Day 37

We had success today getting Mia's new ID and passport! Yay!!!! We have tickets to fly to Guayaquil tomorrow to go to the US Consulate. It's just a day trip so we leave in the morning and return tomorrow night.

We should be getting our last paper tomorrow that gives us permission to leave the country. We currently have tickets to fly from Quito to Miami on Friday. Then from Miami to Charlotte on Saturday. I'm excited about getting back home and seeing my other kiddos!

I don't know exactly what to expect when we get home. I don't know how everyone will get along and interact. I don't know how Mia will act or behave. She will have siblings, a new home, new school, new church, new friends, new language... and for Lizzie, Ben and Josh it will be different for them to have Mia physically at our house... We would appreciate your prayers still after we get home! Everything isn't over then, it's just a new chapter.

Thank you for your love and support!

Cindy

Day 34

So glad the sun has come back! It was chilly and cloudy for a few days. Today we took a small walk in the morning. After lunch here at the apartment, we went to the park and then to the play place Mia loves, Sanbomba. Now we are back at the apartment.

While we were out we had one of the nicest cab drivers ever! He was asking me lots of questions, vague questions no details, he was trying to speak English... He was shocked at my eye color, since most people here have dark brown eyes. It was funny. I felt the need to take his picture and he said I could. I may try to add it later.

Our in-country rep and attorney went to Ambato on Thursday and came back Friday afternoon. They were mostly successful. They had to go get Mia's new birth certificate and do some other paperwork. Since they were back a little early, we met our rep to get Mia's new ID. When we were at the Civil Registry, we found out that someone in Ambato didn't enter the correct information in the computer for Mia's ID. Our rep ran around trying to make it happen, but it ended up not happening. The office was closing for the weekend. So it should be fixed Monday. We will meet there again Monday morning to get Mia's ID. Then we will get her passport and take some papers to the doctor that he needs to fill out. We will go to Guayaquil to the consulate on Tuesday or Wednesday. We should be able to come home on Friday. Wow! That seems strange! I can't believe we could be that close! :)

Tomorrow we hope to go a market here in Quito with Paola sometime. Then the fun begins on Monday!

Thanks for following!
Cindy

Day 30 Cautiously Optimistic

Well, I have been in Ecuador for 30 days now. Sometimes it seems like it's been that long, sometimes longer and sometimes shorter. :) It's been going well. I know there are a lot of people praying for me and my family and that helps immensely! They still have Debie with them at home and that is so great! We got to Skype with the kids tonight, and the good thing is they still remember me. Haha

Mia and I haven't done much for the past few days. We have gone on walks, worked on puzzles, watched movies and had lunch with friends on Sunday. We may start getting busy next week. (more about that below). Here are a couple of pictures from when Tim was here.

Reading at the bookstore

Sliding!!

We found out that our Adoption Decree will be ready tomorrow evening, the 17th. This is great news! This means we can start more paperwork on Thursday. An attorney needs to go to Ambato to get Mia's new birth certificate on Thursday. She may get back on Friday. If so, on Monday, we can get Mia's new ID and passport here in Quito. We will likely fly to Guayaquil to go to the US Consulate sometime next week too. Our in-country rep said she may have an idea of our return date this Friday. That's where the cautiously optimistic part comes in. :)

Thank you all for praying and following our journey!

 

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A Day at the Park, Day 26

 

Yesterday, Mia and I went to Parque Metropolitano with Paola, her son, her brother and sister-in-law, and their dog Miles. We are staying at Paola's apartment, while we are here in Quito. It was a nice and big park. We walked quite a while on paths and the kids played and played! :) We saw a nice view of Quito along the way too.

Mia climbed the net

Some llamas walked by

They loved every toy surrounded by water. Amazingly they didn't fall in!

The other side of Quito and towards Cumbaya

Mia liked this statue

After the park, we had lunch at Paola's mom's house. The kids played a little more and then we went to her dad's to visit. He lives outside of Quito in the valley. We had a good snack there, empañadas. We had a great day and were worn out when we got back to the apartment!

We got to talk to Tim and the boys. Lizzie was at a sleepover for a friend's birthday. We had some great friends bring dinner to Tim, Debie and the kids. That is so great to me. Thank You!!

No updates on the process here yet. Still waiting.

Cindy

 

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Tim Made it Home! Day 24 and more!

Just got finished talking to Tim and the kids via Skype. :) His flights went well and they are glad to have him home. So is the dog, Sophie. Maybe since he is home, she has hope that I will come back someday. :) haha

Let's see, it's been a while since I've been able to blog. Sorry if some of this is repetitive. We did have court on Tuesday afternoon. It went really well. Our new daughter's name is Amelia Valentina Gale, we will call her Mia. The judge was pleased with how well Mia interacted with us. He said he would try to get the Adoption Decree done this week instead of next week. That would be great! At this point Mia and I are scheduled to return October 25-26. As long as all the remaining steps go smoothly, and if it's in Gods plans. I will update the In-country tab after this post. We are waiting for the Adoption Decree right now. Next is birth certificate, ID and passport, I believe.

After Court on 10/9

I found out today that an attorney needs to go to Ambato, where Mia was born, for her new birth certificate, with her new last name on it. I don't have a date for this yet.

