ABC Colombia

Thankful

Auntie Nicole welcomes little Eli to the world!

It has been a long time since we have updated this blog! The reason being that we have had no new information or anything really exciting to update. The dossier should still be in Colombia and "should" be in the process of being translated. When I emailed CHI they told me that right now "no news is good news." Which I had to politely disagree with. I find it so interesting that our agency doesn't even know who is translating our documents or have any kind of idea as to the progress.

I have contacted another adoption agency that also works with Colombian adoptions called "The Cradle". I am hoping to hear back from them soon about what they think about some of my questions. I'm not sure it makes any sense to change agencies at this point, but perhaps the process would go more smoothly if we did...??? Jason and I have also considered domestic adoption and are praying for wisdom whether we are on the right path.

In the meantime we have been learning more about Colombia, reading books, and staying busy with work. In fact we watched an interesting documentary from PBIS on HULU (movie website) called ABC Colombia. I'm still a little confused about the FARC and Paramilataries but I definitely know I will not be wandering around the mountains on my lonesome. (Although I am reading a book called Amexica about the drug war on our borders and it sounds like Juarez is more dangerous.) We also watched The History Channel (maybe A&E) and learned about an infamous gangster in Colombia called Pablo Escobar. (There is a book called "Killing Pablo" for anyone interested.)

I have purchased a few outfits in 2T and 4T sizes to satisfy my need to make this feel more real. Since we have completed the Dossier and I no longer have the papers as proof of our progress I have felt more and more like this is all a hoax, a dream, or too impossible... and that it will not happen. This is a true test of faith. There is no blue line on a pregnancy test, no growing belly (well... at least not a growing belly with a child inside), no due date to circle on the calendar, and no extra pampering. Watching my brother and sister in law choose to get pregnant, experience the growth and birth of their child, and now experience every cry and breath has left me joyful for them but desiring the same and knowing that it cannot be. It is an exquisitly painful feeling that my adoptive parent friends tell me will be erased when I finally see and hold my children. I am so thankful for these people God has put in my path and pray that this time of waiting will pass quickly and that I can stay calm and secure. In the meantime I will stay thankful through the pain.

A new guide book

Our Dossier is officially in Colombia and is (or should be) in the process of being translated. I had to email our representative to ask if the dossier made it safely. They have given us a new guide book....

Now we have the "post dossier" guide book which looks even more complex than the dossier guidebook. Basically it is all about immigration and visas and looks a lot like GREEK to me! Praying for understanding of this complicated paperwork and process.

(The picture is Jason with our completed Dossier which filled an entire accordion organizer.)

On the way!

I received an email today from Childrens Hope International that they have sent our Dossier to Colombia. She promised to send me updates... we shall see about that. Now it will be translated and is awaiting approval from Colombia. :) This is so exciting!

Apostilling in Illinois

Well apostilling in Illinois was pretty uneventful. I rolled up to the capitol and found the building with Jesse White's name all over it. (Illinois is going to have to spend a pretty penny someday when they need to scrape Jesse White's name off every DOT and secretary of state office.)

Anyway I did not actually meet Jesse White. The gal that did my apostilling widened her eyes when I started pulling papers out and didn't stop. 15 documents later she shuffled back to an undisclosed location. It took about an hour, but it was nicely air conditioned. Illinois only charged me 2 dollars per document for a grand total of 30 dollars. Don't tell them that they could charge 5 dollars like Iowa... they will probably raise it soon I'm sure.

I wisely (for once!) checked each document as I put it back in my organizer and found only one mistake. She had misspelled Champaign so she had to re-apostille one document for me. Once I was out to the car I also was spry enough to compare between Iowa and Illinois. I was pretty dismayed when I found that the date line was done differently between the two states. In Iowa they put the date of the original notarization. In Illinois they put the date of the apostille. Sooo... I went back inside to "double check" that they were done correctly. I was told Iowa must have made a mistake... "Hmmm...." was all I could say. I'm not the most tactful person and couldn't come up with the words to politely disagree and say it would seem more likely to be Illinois making the mistake... So I decided when in doubt to keep my mouth shut.

I was going to email my agency but I decided to just wait and see what they say. Perhaps within the next few weeks our agency will look over everything and let us know if there is anything that needs to be changed/redone. (I very much hope everything is found to be acceptable.)

