Jackson Adoption Blog

Our Last Adoption Post!

2009-10-17T08:59:00.001-07:00

After 4 years, 1 month, 1 week and 3 days our adoption journey has finally come to an end! When we submitted our adoption paperwork and dossier on September 5, 2005, we had no idea that our journey would lead us here...4 years later! But it's like everyone says, when you finally get your child you can't imagine having any other one. He was knit together in his biological mother's womb, but he was created for us. It hasn't been an easy road, but one filled with doubt and impatience and non-understanding. But even when we are filled with doubt, impatience and unfaithfulness, God is certain, patient and faithful. And we are thankful beyond measure that God has given us Cohen.

Since our adoption journey has come to an end, this will be my last post on the adoption blog. From this point on I will post only on my other blog www.samandemilyjackson.blogspot.com. Before signing off though for the last time, I just can't thank everyone enough. To our family and friends who have stuck by us through this, who have walked along side of us in the hardest times, and rejoiced with us during our best times - we could not have made this journey without you. You were our patience when we had none, you were our faithfulness when we doubted, you were the ears we complained to, and you were the shoulders we cried on. We truly could not have done this without your love, support, encouragement and prayers. We love all of you!

Much Love,

Sam, Emily & Cohen

An Unexpected Surprise!

2009-10-17T08:54:00.000-07:00

I guess the saying is correct: all you need to do to lose weight is eat less and move more. I didn't have access to a scale the whole time I was in Colombia, so I was a little scared when I stepped on when I got home. The food served at the B&B is exactly healthy. Most meals consisted of a fried meat of some sort and rice and potatoes...very HEAVY and very starchy. But I ate three meals a day and very little snacking. Also, we walked somewhere almost every day. The result: I actually lost about 13 pounds while in Colombia. Hopefully, I won't lose the momentum!

Things I Apparently Need To Re-Learn:

2009-10-17T08:44:00.000-07:00

One wouldn't think that being gone from home for a month would result in that difficult of a re-adjustment period. Apparently for me, however, there are quite a few things I need to re-learn. Here are a few:

#1: How to go to the bathroom - after I used the bathroom here at home for the first time after I got back, I threw the potty paper into the waste basket instead of the toilet. (No paper goes in the toilets in Colombia.)

#2 How to brush my teeth - I went to get a glass of filtered water the first time I went to brush my teeth.

#3 How to take a shower - I don't need to let the shower run for five minutes to get hot.

#4 How to make lunch - I went to pop in a Lean Cuisine lunch into the microwave (just as I have every day for like a year) and I couldn't for the life of me remember how long to cook it.

#5 How to get dressed - I looked through every single drawer in our dresser before I found my underwear.

#6 How to use the computer - After a month of typing on my mini computer, I can apparently no longer type on my full size lap top. It's like my fingers are twice their size and I hit all of the wrong keys.

Last Night at the B&B!

2009-10-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

While I was busy packing, Cohen had to entertain himself! Poor little feller is so tired, he tries to free his blankie from his crib!

He just loves crawling into small places! But then he gets stuck and can't get out and starts crying!

The Loooong Rode Home

2009-10-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

Andres (our driver) picked us up from the hotel at 6:15 a.m. to get to the airport in time for our 9:30 a.m. flight. I was so anxious and nervous the night before that I woke up at 4:15 a.m. and could not go back to sleep, so I got up and started getting ready. I was ready by 4:45 (I had packed everything the night before) so I just sat there in the dark until I got Cohen up at 5:30 a.m. And let me tell you, the kid does NOT like to be woken up! So everything went fine at the Bogota airport (no problems getting him through) and we actually had a really good flight from Bogota to Atlanta. I was able to get a row of three seats for us in the back, so he actually lay down and slept for about 1 1/2 hours (while I watched Land of the Lost :-)

We got into the Atlanta airport about 3:30 p.m. local time. I had to wait about an hour in the immigration line only to be told I had to go to a "special" room to have his papers processed. Well, by that time Cohen was pretty fussy (just sitting in his stroller for an hour) so when we got into the room, I took him out of his stroller and set him on the ground to play. Soon after, this giant (big and tall) African American security guy (who looked about 23) walks in, looks down at the baby and shouts, "Whatch yo' baby doin' on the flo'?" I kind of tried to laugh it off and I said, "Oh, well you know, it's better than the alternative of him screaming." He then says (just as loudly) "Don't you know that flo' is dirty! There's germs all over it...there's swine flu all over the flo'!" Awkward! At any rate, a few minutes later and a few stamps on his papers and *poof* Cohen was officially a U.S. citizen!

After we got through immigration and customs I found a place for us to sit down so Cohen could get out of his stroller. I set Cohen down on the ground and unbelievably he just took off in a full crawl!!! Now, just the day before, Cohen was still doing his army scoot thing where he'd kick up his legs like a frog and then go flat on his stomach between each crawl "step." So you can imagine my surprise when I set him down, and he takes off crawling just like he's been doing it all along! I thought it was hysterical that as soon as he became and U.S. citizen and stepped onto U.S. soil, he started crawling!!! :-)

So we were supposed to have a five hour layover in Atlanta, but as most of you know, our flight home from Atlanta was delayed quite a bit due to bad weather. It was supposed to leave at 8:33 p.m. but we didn't get off the ground until after 10:00 p.m.! Cohen had a total meltdown at the terminal gate around 8:30 because he was hungry and tired. I took him screaming and crying into a Starbucks, thinking I was going to have to try to talk them into giving me hot water, but one look at him and they were ready to give me practically anything to get him out of there!

We finally got on the plane and Cohen was still very fussy. He was so tired, he was having trouble letting himself fall asleep...he would nod off but then wake up and start crying. At one point the lady in front of me (who appeared to be a bit Bohemian) turned around and gave me a cotton ball soaked with Lavender oil. She said it would soothe and calm him. Well, I tucked the cotton ball between him and me on my chest, and the next thing I knew, I could barely keep my eyes open! I guess it worked, because he fell asleep soon after!

Finally, we landed in Indy around 11:30 p.m. and were pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a big group of friends and family! It was so good to see everybody after such a long day! Thanks for coming so late to the airport! I can't believe we're finally home! We can't thank you all enough for all of your prayers and support, especially with the difficulties of the last few days!

Preparing for take off - Safety First!

That's surely my kid! Love the Sky Mall!

Nap time!

Ahhh, we've landed in Atlanta and are through customs and immigration! When we went through the security check point, they made me take Cohen's shoes off too! Of course, he promptly removed his socks!

Us standing between the Colombian and American flags! (That's the Colombian flag second from the left - gold, blue and red striped.)

Hanging at the terminal gate.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS PICTURE! Thanks to everyone who welcomed us at the airport! From left to right: Robyn, Russ, Shannon, Michele, Sam, Em, Ann, Dan, Aaron, Kristen, and Shelli - we love you guys!

First time in a car seat! Sleepy baby!

ALL DONE!!!

2009-10-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

This morning at 9:00 a.m. I got a call from the Embassy saying that Cohen's visa was finally ready! A little ironic, I thought, considering it was finished a half an hour before my original flight was to leave! Oh well. David (our interpreter) said that it would only take about 45 minutes to an hour, so I decided to leave Cohen at the hotel while I went to get the visa. There's a family here from Cicero (just 3 miles from our house!) who are adopting three siblings, and there's another family here from Spain who are adopting a baby girl just one week younger than Cohen. Well, I was a little nervous about leaving him, but the Cicero family said they'd watch him and Elisa (the Spanish mom) said she'd keep an eye on him too. Well, we were at the embassy for a little longer than expected and then I needed to stop by a store to try to find a cheap umbrella stroller. I could kick myself for not bringing ours, but when I thought it would be me AND mom carrying him around the airport it didn't seem that daunting. But now that I'm bringing him home myself, I was really worried about lugging his chubby, non-walking self around the airport for that long! (The little feller weighs 25 pounds!) So by the time I got back to the hotel, about two hours had passed, and I was a little nervous about how Cohen would be doing. Well, I needn't have worried...when I came in the door, practically every adult in the house was hovering over him and playing with him! The Cicero family, the Spanish family, some of the ladies who work here...this kid is going to be spoiled rotten!!! :-)
*

At any rate, I have all of the documents I need to leave the country and enter the U.S. with Cohen. So barring an earthquake, mudslide, or some other act of God (nothing would surprise me at this point!) we will be coming home tomorrow after being in Colombia for 4 weeks and 1 day! For those of you who have been asking, here's my flight info: We leave Bogota at 9:30 a.m. on Delta #444 arriving in Atlanta at 3:38 p.m. local time. We leave ATL on Delta #5980 at 8:33 p.m. and arrive in Indy at 10:08 p.m. If we get through immigration in time, I'm going to see if I can get on stand-by for the flight that leaves for Indy at 6:30 p.m. Right now it's full though, so I probably won't be able to get on it. But if it does work out, it would put us in Indy around 8:30 p.m.

Once again thanks for all of you who I know have been praying without ceasing for us! It's been a long journey (4 years, 1 month, 1 week and 3 days...but who's counting!) and we really appreciate everyone who has walked along side of us! We are so grateful for all of your support and encouragement! Hope to see you all soon!

Cohen holding his Colombian passport and visa!

Finally! The visa packet!!!

Miscellaneous Pics!

2009-10-14T07:02:00.000-07:00

Playing in the back yard of the B&B

On top of Monserrate

At a nearby park

I promise the kid does like me! Every picture I have of the two of us, he's got this same sour look on his face! Sam says it's because I'm the only one who can make him laugh for pictures. I guess...but I still wish I had a picture of him smiling with me!

This picture was taken on 10/8/09...the day we officially adopted Cohen!

