I am leaving on May 24 for Bogota, Colombia to complete the adoption process for Jose Cristian. I will probably be in Bogota for 4-6 weeks. I will be staying at Betty’s Place, a residence house designed for adoptive families. Betty is an New York native who married a Colombian man and moved to Bogota. She runs the residence and coordinates everything from drivers to outings to birthday cakes and parties, as she did for Jose and me in March.
The process in Bogota is pretty straightforward. I will receive Jose on the second day I am there. From that point forward he will stay with me. After a week, we will go back for an interview with the defender of juveniles to be certain that we both want to proceed with the adoption. After that, the case is filed in the courts and we wait until it comes up on the judge’s docket. Once the adoption comes up for final approval, we receive what is called sentencia which makes the adoption final. After that, it is a mad dash to the doctor, embassy and other points to finalize the immigration documents.
Then we catch the next plane back to the United States. I currently am planning for a stopover in Atlanta before we go back to Texas. I’ll post updates on everything on this website.
Scott
