Sentencia Finally!

Those of you who are wondering, "Sentencia" is our final adoption decree.  Yes, we are officially Michael's parents forever.  It became official March 14th at the courthouse with cake and coke to celebrate.  We heard word on Tuesday night that the judge was most likely going to sign the papers on Wednesday.  We were beyond excited and wanted to share the news with our family and friends as soon as the process was complete.  Our new judge was a very kind man and had his whole office stop to celebrate our adoption with us.  He is the only judge in the court system that celebrates with the families and we felt blessed to have gotten him for our second time around. 

With the final decree in hand, I was able to get Michael a new birth certificate, listing us as his parents and with his new given name.  It was icing on the cake to have the new birth certificate in hand.    Now we begin the process to leave Colombia. We have to get him a passport, visa, doctor's check, etc... We are hoping to have all of that completed and be home the weekend of March 24th.  Words can not express the joy we have in our hearts that this little boy is ours forever.  We thank you all so much for supporting us along the way.  The comments and emails encourage us a lot.  We hope all of you are doing well and we will keep you updated as we continue along.

Love,
Kristin, Matt, & Michael

Second Step Complete

So after a weekend of basketball watching, thanks to the internet, we received some good news.  Our paperwork is now in the third part of the court process and we are eagerly waiting for the adoption decree.  We are still not sure how soon that will be but once that is complete we can begin the process to get out of here :)  Don't get me wrong this has been a once in a lifetime/ life changing event for me but it will be nice to have the comforts of our own home again;  making our own meal schedule, not worrying about waking the family next door, less germs to avoid, more toys to keep Michael entertained,..you get the point. 

As I reflect back to my time here in Bogota, I wouldn't change a thing.  We have made some great friends, I've gotten to know my own country in a way I never had before, and most importantly we now have a son.  I am not sure when we will get back to explore this country again but I sure am glad we got to make this trip. 

God is so faithful, I never knew when I would be a Mom,but God's plan was greater than my own.  It's funny how right after Christmas we did everything we could to travel to meet Mikey and I know many of you are feeling the same joy as we get steps closer to bringing him to his forever home.  Below are a few pics of what he has been up to:

Michael low crawling!  He wanted to see what Mommy was up to.

 Yes, I am standing on my own. Just give me something to pull myself up with. 

 I am so proud of myself ;)

 Mom, stop with the pictures already.

 Love you all,

Kristin, Matt, & Mikey

     

ACC Champs!

SEMINOLES

Today was a good day in my book.  Our Seminoles won the ACC basketball tournament for the first time ever.  We were lucky enough to be able to watch it online.  For those of you who know Matt and I well, you know that we bleed Garnet and Gold ;) We definitely plan on passing that pride onto our son, lucky him :)  In other news, Mike survived his shots last Wednesday.  He actually only had one shot with six vaccines in it.  I was glad it was only one shot and his reaction was not too bad.  It upset his stomach but that was the worst of it, we are grateful for that.  I can now share with you that Michael is an avid crawler as well.  He is into everything and his favorite thing to do is try and stand.  

We got to Skype with Matt this weekend and that was our real highlight of our weekend.  His command has been very good with keeping up to date with Matt, about his "family" being stuck in Colombia.  We are very lucky they have been so understanding.  We heard last week that our paperwork has made it to the second part of the court process with three steps total.  We hope to hear more good news this week.  

I have faith that there is a "purpose" for us being here this long, we might not ever know what that is, but God's ways are greater than ours.  My brother mentioned admiring our perseverance.  The Bible has the following verse regarding that topic:

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. 

1 Corinthians 15:58

We never knew for sure if this was God's plan for our lives, but we had Faith that adoption was put into our hearts for a reason.  When I look at Michael I know that he was meant to be ours from the start.  God had a plan when he created him and he is now on "loan" to us to love and nurture. As Christians our paths won't always be easy but God will be by our side every step of the way.  Thank you for continually supporting us as we continue this journey.

