FBI Fingerprints

Happy 2010 to us!  We just received our updated FBI clearances so we are all set for another 6 months!  Just waiting for news!  Colombia should pick up in the next couple of weeks.  Happy 2011!

16 weeks!

Well today it has been 16 weeks since our dossier left to Colombia.  Our paperwork has made its way to Putumayo region and now we sit and wait for our referral.  We have tried to research as much as we could about the region and not much as come up.  In fact, we are the first CHI family to be referred to the region.  Thankfully our in country CHI team is familiar with the area, we know we will be well taken care of.

We know our child is born and they are out there waiting for us.  Tonight we can't help but wonder Who is giving them to eat?  Who is giving them a bedtime bath? Who is reading their bedtime stories?  Who is rocking them at night?  Who wakes up in the middle of the night to give them a bottle?  and tomorrow morning who will greet them with a smile and an I LOVE YOU to get them ready for the day?  We can't wait to have our little one home with us.

This second time around we have been more at peace with the waiting process that is synonymous with adoption.  But, we can't help but feel a little sadness knowing our little one is just waiting and will spend this Christmas away from us.  We have a lifetime to make up for this lost time...so for now we take comfort in showering our little Alejandra with an overabundance of hugs and kids.

Putumayo Region it is!

This morning we found out that we have been sent out to the Putumayo Department in Colombia.  There isn't a lot out there about this region.  It borders Ecuador and Peru and is located in the Amazon region.  We have a lot to read up on regarding the area.  We will post more as we receive more information....YEAH!

We are approved!

Today we received news that we were approved by ICBF!  Happy birthday to Mark in a major way!  He got his birthday present one day early.  I checked our email right before school started at 8:20 and there was an email from Nichole re: great news in here!  My heart started racing and as I clicked on the email I was simultaneously picking up the phone to call Mark at work.  The email said "give me a call later today so I can share your great news :)"  We conference called Nichole and she didn't pick up.  The clock was ticking and I was dying to get news before school started at 8:45!

At 9:00 ish Mark called me and told me that our file was approved by ICBF and maybe even sent out to a region in Colombia.  We are so excited to hear news about our son/daughter before the holiday slow down.  We are relieved that our entire file checked out okay.  We are now gearing up to resend our FBI fingerprints to make sure that we receive our new clearance before the current one expires.

Tonight when I (Debi) got home I told Alejandra "The people in Colombia looked over our paperwork and said everything was perfect!  Now they are searching for your baby brother or sister."  She said "For the picture? Hooray! Hooray!"  We have been telling her that once we have a picture of her baby that we will go to Colombia to meet them and bring them home to live with us.  So apparently, she is understanding some of what we are explaining to her about the process.

We will keep updating as we hear something....YEAH, YEAH, YEAH!

Inaugaral Post

Our family plan has always been to have at least 2 children. When we adopted Alejandra we knew we would be back to Colombia to bring home our second child. We officially began our adoption back in February 2010. Our completed dossier was sent to Colombia late August 2010. We now are awaiting approval from ICBF. It has been a 10 week wait up until this point. We know that soon we will receive word on the status of our dossier......patience, patience, patience!