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"!!!!
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
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.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Records Dept, Mexico, and Karate
On Monday (March 28) I called the National Benefits Center to speak to our Adjudicator Officer for our I800. She is so super sweet! She was in the midst of reading the chico's files right then and had nothing but kind, gracious words. Let me just say, that for a government agency, I am pleasantly surprised. Every time I have called this office the people answer quickly, kindly and are genuinely concerned about your issue.
All that said, we are unfortunately at the mercy of the Records Division of the NBC right now. After the Officer read everything she had to send the files to the Records Division and everything has sat in that office since Tuesday morning. I've called each day this week to see if there is any progress, but so far nothing. Apparently they can legally take up to five business days to process the file. Something that should normally take an hour, according to our officer.
So, this will most likely mean our travel is delayed by a week or so. I'm still praying we'll leave while the calendar still says April, but the reality of that isn't looking too good. Oh, well. Par for the course. God's timing is best. Thankfully, I don't feel frustrated or stressed over the delay. I have peace about the timing. (Maybe it has to do with the massive To Do list that still needs finishing and I KNOW I need more time! LOL!)
Brent has been away all this week on a mission trip to Mexico. He gets to see our two Tarahumaran children we sponsor, which I'm so excited for them! They LOVE it when their "padrino" (sponsor) visits. It's a big deal! I am sad to miss them (only men were allowed on this trip!) but glad they got to see Brent. It has been a construction trip where they are expanding the church and helping to finish one of the houses in the Tarahumara community for a new believer. God is working so mightily in Chihuahua. It is humbling and awe-inspiring to be a tiny part of it. Also, I hear he's working on his Spanish! I'm hoping he learns a lot so he can teach me before we go to Colombia!
Cait, Grant, Jake and Quinn are feverishly practicing their karate since they have a tournament this Saturday. They haven't done a tournament for a few years so there are a bunch of nervous kids around here! We've been trying to get school done this week but it's been difficult since I've been focused on my long To Do list. We keep interrupting our school day to sort clothing for all seven, shop for clothes, reorganized toys, pack stuff up for donations, and clean. Right now the house looks worse than when we started, but there is a method to the chaos! Each pile has a purpose! If I could just get the kids to stop knocking the piles over and mixing them up, I'd be fine! LOL!
All that said, we are unfortunately at the mercy of the Records Division of the NBC right now. After the Officer read everything she had to send the files to the Records Division and everything has sat in that office since Tuesday morning. I've called each day this week to see if there is any progress, but so far nothing. Apparently they can legally take up to five business days to process the file. Something that should normally take an hour, according to our officer.
So, this will most likely mean our travel is delayed by a week or so. I'm still praying we'll leave while the calendar still says April, but the reality of that isn't looking too good. Oh, well. Par for the course. God's timing is best. Thankfully, I don't feel frustrated or stressed over the delay. I have peace about the timing. (Maybe it has to do with the massive To Do list that still needs finishing and I KNOW I need more time! LOL!)
Brent has been away all this week on a mission trip to Mexico. He gets to see our two Tarahumaran children we sponsor, which I'm so excited for them! They LOVE it when their "padrino" (sponsor) visits. It's a big deal! I am sad to miss them (only men were allowed on this trip!) but glad they got to see Brent. It has been a construction trip where they are expanding the church and helping to finish one of the houses in the Tarahumara community for a new believer. God is working so mightily in Chihuahua. It is humbling and awe-inspiring to be a tiny part of it. Also, I hear he's working on his Spanish! I'm hoping he learns a lot so he can teach me before we go to Colombia!
Cait, Grant, Jake and Quinn are feverishly practicing their karate since they have a tournament this Saturday. They haven't done a tournament for a few years so there are a bunch of nervous kids around here! We've been trying to get school done this week but it's been difficult since I've been focused on my long To Do list. We keep interrupting our school day to sort clothing for all seven, shop for clothes, reorganized toys, pack stuff up for donations, and clean. Right now the house looks worse than when we started, but there is a method to the chaos! Each pile has a purpose! If I could just get the kids to stop knocking the piles over and mixing them up, I'd be fine! LOL!
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Reality Check!
