Thursday, November 3, 2011

It's our second day in Cali! We slept in this morning. After yesterday, I don't think either of us moved last night. After a lazy morning, we had lunch in the hotel restaurant and then met Maria Elena (our translator/guide from Gladney who lives here) at 2:30 to go to Chiquitines. Our first visit was scheduled for 3:00 p.m. We pulled in and were amazed at how clean and nice it was. There were older kids outside playing with smaller children, and we were later told that the older kids were from a nearby school who visit the orphanage often just to spend time with the kids there. How sweet! There was a private security guard who wouldn't let us in until he saw Maria Elena. Everyone welcomed us very graciously. The orphanage director gave us big hugs and showed us to a meeting room where we met a staff pediatrician, psychologist and social worker - all very sweet, warm, beautiful young women. We discussed Michael's medical records, his family history, his daily routine and his general demeanor. They told us what he regularly ate, and we noticed that they begin children on solid foods much earlier than children in the United States. He is already eating small pieces of meats, bread, cheese and egg. We thought that was neat.

A few fun things they told us about Michael:
He gets jealous when the ladies pay attention to other babies and not him.
Because he pulled up to standing before he learned to crawl, he now crawls with one leg straight.
They said he was a sweet baby, but we were going to have our hands full.
The ladies chuckled about all of this as they were telling us, and we did too. ;)

They are such wonderful caregivers. The children there, while not in their forever homes, are so lucky to have these women caring for them.

After the meeting, the orphanage director hugged us again and said goodbye. Maria Elena took us back to the hotel, she exchanged some money for us, and she handled ordering with the front desk a few prescriptions for Michael that he is taking for his asthma and a rash. After she left, we headed to the grocery store and bought some snacks for the room. We had to go to another grocery to find Michael's formula. It was across the street at the big shopping center, Unicentro, and we had dinner while there. On our walk back to the hotel, we passed a street protest. Hundreds of young people were marching the street protesting the national government's proposal to privatize all higher education in Colombia. Our Gladney case worker, Beth had told us these protests were happening, but we never thought we'd see one. There was no violence - just several hundred young adults chanting and marching for something they believed in. It was really neat. There were police there, but they were leaving the protesters alone. It was by far one of the coolest things I have ever witnessed. I wish my Daddy would have seen it, so we took some video. ;)

So, day 2 has come to an end. In 12 hours, we will meet our son. We are so very lucky and blessed to have this experience.