Update from Bogota

Julie emailed me after she went to Bogota Regional Office. There are currently 3 Colombian families asking for boys ahead of us and 16 Colombian families that will only take a girl. There are 6 more Colombian families whose dossiers will arrive in about 2 weeks and they weren't sure as to what gender they were asking for. Lucia and Julie talked it over with the director and they have decided to ask for my dossier to be returned to the main office of ICBF.

Even though this sounds like a step backwards, it is just not looking good in Bogota unless you are Colombian. Wonder if it is like this in other Regions? Anyhow, the guy who sends out dossiers for assignment said that if we decided to have our dossier returned to the main office the he would send it our for the next available baby. I'm not sure what that means. Like THE next baby or the next baby AFTER Colombian families? Also, a baby BOY or GIRL? We originally asked for a boy, but my husband and I would be happy with a healthy baby no matter what gender. The babies room is set up for a boy, but worse things could happen. I think I will wait rather than asking Julie these questions. I feel like at some point it becomes aggravating answering the same questions over and over.

Julie will let me know as soon as our dossier is back to the main office and keep us updated from there. We are happy to try something different. It just doesn't seem like we will ever receive a baby with so many Colombian families now adopting.

We will keep you posted!

Julie headed to Colombia

I emailed Julie and asked how many babies are waiting in Bogota, and how many Colombian families are still ahead of us? She will be in Bogota next week and ask those questions. I also inquired about the new baby assignments. She didn't really specify if the babies were from a different Regional Office or not. One baby has a minor special need. However, we are also open to a child with special needs. She said the family heard of this child. How is that possible? From different adoption agencies maybe? So still not sure, but I'm letting it go. These babies were meant to be with a different family.

Anyhow, Julie will email me from Colombia. I will post as soon as I hear. I really appreciate everyones comments. I know how bad I am about reading blogs and not always leaving comments. I think I will start. It feels good to know that you are praying for us and haven't forgotten about us.

We will continue to pray for your families as well!

Thank you
Rhonda

Lots of referrals

It is nice to see so many referrals this month. I was a little startled as to why there were 2 babies (1 year) old on the list. I thought we were the next family for infants. Maybe because the children are already 1 year of age they are given to different families. I am still very happy for all the children and families, and pray they will be united quickly. It gives me hope that things are moving and maybe we will be sooner than we think. I will give Julie a call either today or tomorrow to see if she has any news. It has now been 6 months since our dossier reached Regional Office. We never would have dreamed it would be this long.

To pass time, I am enjoying working and seeing amazing results with my children. God is good! It is nice to be back in the working field.

Please continue to pray for our nation. I hope Obama supporters know what they are doing. It frightens me; however, I know God has a plan for us and is in charge. I just wish we were following HIS plan.

I will update soon!

Dossier Staying in Bogota

I talked to Julie this past week, and she let me know that Lucia was not going to move our Dossier out of Bogota. Lucia said that there were no infants at any other Regional Office and none of them were moving. So, we should hang tight and reevaluate at a later date. We still do not have any specific time frame anymore. We also do not know how many Colombians are still waiting to adopt either. I wish I had more news. Hopefully things will begin to move since ICBF will not be tied up in meetings over the Strike.

Change of Plan

Well, as you know, things are not moving along as we had hoped. We are 4 months post Dossier arriving in Bogota's Regional Office. There continues to be more Colombian families piling up in Bogota. Julie has been very supportive; we have been communicating back and forth this past week. I'm so glad to have her. Eventhough our agency is going through a hard time right now, they seem to still be on top of things.

Julie spoke with Lucia this week, and they feel it would be best to move our dossier out of Bogota. I don't know if they will allow us to do this or not. We are not even sure if this will delay us more. It is so hard to get specific information. I hate not being in control. Julie feels that Lucia will make the best decision for us, and we will go with that. I will keep everyone posted on this.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Thank you!

