Gloria Grace Gabriela Watson Wright

Such a big name for such a bundle of joy :)

We had our Sentencia today. The sentencia is the court appearance to sign our adoption papers. It was surreal. The "court" is in the very busy downtown area of Cali, so Magnolia suggested only one of us go. I went & it was not at all what I was expecting. The court rooms are numbered. We were assigned to court #1. The room does not look like a "court room" in the US. It is just a small room w/several desks, more like an office type setting.

As we were walking in I asked Magnolia if it was ok to take pictures. She said don't ask, just take them :) I love Magnolia.

It was just me, Magnolia, & our lawyer Juliet. Juliet went over to one of the desks & got our paperwork. We checked & rechecked to make sure all names were spelled correctly & our passport numbers were all correct. It was not easy to hold back the tears. Even as I sit here typing this, I am getting a little teary. As my boys would say~~ "mom, you are such a girl." All I could think about as we checked all the paperwork, was that Gloria Grace was officially about to become ours!!!

They took me over to the desk to sign the paper. Magnolia took my camera & captured the moment :) Did I mention, I love Magnolia? :) I signed my name to 1 piece of paper & shabang Gabriela B, was now Gloria Grace Gabriela Watson Wright.

They use mother's maiden names here, and required us to use my maiden name in her name. I don't use my maiden name for anything, and we plan to drop Wright from her name, too. When we got done hugging (Magnolia, Juliet & I), we went to make copies of our passports to put with the documents. Our lawyer took everything to get GG's birth certificate changed & Magnolia & I went to her house to print a permission letter for Tim to sign stating that I can take GG out of Colombia without him. (since he will already be home, when I leave Colombia) We then headed back to Chiquitines for a copy of a paper I will need to give to the Embassy in Bogota. Last on our to do list, was to get the permission slips notarized. (I also signed one for Tim to leave w/Coy & Seth w/o me, they will be home on Thursday.

Tomorrow, GG & I will say our goodbyes to Tim & the boys & my mom @ the hotel. We will be leaving aroung 9:00am for the passport office to apply & receive GG's passport~~~yes same day :)

We will then go straight to the airport for our flight to Bogota, which leaves @ 2:00pm. It is an hour flight. We will be taken from the airport to the US Embassy doctor, for medical clearance. I will then take everything to the Embassy & apply for her visa. We should have this Thursday, or Friday.

The Saturday morning flight to Miami was already sold out. :( We will leave Bogota Saturday @ 1:55pm & arrive in Nashville @ 11:00PM. I am not loving having to take the later flight, but I am super excited to be getting home a whole week sooner than we expected. There is a very slight chance that we could have her visa on Thursday & make the Friday morning flight to Miami, but I would have to pay the fair difference + a $200.00 change fee. Friday is Coy's 11th birthday....I am really sad to miss being with him on his birthday, but he said as long as I was at his party (which I have yet to plan) he would be fine :) He's such a sweet kid!

Thank you all for your prayers. They mean a lot to our family~~~our family of 5 :)
Our Family Picture w/Magnolia: