A long week

Oops just realized that I haven't updated you all since Sunday. sorry!
Well lets see... Monday and Tuesday we didn't do much, I didn't leave the hotel those two days. Still trying to get well and not go out in the pollution. Wednesday....ahh yes, Wednesday we joined a Venezuelan couple to go to the old town center. We saw some of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen. I don't have any pictures of the inside though. :( Apparently in Colombia it is seen as disrespectful to take pictures inside the churches. But here are a few pics of the outside of some of the churches.

Beautiful bell tower

This was a huge courtyard surrounded by Churches and state buildings

Stripey!!!

Yellow church

Courtyard with a beautiful blue sky and the mountains in the background

Oh and then we fed the pigeons! I haven't done that in forever. It was so funny to watch the kids 'cause mostly they wouldn't let the pigeons land on them. Oh and a warning: don't let pigeons land on your bare arm. It hurts. Anyhow here are some pictures.

Javier feeding some very greedy pigeons

This pigeon loved dad! it was like "I am never leaving you"

There were so many pigeons and they were all greedy

I stared into this pigeons eyes, named it 'Kevin' and fell in love :P

The whole family

(well except for the three that are missing...)

Thursday we went to a country club. Wow, I could see living like that. Being rich would be fun... but anyway we just went to use the pool, so no mani-pedi's or massages for me... ;( The night before we went we pulled out the swimsuits we had brought for the girls and they laughed. We had brought just one piece suites, and so my mom and I are looking at each other going "oh no, they want bikinis". But then the girls told us that only swimsuit models wear swimsuits like that! We were stunned. The girls wanted shorts with the suites. Now when you think of Colombian culture you don't really think overly modest to say the least but these girls are really modest. Anyway we went to the club and swam while they watched TV. The water was warm which was really nice cause I don't really do cold water...

In front of the country club

We had lunch there and then headed back to the hotel for little Francisco's 1st Birthday!

He and his new family have been here for six weeks and are hopefully very close to getting to go home. The party was really fun and the hotel had gotten a very, very special surprise present for Francisco........A band!

They played Colombian music while we danced and ate cake. It was so wonderful! Little Francisco just sat there the whole time a somber as a judge and looked a little dazed

The Colombian band with our family

Early this morning Annie and her baby Santiago left to go back home. We are so glad for them but we will miss them very much. The good news is that they live fifteen minutes from us so we will see them again!

Bye-bye Santi and Annie!

(pictured with Elizabeth)

Early this morning mum and dad took the kids back to Faca for our integration meeting with the defender of minors. Basically this is the meeting where everyone says that that the adoption will work and the kids decide that they want to be part of our family. Dominic and I stayed at the hotel so that we didn't have to ride in the car for the terrible 1 1/2 hour drive through traffic and car fumes. After this meeting we have nothing to do until sentencia (the final adoption) which won't be for a couple weeks (we have no idea how long but we hope only two). We are hoping to get away from Bogota as we are feeling kinda cooped up and the pollution is getting to all of us. I still have a nasty cold and a horrid cough which only get worse when we go out in the pollution so that is another reason to get away from here. We are all very much ready to go home, go back to our live and stop being on vacation. Please pray that the courts will put our case through quickly and that everything goes smoothly! Love you all!

<3