Sentencia!

We've got some great news! This morning while Julie took a trip to FANA, I got a very unexpected phone call that we could sign our sentencia this afternoon! That means that our paperwork for adopting Sophie has been officially approved by the Colombian courts!

We drove downtown to sign paperwork and to pick up Sophia's birth certificate, but there's still a lot of work to be done before we can fly home to Minnesota...

1. Get Sophia a Colombian passport. We hope Sophia enjoys posing for her passport photo (she's going to look so little!), but if she doesn't show off one of her big smiles, the grumpy-faced Sophia will still be adorable.
   
2. Take Sophia for an doctor exam from the U.S. Embassy.
   
3. Apply for Sophia's U.S. visa.
4. Pick up Sophia's U.S. visa. There's a day turnaround between filing the application and actually picking up the final visa.
   

Timing is everything for these steps in the process. Each step requires going to different offices at different locations throughout Bogota, and each place has different business hours. The U.S. Embassy only accepts visa applications from 8:30am to 11am, and the checkup with the doctor only can happen in the afternoon. The U.S. Embassy doesn't accept applications for visas on Friday. It's easy to see why accomplishing these last few things can take several days.

We're hopeful that the U.S. Embassy will make an exception for us, so that we can make it home a day earlier, but either way we'll be home for Christmas! We don't have finalized flight info yet, but we're expecting to fly home either Tuesday or Wednesday night next week. We'll know a bit more tomorrow after we talk with the U.S. Embassy.

Hurray!