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

OK, what's new? I guess from us, not much. We are just hanging out, waiting for that all important phone call, which we hope will come early this week. We've tried to keep ourselves busy the last few days. On Saturday we went back to Andres Carne de Res to enjoy a celebration with our friends (who received sentencia this past week). Man, that place definately gets kicking over the weekend. Yesterday we took an outing to La Fontana craft fair (which we've been to many times, but we just wanted to take a nice stroll) and of course, our new favorite supermarket, Carulla. Today we may take a short outing to a nice souvenier shop closeby called Maku. We want to wish Grandpa Ed and Aunt Susie a very happy belated birthday... we so wish we could be there with you to celebrate!
Other than that, there's not much to tell. I wanted to share with you all about our friends back home, the Molina Family. Their baby, Samuel was born Thursday last week and he passed away from a very rare condition that affects the baby's brain. We just wanted to ask all of our family and friends to please pray for them. Jorge Molina is the middle school youth pastor at our church and his wife Jessica and daughter Gabby are so wonderful. They truly love the Lord and their family knew this journey would be hard, but your prayers would mean so much to them. It's hard for us to rejoice in Joshua's homecoming, knowing also that our friends are mourning the loss of Samuel at the same time. We can't pretend to understand why the Lord would allow baby Samuel to go home so soon, but we know God is still in control. I believe that baby Samuel witnessed to so many just in the time he was allowed to be here with his family. We love you all and join with you in praying for the Molina family. If you'd like to send the Molina Family a loving, encouraging note, please log onto the following website:
http://www.frank.nu/samuel.html
We love you all and as always, thank God for you!

Josh's Girlfriend Ally is Going Home!!!!

Our friends Becky and Scott got word today that the got Sentencia so, baby Ally is going home. Josh is already sad :( but, we are so happy for them! We have a joke that baby Ally and Josh have an arranged marriage... of course, Ally is such a cutie we think she'll definately have many choices! She also loves Frank... always smiles for him. We're going to miss them and Gloria so much! (Just like we miss Kelly and Mike) but we hope we're not too far behind. We were talking today about how cool it is to be here with all these families... you really form some awesome bonds. It's like being in college again, only everyone's much more mature and of course, there are children everywhere! We know that the bonds we've formed with our many friends here is everlasting. That is definately a plus to the long wait here in Bogota. I truly recommend Hotel Paris to any family who would adopt in Bogota in the future. They take such good care of you and help to foster lasting friendships with people all around the world.

So, yesterday I posted that Josh got his shots. He had a really good night, only woke up once and only had a slight fever. Today we've stayed in the Hotel lounging around and although he's been a little crabby, he's still been a trooper. We are hoping to go back to Andres Carne de Res this weekend to celebrate Gloria, Becky and Scott's sentencias... and of course, our upcoming one soon too. Lots of love to you all...we so cannot wait to hug you all in person!

Yesterday We Celebrated our 6 Month Birthdays!

This is a picture of Joshua and his best buddy, Zachary. They BOTH celebrated their 6 month birthdays yesterday. It's pretty amazing, but both Zach and Josh were born on November 3rd, 2005. Zach's mom, Gloria is one of our good friends (Remember she's the one who's been here 8 weeks). Well, to celebrate we took the babies to Crepes and Waffles yesterday. We (the parents) had some yummy ice cream (like our representative, Edith said, "Any excuse to go to Crepes and Waffles!") Praise report... this morning Gloria got a call to let her know that she got Sentencia, finally! She was so sweet, she cried. So, we are so happy for her. We also got some great news... we are now in the last court, which means that at most we have 10 business days left. (That's if they take all 10, they may not) So, praise God the process is moving.

Today Josh got his 6 month vaccinations. He was such a trooper! He cried a little at first, but then calmed right down. I admit it was pretty emotional for me and Frank cried more than Josh did! (It was so sweet!) So, we are giving Josh Baby Tylenol per the doctor's orders every 6 hours to prevent a reaction or fever. He's doing awesome so far. Nothing out of the ordinary and he's still on schedule. The doctor said he was very long and strong. She is very nice and makes house calls so, we see her here quite a lot for all of the babies. We're going to hang out here at the hotel for the next few days, just rest and relax.

So, all in all.. great news to report. There have been many families that have arrived here within the last week or so, so it's been great to see new faces around here. (Not that we're tired of the old ones!) So now we have families here from Wisconsin, Michigan, Chicago, North Carolina, Finland and oh yeah, Miami! Well, Josh sends his love to all of you. We've been showing him pics of all of you so that he'll recognize everyone when we get home.

He's so blessed to have a load of family and friends waiting to hug and kiss him and WE are truly blessed to know and love you all!

Lunch Time!

We are experimenting more and more with Josh's food. He now eats avocados, squash and bananas regularly, either mashed or liquified in the blender. As you can see from this picture, my hand is still needing some steadiness. Josh is very good about not moving too much and I'm definately getting better. This is one of the older photos. After this butternut squash incident, I had to wash the onesi to rid it of all the orange blotches. hee, hee.

Well, again, not much to tell. Both Sunday and yesterday we went again to the craft fairs. Yesterday was a holiday here in Colombia (our equivalent to Labor Day) so, many people were off, including the courts! Ay, ay, ay! The cool thing about Sundays and holidays is that in Bogota, there is Ciclovia. Ciclovia means that half of the main streets are closed and people walk or ride their bikes down the street. It works that way from 7am until 2pm in the afternoon. That is so nice for us pedestrians as we get to walk down the street and not worry about the uneven, unfinished sidewalks!

Today we went to a nice Thai restaurant for lunch called WOK. It was so nice and guess what? They have sushi! Frank had a spicy tuna roll and I decided to just have a Pad Thai dish. But we'll definately be back for more sushi.

Let's see.... what else can I tell? Oh, we seem to still be in the second court, but we're hoping to move to the third court by the beginning of next week so, from there it could be at most 10 days plus the few days we need to get the visa, see the embassy doctor, etc.

Again, we miss you all so much. Can't wait to get home!

XOXO