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Mom sent along our nephew Michael's Sunshine Symphony now that he has outgrown it. Angela likes it because it plays a lot of nifty songs, and is soft to touch, and I like it because thank goodness they have finally invented something that doesn't hurt the ears of poor parents! It plays snippets of Peter and the Wolf, Haendel, and a couple of other tunes with full orchestration.

The bad news was a few days ago the batteries went dead. We have plenty of batteries but we couldn't find a phillips screwdriver anywhere, and Anita, the maid who comes in, forgot to bring us one. We didn't think much of it because we figured we would get it fixed in a day or two. But Angela was having none of this - after a few hours she started slapping at it to try to get it to sing something and then finally she started making a bunch of noises while hitting it -- like she was trying to get it kick-started by reminding the sunshine how to sing.

So we had a rough few hours until Stephan, one of our apartment mates, suggested that we try using the tip of the vegetable peeler to try to open it, which eventually worked. It was probably the eleventh or twelfth utensil that we tried.

Of course, Stephan and Marina actually *use* these kitchen utensils much more often than we do.

Posted by Rob(tm) at 06:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

On Wednesday, Angela and Kelly and I went with Clara to Bienestar, the government social agency in Bogota. We had an interview with a social worker in order to get us onto the court docket. By next week, we will find out which of 20 or so city courts that our case will be assigned to. This will largely determine our waiting time, since according to Clara and Maria Theresa, there are speedy courts and slow courts. You can see what Angela thought of the outing, although it really wasn't that bad, and she smiled right on cue for the social worker. The interview was very short, and I think they were more concerned about giving us the once-over visually, than getting any interesting information out of us, as well as making certain that all of our papers were in order.

We were sharing the waiting room with two women who were there to finalize the giving up of their babies for adoption. I have never seen expressions quite like ones on their faces. They were very sad, but at the same time, composed, strong, and resolute. We will never forget that Angela's birth mother had to go through the same difficult process not long ago.

Posted by Rob(tm) at 06:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We take a break from Angela pictures today to bring you coverage of the Browns Stadium Tour. A few days before we left for Colombia, Paul, Jill, Jacob, Kristopher and Matthew visited us. One of the highlights was the Cleveland Browns Stadium tour.

Matthew (in front) is the huge football fan and a Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan in particular, but our guide, Carla Hostetler, had him softened up by the end of the tour -- and he thought maybe the Browns maybe weren't so bad after all.

Of course, I wasn't converted. It's a nice stadium and all, but after all, it's not Lambeau Field.

Kristopher, Jacob and Matthew pose in a rare appearance at the Browns QB lockers.

Everybody troups onto the field, ready for action.

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We had asked Clara how we should dress for the occasion, and when I said I had a Unicef tie, she was sold on that.

We were kind of nervous, but the first few minutes went really nicely. The folks down here are such pros at what they do that they really know how to make both the adoptees and adoptive parents feel comfortable.

Posted by Rob(tm) at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

This is Ximena, the director of CRAN (Centro para la Rehabilitaci󮠹 Adopci󮠤el Ni񯩠who delivered Angela after doublechecking our paperwork. That sounds kind of funny, but if there are documents out of order, everything needs to stop.

On Colombian documents, her name will be Angela Marie Pedersen Kinsey. By Colombian law, both of the parents' last names are tacked on. Back home, she'll go by the first three only, but it's kind of a shame, because it's a cool custom. Angela is her given name. As of June 28, she weighed 12.3 lbs and was 24 inches long, and if we don't screw up, she'll add to that at the next checkin.

Posted by Rob(tm) at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Kelly and I are sitting around trying to figure out what to say about this picture, but we can't think of anything.

It is wonderful to see good friends that we met in September when we were here for CRAN's anniversary celebration. Maria Theresa and Fabio collected us at the airport here in Bogota on Sunday night. Clara Toro, in whose wonderful apartment we're staying, took us to CRAN on Monday morning at 9:30 to receive Angela. Ximena, the director of the agency, met with us to go over paperwork, and she came in with little Angela. It all seemed kind of sudden, but then have been working on this for two years! :)

We'll post more pictures from our big day later this week.

Posted by Rob(tm) at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

Last week, during one of our trips through the Cleveland airport on our way to Wisconsin, I saw possibly the only fun custodial job ever created. They actually had someone on duty cleaning the middle strip between the moving walkways. She stood on the moving walkway, spraying the cleaner, then got off at the end and rode back the other direction, wiping it clean. I'm not really sure that space ever really gets that dirty -- isn't kinda like spending a lot of time cleaning your belly button? Dad and Uncle Tom spent a lifetime supervising custodians though, so I'm sure they've seen some equally appealing custodial activities..

In statistical news, Angela was born into the metric system on April 6, 3,010 grams, 50cm tall (6.64lbs/19.69 inches). As of June 28, she had grown to 61cm tall and 5,565 grams (24 inches/12.29lbs.)

We're heading to Colombia next Sunday and have an appointment to meet her on Monday morning, the 19th.

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