Day 8: "A sad goodbye, a power of attorney, and significant taxi drama"

So last night, Ted and I were able to head out to a place called "Wok" which is right across the street from the Crepes and Waffles. Oh. My. Word. The level of Japanese and Chinese awesomeness in a Euro atmosphere was rather amazing. We were so consumed by amazingess, that we had to cross the street when we were done to eat ice cream.



But before we left, we had to kiss these bundle of sweetness goodbye for a few hours. Sam was asking in toddler speak to sit with his big brothers instead of his crib, so we let him try.. and we got big smiles. They were waiting for Alecia and watching the Lorax.



This moring, we had some work to do in preparation for our Defender of Minors appointment tomorrow. Juanita, Sam's psychologist and development person from FANA came over to check on him and us and to prepare our report for tomorrow. While she was here, the Sibley boys were in full force, but Sam was also very happy to be a part of it. She got to see how much Sam likes to follow his Dad around and also wrestling time. It made me feel better that he didn't want to break his play time even for Juanita, a lady I KNOW he actually loves! She got some sweet kisses, and then he was off to play again. Seeing them say their goodbyes actually resulted in my first Random Act of Crying (to henceforth referred to as a "RAC"). Why? Because Juanita is one of the heroes. She is one of the people who entered into his life and advocated for him to have a family despite his medical and development issues. Some day, when he is older, we can tell him all about Juanita. She was the chick that showed up.



Just as soon as Juanita departed, our driver Maria Theresa Perez was here to take Ted and I off to the "notary" station (which as best I can tell is the Colombian version of vital records/the DMV). This is to officially file letter from Ted, complete with fingerprintings, that says I can work on the families behalf for all things Sam. This becomes more important later when I need to go sign an adoption decree and then work with the Embassy.

Then, we snuck in an empanada moment, as we were out without all 3 kids in daylight!

El Refugio was still standing when we got back, although Lucas had had an underpants situation.. and neither us or Carmen could make sense of exactly what he did or why.. only that he had put a diaper on himself and there were underpants in the middle of our floor. We call these moments "Thursday" at our house. Shake your head and move on eh?

We ate. We napped. We sent Ted out for stuff. I think he needed a breather with no children.

Alecia arrived at 3p with all three Sibley boys still sleeping soundly, so Ted and I made the quick decision to let Sam stay here. When is the next time we are going to get to go to the Candelaria together with no kids? It hasn't happened yet, and will probably never happen again.

We taxi'd to the Old Bogota part of downtown for a little walking, eating, and looking at old churches and stuff like that.



We also went to visit the Botero museum.. he was Colombian, and it's free!! If you're not familiar with Botero.. he was the guy that did all the paintings/sculptures of various fat people.. fat horses.. fat cats.. even fat looking fruit. Look it up. We couldn't take pictures of the actual stuff, so Ted took random pictures of the views from the courtyard, which I photobombed.



Then we wandered some more and Ted remembered a cute cafe next to one of the Cathedrals. Cafe's in Candelaria are always built like only Hobbit people should enter.. the ceilings are tiny and the chairs are like little stools. You can't see it from our photo, but I felt like Erin the jolly giant just sitting there. We then ordered random odd things from the menu for fun. I don't recommend the "Peta".. its basically clumps of white rice sitting in a watery broth? I'm sure its awesome if you're super hungry on the street, but I'm just saying it wasn't my fave. The Tamale was rockstar.. the Chauchua (sp?) was interesting.. and the mora con arequipe was sweet.



This was when our getaway took an interesting turn. We have never had an issue getting a cab. Like ever. Usually there are 3 or 4 jumping for our attention at the curb. The tricky part about the Candelaria area is that it isn't exactly the same as the area where I stay. Don't get me wrong, in general Bogota is quite safe (COME HERE!!), but the Candelaria has a little more drama after dark. There is a lot more riff raff hanging out down there. After blocks and blocks of walking and even finally getting one cab and then getting kicked back out of it (because he couldn't go that far) we were eventually learning that only certain cabs drive south, and certain cabs drive north.. and they can only be gotten into at certain places. We were very close to jumping on a random bus for fun just to get us off the darkening streets of the candelaria. To give you an idea, my husband, who travels often and who, like, brings people back to life in traumatic hospital gunshot situations was "nervous" and wanted me off of the street quickly. I'm a bit "conspicuous" in my whiteness and lighter hairness. Other than a few yucky gestures from some men-folk I didn't get touched by anybody and all was well in the end. He was quite happy when we finally got to a spot where we got like the 13th cab that was going the right direction and agreed to take us home.

We were really late by that point, but Alecia still had all of her hair and nothing had been burned down. She ran the boys. She ran them good (in her lack of English!). Both Lucas and Ben were quick to tell me how well they listened to Ms. Alecia.

So now all are bathed and all things are quiet in our room. Tomorrow, all 5 Sibleys need to be presentable looking to head off to "court" at Bienstar :-)

Night all!