Tuesday, April 8, 2008
24 HOURS TO REMEMBER
What an incredible 24 hours it has been! First, let me preface this by saying that there will be some "adoption" news as I know that's why many are reading, but I'll get to that in a minute. Let's start with last night. As most of you know I am a Kansas Jayhawk fanatic who lives, bleeds, breathes and will die crimson and blue. I feel such tremendous pride for my alma mater. Even when our teams don't win, I am a steady fan who cheers them through the highs and lows. Football or basketball. . . it makes no difference. When they lose, I hurt for them. When they win, I celebrate with them. After 20 years of waiting, the Jayhawks worked their way through the NCAA tournament and won the national championship! What an awesome night to see my son sitting in front of the TV with great intensity, hoping and praying for a Jayhawk victory. Once again, I can see that I have a Jayhawk in the making. Luke and I screamed (after Mario Chalmers game-tying 3 I hurt my vocal cords), we were calm, we paced, we left the room, but in the end, we celebrated. It was incredible! It was after 1am that I went to sleep and my sleep was interrupted multiple times throughout every hour until I finally got out of bed at 5:45am. My mind was crazed with thoughts of what it must be like to be in San Antonio, in Lawrence on Mass street. I just couldn't get the thoughts out of my mind. I couldn't wait to get up, put on my Kansas shirt and let the whole world know I am a Jayhawk. For those of you who aren't sports fans, this may all sound a little crazy to you. But this is the stuff I live for. Well, I also live for good news. Which leads to the second half of the story.
This evening, I jumped into my car to go get milk. This is not an errand I particularly enjoy. I mean, seriously, does anyone else think that milk prices are absolutely crazy right now!!?? Not only that, but I am EXHAUSTED. I don't remember the last time I got a measly 4 1/2 hours of sleep before I had to go to work. Even when Luke was a baby, at least I could go about 5 hours. All the way to the store, I was lamenting about how tired I was, how I couldn't wait to get home and turn in for the evening. When I got to the grocery store, I checked my cell phone before heading inside. Most of the time when Matt or I go to the store, the other will call for a few other items. So I wanted to make sure I hadn't missed a call. Instead, I saw the notification that I had a new e-mail. When I opened it, I saw it was from CHI, our adoption agency. The e-mail read, "And just after you asked! We finally received news today that they moved you to the list for 2 siblings 0-7 on 3/18/08." Are you kidding me!!?? Did I read that right? Not only had we been approved, but we were approved 3 weeks ago? I closed my phone, screamed at the top of my lungs (straining my vocal cords once again) and immediately had to open it up again and re-read. Not only were we approved 3 weeks ago, (which ultimately means 3 weeks of waiting have already passed--YIPPEE!) but CHI believes we will have our new children within the next 3-6 months!!!!!!
I'm sure you can tell I am ecstatic. I am no longer tired, want to celebrate and wish I could run to Lawrence and have a party of my own! Life is good, God has blessed us. Our dreams will soon come true!
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Wait, wait, wait
The waiting game. . . we've all played it, endured it and grown irritated with it. The whole idea of hurry up and wait has never been something I've been good at. However, with the adoption process, it's a given. Maybe that's why I have dealt with it so much more gracefully than any other time. It's been about 1 1/2 months since we sent our request to ICBF to get switched to the 0-7 years of age list. Still no word. After speaking with our agency last week, I have learned that things are moving "slower than molasses" right now with paperwork. They say the switch usually only takes 1-2 months, but I know of another family who put in for a switch in the middle of January and they still haven't heard anything. So, the waiting game continues. : ) Matt and I have learned to look at the postives of it all. We believe that God has a time planned for us to get out children. Until that happens, it just gives us more of an opportunity to save money, enjoy our family of three, and learn Spanish. I have enjoyed taking my time finding ideas of what I want their rooms to look like. I've found comforters and accessories and draw energy and excitement from that process. Outside of being frustrated with buying time before we could get on the right list (to make sure that our children will not be older than Luke), this has been a wonderful experience!!
