I'm really looking forward to the drawing on Christmas Day!    Thank you to all of you who have emailed, left a comment, became a follower, or reposted our blog!  Keep it up!  Please let your friends know about the drawing!

We do have a lot of soap left to sell (there are many bars curing!), so if you would like to help support us by purchasing a few just send me an email (kevkarb@yahoo.com).  The bars make great unique Christmas gifts for friends, family and coworkers.  And if you know someone who has dry skin or even eczema, they should give this soap a try.  We have had many people tell us how much it has improved their skin, plus each bar is really soft and silky on your skin.  No need for shaving cream either!  And the best part, I think, is that all the proceeds go to help give five children a home and family.

A couple of nights ago we spent hours researching online and talking on the phone to figure out the best way to purchase our plane tickets.  We ended up getting them through Spirit Airlines, and we are flying out from Fort Lauderdale.  We still need to get to Ft. Lauderdale from Indy and back home again from Ft. Lauderdale after we have our children, but for the price we knew we could figure something out.

We have not flown with Spirit before, so I can't comment about their service, but if you do decide to look into them (for those who are also adopting from Colombia), watch their extra fees.  Their prices are low, but then you need to add in any luggage you are bringing, seat changes...  Still, we were able to get all 6 of us from Ft. Lauderdale to Bogota, and all 11 of from Bogota to Ft Lauderdale for $4,500 plus luggage (probably end up being around $5,000).  We were quoted around $10,000 round trip for all of us from Indy to Bogota from multiple travel agencies and from watching airfares like Skywatch and Cheapoair. 

We figure for that $5,000 we haven't spent yet we will get one-way tickets to Ft. Lauderdale and then rent a van and drive all 11 of us home from Ft. Lauderdale.  Crazy?  Maybe.  But we like a little craziness :)

Pretty soon I'm going to start a private blog for our travel to Colombia.  We don't want the world to know exactly when we will be gone, so if you would like to follow along with us please email me at kevkarb@yahoo.com, and let me know how you know me or what your link is to adoption so I can approve you.  After we are home, I'll add all the posts from the private blog to this one, like I did when we brought our daughter home from China.  I am still keeping this blog open because of the soap sales.  I'm hoping to find someone willing to ship any soap orders we get while we are in Colombia.

We are getting our passport-size pics for our Visas today and tomorrow we get to apply for the Visas themselves!  Everything is starting to look a lot more "official", and on occasion when I think to closely about what we are doing little butterflies start fluttering around in my stomach!

The picture to the right is of the paper-chains we put up for our official "Countdown to Colombia"!  Each day one of us gets to rip off one of the links.  It has been great watching it grow shorter!

Thank you so much for all the support and prayers we have been receiving!  May God bless you and your family this Christmas season.

Karen

WE ARE GIVING AWAY 20 BARS OF ALL-NATURAL GOAT MILK SOAP!!!!

It's time to celebrate!  By the time we bring our children home from Colombia, it will have been over 2 years since we began the whole process, and now that we have our travel approval, it's time to CELEBRATE!  We are GIVING AWAY 20 BARS  of our all-natural goat milk soap, with the winning names being drawn and posted on Christmas Day!

AND because I personally like it when there are multiple prizes being given away, we are going to break down those 20 bars of soap into 5 separate giveaways!  That means we will draw 5 names (because we are adopting 5 children).  The first name drawn will win 7 bars (the age of David, our oldest in Colombia).  The second name drawn will win 5 bars (the age of Jaime, our second oldest in Colombia).  The third name drawn will win 4 bars (the age of our daughter, Briyic, in Colombia).  The fourth name drawn will win 3 bars (the age of Diego, our second youngest in Colombia).  And the fifth name drawn will win 1 bar of our all natural goat milk soap!  (Brayan is our youngest in Colombia, and he is one year old!).   

If you would like to learn more about our all natural goat milk soap, please click here or on our fundraising page listed above.  THERE IS NO PURCHASE/DONATION required in order to have your name entered into the drawing!  However, you can have your name entered multiple times.  Here is how:

For 1 entry, you can either email me (kevkarb@yahoo.com) and put "soap drawing" in the subject line, become a new follower (at the time of this writing there are 54), or leave a comment.  If adoption has been a part of your life in any way, we would really enjoy hearing about how God has been a part of that!

