Reality Sets In

We finally have an appointment with the Psychologist…July 19th, next week!!! I finished the photo pages last night. It was fun. I took pictures of the individual pages, maybe I can post them for you to see. I will play around with it. These pages will be given to our children as they wait for us to travel. There are photos of the house and family. Originally we planned to include photos of everyone on both sides of the family…that’s a lot of people. So I spoke to the social worker about it and she said to just make it of us 4 plus the cousins they will see all the time and of my mom and dad because that will be their caretakers when we need someone. Including everyone may be a bit overwhelming.

I have to tell you…I am an emotional mess this week. I cry at the drop of a hat. It’s like being pregnant, your hormones are out of control and you cry at anything. I guess I just can’t believe that we are within about 2 weeks of being able to send everything off for translation and then soon after to Colombia. At the beginning of this process I had to not allow my mind to wonder, but now that the paperwork is nearly finished, I can’t stop myself. I wonder if they have a bed to sleep in, are they fed enough, what are their names, why are they orphans, did they get hurt today, who takes care of them and so on and so on. I have been having the most vivid dreams of the day we meet them and how our family of 4 will be 6.

Okay, now I have a favor to ask of all of you. We knew this day was coming and this is the time when the big bucks are due for us to be able to bring them home. We have been able to pay everything so far on time as needed. Only about $5000 since April, but now we will be needing a great deal more. I am just asking you to keep us in your prayers as we seek guidance on how to possibly finance the rest of the adoption. I have been a mess thinking about the financial part of this process and God continues to envelope that fear with peace, but my human brain cannot help but worry. God has been in control of every little detail, I have been amazed to watch his hand at work, so I should not fear, but I do. I will be sure to report His miracle to you as it takes place. He has been giving me some gentle reminders that he is in control. Even just this morning he was sure to let me know we are not forgotten. One through a verse I saw this morning “Now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think…” Ephesians 3:20. And secondly by a quote I came across this morning by Joni Eareckson Tada “Faith isn’t the ability to believe long and far into the misty future…It’s simply taking God at His word and taking the next step.”

One last thing. This week Emi and Nate have also realized that we are really getting close to finishing all of this paperwork and realize too that the rest of the money will need to be availalbe soon. Just to tell you how much they are excited and how God has been working on thier hearts, here is a cute story. Emi had a friend over for the day and they set up a lemonade and chex mix stand on the corner of the street at my mom's house. At the end of the day Emi and her friend split the money. Then the following day Emi and Nate washed my mom and grandpa's cars, who in turn paid them. When I picked them up that evening they asked me to take the money and put it toward the adoption. So we are now $10 closer in our savings.

We will move forward in Faith!

Exciting News

I just received the Home Study report for us to review. It looks great, which means the first and biggest step is complete! I can hardly breathe!! This is a huge step in being able to bring the rest of our family home. The agency will now notarize the home study and send it to us. Once they notarize it we will have to send it to the immigration office here in Cincinnati so they can complete our paperwork. The immigration office already approved our application and accepted us. But in order to complete things on their end, which is the I-171, they need the home study report.

I am hoping by the end of next week the only things left on the list are the PSY report, wait for the 171 to come back to us, Eric's Employment letter and then we can send everything off to be apostatized. Then step two is done!!!

HOLY COW!!! This is exciting!
Love to all of you reading!

Another Step Closer

As you have probably noticed I have added the list of paperwork items for you to see how far we have come and for you to see what we have left. I tried to remember everything, but did not have my list with me when updating the blog, so I may have missed one or two things. I also changed the color scheme to represent the colors on the Colombian flag.


Last week was a big week. We completed our Home Study and the Social Worker is writing up her report as we speak. We also completed our 10 hours of parenting education. I plan to complete a few other items on the list this week and then WOW...we are really getting close. The biggest thing that we will have to wait for is the Psychologist report. Once we meet with the PSY he will have to write the report, hopefully it doesn't take too long. Eric will also need to get a letter from his employer, which is just a form letter and should not take too long.

Also, just an update about Eric's job. Long story made short, just pretend he never left his job in the first place :-). God works in mysterious ways and as it ended up, he is now working back at Midas and is the Cincinnati District Manager. He no longer has to drive to Dayton everyday!!! Yippee!!! We are very excited and Eric is happy.

Now, back to the adoption. The list on the right side of your screen is a list of the paperwork we need to complete the Home Study and the Dossier, which are the two main parts of the process of adopting internationally. Below is a general list of steps we need to go thru in order to bring our children home.

1) Complete a Home Study with a Social Worker - This is complete for the most part. Once the Social Worker completes her report, which she is working on, this will be complete.

2) Complete the Dossier - This is a bunch of legal stuff and paperwork for the international side of things. Everything will have to be notarized then sent off to be apostatized, which is a process of someone checking to be sure our notaries are valid. We are really close to being able to send off all of our notarized items.

3) Send all items to be translated into Spanish

4) Send all items to the Colombian government and wait for approval. We will be notified when they receive our paperwork and we are approved.

5) Receive a referral. This is when we receive photos and background info on the children.

6) Travel 4 - 6 weeks after we accept the referral.

I know this is a lot to take in, but we have had so many questions about the process and the amount of paperwork. I thought putting it in a list form may help you all to understand a bit better.

Adios for now!