Progress!, & a Big Ugh!!!

Ok, so I am not sure how to put into words how I felt and what I was thinking when I opened Julie's email today! (For all of you who have no idea who Julie Eagleson is, she is the Colombia Adoption Program Director with Children's Hope International)

So, the subject of the email was "Colombian Birth Certificate". When I saw the title, I thought, "This is not good." (my intuition working there.) In opening the email, I discovered "Lucia said they were asking at ICBF if you have a Colombian birth certificate. Apparently they don't like your US State Department birth certificate, although it clearly states that you were born in Colombia. Did your parents get a Colombian one that we could send them?".

Oh my, peanut butter pie!!!! When you put that dossier together and you go through all those lists and have it reviewed umpteen times by everyone and their mother, you honestly believe that what you did was thorough and in line with what Colombia expects. =( We were not expecting this email. According to all of our conversation with our adoption consultant, we needed a ds-1350 from the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C...and we need not revisit the crazy trip Dave and I had to get that document.

To make a long story short, Dave has a 'Consular Report of Birth' from Barranquilla, Colombia, although we were originally told that this would not be satisfactory...that we needed a Department of State 'Certification of Report of Birth' from here in the U.S....although it turns out that now we need documents originating in Colombia and issued by Colombia to satisfy the ICBF's need to verify that we are a 'Colombian' family, despite the other documents verifying that David was born in Sincelejo, Colombia.

Up to this point, we had no need to ask Dave's parents if they even had such a thing. After reading Julie's email and on my way to find Dave to share this update, I had this oh so sick feeling. We had started our adoption, last spring, knowing that our wait would be about 24-27 months at that time (from the time our dossier was sent to Colombia). We have also watched as that timeframe has lengthened. In the process of completing our dossier paperwork, we were informed that given Dave's birth in Colombia, we would have a shortened wait as we are a 'Colombian' family.

When your thinking goes from 3-4 years to 3-6 months...receiving this email was a little un-nerving to say the least. I guess my reminder of 'God's timing and work' from my previous entry was a very timely lesson. On the other hand, I must confess that I was still quite frazzled in waiting for Dave's parents to call us back to confirm whether they had any official Colombian documents to verify David's birth. They called later this evening to say that they had a dug up a "Como Notario Segundo de Sincelejo: Certifico", a "Papel Sellado", with some official stamps". (I apologize for any mispelling here as I am typing what I heard David and his father saying.)

We are hoping that this is what the ICBF is looking for; otherwise, we are not sure what our next steps will be. In the meantime, we will remain in 'waiting' and will update family and friends as we hear more.