betty and Rafa, and also the FANA gang – Flor, Elizabeth, Maria Teresa Maldanado, and Marina de Tono. I’m sure I’m missing some others, as it’s been hard to keep track! Paul Cummings and I did a run for beer and wine today, and right now Cheryl, Caroline and Barb are in the kitchen making what is without a doubt the biggest vat of turkey stuffing I have ever seen (I have photographed it as proof).

Once again tonight I am sitting in the dining room, papers spread across the table and the laptop working overtime to get ready for my Atlanta meeting next week. We are all turning in shortly – tomorrow will be a busy day, plus Cesar is picking me up at 7:30 a.m. for one final tour of the golf course! I can safely say that after tomorrow the clubs will be hung up for the year, unless the climate in Canada is not what I remember.

Tuesday, November 25, 2003 10:51 PM CST

Day 26 in Bogota and we have still not been voted off the island. Dear Colombian court system: that was not a shot. Grin. (Editor’s aside: how did Rupert blow it so bad to get turfed?)

Day 26 should actually be better known as Matthew Surace’s first birthday. We all piled into Guillermo’s van for a 10am party at FANA, complete with 35 of the most adorable kids in Bogota. In a nutshell, there were songs, there were Christmas carols (is all of Canada already as decked out for the season like Bogota is?), and there was cake and ice cream, lost of cake and ice cream.

All of the FANA kids were there – there are currently about 40, and typically these are not children up for adoption, except in a few cases. For the most part they are children who the Department of the Bienestar has placed with FANA due to issues with the family – abuse, poor living conditions, dire economic circumstances etc. The kids range in age from a few months to 11 years. They are all beautiful and they are HAPPY. I was speaking with Marina de Tono and she stressed that to me – the kids are not unhappy to be there; they are clean, warm, healthy, getting food and education, and out from intolerable situations at home. Still, it can’t help but pull pretty strong at your heart to see them all parade into the FANA cafeteria, sit down so politely, and be so excited to have a birthday party. Caroline was everywhere taking photos – they are on the Suraces website tonight, and will be on ours probably tomorrow.

As for the star of the occasion, Matthew seemed to love every minute of it. Most importantly it was really special to see the reception he received from the staff and kids. You can tell that this little boy was well loved at FANA for his first 11 months.

On our way this morning we figured out that this our 9th trip to FANA since we have been here (Barb Surace is into the middle teens!). We definitely know the way and, while the smog of the buses going up the hill into Suba leaves something to be desired in our lungs, it is actually a trip that we are starting to enjoy. Suba is like a little town that has been annexed to Bogota and it has that feel – a great little square like all towns have, and we love passing by the school with all the kids in their uniforms.

While at FANA we talked with Elizabeth, who had reviewed Jules’ MRI results with the neurologist and all is fine. There is no need for a further appointment and I just have to go to the hospital sometime in the next few days to get the written results of the earlier EEG test so that our doctor in Canada has them for his files.

We got back to Betty’s Place at around noon and quickly regrouped for a dash to El Corral for great Colombian burgers and shakes. Today was one of those reverse Bogota days – rain in the morning and bright sunshine in the afternoon (instead of the opposite which has been the case for about 90f our time here), so it was nice to get out for a walk.

We came back and did some errands – initial preparations for the big Thanksgiving dinner here on Thursday, and I actually retreated to the calm of the dining room to do some PathWay work for most the afternoon (have to make money to feed that growing El Corral addiction).

Tonight at dinner we toasted the Berras and the Suraces’ cousin Suzanne, who return to St. Louis and Rochester, respectively, tomorrow. The house will be a lot quieter and lonelier without them. It will be down to us, the Cummings, and the Suraces – five adults, two kids, and four babies. Safe travels tomorrow, guys, and Happy Thanksgiving. By the way, we are hearing whispers of an additional couple from the Minnesota group joining us this weekend – still to be confirmed.

Oh yes – Alexandra. She is still congested, but getting better and we are somewhat resigned to the fact that she may not be completely cleared up until she gets to the lower altitude in Canada. Still eating like a horse (a 10 pound horse) and sleeping like a lion (what seems like 18-20 hours per day!). Her routine is pretty well established now – eats for the final time at around 10pm, sometimes earlier, and then sleeps through to 7 or 8am.

That is all…

P.S. Matthew Surace just took his first steps – on his first birthday.

Monday, November 24, 2003 8:08 PM CST

Today was a day of great news.

First, Jorge Rico picked me up at 8:30 and we went to Santa Fe hospital to get the MRI results on Julia. The hospital is only 10 minutes away so we were back within half an hour. Nurse Barb quickly scanned the bottom line and sized up the Spanish into meaningful English: all is normal. An expected result, but again a relief. We passed these results on to Elizabeth at FANA and she will contact the neurologist to see if a further consult is necessary. We also have some neat x-rays to bring home with us. We’ll display these on poster boards on Julia’s wedding day.

Then it was back to Betty’s to get changed for the trip to FANA. The Cummings arrived late last night and today was the day they received Nathan. We all got there around 11am and waited around for awhile as the Cummings received Nathan’s medical history from Elizabeth. While we waited we got talking with a young Australian couple (late teens) who had been traveling in Peru for 5 weeks and were now in Bogota for a week. As we talked more we learned that the girl, Mercedes, was a FANA child – adopted by Australian parents more than 18 years ago. This was her first trip back to FANA to see where she spent the first few months of her life. Pretty amazing story.

The biggest surprise was still to come. Young Mercedes was going to have the honor of carrying Nathan, along with Mercedes Martinez, into the green room to present him to the desperately anxious Cummings. I tell you, after our own presentation of Alexandra – and then seeing Paul, Max and Matthew presented to the Berras, Henrichs and Suraces – we didn’t think anything else could come close, but this sure did. To see young Mercedes, a FANA child from 18 years ago, walking side by side with the older and foundress Mercedes (and also escorted by Julia, Francesca and Sarina all holding hands)… wow. We got it all captured on film – but tonight is a crazy night so Caroline will likely not get the photos posted to the site until tomorrow (I am hogging the laptop tonight for genuine PathWay work).

So the Cummings presentation was the second great news. It was extra special to watch Paul and Cheryl as they received their first child. We followed that up with seeing a second presentation (also a first child) to an Italian couple from Rome. FANA truly is global.

As usual after FANA presentations, everyone was spent once we got back to the house. The call went out for Jeno’s pizza to quiet down the kids, and then everyone scattered in various directions to do errands… mostly focused on getting ready for Matthew’s 1st birthday party tomorrow at FANA.

The third piece of great news is that Rose Berra cloned herself in four and somehow moved mountains today in signing her sentencia, going to the notary and passport office and the US embassy doctor – all in eight hours. The result is that the Berras will be leaving the day after tomorrow. We will miss them all.

I did some work in the afternoon, which I’ll attempt to finish tonight as Paul and I keep tabs on Monday Night Football Espanol. Caroline did the sterilizing bottles chore.

It was great to talk to John in Essex and the Hoev kids in London yesterday, and we enjoyed hearing about the Bogota style weather. Glad to hear golf is still happening! These phone calls really are cost-efficient… as Betty has a set-up where the calls are routed through a New York City number for 10 cents a minute. Can’t beat that. The calls and all of your e-mails make us feel closer to home (thanks again to all of you out there for your guest book entries and e-mails… we read them every day and they do an amazing job of keeping our spirits up.) Glad to hear the Warrens have settled into Florida okay and that the Adams are following the Bengals march to the Super Bowl (well, at least part of the Adams). Great to hear from the Alexanders too. We presume Doug was golfing on the weekend? (We also loved hearing from our Canadian FANA friends, the Hickeys and Gualtieris.)

That is all from Bogota tonight…

Sunday, November 23, 2003 8:02 PM CST

What a great feeling to sleep in today, feed Alexandra a bottle in our bed after 8am while we sipped on our coffees. Now this is more like it!

We had all planned to go out to lunch at a restaurant near Bogota today, but yesterday’s long road trip took a lot out of us, so we stayed put, got caught up on laundry and did some errands. I picked up some groceries and pesos at Carulla, and later in the afternoon we went to La Fontana to once again explore the crafts market (they love to see us coming). Now we’ve just had a nice dinner and we’re about to pack all the kids into an early bedtime, as last night they were all up late.

On a slow news day it occurs to us that you might need a scorecard to keep track of the incoming and outgoing occupants of Betty’s Place, so here it is:

TEAM SURACE
• That’s Louis and Barb, with kids Francesca (6) and Louie (4). Barb is a nurse and Louis a pediatric dentist in Lockport, NY. They adopted Antoinette (4 mos.) the day we got here and Matthew (1 this Tuesday) a week or so later. Francesca has been Julia’s big sister here, they are practically inseparable (Jules is helping Barb and Ches give Matthew a bath as I type). Louis and Louie, Julia’s brief fling, returned to Buffalo last week. Cousin Suzanne flew down two weeks ago to help out, and will go back this coming Wednesday. The Suraces were first in to Betty’s Place – Oct. 30th. We are hoping that all the planets align properly and that we and Barb sign our sentencia relatively close to one another so that we can fly back through Atlanta with her and help the Surace tribe out. (God knows they have helped us enough!)

TEAM BERRA
• That’s Rose and Paul, with daughter Sarina (2) and Paul IV (2 mos.) who was received at FANA the same day we received Alexandra. Paul is a corporate attorney in St. Louis and Rose works part-time for her dad’s food distribution company. Paul returned to St. Louis last Monday and Rose’s Mom, Mama Etzel arrived here the same day. The Berras arrived two days after us and will sign their sentencia tomorrow – and get home later this coming week. What a Thanksgiving for them…

TEAM HENRICH
• That’s Charlie and Andrea, with son Max (2) and daughter Isabella (2 mos.) who was received at FANA three days after we got Alexandra. Charlie is in sales for FOX TV and is about to move from Ohio to Las Vegas, where our 2003 Betty’s Place reunion will be held at some point in the future! The Henrichs were the last in to Betty’s (Nov. 5) and the first out (Nov. 20). This is why it is useless to try and predict the court system here! We are thrilled that things happened quickly for them.

TEAM CUMMINGS
• Paul and Cheryl arrive from Buffalo tonight (in another hour or so in fact) and will be at FANA tomorrow to receive their first child, son Nathan (2 mos.). We hope to be witnesses to their special day tomorrow.

TEAM POSTONS
• That’s us. Caroline – house photographer, and chief coordinator of all family activities. Jules – big sister, horse lover, and huge helper to us here. We mean that… she has been a constant help here, and continues to amaze us with how she has adapted to a world turned upside down. Alexandra – need we say more? See the updated photos in the album on the main site and the ones below (Nov. 23 album in website 4). As for me, all I do is write these journals.

While we’re on a roll with such scintillating content, here’s another installment in the Colombia trivia game:

• Arturo Martinez, Mercedes husband, tells us that Bogotá’s population of 7 million will likely grow to about 18 million in the next 20 years – primarily because people from the rural areas continue to flock to the city where it is safer and economic prospects are better. The entire northern portion of Bogota (more than half of the city), where we are today, was pasture land a mere 25 years ago – a sign of how the city has grown beyond imagination.

