Adios Bogota, hello La Mesa!

Wednesday June 19, 2024 -Anapoima, Colombia

It was yet another early morning rise but didn’t quite go as planned. Claudia and I had to do some teamwork to get Andre back to sleep. From about 1:30 am (Clau gave him a bottle) and I put him back to bed bouncing and rubbing his back. All sad and done it was about 2:30…so that 5 am alarm was not well received. Our goal was to leave at 6, that turned into 7:45. Some was our own doing as well. Leaving the car packed would have been ideal but couldn’t happen. We accounted for our 3 big bags and a stroller. What we didn’t account for was all the little stuff that absolutely filled the car to overflowing.

Santi was on Andre duty for awhile before we left.

Traffic was garbage and in some areas the exhaust from buses and trucks was so bad our throats hurt. We arrived at La Mesa around noon. What a difference, it is really hot & humid here. Nice compared to all the rain we had in bogota.

The route we took. The town we’re actually staying in is Anapoima. Check them out later

So most of the adoptions in Colombia are running through La Mesa lately because the process is moving faster. So though we are not staying in La Mesa, we did stop by for a break, some fresh lemonade, diaper change and potty break for the rest of us. We wouldn’t be us if we didn’t go into the local church and pray a bit and take pictures. Here is St. Barbara church.

The family is climbing the stairs in this picture.

Panoramic

So business has been good for AirBNBs here. The one Clau found is amazing and was cheaper than the competition for a few different reasons. I’ll show you those reasons later but for now, check this out (I’m thinking about hiring her out as a trip planner).

Our cabin in Anapoima, Colombia

Look at that view and all the natural light!

The pool with a view

And a little sport court

Pretty sure that when we build our own place in Colombia, this is the outdoor kitchen we’ll have to put in. (Insert clown emoji here).

That ping pong table will be well used!

We were unprepared for lunch/ dinner so after a Andre bottle and nap, we went into Anapoima for dinner. I can’t remember the name Ishtar now so I’ll have to update this post later but again, what a view! Food was outstanding too.

Seriously!

So cool for this born and raised Minnesota kid to see these super beautiful mountains!

Ever wondered where Wilson ended up?

After dinner, we made a run for groceries, you know, exciting stuff.

Fresh Guanabanas…ugh, so awesome!

We’ll end it here with an awesome picture of Santi holding Andre and me REALLY cracking up over something.

Meeting with ICBF

Tuesday June 18, 2024 -Bogota-

Another early morning and an extremely long taxi ride to the Bienestar Familiar office. Our taxi driver was extremely chatty. It was funny, I asked a single question and it was like putting a quarter in a machine…he just kept going! Super nice guy though. He talked most the time with Claudia about everything under the sun. We met Soraya, our rep, and our lawyer Yudy. Got to watch a lot of our paperwork get literal stamps of approval. Snuck a few pictures in the office with the stamp lady.

Stamp lady and the lawyer Yudy. Fascinating I know!

The ride home went way quicker than it took getting there. Some of us may have drifted off to sleep though. It was amazing!

A good portion of the afternoon was spent packing and preparing for our trip to La Mesa, the next stop in our adoption journey. La Mesa isn’t supposed to be the.most fascinating place in Colombia but we’ll take it. Right now we’re anticipating being there until July 4 and then we come back to Bogota for the remainder of the process which will include getting his Colombian passport and the his US visa. But in La Mesa, he becomes officially & legally ours! So amazing! So tomorrow will be another early morning trying to beat traffic. About a 2 hour drive without traffic.

We’re trying to get some normal food into him.

The struggle is real trying to get different food into our peanut. Today’s attempt was yogurt. In fairness, his face is EXACTLY the same as when I have tried yogurt! Poor guy. He did get some down and very little gagging! His face here reminds me of the face Santi made the first time he ate avocado. Though I can’t find the actual avocado picture, this one is similar trying a food he didn’t like. Very expressive faces.

A lot smaller version of the Santi you all know. Poor man! Why do parents insist on “poisoning children” with horrific nasty foods?

As stated before, today was a day of packing. We shipped a couple of our bags to Pereira to buy us some room in the car. I “practice packed”the car. Sounds ridiculous but had to be done. No time for struggles tomorrow morning.

This house has been ok, but time has exposed some of its limitations that I spoke about in an earlier post. It’ll be nice getting out of here. I think we’re looking forward for what’s to come.

If La Mesa is a hole, I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t rub it in our faces!

