Hello Again...

Sorry for the delay in my posting. While at youth camp, the week of June 21-25, I had a difficult time getting on the computer. Instead I used our new laptop to jot down my thoughts. I’ve since then tried to find that document so as to email it to myself and place it on my blog. Didn’t happen. Not on the new laptop…ugh!!! I was so frustrated. It was so good, so rich and deep…straight from my heart.

The main thing that came from my heart that week was the beauty of God’s love during worship. During one of the evening services, Bella asked me to “praise Jesus” with her. We sang, danced and loved on God together during praise. It was beautiful. When worship began she stood in front of me with my hands/arms overlaying her shoulders. I had my eyes closed as I was worshipping and I realized I no longer felt her little hands on top of mine. One of her hands had been moved. She had it raised to heaven. She was singing with all of her heart to Jesus. What a GLORIOUS moment!!! If that wasn’t enough, a few minutes later, while I was worshipping with my eyes closed, I felt a different hand take mine and he placed it around his waist…it was my Joshua. There I stood in the sweet presence of God with our Josh and Bella near me and WITH me. It was one of the best days of my life.

Since we’ve returned from youth camp, we’ve had many ups and downs. Sadly, more downs than ups. We spoke with our case worker the Wednesday of youth camp and we were given a list of final paper that needed to be completed. I don’t think we were prepared for doing that amount of paperwork. Had I known, I may have left camp early to begin the list. The list had to be done and QUICK! We came home and raced…through documents, through emails, through old files. Then to Kinko’s for faxing, copying and sending overnight mail. It was horrible. I thought last week would never end!! It was one of the hardest parts of the adoption journey so far. Mainly because I’m tired. My brain is tired. My emotions are on overload. I don’t feel like myself.

We ran into multiple problems with my visa. It’s a story I don’t care to repeat in full detail but here's the Reader’s Digest version...
Colombia wanted me to come into the country as a Colombian citizen since I was born there. However, to do that, you must have a “cedula”…a Colombian passport/ID card. As I DID fill out the paperwork in June of 2007 to get my dual citizenship, the process was not completed. We tried to take the paperwork to the government-run office while in Colombia (2 different times & locations) but they were closed. The Houston Consulate had to do some major research, along with our caseworker and Bruce to find that I don’t yet have dual citizenship and can enter Colombia as an American with a visitor’s visa to adopt. I can’t tell you how strenuous last week was for me and Bruce. I didn’t want to blog. I didn’t want anyone to know how fully confused and angry I was at some points.

BUT GOD…He works all things together for our good, doesn’t He?!! We found out TODAY that our visas are complete and should arrive to us either tomorrow or Monday. Nothing like waiting until the last minute to know that you can actually leave the country to get your baby!

With this news, I will close for now. Please know how much it means to me that you are reading this! Also know that we are grateful for your prayers and still need them desperately.

ONLY 4 MORE DAYS UNTIL WE DEPART!!!