Going Back to Work

I can see that many of you are waiting anxiously for an update. I have not spoken to Julie. I was trying to go a few weeks without asking her the same questions and getting the same answers. I know it has to be hard for her to keep us patient.
I am trying to get back to where I was prior to May 2nd (the day our dossier was sent to Regional Office). We had stopped obsessing about the adoption and talking about it ALL the time. We still continue to pray that in God's time he will bless us with a healthy baby. Until then, I am laying low.
To help with this process, I decided to go back to work. I am a Speech Language Pathologist, and I began working at a P PEC. This is a center for medically fragile children. They go there during the day for nursing care and therapies. I started last week and fell head over hills for these children. There were several in DCF's care. I could take them home in a heartbeat. It helps to get to love on these babies knowing how badly they need it and so do I.
I am keeping waiting families in my prayers, as well as those families that have come home and facing challenges.

Please Pray for...

Julie emailed me back and said we are looking at waiting months (not sure how many) based on the amount of Colombian families are now adopting. She also said we need to pray for...

Pray for the Minor's Defenders who work for ICBF. It is their job to draft the abandonment decrees. Pray that all the necessary investigations will be done and that the Minor's Defenders will have the time and mental space to be very efficient with drawing up the abandonment decrees. There are lots of babies and older children who need their final paperwork so they can go home to their new families.

I asked her if the other Regional offices working on July or have they moved to August? She said that they still have a June family waiting for assignment at a regional office, so although the main office in Bogota has probably finished sending out all of the July families, some June and most of the July families are still waiting for an assignment.

Here is what is going through my mind. I was told by a person in the prayer group last night that agencies are looking for Colombian families to sign up to adopt Colombian babies. If this is what is happening, then Colombian families are going to continue to jump in front of us. We could be pushed back and back. It doesn't even matter that we are the next foreigner. As long as there are Colombians adopting we will continue to wait. At some point, they need to wait as well. However, we all know that that is not going to happen.

I don't know what we can do. Any thoughts?

got an update!

Julie emailed us tonight letting us know that Lucia was at the Bogota Regional office. She said that they did have a steady stream of Colombian families adopting at this time. This we knew. She spoke with ICBF to see if our Dossier could be sent to another Regional office, but they were all full and said we would be better off staying in Bogota. I emailed her back to see if Lucia told her how many families are now ahead of us and waiting for infants. Also, I did ask her it the other Regional offices were working on Dossiers of July of 05 or have they moved on to Aug. 05. I will post as soon as I know. Thank you guys! I will be praying for everyone.

Have a great week

I need Monday to roll around again. For once in my life I look forward to Monday's because of prayer group. I hope someone will have great news!!! I emailed Ashley yesterday for another update. It had been two weeks since my last email. I couldn't wait another day. She is going to ask Julie for a more detailed update, but I'm still not lovin the info that she did give. Oh, which was... Colombian families have received placements; HOWEVER, there are new Colombian families added to the list. Apparently, Julie is going to ask Lucia for any details she may have.

The Lord is testing our patience, that's for sure. I guess he knows how much we can take.

I know families are reading this blog and might have questions. If you do, let me know. I will ask Ashley or Julie whatever. Maybe I'm not asking them something I need to be. Please tell me. I'm just not getting how this is draging on. It seems like it could be months before we have a referral. I just don't get it.

Feeling Uplifted

I just finished prayer group with a few people from our program. It makes me feel so inspired and uplifted. I would encourage others to join. We just talk for a while and then the last 10 minutes of the chat we pray together. It is nice that other people pray for you and your family during the week. We are definitely not alone. There were people that talked to Julie (in charge of Colombian adoptions) at the picnic and felt she was very confident they would be able to get our accreditation.

Yes, we have been waiting for a long time and wait times continued to get longer as we were waiting. However, things happened that were out of our agencies control. We have spoken to various people that are very happy with our agency and are now home with there little ones. It is hard to explain to family and friends why things are taking so long. It is not just our agency, and it wasn't like this a few years ago (just before we began the process). I am confident that we will be coming home with Maddox very soon.