• Did you know that Colombia is the #2 exporter of cut flowers in the world, trailing only Holland? (The Dutch have to be first in something…smile Oma and Opa, that was a joke.) And it is the #1 exporter to North America. A dozen roses cost about $1 USD here. The reason for the thriving flower biz is that the growing conditions are perfect here – great soil, mild temperatures, and a nice mix of sun and rain.

• Did you also know that Bogota is the city of dogs? Neither did we until we got here, but it seems to have Paris beaten, which is hard to imagine. There are dogs everywhere, most of them lean machines. All the small towns seem to have their fair dose of them too.

The next few days are busy – we will likely be at FANA tomorrow, plus we have to pick up Julia’s MRI results from Santa Fe Hospital. Tuesday is Matthew Surace’s first birthday and there is a big party planned at FANA, and we will all attend. Thursday… a big Thanksgiving dinner here at Betty’s, including Mercedes and Arturo and their family. We need to squeeze in a few side trips as well, so there is no shortage of things to keep us occupied this week. Oh yes, I also need to do some REAL work for PathWay Communications!

The Cummings will be here soon, so I’ll sign off now and report back tomorrow.

P.S. Julia said she was missing her cousins tonight… so hello (in no particular order) to Mark, Sheila, Anna, Jason, Marlee, Jenna, Jonas, Emma, Henry, Derek, Erin, Richelle, Nancy, Jamie, Kyla, Ashli, Nicole, Kirk, Kelly, Kevin, Justin, Montana, Kieran… (Phew, I know she misses you all, but I wish she would keep her thoughts to herself).

Saturday, November 22, 2003 9:19 PM CST

We had a long but great day trip to Villa de Leyva today. Jorge Rico and a driver picked all 10 of us up in a van at 7am and we were on the road by 7:30. The only things that were missing were a Tim’s double double and a chocolate glazed, but that will have to wait til we’re back in Canada.

Villa de Leyva is a small colonial town about three hours north of Bogota. It was founded in the 1500s and was declared a national monument by the Colombian government in 1954. Every building in the entire town of 4000 is an original or has been restored to look as such, and no new building can happen. It lies in a really dry valley (an old volcanic crater) where, believe it or not, cactuses flourish. Really mild temps and dry all the time, which is rare for Colombia.

We took our time getting there – had breakfast at a traditional Colombian diner overlooking a beautiful lake (and a few llamas) along the way, plus we stopped at a Simon Bolivar monument. We finally got to Villa de Leyva around noon and headed straight to the regular Saturday market in the main square in town.

This market was a classic – a traditional Colombian market where locals were both selling what they grow in the surrounding area and buying what they need for the week. It compares favorably, Mike & Mallu, to those great souks we saw in Turkey and Egypt. It really brought back memories of Urgup for us. Caroline and I could have stayed there all day and soaked up the scene, but we were all getting hungry so we adjourned to a great hotel overlooking the town and had a good lunch at a table outside.

Jules had a hard time concentrating during lunch because she spied a team of horses tied up to a tree just outside the hotel. Sure enough, after lunch she made a beeline for the horses and put on the charm to Javier, a 10-year-old Colombian cowboy responsible for the horses. Next thing we knew, he was leading Jules on a nice ride atop a beautiful mare. And then he had her trotting and darn-near GALLOPING. I practically lost my cervezas from lunch, but Jules’ smile probably broke a cheekbone. And she wasn’t even ticked off when we started teasing her about Javier. First Louie Surace, now Javier. Julia is certainly making her mark in Colombia – two boyfriends, two hospital visits, never a dull moment. (It’s a good thing Alexandra is the boring one – all she does is eat, sleep and grow, although kicking, blowing bubbles and making eyes at Jules are now part of the repertoire.)

After lunch we walked around town a bit (the square is apparently the biggest in the entire country… about 120m x 120m), did some shopping, and then also stopped to see a huge fossilized dinosaur outside of town that resembles a crocodile. It’s been left exactly where it was found. We also stopped at a tiny town called Racquira, which has been famous for ceramics in Colombia for more than 400 years.

We arrived back in Bogota at 8:30 pm after a painfully slow ride home. It felt like the van was going straight up one side of the Andes and down the other, and might have been down to about 10 mph at one point.

But the news we received at Betty’s was worth the wait… Rose Berra can sign her sentencia on Monday morning and hopefully she and Sarina and Paulie and Mama Etzel will be back in St. Louis for Thanksgiving! The second sentencia of the week – the house is on a roll, and now we’re all celebrating with pizza and beer. ..

Tomorrow we are sleeping in after three absurd wake-ups in a row!

P.S. Later tonight Caroline will have photos from today’s adventure in website 4 (‘postonsbunch 2’) below. Click on the Nov22 photo album.

Friday, November 21, 2003 6:41 PM CST

For the second straight day we were up before the sunrise – and that’s difficult here, where first light is about 5:30am! Today we were up at 5am (on doctor’s orders to have Julia sleepy for her MRI at the hospital). A fringe benefit was the opportunity to see the Henrichs off to the airport – the whole tribe left in Jorge’s Green Hornet (suitcases bulging out of the trunk) just after 5:30. Tonight they’ll be back home in Ohio. Charlie will be enjoying a vodka tonic and Max will be munching on a jelly donut, while Andrea unpacks!

Since we were up already, I spent the time early this morning getting caught up on some PathWay Communications work. The wonder of technology is that it enables me to stay connected to all of my key clients, even though I’m half a world away. I worked up an agenda for my Atlanta meeting in another week and did some e-mails on other new business.

When we got to the radiology department at the hospital they looked at us with blank faces when we said we had an MRI appointment for Julia. No mas, they said. A quick call from Maria Teresa to Elizabeth at FANA and all was fixed (ah, to have friends in high places). Julia had a mild sedative that zonked her out pretty good until after the MRI – she spent about 45 minutes coming to and when she did she was weaving around the room like a drunken sailor. (We are trying to bring some of this great stuff home with us!) Some time, some crackers and some juice fixed all of that and we were back to Betty’s by about 11am. Again, we were pretty impressed with the hospital. We will get the MRI results on Monday and probably schedule time with the neurologist to review them early next week.

Otherwise it was a pretty slow day here. This afternoon we lazed around the house, practiced Alexandra’s kicking skills, and I popped out to get some things at the grocery store, Carulla, across the street. Rose Berra, her mom, plus Sarina and Francesca Surace spent the day outside Bogota with a friend of Rose’s who lives here.

Albert Polo, our legal counsel (and possibly the tallest lawyer in Colombia) was here around dinner time and gave us a quick update on our case. Not much that we didn’t know but it was good to hear it from the caballero’s mouth, as they say – we’re in the second stage, in court #14, waiting to go to the judge for final approval and sentencia. Some judges act faster than others. And it’s useless (actually harmful) for Polo to try and influence the judge to act more quickly. It’s kind of like Roy the auto mechanic in Thorndale – you car is ready if you don’t ask; it isn’t if you do! So we keep up the waiting game.

Tomorrow we have a full day planned – a road trip to Villa de Leyva, which is a quaint colonial town three hours north of Bogota with lots to see. Betty will go with us and Jorge Rico will guide us, minus the Green Hornet. All of us will go in a van and start out by 7am in order to be back by about supper time. Full report to follow.

Sunday we have lunch at a great restaurant outside Bogota that supposedly has lots of things to keep the kids interested. That night the Cummings arrive from Buffalo to receive their first child – son Nathan – at FANA on Monday. We are ready and waiting.

Betty stopped by today, took one look at Alexandra and said, “The peanut is growing into a pistachio!” Quite true. We also cut her fingernails today after she maimed her own forehead with a healthy scratch…

I forgot to mention earlier this week that we’ve been e-mailing Father Jim at St Michael’s and we’re starting the wheels moving to book a christening date for Alexandra when we return. This time we will do it when there is NOT six inches of rain in one afternoon (a foot of snow perhaps). We are also bringing home some holy water straight from the top of Montserrate in Bogota to use on the occasion, if we can keep Jules from drinking it.

The last few days have taken a toll on us… late nights, early mornings... and we are ready for an early night in bed. Ciao.

P.S. Caroline has photos from today in website 4 (‘postonsbunch 2’) below, including some prime photos of Matthew Surace and Julia. Click on Nov 21 photo album.

Thursday, November 20, 2003 7:47 PM CST

We were up really early this morning after a great dinner out at Betty and Rafa’s last night. They have a beautiful apartment cut into the Andes with a gorgeous view at nighttime over the city of Bogota. Betty and Rafa are as hospitable to us in their own home as they are here on Calle 114 at Betty’s Place There’s really not much more we can say about how great these two people are – the genuine concern that they have for us is both heartwarming and like a giant security blanket for FANA couples when they are so far from home.

We had great drinks, dinner and conversation. The girls – Betty, Caroline, Rose Berra (with Mama Etzel) Andrea Henrich, Barb Surace and cousin Suzanne – all stayed in the living room and dining room, solving most of the key issues in the world, including why Colombia is such a great manufacturer of nylons, among other things. We were sorry to miss that conversation, but Charlie and Rafa and I made a strategic decision to adjourn to Rafa’s den to watch a great soccer doubleheader: Brazil vs. Uruguay and Colombia vs. Argentina, both South American qualifying matches for the 2006 World Cup. Rafa said the Colombia match, which began at 9pm, would mean that most of Bogotá’s streets would be deserted for once (sure enough when we went home close to midnight we saw next to nobody). It was a great night – some great Colombian soup filled with potato, chicken, avocado and capers – and some great stories.

We had to be up at 5am to ensure Julia was sleepy when we had the EEG appointment at Santa Fe hospital at 7:30. Maria Teresa drove us and translated, but only Caroline was allowed to go into the room with Julia for the procedure. Once again Caroline’s coolness under pressure amazed me. She was successful in suitably calming Julia and actually getting her to sleep. Jules was a sweetheart throughout the whole deal, by the way. I am pretty proud of my girls tonight.

NOW THE BEST PART – the test went fine and all the results were perfectly normal, which the kind doctor, Dr. Benitiz, patiently explained to us afterwards, with Maria Teresa translating in detail. This verified the doctor’s original prognosis that Jules suffered a “crisis” seizure likely caused by the fall from bed. We really expected these results, but were relieved just the same to have them confirmed for us. We’re amazed at the quality of medical care here and the doctor himself – Aunt Leslie reminded us today that getting a referral to a children’s neurologist, actually getting an appointment, plus having an EEG and MRI scheduled, all within 48 hours, is virtually unheard of in Canada, so we know we are lucky. And thanks to all out there for your wishes and prayers over the last couple of days. They mean a lot.

Now, tomorrow we do the last leg – an MRI at 8am, with the same routine as this morning (up early at 5ish to ensure Jules is sleepy enough to fall asleep for the procedure at the hospital). We’ll be glad when these early mornings are done and we can just sleep in, lie around and be slobs like usual!

The Surace SWAT Team – Barb and Suzanne – graciously watched over Alexandra early this morning while we were at the hospital. She is changing so much before our eyes – growing pretty well, and really learning how to kick her legs, smile all the time at us, and being a real doll. We are at the point now where we want to be home to share her with our families and friends… there is too much happening too fast to miss!

As for the rest of the day, all of the ladies in the house went out to the legendary Norberto’s for haircuts and came back looking like Miss Colombias! I saw Norberto for myself when we went to pick the girls up and no words can describe him. Caroline missed this morning due to the hospital, but will make it there next week with Betty and maybe with Cheryl Cummings too, who knows. (Cheryl may have more things on her mind with Nathan.)