Process Update

2009-10-14T05:37:00.000-07:00

Most of you know this by now, but here's what's going on with the "visa situation." Sam and I went to the U.S. Embassy first thing Tuesday morning so Sam could sign the pesky I-600 form that's caused us so much trouble. It took all of two minutes! The lady said that was all they needed and they would have Cohen's visa ready to pick up that afternoon at 3:30 p.m. So David (our translator) drives us back to the hotel, and just one block from the hotel we realize that I still have Cohen's passport and that the lady never asked us for it! Well, of course they need his passport to process the visa. So David drops us off at the hotel and takes the passport all the way back to the Embassy. Crisis averted...or so we thought. Just a couple hours later the Embassy called us here at the hotel while my mom and I were out at the bank. So Sam talked to them to find out that the computers had gone done that morning and they were having trouble getting them back up. So as to not freak us out, Sam actually didn't tell me this until much later. Around 3:30 Sam makes a "secret" call to the Embassy to see what's going on and is told it's not looking good. If the computers don't come back up in the next hour, there is no way we can get our visa that day. Well, at that point Sam decides he better come clean and tell me what's going on. Soon after, Lucia (our social worker/liason here) comes by and phones the embassy herself, which is when we found out for sure that they would not be able to process our visa that day.

At this point we start trying to figure out travel arrangements. Sam checked with his airline Mexicana and they had a flight leaving later in the day and it would only cost $150 to change his flight. So at that point we were thinking that Sam would have to bring Cohen home himself, which would totally suck because Cohen's not quite used to him yet, and the flight only took him to Chicago. So then he'd have a 3 1/2 hour car ride with the baby back to Indy. Not ideal, by any stretch of the imagination. So I told Sam just to call Delta one more time and see if there was any way they would waive the fee to change my ticket. Well, they wouldn't waive the $250 fee, but this time the guy told him there would be NO ADDITIONAL fare difference!!! (Have I mentioned that the Delta people are driving us insane!) At any rate, Sam jumped on it and got my ticket changed to Thursday for only $280 with the fee and taxes. So about an hour later Sam, Mom, and I are talking and Mom says that she wishes that she could change her ticket too so she could go home with me to help me. So Sam calls Delta back (mind you just an hour later) and surprise, surprise, he is told that it will cost $1,600 plus taxes to change mom's ticket!!! What kind of circus are they running over there, anyway!!! My dad even tried to call from home and told them the situation and pleaded with them for some compassion, but they told him the same thing - $1,600!

So any way...Sam and Mom left the hotle this morning at 4:45 a.m. (yikes!) to get to the airport for Sam's 7:30 a.m. flight. Mom's flight leaves at 9:30 a.m. Since some people have asked: Sam is flying Mexicana to Chicago via Mexico City, and then our GOOD friend Aaron :-) is picking him up from the airport in Chicago and driving him back home. Mom is flying Delta (boo!) to Indy via Atlanta and will arrive in Indy around 10:00 p.m. Please be praying for my mom, as many of you know she is a very nervous flyer, especially when alone. Thanks to all for the prayers, support and encouragement!

Miscellaneous Pics!

2009-10-11T10:50:00.000-07:00

After a long afternoon at the street mercados (markets) Cohen is worn out!

Cohen looking pitiful, so that we'll take him out of his baby "prison" when he's supposed to be napping!

Adoption Day!

2009-10-10T19:21:00.000-07:00

These are pics from the day Cohen legally became our son (Thurs. 10/8)! That afternoon at 3:00 p.m. I signed the final adoption decree and then we went to get his birth certificate! We had to go to Notaria 53 (Notary 53) because that's where Cohen's birth was registered. That means that his foster mother brought him into this very building when he was less than a week old to register for his birth certificate! It was so neat - while we were in there waiting for his birth certificate, four different women came in to register their VERY newborn babies! After the parents fill out the paperwork they have to unwrap the babies (they put A LOT of layers of clothes and blankets on babies here!) and strip off their little socks. Then the lady who works at the notary takes the babies' feet, presses them onto an ink pad, and then stamps their little foot prints onto the paper! It was so cute to watch...and neat for me because Cohen had been there a year earlier getting his little feet stamped!

This is the Notaria building where we got Cohen's birth certificate.

Celebrating Cohen's legal adoption!

I'm showing my "inked" finger here! You stamp your fingerprint along with your signature here on official documents!

Process Update

2009-10-09T18:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, so here's the deal...since I was not able to apply for Cohen's visa today because we didn't have Sam's signature on one of the forms, Sam was going to try to FedEx, UPS, DHL (whatever) the Power of Attorney form down to Bogota because if we got it by Tuesday morning, we could still get it to the Embassy and get the visa. Unfortunately, Monday is a holiday in Bogota, and everywhere Sam checked the earliest they could get it to me was Tuesday night - obviously too late to get the visa that day to fly home on Wednesday. So we figured that we'd just have to bite the bullet and have Sam FedEx the form, get it on Tuesday, get the visa on Wednesday and fly home on Thursday. Totally irritating when you consider this one error, that could have easily been caught, was now going to cost us $850!

But then the story takes another twist: when we bought our plane tickets from Delta a couple of months ago, we had a choice: 1) a fully changeable ticket for $1,100 or 2) a fixed ticket for $477 and then having to pay a $250 fee to change the ticket plus any difference in the ticket fare. When Sam asked them if the "difference" in the ticket price would be just whatever the round trip ticket price was or if it would be like you walked into the airport and got a one-way ticket that day, we were assured by several Delta people that the price difference would in fact be based on whatever the current round trip cost was. So that would mean $477 for the ticket plus $250 to change it and maybe a little bit more for the difference - still quite a bit less than the $1,1000 changeable ticket. However, when Sam called them today to see if perhaps they'd waive the $250 change fee because of our situation, he was informed not only that they wouldn't waive the fee, but that in addition to the fee the "difference" between the tickets WAS IN FACT based on a same day, one way ticket!!! Which means that it would cost several thousand dollars to change mom's and my tickets to one day later!!!

So believe it or not, the cheapest thing for us to do is for Sam to fly back down to Bogota and be here on Tuesday morning to sign the form in person. Sam found a round trip flight from Chicago to Bogota for $380. So he is arriving in Bogota on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. and leaving on Wednesday (the same day we leave). Unfortunately, since his flight is in and out of Chicago, he won't be there at the airport to welcome us home, so I'm very sad about that.

I'm really struggling not to be bitter. I mean forking over an additional $380 is a heck of a lot better than $3000! But it just makes me so upset that we're in this predicament to begin with. I feel let down by the people we trusted to make sure everything was correct. Please pray that I won't be so bitter and angry and that we are in fact able to get the visa on Tuesday as we've been told by the Embassy, so that we can make it home on Wednesday. Again, thanks for all of your prayers and support!

Very Bad News

2009-10-09T12:02:00.000-07:00

Well, the day got off to a great start. We were out of the hotel by 8:00 a.m. and off to the Embassy to get Cohen's Colombian passport. We made record time, and had his passport in hand in 15 minutes - from start to finish! Then we rushed to the doctor's office for his check-up. Again everything went fine there and we were done very quickly. The last thing we had to do was apply for his visa. So we went to the U.S. Embassy, which is when things took a turn for the worse. After being so careful and vigilant about our paperwork, something was wrong. Sam hadn't signed the I-600 orphan petition form. It was our understanding that we were not to sign any of the forms we brought with us until we were in front of the person receiving them. Apparently, that wasn't the case, Sam was supposed to sign the form before he left. So the guy at the embassy says that I can sign for Sam as long as I have a Power of Attorney. But again, we were specifically told before we left that we did not need to have a Power of Attorney, so we don't have one. Long story short, the U.S. Embassy won't accept our visa application because it is missing one signature on one form. They will not allow us to fax them anything - everything has to be original. However, if we can return to the embassy with the POA on Tuesday morning they would go ahead and and issue the visa the same day. Sounds a little promising, right? So Sam is getting a Power of Attorney notorized today and is sending it UPS. Unfortunately, UPS is saying that they can't get it there until late Tuesday which means we will not have it in time for them to issue a visa on Tuesday. Which means we will not be coming home on Wednesday. Which means that in addition to the $240 it's going to cost to send the form UPS we'll also have to come up with another $600+ to change our plane tickets by just one day. $850 just because we weren't told Sam needed to sign a stupid form before he left. I am absolutely furious and heartbroken that after all of our hard work and running around non-stop for the past two days, it's come down to this.

It's OFFICIAL!!!

2009-10-08T18:47:00.000-07:00

Today at 3:00 p.m. we officially became the legal parents of one Cohen Daniel Alejandro Jackson! I got the call today that I would be signing the final adoption decree today. So after I signed the decree we were able to squeeze in getting his birth certificate too! So now the adoption is finalized and we can now get his passport and visa to go home to the U.S. But seeing how that life is not without its drama, we've hit a bit of a snag. Since we signed the decree and got the birth certificate today, we were going to get the passport and doctor visit tomorrow, apply for his visa on Monday and get his visa on Tuesday (allowing us to return home on Wednesday.) However, Lucia (our liason here) called tonight to say that the U.S. Embassy will be closed on Monday due to some random holiday! Ugh! So what we are going to try to do tomorrow is get his passport, then immediately go to the doctor visit, and then immediately apply for his visa. If we can get all of that in tomorrow, then we should still be able to get the visa on Tuesday and return home on Wednesday. There are a lot of "ifs" in there though. Please pray that we are able to get everything done tomorrow that we need to! Thanks so much for all of your prayers, support, and encouragement!

Cohen In Motion!

2009-10-08T08:12:00.000-07:00

Cohen just loved his little friend Esteban (who went home just yesterday with his new French family!) Esteban could make him absolutely crack up!

Cohen's made a TON of progress in just three weeks! When we first got him all he could do was sit up, and he hated to be placed on his stomach! If he wanted to get somewhere (first of all he had to be VERY motivated in the first place) and then he would just roll over until he got where he wanted. Now, he goes up on all fours and creeps and scoots along. He is so close to crawling! He does this little frog leap with his back legs to propel himself forward. I love this video because you can see him scoot along and then at the end (when he gives up on the crawling bit) he does his trademark move - he flaps everything with his little fingers! Very cute!!!