Pediatrician & our first in-home visit

Monday June 17, 2024 -Bogota-

Well, first things first. Last night, I was the one who put Andre to bed. I had the lights out and holding and rocking him because he was crying and fighting the fact that he was tired but still didn’t want to go to bed. While I was doing that, I saw a mosquito fly out of the room which got me worried. So after he fell asleep, I put him into the pack n play (his Colombia bed sitting on top of another bed) and then I covered the top of it with a blanket. You know, to create a roof to protect from mosquitoes. Well, 11:30 rolls around and we were all sound asleep when all of a sudden peanut starts screaming, harder & louder than we have heard before. I got up and rushed to him and in the process rammed my knee to into the bed frame, removing a huge chunk of skin. But I got lil man out and really couldn’t figure out what the deal was. Checked his diaper and it was fine, his hands were a bit cold but nothing really obvious. So I held him and gently patted his back and he did burp a couple times so maybe that was causing discomfort? Maybe it was the “roof” on the pack n play? Maybe he was cold? I really don’t know but it was an ordeal. Finally calmed him down enough and put him back to bed and he slept through the night.

Unfortunately, alarms were set to get up at 6am, which is stupid but we had an early doctors appointment. We all got ready to roll and woke up peanut last. Gently woke up with a big smile as if nothing happened the night before. But that really lasted all day. What a trooper! Only Claudia could go in for the appointment. I got to hang out with the other maniacs and go find some breakfast. One really nice thing is that I woke up with whatever crud Andre has and have been miserable with a crappy drippy nose and just lethargic and tired.

Wandering the streets of Usaquen.

We did find a nice little coffee shop that I liked but Mariana, not so much. I guess the music there was too loud and really bad. But the coffee and croissant was good. It was so good, we went there twice because when Claudia was done with the appointment, she wanted some coffee too…so back again. The appointment went well and we got some advice on formula to switch to and discussed some concerns we have with his lack of diet.

Coffee shop Colo in Usaquen

After coffee, we were feeling a bit more lively and wandered the streets for a bit. Nani wanted to shop. This is one of the signs of the apocalypse I think…or maybe she just wants another pirated soccer jersey. She didn’t get a jersey but picked out a pretty leather purse which is again not like her. Mami may have been a catalyst in that purchase.

It was still a bit early so not all the shops were opened yet. But the real surprising part of this walk is that it was Nani’s idea. Those who know my daughter would know that she really doesn’t enjoy “shopping” but it really was her push.

Along the way, I found this creepy owl and took this picture primarily for my mother. Long story and inside joke.

I figured her angle was to score another soccer jersey but it was Santi who got the new Colombian jersey. So excited he broke his public nudity rules and changed his shirt out on the street. He won’t even get in our pool without a shirt! Nani ended up getting this really pretty leather purse. This may have been a catalyst of my wife’s encouragement.

Before going home, we decided on an early lunch. On a backstreet road, we count a place that specializes in chuleta (pork chops) so we enjoyed that. But more notable was the coffee shop next door that the owner was roasting his own coffee on the street! The aroma was just amazing! And though neither of us needed another cup, I did go in and grab an espresso for me and americano for Clau. When I went in to order the coffee, of course he knew I wasn’t from around there and we began to banter. At one point, he accused me of being Bolivian (probably because Colombia had just played, and beat, Bolivia in soccer). He was really funny. I brought the coffee out to Claudia but she wanted it in a to go cup. She went in and was gone a long time and I stayed outside with the kids. She got bamboozled by sales guy and ended up buying a bunch of the roasted coffee. Now the owner of the shop, well, this guy was amazing. What a salesman! This dude could sell ice cubes to Eskimos. Then it was my turn, I went in to retrieve my wife and he suckered me into buying more; whiskey infused coffee. Not really my thing but I know some people who will like this. But what took Clau so long? Turns out the owner also sold some of the coffee roasters and my beautiful bride was getting some info for me. She knows I love the whole coffee process .

We got back for our 2:00 meeting with Daniela. T was the first to see how the transition is going. The kids were part of this meeting too. The kids were holding peanut most of the time to keep him entertained.

Mariana has been asking me to take a lot of pictures of her with Andre to post. Took this one while Daniela took a phone call in the background.

The meeting was short and sweet. It was clear that Andre was clearly bonding with us all very tightly. I was a bit worried since most of the pictures we got before coming here, Daniela is in the photos with Andre. You know, holding him up or whatever. I was worried that he might freak out a bit and want her to hold him too much. That wasn’t he case. He recognized her and had lots of smiles but those were shared all around.

And another photo demand from Nani.

After that, it was just a day at home. I am still sick with whatever crud I came down with. I took a nap while Claudia took the big ones to the park.

Dozing off with the lil guy on my lap.

It was an early night since we need to be up early again tomorrow. Still attempted to post this blog but I couldn’t get all of it to save. My stuff kept deleting without reason. Technology. Clau isn’t surprised I get my butt kicked from time to time.

Father’s Day edition…

Sunday June 16, 2024 - Father’s Day

Everyone slept in a little this morning. That was fantastic! But we did pry ourselves out of bed & made our way to church. Before that, peanut needed his bottle and when I came down the stairs, this is what I found. Spying around the corner I caught this tender moment

After the bottle, Santi finally woke up and came down stirs….BEARING GIFTS! It is Father’s Day after all. A wonderful card that said I was “adequate to date” which was nice to hear. Lots of St. Joseph gear (my patron saint).

