This morning we had our face-to-face meeting with two of the psychologists from ICBF at our rental house. Both were present the day we took custody of Samuel so they were familiar faces. Our meeting was supposed to begin at 9:30 am, but everyone was running late and it didn't begin until closer to 10:30 am.
Our translator Julie had come from Bogota to help facilitate the discussion. The ICBF psychologists asked all sorts of questions - how the transition has gone, what is our routine, how has everyone's health been, what we have spent our time doing during our stay, and many more. It ended with both of them happy to see Samuel in his forever family.
Once our meeting ended, we left our beautiful Villa de Leyva rental house to load up a giant van with all our belongs. The van was waiting for us at the bottom of the steep hill so we had to slowly and carefully make our way down. Our hosts Natalia and Luz bid us farewell and thanked us for our stay. They were so lovely, kind and helpful. We will miss them.
Thankfully the van was a large upgrade from the one we brought to town. It held all of us PLUS all our luggage with tons of room to spare, although the functionality of the seat belts was a bit suspect. The three youngest dozed off on the 3 1/2 hour long drive to Bogota.
We arrived to our hotel, the Casa Dann, around 3:00 pm. We had skipped lunch so everyone was a bit "hangry". This hotel had gotten rave reviews from other adoptive families and the lobby did not disappoint. It was beautiful. But our room, on the other hand, was straight out of the 80's with dirty carpet and a scent of stale old room service. Not only that, but I was under the assumption that we'd be in a 3-bedroom and this was only 2-bedrooms with a commons area much too small for 8 people. Thankfully, it was just for one night so we made the best of it.
It is Shane's birthday today and the birthday boy chose the restaurant "Crepes and Waffles" for our early dinner destination. We made the journey via foot, swerving our double stroller around the somewhat treacherous and definitely not accessible sidewalks.
After getting back to the hotel, I got the youngest two ready for bed while Shane took Rose and Kate for a dip in the hotel pool. Swim caps are required and the girls were not at all excited about this choice of fashion statement. But they obliged anyway as they both love to swim.
A few days ago, we discovered that Sam LOVES playing with doors. Coincidentally, opening and shutting doors is one of his big sister Aria's all time favorites as well. Just another sign that it was meant to be.
Tomorrow is one I am dreading. Sam has a 9:30 am appointment with the US Embassy's Pediatrician and has to have a blood draw to be tested for TB. We have never had to do this before for our other kids so I tried pushing back, but alas, I'm told it needs to happen. At least we were able to waive the required vaccinations so he won't have to get any shots. Pray that he's an easy stick and they don't have to poke him several times.
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