::All about Colombia::

Some of you asked us about what's in Colombia?

We thought it'd be fun to share some intriguing tidbits about Colombia; our curiosity got us navigating through several websites about Colombia and discovered some awesome tidbits. Possibly we'll tempt you into traveling there someday? Anyways, we knew that coffee and futbol's popular there; what really surprised us was that Colombia (Bogota, specifically) has the most extensive network of cycle routes out of every city in Latin America and almost the world... considering the fact that we live here in Austin and there are a lot of bike routes around here. Lance Armstrong is from Austin, but Bogota topped it all! 

We have been to New Orleans' Mardi Gras (we lived in Louisiana for a year plus) events including their parades... but seems like Mardi Gras is nothing compared to Colombia's festivities since Colombia is the home to the world's second largest parade and carnival. Wow. We'll need to check out when the festivities are. It would be fun to catch one while we travel there. Who holds the world's largest carnival? Rio de Janiero (Brazil).

Our Austin is the home to many watering holes, but Colombia is the home to the world's most colorful river! Caño Cristales aka "The River of Seven Colors" or "The Liquid Rainbow" is located in Serranía de la Macarena, a small pueblo with less than 4,000 inhabitants. The "National Geographic-worthy" photos of the Caño Cristales river is beautiful! An explosion of natural colors are really from the river weeds in case you were wondering. Yes, they really do exist. Let's hope we'll be able to see this river when we go down to meet our forever child.. whenever that happens!

We were told that Bogota is a mix of New York City and California in one place including the skyscrapers and seaside mountains. Very true based on the photos. We didn't really realize that Bogota is one of the most "up and coming" countries in South America. The pictures say it all. Looks quite busy and crowded, yeah?

We are foodies. Well, kind of. Perhaps, we should ask Anthony Bourdain about his go-to eateries in Colombia. We'd be more than willing to taste a variety of Colombian food while we are down there. We Googled and narrowed down the most popular Colombian food: arepas are cornmeal cakes and commonly stuffed with fillings ranging from cheese and beans to pork or shrimp. Sounds a lot like a stuffed biscuit. We'll confirm once we taste them in Colombia!

Colombian empanadas sound really appealing... "In Colombia, empanadas are also sold outside of the churches. They are usually small and just have potato filling. Some make them with yellow corn meal, others with white corn meal, some make them with beef, others with chicken, with guiso (seasoned sauce), without guiso, with potato, without potato. But, they're all very tasty." Ok, it's on our "to-taste list"!

Ajiaco is a Colombian potato soup. "Ajiaco consists of a thick soup made from meat of different types (beef, pork, chicken) and tubers: potato, cassava, yams, green bananas, pumpkin, corn and of course chili." We are adding this on our list as well.

 

Okay, enough with the food. The photos are making us hungry. 

How big is Colombia? To be specific, the total area of Colombia is around 440,831 square miles, which is equivalent to the areas of Portugal, France, and Spain put together. Meaning Colombia is bigger than the state of Texas by 172,251 square miles. The bottom line is, Colombia is a decent size country.

One last thing... wanna know which animal represents Colombia? The terrifying, we mean.. majestic Andean Condor. Andean Condors are huge... one of the largest birds of prey in the world. Great. Their average wingspan is 10.5 feet. To really think about the size, their amazing length is longer than a famous former NBA player, Shaquille O'Neal's height. Yikes. So, here's a beautiful (well, maybe not so much..) up-close photo of the Andean Condor...

 We checked airbnb.com for housing in Bogota to get a better picture of the cost for us to stay when we travel to pick up our child. The hotels are ridiculously expensive?! There are some hotels designated for adoptive families, but the prices are crazy as well. We figured that it may be budget-wise for us to rent a place during our stay there. We are required to stay approximately 6-8 weeks in Bogota to finalize our adoption process. So, we are thinking far ahead to gather information to get our expenses ready. Although, it would be really nice and preferable if we stay with a host family. We shall see when time's much closer. We truly cannot wait to travel to Colombia someday!