I just happened to be scrolling through some back posts of my blog and I suddenly had a major REALITY CHECK! I had written a long post back in December that listed each of the legal steps we needed to progress through in order to bring our chicos home. The last time I remember looking at it we were at step 3.
Well, I just noticed suddenly we are at STEP SEVEN! Oh, my word! How did that happen? I mean, Step 10 is- Meet Children! We're almost there! I feel in shock! I mean, I know it in my head, but just now it really hit my heart!
I am not an overly emotional person, but lately I am really starting to have a full range of emotions! I am vacillating between total "I can't think straight because I'm so stinkin' excited" to "Oh, Lord, this is so much bigger than what I can handle. Are you absolutely sure you will give me strength? Cause I am not so sure."
It is very easy to let myself go down the mental trail of all the "what-ifs". They run the gamut all the way from, "Will we have enough money to stay in country a month", to "What if we have 3 kids with severe RAD and will our family be destroyed by it" to "WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE WE DOING?"
But I know that is completely giving in to Satan's desire to get me to doubt God's sufficiency. So lately I'm having to do a lot of "taking my thoughts captive" and "renewing my mind". I'm having to listen more carefully to the quiet whispers of the Holy Spirit since our life is such a whirlwind of activity and I am easily distracted. I'm so thankful too, for a hubby who keeps me grounded and yanks me back to truth when I stray.
I'm not really sure why I wrote all this out, but somehow it has been therapeutic to get it out of my mind so now I can move on! LOL!
Well, I just noticed suddenly we are at STEP SEVEN! Oh, my word! How did that happen? I mean, Step 10 is- Meet Children! We're almost there! I feel in shock! I mean, I know it in my head, but just now it really hit my heart!
I am not an overly emotional person, but lately I am really starting to have a full range of emotions! I am vacillating between total "I can't think straight because I'm so stinkin' excited" to "Oh, Lord, this is so much bigger than what I can handle. Are you absolutely sure you will give me strength? Cause I am not so sure."
It is very easy to let myself go down the mental trail of all the "what-ifs". They run the gamut all the way from, "Will we have enough money to stay in country a month", to "What if we have 3 kids with severe RAD and will our family be destroyed by it" to "WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE WE DOING?"
But I know that is completely giving in to Satan's desire to get me to doubt God's sufficiency. So lately I'm having to do a lot of "taking my thoughts captive" and "renewing my mind". I'm having to listen more carefully to the quiet whispers of the Holy Spirit since our life is such a whirlwind of activity and I am easily distracted. I'm so thankful too, for a hubby who keeps me grounded and yanks me back to truth when I stray.
I'm not really sure why I wrote all this out, but somehow it has been therapeutic to get it out of my mind so now I can move on! LOL!
Busyness!
Since the day we accepted our referral, life has doubled it's frenetic pace! Even without adoption, March and April are our busiest months of the year. For some reason, this time of year is extra busy for Brent with getting called out after work hours are over, and we have lots of church activities that are reaching their crescendo moments during this time. Add 4 kids and a mom with spring fever when it comes to the school books and we have a bit of chaos!
This year, though, it is reaching a new height of craziness! Brent is getting ready to leave for a week long men's mission trip to Mexico next week. He's led multiple ones in the past, so it's nothing new, but as you can imagine, it does consume extra time with laundry, shopping, packing, and paperwork logistics! I'm so excited for him to go (but a little jealous! I miss everyone down there!) but will miss him lots!
This weekend is our church's Women's Retreat, but Brent had to work and my TO DO list was just too long, so I've chosen to skip it this year. I'm sad, thinking about all my friends chatting, learning, praying, and getting silly at 3:30am., but I know it was the right decision. Lord willing, I'll be there next year!
We've been filling in any free minutes with shopping for spring/summer clothing for 7 children plus all the miscellaneous items for packing for a month in Colombia! It's very overwhelming!If anyone has any summer hand-me-downs, we would be greatly appreciative! Girls size 4/5T, sz 8/10, and 14/16 or Juniors 2-3. Boys sizes 6/7, 8, and 10! Whew!
