AND THEN THERE WERE THREE!!

WE GOT HIM!!!!!!!
The day finally arrived. Kristin and I tried our best to be patient all morning. I don't know that the clock has ever moved so slow. I think we were counting seconds. Isabel showed up early and Kjersty (from our Agency) also joined us. Kjersty has been in town for meetings with the adoption homes. It's the first time a person from the US Agency has gone to the presentation. Isabel drove us herself because the other two drivers were with others and the third driver was off for the day. It was very kind of Isabel. We arrived at Ayudame about 20 minutes early. Isabel said that they don't like it when we are early, so the four of us waited in the car and chatted. About 19 minutes later we jumped out of the car and walked in.


Like at Hotel Paris, someone had to come let us in, unlocking the gate and the front door. The place was very nice and very clean. It was built in 1990. We were escorted into the presentation room that was behind french-glass doors. There was a beautiful large wooden table we sat around. On the wall was a poster made for Joshua for his presentation day. There is a picture of it in our photo gallery. Isabel told us to kiss Maria, Ayudame's director, on the cheek when we greeted her. I was a little nervous about that...after all, I'm married. A doctor came into the room and everyone greeted with a hug and kiss. I didn't know that this was not Maria, so I kissed her on the cheek. Then Maria came in, and Isabel introduced us, so once again we all hugged and kissed. What I failed to understand was that you didn't actually kiss the person, you simply make the sound in the air. OOPS. We sat down and started with small talk. Maria was very surprised to see Kjersty there. She said it was the first time in the history of the program. We were then asked if we had any medical questions or concerns about Joshua. Of course, we didn't really know what to ask. She started by going through all of the records. He appears to be quite healthy and growing very fast. The rest of the details were the usual vaccination, developmental milestones...etc. We were asked once again if we had any questions. We didn't. Maria then started the legal part. She discussed all of the legal details regarding the process, and described each document. This took about 20-30 minutes. Then we were to sign the documents. I started right in signing, and then Kristin noticed that her passport# was wrong on the documents. Maria then had to reprint all of them. She had a new assistant so this took quite awhile. She came back, and we were off signing again. I (Chad) was very nervous, and as a result of that goofed up my own passport# in a spot. She once again went back to make more copies. Then Kristin found a mistake in our address. Maria didn't think this was a problem. So we kept going. After all of the papers were signed, it was time for PRESENTATION! At this point, we had been at Ayudame for an hour.


We brought along an outfit for Joshua and they dressed him in the back room. Maria and Kjersty went back to witness and photograph the process. At this point Kjersty fired up our video camera to record the whole process. We have yet to watch the footage. We both waited impatiently while the brought him out. It took about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, workers kept popping in saying things in Spanish that I didn't understand. I assume it was congratulations, he's handsome, or something of the like. Then we could hear the footsteps of the ladies coming down the stairs and then down the hallway. The employees in the hall turned their heads and smiled as they drew closer. Then in the doorway, Maria appeared with this precious little bundle....Joshua. He looked cuter than we had both imagined. His dark brown eyes were wide opened, and his brown hair pulled forward. He was happy and content. Then Maria walked toward us, held him up, and said some baby talk in Spanish and handed him to Kristin. It was an emotional moment for both of us, yet somehow we managed to hold it all in. Perhaps it was due to the number of strangers in the room. At this point there were perhaps 10 or 12 sets of eyes all looking at us. I don't know exactly who because all I could focus on was this little baby boy in the arms of my wife. It was one of those moments I had waited years to see. We stood around, both wondering, "What now?". Then Isabel kindly said, "let's go." We walked out to the car. Josh was taken back by the sun and the wind. He squinted and smiled as the breeze blew across his face.

The ride back to Hotel Paris seemed very short. We got out of Isabel's car and walked inside. The Hotel Paris was so nice, and they kept dinner aside for us since we missed dinner hour. We needed a moment to collect ourselves, so we went up to our room for a minute. When we reached our room, the staff of Ayudame had decorated our door, anouncing the arrival of Joshua Danford Theis. We looked around, and took a deep sigh. I took off my suit coat and then we headed back down for lunch. They made Isabel and Kjersty lunch as well. We sat down and did our best to eat, but I couldn't stop playing with this fun little guy sitting on the table next to me. Every time I blow in his face he gasps a big breath and then makes a super cute little smile. We did our best to finish our lunch, and then came back up to the room. Kristin and I both changed our clothes and then it wasn't long before both baby & mother were fast asleep on the bed.

Now, I (yes Chad) just changed our first diaper. Of course I needed a little help from Mom. Kristin just fed him is first bottle. He was more interested in playing around, so he didn't quite finish it. He's down for a nap in the crib right now.
For those of you waiting for the photo's, check out our photo gallery by clicking on the link at the left of the screen.

Next steps: tomorrow morning we will go to get the documents notarized. This should not take too long. Next Monday we have an appointment set up at Ayudame, to be interviewed by ICBF (the government child protection agency). Both Isabel and Maria were a bit surprised by that. There was a lot of talk that was not translated. I assume there was a reason. ICBF has NEVER done that before. Typically, we go to ICBF for this interview. We don't know exactly what that means, and neither did Maria and Isabel.

More parenting tales to come!