Time for a Change

Happy New Year to all. (I guess I'm a month late on that one, aren't I?) It's amazing how there are days when we feel like time is dragging on. However, when I looked at the website and realized that it's been over two months since our last post, I see that time really is zipping by. I guess selling a house and moving within a 7 week period of time will help the days and weeks to fly. I am so excited that we are another month closer to getting our children! I thought I would post a new blog to answer the many questions that we get each and every day. We have been so blessed and our hearts have been overwhelmingly warmed by the amount of people that continue to hear about our adoption, send their love and moral support and ask us questions. I seem to add people to our adoption list almost every day so that they can be made aware of blog updates. And most exciting, I have people who are wanting to know more because they are now considering. I haven't always known the answers to all of the questions, but I have some great sources. Recently, I joined a Yahoo group of women that meet online every Monday night. All of us are either awaiting Colombian adoption or have already adopted in Colombia. Their knowledge, stories, recommendations, words of wisdom and prayers have been wonderful. Plus we continue to seek advice and info from our friends who adopted there. I thought it might be a good idea to use this blog entry as a way to answer the questions that we are asked over and over again. So, here it goes. . .

Question #1 (which we encounter every day): What's the latest?
As you all know, we have been in a holding pattern since our dossier approval in November. We currently are on the 2 sibling, 0-6 year list which has about an 18-month waiting period. The reason we are on this list, just to re-cap, is because we don't want our new children to have any chance of being older than Luke. And if we would've stayed on the 0-7 list, there was a very strong chance that we would be assigned our kids somewhere between March and May and one could've been as old as 7 years, 11 months. So we opted to go into a holding pattern until timing would be right. Well, the timing is right now. We had our social worker come out to our new house yesterday so that she could survey it and make sure it was suitable for the children. She should have her report written by Monday which means I have, I mean, get to drive to Topeka again to get the document apostilled. Once I do this, we will attach a letter requesting the change to the 2 sibling, 0-7 year waiting list. We will then send the new homestudy and the letter of request to our adoption agency's home office in Oregon where they will be translated to Spanish. Next, the translated documents will be sent to Colombia for processing. This processing will probably take 6-8 weeks. Once it is done, we will receive official notification that we have been approved and we will be placed on the 2 sibling, 0-7 year old waiting list. So we are thinking we should have a referral for our kids between August and October.

Question #2: How long will it be before you get to see your kids?

This is a little more complex than one would think. The timeline will go something like this, though I could have a few things wrong. We will be told when a placement is in the works. Then, we play the waiting game of waiting for more details which can sometimes be 3 weeks or so. When we receive the official referral, I believe it is at that time that we will learn of the children's genders and ages. We will then have to write a letter of acceptance, have it translated and send it to Colombia. Then, we will wait for our official date to travel as well as our "Gotcha Day" when we will finally meet the children. From the time the referral is sent to us, this whole process can take a few months. So I am guessing we will travel between October and December. Don't hold me to this. It's just a guess!

Question #3: How long will you know about your children's ages and genders before you go get them? / How long will you have to prepare their rooms, etc., before you see them?

I believe about 1 month. Yikes! As most of you know, I am a hard-core planner. One month to get everything done, including updating fingerprints, getting new doctor's letter, driving to Topeka AGAIN for apostilling of documents, etc., will put me in overdrive. So beware! ; ) I can't wait to get started on the rooms!

Question #4: Will you change their names?

We aren't sure about this one. Haven't done a lot of thinking about this as it seems to far away to worry about.

Question #5: Aren't you afraid to go to Colombia?

To quote Matt: There's nothing to be afraid of. You have a big, strapping husband to protect you! Seriously, though, I have days where I hear stories about things that go on and have concerns. (Thank you, Dad for keeping me aprised of situations--I love your fatherly protectiveness you continue to have for a 38 year-old daughter.) But every adopting family I have spoken with says it's fine. There are people assigned to us when we are there that kind of tell us things to be careful of. Everyone also says that Bogota has a very safe feeling. So, I trust in those who know.

Plus, we have also learned of a few highly recommended destinations if we want to go there while waiting for our kids' visas. There is a place called San Andres Island that has received glowing remarks. Matt has put his feelers out to a guy he knows in Panama to see if it's something he'd recommend as well. But, let's be honest, we're not sure of how much it costs so it may be totally out of the picture. I'm hoping it might be an alternative, though, because it helps to break up the incredibly long time away from home.

Question #6: Why Colombia?

You can look back to our first blog in June for more info here. But bottom line, it's the country that best suited our needs. We wanted more than one child, liked that the children will come from a foster care situation rather than an orphanage, didn't want to wait too long as we are not getting any younger and didn't want to have to pay double the adoption expenses. It also helped that we knew of a family that adopted from Colombia.

Question #7: How much does it cost? Do you mind me asking?

We have had a number of people ask us if we would be comfortable sharing the cost of our adoption. While it's really no big secret, I do feel a little strange addressing it. So for those of you who want more info, you can click on the link on the bottom, right side of our blog page. This reflects our personal experience of adopting 2.

Question #8: Will you be able to communicate while in Colombia?

Yes, although it is my understanding that the internet is not always the easiest to access. We will hopefully have a laptop to take by then, and we will try to post each and every day. Most importantly, we will try to include pictures and maybe even videos (if we are able to get a video camera before leaving, too). I'm not sure if I will post them all on the blog, as some people have told me that it can take a long time to download them. I have heard that e-mail can sometimes be tricky and take a while to get delivered. So, I strongly urge all of you to sign up with a Google account so that you can post your thoughts directly onto our blog site. Here's how you can do it:
1. At the end of each posting, you will see "comments." Click on that.
2. Next, you have to choose an identity. If you have a google or gmail account, I believe you can use that e-mail address. If not, click on "sign up here."
3. You will need to fill out the rest of the info on the following page and accept their terms. Be assured that your e-mail address will not be exploited nor will you receive any spam from it. I have done it to be sure.
4. You will be taken back to the post screen where you can type in a response and then send it.

I have been told by my Yahoo group of women that the blog posts were a welcome part of every day. It can get pretty lonely in Colombia due to homesickness and having that connection with friends and family is what comforted many through the 3-5 weeks that they were there. So, I urge you to please try it now so we can communicate while we are in Colombia. Plus, it's really fun to see what all of you are thinking. It's definitely not a journey that we are sharing just with our immediate family! We love the fact that so many others have opted to ride along with us : )

Question #9: (Last one since this blog is so long. We'll answer more next time.) How can I find out when you post new blogs?

If you are interested in this, let me know. You can either let me know of your interest by posting it after this blog or e-mail me and let me know. I will send out an e-mail whenever there's an update. However, once we head to Colombia, we will try to post every day and I will no longer send the e-mails to let you know. You can just go directly to this blog website each day to see what's going on. You can set it as a favorite so you don't have to remember it.


Well, that's enough for this post, I believe. Hopefully, there will be more info to pass along soon! Take care and continue your prayers!

Traci