The rest of us picked up the gals in Guillermo’s van and went to El Corral (the Colombian McDonald’s) for great burgers and even better shakes. The best shake I have ever had. I may be back daily. Then all of the girls went shopping for the afternoon while Jules and I came back for a 3-hour nap to make up for the early morning. We were both pretty spent and by this time (what else?) Bogota was having its daily thunderstorm so the timing was right.

Tonight at dinner we toasted the Henrichs – Charlie, Andrea, Max and gorgeous Isabella – as they prepare to be homeward bound to Ohio tomorrow. We will miss them all. Max, keep up on your doughnuts. Charlie/Chuck/Chaz/Charlito – be safe in the TV world. We will see you in Vegas for the reunion.

No news on our court case today, and we didn’t expect any. Next week is U.S. thanksgiving, so the embassy will be closed Thursday and Friday and it means that none of us are likely to leave next week unless we sign our sentencia in the next day or so. In our case, I booked my flights for a business meeting in Atlanta for Dec. 1-3, so we will definitely be here until after that, although hopefully not much longer!

That is all… Caroline will post new photos tonight.

Wednesday, November 19, 2003 3:42 PM CST

We all had a great night’s sleep after the developments of the night before – Jules and Alexandra both slept solidly until just before 8am, and mom and dad were about the same. Plus we awoke to a beautifully clear morning in Bogota… great things all around.

Given the weather, we paid a second visit to Montserrate today. The day was too nice, plus the Berras and the Suraces were going anyways, so we couldn’t decline a great opportunity to get out. It was bit hazier today, so the view wasn’t quite as good, but while Caroline and Jules and the others went on Jorge Rico’s specially guided tour, I stayed behind and took some different photos from the other day and wandered around inside the church itself.

After Montserrate we went to lunch in La Candelaria, the old town, at a great spot, La Hotel de la Opera, a mix of Spanish-Italian architecture – including a rooftop restaurant with a great view of the neighborhood. Colombians always eat a big meal at lunch, and this was no different! We intended to walk around La Candelaria afterwards and perhaps visit the Gold Museum, but the usual afternoon thunderstorm was starting to pelt Bogota so we retreated to Betty’s Place to rest up for dinner at Betty and Rafa’s tonight. That promises to be an interesting night which I will share the details on tomorrow!

Some trivia on a pretty slow news day:

• Jorge Rico’s 1973 Dodge Dart, which you see in some of the photos on the ‘postons bunch’ website in the link below, is a beaut. He claims it has more than a million miles on it – 300,000 during his possession – and says he has only had one major problem with it.

• Bogota traffic continues to amaze us. It’s all-crazy, all-busy, all the time. Part of the reason is the bus system here. Buses are owned and operated by individuals, like taxi cabs in North America, so the drivers have an incentive to pick up as many passengers as they can – it means more revenue, but it also means they’re stopping all over the place, wherever somebody ‘hails’ a bus. This slows the traffic down a lot. It must aggravate the Bogotanos, judging by the liberal use of the horns, but we get a kick out of watching this as visitors.

• At the same time Bogota has recently designed and implemented its Trans Mileneo transportation system, which is apparently the benchmark for other cities in the world who are sending designers to copy it. It’s like an above-ground subway with buses. They have a couple of routes that criss-cross the city, with dedicated lanes in the middle of the widest expressways. This has drastically cut down on pollution and commute time for a lot of people in the southernmost and northernmost parts of the city.

The Henrichs are busy getting their final paperwork done today for their fast exit from Bogota on Friday. We still find it hard to believe, and we’re so happy for them. As for the rest of us, we learned today that all of our cases have gone into the second stage (fairly quickly, which is good). This means all of our paperwork is a-okay, and we now await the documents going to the judge in our court. All of this can take from 2 – 20 days. We are gearing ourselves to the ‘20’ just to manage expectations.

It’s now 5pm and we’re getting ready to go to Betty’s. Alexandra has had a bath and seems to be much better congestion-wise today. Jules is her normal self, so ALL IS FINE (thank you all for your concerns). Tomorrow is an early day as we take Julia for her EEG at the hospital at 7am. She needs to be 'sleepy' so we will keep her up late tonight and get her up at 5am tomorrow. Thankfully the hospital is only 10 minutes away. Maria Teresa will drive us and translate.

Ciao…

Tuesday, November 18, 2003 9:36 PM CST

Ho hum, just another day.

We went 18 days in Bogota without any medical emergencies and then it all happens in a space of 24 hours.

As mentioned in yesterday's journal, Alexandra has been congested more than usual these past few days and it reached a point where we thought FANA taking a look at her would make sense and give us some peace of mind. So that’s what we did today. More on that in a moment.

Little did we know that Julia would also have her own medical emergency. It all started last night at midnight. Caroline and Alexandra were already in bed sawing lumber, and I was finishing some work in the TV room and catching the end of Monday Night Football. I went back to our room and was about to turn out the light. Just then I heard a loud thud from Julia’s adjoining room. I rushed in and she had fallen out of her bed, was laying on her side and was convulsing. Our friends and family will remember that this happened to Julia once before – two years ago when she had a ‘suspended-breath seizure’ that resulted from her slipping and knocking the back of her head. That was a pretty scary experience for us at the time.

This time it wasn’t quite as bad – it was a milder convulsion, but scary nonetheless. As usual I tend to go all places at once when these things happen – I had Caroline out of bed and had rushed into the living room to get nurse Barb Surace (thank goodness she was still up) all within about 20 seconds. I have to boast about my dear wife right here. Caroline is incredible – I wish I had her amazing power to remain calm under stressful conditions. Within a minute the whole thing was over, Julia was through the seizure and she was sleeping soundly. I think it helped that the fall from the bed to the floor wasn’t that far, and it was unlikely that she fell on her head, although we’ll never know for certain of course (Jules still has no memory of this entire episode last night).

Once we knew everything was ok Barb was quick to get on the phone to Betty and ask about a potential trip to the hospital. We decided to wait for an hour and see how Julia was (she was sleeping soundly at this point.) In another hour we woke her up in our bed and asked her some questions – what was the name of Anna’s horse, that sort of thing, and she was fine. We decided to rule out the hospital visit and instead get a consult at FANA in the morning. In the meantime all the stress caused Jules to throw up in our bed, where we wanted her to be overnight. Plus Alexandra was coughing every two hours or so and one of us would get up to hold her, so all told we figure we had a couple of hours sleep total. Quite a night. Turns out Rafa, Betty’s husband, stayed up ALL NIGHT in case we need to make an emergency bolt to the hospital. I tell you, we are in such great hands here – with friends like Barb and Betty and Rafa and so many others – not to mention Elizabeth – we have absolutely nothing to worry about, and we are certainly grateful.

This morning Julia opened her eyes and said ever so softly, “Good morning Mommy and Daddy.” Those who know Jules know that “soft voice” and her name aren’t often mentioned in the same sentence. So we knew the night had taken a toll on her. We all loaded up to go to FANA and the pediatrician there asked us a few questions, and then suggested that, while there was nothing to be alarmed about, we would be safest in seeing a children’s neurologist. So Elizabeth, head nurse at FANA, pulled some major strings and got us an appointment for 7:30 tonight. We headed back to Betty’s for lunch, and then some great thunder-boomers came rolling through Bogota, which set us up nicely for an all-afternoon nap – all of us, and much needed.

Elizabeth accompanied us to the neurologist tonight and it was a great visit. It was a nice, modern hospital and apparently people come from all over the country to see this doctor. He asked us some questions about last night’s episode, plus the one that happened two years ago (during Barney, no less!) and then marched Jules through a series of tests – hop on one foot etc. – and basically said she scored perfectly, i.e. nothing abnormal whatsoever. But given that this is the second one, he recommends an MRI and EEG and we have agreed to do that on Thursday morning. He believes that Jules had another “crisis” seizure caused by the fall out of bed, and that there is nothing to be concerned about, but that the tests will confirm that, so we will do it. Jules was a trooper through all of this – and got a nice big lollipop for her efforts.

As for Alexandra, yes she is congested, but her lungs are clear, no ear problems – and it is not the bronchialitis that is going around Bogota, just a nasty head cold like the one I have! We were prescribed some saline drops and told to move her crib away from the window in our room (where it is cooler and more humid) to the other side of the room. Already she seems better today. She has also reached the 10 pound mark – still a peanut, but a growing peanut.

NEWS BULLETIN. The other exciting news is that the Henrichs are leaving on Friday – they signed their Sentencia today and that is some sort of record, as they have not even been here two weeks! We are all truly thrilled for them and it is further proof that strange and wonderful things can happen in the Colombian court system and it’s useless trying to predict what those things will be and when they will happen. Charlie, Andrea, Max and Isabella will go back to Dayton on Friday. Did I mention that Dayton is not far from Cincinnati – home of the AFC North leading Bengals?

That is all, more than enough in fact. We are all off to bed for hopefully a full night’s rest. Tomorrow we have a full day planned in La Candelaria for some sightseeing, plus dinner at Betty and Rafa’s.

Adios

Monday, November 17, 2003 8:51 PM CST

Today started by having to say goodbye to Papa Paul Berra, great dad, chief legal counsel for our group, Rams fanatic, and much more. These partings are never easy – not after we’ve spent so much time together in close quarters for two and a half weeks. Tonight Paul is back in St. Louis and Rose is out at the airport right now picking up Grandma Berra who will stay here for a couple of weeks. We’re sure she is looking forward to seeing Sarina and Paulie.

Alexandra is a bit congested again – she was like that a couple of weeks ago when we received her from FANA, improved for awhile, and now it seems to be back. I am also congested in my head and chest with a petty good cold, not sure if she has given it to me or me to her. We are not overly concerned but to be safe we are going to pay a visit to FANA tomorrow to have the doctor and pediatrician check her out. Antoinette Surace is in the same way, so Barb and Antoinette will go with us. It’s great to have FANA so close by, with such excellent facilities and staff.

It was a beautiful sunny day in Bogota – our nicest so far – and we decided to take advantage of it by going to Montserrate, the beautiful church that sits high atop the Andes overlooking the entire city with a stunning view. Jorge Rico, our trusty driver and tour guide, picked up Jules and I and Caroline, along with Charlie Henrich and Max, for an afternoon trip. It was great to be back in the Green Hornet.

We stopped in a park at the base of the Andes, near downtown, for a juice. Today was a national holiday in Colombia so lots of people were out and about – like Canada Day or Victoria Day weekend in our parts. We got to the base of Montserrate at about 1pm and lined up for the cable car to the top. Montserrate is a beautiful church that sits on the edge of a cliff, about 10,000 feet above sea level (and 1,500 above the city). The view from the top is spectacular – we stared right down over the downtown of Bogota, and could see all of the southern and northern portions of the city. Apparently, Bogota stretches for 50 miles from south to north and we could see all of it.

I was surprised that the city didn’t look as densely populated as I expected a city of 7 million to be, but Jorge says it’s because a lot of the poorer areas actually have two or three (or more) homes sitting directly on top of one another, with multiple families in each, so while there is a lot of green space, the areas of houses are jam packed with people.

