In the Same Timezone

I just had a chance to read Hope's last blog. This blog has been her project but now I must add something. Barry and I are in the Beautiful Country of Aruba on a trip he earned through work. For those of you who may not know it is 15 miles off the coast of South America. Last night we were sitting on the beach. I commented that we have 6 children (three not yet home from Colombia). Four are in the same time zone with us-our son in college in Florida and the three we are to adopt. And two are 4 time zones behind us-our daughters Hope and Beau. We have had a wonderful time here and it has given us time to talk about what is ahead. We have had a LOT going on and it has been a winding road as all of you adopting understand. We had a set back with a home addition we had planned just hours before getting on the plane for this trip. We had to undo plans we had made in our mind and rethink a few things. At first we were disappointed, then relieved that God is watching out for us. And in the end we stuck with our favorite motto: ATTITUDE is EVERYTHING. Our kids have heard this a million times. We now feel we have a plan to make our home stretch a little until we can revisit the addition idea next spring. We are even quite excited about it.

Now we are waiting for our psych eval. to be finished and our I171 to arrive (hopefully with no snags or hold ups). Julie emailed us three weeks ago about a group of three. The oldest is a girl who is 8, the next is a girl who is 6 1/2 and the youngest is a boy who is 4 1/2. She only knows they are from the Florencia area. CHI has not heard anything else in three weeks, only that more information is coming. I can't help but wonder if that is because we are still finishing our last bit of paperwork. God is in control of the timing of our adoption. I feel so confident in that. So things are moving well and we can't wait to meet our new babies. I have been praying daily for these children. If they are meant to be ours the we say YES and if not then I ask God to please bring them their forever family quickly. I feel so honored to partner with Barry and parent more children. I love them so much already. As a couple WE feel honored that the Lord would allow us to bring more children into our home. God knows their names and He has more invested in these young lives than we do. He is watching over them.

It has been so nice to see all the Colombian referrals and to follow along with the families that are traveling. I am also standing in faith for those families that are on the Vietnam waiting list. I have a dear friend I met through CHI who has been waiting for over 600 days. She has amazing grace and maturity. Meeting her is a highlight of my adoption process. Please pray for this CHI program and these families as these are unsure times for all of them.

One more thing. Aruba is the nicest tropical place I have ever been. The people are amazing and it is so lovely everywhere you look. Many tropical places are nice in the tourist areas but just beyond the native people are suffering. I have a very hard time tuning this out when I travel. (Maybe that is a good thing.) It is not the case here. The economy seems to be good for everyone. It helps a compassionate person like me to "check out" and relax.
Jan

Soon!!

We are still waiting but things are going great! we recieved news that there a few kids in Florencia, Columbia. There are two girls and one boy. We don't know the details, or if they are even our kids but it's still exciting to realize how close we are! That's about all that's going on but i thought i'd update you on it. I also just had high school qualifying exams at school but that's really not that exciting and it really has nothing to do with the adoption. But i still thought it was ridiculous that they expected me to explain the digestive system of a fish!! Ridiculous!! well that's all
Hope

More Waiting

More Waiting
I don't have to tell anyone who has also walked the way of adoption paperwork about waiting. It is long and out of our control sometimes. But it is OK. We have much to do to prepare so the waiting isn't so bad. Our homestudy is due any day. Barry's birth certificate is out there somewhere--we hope. Our psych eval is in the works and then we need to put our photo pages together. It is really warm here. Well 30ish feels really warm! Our yard looks like slushy has been spilled everywhere. Last Saturday we went to the Iditorad. It was so much fun and now we are tracking how the mushers and dogs are doing. I will post a picture or two soon. Hope has had trouble with a migraine all week. Doing better but behind with her work. Positng a picture of my best pal Gunthar. He is waiting too-can't you tell.
Jan

Colombian Friends

Hello! On Wednesday we had a great opportunity!! We got to meet Mom's friend Genace (they met through the Colombia prayer group) who recently adopted 3 kids from Columbia ( i mean like in December, that's how recent she adopted them). Anyway we met at Dairyqueen and had so much fun. First was Genace's biological daughter Marissa, she's 10 and then there's Fabien, 10, Karen,7, and Luis, 1. They were so cute and we had so much fun. We played in the play house(which i'm way to big for but that's ok :) ) It was fun to talk in Spanish to them ( not very much, i'm only in Spanish 2) but anyway we had a great time. I can't wait!! I want a little brother so bad.

hope

More Paperwork

Today we got a rough draft of our updated homestudy! And I ordered new "pen in hand" birth certificates for Barry and I since the ones we submited a month ago got eaten by some monster at a very official office in Georgia. Just need to get our psych report done, and request a change in our I171 H and then we are about done. The turn around at the Alaska USCIS office is quite fast and as soon as we submit everything it should come back in about a week. Yes! I just really don't like that dossier list. Hate is a strong word so I won't use that one.

We got a BIG dump of snow today. I welcomed it as we have not had a lot of snow and it has been too cold to enjoy what we had. It is warmer now and fun to play in. Beau and I and 4 of her friends went swimming. And Barry took them all out in the snow to play on the 4 wheeler. Hope went to Fairbanks. Ended up getting to fly first class. Told us she prefers coach as it is just a bunch of old people drinking too much alcohol. Amazing insight. And Zac and Mandy are plugging along with the semester. They are working hard on shcool, planning a wedding, working parttime jobs. I pray God gives them strength for the journey. I have enjoyed reading blogs of a few families I like to follow today. Nice to see things move along.
Jan

Paper Chase

Each day that I am not working and after I get everyone out the door I look over the dossier list and see what I might get done. Today I tried to track down the birth certificates that I sent to Georgia a month ago. I needed to get them exchanged for a "pen in hand" copy as the first ones where returned to me by the apostille office and rejected. The office that issued them had instructed me to send them back and they would send me new ones. Thinking I would save time I included an envelope and all necessary items to the office that would handle the apostille. After a very long phone call they finally decided that they are lost. So I will start all over. Now I know I am not the first one to go through this type of paper chase. I didn't even bother getting worked up about it. I do envy those of you that can drive over to the capital and get all your paper work handled. Even if it was all going to Alaska I would still be dependent on mail. Juneau is like 1000 miles away (really) and only accessible by plane! We are almost done though. I also went to Beau's school and took pictures for the kids photo pages as this will be their school when we bring them home. Of course everthing is snowy--but beautiful. The stafff there is very supportive. Tomorrow I will order new birth certificates and try again.
Jan

God is Amazing

This is Hope's mom, Jan. And she is correct that she has tried to get us to consider adopting for years. Amazing how God works. We never really thought about it much until a little over a year ago. We admit now we can look back and see that God has been preparing us for this for many years. Now I can hardly wait to wrap my arms around my new children. My husband has turned into a sap as he tears up nearly everytime we talk about them.
The most amazing thing is the neat people I have met. The staff at CHI have been so warm and helpful. I have found a great friend in Melanie from Tennessee who is waitng, waiting, waiting for a referral from Vietnam. We are from Tennessee and her neck of the woods. Small world! I really needed a southern girl hook up. Our family originally was on the list for Vietnam but realized rather quickly that one child would never due ,so after seeking God and good counsel, we switched to the Columbia program. Now we are reaching the end of our dossier work. Just a few more things to go and it will be off to Julie and the staff at the Oregon office.
And recenlty I started peeking in the Monday night prayer group for Columbia only to find a family that just came home in December with three children that live very near us here in Alaska. It was so encouraging. I am blessed as all God has already done.
I am so proud of my family so this blog will include a lot if pictures of them.