We also finished the boys' room. I found the most adorable quilts with frogs on them at Target and Brent hung coat hooks, window curtains, a curtain for the closet, and a mirror. Next week I hope to finish the girls' room. Theirs is a little more difficult since we aren't fully sure whether we're going to put a bunk bed in there. So far we have a double bed and a toddler bed. Cait really doesn't want to sleep on a top bunk, and Luisa might love it, but we want to wait until we know how she does going to bed before we purchase any extra furniture. So the older girls will sleep together until we know what to do. Does anyone else's children do that? Both my older boys beg to sleep together every night (in a twin bed, no less!) and Cait and Quinn always sleep together. I only separate them when they are talking and carrying on and won't go to sleep. Crazy kids!
Today, I am elbows deep in food preparation. I decided to do a big bulk cooking day so that when we come home I can pull a dish out of the freezer instead of stare into the empty refrigerator for half an hour wondering what to fix all the ravenously hungry children! So far I have 4 Baked Zitis, 2 Chicken Tetrazinni's, a batch of Breakfast cookies (with 3 more ready to go), and am working on about 100 egg/sausage burritos and breakfast quiches. I wanted to get to some bean/cheese burritos, but I think I'll save that for another day. The freezer is looking full!
The kids are roaming in and out of the kitchen, trying to eat the Breakfast cookies, and playing outside in the spring weather.
We received an email saying our I800 was sent from USCIS to the National Benefits Center. Now we just wait for the approval I797C letter! Hopefully that will come next week!
Ok, enough of a break for me! Back to the kitchen!
This year, though, it is reaching a new height of craziness! Brent is getting ready to leave for a week long men's mission trip to Mexico next week. He's led multiple ones in the past, so it's nothing new, but as you can imagine, it does consume extra time with laundry, shopping, packing, and paperwork logistics! I'm so excited for him to go (but a little jealous! I miss everyone down there!) but will miss him lots!
This weekend is our church's Women's Retreat, but Brent had to work and my TO DO list was just too long, so I've chosen to skip it this year. I'm sad, thinking about all my friends chatting, learning, praying, and getting silly at 3:30am., but I know it was the right decision. Lord willing, I'll be there next year!
We've been filling in any free minutes with shopping for spring/summer clothing for 7 children plus all the miscellaneous items for packing for a month in Colombia! It's very overwhelming!If anyone has any summer hand-me-downs, we would be greatly appreciative! Girls size 4/5T, sz 8/10, and 14/16 or Juniors 2-3. Boys sizes 6/7, 8, and 10! Whew!
We also finished the boys' room. I found the most adorable quilts with frogs on them at Target and Brent hung coat hooks, window curtains, a curtain for the closet, and a mirror. Next week I hope to finish the girls' room. Theirs is a little more difficult since we aren't fully sure whether we're going to put a bunk bed in there. So far we have a double bed and a toddler bed. Cait really doesn't want to sleep on a top bunk, and Luisa might love it, but we want to wait until we know how she does going to bed before we purchase any extra furniture. So the older girls will sleep together until we know what to do. Does anyone else's children do that? Both my older boys beg to sleep together every night (in a twin bed, no less!) and Cait and Quinn always sleep together. I only separate them when they are talking and carrying on and won't go to sleep. Crazy kids!
Today, I am elbows deep in food preparation. I decided to do a big bulk cooking day so that when we come home I can pull a dish out of the freezer instead of stare into the empty refrigerator for half an hour wondering what to fix all the ravenously hungry children! So far I have 4 Baked Zitis, 2 Chicken Tetrazinni's, a batch of Breakfast cookies (with 3 more ready to go), and am working on about 100 egg/sausage burritos and breakfast quiches. I wanted to get to some bean/cheese burritos, but I think I'll save that for another day. The freezer is looking full!
The kids are roaming in and out of the kitchen, trying to eat the Breakfast cookies, and playing outside in the spring weather.
We received an email saying our I800 was sent from USCIS to the National Benefits Center. Now we just wait for the approval I797C letter! Hopefully that will come next week!
Ok, enough of a break for me! Back to the kitchen!
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
REFERRAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You all have NO IDEA how long I've ached to write the word "Referral" with a bunch of exclamation points behind it!!!! And this week I finally can!!!!
I just need to do it one more time! Just humor me!!!
Sorry, three times! LOL! Ok, it's out of my system for now! LOL!
