There are a few corrections to previous blogs that I need to make. First of all we would like to say that we know a lot of things are in the hands of the courts and plans change. We are okay with this. That is part of life, and we have learned this early on with the adoption. Our purpose of the blog is to inform our family about what we are doing daily and to have something for Mya to cherish when she is older. We also have received numerous emails from families that adopting to provide as much information as possible.
We just want to give information to help other families. This does not mean your trip will be the same as ours.
We are also grateful for our attorney and interpreter. I can’t imagine having a better team. They have been on top of things from day one and go above and beyond. Marly has made our trip. We know that without her, we would be sitting at the hotel everyday. We really enjoy her company and cutting up with her.
The first thing that I would like to clarify is at the beginning of the trip. We were supose fly to Bogota on Saturday and stay in Bogota for one night. Sunday we were to travel to Cucuta and Monday meet Mya. When we arrived in Bogota, Andres was there and very helpful. We realized at that point that we would be flying to Cucuta on the same day. We were glad for this change because we could finish traveling in one day. The tickets for Bogota to Cucuta were $394 per person.
We were greeting by Marly and our Attorney at the Cucuta airport. When we met they told us that we would not meet Mya until Tuesday. Not because of a holiday like I said, but because ICBF needed to reschedule. Nichole did tell me the holidays before we got here. It was every Monday in June but the first one. That was a mistake when I blogged. We were trying to just make the point to try to get the baby soon upon arrival (travel one day, meet your child the next). Some people may need to acclimate for a day or two, so this would not be for you.
Our Attorney also told us the day we got to Cucuta that we would need to travel to Pamplona to get Mya. We certainly would have gone regardless whether we new in advance or not. I was just concerned that things were not going as planned and the area we were traveling. At that point, I wasn’t sure about things. However, everything worked out just fine.
The other thing we discussed was the plane tickets. I wasn’t clear on some #’s and want to clarify so there is no confusion. Justin always knew he was coming home after 2 weeks to go back to work. So, it would have been less expensive to by a round trip to Cucuta. We bought him a round trip to Bogota, but the agency likes to handle the flight from Bogota to Cucuta and back. There was some miscommunication due to a language barrier and Justin’s tickets were not booked. When we realized this all the flights other than an early flight was sold out. That was keeping him in the Bogota airport for 10 hours. We didn’t want him doing that so we purchased him another ticket from Bogota to Miami for $650. It was expensive, but we were uncomfortable with him sitting in an airport for so long. This was our doing as we chose to by a ticket so he didn’t have to wait so long. So his price for plane tickets were $1081 plus $650 (which was our choice).
Power of Attorney: You do need to do the Power of Attorney in the states as well as well as one in Colombia if a parent is leaving. This is not a big deal.
The hotel rooms are great as we have said. We were needing a larger room for when the Grandparents arrived. Julie thinks we had trouble due to a prearranged price for adoptive families. We weren’t aware of that. It did end up working out.
I hope this clarified any mistakes or misunderstanding. Please feel free to ask me any questions.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Yes, just as we discovered, everyone's experience has different curves and unexpected turns. The more one can go into this adventure with the idea that it's out of their hands, the better. ; ) I think it's great that you are sharing YOUR experience as it can show others how gracefully you have dealt with it all. you will soon be on your way back to the States!
While everyone's experience is different, I think it is so helpful for the families that follow to see that while things might not go exactly as they think they will, it all works out and you return home with a wonderful new family. Thanks for letting us follow the ups and downs of your adventure.
Amen to what was said about blogging the ups downs. I hope you stll able to blog your experiences as you see/feel/experience them. It is good for you to process in that way, and good for those of us who have not traveled yet to be able to se that not everthing goes as planned, but it does work out. Blessings as you begin to wrap up your time in Colombia.
Shane
Post a Comment