Goodbye Popayan

                             

Everyone is finally healthy.  Thanks for all your prayers!  Flurry of activity the last few days.  It started on Wednesday at 1:00 when Luis, our translator called.  “Jason, the judge is ready to give the final sentence for Nola.  We need you at the courthouse at 2:00.”  We had been waiting for a week for the call, so a few clothes to iron and away we went.

The Final Sentence

The judge was a very sweet lady.  The final sentence involved just signing a couple papers and took only about 10 minutes.  The judge said something a few times that Nancy and I thought was funny.  She kept saying, “you are so young to have so many children.”  What a compliment.  I am the first to say 40 is the new 20, but at 42 I confess I’m not feeling any younger.  Luis told us that in Colombia most people have two . . . MAYBE three children, “but five,” he said, “that’s crazy around here.”  It was a really neat moment . . . the very second I signed the sentence Nola was officially ours.

The Judge in her office right after signing the final sentence

The Judge's staff

The Gift of Time

Registration Office

We immediately went to the registration office to get her new birth certificate.  That’s when Luis came out shaking his head saying, “you can’t even believe the miracle that just happened.”  Remember the elections that I’ve been writing about??  Well, if the judge hadn’t seen us that afternoon, we wouldn’t have been able to go to the registration office until the next morning . . . only problem with that is the registration office decided that day that it was going to close for the elections and not open again until NOVEMBER 8!  No one could have known . . . except for maybe God!  Two hours would have cost us an additional two weeks.  Wow.

Leaving Popayan . . . harder than we would have expected when we came here.  In the two weeks we’ve been here, we have made numerous friends and experienced God’s love in a very real way.  But the day after receiving our sentence, our time had come to go . . .

. . . but not quite yet. 

Foster Home Visit

A few posts back I mentioned a sibling group of five who needed a home.  A few of our friends donated toys and gifts for us to give to orphaned children when we came to Colombia.  On Thursday morning someone called us up and gave us an opportunity to travel to the foster home where the five children are being cared for and to meet them.  We did take pictures, but the Colombian authorities told us this was a special exception and asked us under no circumstances to share the pictures through blog or email.  But this I can tell you . . . they are amazing, sweet, beautiful children . . . four girls and one boy between two and 11 years old.  Please, please pray that someone would come along and take all five children.  Maybe that person is you?

Arriving at the foster home

We also had opportunity to visit and ICBF office.  It was located in a very poor neighborhood.  I can’t say enough good things about the ICBF, also known as Bienestar Familiar.  They are among the best foster care systems I have every seen.  I am certain they are one of the best in the world.  Don’t let fear stop you from adopting from Colombia.  They are very committed to the well-being of their children and the safety of those who are coming to adopt them.

An ICBF neighborhood office

Two women in a window (and me in the mirror)

A poor neighborhood a block from the ICBF building

Girl walking home from school (same neighborhood)

Two boys playing on way home (same neighborhood)

Even in poor neighborhoods . . . the elections are big

Celebration Lunch

After our visit to the foster home, out attorney invited us to a lunch celebration at a beautiful restaurant (strange juxtaposition to what we had just seen, we were all the more grateful).  We only stopped shortly at Luis house.  Cristina and their girls were there.  They greeted us with beautiful gifts.  We were so honored by the love the displayed to us.

At lunch, we received our final paperwork and had to say our final goodbyes to some very special people.  It was difficult.  These are the people who have Doctorate degrees and work for very little.  They are the ones who have overseen the care of Nola since she was two months old.

Lunch at El Quijote (it was GOOD FOOD!)

