How do I begin? This is one of the happiest days of my life!! First, the chicos are WONDERFUL! Everything is going a million times better than we could have hoped! They are attaching beautifully and are all quite a riot! So let me start the day at the beginning....
Brent and I both fell asleep well but woke up early full of excitement. The moment I opened my eyes (at 5:30!) the Lord gave me a verse for this special day. I have to tell you that He has never spoken so clearly to me before. It was amazing. I can't really explain the gift of His Spirit speaking to my spirit first thing in the manana. He gave me Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
This verse was a gift of promise for our chicos for their Gotcha Day. God has set the plans in place since the beginning of time to bring them into our family after heartache in their past. He is the one who has done this and it is good! His plans are for their good- never evil! He has a wonderful eternity-filled future for them. They can have HOPE! Oh, thank you Jesus for waking me up with this precious verse!
Ok, so we had breakfast at the b&b, then Gloria picked us up in a rental van (so we could all ride home in one vehicle). We were all jittery with nerves, butterflies in our stomachs! Couldn't stop smiling like loony people! LOL! Once we were on our way, I noticed Quinn looking a little green in the back seat. He often gets carsick so I was imagining the worst! He did ok though! We made it to ICBF and after he laid down on the seat while we were waiting, he perked back up! Thank you Lord! Didn't need to meet the chicos with vomit down my skirt! LOL!
So we waited about 20 minutes and then had a meeting with a bunch of people from ICBF. Our bio kids sat quietly in the back of the room. I was so proud of how well they did! We were able to ask some questions and discuss the process. They brought in the kids' files and, I am NOT joking, it was over 12 inches tall! They had some legal issues in their adoption process so their file is huge! One thing we are disappointed about is that until after Sentencia, we are not allowed to put any photos of the kids on any public website. I understand the reasons, but it is still disappointing to not be able to show you our first moments together yet. So the photos will come later! If you want me to email them to you, we can do that since it is private. Just send me a message.
We were signing some papers when all of a sudden a flury of busyness started. Someone peeked in the door and everyone jumped up and started flitting about and chatting. I suspected that the kids were here, but we hadn't had a chance to set up the camera or anything! I commented to one of the ladies that it felt just like the flury of activity just before a baby is ready to be born in the delivery room. All the hurried hustle and bustle happening in an instant!
They quickly took us to a bigger room which had balloons and a Sesame Street tablecloth- very kid happy room! We barely had time to get the video camera set up (still not sure if any of it turned out!) and give someone our still shot camera when the door opened and Luisa burst through the door and jumped into my arms. The other two came right behind her immediately giving hugs and kisses to Brent and I. Luisa just clung to me. It was heaven! I am in awe of how happy she was! Jonathan was very affectionate with hugs and kisses! Cindy landed in Brent's lap and we could tell she was very scared. She hugged and kissed but then buried her head in his chest. Poor thing. She was terrified.
I have no idea how long we were there hugging and kissing but it was a moment we will never forget. A few minutes later we let the kids give the chicos their backpacks with gifts in them. They opened everything up one by one and then put them all away! They didn't seem super interested- just interested in us! Luisa kept stroking my hair and kissing. I asked her if she was scared and she said NO! Happy? YES! Jonathan said he was happy to, but Cindy said, yes, she was scared. No wonder! It was total chaos wit about 15 people watching them meet their parents for the first time! So loud and unfamiliar. Then it was as if a light switch went on with Luisa- she noticed Cait- her big sister! She clung to her the rest of the time. They are still joined at the hip!
We pulled out the coloring books and everyone colored at the table for about 10 minutes. They were very focused and it was as if it was the only thing in their world that they felt confident about. The only thing they had control over. I'm so glad I brought this activity for our first meeting. We were able to color the pictures with them and it really helped the bonding. Luisa colors super well. Even Grant and Jake were impressed saying she colored better than them! LOL!
After a bit, we headed to the car for the drive back to the b&b for lunch. The kids really started to open up and we could see more of their personalities. Jonathan is fairly quiet although likes to laugh when something funny happens. He is going to be a daddy's boy for sure! Cindy started smiling as we spun around the curvy roads. I forgot that 3 year olds have the attention span of a gnat! She put her things in and out of her bag every 2 minutes! Brent and Jonathan stopped at a bank with one of the Glorias and the rest of the kids and I went back to the B&B to wait for lunch. In the room, the girls played Polly Pockets and once Johnathan arrived he got to experience Legos for the first time!
After a lunch of hot dogs (perros caliente!) for the kids and Tipico Colombiana (traditional Colombian platter) for Brent and I, we packed up and drove over to the apartment. We LOVE it! It is perfect for our time here. Plenty of room and a living area for everyone to gather together. Brent, the Glorias, Cait and Luisa went shopping for groceries. He said she was in awe of the store since she'd never been in a real grocery store before, only small markets in the country! She wanted one of everything! LOL! He had to tell her No several times but she never gave him a problem and put the things back on the shelf. He let her pick out one treat of chocolate cookies or something! He said it was no problem shopping here. Just like home with only a few differences.
I had stayed home to unpack bags and get settled....
ok i am posting this much because I keep getting interrupted...I'll try again later...
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Apartamento!!!
God is good! We were told it was going to be very difficult to find an apartment for so many people. We met with a rental agency person this afternoon and she showed us two apartments. The first was two very small bedrooms and no pool. We could have made it work but we would have been very cramped. The second one is more perfect than we could have imagined! Three bedrooms, two balconies, gated community, private playground (swings, slide, sandbox, seesaw, etc!), soccer field, big pool with a baby pool, public playground next door (there are not many public playgrounds in Medellin so this is a big deal), and if we go downhill there are lots of food places. If we go uphill we find a Carrolla (?) and Exito- both Walmart type stores and also a big shopping mall! We are so thankful that God provided this!
So here's the plan for tomorrow... We will have desayuno of huevos & arepas (breakfast-eggs and arepas!) at 8am at the B&B. Then Gloria will pick us up in a big van at 9am and take us to the ICBF office. We will meet with a whole team of people- Nora (attorney), Blanca, both Glorias, social workers, the minor defender, psychologist, and a whole slew of other people! They said maybe up to 15 people! This meeting will be for us to hear ALL the children's information in full. In our referral paperwork it is just a summary of the children's history, but in this meeting we will hear all of it and have opportunity to ask a lot of questions.
Then they will bring the children in to us! After a bit, we will leave and go back to the b&b for lunch, then pack up all the suitcases and switch over to the apartment!
We are so super excited and I have a feeling I am going to have a difficult time sleeping tonight! I keep thinking about what the children are feeling tonight. Are they scared? Are they having trouble sleeping? Are they sad knowing they will say goodbye forever to their foster family? Are they staring at the photo albums we sent? So many thoughts....
