Wednesday, August 1, 2012

The Latest News


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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