*** 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