"Gotcha Day" August 15, 2008

Let me start by saying that Diego and Jeferson are absolutely adorable little boys. They are very warm and trusting, and their smiles just brighten our days.

The day on Friday was so magical. We had been notified that we would meet with the Director of the AYUDAME orphanage at 11:30 AM on Friday morning. Our LSS Colombian facilitator, Cecilia called us around 9:30 and suggested that we bring a cake and some Coca Colas to celebrate the presentation of the children at the orphanage. Since it was only 9:30 and both of us were ready to go, and now had an hour and a half to wait, we walked to the local bakery and chose the most delicious chocolate torte to bring with us.

Once at AYUDAME, we were directed into the room where we were first going to sign all the paperwork, and be given the information of how the finalizing of the adoption process will work. This meeting took about an hour. The staff was very friendly. After all the paperwork was signed, they went upstairs to get the boys. At this point, We waited in the room, with many butterflies in our stomachs. Then we could hear the boys talking and then they appeared in the room. We have included a picture of the expression on our faces the first moment we saw the boys. Both of the boys came running up to us saying "Mami and Papi". It was the most beautiful moment that anyone could experience. Diego ran up to Mami, and Jeferson ran up to Papi, and we both received the biggest hugs one could possibly get from a child. Then the boys switched and gave the other one a hug. They looked so happy to finally meet us, and of course, I don't need to mention how happy we were to finally meet them.

After the initial hugs and tears, the boys noticed that chocolate cake, and it was on to cake time. Jeferson (youngest ) took a chair right in front of the cake, and was ready to put his fingers into it.

After we arrived back at the hotel, we had lunch, yes even after the chocolate cake! They are both very good eaters. Then we decided that with all the excitement, the boys really needed to get rid of some energy, so we took them for a walk to a local park. They are very energetic typical boys, and I think they wore us out.





























Also, just to mention, the scratches that you see on Diego's face are from an incident at AYUDAME, where he accidently fell and hit a table. He ended up with 2 stitches by his eye. He is a very active little boy, and anticipate many more accidents along the way.

When we returned to our hotel, the staff at Zuetana, threw a party for us, to Welcome Diego and Jeferson, and Congratulate us on being a forever family. There were balloons and steamers, and a Colombian band, and pastrys, and many people to help us celebrate. It was so nice of the Zuetana staff, to honor us.

Here the boys are waving the Colombian flag, and the US flag.






So, after a very busy day, we ended with 2 very exhausted boys, and 2 very exhausted parents!!

We truly believe we are the luckiest parents to be able to welcome these 2 precious boys into our family.




Eric, Joyce, Diego and Jeferson

Friday is presentation day!!

Hola, We just realized that we didn't even let everyone know when we will meet the boys.
We met with Cecilia yesterday, and she informed us that the AYUDAME orphanage has decided to allow us to take the boys full time on Friday. They felt it would be best for the boys, as they are so excited to meet us, to allow them to live with us, rather than just visit for the integration. They also thought it would be better, rather than for us to just meet and then leave, and repeat this for a few days.

So, tomorrow is the day. Our presentation is at 11:30 AM on Friday. We are excited and scared all at the same time. Our Spanish is going to be our biggest barrier, so it is nice to have so many people around us who speak Spanish.

Zuetana is a very family friendly place to stay, and they have many programs and things for the children to do. There are about 4 other families here right now, as 2 families left today. One of the families is from Denmark, and the other 2 are from Germany. The youngest child is 2 years old, the oldest is 7 yrs old.

It is very late, and we need all the energy that we have for tomorrow. Adios, we will update tomorrow.

Hola from Bogota, Colombia

Good morning - we landed in Bogota at aroun 8:15 last night. Our bus trip to Ohare, and our flight from Ohare to Miami, were flawless. We boarded our plane in Miami as scheduled, but then due to air traffic, we sat on the tarmac for 1 1/2 hours before departing. So this delayed our arrival in Colombia. Once in Bogota, we did not have a ramp to deplane, but instead, had to use stairs from the plane, and then be shuttled over to the terminal. Once at the terminal, we waited in a very long line to go through immigration. We then retrieved our luggage, and went through customs. They allowed us in with no problems!

