The happiest place on Earth!

We recently made the long-awaited trip to Orlando to visit Mickey & friends. Dayan was absolutely thrilled! We all had a great time, including Natalie who enjoyed being the Disney ambassador. 

Our issues with Dayan are slowly dissapearing. We've made some adjustments and are slowly watching her integrate into our family. 
It has helped to realize that we're not alone, that she is a typical, beautiful, happy child who has been through something noone should go through, and entrusted to us to love and care for her.  We are all bonding better and life with Dayan has become happier, sweeter, way funnier and absolutely rewarding!

Rock On!

As the days quickly become weeks, we watch Dayan blossom with every new word/song/manner learned. That’s not to say, of course, that we don’t have our share of meltdowns, but they are becoming less frequent and severe. ­Mornings are tough, since she officially started preschool this week and I went back to work, we all have to get up very early. She is definitely NOT a morning person, and if it were up to her, she’d be sleeping in until 10 am (she is soooo my daughter!). But once she’s up, she’s usually in a good mood.

I’ve found that she’s become much more attached to me since beginning preschool and it’s become a mission to prepare dinner in the evenings with her hanging on my hip, but we are all finding new ways to accomplish daily tasks so this gave me a great opportunity to seek out her musical talents.

We’ve also found that she doesn’t love the pool as much as we had hoped. She is very excited to put on her bathing suit, but once we step outside and she realizes that she actually has to get wet, well that changes everything. But we’re moving very slow and trying to make sure she has fun even from the steps to the pool in the hopes that maybe one day she’ll want to explore the rest of it.

We’ve found that she loves Mikey and Dora (who doesn’t?) but has no interest in watching them on TV, which brings me back to the making dinner with a child on my hip point. She loves our dog Maddie (a little too much sometimes) and Maddie has also developed a deep affection for her, especially at mealtime, when she parks herself next to her seat to catch all of the falling table-scrap-goodness.

And so as the weeks become months, we continue to pave our own path (and lean on each other when the path becomes too rough) to our forever family. (Check out those fancy T-shirts, courtesy of Tia Edith & Panino)

Home Sweet Home

Since our arrival back in Miami last week, our life has been fast-paced and extremely busy (much like it was before we left for Colombia). Dayan has been making herself at home and has had no trouble adjusting to her new life. She keeps us extremely busy (I had forgotten how fast a toddler moves!) and is always up for something new.

We decided that I would stay home with the girls for a few weeks before returning to work in order to bond with Dayan and give her a better sense of security before beginning preschool. We've visited several parks, the movie theater and unfortunately, the doctor's office for a physical. She does great when she's out and about and has no trouble adjusting to new situations. The girls have gotten much closer and although I'm constantly telling them to play nicely with each other (which I'm told is completely normal for siblings), I often find myself enjoying the moments when they truly get along ... when they sing made-up songs in the car (as loud as they possibly can), or when they have a contest to see who can make the most annoying sound (hard to pick a winner here), but most often, when they giggle and laugh together and love each other the way only sisters can! 

Yes, our life is chaotic and every minute of the day is filled with motherhood (this is the first chance I've had to post on the blog since our return). The house is never quiet (or neat) and I now answer to the name mamamamamama (yes, all one word! ... and I'm loving every minute (well ... almost every minute ;)  Natalie is also enjoying her new big sister status, and as you can see from the pic below, her new head chef position in the Executive Play Kitchen. 

Our life with Dayan has been everything we imagined (and so much more!). We have grown both as parents, and as human beings during this process, and I can only hope that the love we have for each other and our girls continues to grow through the years. Here's to making new memories together!

That's a Wrap!!!

Tuesday morning came around and we happily marched over to the main I.C.B.F. office to pick up our Conformidad (final paperwork from Bienestar Familiar). Once we had the paperwork in hand we flew (and I mean FLEW) to the American Embassy to apply for Dayan's visa. We had been instructed by our attorney to bypass the long line of people waiting outside the Embassy and go right in showing our US Passports, which I was only too happy to do! We went in, presented or paperwork, had a brief two-minute interview and paid the astronomical fee. After a while we were told to come back the following day to pick it up.

And so we did, at 3:30 (and not a minute later!) we were at the Embassy picking up our ticket to FREEDOM!!! (one last burst of drama for the blog!) We are now completely finished with the adoption here in Colombia and our paperwork is in order to return home, which we will be doing on Thursday afternoon!!! 