Please, amigos, keep all of us in prayer tomorrow as we meet each other for the first time. I have no expectations on how the first moments will be- could be wonderful or terrible! Either is fine and is part of our family's story and will be precious no matter what.
I still cannot believe we have the priviledge to be their parents. I am in awe of this honor. We are nothing special. Not extraordinary parents by ANY means. We are sinners who mess up more times than I care to admit in public. We get impatient, selfish and lazy. Yet, in His amazing love and grace, God has given us the gift to be mami y papi to these precious ninos. We get the priviledge of telling them of Jesus and how much each of us need Him. We get to love on them and lavish them with with grace and teach them of their Maker. I am totally humbled by this. Life doesn't get any better than this, my friends. To walk in His will, and to know you are fully in step with the Spirit's leading- ah, no, nothing better...
Buenas Noches!
So here's the plan for tomorrow... We will have desayuno of huevos & arepas (breakfast-eggs and arepas!) at 8am at the B&B. Then Gloria will pick us up in a big van at 9am and take us to the ICBF office. We will meet with a whole team of people- Nora (attorney), Blanca, both Glorias, social workers, the minor defender, psychologist, and a whole slew of other people! They said maybe up to 15 people! This meeting will be for us to hear ALL the children's information in full. In our referral paperwork it is just a summary of the children's history, but in this meeting we will hear all of it and have opportunity to ask a lot of questions.
Then they will bring the children in to us! After a bit, we will leave and go back to the b&b for lunch, then pack up all the suitcases and switch over to the apartment!
We are so super excited and I have a feeling I am going to have a difficult time sleeping tonight! I keep thinking about what the children are feeling tonight. Are they scared? Are they having trouble sleeping? Are they sad knowing they will say goodbye forever to their foster family? Are they staring at the photo albums we sent? So many thoughts....
Please, amigos, keep all of us in prayer tomorrow as we meet each other for the first time. I have no expectations on how the first moments will be- could be wonderful or terrible! Either is fine and is part of our family's story and will be precious no matter what.
I still cannot believe we have the priviledge to be their parents. I am in awe of this honor. We are nothing special. Not extraordinary parents by ANY means. We are sinners who mess up more times than I care to admit in public. We get impatient, selfish and lazy. Yet, in His amazing love and grace, God has given us the gift to be mami y papi to these precious ninos. We get the priviledge of telling them of Jesus and how much each of us need Him. We get to love on them and lavish them with with grace and teach them of their Maker. I am totally humbled by this. Life doesn't get any better than this, my friends. To walk in His will, and to know you are fully in step with the Spirit's leading- ah, no, nothing better...
Buenas Noches!
We're Here!
Oh, my! Can it really be real that we are here? Everything seems surreal! I'm going to try to recap the last day or two, but the internet here is spotty and we have a meeting with the attorney in a few minutes so I'll be quick.
Tuesday around 2:30, Shawn and Andi drove with us up to New York. We stayed in a hotel for the night since our flight left early the next morning. We went to dinner at a nice Colombian Restaurant and then came back to the hotel to try to figure out Skype.
Around 5am we got to the airport with our NINE pieces (and a stroller and a guitar) of checked baggage and each person's carry-on backpack. Oh, boy. I'm SO glad Shawn and Andi came in and walked through the check-in lines with us. It would have been insane trying to carry all that luggage with Brent and I and the kids.
We found out right away that our flight was delayed until 9:20, but we didn't actually leave until after 10am. It was fine waiting and we passed time by getting breakfast and wandering around. Let me just say, that Avianca was a WONDERFUL plane. I haven't flown a ton, but this plane had a tv for each seat with the ability to play video games, watch movies (kid and adult), listen to music, see a map of exactly where we were, etc. It definitely kept the kids occupied and I am so thankful we decided to fly Avianca over Spirit Air like we'd originally considered. It will definitely be nice on the way home. We all got to sit together, also, which was one of my concerns since we couldn't choose our seats until we checked in at the airport.
Once we arrived in Bogota, that's where things got a bit crazy. We arrived in El Dorado airport where international flights came in. They also have another smaller domestic airport called Puente Aerero nearby with access by shuttle. As soon as we left the plane we raced down the hall (we only had an hour and a half layover) to get through immigration. Thankfully we were fairly near the front of the line, otherwise we would have been in trouble because the line was super long! The immigration officer was nice but kept shaking his head like we were crazy when we tried to explain we were adopting three more children! LOL! I was a little confused when he wouldn't stamp just my passport and transferred us to another attendent. I kept trying to find out if there was a problem, but he couldn't speak any English so we still have no idea what was going on. I finally got my stamp and we met a wonderful bilingual lady who helped us get to where we were supposed to go next. We handed in our forms we'd filled out on the plane (Declarations?) and were passed straight through. Next was the Avianca desk to check in. No problems and they sent us on the shuttle to Puente Aerero. That is where we made our mistake, albeit unknowingly!
I had asked a flight attendent about where we were going to go after we got off the plane since I couldn't read the boarding pass (Spanish!). He reassured me that since we were delayed that the Avianca ticket counter people would tell us. But as we passed through immigration he stopped us and in broken English said to go upstairs.
Once we got to Puente Aerero, we tried to find the right gate, but none of the numbers matched any of the flights. There weren't even any going to Medellin. We went from gate to gate asking the attendents and they kept sending us to different places. A few mentioned that we had missed our flight, but our tickets had been changed due to the delay, so we didn't understand what the problem was. Along the way several bilingual people stepped into the conversation to try to help which we were so thankful for! Colombian people are so super helpful and friendly! God sent one person at each gate to help us!
We raced around for about an hour, probably going to about 7 different places, and having to go through security twice! Thankfully it isn't as complicated as in the US. Finally, we ended up around the front of the airport at the main check in. The supervisor there explained that since our first flight was delayed, they were having the same passengers stay at the El Dorado airport for the connecting flight! That flight attendent I had asked earlier was the only person to give us the right information! We should have listened to him. Oh, well. How could we have known? Everyone else told us to go to PA!
So we were issued new boarding passes for another flight that left at 4:30. That flight ended up being delayed by an hour, too! She told us that our luggage had gone on the original flight in El Dorado. Uh oh! Well, at least it was in Medellin and not still Bogota! We had no way of getting in touch with Gloria so we were just praying that she would be still waiting!
We had an uneventful flight (30 mins) to Medellin and as soon as we came down the elevator we saw both Glorias (we have two guides both named Gloria) with a sign saying Trautman Family! Praise the Lord!
Two luggage porters found all our luggage all lined up along the side and helped us get loaded into the vehicles. We were so happy that everything worked out and we were really in Colombia.
