Say Hello, Goodbye!

And so the time has come to finish our adventure and close the books on our blog now that we are safely back home in Canada. What an adventure it has been for us all, all that anticipation and build-up over the past three years whilst we waited for our day to arrive. It goes without saying that it was worth every minute of the wait, we have a beautiful addition to our family and we could not be happier. Nothing can quite prepare you for going from a family of three to a family of four. They all told us it would be so, and now we fully understand why! This experience has been fantastic for all of us, especially for Charlotte who had the opportunity to visit the country of her birth. It also gave us a chance to dig a little deeper into a fascinating country, and region. We truly hope that one day we can all return when both the children are older.

As with any big adventure, it’s not successful without the help and support of so many people, those who have helped, supported and encouraged us along the way, those whom we have have had the good fortune to meet during this process and on our travels, those who commented on the blog and sent us emails, and all those great people who will now be part of Sebastian’s new family. This is for all of you, thank you, thank you from all of us, it really would not have been a success without you.

     

Once again, thanks especially to SDN (Soleil des Nations) in Quebec, particularly Linda Filosa who always gives more than should be reasonably expected, and to the wonderful people at CRAN, without you none of this would have been possible. Also, a huge thank you to Flor, Reina and Marta at the pension in Bogota for being such wonderful hosts and for working so hard to make the process work smoothly for all the families coming from Quebec.

And so it is time to sign off for the last time. We have had a tremendous amount of fun putting the blog together during our time in Colombia, and taking and posting the photos which marked our journey. We hope to see and hear from all of you very soon and look forward to the opportunity to introduce Sebastian to you in person, we know you will fall in love with him when you meet him. Until the next time we all meet, thanks again for being part of our journey and take care.

                            

On our way!

Just a quick post, we are at the airport in Bogota waiting to board our flight to Toronto. Made it through our customs check with no issues, can get sticky with an adopted child if you don’t have all your paperwork in order, thankfully we do! Just Canadian immigration to deal with in Toronto now!Charlotte is asleep, Sebastian is resolute in his opposition and refuses to give in, taken in by a party of exchange students on our flight who are bound to keep us all awake. We can look forward to six hours of baby wrangling as we look to convince the lad that it is actually good to sleep on the flight. We expect a brief spell of extreme yelling before he gives in. We are all tired and we haven’t even started yet! It’s 10.30pm here, and we should be in Toronto at around 6.00am tomorrow. Looking forward to getting home! We will post a proper blog sign off sometime tomorrow when we are safely home. See you all back in Canada!

Revisiting CRAN

Before we finish our stay here in Colombia it would be very remiss if we didn’t spend a little time looking at the fantastic work CRAN do both here in Colombia, and for many, many families overseas.

                          

CRAN is an orphanage, housing around 80-90 children at any one time. Many children are placed at CRAN by Colombian social services because challenges they face in their home environment. Some children spend time at CRAN before returning to their families, but many become the subject of adoptions, both domestic and international. The children who are resident vary in age from 2 to 9 years.  Babies who come to CRAN through both their mothers programme and social services, are usually placed with foster mothers who may be caring for a maximum of 3 babies at any one time. This is where Sebastian spent his first months, only coming to CRAN when we came to Colombia to collect him. CRAN offer a full range of services to the resident children including accommodation, activities and exercise, education and medical attention. The monies donated to CRAN enable them to provide these, and other programs, to the many children in need of protection throughout Bogota. This also includes support for foster care, a mothers  program and biological family protection. CRAN is located on a hillside west of downtown Bogota, mostly away from the hustle and bustle of the city. In a taxi it takes about 30 minutes from where we are currently staying.

Of course we would not have Sebastian in our lives if it weren’t for the generous assistance of all the fantastic people at CRAN, including Ximena, Gonzalo, Marie-Christina and Sylvie, as well as the foster mother, Gloria, who cared so well for him during his first few months.

                    

For more information about CRAN please go to www.cran.org.co

Judgement Day!

Our legal judgement for Sebastian is complete! In good time, and just before our trip to San Andres, I headed into the city to the law courts to see notice of our judgement had been posted. Many thanks to judge #15 for making it happen so quickly! Not that this wasn’t totally random anyway! Just the luck of the draw really that it went so quickly. This is great news and took us somewhat by surprise, but it means that Sebastian is now legally ours, and we can move through the final few steps of the process and plan our trip home.