So without further delay... We would like for you all to meet the newest-soon to be- members of the Trautman family!
So here's the story... the abbreviated version....
Last time I wrote, we had just found out that for some reason our referral was being delayed for a month. Without going into a lot of details, let me just say that this past month has been the absolute most difficult month of our lives.
About two weeks into our month long wait, we were confronted with some difficult information about our kiddos' medical information. It was absolutely gut-wrenching as we received good news, bad news, confusing news, doubtful news, and more confusing news. For the rest of the month we were 99% sure that we were not going to be able to adopt the chicos.
It was an incredibly intense time of praying, researching, educating ourselves, searching Scripture for insight, pleading with God for clarity and wisdom and talking, talking, talking. We truly feel it was God taking us through the refining fire. For a few days we would feel peace and comfort and then the whole world seemed upside down again.
We learned so much about our hearts and learning to surrender our dreams and future to Him. Even though it was extremely painful, as the pruning process usually is, it was absolutely beautiful to see how God chose to reveal Himself to us.
On Tuesday morning we received the most wonderful news from our doctor that we could have heard. All the drama and confusion was for naught! There were NO medical concerns after all! God couldn't have made Himself more clear to us! Praise HIM!
Sooooo, as soon as we heard the news, we got the ball rolling! We signed the Referral Acceptance Letter and sent it off to ICBF! They will be ours! We will be theirs! FOREVER!
We are so excited! I think that because of this crazy past month, we love these kids more fiercely and passionately right now than we would have otherwise! I can't wait to hug and kiss those little cheeks, and tuck them in bed, sing songs with them, dance crazy in the kitchen with them, and love on them forever! Cait, Grant, Jake and Quinn are already bursting at the seams with excitement and their own "I can't wait to..." list! When we told them that we had accepted the referral, they all screamed at the top of their lungs and were jumping all over the sofa for 5 straight minutes!
Today, our agency mailed off our I800 to get Immigration approval! They are saying that we should be in Colombia by either the end of April or the beginning of May!
We are still giddy with excitement, but now the crazy busyness starts! Paperwork, care packages, finalizing bedroom arrangements, shopping, packing, making housing arrangements, and a thousand other things are now on my 6 page long TO DO list! LOL! I am going to cherish and love every minute of it, though, because each one is bringing us one step closer to our little ones!
I just need to do it one more time! Just humor me!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!REFERRAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!REFERRAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!REFERRAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry, three times! LOL! Ok, it's out of my system for now! LOL!
So without further delay... We would like for you all to meet the newest-soon to be- members of the Trautman family!
 |
| Luisa is our 7 year old beauty! |
 |
| Jhonatan (Jonathan) is our handsome 5 year old little man! |
 |
| Cindy is our cutie-pie 3 year old princess! |
So here's the story... the abbreviated version....
Last time I wrote, we had just found out that for some reason our referral was being delayed for a month. Without going into a lot of details, let me just say that this past month has been the absolute most difficult month of our lives.
About two weeks into our month long wait, we were confronted with some difficult information about our kiddos' medical information. It was absolutely gut-wrenching as we received good news, bad news, confusing news, doubtful news, and more confusing news. For the rest of the month we were 99% sure that we were not going to be able to adopt the chicos.
It was an incredibly intense time of praying, researching, educating ourselves, searching Scripture for insight, pleading with God for clarity and wisdom and talking, talking, talking. We truly feel it was God taking us through the refining fire. For a few days we would feel peace and comfort and then the whole world seemed upside down again.
We learned so much about our hearts and learning to surrender our dreams and future to Him. Even though it was extremely painful, as the pruning process usually is, it was absolutely beautiful to see how God chose to reveal Himself to us.
On Tuesday morning we received the most wonderful news from our doctor that we could have heard. All the drama and confusion was for naught! There were NO medical concerns after all! God couldn't have made Himself more clear to us! Praise HIM!
Sooooo, as soon as we heard the news, we got the ball rolling! We signed the Referral Acceptance Letter and sent it off to ICBF! They will be ours! We will be theirs! FOREVER!
