While it feels like every week flies by and I know we have accomplished quite a bit already, sometimes it is frustrating to think that the real wait hasn't even started yet!
We are waiting for word that our dossier has been submitted to the adoption house.
The hold up is that it takes time for the dossier to be mailed and then translated. We are hoping that it will be submitted to the adoption house by the end of February, and then we will just wait for their approval that we are actually on "the list" there.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
loving los pisingos!
This is a video by another adoption agency, but the images are at Los Pisingos (the adoption house we are hoping to adopt from!) So excited about this organization and pray frequently for God to bless them and all the children and families they touch!
also a video of the director of los pisingos explaining what they do..
If you want to help donate to their cause, let us know! We hope to donate financially as well clothes and anything else they may need when we can make our trip down there :)
also a video of the director of los pisingos explaining what they do..
If you want to help donate to their cause, let us know! We hope to donate financially as well clothes and anything else they may need when we can make our trip down there :)
Friday, February 10, 2012
Colombia here we come!
Just got this message from Bethany:
Good news! Your Dossier has been listed as officially sent to the country! This means that you are on your way to the next step in the process. We will contact you once we have heard back from the country with any news or updates.
picture me yelling "yaaaaayyy!", while clapping to myself :)
(am i a dork? haha, i dont even care!)
Good news! Your Dossier has been listed as officially sent to the country! This means that you are on your way to the next step in the process. We will contact you once we have heard back from the country with any news or updates.
picture me yelling "yaaaaayyy!", while clapping to myself :)
(am i a dork? haha, i dont even care!)
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
USCIS Approval & Dossier Complete
We received the USCIS approval yesterday in the mail.
So I took this afternoon off from work to get our documents apostilled, make final copies, and drop everything off at Bethany. We will be praying hard that the dossier is correct and complete, so it can be sent down to Colombia ASAP so we finally begin our actually wait! It is such a relief to have this part completed, and yet I feel like we have completely stepped into the unknown. All we can do is wait, and have no control over anything at this point. We will trust in God, He is in control!
curious about what it means to have a document apostilled? they are only for documents being sent to foreign countries. from what i understand, it is a piece of paper and a few shiny stickers they attach to "official" documents that have been notarized. i believe that they are just a way for the government to tell another government that the notary and hence the information is valid.
So I took this afternoon off from work to get our documents apostilled, make final copies, and drop everything off at Bethany. We will be praying hard that the dossier is correct and complete, so it can be sent down to Colombia ASAP so we finally begin our actually wait! It is such a relief to have this part completed, and yet I feel like we have completely stepped into the unknown. All we can do is wait, and have no control over anything at this point. We will trust in God, He is in control!
curious about what it means to have a document apostilled? they are only for documents being sent to foreign countries. from what i understand, it is a piece of paper and a few shiny stickers they attach to "official" documents that have been notarized. i believe that they are just a way for the government to tell another government that the notary and hence the information is valid.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
keeping our heads high
While the news yesterday was discouraging, we are still excited to move full steam ahead! I had about an hour where i may have been panicking, but after I was able to process it, I felt confident that God was still in control. He has chosen a specific child chosen for us, and we will wait as long as we need to. I am happy to wait for when God says it is time, and I will pray that He chooses a time quicker than we expect :)
Some very good news today: I called USCIS (immigration/citizenship) as I usually do every week, and to my surprise they told me our documents had been approved this morning, and then mailed out today! I ended the conversation on several fist pumps :) This actually happen quite quickly, it is standard for this portion to take 60 days, but ours only took 40! There must have been some prayer warriors out there, what great timing ..
I had someone review our dossier yesterday to make sure everything was looking right so far, and we just have a few easy fixes to make. Once those are done and our USCIS stuff comes in the mail, we get the last portion notarized for that, get some of the documents apostilled, make our final copies, and off to Bethany it goes!
wondering how much paper goes into a dossier? check it out!
Some very good news today: I called USCIS (immigration/citizenship) as I usually do every week, and to my surprise they told me our documents had been approved this morning, and then mailed out today! I ended the conversation on several fist pumps :) This actually happen quite quickly, it is standard for this portion to take 60 days, but ours only took 40! There must have been some prayer warriors out there, what great timing ..
I had someone review our dossier yesterday to make sure everything was looking right so far, and we just have a few easy fixes to make. Once those are done and our USCIS stuff comes in the mail, we get the last portion notarized for that, get some of the documents apostilled, make our final copies, and off to Bethany it goes!
wondering how much paper goes into a dossier? check it out!
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Discouraged
Definitely feeling discouraged this morning.
Many people ask what the wait time is, and we have been hearing conflicting times. Families who have adopted will encourage us and have had waits recently as little as 6 months. Yet our agency (the same agency they went through) is telling us we now can expect a wait much longer. We have been praying, hoping, and praying, that what these other families have been encouraging us could only be true.
This morning, I received something from an international services coordinator who is now telling us that the wait will likely be just as long as if we had gone through the Colombian government and not with an adoption house directly, AND going to the adoption house is much more expensive for not much of a difference in wait... (we have been told that the government wait is several years).
And they just confirmed the new wait period will be around 2 years(instead of the 6-18 month wait we were hoping for)...crushed. We were told the reason for the change has to do with an increase in dossiers to the adoption houses and that Colombian is giving preference to US-Colombian families first.
My hope for this adoption to occur yet this year feels like it has been torn from our grasp...
Lord, we want to give this adoption up to you and have it happen when you want it to. You know we are very impatient people, please give us patience like we have never had before. You know our desire of this child and how much we want to bring them home as soon as possible. Please direct comfort and encouragement our way so we may be patient and trust in your plan..
Many people ask what the wait time is, and we have been hearing conflicting times. Families who have adopted will encourage us and have had waits recently as little as 6 months. Yet our agency (the same agency they went through) is telling us we now can expect a wait much longer. We have been praying, hoping, and praying, that what these other families have been encouraging us could only be true.
This morning, I received something from an international services coordinator who is now telling us that the wait will likely be just as long as if we had gone through the Colombian government and not with an adoption house directly, AND going to the adoption house is much more expensive for not much of a difference in wait... (we have been told that the government wait is several years).
And they just confirmed the new wait period will be around 2 years(instead of the 6-18 month wait we were hoping for)...crushed. We were told the reason for the change has to do with an increase in dossiers to the adoption houses and that Colombian is giving preference to US-Colombian families first.
My hope for this adoption to occur yet this year feels like it has been torn from our grasp...
Lord, we want to give this adoption up to you and have it happen when you want it to. You know we are very impatient people, please give us patience like we have never had before. You know our desire of this child and how much we want to bring them home as soon as possible. Please direct comfort and encouragement our way so we may be patient and trust in your plan..
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