My other big helper

It was a nice church and it was absolutely packed! People were sitting on the steps up to the altar and standing room only. Peanut started to get a bit restless so we made our way to the back, but there wasn’t a back. I had to go out of the church where there were several dozen people standing outside listening to mass. It was actually very cool; standing room only!

I honestly believe that this was Andre’s very first mass. He did great but, yeah, he is 7-month old after all. I took a couple pictures after mass of everyone leaving.

Great seats for mass

Initially, we were planning on a 10:00 mass but turned out the time at that church was incorrect. So we scrambled to find a later one which we did but that threw a wrench in our plan. Mariana is bummed because there is a huge market that happens only on Sundays that she wanted to go to and now, with Andres nap schedule, it might be closed. We might drive by after he wakes up to check it out.

After the nap, we decided it was bath time. Since he has been sick, we didn’t want to give him a bath and get a chill. So we waited. Note the tub we got. It worked so awesome and he had a blast. Didn’t want to get out of course the water was as warm as bath water. Hahaha!

Tongues out! Bathtub theme.

As I said, he had a great time in the water!

Unfortunately, the party was over sooner than he wanted. The water we arm but it is still low 60’s outside and has been raining all day so the is a bit of a chill.

I’m going to post this now. I might come back and add some more details later.

UPDATE:

Too funny to pass up. The dream of Santi changing a poopy diaper I think is over. Can’t stop dry heaving ! I appreciate his persistence though!

Exploring Bogota

Saturday June 15, 2024

Peanut is still a bit droopy and drippy. Poor guy. He slept solidly through the night again. There were a couple moments of crying around 6:30 am but when I checked on him, his eyes were shut and he gently went back to sleep….as did I. It was wonderful! I think he slept until about 8:00. We can handle that for sure! He wakes up crying which gets more intense when you come into the room but the moment he is pulled from the crib…all smiles!

Still not a 100% but doing just fine!

He typically has his first bottle of the day, plays for a while, then gets drowsy and heads back to bed after a couple hours. Madness! What a schedule! During that second stint in bed, the kids and I went back to that “Bakery” cafe. They helped bring home some coffee & hot chocolates along with some croissants with cheese baked in them. The same as I mentioned the other day. That little cafe is excellent and if I had that outside my house, well, that would be trouble meaning for my pants size.

Claudia had another appointment with the dentist for the actual permanent repair. That appointment was at 1:30 but after breakfast, there was about a hour to kill before we needed to go. So the kids and I went to play in the park. Just down the block is the Cedro Natural Park that has basketball courts.

Looks beautiful doesn’t it. Don’t be fooled! There are land mines all over the greens!

I know what you’re thinking, basketball? Well, me too but there aren’t really any soccer fields at this park and though if you look at google images of this place, it looks very green but upon further closer review, I don’t want to walk through that grass. It seems there are a lot of people like my neighbor Gary who lets his dog roam the neighborhood if you know what I mean.

Hmm, the AirBNB site has this picture of the park with the unleashed culprits right in the picture and the Colombian version of Gary right there on the side!

So basketball it is, with a soccer ball which I think makes it harder. We’ve actually been to that park every day since getting here and have played b-ball of all things. Today, Nani was the champ winning both a game of 21 & around the world.

That was fun but it was time to get Claudia to her appointment. Driving in bogota on the weekend was “fun”. Just a little bit of traffic made us late and Claudia had to do a running dismount of the car in front of the building. Ok, not really. We were stopped in traffic and it was quicker for her to walk the rest of the way. After a bit of big city aggressive driving to find a parking ramp, we arrived safe and sound at the Hacienda Santa Barbara, a kind of historic site that now has shopping and artisans working and selling. Peanut did wonderful. He lived the stroller until he didn’t anymore if that makes any sense. We wandered quite a bit and then I thought I’d give the baby-backpack thing a try. I love irony. I used to make fun of the “poor soulless men” I would see wearing these things in public. Note the text exchange Claudia and I had regarding this device:

NOTE: Due to me using Claudia’s phone for GPS in route, we swapped phones so our roles in this text exchange are reversed…my comments on the left, her responses on the right.

Nani, my huge helper these days. She’s a rockstar for our peanut!

There were some pretty interesting artisan shops. Really nice stuff. People can be so creative! But there were a few that were just sad and disappointing. One shop sold a lot of religious material. Colombia is primarily a Catholic country so I did get excited to see some of the books and crucifixes on the wall in one shop but on the other side of the shop were wickan books (not sure of the spelling) but satanic books sold right along side Christian books. I guess I see that at home too when I go to Half Price Books but it was really over the top. I didn’t even walk in. I would never buy something from a shop like that. Another shop, same deal but had a 3foot tall statue of Jesus in a meditation pose that is common with Hindu imagery. That also bothered me, perhaps more than it should. I doubt it, I was probably the right level of disgusted.

