VISAs In Hand

This is the UPS guy delivering our VISAs in the rain. Emi took the photo.

Holy Cow, we got our VISAs back already!!! I just sent for them late Monday afternoon and within 24 hours of the Colombian Consulate in Chicago receiving our paperwork they had them back in the mail to us. UPS Delivered them yesterday morning! If the smoothness and rapid return of paperwork we have experienced throughout this process is any indication of how long we will be in Colombia, we will be home in record time! For those not knowing why we need a VISA…a VISA is an addition to a page in your passport that allows us to carry out legal work in Colombia, ie. Adoption stuff.

And that’s not all, I have more exciting news! I know, I know, it seems I always have good news to share. God has found great favor with us and I think he is enjoying watching my awe of Him as He continues to drop us blessing after blessing. My sister called me this week with a plan to come to Colombia to be with Emliee, Nate, Jessica, Joaquin and I the last little bit while we are there, after Eric has to leave. Eric will be leaving after 2 ½ weeks to come home and go back to work. My sister’s plan is to get her ticket and pack. As soon as we get word of Sentencia (out final court date) she is going to board a plan and head on down. Once we go for Sentencia we will be able to come home about 4 working days later. During those 4 days we will have to visit the Embassy Doctor, go for passport photos, get the new birth certificates with Jessica and Joaquin’s new last name, get passports for Jessica and Joaquin (which we pick up the next day) and run a few other errands in preparation to come home. So Jeanie, my sister, will be there to run around with us and then be with us as we travel home. I am so excited!

Emilee and Nate are on spring break so I took a few days off work. So yesterday we cleared out drawers in their dressers and worked in their closets. Now Jessica and Joaquin have some space of their own in the bedrooms. We also packed up all of the items donated for Children’s Vision International. Of course the books and baby items were pretty heavy and we had to be careful to not go over 50 lbs per suitcase. So we have 4 suitcases, 50 lbs each, for the orphanage. Good thing we are going to Bogota so we can take 2 suitcases each. I am dreading traveling with 8 suitcases, but thrilled to have so much stuff to give to CVI! I already warned Julie, our program director, that when the driver picks us up at the airport we will probably not all fit with the amount of luggage we have. She said it’s no problem, they will arrange for a taxi to follow our driver from the airport to wherever we stay.

Next week on Tuesday we will get a call from Julie. Both Eric and I have to be on the line with her and she will cover everything from A to Z. I imagine after we get that call we will be even more excited and I will have plenty of things to add to my list that I hadn’t thought of.

Well…time is ticking!