Better Get Ready for Colombia

Psalm 40:1  – I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry.

Dec 28 – Finally called my husband.  He got the phone call from the agency while driving back to Maine with his mom.  I asked him if he safely stayed on the highway when he realized he was a dad one more time.  Pretty cool moment to share with his mom. We finally saw each other about 8 pm that night.  We cried, we laughed, we celebrated.  Ironic how the Lord’s timing is not ours.  And how PERFECT it is.

Dec 29 – Talked with the social worker.  Got the very basic information. Started filling out paperwork to renew I600 and our home study.  Went to the bank, picked up the check.

Dec 29 – MAD DASH around Boston

• Notarized docs from work
• Notarized docs from doctors office
• Tried to track down 258 fingerprint card that didn’t have to be mailed
• Drove to the FBI office in Boston – picked up cards from a FABULOUS agent (must be a father!!)
• Drove to the Boston PD – got fingerprints
• Drove to the USPS – tried to overnight to HQ; told it wouldn’t arrive til Dec 31; didn’t matter!
• Drove to Logan to fly to Ohio to celebrate my sister’s newest daughter’s adoption
• Did I mention we gave the AMAZING race a WHOLE new name and that we live more than an hour from Boston???!!!

Dec 30

• Legal proceedings in Ohio for my sister’s daughter’s adoption finalization – welcome baby Lydia Jane (6 months old – domestic).  This would have been a wonderful, albeit hard, experience for us as we waited…Yet it was JOYFUL and fabulous b/c we knew Baby A would be going through the court process with us soon enough!  What an amazing discussion – Lydia is lucky to have a great family to play and learn and love with.  Can you hear the Lord chuckling??!!

Dec 31

• The most wonderful new years celebration with my family; waiting for Laura, marveling at the Lord’s sense of humor; loving on Lydia.

Jan 3

• Best friend arrives at house to help me clean out what is forever known as Laura’s room; reorganize and get ready!!!  Can someone come haul all of these things we collected over the years out of my garage!!!

Jan 4

• Painter arrives – gorgeous pale orange color in baby’s room!
• Receive official referral with medical information – translated from Spanish
• Find international adoption pediatrician to review referral – send to her for review

Jan 5

• New social worker comes to see us; do home study update – she is WONDERFUL.  Finally.  But now is NOT the time to share how awful many of the social workers have been through the last 5 years and that we are on social worker 52.  okay maybe a slight exaggeration.  slight.
• Logistics and communication call with agency.  Review everything we should be thinking about; learn about birth mom, situation, travel, possibilities, scariness, possibilities…
• Accept Laura’s referral – January 5, 2010 – MILESTONE!!!

Jan 6

• Notarized doc from Jim’s dr. comes in

Jan 7

• Visit to international pediatrician in Wellesley.  FABULOUS doctor.  Explains a ton.  Reminds us to get our HEP A shots.

Jan 8

• We learn more of Laura’s story.  We ask the kids what we should change Laura’s middle name to – want to give her the gift of her birth mom’s names….they choose….life.  Our newest family member’s name means “To wear the victorious crown of life”.  I hear the harps, i see the dancing…i feel His presence.  God has provided us Laura Zoila.  What an honor to parent another of His children.
• Jim and I shop together for the first time…AJ Wrights is going out of business.  He was so funny – he picked the clothes out.  He marveled at the # of little girl items that are available.  He tried to pick out little boy blue and green things for Laura.  Hee Hee Hee.  We bought a few outfits for Baby A and some storage seats for the toys (in orange!!)
• A friend brings a beautiful white crib for us to have…the husbands’ take an hour and a half to put it together while us  moms play downstairs; she tells me about sittercity.com – great resource for nannies! — Baby A’s room is starting to look worthy!  Did I mention I’m crying??!!!

Jan 10

• Sent passport photos in and passport #s – maybe we’ll get a travel date soon!?