Our driver was waiting for us holding a sign " Familia Christy" among about 500 other people. If you have ever watched Good morning America, and you see all those people lined up outside the studio, that is what it looked like when we were trying to find our driver to take us to the hotel. We arrived at the hotel around 10 pm. Exhausted!

Just 1 more day! August 10, 2008

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are busy packing and doing last minute errands and cleaning. I don't think I have ever made so many lists in my life.

Friday night we did find some time to go to our last Brewer's game of the season. They won!
It was a perfect evening for a baseball game.

We will try to post one more time before we fly on Tuesday, and it will be a full day of travel for us. We are going to take the airport connection from Milwaukee to Chicago O'Hare airport, so we will be leaving early in the morning to catch our flight out of Chicago, and we will be landing mid evening in Colombia. Bogota, is in the same time zone as Wisconsin, so it will be great not to have to worry about time changes. Although, I am sure we will be very tired when we arrive.

However, we will probably not sleep very well even after an exhausting day, as we will be very excited to meet the boys first thing on Wednesday morning. We can not express the excitement knowing that this day is finally arriving.

We want to thank everyone for their support and prayers, and ask that you continue them as we journey to Colombia.

I am totally exhausted, and tomorrow will be another busy day with final preparations.
Adios for now.

-Joyce

We "met" the boys today!! August 6, 2008

What an exciting day!

We were able to speak to the boys and see them over the internet this evening via the magical world wide web. They are both soooooooo adorable. They were repeating words that they were being told. They do not really speak English per se, but we really did not expect them to. In English, they said, "I love you daddy!" and "I love you mommy!" Seeing them just melted our hearts. They do, however, speak very good spanish, and a lot of it!

They sang and played the maraccas for us - we just might have a few future "Idols" on our hands. We really do not know what they sang, but we sang along with them any way. We are sure it was an interesting thing to see and hear. We are certain of that! Just like a bunch of lunatics! Here they start singing "Jingle Bells" (in Spanish) at the top of their little lungs. What do Joyce and Eric do? They sing right along with them in English! Lucky we did not seem to harm the computers or melt the computer cables, but we did not care. By the way, did I mention they talk - A LOT!

Both were very active while on the camera, so we know we will have our hands full with them. They do not seem to want to sit still, or at least tonight anyway. We think they were very excited. But, hey, they are young boys, and Eric's mom secretely wishes that he gets children just like he was. She will say, "good for you!" Is that not every mothers' secret wish for their children? Ha Ha Ha! By the way, did I mention they talk - A LOT!

Mucho hugs and kisses via the internet! We can't wait to give them hugs and kisses in person, although the Kisses blew to them will suffice for now!

We are scheduled to meet them on Wednesday Morning (8/13/08), the morning after we arrive in Colombia. They have school in the afternoon, so we will just be meeting with them in the mornings. We may even bring them to school - HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE!

They drew a picture of Eric, practically made him cry seeing it - we asked to make certain it was saved for us! We hope to take a picture of it and post to the blog next week. Please remind us! We showed them some pictures of our home, and their bedroom. They were excited, and we even found out that Diego's favorite color is blue! That is the color of their bedroom. It is amazing everything seems to be falling into place. Jefferson was getting tired, so we never got his favorite color. It must have been all the singing that they were doing that tired them out, could have also been the talking. Did I mention they talk - A LOT.

They asked if we have any pets, and of course we do. However our "poquito pero", "Ellie" has gone to Michigan to live while we are in Colombia. We could not show her to the boys "live". Ellie will be staying with Eric's Sister Sherry and Nephew Cole. We are certain some time with Eric's mom as well. They have graciously agreed to take care of her - and most likely SPOIL her Rotten! We did show some pictures of our precious Ellie, a Westie (West Highland Terrior). You should have seen the look on their faces when they saw the picture. They were grinning from ear to ear! And let us know it - A LOT!

We also showed them a few "cars" that we will be bringing for them. They again were so excited. They are sort of like stuffed cars from the movie with Lightening McQueen and Mater' (as in Tow-mater). They are sort of blankets that stuff inside of the "car" to make a pillow. They thought this was magical! We are not exaggerating if we showed them the "cars" like 10 times - over and over again. How incredibly COOL IS THAT! Did we tell you they talk - A LOT!

Only 6 more days until we get to meet them. We continue to get everything completed for our travels. Our list is getting shorter, only a few more days to go at work also.