Monserrate (Again!) & Misc.

2009-10-07T15:24:00.000-07:00

For the third and final time we made the trek up Monserrate so mom could see the beautiful views of the city from atop the mountain.

Cohen - so tired of being dragged all over Bogota!

Back at the hotel that night, Cohen amused himself for about an hour playing with mom's cosmetics and the suitcase under her bed. Although he isn't quite crawling yet, he can creep. Here he got himself lodged under the bed trying to rip off this tag!

"What? I'm not up to anything...by the way, can someone get me out from under here!"

Happy Birthday, Bilma!

2009-10-07T12:06:00.000-07:00

One of the four wonderful ladies who work here at the B&B, Bilma, had a birthday yesterday! She would only tell us that she was 15! One of the families here got a chocolate cake to celebrate! Bilma was so surprised and excited!

Bilma and her beautiful cake!

Cohen didn't take to the cake...he kept spitting it out!

Sunday Loafing

2009-10-05T19:28:00.000-07:00

On Sunday the three of us went to (my personal favorite) El Corral for their gourmet guacamole cheeseburgers! Yum! The meal quickly turned into a comedy of errors, when within seconds the following occured: 1) the chair that had the diaper bag hanging on the back flipped over 2) as I reach down to pick it up, Cohen seizes a plate and hurls it to the ground 3) while I'm trying to wrangle the plate and mom's picking up the chair, Cohen launches a fork across the room 4) while mom is trying to catch the fork she knocks off the glass salt shaker and sends it flying across the floor. At this point three waiters come running to help and the whole place is laughing at us! Yeah, I'm pretty sure all the staff had a good chuckle at our expense! Loco Americanos!

After lunch we walked to a nearby mall (it's actually quite upscale) to look around. It's got a very pretty outdoor Spanish courtyard!

We stopped for a fruit smoothie, and Mom decided that Cohen really wanted some! (Kind of like how Dad just "knew" that Cohen really wanted ice cream!) It was pretty tart at first...

...but then he couldn't get enough of it!

A street we passed walking back from the mall

La Candelaria

2009-10-05T09:08:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, we walked a bit around La Candelaria, Bogota's colonial historic center. There are so many beautiful old buildings here and cobble stone paved streets! This is my favorite area of Bogota!

Mom and Cohen in front of the Catedral Primada, in Boliver Plaza

Another view of the cathedral.

Inside the cathedral

The backside of the cathedral from down the street

The beautifully unique red and white striped Iglesia del Carmen (Church of Carmen)!

Walking the streets of Candelaria!

Adios Abuelo!

2009-10-02T21:03:00.000-07:00

As a little going away celebration for Cohen's abuelo (grandpa) we had dinner at a little restaurant down the street called Sopas y Postres (Soups & Desserts). The nice ladies at the B&B put Cohen's soup in a thermos for me to take to the restaurant. After three weeks of eating soup every single day for lunch, I'm pretty much at the point where if I never see another bowl of soup again that would be just fine! So when I opened Cohen's soup, I actually had a bit of a gag reflex and so Dad had to finish feeding him!

I love the look on Cohen's face here: "For the love of God, would somebody else please feed me!"

The poor little guy didn't nap well today, so after dinner he was so tired he could barely sit up!

The Many Sweet Faces Of Cohen!

2009-10-02T20:18:00.000-07:00

At a nearby park, Cohen had his first "photo shoot!"

Whenever he gets a hold of something new, he has to flap it with his fingers to "figure it out!"

And he's spent! Cohen's paparazzi shot!

Out And About

2009-10-02T20:16:00.000-07:00

Walking to a artisan market, we passed this fountain that Cohen just loved!

Diaper Doody!

2009-09-30T16:07:00.000-07:00

In an effort to redeem himself regarding his strong aversion to all things diaper related, Daddy changes his first diaper!

It starts off well...

...but Dad wasn't quite getting the job done fast enough

...so Cohen decided he was done!

I think it was at this point that Dad said, "You know, you could give me some help here!"

Finished! All clean and diapered...for the most part!

Sweet Cohen!

Cohen giggling!

Monserrate: Part Dos!

2009-09-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a beautiful, clear day in Bogota, so I took Daddy up to Monserrate to enjoy the spectacular views of the city. I also took a few more photos since the weather was cooperating much better than on our first trip up (when it was cloudy and so cold you could see your breath!)
The Monserrate Church

There is a pathway around the church with statues representing the Stations of the Cross.

The grounds and various buildings

If you look very closely, you see near the top of this neighboring mound the tiny white statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

A view of most of Bogota

I finally have a travel companion who likes to take pictures as much as I do! So here are some shots of Mommy and Cohen (thanks Dad!)

What a long day! Cohen's asleep!

Great News!

2009-09-28T19:45:00.001-07:00

For those of you who remember our near finger print fiasco that occured just a couple of days before we left, everything is finished! Sam got our I-171 H forms (our updated immigration finger prints) in the mail today! So now Lucia just needs to check to make sure the Colombian consulate received their copy and we'll be good to go!

A Few Pics From Today!

2009-09-28T19:35:00.000-07:00

Daddy and Cohen play Patty Cake!

One of his favorite games is taking Legos off the table one by one and dropping them into a bucket on the floor!

Dad & I stopped by a place called Crepes & Waffles to get some icecream, and...apparently Cohen loves icecream! Dad got a flavor called "arequipe" (which I think means carmel) and Cohen just couldn't get enough of it. Every time I would say, "I think that's enough, Dad" he would say, "Aw, c'mon just one more bite...he loves it!" [sigh] The spoiling has begun.

Bath time! The kid had a ring of chicken bits and ice cream under his chubby neck folds! Ewww!

Cohen & Daddy!

2009-09-27T18:31:00.000-07:00

Daddy got to meet Cohen for the first time today! We went to the mall and an outdoor market and then went to our fast favorite "El Corral" for gourmet hamburgers for lunch! It was my first time feeding Cohen a full meal outside of the B&B and unfortunately, they didn't have any soup he could eat!!! So I ordered chicken off the kiddie menu and it turned out to be crunchy chicken nuggets and fries! His plate came out and I'm thinking, "Holy crap! The kid has four teeth, how are we gonna manage this?!?" But after a long time and a lot of work "skinning" the breading off the chicken nuggets and mashing up a few of the fries, I got him to eat what I thought was quite a bit. Unfortunately, I think I starved the poor kid because he was ravenous at dinner!

Daddy & Cohen posing by the outdoor fountain at the mall!

Back at the B&B for some play time! Cohen loves to play with Legos! He likes to stand up at the coffee table with a bunch of Legos and drop them one by one into a bucket by his feet. When he's done you dump the bucket back out on the table and he starts again!

It's been 27 years since Dad has had to get up with a baby at 6:00 a.m.! When Cohen lay down for his afternoon nap, so did Daddy! And Dad actually slept longer!

Process Update

2009-09-26T18:52:00.001-07:00

On Friday, September 25 (having passed our Integration Interview) our adoption petition was officially filed in court by our attorney, Oscar! We've already found out that we received Judge #22, who, according to our liason Lucia, is a good judge to have! (Hooray that we didn't get the dreaded Judge #20!) Lucia, seemed to think that this Judge is good at expediting the adoption process. So hopefully, things will go quickly and smoothly. Please keep praying that there are no quirks that come up in our court process, and the Judge doesn't need any further paperwork or information than he already has.

A Day Trip to Zipaquira

2009-09-26T16:01:00.000-07:00

On Friday, we got our first chance to get outside the big city of Bogota and see some countryside! Our wonderful interpreter and tour guide, David, drove us about 45 minutes outside of Bogota to a town called Zipaquira. It's a picturesque, very old town (older than Bogota) whose main claim to fame is the salt mine that sits on its outskirts. The salt mine is still in operation today, but in an older part of the mine that is no longer in use, they have built a Catedral de Sal - or Salt Cathedral. Basically you walk down into the mine shaft and along the way there are The 15 Stations of the Cross. For all of you non-Catholics (I'm not Catholic either, but I went to a Catholic school for three years and spent many a masses standing and kneeling toward the Stations of the Cross) the Stations of the Cross are a depiction of the last hours of Jesus life (also know as The Passion)...the First Station is Jesus is condemned to death...the Second Station is Jesus is given His cross...and so on until He is resurrected in the Fifteenth Station. So as you're walking down this long mine shaft (which smells of sulfer sometimes) each of the Stations has a huge cross that has been chiseled or in some manner formed from the rock walls of the mine itself. There are also places at each Station for people to kneel and pray. At the end of the mine shaft is the cavernous Cathedral itself, larger than the main auditorium at Grace Church (if you're familiar with that reference) and about 10 stories tall! They still have masses there each Sunday. Here are some pics of the mine and Cathedral.

At the entrance, heading down into the mine shaft!

The walls are covered in salt!

One of the stone crosses at one of the Stations of the Cross. It was very dark inside, so it is difficult to get the perspective of how large these crosses are. But as you can see it is chiseled out of the stone still attached to the floor!

One of the plaques describing this station...I didn't know Jesus' mother was named Holly! :-)

Another one of the Stations' crosses.

This picture was taken from a balcony looking down into the Cathedral itself. Again, because it was so dark it is hard to tell how cavernous this area truly is.

One of the many statues that have been carved from the stone inside the cathedral.

As you leave the main area of the cathedral, there is a peaceful reflecting pond, where you are to pray and reflect on God. This picture was taken about 10 seconds before the following picture.

Yep, that's right folks...Cohen chucked his toy into God's reflecting pool! That little speck of white is his toy floating away. The worse part was that there was this huge sign telling people not to throw coins and things into the pool and that it was a place of peace and sanctuary! I don't know what came over him! One minute he's just sitting in his carrier calm as can be and the next minute, with a grunt he heaves his toy into the water! Everybody was looking at us and a few were snickering...luckily no one was mad that we had interrupted their sanctuary!