God Bless you!!!

Accreditation

Our agency has been told that they were denied accreditation from Hague. This will not trouble our adoption process, as we are so far along. They should be able to resolve this quickly.

I did email Julie today for an update. She heard that there were 17 Colombian families in line to adopt. She did not know how many of the families were waiting for infants. This was hard to hear. The wait continues..... This is hard for us to keep explaining to everyone. Justin doesn't even like to talk about the adoption with anyone because he so frustrated. It feels like we continue to hit bumps on this road.

Needing your prayers!

Waiting Patiently

Justin and I are headed to Nashville this weekend. He races stock cars (Super Late Models). We are excited to get away for the weekend and take our mind off the WAITING! We are at 2 months and 14 days since our paperwork was sent to regional office. It's not like we are counting or anything. Julie said it was very unlikely to go past 3 months, but she could not be positive that would not be the case.

I am still working on packing. We really appreciate the advise everyone gives; It is helping us figure things out. We bought a lap top computer for Colombia and are trying to learn about Skype, wireless, and all this other tech stuff that I just lack the skills in. Thank you to the person that mention WI Fi. I had no idea what that was and it helped me ask the questions I needed. I just wanted everyone that is reading this to know that we hang on every word you say and are desperate for advise.

Thank you!!!!!!!! Please continue to pray that we get our baby soon and that he is well and happy.

Update

Well we have reached close to two months of waiting since our paperwork was sent to Bogota's Regional Office. Julie originally said two weeks to three months before we would get a referral. However, that was just an estimation.

We are working on his bedding and putting together a packing list. Not much else to say other than please pray that we bring him home soon.

I have been reading all of the blogs tonight. My husband and I are newcomers to blogging.
I think blogging is a double edge sword. Before I read all the blogs, I tried to go about my day not obsessing about how long we have been waiting and how difficult it has been to have children. Now, that we are getting so close, it is nice to read CHI's blogs to know what everyone else is thinking and get some encouragement. It just seems like we have been working on July of 05 for months!!!!!!!!!! Does someone know how many months? I stopped keeping track. We were approved July 27, 05 same day as the Arps. I read there blog to try to learn what I should be preparing for and hope and pray that we get that call from Julie today. I am impressed at how strong and confident everyone is on there blogs. My father-in-law was telling us about the story of Abraham (I also read on one of the blogs). It was nice to know someone else was thinking of that as well.

Father's Day

Wouldn't it be an amazing Father's Day gift to receive a call from Julie saying "Here is your baby!" We are waiting and trying to be patient. I emailed Julie a few days ago (bugging her I'm sure). She said that there are babies in foster care now going through the systems process (Will this child go with family or be put up for adoption?) I started to feel a little guilty. My baby, (whoever he is) is losing his mother now and feeling sad and abandoned. I just hope it is a short period of time from when he loses his mommy and is joined with us. I can't wait for that day!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All of our paperwork is completed. We will have a few more things to do when we get the referral.

Happy Fathers Day!!!!!!!!!! I pray that someone gets good news today!!

Our Adoption

Justin and I went to a Steven Curtis Chapman concert around 4 years ago. During that concert, Steven and his wife spoke about there children and how they adopted 3 little girls from China. They were so passionate about there family and about there adoption.
Once we left the concert, we felt God working in our hearts to adopt. We began the process in January 2005. We began to wonder if the adoption was ever going to happen. God knows what the plan is and He always comes through at the right time. My Grandma always said, "He would give us the desires of our hearts. "
He is amazing!

Next in Line

Julie emailed us on 5/22/08 saying that we are the next family in line to receive an assignment. There are no "foreigners" ahead of us. We should know something very soon. :)

Dossier sent to Regional Office

Justin and I received a phone call from Julie last week. Our Dossier has been sent to regional office. We should receive a referral within 2 weeks- 3months. We are hoping it will be soon!