4:15 am - Xander wakes up hungry and in need of a bottle.
4:45 am - He finishes his bottle and is ready to go back to bed for some more sleep.
4:46 am - Daddy decides to stay up since the alarm is going to go off at 5:15 anyway since we need to get to the airport early for our flight from Bogotá to Orlando Florida. We have to leave enough time to jump through all the customs and security hoops.
4:50 am - Daddy takes an extremely cold shower, and this is not by choice. No hot water is to be had in the crummy hotel we find ourselves in. This was no Pensión Stein. Not a happy way to start the day
6:00 am - The family is packed and our driver Julian arrives to take us to the airport.
6:20 am - We arrive at the airport and are whisked to the front of the check-in line due to being "baby people".
7:00 am - I go to get coffee for Kristin and I and on the way see a huge tube of duty free Mentos. For some reason Kristin loves Mentos like crazy so I buy them for her. Plus I was trying to get rid of my Pesos.
8:15 am - I eat my chocolate croissant and get some chocolate on my shorts which immediately melts directly on my nether region. As Kristin can attest, it's not unusual for me to spill foodstuffs on my clothes but the good news is that I can now blame it on Xander. So, for the record, it was his fault even though mommy happened to be holding him at that time.
8:40 am - We board the plane for the first time. Yep, you read that right, the first time. The implication here being that we boarded the same plane more than once.
9:10 am - The passenger beside me has a little "yap" ("yap" not lap) dog in a carrier that won't fit under the seat. Our flight was due to leave at 9:00. The Jet Blue representatives go in search of a proper carrier. Are we being delayed for this? I'm not pleased. Please just leave the dog at the airport, my son is going to have meltdown if we don't get going.
9:20 am - The new carrier arrives and the dog fits snug under the seat. Aren't pets supposed be down with the luggage anyway? Okay, problem solved, let's get a move on. Don't get me wrong, I love animals, I'm just really nervous about traveling this long distance with an infant. An infant with lots of energy and a short fuse...
9:40 am - The pilot informs us that we aren't leaving because the smoke detectors are not working and legally we can't leave. Kristin overhears the pilots commenting that the maintenance crew is going into the lavatory and simply banging the smoke detectors with a screwdriver. Sometimes the Fonzie maneuver works but mostly it doesn't. This doesn't bode well for our trip.
10:30 am - We are informed that we must deplane in order for the crew to fix the problem. The flight attendants and pilots split.
Baby is getting bored so we let him walk around on the floor a bit after we get off the plane.
12:30 am - We are informed over the loudspeaker that the flight has been canceled. I get in line to make the arrangements to get on another flight. I'm third in line, there are at least a hundred people behind me.
12:35 pm - Some of the Colombians start yelling at the crew in Spanish. Everyone rushes the counter yelling at the Jet Blue employees. I'm no longer third in line, just in the middle of a mass of people all yelling in Spanish. This is going nowhere fast so I leave the "line".
12:40 pm - We find a young Jet Blue employee that speaks a little English and he agrees to help us make arrangements. He keeps leaving to go speak with his manager to try to get us on another flight.
12:55 pm - The person helping us informs us that the flight may leave today after all. Nothing like a good old fashioned riot to get things done! They are in the process of bringing the crew back who have left to go to the hotel. Hopefully they haven't stopped at the bar.
1:00 pm - We finally get back on the plane and are on waiting in line for takeoff.
1:40 pm - We are informed that we need a new flight number in order to take off. Apparently in order to fly over Cuba the airline must pay $500 per flight and only the flight numbers that have been approved can enter Cuba's airspace.
2:15 pm - We are informed that someone wants to get off the plane so legally we must go back to the gate. Plus, at this point we need more fuel.
2:45 pm - We're back at the gate and the passengers begin to chant "Almuerzo...Almuerzo...Almuerzo" which means "lunch" in Spanish. Some people near us start chanting "Luncha", I guess to make Kristin and I feel included. The stress of the situation is starting to get to me so to make a joke I raise my fist and chant "Cerveza...Cerveza...Cerveza!" which gets a good laugh.
3:15 pm - Xander has had enough of this business so Kristin takes him for a walk and ends up chatting with the pilots who take them into the cockpit for pictures.
3:30 pm - The man who wanted off the plane has changed his mind and doesn't want to get off. The crew makes he and his family get off. Be careful what you wish for I guess.
4:30 pm - Jet Blue has finally gotten food together and loaded on the plane for us to eat and we are finally taking off. It is nearly three hours after we were supposed to arrive in Orlando. If they hadn't fed us we could have probably left an hour and a half ago. I would have gladly forfeited my ham sandwich and shoe string potato chips to be in the air already.
7:50 pm - We arrive in Orlando.