For 1 entry, share our giveaway on your facebook page with a link back to our blog.

And for 1 more entry, share our giveaway with a link on your own blog! 

Be sure I have a way to contact you if your name is drawn, and let me know what you have done to get your name entered! 

WE HAVE TRAVEL APPROVAL!!!!!!!

I only have a second to post this, but wanted everyone to know that we have travel approval!  We will become a family of 11 in 2013!  Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us and supporting us!
I'll post again really soon!

A picture we sent to our children - we will see you soon!

5 More Heights Added To Our Wall!

We have a wall in our kitchen where we measure the height of everyone in our family.  Carissa, our 14 year old, has passed up my 5 foot 5 inches by inches and is now at a standstill.  Our 13 year old son is gaining quickly on me.  We are ALMOST nose-to-nose.  I believe our 11 year old daughter will end up being about the same height as I am, and as for Lyric (our 5 year old), we are very happy that her head now reaches above the kitchen counter! But more importantly, today we were able to add to the wall the heights of our children in Colombia! 

When I told Lyric that Briyic, her 4 year old sister, was going to be taller than she is she got a bit upset.  But then I said, "She may be taller, but you will always be older!" and she got a huge grin on her face.  Then I told her that Diego, who is 3, would be about her height, and she made a face and said, "But he's a boy!".  I couldn't help but crack up with laughter!

We also received some other news that we have been waiting for about the Visa photos of the children.  Apparently, when we received the last update ICBF decided to wait to hear our response so they put everything on hold.  Maybe they thought we were going to say no to the children based on what was in the report?  No way!  Anyway, that is one reason why we are still waiting for the photos. All is good now though because they are starting the process back up again to get the photos and, hopefully, we will soon have them.  The sooner we get them, the sooner we get the children's Visa's, the sooner we get our entrega date (the date we meet our children), the sooner we can get our airplane tickets, the sooner we get to our children!

On a final note, I would like to thank everyone who made a purchase today and yesterday with our "Cyber Monday (and Tuesday) Fundraising Sale".  I had a lot of fun putting it together!  Right now, we are selling the soap as a fundraiser for our own adoption expenses, but it is my intention and hope that after we are done fundraising we will be able to turn it into a business - a business that will help educate and raise awareness of orphans and adoption, as well as one that will help others who are adopting with their fundraising efforts. 

This is the new message that will be placed on the wrapping of each bar of soap:

Learn to do good; seek justice,
reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan,
plead for the widow. Isaiah 1:17

In closing, I would like to thank our Father for His goodness.  We are blessed beyond measure.

Karen

Cyber Monday (and Tuesday!) Fundraising Sale Special!

We decided to get in on all the fun of Cyber Monday (and Tuesday!) and put together our own special deal!  For today and Tuesday only, place your order for our already discounted special of 5 bars for $25.00 and get your CHOICE of either a  FREE bar of soap (you pick!) OR a fun, home-made CRACKED-CORN BEDWARMER made by our two oldest girls! We will offer this special only until midnight (November 27th) so don't delay, and be sure to order today!  All proceeds go towards our adoption of a sibling group of 5 children.  Their names are David, Jamie, Briyic, Diego and Brayan.

To view our fundraiser and our available bars of soap please click here and email your order to Karen at kevkarb@yahoo.com.  Thanks for looking!

Missing Our Children, When We Haven't Even Met Them

Sigh.  It has been pretty hard switching gears from "expecting to travel to meet our children soon" to "we won't be traveling until AT LEAST mid-January".

The strike is almost over in Colombia, but in some areas I have heard that it is still going strong.  One of these areas is where our children are: Bogota.  I have read that the strike has pushed everything back at least 4 weeks.  At this point, I will be really surprised if we even get to travel mid-January.  The judges aren't back to work.  When they do go back, they are behind at least 4 weeks.  There is a break from mid-December to about mid-January so adoptions are not processed during that time.  So...  will we even travel in January?  I have no idea :(

In the meantime...

We know for sure now that our little Colombians are in three different foster homes.  Juan David is in one, Briyic in another, and the youngest three boys are together in yet another foster home.  Not only will they have to adjust to being with us as a new family, but they will need to adjust to being with one another as well.  I pray that ICBF is doing everything they can to prepare them for being together again and for us being their new family.

