Colombian Visa

Well, we still haven't been able to file for our visas yet. We mailed the notorized letter to the Sec of State on Tues, Feb 19th. Since we sent them in priority enevelopes, we figured we would have them back by Friday, Saturday at the latest. Well, the following Monday (25th)we still didn't have any paperwork so John called them. The lady said there was a pile of mail sitting on the supervisors desk. Our paperwork was in there!!!!!!!! John explained the situation and she said she would process them immediately. Not so fast though. A little while later, he got a phone call from the nice lady saying she couldn't appostile the visa letter because it was notarized by a federal employee and they didn't have access to that system. John ran home printed up 2 more letters and brought them to me at work where we had a notary with a Texas stamp. Then he went to Fed Ex to next day air them again to Austin. I didn't know next day air was so expensive. Oh well, at this point, I am willing to pay anything so we have our visas in time. We know they received the paperwork today at 0930 so we should be receiving them soon. John is going to check with them tomorrow. Luckily, the Colombia consulate said the visa could be done in 3 days so please pray that all falls into place and we still get to meet our son on March 17th.

Paperwork

Well, we are back on the paperwork trail. We have several documents that had to be sent to the Sec. of State and once we get them back, we can apply for our Colombian visa. I can't believe in 26 days we will meet our son. Even though it took longer to complete Tiffany's adoption, this still seems like an eternity.

We heard back from some of Tiffany's teachers and they are willing to work with us to keep her caught up. She wasn't so happy to hear that she will be doing homework while in Colombia but she didn't like the alternative (staying here).

We were going to do a yard sale this weekend but it looks like we will be postponing that again. They will call for good weather about a week before and then, bam, it changes to bad weather. We have only 3 more weekends possible to do the sale. German's room is full of yard sale stuff. We didn't have anywhere else to store it. If anyone has seen how small base houses are then you know what I mean. Thank goodness we had his room set up before we started using it as storage.

WE HAVE TICKETS!

After a 2 hour trip to Dallas and over an hour at the counter line, we have tickets. We leave on March 15th! Now we can get our Colombian visa. I am so excited but a bit nervous. Sometimes I think, what if he doesn't like us. What if he doesn't want to come back with us. Then, I imagine him playing with Tiffany in our backyard or playing basketball with John. I know these are natural thoughts because I had them with Tiffany too but not as much. It is probably because he is older than what Tiffany was. Needless to say, we are going to get him and we can't wait.

Oh, and as for our trip to Dallas to do some shopping too. I didn't get anything on the list I had made. We only picked up a few books from Books-A-Million to do some schooling while we are waiting to bring him home.

We have to get ready for another home visit today. We just found out on Thursday that Texas requires a homestudy update 30 days before getting your child if your homestudy is more than 6 months old. Another $350.00 we weren't counting on. Due to price increases and changes to requirements our adoption went up almost $2000.00 more than what we had planned. We knew things could change but why does it always seem to be with a price tag. Oh well, we have been able to provide so far thanks to the support of our family, friends and the Lord up above.

WE ARE GOING TO GET OUR SON!

Well, it is finally official. Here is the picture of our son!!!!!!!!!!!!! His name is German (pronounced like Her-mahn). He is 7 years old and we will be meeting him on March 17th at 1300. We are so excited. There is so much to get done between now and the time we leave but all will work out. We are going to Dallas tomorrow to buy our plane tickets. In order to get the adoption fare, we have to purchase them in person from a Delta ticket counter and the closest is Dallas. It gives me an excuse to go shopping while we are there. There really is not much in Wichita Falls, Texas. Hope everyone else who is waiting will soon get their children. What a blessing this year has been so far.

WE ARE GOING TO COLOMBIA!

Well, it looks like we are going to Colombia in March. We have received the additional information we requested and everything looks good. We have just sent in our acceptance letter and are just waiting to hear if our travel dates will be okay for the people in Colombia. Once we get the official okay, we can post his picture. We are so excited. If all works out, we will travel to Colombia on March 15th and meet our son on March 17th. Since Tiffany will be on spring break that week, she will only miss one week of school instead of the 2 weeks we originally planned on. Hopefully it won't take too long to hear from Colombia because we need to get tickets and the prices are increasing as it gets closer. God is Good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Learning Spanish

Learning Spanish has proven to be more difficult than I thought. Actually reading it is alot easier than speaking it. John is taking a Spanish class and I am learning along with him. I can understand it if I can see it but to hear it and understand it is a totally different story. Anyways, a girl that works with John gave a great suggestion. She said to place post-its on different things in the house with the Spanish word on it. It looks funny to see all these colored papers in the house but it is actually helping to remember words.

As for any news on our son. We are hoping to hear something real soon. Hope everyone had a great weekend. Glad to hear the Cali courts have opened so the families there could continue on with their adoption process.

Thank you.....

Hello everyone! We just wanted to say THANK YOU for all the prays and words of encouragement. These past few days have been the hardest for Patty so far. Seeing his picture but no knowing about him has been hard. Our hearts are saying YES, YES, YES but our minds (at least Patty's) are saying we need more information. Without going into details, the info they gave on him is not enough to make a decision on. Some of the info we got contradicted itself with info on other pages. Julie has said the same thing. She felt there was not enough information to make a definite decision. We have to think about our daughter and how his circumstance might affect her. Thanks again for all the support and we will keep you all updated as soon as we hear something.

Oh yeah, did I mention he is just the most beautiful little boy. Can't wait to share his picture with you all!

WE GOT OUR REFERRAL!

We received a referral for a 7 year old boy on Tuesday, Jan 29th! We have been a little hesitant about letting people know just yet because there are lots of questions. When we talked to Julie (from CHI), she said this was the least amount of information she has received on a child in a very, very long time. She suggested we request more information which we have. Unfortunately, she said it will take at a minimum of 2 weeks before we will hear anything. So, for now, we are going ahead with the necessary paperwork to prepare to go get our son. Please pray that everything works out for us and our son. He is so precious and we would love nothing more than to be able to have him as part of our family. We will keep everyone updated as soon as we hear something.