Love,

The three of us :)

And not only [so], but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
Romans 5:3-4

Sunday Outing

So we did get out of the house this weekend and enjoyed lunch out on Sunday afternoon.  We have eaten at most of the popular restaurants here and decided to try our luck on a local Italian place.  We needed something different other than meat and potatoes.  I am always a little nervous taking Mike out to restaurants but we seem to go early enough to beat the crowd.  We were there for over two hours, no one is in a rush here, and Mikey did quite well.  All he got to eat were carrots but he loves looking at all the Chicas ;) 

After the restarant we headed to a vegetable market.  I even took some pictures to remind us of the variety of fruit here.  We have introduced Mike to bananas, avacado, and green beans.  We decided to start buying some fresh veggies due the lack of baby food variety here.  Most mothers prepare there own; we just don't always have free range in the kitchen.  Thankfully, Mike is not a picky eater.  He must get that from me ;)

We are actually going to the doctor today to get Mike's six month vaccines.  He needs to be up to date before we can leave the country.  Now that he is healthy again I am really dreading him getting the shots and hate to see him cry :(  But it has to be done before we can leave so I will get over it ;)  Below are also some pictures of Mike having fun at the park, enjoy :)

ARMY STAR!

 Yes, we are still in Colombia.

 Just missing Matt & the Dog!

Sending our love,
Kristin & Michael    

Court # One

So we got assigned a new court yesterday after over a week of waiting.  The best part is that the court has a very good reputation with adoptions!  We are so grateful that this court will hopefully be our ticket out of here this month.  We thank you all and ask that you continue to PRAY.  This journey has never been easy and we are still relying on our faith through the whole thing.  The judge of this court is known to like to celebrate with cake and coke on the day of the final adoption decree.  I will buy him three if he let's us leave ;) 

Other than that we haven't been up to anything new.  Michael was sick all last week with a cold so we never left the hotel.  It has actually been quite chilly here.  Today looks a little warmer so we will probably adventure out.  The hotel is full again with six families total staying here.  We miss the original crew we got here with but are keeping in touch via email with many of them.  It is interesting to me that none of the new families are American.  All of the families are from Europe.  I am not sure why that is but just interesting to say the least.  We hope all of you are doing well.

Love,
Kristin & Mikey        

New Toys

Hello Family & Friends,

We are still here patiently waiting for our documents to be sent back to court and I thought I would share a post of our life now.  We have had some new families arrive, both are from France.  One couple got a little girl who turned one today and the other couple will receive a 10 month old boy on Thursday.  They are both very nice but our only common language is Spanish, of which they know very little, so none of our conversations last too long ;)  Out of all the European couples we have met, the Italians have been the best with multiple languages.  One Italian family will return on Thursday with their three boys so the house will be full again.  Mikey was getting a little bored with his toys and the room so I wanted to share some new pics of him enjoying the new toys he got.  Granted toys over here are outrageous in price, so we found a store similar to Walmart to buy some.

He loves his stacking rings :)

 Yes I needed a mat to crawl on because the bed would no longer due!

 This is where we all sleep, you can see why we would like to go home ;)

We thank you for all your continue prayers and hope to have some new progress to report soon. 
Love, Kristin, Matt, & Michael

        

Court Update

Hello Family and Friends,

I wanted to inform you that we got to speak with the judge yesterday.  Our prayers were answered in that matter because she could have refused to see us.  She told us what the issue was with our paperwork.  ICBF put I was adopting as a Colombian and American but since I don't have my Colombian paperwork corrected yet (current name, passport, etc..) they should have only put American in the wording even if they gave me Colombian perference.  The Defendor of Minors was the one who actually didn't like the wording and persuaded the judge not to sign. We spoke with him also.  To make a long story short, ICBF has to correct that one paragraph and we should be good.  However since the judge already declined my paperwork in writing we have to go back into the lottery for a new court.

We are praying that it won't take long or that I might get the same court since they are familiar with our case.  We have other factors that might affect us but are not a problem as of right now. Please continue to pray for a smooth court process,  peace of mind on our behalf, and guidance & grace for those working on the procedures.  We hope to be here for less than another month.  Thank you all again for the prayers and support.

Kristin, Matt, & Mikey