Chambers--Colombia

Random Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:27:00 +0000

Crazy bath hair

Saying Cheese

Taking care of one of her babies

All dressed up and nowhere to go

Halloween

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:10:00 +0000

Visiting a pumpkin patch. Mari and the skull on her shirt are both wearing blue hair bows.

Mari and her daddy carving a pumpkin.

A bit more creepy when it has a face on it.

DJ Lance Rock is AWESOME!

Why on earth would a toddler halloween costume come with adult size glasses?

Post-It Notes

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:27:00 +0000

Rockabye Baby

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 18:18:00 +0000

Marisol singing and rocking her baby.

End of the Summer

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 19:39:00 +0000

Wow, it's been a long time!

Joe and I sadly had to go back to work last month, which means our incredible summer of hanging around the house playing with Marisol everyday had to end and a very busy school year had to start. Mari began attending daycare a few days early so we could get into a routine, which ended up being a very good idea. While the first couple of days were hard, she quickly came to love it. She continues to have fun playing with the other children and has started saying many new words, including grandma, grandpa, and hi and bye. She even asks for water now when she's thirsty. Overall everything is going well. --12 September, 2009

First day at daycare!

Mari asleep in cousin Alex's car seat.

Eating Dinner Is Hard Work.

Marisol and Her Dolls

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 21:09:00 +0000

Ignore my mom's ridiculously loud kitchen noises in the background.

California

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 20:09:00 +0000

Next was California, where we met up with my Auntie Christina and then Joe's dad and stepmom.

Marisol meeting her Auntie Christina

Mari eating fruit snacks with Grandpa John

Checking out Aunt Heaven

Swimming at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Where are my pants?

Watching Grandma Joyce feed the goats

Getting to feed the goats, too!

New Mexico

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 18:50:00 +0000

Marisol made a whirlwind trip to New Mexico and California to meet the rest of her family over the past couple of weeks. She handled the masses of relatives and the six flights wonderfully and even started saying new words when she saw her cousin Charley, who's six months older, talking away.

Mari meeting her Auntie Alison and cousin Charley (and baby boy cousin due in November)

Not so sure about this yet. . .

. . . But a few days later they were playing together.

Marisol having a heart-to-heart with her Uncle Paul. . .

. . .And having a ball with her Grandma Minnie.

Playing on the couch with Grandpa Paul. . .

. . . And Grandma Minnie

Showing her new Dora shoes to Great-Grandma Miller

And sharing Goldfish with Auntie Mary.

Now she just needs coffee and a donut.

Look Who's Walking

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:17:00 +0000

While Marisol has taken lots of steps on her own since mid May, as of this week she is finally really walking. The dog's not too happy with this new development (just as soon as he was starting to get used to her, she goes and does something different).

Marisol and Alex

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:28:00 +0000

Marisol finally got to spend some quality time with her new cousin Alex yesterday.

David, Betty, and their two grandchildren

Betty and Alex

Marisol and Alex

Betty, Marisol, and Alex

Six Band-Aids

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:42:00 +0000

This past week Marisol had her first check up here in the United States. So far everything looks good and the results we've gotten back look normal. She had to get caught up on vaccinations and have a TB test and have seven tubes of blood drawn for various tests. It was a rough morning, but she handled it all as well as can be expected for a 17 month old (as of yesterday, she's 17 months!). The band-aids lasted until bath time that night.
Marisol is getting more comfortable at the YMCA pool, too. She isn't ready to stray too far away from me, but she'll scoot off the edge of the pool into the water and she'll stay on the steps without clinging to me.
Getting comfortable with other little kids at church might be a struggle. She seems to like her personal space and panic if other little kids get in her way.

Talking on the Telephone (We cut the really short cord off this toy. I guess the toy maker was afraid kids would get the cord caught around their necks so they made the cord less than a foot long so Marisol had to hold the whole phone up in order to pretend to talk)

Playing With Grandpa David

Grandpa Is A Lot of Fun

Wearing a Newspaper Hat

Even Mom Got A Hat

Ready For Church

Back to Work

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 18:30:00 +0000

That sounds way worse than it really is! I did go back to work this week, but only for the last two days of the school year, Thursday and Friday, to clean up my classroom and make sure my grades were turned in. Now Joe and I are free until mid August! Mari's Grandma Betty babysat for the two days (with afternoon help from Grandpa David) and they all had a blast. Marisol even started walking with the help of her little car (next post)!

