We're here!!

We've arrived in Bogota! By some divine aligning of the planets we made our flight mere hours before Newark Airport was closed and 8+ inches of snow was dumped on eveyone in the greater NYC area. We ended up with 3 checked bags, 2 carry-ons, a purse and a laptop bag, over 200 diapers, and 1 inflatable quacking tub. After a somewhat turbulent flight (my salad ended up in my lap) the flight arrived in Bogota at 10pm and we made it to the Halifax by 11:30.

After worrying about the altitude I'm happy to report that it hasn't been a big issue. The Hotel is nice if maybe a little pricey. The neighborhood is beautiful- tons of shops and restaurants and parks in which to push around little Mariana's in strollers. We met Helena today. She's a very nice woman who works for the agency down here and she drove us around to give us the lay of the land. She's very deliberate with her speach and her driving - by that I mean s - l - o - w which is good when you feel slightly hungover. She confirmed that Wednesday is the big day. That's when we go to get Mariana and start smushing those chunky arms.

We had lunch with a nice couple from Norway that have adopted a 3yr old boy. They are leaving tomorrow but we spent the afternoon doing some sightseeing and that's where this picture is taken from: the top of Cerro de Montserrate. Bogota seems to be beautiful and clean and modern. I think we'll be quite comfortable here.

I know our whole world is going to change in roughly 39 hours but I can't really feel it right now. There are enough distractions at the moment. I watched the way that little boy was attaching to his new parents. It's kind of amazing. They didn't speak any Spanish until they studied some on the plane coming here and here they are communicating with their son and caring for him. I know there'll still be tons of adjusting coming up for him and them, but they're off to a good start.