We spent about an hour at the top and toured the church. Colombians make pilgrimages regularly to the top by walking (it takes about 90 minutes vs. the five-minute cable car), and Jorge says nine pilgrimages are necessary for prayers to be answered. Masses are held regularly. Afterwards Jorge took us through the old town district of Bogota, Le Candelaria, which sits right beside the downtown. We had lunch at a great Colombian restaurant on a tiny narrow cobblestone street. All of the buildings are restored beautifully and no new building can take place. We really enjoyed this part of the city and will go back to Le Candelaria on Wednesday this week to see all of it in detail.

(Photos of today’s trip can be found in the ‘postonsbunch’ website 3 link below, click on the Nov17 album).

We got back in time for dinner at Betty’s Place and a chance for me to grab some medication from Carulla’s across the street. Not much else is happening tonight other than the kids performing mock wedding ceremonies (hmmmm….) and waiting for Rose to return from the airport with her mom.

Les, Marilyn, John, Mike, Diane, Grandma and Grandpa, Oma and Opa – thanks for all of your e-mails. We love your updates and they keep us going!

Buenos noches…

Sunday, November 16, 2003 8:00 PM CST

Here’s an update from Bogota since Friday night.

Betty and Rafa flew in from New York late Friday evening and, wouldn’t you know, the “Mom” in Betty couldn’t let her bypass the house on the way home from the airport. It was great to see them again and of course Betty took control really quickly. On Saturday morning she was back here bright and early and had all of the kids sitting CALMLY on the living room floor (bribing them with donuts helps) as she mapped out a plan for the coming week. Betty would make a great cruise director, but she’s too busy being a great mom, worrier, social butterfly, fashion show model, and about 1,000 other things.

All of my “girls” – Caroline, Julia and Alex – have been just fine. Caroline has settled into the role as the house photographer. Most of the photos you see on the links on this site have also been shared with the other families and they are in turn using some of them on their own sites. Julia continues to be a very caring big sister – this is somewhat amazing to us, because we’re coming up on the two-week mark for Alexandra. But Jules keeps being so careful and helpful in all things related to her baby sister. And Alexandra – hey, I can’t help but bust a few buttons here… she eats 5oz every 4 hrs (except during the night) and she sleeps solidly – past 8am the past two mornings (we wish Jules had the same pattern!). There really is nothing much more to say about Alex – we’ve had her out for a few walks nearby Betty’s, but other than that it’s been eat, sleep, poop.

Saturday morning Betty arranged for Julia and Francesca (Surace) and Sarina (Berra) to go to the infamous Norberto’s for haircuts. They came back looking gorgeous, and Jules still has the braids in her hair to show for it. All three girls presented themselves to the living room in a pretty proud way when they returned. All of the moms in the house are booked for their own day at Norberto’s this coming Thursday. Yesterday they also had manicures from the same lady they gave them pedicures last week… each manicure came to a grand total of about $2.00 USD. They were all getting spruced up for the British Ambassador’s dinner last night.

The dinner was a fund-raiser for a number of charities in Bogota, sponsored by the American Women’s Club. It rotates between the British and U.S. ambassador residences and last night it was at the home of the British ambassador, which is a great stately residence in northern Bogota. The theme was a Las Vegas night – so there were slots, blackjack tables, roulette and poker, a cash bar, and four different food stations serving Thai, Mexican, Spanish and Peruvian food.

Alicia was here to take care of the babies, while Lilliane and a friend came in to watch over the older ones. We started at Betty’s at 5pm with empanadas – great Colombian appetizers. Then all four couples in the house loaded into a van at 6:30, picked up Betty and Rafa at their place, and then proceeded to friends of Betty’s and Rafa’s at a great apartment near the ambassador’s residence. The finest ‘apartments’ here are like those in Manhattan – beautifully laid out homes that are owned by Bogatonos, and are considered more secure than houses, as they have controlled entry and are off the ground. These particular friends were real estate developers in Bogota, and their apartment was beautiful – complete with a wine cellar with more than 1,000 bottles (makes our wine from ‘Pints’ in Exeter look pretty lame). We have discovered the Colombians love to drink – so we spent a couple of hours there starting the evening with champagne.

Then it was on to the ambassador’s residence a few blocks away. The security was pretty tight – we passed through two checks, including an airport style scanner. The house had about 300 people in it. Most of the dinner tables and gambling were set up in the gardens behind the house, underneath huge tents. The ambassador himself was waiting at the front door to welcome each guest – kind of a nice touch. He did NOT know the Postons family from Ludlow and Orleton. I told him he needed to get out more.

Colombians typically eat dinner later in the evening – it was only about 10 pm, so the guys headed to the blackjack tables, where we hung out for a couple of hours, managing to lose close to 750,000 pesos between us (thankfully, this is only about $250 and Charlie Henrich claimed most of the losses). We were distracted for a few hands by the Brazilian dancers who appeared at around 11:30. Very interesting moves is the most appropriate description I can think of!

We all had a great time with Betty and Rafa – we fit in dinner and some dancing before leaving at about 1am. By then the party was just getting going and Betty and Rafa were dancing up a storm. They, however, didn’t have 10 kids back at Betty’s Place that would awake them first thing in the morning.

The evening was especially fun because it was our last night with ‘Sweet Lou’ Surace. Lou and Louie left for the airport at 6am today and are back in Buffalo tonight. Julia misses Louie, and we all miss Lou. Cousin Suzanne is still here with Barb (and Francesca and Antoinette and Matthew – thank God the Suraces didn’t take another FANA tour!!!), so she is in good hands. But we will miss Lou’s dry sense of humor, his logical approach to life, his calm in the eye of the storm, and his great touch with all of the kids in the house – not just his own. Tomorrow Lou will be back to prying open kids’ mouths. (And tomorrow we also say good bye to Paul Berra, who returns to St. Louis – another ‘big’ loss for Betty’s Place, in more ways than one. Paul is 6’6”.)

The house came alive fairly slowly this morning. We used the late night last night to feed Alexandra a bottle at 1:30 when we went to bed, so she slept through past 8am, and Jules was also pretty tired – she and Francesca actually stayed awake during a long movie-a-thon and were still up when we got in, although Max and Louie and Sarina were down for the count.

Amazingly Betty was here by mid-morning (they left the party around 3am) and we put in place some plans for the next week – we will be busy doing something practically every day. I think Betty really enjoys doing this for us, and undoubtedly knows that staying busy helps to keep our minds off the inevitable question – “How is our case proceeding… and when are we going home?” All of us are in this position right now and each couple is in a different court. We can sit back and analyze things and worry about when we leave, or we can stay busy, experience Colombian culture, and be ready to go when the case closes and we sign our final papers – or “sentencia” in Spanish. That could be two weeks or it could be a month. Right now, we’re a bit unsure about a possible trip to Cartagena – we have enough planned for the next week, so we will try to think that through this coming week and make a decision. If we go we would likely go for 4-5 days after next weekend, and will need to fit it around a short business trip I need to make to Atlanta.

As for the rest of today – Caroline and I and Jules, with Suzanne and Francesca, walked down to La Fontana. We intended to get there for mass, but we talked with Betty too long, so we missed church and strolled through the crafts marketplace, did some shopping, listened to a great Colombian band in the square and ate some lunch. It was a nice relaxing afternoon. The last few days have seen an improvement in the weather – it’s been a mix of sun and cloud, with no rain, and pleasant temperatures.

We finished off dinner, put all the kids to bed, and now we’re all catching up on e-mail and our websites, while keeping one eye on Sunday Night Football.

Finally, a big congratulations to Cheryl and Paul Cummings from Buffalo who received their referral for their son, Nathan, on Friday night and (we hear) will be joining us at Betty’s Place soon. We look forward to welcoming you! (Be forewarned, if you arrive at dinner time the ‘racket’ may be enough to send you back to the airport… it dies down after an hour or so!) Good luck in your busy week of preparations and we will see you soon, guys.

• P.S. Did I mention that the mighty Bengals beat the previously unbeaten Chiefs and moved into first place in the AFC North today?

Friday, November 14, 2003 8:17 PM CST

We have now been in Bogota for two weeks – in many ways it seems like forever and in others it seems like just yesterday. Time flies!

Today’s journal entry will be short (please hold your applause) because my day was spent golfing and I know there is a short limit to how much you want to hear about that – and Caroline basically spent an R&R day at Betty’s.

Alexandra had one of her fussier days so far today. Not sure why – may have just been too much excitement building up for her, or it may also have been the “nasty implosion” that she had building up all day, and which finally occurred at around 7:30! She was also up an hour earlier this morning, for whatever reason. She seems to be packing on the ounces, as she is definitely looking chubbier in the face.. we’ll update photos over the weekend.

Arturo and Maria Teresa Maldonado picked Paul and Charlie and I up at 8am to head out for a day of golf at a great course, La Sabana, that’s an hour north of Bogota. The green fee was a grand total of 20,000 pesos, or about $7.00 USD. It’s a championship-calibre style course with great views, although soggy fairways due to all of the rain Bogota has had in the past week. We had a great day – there were very few people on the course, so we played as a fivesome, and we were helped immeasurably by our caddies. These guys knew the course backwards, and knew all of our ‘games’ within a few swings. My man, Oscar, would hand me the club I needed before I even asked for it, and he knew exactly the club to hit after a hole or two. A couple of times I went against his selections and I was always wrong. He also read the greens pretty well. I told him there was a spot for him at Sunningdale in London anytime. By the way, in keeping with strict confidentiality agreements signed before the match no scores will be disclosed. Did I mention that the weather was perfect for a walk?

We finished off with a nice lunch at La Sabana, and got back to Betty’s at about 4pm. Caroline and Jules were napping, most of the other kids were out with Lou Surace and Suzanne (bless their hearts) and the babies were all asleep. Caroline spent the day doing some errands – catching up on laundry and grocery shopping at Carulla.

Tomorrow night we are all going to a special cocktail party and dinner at the British Ambassador’s residence, as guests of Betty and Rafa Castillo who are returning to Bogota tonight after two weeks in Buffalo and NYC. We are not accustomed to such company – I will have to ask the Ambassador if he is familiar with the famous Postons family from Orleton, Ludlow and other points in the Midlands! Alicia is coming in to watch the babies, and we have a small SWAT crew, led by Elizabeth’s daughter Lilliane, standing by to ensure the older kids don’t burn down the house and that Louie and Julia don’t disappear under a blanket again. Because of tomorrow’s late night, I will post Saturday and Sunday’s news together on Sunday night, with a full recap of the Ambassador’s party… the spilled drinks, the politically incorrect statements, the dancing miscues etc....

That’s it from here for Friday. I need to check out the living room where a ‘talent show’ is in progress.

• P.S. Thanks, Dad, for the full report on Wynfield Lane. Don’t take any BS from the neighbors. If any weeds spread from the usual culprits, #31 or #14, send them back with a nasty note. We hope the Hoevs are tolerating Mitch… thanks Erin for all that you are doing! We will ask Mitch to save up his best cat breath to give you suitable thanks when we return.

Thursday, November 13, 2003 7:54 PM CST

After two days of hard rains and stay-at-home weather (or get-stranded-at-Geno’s-Pizza weather, as the case may be), today was like a nice spring day in Canada. The sun and warm temps contrasted with the early blast of winter that we understand southern Ontario received today. In fact, when I went to the bank at noon I noticed a few Bogotanians in the streets using umbrellas to protect themselves from the hot mid-day sun.

