BEAUTIFUL WORDS FROM A FRIEND!!!

Our Floridian friend Chrystal had sent us this lovely card a few weeks ago, we just love how the verse on the card reflects our journey's "exact theme." How wonderfully appropriate!

Thanks Chrystal!!!

Cool Slideshows

GUESS WHAT FOLKS??? IT'S OFFICIAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TODAY WE RECEIVED OUR LONG AWAITED FOR "OFFICIAL MATCH/REFERRAL LETTER" INFORMING US THAT THE ICBF COMMITTEE OFFICIALLY APPROVED US FOR THE ADOPTION OF CATALINA, PATRICIA & DANIELA!!!

WE ARE LITERALLY BESIDE OURSELVES RIGHT NOW, WALKING ON AIR AND PINCHING OURSELVES, NOT BELIEVING THAT IT FINALLY HAPPENED AND IT IS REALLY TRUE - NO LONGER A VERBAL THING, BUT OFFICIALLY TANGIBLE ON PAPER, WE CAN SEE IT WITH OUR OWN EYES AND WE CAN ACTUALLY HOLD IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GOD IS SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*** All we have to do next is send back an "Official Acceptance letter" for the referral and request an "Official Travel Date," our daughters will then receive our gifts and photo albums and the Psychologists & Social Workers will start preparing our girls for the adoption and for our arrival! We are excited, thrilled beyond words, scared to death, etc., etc., etc.! :>)

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease continue to hold us in your prayers, that we will be guided in all wisdom until the very end of this process and that very soon, our precious children will be in our arms forever!!!

Thank you so much for being there for us during this journey!

Love,
Sharon & Michael

THIS WILL BE OUR "FIRST HOME" WITH OUR DAUGHTERS!!!

We are STILL waiting for the final letter of approval and the travel date, but yesterday, we already received information about the hotel we will be calling home (anywhere from 3 to hopefully, no longer than 6 weeks), during our stay in Medellin Colombia. It is a beautiful hotel (The Intercontinental), in a nice safe area, with a pool and activities to keep the kids VERY busy :>) They put together an "extended stay" package with "great rates" for adoption families and with us adopting 3 school-age children at the same time, all we can say is: "THANK GOD FOR SPECIAL RATES!" :>)

Here are some great photos of where our "first home" with our daughters will be:
Check out the beautiful mountains on the background!
Hopefully, this great pool and outdoors will be a blessing for "first-time parents" of 3 children! :>)
Beautiful restaurant!
Looking forward to the yummy breakfast buffet of Colombian goodies - hey, at least the kids will think we are good cooks! :>)

IF THE EYES ARE INDEED THE WINDOWS TO THE SOUL.....

.....THEN WE HOPE THAT VERY SOON THESE WINDOWS WILL OPEN UP TO ONLY SEE TRUE JOY & UNCONDITIONAL LOVE!!!

*** The ticker above means that we are praying and counting the days, hoping that we will all be together as a "Forever Family" before/by 3/29/07 (the 1 year anniversary of when we "officially" started the process to adopt our daughters)!!!

OK, for those of you who are still faithfully asking and are not "sick & tired" yet :>) here it goes: we know our journey of almost 1 year has been more like, no let's be honest: it's been a REAL emotional roller-coaster of very raw nerves & lots of uncertainty, but we are staying positive and holding on to faith, believing the phone call we received on 12/21/06, that indeed we were approved. However, we CAN NOT wait to FINALLY receive the long awaited "Official Match" letter for the girls from the ICBF's Medellin regional office. Last week we received the "Official Approval" letter to adopt, from the main ICBF office in Bogotta, but it is general (no specific children). What we were told by our agency, is that due to the ICBF's long holiday break, most of the staff were only going to be back by this week, therefore, if all goes according to plan, on 1/18 (yes, this coming Thursday), the Committee in charge of the final signature required for the girls case, will sign off to finalize our approval (which supposedly already happened, but it's just a matter of bureaucracy and closing up some legal ends). Then, we are supposed to receive the long awaited "specific" letter referring our girls to us approximately a week after the 18Th (we're calculating by 1/26). Then, after we let them know we accept the referral - "DUHH", our girls will finally be given the 3 huge photo albums with lots of stickers that we prepared for them & the 3 care-packages filled with all kinds of goodies we sent to them. Then, the ICBF requires at least 3 weeks to finalize the psychological transition/preparation of the children. Then, we should be given our long anticipated "Travel Date" for anytime after that. Based on our Case-Managers calculations, we will probably be given a travel date for the end of February/beginning of March!

As we reflect on how emotionally charged (may we dare even say: unpredictable) our experience has been, we are praying for strength to stay 100% positive and hold on to the faith that this is true, it is really going to happen and it is almost over. If indeed it's the Lord's will for all involved, it will soon be completed.
In the meantime, we are keeping busy with all the preparations to welcome our daughters into our home/their home and trying REALLY hard to not let our minds wonder about the "What If's" or any "unexpected surprises"!

*** Thanks for putting up with us during this process of now almost 1 year and as you can see, we still need all your prayers: YES, BIG TIME!!! :>)
We definitely owe a lot of people A LOT of favors!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHA

IN CASE YOU FORGOT, HERE'S WHAT OUR FAMILY IS GONNA LOOK LIKE!!! :>)

THESE 3 LITTLE GIRLS ARE STARTING TO WONDER WHAT ALL THE FUSS IN THE HOUSE IS ABOUT???

Ok Mom & Dad, as your eldest "Dog-ter" & faithful companion of almost 9 years, I've been wondering, this doesn't mean you're gonna forget about me are ya???

I hope this doesn't mean I won't be the baby anymore - I'm just "way" too cute to lose my spot right???

Hey, maybe I should look at the bright side, Mom & Dad will be so busy that it'll be harder to notice when I steal, OOPS I meant "BORROW" a little food from my sisters bowls!!! :>)

Hmmm, maybe this isn't a bad thing afterall, we'll get 3 more "Play-buddies" to run around with in the backyard, hopefully this now means that I will be able to chase my beloved frisbee all day long!!!

This probably also means that we'll have more cuddly ones to snuggle with - maybe when Mom & Dad are asleep, we can even sneak upstairs and all share a bed with our sisters - yeppee, we love this idea!!!

Ok, Ok, we guess that this whole commotion and preparation for the arrival of our three "Human Sisters" is fine with us, we're ready and waiting for them to arrive, so we can share our favorite toys and bones with them - Woof, Woof!!! :>)