We just got to our hotel about 30 minutes ago. It has been a VERY long day. So far so good. I think we will try to take a nap for a couple hours than wander the hotel looking for the restaurant and hope our waiter speaks some english or has an english menu…
Colombia is really beautiful!
don’t know when I’ll be back again….
Those lines of that Peter Paul and Mary song keep going through my head. It’s so true right now. I couldn’t remember the other lyrics and looked them up and they don’t apply. As the song is about a guy saying goodbye to his girlfriend and being sad.
Our trip isn’t sad at all. 🙂
It’s OFFICIAL – tickets are booked. Our flight leaves at 6am on THIS SATURDAY 2/6/10. We have to leave our house at TWO in the MORNING to get to the airport on time. It’s going to feel more like leaving late Friday (TOMORROW) night instead of leaving on Saturday. This is the quickest flight I have seen to Medellin in all my searches.. about 7 hours. So again, we got very lucky to find it. I’m sure by the time we get to our hotel in Medellin we will be ready to sleep for hours. I don’t think I will be able to get ANY sleep on Friday and I have never been able to sleep on a plane.
Our presentation date (date we get to meet Alyssa and take responsiblity for her) will be Monday 2/8/10.
The travel agent we found was very friendly and got everything set for us. The prices were not any cheaper than what we found online, but it was nice to have someone else put it together for us. We got roundtrip tickets with our return flight on 3/6/10, but that is just a tentative date. Most likely will need to change it and may or may not have to pay the change fees for it. (I have heard from several people that the airlines in Colombia often offer to waive the change fee if it is for adoption. BUT it is not a guaranty). Hoping our good luck streak keeps going throughout our trip.
Alyssa’s bag is completely packed. It’s a HUGE red suitcase. I have clothes and a few items stacked together but will have to pack all my stuff tonight. I have no idea what to wear, I don’t think I have much for lightweight business casual clothing that doesn’t wrinkle… Everyone says to pack light, so I may be packing VERY light for our trip. I tried a couple times to go out and buy a few new things but most stores just have winter clothing, and only 1 or 2 summerish items. Oh well… I could try shopping in Colombia if I feel I need more clothing. I wonder how their sizes work? Hmmm…
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Tonight we have an appointment with the police station to get the car seats professionally installed. Getting this appointment was a HUGE challenge. Jason was in charge of it and they only install them from 8-4 on weekdays. He left several messages as they said they may be able to schedule an after hours appointment but no one ever called him back. He worked from home the other day so he just showed up at the police station at noon hoping to get the car seats installed, but the person that does them wasn’t there… So, they gave him a phone number and finally he got in contact with someone and now we have an appointment tonight to have both car seats installed/checked. They said it will take about 45 minutes, but when it was finished we should know EVERYTHING there is to know.
I read and reread the car seat instructions and my car’s owners manual about how to install a car seat and it didn’t necessarily look difficult… I think the main problem was getting the car seat at the right level and getting it secured in tight enough. I spent an hour and a half in the REALLY COLD garage the other night trying to figure it out, and nothing I could do would make the car seat not be able to wiggle…. Maybe my understanding is wrong but I thought once you installed them properly they didn’t move? Well, the one in my car does, so I am really glad we have having them checked out.
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Last weekend we visited the in home daycare that I mentioned in an earlier post. It was wonderful and we reserved Alyssa’s spot for when the opening arrives this summer sometime in June. I think we will probably put Alyssa in a Center (the one with the Web cams) if we need a childcare prior to June.
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Our agency is working on booking our pickup from the airport and hotel for us in Medellin and I am hoping to hear more about that later today.
We received travel approval late this afternoon. Our agency is just clarifying dates for us today, but we are looking into airfare to travel to Colombia between THIS Saturday and Monday. It’s amazing to think we will get to meet our daughter next week. It took 1 year, 11 months, and 1 day to get travel approval from the beginning of our adoption journey. It seems like so long ago but compared to how long many people have waited and been in process this isn’t long at all.
I emailed an adoption travel agent tonight with a long detailed list of all our estimated travel dates and who is traveling where and when. Hopefully I will hear back tomorrow so we can book our tickets.. and I am REALLY hoping they are not super CRAZY expensive.
I put the bags/stacks of items we are taking for Alyssa into this BIG red suitcase tonight. It’s hard to believe a small child could need so much. Maybe I could have left 1 or 2 outfits behind, but besides that I don’t THINK I over packed for her. It’s so hard to know what to pack when you don’t know clothing or shoe sizes. Is she teething yet? Does she have a pacifier? I don’t know so I brought a teething ring and one small box of 2 pacifiers just in case.
We were notified last Thursday by the Chicago Colombian Consulate that we were required to go to the Chicago Colombian Consulate in person for an interview to get our Visa’s to travel. This is a brand new requirement and as much as we tried there is no way around it or exceptions to the new rule.
So we frantically found inexpensive roundtrip tickets to Chicago on Friday and spent the day in Chicago yesterday. I had forgotten how much I liked Chicago, but wish it had been warmer yesterday so we would have had more fun wondering around after we got our Visas.
We did get our Visas!!! and we got home last night at 9pm. It was a very long day. We are still waiting for our Article 5 so we can book flights and make our travel plans. I am hoping it arrives today.
Below are some Travel notes for going to the Colombian Consulate in Chicago that I hope are helpful to anyone else that has to travel there soon. The Representative we worked with at the Consulate was VERY friendly, it was just a little confusing to figure out what to do and where to go.
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We flew into O’Hare airport then took the Metra (train) right from the airport. It was pretty easy. Give yourself at least 1.5 – 2 hours after your flight arrives to get to the Consulate. This will allow a little time to get lost and make it to the check in window at the Consulate.
The train maps, schedules, and everything can be found here. We printed this out and it was very helpful.
Advise everyone to go online and print out a street map that has the train stations and the Consulate on it before they go. This was VERY HELPFUL.
The Consulate is only 3-4 blocks away a quick 10 minute walk. Please advise people that they have to walk up some stairs to get on Michigan Ave. We walked around forever not able to find it until we asked and the Consulate was right above us and we had no idea.
The Consulate is on the 20th floor across from the Intercontinental Hotel. The security guards will tell you where to go.
The Consulate is a VERY small office and was so packed there wasn’t room to stand. Nothing is written in English and there wasn’t anyone there who could assist to tell you where to go. When you first walk in there is a window to your right and one of those take a number machines. You don’t need a number as you already have an appointment. There is a window on the far left of the room when you walk in. That is where you go… (It took us 25 minutes to walk into the room, before another customer took pity on us to tell us that was the window to get our Visas). Then it took another 20 minutes to make it the 10 feet to the window. It was THAT crowded. I thought they would call our name at our appointment time but they didn’t. We arrived at the Consulate’s office 10 minutes before out appointment but got to the window and were being waited on 35 minutes after our appointment time, but no one commented on us being late for our appointment. I think if we were early it would have been okay too.
They asked for our documents. The interview was: to see a picture of our child, asked how old she was, and how long we were in the process… That was our entire interview it lasted about 30 seconds. Then we were told it would take 30 minutes to process our Visa’s and to wait. 45 minutes later she arrived back at the window with our Visa’s, congratulated us then it took us 10 more minutes to make our way through the crowded 15×20 room to the door to leave.
We were in the Consulates office for about 1.5 hours.
Take the train back in reverse – consult the Train map, but it was very easy.
I would think you would need 5-7 hours in Chicago… 1.5 hours to get to the consulate, 2 hours in the consulates office, 1.5 hours hours to get back and 1 hour before the flight.
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