We finally know where we are going to stay while in Colombia. The name of the location is Zuetana. If you would like to see it, you can go to their website http://www.zuetana.com/. There are photos of the hotel. We compare it to a "bed and breakfast" as we will have our own room with a bathroom. There are common areas for us to use as well. Three meals each day are included in the cost of the lodging. This hotel caters to families who are adopting, and they really try to make you comfortable. They do the cooking so this allows the families to devote all their time to the children. There are also several other families who will be in various stages of the process of adopting children, so we will all have that in common. Comaderie already!

Since tomorrow is a Colombian holiday (they have many holidays!), we will not able to speak with the children tomorrow or Friday, and so we have tentatively scheduled to speak with them online again on Monday!

Emotionally, this meeting could not have made us any more proud of our Children! We are so lucky to have these 2 precious boys join our family!

Chow!

Eric and Joyce

BY THE WAY, DID WE MENTION THEY TALK A LOT!

WHAT AN AWESOME PROBLEM TO HAVE!

HAPPY VISA DAY - August 1, 2008

WHAT A DAY!

Our quest for travel to Colombia continues with the latest experience being a trip to the Colombian Consulate for the approval of our travel Visas.

The trip started with our deciding to take the Hiawatha Train of Amtrak to Chicago for the day. In our opinion, having traveled to Chicago hundreds of times in the past, the train really is the way to go. The vehicle traffic is VERY congested (it seems at any time of day or night), there are many toll booths, and the arrival time is a guess at best in a car (hard to keep or make appointments). Now the train - We leave Milwaukee, pick up passengers at The Milwaukee Airport, Sturtevant, WI and Glenn Ellyn, IL terminals, and arrive 1.5 hours later in downtown Chicago at Union Station.

Just like clockwork. Our appointment with the Consulate was for 10:00 am, we left Milwaukee at 7:45 am, arriving in Chicago at 9:15 am. A short taxi ride to the Consulate which is approximately 15 blocks from Union Station. Our drivers name was Habeeb and he did not know where the Colombian Consulate was. It is a good thing we had brought the address with us.

Entrance into the building is a normal office building setup here in the US - even have a little sign in sheet for the building is in English. Up to the 20 floor via elevator. You walk into Suite 2040, and what a transformation, we are in a whole new world! There are about 20 people in the waiting room! Everything is in Spanish, even the information on the bulletin boards! Even the sign in sheets! Even the "take a number" mechanism. We could not even read what we were supposed to be signing up for, or waiting for in line! There was a woman walking around the place like a drill Sargent, barking orders here and there, sending people everywhere. She was not even 5' tall, but Wow, does everyone listen to her!

After about 5 minutes of watching this - with Sarg disappearing from behind "that door", reappearing seconds later, and barking more orders (yes all in Spanish) - approximately 15 times in the five minutes (I am not exaggerating). We decided we needed to ask someone for help. Sarg walked into the room, and we informed her politely in English we had a 10:00 am appointment for a travel visa to Colombia for adoption purposes. She stared at us with a blank expression, did not say a word, and disappeared behind "that door". Moments later she reappeared, and continued giving orders in Spanish. She did not even acknowledge she understood what we said. We stood there . . . wondering! A few minutes later a very nice woman came out from behind "the door" and asked us in Spanish if we were there for the Visa. Good thing we understood the ONE word Visa. With the bewildered look on our face, she confirmed in English we were here for the Visa. We were led into the inner sanctum behind "that door". Once behind the door, with it shut, the office was transformed into a peaceful and tranquil atmosphere. We could not ever hear the "Spanish Din" on the other side of the door.

Once in the office, we handed over our paperwork for the Visa - YES, something is not correct! Per the explanation from the Colombian Official, the letter we received from Ayudame the orphanage in Colombia where the boys are) is not acceptable as they are a private orphanage, and the approval has to be from the Government office of the ICBF and on their letterhead. She picked up the phone, called down to someone in Colombia and then informed us they would fax the necessary document to her . She told us to return in one hour and she would have it done once she had the fax. She was very nice, and reassured us that everything would be fine, and not to worry.