It wasn't good news that we received from ICBF about our daughter, Briyic.  Because of the sensitive nature of it, I would rather not share the details here.  She is getting, as well as Juan David, some counseling sessions.  I suppose that may be good for them, but I can't help but think that if we only had them here with us...

I am anxious to hold each one in my arms.  I want to cook for them and bathe them.  I want to make them giggle and laugh.  I'm excited to teach them, and to show them the love of Christ.

One of the things that was holding up our travel, despite the strike, was the Visa photos of our children in Colombia.  Our agency's contact there has been trying for over a month to get their Visa photos.  We still don't know if she has them.  Hopefully tomorrow we will find out more.  It seems so wrong that a strike, a vacation in the, well, I don't know who all gets the vacation but it stops adoptions from being processed, and a few Visa pictures, are the only things that are stopping us from wrapping our arms around our children.  I know, it's only a couple more months, but it seems like sooo much longer than that.

One benefit of not traveling right away is that we have a bit more time to get our house in order before it becomes totally disorganized again while we adjust to being a family of 11!  We were able to clean out the house a little and have a yard sale.  I really didn't expect to do too well having a sale in mid-November, but the weather was great, and we were blessed to put a couple hundred dollars towards the adoption expenses!  Way better then I ever thought we would do.

Disappointingly, we were turned down for another grant we had applied for.  This one was a matching-grant, and I was pretty sure we would qualify for it, but were told instead that there were a lot of applicants and not enough funds... 

The good news is that our all-natural goat milk soap fundraiser is going well!  Not only do we get to raise money for the adoption expenses, but we get to provide those who order with an excellent product!  We have had many people tell us how wonderful our soap is and how good it is on their skin.  Even individuals with eczema say how great it is!  If you would like to order just click on our fundraising page listed above to see what we have available and email me with your order - simple!  Oh, and they are great to give as a Christmas gift to friends, family, as a secret-Santa, co-workers, or even for yourself!

Thanks for reading!

Karen

In God We Trust

The adoption process is often described as a roller coaster.  It is one crazy ride filled with highs and lows, twists and turns, emotional ups and downs.  As a Christian, I know that God's timing is best but that doesn't mean it's always easy.  Today we had to make the decision not to travel to our children until after the new year.  So many outside obstacles/events added up to this.

One obstacle was the passport-sized photos needed to go with the Visa application for our children.  Our agency requested them over a month ago, and they have yet to receive them.  I find this conflicting to me emotionally because if we did have them we would likely be traveling to Colombia now and be taking care of our children.  On the other hand, we would be in Colombia in the midst of a judicial strike that has been going on for about 3 weeks now.  We keep hearing that negotiations have been made and the strike is ending... and then it doesn't.

The strike is a big part of our decision not to travel even if the children's visas were processed. We have heard that only about 10% of judges are still working in Colombia.  That means 90% aren't.  Families who traveled already to receive their children are in limbo there.  They have no idea when they can come home.  Adoption is expensive to begin with, but add on the extra weeks in Colombia and it's even more so.  Families are also divided by it.  Many husbands/wives have had to travel back home to work while their wives/husbands and child/ren stay in Colombia.  Even when the strike ends, there will be a backlog of cases.  Adoption cases aren't usually the priority.

Then there is the break that occurs for some governmental workers in Colombia at the end of December/beginning of January.  If your adoption isn't completed by the end of the year, then you get to add at least 3 weeks to your stay in Colombia.  That's a long time for us, especially since Kevin works for himself.  His income will already be greatly effected for the period of time we will need to be there without adding extra weeks.

The worse part of knowing we can't travel is the children.  By this time, they know who we are.  They know we are their new parents.  They won't know why we aren't there for them yet or why it is taking so long for us to get there.  They aren't even living in the same place.  The best I can figure out from the paperwork is that they are in 4 different foster homes.

I comfort myself with the peace that God is in control.  His timing is perfect and not mine.  I pray that He uses our trials for His glory and that others may come to know Him through us.

Please continue to pray for our children in Colombia.  We were told today to expect a letter soon from ICBF concerning our four year old daughter, Briyic.  ICBF doesn't usually send letters out of the blue that have good news in them.  The last time we received one it was about one of our sons, and it had sad/bad news in it.

In God I trust,

Karen