We hope the weather holds for tomorrow because all of the dads are playing golf with Arturo and Maria Teresa Maldonado from FANA at Maria’s club in Bogota. The pre-match posturing began at dinner tonight, with Paul Berra complaining of calcium deposits in his wrist, Charlie Henrich claiming he hadn’t played since May, and me reminding everyone that my four-year-old daughter is helplessly in love – and about to fall to earth when Louie Surace leaves for Buffalo with his dad in three days!

Most of our day was spent at FANA with the Berras. We’re really starting to know the way there – it’s about a half-hour drive from Betty’s in the northern suburb of Suba and today was our 5th visit there in two weeks. We get a real slice of Bogota on the way to and from FANA. The traffic really can’t be described – the most dangerous maneuvers on our highways are commonplace here. Most stoplights at major intersections have street performers (unfortunately, often these are poor, shoeless kids) who will juggle, do back-flips, whatever it takes, to get small change from cars stopped in traffic. Most of the streets have ‘salesmen’ who work the traffic when it stops at intersections – selling anything and everything, from candy and newspapers to the items we witnessed on yesterday’s return trip from FANA, which included guitars, cell phone chargers, slippers, fresh fruit and flowers. True one-stop shopping.

The purpose of our FANA visit was twofold – to get our official tour of the facility and to receive our social history on Alexandra’s birth parents. Because of a scheduling mix-up we did the tour in the morning, returned to Betty’s for lunch, and went back to FANA this afternoon for our social history. We’ve heard rave reviews from previous FANA couples about the tour and it didn’t fail to meet expectations. In fact, I really can’t do justice to it here, so all I will do is leave a few general impressions. It is a modern facility that truly rivals anything that we have in North America in practically every way. It really is a combined orphanage, hospital and school. We saw all of the administrative offices, the nursery rooms (including several new additions!), the sleeping areas for older ‘ninos and ninas’, the classrooms, the kitchen, the playgrounds, the fully-stocked pharmacy, and even the dentist. It really is touching to see the older kids that haven’t been adopted – many of whom greeted us with enthusiastic eyes and wide smiles, and clung to us when it came to leave. Pretty emotional.

The tour confirmed for Caroline and I what we already knew, but it was so comforting to see it anyways – that Alexandra spent the first two months of her life in a loving, caring, spotlessly clean and healthy environment , with medical facilities that are comparable to our own.

• Editor’s note: our description of FANA falls woefully short of what it is really like. If you view no other photos on this website, we encourage you to go to the link below (right under the guest book), http://photos.yahoo.com/ccjapostons, where it says “Caroline's pictures - website 2.” Once there, click on the ‘Nov13’ photo album and then on ‘slideshow.’ Caroline has assembled a brief presentation of about 25 photos from today’s tour. We consider these the most important photos of our time in Colombia. They also remind us that all of the funds raised by Families of FANA/Western New York go to a very special cause here in Bogota. This is where Alexandra began her life and we will never forget that.

Guillermo rushed us back to Betty’s for a fast lunch. Over the noon hour I also popped up the street to change some travelers checks at the bank into pesos. This turned into a 90-minute exercise, once I found a bank that was NOT closed for the noon hour, negotiated the line, explained what I needed in my rudimentary Spanish, and then settled back to watch some interesting bank procedures, which I lost track of after about 25 minutes of waiting.

The social history in the afternoon at FANA was equally as important as the tour in the morning. Maria Teresa Maldonado gave us an overview of Alexandra’s birth parents, their economic circumstances, how they arrived at FANA etc. Without going into a lot of details, Maria’s summary gave us some useful insights on Alexandra’s birth parents and the lives they live in Bogota. It also helped us to know that the choice to place Alexandra up for adoption wasn’t an easy one – but it was also one made for all of the right reasons.

We got back to Betty’s Place in late afternoon, intended to go to the park to kill some energy, but instead sat in the living room and had an impromptu visit from Mercedes (who brought cookies for the kids) while Julia, Louie, Sarina, Max and Francesca played in Betty’s courtyard. It was nice, after a long day, to come back and take Alexandra off Alicia’s hands – and see her break into one of her goofy broad smiles upon seeing us! She really is adorable at this stage.

Julia’s education away from St. Paul Catholic School for the month of November is continuing. On the way to FANA this morning she shouted out, “Hey Dad! There’s the Andes!” (All we need in the family is another geography junkie.) We’ve also been quizzing her every day on the things that she thinks are different in Bogota compared to London, Ontario. So far she’s listed traffic (for sure), houses (some nice Spanish architecture for certain), and kids on the streets selling things (not observed in Wynfield Estates unless we count Rachael Petcoff selling lemonade).

The house is now quieting down as older kids head off to bed, and the babes get their last bottles before bedtime.

P.S. Julia would like to say hi to all of her special friends out there that she misses – including Madison, Lyndsey and Lauren, Hannah and Rachael, Spencer, Peyton, Matthew and Meagan!

Wednesday, November 12, 2003 8:45 PM CST

Today was one of the first days since we have been in Bogota in which we had absolutely nothing scheduled. We slept in, fed Alexandra her bottle in bed, had a nice breakfast with everyone, and then took our time getting ready for the day.

By mid-morning everyone was going in their separate directions for various appointments, so Caroline and I decided to take Alexandra for a walk along Carrera 15 – one of the main throughways of Bogota that’s just around the corner from Betty’s Place. Julia stayed behind (more on that in a moment), but Rose and Sarina Berra came along. We hit the photo shop to drop off some film for developing, the pharmacy to stock up on some supplies, and the supermarket to get lunch food for the house. I also went to the bank to change some dollars into pesos, but forgot my passport, so I’ll make a trip there tomorrow. The line-up looked a bit longer than the local TD Canada Trust anyways!

We encountered typical Bogota weather while we were out for an hour – we left in pleasant sunshine, but it was raining within 15 minutes, and then had cleared up again an hour later. This afternoon was a rerun of yesterday – another heavy storm, and then it had cleared by just before dinner when Caroline and I and Paul Berra made a return trip to the photo store to pick up our developed film. We’re pleased with most of our photos so far – we have great shots of Alexandra’s presentation, the other families here, and our various side trips. Thankfully I also have some tangible memories of the golf experience last Monday – this will be proof to various golf aficionados like the Postons brothers, Mr. Hoevenaars and Mr. Petcoff that I actually did whack the ball around in such an idyllic setting. I have this goofy grin in all the photos that almost seems to scream out, “Am I really golfing here?”

Julia stayed behind at Betty’s Place this morning because… well, can you hear the love in the air here? Either she has fallen for Louie Surace, or Louie has fallen for her (or both), but sparks are definitely flying. It’s cute to watch… they are virtually inseparable these days, building forts in the living room, coloring under the desk in the TV room, hanging off the slide in Betty’s courtyard, and (wait for it) actually disappearing under a blanket together today in the TV room. Tonight at the little kids dinner table it was just Julia and Louie (until Sarina Berra arrived to chaperone) and we were tempted to add a candle to their table, as it looked like they were on their first date. I thought I’d be free of these concerns for at least another 10 years, but throw a bit of Louie’s Italian-Colombian blood into the mix and see what you get! (Notice how I am naively finding Julia totally blameless? That is a father’s job.)

On the court proceedings front we learned today from Maria Teresa that our file is in Court #9. This is apparently neither the fastest nor slowest court – just average, but not a lot of adoption files have been going through this one lately, so it’s difficult to say what this means to us. We are preparing ourselves for potentially another month. We will talk to Betty about planning a few days in Cartagena after she is back from New York this weekend, as that will likely be a great way to break up the remaining waiting time that we have here.

With the rain continuing today a lady actually came by late this afternoon and gave most of the ladies (and even Jules) pedicures. Just another normal day for Caroline…

Caroline was kind of missing her project management job today so, in a momentary lull in the craziness, she sat me down at the dining room table for a ‘meeting’ to start organizing the Postons family Christmas, which we’re due to host on December 13th – probably a few days after we return! She didn’t get everything into “chart form” like she insists on most of the time, but I think we made some progress. Readers in Beeton, Essex, Stratford and London can expect e-mails and phone calls in the next few days to hear the details.

I was feeding Alex her bottle a minute ago and Barb Surace walked by and said, “Boy, I can see a real change in her in a week. Is she ever growing!” I agree… it’s been more than a week since this little girl popped into our lives, and a week makes a huge difference. Whenever I see Alicia during the day she points at me and says “fortunato papa” for the little fuss that Alexandra makes and the amount of time she spends sleeping.

We are looking forward to tomorrow because we will go to FANA for our tour of the entire facility, plus receive the social history on Alexandra’s birth parents. We have been to FANA four different times in the past week for presentations plus our Bienestar interview, but tomorrow we will get to slow down and see the entire FANA. It really is a special place and I’ll fill you in on our impressions in tomorrow’s journal.

Buenos noches…

Tuesday, November 11, 2003 6:52 PM CST

This is Remembrance Day in Canada and we will remember it in Bogota for two things: (1) our Bienestar interview and (2) the great flood at Geno’s Pizza.

First, the Bienestar interview. It was scheduled for 8am at FANA, which is different than usual, as it is usually held closer to downtown. Anyhow, Maria Teresa promised us that she would be here to pick us up at 7:30 so for the first time in Bogota we actually set our alarm (Alexandra is supposed to be waking us, but she has been failing to do that – we don’t hold that against her…)

Anyhow, once we were up we did a pretty good impression of Dagwood Bumstead when he is late for work. Lots of things were flying in various different directions – getting Jules ready, feeding Alexandra, getting ourselves ready, feeding Jules, packing a diaper bag, gathering all of our documents for Bienestar. If this was a dry run for when Caroline goes back to work (in 10 months time!) we think it went fairly well, although there’s ample room for improvement!

We got to FANA at 8am and waited with the Berras (who also had their interview today) for nearly an hour. Thank goodness for Barbie coloring books (Mom thinks of everything). The Bienestar is the equivalent of Canada’s Ministry of Community & Social Services giving its blessing to the adoption. In order to approve the adoption – and to submit the paperwork to the Colombian courts to officially start our legal proceedings – representatives from the Bienestar interview us in the presence of both Julia and Alexandra to get a ‘picture’ of how the family is adapting 5-6 days after the baby was received. The entire interview is in Spanish, and Maria Teresa sits in to interpret for us.

It went very well. They asked us general questions about our work, our school system, how we planned to care for Alexandra once both of us returned to work full time, and other general topics like that. The questioning got a bit more specific when they asked why we were adopting from Colombia when Julia was from Guatemala, and they seemed comfortable with our explanation of the current adoption situation there. They also wanted to know how much Julia knew about her own adoption and how we explained it to her. All of this was a fairly pleasant conversation – it didn’t hurt that Jules was on her very best behavior. When she wasn’t kissing Alex (who slept through the whole thing) on the forehead, she was counting to 10 in Spanish and using her best ‘quiet’ voice. It was so good that it looked scripted – except it wasn’t. By the end of the interview she was actually hugging the Bienestar interviewers, who were beaming.

So, that’s a key step over with. Now we wait to hear which of 22 possible courts we are in (we could know as soon as tomorrow) and that will give us some indication – although nothing is guaranteed – of our waiting time for approval.