Hacienda de Santa Barbara

Claudia eventually met up with us and we went for dinner. Andre didn’t have much interest in us eating dinner and not much interest in having his bottle either. He was starting to get a bit fussy (he still is a bit drippy after all). So we needed to eat in shifts.

Trying our best to keep him entertained but it was a mission that would fail. Lil dude was winding down pretty quick.

It worked out ok. His naps were not wonderful today (see the backpack story from earlier) and we were out for a lot longer than intended. That’s a lot for a 7-month old. We ended up getting home around 9:00 I suppose and put him to bed pretty much right away. The kids watched a Wingfeather episode and I played catchup on blogging. The WiFi really is crap in the house. I’ve had to resort to using a hotspot from my phone which is not ideal since we do NOT have unlimited data here on our phones. We’re discovering all the little annoyances with the AirBNB. It’s potentially a nice house but certainly needs a lot of attention. The pictures on AirBNB site are solid but a lot of shoddy things going on in this house. It’s beautiful though and has great potential for someone.

It’s easy to see why we chose this house. They certainly hired a photographer who did a great job of covering some of the issues.

Any way, I am all caught up now on blogging. Hoping for better wifi Sunday and a great Fathers Day. Happy Father’s Day to all of you guys!

After the dust settles…

Friday June 14, 2024

After all the excitement from yesterday, we needed a nice boring, get to know you, day. But just like the people at FANA warned us, Andre woke up with a cold, drippy nose and all.

Not the bright eyed bushy tailed we saw yesterday.

We learned that at FANA, the temperature in the kids room is kept at around 75-80 degrees. By Colombian standards, Bogota is considered cold (mid sixties) so to compensate, they crank the heat up. But at least they warned us.

He slept through the night though. We were a bit worried because we were told about their schedule at FANA which included a feeding at 3am. But, we put him to bed around 8:30 (after some minor struggles with familiarity) and he pretty much slept solid until around 7:30. There were a few stints of crying in the night but he never woke up. Dreams I suppose or just the cold setting in. We hung around and had some breakfast. Claudia ordered some fresh bread to be delivered. We sat on the patio and goofed off. Found magic to make Andre smile, the ok throw him up in the air trick. Always a crowd pleaser. I got yelled at by the wife a few times but worth it completely.

A bit challenging with a drippy nose and a bit or drool but still fun. Also, this can be dangerous after a bottle. I am aware of this danger and di NOT go overboard.

And does he look even a bit concerned? Good times with new papi!

Remember the broken tooth that Claudia had our first night in Bogota? Well she had to go back for a X-ray. She took Santi with because he needed to burn off some energy. So after lunch, they headed out leaving me and Nani to hang out with peanut. Lots of play on the couch with his toys but somewhat low energy. We put hi, down for a nap and I may have taken one too. Nani went to her room to do some reading and she may have fallen asleep too? She has been a great helper.

This little girl absolutely loves her baby brother and always wants to carry him, change diapers, and help however she can. I’m very proud of her? Santi too but we worry about the big talk regarding diaper changes due to his gag reflex.

There’s a proud papi

Claudia & Santi got back a bit later than expected. They came back with a few treats for later in the evening which was a great surprise. They even brought me a cup of coffee. Man I’ve got a good one with Claudia! Anyway, we had a pretty light meal at home (oatmeal), Andre had his bottle since he rejects most/all food we offer him so far (as warned by FANA so none of you worry). FANA also warned us that it could be days before he might poop…up to 4 days had been reported in the past. Well, our guy had himself a healthy pant load before bed and true to form, Santi made one big dry heave and had to leave the room to avoid making a bigger mess. Peanut didn’t go down without a fight. He really didn’t feel well and mami spent a lot of time rocking him until he fell asleep. It was a battle though. After that dust settles, we popped some popcorn and watched the latest episode of the Chosen series. I tried to post last night but Wi-Fi here in this house isn’t great. For those looking for daily updates, I’m sorry. Not completely in my control.

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.

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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!

June 12, 2024

Since I was having technical difficulties yesterday posting from my ipad. I couldnt get any pictures to attach so I will use today for a little make up time.

Santi taking charge of Choco-puff the bear

Me and my guy ready for a long day of flying.

Arrival in Bogota with Choco-puf along for the ride

The Renault Duster that we always seem to rent and I always seem to make fun of.

Our AirBNB. Very nice rustic style house will be our home for the next week or so.

Well I guess that should get us caught up on pictures from yesterday. NOw lets get to today!

Getting settled. We did sleep in a bit today, which was wonderful. I suppose we got up around 9AM and went wandering around looking for a place for breakfast & coffee. The most important part of the day is the conference call scheduled for later today that goes over much of the history of Andre. We’lll get to that in a minute.

Breakfast was at a little coffee shop around the corner. It was a little bakery with fresh croisants (with cheese baked in the middle). It was amazing. Likewise, the coffee was fantastic. We sat and really enjoyed the morning. It was a bit cool wandering around. Honestly, sweatshirt weather which is not that uncommon for Bogota. We killed the time until our scheduled conference call..