8:20 pm - We get to customs, there are about a hundred people in front of us. Where's the line for "baby people"? We quickly realize that the people waiting in line are visitors to the country. We're in our own country so we go to another section where we are first in line! Score! USA! USA! USA!
9:00 pm - This isn't really working out that great. We're still standing talking to the customs agent. He finally lets us know that he was having trouble finding Xander's name in the database because someone entered it wrong. I think he said they entered something like "De La Luna". He leads us into a waiting room with the Homeland Security logo and tells us to stay there. Why do I feel like criminal? Are they suspicious because we're coming from Colombia? Oh dear God, please don't tell me that I'm getting a cavity search! I still refuse that test at the doctor... Don't let it happen like this!
9:10 pm - I start chatting with another person waiting in the room, a Colombian man from Bogotá who has lived in Denver, Colorado for the last 20 years. I'm keeping my eye on him ready to tackle if he tries anything funny, we have to be diligent in the defense against "evil-doers".
Not really, he was actually a very nice man. I think he would have been perfectly content to sit in silence but I kept talking with him anyway.
9:40 pm - My new buddy finally gets cleared and gets to leave. As he is leaving he asks, "Was there a problem?" A legitimate question for someone who has been held up for 45 minutes with no explanation whatsoever. "Your name was very close to someone we are looking for", was the agent's reply.
10:00 pm - We are finally cleared to leave as well. The first agent and the agent that went over our paperwork with a fine toothed comb came out to speak with us and were very friendly and congratulatory about our adoption. That was very nice of them but we're all beyond exhausted. Please, please, please let us go...
10:30 pm - Alexander falls asleep strapped to mommy.
Here we're waiting outside for the shuttle bus to the hotel. It's so hot and humid in Orlando that my camera lens fogs up.
10:45 pm - We finally arrive at the hotel and baby wakes up from the commotion. We had such a wonderful time in Colombia and a great experience interacting with the people but Kristin and I are both so happy to conversing with someone who speaks English as their native language. The woman helping us at the front desk says hi to Alexander and he bursts into tears. Poor little baby is so tired.
10:55 pm - Room service shows up with brie and crackers. We didn't order this, we think the woman at the front desk sent it to be nice. We're not sure. I'm so tired I only have one small piece of brie. I give Xander his bottle.
August 15th - Nope we're not sleeping yet...
12:30 am - After quite a crying spell baby finally is able to fall asleep.
1:00 am - I finally fall asleep.
5:15 am - Xander wakes for a bottle.
5:45 am - I crawl back into bed after feeding him. The alarm is set for 6:30. I can't get back to sleep so I get up about 6:20 to take a shower.
6:25 am - I am so happy to be taking a shower in a good quality chain hotel. The water pressure is great and the water is hot! Yes, it might be terribly inefficient and wasteful and bad for the environment but we liberals like a good shower as much as anyone. Oh, beautiful for spacious skies...
7:30 am - Someone from the hotel comes to help us with our bags. Remember the first post where I stated that we had 200 pounds of luggage? Well, whatever we left or used up in Colombia as far as diapers, formula, or donations for the orphanage we gained back in weight with the coffee we brought back.
7:35 am - The person who carried our luggage down noticed the address on our bags. It turns out that he used to live a few blocks from our house in Rochester. He was also born in Brooklyn and grew up in the Bay Ridge neighborhood. It seems like whenever I meet someone who was born and raised in Brooklyn they always say they are from Bay Ridge. I've never even been to Bay Ridge and actually don't remember where it is.
7:55 am - We arrive at the airport and get in line to check our 200 pounds of baggage. No "baby people" lines here. No one could care less if we had a baby or not. Get in line with the rest of us chumps! Being in Orlando, about one in every three people has some sort of Mickey Mouse related item on their person, whether it be a tshirt, backpack or a balloon.
8:20 am - We finally get our bags checked and it's off to security.
8:25 am - We actually get to go in the "family line" for security.
8:50 am - Kristin's in the bathroom changing Xander and I hear over the intercom that our flight in boarding. I was so psyched to get a chai latte at Starbucks before getting on the plane but it was not to be. I didn't realize we were cutting it so close, we could have very easily missed our flight.
9:00 am - The flight takes off on time and Xander sleeps most of time on Kristin's shoulder.
11:30 am - Our friends Marc and Jen pick us up at the airport.
12:01 pm - Home sweet home!
Well, that's it. That was our journey to and from Colombia. Thanks to everyone who followed our story and sent the sweet and encouraging words along the way. It meant a lot to us to have the connection to all of you while going through all of this, to know that there were so many people back home that cared. This was such an amazing experience and now we have such an amazing little boy to share our lives with.
We love you Xander!
