Celebrating the Wonder of the Easter Season!

What a joy to be able to celebrate Easter! For those of us who know the true meaning of Easter, it's overwhelming to be able to celebrate Christ's resurrection! We are so blessed!

Joshua is still growing by leaps and bounds. He has started to say a few words: car, ball, up. With hopefully many more to come! I'm speaking both English and Spanish to him at home, so, that could be why the delay. He's running with tons of energy and is truly a boy-boy. All boy! He likes to play rough, wrestle with Daddy and did I mention run? Yeah, lots of running for both him and I!

We recently took a trip to Tampa for our agency, Commonwealth Adoptions International's Florida picnic. It was wonderful to see all of our friends and Joshua's fellow adopted friends. We thank God so much for the wonderful adoptive families He's placed in our path. I always say... while gaining a child, I gained an entire adoptive family too! We hope and pray your family is well. We love you all!

Happy New Year!

Well Joshua's first Christmas was amazing... he enjoyed himself so much! Each time he opened a present, he didn't want to move onto the next one. He was content playing with the one he got! (Hey you think that'll continue through the years?) We celebrated Noche Buena at Abuelo and Abuela's house (he had a blast) and then Christmas day at Abu and Mimi's house with all of his Tias and Tios (super fun too!). By the end of the day, he was pooped and so were we!
The entire season was a blessing. Frank and I are still overwhelmed when we see our little one. Knowing that last year at this time we were waiting to know if we were parents... now, there is nothing better in this world. Joshua is a huge blessing and we totally couldn't imagine our lives without him! God is so good... He knows what we need, when we need it and I'm so thankful He was gracious enough to bring this little one into our lives.
We also took our first family trip to Orlando. We went to Universal Studios and Sea World and Josh truly enjoyed each one. Even though he couldn't ride much... he still was blown away by the colors, characters (he got to meet Barney, Curious George and a Surfing Turtle!) and just the change of scenery. He was a trooper the whole time. We can't believe our baby's already 14 months old! WOW! Thank you so much to all of you who love and pray for him everyday. We're already praying for Josh's baby sister or brother! Hopefully in the next few years we'll be saying once again... "Colombia, here we come!"

Look @ the soon to be 11 Month Old!!!

Ok, seriously, the months are flying by!! Joshua is already almost 11 months and looking forward to celebrating his first birthday. Things are great. These days he truly enjoys crawling everywhere and climbing up on things. The other day I watched in amazement as he crawled up the steps (of course with me closely behind!). His personality is very easy going and I truly love that. He's content to play on the floor with all of his toys. Actually one of his favorite things to play with is an empty water gallon jug. He just hits it and laughs. He also is walking... really well with us holding one hand and even taking steps on his own. He is so fun! He and I sometimes just pass the time laughing at each other. We are so thankful. Today Frank was saying that he couldn't have imagined us here one year ago... we truly are blessed!

Hello everyone... not much new to report. We're just truly enjoying our little one. He is already 9 months old and quite the active one! He's just starting to take small steps, like from the Diaper Genie to the Changing Table, etc. He took his first offical steps on his own last Wednesday. His Dad was watching as he let go (Dad was still holding on to his back w/o support)and ran five full steps before falling on his bottom. We've purchased a video camera to film it all! I'm sure we'll have more moments like that in the days to come.
He loves to eat, well, basically anything. His favorites are abuelo's beans, aguacate, and picking up pieces of cheese with what his abu call's "el pincel" (the pincher). I think he could eat cheese all day long. We've enjoyed the days immensely... going to the pool, the zoo and just lounging around. I'm so blessed in that he loves to just cruise around.
The other day I just got emotional putting him to bed. I can't believe he's actually here! I thank God each day for the decision his birth mother made. I can't imagine having to make a decision like that and yet her unselfishness blessed our family beyond measure. One day I pray to be able to have the opportunity to truly thank her face to face. Until then, I'm praying to be the best mom I can. xoxo

Hola familia! Algunos de ustedes me pidieron que escribiera en espanol... ahora saben porque no lo hecho. Mi espanol no esta tan bien como debe de ser... perdon! Pues aqui tienen otra foto del bebe bello. Que bendicion es! La semana pasada tomo sus primeros pasos... 5 corriendo con su papa mirando (su papa si lo estaba aguantando por atraz pero sin presion). Ahora tenemos una camera de video para filmar lo todo. Tambien le encanta a comer! Ahora sus platos favoritos son los frigoles de su abuelo, aguacate y le encanta el queso. Creo que comera queso todo el dia si pudiera!
En estos dias nadamas que lo estamos difrutando. Es un bebe bello y bueno... todo los dias damos gracias por el. Carinos y besos.