Besides looking at room furnishings, I've most recently been working on learning more about English as a Second Language (ESL)/English Language Learner (ELL) education. They mean the same thing, but different school districts call it different things.) I spoke with the school district that we live in last week about the process that we would need to go through to make sure that our kids will be placed in the correct grade to meet their needs. Since our oldest, adopted child will more than likely be 7 years old, we feel very confident that we will have at least one school-aged child. As an educator, I thought I knew a lot about these kinds of things, but after speaking with the school district, I realized how much I didn't know! In two more weeks, Matt and I will go meet with the school district I work for. Even though we don't live in that school district, I am allowed to enroll my children in it. Since they will physically be taking us to one of the schools that houses the ELL program, and because we have a large number of Spanish-speaking kids in my school district, I will be interested to see how it all operates and how it may be different from the school district in which we live. The good news is we have plenty of time to think about what route we will take! We are just very fortunate that we live in/near two VERY GOOD school districts!!! What an awesome decision to have to make.
Not only am I learning new things from this whole journey, I am also meeting a ton of new people I would have never known. It seems like no matter who you meet or know, everyone has an adoption story or knows of one. It's been enlightening to hear how so many families have opened their hearts to the adoption process. I am adding a new piece to our blog page which highlights other adoption blogs of people I have met. One that is exceptionally fun to follow right now is that of the Hollis Family because they are leaving in a few weeks to go to Bogota and adopt two siblings 0-7 years of age just like we will be doing. So, if you're interested in catching a glimpse of what we'll be going through, you can follow along with that one. However, all of the blogs are awesome, so inspiring and uplifting!
That's about all for now. Thanks to ALL of you for your continual interest in how things are going. We don't go a day without people asking us about it all. Please continue to say your prayers, especially ones that can help to expedite our list switch! We are so blessed to have such supportive family and friends!
Traci
Besides looking at room furnishings, I've most recently been working on learning more about English as a Second Language (ESL)/English Language Learner (ELL) education. They mean the same thing, but different school districts call it different things.) I spoke with the school district that we live in last week about the process that we would need to go through to make sure that our kids will be placed in the correct grade to meet their needs. Since our oldest, adopted child will more than likely be 7 years old, we feel very confident that we will have at least one school-aged child. As an educator, I thought I knew a lot about these kinds of things, but after speaking with the school district, I realized how much I didn't know! In two more weeks, Matt and I will go meet with the school district I work for. Even though we don't live in that school district, I am allowed to enroll my children in it. Since they will physically be taking us to one of the schools that houses the ELL program, and because we have a large number of Spanish-speaking kids in my school district, I will be interested to see how it all operates and how it may be different from the school district in which we live. The good news is we have plenty of time to think about what route we will take! We are just very fortunate that we live in/near two VERY GOOD school districts!!! What an awesome decision to have to make.
Not only am I learning new things from this whole journey, I am also meeting a ton of new people I would have never known. It seems like no matter who you meet or know, everyone has an adoption story or knows of one. It's been enlightening to hear how so many families have opened their hearts to the adoption process. I am adding a new piece to our blog page which highlights other adoption blogs of people I have met. One that is exceptionally fun to follow right now is that of the Hollis Family because they are leaving in a few weeks to go to Bogota and adopt two siblings 0-7 years of age just like we will be doing. So, if you're interested in catching a glimpse of what we'll be going through, you can follow along with that one. However, all of the blogs are awesome, so inspiring and uplifting!
That's about all for now. Thanks to ALL of you for your continual interest in how things are going. We don't go a day without people asking us about it all. Please continue to say your prayers, especially ones that can help to expedite our list switch! We are so blessed to have such supportive family and friends!