We are so excited! I think that because of this crazy past month, we love these kids more fiercely and passionately right now than we would have otherwise! I can't wait to hug and kiss those little cheeks, and tuck them in bed, sing songs with them, dance crazy in the kitchen with them, and love on them forever! Cait, Grant, Jake and Quinn are already bursting at the seams with excitement and their own "I can't wait to..." list! When we told them that we had accepted the referral, they all screamed at the top of their lungs and were jumping all over the sofa for 5 straight minutes!
Today, our agency mailed off our I800 to get Immigration approval! They are saying that we should be in Colombia by either the end of April or the beginning of May!
We are still giddy with excitement, but now the crazy busyness starts! Paperwork, care packages, finalizing bedroom arrangements, shopping, packing, making housing arrangements, and a thousand other things are now on my 6 page long TO DO list! LOL! I am going to cherish and love every minute of it, though, because each one is bringing us one step closer to our little ones!
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| Rejoice with us! Today these children have a family!!! |
Friday, January 28, 2011
Slight Change in Plans
We had hoped to hear from our social worker last week regarding our referral. So halfway through this week I couldn't stand it anymore and emailed her and asked if there was ANYTHING I could do ahead of time to make the process after the referral go quicker. She said that I can start filling out the I800 and other paperwork so it will just need to be dated and signed. Within an hour she had emailed me the documents and we spent the next hour going line by line through each document. With having to fill out 3 sets, it was over 100 pages!
Then at the end of the conversation she said she needed to give me some news. Everything is going fine, except our timeline is going to be pushed back by a month, most likely. Our dossier was submitted to ICBF in Bogota on Jan 6, and on Jan 20th it was approved and sent to Medellin's ICBF. Unfortunately, the ICBF let her know that they will be unable to give us a referral for another 3-4 weeks. They didn't offer any explanation, either.
We are HOPING that the reason is because they are updating our kids' medical reports. The information we received back in October was already about a year old. So it would be great if they are getting the whole packet of info current.
So that means that we are looking now to travel in late April, not March. We're pretty bummed, but are still thankful that we DID get ICBF approval- which apparently can be difficult the first time through, sometimes. It will give us time to do all the extra things on the To Do list and try to save some more money. I do have to say, I'm also pretty disappointed that I don't get to spend the cold Maryland winter months in beautiful, sunny Medellin! LOL!
I struggled a little bit feeling irritated that our travel plans were messed up. Feeling tired and weary of all the delays we've experienced over the last year and a half. Feeling sorry for us. Feeling really ready to just be done with the process and get our kids.
But, I've been reading through the Pentateuch where the Israelites were whining about God's timing and plans for them to enter the Promised Land. I started thinking, "How arrogant they were. Sheesh. Why couldn't they just trust God's timing!" Uh, oh. That very day God revealed my judgemental heart. I was doing the same thing!! How arrogant of me to demand we travel when WE think we should travel! How dare I feel sorry for myself when I KNOW that all of this is God's BEST for me! Can I not trust the All-knowing, All-mighty, All-sufficient God with our adoption travel dates? He knows best even when I think I do. So, I'm thankful for this lesson about trusting God along this journey. Thankful that He didn't let me continue in my selfishness and arrogance. Oh, there is so much to learn! I am thankful He is patient with this slow learner!
Then at the end of the conversation she said she needed to give me some news. Everything is going fine, except our timeline is going to be pushed back by a month, most likely. Our dossier was submitted to ICBF in Bogota on Jan 6, and on Jan 20th it was approved and sent to Medellin's ICBF. Unfortunately, the ICBF let her know that they will be unable to give us a referral for another 3-4 weeks. They didn't offer any explanation, either.
We are HOPING that the reason is because they are updating our kids' medical reports. The information we received back in October was already about a year old. So it would be great if they are getting the whole packet of info current.
So that means that we are looking now to travel in late April, not March. We're pretty bummed, but are still thankful that we DID get ICBF approval- which apparently can be difficult the first time through, sometimes. It will give us time to do all the extra things on the To Do list and try to save some more money. I do have to say, I'm also pretty disappointed that I don't get to spend the cold Maryland winter months in beautiful, sunny Medellin! LOL!
I struggled a little bit feeling irritated that our travel plans were messed up. Feeling tired and weary of all the delays we've experienced over the last year and a half. Feeling sorry for us. Feeling really ready to just be done with the process and get our kids.
