Hope for the Journey

Check it out!  A $6000 grant from ShowHope.  Thank you Steven Curtis Chapman, your family and wonderful folks who work with you!  Thanks to you, our fund raising is now up to $21,000!




Lately I've been asked where we are at in the adoption process.  
Here are the bullet points:

• We are waiting for the homestudy to be updated for Colombia.
• Next, we need USCIS to grant us the status of "Suitable to Adopt a Child."
• Then, we will be able to submit our dossier to Colombia.
• Once Colombia official accepts our dossier, we hope to be sent the photos of our new children.

Last night I was talking to my ESL class of adult learners about the steps they need to take to arrive at a GED or get into college.  The road is long.  I made the comment, "If  you never start walking on the road, you won't arrive." 

Adoption feels that way.  The paperwork is daunting.  Imagine you were asked to redo all of your taxes for the past ten years.  Most people would rather stick their hand in a meat grinder.  But if you do one part, and then the next, and then the next, you get it done.  

We thought we were done.  Our homestudy was complete.  Our dossier was complete.  No more fingerprinting. No more letters of reference, medical appointments, tax documents, etc.  

Then we decided to switch to Colombia which meant updating the homestudy to explain why we love Colombia, and adding in new medical evaluations with new blood tests and a psychological evaluation, 

Its a long road.  No telling how long.  But we have walked a long ways so far.  We've had a lot of encouragement along the journey thanks to many generous donors.  And we will arrive.