We received word today, Yes, it’s true, Colombia has approved us for two siblings ages 0 – 7 as we requested! Our approval date was 11/30/07, but they just let our agency know late yesterday, who let us know this morning. I guess with the holidays it just took some time to get the info back to us.
So the next step, which could take a few months, is for them to let us know which city our paperwork is sent to and then info on our children.
We are hoping to go in the spring but it could possibly be as late as summer.
With that being said…What a great start to 2008. But my sister pointed out that November really was a big month, Nov 30th was our approval date, they were just a bit delayed in telling us.
Also, if we look at the timeline given to us, which was 3 – 5 months before we should expect to hear of approval, it means our approval date was just shy of 3 months. So we are ahead of schedule…hee hee. If travel time follows suit, we should be hearing more info in March (ish). Can you tell I am a planner, not a spur of the moment kind of gal? I like to know what is going on and when. But again, I remind myself that it is all in HIS timing and it will be perfect no matter when we get the call.
Can’t wait for Spring!!!
Friday, January 4, 2008
Thursday, January 3, 2008
2008 will be Great!!!
Happy New Year
2008 is going to be an awesome year!
2008 is going to be an awesome year!
We expect a referral sometime between March and September. It’s been just about 4 months since we sent in our paperwork and began the official wait. The time frame was 6 – 12 months, which means sometime between March and September we will be a family of six.
Hopefully all of you had a wonderful holiday and enjoyed your time with your family and friends. We had a very busy but enjoyable time. My mom made stockings for us to hang for our two new kids. She filled each one with a very soft teddy for us to give each of them. All we have left to do for the stockings is add their names. Then Santa left us a very sweet note with a prayer along with two angels for them. He also brought them in two other stuffed toys that light up and play music. So the family was good to us in helping us to include our two new children, even though they are not with us physically yet. They were definitely with us in spirit as the family got together.
As of January first I have had a new energy toward our wait. November and December were difficult; however, January brings new hope. November and December flew by, which made the last two months of waiting also fly by. So with turning the corner into January I could feel the closeness of being able to complete our family. I am ready to work on the kids rooms, make room in the closets and dressers, and get a suit case out to start adding things to. I started on the photo book that we want to take with us and have the website ready to order them small backpacks to stuff with goodies to give them when we meet them. We are just waiting on gender, ages and names to make the final touches.
At church this last week, God offered me encouragement that He is faithful to His word and that 2008 would be a wonderful year. Also, I have referred to His fingerprints being all over our adoption, and I mean that very literally. Well I had a dream, a very vivid vision of sorts, that He pulled our paperwork this week, kissed it, and placed it somewhere, where I am not sure. Then I saw the back of two small children, one a girl, the other I am not sure. They were our children no doubt and safe. Again, perfect peace that the timing is in His hands and assurance that we will meet our children in 2008 and bring them home for the rest of our family and friends to love too.
I’m just a little excited! I am feeling very anxious to see their faces!
More later…
I’m just a little excited! I am feeling very anxious to see their faces!
More later…
Friday, December 14, 2007
The Blessings Keep Rolling In
Have I mentioned lately…God is Good, All the Time! We received a call this week from a family who have become good friends of ours in our community. My friend called me, who works at Delta, and offered us, all of us, buddy passes to travel to Colombia. She issued us 4 for now and said she would give us 2 more when we got the referral (because they have to have the legal names on them of the person traveling). All we have to do is change the tickets with the right travel dates and destinations and pay the international taxes! So each ticket will cost us about $200 instead of $700. She also explained that if something happed we couldn’t use them to travel to Colombia, to use them for a vacation once we have the kids home. Whoohoo! The only negative, which doesn’t worry me at all, is that we will have to fly standby. Now, if God has made prevision for this trip to be funded and to have someone offer us tickets at more than half off, then I can believe that our flights and standby status will be taken care of too.
