Why private? and travel updates!

Hello, all! So, I've set the blog to private for the time being because somehow our blog was linked to some Colombian adoption news site in Norway (the adoption community is fairly active online), and they were questioning why it was such a short wait for us. I will make it public again once we can post pictures, and then most people wondering about the speed of our adoption should be able to know why...we specifically requested a child with a certain background in our paperwork that I suspect most people adopting from Colombia are not open to, or at least don't know that if you do not state your openness, the powers that be assume you are not open (maybe?, who knows about all those reasons...I'm just assuming based on reading other blogs, etc...not the greatest scientific research). Anyways...I don't feel up to answering questions at the moment; there are FAR to many other things to do, hence the privacy.

In updates for us:
1. We have an official travel date: We leave July 4th, arrive in Cali July 5th and are presented with our daughter July 6th at 8:30 a.m.!!!! We cannot wait! Please pray for patience and some rest between now and then.
2. We still need to apply for VISAS. Just today we sent our application with our passports to the Colombian Embassy in Washington, D.C. only to find out they changed where visas are processed to the Colombian Consulate...SO, we recalled our package, thankfully some mail delivery truck never showed at the Post Office, and we were able to get the package back in our hands. Needless to say there were some stressful moments, especially since we're doing all of this through my parents in Norfolk while we're in Boston for a wedding and family vacation with Pete's family. AAAHHHH....craziness.
3. We get back from Pete's family vacation next Sunday (the 28th), drive to D.C. the 29th to do our visas IN PERSON...hopefully the same day...who knows? and then have a few days to pack, prepare, and leave. Haha...our life is such an adventure right now! (P.S. We need to borrow some sturdy luggage...I'll be calling some of you!)
4. Everything else is on backburner: cleaning, cooking, doing anything besides writing a packing list, and semi-preparing our baby's room.
5. We're doing a lot of praising to God for all of his many provisions and I'm repeating the verse: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, with praise and thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the PEACE of God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

Thanks for all your prayers. If you want to call and encourage us or celebrate with us, feel free. We love you all!

We have it!

So, the mix up between the Colombian interpretation of the Hague treaty and the US interpretation of the Hague treaty has been solved! Our agency worked very quickly and effectively, and we have our I800 approval!!!! We also got our FBI prints in the mail on Thursday. Amazing. So, on Tuesday I'm going to drive to Richmond to authenticate our documents and then mail them to our agency so that they can mail them to Colombia to be translated. :) We're moving right along. We should have a travel date by early next week. The only thing we're waiting on is approval of our desired travel date from Chiquitines (the orphanage where our daughter is). Yay!!!! We're so thankful for all of your support and prayers. Thank you, thank you! We'll update as we hear things.

Urghhhhh....

Okay...so why has the hold up always seemed to come from USCIS??? I just found out today that our adjudicator (fancy name for the person who reviews our application) thinks our file is missing a document, but it really isn't! Colombia doesn't require the particular document that our adjudicator thinks we need (and neither does the US for that matter apparently, according to the expert at our agency). So, we could have had approval, but we don't. Now we have to wait for more contact to be made, more phone calls, hopefully no more paperwork (until we apply for visas, but that should be more simple than this). Please PRAY that this gets cleared up quickly! Then the only other piece of paper that is out of our control in terms of when it arrives is our FBI prints. You can pray those get to us quickly, too!

Our Amazing News!!!!

This post has been delayed two weeks...most of you reading our blog already know our news, but I wanted to share for those few friends out there who may not know yet. We have a daughter waiting for us in Colombia right now! On May 20th, we got THE CALL that we had been waiting for, and quite honestly, we seriously thought we'd be waiting for this call for much longer! Even our agency was amazed and told us it is very unusual to get a referral so quickly. I wish I could post of picture of our beautiful girl, but I'm going to probably wait until everything is official and she is ours. While we're in Colombia, we will most likely do email updates instead of blog updates, and then I'll post pics when we're back home. So, a lot of you have been asking, what's next, when do you travel? We do not have a solid travel date yet, but our goal is the beginning of July. In the meantime, here's what we have to do:

1. Wait for USCIS to return our I800 with a big fat APPROVED letter! Please pray this happens swiftly!
2. Ask all the people in Colombia working with us if our desired travel date is okay with all of them (basically squaring away our presentation date).
3. Buy plane tickets (talk about sticker shock)!
4. Apply for visas (which means a drive to DC)
5. Finalize all other travel details.
6. Pack and travel to be united as a family!!! We can't wait for this one!
7. While we are doing all of the above...we are also squaring away work plans so that everything is covered while we're gone (no easy task)!

Please pray for our baby, for us as we prepare, and that God would work out all the details. We know he will! I am AMAZED at how he has blessed us in so many ways, not a few of the blessings have come by way of so many of you! Thank you for celebrating with us and praying for our family! We'll post again once we have a travel date!

May 13th = 6 months

Happy 6 months of waiting to us! Actually, the past month has been so busy I have not had much time to languish in the uncertainty of our wait. But it has hit again with a vengeance today! Not only is it our 6 month mark of "official" waiting (we've been in process for almost a year)...our social worker called today to give us an update. I must confess I saw the agency name pop up on my cell (darn caller id) and my heart did a little flip...then I MADE it sink back to normalcy by telling myself...6 months, 6 months, you're going to be waiting a LOT longer than that. Well, it was just an update. She reiterated our wait time of around 18 months, but she did say that a family at our agency just received a referral for a baby after 8 months of waiting...a family at a different orphanage, but at least it was a referral. Darn update. Now I have to struggle to remember that a referral to someone else means nothing about our referral. Lucky them, but I didn't want to hear that, and then again I did.

Aaahhh...the joys of not knowing. I realized today again how much I LIKE TO KNOW. I read the ends of books before I finish them, and then I finish the book in peace and with much greater enjoyment because I know how it ends. Many people say I'm weird and breaking some sort of rule, but books were written to be enjoyed...if I enjoy them better knowing the end then I can do what I want. Unfortunately, I do not and will not know the end of this journey until I am there, and even then, life is full of uncertainties. Maybe if I learn my lesson really well now, God won't send me any more lessons in patience and giving him control instead of demanding it myself. What do you think? Yeah, I know...I'm going to need this lesson for the rest of my life. I love life...I love life...I love life. I'm going to trust God! That's my mantra today.

A Prayer for Our Child

May you be safe and sleep soundly through the night,
May you be safe as you wake to the morning's light.
May you feel my love from so far away,
May it comfort and protect you throughout each day.
I will pray for you my little one
Until our time of waiting is done.
I will pray that the Lord keep you safe from harm,
Until the child of my heart becomes the child in my arms.

Updates

On our adoption: Sorry to disappoint, but there are none.

On cheesy movies I've seen lately: Facing the Giants...uggh..don't even want to go there. But I can't help it...the cheese was just horrible. But then I watched the special features and saw the heart behind making it, and well, you just can't fault people for doing their best for God! Come on, Emily, come on, say something nice about the actual movie...well, maybe another day, sorry, nothing's coming today!

On taking things personally that I shouldn't: Anyone have any tips here? Because I have been run over by mac trucks lately and I know I shouldn't let it get to me, but I just can't help it.

On a really fun afternoon: Botanical Gardens with my wonderful husband, daughter, and friends! Thank you, God, for nice weather today...it lifts my spirits.

On why April 3 is a great day: Happy B-day Michelle! Wish I could be there to celebrate!

On personal goals: Anyone feel like running a half marathon with me? I think I need some sort of running goal again (but NOT a marathon...never again!). And does posting on my blog mean I have to do it?...because there's always the "next year" slot for personal goals. :)