Springtime with Friends

Everyone says that when you have children time flies. Well, they are right. I can't believe that it has been more than a month since we posted. The month of February flew by. We had a lot of fun times with the kids - in the middle of cold/flu season. haha Unfortuntely both kids got sick this month and so did Gary. But "Mommy" stayed healthy - so Mommy took care of everyone. However, thankfully all of that has passed and we were able to have a fun weekend last weekend. Our entire family took a trip to Tampa for our adoption agency's annual picnic. It was so nice see so many of our "Colombian Family". We even went a day early so that we could get together with a few friends for dinner the night before. We had a great time seeing everyone, and of course watching the kids play. It was also nice to be able to introduce Isabella to everyone. It's hard to believe she is seven-months-old now!

As usual, here are some recent pictures of the kids. We hope you enjoy them:


Isabella posing with Daddy















Isabella not posing with Mommy (aka -distracted by a light)

Sean showing off his big muscles

What Mom?















Serious Sean

My Big Brother, My Little Sister

Wow, it is amazing how fast time flies. I can't believe we have been home almost two months now. Things are going very well over here, and Sean and Isabella are having a great time together. We are slowly getting into a routine with both of the kids, and getting used to being parents of two. We are having a great time, and so are they. Here are some pictures of them playing together:


Playing with our puppies

My chair, your chair

I'm six-months-old today!

Playing on the floor

Going for a run with Daddy

Happy New Year from our Home!

Happy New Year to all of you! As you can see we made it home! We arrived in Miami, Florida on Wednesday, December 19th. It was absolutely wonderful to see everyone at the airport and especially nice to get a huge hug and kiss from Sean....okay, and Gary too! :) Obviously, it has been quite a bit since I posted, but it has been very busy since we got home. Between getting Isabella settled and celebrating the holidays, it has been pretty hectic over here. But we are loving every minute of it. We truly enjoyed celebrating Christmas with the kids, as well as watching them get to know one another. They are doing great, and having fun with one another. It's just so cute to see.

As I write this, we are approaching the new year in about an hour. We are so thankful to have had a wonderful year last year, with it ending with the adoption of Isabella. Our hope is that we have an even better one next year, with lots of happiness, good health, and wonderful memories. Our hope is the same for all of you. Thank you to each and every one of you for your support, love, and of course comments and emails. Our adoption journey was even more special, as we were able to share it with you.

I am going to sign off to get ready for the new year, but please know that we will continue to post to this blog and give you updates on our family. Happy Holidays to all fo you, and have a wonderful New Year.

Hopefully we'll get to see you all soon, and introduce you to Isabella.

Lots of love -

The Lees

Gary, Deborah, Sean and Isabella

Muchas Gracias Colombia!!

I can't believe this will be my last post from Colombia. Wow, it has defintely been an exciting journey and a wonderful adventure. As I write this, it is very bittersweet for me. As much as I have wanted to come home, I am very sad about leaving Colombia. This place will always be very special to us. This country gave us our children. Colombia will always hold a very special place in our hearts for that very reason. I remember that when I signed off from our other blog, when we were adopting Sean, I wrote that I knew we would be back for a sibling for him. Well, this time, it is different. We don't know if we will be back for more children or not. We will have to see what life holds for us. But I do know, that we will be back to Colombia someday. This is Sean and Isabella's country and I know that we would like to bring them back here and show it to them. So, on that note, I will not say good-bye.... I will just say, we will see you again one day.

With all of my heart, I am signing off from Colombia. Thank you, Muchas Gracias, y Mi Todo Amor (all my love).

Buenas Noches from Colombia

Besos (Kisses) y Abrazos (Hugs),

The Lee Family

Gary, Deborah, Sean and Isabella

Visa - Check!

Now that's one tired girl. After all, she had a very busy day today, and had to go to the U.S. Embassy to apply for her Visa. Thankfully, everything went well and I will go back tomorrow afternoon to pick it up. Isabella will stay home with Nana, and will enjoy her last day in Colombia. But I think she is so tired from her busy day, plus her excitement to go home and see Daddy and Sean! And she's not the only one.... both Nana and I are extremely excited. We have most of our luggage packed, and will finish the rest tomorrow. Our day will be begin very early on Wednesday, and our driver will be coming to get us at 4:45 a.m. Yikes! But hey, we don't care...we're just so excited to go home.