The salt mine sits up a little ways on the mountain, so from up there you have a great view of the town of Zipaquira below

We wento into Zipaquira for lunch and David took us to this great grill restaurant that specializes in grilled meats over an open flame. I got a chicken dish and managed to eat half of the chicken. Sam got the Plato Mixto, or mixed plate of meat, which included a piece of chicken about the size of mine, a steak, pork chop, sausage and this thing David was even grossed out by...I can't remember what it's called but it seems to be the Colombian equivalent of Scottish Haggis! It's all kinds of animal bits stuffed into a cow intestine! So it totally looks like a pile of intestines sitting on his plate! And honest to goodness, when he cut into it, "stuff" oozed out! I had to look away and even David shuddered! I asked David what exactly was inside and he said that he had never wanted to ask! You won't be surprised to learn that Sam polished off every last bite on his plate...intestines and all! If you're curious, Sam said the intestine stuff tasted like liver!

This is the town center plaza of Zipaquira.

On our way back to Bogota, David meandered a bit through the country. This is the church in a tiny town called Sopo.

Some Sight Seeing!

2009-09-24T12:10:00.000-07:00

This morning after our Integration Meeting we took advantage of our wonderful interpreter, David, and had him show us around a bit of Bogota. We went to the oldest part of old historic Bogota, called La Candelaria. This is the part of Bogota that was first settled by the Spanish (there were of course already Native peoples living in Colombia). When they settled what is now the giant city of Bogota there was nothing but mountains and forest as far as you could see. So when more Spanish would come over the tops of the mountains and look down into the dark valley the only thing they could see were the fires, or candles, that were burning. Also as they walked down the mountains they would wave large torches to scare away any Native people; hence, the small town came to be know as La Candelaria.

La Candelaria sits at the base of the mountain so it's terraced, with little winding stone paved alleys.

This is the Iglesia de San Franscisco, or the Church of San Franscisco, which is the oldest surviving church in Bogota. It was built between 1557 and 1621 and still holds hourly Masses to this day!

Right across from the church are the oldest surviving houses in Bogota, although they are now adjoined and have been made into restaurants.

The front view of the two oldest houses.

It wasn't until after I took this picture of Sam and Cohen that I noticed the spray painting behind them...yep, it says "No more bases gringos." If you're not up on your Colombian current news, the U.S. has just made a deal with Colombia to open a U.S. base here.

We asked our interpreter David, what the general Colombian view of America was and he said that Colombians are pretty much split into three groups: 1) The group that could care less about politics and governments and are so busy trying to eek out a living they don't even think or care about those kinds of things 2) The "younger" philosophical, intellectual university age men and women, who according to David are receiving militant propaganda that is telling them that the U.S. is installing a base so they can take over Colombia and make it part of the U.S. 3) The group who wants to have a good relationship with the U.S. because they see it as a means of economic growth and protection (especially against the Venuzuelen President, Hugo Chavez, who apparently most Colombians agree is "loco" (crazy).

Like I said this first spray painted sign says "No more bases gringos" and this second sign says "No Uribe III" (as in DON'T elect the current Colombian president Uribe for a third time.)

Standing in the little plaza with the oldest church and houses.

This is the Plaza de Bolivar, named after Simon Bolivar, who helped lead Colombia's war of Independence against the Spanish.

The most prominent building in this plaza is the Catedral Primada, the largest cathedral in Bogota. Many say that it was in this cathedral that the very first Catholic Mass ever was held in Colombia. In the picture above, you can also see the Palacio de Justicia (Palace of Justice) to the right of the Cathedral.

We Passed!!!

2009-09-24T10:22:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that we got Cohen a week ago today! And since it's been a week since the day we got him, we had to go back to the ICBF office today for our "Integration Meeting." This is a meeting where you meet with social workers and child psychologists so that they can observe you with the child and make sure everything looks like it is going well. She asked us about Cohen's routine, likes and dislikes, troubles with sleeping and eating...just all sorts of general questions. She asked at one point, "Is he always like this?" [at the time Cohen was just sitting in my lap playing with a toy, very content] and seemed pleasantly surprised at how adjusted he seems to be! So I guess they liked what they saw, because our adoption decree can officially be filed in the courts now. Our attorney, Oscar, should be filing our adoption petition to the court either today or tomorrow. Once it is in the court system it usually takes about two weeks before the judge signs the final adoption decree. We've heard that some judges are better than others at expediting the process, and we even heard a rumor of this dreaded Judge #20 who takes a full 3 months to process any adoption decree! We're praying we don't get him! Please be praying that we will get a good judge who does not require any more information or paperwork (that seems to lenghthen the process) and that our adoption petition can be completed quickly!

Museo del Oro

2009-09-23T16:12:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the Museo del Oro (Gold Museum), located in the historic part of old Bogota. It's a pretty nice musuem (pretty small, which actually was good for us with Cohen) and it only costs about 2,800 pesos per person, or $1.40 USD! It has all kinds of beautiful gold artifacts that have been found in Colombia - everything from pre-Colombian times (1000 B.C.) to more recent finds like 1500 A.D. There were masks, intricate jewelry, icons, and statues, just to name a few.

Here's a full body gold adornment that would have been worn by the chiefs. There's the head piece, breast plate, wrist cuffs and shin guards. The big round saucer like things hanging on either side of the head piece are the earrings! Some of the earrings they wore were huge and very thick...I guess they were some of the original ear lobe stretchers!

This is the gold adornment that would have been worn by a shaman. This one includes the gold mouth piece that pierces the cheeks and runs through the mouth as well as a special little cone for his boy bits! :-)

A couple of the icon masks.

These are some of the typical nose rings, that go through the cartilege at the bottom of the nose (like a cow ring). It's one long piece so you have to "thread" it through all the way from one end until you get to the ring part. I mostly took this picture to have to show my mom when she gets onto me and says to me, "When are you going to take out that horrible nose ring?!?" Now I can say, "See, it could be worse!"

One of the very rare gold statues.

Monserrate Church

2009-09-22T15:16:00.000-07:00

Today was our first sight seeing excursion with Cohen! Our tour guide/interpreter, David (pronounced Da-veede) took us up through the mountains that surround the city of Bogota to visit Monserrate (pronounced Mon-sair-rot-tay). Monserrate is the name of one of the mountains here in Bogota, but it is also the name of the Catholic church which sits on top of it. You take a cable car up the side of the mountain, where you can see beautiful views of the city (I was surprised at how huge it is!) You can look down from the top of Monserrate and see pretty much all of Bogota surrounded on all sides by mountains. It's about another 15oo feet higher than Bogota, so at the top of the mountain you are at 10,341 feet above sea level! You could see your breath up there! The church itself is quite simple, and there's actually still a monastary there as well. David said on Sundays the church is always standing room only for Mass, and the wait for the cable car to get up to the church is two hours (every single Sunday!) There is a walking path that goes up the side of the mountain to the church, but as you would expect it is very steep and treacherous. During Holy Week (Easter) the most devout people will make the trek up the hill carrying these huge crosses on their backs and whipping themselves, to symbolize Christ's crucifixion.

Waiting at the bottom of the mountain for the cable car!

The view of the city as we're ascending the mountain! The sky scrapers you see are the business district of downtown.

The Monserrate Church as we're coming up the mountain.

Standing at the entrance of the church looking out at the surrounding mountains.

This is the view of pretty much all of Bogota while standing on top of Monserrate.

The simple interior of the church. The church was orignally built in the 1640's by Spanish conquistadors in the name of the Spanish Monserat's virgin Morena from the province of Barcelona. Since the Spanish were bringing Catholicism to the mostly indigenous Native Indian population of Colombia, there was much strife between the Spaniards and Indians, so they built the church high up on the mountain so it could be fortified.

This is the little prayer chapel inside the church devoted to the virgin mother and Jesus. The church was built mostly using black slaves that the Spanish brought from Africa. These black statues of the virgin mother and Jesus were brought by the slaves from Africa and placed in this chapel in memory of their work on the church.

The beautiful view of the mountains you can see looking out the main entrance of the church!

The two restaurants on top of the moutain...David said they are very classy, expensive and romantic...soooo, I guess we can check that off the list! :-)

It's quite windy up there!

Go COLTS!!!

2009-09-22T08:45:00.001-07:00

Sam was looking forward to watching a bit of the game with his newest little Colts' fan (lucky for him they showed it down here in Bogota on ESPN - in Spanish of course!) but unfortunately Cohen decided he didn't want to take his afternoon nap yesterday and was very cranky so he went to bed right after dinner and his bath!

Yea Colts!!!

Swinging at the park earlier in the day! Cohen loves to go high on the swings!

More of Cohen to Love!

2009-09-22T08:25:00.000-07:00

Cohen loves playing with Daddy's computer! A future engineer?!? The kid can't even crawl yet and Sam is trying to teach him math..."uno y uno es dos...dos y dos es quatro!"

Naked baby! Getting ready for his bath! The little stinker scared the crap out of me the other night when I was giving him a bath in his baby bath tub. He likes to splash around in the tub, while I sit there beside him. Well all of a sudden he kind of slumps forward and puts his face in the water. So I grab him up out of the water and sit him upright and he seems okay. Well, then he does the same thing AGAIN...face plant right in the water! Well, now I'm scared to death that he's having a seizure of something so I grab him up completely out of the water, no towel or anything, water soaking everything including me, and yell for Sam. Sam comes running in to see what's wrong and Cohen just starts laughing!!! I think he was just doing it on purpose because he liked it! It worries me a bit that he has no problem dunking his head under water; oh well, guess we'll just have to continue to watch him like a hawk!

Cohen is so good about taking his bottles now that he even lets Daddy feed him without fussing! Now, if we could only get him to drink some juice and water. We were finally able to get him to eat some Activia yogurt yesterday for his constipation issues...of course the only way we could get him to eat it was to warm it up! That kid won't take anything that's cold!

Today's Pics!

2009-09-20T15:49:00.001-07:00

Swinging with Daddy!