Well, when Joyce has spare time, what does she do - goes shopping. After all, we are in downtown Chicago on Michigan Avenue. There is a shopping mall four doors down. We shopped at a Lego store, children's store, and Nordstroms. We could have bought a pair of the old type "Chuck Taylor" shoes for only $89.00! Seems like they were much cheaper "back in the day". We did not buy anything shopping, but we had no idea there are so many types, sizes, colors, shapes and "specialty" Lego's in the world, and we think that Lego's store had them all. Did you know that you can make a full size model of any Star Wars character you want - I liked the Darth Vader one the best - 7 feet tall!

After 1.5 hours - back to the Consulate.

We walked into the office building, up to the suite, and back into Spanish Immersion 101. Sarge recognized us immediately upon entrance and we were escorted back behind closed doors once again. We got the look from the people in the waiting room like we must own the place. The Spanish din increased. We quickly learned that the fax had not been received from Colombia yet, but they would make another call. And again we were told not to worry. After about 10 minutes of waiting, the fax arrived. We waited another 15 minutes for the Visa to get prepared and pasted into our passports.

We received the passports - and were ready to go. We looked them over as we are very proud of them. We found two errors! The look on the preparers face spoke volumes. She was VERY sorry. She said she would redo them immediately. We suspected a problem since she had already cut and pasted ONE of the passport pictures onto the visa - so this photo was no longer any good. We would now be one picture short (we had to bring three, and we did). After talking with her some, she stated she would use a color photograph of the visa for one of THEIR copies. Twenty minutes later, we had our revised VISA, and they were correct.

Yeah! Happy VISA day! 12:14 pm - 8/1/2008

Here is a picture of us, the Colombian Consulate Seal, the Colombian Flag, and "the door".

Our train was scheduled to depart at 3:15 pm so we walked down Michigan Avenue and went to Millennium Park and took some pictures of the park - truly a special place to visit. There are so many people there. We consider it a great place to visit, but would not want to live there.

We did see several police on "Segways" which we thought was cool. Also saw several police men walking, riding bikes, and even on top of horses. The Police presence on Michigan Avenue is surprising. Also surprising, is how clean Michigan Avenue is. I mean, literally, we did not even see a cigarette butt on the side walk.

Here is an interesting tidbit of information, and Joyce being an "Apprentice" fan. You know that Donald Trump show. Well, as we were walking, we saw a building being constructed that the winner of the first Apprentice show was managing. There was the building with a big Trump banner on it.

The picture to the right is of the building. The construction elevator is the "lines" going up the building and the Trump sign is at the bottom of the Elevator - I know you can not see it, but it is there. A great big, but simple, canvas sign - simply with "Trump" on it.

Here are some other interesting pictures of Millennium Park. There are some very cool structures there, but these picture DO NOT DO THEM JUSTICE! Here they are!

The photo on the left is a cool kidney shaped sphere that is polished to a mirror like finish. Amazing how you can make yourself look fat, thin, curved on the surface. Pictures are hard to obtain, mainly because there are people everywhere, and flash photography is useless due to the reflection. The picture on the right is the Amphitheatre. Many concert events are here. There is a large grass field behind the seats and with this grid over the top of the grass with speakers ever so far, this way EVERYONE can hear the concert. This grass field is easily six football fields in size. I would not want to mow this grass, especially with a push mower - I probably would not want to in a rider either, but you could get a great tan!

We walked back to Union Station uneventfully, and boarded the train for home. Arrived in Milwaukee without further incident. All in all the day cost us $88.00 for the two train tickets each way, $10.00 for the Taxi, and nothing to park, no money for gas, and a lot less anxiety associated with driving down.

YEA - Mission Accomplished!

Have a great day - More posts to come!

Chow

Eric and Joyce

Travel Dates!!!!

Last Friday, July 25 th, we received the approval to make our travel arrangements to Colombia!! It seems like this has taken 'forever'. Over the weekend, we purchased our airline tickets. We will be leaving on Tuesday August 12 from Chicago, and our tentative return home date will be October 15th. Both of us will be in Colombia for the 9 weeks.

Where will we be staying? We are still trying to decide on this. We have been given the names of a few places and we are trying to decide which one will work the best.

Over the weekend, we completed the final touches to the boys' room. Eric built a few more organizers for the closet, and hung a few items on the walls, so the room is finished and just waiting for the boys! Although we weren't going to choose a theme, we tend to be buying a lot of things with the Disney "CARS" theme. What little boy doesn't like cars?

