As promised, I am posting a before and after photo of Gabriela's room. It turned out GREAT! It seems that Daniel is quite the carpenter, as his first ever attempt at a chair rail came out perfectly!
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Gabriela's Room
As promised, I am posting a before and after photo of Gabriela's room. It turned out GREAT! It seems that Daniel is quite the carpenter, as his first ever attempt at a chair rail came out perfectly!
Monday, December 24, 2007
Merry Christmas!
Okay, we are terrible bloggers! There is no excuse for going over six weeks between posts, especially with everything that has happened! This will be a long post as I will attempt to get you up to speed, and then we PROMISE to post more often!
On the morning of Saturday, December 8th I went out to run some errands. While I was driving home I talked to my sister Jen on the phone. She said that she had had a very vivid dream the night before that we had gotten our referral and that she thought it would happen really soon. At that point we had been waiting 5 weeks, which is about average for Colombian families, but felt like nothing would probably happen until after the new year because things really slow down around the holidays.
No more than an hour later, Daniel got an email from our attorney in Colombia. It was a LONG message and appeared to be in response to some questions we had sent to her via e-mail. Daniel told me to go ahead and read it because he was putting up Christmas lights. A few minutes later I ran outside and yelled "I think you'd better get in here - I'm pretty sure we just got our referral!" I was only "pretty sure" because the e-mail was in Spanish. I comprehend a lot of what I read in Spanish, but I've found that it only takes one slip-up to completely alter the meaning of an entire paragraph.
Anyway, Daniel came in and we read through this insanely long e-mail from the beginning (naturally). At the VERY end was the news that we had been assigned a 7-month-0ld girl! This was the moment we had been waiting for, but it was strangely anti-climactic. We just kind of looked at each other and said, "Did we really just get our referral? That was it?" It didn't really sink in right away, especially because we didn't have a photo or any other information beyond her date and city of birth.
We got our referral package on the following Tuesday (thanks, Kelley, for your part in that!). Daniel was out of town so his first glimpse of Gabriela was on his cell phone - thank goodness for the iPhone, without which he would have had to wait two more days to see a decent picture of her! Needless to say, she is absolutely adorable and we cannot wait to meet her. We will travel to Colombia on January 21st and meet Gabriela at 10:30 a.m. on January 23rd!
The last two weeks have been a whirlwind, to say the least! We pored over the packet of information that came with our referral, sent our acceptance letter, called and e-mailed everyone we could think of with the news, found a new attorney (long story), decided on a middle name (Sofia), booked our airfare, made a completely embarrassing video of ourselves to familiarize Gabriela with our faces and voices, arranged for a place to stay in Medellín, sent a package to Colombia (which got held up in customs, requiring several phone calls), and decorated Gabriela's room (which looks GREAT - photos to follow). All of this on top of getting ready for Christmas! We are tired but excited and happy.
So, I think that summarizes everything pretty well. Again, we promise to be better about posting updates!
Merry Christmas and may 2008 be happy and healthy!
On the morning of Saturday, December 8th I went out to run some errands. While I was driving home I talked to my sister Jen on the phone. She said that she had had a very vivid dream the night before that we had gotten our referral and that she thought it would happen really soon. At that point we had been waiting 5 weeks, which is about average for Colombian families, but felt like nothing would probably happen until after the new year because things really slow down around the holidays.
No more than an hour later, Daniel got an email from our attorney in Colombia. It was a LONG message and appeared to be in response to some questions we had sent to her via e-mail. Daniel told me to go ahead and read it because he was putting up Christmas lights. A few minutes later I ran outside and yelled "I think you'd better get in here - I'm pretty sure we just got our referral!" I was only "pretty sure" because the e-mail was in Spanish. I comprehend a lot of what I read in Spanish, but I've found that it only takes one slip-up to completely alter the meaning of an entire paragraph.
Anyway, Daniel came in and we read through this insanely long e-mail from the beginning (naturally). At the VERY end was the news that we had been assigned a 7-month-0ld girl! This was the moment we had been waiting for, but it was strangely anti-climactic. We just kind of looked at each other and said, "Did we really just get our referral? That was it?" It didn't really sink in right away, especially because we didn't have a photo or any other information beyond her date and city of birth.
We got our referral package on the following Tuesday (thanks, Kelley, for your part in that!). Daniel was out of town so his first glimpse of Gabriela was on his cell phone - thank goodness for the iPhone, without which he would have had to wait two more days to see a decent picture of her! Needless to say, she is absolutely adorable and we cannot wait to meet her. We will travel to Colombia on January 21st and meet Gabriela at 10:30 a.m. on January 23rd!