Trying out the baby carrier - he was actually quite comfy, contrary to how he looks! :-)

Cohen's famous "sitting" sleeping position!

Cohen Takes A Swing!

2009-09-20T15:20:00.000-07:00

Victory!!!

2009-09-19T19:51:00.001-07:00

Jeesh, I tell ya - I have never in my entire life been this excited about pooping and eating! Cohen finally had a poo today, after the ladies gave his some liquid from this cactus looking fruit (they have all sorts of tricks up their sleeves!) And, I finally got Cohen to take his night time bottle (all by myself with no coaxing and singing and dancing!) which means he had ALL three bottles today!!! Today was the first day I felt like he ate almost enough! :-) Hopefully he'll continue to make progress tomorrow. In general he was a bit fussy today - I think he's missing his foster parents. He was just kind of sad today. Poor little guy. My heart just breaks when he whimpers and cries those sad tears.

Cohen's First Birthday!!!

2009-09-19T19:40:00.003-07:00

We were so blessed to be able to be here with Cohen on his first birthday! I'm so glad we could celebrate this special day with him!

The birthday boy!

His birthday shoes!

Daddy, Mommy & Cohen!

As a special surprise my mom and dad sent us pictures of their celebration of Cohen's first birthday!

A Whole Bunch Of Firsts!

2009-09-19T19:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and today were filled with a big bunch of "firsts" for us and Cohen!

Cohen's first outside play with the soccer ball! (We got reprimanded by one of the Colombian ladies who works at the B&B for not having a hat on him! :-)

Cohen and Daddy's first slide!

First stroller ride to the mall! He's so content in the stroller - he just loves to watch people and cars!

Cohen's first bath! He loves to splash the water with his hands and doesn't mind at all if water gets in his face!

Daddy's first diaper change...EVER! Here's he's trying to figure out which way is up!

Cohen and Daddy read a book called "Mi Casa!"

He loves to sleep in this position! Sometimes he'll even sleep with his bottom flat on the bed (like in a sitting position) and bent over completely in two at the waist!

Finally, Some Progress!

2009-09-19T07:47:00.000-07:00

For those of you following our feeding saga, we finally made a small bit of progress this morning! Cohen wouldn't take his bottle again last night, but surprisingly slept completely through the night! He went to bed at 8:30 and didn't wake up until 7:00 a.m.! However, he wouldn't take his morning bottle, so we went down to breakfast at 8:00 to try to get something in him. He flat out refused everything...baby cereal with honey, with bananas, with fruit, cookies...nothing! So now I'm officially freaked out because he hasn't had a single thing to eat since 7:00 p.m. the night before and he hasn't had anything to drink for two days! So the wonderful ladies who work at the B&B saw we were having trouble and how worried we were and they offered to try to get him to eat. The ladies tried everything we had, different bottles, different nipples, a sippy cup, some OJ...but he was still refusing everything. At this point I start crying, because I'm fairly certain we're starving him to death. So now the ladies are worried about me and start making these soft clucking sounds and telling me in Spanish not to cry. Still, since it had been two days since he'd drank anything, they were determined to solve the problem. They decided something was going on with him and they started listening to his belly and back and tapping around on different parts of his tummy. It was really amazing to watch them work! They came to the conclusion that he has "colico" (colic) and proceeded to concoct this mixture of boiled water, anise and sugar. Amazingly they got that down him and then did this thing where they roll him around on their knee to work the gas out. He let out this huge belch and they said to wait 15 minutes for the "medicine" to work and then give him a bottle. After a bit of convincing on my part, and the ladies dancing around and singing spanish baby songs, I finally got him to drink 5 oz. of his formula! I've never been so relieved in my life! At lunch he'll have his beloved soup, and hopefully tonight we'll have more success with his bottle!

Introducing: Cohen Daniel Alejandro Jackson

2009-09-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at 3:00 p.m. Sam and I were escorted into a brightly colored room full of cartoon wall murals, balloons and crepe paper known as the "Welcoming Room." It's the room where parents are first introduced to their new child! First the ICBF social workers came in and talked with us about him and his most current eating and sleeping routines. Then we received a wonderful surprise...the foster mother had kept a baby journal for us with the dates of all of his "firsts" and pictures of him from about 1 or 2 months old and throughout his first year! I had been praying that we would receive at least a picture of him from when he was first born, but this was beyond anything I imagined! It even has a hand written letter from the foster mom telling us how much hapiness she wishes for us as a new family! It was perfect!

So then the social workers leave and walk back in with the biggest baby I've ever seen! We could tell it was him right away though because of those huge black eyes and red, curly hair! He was a little hesitant at first, but he didn't cry when the social worker handed him to me...he just looked at me with this "Who the heck are you?" look. Then the social workers left and let us spend time alone with just the three of us. He let Sam hold him too! After about 10 minutes the social workers come back in and had us sign a temporary custody form and that was it! He was ours! It was so funny because all of the ladies at ICBF and our attorney and interpreter were all saying that he looked just like us! They were joking that we must have "dropped him off at the door and then drove around the building to pick him back up!" :-)

He was pretty content on the taxi ride back to the B&B (sitting in my lap - no car restraints here!) taking in all of the sights and sounds. When we got back to the hotel we stripped him down a couple of layers to find a bit smaller baby underneath, but not by much! :-) Now granted it was rainy yesterday and about 60 degrees, but he was dressed in a onesie, long sleve shirt, a sweat suit, fleece jacket, and socks that went up to his knees! He was much happier and cooler after losing a couple of layers...but that's when we quickly realized our next obstacle. I, assuming that a one year old Colombian baby would be on the small size for one, had packed mostly 12 month clothes...but this baby DOES NOT wear 12 month clothes! He's a little chubby, but moreso he's just really big in general - very tall and wide and solid...like a little line backer! The scale is a little shady here so we can't tell exactly how much he weighs, but we think he's at least 25 pounds! So out of the mound of clothes I brought, he has about 5 outfits he can wear! We're going to have to go shopping tomorrow!

Here are some pics of our first meeting with him, and then I'll pick up the story a little further one.

This is my first time holding Cohen!

Sam holding Cohen!

Back at the B&B playing with his new elephant! This is the little outfit he arrived in!

He's not quite sure how he feels about his biscuit!

Dinner time! Well, his foster mother sent his 3:00 bottle with us, but he would only take about a fourth of it. Then we tried giving him an assortment of things we had bought trying to get him to eat something...yogurt, fruit, cereal, juice...and he wouldn't take anything. In fact when we tried giving him some strawberry and banana yogurt he gagged like we'd given him a mouth full of spinach! Well, like 5 bibs, 4 spoons, 6 bowls, 3 bottles and 2 sippy cups later, we still hadn't gotten him to eat or drink anything. Needless to say, I was quite relieved at dinner when he did eat all of his soup. Below is me feeding him his first meal!

Our first family meal!

Some after dinner play time!!!

I love this pic because you can see his dimples!

There's a smile from Cohen!

He loves to be tossed in the air!

Mommy and Cohen!

Our first family picture!

Around 8:45 he started getting tired (although his foster mother said he usually went to bed around 9:30) but we just figured he was worn out from his big day. He wouldn't take his nighttime bottle again, but he fell asleep pretty quickly. A couple of hours later around 11:00 he woke up and sat up just sobbing! Nothing we could do would console him. You could tell he was so tired he could barely keep his eyes open, but he was too upset to let himself fall asleep. For two hours straight he cried...not mad crying but that heartbreaking, pitiful sad and scared crying with tears. And when he would stop crying for a minute or two, he would wimper. It was the saddest thing I've ever seen. We tried putting him down to see if it was us who were upsetting him, but he would cry even harder. So I just held him for two hours while he sobbed. By this time we were going down the list of everything we could think of to try...change diaper, orajel for teething (he has 4 teeth!), another try at a bottle (no!), baby gas drops, etc. He finally fell asleep in our bed and we were able to move him over to his crib where he slept until 8:30. He was so tired at breakfast though this morning he could barely keep his eyes open. He wouldn't take any of his bottles again today, and he ate just a couple of bites at breakfast. Although he did eat his whole bowl of soup at lunch - what can I say, the kid loves soup! I am pretty worried though that he's not drinking anything and eating very little. Although, when I expressed my concerns to Sam that Cohen was starving, his incredulous response was, "Have you seen the size of that kid?!?" Anyway, even though he seems to be adjusting well to us (I even got a smile when I got him out of his crib this morning!) he's still not eating and drinking (and for that matter, eliminating) like he should. Please continue to keep him in your prayers!

Sweet, sleeping Cohen!

Our Home Away From Home!

2009-09-17T09:36:00.001-07:00

We are staying at a wonderful Bed & Breakfast called El Refugio in the northern part of Bogota! We can see the mountains from our bedroom window - it's beautiful! The great thing about this B&B is that it caters only to adopting families, so each of the rooms has a crib and there are plenty of high chairs, strollers, and toys here for the kids to play with! Here are some pics from the B&B!

The outside of the B&B

The big family area where all of the families congregate and the kids play!

The dining area

The outside court yard & play area

Our room

The baby's crib!

We Are Ready!

2009-09-16T15:41:00.000-07:00

We are all set for our meeting tomorrow! David, our interpreter and driver tomorrow, will be here to pick us up at 2:15 for our 3:00 p.m. meeting at the ICBF offices. I absolutely cannot wait to meet our son, but I am very sad that we will not be able to meet his foster mother. In the past foster parents and adoptive parents were allowed to meet and exchange information, but then they started having a bit of trouble with the foster parents asking for money and things like that, so the Colombian governtment forbade all meetings. I think (and from what I've read) it would have been an easier transition for the baby if we could have met the foster family, but we just have to do the best with what we've been given. And what we've been given is actually a lot - we thank God every day that our little guy has been loved and cared for well in a foster home for the first year of his life!

