Off to School

¿Hablas Español?  Do you speak Spanish?

Nosotros adoptamos dos niños y son los hermanos.  Son de Colombia.  Nosotros estamos aprendiendo Español en la universidad.  ¡Gracias por su amistad!

We are adopting two boys and they are brothers.  They are from Colombia.  We are studying Spanish at a community college.  

Our class is two nights a week along with homework and tests, but we are learning a lot.  Our final exam and last day of class will be December 13th.  Thank you for your friendship!

Our Fingerprints Made It

We received confirmation that the FBI received our finger prints and signed for them this morning.  Yeah!

Lori's Grandfather

This picture is in loving memory of Lori's Grandfather, who passed away today.  This was taken at our wedding.  He knew all about our adoption before he passed away, and we are sorry he will not have the opportunity to meet his Great-Grandsons.

Our Fingerprints are Off

We went to Fed Ex to overnight our finger prints to the FBI tonight!  It will take about 2 months to get them processed. The three big steps of approval we need to get in order to complete our dossier is our approved home study, our approval of fingerprints from the FBI, and approval from the US government to allow us to adopt.  Our home study is now in the AZ court, our finger prints are off, and we hope to submit our paper work to the US government in November.  We are clicking right along!

The Boys' Home

We do know the boys are in a children's home in Bogota called Ayudame. Ayudame was established in 1977, and during its 33 years, it has placed 1,870 children in loving and adoptive families.  The organization currently provides care to 50 children and 10 expectant parents. It is a child focused organization that LSSMN has partnered with for the duration of our 26 years in Colombia.  Ayudame means "Help Me". 

A Very Busy Day

Dainis took a day of vacation and we had a very busy adoption day!  We went to the police department to take our third set of fingerprints.  These prints will go to the FBI and will hopefully be procrssed in 30-60 days.  Then we went to the travel medicine clinic again to get the typhoid and yellow fever vaccinations for Dainis.  We then went to do a psychological evalution, which included an interview and a test.  We ended the day at the pediatrition's office we chose to learn more about them.  It was a busy but great day.

I'ts A Great Day!

We received our pre-approval from Colombia today, and we are so excited!!!!  We can now continue with the adoption process and start working on our dossier, which are all of the documents that will go to Colombia.  We are so excited and hope that the process will continue to go smoothly so we will be able to adopt the boys.  We will look forward to receiving more information on the boys over the next few weeks.  It is being translated to English now.

The boys' names are Sebastian and Andres.  Sebastian will be 10 on October 6th and Andres turned 8 in April.  We put it as an entry when we first started looking at the boys but this is what their description said.

Two sweet brothers are waiting for a family! They have a strong desire

to be in a warm, loving, supportive home. The boys are good students.

They have tender, loving hearts and relate well to their peers. They

younger brother likes to play soccer and the older brother enjoys

playing board games. They both enjoy cars and Legos.

The Travel Medicine Clinic

I went with my parents to a travel medicine clinic today.  My parents plan to come and visit while we are in Colombia and meet the boys so we decided to all get vaccinations.  We have to have 3 Heapatitis B shots, 2 Hapatitis A shots, a yellow fever, and a typhoid vaccine.  We got the A, B, and yellow fever today.  We have learned a lot by talking to the nurse on all of the things we should consider before we leave, in order to be safe.  One thing she suggested is that we get evacuation insurance.  If something happens, I can be air lifted to a good hospital that is equipped to help me.  We will be there up to 8 weeks when we go to get the boys so having me in another country for 2 months is a concern for everyone.  We are glad to know the options we have in case we need help.

Home Study Approval by LSS

Our rough draft for our home study was sent to Lutheran today, and we are so excited!  We can't continue to the next step until we receive our pre-approval.  It has now been 7 weeks since we submitted our initial letter.  Soon though our home study draft will be sent to AZ Juvenile Court.  We will be one step closer, and all of our paper work is going smoothly.  Meanwhile, we are busy taking our Spanish classes and working on Roseta Stone.  The older you get the harder it is to remember everything!  Adios!

A Pool Fence

We can now check off another big construction project...a pool fence!  It is part of AZ state law for us to have a pool fence since we are adopting.

Our Home Study is Almost Done

Our social worker from ICF plans to finish writing our home study draft this weekend, which we are very excited about!  She will send the draft to LSS for approval.  Meanwhile, our home study will now be sent to AZ Juvenile Court to be approved by the state.  Only two states require this state approval and one of them is AZ!  We do know that a case has been opened at the court for our adoption, and they know our home study is coming.  Our fingerprints should be cleared by September 26th and then we just will wait till the AZ Court approves it.  Once the court approves it, our home study is officially done!