We were back to Betty’s around 10:30. Shortly after all of the ladies in the house went out for lunch and shopping (Barb was stocking up on stuff for Matthew). Faced with the horrifying prospect of being stuck inside with four rambunctious older kids – and with Alicia firmly in control of the babies – the guys came to a logical conclusion: escape for pizza at Geno’s and let the kids run wild in the play world. So off we went. Geno’s is truly a godsend – indoor slides and games, plus two big pizzas and drinks for a tribe of eight, all for about $20.

Everything was great. The pizza was eaten. The slide was slid. The games were played.

And then the rains came.
And came.
And kept coming.
And then came some more.

Soon Calle 116, the street we were on, became Rio 116. The water started seeping through the front door of Geno’s. The staff swept it back out. The water kept coming and the staff stopped sweeping when it was about nine inches deep on the lower (street level). The kids all thought this was a scream. The staff giggled at the prospects of not having to work for the rest of the day. The dads? We grimly considered the prospects of being stuck inside Geno’s with four rambunctious kids.

Actually it wasn’t bad. The thunder and rains continued for an hour or so, and then it looked like it was going to brighten up enough to make a break for Betty’s – only 15 minutes away. But the skies opened again and the rains came down hard. We’d now been inside Geno’s for about three hours. Charlie Henrich took control – procuring a few free cervezas for the dads, and standing on a milk crate on the flooded lower level to call Betty’s Place to ask for a car to retrieve us (hailing cabs on the streets in Bogota generally isn’t advised). Half an hour later, Guillermo showed up and rowed us back down Rio 116 to Betty’s. Soon after the ladies appeared, laden with bags from Endino, a great shopping district in Bogota.

So that was Remembrance Day here in Colombia – the Bienestar and the flood.

As for Alexandra, she continues to eat well, sleep well and, yes, poop well. She is really developing a personality – as docile as it may be! She breaks into great wide smiles with her goofy little mouth. Everything is miniature with this little girl. She is really a treat and every day gets better. We forget that we missed this early stage with Julia.

As for Jules – her performance at the Bienestar is really just an extension of what she is practicing here every day at Betty’s Place. Every morning she bounds into the kitchen and greets Okenis and Carmen with a perky, “Buenos dias.” She has also perfected her breakfast order, “uno pancake por favor.”

The flood and afternoon excitement has taken a toll on the kids and the adults – and tonight will be an early one, after two late nights and two early mornings.

Thanks again to everyone for their ongoing e-mails and messages. We love getting them. They are a delight to read and keep us close to home – even though we are far away.

Ciao for today…

**********************************************************************************************************************

P.S. For those who missed the 'incredible Surace story,' please see yesterday's journal entry.

Monday, November 10, 2003 8:52 PM CST

I’ll get to a brief recap of the family Postons in a moment, but the primary focus of today’s journal is – as it should be – the wonderful story of the family Surace, so bear with me for a few minutes.

First, some background. Louis and Barb Surace, of Lockport NY, received their referral for their newest daughter, Antoinette, at the same FANA Halloween party where we first learned about Alexandra. They traveled to Bogota one day prior to us (was that really 11 days ago?) and received Antoinette on October 31, the day we traveled here. When we finally dragged our tired bodies to Betty’s Place that night the Suraces were there to greet us with smiling faces and reassuring words. Over the weekend they taught us the ropes about Betty’s Place, and we enjoyed spending time with their great kids, Francesca (6) and Louie (4) who were also adopted from FANA.

Barb and Louis are truly one of the nicest couples we have ever met. They devote their time tirelessly to FANA through their board involvement, the critical roles they have played in leading the FANA golf tournament and gala weekend, and in countless other ways. So, given all of this, what we witnessed today shouldn’t have surprised us, but it sure packed an emotional wallop…

Last Friday all of us in the house – the Suraces, the Berras, the Henrichs and the Postons – booked a day to go to the salt cathedral outside of Bogota. At the last minute Lou and Barb backed out, saying they had to go to FANA for the day. We though nothing of it, given their involvement with the orphanage. But when we returned to Betty’s Place later in the afternoon we got the stunning news, and even SAW it for ourselves. The Suraces had decided to adopt a second child while they were here – an 11-month old son who they named Matthew Ralph. Unknown to us, they had stated in their most recent home study (the one completed for Antoinette’s adoption) that they would also consider a second, older child this time around, if one was available. During their tour of FANA last week (which all adoptive couples do a few days after their presentation) Elizabeth pointed out Matthew to Barb and Louis and, to hear them tell the story, they were hooked right away.

Older children like Matthew are more difficult to place in adoptions, as most parents, ourselves included, are looking for infants. Complicating the issue are some special needs that Matthew has – all of which can be overcome, especially with such caring parents as Barb and Lou. Anyhow, we all stood there at Betty’s Place last Friday – our jaws on the floor and few dry eyes as watched Matthew get to know the Suraces and their kids. This bonding continued over the weekend, as Matthew visited for a few brief sessions.

Today that all became complete.

In the green room at FANA at about 2:30 p.m. Matthew Ralph Surace was presented to the Surace family (now also including cousin Suzanne of Rochester who arrived last night), trailed by a long line of observers/supporters in what seemed like the ENTIRE staff of FANA – from Mercedes de Martinez, the foundress of FANA, to Elizabeth, Flor, Marina and countless others – all of whom appeared to be both happy and sad at the same time. The entire presentation was captured by paparazzi comprised of the Berras, Henrichs, and Postons (and all of us were thrilled to be there). Tears flowed pretty liberally, I can’t lie. If today’s event had sponsors they most certainly would have been Kleenex and Kodak.

And so tonight at the dinner table – in a room that now includes 10 adults and 10 kids – a glass of champagne was raised to toast and celebrate Matthew Ralph Surace – and his parents, Barb and Louis Surace, all of whom are pretty special in our books.

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As for the rest of our day, which was rather mundane by comparison, here are the highlights:

• Alexandra becomes more captivating every day. Her big brown eyes are now ‘locking in’ on us pretty good and it is impossible to look away when she does that! She has also developed this interesting habit when she sleeps where she elevates her hands as if she’s letting her fingers dry after a manicure. Is this a sign of things to come?

• Alleluia, we have our letter from the Canadian embassy to get the visa work going! Maria Teresa and I were there at 10am today, waited more than 90 minutes for a two paragraph letter to be authorized – and Maria even ‘reminded’ them that we were there… they had forgotten! Anyhow, we have it – and that basically means that Canada will welcome Alexandra home by issuing a visa to her, once the Colombian government approves the adoption in the next few weeks.

• Julia is learning to have showers instead of baths here, as we don’t have a tub in our ‘suite’ but we do have a shower. This is big stuff for a four-year-old.

• After the FANA presentation today all of the Dads took the older kids over to a great series of parks just around the corner, alongside one of Bogotá’s busiest streets (it took us about 10 minutes to cross). But the effort was worth it – it allowed us to help the kids kill some energy after being cooped up in the van on the way home from FANA.

• Tomorrow it’s our Bienestar interview – bright and early at 7:30 a.m. for all four of us, so we will have an early night tonight and early morning tomorrow. After that we hope to learn what court we’re in… a full review of this meeting in tomorrow’s journal. Jules learned to “cross her legs like a lady” at a wedding shower at Aunt Cynthia’s last month, so hopefully this carries through to tomorrow!

P.S. For great pics of the Surace family, please visit the site through the link at the bottom of this page.

Sunday, November 9, 2003 7:57 PM CST

Today was a slow day at Betty’s Place. The entire house has been on the go pretty much all of this past week, so we used today to slow down and catch up on some R&R with the four newest additions in the house.

The house was slow to come to life after last night’s outing to Carbon de Polo. This included Alexandra, who slept solid til 7:30 and only woke up when Jules came crashing into our bed to see if Alex was awake... “No, not yet, but NOW she is!” Jules helped feed Alexandra her bottle again – this is becoming our normal start to the day.

This morning all of the ladies went shopping for baby clothes and toys at Baby Ganga just around the corner, since everything is so cheap here, while the dads watched over the babes. Caroline was in search of smaller clothes for Alexandra, since most of what we brought down for her is too big!

This afternoon the Suraces spent some time here at Betty’s Place with their new son, Matthew, who is nearly a year old and joins Antoinette as the Suraces SECOND adoption here in Colombia in the past week. A huge surprise for all of us – and for them. This beautiful story deserves special attention – and it will get it in tomorrow’s journal for all of the right reasons, as that is presentation day at FANA and all of us will attend.

The lasting memories and emotions of the presentations at FANA really leave a mark on all of us – even the kids. Today in Betty’s TV room Francesca Surace, Sarina Berra and Julia were re-enacting FANA presentations – the babies being brought into the ‘green room,’ the emotional reactions by the ‘parents,’ the whole thing!

Later in the afternoon some of us made a run to the Carulla supermarket across the street to stock up on supplies for a Sunday Night Football tailgate party hosted by the Berras of St. Louis in honor of the St. Louis – Baltimore game tonight. We had gigantic Berra Burgers (grilled by Paul on the courtyard BBQ at Betty’s), hot dogs, french fries, cake and ice cream. (As if our cholesterol hasn’t already taken a hit with our Colombian diet – pancakes every day, steaks at Carbon De polo, monster hamburgers at Rodeolandia… it never seems to stop…). The game is now on (on ESPN with Spanish commentary, so we are making up our own), and Caroline is coordinating all the kids as they build a huge fort of pillows in the living room.

Tomorrow I will try again at the Canadian embassy to get our visa letter for the courts this week.

That is all…

Saturday, November 8, 2003 10:47 PM CST

It’s not quite the Sports illustrated ‘cover jinx’ but sure enough yesterday’s boasting of three straight sleeps through the night for Alexandra came home to roost at 5am today. She had slept solid since about 8pm last night, so by 5 this morning she was ready for a good feed. Her crib is right beside our bed, while Jules sleeps right next to us in her own room. A fast bottle and Alex was back to sleep until 8am. Jules was oblivious to all of this of course. This sort of early wake-up keeps us honest.

Alexandra has turned out to be a great eater – she takes all of her 4oz practically every time, and tends to enjoy her food more like her mother (let’s get this over with) instead of her father (let’s savor this).

It rained hard here last night. The typical Bogota 10-day weather forecast on www.weatherchannel.com says rain, rain, and more rain. But the reality is that we have had some brief instances of rain since we have been here – and mostly it has been a mix of sun and cloud. It will often rain once a day, briefly, and then be done. There have been a few exceptions (this morning, and most of this past Monday it rained fairly solid). When the sun is out it tends to feel much warmer than the temperature would indicate – 18C or 65F. The clouds come and go through the city quickly, and can be hanging off the Andes one minute or quite clear the next. The old story – if you don’t like the weather, wait 15 minutes and it’ll change – seems to be the rule.

While we’re on this educational kick, we learned today that the proper pronunciation is BogaTAW, with barely any emphasis on the first two syllables and most of the emphasis on the last syllable. BO-gataw is the way most of us northerners seem to want to say it. And it’s Co-LOMB-ee-uh. The other key for us Canadians, eh, is that it is Colombia, not Columbia like the province out in Western Canada.

I know you would like more of this fascinating content, but let’s move on to a recap of the day’s events.

Alonso Costellanos of Amigos de FANA – Bogota (the organizing group here in Bogota that supports FANA much like our chapters in Western New York, Minnesota, France etc.) picked us all up at about 11am in a big white van to go to ‘Rodeolandia,’ a kids amusement park on the outskirts of Bogota. Alonso’s company had sponsored the day at the park as part of a fund-raiser for a school in the city, and graciously invited all of us as his guests. Alonso is a great ambassador for FANA.