On a different note, but still positive, mine and Eric’s anniversary is Monday. We will be married for 13 years. Every year Eric says, “Let’s go somewhere for our anniversary” and I always say, “no way, it’s Christmas time and I have so much to do…bad timing.” So this year he got smart! Eric said, “Surprise! I made reservations, you can’t say no!” So we are heading to Niagara Falls this weekend for a nice weekend with just the two of us. He felt we really needed it and we were sure not to go anywhere alone after we bring our Colombians home…smile. So I took a weeks vacation for next week to give me time to prepare for the mass company starting next Friday. Plus the college is closed (I work at a college) the week between Christmas and New Year, so I have 2 ½ weeks off for the holidays! Can you tell I am just a little bit happy?
Now, here is just a bit about Colombia and their Christmas traditions:
On a different note, but still positive, mine and Eric’s anniversary is Monday. We will be married for 13 years. Every year Eric says, “Let’s go somewhere for our anniversary” and I always say, “no way, it’s Christmas time and I have so much to do…bad timing.” So this year he got smart! Eric said, “Surprise! I made reservations, you can’t say no!” So we are heading to Niagara Falls this weekend for a nice weekend with just the two of us. He felt we really needed it and we were sure not to go anywhere alone after we bring our Colombians home…smile. So I took a weeks vacation for next week to give me time to prepare for the mass company starting next Friday. Plus the college is closed (I work at a college) the week between Christmas and New Year, so I have 2 ½ weeks off for the holidays! Can you tell I am just a little bit happy?
Now, here is just a bit about Colombia and their Christmas traditions:
Since Colombia is about 90% Roman Catholic, the Christian aspects of Christmas are the most celebrated. The Christmas season in Colombia starts on December 7th when families light candles in honor of the Virgin Mary. The church celebrates the 8th of December as the day of the Immaculate Conception. This is a Colombian National Holiday and a day of Obligation with the church. It is celebrated with a display of lights as each home will light approximately 100 candles on the curb and sidewalk area. City streets and parks are illuminated with large Christmas lights as well.
On December 16th Colombian families typically start setting up the Christmas tree.
From December 16th through December 24th, families usually gather together at night around Nativity scenes to pray and sing carols in the Novena. On Christmas Eve family members and neighbors gather to eat and dance. (Traditional Colombian foods include: Ajiaco - a soup with potatoes, chicken and natilla (like a custard) a dessert and buñuelos (like small elephant ears.) Everyone waits until midnight to wish each other Merry Christmas and to exchange gifts.
I may try to make the natilla for Christmas Eve this year. It depends on how much I get finished throughout the week. Also, there will be two candles in our front windows this season as we await the call to bring our children home.
Many blessings to all of you during this holiday season!
Monday, December 3, 2007
Feliz Navidad
December Already?! How ironic…since time can’t go fast enough for us to receive a referral.
No word for the Hollis’ in November. Upon submitting our dossier we were given two different time lines, one much shorter than the other with hope that we would hear of approval in early November. However, now November has passed and still not a word. As much as I want to hear something from Colombia I can still say that I have great peace that God is orchestrating our adoption, our family.
It is especially difficult to celebrate the holidays knowing how close we are to bringing our family home. I wonder if anyone has told them the meaning of Christmas? Will they have a gift to open? Will they feel the spirit of Christmas? My prayer for them each night as I lay my head on my pillow is to give them a good nights rest, to feel peace and joy in their hearts to keep them strong. For the caregiver(s) to have patience and guidance from above to care for our children as they wait for us. I pray they have a loving hand offered to them when they need comforted or someone to laugh with them when they are being silly. Gee Whiz…I just can’t wait to get a photo of their faces, hear their names and bring them home.
With the holiday season all around us I think daily about what I am thankful for. What a blessed life I have. My list would be much to much to include. However, with this being a site for our adoption I can make mention of things that would relate. Actually, I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the goodness and faithfulness that God has shown since we have started our journey. Each and every detail has been so amazing and great testimony for us to be able to give. I still can’t believe our adoption is paid in full, how awesome is He to tell us to adopt and then to pay for the process in full! Think about that. It’s really just that simple…trust and obey and He will take care of the details. It sounds so easy, but yet faith is often times the hardest thing we deal with. His hand in our financial part, really every part, of our adoption process so far, is why I have complete peace that His fingerprints are all over our paperwork in some pile, on some desk in Colombia. He has two children picked out especially for our family and has it all timed out perfectly. How could I doubt that after He has proven Himself bigger than I could have imagined.
