Happy Father's Day......to me!

The posts may come quickly over the next few days...so I wanted to get this one out. Just like our 171-H, I really didn't this want to become outdated (adoption humor...hah hah).

In light of paperwork, pictures, and the knowledge that things are 99% certain, I celebrated my first unofficial father's day on Wednesday.

Here's where I reviewed our paperwork, my commerative glass filled with this, while Andrea had to work. Remember, as long as there is a waitress, you aren't drinking alone.

Lately so many things have happened that we had always hoped for....our first shower - Thanks so much to all the awesome people I work with!... painting our boys' room (no Doug...we are just painting over purple....not a tribute to Clemson), and the knowledge that this is REALLY happening.


Anyways....stay tuned kids for pictures, travel dates, airplane ticket drama, and more. The next 3 weeks will be crazy. Adoption has taken over...the breaks over.

What is up with this heat?

I have been reluctant to post for two main reasons: 1) we don't really have much to tell you and 2) I cannot put into words the ball of emotions I (Andrea) have been lately.

The Spanish version of the paperwork arrived on our doorstep this morning after much begging, pleading and insisting on my part to our agency. After three weeks of looking at the boys' pictures I couldn't take the not knowing anything else about them any more. Although we don't understand every word in the packet that came to us, it does help to have some idea of who they are. We will receive the translation later this week. After that, we hope to make our acceptance official and get our travel plans solidified as quickly as possible. In order to beat the clock, so to speak, and not have to update our homestudy, we really need to be in Colombia by mid-July at the very latest. The clock is really ticking since our I-171H expires August 25, 2008. Can we beat it? We shall see...

In other household news, our AC is broken in the middle of a heat wave. This is a very interesting study in temperaments. Want to know how well you love your spouse? Turn off your AC in the middle of 100 degree weather. It really isn't pretty! :)

And if all goes as planned "Auntie Camp" starts in one week, which is where our niece Liana comes down for a week and hangs out with us. She goes to Day Camp at my Y during the day and then we play all evening long, pass out around 9 PM and then get up and do it again for 5 days straight! It is pretty much the most awesome week of the year!

Hopefully our next post will be the official "acceptance" post complete with pictures of our handsome young hijos! We will keep you posted!

What we do know...

I feel like we have left our friends, family and fellow "stalkers" just hanging, and for that I apologize. As of right now, the boys' information is in translation (it arrived at our agency last week from Pereira). The translator is very backed up so it is taking a little longer than expected. After four years of waiting for parenthood, a few more days won't hurt us, so we aren't too bothered by this. Until we get the info and accept the referral though, we cannot post their picture. Trust me when I say that they will be heartbreakers one day...we are going to have girls calling our house at all hours of the day!

Here is what we do know: Carlos Samuel is 6 years old. Luis Angel and Daniel (just Daniel) are 4 year old twins. That is all we've got, but for now it is enough. Oh, for those that don't believe in the power of prayer, I have to tell you that when we were going through infertility treatments, I prayed for twins EVERYDAY, and now, we have twins. God answers prayer, maybe not in our timing, but he does answer prayer.

My mom came to visit this weekend and we got to go shopping for clothes for them. It was so much fun to share this excitement with her. Picking out t-shirts and shorts is more fun than I ever thought possible.

Wow! Boys...all boys! This is just too amazing for words.

Oh My Goodness...

OK, I was going to wait to post until we had a little more information, but I am bursting at the seams and I just can't keep it in. We got THE CALL today. The long awaited call. The one in which our case worker let me know that parenthood will not allude us for much longer. We don't have many details. We do know that we are the proud parents-to-be of 3 boys! We will post more information as it becomes available (which could be a few days).

Happy Birthday Preston!

Today is our goldfish Preston's 8th birhtday. I (Andrea) won him at a carnival 8 years ago today! Can you believe it?

Update...Sort of

First off, thank you to everyone who has responded with suggestions to our doggie-dilema! We know that this situation will work itself out. Hopefully we will be able to find a house sitter. From what we are hearing that seems to be the ideal solution.

Now, for a little bit of news. We got an email from Sarah (our caseworker) today. She wanted to give us what little news they have, and that news is that according to our program director, ICBF (Colombian child services) is waiting for a specific sibling group to be legally released for adoption to match them with us. Our agency doesn't have any information on them and won't have any until an actual referral is made.

Please pray for us. Troy and I are used to getting our hopes up and then having huge disappointments follow soon after. We have grown so accustomed to believing that parenthood is this very unattainable state of life for us. Most importantly though, please pray for these children. Every day that the legal process delays their release to be adopted it also prevents them from being in the care of parents who love them--those parents are hopefully us! Also, as these children wait to be released for adoption they are either in an orphanage or in foster care. Please keep them in your prayers as they go through major life changes that they can't possibly understand at such young ages.

We will keep all of you posted as we find out more information!

Calling All Dog Lovers...

Look at these sweet faces?


Sylvia, 2 years, 3 months


Baxter, 10 months

As we prepare our house and continue to fundraise, one detail about our impending trip becomes more and more abundantly clear... We desperately need some one (or a couple of some ones) to watch our dogs while we are in Colombia. The good news: they are really cool dogs, sweet, full of personality, completely house broken, crate trained, entertaining, and really cuddly. The less good news: we will be gone for about 4-5 weeks and they both weigh between 50-60 lbs. We aren't really sure that we can afford to board them for a month or more in addition to all of the other costs we are are incurring during that time, and we don't want to hire a pet sitting service because they will only come in and walk them a couple of times a day (anyone who knows our dogs knows that this will make them stir CRAZY). Any suggestions?