We are starting to pack our luggage as well. We already have the boys' clothes packed into a suitcase. We are hoping we can get everything packed within our luggage allowance.

We will be planning a trip to Chicago to get our VISA from the Colombian Consulate. We are just waiting for 1 more document from the Orphanage that is needed to get our VISA. We need a VISA, due to the length of time that we will be staying in Colombia. So, other than this, the only other paperwork that we need to complete, is our fingerprinting, and that is scheduled for next week. It seems like there should be more paperwork!!!!

We thank everyone for their prayers in our getting our referral, and travel dates, and ask you to continue them as we travel to Colombia and welcome the boys into their forever family!

"Children's" Shower July 17th

Hello, we hope everyone had a great week. Since we are still waiting to travel to Colombia, we are making the most of the summer.

There is no new travel information. In fact we haven't even spoken with LSS since last week Tuesday. So, no travel date yet.

Joyce's work planned a surprise "children's shower" this past week Thursday. She was very surprised. She didn't have any idea that it was even being planned. There were about 40 coworkers there to celebrate and as always plenty of food. Her co-workers were very generous with some clothing, toys and a giftcard for the boys. We are thinking about using the giftcard to buy bicycles for the boys after we arrive home from Colombia. We are very appreciative of the gifts for the boys, and can't wait to share with them.











We have decided that it is soooo easy to want to spoil them.

As we continue to attempt to learn Spanish, Joyce has now taken "post it " notes and pasted them all over the house. The idea is that by labeling everything with the Spanish word for the item, she is hoping that this will help us to learn and associate words with various items.


So, we hope that with the start of a new week, that we will hear more about the boys and hope for travel dates to Colombia.

Adios---

Joyce and Eric

Small Update

Hola!

Today we heard a small update- NO, No travel date yet!

We heard from our LSS coordinator today, that Cecilia did receive our package that we sent down to her in Colombia for the boys. I guess the Postal service didn't confiscate it. Although I am sure they would have had some fun with the crayons, coloring books, and cars that were in the box!

Cecilia took the small presents to the orphanage and the boys really enjoyed them. They were also given the photos of us. They are being prepared by both the orphanage and the school for their adoption. Cecilia is working with the orphanage to schedule some time for us to talk to them over the internet, where they can actually see us and we can see them.

We feel this is a huge step, and know that our travel dates will be coming soon. Cecilia is still waiting to hear from the orphanage about the travel dates. She is hopeful that we will travel by the end of the month, but in the same sentence said that they cannot guarantee this.

Our dossier has been fully translated and transferred from the government-ICBF to the orphanage-Ayudame where the boys are .

Cecilia has stated that the communication has been unique in that we are working with both ICBF and Ayudame and that communication is not always as efficient as she would hope. But she is certainly working as hard as she can to press the matter in an appropriate way.

So today we are a bit more optimistic.

We have been trying to keep busy over these past few weeks. Joyce's sister Jeanne, and nephew Jordan visited with us over the last weekend in June. Joyce and Jeanne did lots of shopping, while Eric and Jordan did lots of "guy"things.

Over the 4th of July, we travelled to Upper Michigan and spent the holiday with Eric's family. We had a great time, and as always, the food, fireworks and family were all enjoyable.

This past weekend, our nephew Jeremy and Kristen, spent the weekend with us. We did some "Joyce camping" (spending the day at the campground, and then going home to a nice comfy bed and warm shower at night). We also gave them a tour of Milwaukee and all it has to offer. They got to experience some unique neighborhoods, both good and bad!

Yesterday, we celebrated Eric's birthday, with dinner, and then several of the neighbors came over for cake and ice cream. Joyce decorated a birthday cake, with you guessed it, a fisherman in a" float tube" on the cake and fish surrounding him! (refer to the picture above if you forgot what a float tube looks like).

So as the days pass, we continue to enjoy our summer. We know that when we arrive in Colombia, the weather will not be summer like. In fact the average right now is high of 65 degrees and lows in the upper 40's. It is rainy every day and very humid.

Please continue to pray that our travel dates will be given to us in the very near future.

Thanks for the emails and comments. We look forward to reading them.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

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Our update is we have no update.

However, we have heard from LSSMN yesterday, and they tell us three things.