Traci
Friday, February 1, 2008
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
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
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Approval with a twist
It’s been a little over a month since I last posted and so much has happened. Shortly after we learned that our wait time was potentially cut from 12 months to 4 months (once the government approved out dossier), we knew we needed to find a bigger house. Immediately, we contacted my former hairdresser, Lisa, who took us around to some houses nearby. We found that we were interested in pretty quickly. However, since our house wasn’t up for sale, we had to offer the owners a 45-day contingency offer. Fortunately, they accepted the contingency. Immediately, we spent a long, grueling 14 days of cleaning, discarding and prepping our house for sale. We rented a storage unit, got out most of the clutter and had it on the market the Friday before Halloween. Within a week, we had two offers. We were incredibly blessed! Kudos to Lisa and her incredible work ethic. I can’t imagine ever selling another house without her help. Everything just worked out perfectly and we will be closing on both houses on Dec. 6. We absolutely love our new house—see the picture posted. It has four bedrooms, a beautiful kitchen/hearth room, a finished basement and a 3-car garage. Luke is most thrilled about the fact that we have a huge driveway where he will finally be able to play basketball! You can imagine that the house goings on have kept us quite busy but now it’s down to packing. Hopefully the weather will continue to cooperate through December!
Now for the news on the adoption front. Last week, we received word that the Colombian government approved our dossier. YEA!! We were pleasantly surprised to hear so soon. There is a twist, however. As you probably remember, we have asked for two siblings from 0-7 years of age and younger than Luke. Well, since we were approved so quickly, this meant that we could potentially get our children as early as April. This presented one problem . . . since a 7 year old could be 7 years and 11 months old when assigned to us, there was a chance that he/she would be older than Luke. For this reason, the ICBF (Colombian govt.) approved us for ages 0-6 instead. The wait time for that age range is much longer at 18-24 months. The good news is we have options. Since we definitely want to keep Luke the oldest, sometime after the first of the year, we will write the ICBF and ask to be switched to 0-7 years. This change will take 1-2 months. So now, it looks like we may get our children as early as August or as late as November if the wait time remains steady at 4-6 months. Honestly, I really feel like this has happened for a reason. It will give us more time to get financially adjusted to our new house and to prepare it for the kids. The extra time is actually a welcome relief. Be assured that we continue to enjoy the adoption ride and there are no heavy hearts or frustrations at this point!
Finally, we want to congratulate our friends, Shawn and Cindy, who just brought back their fourth child from Colombia. We are so happy for them. Just as we are so happy and thankful to have such a wonderfully supportive family and a fabulous group of friends who are constantly asking how things are going. God has truly blessed us with all of you and what a better time to give thanks than right now. Please continue to say your prayers for our children. Hopefully your words and thoughts will reach and comfort them on difficult days.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Now for the news on the adoption front. Last week, we received word that the Colombian government approved our dossier. YEA!! We were pleasantly surprised to hear so soon. There is a twist, however. As you probably remember, we have asked for two siblings from 0-7 years of age and younger than Luke. Well, since we were approved so quickly, this meant that we could potentially get our children as early as April. This presented one problem . . . since a 7 year old could be 7 years and 11 months old when assigned to us, there was a chance that he/she would be older than Luke. For this reason, the ICBF (Colombian govt.) approved us for ages 0-6 instead. The wait time for that age range is much longer at 18-24 months. The good news is we have options. Since we definitely want to keep Luke the oldest, sometime after the first of the year, we will write the ICBF and ask to be switched to 0-7 years. This change will take 1-2 months. So now, it looks like we may get our children as early as August or as late as November if the wait time remains steady at 4-6 months. Honestly, I really feel like this has happened for a reason. It will give us more time to get financially adjusted to our new house and to prepare it for the kids. The extra time is actually a welcome relief. Be assured that we continue to enjoy the adoption ride and there are no heavy hearts or frustrations at this point!
Finally, we want to congratulate our friends, Shawn and Cindy, who just brought back their fourth child from Colombia. We are so happy for them. Just as we are so happy and thankful to have such a wonderfully supportive family and a fabulous group of friends who are constantly asking how things are going. God has truly blessed us with all of you and what a better time to give thanks than right now. Please continue to say your prayers for our children. Hopefully your words and thoughts will reach and comfort them on difficult days.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Monday, October 8, 2007
An October celebration
I have been thinking for a while now that I should write an update, but there was nothing more to report, until today. And all I can say is just when I thought life couldn't get any better after my Jayhawks beat the Wildcats this past Saturday, I found out I was wrong. We are excited to learn that it looks like we may be getting our kids a little sooner than expected. As of right now, CHI is awaiting approvals from all dossiers sent to the ICBF (the Colombian government) in July. Since our dossier was sent in August, our processing will be next. The only uncertainty is if they will process it before the middle of December. It is at that time when they take a winter "break" until mid-January. If they do not get our dossier processed by mid-December, we will probably be looking at February as the time when we receive our approval.