Jan 12

• Supposed to have the baby shower today.  Mother nature dumped two feet of snow on us instead.  It forced us to slow down.  Shower is on for tomorrow night!
• Checking email….late at night….they are saying we no longer have to wait for the FBI fingerprints to come back…(if only I knew this the mad dash day in December!!) – but local police dept letter will suffice. Jim will call for letter(s); one for each of us and then get them notarized.  Hep A shots tomorrow too…For every obstacle that is in front of us, there is a hurtle that disappears, too.

Jan 13

• Isiah 40:31 Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.
• Shower Day!  What an amazing group of female friends I have.
• I truly am blessed.  They ‘showered’ Laura with wonderful treasures…she will be a well dressed little girl!  It was overwhelming.  I made it to almost the end before I cried…not sure if it was Heather or my mom’s present.  For all of you women out there…having a gaggle of female friends is a gift.  They cry with you, the celebrate with you, they pass on loving advice.
• The best part is…when I’m in Colombia, I can stretch out my questions across the crew via email…(and even redirect if I don’t like an answer!!) Ha!!
• And now for the rest of you to cry.  Here’s a God Thing…….
• My mom had purchased a present for Baby A when we first started our parenting journey.  Our first pregnancy test was on our one year wedding anniversary (2005).  So, my mom had this present that she bought in April of that year.  It’s been in a box under her bed since then.  Hello….that is FIVE YEARS!!!!  And if the Lord wasn’t still chuckling at us…it was April.  My mom was right with the month.  She was simply five years to early.  Laura was born April 10, 2010. Many of you will appreciate this.  What was in the box?  Someone who waits on us.  Is there for us. Jesus has been with Baby Laura this whole time.  He’s been with us.  He’s been under my mom’s bed…bringing patience to our family.  My mom had purchased a Jesus doll (about 3 feet tall) for Laura.
• 

Eccl 3:4  A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; (KJV)

Another Day…

• Kind of a mad dash day.  Police dept pick up; husband’s Hep A & tetanus, whooping cough, typhoid and something else.  Call with Colombia to see if we can travel earlier than anticipated; carpet cleaners coming for Laura’s room and hallway; then off to Boston for apostilling (is that a word!?) – we can only take 3 docs each and wait for them.  Then drs. appt for me; then dinner party to celebrate the Pastor’s birthday.  All of this adrenalin is coming in very handy!!!
• Ps 98:4  Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.

And more…

• I think I made a few noises yesterday – they started off joyful and then trumpeted to something of a high pitched screech much akin to a fisher cat.  What’s worth sharing is that when we finally got Jake packed into the car to return to college with my parents (thank GOD!!! for grandparents), we headed to the bank.  Check in hand – easy.  Order for colombian pesos – #$&(*@.  I’ll try again next week.  Made it to downtown Boston trying to locate Ashburton place for apostille queue.  $22 parking for 45 minutes…construction blocking the entire back side of the building.  Ice and snow glaciers preventing line of sight to the door.  Make it to the 17th floor.   Queue.  Am told our notaries did their jobs wrong and they would not take our documents.  They sent my husband on a journey through the city to find a new notary who was competent with the new rules.  the lady at the desk didn’t know what to do with me when i started crying.  she finally stamped my papers…gave me instructions to give to the notary…like that will happen; seriously.  i think the moment my husband went to the lobby, to the streets, back to the 17th floor, back to the queue, back to the cashier, back to the queue, back to the lobby, through the glaciers, to the car, to the 1.5 hours of city traffic to wide horizons to drop off everything, then another 1.5 hours to get me to my appt 15 minutes late may have been a small breaking point.  what could i do but cry?  still had one more stop to make before 16 people came over to celebrate our pastor’s birthday.  oh…small detail, we were hosting.  made it to the appt, picked up the dinner at il forno  – a lasagna fit for 50 people – got home to make the sangria as people started arriving.  ….adrenalin and colombian sangria is a very good thing 🙂
• Now for those of you who are reading this that are part of the 16…we love you.  we couldn’t think of more wonderful Godly people to be surrounded with; and what an honor to celebrate Neal’s birthday together!  Jim was asleep by 9:22 pm.
• Baby Laura we are coming!!!  We are GO for travel!