Everyone we have worked with has been so wonderful! Carmen, the lady who runs the B&B is so welcoming and accomodating! The staff at the B&B are so nice - when we finally got in last night really late after our flight and were very hungry, the lady who has the night shift (and speaks no English) was nice enough to round up some food for us! Lucia, our agency liason here in Colombia, is very nice and helpful. And we met our attorney, Oliver, today who took us to get some forms notarized that we'll need for tomorrow. Oliver speaks very little English, but was still able to advise us that this would be our last night without children and we should "enjoy" ourselves! :-) Everybody got a big kick out of that one!

We made a trip to the store today with our new friends here at the B&B, a Michigan couple who are adopting a 13 year old boy to add to their 3 other teenage boys! They have been wonderful and so helpful getting us settled in. Plus ,I think they're really happy to have another U.S. couple in the house...currently in the B&B are our two U.S. families, two French families, and one Spanish family! Our Michigan friends, Debbie and Craig, have a wonderful story about how they came to adopt their son, and his sisters have already been adopted by a family who goes to Debbie and Craig's church in Michigan...so the siblings will be able to stay in contact with each other!!! You can truly see God's hand in their story! Debbie and Craig were nice enough to walk us to the mall today (which is a really nice 5 minute walk - very close!) and we picked up some diapers from Exito, which I think feels like a Colombian equivalent of a Super Target (but not as cheap!) Things are certainly more expensive here (well except for food stuffs and cigarettes!) One Avent sippy cup was $9.00 in U.S. dollars and the little plastic formula dispenser (like the Sassy one I bought at Babies R Us for $3.00) was $13.00 here! Ouch! Also, we found out that the diaper sizes in the U.S. don't correspond to the ones here, so we had to do a bit of math converting kilograms to pounds to figure out what size we needed...and by "we" I, of course, mean Sam...and by "had to do math" I, of course, mean became almost giddy at the challenge of all of the mental math!

Today has been a good day! We're getting ready to head down to dinner soon (which is at 7:00 each night) and it's already dark...it starts getting dark around 6:00 p.m.! My cold seems to be maybe getting a little better, but is definitely not any worse. Unfortunately though I have a cough now, and no cough medicine. Oh well, maybe I'll fork over the $20 for a bottle of Robitussin tomorrow!

Please continue to pray for us, especially for the baby when we get him tomorrow! Please pray that he can adjust as easily and smoothly as possible and that he isn't too terrified of us and bonds with us quickly!

I just can't believe TOMORROW is the BIG day!!!

Is This For Real???

2009-09-16T10:50:00.000-07:00

So I’m sitting in the Atlanta airport waiting to board our flight to Bogota…and the only word I can think of to describe this feeling is “surreal.” I find that I have to keep reminding myself that we are in fact finally going to Colombia and not simply jetting off for some exotic vacation destination. I’m not entirely sure why, but this whole thing has actually started to feel “less” real for me these past couple of days. I’m mean, getting the room ready, attending my beautiful baby showers, washing all of his little clothes, baby proofing the house, those were all things that I found myself getting really excited by. But now that it’s actually here, it’s almost like I just simply can’t believe it! This is the kind of thing that happens to other people! Other people have babies, not us! You know, I’ve never waited for four years for anything in my life before. Sure, you go to school and college and “wait” to graduate, but at least you’re being proactive and actually doing something tangible to progress toward your goal. But just sitting…patiently waiting…being able to do ABSOLUTELY nothing to further your situation - now that’s a lesson! Albeit, I’ll admit, a very hard lesson to swallow at times.

I vividly remember January of 2005 when Sam and I finally decided to commit to pursuing an international adoption. We first looked at Ukraine (since we had done work in orphanages there) but that quickly fell through as they were closing their adoption program. Then we turned to Guatemala, but that too just wasn’t quite falling in place. It was then that we decided to open it up to wherever God was leading that Colombia literally fell into our laps…and it fit perfectly. We finished and submitted all of our paper work in September 2005. At that time the current wait for an infant referral was 12-15 months. And yes, you can laugh at that…we do (although perhaps with a bit of cynicism at our own naiveté). You know that old saying about God laughing while we’re busy making our own plans. Well, for those of you who know us and have traveled this journey alongside of us, four years have now passed. Babies have been conceived AND born, adoptions have been started AND completed, and still we waited.

And your friends try to be helpful, and they say things like, “Well, God’s timing is perfect” and “Everything will work according to God’s plan,” which are all good and true things. They are things you know and believe in your head, but I’ll admit it doesn’t make me want to punch the person who’s saying it in the eye any less (my apologies to anyone who’s ever tried to comfort us that way!) Even though you “know” that God’s timing and plans are perfect, sometimes it just doesn’t feel that way. And that’s when those closest around you hold you up and say something you really want to hear like, “You know that just really sucks! You’re getting a really crappy deal right now.” This is also the time you begin to not only question God, but question yourself as well. I have no doubts that God’s plan is perfect, but what if I’ve just been hearing him wrong…or worse yet, what if I’ve been so busy trying to manipulate and twist what it is that I want into something that “appears” to be God’s will, that I’ve gotten so off track I’m nowhere near the path God would have for me. I’m reminded of one of my favorite Sarah Grove lyrics that says, “I don’t doubt Your sovereignty, I doubt my own ability to hear what You’re saying and to do the right thing, and I desperately want to do the right thing. But right now I don’t hear so well, so I was wondering if You could speak up…” A very good friend of mine once told me that it’s easy to have faith when everything is falling perfectly into place and all of the doors are opening up in front of you. But it’s harder to maintain faith in times of trials, when nothing is going right and all of the doors seem to be slamming in your face. But it’s precisely this faith, in the midst of these situations, that glorifies God the most. I don’t think I ever told this person who told me this, how much her words affected me and how much comfort they provided me in our darkest times.

And so now I sit here in the terminal waiting to literally fly off to start the next chapter of our lives. And it's a good time to think about what God has used these last four years to teach me. And to be honest, I don't know if even I fully understand all of the lessons I've been shown. But I do know this: there was a time a couple of years ago, when we had yet another delay in the adoption process. In my despair I gathered up every single baby thing we had collected over the past couple of years, threw it in a big pile in the floor and told Sam that if it was there when I got back I was throwing it all away...then I walked out the door. When I returned a couple of hours later, everything was "gone" (I found out later that he had just hidden it in the attic!) Over the past four years I had several moments when I just wanted to give up...but even in the midst of my unfaithfulness and disbelief, God was still faithful. Even in the midst of my impatience, God was still patient. Perhaps we will never know why God had our adoption work out the way it did. Or perhaps we'll take one look at our son and know instantly why God had our adoption work out the way it did. In the end, I guess what I've learned is that it doesn't really matter...we don't have to know everything...nor, I think, should we know everything. Now I'm not saying that when the next trial in our life comes to a head, I'll be the epitome of godly patience and faithfulness, far from it probably! But right now, I'm am content. I am comfortable simply resting in the full faithfulness of God.

Husbands Say The Darndest Things!

2009-09-01T19:47:00.000-07:00

So as we prepare for the arrival of our little one, we find ourselves elbows deep in all things baby. And Sam finds himself wading through very unchartered territory! He's learning the difference between a onesie, cover-alls and a union suit...and is making pretty good progress. However, sometimes he'll say something and all I can do is look at him and think..."Really???" So I've decided to write some of his sayings down...not to make fun...but for posterity's sake, of course! :-)

Em: "Sam, I'm going to the opera on Friday, Nov. 20 at 8:00 p.m. with Robyn."
Sam: "Um, well...who's gonna watch the baby?"
Em: "You are."
Sam: "All by myself?"
*
*
Sam [looking through some stuff I got from the pediatrician]: "What are these little flat chopsticks for? That's dumb...what is a baby gonna do with chopsticks?"
Em: "Yeah, those are tongue depressors."

Travel Plans

2009-08-31T15:40:00.000-07:00

The countdown has begun! It's hard to believe that we leave two weeks from tomorrow for Bogota, Colombia! We leave on Tues. September 15 at 12:30 p.m. and arrive that night in Bogota around 8:30 p.m. (we have a layover in Atlanta). On Wednesday we spend the day getting acclimated and purchasing a few items for the baby's arrival. We had a long conference call today with our agency to go over some last minute details for the trip.

For those of you who have been asking about what our trip is like, here's a brief outline: On the morning of Thurs. September 17 we will go to the ICBF office (the adoption organization in Colombia). They talk to us a bit and we can ask any questions we have, and sometime during the course of this meeting they bring in Alejandro to us! Unfortunately, we will not be able to meet his foster family like we had hoped, since Colombia no longer allows this. This meeting lasts about 30-45 minutes and then we are on our own with Alejandro!

We spend the following week getting to know Alejandro, and a week after we first get him, we go back into the ICBF office for a second meeting. During this meeting (after having spent a week with the baby) we re-confirm that we do want to proceed with the adoption. At that point our adoption paper work is put into the court system. Also, at this time Sam will be returning to the States on Sun. September 27. (Fortunately though, I won't be alone in Colombia! My dad comes to Colombia the day before Sam leaves on Sat. 9/26 and stays for a week, leaving on Sat. 10/3. My mom comes to Colombia the day before my dad leaves on 10/2 and will stay with me until we come home, sometime around 10/14.)

Once our adoption paper work is submitted to the court system, it usually takes between 1 and 2 weeks for a judge to issue our final adoption decree. We spend this two weeks just hanging with Alejandro and sightseeing around Bogota.

When we get the final adoption decree, we then have about a week's worth of stuff left to do, like getting the baby's passport, visa, birth certificate, and U.S. Embassy medical release. Once we have the final adoption decree from the court we can then pinpoint the date that we'll be able to return home. Right now our return flight is scheduled for Wed. October 14, but like 95% of the families who go down to adopt end up having to change their return flight date earlier or later by a couple of days.

Regardless of the exact date that we return home the flight is the same - we leave Bogota at 9:30 a.m. (we have to be at the airport 3 hours early ugh!) and then fly back through Atlanta. We have a 5 hour layover in Atlanta and get back into Indy around 10 p.m.

