Stuff lost along the way to Baranquilla

Friday, Aug. 19th -- 

Kids' first plane ride since 
Sam Sam's adoption in 2009

We arrived to SeaTac Airport at 4:30am and checked seven pieces of luggage.  SEVEN?  Yes, a piece of luggage for every member of the family, including our new son, plus a custom modified stroller for him (thanks to the efforts of Bruce Friesen!) with the stroller wheels packaged separately. Three flights later, we arrived to Bogota at 9pm our time.  But the luggage did not. 

Temporarily Lost Item #1—all of our luggage, which included Sam Sam’s prosthetic foot!

Saturday, Aug. 20 -- 

Crepes!

Given that our son was without his prosthetic foot, we did not explore far. No sightseeing to the Salt Cathedral in the nearby mine. No exploration of Old Spanish Bogota downtown. No all-day, sightseeing train ride around the city. Instead, we met for an hour with our lawyer in our hotel’s empty pub, while Lidia and Sam Sam played pool. Afterward, our touristic experience of Bogota consisted of walking two blocks to a shopping mall (carrying footless Sam Sam – and boy, has that kid been packing on the pounds!), where he could sit in a shopping cart atop Carina’s only sweater.  We bought Lidia a fleece jacket because Bogota’s weather (higher altitude) was about 60°-70°.  The highlight of the mall was definitely the crepes and waffles place: ice cream, crepes, real whipped cream, fruit, sauces, toasted nuts - five different plates for $15. 

(Permanently) Lost item #2—Carina’s only sweater which stayed at the bottom of the mall’s shopping cart

Billards in Bogota

Our hotel did not live up to the Travel Advisor awards it has won…lumpy beds, the street lights outside the tall windows and the late night party buses (blaring thumping, brassy “porro”) passing by on the street outside. The hot water disappeared (and reappeared!) at random, which made taking a shower an ‘exciting’ thing. We also realized how blessed a thing is the Uniform Building Code. The hotel’s uneven staircase with an extra deep tread not quite half-way  up caused Carina and Victor to trip, often. On a good note, it had a pool table and darts to entertain the young'uns. Even so, on our last morning in Bogota, we went out looking for a better place to stay after we return from Baranquilla. 

We tried ‘Uber’ as a way to get rides. Victor would like to say that Uber is Suber-Duber! It’s very fast, cheap and cashless travel. Our Uber Dude drove us all around in search of the elusive Zuetana Hotel. 

Temporarily Lost item #3—Us

Turns out, there’s a big difference between Calle 17 and Calle 17a. Turns out again, there is a very small difference between hotels and houses. We knew we had arrived thanks to the frantic beeping from the phone with the Uber App, but the place had no sign or any indication that it was a hotel.

Sunday, Aug 20^th -- 

Our luggage arrived at our hotel. Yay!

A few hours later, we left cool and cloudy Bogota for a city-sized sauna called Baranquilla.  Baranquilla is the pre-Spanish era word for “Laughing Devil’s Breath.” Victor just made-up the preceding lie. For a US northwesterner, living on the northern Pacific coast next to the blessedly cool and NOT-humid Cascade mountains, the Baranquilla climate is a test of courage. At one point when Victor exited an air-conditioned car, his glasses actually fogged up. Yes, they did. Temporarily blind he was.

Despite the climate, we like the city. The drive northward from the airport into town was a blessed education for Sam Sam and Lidia. Everywhere they saw trash, stray dogs, people sitting outside rows of dirt-floor shacks, dirt side-roads bordered by weeds and piles of construction debris, and many dozens of sweating, sun-burnt street vendors and rickety road-side stands.

At one point, the six-lane highway traffic came to a standstill because a parade of a hundred or so mourners filled the roadway. They walked behind a sweaty, bleary-eyed, swaying man carrying a liquor bottle. Directly behind him came some men carrying a cheap casket on their shoulders. Our driver explained that the parade was at the entry gates of the factory where the dead man died. Two dozen police officers stood by and let the parade pass. The kids had questions. It was a sobering drive for our family.

By the time we reached our place to stay, Carina was ‘done’. Being the main Spanish speaker, she has been managing the trip details (finding transport, looking for better lodging) and talking to lawyers, besides dealing with our antsy kids, wondering about our new son, watching poverty and injustice on display from the airport, and the close-in, clinging, sticky heat had drained her of her seemingly limitless energy.

Temporarily Lost item #4—Carina’s sanity

Monday, Aug. 21 -- 

A night’s sleep in a quiet, cool room restored Carina. Victor woke up to her usual smiles.

After breakfast, our family sat on the couch and talked about Jesus and His feeding of the 5000. We talked about Jesus’ provision and about the disciple’s participation in that provision. Then each of us talked about how we felt about receiving a new member into our family. We discussed how Titus might feel about losing the only mom and home he’d ever known. We prayed that our loving heavenly Father provide for all five of us tomorrow, and in the days to come. We prayed that we would be His missionaries to Titus. And we prayed that Titus would quickly know that he has entered a safe and loving family that he can trust.

Lidia and Sam Sam enjoy the view 
of Barranquilla
seated atop drying underwear.

Our lawyer took us to ICBF, the government agency that handles adoptions. I and our two kids joined five other women in a stifling office smaller than a walk-in closet. Next to Victor, one official lady sipped hot tea! We wrapped up last minute details, asked questions and requested copies of our new son’s entire three inch thick file.

swimming in Barranquilla 
AirBnB apartment pool....
don't look down

Tomorrow, Tuesday, August 23^rd  -- 

We will throw a party with presents, balloons, cake and sodas. The ladies in the tiny office told us that this is the standard way to meet a new child. And that’s how Titus will be introduced into our very nervous, but excited family.

Temporarily Lost item #5—The comfort of a family who all feel at home with each other.