January 18

• Appointment day at Colombia Consulate in Boston for Visas.  Hoping it all goes smoothly and I have everything printed and filled out correctly; copies of referral letter in Spanish, copies of passport main and used pages, copies of letter asking for expedited process, 3 passport photos each (worried about Jim’s b/c we took it on white background and it looks gray to me) plus the application form says 3 cm, no inches.  Hmmm….planning to give myself 2 hours to get there.  With yesterday’s snow and ice storm who knows what the traffic may look like.  Here we go!

January 19

• So, the roads were clear.  Traffic didn’t start until just outside 128.  Took me 1 1/2 hours during which time I practiced my spanish…. “Hablo castellerno un poco.  Entiendo castellerno un poco. Soy la senora Abraham. Soy de norte americana.”  Love the Pimsleur!!  Parked across the street from the consulate for $8/hr.  Deal!  That’s where the good news ends.
• Didn‘t have the husband, didn‘t have two sets of documents for each of us.  Didn‘t have the spanish letter notarized and apostilled.  The photos were good however!  My lovely husband asked me what I was paying the agency for since they were the ones who told me what to bring.  I’m wondering who I can send my bill to?  Gas & toll money, non-working time from my job, pain and suffering.  Ooh…I would like to institute a credit plan.  Something like every time our agency goofs up, I get a credit.  The way this works, I may make money.  But I digress…husband has an appointment Monday.  She doesn’t need to see me again.  YAY!  Poor guy….not only will he have to leave at the crack of dawn Monday morning to brave Boston traffic, but he has to take two docs to be apostilled first in one part of town then scurry across town to the consulate for a 10 am appt.  Not sure I mentioned we are 60+miles from Boston.  On a good day it takes 90 minutes to get there.  On a bad day it takes more than 2 hours one way.  Honey…I love YOU!  Baby Laura LOVES her daddy!!

January 24

• So…it was a bad day getting into Boston.  Due to the sub zero temperatures, the buses and trains were late so more people drove.  A new record.  2 1/2 hours into the city.  To say my lovely husband was ripped may be an understatement.  He finally arrives in front of the apostille office, where a kind sign reads “Drop off Only”.  As any intelligent person would do, he filled in the blank.  So, he parked… for $55.  I think the traffic cop may have seen a bluebird.  It only gets better.   He races across town to the Consulate.  He parks.  He makes it to the window at 10:01 am.  They finally call him at 10:15.  Half way into the appointment there’s a snag.  A loud one.  The fire alarm goes off in a ten story building in downtown Boston with ~5 degree temperatures outside.  Have I mentioned my husband doesn’t like to wear gloves, let alone a coat?  45 minutes later they are let back into the building.  The Colombia Consulate lady tells him it will take another 10.  About an hour later Jim is safely back in his car, paying $22 for parking and $8 for tolls 🙂 70 minute ride home.
• He shows me the visas.  We look like pudgy mug victims.  He tells me it’s parenting.  🙂

A pink shower complete with strawberry ice cream!

The crew at work threw a fabulous soiree…down to the pink ice cream.  It was overwhelming.  Babies truly bring out the best in people.  I now have the workings of a fabulous library, a little girl who will be beautiful in yellow, green, peach, green and turquoise.  And practical outfits that Baby Laura can wear to the gym with me!  A sweatsuit complete with little bunnies, a hot pink and lollipop stripe sweatsuit, too!  Between the smiles and practical advice folks were passing on, the amazing handmade quilt with Laura’s name embroidered on it and the gorgeous spring dresses she will be decked out in, Laura actually feels real.  Not just a photo and an idea.  But a little girl, our little girl!

John 14:18 ¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.