Traveling to Bogotá

Departure day came very early for us. In fact the night before our departure never really ended J We packed our bags until about four clock in the morning.  At 4:30 a.m. everybody began to wake up. We packed the van and headed to Chicago. After saying goodbye to my mom Dee and Nancy’s mom and dad, Maury and Floranne (who drove us to Chicago), we heart on a plane bound for JFK in New York City and off we went!

 JFK brought some neat moments. During the layover between flights we met a really neat Catholic priests who truly loved Jesus.  His name is Father Shaun. It’s always a little bit weird calling a guy 10 years younger than you “father”, but this guy truly had a father’s heart and it was great to meet him.

 We also got to meet a great gal named Sharla . . . she’s the children’s pastor at a church in Alabama (we just can’t seem to get away from these sweet hearted Jesus loving Southern gals . . .  a.k.a. Melissa Miller types!). Nancy got to talk with her quite a bit. She had noticed all of the 147 million orphan shirts that we all were wearing. After about 30 minutes of talking she told Nancy that this conversation was a "God thing," as she and her husband have been stirred with the thought of adoption. They prayed together about it right there in the terminal. It was awesome!

 Speaking of prayer, right before the flight Nancy started feeling a little but nervous (many of you know how much Nancy loves to fly… not). Nina overheard Nancy talking about it and asked if she could pray for her J I caught a picture of Nina praying over Nancy in the spirit . . . my little prayer warrior daughter . . . I was very proud of her faith!

 Our flights from Chicago to JFK and from JFK to Bogotá were really great. The kids had a blast and the flights were very smooth. At one point Kole, who was sitting with a cup of Sprite and some crackers and cheese the flight attendant brought him looked up at me and said, “dad, this is the greatest day of my life!”

Kole checking out the flight safety info

What do you mean "oxygen masks?!

 We arrived in Bogotá late at night  . . . about 10:30 PM. Once we finally gathered up all 13 of our bags (I promise you we tried to pack as light as possible . . . but for a family of seven spending up to five weeks in a foreign country and bringing homeschool books, it was tough!), we made our way to the ground transportation area where a really neat guy named Mauricio was waiting for us. 

He smiled as he saw us walking out . . . and then he saw the guy pushing our bags on a cart . . . I have never seen a man’s expression change so quickly in my life. I could see the math happening in his head:  seven people, 13 pieces of luggage and one four seat sub-compact car.

Kole and Mauricio (the morning after we arrived)

 He quickly called someone on his Blackberry and said some things in Spanish that I didn’t understand . . . it’s times like this that I’m glad a Spanish interpreter was not present J But Mauricio was our hero and he soon managed to get us all safely delivered to the Zuetana . . . a small apartment owned by a woman named Claudia Leyva . . .

Claudia

 Claudia is an amazing woman. Her parents hosted many foster children when she was a child. Out of that environment, she emerged with a desire to do all she can to help the orphans of Colombia. So she purchased four apartment style buildings and rents them at a very low cost to families adopting children in Colombia. I wish you could see her heart the way Nancy and I were able to. We spent some time praying with her and she wept as God really moved on her heart.   What a neat lady.

Breakfast at Zuetana 

Claudia and Wilhem

Nina and Rosauda (who made us a great breakfast)

Looking at Paca the Parrot

Paca

In the kitchen with Rosauda

Just as we were finishing breakfast and getting our bags packed up to fly to Popayan, we received a BIG phone call from Martha Del Castillo, our Colombian contact . . . "things have changed . . . you will not receive you daughter tomorrow . . . hurry and get to Popayán . . . you are getting her today!!!"