Day 2 Highlights

daddy and cruz are both napping so i thought i would jot down a few highlights from presentation day and day 2 (our first full day with cruz).

Presentation Day:

-started out our day by sleeping in one last time!
-breakfast at hotel paris (juanita makes delicious french toast!) and then we walked and had coffee at juan valdez
-window shopping & shoe shopping for heath at unicentro (large shopping mall within walking distance) - i made him unpack his running shoes before we left b/c they were too heavy. turns out he needed them!
-lunch at el corral - yummy, greasy, American style hamburgers & fries
-stop at grocery store for a few supplies
-back to hotel paris to shower, change & prepare for presentation!
-we were supposed to get picked up by luz stella (who works with lss) and a driver at 3:30. we sat in our lobby area anxiously awaiting their arrival, but they didn't get there until 4:05! talk about making us more nervous! (well, at least me)
-arrived at los pisingos at 4:20...crazy taxi driver, but he actually got us there very quickly (traffic in bogota is CRAZY!)
-met with carlos, the director of LP - he is in the black coat in the pictures, and he spoke with us about the adoption process, the legal processes, etc. and then he introduced us to andreas (in the white)
-andreas spoke with us about cruz's routines, his likes & dislikes, went through his medical reports (everything is looking good...he just has a cold right now and had some diarrhea over the weekend...we think he might be teething as he keeps sucking on his fingers and anything else he can get in his mouth)
-andreas then took us upstairs to a very special room where cruz spent much of his time; as soon as we walked in the room we saw our beautiful son!
-andreas presented cruz to us and then stepped out of the room so that we could bond with him and get to know one another; it was such a precious moment and one we will never forget!
-after a few moments, luz stella came in and took some photos for us and we played with cruz for a while as we got to know him
-when we were ready, andreas led us back downstairs to the room we started in...it was now dinner time and all of the children were eating...they were so adorable and they all watched us and smiled and waved. we're excited to go back and tour LP and interact more with the children.
-we finished up by saying good bye to andreas and carlos and then hopped in a van with a much better driver! :) traffic was horrendous and it took us about an hour or so to get back to paris. cruz fell asleep in daddy's arms in the van (he seems to have the magic touch!)
-we were welcomed back home with a special sign for cruz on our door and many of the staff welcomed us and took pictures of us
-i gave cruz his first bottle with us and then proceeded to change his diaper...and also proceeded to have him pee all over the changing mat & his clothes! gotta love boys!
-after a very long and emotional day, we finally all got to sleep after 11:00 (they said that is his bed time?? let's hope we get that changed!)
-cruz seems to be a good sleeper - he woke up once about 12:30, but i think he was just a little scared, being in a new place. i held him for a few minutes and then put him back down in his crib and he went right back to sleep

Day 2:

-cruz actually slept in til almost 7:00 which was great for us...i didn't sleep very well, must have been too excited & i kept listening to both of my guys snore! (cruz because he has a cold and heath, well because he's heath!)
-morning routine went fairly well, he was supposed to have a bottle at 5:00 am (?), but we waited until he woke up (never wake a sleeping baby, right?)
-pureed bananas were brought up from the kitchen at 10:00 and he seemed to like those...until we attempted to put him in the baby bjorn and he projectile vomited the bananas all over the bjorn, the carpet and my arm! classic! luckily, heath is an AWESOME dad already and handles everything so well.
-ended up scrapping the baby bjorn idea and used one of the paris strollers and went for a short walk to the grocery store for his rice cereal and then stopped in the park for a few minutes before lunch. it's a beautiful day here, mostly sunny and probably mid 60's
-cruz was a little crabby at lunch so belydia (sp?) held hime for a while while we ate and then we all came upstairs for naps...daddy and cruz are still sleeping and it's been almost 2 hours!

that's about all for now! i'm trying to figure out how to post a video on here. i posted on facebook so some of you can check it out there. i will leave you with a few new photos for your enjoyment!

PS - just found out that my parents & melissa will all be coming down next week to meet cruz! yay! we can't wait for visitors!

Presentation Day!

we are now a family of three! it's been an amazing day and i will blog more later, but wanted to get pictures out for everyone to see!

