Celebrations and countdowns!

I have no idea where the last week and a half went as we have been very busy. Matt's parents, the BEST and I do mean BEST in-laws God every created, came in town, and we always look forward to seeing them. Originally, they were coming in town for Luke's first communion but we managed to squeeze in Luke's soccer game and a family shower as well. We received some wonderful things, including a locket that my mom was given by her parents and that I wore when I was a little girl. Now, it's Maria's turn. :) Needless to say, tears were shed when opening it as it somehow made me feel the presence of my grandparents who I continue to miss every single day! They would be so proud right now! Anyway, I digress. . . we definitely made good use of the time my in-laws were in town. It was so wonderful to have all of the grandparents around at the same time! There was a lot of imagining what things will be like when two more grand kids are added. The week following, we spent gathering up documents, copying them, sending paperwork to Topeka, painting Andres and Maria's rooms and making lists of all of our "TO DO's." We ended our week by having our phone conference with Julie at CHI to go over all of our travel details. It was great to talk to her and I think we feel much more informed about what to expect. I think she worried a little as our tornado sirens started going off during the conference. We assured her all was ok as the spotted tornado was a few cities away. I think that comment kind of struck her funny. Only those of us who are seasoned tornadoites know it was all ok.

The best news is that we now have all of our official paperwork. We received our FBI clearances today which was a big relief. My fingerprints are not very definitive which sometimes causes the FBI to deny the clearance. So, it looks like in 12 more days we will be on our way and in 14 days we will have our family of five! We are so excited!! Also, this is my last week of work which is a great feeling since I have a number of things to do requiring a LOT of errand running. That's tough to fit in after work when competing with sports and activities. But I will dearly miss my co-workers. They, too, threw me a shower last week which was overwhelming within itself. So much generosity in that building! I am truly blessed to work with them each and every day. Thanks to each and every one of them who have supported us throughout this time. God definitely could not have dropped me into a more caring environment. : )

Finally, I thought I would end this post with some pics highlighting the week.



Just proud at the thought of being a big brother!



Cake from our family shower. There's no way it could have been any cuter.



Love this picture. It's times like this when I see how quickly he's grown.



Luke and his proud grandparents.



Probably our last picture as a family of three.

Even Without You, We Celebrate

It has been two weeks since we learned about Andres and Maria.  Since then, we have been in high gear with paperwork, preparing rooms, readying the house for those who will stay here while we are gone, not to mention all of the other things spring time brings.  It wasn't until yesterday that I felt like I hit a wall.  We still have three weeks to go before we can go get Maria and Andres.  It seems like an eternity away.  The fact that yesterday was Andres' 2nd birthday I believe was the trigger of all of this.  The day seemed special but not complete since our guest of honor was unable to be with us.  So instead of sitting and doing nothing, we decided to have a party anyway.  You can see by the pictures above that even Max, our dog, got in on the celebration (and I know that he is looking forward to having a two-year old in the house again so crumbs will once again hit the floor!)  Matt and Luke picked out car cupcakes because they were sure that's what Andres would want on his cake.  We lit two candles, sang "Happy Birthday" in Spanish and then Luke blew out one candle and all of us blew out the other.  And yes, there were wishes made!  Now cross your fingers that they come true!  After the cake ceremony, we all wondered what Andres was doing with his foster family, making up stories as to what their celebration for him must have looked like.  We video taped all of the festivities as well as our thoughts so he can watch it someday.  Although I'm so glad we celebrated , I found my heart aching in a few different ways.  First, my heart aches for his foster family who has celebrated the final time with Maria (in March) and Andres on their birthdays. I can't imagine what it must be like to have these beautiful children with you for over a year only to have someone come and take them away from you.  Yes, I know that's part of the deal of being a foster parent, but I'm sure it doesn't ease the pain when saying goodbye.  Second, I hurt inside because I wish we could have been with him and Maria today.  I would love to have seen the excitement on his face as he turned two, but I have to focus on the fact that we will have a lifetime of birthdays ahead.  It's now time to focus our energy on the excitement we will see on their faces when we get them in 3 more weeks so that we can love them, hold them and celebrate FOR GOOD.  God, please let these three weeks fly by!  I miss them!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Andres.  We are thinking of you constantly today.  We can't wait to share the rest of your birthdays with you!