Well, Feliz Navidad! Enjoy the holiday season. Don’t take the time you have with your family and friends for granted, soak in every gathering, capitalize on moments placed in front of you and be the Spirit of Christmas for those around you.
No word for the Hollis’ in November. Upon submitting our dossier we were given two different time lines, one much shorter than the other with hope that we would hear of approval in early November. However, now November has passed and still not a word. As much as I want to hear something from Colombia I can still say that I have great peace that God is orchestrating our adoption, our family.
It is especially difficult to celebrate the holidays knowing how close we are to bringing our family home. I wonder if anyone has told them the meaning of Christmas? Will they have a gift to open? Will they feel the spirit of Christmas? My prayer for them each night as I lay my head on my pillow is to give them a good nights rest, to feel peace and joy in their hearts to keep them strong. For the caregiver(s) to have patience and guidance from above to care for our children as they wait for us. I pray they have a loving hand offered to them when they need comforted or someone to laugh with them when they are being silly. Gee Whiz…I just can’t wait to get a photo of their faces, hear their names and bring them home.
With the holiday season all around us I think daily about what I am thankful for. What a blessed life I have. My list would be much to much to include. However, with this being a site for our adoption I can make mention of things that would relate. Actually, I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the goodness and faithfulness that God has shown since we have started our journey. Each and every detail has been so amazing and great testimony for us to be able to give. I still can’t believe our adoption is paid in full, how awesome is He to tell us to adopt and then to pay for the process in full! Think about that. It’s really just that simple…trust and obey and He will take care of the details. It sounds so easy, but yet faith is often times the hardest thing we deal with. His hand in our financial part, really every part, of our adoption process so far, is why I have complete peace that His fingerprints are all over our paperwork in some pile, on some desk in Colombia. He has two children picked out especially for our family and has it all timed out perfectly. How could I doubt that after He has proven Himself bigger than I could have imagined.
Well, Feliz Navidad! Enjoy the holiday season. Don’t take the time you have with your family and friends for granted, soak in every gathering, capitalize on moments placed in front of you and be the Spirit of Christmas for those around you.
Monday, November 12, 2007
All I Really Want For Christmas
With this being National Adoption Month, I have been putting a lot of thought to the questions that may be asked by others as they see our multi-cultural family. I wish I could put into words what God as put into our hearts. These children are as much "ours" as our biological children are "ours."
We are so anxious to get our arms around them and bring them home. Having a heart for adoption is something I am so thankful for. Having family and friends who are supportive of our hearts call has been amazing and for that we are also thankful.
Below is a video that I watch over and over.
Steven Curtis Chapman, who also has adopted children and has many songs that are related to adoption and orphans has one specific song that I just love. I heard this song last Christmas called "All I Really Want For Christmas" which is right about the time that God was telling us to move forward to bring the rest of our family home. I then came across this song posted with photos on YouTube and saved it to my blog to post around Christmas this year. For some reason it seems right to post it now. I noticed it was posted on another families blog this week too, so I am not the only one who finds this close to my heart.
Click on the link below
YouTube - All I Really Want For Christmas: ""
Enjoy.
We are so anxious to get our arms around them and bring them home. Having a heart for adoption is something I am so thankful for. Having family and friends who are supportive of our hearts call has been amazing and for that we are also thankful.
Below is a video that I watch over and over.
Steven Curtis Chapman, who also has adopted children and has many songs that are related to adoption and orphans has one specific song that I just love. I heard this song last Christmas called "All I Really Want For Christmas" which is right about the time that God was telling us to move forward to bring the rest of our family home. I then came across this song posted with photos on YouTube and saved it to my blog to post around Christmas this year. For some reason it seems right to post it now. I noticed it was posted on another families blog this week too, so I am not the only one who finds this close to my heart.
Click on the link below
YouTube - All I Really Want For Christmas: ""
Enjoy.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Dancing the Night Away
I thought I would test out the feature that allows you to add video. I am watching my nieces for a few hours and they were dancing with Emilee and a neighbor boy, Kyle. I took some video on my camera and thought I would play with trying to upload it onto the blog.
