Bogota, here we come!

On Friday, April 20th, we received word that our Article 5 was expected to be ready THIS WEEK!! An entire week earlier than we had hoped! This is the final approval we need before we can travel to Bogota. Knowing it was coming soon, we decided to book our flights to ensure we could get seats together. My mom will be joining us so we'll need 6 last minute flights and seats on the plane were filling up fast.

Sunday night Shane was on hold waiting for a Delta representative to answer the phone. He was going to hang up, but I insisted he wait a bit longer. Thank goodness he did! He was able to book 6 flights to Bogota for Sunday, April 29th using Delta's Adoption Fare, which allows us to change flights without having to pay the additional change fee. For some reason, the next morning I checked on the flights again and the price had gone up $700 PER ticket! Yikes! Good thing we had bought them the night before!

On Monday, April 23rd, Maria Teresa Maldonado from FANA emailed saying they received a notice from the U.S. Embassy regarding our Article 5 and that our lawyer would be submitting our documents either that day or the next. She said it was time to start making our travel arrangements - YAY!! Luckily our scheduled flights ended up working out perfectly and Maria Teresa took care of our apartment arrangements for us. I had been debating on where to stay and after changing my mind multiple times, I decided that location was far more important than a 3 bedroom. So once again, we'll be staying at Plenitud - the same place we stayed for a portion of our time in Bogota adopting both Owen and Rose. We are excited to get back to our home-away-from-home!

We also found out from Maria Teresa that we will be going to FANA on Monday, April 30th to get Kate! EEK! Everything is finally coming together! Before we know it, we'll be standing in the Green Room holding our new daughter!!

Monday night Shane and I headed to the airport to fly to Chicago to get our Colombian Visas. It was the last item on our list to take care of prior to traveling to Bogota. We got into the city late, found our hotel, grabbed a night cap and binge watched HGTV until falling asleep. The next morning was more HGTV (I gotta get my fill when I can since we only have basic cable at home) until it was time to head to our appointment. We had a 10:00 am visa appointment at the Consulate. It was about a mile walk from our hotel. We took our time strolling along and taking in all the enormous buildings and sights.

We arrived to the Consulate early at 9:30 am. The place was busy so we waited until our names were called. They were running about 20 minutes behind schedule. After finishing a woman's visa, a man from Indianapolis was next. He was going to Colombia for work and needed a visa. The Consulate is quite small and quiet so you could hear their entire conversation, even if you weren't trying to eavesdrop. I overheard that there was an issue with his paperwork. One of the dates on his form was wrong, which made me all the more uneasy and worried about our documents. He ended up leaving the Consulate without a visa.

I was next in line. After she called my name, I headed up to the window. Thankfully all the documents I had uploaded weeks ago were in their system (last time for Rose's adoption all of our documents had been missing from their system!) She only asked for 5 items - a copy of my passport, a copy of my prior Colombian visas, the letter FANA had written to the Consulate, FANA's license, and our acceptance letter. Phew! I had them all! Next it was Shane's turn. He always gets it easy because I am always the one to go first and answer all the questions.  Before we knew it, she was attaching our visas to our passports and we were ready to go!

The woman at the Consulate bid us farewell and a "congratulations!" and we left the Consulate at 11:15 am with our Colombian Visas!!  We grabbed lunch down the road to celebrate our success.

Our flights didn't leave until 8:00 pm, so we walked all over the city - grabbed ice cream at Ghirardelli, visited Millennium Park and the giant Bean, rode all the way up to the 103rd floor of the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower), grabbed a drink at a local Tavern, and finally took the L to Midway to grab dinner and catch our flight home. We walked over 6 miles that day - a good way to prepare for Bogota where we walk everywhere we go.  It was a much easier task without pushing a stroller or carrying a baby, although my feet are sure aching today!

By the "bean" in Millennium Park

The view from the Willis Tower

Standing on the ledge on the 103rd floor of the Willis Tower

I have been busy packing, cleaning and getting everything in order before we leave. Thankfully I'm already 90% of the way packed, because in just 4 days, we will be bound for Bogota!!