Much Love, 

Papi, Mami and Luke

A Day of Uncertainty

Well, the week has been filled with a tremendous amount of gathering and organizing paperwork to send off for our visas.  Late last night, I realized that we never received a letter that CHI was to send us so I immediately e-mailed them.  When they called today, I was told that they sent it UPS on April 14 and received on the 17th.  What?  We never got a package from UPS!  Bottom line, we never received it because it was sent to our old address.  I was told if we were unable to get it, we would have to postpone our date to get the kids.  I was bummed all day as I tried to find ways to get a hold of the people who live in our old house.  Well, long story short, Luke and I finally decided to drive down once evening hit, and thank goodness, someone was home and they had the package!  Big relief!  Now, I am not complaining because I am SO thankful we have it in hand, but I'm also kind of bummed because this is often a moment people photograph.  So I missed out on a photo op but I have my sanity back.

But here's the best part--a few more pictures!!!  Aren't they absolutely adorable!?  It's wonderful to see those smiles.  Makes me long to see them more than I already do.  Enjoy!

We have a date!

We received a call from CHI yesterday to confirm that we will be traveling to Ubate on Monday, May 19 to meet Maria and Andres at 10:00am ET. That's one month from today!! That means we will head to Bogota a few days before that. We are thrilled to finally have a date so that we can begin the rest of our preparations.

It has been a busy week in our house. I've found that I will begin one thing and then start doing another. So, I'm tending to various matters, just not completing them. Hopefully, as time goes on, I'll feel like I have things a little more under control. We've been trying really hard to ease Luke into this transition. After being an only child for almost 8 years, this will be a big adjustment. But I have to say, he has surprised Matt and I! Since we found out about Maria and Andres, he has acted different--older. When we asked him about it, he told us that it was because, "I'm going to be the big brother and I want to be a good role model." Ok, so maybe sometimes kids do listen to their parents. ; ) We were wondering how long the honeymoon period would be, but I have to say, he's continuing to live up to the bargain. We are so proud of him!

Finally, I couldn't resist including this picture. Obviously, anyone who enters this family has to be a Jayhawk! So, I bought each of the kids a National Championship t-shirt. I just look at the shirts all together and can't wait to see the stair-step of sizes when Luke, Maria and Andres are side-by-side. What a beautiful picture it will be!

Whirlwind weekend

Luke with his friend Behr
Cleaning out boxes of toys
Matt preparing Andres' room for new paint
My friend Laura who brought me to tears with her kindness!

"How beautiful a day can be when kindness touches it." 
Author:George Alliston

Simply put, I can't tell you how incredible the last few days have been. They have been exciting, emotional, and most appropriately, overwhelming. Often times in life, we hear only the bad about humanity--the violence, the unrest, the poor decisions--and rarely do we get to celebrate the goodness in people's hearts. Well, right now, Matt and I are experiencing the most incredible amount of kindness unlike anything we have ever witnessed. Since announcing that our children were referred to us last Friday, so much kindness has touched our every day that we can not come close to thanking everyone enough for all that has been done, said and offered. We've had people offer bed sets, various pieces of furniture, bedding, clothing, toys, as well as offers to help paint, mow the yard, take Luke to events, go shopping with me, search for clothing at garage sales, etc. In three days time, two showers have already been planned--one with family and one with my co-workers at school.  People have dropped by the house because they were "just out shopping" and decided to buy a few things for the kids. Luke's good friend, Behr, dropped by a home-made card congratulating him on becoming a big brother. A couple I met for the first time the other night at our monthly adoption meeting extended an offer for us to leave our car at their house if we didn't want to leave it at the airport. You get the picture. . . I mean, seriously, it's overwhelming. I wish everyone could experience something like this in life. It restores all faith in humanity. Not that we didn't know it before, but we realize on an even deeper level how blessed we are to have every one of you in our lives and what a gift your friendship is. I have been brought to tears multiple times each and every day. One of the pictures above shows me with my friend, Laura, who has been so incredible through all of this and then brought two, huge bags of brand new things for Maria. I weeped even more upon hearing that all of the items were selected by her daughter because she thought Maria would like them. Laura--you will just never know what this meant to us! To all of you who have e-mailed and called, and I haven't replied, please know that we are so grateful for all of your inspiring words and kind offers. Our days have been consumed with what needs to be done but we are enjoying EVERY MINUTE OF IT!

Over the weekend, we continued trying to grasp all that has happened to us. As you can see above, Luke helped me to go through boxes of toys. My mom and I went shopping so I could decide how I wanted to decorate Andres and Maria's rooms. Matt began doing some work in Andres' room. And then, there was a large amount of time organizing, filling out and creating certain pieces of paperwork. Today, we sent off our acceptance letter, got fingerprinted again so that the FBI in West Virginia can check our backgrounds, requested updated letters from our doctors, and I finally spoke with a CHI representative. We have decided to request May 19 as our date to get Maria and Andres. We will not hear until probably Thursday is this date is confirmed. So now, we must wait until we have that information before we can arrange our travel and send for visas to bring the kids to the States. We have been told that we will stay in Bogota the whole time. This is somewhat comforting in that it is obviously a little more touristy and there are more things to do. Other than that, there is nothing more to tell. We THANK YOU ALL for what you have done. Blessings to all!