So, tonight's post is going to be very short. We're feeling like how Isabella looks in this picture. It was just too cute, that I had to take the shot. She had just gotten done drinking a bottle and just fell asleep. She didn't even care that I was changing her diaper and trying to put her in some PJs without waking her up. And of coure, don't forget the sock, it is half off....and that is usually the state they are in...she is always trying to take them off.

Well, I better get to bed. I'm tired. I hope you all had a wonderful day. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post, as it will be our last one from Colombia!

Love you all.

Buenas Noches from Colombia

Sunday Walks

Over the many weeks I have been here, you have heard me talk about going to the market/fair on Sundays. I had posted some pictures of the fair before, and the hotel where they hold the fair, but I thought you might like to see what our "walk" is like. I mentioned in a previous post that they close some of the streets on Sundays (to cars) and allow the space to be used for walkers, joggers, rollerbladers, and even kids learning to ride bikes. So, today, we did our usual walk to the market/fair and I took some pictures of the road for you to see. If you look at the pictures, you can see that one side of the road is closed, and that is where everyone is walking, etc. (And if you look close enough, you might even see Nana and another Mom walking with the babies in their strollers.) On the other side of the road, you can see all the cars driving. It's actually pretty neat. It would be great to see them do this in U.S. so we would enjoy the same thing. I don't see it happening, but hey, it's an idea.

I also took a couple pictures of a Church that we pass every week. Several families from our hotel have gone to this Church for mass, and then they meet us at the market/fair afterwards. It's on the way, so it's very easy for the families to do. You can also see that they have some artwork displayed outside. This artist is there every week, and he makes out pretty good with everyone walking by on the closed street on Sundays. Then, the last thing I took a picture of was some dancing Santa Claus'. One of the shopping centers had it out on display on the street, and they defintely got some attention from all the little kids going by.

Other than our trip to the fair today, we didn't do very much. We have started some packing, and are definitely getting excited to head home. Tomorrow, I am taking Isabella with me to the U.S. Embassy to apply for her Visa. (We will then pick it up on Tuesday.) Nana is going to stay at the hotel tomorrow while we do that. We should only be gone in the morning and then we will come back and hopefully head out to a nice coffee shop we heard about. We are going to go with another Mom who got here on Saturday (from another region in Colombia) who is adopting the cutest 16-month-old little boy. They are here to do their Visa paperwork and are also hoping to head home (to Chicago) this week too.

Well, I better get to bed. Our driver is coming to get us very early tomorrow. Hope all of you had a nice weekend!

Love you all.

Buenas Noches from Colombia

Relaxing, Lazy Day

We were pretty lazy today, and just enjoyed a nice day indoors. We had planned on going out, but unfortunately it was a rainy day here so we weren't able to go anywhere. But it wasn't a wasted day. We had fun playing with Isabella and watching her try to turn over. (As you can see in the above pictures) She was so cute and so determined. She didn't do it yet, but it is definitely not for lack of trying. We also had our laundry done and got some goodie bags put together for the staff here. We want to make sure to leave them with some little gifts to thank them for all that they have done for us. The staff is so warm and accomodating, and have truly made our stay here very comfortable. We have gotten so used to having all of our meals made for us, bottles sterilized, laundry done and room cleaned. I am not sure I am going to remember how to do all of those things when I get home! :)

Well, we just got our laundry back, so I am going to start to pack some things up. We are hoping to get out tomorrow to go to the market/crafts fair that we go to every Sunday. This will finally be our last Sunday of going. It will be nice to go again and browse - just to make sure there isn't anything new there that we haven't seen in past weeks. Then on Monday, it's back to adoption paperwork, and then before we know it, we'll be on an airplane back home!!! :)

Love you all.

Buenas Noches from Colombia.