Today was Independence Day in the US, but for Lanie is was her Dependence Day! She is no longer an independent child without a family. She is officially our daughter. Today we had Sentencia which is when all papers are signed and the adoption is complete! Not only that but our awesome attorney waved her magic wand and got the sentencia documents and new birth certificate all issued today so our process in Bogota can go smoothly! It’s complicated, but that is really great and not typical. It usually takes a couple of days to get the new birth certificate. Overall it was another adventure with my attorney, Angela who is crazy fun and speaks no English. Google translate was our friend. I wore Hugh heels though. One should always wear tennis shoes when out with Angela!
It was a very full day with court, birth certificates and getting things together to leave. Juan Carlos, our doorman, came up to say Goodbye. He and Lanie blew bubbles together one last time. Our hosts, Vilma, Ivan and their daughter came over tonight for quite a while. We had a splendid time talking and laughing together. We definitely have some new good friends. Vilma and I want to swap lives for just a bit. She wants to live in the Walton’s neighborhood and I want to host families from all over the world! ( OK so I also want her full time housekeeper that cooks and cleans for her!). We hope they will come and see us in the US someday. While I’m very happy to be one step closer to home, staying good-bye to all of my new friends here that have been my family for a few weeks was sad. But… As Ivan said, “It’s a much smaller world now than it used to be. We’ll just see you later. ”
Now to introduce you to Lanie..she has lots of spunk. Ok. I’m going to tell you one little funny story… Read if you like…
All of the clothes we brought for her are way too big, but I have some clothes at home from Alli and the clothes in the US are cutier and cheaper so I’ve been rolling up sleeves, pants legs, safety pinning things and I bought a couple of basic items. For court today, I had a cute skirt, shirt and sweater for her. Well… they were a bit too big. When walking down the street the skirt fell down! Thankfully the shirt was so big it came down almost to her knees though. In the middle of the busy walkway Lanie just pulled up the skirt and starting pantomiming getting ready in the morning brushing her hair, putting on makeup etc. then she looked at me, grabbed my hand and said, “ready” as if she had just finished dressing in the middle of the busy central area. I was cracking up laughing. You may had to be there to get the full humor of it all, but it definitely depicts Lanie’s zeal for life!
