Encuentro Day! Finally, Andre is home with us!
The long anticipated day is here. Our appointment was at 1030 at Fana in the town of Suba on the outskirts of Bogota. It was about 1/2 hour drive from our home. A quick stop by the Bakery again for some coffee for the trip.
Panoramic of the Fana building lobby. The nerves and anxiety were in high gear!
Delivery of Choco-puff complete! And the smile on the big brother is off the chart!
The clothes they changed Andre into for our encuentro. I think it is worth noting that Santi was put in charge of selecting the outfit for Andre for today. It may not be easy to see but the long sleeve shirt has a bowtie. There were a lot of compliments paid to Santi for his clever selection.
I’ve got to say, today was handled so well by FANA, I am truly impressed. One tradition that we were completely unaware of was a tradition that they had. Andre was going to be handed off to our family by two children who were adopted from FANA. What a wonderful surprise. My only regret at this moment is not remembering the children’s names. Not sure youre picking up on this but there was a bit of excitement in the air and some things were a blur. Just before the kids brought brought Andre out for us, little peanut fell asleep. This was a stark difference from when we got Nani who cried…and cried…and cried. He slept so soundly and when he woke, I am being quite honest with you, he was nothing but smiles. What a wonderful blessing. He would not take his eyes off of Santi and Mariana. Enough talk…pictures!
Moments before the big crash…all smiles! These are the kids who were adopted out of FANA as infants and would be handing Andre to us. They are now 15 & 13 years old, Nadia & Felix Stendevad (and their parents) who live in Washington DC.
aaaaannnnnnddd….he’s out!
Meeting the family ahead of time
Great group photo
The family that presented us our baby, their picture was sitting on the shelf for our own encuentro. Our picture will now sit on the shelf as well from today.
And now, the moment we’ve been waiting for forever!
Right off the bat, Santi gets to hold little man!
So daper with his little bowtie but there is always time for a nap in this, what is one of the biggest days of your life.
I’m not sure if I can read the moment but I’m guessing that mom is a bit thrilled to be here!
And here comes that smile we’ve been hearing so much about.
Even Papi got a shot at it. I had forgotten how light a child is. I think it is easy to forget if you haven’t held a baby for a while. Oh, he is so very small.
And the eyes finally come open to a new world. He wasn’t scared, not even a little. We passed him around and started to see the beautiful smile. He was really fascinated with Mami and Nani’s hair. Got a good lock on it a few times. Santi’s smile was magical as Andre would smile everytime he looked at Santi.
Loading him up in the car seat wasn’t as bad as I anticipated since he had never been in one. The ride back to the house was quiet. The kids were in the back entertaining Andre.
Once back home, we just sat around a while and got comfortable. That’s when pictures started going out via text. More smiles and hair pulling as you can imagine.
And starting a routine…the kids first diaper change! It was “an easy one” to start! More to come I am sure. A lot of big talking from Santi how he can handle diapers with no problem. For those who know my son knows that he has a really bad gag reflex and smells will give him the dry heaves. We’ll see how it goes.
And to wrap up this extremely long post with a ton of pictures, here is my favorite of the day. My three beautiful smiling childre, God is good!