Once again Alicia stayed behind in the maternity ward/living room to keep an eye on the four babies, while the older kids had a riot going from one ride to another. The ferris wheel was a hit, as were a neat little Pirates cruise, the trampolines, the train and the merry go round. But it was the ponies that stole the show. All of the kids had a great ride around a little Colombian style ranch, and Jules had a grin on from ear to ear, are you surprised. It has been quite a couple of days for her. I am sure she is wondering when all of this fun is going to come to an end. It’s like summer camp every day.

We all had lunch – hot dogs and the biggest burgers we had ever seen – and then we were back here around 3:30pm. Alicia had everything under control – whatever we’re paying her, it’s not enough! Most of us adults and kids took a nap because we all had dinner reservations tonight at Carbon de Polo, a steakhouse which past visitors to Bogota will know and remember fondly. The kids all loved it – singing waiters, Colombian singing and dancing and the whole nine yards. We got back around 11pm and found Alicia with four soundly sleeping babies in the living room. We’ve just finished tucking them and all the older kids in now.

Friday, November 7, 2003 9:10 PM CST

Have we told you that Alexandra is pretty special?

PRETTY – because she has adorable brown eyes that gaze back at us, and because she packs so much delight into every little ounce in that tiny body (currently at just north of 9 pounds, but nurse Barb assures us she’s right on track in terms of growth, despite starting life at 5 pounds!). Hey, good things come in small packages…

SPECIAL – because last night was the third in a row that she held true to her routine of going to bed by 9pm or so (it was a bit later last night) and sleeping straight through to 6:30 a.m. on the nose, with not a peep in between. We considered once to be a fluke, two times to be lucky. But three might be a trend. Watch, she’ll be up tonight.

Jules is being a great big sister. She fed Alex her bottle in our bed this morning and did a great job, and she is so sweet in kissing her on the top of the head instead of near the mouth, although Jules’ cough is nearly gone. Still no signs of a jealous rage appearing, but we know it’s inevitable at some point. We think one reason she’s so good is that all of the older kids here at Betty’s seem to feed off one another to see who can set the best example as an older sibling. Francesca Surace currently leads that race by a wide margin, but she seems to be pushing Louie Surace, Sarina Berra, and Julia to be just as good. It’s a treat to see.

That silence you hear is a much quieter Betty’s Place tonight – as all of the older kids went off to bed at a reasonable hour after a long day doing some exciting things. One of them was NOT going to the Canadian embassy to get our visa letter for the Postons – Maria Teresa called at 9am to tell me that the appointment was off. Argh. We will try again on Monday.

As for the rest of the day, Jorge Rico picked us up in the ‘Green Hornet’ at about 10am for a day trip. Previous FANA visitors to Bogota need no explanation of this ’73 masterpiece. It was a thrill to finally see it in person! Jorge’s wife, Patrice, also came as we needed two cars to pack the Berras, the Hendrichs and the Postons (minus new arrivals Paul, Isabella and Alex) in for the road trip. We went north of Bogota about 50km first to a nice little town – typical Spanish colonial – called Cajica. We had a stroll around town, stopped at a few shops and had cappuccinos and pastries to keep up our strength! We ended up buying a great Colombian blanket. Bogota gets quite cool at night – and none of the buildings have central heating (it never really gets below 9-10C). As a result, all of the beds at Betty’s have these great heavy blankets. Once you get under them you feel like you’re sleeping under one of those x-ray blankets. I figure if I deploy one of these during Monday Night Football when we’re back I should be good to stay awake until at least the second quarter.

Next stop was the famous Cathedral de Sol at another town further north called Zipaquira (I mention these by name because I know the geography junkies in my family will have the atlases out). The highlight here is an underground cathedral carved out of a huge salt mine, with displays of the Stations of the Cross. We spent about an hour underground and the kids really liked it. After that Jorge sped the Green Hornet back towards Bogota and stopped at the infamous ‘horse restaurant’ where they grill chicken and meats on outdoor grills, and then we also got to see a great horse show (tableside, believe it or not) featuring real Colombian cowboys. I’m pretty sure Julia was actually hyperventilating – we could leave Colombia tomorrow and she’s already hit the trifecta… seen a horse show, bagged a real cowgirl hat and Colombian horse poncho, and scooped a baby sister to boot!

The kids were bagged when we returned to Betty’s at about 5pm, and all of them had to be carried in. We had a late dinner and put them to bed right after. Tomorrow we have another outing with the kids planned, plus dinner out. We are doing things every day to help pass the time, and it is interesting to experience the beautiful Colombian culture.

I will close out today’s entry with this description: Alexandra is lying here in the TV room fast asleep with both arms straight up in the air. She is either ecstatic, like me, that the Bengals have won three games before Christmas for the first time in 15 years, or it is some strange Colombian thing we’re not aware of.

P.S. We can’t say strongly enough how thrilled we are to receive all of those e-mails and guest book entries from so many special family and friends. These are all helping to create a wonderful remembrance of our experience here. Thank you!

Thursday, November 6, 2003 7:47 PM CST

Welcome to Betty’s Place… now housing nine adults, nine kids (including four new FANA babies), a fully stocked beer fridge and wine cellar, and a hot-off-the-presses edition of ‘Finding Nemo,’ which was viewed for both the FIRST and SECOND times today in a projected 60-viewing (or so) run during the month of November here at Calle 116 in northern Bogota. A guess-the-number-of-Nemo-viewings pool has already been formed.

What can we say but that we all enjoyed yet another special presentation today at FANA. The Hendrichs from Dayton, Ohio arrived last night – Andrea, Charlie, and 2-year-old Max (who, for all those website readers out there in Oakville, Ontario is the splitting image of Dani Hassan). Andrea’s Dad (Grandpa Ray) from Key West, Florida (most of the time) and Minnesota (some of the time) is also here for a few days. We are all tiring of him and looking to get him on an earlier flight out of Bogota. Actually, we like Ray a lot – he’s a lot more mature than the rest of us, has a great sense of humor and, best of all, he’s also the only one in the house who doesn’t go into convulsions when he can’t get a plug-in for a laptop (laptop, what’s a laptop?)

Anyhow, all of us went to FANA today to see the Hendrichs receive their new daughter, Isabella, at noon. She is precious. The presentations are so special and emotional and you don’t want to miss them. Today was made more special because the older kids – Sarina, Louie, Francesca and Julia accompanied Nurse Elizabeth as she brought Isabella into the green room. The paparazzi were waiting with video cameras, digital cameras and the like. Afterwards Andrea and Charlie took their beautiful little girl back to settle in at Betty’s, while the rest of stopped on the way home for a celebratory lunch. Great crepes, great waffles – hence the name, Crepes & Waffles.

My day started early when Maria Teresa picked me up for a 9am appointment at the Canadian embassy to get our visa work for Alexandra moving. The Bienestar needs this before the official court work begins because they want assurances that, if they go to all of this trouble in the next few weeks to approve Alexandra’s adoption, that the Canadian government will be prepared to do their part and welcome her into Canada when we return. In essence the Colombian courts want a letter than confirms all of this from the embassy. We got to the embassy, passed about half a dozen security checks, waited around for half an hour for the letter and were then told that the letter wasn’t ready, “come back tomorrow.” Sigh. Back to Betty’s where the rest of the house was finishing breakfast and getting ready for the trip to FANA.

As for Alexandra, last night was an amazing repeat of night #1 – she slept soundly from about 9pm until 6am, missed two feedings, and woke up in a great mood. We, on the other hand, eye-balled the clock every two hours, quietly wondering if our daughter was ever interested in eating again. She seems to be a daytime eater, because she was completely on track today. She is starting to know all of us, and was giggling at Jules as she looked into her eyes. When we were at FANA we asked Elizabeth about the missed feedings at night and she confirmed the Suraces view… never wake a sleeping baby (and never doubt a pediatric dentist and nurse). As for the congestion, Elizabeth did caution us to keep an eye on it as there is a bout of bronchitis going around Bogota. To sum up – Alexandra is a beaut. We are really enjoying her, and we are especially watching Julia interact with her. She is as interested and as tender as can be. Today she even sang a few lullabies to her!

Dinner is over and Miriam, the homemade sweater lady, is in the living room taking orders from Caroline, Rose, Andrea and Barb. The guys are astutely in the family room eating popcorn and watching Dumbo with the kids. (Max is a huge Dumbo fan, and we weren’t up to Finding Nemo for the 3rd time in seven hours.)
Over and out…

Wednesday, November 5, 2003 7:44 PM CST

We awoke this morning to realize that we had ALL slept through the night, even Alexandra.

Actually, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Alexandra slept solid – from 9pm to 6:30 a.m., missing two scheduled feedings at 11 and 3, but we were following the Suraces’ advice, “Never wake a sleeping baby.” Unfortunately, that didn’t necessarily translate into a restful night’s sleep for us – we both were watching the clock expecting Alex to be up at any minute…it ended up being almost an hour after sunrise! We think it’s because she barely slept yesterday in the festive events following the FANA presentation, so she caught up on her sleep last night after a pretty hectic day. And she also caught up today on the feedings she missed by gulping Similac like the way Bills fans celebrate a Bledsoe touchdown, but I digress…

Everything is going well. Alexandra is a bit congested, so we will keep an eye on it. As mentioned, she’s eating and sleeping pretty well and not fussing very much at all – so there’s no cause for concern according to our trusty advisor Alicia! Mom, we are also hearing the advice, “Wash your hands!” regularly so you have a lot of disciples here!

We’ve been thinking a lot about the waiting couples these past few days (here’s a special hello to Marcel & Micheline, Dave & Angie, Mike & Jodie, Paul & Cheryl… and EVERYONE else in the Sept ’02 and Feb ’03 groups). Believe us, the wait that you are all going through is so worth it. A thought that’s crossed our minds since the weekend is that everything about this experience – from Betty’s Place and FANA to Alicia and Bogota itself – has somehow managed to exceed our expectations. It really is a fabulous experience.

If any of you have any concerns about Bogota, our own opinion is that you shouldn’t. It definitely warrants you taking precautions just like any large city on any continent, and Betty will ‘school’ you on what those precautions should be. Caroline and I have enjoyed the good fortune to travel to several developing world countries. Bogota, to us, combines the best of two different worlds – i.e. a large cosmopolitan city with modern amenities, plus the distinct feel of a different and vibrant culture. We’d want it no other way. We want to experience that Colombian culture because it is – and will be – so much a part of Alexandra’s heritage. So look forward to it, and know that your time is coming. We will be watching with interest and anticipation.

It was a pretty slow day today. The Suraces were out early for their Bienestar interview (early as in leave at 6:45 to negotiate the chaotic Bogota traffic for a 7:30 appointment closer to downtown). This is the official start of the court proceedings here in which a government agency interviews the adoptive parents and all of their children, including the newly adopted child, to confirm that this is a ‘good match.’ This typically occurs a minimum of 4-5 days after the child is received by the parents, so the Suraces went today and us and the Berras will likely go sometime next week. Then the clock starts ticking …

The Suraces also spent part of the day returning to FANA for their tour plus the social history meeting on their darling daughter, Antoinette, so the Berras and us took off for a few hours and went shopping at a great mall in Bogota, plus enjoyed a nice Italian lunch. Julia and Sarina (almost 3) are having fun together. Caroline and Rose managed to buy some baby clothes, of all things, while Paul and I tried not to look.

