It was another long day for us. At 5:00 am, Shane and Cole were picked up by our driver William and taken to the airport to pickup my mom. They returned with her just in time for breakfast. We had breakfast at our hotel and then packed up our rooms while we waited for our 10:30 am video conference call with ICBF. With the call at 10:30 and check out at noon, I wanted to be sure we were ready to depart once our call ended.
We didn't quite know what to expect from the call, but what we learned was absolutely heartwarming. Each person spoke in great detail about Samuel, his routine, his likes, his dislikes, how to hold him, how to feed him, how he communicates, about his hospitalizations, and so much more. They clearly cared for him like he was one of their own. They shared the story of how Samuel reacted to our photo book and videos. That he's already a Papa's boy and flips the pages of his photo book looking for Shane's picture. He's even already referring to Shane as "Pa"!
Their love radiated as they spoke of how amazing Samuel is and how excited they were for Samuel to join our family. It was so touching I had to fight back the tears. We were told they wanted this to be a celebration and that we should bring party decorations and a treat for Samuel so we had some shopping to do.
Our 1 hour scheduled call ended up being over 2 hours long. We missed our check-out time and soon after our call with ICBF ended, the phones started ringing from the front desk so we grabbed all our belongings and hustled out. We were supposed to be picked up at noon to start our journey to Villa de Leyva but with the call going so late, we decided to grab lunch at the hotel before beginning our journey.
It was 3:00 pm by the time we were on the road. Our drive to Villa de Leyva was estimated to be 3 hours long. The first half sailed by as we zoomed along Colombia's freeways. William, our driver, doesn't speak English so it's been a bit of a challenge communicating with him. On our way, we stopped for a snack and had the most AMAZING arepas that we have ever tasted from a tiny hole in the wall store along the freeway. We loaded back up and shortly after, we turned off the main freeway and onto a busy narrow, winding, pothole filled street. Each mile took 3 times as long as we navigated along some anxiety provoking roads. Our 6:00 pm arrival was pushed back and we rolled into Villa de Leyva at nearly 7:00 pm.
We made a pit stop to load up on a few essentials as well as festivity supplies for the big day tomorrow and then we were finally off to our rental house. We knew the rental was just outside of town and had been told that there were a couple different routes, one requiring a 4x4 and the other for cars and vans. William our driver set off in one direction, but it soon became clear he was unsure of where to go and called our host. Our host stayed on the line and directed us down a dark, dirt road in the middle of nowhere. Finally after 8:00 pm, we found it! But the last stretch of road to get there had very deep ruts in the road. It was awful as the van started bottoming out and then got stuck. I don't think William was very happy with us. He finally said that we'd have to get out and walk up to the house so we did.
While our first impression was off to a rough start, the finca is really gorgeous and we can't wait to explore it during the daylight hours tomorrow. Before heading off to bed, some of our crew partook in a late night hot tub soak. We will definitely be taking full advantage of all the amenities during our week long stay.
Tomorrow morning is the BIG DAY...we get Samuel at 10:30 am. Please pray for our little guy. The life he has known for the last two years is about to get flipped upside down.
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