1,343

That is our number on the list. 1,343 people are ahead of us, waiting for a child in our same age range. What a staggering number to think about! No wonder it takes years to process all these families! So what does this mean and what is next?

Bast case scenario: we are able to transfer back to Los Pisingos within the next few months.(as no matter what: this will give us the shortest wait. And we just love Los Pisingos anyways!)

Next best case scenario: If we have to stick with ICBF/the government wait list route, it sounds like for every two regular ICBF cases that are moved to a region as referrals are processed, they will also move ONE Los Pisingos family as well. From what I can gather, this means that we will move along quicker than people who submitted to ICBF directly, but the wait will still be longer than if we were with Los Pisingos.

Overall, this sounds like pretty good news, but yet still very confusing and a lot of details that we really don't understand or know. We will continue to trust that God will guide us!

an update is close!

Just heard that a meeting should be taking place this week with the Colombian governement (ICBF) to give an update on where we are on  "the list" with them now.

It also sounds like Los Pisingos (the adoption house we were previously working with) is working to get their license back, and hopes to have everything worked out in the next few months? We are praying this is true, and praying that we will be able to move our dossier back to them! Otherwise, we will have to continue with ICBF and pray that thew long wait ahead of us will will pass quickly :)

No Update

This is an update to report we have no update :)

We were hoping to get an update this week on where we will begin our new wait with ICBF, but they are behind on getting these "new" families into the system, so it will be a little bit yet before we know.
Otherwise, the last we have heard from our agency is that they are working to see if there are any other adoption houses we could transfer to instead, or if Los Pisingos reopens we will see about transferring back there (we are trying to be positive, but just not sure how quickly/if that will happen). So we continue to hold our breath for where we go next...

On a positive note: two families we know have gotten referrals recently! SO excited for both of them! One of them was able to squeeze a referral through before Los Pisingos closed- what a blessing! They happen to be an extended family member of a family member(kind of?), so it has been really awesome to be able to get to see their story from a closer perspective. Just getting a small idea of what it is like to see that picture for the first time... your heart just breaks!

adoption house "closes"

We found out this week that the adoption house our case was at, Los Pisingos, lost its adoption license. ICBF (the government agency in Colombia that oversees all adoptions) pulled the license a few weeks ago.
Since the reason why has not been made 100% clear, I will not comment on that part- but we do know that it is NOT because of mistreatment or misconduct in regards to the children there.

What does this mean for us? At this time, since all other adoption houses are "full" (meaning they will not accept any more waiting families) or are no longer issuing adoptions for children under the age of 5 years old, we have to continue our adoption process under ICBF. The problem with this, is that the wait time is at least double what the wait time is if working with an adoption house (average wait time right now through ICBF is 4 years). The only beneficial thing for us, is that our case is moving along the wait list like everyone else (for now).
We hope to get an update soon on where we actually stand on the wait list - we are hoping that they will take the time we have waited already into consideration. Unlike an adoption house, we should receive a number that will tell us where we are in line.

We do truly hope, however, that Los Pisingos will get their license back! If this does occur, we can request for our case to be transferred back to them. There are many factors and unknowns that still would have to be worked out before this could potentially  happen.

For now: we wait to see what happens with Los Pisingos and where our new "wait" beings!