                        

Next on the list was a new birth certificate for Sebastian with the name we have given him; Sebastian Arthur Gwyn Harries, and then a Colombian passport for him so we can travel and he can get a Canadian visa to travel home. He sat nicely for his passport picture and we managed to get it one shot in under a minute! It took about 15 minutes, and numerous attempts for Charlotte when we did hers! The number and spelling of his names caused issues with almost every department we dealt with, the name convention used in Spanish speaking countries is quite different from elsewhere. For the benefit of the authorities here we also had to add Griffiths (Emma’s maiden name) to the mix, so you can imagine they were running out of space in the box on many of the forms! With the final paperwork complete, and a confirmation from the Colombian social services (ICBF) that everything is in order, all that remains is for us to visit the Canadian embassy, a short walk from where we are staying, to apply for Sebastian’s travel visa. This usually takes just 24 hours to complete, so by Tuesday of this week we will have everything we need to come home. 

         

And so the time has finally come for us to bring the big man, and our beautiful little girl back home to Canada. Our flights are booked (big thank you to Alison for all the help), and we will be back in Montreal on Sunday, September 6th, labour day weekend. At just over 7 weeks that will be a week shorter than we anticipated, but all in all not a bad thing since we are running out of shopping malls and kiddie parks to visit! We have a few more fun things planned for our last week here, including a trip back to CRAN to say goodbye to our friends there. There is another family just arrived in the house so there will be some more young folk to help entertain Charlotte as the clock ticks down on our return.

                      

Big P.S.
Many congratulations to both Myriam & Tim, and Shirley & Bill on their new arrivals, they both look gorgeous! Glad you are all happy & doing well.

Island Life!

Here are a few pictures from our time at the beach. Our first family holiday went very well, San Andres was very nice and very hot!

                    

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Off to the beach!

Today we are heading to the beach for 10 days, so subject to our access to the internet we won’t be updating the blog until we return to Bogota. In the meantime we hope everyone out there is enjoying the rest of the summer, wherever you are! Take care.

Charlotte in action!

This is my chance to tell you all that I have been up to during my stay here. After the other children left in the first week, I haven’t had much company my own age. Sebastian is fun to play with, but he is still a little small and he wants all my toys, boys eh!!

          

One of the best places I have been to so far is a place called Diversity. This place is designed entirely for children, not adults, everything is at the right height for me! Here I can try out any job I wish and get paid for it! I was able to be a nursemaid, a vet, a paramedic, a dentist, a chocolate maker and I also made my own yoghurt. I wanted to be a rock climber but my pants were too short!!  With all the money you earn you can spend it on other exciting activities. I was able to go to the spa (twice!) and have my nails done. I also travelled down the rapids (five times) and went on the bus (twice!). Poor mummy and daddy only get to watch as I have all the fun, mummy really wanted to go down the rapids and I think daddy wanted to be a firemen!

         

         

Sebastian had fun too, he had his own little area where he could roll around and practice his cruising. He is very good at pulling himself up on the sofa and is desperate to chase me round the room. He thinks my hair is great for pulling and I am definitely the best at making him laugh.

We have also been to some great parks, the best is Chico park because it has the horse carousel and bouncy animals. I also play pooh sticks with leaves and jump in the fountains.

           

Next week we are going to the beach and I will be showing Sebastian how to swim and eat sand, I think he will be very good at both. I miss my friends very much, particularly Boo Boo and of course my boys and Willow. But this has been a wonderful experience, I have seen so much and hopefully I will remember most of it.

One thing I have noticed, boys are very stinky!! I of course smell of roses all the time. See you all soon, love Charlotte xxx

         

Hold onto your hat!

In order for us to travel around this beautiful city, which we do as often as possible, you have to take a taxi. Now, the taxis here in Bogota are quite distinct, they are mostly yellow and usually quite small! The drivers seem to pride themselves on getting you to your destination quickly and this usually involves squeezing into the smallest gaps, honking their horns constantly and weaving in and out of traffic. The roads here are steep as we are basically on the side of a mountain, with lots of bends and the lanes not always clearly marked. However, we would not travel any other way and always wonder if our stomachs will arrive with us or shortly after we arrive at our destination. Charlotte loves the taxis ride and usually sleeps through the more hair raising journeys when she’s not on the lookout for VW Beetles or counting all the taxis, Sebastian takes great joy in batting Garath in the face or examining the ceiling.

            

Last weekend we decided to visit Simon Bolivar Park, this is a great expanse of green space for the people of Bogota to enjoy. The park is beautiful with trees, lakes, beaches and lots of kiddie play areas. People come and fly kites, play soccer, eat and enjoy, which is exactly what we did. Well, we basically moved from one kiddie area to another in order to keep madam amused, and of course we ate a packed lunch, my mum would be proud! We also revisited the presidential palace and square which is very beautiful and of course very heavily guarded. Charlotte enjoyed not the architecture but chasing the pigeons and eating popsicles, Sebastian ate bananas and slept a lot! We walked along one of the main streets and mingled with the people of Bogota. Like any major city you have to be careful and try not to look like a turista - no jewellery or flashing of the wallet and people only stare a little, well a lot, but we are quite a diverse looking family. You get used to it and it is even funny sometimes as some people are quite unconcerned about how obviously they are going to do it. We were a little out of our comfort zone but it was wonderful to get a feel of the city. Of course the drive home was quite memorable, with the driver going to the beat of the music which definitely gets you there faster!!!

