Today we took a trip to a very old Sugar Cane Plantation about 30 km outside of Cali. I am not exactly sure what the name of the place was, but it very WAY out in the country and it was a very pretty place. There was a old plantation house that was built around 200 years ago. There was a path that lead you around a beautiful garden that showed you the history of sugar cane processing. It was very interesting and a good distraction for our next to last day in Cali. We came back to the hotel and had a wonderful dinner at the Hotel Stein before heading up to our room to pack. We leave for Bogota tomorrow evening. We will spend the day at a country club where we can swim and have lunch. Enrique says it is a very nice place. He will be driving us to the airport about 5 PM and we should be in Bogota by around 8 PM. I will try to post something tomorrow evening if it is not too late once we get settled in.

Day 20 Photos

Day 20 Videos

Here is some video from inside the 200 year old plantation house.

There was some interesting water ways all around the house. I never got the whole story, but it was pretty neat.

This is the system they used 150 years ago to process the sugar cane.

This is the US aqua machine that was used to process the sugar cane.

We met with Magnolia and Elena this morning to finalize all of the legal paperwork. We were given copies of Cameron’s original birth certificate, as well as copies of his new birth certificate declaring him as Cameron David Mulvehill Hatmaker, and the son of Patrick and Mary Ann Mulvehill! Along we several other documents, we received all of the paperwork that we will need in Bogota to apply for Cameron’s US visa. We said goodbye to Elena, the lawyer, as we wouldn’t be seeing her again. We are very thankful for her diligent work on our case. There were a few tears shed as we said goodbye. We feel that she was more than just our lawyer, she is also a good friend.

With the new birth certificate in hand, we were off to the passport office. Magnolia said that the lines at the passport office can often be very long and that we should plan to be there for two to three hours. The rain had been falling most of the night and off and on throughout the morning. As we approached the passport office, Magnolia commented on how few people there seemed to be. We parked across the street and walked right into the office! About 45 minutes later we were on our way back to the hotel!!! It was so quick. Several things worked in our favor. First, the rain seemed to have sacred people away. Second, Brazil was playing Holland in the World Cup and Colombians love their football, especially where Brazil is concerned! They even had the game playing in the passport office. But most of them just stayed home, or at least away from the passport office this morning. The third thing that worked in our favor was being with Magnolia. She knows the system and the system knows her. They always take people with children first and Magnolia made sure we got processed as quickly as possible. We left the office with Cameron David Mulvehill’s Colombian passport in hand!

Once we got back to the hotel we said our goodbyes to Magnolia. We won’t be seeing her again on this trip. We have declared her “Aunt Maggie” and hope that we will see her again in the future. She has family in the states so maybe she will visit us soon. She has been the most incredible help during our time in Cali and we owe her so much. Thank you Aunt Maggie!!

It was almost time for lunch so Cameron took a quick nap before we headed down for lunch. After lunch we decided to walk around the city a bit. We walked through an interesting “cat” park and down some new streets that we hadn’t walked before. It was a wonderful afternoon followed by a quick dip in the freezing pool, another nap, dinner, bath, and now bed. Cameron loves the water! I have some great video of him at bath time splashing around in the tub. He is so much fun to watch!

The weekend will include a trip to the Sugar Cane Museum and a water park. We will be flying to Bogota on Sunday evening around 6:30 PM. Monday is a holiday so we aren’t sure what we will be doing in Bogota on that day, but the next three days will be spent getting Cameron’s visa and preparing to come home. If all goes well we still plan to be flying home next Friday.

Day 19 Photos

Day 19 Videos

Cameron wanted to play in the rain while Daddy was getting the final paperwork from Elena. Watch carefully and we will see him stick his tongue out to catch the rain.