Doctora Margloris (our attorney) and Nina

Nancy and Cristina

Big Moment

As we made our final drive, the night before we left, to La Casa de Mima, Luis said, “there is one last thing you need to see.”  He drove slowly past a bakery on a very bad side of town.  He said, “you see there . . . that bakery used to be a very bad tavern called La Barra . . . this is the place where Nola was born and lived for her first two months.”  La Barra had been shut down a year earlier because it had been a major epicenter of crime and vice.  Truth is no one really knows when Nola was born . . . only that her mom abandoned her at four days old.  But how awesome to know that Jesus, the King of Kings, was inside her mother’s womb, knitting her together, cell by cell and rejoicing over her with singing from the very moment of conception . . . and that in the small upper room of that tavern on the wrong side of town, Jesus was proclaiming that this unwanted baby girl was a daughter of the King . . . destined to be a woman of greatness.  And she’s our daughter too . . . and we couldn’t be more proud.

La Barra (on left corner) . . . birthplace of a precious child

Talking to Francisco

Olga, Argenis and the Damkoehlers . . . one last photo

Argenis and the girls

Leaving La Casa de Mima took some effort, but even in our last hours he had some neat moments.  In the last few days before we left, an Austrian man named Francisco came to live there.  At 71-years-old, Francisco still travels the world, stopping off in Popayan two-months of every year.  We just happened to catch him for a few days.  But in the last two hours Francisco and I had a chance to talk, and this former world-class business man showed a tender heart as I shared with him about the God who loves him enough to die for him.  Please pray with me that God would completely capture this good man’s heart and extend his years on this earth.

Goodbye Friends

Luis and I drove alone to the airport with Nancy and the children in another car.  “Jason, I wanted to drive alone with you to the airport, because I know everyone will be there wanting to say goodbye to you . . . I have translated for over 40 families that were adopting and never have my wife and I been touched or felt drawn to a couple like you and Nancy.”  This sharp, 34-year old businessman and translator deeply touched me with his words and with the way he shared his heart with me on this trip.  Hopefully some of you will be able to meet him one day.

After leaving La Casa de Mima we said goodbye to Luis, Cristina, Olga and Argenis at the airport . . . we had a whole crew saying goodbye . . . it was very touching.  We gave last hugs and walked through security to the terminal and a large door was shut behind us.  An airport security guard named Anderson who dreams of being a translator one day helped us get five children, a dozen bags and fourteen shoes through security (we became quick friends and exchanged emails . . . thanks Anderson!).

The last flight out of Popayan (Anderson in the orange vest in back)

Most Special Moment

We waited for about 20 minutes and finally the call came to board the plane.  It was at that moment one of the most touching moments in my life happened.  Just as we were walking through the door to cross the tarmac and board the plane, I heard Anderson call my name.  “Stop Mr. Damkoehler!  There is someone who must see you!”  I turned around and there was our friend Federico.  He eyes were filled with tears.  “Mi Hermano . . . my brother!” he shouted.  I had already passed through security, so there was no way I could get to him.  But another security guard whose heart was as big as his biceps cracked a half-smile and motioned for me to pass back through.  At 71, Federico bear hugs like a man half his age.  “I have been waiting on the other side of the door for twenty minutes trying to get them to open it.  I love you brother.  Your family means so much to me.  Thank you for sharing your lives with us.”

What an amazing man.  What amazing people. What an amazing country.  What an awesome God.

We arrived in Bogota late last night . . . will be here at least a week.  Visiting a missionary and a small neighborhood church on Sunday morning.  Will post again on Monday.  But here are some more pix from our adventures in our last days in Popayan.

Love you all.

Luke in the back courtyard of Casa de Mima (they played out here a lot).  Kole "accidentally" fell in the pool a time or two :)

Middle courtyard of Casa de Mima

One of our bedrooms

Fruit cart (these are everywhere)

Graffiti

My favorite spot

At the mall with Luis, Cristina and family

Great lunch

Luis and I visited a coffee cooperative

Reaching out to people in the square

Sharing Jesus (and food) with more people

Square at Popayan

The police were everywhere!  One of them was interested in Luke's "five finger" shoes.

New armored vehicle. Used to it now.

Visiting Luis' building project

Cute

Cuter

Cutest