All our paperwork is officially in Colombia!

Thursday, August 16th - a big day for our family  - all of our paperwork was sent to Colombia on that day!  It seems like such a simple sentence to write, but there is sooo much more to it than that.  Every step of the way we did what we had to do for the paperwork and to get to our children as fast as we could possibly do it.  It's sad, really, that the process of bringing a child home and into your family through adoption is sometimes like jumping through a lot of hoops just to get the approval of the crowd (government and all the little laws/agencies that come with it). I know, the laws are there to protect everyone.  Sometimes... it just seems... well... too much when there are little ones waiting who NEED someone to hold them and comfort them...

I think I might have been a little antsy today when I emailed our agency.  I asked if they could ask ICBF in Colombia if they had any idea of when we would be getting the official referral of the children.  I didn't realize it has only been 2 weeks since we sent out all the paperwork.  That's not very long for it to get all the way to Colombia and on the right person's desk...  Once we get the official referral and accept it we would be traveling in about 10 weeks.  Right now, that places us at the beginning of November for travel if we are able to get/accept the referral next week. 

In the meantime... we are working as a family on cleaning up our home/yard/garage.  I seem to be in a constant state of decluttering...  I often remind my husband that I never, ever was a clean person, but that I have a desire to be clean and orderly, and I will continue to work on it!  Maybe by the time I'm 50 I'll finally get it down :) Nevertheless, I see another garage sale in our near future...  Oh, I also tell him that I really do think that having more children in the home will make me more organized - well, it could happen!

Oh!  We also had the pleasure of celebrating my husband's 40th birthday this past week (Happy Birthday, Honey!),  and on the 31st (Friday) we will be celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary!!!  That's a lot of years together, but I'm glad of every one of them and thanking God for them too!

Karen