Baranquilla, Summer 2016

     Good news! There’s a strong chance that we’ll be travelling to Colombia this summer!  

     But first, the back story….

     In March of last year all of our paperwork was completed and we were approved to adopt two kids from Colombia. It’s been over one long year since our last blog post. We’ve done some high-quality waiting during that time. Our hopes then were for a boy and a girl, between the ages of 4 and 8, who could have some physical special needs.

     Two months ago we received information and a video about a boy we had found on list of 500 waiting kids.  These lists are cryptic, at best:  you don’t get much more information than birthdates, siblings, sex, and their special need.  Sometimes, there’s a description of his or her character or desires.  We were taken with what was written about this particular little six-year-old:

He likes to watch soccer and plays as a goalie. 

He is very intelligent and wants a family and legs. 

Mentally, he is sane.

     He wants a family and legs???  Yes. He was born with arthrogryposis, which for him means that his very thin legs are somewhat twisted and stuck in the wrong positions. It appears that he can’t bend one of his knees at all. And that means that he doesn’t walk. The good news is that arthrogryposis is not progressive.  However, we won’t know how much our medical system will be able to help him unless or until he arrives here. Happily, Sam Sam’s prosthetists at Seattle Children’s watched the video and said there was a lot that could be done to help kids like him.  It may be that his legs can be made to be more useful to him soon after he arrives in the USA. And who knows what biomedical engineers will dream up in the coming decades?

     Even if he doesn’t ever walk, after watching video footage of him going about his day, we have the impression that he is quite able to overcome a variety of physical barriers.  He cannot stand up, but we have seen him climbing stairs, playing goalie in a pick-up neighborhood kid’s futbol game, managing the inside edge of a swimming pool, getting his pants on and pedaling a hand-crank tricycle. (When’s the last time you put on your pants without bending your knees?) At the age of six he has the upper torso of a gymnast. He is also quite the charmer! Watching his interactions with others, we’ve garnered that he looks like a kid who trusts his caretakers and who can relax and be goofy. That is very encouraging to us. 

     We have an ‘in-the-meantime’ name for him, “Titus Imago Kozaczuk.” “Tito” is Spanish for Titus – and we think that it’s a good nickname too. On March 4^th we sent Colombia a letter of intent to adopt Tito! 

     We looked for a potential sibling to adopt along with him, but just after Easter, we learned that Colombia will not allow us to adopt two unrelated children at the same time.  If we really want to pursue an adoption of two kids, they would need to be siblings, and therefore we would also need to say “no” to Tito.  Doing either of these two things would be difficult.  We have grown a bit attached to the little guy for one, and for two, we have not seen siblings under ten years old in over a year of searching. 

     Therefore, we are moving forward with Tito’s adoption. One new child may very well be more than enough for our family.

     We recognize God’s sovereignty and wisdom will be in effect as Tito faces an enormous change in his circumstances.  And then Tito will also cause all of our family members to ‘scoot over’ in various ways.  But it is in these changes where the excitement lies.

     Now to talk money.  First of all, we need to give everyone a great big THANK YOU.  ALL the stateside adoption expenses are paid for, and all of it was paid through gifts from you, our friends and family. We are incredibly grateful.  The only costs not yet covered are the upcoming travel costs to Colombia. We estimate spending about $10,000 on this trip.  The biggest expenses will be airfare for four going and five coming home, plus one month of food and lodging.  If you have not experienced the joy of contributing to this great mission of bringing home an orphan, there is still time, and there is more than one way to help:

     I’ve listed three different ways you can donate from your finances on the upper left side of this page.  

• We are accepting air miles.  We have enough Alaska air miles for two of us already.  
• If you live nearby, you can donate stuff for our fundraiser garage sale.  The deadline to receive garage sale donations fall appropriately on Colombian Mother’s Day, May 10th.
• Also if you are able, please attend our garage sale on May 14.  Proceeds from the sale will be divided between our family and another family who is adopting a son from China. 
• If by chance you own a vacation home in Barranquilla, Colombia, please talk to us!!