Breakfast at the Bakery

Heading to lunch at Madalia, a restaurant just around the block. It is in an old house that was lived in by Francisco de Paula Santander, who was a key figure in the revolution and independence of Colombia from Spain. Really cool old hacienda. More pictures later when I have them.

The conference call lasted 3-hours which may seem a bit much but it was super informative. We even got some history of the birth mother which is really nice and completely unexpected. It was extremely emotional to hear the story of the mother and we are blessed that we know a name that we can continue to pray for for the rest of our lives. And we are blessed that the right decisions were made and that this beautiful little boy would enjoy life with parents who will love him to the ends of the earth.

Unfortunately, last night, Claudia broke a tooth and went for a dentist appointment this afternoon after the conference call. Me and the kids went to a local park and played some basketball with a soccer ball. This seems strange being that you all know my kids and their love for soccer but there seriously was nowhere to play soccer or even kick a ball around…except that basketball court. we played until sundown.

Travel on June 11th?! No way!

So Monday, June 3rd, we get a text; “Can you be in Colombia by the 11th?” Claudia responded saying “Not really. Wes still doesn’t have his visa so we don’t have airline tickets yet or any arrangements made”. They said if we weren’t there by the 11th, the process would be delayed a couple of weeks probably into July. Well that was unacceptable so we got moving. A lot of loose ends needed to be tied up and with a LOT of help from our friends, we barely made it. I did my best to cover my butt at work but I’m sure I forgot some stuff. I still have to scramble to ensure I take advantage of parental leave otherwise my finance department will be out to get me. But back to getting ready, Michael from church is maintaining the pool and lawn mowing. Rhea & Will amre handling the garbage and keeping an eye on Amazon type packages. Jane is taking care of plants and mailing off announcements that we suddenly didn’t have any time for. We needed to get Carlos from church to do some handyman type things f stuff that we ran out of time for such as room painting. The Flores’ offered to assemble the crib which we still haven’t received yet. Not kidding, a LOT of stuff that with the one more week we were anticipating, could have been done (minus the pool and lawn maintenance of course). But let’s not forgetting the night of the 10th and packing. Carmela and Susana came to help pack! It was so weird watching Carmela digging into a laundry basket of freshly cleaned clothes and helping my wife pick her clothes. But without her help, I’m sure Claudia would still be packing! But even with all the help, we got to bed somewhere around 1230 am.

No worries though, that hour-ish worth of sleep was magical considering the 2:00 am wake-up call. UBER showed around 2:30am and we were off to The airport with our 13 bags. We had our first hiccup at the counter though. Remember when I mentioned that I had not received my visa from the Colombian consulate? The airline would not allow me to board without a return flight. We didn’t buy round trip pending the visa situation since we knew we were going to down for 6-8 weeks. So while I dealt with the bags, Claudia went online and bought a return ticket for me, just to get me on the airplane. Completely fake ticket since we cancelled it once we got into Colombia.

Flights were uneventful. I prefer flying Delta or American Airlines into Colombia. They seem to have more space than Avianca. Arrived around 1:00 pm. Got our Renault Duster rental & on our way to the AirBNB. I’ll add pictures once I’m on an actual computer. We were all so exhausted, even though we all slept on the flights. Ordered in dinner and went to bed. Unfortunately, Claudia broke a tooth so an unexpected dentist visit tomorrow should muddy our day a bit.

I’ll add pictures tomorrow to this post. iPad is not cooperating with me right now for adding pics.

Care package arrival prompts new pictures!

Upon acceptance of our referral for Andre, we were asked to prepare a care package. On the surface, I think it is pretty cool. We got to send Andre some new Pajamas & other clothing items, a nice plush blanket, a couple stuffed animals. We are also asked to provide pictures in a photo album. For a 7-month old? Perhaps it is valuable in planting that seed pointing at Claudia and the caretaker saying “Mama”. There might be value there….maybe. I do find it funny that they blew up several of those pictures and posted the around his crib. Poor child needs to wake up to these faces staring at him.

Introduction to our other goons, Nani & Santi

AYE CARUMBA!!! Poor kids wakes up to THAT in the morning?!

A little bit of the kids artwork on the wall

Big reveal with the Soto side of the family

Last post I talked about telling my mother our wonderful news. Well, we had the other side of the family to tell as well. It happened about a week later on a weekend that we were all home. This post wont have any beautiful sunsets or northern lights over a lake. I suppose I could take a picture of a screen shot with the in-laws but way less effective I guess.

Claudia took a leadership role in talking with her parents and it ended up going well. At first, Hernando (her dad), was taking a nap so Claudia made small talk with her mom. Once dad was awake, the phone was passed off for small talk with dad. After a lengthy conversation, Claudia asked for her mom to get back on the line which actually scared her. I suppose when someone tells you “I’ve got news to share with you both” can put a scare in someone. It went good. Although I did hear Hernando tell Claudia to tell me “No Mas”, which I found ridiculous as if I was the only driving force in this decision to adopt.