Amigos, it is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful! The mountains are immense. It was dark driving back to the B&B Torre 42, but still we could see the landscape of the city. It's HUGE!
Both Glorias got us settled here at Torre42. The owners are very sweet. We are still going to look for an apartment since we are all crammed into one room.
**********************
Ok, I'm back! The electricity went out for about an hour so I couldn't finish posting this! Then we had our 2 1/2 hour meeting with Nora, Blanca and the two Glorias. They are all super sweet. The kids swam in the pool while we had the meeting in the courtyard area. Nora gave us all the information about the whole process. Thankfully, I knew most everything from reading other family's blogs or talking to our social worker in the US. She explained a lot of the chico's legal history that we had in translated documents, but hadn't fully understood before. That was the best part of all of it! They said the chicos are extremely excited and have been x'ing off the days on the calendar.
In about an hour and a half we are all going to look at an apartment to move to. It is occupied right now, and probably can't move in until the weekend or early next week. They have had a difficult time because apparently there is a law that says when renting to tourists every child under age 4 must have a bed. Good grief! We're praying this will work out, because it sounds perfect.
There is another family here at the b&b from Holland. They have 3 children whom they adopted 6 years ago and are now back for a visit. They are very sweet and speak very good English! They have been giving us pointers on what questions to ask ICBF tomorrow.
I haven't had time yet to upload any photos to the computer yet so I apologize for no photos! This day is flying by! My computer won't work at all on the internet here, but Brent's is doing ok. Brent is trying to upload photos to his facebook, so if you want to see anything you'll need to send a friend request to him. He is listed as Brent Trautman. If you can't find him, email me and I'll send the link to his page. steppingstonemomma@gmail.com
If you have specific questions, let me know and I'll try to blog about it when I have time.
Hasta Manana!!!
Tuesday around 2:30, Shawn and Andi drove with us up to New York. We stayed in a hotel for the night since our flight left early the next morning. We went to dinner at a nice Colombian Restaurant and then came back to the hotel to try to figure out Skype.
Around 5am we got to the airport with our NINE pieces (and a stroller and a guitar) of checked baggage and each person's carry-on backpack. Oh, boy. I'm SO glad Shawn and Andi came in and walked through the check-in lines with us. It would have been insane trying to carry all that luggage with Brent and I and the kids.
We found out right away that our flight was delayed until 9:20, but we didn't actually leave until after 10am. It was fine waiting and we passed time by getting breakfast and wandering around. Let me just say, that Avianca was a WONDERFUL plane. I haven't flown a ton, but this plane had a tv for each seat with the ability to play video games, watch movies (kid and adult), listen to music, see a map of exactly where we were, etc. It definitely kept the kids occupied and I am so thankful we decided to fly Avianca over Spirit Air like we'd originally considered. It will definitely be nice on the way home. We all got to sit together, also, which was one of my concerns since we couldn't choose our seats until we checked in at the airport.
Once we arrived in Bogota, that's where things got a bit crazy. We arrived in El Dorado airport where international flights came in. They also have another smaller domestic airport called Puente Aerero nearby with access by shuttle. As soon as we left the plane we raced down the hall (we only had an hour and a half layover) to get through immigration. Thankfully we were fairly near the front of the line, otherwise we would have been in trouble because the line was super long! The immigration officer was nice but kept shaking his head like we were crazy when we tried to explain we were adopting three more children! LOL! I was a little confused when he wouldn't stamp just my passport and transferred us to another attendent. I kept trying to find out if there was a problem, but he couldn't speak any English so we still have no idea what was going on. I finally got my stamp and we met a wonderful bilingual lady who helped us get to where we were supposed to go next. We handed in our forms we'd filled out on the plane (Declarations?) and were passed straight through. Next was the Avianca desk to check in. No problems and they sent us on the shuttle to Puente Aerero. That is where we made our mistake, albeit unknowingly!
I had asked a flight attendent about where we were going to go after we got off the plane since I couldn't read the boarding pass (Spanish!). He reassured me that since we were delayed that the Avianca ticket counter people would tell us. But as we passed through immigration he stopped us and in broken English said to go upstairs.
Once we got to Puente Aerero, we tried to find the right gate, but none of the numbers matched any of the flights. There weren't even any going to Medellin. We went from gate to gate asking the attendents and they kept sending us to different places. A few mentioned that we had missed our flight, but our tickets had been changed due to the delay, so we didn't understand what the problem was. Along the way several bilingual people stepped into the conversation to try to help which we were so thankful for! Colombian people are so super helpful and friendly! God sent one person at each gate to help us!
We raced around for about an hour, probably going to about 7 different places, and having to go through security twice! Thankfully it isn't as complicated as in the US. Finally, we ended up around the front of the airport at the main check in. The supervisor there explained that since our first flight was delayed, they were having the same passengers stay at the El Dorado airport for the connecting flight! That flight attendent I had asked earlier was the only person to give us the right information! We should have listened to him. Oh, well. How could we have known? Everyone else told us to go to PA!
So we were issued new boarding passes for another flight that left at 4:30. That flight ended up being delayed by an hour, too! She told us that our luggage had gone on the original flight in El Dorado. Uh oh! Well, at least it was in Medellin and not still Bogota! We had no way of getting in touch with Gloria so we were just praying that she would be still waiting!
We had an uneventful flight (30 mins) to Medellin and as soon as we came down the elevator we saw both Glorias (we have two guides both named Gloria) with a sign saying Trautman Family! Praise the Lord!
Two luggage porters found all our luggage all lined up along the side and helped us get loaded into the vehicles. We were so happy that everything worked out and we were really in Colombia.
Amigos, it is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful! The mountains are immense. It was dark driving back to the B&B Torre 42, but still we could see the landscape of the city. It's HUGE!
Both Glorias got us settled here at Torre42. The owners are very sweet. We are still going to look for an apartment since we are all crammed into one room.
**********************
Ok, I'm back! The electricity went out for about an hour so I couldn't finish posting this! Then we had our 2 1/2 hour meeting with Nora, Blanca and the two Glorias. They are all super sweet. The kids swam in the pool while we had the meeting in the courtyard area. Nora gave us all the information about the whole process. Thankfully, I knew most everything from reading other family's blogs or talking to our social worker in the US. She explained a lot of the chico's legal history that we had in translated documents, but hadn't fully understood before. That was the best part of all of it! They said the chicos are extremely excited and have been x'ing off the days on the calendar.
In about an hour and a half we are all going to look at an apartment to move to. It is occupied right now, and probably can't move in until the weekend or early next week. They have had a difficult time because apparently there is a law that says when renting to tourists every child under age 4 must have a bed. Good grief! We're praying this will work out, because it sounds perfect.