Day One in Bogota

day one in bogota and our last day as a family of two! we started off our day by enjoying sleeping in one last time and then we experienced our first meal at hotel paris and it was as good as everyone raved. we had delicious pancakes for breakfast and then headed out on a walk to explore the area we will be living in for the next 1-2 months. we discovered a very nice area with all sorts of shops, restaurants, parks, etc. we ended up walking about 2.5 miles total and then ended up back at hotel paris for lunch. let me tell you, we will NOT go hungry while living here! thankfully we will be doing a lot of walking to burn off all of the food. for lunch we were served steak, potatoes, soup, coleslaw and a tangerine for dessert...we thought maybe because it was sunday, this would be our big meal of the day. we discovered we were wrong, but more on that later! after lunch our friend jose & his cousin dario picked us up to show us their city. they have already been the most gracious hosts and it has been so nice having them here. they took us to unicentro, a very large, upscale shopping center where jose insisted on getting us ice cream cones at crepes & waffles (yum!) and then we exchanged some money so we now have pesos in our possession. after unicentro, we headed to jose's apartment for a little relaxation before heading back out on our tour de bogota. he doesn't live too far from los pisingos so we decided to drive by cruz's home, but before we could get there, we made another pit stop at a little food stand where he surprised us with freshly made empanadas, apple soda and little cheesy biscuits! they were delicious! after that pit stop we headed over to los pisingos and snapped a couple pictures of the complex from the outside. it was an odd feeling know that cruz was inside of there and we were so close to him. we then continued on our journey and made one last stop at hacienda santa barbara, another shopping area. somehow we managed to NOT spend any money during our first day of travels (thank you jose for all of the treats!). after jose & dario dropped us off, we had about an hour of down time before it was time for dinner. yes, dinner after all of that! remember how i said that we thought maybe the evening meal would be lighter today since it was sunday? we were wrong! we were served delicious fish, rice, bread, vegetables and pineapple & cookies for dessert! yikes! we are now settled back in our room, enjoying our last night alone before cruz joins us. no guarantees that any future blogs will be this detailed...i just have a lot of free time tonight! :)

here are some pictures from our first day exploring:

in front of los pisingos! cruz where are you? :)

our welcome sign @ the airport in bogota

sites on our morning walk

views from jose's apartment

We've Arrived!

we made it to bogota and hotel paris! all of our flights were on time and went well. just wanted to let everyone know we made it. will blog more & post more pics tomorrow...time to organize our room. i'll leave you with pictures of us on our flights!

minneapolis to atlanta

atlanta to bogota

buenos noches!

Happy Valentine's Day to Us!

i just found out that we will be meeting our son, cruz john reedy, at 4:30 pm on monday -valentine's day! talk about the best valentine's day ever! ironically, i watched the movie "valentine's day" last night...hmmm, maybe that was a sign? heath is gonna have a lot to live up to for future valentine's holidays! :)

thanks again for all of your continued positive thoughts, prayers, etc. please pray for safe travels and smooth transitions for all of us. love you all and can't wait to post pictures of our son on monday night!

time to get packing....
ang

We Have Visas!

just a quick note before i head to bed...i am exhausted as i got up at 4:00 this morning since i had a 7:10 flight to chicago for my big appointment with the colombian consulate! everything went as smoothly as it possibly could have and i walked out of the consulate, visas in hand, at noon! yippee! i was definitely more than a little nervous about heading there by myself, not really knowing any spanish and after having heard some 'semi-horror' stories from other families. i seriously had great luck with the entire process: flight was on-time, the train from midway to downtown was waiting for me as i walked down to the platform, the walk from the train stop to the consulate was cold (ok, freezing!), but i didn't get lost and i had the sweetest lady helping me with our visas! thank you God! i got to my 11:00 appointment at about 10:50 and the whole process was complete by noon. our visas are good for three months so we should have no issues with them running out. yay!
after the appointment, i met up with heath's cousin adam for a yummy lunch at sweetwater and then i did a little shopping along michigan avenue. cruz now has his first cubs t-shirt for this summer! i also spent several hours killing time in coffee shops as my flight home wasn't until 6:45. i had two mochas and a small hot chocolate in the course of 8 hours - eek! luckily, i walked most of those calories off. :) continuing my streak of good luck, my flight home was also on time and i got to sit in the aisle seat of the front row. score! got home here about just a little more than 15 hours after i left this morning. it was a whirlwhind of a day! to top it off, tomorrow is my last day of work until MID MAY! YIPPEE!
good night!

Travel Dates!

we finally got them! i got an email from bettina first thing this morning telling us that los pisingos informed her that we could travel the weekend of the 12th. i immediately called heath and woke the poor guy up! (he's in vegas for work and it was only 6:05 there.) needless to say, we're both beyond excited! i was able to book our flights for saturday the 12th...we leave minneapolis at 11:30 am, fly through atlanta, and then arrive in bogota at 9:42 pm. our friend jose will be meeting us at the airport and delivering us to hotel paris. we will then have sunday to get acquainted and meet our new friends the jaenischs (aka jack's family) and the zuges (alton's family). presentation day (gotcha day!) will either be that monday (valentine's day!) or tuesday...bettina will advise as soon as LP confirms. HOORAY! in less than two weeks we will be a family of three!

BTW, today was my grandma johnson's birthday...as hard it was to wait this long, i think it was meant to be.

good night!