1. They have our documents and they are in Colombia.
2. They have not heard about a travel date but are waiting patiently.
3. They need us to understand that they are diligently working on our behalf as fast as they can and cite "Colombia Time".

Frankly, we think this is %$&*#*%.

We continue to wait, but be certain we will let everyone know once we know.

Look at the bright side of things, we are 8 days closer to traveling to Colombia since our last update.

Adios Amigos

Eric and Joyce

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Tuesday, July 1, 2008

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LSSMN HAS RECEIVED OUR UPDATED DOSSIER DOCUMENTS!!!!

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At 1:24pm the documents were successfully delivered to Bettina our LSS contact. This means now we are officially ready for our travel dates.

Needless to say, we have requested the date several times.

We really have nothing more to add at this point, just be certain we know we get closer with each day.

Peace and Love,

Eric and Joyce

Friday, June 27, 2008

Hola Amigos

We did not get as much accomplished as we had hoped this week, but still a very good week indeed! We have recevied ALL of our paperwork from the various sources, and presently, they are in the State of WI hands for the Apostilling. The State of MI even came through for Eric's Birth Certificate (by the way, just like the fingerprints, that did not change either since January - thank God!). We were hoping to have the documents back today, but that did not happen. Per the FEDEX website, they are schedueld to be delivered on Monday. Thank God for websites to track things. Then off to LSSMN (on Monday evening) for delivery on Tuesday, and forward to Colombia. We are getting close!

We heard from our liason in Colombia and the travel dates should be determined next week. Monday, June 30 is a holiday in Colombia, so probably not much information will be given on Monday, but we pray for early week. Then we arrange the trip to Chicago for the traveling Visa, then ride the big jet and our lives change forever!

We have had many conversations with Jose lately. He, like us, is very excited for us, especially to see us again (from what he says). Eric hopes he does not poke him in the belly! Actually, we've seen each other every night this week - through a webcam. This is a new piece of technology for us, but very cool. We hope to be able to arrange a video meeting of the boys soon. Our problem may be that technology has not "arrived" in the orphanage just yet. We really have not heard the "official" reason yet. Maybe, hopefully, soon.

We mailed a special care package to our contact Cecilia today. This was planned as part of the integration of the boys into our lives. Mailing something to Colombia is sort of like applying for an adoption. It is entirely too expensive, and way too much paperwork!
If you can not sleep tonight, here is a link to the list of rules and regulations for Colombia (enjoy) http://pe.usps.gov/text/Imm/ce_010.htm#ep1402856. Now I know why Jose sent a package to us via a friend who traveled through Canada. Frankly, I could not understand why he did that until today. ARGH! The package contained small gifts for each of the kids, a photo album, and a stuffed animal. Nothing expensive as we had to declare the value, and if over $20.00, we would have had to apply for an "import/export" license - can you imagine that! LOCO!

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Today we received our finger prints back from the FBI - all appears in order there. Thank God they did not change, although we suspected as much. Lately, we had some surprises, so we're glad to see that. Our other documents were notarized tonight. Tomorrow they will go to the State of Wisconsin for Apostilling. We hope to have these documents back by Friday as the State is relatively quick with that. The only other document we are waiting on is Eric's Birth Certificate, which will be Apostilled by the State of Michigan. We hope to have this back by the time the WI documents come back. Once received, all our documents will be submitted to LSSMN for forwarding to Colombia. Our travel dates can then be finalized. We still have every reason to believe the travel dates will be within the first 10 days of July.

We still have a trip to Chicago to to obtain our travel visas, but we need the travel dates for that. That should be a one day trip.

Interesting thing ocurred this weekend. Joyce and I were fortunate enough to attend the NASCAR Nationwide Race here in Milwaukee. While watching the race, we had spied some very mischievous boys, about the age of 3 and 5 (sound familiar). They were up to poking and proding each other. A discussion ensued about how we would handle a similiar situation. Do we put them in between us? Do we put one child at each end? Is separating the children the way to go? Interesting thing about this discussion is Joyce seems worried that she will actually have three children to deal with. Eric has not worn out his childish tendencies yet. She says probably all three will need to be sent to bed early. A big laugh about this, almost brought us to tears! Finally, the discussion ended agreeing - THIS WOULD BE A GREAT PROBLEM TO HAVE!