Celebration underway!

Did I say 3-6 months that we would be waiting?  I was wrong!  I meant three DAYS!  Yes, you've heard it right.  WE HAVE A REFERRAL--one girl and one boy!!!!  The call came at 11:15am yesterday as I sat at the computer making a list of all the things I needed to get accomplished within the next three months.  (Needless to say, I haven't gotten back to that list.)  ICBF (the Colombian government) was in clear understanding that we would be switching back to the 0-7 list when they initially approved us for 0-6.  They knew we just needed to play the waiting game until timing was right.  Since our dossier was approved in November, we literally have already done our waiting time.  Matter of fact, a family whose dossier was approved the same day as ours left yesterday to get their two, new children.  For this reason, we are suspecting that the ICBF approved us based upon that knowledge!  Regardless, you can imagine the complete shock I felt when getting the phone call.  You can never prepare for the moment when CHI says, "We have your children!"  And when they did, I gasped, wanted to scream (but didn't maybe because I am still recovering from my strained vocal cords from Mario's 3-point shot Monday night), wanted to cry (but couldn't because I was in shock), and wanted to call everyone under the sun (but didn't because we wanted to get in touch with our immediate family first).   Instead, I sat in complete silence and began gasping for air a little bit.  As soon as I received all of the information, I immediately called Matt.  He was away from his desk.  UGH!  I called his cell phone and after what seemed like a million rings, he finally answered.  Last night, my mom, step dad, dad and step mom all came over and we surprised them.  (Ok, Dad, I know you were on to us!)  It was a wonderful evening.  We wish we could call each and every one of you and give you the news, but obviously, that's an impossibility!  So, as we will do throughout the next few months, we will share it all through this blog.  Enough about this stuff.  We are thrilled and want to share more about our kids!!!!

Our children are from Cundinamarca which is outside of Bogota.  Our beautiful daughter is named Maria and she just turned four in March.  She loves toys that light up and make sounds, as well as dancing, playing with others and running.  (Luke has already commented that she will love to play tag with him!)  And to our delight, she also loves to show physical affection giving hugs and kisses!!!!  Our gorgeous son is Hector Andres and he will be turning 2 on April 25.  He loves to play with cars (thank God as we have every Matchbox car under the sun!) and toys that can be manipulated and carried from place to place.  He loves to dance, laugh and jump.   Although we have no specific info on when this will all take place, it is typical that you leave within a month of getting your referral.  So it looks like we will be heading to Bogota by the middle of May.  YIKES!  I guess I better shorten that list I was making yesterday as I don't have as much time to burn now.    I feel as if I just found out I was pregnant and then the doctor followed it up by saying, "Oh yeah, not only are you pregnant, but you are due in four weeks."  So much to do, so little time, but how blessed we are!  With sports cancelled today due to the weather, Luke and I are going to spend time going through the boxes of toys that I have saved to see if any of them will be of interest to Maria and Hector Andres.  I will also go through the few boxes of boys clothes that I have saved to see if any would be appropriate for Hector Andres.  As far as Maria goes--if any of you have or know of anyone who has any used girl clothing in the late 3, early 4 year range, I would be very interested in taking it off of their hands and paying for it.  My other goal is to figure out how we will furnish their bedrooms as they will each have their own room.  How exciting to get to decorate a girl's bedroom!!! The financial expenditures ahead of us just to prepare for their arrival is a little overwhelming, but this is one of the moment's we have waited for and we have faith that all will work out!   So as you can tell, WE ARE ECSTATIC!  Luke is so excited to finally be a big brother, and the sweetest part of yesterday was when Luke was going to bed.  He told me, "Mommy, I want to dream about them tonight so I can see them better and we can play."  Priceless!!!!!

You can expect that I will posting a new blog every day or two to give you updates of what is happening.  We will be getting a call from CHI on Monday to tell us more about what paperwork has to be rounded up/obtained as well as dates to expect to leave.  Until then, we have a weekend ahead of us to celebrate and begin planning!   Blessings to all, and please keep saying your prayers.  How wonderful that we can now refer to them by name when we pray!  Until then, this proud, proud mom of THREE is signing off!