Thursday also marks ONE MONTH with Dayan in our lives (though she's been in our hearts much longer). I have personally experienced every single emotion known to man in the past five weeks. I have grown as a mother and wife and my ability for compassion has considerably grown. I have become a more patient person and I don't tend to sweat the small stuff as much as I used to (though sometimes I still get overwhelmed). My quest for control of my own life has transformed into a desire for harmony. It is a much more organic existence, where happiness is measured in the moments that we share together. 

We are thrilled to have expanded our family through adoption, it is a miracle in it's own right and one which we will cherish for the rest of our lives.  

Passport & Embassy Doctor ... Check!

Yesterday morning we got everyone ready and waited for the call from our attorney with news about Dayan's Registro Civil (if you remember, we weren't able to pick it up last Friday because the official was too busy to sign it). We finally got the call and were soon on our way to the Passport office (in the International Center). We arrived, had her picture taken and went right in (thanks to our quick-thinking attorney who had someone holding our spot in line). After about 30 minutes, they called our attorney and gave him a LIST of documents that we needed to present in order to apply for her passport (since I only have a contraseña and not an official cedula).  Yeah, another roadblock, sooo ... off we were to another passport office (Calle 100)  to try our luck.

This time, we went right (no line, no waiting) and they didn't even ask for additional documents. An hour later, we were walking out with one new Colombian passport belonging to little Miss Dayan! And as an added bonus, our attorney made our Embassy Doctor's appointment for the same afternoon (bonus!)

So, at the end of the day, we had Dayan's Colombian passport as well as her Embassy Doctor's medical report all ready for us to present it at the US Embassy! We're almost done!!!

Juan-to-free!

It never seizes to amaze me ... the speed at which children grasp new concepts. A few days ago, we heard Nati talking to Dayan and asking her to count from 1 to 5 in English. I quickly corrected Nati and explained that although Dayan coult count to 10 in Spanish, it would be difficult for her to do it in English so quickly. Well, I couldn't even finish my sentence ... little Dayan proudly began counting in English ... it went something like this: JUAN ... TU ... FREE ... FO ... FAI ... and then followed it by clapping for her self and flashing that cute little smile of hers (Yeah, she's got us wrapped around those chubby little fingers alright).

I can just imagine, in a few weeks, they'll be doing a Hannah Montana duet ... I just know it!

We've really come a long way with Dayan and every day we make some type of progress (although some days feel like we take a few steps back). When something upsets her she tends to shut down, and it becomes difficult to even understand what it was that upset her in the first place. But, all children have their quirks, and she is no different. We love her just the way she is and will continue to do so unconditionally through her ups and downs.

For now, we'll continue to enjoy her Juan-tu-frees!

Day trip to Zipaquira

Since there was nothing else we could do at this point to move the process along, we decided to take a day trip to the famous Salt Cathedral in Zipaquira. I remember visiting the Cathedral when I was a little girl and being in awe of the magestic monument (and of course ... licking the walls to taste the salt).

We took a cab to one of the Transmilenio bus stations. The Transmilenio is a fleet of extra-long buses that travel through special lanes and are very well organized and convenient, however, people are usually packed like sardines (which is why they are known as the TransmiLLENO). I can't believe we even got on because it was completely packed with people, but we did ... two adults, two kids, stroller and a backpack ... off we were. We rode the bus all the way to the final stop at the Portal del Norte, at which point, we quickly spotted a smaller local bus headed for Zipa. In less than an hour we were in the town of Zipaquira (In Chibcha, the language of the indigenous people of that area, Zipaquira means "The Land of the Zipa", Zipa was the king of the territory). It's hard to describe the town; a mix of old and new ... it was by far, one of my favorite visits here in Colombia. 

The town is primarily known for its Salt Cathedral, an underground church built inside a salt deposit in a tunnel made as result of the excavation of the salt mines. Zipaquirá has a very interesting architecture, and the old city center is a tourist attraction. We explored the mines, walked through the stations of the cross designed for the new Cathedral and loved our visit to the actual cathedral (where they hold mass on Sundays). My favorite part, though, was the artist's interpretation of the stations of the cross and the use of lighting ... truly breathtaking!

After the Salt Cathedral, we had lunch at a nearby restaurant and then enjoyed dessert in the town square, before finding our way to the bus terminal and making the trip back to Bogota.