Now it Begins
When the social worker arrived that morning – the same young woman who brought Yali to us last week – Oxbear showed her where we lived on the map.
“Oh,” the interpreter told us, “she says she wish she could go back with you. She lib at home with her parents.”
As the interview commenced, it was clear we were going to pass.
“She bery happy,” our interpreter explained. “He hab so many problems. We worry no one would ever adopt him. He was bery, bery, bery sick. He almost die. There was no food.”
Yikes. Anyway, you couldn’t tell by looking at him now. 3rd percentile or lower on height and weight, but at least he had chubby cheeks and a plump gut.
Fast forward to after the 12:30 – 2:00 nap. We met our attorney in the lobby. She didn’t speak English either, but as we waited for our interpreter to arrive, she could see that Yali was very skeptical of her. She began speaking to him in Spanish and a big grin crossed his face. Later we were told that she explained to him – “Do not worry. I am not taking you away. You stay with your mama and daddy.”
The meeting got a little awkward later when the attorney left for the notary and our interpreter asked about her pay.
“I hate to ask about the money, you know?”
We tried to assuage her embarrassment, but it didn’t help anything when she didn’t know how much we owed her. Neither did the Colombian Program Director when I called her a few minutes later.
“You pay whatever you want to pay her.”
What?! That didn’t make it awkward at all.
“The families from Europe – they pay more. American families pay less. I’m just being honest with you,” she said.
For being a great granny-esque interpreter this past week, I think we managed to come up with an agreeable sum.
Bottom line though, the process of adopting Yali had now – officially – begun.
When I checked in with Carrie-Bri, Puck was still at Six Flags with Linnea-Irish, Thumper, and her little brother. It was his first time. Now that Disney was under his belt, he was ready for the continued theme park experience. Of course, anyone starting out at Disney can only go down from there. Carrie-Bri made them homemade corn dogs for dinner.
Oxbear and Yali took another chilly dip in the pool while I packed us up. 8:30 departure tomorrow morning. Back to Bogota. Phase 2 of 4.
We hoped.
Best feature of the day? This little guy gives kisses willingly. No bribery involved!