My hope is to keep our adoption blog updated while we're in Colombia. We're supposed to have wi-fi at our hotel, but we'll have to see what the connection is like!

Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Specifically we would appreciate prayer for the following things:

1. That Alejandro's transition is as easy as possible and that he bonds and attaches to us quickly.

2. For safety in travelling to Colombia and during our stay in country. Especially be praying for my parents who aren't very comfortable travelling internationally.

3. That the adoption proceedings go quickly and smoothly (and that we might even be able to return home earlier than expected!)

4. That I will do OK on my "own" in Bogota after Sam leaves.

Our Beautiful Baby Boy, Alejandro!

2009-08-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

Our travel date is officially confirmed! We will be leaving on Tuesday, Sept. 15 and get into Bogota that night. We'll spend Wednesday getting acclimated...and on Thursday, Sept. 17 we get to meet our son, Ronal Alejandro! We keep him from that day forward, with us the whole time we're in Colombia! Now that our travel plans have been confirmed, we are allowed to post his picture!

Here's our perfect little Colombian red-head at nine months old!!!

Welcome Baby!!!

2009-08-19T17:46:00.000-07:00

After 3 years, 11 months and 2 weeks...we finally have our beautiful baby boy!!! We were told on Monday that we had been assigned a 10 month old boy, but that's all we knew. Nothing else! Well today, we finally officially got our referral packet with all of his information and his picture! His name is Alejandro. I'm not allowed to post his picture on the blog yet, but I will as soon as I get the go ahead! In the mean time, take my very un-biased word for it...he's adorable!!! :-) He has a pretty fair complexion, and he's got those big dark brown almond shaped eyes! He actually looks a lot like Sam! My absolute favorite thing about him though is that he has auburn red hair! I've never seen any Colombian kids with red hair! He's beautiful!!!

He was born on September 19, 2008 and turned 11 months old today! He was released by his birth mother at the hospital immediately following his birth and was put directly into foster care - so he was never in an orphanage, which is good for him! He seems to have been very well cared for and loved by his foster mother. He seems to be a bit of a strong willed child and my mom keeps saying he seems to have my personality! :-) He gets irritated when the other children are held or fed first and likes to have all of the attention for himself! He also gets irritated by tight and/or scratchy clothing and again, my mom would like to point out the fact that she had to cut every single label out of my clothing because it bugged the crap out of me! :-) Mom says that he looks like Sam and acts like me!

So here's where we are now: we wrote and faxed our acceptance letter today, saying that we accept his referral. In that letter we also request a travel date. Our social worker initially wanted us to request to meet him on September 21. But we were really disappointed since that would be 2 days after his birthday, so we asked her to let us ask for a closer date and she agreed to let us try. So in our letter we requested to meet him on Sept. 16. Now the Colombian officials could still come back and say, "No, that's too soon, we can't get everything done by then - you need to come a week later." So we are praying, and would ask that you pray too, that they will accept our requested date of Sept. 16. We would love nothing more than to be there with him as he celebrates his first birthday! We should hear back from them as to whether they accept our date in anywhere from 2 days to a week! We're hoping and praying that we hear from them sooner rather than later. Once they accept our date, then we can begin making travel arrangements and buy plane tickets. I'll post again, when we know the date for sure! Keep your fingers croseed! We can't wait to meet our little guy!

Getting Ready For Baby...

2009-08-09T19:28:00.001-07:00

Well, with our adoption referral just around the corner (we're hoping for a referral this month or early September) we decided it was finally "safe" to start making baby preparations! And we really lucked out with our crib and dresser set...well, I'd like to think of it more as "providence" than "luck!" A couple of years ago we were in USA Baby in Castleton and saw this crib there we absolutely loved! Unfortunately though the crib was $1200 and the matching dresser was about the same! Crikey!!! So we just passed it off as one of those things that would be nice but that we'd never be able to afford. So fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and I see a flyer in the paper that USA Baby is going out of business. Long story short: they still had the floor model of our crib that we had fallen in love with and it was now 70% off!!! We got both the crib and the dresser for $700 total!

Sam putting the crib together!

Finally...Some Good News!

2009-06-09T08:14:00.001-07:00

Well, we finally got the call from our adoption agency that our dossier is now officially in a regional office in Colombia. We have been assigned to the Bogota Regional Office, which is nice because we won't have to do any traveling around the country to get the child. At this point, according to our representative, Nicole, we could get a referral anytime between 2 weeks and 3 months from now. The average wait is 2 - 3 months in a regional office. I guess the wait time has a lot to do with how much documentation the child already has, or if they have to still get papers and things in order for the child to be adopted. That means that we are currently on schedule to receive a referral by September, which means we'd be traveling in October-ish. Let's hope!!!

Slowly But Surely...But Mostly Slowly

2009-06-04T16:03:00.000-07:00

Well, Sam talked to our agency today and we are officially #1 on the list to be sent to a regional office. Apparently, we've been #1 for a few weeks now. Nicole, our Colombia representative, says she would "guess" we'd be sent to a regional office sometime this month (June). Depending on which regional office our dossier is sent to, there is typically a 2-3 month wait for a referral once you're at the regional office. So if you do the math (and believe in fairies and unicorns): We should be sent to a regional office by the end of June; receive a referral by September; and travel down to Colombia about a month after that, probably October-ish. Yeah, we'll see.

Grace's Hands of Hope Picnic

2009-06-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

We had absolutely perfect weather for this year's Hands of Hope picnic! Hands of Hope is our church's adoption and orphan care ministry http://www.gracehandsofhope.org/ It was great to see everyone again and to see the new kids who've been brought home! I also heard some great news about a family I met last year who've been trying to adopt two kids from India for almost 5 years now, who are finally leaving in two weeks to go get them! Yea!!!

It's kind of funny - but in general, I try to steer clear of adoption questions anymore. So whenever I meet people who ask me if I have kids, I usually just answer "No" to avoid a long discussion. That's a little difficult to do though at an "adoption picnic," so when a lady at the picnic who I'd never met asked me if we had adopted or were in the process, I said that we'd been trying to adopt from Colombia for almost 4 years. Her response was, "Oh, I'm so sorry." Which is a nice, appropriate response. And in my mind I'm just praying that she'll leave it at that...and so I started repeating my typical mantra over and over in my head as I do when I'm in this situation, which is "Don't say it...don't say it...don't say it..." And then of course she says it: "Well, it's in God's timing, not our own!" And...there...it...is! That little phrase that just makes my spine crawl. When she said it, I felt like punching her in the eye and then reassuring her, "No it's okay, it was just God's timing!" Now, don't worry...before y'all start trying to feverishly wrack your brain trying to remember if you've ever said that to me, just calm down! I don't hold it against you! :-) It's just one of those things that you "know" in your heart and brain, but you just don't want to hear...especially from someone who's never been in your situation! I know God's timing is perfect - I know that once we get a child we'll be glad we had to wait because we won't be able to imagine having any other child (that's another big one people like to quote too!) But just because you "know" those things to be true, it doesn't make it suck any less. Sometimes you don't want people to try to make you feel better by reminding you of God's perfect plan; sometimes you just want someone to commiserate with you and say, "Yes, that really sucks! You're getting a really crappy deal right now!" It also didn't help that the lady went on to say, "Well, look on the bright side, it could always be worse!" Does that really ever cheer anyone up? Oh well...anyway, I digress. We did have a great time at the picnic! And hopefully next year we'll actually have someone to bring along with us to the picnic!!! Here's some pics from the day!

YUM!!! Great food!

Sitota chillaxin' in his stroller!

The kids get tattoos!

Shelli, Isabel & Syd enjoying lunch!

Sitota has BIG fun on the swings!

Adoption Update

2009-04-06T11:56:00.000-07:00

Sam talked to our agency today. We are currently #2 on the list to go to a regional office (where the referrals are actually given from). Our agency representative said that the wait time from one regional office to another varies widely (which is their way of saying they have no idea how long it might take for our dossier to be sent to a regional office.) Once our dossier actually reaches a regional office though, you usually get a referral about two months after. Once we get a referral we will travel approximately 4 - 6 weeks later to pick up the child. In country time is currently running at about 3 - 5 weeks. Sam asked our representative, Nicole, what her best guess would be for us to actually travel and she said maybe this fall. Sam is hopeful that we will get to a regional office in May, get a referral by August, and perhaps travel by September/October. If we do travel in September that would be exactly four years since we turned in our dossier. I'm just hoping that this doesn't turn into the "Alleged Baby of 2010." I guess we'll just have to wait and see. We're pretty good at waiting...we've had a lot of practice.

Are We There Yet???

2008-12-11T16:43:00.000-08:00

Nope, but we're a little bit closer. Sam talked to our adoption agency today to get an update on where we are in the process. Right now we are #5 on our agency's Colombian "infant" list (we were #9 on the list a few months ago). They are currently processing dossiers that were approved in September '05 (our dossier was approved in December '05). So unless something comes up (which is entirely likely, note the dripping cynicism) we are looking at our dossier being sent to the regional office around March, and then travelling sometime around May or June. Two good things have happened though: #1 Our agency finally got its Hague Accreditation (if you recall, there was a bad situation with two former employees from our agency that caused it not to get its accreditation the first time around.) #2 As it should be, Colombian American families are given preference when adopting Colombian children. Apparently there was a large influx of Colombian American families adopting in recent months who went to the top of the list. At this point, they have moved all of the Colombian American parents through, and will now begin processing more referrals for the rest of us. So that's a bit of good news too. We've been waiting 3 years and 3 months now for our referral, and we are definitely ready for this to be done! Please keep us in your prayers!

God Speaks Through Coffee Beans???

