Progress!

We are pleased to share that not only did our apostilled psychological report arrive from California in the past week, but so did our I-171H!!!! My (Sheila's) family was out visiting when we received the psychological report, so it was fun to share that piece of progress with them.

I was off from work on Wednesday when the I-171H came, although told Dave over the phone, in the afternoon, that I had not yet checked the mail for the day. While he thought this was strange since I had been pretty consistent in watching for those documents in the past several weeks, he dismissed his concern with thoughts that I must have gotten pretty busy around the house. In trying to take a siesta in the afternoon, I realized that I couldn't hold out on this news and would have to call and share rather than waiting to spring it on Dave later that evening over dinner! When I called him back, he confessed that he had wondered about my earlier response. We had a pretty good laugh and moment of celebration together.

Now, we are off to getting Dave's birth certificate apostilled by the Federal government in Washington, D.C. We will do this on wednesday of this week since both of us are off. It will be a good opportunity to spend time together. Dave's class finals are today, so he will be free of the lure of studies. We will also return home later in the day to get some documents apostilled by our state. Our hope is to complete the remainder of this paper trail this week so that we can email copies off to our adoption coordinator. She will review them to make sure they are in order before we send our whole dossier off to the CHI Colombian program headquarters in Oregon. There, Jule, the program's director, and other staff will add additional documents to this official packet of paperwork before sending it off to Colombia for review, translation, and, hopeful, approval!

So, this is the next stage of our adoption which we, again, eagerly invite your prayerful participation in. We are told that it would be a while before we would hear anything from Colombia. We have been given tentative timelines. One, initially, was very long...the most recent one was more 2-4 months from the time that Colombia receives our paperwork. So, you are probably wondering what that means....this is what we think based on all we know at this point: Given the fact that the end of December presents two holidays and closure of government offices in Colombia, and if our dossire makes it to Colombia before the holidays, our paperwork will probably sit and not be even considered until early January. Our 2-4 month waiting period would begin sometime in January, so for chronological sake, we are figuring on not hearing of any sort of progress or referral until later in the spring...sometime between April and June. We would be so very excited to receive news sooner, but have chosen to prepare our own hearts with this tentative timeline, knowing that things could be much shorter or much longer.

In the meantime, I plan to begin work on a "100 Good Wishes" quilt for our baby! This will require participation of family and friends, so expect a mailing or email sometime in the early part of 2008 as a reminder if you are reading this! I have included some information on this blog site as an introduction to what this is and why I am choosing to do it (just continue reading below). This additionally will be a wonderful way for me to spend time preparing for our little one while also praying for them, their caregivers, their birth parents, and their general well-being.

We will update you in the coming week on the dossier and its whereabouts. In the meantime, blessings to you and your family as you enter this holiday season. May you contemplate the real joy of Christmas in the hope of Christ and gift of eternal life.