There is another family here at the b&b from Holland. They have 3 children whom they adopted 6 years ago and are now back for a visit. They are very sweet and speak very good English! They have been giving us pointers on what questions to ask ICBF tomorrow.
I haven't had time yet to upload any photos to the computer yet so I apologize for no photos! This day is flying by! My computer won't work at all on the internet here, but Brent's is doing ok. Brent is trying to upload photos to his facebook, so if you want to see anything you'll need to send a friend request to him. He is listed as Brent Trautman. If you can't find him, email me and I'll send the link to his page. steppingstonemomma@gmail.com
If you have specific questions, let me know and I'll try to blog about it when I have time.
Hasta Manana!!!
Friday, April 29, 2011
Visas!!!
No problems with getting the Visas! Praise the Lord!
Brent picked them up before he went in to work. He had several people in the waiting area think he was Colombian and start speaking in Spanish to him! When the one lady stopped talking he said, "No entiendo! Ingles??" She gave him the strangest look and then smiled and said, "OH, you're a gringo!" Brent said, "I'm about as gringo as you can get!" HAHAHAHA!!!!
Today we organized the school area and filed papers that had been tossed into their crates for the past two months due to my lack of organization and follow through. It all looks MUCH better. The basement is mostly clean and I was able to pack away two of the tables with all the "stuff" on them.
This is what it looked like for the past month..
We are working on sorting and repackaging all craft items and toys into ziploc baggies to save space in the luggage...
7 backpacks mostly packed!
All the kids except for Caitlin are packed now! That's a relief! So far so good. We are able to fit 2 kids clothing to one large suitcase. We'll see how many bags we'll end up with!
Brent picked them up before he went in to work. He had several people in the waiting area think he was Colombian and start speaking in Spanish to him! When the one lady stopped talking he said, "No entiendo! Ingles??" She gave him the strangest look and then smiled and said, "OH, you're a gringo!" Brent said, "I'm about as gringo as you can get!" HAHAHAHA!!!!
Today we organized the school area and filed papers that had been tossed into their crates for the past two months due to my lack of organization and follow through. It all looks MUCH better. The basement is mostly clean and I was able to pack away two of the tables with all the "stuff" on them.
This is what it looked like for the past month..
We are working on sorting and repackaging all craft items and toys into ziploc baggies to save space in the luggage...
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Colombian Consulate in Washington DC
Yesterday we woke up early, dropped the kids off at Brent's brother's house to get spoiled by their awesome aunt and uncle, and headed to DC.
I'm going to give specific details for other families that might have to visit this particular consulate:
There is on street parking so bring quarters for the meters. There is also a parking garage a block away, but it was pricey. We found a street spot thankfully!
The Consulate is located in a business office building.*** We signed in in the lobby and went to the 10th floor for the Consulate office. When you get off the elevator, turn left and follow around to the back of the hall. It's the last door of the hallway.
The Consular office is VERY small and stuffy- so I'm thankful we didn't bring the kids. We handed the ladies at the desk our paperwork. They then informed us that it takes 3 business days to process the visas! For us that would be the day before we are leaving! I told them we just couldn't do that so they said we could come back on Friday. They are only open to the public from 9am to 12noon Monday through Friday. So Brent is going to head back tomorrow to pick them up. We are praying everything is correct and there are no snags!
As I mentioned before, it seems no one could get through on their phone lines. Well, there was a sign in Spanish that, from what I could piece together with my limited vocabulary, said their phone system was messed up and sorry for the inconvenience. So that explains things! Hopefully that'll be fixed soon!
We met another adoptive dad who was waiting to pick his visas up. They are adopting two older children from Bogota and left today! I'm hoping we can get in touch with them when we get to Bogota.
We were only in the Consulate for about 15 minutes, but the other adoptive dad said that on Monday he waited 3 hours to turn in his paperwork. It was the first day back to work after Semana Santa so everything was backed up. Just be aware if you are trying to get a visa after a holiday!
Hopefully some of this will help any of you adoptive families that need to go to the DC Consulate.
**(Note: You want the Colombian Consulate, NOT the Colombian Embassy. I never even knew there was a difference! )
We don't have any Colombian restaurants anywhere near our house so on the way home we stopped at an amazing little restaurant in Gaithersburg called Colombian Breeze. The food was fantastic. Just so you all know, Colombian food is nothing like Mexican food! We started with Arepas smothered in cheese. Mmmm... We've made these at home so we were curious if ours tasted like REAL arepas. Surprisingly, ours came fairly close! But you just can't compare when you put that much cheese on them! These were wonderful.
I had Arroz Con Pollo- Chicken with rice. It reminded me of Chinese Chicken fried rice, only the spices are a little different. It came with little yellow potatoes that were delicious.
Brent ordered Baneja Paisa. This dish is the most traditional meal served in Medellin- our kids' city. It is kind of like a sampler of food. Very yummy. (We sampled each other's food!) I loved the red beans and the fried plantain was wonderful. I'd had plantain before and didn't like it, so I was pleasantly surprised how good this was. I do have to comment that Brent let me unknowingly try the fried thick bacon looking thing. Only after I commented that I didn't care for it did he inform me that it was fried pig intestines! EWWWW!
I'm thinking I'll pass on that portion of the meal while in Medellin!
We also brought home several packages of frozen, homemade arepas, a package of Guava paste that you are supposed to slice and eat with cheese, and a homemade block of chocolate to make Colombian hot chocolate. They put a piece of cheese in the hot chocolate and let it melt, then drink it. Chocolate and Cheese. My two favorites. It should be delicious!
I'm going to give specific details for other families that might have to visit this particular consulate:
There is on street parking so bring quarters for the meters. There is also a parking garage a block away, but it was pricey. We found a street spot thankfully!
The Consulate is located in a business office building.*** We signed in in the lobby and went to the 10th floor for the Consulate office. When you get off the elevator, turn left and follow around to the back of the hall. It's the last door of the hallway.
The Consular office is VERY small and stuffy- so I'm thankful we didn't bring the kids. We handed the ladies at the desk our paperwork. They then informed us that it takes 3 business days to process the visas! For us that would be the day before we are leaving! I told them we just couldn't do that so they said we could come back on Friday. They are only open to the public from 9am to 12noon Monday through Friday. So Brent is going to head back tomorrow to pick them up. We are praying everything is correct and there are no snags!
As I mentioned before, it seems no one could get through on their phone lines. Well, there was a sign in Spanish that, from what I could piece together with my limited vocabulary, said their phone system was messed up and sorry for the inconvenience. So that explains things! Hopefully that'll be fixed soon!