Buga - Where Cameron is From

Today was the day to get Cameron’s new birth certificate. Our lawyer, Elena sent an associate to Buga to pick up the new certificates. Unfortunately, a number of details came together today that are going to make it impossible for us to make it to Bogota tomorrow as we had hoped. Monday is Saint Peter and Paul day in Colombia and it has made traveling on the weekend a bit difficult. That combined with road construction in Bogota would make it impossible to get to the doctor’s office in time. So instead of flying to Bogota on Friday, we have decided to hang out at the Hotel Pension Stein until Sunday (all flights were booked on Monday). Hopefully we will be able to visit the ICBF and Embassy Doctor on Tuesday. Then we will be able to apply for Cameron’s visa on Wednesday, pick it up on Thursday and fly home on Friday. That is as long as there aren’t any other delays.

We went out this morning to get a few last minute supplies since we thought we might be leaving tomorrow. We took a different way back to the hotel just for fun and got to see another few blocks of the city. Other than that, we spent the day hanging out at the hotel waiting for news. We are supposed to meet Magnolia and Elena tomorrow at 9 AM to go and get the passport. Hopefully we will have more news tomorrow.

Thanks for all of the continued prayer and support. God Bless!

Awaiting His Coming,
Patrick, Mary Ann, & Cameron

Sentencia is signed!!! Cameron David Mulvehill is officially our son as of today, June 30th, 2010!

Magnolia came to the hotel around 9 AM to get me to go and finalize the adoption. Because we were going downtown it is customary for only one parent to accompany the interrupter to the court to sign the sentencia. Because parking is impossible, we took a taxi to the central square in Downtown Cali. Downtown Cali is an incredibly busy place. People everywhere, taxis, motorcycles, street vendors, life in the big city. It was sensory overload for me. It was hard to walk in a straight line because there was so much happening around me and so many things to see.

The main Justice Building in Cali was bombed two years ago (news story). They are still working on the damage so all of the family courts have been moved to different locations in the city. Our court (family court #7) was located above a shopping center a block from the downtown square. We got on the elevator and went to the sixth floor to wait for Elena, the lawyer, to arrive. The “court” was just an office with a lot of people waiting for help. Magnolia and I waited outside while Elena retrieved the paperwork from the office. She brought everything into the hallway and we verified the spelling of our names. Then Magnolia handed me a pen and right there in the midst of all the people, I signed the sentencia finalizing our adoption of Cameron David Mulvehill Hatmaker(as it will appear on his birth certificate). In Colombia the children take both the names of the father and mother, so poor Cameron is going to have one long name in Colombia! =)

The afternoon was spent at a mall getting Cameron’s passport and visa pictures. Magnolia and Elena will be traveling to Buga tomorrow to get Cameron’s birth certificates and if they get back in time we will try and get his passport tomorrow as well. If everything goes as planned, we should be traveling back to Bogota on Friday morning.

Though we are excited about the prospect of getting home next week, there is a bit of sadness about leaving our new friends here in Cali. It has been an amazing adventure with the most incredible blessing ever!

Day 17 Photos

That’s right! We decided to eat lunch at McDonald’s today. We needed to get some KLIM for Cameron so we decided to take a taxi to a shopping center called Chipichapa. It is a really nice up scale shopping center with a food court, movie theater, and lots of name brand shops. It was interesting to see how many of the shops were American brand clothing. We were really trying to find some authentic Colombian shops, but this shopping center didn’t seem to have any. There was another Exito so we were able to get Cameron’s milk.

The highlight though was lunch at McDonald’s! We thought that we would be able to walk up to the counter and say, “Combo Uno!” However, there weren’t any numbers on the menu!! A little stunned, we mumbled through the Spanish words on the menu and ordered a Happy Meal for Cameron and two Quarter Pounder meals for Mommy and Daddy. They gave Cameron the biggest Happy Meal box we had every seen!! We could’ve put him in it and carried him around the mall! Lunch was good, tasted just like in the states.

We had hoped to hear some more news today regarding our court process, but Magnolia called and said that there was nothing new to report. She said that they would know more tomorrow. We will be meeting with her tomorrow morning around 10 AM to see what is happening. We’ll report more tomorrow.

Day 15 Photos

Day 15 Videos

Here is French Fry Boy doing his little French Fry Dance! You can’t see it as well in the video, but he is shaking his whole body back and forth. Ain’t he cute!