The above information is nothing new. This is what we expected all along. THIS is the exciting info . . . once we are approved (by no later than February, it appears) the wait time for sibling groups of two between 0and 7 years has been reduced from 12 months to 4-6 months!!!! This means that by summer's end we should have our kids! I can not tell you how excited I am! Although we have not been in the adoption"process" for a lengthy period of time, it is always nice to have bits of news, no matter how insignificant they may be, to break up the monotony of waiting. I can't lie that the cautious side of me does keep in the back of my head that as quickly as things have changed for the better, they can just as quickly be changed for the worse. I have found it is easiest to realize that I am powerless over the situation and that we will have our children when they are intended to be ours.
So, I can say with a pretty good degree of certainty that our soon-to-be children are in foster care at this time. While our hearts are full of happiness at this tremendous news, we can not overlook the fact that our children are living through difficult times of adjustment right now. It does heavy our hearts and all we can do is hope that our prayers of hope and love reach them each and every day until they are in our arms. Please pray that God will keep them strong and give them courage to believe that life will get better. It's amazing how much love I already feel for them when they are nameless and faceless. I know how wonderful it was to be a parent the first time around, and I can't wait to experience it once again!
So, that's all for now. We will update you when more comes our way!
Traci
The above information is nothing new. This is what we expected all along. THIS is the exciting info . . . once we are approved (by no later than February, it appears) the wait time for sibling groups of two between 0and 7 years has been reduced from 12 months to 4-6 months!!!! This means that by summer's end we should have our kids! I can not tell you how excited I am! Although we have not been in the adoption"process" for a lengthy period of time, it is always nice to have bits of news, no matter how insignificant they may be, to break up the monotony of waiting. I can't lie that the cautious side of me does keep in the back of my head that as quickly as things have changed for the better, they can just as quickly be changed for the worse. I have found it is easiest to realize that I am powerless over the situation and that we will have our children when they are intended to be ours.
So, I can say with a pretty good degree of certainty that our soon-to-be children are in foster care at this time. While our hearts are full of happiness at this tremendous news, we can not overlook the fact that our children are living through difficult times of adjustment right now. It does heavy our hearts and all we can do is hope that our prayers of hope and love reach them each and every day until they are in our arms. Please pray that God will keep them strong and give them courage to believe that life will get better. It's amazing how much love I already feel for them when they are nameless and faceless. I know how wonderful it was to be a parent the first time around, and I can't wait to experience it once again!
So, that's all for now. We will update you when more comes our way!
Traci
Friday, August 24, 2007
The wait begins. . . or does it?
It has been an exciting past two months as we have been filling out paperwork and fulfilling our parent education requirements. I have heard so many negative things about what a pain the paperwork is and how extensive it can be. However, I have found this whole ride quite enjoyable. (I'm sure that having the summer off and being given time to do these things helped!) We've learned where many interesting places are around our area--U.S. Homeland Security, courthouses, police stations, etc. I've even learned a little bit more about the confusing geography of downtown Kansas City. When we finished with all of our Kansas documents, Luke and I took a trip up to Topeka to get them all apostilled (a fancy word for a certificate of verification that our notaries from the state of Kansas were all valid). We had a great time and he was quite impressed with the Capitol building. It's been fun to hear his questions about our state government. On the way home, we made a stop in Lawrence (yes, I've trained him right!)and walked around campus, looked at Memorial Stadium, watched the baseball players practice and purchased some new, KU attire. The most wonderful part of the day was taking him into Allen Field House and watching his shadow stand in awe of the newly polished floor exclaiming, "Wow! This is so cool!" Although he's been to a basketball game there, for the first time he felt the mystique of The Phog. : ) If ever the Jayhawks sign a 5'9" guard from Olathe, Kansas, I will always remember that day! So truly, this has been a wonderful summer!