Jairo & Lili; we were not able to get a hold of them that same day and figured that they would probably hear through the grapevine before we could talk to them. That doesn’t appear to have happened. Claudia was able to tell them a day or two later when the returned Claudia’s call. There was quite a bit of excitement in their voices and they asked if we would stop by to visit Florida on our way back from Colombia. We might, but no promises as of this date.

Mother’s Day up in Brainerd

Claudia made a beautiful plan to spend Mother’s Day Weekend up in Brainerd and spend time with my mom. She really made my day making these arrangements because it has been hard visiting, mostly due to soccer schedules and occasionally a drill weekend. Gracias mi amor!

We stayed at a place that we’ve been to a few times. Good ol’ Days resort on Lower Cullen Lake in Nisswa, just North of Gull Lake. We have always had a good experience there. This time we had a cabin that was large and comfortable with a full kitchen. Right up our alley! We arrived Friday evening later than we were planning on but it worked out ok. We had mom over for some Papa Murphy pizza that we brought from home to save time. It was nice hanging out. I wanted to tell my mother about Andre right then but my wife had to tell me “calmate!”.

Day two, after sleeping in a bit, Claudia woke up with a headache so I took the kids for some breakfast at the lodge (which was free). By the time we got back, Claudia was up and her headache was gone. I had to do some grocery shopping because mom had made a comment about how she would be good with hotdogs off the grill…and I got the sense she was serious about it. So we did get some burgers and brats. Back at the cabin, we got to hang out and grill. After dinner, I broke it to my mom that we were going to Colombia in June and slid her the phone and said “To pick him up”. She was so surprised and it was so nice to tell her the story of how long we’ve been in this process and how the actual referral went. It was really a happy day.

My beautiful kids

Pretty girl at sunset

Mom’s on Mothers Day 2024

What about a name?!

If it were easy, we might have put it right away. Yes he has a given name but we’re not convinced that it would work well in the USA. So we had some family meetings to discuss names.

Big smiles!

One thing for sure, we needed to have the name Joseph in there somewhere. That was the only non-negotiable. St. Joseph’s presence was just too obvious to us.

The name options? Harder that you may imagine. We have always struggled with boys names. Here is a list of a fewof the contenders:

Martin, Parker, Max, Lucas, Luke, Andre, Nicholas, & Andrew. There may have been a few more. Santi wanted to name him after the Wing Fever books. If you read this later in life, little man, you’e welcome!

So we have decided to name him:

Andre Joseph Chase; born October 30, 2023 in Bogota, Colombia

REFERRAL DAY!!!!

MARCH 18, 2024 at 5:43 in the evening in old town St. Augustine we received a phone call from Misty Lucas from Madison adoption agency. They had a little boy that had been matched with us. As some of you may know, we were anticipating a 4-7 year old. To our surprise, this little boy was 6-months old! We were extremely excited as you can imagine. They did tell us that there were some potential genetic issues that had not been tested but that they would send pictures and his medical information as soon as we were off the phone. We ended the phone call with some tears and hugs which some of it was caught on video which will be nice to see in the future when we think back of this day.

The Novena to St; Joseph was an important bit of information. We were heading down to St. Augustine cathedral/basilica and we kept our plan. It was a beautiful church that was having a mass confession. We were able to convince some guy at the door that almost didn’t let us in because he thought we were just tourists who were coming in to take pictures. Well of course we were tourists but pretty devout ones who wanted to pray. We parked ourselves in front of a statue of St. Joseph and prayed quietly. We received some of the medical information and were opening the emails in church. Perhaps that bothers some of you but I can’t think of a better place. His potential medical problem was significant and involved a lot more prayer and guidance. Claudia and I took advantage of the confession time and both went. Afterwards we went out for dinner seafood restaurant called Harry’s which was outstanding. Never guess what the topic of conversation at the table was? When we got back to the rental home…we may have done a lot of research on our own about the medical condition. You may or may not know this but googling anything health related might scae the crap out of you. It is always the WORST case scenario no matter what. We did some more praying and went to be pretty late which made the next morning pretty tough. March 19 is the actual Feast Day for St. Joseph. We got up pretty late but still made it to mass on time. Not the same church in the old town. This was a newer church in a pretty nice neighborhood. Stained glass windows were absolutely huge and beautiful. After mass, we went to get some coffee then back to the house. We had decided to trust the Lord and submit our letter of acceptance. We had discussed that God had blessed our lives beyond measure and that we would trust him. We of course try to trust everyday but we are human and sometimes it is hard. We would need to put ourselves in His hands even if it meant allowing a complete change in the way we live. After all, our church prays every Sunday for an increase of vocations for the priesthood or religious life. We pray this with complete conviction every week. God gave us our children and we immediately give them back to Him. In truth, we will do the same with our new little boy as well no matter what medical condition he may have.