Everything is going well and we're starting to make plans to make it out to New Mexico and California this summer so Marisol can meet the rest of her family. Marisol is eating well (beans and bananas--but not together--are her favorite foods) and is sleeping all night, most of the time. The last two Sundays she's gone to church with us and has done very well in the nursery. She's referring to us as Mama and Dada, which just makes our hearts melt and is getting more comfortable (too comfortable?) with the dog. She head butts him and tackles him, but he's mostly really patient. She does offer him her toys, which usually ends with us chasing him around the house to get them back before he destroys them.

Here are some more pictures of her this past week.

Getting Closer to Walking

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 18:03:00 +0000

Okay, so this post is really more for my parents than anyone else. When they were in St. Louis a couple of weeks ago, they bought Mari this little car. She mostly has just played with the horn and keyboard because she isn't strong enough to push herself on it, but just a couple days ago she started to walk behind it and use it to keep her balance! She goes all over the house and round and round the island in the kitchen. She's also started to take a few steps by herself, but Joe or I have to be really close by in case she falls. Hopefully she's be walking before too long!

Two Weeks Home

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Sat, 30 May 2009 18:17:00 +0000

Settling In

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Fri, 22 May 2009 04:10:00 +0000

About one week down, and so far everything is going well. Marisol is sleeping all night, eating very well, and getting along with her new dog, Manfred. Manfred is adjusting, but I think it's harder for him than for Marisol. Every time she gets near him, she thumps him on the nose and says "Bop."

And just one week home and Marisol isn't even the newest family member anymore! Joe's brother Tim and his wife Christy welcomed David Alexander yesterday afternoon. Joe's parents got to meet their two grandchildren for the first time less than one week apart! Christy and baby Alex are healthy and doing well. Mari got to meet her new cousin yesterday, but she was more interested in the Cheerios, so we may have to try for a picture this weekend.

Not Sure About This Yet.

Well, Maybe. . .

Yeah, He's Okay.

Best Buddies.

Grandpa Paul and Marisol

Grandma Minnie, Grandpa Paul, and Marisol

HOME!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Sun, 17 May 2009 02:15:00 +0000

At the airport in St. Louis after flying all night.

We're very excited to say that Marisol is now an American citizen and is getting settled in at her new permanent home here in St. Louis.

It's been a crazy few days, so we haven't posted. We got everything done in Bogota with no problems. I (Joe) went to a soccer game and saw Independiente Santa Fe beat Pasto 1-0, and we got Mari's visa, which was the last step before leaving for the States.

We got to the airport Thursday night and got checked in, but then we realized that we there was a document that we needed for Colombian customs that we had put in a suitcase that we had checked, so I had to go back to the counter and get the airline to bring our bags back so that we could get it. Thankfully, that was the only real problem. The flights were long and crowded, but Mari was great. In fact, the 40-year old American businessman who was sitting next to us seemed to fuss more on the flight than Mari did.

So, now we're home and getting settled in. Elizabeth's mom is staying with us at the moment, and Mari and Manfred (our beagle) are getting used to each other. Everything's great, but we're still catching our breath, so we'll post more about the adjustment process later.

