Monday

In less than 48 hours, Kariana and I will be halfway home to Minnesota. Yeah!!! We spent the morning going to ICBF to get the final paperwork we needed and then off to the U.S. Embassy to get her visa. Since she is flying on a Colombian passport, she needs a visa to get into the U.S. (Similar to the visa Kerry and I needed to get into Colombia for the adoption). They sure needed a lot of paperwork to process her visa though. The folder I gave her was a couple inches thick! The lady said everything looked good though and she was approved so now I go back tomorrow afternoon to pick it up and we are out of here!

While we were at ICBF picking up the last document, I did find an error on the paper. They had her name as Kariana Lea Melcher II Priebe. I am assuming they got that from Kerry’s name being Kerry Jon Melcher II. After we showed him her birth certificate and he called Los Pisingos, he quickly fixed it and we were out of there pretty quickly. All her Colombian papers have her new name as Kariana Lea Melcher Priebe since using the father’s last name and then the mother’s maiden name is the Colombian way even though her name will be Kariana Lea Melcher when we hit the United States.

We fly out of here around 9:30 am on Wednesday. Although I love Colombia, I am more than ready to go home and have our family together again. This living apart stuff is for the birds!

I have a couple of last minute gifts to pick up this afternoon and then its hard core packing time. Dad took home a lot of stuff for me on Sunday though so it should be pretty easy packing. I’m just happy to be doing it!

Dad got home last night. It was great to have him here keeping me busy and I'm really glad he got to be here for her Sentencia. It was really nice to share that experience with someone since Kerry couldn't be here. I think he had a good time in Colombia and he sure loved getting to know his granddaughter. They got a lot of one-on-one time that I am sure made my mom really jealous......

Getting close now,
Cresta