We met another adoptive dad who was waiting to pick his visas up. They are adopting two older children from Bogota and left today! I'm hoping we can get in touch with them when we get to Bogota.
We were only in the Consulate for about 15 minutes, but the other adoptive dad said that on Monday he waited 3 hours to turn in his paperwork. It was the first day back to work after Semana Santa so everything was backed up. Just be aware if you are trying to get a visa after a holiday!
Hopefully some of this will help any of you adoptive families that need to go to the DC Consulate.
**(Note: You want the Colombian Consulate, NOT the Colombian Embassy. I never even knew there was a difference! )
We don't have any Colombian restaurants anywhere near our house so on the way home we stopped at an amazing little restaurant in Gaithersburg called Colombian Breeze. The food was fantastic. Just so you all know, Colombian food is nothing like Mexican food! We started with Arepas smothered in cheese. Mmmm... We've made these at home so we were curious if ours tasted like REAL arepas. Surprisingly, ours came fairly close! But you just can't compare when you put that much cheese on them! These were wonderful.
I had Arroz Con Pollo- Chicken with rice. It reminded me of Chinese Chicken fried rice, only the spices are a little different. It came with little yellow potatoes that were delicious.
Brent ordered Baneja Paisa. This dish is the most traditional meal served in Medellin- our kids' city. It is kind of like a sampler of food. Very yummy. (We sampled each other's food!) I loved the red beans and the fried plantain was wonderful. I'd had plantain before and didn't like it, so I was pleasantly surprised how good this was. I do have to comment that Brent let me unknowingly try the fried thick bacon looking thing. Only after I commented that I didn't care for it did he inform me that it was fried pig intestines! EWWWW!
We also brought home several packages of frozen, homemade arepas, a package of Guava paste that you are supposed to slice and eat with cheese, and a homemade block of chocolate to make Colombian hot chocolate. They put a piece of cheese in the hot chocolate and let it melt, then drink it. Chocolate and Cheese. My two favorites. It should be delicious!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Shopping, Consulate, Finding out, and Minutia
Shopping..................
The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of shopping, shopping and more shopping! The kids are sick and tired of it and so am I! I'm not a shopper to begin with, so this is killing me! Finding complete wardrobes for 7 children (and a few new things for me since I have put on a few pounds through this "paper pregnancy") in a few short weeks is overwhelming! BUT, I think I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. The last pair of sandals and package of socks were bought today. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah! I don't want to ever have to shop this much, this fast ever again.
Consulate...............
Tomorrow we head to the Colombian Consulate in Washington DC. Normally, you can travel to Colombia without having to get a visa, but since we will have legal custody of a Colombian citizen (or three!) while we are there, we have to get "Special" visas! So far neither myself, another adoptive mom, or our agency can get through to them on the phone line to find out if we need an appointment or whether we can just show up. So we are PRAYING that they are friendly and let us get our visas easily. I've read a few horror stories recently of other adoptive families trying to get theirs at other consulates around the US so it has me cautious. I'm going OVER prepared with my entire traveling file box of every single paper they could possibly ask for!
Finding Out...........
Last week we learned that Luisa, Jhonatan, and Cindy found out about us the same day we got our travel dates! They were shown our photos and the dvd we made and were given the little gifts we sent. Raul, our agency rep, told us that they were jumping up and down all weekend, they blow us hugs and kisses each morning and night, and are very excited! You have NO IDEA how thankful we were for this news. With older child adoption, you never are fully sure that the children will be glad to be adopted. So hearing that they were so ecstatic was a relief to us.
Today, in another phone call with Raul, we found out a few more details. Luisa is understandably nervous and a little scared but still super excited. She asked the social workers which one of us they thought she looked like? Did she look like her big sister? (Is this not the most precious thing ever!) Cindy liked her little Strawberry Shortcake doll we sent. When she was asked if she wanted to come live with us, she asked if Luisa and Jhonatan would come. When they said yes, she said she would like that! Jhonatan asked to see pictures about where they would play once they came to their new house. You'll never believe this... their foster home is in a rural area with woods and hills and dairy farms, just like here! Here, we're going to the second largest city in Colombia thinking we're getting children who are going to have an adjustment to country life, and we end up getting countryfied kids! God is so awesome!
The more we find out, the more we realize how they are meant to be in our family. I can't remember now if I wrote this before, but we learned a while ago that according to his foster mom, Jhonatan likes doing "karate type moves". In case you don't know our family well, Karate is a very big part of our lives! Even Brent takes it with all the kids. This is a match made in heaven- literally!
Minutia that nobody really cares about....
*Airline tickets are purchased (boy was that a crazy 3 days!) We fly out of JFK in May and will come home in June to Dulles
*We are planning to be out of the country for 5 weeks. (never been away for more than 10 days, so it should be interesting!)
*It will be cheaper to live for another MONTH in Bogota than for us to change our 9 airfare tickets to come home if we finish sooner.
*Apartment in Medellin is located and our agency is putting a security deposit on it tomorrow
*Shopping is "almost" finished
*Vaccine updates are finished- without too much drama (blood draws for our homestudy was a traumatic event I'm still recovering from...)
*We are still looking for luggage to borrow before I can begin packing
*The whole house needs to be cleaned from top to bottom
*Still need to buy a vacuum, Cindy's car seat, and a bathing suit for me (yuck!)
*I HAVE to find a time to work on our family scrapbook we are taking down with us!
*Need to figure out the phone situation
*Need to find a way to kill ants and stink bugs once and for all so they don't take over the house like in some horror movie while we are gone
*I have only had one "melt down" moment with the kids, which I think is remarkable!
*I am really hoping we get to meet some other adoptive families traveling around the same time as us! A few have blogs!
http://theperfectsummerforamiracle.blogspot.com
http://babyadelman.blogspot.com/
http://www.journeytostefania.blogspot.com/
http://ouradoptionjourneytocolombia.blogspot.com
*I think I might forget every single Spanish word that I've learned when I see the chico's faces.
The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of shopping, shopping and more shopping! The kids are sick and tired of it and so am I! I'm not a shopper to begin with, so this is killing me! Finding complete wardrobes for 7 children (and a few new things for me since I have put on a few pounds through this "paper pregnancy") in a few short weeks is overwhelming! BUT, I think I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. The last pair of sandals and package of socks were bought today. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah! I don't want to ever have to shop this much, this fast ever again.
Consulate...............