Now that I am done chasing paperwork for awhile I started to think of what I should do. Then the thought struck me that after our paperwork gets to Colombia we could be parents of two toddlers any time! After some deep breathing to keep from passing out at that thought, I decided to make a list of all the "things" that need to be done before the children actually come. Then I realized I didn't know what toddlers really need besides sippy cups and tiny silverware... and continued the deep breathing and went online to reserve some parenting books. :)

Off to Springfield!

Jason's Passport is here and I'm off to Springfield tomorrow! We have been preparing this paperwork for 9 months and now we are ready to be a waiting family!! We are so blessed and are filled with hope and love! We continue to pray for God's timing and care and love for our children and their caretakers/family. We pray that the birth parents/family will feel peace with their selfless decision to make a plan for adoption.

Apostilling in Iowa

Jason and I took my birth certificate and our marriage certificate to be "authenticated" or apostilled in Iowa last Friday. It was actually a lot simpler than the fancy name would have you believe. We went to Des Moines and stopped in to the Secretary of the State's office. The secretary asked us what country the documents would end up in and then took care of the rest. It was ten dollars for 2 documents (by far the cheapest things we've done yet). She basically made a cover letter that stated when, where, and by whom the document was signed. The paper has the seal of Iowa and the "signature" of the secretary of state. I'll be going to Springfield by myself this week to finish the rest of the documents with the secretary of state of Illinois... I wonder if it will go as smoothly?

After that we are stuck waiting for Jason's passport to get here as the final piece of the puzzle. We are so excited to be at this point!

Faster??!! Is it possible?

Faster??

I was happily suprised yesterday to open the mailbox and find an approval from Homeland Security for adopting 2 siblings from Colombia! This is the big enchilada of documents and now we can "tie up loose ends" and get our apostilling done! This means our dossier will be ready before school starts and provided we can find the financial resources we will be a waiting family soon!!

Here is a picture of Morris and Martin, very angry since I interrupted their slumber, testing the crib for comfort and safety.

Fingerprint appointment!

We have received word from the Department of Homeland Security that we have an appointment to be fingerprinted in Indianapolis in late July. This is for processing our advance approval for VISAS for orphans from Colombia. This is the big enchilada of documents and now I (Nicole) am hoping our dossier will be all tied up in September. :) Another step closer!

Good News!

This afternoon I was pleased to find a bit of good news in my email inbox! Our home study has been officially approved at the state level and we are now ready to apply for our VISAS (our pre-approval for our children to travel back to the United States). This is the final document we need for our dossier and then we can get it apostilled and we can officially be a "waiting" family.


One clarification for family and friends... some people have asked about our timeline. Unfortunately this journey does not follow a certain timeline and so we can not officially say when we will find out who our children are, how old they are, or when they will come come to us until it actually happens. Once we finally are a "waiting" family (all our dossier is translated and in Colombia) we have been told the wait COULD be 2 years or more. We hope for the best and today was very exciting to see another "baby" step further into our journey.

Over a month later I am putting a short update to let everyone know we are still in the same place we were March 10. The homestudy is "done" but is waiting for formal approval at the state level. We must have that to begin our VISA applications. It's looking like the timeline I had in my mind has been shot. I was hoping to have our dossier turned in for translation by May and now it's looking like August. :( We need prayers that things keep moving, peace and patience for us, and love and care for our children (whomever they are, wherever they are) waiting for us.

Something good in the Health Care Reform?

Well as much as I wanted to bury my head in the sand I started to look through some of the health care reform *stuff* that was recently passed and am pleased to report that there is at least one little portion that is good news. See this link below and scroll down.

http://adopt.childrenshope.net/locations/uppermidwest/news/

Anyway I don't know if our adoption will be complete by then but at least this extends it a little further. I only hope that this doesn't now somehow marry the adoption credit with health reform so when the Republicans come sweeping back into town they don't throw the baby out with the bathwater (literally).

The Crib

Jason putting together the crib. He completed the task in a shocking 20 minutes with expert skill.











Here is what it looked like before we put the front on. When we put the toddler rail it will be low and will look like this mostly. This is also what the headboard will look like when it eventually becomes a full sized bed.