The last two weeks have been a whirlwind, to say the least! We pored over the packet of information that came with our referral, sent our acceptance letter, called and e-mailed everyone we could think of with the news, found a new attorney (long story), decided on a middle name (Sofia), booked our airfare, made a completely embarrassing video of ourselves to familiarize Gabriela with our faces and voices, arranged for a place to stay in Medellín, sent a package to Colombia (which got held up in customs, requiring several phone calls), and decorated Gabriela's room (which looks GREAT - photos to follow). All of this on top of getting ready for Christmas! We are tired but excited and happy.
So, I think that summarizes everything pretty well. Again, we promise to be better about posting updates!
Merry Christmas and may 2008 be happy and healthy!
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Welcome!
Hi all!
Well, this seems like as good a place as any to start... we found out today that our application to adopt from Colombia has been approved by ICBF (Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar, or Colombian Institute of Family Welfare). Yes, they are going to let US have a child!
Though we're just starting this blog, we are actually several months into the adoption process. We made the decision to adopt in June and first met with our home study agency in early July. We came to the decision to adopt rather quickly and jumped headfirst into the process. For those of you that don't know me very well, I have been known to anguish over even the smallest decisions (my best friend Kelley likes to tell people that it takes me 15 minutes to pick out band-aids at the grocery store - or maybe it's 30...). However, I seem to be blessed with clarity when it comes to the really BIG decisions. Daniel and I did, after all, get married after knowing each other for less than 5 months, and I can happily say that that was the best decision I've ever made.
We moved through the process as quickly as possible (we almost set an agency speed record) and now it is out of our hands. Our file has been sent from the national office in Bogotá to the regional office in Medellín, and we will simply wait until they assign us a child. For those of you that don't know this, Daniel was born in Medellín and lived there until he was 16 years old. We are very excited that he will share a birthplace with our little one, and that we will get to spend roughly a month in Medellín when we travel to complete the adoption.
From this point forward, the process looks something like this: We will get an e-mail or phone call from our attorney letting us know that we have been assigned a child. A few days later we will get a file that contains photos, medical information, and possibly additional information from the foster mother or orphanage. We will probably choose to have an independent medical evaluation done, and then will accept the referral. The mad dash to pack, get my adoption visa, buy plane tickets, make reservations, etc. will begin, and we will travel approximately two weeks later. We will spend about a month in Colombia.
Anyway, I'm going on and on... welcome to our blog! We will keep you posted with any developments. We also plan to blog as often as possible while we're in Colombia because that seems to be the easiest way to keep everyone up to speed.
Take care,
Leslie and Daniel
Well, this seems like as good a place as any to start... we found out today that our application to adopt from Colombia has been approved by ICBF (Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar, or Colombian Institute of Family Welfare). Yes, they are going to let US have a child!
Though we're just starting this blog, we are actually several months into the adoption process. We made the decision to adopt in June and first met with our home study agency in early July. We came to the decision to adopt rather quickly and jumped headfirst into the process. For those of you that don't know me very well, I have been known to anguish over even the smallest decisions (my best friend Kelley likes to tell people that it takes me 15 minutes to pick out band-aids at the grocery store - or maybe it's 30...). However, I seem to be blessed with clarity when it comes to the really BIG decisions. Daniel and I did, after all, get married after knowing each other for less than 5 months, and I can happily say that that was the best decision I've ever made.
We moved through the process as quickly as possible (we almost set an agency speed record) and now it is out of our hands. Our file has been sent from the national office in Bogotá to the regional office in Medellín, and we will simply wait until they assign us a child. For those of you that don't know this, Daniel was born in Medellín and lived there until he was 16 years old. We are very excited that he will share a birthplace with our little one, and that we will get to spend roughly a month in Medellín when we travel to complete the adoption.
From this point forward, the process looks something like this: We will get an e-mail or phone call from our attorney letting us know that we have been assigned a child. A few days later we will get a file that contains photos, medical information, and possibly additional information from the foster mother or orphanage. We will probably choose to have an independent medical evaluation done, and then will accept the referral. The mad dash to pack, get my adoption visa, buy plane tickets, make reservations, etc. will begin, and we will travel approximately two weeks later. We will spend about a month in Colombia.
Anyway, I'm going on and on... welcome to our blog! We will keep you posted with any developments. We also plan to blog as often as possible while we're in Colombia because that seems to be the easiest way to keep everyone up to speed.
Take care,
Leslie and Daniel
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