Tomorrow we head to the Colombian Consulate in Washington DC. Normally, you can travel to Colombia without having to get a visa, but since we will have legal custody of a Colombian citizen (or three!) while we are there, we have to get "Special" visas! So far neither myself, another adoptive mom, or our agency can get through to them on the phone line to find out if we need an appointment or whether we can just show up. So we are PRAYING that they are friendly and let us get our visas easily. I've read a few horror stories recently of other adoptive families trying to get theirs at other consulates around the US so it has me cautious. I'm going OVER prepared with my entire traveling file box of every single paper they could possibly ask for!
Finding Out...........
Last week we learned that Luisa, Jhonatan, and Cindy found out about us the same day we got our travel dates! They were shown our photos and the dvd we made and were given the little gifts we sent. Raul, our agency rep, told us that they were jumping up and down all weekend, they blow us hugs and kisses each morning and night, and are very excited! You have NO IDEA how thankful we were for this news. With older child adoption, you never are fully sure that the children will be glad to be adopted. So hearing that they were so ecstatic was a relief to us.
Today, in another phone call with Raul, we found out a few more details. Luisa is understandably nervous and a little scared but still super excited. She asked the social workers which one of us they thought she looked like? Did she look like her big sister? (Is this not the most precious thing ever!) Cindy liked her little Strawberry Shortcake doll we sent. When she was asked if she wanted to come live with us, she asked if Luisa and Jhonatan would come. When they said yes, she said she would like that! Jhonatan asked to see pictures about where they would play once they came to their new house. You'll never believe this... their foster home is in a rural area with woods and hills and dairy farms, just like here! Here, we're going to the second largest city in Colombia thinking we're getting children who are going to have an adjustment to country life, and we end up getting countryfied kids! God is so awesome!
The more we find out, the more we realize how they are meant to be in our family. I can't remember now if I wrote this before, but we learned a while ago that according to his foster mom, Jhonatan likes doing "karate type moves". In case you don't know our family well, Karate is a very big part of our lives! Even Brent takes it with all the kids. This is a match made in heaven- literally!
Minutia that nobody really cares about....
*Airline tickets are purchased (boy was that a crazy 3 days!) We fly out of JFK in May and will come home in June to Dulles
*We are planning to be out of the country for 5 weeks. (never been away for more than 10 days, so it should be interesting!)
*It will be cheaper to live for another MONTH in Bogota than for us to change our 9 airfare tickets to come home if we finish sooner.
*Apartment in Medellin is located and our agency is putting a security deposit on it tomorrow
*Shopping is "almost" finished
*Vaccine updates are finished- without too much drama (blood draws for our homestudy was a traumatic event I'm still recovering from...)
*We are still looking for luggage to borrow before I can begin packing
*The whole house needs to be cleaned from top to bottom
*Still need to buy a vacuum, Cindy's car seat, and a bathing suit for me (yuck!)
*I HAVE to find a time to work on our family scrapbook we are taking down with us!
*Need to figure out the phone situation
*Need to find a way to kill ants and stink bugs once and for all so they don't take over the house like in some horror movie while we are gone
*I have only had one "melt down" moment with the kids, which I think is remarkable!
*I am really hoping we get to meet some other adoptive families traveling around the same time as us! A few have blogs!
http://theperfectsummerforamiracle.blogspot.com
http://babyadelman.blogspot.com/
http://www.journeytostefania.blogspot.com/
http://ouradoptionjourneytocolombia.blogspot.com
*I think I might forget every single Spanish word that I've learned when I see the chico's faces.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Travel Approval!
Today has been one of the most exciting days for us so far in this adoption process. We got word on our travel date!
We fly to Colombia on...
We are going to have them for MOTHER'S DAY! They will have a momma for this Mother's Day, finally! Thank you, Lord, for that sweet, precious gift.
We were so concerned that we were not going to hear any news about our travel dates today and we would have to start making some difficult decisions about what to do with the immigration approval expiration date approaching. Thankfully, God didn't make us deal with that. Instead we heard the wonderful news that we weren't going to have to wait the full month like ICBF was going to make us wait.
We are so incredibly happy that my words can't even find their full expression.
I just had the realization that we will very likely return home the exact week two years from the date we first felt the call to adopt- June of 2009. God is so cool like that, ya know?
And one more awesome thing...
Two years ago we quietly mentioned to some of our dearest, closest friends (on a Bob Evans parking lot after Sunday dinner) that we were thinking of adopting. Both families were BLOWN AWAY, because they said they had just been discussing the SAME THING!
We have traveled this adoption journey- ours to Colombia and theirs to a little girl in China- together for the past two years. And, get this, we are leaving the SAME EXACT DAY AS EACH OTHER! As Dan said, "Now, God's just showing off!" He is! And I love it! Can you believe this?
***************
Monday we will have a phone call with Raul to go over Visa information, more travel info, apartment info, etc.
Tuesday we will drive to the Colombian Consulate in DC to apply for the Adoption Travel Visa
Wednesday we will drive back to DC and pick it up before they close for Holy Week.
From then until May 3rd we'll be shopping, packing, and pinching ourselves to see if it is really real!
We fly to Colombia on...
Wednesday, May 4th
and will receive Luisa Faith, Jonathan Scott, and Cindy Joy on
Friday, May 6th!!!!!!!
Exactly THREE WEEKS from TODAY!
We are going to have them for MOTHER'S DAY! They will have a momma for this Mother's Day, finally! Thank you, Lord, for that sweet, precious gift.
We were so concerned that we were not going to hear any news about our travel dates today and we would have to start making some difficult decisions about what to do with the immigration approval expiration date approaching. Thankfully, God didn't make us deal with that. Instead we heard the wonderful news that we weren't going to have to wait the full month like ICBF was going to make us wait.
We are so incredibly happy that my words can't even find their full expression.
I just had the realization that we will very likely return home the exact week two years from the date we first felt the call to adopt- June of 2009. God is so cool like that, ya know?
And one more awesome thing...
Two years ago we quietly mentioned to some of our dearest, closest friends (on a Bob Evans parking lot after Sunday dinner) that we were thinking of adopting. Both families were BLOWN AWAY, because they said they had just been discussing the SAME THING!
We have traveled this adoption journey- ours to Colombia and theirs to a little girl in China- together for the past two years. And, get this, we are leaving the SAME EXACT DAY AS EACH OTHER! As Dan said, "Now, God's just showing off!" He is! And I love it! Can you believe this?
***************
Monday we will have a phone call with Raul to go over Visa information, more travel info, apartment info, etc.
Tuesday we will drive to the Colombian Consulate in DC to apply for the Adoption Travel Visa
Wednesday we will drive back to DC and pick it up before they close for Holy Week.
From then until May 3rd we'll be shopping, packing, and pinching ourselves to see if it is really real!
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Article 5!
Just got word a few minutes ago that our Article 5 was expedited and picked up today!! Hooray!!!