The acceptance letter was sent later that day. St. Joseph had delivered once again through his intercession for us. Thank you saints in heaven and thank you Jesus for your never ending love for our family!

March 18, 2024; Vespers of the Feast of St. Joseph

Going back in time a little bit; March 10-19; Novena to St. Jospeh

St. Joseph is my patron Saint. Why? He is the adoptive father. We have a lot in common. When I came into the Catholic church, I was never asked who my patron saint would be but I always had a, for lack of a better word, a veneration to St. Joseph. He never says anything in the Bible, he only listened to and followed God’s will. And I wasn’t even an adoptive father and we werent even thinking about the process.

We started a Novena to St. Joseph on March 10, 2024 at home in Excelsior. We had planned a little vacation to St. Augustine, Florida so we would end our Novena at St. Augustine. We had decided together to pray for the intercession and prayers of St. Joseph for our family. We had some history of his intercession when we adopted Santiago where we also prayed a Novena for St. Joseph the Worker which is in May. We received Santi’s referral shortly after praying for his intercession for us. Lets not forget about the intercession of the Virgin Mary as well. All these saints in heaven praying for us here on earth. It is wonderful to think about.

The blog that almost wasn’t.

Previous adoption, we have run a blog but each time it has been a different site. Most of the reason is because it turns out to be a bit wonky. The price of this one scared me a way and for a long time, I thought Claudia shut it down (didn’t pay). Well, turns out she did so might as well make the best of it? That is the answer to why it has been so long since I posted. Plus, you can only get so excited about NO NEWS for so long…

Are you kidding me?!

First of all, let me say Happy Anniversary to my mother and father who were married 55 years ago today. I miss my dad horribly as he passed away in 2006. Love you mom! Happy Anniversary.

It has been a long time since I posted anything. With no new news, it makes it tough. We are currently in the process of updating some of our paperwork. Last week we re-did our fingerprinting and made a date of it by going out for a nice brunch in Minneapolis. Good stuff. We also needed to have fresh physicals done. That is always fun. For mine, they had to pull 7 tubes of blood from my arm to check me out for everything imaginable. Ironic, we the parents need to be open to medical conditions of the child but the other way around, the child needs to have PERFECT parents.

Summer is over. That is really annoying. The temp is starting to dip, the leaves are starting to change color. It’s over! Kids are back in school (Mariana 8th grade, Santiago 3rd grade with Mr. Zink!). I am approaching 1 year remaining before retiring (at least that is my plan). But overall it was a good summer.

It was a summer of soccer. Mariana played for Park Valley and had a great year. In their league, the ended up in 2nd place but lost in the playoffs due to some controversial calls….sigh. They did well at the USA cup tournament. They took 2nd place again and lost that game in controversy as well when a contested ball kicked up into one of the girls hand which granted a penalty kick at the end of the game…and that was it. They lost 1-0 to a team from Rockford, Illinois. Now the fall season has started and PVU is 2 wins-1 loss and Nani already has 5 goals in those 3 games. She loves it.

Santi played Rec soccer. Rec pretty much describes it. Those kids on that team were a disaster. It was chaos. Santi did well and was consistently the best player and best behaved child on the field. He did so well we decided to elevate him to competitive despite the commitment. The difference in training and games is dramatic. As of today, his team is 3-0 and he has scored a goal. He is having a blast and we love seeing him run. He is so fast.

Santi made some new friends down the street from us. The Hasse girls were frequent visitors to the yard and pool this year. RIght around the same age as Santi and they get along great. All the adventures that kept them playing in the yard. There may have also been a sales stand in our front yard where they were selling various treats and rubber band bracelets which were a big hit for a while. But the novelty wore off and sales dwindled. Thats when they thought it was a good idea going door to door which also went the direction you thought it might. But a lot of riding bikes through the neighborhood which is what I personally remember from my childhood, not plopped in front of a TV playing video games..

We got to go spend a weekend up with Jason and Natalia at their cabin up at Lake Roosevelt in Outing , MN that was beautiful. Both the kids got to go fishing for the first time though they didn’t venture to try for any fish larger that the sun fish from the end of the dock (as the pictures will indicate). Actually, Nani did catch a pretty decent Crappie which is also pictured. They also got to go tubing while Claudia and I enjoyed the peace of the woods and the lake. Santi and I went on a kayak adventure which was absolutely a blast. Enough so that I wouldn’t mind having a couple Kayaks myself to cruise around the lakes in the area.

On the way back from Jason and Natalia’s cabin, we stopped by my families old property on Nokay Lake and found that it was for sale. That gave us the ability to go up the hill then down to the lake to check it out. A walk down memory lane. Unfortunately, there is no way that I could pull off buying that property without doing some sort of major life change but still I get that urge and those thoughts. it was nice sitting on the shore and throwing rocks into the lake like I used to enjoy so much.