Here is our "farm" bedding and the first stuffed puppy that is training Molly it is "ok" for us to hold something besides her.

The Homestudy Exists

**Dictated by Jason**
The much anticipated homestudy arrived today. After several months of interviews, homework assignments, and providing personal details about our lives we now have a DRAFT to review. It is strange to read about yourself. The good news it that we are approved and recommended to continue in the process of adoption. Even Molly was characterized as being "friendly and energetic." There are still a few details to work out but soon the homestudy will be complete and we will begin the next step of the journey which is applying for VISAS and waiting for official approval of our homestudy.
**End Dictation of Jason**

** Start Nicole's version**
In other news we are working on fingerprints for the FBI to get clearance letters, a psychologist evaluation, and getting our most current taxes filed. I (Nicole) had the "pleasure" of calling the FBI today to try to get a simple answer to a simple question.

You can imagine how that turned out.

After the first 10 minutes of claiming to be an "individual" I called back and decided to try to push the 2 on my phone (for police agencies) to see what that did. I was immediately connected with a real person! (Don't worry, I confessed I was not a police agency but just desperate to get off the phone.)

So now we'll probably be collecting the rest of our documents for our Dossier and then will need to have everything apostiled by the Secretary of State in Illinois and Iowa. I'm thinking it should take about 4 more months... so probably it will take 6. :)

Hopefully things should get moving now that we have our homestudy draft completed. We'll need to have one last in home visit to take the water temperature and sign the homestudy and then we'll only need to update the study every time we move the couch. (Okay... not that often.. but it seems like it.)

I am so glad to see this milestone approaching! I thank God for giving us the patience and strength to get us this far and for keeping us hopeful and going! We're one step closer.

Homestudy end in sight?

Well I think an update is long overdue!

We had our second home visit, which went well. We were told we were organized and on the ball and that our homestudy should be ready close to the end of February or early March (which is quickly approaching). We have done an amazing amount of extra "activites" like a genelogical web of our families, detailed budgeting worksheets, and large autobiographies that could probably be bound into a real book.

I will soon post the pictures I have of Jason putting together our crib and changing table. We ended up getting a slightly different model since there was a sale at Babys R Us. Right now we do not have a matress, we'll wait until we get our final word on a referral to get those last important details arranged (or at least spread out the spending of money). It is a very nice reminder when I walk by in the "office/baby room" in the morning that this really WILL happen someday. I've often sat in the rocker and tried to imagine what it will be like to actually have a little person living in the crib... so far it still seems very far away to imagine.

I was very happy to receive several of our desired books about adoption for my birthday and have been busy reading up ever since. I must admit the attachment book makes for several small sessions of reading as it can be a little depressing at times. I think knowledge is power, but sometimes you just need to wait and see what comes your way!

I watched a good documentary about adoption recently if anyone is interested to see some issues of international adoption played out through an adult adoptee and a current adoptive family. It is called ADOPTED and since I got it through netflix, I think it may be found easily? Here is the website if you're interested that has more information:

http://www.adoptedthemovie.com/

While we're waiting to find out who our children are over the next few years... please pray for their birth families and for them. It is amazing, but our children could already be in Colombia just waiting, or their birth parents may not have even met yet! Isn't it amazing that there is an empty crib in Rantoul, Illinois just waiting for a child that has yet to even be conceived somewhere in Colombia?

Quick Update

Last Friday the 22nd, Jason and I went to the Baby Fold for our first all day training. Although most of the information was either repetitive from what we have already learned it was VERY nice to meet a few couples who were also working through international adoption. There were a few couples adopting from Ethiopia, one from China, and one that was currently undecided. The buzz was adopting from Haiti in light of their current need.

We analyzed our marriage, parenting style, and sifted our way through the 3 inch stack of papers filled with cryptic information. sigh.

We scheduled our next meeting with the social worker for this Wednesday (February 3). That means there will be a whirlwind of cleaning, reading, painting, and homework-doing before Wednesday. We pray everything will go smoothly and we will be able to finish with our home-study process by the end of February or beginning of March.

PS. We're still waiting (now a week late) for our crib. It seems we were meant to practice patience at every turn of the journey.