Settled in Bogota

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Mon, 11 May 2009 22:54:00 +0000

It´s been a few days but we´ve been busy. We are staying at El Refugio in Bogota, where I know a lot of CHI families have stayed before. Marisol had a bit of a rough night adjusting to her new environs, but it seems like everything is fine now. Today we had Mari´s doctor´s appointment and everything is on schedule so far. We´ve really enjoyed getting to know the other families staying here: A French family that adopted an infant left today after six weeks. Another CHI family adopting two siblings, a boy and a girl, who´s very nurturing with the little ones. And a family from Puerto Rico adopting twin three year olds. These girls just crack us up. They are adorable and silly. Joe finally found his hormigas (giant fried ants) at the airport in Bucaramanga and was sharing this evening. These little girls were hanging on him yelling ¨Yo quierro hormigas!¨. We may post some pictures later, but we don´t have wireless here and it´s a little hectic at times.
It has been a bit of a shock for us going from isolated in our own appartment to a huge house with other families all together, but we are really enjoying it. Bogota is so much colder than Buca, poor Mari just about threw a fit when we put the footie pajamas on her last night. An hour later she was back in her regular pajamas and a lot happier. We did like being in Bucaramanga, but after five weeks, we were ready for a change.

Marisol Checking Out Her Passport

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Sat, 09 May 2009 19:06:00 +0000

We're Out of Here!

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Sat, 09 May 2009 04:01:00 +0000

Marisol and Mom at the courthouse

As I stated in the previous post, we had our sentencia today! When we met with Yolanda our lawyer this morning, she said she doubted we'd get all the official papers we needed and that we would most likely need to finish up Monday and fly out Tuesday. We were lucky and everything moved fast. Sentencia itself was anticlimactic--we signed some papers with a clerk, and then the judge didn't even ask us any questions. She just said Marisol was cute and had pretty eyes. Then Joe and I just stood there like morons while she talked on the phone. Patricia, our interpreter, had to motion to us to leave.

Next stop was Marisol's updated birth certificate, which we got across the street from the Palacio de Justicia. This moved quickly, but by the time we were finished, the passport office had already closed for its 3 hour lunch break. It was crazy to see Marisol's new name and picture in her passport, especially with the last name "Chambers" on it. She's doing great, though, even after being dragged around to government offices all day long.

So, now if everything goes as planned (ie the airport doesn't mysteriously close, as airports are wont to do here) we'll fly to Bogota Sunday morning. Mari has to get checked by a doctor at the U.S. embassy in Bogota, and then we'll have to get her visa that says she can legally move to the States. Then we'll fly home on the redeye Thursday night and be in St. Louis Friday morning.

After spending the last few weeks just waiting, it's nice to have things finally moving and to have the end in sight. Our time here has been good, but we're really ready to get Marisol settled into her real permanent home. Please just keep praying for us that there are no more bumps in the process now that it's all almost done.

One more week!

Sentencia!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:12:00 +0000

We are officially a family of three! This afternoon we'll go to the passport office and hopefully we'll be in Bogota by Monday! We'll update later.

Still waiting...

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Fri, 08 May 2009 02:11:00 +0000

Thanks for the prayers, but it was not meant to be. We waited Wednesday, but then we were told that it would be Thursday for sure. We waited today, and now we're being told that we'll finally have our sentencia tomorrow morning. We're still hoping that we might get to leave Bucaramanga for Bogota this weekend, but there's a good chance that we'll have to be here until Monday.

Obviously, the whole process is a little frustrating. It would just be easier if we knew a definite time or date for things so we could deal with it, but never knowing anything for sure is hard.

Marisol is still doing great, though. We're just hanging out with her and hoping to take her to her permanent home soon.

Prayer Request

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Tue, 05 May 2009 22:57:00 +0000

We just talked to our interpreter and she said there is a chance we could have Sentencia tomorrow afternoon, meaning we could leave Bucaramanga Thursday! While we've loved our time here, we are obviously excited to go home! Please pray that we will get Sentencia tomorrow.

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Mon, 04 May 2009 03:23:00 +0000

Not much going on today. Hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday we'll have a better idea of when we'll be going to Bogota. We're hoping this week. Our paperwork ended up being filed later than we had hoped it would be because the person whose job it is to collect whatever paperwork we needed filed was out sick for three days.

Today we went out to Carrefour to pick up a clay caricature of Marisol we had ordered yesterday. There were a lot of booths set up It mostly looks like her, with the big cheeks and green eyes. When the artist tried to take her picture so he could make it, she got all serious and wouldn't smile, so he did the best he could with the lips. People here seem to really be into clay. The toy sections at the stores are full of play doh and regular modelling clay. I think the only things they have a better selection of in the stores here are foot sprays and powders.