Well everyone, sorry it's been so long, but we are finally settling at home. I've been blessed beyond measure to be able to stay here with Joshua and we've had so much fun! We've been able to go on "tour" and visit many of you since we've been back. Don't worry, we haven't finished yet! Here are some pics of the little one now. He's practically running with his walker and already standing in his crib. Josh is already 8 months old and quite the active little one. We miss all of our friends from Hotel Paris and hope everyone is doing well. Please keep in touch with us! We love you all so much and are so thankful that we have you in our lives! xoxo

It's confirmed, at this time tomorrow, we'll be home!
It seems surreal to us. Seriously... all of our bags are packed, we said goodbye and thank you to our support team here and so, we're ready to bring Josh home. God really is good... He's not just good, He's AMAZING! When our representative called us on Tuesday (she's a tough cookie, but takes a firm stance in saying that she "doesn't pray.") she said to us, "How do you pray because your prayer works!" We asked why. Well, after she told us that we got sentencia, she also told us that effective this past Thursday all of the courts in Colombia would be on strike. Well, we rushed to get our paperwork and with a small glitch, we were finally able to get it all done today. The sad part is that our rep was right... Thursday the strike began. No one knows how long the strike will be... it could be days, weeks, months. The court workers are striking because in two weeks the country will have elections and they want higher wages. The families here are pretty devastated to say the least. One of our close friends here got sentencia on Wednesday and went on Thursday to sign and the courts were closed. Then we met a few couples today at the embassy who had only been here 3 1/2 weeks and finished all of their paperwork. It's just amazing how each process varies. I did tell our rep that we really loved everything about CRAN. Our child was taken care of so well... his medical history is amazing and you can tell they love the kids so much. It would be so sad for us not to be able to come back because we can't swing another long stay. Hey, I believe the Lord's been in this process all along. He wanted us to be here at this time and He meant for Josh to be ours. We will always look back at our stay with fond memories. The people you meet... it's amazing. You form bonds that you will never know with other people because basically we all lived together for 7 weeks. It's very special. For anyone reading this considering adopting from Colombia I would say... it's all about trust. You have to trust that the Lord has it all under control and he's going to protect you and walk you through it. There will be days that you'll doubt, but everytime you see your child's face... you'll know. It was all worth it.

SENTENCIA!!!! YAY!!!

Thank you so much for your prayers everyone... God is good and we're coming home! We received word yesterday that the final court signed our papers and Frank went late in the afternoon to sign the paperwork. He came back with quite a story to tell. It seems that the court system here in Colombia is still a bit antequated. None of the papers are backed up electronically and all of the documents he signed at carbon paper copies. When Frank and the driver examined all of the paperwork, they saw that the defensora hadn't signed the document... in true Frank style, he started to panic a bit, but no worries, the Lord took care of it all! They were able to find her and she signed it right there. So, today Frank left this morning to go obtain Joshua's original birth certificate and soon we'll go get his passport. This afternoon we're scheduled to meet with the Embassy Doctor and if all goes well, tomorrow we can get his visa to leave the country and go home!

Lord willing, we will arrive in Miami on Saturday evening. God is good, just in time for Mother's Day! Honestly, that was my selfish prayer all week and my awesome God granted it. Mother's Days have been rough for me the past couple of years without my Mom and I'm so exicted to see new meaning in them. I don't even think it was so much about the fact that I wasn't a "Mom", but more about the fact that it's always been a day of family and now I can rejoice that the Lord has brought yet another member into ours.

Thank you all for your prayers, your love and your support. Frankie and I were saying that we SO COULD NOT have done this without you all. We felt the love coming from everywhere and we know Josh was meant to be in our family. He will always know how much love awaits him... for that, we are eternally gratefull! xoxo