          

Earlier this week we visited the hill of Monserrate, located at 3,152 meters above sea level and accessed by a very steep funicular. At its peak (a further 300m!) is the Santuario del Senor Caido, a favourite place of pilgrimage for both locals and tourists. We are not particularly religious but the church was beautiful, quiet and so very peaceful. The view of the city was incredible and being in such a tranquil place was very calming. Charlotte was very impressed by the funicular (the train) and was very serious about lighting candles in the church.

                         

                                 

Nothing sparkles quite like Crystal !

Well almost nothing, perhaps diamonds but we need to wait a little longer for that one. Yesterday we celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. I know, hard to believe that much time has already passed. That day seems so long ago now, a hot summer afternoon in Northampton when I had significantly more hair, and some room to spare on the waistline. How far we have all come in the meantime! Our big trip to Colombia for Sebastian became our gift to each other, although we have just booked our 10 day ‘excursion’ to San Andres island for August 18th which will be a belated celebration and gift to ourselves. The beach at last!

            

The young lad is eating up a storm at the moment, we cannot get enough into him during the day to get him sleeping through the night, although his teeth are also bothering him a lot right now. We have a swing and jolly jumper at the house which he is using, and enjoying, check it out! I think the lad may also have Harries ears bless him!

      

Tantrums, Teeth and Tigers!

It’s been almost a week now since Sebastian joined our merry little band, and I’d love to tell you about all the big adventures we’ve been having but the truth is we’ve stayed quite close to home to give the lad a chance to settle in. Everyone needs a chance to get used to each other, especially Charlotte who is finding it a little hard playing second fiddle. Concepts such as ‘sharing’, ‘be gentle’ and ‘give me a minute and I’ll be with you’ all take a little while to sink in. She’s been great overall, only the odd tantrum and the occasional profound comment to keep us smiling. Still just about happy to be a big sister!

As for the big man, well his arrival with us has coincided with teething. His bottom two pegs are coming in and he’s generally not happy about it. With his fair skin his cheeks are bright red, and he’s pulling away at his ears. His schedule is getting us up at 1-2am for a bottle, which is a habit we have acquired and need to work on breaking. Other than that he goes through until 6.30am when his sister wakes up, when they start the day watching Wonder Pets in Spanish!! He is eating some soft foods now, fruit, mashed veggies and cookies which we love to smush. We LOVE our bath, he goes absolutely nuts, so much so that he has left us a little gift in the tub the last two times! He’s generally a happy lad, but he needs to be busy, busy as he is currently a very frustrated crawler. He is quite different to how Charlotte was, a little less independent and by the admission of the foster mother he was utterly spoiled for six months and mostly in female company, quite the ladies man!! He’s quite serious, and we have to work hard for our smiles but he’s getting used to us now and gives up some really gummy smiles.

 

We haven’t gone too far out of the local area, but we are planning a few more trips as we get used to lugging the world around with us when we go anywhere. The taxis here are tiny, so it’s funny to see the look on the taxi drivers face when we flag one down. Since we really don’t speak any Spanish it’s kind of pot luck where we will end up! Yesterday we did take a day trip out of town to what can be loosely described as a ‘theme park’. A very unusual park donated in the name of a famous Colombian aviator. With attractions such as a life size replica of the Taj Mahal, a naval battle cruiser (goodness knows how they got it this far up in the Andes), and a reasonably well stocked zoo it was quite the mish mash. We all had a fun time, despite the hour of solid rain which forced us undercover.  The animal highlights had to be the Bengal tigers and the close up encounter with the emu! 

Up to now there have been a couple of other families staying in the pension, but the last left for home today so we are now the only people staying here. The last Canadian family was here almost 10 weeks!! We are hoping things will go a little smoother and we can be home at least by the end of August. We have a meeting tomorrow with the Colombian organization who oversees every adoption that takes place here. Once this is complete we will be waiting for our legal judgement to be finalized which will take a number of weeks. In the meantime we will plan a trip north to the beach which should be an ideal way to pass some of the time, and I will also try and meet up with a Welsh friend of a friend who is currently living and working here in Bogota.

Thanks to all those who have posted to date we love to read them, please keep ‘em coming!!