Our dossier
was finalized 3 ½ weeks ago, on July 6th. In God’s providence our agency had a service
team leaving for Colombia on July 8th, so our dossier was hand
delivered 2 days after it was finalized.
Not only did it save us the expense of shipping everything, but it also
saved us the time it would’ve taken to arrive by mail. We were/are extremely grateful for the Lord’s
provision in this!
Upon our
caseworker’s return from Colombia, our agency held a conference call for all
Colombia families. Although this call is
done on a monthly basis and often contains routine information and updates, we
were all urged to listen in. During the
conference call we learned that because of some unfortunate circumstances in
recent days, the Constitutional Court in Colombia released a mandate declaring
that on behalf of all children presently available for adoption (and those
becoming available for adoption in the future) family members to the 6th degree must be contacted before the child can be considered relinquished and
adoptable. Because of this mandate, a
thorough investigation must be done on ALL cases presently being presented for
adoption. Naturally, this will cause adoption
processes to slow down. We feared the
worst and called our caseworker as soon as the conference call ended. Much to our surprise, she informed us that the
mandate wouldn’t affect our process. She
explained that in cases like ours (special circumstances, multiple children,
older children, etc.) a thorough investigation has already taken place. We were so relieved! She went on to tell us
more good news. While she was in
Colombia, an orphanage requested to work with us! They asked that our dossier be sent over as
soon as it was translated. I am happy to
report that we will be working with Casa de la Madre y el Niño (www.la-casa.org) in Bogotá! I’m even happier to report that our dossier
has been fully translated and was hand delivered to Casa de la Madre yesterday!
What’s next?
We are
awaiting official approval Colombia, which should take 2-3 weeks. This approval basically means that Colombia
has examined our information, it has met their criteria, and no revisions need
to be made. Once they determine they
have sufficient/accurate information from us/about us, they give us an official
approval. Once we receive Colombia
approval, we will be able to formally accept an official referral (match). Technically, they could find a match for us
any day, but because of the recent mandate, it is likely they will wait until
everything is official before they approach us with a match. Once we receive the referral (match) we will
have some time to review the information and have it reviewed by a
physician. Once we make a final decision
to accept the referral, we will travel 8 weeks later.
In a world
full of “IFs”:
IF we
received Colombia approval 3 weeks from now, it would be August 22nd
IF we
received a referral and accepted 2 days later, it would be August 24th
IF we
traveled exactly 8 weeks from that day, it would be October 19th
Obviously
there is no real way to predict how this will all play out. The only one who needs to know, is the only
one who does know, and HE’s the one who is in control! We are thrilled to reach this point in our
journey; a referral can literally come any day!
We absolutely CANNOT WAIT to see their faces and look forward to the day
when we can announce to the world…. BOY or GIRL… or BOTH!
(Our recent
fundraiser, ONE:27 Summer Run was a great success. More about that soon….)
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