Day 8: Integracion!

Today was a big day. In the morning, our interpreter, A, came to the hotel. The plan was to go to the bank and then go get passport and visa pictures for Yuly. First we went to CarreFour, but the photo place was closed. We were able to make some necessary photocopies, there, but we had to go elsewhere to get the photos. So, we headed to Exito (another Wal-mart type store). We stopped at the photo place to ask what type of shirt Yuly needed for the visa photo. (According to A, the American government has very specific—read picky—instructions for visa photos). The lady said that it needed to be a plain dark shirt. We went inside Exito and purchased a dark pink shirt, but the lady said that it was not dark enough. So, while I took the two girls to the bathroom, A and Todd returned the pink shirt and got a purple shirt. And the fun was just beginning.

For the visa photo, Yuly’s ears had to be completely exposed. Fortunately, Yuly had put part of her hair back with a little hairband. Still, it was very difficult to try to get all of her short, thick, curly hair into the hairband—which is what the lady said we needed to do. Not only that, but we had to wet down any fly-away hairs, so Todd had to go buy a water bottle. We attracted quite a crowd as we kept trying to get Yuly’s hair to meet the visa specifications. But, after what seemed like a long time, we finally walked away with her passport and visa photos. We will be getting her passport in Medellin, and we will get her visa in Bogata.

We came back to the hotel, and then hurriedly dressed for Integracion. A took us to the government building where we again met with our lawyer and a social worker. Yuly and Riza went with another social worker to a play room. The social worker interviewed us about an hour. It was all very pleasant. We shared openly and honestly that although there were difficulties, that we were pleased with the progress of becoming a family.

They asked us a lot of questions. One question was did we think that Yuly was very different than we expected. We told her that from the report we thought she might not be very affectionate, but that we found the exact opposite. She smiles all the time and loves hugs and kisses. Sometimes she simply smothers Riza with kisses. Todd also mentioned that we didn’t understand how she could like chicken-flavored potato chips (they are yucky!!) The social worker laughed and said she didn’t know how people could like them either.




At the end, we all agreed to go forward with the adoption J While we were speaking with the social worker, Yuly asked to speak with a psychologist she knew. Yuly was able to talk with her on the phone. During the conversation she told that psychologist that she was very happy and that she wanted to be a part of our family. What a blessing!!

Afterwards, we went to the notary to sign a power of attorney that will enable me to continue with the adoption and leave the country without Todd. And after that, ice cream! Of course!!



It was a great day!! Yuly was so patient in the whole process (she started asking for ice cream at about 10:00 and we finally got it about 4:00). Two big tasks accomplished in one day!! (And so far, getting the passport photo has been the hardest part of the official process).