New Development

OK - the Chilean consulate is going to legalize the copies of the originals that I have here. PRAISE GOD! Now, is the matter of finding those missing documents. This could lead to identity theft for me, so please pray that these documents and that FedEx package are found still unopened and mailed back to the consulate!

Lost Documents

So, it's not just in Chile that documents get lost. They do in the US too!! YUP! We had our appointment with the adoption lawyer yesterday and realistically we could have our 2 "new" kids in the house by my birthday October 15th, BUT they NEED our marriage certificate!!!

I called the other day to find out where the consulate of Philadelphia was with this and they told me that they had drop shipped our documents and payment to the consulate in NY. I then called NY and ONLY because I had followed up they realized after over a week that the documents were drop shipped to FedEx, but that they never arrived in NY. SO, now where are we? They are still looking and they realize their error. The Chilean consulate is doing everything they can and I think heads are rolling at FedEx.

For now the lady that I spoke to in Phili may be able to help me with the scans that I have sent her via e-mail of copies of the certificate and the apostile. These are originals that we had from when we went to Costa Rica. Since they've seen and held the other originals, they may make a HUGE exception and legalize the e-mail scans and then mail me the legalization. Then when the legalization gets here, I'll attach it to the originals that I have.

PLEASE pray!!! This is not out of the hands of GOD! He knows exactly where our documents are! Pray for patience for us and that we can still adopt these two precious ones that are awaiting us in an orphanage.

Meeting

Today Doug and I meet with the lawyer of the adoption agency and the social worker, Nadia, about the paperwork we MUST have to continue this process. This will help clarify when we need what paperwork and how quickly we can get the children waiting for us.

PLEASE PRAY for our paperwork!! I found out yesterday that some of our paperwork had to be transferred from Philidelphia to New York. Pray that we can get it SOON and that maybe we can see photos of the kids that are waiting for us.

STILL PRAYING

The only new info from last week is that the children that they have waiting for us are still waiting and that we can't continue in the process - ie moving on in the 2nd step of the process or with fostering the children until we have more clarity on our paperwork. PLEASE KEEP PRAYING!!

Our marriage and birth certificates should be in the hands of the different Chilean consulates in the USA and so we are praying for a FAST turn around to get them back to my in-laws so that they can FED-EX them down here ASAP. Then we'll move on with the processing here.

It has been HARD not to get attached to the idea of these children! Who knows maybe God has other children for us. I just pray that God would lead and guide through it all.

As of now, we've made some changes in our home. We moved Doug's office into the maid's quarters to free up the larger "office" to use for the new kids. This will allow them to be on the first floor of the house for play and general activity during the day. Also hopefully we'll avoid the stairs issue for a little while anyway. We moved around Caleb and Hannah's rooms and changed their beds. Caleb now has a loft bed with a built in desk and Hannah has a HIGH bed that is SOOO comfortable, I want to sleep in it! I'll post pictures as we get things cleaned up from moving all around.

PRAY!!

Please pray!! On Monday during our meeting we were told about a set of children that fit what we qualify for (2 siblings under the age of 3) and even more, that are in many ways, answers to our prayers. We can't give details and even Caleb and Hannah don't know the details, like age and sex because we are waiting on government paperwork. Therefore we need prayer!!

1. Even though Doug and I have not seen any pictures and only know the age, sex and that they are healthy normal children, it is SO HARD to wait knowing that they are spending their days and nights in an orphanage.
2. Please pray that this isn't Satan's handiwork tempting us with children that are close to a direct answer to prayer, skewing our path to the children that God has for us.
3. If these children that have been mentioned are to be little Amundsons, please pray that God would miraculously supply the paperwork we need and fast.

There are 2 sets of paperwork we need right now.

1. Our permanent residency visas. We need this to finalize the adoption. Doug went yesterday to acquire another extention stamp on our paperwork and the lady was surprised that we hadn't received an apointment date to finalized our visas. Doug spoke to a manager there and he told us to write a letter explaining why we need the process sped up.
2. Our US marriage certificate and Doug's and Heather's birth certificates. We need these in order to get temporary custody of the children even if we don't have our permanent residency yet. These certificates have been to 3 different offices in the US including various Chilean consulates for legalization. This is a process that we and my in-laws started over a month ago. Once we receive the legalized certificates from the various Chilean Consulates in the US we can then take them to the department of interior here in Chile to have them translated. This I'm told can take a couple of weeks. Once they are translated then we register them with our "town" government. Right now our marriage certificate and Doug's and Heather's birth certificates are winging their ways to their perspective Chilean consulates. Please pray that these are processed FAST and then can be sent via FEDEX to us here in Chile so we can start the translation process.

A little side note - even the non-Christian social worker is seeing answers to our prayers as she mentioned that these kids' path of readiness to be adopted has mirrored our path of preparation. Therefore, as she put it, we've been moving hand in hand in this process. Now God needs to show us if we are supposed to take them by the hand and lead them through life.

God knows the answers to all of these prayers and we are continuing to pray that GOD would give us the children HE has for us and that these 2 children that we know about would find and be granted their forever family soon, even if it isn't us. Please pray with us!!

We qualify for...

OPTION #4 - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU GOD!!!

During our visit with the social worker and phycologist we were told how our evaluations went and that we do indeed qualify to adopt 2 children. These children must be under the age of 3. The next step is kind of waiting. We need to have our permanent residency visas in hand before the adoption/s can be completed. We could get foster care status, but what happens if... and then Caleb and Hannah are already attached to 2 children and vice versa. We'll see. For now we must pray that we can get our permanent residency status quickly. Doug has to go to the offices tomorrow and do a little pushing, which anyone who knows Doug, is hard for him to do. Please pray that God will put him in touch with the right people who will help the process and not get irritated enough and lash back by delaying the visa process longer.

We are still praying for twins and wait on the Lord to answer in HIS timing with HIS children, whether twins or not. Pray that we will see and hear HIS response as to the children are to be a part of this "forever family."

We have a date...

to receive our results. Next Monday the 13th of September at 1:00 pm EST we'll be sitting down to discuss our options with the adoption agency. This is when we'll find out which option 1,2,3,or4 we qualify for. We'll update again after the meeting to give you the low down. KEEP PRAYING!!!