We'll see if it works. I want to be prepared for when we travel. My mom and sister especially will enjoy having some video footage to see on the blog while we are away. We are also looking at buying them a webcam so we can video confrence with them too. (but we are waiting to see if my dad will really splurge and pay for high speed internet)
Friday, November 9, 2007
National Adoption Month
November is National Adoption Month, a month set aside to raise awareness about the adoption.
So here is some general info regarding adoption in Colombia.
According to the US Department of State, 344 Immigrant visas were issued to orphans coming to the US in 2006. Compare that to the 6,493 from China in 2006. Wow! Due to the issues in Guatemala regarding adoptions the numbers for Colombia will likely increase greatly for 2007 and 2008.
Colombian law does not allow for private adoptions. Children may be adopted only through the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF) and approved adoption agencies. This means that both the U.S. agency that is contracted by the adoptive parents and the Colombian agency facilitating the Colombian part of the process must be approved by the Colombian government.
Every adopted child must have a final adoption decree in order to leave Colombia. Colombian law also requires that both adopting parents be physically present when the adoption is presented to a “family judge.” No exceptions are made to this requirement, and the process takes two to four weeks, sometimes more. After both prospective adoptive parents have appeared before the court, one of them may return to the United States, but the other parent must remain in Colombia until the adoption/immigrant visa process is completed. (this is the process we are looking forward to when we arrive in Colombia)
So here is some general info regarding adoption in Colombia.
According to the US Department of State, 344 Immigrant visas were issued to orphans coming to the US in 2006. Compare that to the 6,493 from China in 2006. Wow! Due to the issues in Guatemala regarding adoptions the numbers for Colombia will likely increase greatly for 2007 and 2008.
Colombian law does not allow for private adoptions. Children may be adopted only through the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF) and approved adoption agencies. This means that both the U.S. agency that is contracted by the adoptive parents and the Colombian agency facilitating the Colombian part of the process must be approved by the Colombian government.
Every adopted child must have a final adoption decree in order to leave Colombia. Colombian law also requires that both adopting parents be physically present when the adoption is presented to a “family judge.” No exceptions are made to this requirement, and the process takes two to four weeks, sometimes more. After both prospective adoptive parents have appeared before the court, one of them may return to the United States, but the other parent must remain in Colombia until the adoption/immigrant visa process is completed. (this is the process we are looking forward to when we arrive in Colombia)
One other thing that Colombia is known for are the many holidays that are observed as well as their colorful festivals. They observe more than double what we observe in the states. Here is a list of most of them for 2007.
Carnaval de Barranquilla is celebrated February 17, 18, 19 and 20. The Bogotá Carnival starts at around August 6th. Rock at the park (Rock Al Parque) in October, is the second largest rock festival in Latinamerica. The Iberoamerican Theater Festival held in Bogotá every two years, is the biggest theater festival in the world. Carnival of Blacks and Whites (Carnaval de Negros y Blancos) held from January 4 to January 6 in Pasto. Cali Fair (Feria de Cali), held in Cali, Colombia from December 25 to New Year's Eve.
Public Holidays include:
New Years Day (January 1)
Día de los Reyes Magos (Epiphany) (January 6*)
St. Joseph’s Day (March 19)
Holy Thursday and Viernes Santo (Holy Friday) (variable dates in March or April)
Primero de Mayo (May 1)
Ascension (May 20*)
Corpus Christi (June 10*)
Sacred Heart (June 18*)
Saint Peter and Saint Paul (June 29*)
Independence Day (July 20)
Battle of Boyacá (August 7)La Asunción (Assumption) (August 15*)
Día de la Raza (October 12)
All Saints’ Day (November 1*)
Independence of Cartagena City (November 11*)
La Inmaculada Concepción (Immaculate Conception) (December 8)
Christmas Day (December 25)
So we are sure to at least encounter one holiday and or festival while we are there. They are all about having a day off…smile! On a side note, these are days adoptive parents keep handy, because we know the Colombian agencies are closed meaning no news for us on these days.
Well that’s all from this end for now.
So we are sure to at least encounter one holiday and or festival while we are there. They are all about having a day off…smile! On a side note, these are days adoptive parents keep handy, because we know the Colombian agencies are closed meaning no news for us on these days.
Well that’s all from this end for now.
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