Gotcha Day

24 months of waiting. A three-month home study that took a year. Many delays and setbacks. But all of it in God's timing and in His will to bring us to this day . . . to this girl.  Nola Mercy Damkoehler.

 What an amazing girl she is. Her personality is hard to describe. Full of life, very entertaining, determined and on the move. I think Nancy said it best… she’s like a Colombian Shirley Temple. Big soft locks of jet-black curly hair and a personality to match.

After arriving in Popayan, our translator Luis picked us up at the airport. Luis is an amazing guy. We will talk more about him later.  Popayan is a mountain city, about 6000 feet in elevation. It has an unemployment rate of about 80%. Of those who are lucky enough to have a job, they aspire to make $200 a month.  Needless to say, there has been a little bit of culture shock in coming here, but nothing we didn't expect.   But it is very, very different. 

In Popayan at last!

 As we left the airport and drove to the city center, we noticed many police on horse back and riot gear.  A quick phone call and Luis said we may need to wait for an hour before going to the place where we'd be staying. He said there was an uprising going on the university campuses and that the students were in a protest. They had smashed several windows and sprayer graffiti in many parts of the city center.

 Welcome to Popoyan :)

Riot policia

 After navigating the police, Luis brought us to La Casa de Mima . . . a 100+ year old home in the middle of the city, devoted to housing adoptive families. It is absolutely beautiful. Our friends Craig and Amy Lee Petrick adopted children from Colombia back in January and stayed here. We are so glad they recommended it to us. It is wonderful!!!

The courtyard directly outside our room :)

Prepping the kiddos

Once we arrived at La Casa de Mima, we immediately got dressed for a four o’clock meeting with the social worker, our lawyer, and the psychologist that had been representing Nola. All of them were very, very nice. We’ve gotten to really love and appreciate our lawyer Doctora Margiolis . . .  she’s taking great care of us.

Nancy calmly waiting (reading
some scriptures)

 At about 5:30 they finally came. After 30 minutes of talking, our interpreter jumped up very quickly, grabbed my camera and said, “here she comes!”

 And there was Nola . . . She literally took the room by storm when she walked in.

 We played for an hour or so . . .  then Olga, the owner of La Casa de Mima through am “encuentra (encounter) party” for everyone. It was a very joyous occasion!!!

 I can’t tell you how gracious these people are in this one short post. But they have a story worth telling and I will share more with these next few weeks. But for now,  please be praying for Nancy and I as we are noticing some typical signs of attachment issues. Nothing we can't overcome with hard work and prayer. This is a very critical time for the bonding of Nola to Nancy (thanks Laura Sanders for all the advice) . . . so please pray with us that God would bond them quickly and completely.

 But for now, here are some pictures of our beautiful new daughter Nola . . .

                 

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