We can not wait! Our excitement is palpable! We just know that each day brings us closer to meeting the boys, and becoming a forever family.

As for the blog here, Jose Pablo Rivero Santos (our foreign exchange student from Colombia - thanks pal!) was gracious enough to provide the videos that are attached to the blog. Some are in Spanish, but the viewing is awesome - in any language! We found them interesting, and certainly reflective of what we learned about Colombia, the People, Culture, and their incredible zest for life. We encourage you to view them, and hope you enjoy them.

Adios Amigos,
Joyce and Eric

June 20, 2008

Tonight we worked on getting the boys' bedroom set up. We finished putting the beds together, along with adding a few other decorations. We are staying very basic, until we know more of what the boys interests are, and then we will add more decorations. For now it is a basic boys room. We hope that they will like it.

We forwarded some documents today that we needed to sign and send to Cecilia, our liaison in Colombia. We also heard that by the early part of next week, we should have more details on our travel dates. It looks like we will be travelling a bit later than originally anticipated-probably 1-2 weeks later which is around mid July. Other than this, not a whole lot of new information this week. We are waiting for our fingerprints to be returned from the FBI, and once this is done, and sent to Colombia, we anticipate that things will move very quickly.
When I went to WeatherChannel.com today to check on the weather in Colombia during this season, it appears that the average high is 65 degrees F, and the average low is 47 degrees F. Didn't we just have this season? I also learned that the sunrise averages 6AM and the sun sets at 6:00 PM. It will be weird to have the sun setting at 6PM during our summer!

Please feel free to add comments to our blog. We continue to ask for your good thoughts and prayers, that we will soon be travelling to Colombia, to meet our children and bring them back to the US.

June 18, 2008

What a flurry of activity since our fabulous news one week ago Monday, June 9, 2008. Initially, after our virtual shock of FINALLY hearing about the boys, reality soon set in. Through talking with our agency, we realized that our paperwork completed in January of 2008 will expire in mid July 2008 - which means it all needs to be updated, notarized, and then sent to the State of Wisconsin to be "Apostilled". Apostilling a document is a process in which a document becomes a "Legal Document" in a foreign country.

Well, here we go again. Hurry up and wait! In fact, the document with the longest lead time is the certification of our fingerprints from the FBI. So, we spent the first night of our great news at the West Bend Police Department getting fingerprinted (again - read below). We are not sure that our fingerprints have changed, but I guess you never know! Fingerprints successfully mailed and we are awaiting their return to us for the Apostilling. What a celebration!

We still have a lot of documents to pull together before we can finalize our travel dates. Too bad we already completed this process in January of 2008, which means the documents expire while we would be in Colombia. Going to Colombia with expired papers - That would have not done us a lot of good. So we wait. Once we have the documents finalized, Notarized, Appostilled, delivered, (and it seems like an ounce of blood, the kitchen sink, one left shoe and latest worn pair of underwear) the documents will be sent to Colombia, at which time we will be notified of our travel dates, then we can apply for our Visa to travel to a foreign country. All in all, our best guess is that we will be traveling in the first 10 days of July, but this could get pushed out a bit.

We continue to develop a transition plan to integrate the boys into our family. Joyce and I are studying Spanish very hard. In fact, we had Enchillada's with Spanish Rice tonight for dinner to try and help the process. The CD rom is spinning to beat the band, pages are turning left and right, and we are thanking the high heavens that we have our jobs as a distraction. We have translated some of the VERY easy childrens books into Spanish and neatly written the Spanish translation on the pages in Spanish so that we can read to the kids in both English and Spanish. We are video taping our reading of the books for the kids to watch prior to our arrival. We have also sent some small gifts, pictures, and videos for the kids. By the way, we will be available for signing autographs due to the video production, but after we return from Colombia.