When we got back Alicia had all three babies – Alexandra, Paulie and Antoinette – well under control. It looked like ‘maternity ward central, and Alicia was in her element!

Tonight was pasta night – another great spread prepared by Betty’s crew here. Now all the kids are in the bath prior to the Sound of Music movie showing and sing-a-long convening in the family room. Lou and Paul are fighting over the exciting opportunity to be Capt. Von Trapp. I may have to break it up.

Tuesday, November 4, 2003 8:59 PM CST

Today was the day – and what a special one it was.

Maria Teresa picked us up at about 9:30 and took us and the Suraces to the Notary office. This is a necessary step to initiate legal proceedings in Alexandra’s adoption and provide power of attorney to our lawyer, Albert Polo, to act on our behalf in the proceedings. (The Suraces were doing the same for their case). We were finished quickly, Maria Teresa dropped us back at Betty’s Place at 10:30 and said she would be back in an hour to go to FANA for the presentation.

By noon we were at FANA, which is located in the suburb of Suba in northwest Bogota. We will have a full tour later in our stay, but what we saw today would suggest that FANA’s medical facilities compare to the best hospitals in North America.

But what really makes FANA special is the care provided by the people there.

Elizabeth, the head nurse, met with us first and reviewed Alexandra’s medical history with us for a few minutes (all is a-okay). She then did the same thing with the Berras, who were also there to receive their son Paul today. Rounding out the group were the Suraces – on hand to provide emotional support and filming and videotaping services!

As Tom Petty said, ‘waiting is the hardest part’ and those few minutes between meeting Elizabeth and waiting for the presentation were agony. There was a lot of pacing going on among Caroline and I and Rose and Paul Berra – Barb and Lou Surace were doing their best to keep our minds off the wait, but it was tough.

Finally it was time and Alexandra was carried into the infamous ‘green room’ at FANA, accompanied by Mercedes and Elizabeth. I pretty much lost it at that point while Caroline held it together quite nicely. She has always been the stable one, and I’ve always been the emotional wreck, maybe that’s why we match up pretty well. (Caroline did lose it in a delayed reaction a few minutes later when she witnessed the Berra’s presentation of Paul IV.) As for Julia, she was over the moon… very excited, yet also quite tender and repeating over and over again, “It’s my baby sister! I have a baby sister!”

What to say about Alexandra? She’s beautiful and adorable, with a full head of dark brown hair, and it’s quite possible that she’s gifted – likely destined to be an astro-physicist, doctor, lawyer, or if she really aims high a marketing and communications consultant or an I.T. project manager like her parents. (This is a bad attempt at humor after a long, exhausting day full of emotion!) Alexandra is tiny – Rose calls her a “peanut” and I think she means that in a good way!

It’s hard to believe that we first started considering this day nearly four years ago. To see it finally happen today was quite something. It was particularly special to share it with the Berras and the Suraces. By 2:30 we were all back at Betty’s Place for a champagne celebration and a tea party for the kids. Alicia was waiting there for us and always available to offer tips! Alexandra is on an every 4hrs schedule – 7, 11 and 3 so we’ll look forward to a little action overnight tonight – and for the next few weeks!

Now it’s almost 10pm and we’ve had dinner, put the kids (and the babies) to bed, and are in the living room at Betty’s visiting with Alonzo and Santiago from the Friends of FANA – Bogota.

Jorge Rico was here around suppertime tonight to help us plan out some day trips this week. Julia is pumped about possibly riding horses on Saturday at the Bogota zoo, so we’ll see if that happens, plus we’ll also go to the salt museum outside Bogota.

We are all healthy (knock on wood) and look forward to the next few days of bonding with Alexandra. Thanks to all of you for your supportive e-mails and guest book entries – they mean a lot to us to know that your support is there. We have a real 'family' here at Betty’s Place that will see us through the next month while we are away from all of you.

Tuesday, November 4, 2003 4:30 PM CST

The headline: we officially welcomed Alexandra to the family today at FANA. Julia was over the moon, and so were Mom and Dad. A very special and emotional day all around. More details to follow...

Monday, November 3, 2003 9:20 PM CST

Today was a national holiday for Colombia. As a result, all businesses, including FANA are closed.

Craig went golfing with Arturo, Cesar and Lou Surace at a beautiful course about 90 minutes from Bogota and down in the valley. They had a great day – complete with stunning scenery of the Andes, memorable (and not so memorable) golf, even caddies (!!!) – and of course Arturo had to ‘school us’ on how to really play the game.

Julia and Caroline stayed at Betty’s to hang out with the rest of the gang. The Berras, including their adorable daughter, Sarina, are settled in.

Julia is really getting along well with her friends – her joy at being around the kids and playing every day and having big dinners at the dining room table every night is really neat to see. The feel here at Betty’s is like the ideal combination of a great B&B with a really friendly ‘dormitory.’

In the morning it rained, so everyone stayed indoors and played games. For lunch, the rain let up and the three families went to the park to burn some energy, then went to Gino’s for a pizza lunch. Gino’s is a children’s dream come true. It has a play area that seems to be twice the size of the eating area. Once again, we let the kids burn energy before having lunch.

Dinner, as usual, was awesome… lots of talk, some wine and lots of excitement about tomorrow. The big day. Both the Berras and us are receiving our babies. We can't wait to see Alexandra. The Suraces will come along to take part and to help with photos and filming.

More tomorrow.

Sunday, November 2, 2003 8:20 PM CST

NEWS FLASH – IT’S ALEXANDRA

Stop the presses.

After much consideration we have decided to change Robin’s name to Alexandra Robin Postons. When we first had the referral on October 18th and heard that beautiful name, Alejandra, we immediately thought of the English equivalent to the Spanish – i.e. Alexandra. After two weeks of reflection and also experiencing a few days in our daughter’s birth country we know that our initial gut feelings were the right ones.

On to a fast recap of the past two days. (Note to our FANA friends... this will be old news to you, but not to our other family and friends who are unfamiliar with some of these topics.)

Saturday was a slow day for all the right reasons. We all wanted to take it easy and adjust to the altitude. We have all felt quite well with the exception of headaches and general tiredness. A full day of rest fixed both and we are now feeling fine.

Betty Castillo, of Betty’s Place, stopped by first thing in the morning on Saturday and welcomed us. We should explain a bit about this wonderful spot. It is a home in northern Bogota dedicated entirely to housing adoptive couples from FANA. The staff here are amazing. Betty is the owner and ‘mother’ for us here. Betty coordinates everything from our legal affairs to any touring we want to do. The house has three full-time staff – Carmen, Ledeis and Okenis – who prepare breakfast and dinner for us daily and provide housekeeping services. If all of this sounds pretty good, it is – and we can’t possibly describe adequately how comfortable we already are and how easy it is to live here.

It gets better. Betty’s Place also has a day nurse, Alicia, who comes every day to watch over the new babies. There will be many occasions over the next few weeks where we will need to attend to our legal process and it’s just not feasible to take the baby with us, so Alicia is here to watch over the infants. In addition, we have access to a babysitter to watch over the older children if the adults want to pop out for a dinner during the evening once in a while.

Finally, the other key person for us is Maria Teresa. She is our driver, guide and lifeline to all things related to our court process. She will translate for us where necessary, drive us to wherever we need to be, and steer us through the various legal appointments we have. She will take us to FANA for our presentation on Tuesday – and wherever we have to go for the next month after that.

Today (Sunday) Betty loaded us ALL up in her car for a fast tour of the northern part of Bogota where we are staying. Our first impression of Bogota is that the physical location of the city is stunning – the Andes run parallel to the city from north to south. They rise like cliffs peering over the city like a wall around a castle. A really spectacular setting.

Betty is leaving for 10 days in New York tomorrow and wanted us all to be fully oriented to our surroundings – especially the areas and locations that we can walk to during in the day. These include parks, shops, restaurants and banks. Betty showed us the northern parts of the city and key highlights in about an hour, stopped at a park to let the kids run around and expend some energy, and then dropped us at La Fontana – a beautiful colonial hotel that doubles as an outdoor market and also has a mass on Sundays. We arrived there at about 11:30 – just in time for most of the mass and the chance to see some of the craftsmen and artisans selling their wares.

At 5pm we all went to Mercedes' and Arturo's for cake and a visit. Mercedes is the foundress of FANA, and has overseen more than 12,000 adoptions from FANA in the past 30 years. There are FANA children all over the world. Pretty soon, there will be one in tiny little Melrose, Ontario. (Hi to all the Wynfield gang)

Arturo loves golf more than anyone I know – me included. Tomorrow he has generously offered to take me, Lou and Cesar, his son-in-law, to a course down in the valley about 6,000 feet below Bogota, more than an hour outside the city. Apparently, it will be hot, hot, hot.

The Berras from St. Louis are just arriving so we'll sign off. That's it from here. We are well and anxiously awaiting Tuesday - and the arrival of Alexandra!

Saturday, November 1, 2003 9:18 AM CST

We are here and in GREAT hands! We had a smooth flight down yesterday and even got into Bogota early. The Suraces are here with Louie, Francesca and their new bundle of joy, Antionette. She is adorable. Julia and the kids are already great friends and are going to a Halloween party together with Mercedes' daughter this afternoon.

Betty's Place (and Betty) are all that we have heard - and much more. What a great place to be - with so much support, and all the comforts of home. We may not want to leave...

We did some shopping at the grocery store across the street today, and will explore a bit of the city tomorrow. Tuesday is the day we receive Alexandra - "three more sleeps" in Jules' terms!

Fred Hammet, you're our hero. We're fully connected, just as you promised. Technology is a wonderful thing.

Tuesday, October 28, 2003 7:28 PM CST

We are getting set to go... We received Ontario ministry approval on Friday and finalized all of our documents yesterday. Today we went to Toronto and obtained our visas. The Consul General at the Colombian Consulate, Catalina Chaux, has a close connection with FANA - her mother knows Mercedes quite well and was on the founding board of directors. Catalina talked with us for more than an hour about all things Colombian and seemed in no hurry to kick us out! It's great for FANA to have support at the Consulate.

We'll now get ready to leave on Friday and receive Robin at FANA next Tuesday. That will be a very special day - one we have looked forward to for more than four years, since we first started thinking of a second adoption.

And we also look forward to meeting up with the Berras and the Suraces in Bogota. Julia is really 'pumped' to enjoy some time with her new friends, Louie, Francesca and Sarina - not to mention the new arrivals, Paul and Antoinette.

Thanks again to everyone for your e-mails and support. We'll keep you posted once we get there.

Monday, October 20, 2003 12:07 AM CDT

This page has just been created. Please check back for more news as we get organized in communicating! We hope to travel to Bogota around October 31st ... we will keep you updated.

For now, what can we say other than a huge thanks to some special people who made this precious gift possible - Mercedes and Jerri, we remember you in particular. Special thanks to our buddy couple, Maria and Dan Keane, who have been a huge help and who pointed us to FANA in the first place, and to all of our fellow-couples in the September 2002 group!

To our families... words can't possibly express what your support has meant to us during these past four years of adoption #2, so we won't even try. But mucho mucho gracias! And te amo...

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