Plenty of great memories for the summer. Those were just a few highlights but we know that our family is currently incomplete. We pray every day for our son or daughter, brothers or sisters who are currently separated from a family that they currently do not know but will spend the rest of their lives with. We pray God’s blessings on these children and for the Lord to assure them that they are loved. God has His plan and we will respect it but that doesn’t mean that we dont get anxious, know what I mean?

Anyway, since this blog is still not public, I am actually just typing to myself right now. That is kind of depressing but still a lot of fun reviewing pictures from the summer and looking forward to the future. May God’s will be done.

And still….we wait!

Tick———-tock———tick————tock

Well, while we wait there is some stuff going on though not related to the blogs purpose;

• Santi celebrated his first communion !!!

• Mariana celebrated her 13th birthday

• The pool is open! Already had a few play days there

• Soccer season has started for both kids. Both are doing great

• Papi got more handsome

• Mami is waaaaaayyyyy prettier than ever! Each day setting beauty records.

• School is ending really soon

Updates?

Easter Sunday, I think Claudia and I had the same prayer intentions in mind. The waiting is SOOOOOO horrible. An update, even just a small one to check and see if we’re still here would be nice;

I remembered, specifically with Santi, that when time seemed to stand still, we prayed for the intercession of St. Joseph. After all, who could help better than him? Think about it. He was the Adopted Father of Jesus. I have also heard him called ““foster father” but I’m sticking with adopted. I started praying for his fatherly assistance and praying for us and seriously, I think it was within a week we received the referral for Santi. Amazing!

Now time seems to have slowed down again. At St. Johns, where we attend mass, there is a statue of St. Joseph right in front of where we normally sit (officially called the Chase row). I was staring him down on Easter and asking for him to hook up a fellow adoptive father. A little help. He knows how if feels with the bond growing between father and SON. He knows how special that is but even MORE so for himself. I mean, Son of God? No pressure there, right?

Adoration Chapel at SJB Excelsior

dramatic pause….

Prayer answered!

Not the way you think! Not the same as last time. But we did receive word that FANA, the agency in Colombia was reviewing our dossier and asked that we update a form. We had specifically asked that if possible, we could adopt again from the coffee region of Pereira again. They asked us if we would consider another region of the country as well. So we updated our paperwork stating that.

So anyone with good sense would try to not get their hopes up right? Stay cool dumdum…

Ok, I cant, I am personally reading into this perhaps more than I should. The fact that they are asking us to open our aperture means maybe they have a child(ren) in mind for us? That is where my mind went. Most who know me know that I am pretty conservative in about every aspect of my life. Getting this excited is a bit out of character for me.

HOW ABOUT THAT ST. JOSEPH HUH!?!?!? We wanted some attention and we got it. We continue to rely on his intercession. We know we are getting an older child. How old we don’t know. But currently, as I type, there is a little boy or girl (or both) who are down in Colombia who do not have parents and God has pre-destined to unite with our family. Every moment apart just seems wasted. I’m not suggesting that I have a better plan than our God. I guess we are just impatient.

We will trust in HIM!

Near Death Experience

I suppose we were in need of some form of update so allow me to bore you with a story and look for sympathy.

Tuesday (April 11), after a long day of working really really hard, I arrived home in my driveway to find my children playing soccer. Well, I suppose I was feeling a bit frisky so I jumped out and intercepted a ball and proceeded to play keep away from my weirdos. Somewhere along the line, my sweet ball movement skills with my feet failed me. I stepped directly on the ball and one foot went to the left…and the other to the right. I went down hard and my knee was wrecked. As I lay on the ground, my evil weirdos were uncertain of whether I was still alive or not were poking me with a stick like some sedated animal in a cage (this is how I am choosing to remember it anyway). I lay there for a few minutes because, well I’m old and old people dont fall very well. But it gets worse….

Next thing you know, my evil wife comes out the door. She was talking and laughing on the phone with her brother. At the very least they were NOT laughing about my fall. In fact, Claudia didn’t know I had fallen and proceeded over to my broken body. In my short time laying on the ground, the pain had now migrated up to my right hip, the very same hip I broke when I was in my early 20’s. She saw me lying there and had a confused look on her face and then it happened; she KICKED me in the very knee that I had just wrecked. She later told me “I thought you were just playing with the kids”.

Moral of the story….wait, there is no freaking moral to this story! When you’re old, don’t pretend you’re Lionel Messi while still wearing combat boots….or ever honestly. There was nowhere to go but DOWN in that scenario. One thing I learned is to not look for sympathy from my spouse and that in her eyes a kick is the same as a kiss on the forehead.

It has been a few days since, what I am now calling “The Incident”. I have apparently healed so no physical damage. The mental and psychological damage is more than likely irreparable. Each time I tell this story, AND I HAVE TOLD A LOT OF PEOPLE, it becomes more refined and fun to tell. I hope you’ve enjoyed this as much as I have.