Shopping has been a hoot! There are some VERY CUTE childrens clothes out there. We bought enough to get us through while in Colombia, but since we are not certain of their actual sizes, we did not go overboard. YES, the "brainwashing" will begin in ernest once we arrive in Colombia. There are enough Packers, Brewers, Badgers, and Bucks clothing for Wisconsin to be well represented. No sons of ours will get away without becoming Packers fans - this is/will be the most stringent requirement we will have of the boys. Certainly non-negotiable with the Packers, the other teams are optional. By the way, did I mention we LOVE the clearance racks. Also, it is amazing what you can find at a rummage sale. In fact, the deal of the adoption is a Leap Pad. We found one at Sears on the clearance rack, with no price on it! Thought that since we need two, may be a bit pricey, so left it there, after all, it was with only ONE of the "educational modules" included. Went to a rummage sale purely by accident (yes- hit the *&^% mail box with the new van). We found a Leap Pad on the table with 6, yes seis, "educational modules" included for the price of $8.00. Yes, Ocho deniero! It is literally brand new - not a scratch on it, except the batteries were dead. Tried to talk the little girl out of new batteries from her doll - until Grandma stepped in! Well, at least the batteries proved it worked. Grandma was even indicated they were having a 1/2 price sale. Got the entire deal done for $4.00 - including the modules! Ran back to Sears to check on the "clearance price" - it was priced at $49.99 after talking with a very hard to find sales person. Then argued about the "50% off clearance sale" they had going that day. Yup, we bagged it for $25.00. Two Leap pads and 7, Siete, "educational modules" for $29.00. Wish that all kids toys were always that cheap!

We have our first marital disagreement. We can not decide between a larger or smaller backpack for the boys. Since Eric thinks he will need to carry them most of the time, he likes the smaller ones. Joyce thinks the bigger ones with lots of small pockets to "hide" things in are better. We settled on a compromise. We got the bigger ones with lots of little pockets to "hide" things in! Hey, we did manage to agree on the sunglasses for the boys - I hope they don't argue over who's is who's - they will not fit Eric (he has tried them on). Oh yah, we agreed on hats as well (as long as they say Packers on them - see above). Swimsuits? Well, Joyce gets to pick those out - Eric says they are fine as long as the kids have their butts covered.

That is pretty much it, we are just looking for very successful days with the Post Office deliveries. More later.

Love you all - Adios!

By the way, Brewers are winning 5 - 4 in the top of the 9th against Toronto as we write this.

June 9, 2008

This is a very exciting day. We received a reply from the director of the AYUDAME orphanage, and the decision has been made to refer 2 brothers to us for adoption. The boys are age 4 and 5.
This is very exciting as we have waited so long! We have read the letter several times, along with an updated profile of each of them.

They are both healthy, and have been in the orphanage since December. We can now begin our journey to Colombia!

On our way home from work, we stopped at Walmart and purchased some small toys to send to them, to begin to get acquainted, and for them to get to know us. We have been asked to send photos, videos, and emails to them, to introduce ourselves. It has been decided that a gradual transition to meeting them, is in everyone's best interest.

May 17, 2008

As we wait, we have been reading books on adoption, and also trying to learn some Spanish. We have purchased a Spanish CD to listen to in our vehicle, a book of Spanish phrases, a Spanish software program, and a Spanish dictionary. We have learned some words in Spanish, but putting them together in sentences is the challenging part.

We have also completed as much as we can in the child's room. We painted it "Bibbidy, Bobbidy Blue". We also purchased a set of bunk beds, and Eric sanded them completely and restained them. We decided on bunk beds, in the hopeful case, that we receive a referral of 2 children. We will then be prepared for both of them. There are no decorations in the room, as we don't know the age or gender of the child. As well, we are not able to purchase any clothing, age appropriate toys and other child necessities until we know more about the child(ren).

As we continue to wait, we welcome a few prayers, that we will soon receive a referral for our child (or two)!

Paperwork Submitted for Adoption

As part of the adoption process from Colombia, there are many documents that have to be submitted. Along with submitting these docuements, all documents must be authenticated with the Great Seal of WI, and sent to LSS of MN to be translated and submitted to ICBF in Colombia. These documents are very time sensitive and are only valid for 6 months.

After all these documents are submitted, we will then begin the wait for our referral . Our application, and dossier will reside with the ICBF orphanage in Colombia. Since we are open to adopting a child or children up to age six years, we are told that the waiting period is generally not as long as those couples waiting for the referral of an infant. We are willing to accept a referral of a boy or girl, and also a sibling group. In a way we feel like there is more we should be doing, but in reality, there is nothing we can do but wait patiently. In the Colombia adoption program, there is a "wait" list, however, the government matches the child with the family, so you never know when you will be the next family to receive a referral. They try to find the best match for both the child and the family. There is no timeframe as to when the next referral will be given.