On our way to Carrefour, we came across three iguanas hanging out on the edge of a park. Two of them took off down an embankment before we could take pictures, but one stuck around for a few minutes. They were huge! My older brother had a really small pet iguana when we were kids (he picked one with a gimpy leg because he felt sorry for it, kept it for a year or so and then determined it had cancer or something and let it go on the golf course so it could die free. . .). These ones were about three or four feet long.

So that's it for tonight. We'll hopefully have some new pictures on Flickr.

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Sun, 03 May 2009 03:32:00 +0000

So, since it's a new month, we have more space available on flickr, and since it's about 1000x faster to put pics up on there than on the blog, then that's mostly where they'll be for now. Check them out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/chamberscolombia.

We're still just waiting and hoping to hear from our lawyer early this week. Since there's not much else going on, some random thoughts from Joe:

1. Man, Colombians love mushrooms. At every restaurant, about a third of the items include mushrooms. I just don't get it.

2. There are a ton of American sitcoms on the English-speaking channels here, which has given me time to think about them. Obviously, Friends is a great show and is still great in re-runs, but Frasier and Mad About You still hold up really well also. What doesn't hold up is Married With Children. It helped push the envelope of sitcoms, thereby allowing us to enjoy Family Guy years later, but when you go back and watch it now, it's just not funny. (We've clearly spent too much time sitting and playing on the floor of the same room if I've had this much time to think about this.)

3. I was finally able to find a street vendor the other day selling knock-off soccer jerseys, so I can go home happy now. I got an Atl. Bucaramanga jersey and both home and away Colombian national team jerseys for less than five bucks each.

4. Speaking of soccer, there were UEFA Champions League games on ESPN this past week, and while we were watching the Barcelona-Chelsea game, I got Marisol to say "Barça." So, clearly she has taste.

5. Did you know they made Chevy-Suzukis? There are Chevrolet Samurais and Vitaras. I had no idea they had a deal like that.

Okay, that's all the randomness I've got for now. We'll post again soon.

Exploring Bucaramanga

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth & Joe Chambers) — Fri, 01 May 2009 03:21:00 +0000

The past two days we've gotten out and explored a little more. Yesterday we took a taxi downtown and walked around a lot. We started at the Bolivar museum and ended at the Mega Mall, with brief stops at the Parque de los Ninos and the hospital where Marisol was born. (You can tell this is Liz and not Joe because I will not be bothering to put symbols or accent marks over the Spanish words. . .) Today we walked to a different shopping center--Carrefour--which we've found to be superior to Exito. We also ate steaks at the food court (!!!!). Mostly the food here has been fine, but we're starting to get tired of eating out and cooking with a smaller variety of foods at the grocery stores here. What I miss the most is raw vegetables, especially salad. The fruits here are really good, though, and available through little stands on most street corners (along with cell phone minutes and lottery scratch off tickets).

Yesterday we also finally found a Crepes & Waffles, which we'd heard about from other blogs. We're going back this weekend--it was SO GOOD! Marisol finished off a kid's crepe with jamon y queso all by herself, then ate most of a mini waffle with arequipe (YUM!). We accidentally bought a tub of arequipe our first trip to the grocery store because we thought it was peanut butter. It's basically dulce de leche or caramel. Very tasty. Here they spread it on thin crispy pancakes as a dessert.

As far as adoption stuff, our translator's update of "Monday or Tuesday" became "next week--don't worry", so we figure we aren't going anywhere for a while. Hopefully we can be in Bogota at least by next weekend, but it is starting to look like our five weeks here will turn into six weeks. Oh well.

Here are some pictures from the last couple of days:

Downtown Bucaramanga

Parque de los Ninos. Marisol was taking a nap.

Finally awake, but not ready to chew.

Happy to be out of her stroller.

Green jello soul patch.

Father-Daughter bonding.

Reggae Hair Style. Rock 'n' Roll!