We submitted all of our paperwork--called a dossier--last Friday. It was a relief to know everything looked great. We were asked to include one more, precautionary thing which I had to round up, drive up to Topeka once again, and return by Tuesday. (The trip by myself to the Capitol wasn't nearly as fun.) We were told that our dossier was on its way to Colombia on Wednesday. A definite celebration!
Yesterday (Thursday), we had no idea that we receive a phone call that blew both of us out of the water. Our agency called to let us know that there was a sibling group of three ready for adoption. Yes, you heard correctly. . . three. Even though we requested two, the agency always clears you for one more than you ask for. And since the children were all 7 or under, they essentially matched our criteria. You have to understand that everyone's criteria can look very different (three girls under 5, a boy and two girls under 11, 2 children of any gender under 7) which is why there could be someone else who has been waiting longer than we have and they still haven't had an offer. It's a complicated deal!
Long story short, we talked about it off and on for the rest of the day and into the evening. Our decision, though an especially hard one for me, was that we wanted to stick with our original plan of adopting two. It was a very emotional day yesterday. I found it hard to turn away three children who have been in foster care for a year and badly need a home. It's just not in my nature to do that. But Matt did a wonderful job of helping me to re-focus on the goals of our family, and once I did that, I knew this was the right decision. So. . . the wait, albeit short up to this point in time, continues.
We have been told that our dossier will take approximately 3-5 months to process and translate. If I understand correctly, once that is finished, it will be sent to the ICBF (the Colombian government) where we will seek approval and officially be placed on the waiting list. Currently, the wait for two, 7 and under siblings is 12months. (The wait for sibling groups of 3 or more is basically non-existent. Yesterday proved that.) That means Jan. 2009--give or take a few months--is the approximate time this will happen. What an exciting time we have ahead of us!
If more information comes available, we will let you know. Until then, say your prayers for our "someday" children that they will find the strength to persevere through their difficult times. There is no doubt that they will finally be loved and taken care of when they reach our arms.
Traci
We submitted all of our paperwork--called a dossier--last Friday. It was a relief to know everything looked great. We were asked to include one more, precautionary thing which I had to round up, drive up to Topeka once again, and return by Tuesday. (The trip by myself to the Capitol wasn't nearly as fun.) We were told that our dossier was on its way to Colombia on Wednesday. A definite celebration!
Yesterday (Thursday), we had no idea that we receive a phone call that blew both of us out of the water. Our agency called to let us know that there was a sibling group of three ready for adoption. Yes, you heard correctly. . . three. Even though we requested two, the agency always clears you for one more than you ask for. And since the children were all 7 or under, they essentially matched our criteria. You have to understand that everyone's criteria can look very different (three girls under 5, a boy and two girls under 11, 2 children of any gender under 7) which is why there could be someone else who has been waiting longer than we have and they still haven't had an offer. It's a complicated deal!
Long story short, we talked about it off and on for the rest of the day and into the evening. Our decision, though an especially hard one for me, was that we wanted to stick with our original plan of adopting two. It was a very emotional day yesterday. I found it hard to turn away three children who have been in foster care for a year and badly need a home. It's just not in my nature to do that. But Matt did a wonderful job of helping me to re-focus on the goals of our family, and once I did that, I knew this was the right decision. So. . . the wait, albeit short up to this point in time, continues.
We have been told that our dossier will take approximately 3-5 months to process and translate. If I understand correctly, once that is finished, it will be sent to the ICBF (the Colombian government) where we will seek approval and officially be placed on the waiting list. Currently, the wait for two, 7 and under siblings is 12months. (The wait for sibling groups of 3 or more is basically non-existent. Yesterday proved that.) That means Jan. 2009--give or take a few months--is the approximate time this will happen. What an exciting time we have ahead of us!
If more information comes available, we will let you know. Until then, say your prayers for our "someday" children that they will find the strength to persevere through their difficult times. There is no doubt that they will finally be loved and taken care of when they reach our arms.
Traci
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