This has got to be the hardest part!! Each day I go to my e-mail box hoping that today will be the day that we hear something more. We still await the finally word from the Colombian government as to the status of our adoption application. Time is beginning to run out on our home study so we are hoping that we will get word soon. Meanwhile, we just keep praying that God will give us the patience we need and that He will prepare us for the adventure that is ahead. To those that continue to pray for us, thanks! Your prayers are felt. God Bless!

We received our FBI Clearence paperwork this last weekend! We sent it off on Monday, so now, once again, we wait. The paperwork will get to Atlanta on Wednesday. Then it will be approved here and translated before being sent to Colombia. Once in Colombia, we should have everything we need to be approved. Please pray with us that this process will go quickly. God Bless!

We got some good news today! The first family in our program received a regional referral today! As I understand it, that means that their paperwork has been approved and sent to a region of Colombia for an actual child referral. The actual referral could take any where from a couple of weeks to several months, but at least things are progressing in the program. We are still waiting for our FBI clearance to come back. Hopefully we will have things approved soon. Thanks for your prayers.

Just when you think nothing else can go wrong, we found out today that our I600A application will probably have to be filed again. Our original application will expire in March of next year and chances are not good that we will be in Colombia by then. This means that we are going to have to come up with another $600.00 dollars. Maybe a miracle will happen before March. We are ready to go right now! All we can do is pray. Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God Bless!

Well, as you can probably already tell, we haven’t been as faithful to these postings as we probably need to be over the past several months. So let me get you caught up and ask you to pray for us to be more faithful. We really want these updates to be a source of information for our friends and family, but also a history of events for our children.

Our last post was a optimistic exclamation of achievement. We did get our paperwork finished and turned into the adoption agency. However, due to some changed guidelines we recently discovered that our application is still in the approval process in Colombia. Back in May we were told that we would need to re-file our adoption application because the form had changed. We were also told that the new guidelines required a psychological evaluation to be done for both parents. That was a little bit scary at first. What if the evaluation uncovered some deep psychotic tick? But the psychological evaluation adventure turned out to be a little less threatening. We were both relatively normal, Mary Ann being a little more so than me. The local psychiatrist we found was willing to work with us and gave us a huge discount that helped greatly. A big thanks goes to Dr. William Spinks in Richmond Hill, Georgia for his help.

Once we got the evaluation and new adoption application turned in we thought that maybe our application would finally get approved. However, that was not yet to be. Last week we got another e-mail letting us know that our FBI Clearance and our medical letter had both expired. So off we went to the local police station for more fingerprints and to the doctors office for another medical letter. The fingerprints have to be sent off to West Virginia to get the clearance letter. It could take a few weeks to get that back. Once it is received we will send it off to the adoption agency for approval and then off to Colombia. And then maybe, we will finally get approved for adoption in Colombia.

So, what is next after approval, you might be wondering. Well, we are told that once we are approved, then we get placed on a waiting list. The average wait time on the list is ten months. Yeah, you read that right. It will be a good ten months before we hear anything else after we are approved, unless of course the Lord sees fit to do something wonderful (which is what we are praying for).

The biggest concern we have right now is in regard to our INS application. In order to bring the children back into the United States, you have to file an INS application for each child. This application is the beginning of their immigration process. The process starts with a pre-processing application which will expire after 18 months. Ours will be coming up for expiration in about 6 months. At this point we are uncertain if there is any way to extend this application or whether we will have to re-file, which will cost us a good bit of money. Please pray that God will show us how to handle this and that it won’t cause any delay in the adoption process.

One thing that we are very thankful for is the effort that has been made over the last two months to help us raise the remaining money that we will need in order to go get our children. Our church as been very supportive of us and have done several fund raisers that have raised a little over $2,500 to help us. So many people have helped us and we want to say thank you to all of them. We are estimating that we have about $10,000 more to raise, however there have been several unexpected fees recently with all of the changes and expirations. We know that the Lord is going to provide in His time.

Please pray for us, and for the children. We know that all of these things are happening for a reason and that God has His perfect timing. Please check back often for more updates. God Bless!

Well, the paperwork is done!! Praise the Lord! Our application for adoption is being translated and will be heading for Colombia any day. Now comes the hard part, waiting. We are expecting a six to eight month waiting period before we hear anything from Colombia. Once our paperwork is finished and sent to Colombia, the legal process of our adoption begins. The agency in Colombia will process our application and then match us up with our children. The next thing that we will hear from them will probably be a letter in the mail with pictures and medical information for two children in Colombia, South America, that need a mom and dad. The waiting won’t be fun, but the reward will be worth it!

Please continue to pray for our kids. Even though we don’t know who they are, God does and it is very probable that they are alive and living in or near Bogota, Colombia. There is a lot of unrest in their country, so pray for their safety. If we are able to get an infant then that child may be born soon. Pray that God will prepare our way as only He can.

The next several months will be filled with fund raising and preparation for our travel. Things aren’t slowing down on any front. Things are moving along at church and there are a lot of activities coming up this next year. Pray that God will help us to keep our schedules prepared for our trip to Colombia.

Thank you very much for your prayers and support. If you would like to get in touch with us, check out our contact page. God Bless!

Well, we are one step closer! Over the past couple of weeks we have been able to finish our homestudy, complete our contract with the adoption agency, and file for our passports. Though it doesn’t seem like much, it has been a LONG process. The Lord has seen us through thus far and we are certain that He will continue to pave the way.

Next we have to put together the paperwork that will be sent to Colombia. We have an agency working with us to pull everything together, so it should go quickly. Then we will begin the long wait for our referral. We have been told that it could be 6 to 8 months before we hear anything from Colombia. We will be spending this time trying to raise the rest of the money that we need to travel. Check back soon for a way that you can help with this.

We also want to request that you pray that things will keep on track. Mary Ann’s father has decided to gift some flight miles to us to help with the $2800 airfare that we are facing. Pray that Delta will let us use these miles. Pray for our two children. The younger one may not even be born yet, so pray that their mother cares for herself well.