This is the last thing we need before we can get travel approval and it has taken mountain moving strength to get this! God is the one that gave our case the favor of the multiple government workers involved in the process.
Why am I so surprised when God shows up? Why do I doubt so easily? My faith is so small. Lord, forgive me.
I am so humbled by the MANY friends, family, and strangers who have emailed and posted saying they are praying for us. It is overwhelming. When we were discouraged or exhausted we were buoyed up with God's strength because of your faithful fervent prayers. Thank you from the depth of our hearts.
Next is waiting to hear when we will be ok'd to travel! Maybe I need to pull out the To Do list that I haven't looked at in a week...things are starting to seem "real"!!!!
This is the last thing we need before we can get travel approval and it has taken mountain moving strength to get this! God is the one that gave our case the favor of the multiple government workers involved in the process.
Why am I so surprised when God shows up? Why do I doubt so easily? My faith is so small. Lord, forgive me.
I am so humbled by the MANY friends, family, and strangers who have emailed and posted saying they are praying for us. It is overwhelming. When we were discouraged or exhausted we were buoyed up with God's strength because of your faithful fervent prayers. Thank you from the depth of our hearts.
Next is waiting to hear when we will be ok'd to travel! Maybe I need to pull out the To Do list that I haven't looked at in a week...things are starting to seem "real"!!!!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
NVC!
Last night I called NVD no less than 10 times. I either was on hold for 1/2 an hour or got transferred around to everyone and their brother. Finally around 11pm I was able to get someone to speak to a supervisor for me. It took a lot of pleading but the supervisor said they would try to get the last two visas issued by the close of the day at midnight- 1 hour! Could we dare to hope?
11:50 came and I called again. The person answering the phone matter of factly said, yes they were processed today! I made him check and double check that they had truly been sent. I know I was annoying him, but I wasn't going to take any chances after all the mistakes in the past.
Soooo, as of around 11:30pm last night all three visas were at the US Embassy in Bogota!! YAY!
Raul, the Colombia program manager that we are dealing directly with now, said he would get the in-country rep, Silvia, to take the DS-230 to the Embassy and she would request that they expedite our article 5 letter!
Today, was a much quieter day. I didn't feel the need to call the Embassy since Silvia was going in person and she has a much better relationship with the people in that office. This afternoon, Raul called and said that our Article 5 should be issued Wednesday at 3pm!!! Amazing! This is the last step for the US Government until we are ready to leave Colombia and the kids get their visas to enter the US.
Could this really be happening? I'm still trying not to get my hopes up too high. There are still a few more little steps where things can go wrong, of course! But, I am much more hopeful that our paperwork will be at the Medellin ICBF by Thursday or Friday so they can issue our travel dates before they shut down for Semana Santa.
I asked Raul to speculate on our tentative travel dates, but he wouldn't until Friday! LOL! Poor guy. I'm trying to pin him down, but he knows better than to do that with an uptight, stressed, emotional momma-to-be! LOL!
11:50 came and I called again. The person answering the phone matter of factly said, yes they were processed today! I made him check and double check that they had truly been sent. I know I was annoying him, but I wasn't going to take any chances after all the mistakes in the past.
Soooo, as of around 11:30pm last night all three visas were at the US Embassy in Bogota!! YAY!
Raul, the Colombia program manager that we are dealing directly with now, said he would get the in-country rep, Silvia, to take the DS-230 to the Embassy and she would request that they expedite our article 5 letter!
Today, was a much quieter day. I didn't feel the need to call the Embassy since Silvia was going in person and she has a much better relationship with the people in that office. This afternoon, Raul called and said that our Article 5 should be issued Wednesday at 3pm!!! Amazing! This is the last step for the US Government until we are ready to leave Colombia and the kids get their visas to enter the US.
Could this really be happening? I'm still trying not to get my hopes up too high. There are still a few more little steps where things can go wrong, of course! But, I am much more hopeful that our paperwork will be at the Medellin ICBF by Thursday or Friday so they can issue our travel dates before they shut down for Semana Santa.
I asked Raul to speculate on our tentative travel dates, but he wouldn't until Friday! LOL! Poor guy. I'm trying to pin him down, but he knows better than to do that with an uptight, stressed, emotional momma-to-be! LOL!
Monday, April 11, 2011
Where Do I Begin?
This past week and a half has been insane to say the least. We are trying to laugh about the craziness, but at moments it is hard and infuriating. All the explanations are very detailed and boring and I won't be offended if you want to skip all the drama. I just wanted to record it for our family's story. Here goes...(btw, you might not follow this without a calendar next to you! LOL!)
Our I800 approval sat in the USCIS Records division for 6 days with no movement. The supervisor couldn't or wouldn't do anything to address the situation which was very frustrating. Meanwhile we decided to get our congressman's office involved. At one mention of our intentions, the wheels started turning in the USCIS office. Our congressman's office called and helped us out, although I think things started moving when I just mentioned calling our congressman. Still they lied to our congressman's assistant saying everything was mailed that day, when in fact it hadn't. Then, later it turns out they only sent 2 out of the three boxes of paperwork. Guess which department packages and ships the boxes? Yep, that's right. The Records Division...lovely.
Finally, on April 7th all three files were at the National Visa Center. BUT, there was the huge worry that the government was going to shut down Friday at midnight! So I called several times asking them to expedite our case. We were told that they were in the "scanning department" and were being sent to the Embassy Friday afternoon, but that night when I called, the new person (very cranky) said they weren't even in the "processing department" yet. ARG!! Every time I call this place I get a different person and a completely different answer. And, believe me I've called probably 15 times since last Friday!
Friday afternoon we had a phone call from Raul, our in-country rep. He briefed us on the process and gave us two pieces of really bummer news.
1. Our article 5 will probably be issued on April 20th- in the middle of the week that the Colombian government is closed down for Semana Santa- Holy Week. So really, it would probably not get to ICBF until the 27th or 28th. Another week lost...
2. ICBF is not going to allow us to travel for 3-4 weeks after we got our Article 5 letter from the US Embassy.They want to take that time to introduce the kids to our photos and dvd, counsel the kids and help them adjust to the changes they will go through. We were sooo disappointed. Another whole MONTH of waiting. We appreciate that they care about the kids so much, but frankly a month is a long time!
As the weekend wore on, we realized that this new timeline very likely will (if/when we have more delays) put our travel dates at the beginning of June. Our hearts sunk when we realized our paperwork for our immigration (I800A) expires the first week in July. Usually, families are only in Medellin for about a month, but that only leaves us a one week window if there are delays! In our kids' particular situation, delays are definitely within the realm of possibilities because of some of their history with their adoption process.