But, I've been reading through the Pentateuch where the Israelites were whining about God's timing and plans for them to enter the Promised Land. I started thinking, "How arrogant they were. Sheesh. Why couldn't they just trust God's timing!" Uh, oh. That very day God revealed my judgemental heart. I was doing the same thing!! How arrogant of me to demand we travel when WE think we should travel! How dare I feel sorry for myself when I KNOW that all of this is God's BEST for me! Can I not trust the All-knowing, All-mighty, All-sufficient God with our adoption travel dates? He knows best even when I think I do. So, I'm thankful for this lesson about trusting God along this journey. Thankful that He didn't let me continue in my selfishness and arrogance. Oh, there is so much to learn! I am thankful He is patient with this slow learner!
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
ICBF and Albums
I just got word today that our dossier has been submitted to the main ICBF office in Bogota! That means we are officially in STAGE 3! See This Link to see the next steps of the process!
I am so happy! My social worker was almost apologetic in her email that that was all the news she had. But, I was just ecstatic because I had never heard that it made it past the translations stage!
So this means that sometime between Christmas and New Years our dossier finished translations AND went through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office!
There is still a chance that we can travel at the end of February if our timeline stays on course. We'll see.
If not, I know it is all going to be God's perfect timing anyway. (I have to keep reminding myself of this! LOL!)
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I'm also in the process of working on photo albums for each of the chicos to send in a care package as soon as we get our referral.
I was just going to do a digital album from Walgreens, but have been rethinking that. It's not as personal as a hand-made photo album with cute stickers and pretty paper lovingly put together. Especially because this will hopefully be a treasured memento they will have for the rest of their lives.
I do not have one single crafty bone in my body, so this will definitely be a labor of love! The thought of having to fill a blank white page with stickers, paper and pictures absolutely terrifies me!
And, there is the pressure that I need to complete it quickly since a referral will probably be here by the end of January! Any of my scrapbooking friends are welcome to lend any words of layout advice or help! LOL! Or should I just go with the digital album and save myself the stress? LOL!
I am so happy! My social worker was almost apologetic in her email that that was all the news she had. But, I was just ecstatic because I had never heard that it made it past the translations stage!
So this means that sometime between Christmas and New Years our dossier finished translations AND went through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office!
There is still a chance that we can travel at the end of February if our timeline stays on course. We'll see.
If not, I know it is all going to be God's perfect timing anyway. (I have to keep reminding myself of this! LOL!)
***********************************
I'm also in the process of working on photo albums for each of the chicos to send in a care package as soon as we get our referral.
I was just going to do a digital album from Walgreens, but have been rethinking that. It's not as personal as a hand-made photo album with cute stickers and pretty paper lovingly put together. Especially because this will hopefully be a treasured memento they will have for the rest of their lives.
I do not have one single crafty bone in my body, so this will definitely be a labor of love! The thought of having to fill a blank white page with stickers, paper and pictures absolutely terrifies me!
And, there is the pressure that I need to complete it quickly since a referral will probably be here by the end of January! Any of my scrapbooking friends are welcome to lend any words of layout advice or help! LOL! Or should I just go with the digital album and save myself the stress? LOL!
Monday, January 3, 2011
Learning Spanish
Learning another language is hard. My brain doesn't work like it did when I was younger. Memorizing things takes much more effort.
As a family, we began two years ago learning Spanish. We started with the ever popular Rosetta Stone. It's expensive but since we homeschool, I chalked it up to school costs. While I do like the immersion method, we found it to be difficult for our family. The kids had a difficult time with the talking portion of the program. No matter how accurately we adjusted the age/difficulty levels, they just could not pronounce the words precisely as the program wanted them to. This left them frustrated and unable to progress even though they knew the words. I too had difficulty saying the words to match the exact inflection in the recording's voice. We even upgraded our headset microphone from the one included, but nothing helped. It's a good program, we just couldn't make the speaking portion work for us.
So, this past year for school we switched to Spanish for Children. It is a homeschool textbook curriculum that is fairly new. It's just ok. I'm not in love with it so far, but at least we are learning the basics of conjugating verbs. I had no idea what conjugations were, so learning this along with the kids has been very helpful.