2008-10-09T17:53:00.000-07:00

So I was at a large, wholesale store today - we'll call it PriceCo (only because there is a small chance that I may have committed an offense there that strolls through the gray area of legality.) I was walking down the aisle when a bag of coffee caught my eye. It was whole bean coffee from Ethiopia! I thought that was totally cool, since our good friends, the Elliotts, just got their referral YESTERDAY for a baby boy from Ethiopia! I was contemplating buying it for them, because I was thinking what a neat thing to find just a day after their referral. As I was contemplating, I looked over to the right of the Ethiopian coffee and was dumbfounded! My mouth literally dropped, and I'm pretty sure I said "Holy Crap" a little too loudly! Sitting right next to the Ethiopian coffee - yep, you guessed it - Colombian coffee! Now, you may be thinking, "So what?" Colombian coffee is not that uncommon. But I don't believe in coincidences! I believe in Providences! Seeing those two bags of coffee, sitting side by side, I really felt God was saying to remain patient and faithful that He would provide us a referral! Now, I know it's no burning bush or anything, but sometimes you don't need a big ole bush on fire...sometimes all you need is just a little whisper to keep going!

How Well Do You Know Your World?

2008-09-18T08:05:00.000-07:00

Polls have shown that 1/5 of Americans cannot even locate the United States on a world map! I am reluctantly choosing to refrain at the present time from my diatribe on the failings of the American educational system. Instead, I offer a great new widget I found! Scroll down past the posts to the bottom of the blog to play the Traveler's IQ "How Well Do You Know Your World"!

Some more news...

2008-09-16T07:33:00.000-07:00

We were notified by our agency to some current goings-on in the world of adoption. A bit of background info: a couple of years ago at the Hague Adoption Convention, a bunch of countries and committees got together and decided that they needed to establish some general ground rules involving international adoption. In theory this was a good and much needed framework, to help prevent some illegal adoption practices that were going on around the world (like baby selling, black market adoptions, women being paid to have a baby to be put up for adoption, babies being illegally taken from their parents, etc.) Unfortunately however, in practice, what it's done is REALLY slow down the adoption process for almost everyone in every country.

Now, agencies who wish to work with countries that have signed the Hague agreement, must get their Hague Accreditation. Of the countries that our agency works with, China and Colombia are the only two that have signed the Hague agreement. Unfortunately, our agency, due to an unfortunate situation involving 2 former employees, did not receive its Hague accreditation with its first application and must now wait for an extended period of time before re-applying. We are told that all of this should NOT affect us or our adoption. It just means that until our agency receives its accreditation it will not be able to process any NEW applications for China and Colombia. But all of the dossiers that are already in country (which includes ours) should go on as planned. As I write that, I am attempting to remain optimistic and positive; however, unfortunately, I find that these last three years have turned me into an ugly, doubting, pessimistic, cynic. I find that even as I am writing that "we are hoping for the best", in my mind I am expecting the worst. As I ponder the situation and try to put words to how I feel, I find that it's not that I am absolutely desperate for a child (don't get me wrong, I would really love to have a child, but Sam and I just enjoy being together so much that it's been nice just the two of us for so long - although I have been feeling this past year or so that if I'm going to have a bio kid, we better get a move on it because the ole clock's not ticking backwards, ya know.) It's more so, just being in a constant state of waiting and not-knowing that's affecting me so much, I think. I mean, you get pregnant and you know, more or less 9 months later, you've got a kid. But this, thinking you're almost there and then back at the starting line and then thinking you're almost there and then, oh, nope, wait a minute, you're back again. That is what has been the most difficult, for me anyway, in this whole adoption process.

So, I guess you could be praying. Our agency went out of their way to assure us that our adoption was fine, but you can guess how anxious and antsy I feel about it regardless of their assurance. You could also pray that our agency gets its Hague accreditation soon. And lastly, even though the Hague agreement has put some much needed regulations in place, it also means that there are a lot of babies and children that are having to wait a lot longer to find a family. Please pray for these orphans, that God will comfort them and hold them in His arms until their parents can get to them.

It's Official...

2008-09-15T12:25:00.000-07:00

We turned in our dossier at the beginning of September 2005 (Sept. 5th if I remember correctly). So we have officially been waiting 3 long years for our referral! The bright side to that is that we have gotten to do a lot of cool things in those past three years, but I think we're definitely ready now to get on with the show, so to speak! We're still hoping to hear something by the end of this year and perhaps travel in the beginning part of 2009! Keep your fingers crossed and the prayers coming!

Hey, what's going on...

2008-09-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

Hey folks! So when I created my original blog my intention at that time was for it to mostly be an adoption blog - a way for our family and friends to keep up to date on our adoption saga. However, it quickly became a running documentary of our never boring lives! So I decided to create a separate adoption blog - this time it WILL be dedicated to all things adoption related! There were only a few posts on my original blog relating to the adoption, so I went ahead and copied those old posts on to this new adoption blog. I've also included some information about the country of Colombia at the very bottom of this blog. Take a looksie if you're interested!

Nothing new on the adoption front right now, but we'll keep you posted!

Adoption Update

2008-09-14T20:48:00.000-07:00

(Original Post from 8/30/08)

No referral yet, but we did at least get some information yesterday. Apparently one of the causes for the delays we've been experiencing recently in the adoption process is that Colombia approved over 300 dossiers in July of 2005 (our dossier was approved in December of 2005). What that means is that it took over three months for them to get the 300 July referrals complete. The good news is that all of the 300 July referrals are now done and they have started August referrals. The other good news is that between August 2005 and January 2006, Colombia only approved 64 dossiers (ours is included in this set). We're still not sure why they approved 300 dossiers in one month! At any rate, this means the process should hopefully pick up a little. There's still a very slim chance that we could adopt by the end of this year, but it's looking more like the beginning of next. Currently, we are #9 on our agency's list for referrals.

Hands of Hope Picnic

2008-09-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

(Original Post from 6/1/08)

Sunday was a beautiful day for our Hands of Hope picnic at Holland Park in Fishers. Hands of Hope is an adoption ministry our church, Grace Community Church (http://www.gracecc.org/), recently launched. Hands of Hope International Adoption and Orphan Ministry (http://www.gracehandsofhope.org/) is a ministry that supports Grace families who have adopted internationally and helps educate people about God's heart for orphans and their needs. Today was our first get together where we were able to meet and hang out with other families who have adopted or are in the process of adopting. We had a great time and it was so neat to see all of the little kids running around from China, Guatemala, Ethiopia, and other countries! Zac, Isabel, and Sydney had a great time too playing with the other kids!

Margie, Aaron, Sam and Dan

Sam and Dan

Syd

This is my favorite picture of Zac and Syd!

Super fast Zac racing along the bridge...Syd must be close behind!

Zac and Syd

Aaron and Isabel

Syd...boy am I thirsty!

Zac hanging with dad, Dan

Typical. Sam and Dan's overt display of "Guy Love" is so big there's barely room for me in the photo!

Sam & Em

Syd's made a new little friend!

More bad news on the adoption front!

2008-09-14T20:41:00.001-07:00

(Original Post from 1/22/08)

Well, Sam called our agency today to see if we could change the gender preference for our baby. (When we started the process over 3 years ago, we didn't have a gender preference. But over the past couple of years we've really had our hearts set on a girl.) So Sam asked if it would be possible to change our preference to a girl. And of course it's not possible. The semi-good news is that our agencey contact (Julie) said that of the people who put down "no preference" for gender get girls about 50% of the time. So I guess we still have a good chance for a girl. I guess we'll just have to leave the decision up to God - kind of like when you have a baby I guess. Also, Julie and Sam were talking about when we might be getting our referral. Unfortunately, Julie said that even though the couple who turned in their dossier in June are now in Colombia, it doesn't neccesarily mean that we'll be getting our referral in four months. Since we turned in our dossier in Dec. we just figured since the June couple was in Colombia that would mean that we'd get our referral in the next few months. Julie said that she thought our referral would come later this year. But she did say that she thought we'd get a referral this year. (I wish I could convey the cynical sarcasm that is dripping off that line!)

Anyway, that's it for now.

Our Adoption Saga

2008-09-14T20:34:00.000-07:00

(Original post from 1/21/08)

So, most of you already know this story, but to recap our adoption story: here it is! After a lot of thought and prayer (specifically: did we want to adopt first or have biological kids first) Sam and I decided to adopt and began the adoption process in January of 2005. We've always had a heart for adoption that only deepened when we did some missions work in orphanages in Zhitomir, Ukraine. At the time we decided to adopt, Ukraine (a seemingly logical choice for us since we'd been there) was undergoing a lot of problems with their adoption system and it was looking very uncertain for the foreseeable future. So we decided to open up our search to all countries. (For various reasons, we never really considered domestic adoption.) At the time, we didn't qualify for China since we were both under the age of 30; China's adoption age requirement. So that was out. Russia required two trips, and I just couldn't imagine leaving my baby behind, even to come back in a few weeks! We actually looked pretty closely and were considering Guatemala, but things just weren't falling into place as far as agencies and finances go. Next thing we know, the Colombia program through our agency Children's Hope International, just opened up for us! Everything fell into place! So it was settled! So January '05 saw us starting the paperwork for our adoption dossier. The next few months were filled with filling out forms, getting finger prints, getting forms notarized, and a grueling 500 question pysch evaluation required by Colombia. In Jan. '05 the current wait time for a referral after turning in your dossier was 12 - 15 months. Not too bad we thought! We had some delays filling out our paperwork, and the psych eval took like 3 months to be written up! We finally turned in our dossier in Sept. '05. At that point the referral time for an infant was not 15 - 18 months. 18 months came and went and the wait time for a referral became 20 - 24 months! Well, Colombia (along with quite a few other adoption countries too) begin to experience a back log of dossiers and a general slowing down in the adoption court processes. So, as you know 24 months came and went and now the current wait time for a referral is 30 - 32 months! At the time of this post we have been waiting for 28 months! Our agency just told us that a couple that turned in their dossier in June of '05 (four months before we turned ours) is now currently in Colombia getting their child. So barring any further delays, we look to be getting our referral between May and July. We will get a call from our agency when our dossier finally goes to the regional office, which means we're about 2 months away from getting our referral. So until then, we'll just keep waiting!