The dancing fountain in the Chipichapa Shopping Center

The city of Cali is several hours from the Pacific Coast, so when you are looking for a quick afternoon by the water, you don’t think of the beach…you think of the river.

The Pance River is located in the southern side of Cali and is a popular place where the locals go for recreation and leisure activities. We took a taxi about 20 minutes outside of the city to a wonderful little river resort like place that Enrique takes the families. There is a pool, kiddie pool, and access to the river. It was a wonderful little Sunday get away, and once again, the food was incredible!

We enjoyed relaxing in the pool and listening to rush of the river. I promised Cameron that white water rafting was in his future! He looked excited. =)

Day 14 Photos

Today we visited a petting zoo, well, really is was more like a small animal petting theme park. There were a lot of different animals, little refreshment stands and fast food places, a large pond where you could rent a fishing pole and fish, as well as horse back riding. It was an interesting little place and we got to expose Cameron to some more farm animals (preparing him for Grandma Snyders farm). He started out a little scared, but slowly started to warm up to the idea of being near the animals. He never did pet any, but at least he stopped freaking out when they got close. There were a lot more animals than we took pictures of, but you get the idea.

Before I post all of the pictures and video from today, there is one special video that I wanted to highlight. Mommy has been trying to teach Cameron how to give kisses. This is as far as she has gotten. He doesn’t quite understand it yet. =)

Cameron trying to give Mommy kisses.

Day 13 Photos

Day 13 Videos

Cameron is warming up to the animals.

These two llamas kept fighting over the food that Mary Ann had in her hand.

Mommy tries to get Cameron to pet the little donkey.

Trying to take picture of Cameron on the fence, but he just wouldn’t stay still.

Cameron loved the slide. Daddy keeps forgetting to tell Mommy that he can’t flip video. =)

Cameron tried his best to climb back up the slide.

Today was market day! Every Friday the owner of the hotel takes the interested families to the market were he buys the food for the hotel. It is an amazing look at the Colombian culture.

We left the hotel around 10:30 AM with two other families. After a 15 minute drive, we arrived at the market. Enrique, the owner, took us around the market and showed us all of the places that he buys the food. He explained the different fruits and vegetables available in Colombia. It was a extremely interesting trip and we learned a lot.

Later on in the day we ventured out to the Exito, which is a store much like our Walmart. We needed daipers and were told that it was the best place to go. Using Bing Translater, I figured out how to ask the lady at the front desk to call us a taxi (I wrote it all down and showed it to her…she laughed at me,  but she was very helpful). =)

The taxi ride cost us $6,500 pesos (about $3.50 US) one way. We got to the store and sure enough, it looked a lot like a Walmart. We wondered around the store trying to find diapers and baby food. Prices really aren’t all that different from the states. Anything that is imported is more expensive, so toys and electronics aren’t something we want to buy here. Food is reasonably priced and clothes are about the same as we would pay at Walmart. All in all, we weren’t that impressed, but we got our diapers! =)

Magnolia e-mailed us last night and offered to take us on an overnight trip to coffee country. She said that she would have to check on some prices for renting a car and get back to us. She called back today and said that she had planned on taking us, another family, and some guest staying with her from the states. The other family decided not to go, so that made the rental price go up for us. Magnolia could just take her car if it was just her and her guests, so we decided not to go. We figured that the whole weekend would have cost a good bit, plus we would have had to pay for the hotel here to keep our room. Though it would have been an interesting trip, we figured it was better to just hang out here for the weekend. We are hoping to hear something more on our court process on Monday.

Day 12 Photos

We just spent the day hanging out around the hotel today. Our lawyer, Elena, stopped by the hotel today and told us that we had completed step one of the three step court process to complete the adoption. She said that it was very good that we got this step done so quickly. She said that it was a good sign for the rest of the process.

We took some pictures for an adoption announcement that Mary Ann’s dad is working on for us. Here are some of the “rejects” that ended up being kinda cute.

Day 11 Photos