I took 2 years of French in high school. The first year I had a teacher that tried to teach us Japanese instead of French since he spoke it better, and the second year my teacher got cancer and we had a substitute for 90% of the year. Needless to say I never really learned a foreign language!
Brent and I ended up getting Fluenz, a fairly new program made by college students for adults learning another language. It is similar to Rosetta Stone, but where RS is immersion, Fluenz actually gives tutorials that explain the grammar behind what you are saying.
We were doing really well with it for a few months, and then our Mexico adoption fell apart and we got out of the habit and haven't picked it back up again! I need to get back to it, but the enormity of the task is causing me to feel overwhelmed. And, it is definitely focused for the adult business person. I think lesson 3 has you ordering beer! There is NO WAY we can learn what we need to before we bring home our chicos.
That's precisely why Brent and I have fallen in love with this simple Cd and booklet made especially for adoptive parents. The company is called Simple Language for Adoptive Families and they have programs for several different languages.
It is a pocket sized spiral bound book (I love that it will fit in my purse while we're in Colombia!) that contains all the most common phrases and sentences an adoptive parent might need in the first few months with their child. It also has a companion cd that says the sentence first in English, then the Spanish is repeated twice with time in between for you to practice it on your own. And, the voices are very pleasant to listen to!
Brent downloaded the cd onto his Itouch so he can listen in his work vehicle. He is able to listen more frequently than I am so he is really flying with it! Right now he has the chapters "Words of Affection", and "Boundaries" memorized and is working on "Bedtime". I'm just starting "Boundaries". We figured we'd go out of order and prioritize what phrases we will need right away!
Anyway, if you are a prospective adoptive parent, I highly recommend this little book. We're loving it!
As a family, we began two years ago learning Spanish. We started with the ever popular Rosetta Stone. It's expensive but since we homeschool, I chalked it up to school costs. While I do like the immersion method, we found it to be difficult for our family. The kids had a difficult time with the talking portion of the program. No matter how accurately we adjusted the age/difficulty levels, they just could not pronounce the words precisely as the program wanted them to. This left them frustrated and unable to progress even though they knew the words. I too had difficulty saying the words to match the exact inflection in the recording's voice. We even upgraded our headset microphone from the one included, but nothing helped. It's a good program, we just couldn't make the speaking portion work for us.
So, this past year for school we switched to Spanish for Children. It is a homeschool textbook curriculum that is fairly new. It's just ok. I'm not in love with it so far, but at least we are learning the basics of conjugating verbs. I had no idea what conjugations were, so learning this along with the kids has been very helpful.
I took 2 years of French in high school. The first year I had a teacher that tried to teach us Japanese instead of French since he spoke it better, and the second year my teacher got cancer and we had a substitute for 90% of the year. Needless to say I never really learned a foreign language!
Brent and I ended up getting Fluenz, a fairly new program made by college students for adults learning another language. It is similar to Rosetta Stone, but where RS is immersion, Fluenz actually gives tutorials that explain the grammar behind what you are saying.
We were doing really well with it for a few months, and then our Mexico adoption fell apart and we got out of the habit and haven't picked it back up again! I need to get back to it, but the enormity of the task is causing me to feel overwhelmed. And, it is definitely focused for the adult business person. I think lesson 3 has you ordering beer! There is NO WAY we can learn what we need to before we bring home our chicos.
That's precisely why Brent and I have fallen in love with this simple Cd and booklet made especially for adoptive parents. The company is called Simple Language for Adoptive Families and they have programs for several different languages.
It is a pocket sized spiral bound book (I love that it will fit in my purse while we're in Colombia!) that contains all the most common phrases and sentences an adoptive parent might need in the first few months with their child. It also has a companion cd that says the sentence first in English, then the Spanish is repeated twice with time in between for you to practice it on your own. And, the voices are very pleasant to listen to!
Brent downloaded the cd onto his Itouch so he can listen in his work vehicle. He is able to listen more frequently than I am so he is really flying with it! Right now he has the chapters "Words of Affection", and "Boundaries" memorized and is working on "Bedtime". I'm just starting "Boundaries". We figured we'd go out of order and prioritize what phrases we will need right away!
Anyway, if you are a prospective adoptive parent, I highly recommend this little book. We're loving it!
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