Colombia 101 is complete. You may be dismissed. :)

::Do Small Things with Great Love::

Apologies all around for our month-long hiatus from blogging, our plates have been really full and getting piled up on with ARD/IEP (only teachers can relate) meetings, end of year testing, and so on... our lives as teachers towards the end of the school year is quite overwhelming! We are looking forward to June 6th when our summer officially begins! Hooray! By then, we'll be able to focus on our adoption process with paperwork for our dossier wrap-up. 

Our adoption agency just informed us a while ago that they will be affiliated with another orphanage in Colombia, which is a great opportunity for us because they have seen Deaf children from there many times in the past. Fingers crossed. Until then, our focus is to get in line for ICBF (Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar) approval.  This approval is in order to speed up the process of getting matched to  a potential child.  Other than this, there's nothing else new to report at this moment. 

We want to update you on our two recent fundraisers with Subsidy Shades and Noonday Collection; both fundraisers were a success! THANK YOU!

For Subsidy Shades, we raised $152.87; Noonday Collection $216. Each penny earned, counts! :)

We will have another T-shirt drive in June and wanted to reveal the shirt design now! All proceeds will go towards our adoption to bring our little Sipek home someday! We want to give special thanks to Jennifer Cavalcanti for her innovative design and support towards our adoption process! You can see that the Texas and Colombia flags are incorporated in the heart sign; how cool is that?! We will share further information regarding the T-shirt drive soon.

Here's the last, but not least news about Brooke's Bits & Pieces via Etsy shop and there will be new items coming soon this summer! We will keep you informed!

We are a part of a Yahoo! adoption discussion group, which covers many adoption-related discussions and wanted to share some fundraising ideas for you all who are interested in adopting. Check out the links at the bottom of this blog. We want to give you an honest heads up that fundraising isn't easy, but requires a full effort to raise funds for an adoption. Why, you may ask? It depends on how clear you are on your mission behind the fundraiser and how to reach a larger community to support your mission. Using social media is one thing, but you really need to share your story out there to increase visbility and supporters. We know we are not like the Burdens family who raised $35k in 4 amazing months. Patience and persistence will pay off for us. We will reach our goal someday. Currently, we have approximately $12-15k (we're about halfway) left to pay our entire adoption. We applied for two adoption grants a while ago and one of the grants will be reviewed soon in June... hopefully, we will get lucky with a grant! Fingers crossed. 

Someone contacted us regarding a community fundraising event (similar to crowd-funding) where our other supporters fundraise for us. It takes a village to make a huge difference, ultimately. Admittedly, we are... let's say, too humble or modest to ask for volunteers because of one main reason- we are not even sure if volunteers out there are willing to put the effort in gathering funds for us- especially for those who do not really know us. However, we will try and take a leap of faith in this to see what happens. We will create a Facebook page for volunteers by asking close friends/families all over America to share ideas on how everybody could contribute to the funding such as hosting a bake sale, selling handmade items, hosting a community spaghetti dinner, running a lemonade stand, etc. To assure the volunteers that their efforts will be greatly appreciated and for us to show you that our purpose is legit and credible; the donations will be directly donated to our adoption agency or via AdoptTogether. Your honest thoughts? Feel free to comment below. We want positive feedbacks, please. We are constantly seeking innovative ways to raise funds.

For prospective adoptive families, here are some fundraiser ideas:

http://showhope.org/3-ways-fundraise-adoption/

http://yestoadoption.blogspot.com/2010/12/adoption-fundraising-ideas.html

http://www.addingaburden.com/2012/08/adoption-fundraising-advice.html

http://whenatlast.com/2013/01/07/fundraising/

http://mycrazyadoption.org/crazy-fundraiser-for-a-mission-trip/

http://mercyfoundministries.com/blog/10creativefundraisingideas/

We personally would love to do all those awesome ideas, but as just two people to work, we cannot do them all! If we were able to grow 20 more arms and hands, that might work. Where's the genie in a bottle to grant us a wish? :)

We promise to update as soon as we are done with the school year!

Much love, 

Brooke & Brian