Amazon Link

For those of you who shop Amazon, here is a way to help us with our fundraising with NO cost to you.  Just visit our blog each time before you access the Amazon site.  Click either hereor in the right margin.  It will take you directly to the Amazon site and we will receive a percentage of your purchase toward our adoption costs!  An easy way to help.  Thank you!!

Encuentro date!!!

Seriously, you guys must have a direct line to God!!!  I asked you all in my post on Saturday found here, to be praying for some very specific things.  The first request was for additional funds.  Since Saturday, we have received $1,600 in donations, clothing for Little One and a few other donations of needed items !

Our second request was to hear from ICBF quickly for an Encuentro date.  This is the date we will actually meet our precious daughter.  Four days later, we received a call from the agency with a date.  We had a couple of changes in dates that day, but have settled in on November 5th as our Encuentro!! This also happens to be Gavin's birthday.  He is thrilled about his "birthday present".

Our third request was that the remainder of our paperwork would process quickly.  Our visas were approved and we received the electronic copies of them yesterday. We should receive the hard copies by Fedex in the next few days.  All that is remaining is the receipt of our Article 5 and the processing of our DS-230.  Things are moving along perfectly!!  I am confident the Lord is answering our prayers for Little One's health as well.

All that being said, I have spent many hours the last couple of days on the phone with many people including the airlines.  Yesterday, I was able to book us adoption fares with Delta.  This will allow us to make any changes or cancellations we might need to make to our flights without any penalty.  That is huge since we do not really know our return date.  We will fly to Bogota on November 2nd.  Our flight will arrive at 9:30 pm.  There are no flights going to Valledupar, where she lives, until the next morning around 9:00 am.  We will just bed down in the airport for the night.  We are not at all interested in traveling to a hotel after clearing customs with all of us and our luggage only to turn around and get back early in the morning for the next flight.  So, the airport floor it will be :)  I am so excited about this adventure.  I cannot wait to document and photograph all our little moments (good and bad) that we will create along the way!!

Thank you all so much for being part of our adventure and our lives.  We love you all madly!!

Tax deductible donations may be made at Adopt Together by check, credit card or PayPal.

So close!!

Obviously time has escaped me as it has been almost two months since I have updated the blog.  So there will be a lot of info to take in during the post.  It will not be eloquent or grammatically correct.  Don't judge. Grab some coffee and catch up!

The last time I posted, we had received our official referral for "Little One" and were awaiting the translation of her referral file so we could submit our immigration paperwork.  Translations of files typically take 1-2 weeks.  Typical we are not!!  We had a slew of things go wrong during this step.  First the file was a much larger file than they anticipated due to the quantity of medical reports.  When they finally finished the translation and attempted to email it, the file was corrupted.  When the translation was completed a second time, we had issues getting a legible copy of her birth certificate from ICBF.  What should have been a 1-2 week process in the end took over 5 weeks.  Huge setback that was completely out of my control.  And I might have been a bit frustrated.  

During our wait, we did get a few medical questions answered and best of all....a new picture!!!!!  The last picture we had was taken when Little One was 14 months old. She will be 3 years old in January so I have been yearning for a new photo.  I've have once again scrambled her face for identity protection.  Seriously, I wish you could see those cheeks.

Don't you just love her little pose??

We received updated measurements for her so we can take her some clothes. She probably will not bring any of her clothing with her besides what she is wearing.  I'm thinking she will be able to wear 18 months - 2T but I'm taking a sewing kit to alter if need be.  

We also had the opportunity to compile a care package to send!  Included was a little backpack, water bottle, bracelet, brush, sunglasses, stuffed animal, handmade cards from the Bigs and a photo album with Spanish captions showing her the family, the house, her bed and other people and places in our lives. I also sent a very long handwritten letter to her foster mother expressing my gratitude and thankfulness for her care during these years.  I put in a couple of disposable cameras that I hope she will use to document some of Little One's days in her foster home. 

Her little backpack

Cards from Big Sister and Big Brother

Family album

During the wait, we have kept busy with other requirements.  The region Little One is in requested updated medicals on Brant and I as well as updated background checks.  We completed the medicals to the tune of $1100.  Eek.  Not budgeted for since they typically do not make you repeat these tests.  We are still working on the background checks.  We submitted the requests for updated ABI/FBI reports on 8/23.  On 9/27, we found out they had been lost.  They immediately expedited Brant's and we received his updates last week.  But they requested that I be reprinted.  Still waiting on my official update although I did call and found out they had at  least been processed.  

We also began getting everyone's immunizations done.  I had to get a tetanus, Hep A and Hep B.  The kids and Brant had those already.  We all received the flu shot/mist, typhoid and yellow fever shots.  This plus the malaria medicine for all of us set us back another $1,300.  Double Eek.

13 weeks of malaria meds for the kids

Thankfully, during this wait we have received $1,100 in donations plus another $324 in bracelet sales.  I cannot express to you enough how much that helps.  We are still about $8,000 short of being fully funded.  I know the Lord will provide our needs.  And if you have been waiting for crunch time to give.  This is it!!!!!!!  Any little bit will help.  

We finally received the translation and birth certificate on 9/24.  Our I-800 application (Petition to Classify an Adoptee as an Immediate Relative) was overnighted to USCIS on 9/25.  We lost so much time on the translation.  On Facebook, I posted that we needed some timeline miracles and we got them!!!  The first was that none of the government shutdown affected the departments approving these applications.  The second came in the way of quick answers!  The estimated processing time for the I-800 is 30 days. We were emailed our provisional approval (from one of the most difficult adjudicators) in just 13 days!!   Praise God!!!  Our pediatrician provided us with a medical advocacy letter for Little One.  The adjudicator mentioned the letter in her email.  I am so glad we thought to ask for one.  She said she will include it with our other paperwork for faster processing.

We had passport photos made, again, and I picked up $510 in money orders so on Monday I can overnight our Visa applications to the Orlando consulate.

Because of the delays we have experienced and the time of year we are coming upon, we had to sit down as a family and make some hard choices.  We were hoping to be out of the country in time to return home before Christmas.  The adoption process in Colombia for Little One's region is averaging about 8 weeks.  Even if we fly through these next steps, it will take several miracles for us to get back here by then.  While I have no problem not being in our home for the Christmas holiday, the dilemma lies in the fact that Colombia closes down for a month for the holidays.  If we cannot get processed and home before their shutdown, we will spend an additional "dead" month in Colombia.  The trip will move from 8 weeks to probably around 12.  That is a big difference both in time and money.  And Brant would probably come home for the last few weeks for work while I stay with all or most of the children.  This would be an appropriate time for you to cry in sympathy for me :)

So.....here is a big, fat prayer list for you.

1.  The additional funds we need to raise to make this trip without accumulating any debt.

2.  For us to hear from Colombia and ICBF in the next couple of days to get our Encuentro date (date we can enter the country) for travel planning purposes.

3.  That our remaining paperwork will process quickly.

4.  For Little One's health.

5.  Peace for our home as I try to pack for 6 people for 12 weeks in 3 climates.  God help us all.

Tax deductible donations may be made at Adopt Together by check, credit card or PayPal.