Today Mia and I went to a mall to walk around and get out of the house. We ate lunch there at KFC and then went to get some groceries at Mega Maxi, a grocery store down here. After groceries, we took a taxi back to the house and have been hanging out here. We have watched cartoons, attempted to make rice krispie treats- that didn't go very well. They are kind of hard. Must be the altitude. :). We ate left over pizza for dinner and watched a good ole Barbie movie. After the movie, we Skyped with Tim and the kids.

Going back in time to day 20, this past Saturday, we did some tourist type things. The three of us went to a botanical garden at Carolina Park. It was really nice. There were paddle boats nearby, so we went on those too. I wasn't thrilled because the water looked really nasty, but Mia and Tim had fun so that's good. :). That evening we went over to Denise and Oswaldo's and ate some really good gourmet pizza from Alforno.

Botanical Gardens

Mia and I at the botanical gardens

Mia watching the fish

The view from our paddle boat

On Sunday, October 7, day 21, we went to a church near our apartment called English Fellowship Church. It was a good service and God was speaking very clearly through the music and sermon! After church we ate at the apartment. I tried to make chili. Only problem was there wasn't any chili powder at the grocery store and the other is that most tomato products here taste much sweeter than at home. It still tasted good, but more like a tomato based soup than chili. After lunch, we took Mia to a local play place where she plays for an hour and we go get coffee/hot chocolate. She Loves it there! I'm sure we will go back. She can play on inflatables, get her hair curled and nails done... She always comes out very glittery. I find it in the cuffs of her jeans when I do the laundry. :)

These pictures are from last week when we went with Denise, Oswaldo and their two kids to Teleferqo. You can ride a cable car from an elevation of around 10,000 ft up to about 13,000 ft. I was not looking forward to it. I have enough trouble at 9,000 ft! I just knew I would be really dizzy up at the top, but I was willing to suck it up and go. Thankfully, Denise and Oswaldo's youngest Josh wasn't old enough to go up so she and waited for the dads and daughters to go up. :) This was October 4, day 18.

Tim, Sara Emma and Mia at Teleferiqo. Around 13,000 ft elevation!

A view of part of Quito from Teleferiqo

You may or may not know that for some reason on Monday and Tuesday this week I woke up not feeling well from the altitude. I have some medicine I brought that helped a little while after I took it. I am now going to take it everyday, especially with Tim gone.

On Monday, October 8, Tim took Mia to her doctor appointment that is required to become a US citizen. I wasn't feeling well, so he went with her. Praise God! She did well. She only had to get 2 shots! Tim said she cried pretty hard, but then got some chocolates. :) I will have to go back to the office after we get the decree for the doctor to fill out a few papers. Tim said he was really nice and he does speak English!

I think that gets you caught up. I hope to be more regular with posts, it's a little harder to do on my iPad. I am figuring out a new app that allows me to use photos... While we were out yesterday after court, I bought a puzzle to have something to do in the evenings now that Tim is gone. I haven't sorted the pieces yet.

Hope you are all doing well! Please let me know how you are and if you have any prayer requests.

Cindy

 

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New Court Date

We did not have our court date today. Instead we had our Recognition of Signatures appointment this morning. Our new court date will be on Tuesday. I'll (Tim) have to stay a little bit longer. I'll be head back to the States on Wednesday now and back to work on Thursday. Cindy and Vale will hopefully only be here around a couple more weeks after that.

Thanks everyone for your prayers. Please keep them coming. We're very grateful to everyone who has been apart of our adoption journey in every way possible. Cindy and I are very humbled.

Court Date

We have a court date now, Friday, October 5th. Yay!!!! We don't know what time yet, but should soon.

Today we went to Carolina Park to walk around a bit, we hadn't been there yet. Tim and Vale tried a kite, but there wasn't enough wind. We needed to get more shampoo for Vale. Apparently she was using way too much in her shower, and I didn't know until last night. :) Oh well.
We also bought an umbrella for the afternoon rains we get often. We had some lunch at a food court in the mall. We walked some more, much to Vale's dismay, and got some ice cream. Then we got a taxi back to the apartment.

We should be here the rest of the night. We will likely watch a movie later after or with dinner.

Tim will be leaving this weekend so we'll have to get his things packed in a couple days. :( Vale and I will be here another 2 weeks, maybe 3. I will ask our in-country rep what her best guess is for a return date for us after court.

That's it for now. Thanks for following!

Vale loves to dance!

Here's the last couple of videos that I've got ready for you. You may remember Cindy made her a tutu that you saw on Meeting Vale Pt 1. She wants to do ballet.

This first video is from our time in Ambato as we were spending time with her in the hotel.



Vale loves Barbie movies as well. We've watched many a Barbie video in Spanish (With English Subtitles on). She really enjoys "Barbie in a Mermaid Tale" and "12 Dancing Princesses".

Here's Vale doing a little dance along with Barbie from "12 Dancing Princesses".



Enjoy!

Meeting Vale Pt. 2

Here's just a small look back at our time meeting Kayla Valentina in Ambato. It's short and has a few pictures sprinkled throughout. I hope you enjoy.