Here's what that means according to our program manager: We could travel to Colombia, meet the kids, go through the court proceedings, become the legal parents of the kids, travel to Bogota to get their visas and the US Government will not let them have the visas to come to the US because our paperwork is expired. BUT, we could not stay in Colombia because we have to reapply for an extension of our immigration approval, a 2-3 month process including a new homestudy with a homevisit! What would happen to the kids? ARE YOU KIDDING ME????
Now, we can start the process for updating our immigration approval, and that is probably what we will do if we can't get anything accomplished by this Friday. We just really hate to do this because it will cost over $2000 to do it. AND, we might not even need it if we don't get delayed in country. AND our homestudy worker is not known for her speed so it might not even get done before we'd have to travel. It's gonna be difficult to get fingerprinted when we're not in the country! So, we are really, really hoping to avoid this.
My mission for today, Monday, has been to PUSH, PUSH, PUSH to get our article 5 letter issued and to the ICBF office by Friday before they close for Semana Santa. (According to our agency they CAN do it that fast if there's some pressure.) That way our travel dates will be earlier and we don't have to worry about the whole immigration approval expiration date.
Today, I was able to speak to a supervisor at the NVC that agreed to expedite our case within the next hour. Just in case, though, I contacted our congressman's office again asking her to push things through once they left the NVC and arrived at the US Embassy. She agreed, and later forwarded me an email from the US Embassy saying they only had ONE of the children's visas. ARG! AGAIN! Why does this paperwork keep getting separated??? Again, I followed up with the NVC, and they were not super helpful. So I'm going to call again tonight (they're open 24 hours) and beg and plead with someone to send the last two visas to the embassy.
We are praying fervently that we can get our Article 5 letter issued by by the US Embassy by Wednesday, so Sylvia (Gladney staff) can then overnight the letter to ICBF by Friday when they can then set our travel date- for a month later (maybe 2nd week in May?), but still early enough for us to get home before our immigration approval expires.
Just so you understand....This is a complete impossibility to get all this done this fast. To gain favor with so many government workers and to have nothing fall through the cracks and do it by Wednesday is laughable.
Guys, seriously, we need MIRACLE! A real one.
So, we are asking our friends and family to please pray (and fast if you feel led) that God would provide in some way. I have NO IDEA how He is going to work this out, but God is big, and mighty, and He is in control over paperwork and timelines.
Our I800 approval sat in the USCIS Records division for 6 days with no movement. The supervisor couldn't or wouldn't do anything to address the situation which was very frustrating. Meanwhile we decided to get our congressman's office involved. At one mention of our intentions, the wheels started turning in the USCIS office. Our congressman's office called and helped us out, although I think things started moving when I just mentioned calling our congressman. Still they lied to our congressman's assistant saying everything was mailed that day, when in fact it hadn't. Then, later it turns out they only sent 2 out of the three boxes of paperwork. Guess which department packages and ships the boxes? Yep, that's right. The Records Division...lovely.
Finally, on April 7th all three files were at the National Visa Center. BUT, there was the huge worry that the government was going to shut down Friday at midnight! So I called several times asking them to expedite our case. We were told that they were in the "scanning department" and were being sent to the Embassy Friday afternoon, but that night when I called, the new person (very cranky) said they weren't even in the "processing department" yet. ARG!! Every time I call this place I get a different person and a completely different answer. And, believe me I've called probably 15 times since last Friday!
Friday afternoon we had a phone call from Raul, our in-country rep. He briefed us on the process and gave us two pieces of really bummer news.
1. Our article 5 will probably be issued on April 20th- in the middle of the week that the Colombian government is closed down for Semana Santa- Holy Week. So really, it would probably not get to ICBF until the 27th or 28th. Another week lost...
2. ICBF is not going to allow us to travel for 3-4 weeks after we got our Article 5 letter from the US Embassy.They want to take that time to introduce the kids to our photos and dvd, counsel the kids and help them adjust to the changes they will go through. We were sooo disappointed. Another whole MONTH of waiting. We appreciate that they care about the kids so much, but frankly a month is a long time!
As the weekend wore on, we realized that this new timeline very likely will (if/when we have more delays) put our travel dates at the beginning of June. Our hearts sunk when we realized our paperwork for our immigration (I800A) expires the first week in July. Usually, families are only in Medellin for about a month, but that only leaves us a one week window if there are delays! In our kids' particular situation, delays are definitely within the realm of possibilities because of some of their history with their adoption process.
Here's what that means according to our program manager: We could travel to Colombia, meet the kids, go through the court proceedings, become the legal parents of the kids, travel to Bogota to get their visas and the US Government will not let them have the visas to come to the US because our paperwork is expired. BUT, we could not stay in Colombia because we have to reapply for an extension of our immigration approval, a 2-3 month process including a new homestudy with a homevisit! What would happen to the kids? ARE YOU KIDDING ME????
Now, we can start the process for updating our immigration approval, and that is probably what we will do if we can't get anything accomplished by this Friday. We just really hate to do this because it will cost over $2000 to do it. AND, we might not even need it if we don't get delayed in country. AND our homestudy worker is not known for her speed so it might not even get done before we'd have to travel. It's gonna be difficult to get fingerprinted when we're not in the country! So, we are really, really hoping to avoid this.
My mission for today, Monday, has been to PUSH, PUSH, PUSH to get our article 5 letter issued and to the ICBF office by Friday before they close for Semana Santa. (According to our agency they CAN do it that fast if there's some pressure.) That way our travel dates will be earlier and we don't have to worry about the whole immigration approval expiration date.
Today, I was able to speak to a supervisor at the NVC that agreed to expedite our case within the next hour. Just in case, though, I contacted our congressman's office again asking her to push things through once they left the NVC and arrived at the US Embassy. She agreed, and later forwarded me an email from the US Embassy saying they only had ONE of the children's visas. ARG! AGAIN! Why does this paperwork keep getting separated??? Again, I followed up with the NVC, and they were not super helpful. So I'm going to call again tonight (they're open 24 hours) and beg and plead with someone to send the last two visas to the embassy.
We are praying fervently that we can get our Article 5 letter issued by by the US Embassy by Wednesday, so Sylvia (Gladney staff) can then overnight the letter to ICBF by Friday when they can then set our travel date- for a month later (maybe 2nd week in May?), but still early enough for us to get home before our immigration approval expires.
Just so you understand....This is a complete impossibility to get all this done this fast. To gain favor with so many government workers and to have nothing fall through the cracks and do it by Wednesday is laughable.
Guys, seriously, we need MIRACLE! A real one.
So, we are asking our friends and family to please pray (and fast if you feel led) that God would provide in some way. I have NO IDEA how He is going to work this out, but God is big, and mighty, and He is in control over paperwork and timelines.
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