LOI Baby!

After reviewing little Colombia's light medicals, and meeting with our new potential agency, we have decided to submit an 'LOI' (Letter of intent) to adopt her. Okay, so call us crazy, we feel so much peace in this little girl, how we learned of her, the agency and the possibilities of what might be that we are jumping!! We sent the letter off to the agency that works with Julieth's orphanage in Bogota, Colombia and they will now send off our 'Letter of Intent' on to FANA (her orphanage.) Safe Travels little LOI!!

Meeting with the Adoption Agency

This morning we met with Jill, the Assistant Director at Crossroads Adoption Services here in Minneapolis, MN. Both Chris and I were very impressed with her. She answered all of our questions about the agency, their relationship with FANA (the orphanage where Little Colombia lives), who FANA is and some additional light information on Julieth.... yes, her name is Julieth! :) So far, so good! Chris and I are really feeling at peace. We plan to talk, and pray, about everything and see if this peace grows or if we sense hesitation in this, what seems to be, crazy awesome God experience!

Yard Work @ the Flip

This weekend we got the boys! :) Saturday we headed up to the Zimmerman flip to start working on the yard as a family. It was fun to see the whole family pitching in to help! Boy this home has amazing land, all 3.54 acres of it! Makes us ponder living here... ;) NO! Don't get attached. Focus. Focus! Naters took to creating the firepit and Bennie was all over hauling and cutting (or at least pretending to cut the wood with the chainsaw.) Zahria had so much fun playing, and working on the rock pile and clearing wood, with Andy & Candy's Kids. Z loves those kids.....all 5 of them! Chris was busy powerwashing the deck and I was on cleaning up the Kitchen Cabinetry. All of this to bring Julieth home!!! TOTAL MOTIVATION!

Could it be - FellerBaby #6?

Today we got a call from friends of ours that have a close personal relationship with an orphanage in Bogota, Colombia. They personally have adopted their 3 kids from this orphanage in Colombia. :) Chris has been good friends with this family for years, his boys are great friends with their kids and Chris has been in his Men's Group for a couple years now. Great people! We actually met with them, Jay & Patti, about 8 months ago to discuss their experiences adopting from Colombia. Well...... There is a little girl that needs a family. Crazy thing, we need a little girl too and just a couple days ago, we decided that we both were feeling led to Colombia. :) Could it be? Today, they sent us a photo of her sweet little face, with a little medical & mobility information. She is 2 now and just as cute as a button. Dark brown hair, big brown eyes and the chubbiest cheeks ever! Reminds us of Z when she was littler!! She is considered a 'Special Needs' adoption as there are potential motor, and possibly genetic, concerns. Her medical notes, quite extensive really, state that she has been receiving some occupational therapy to help with her motor delays. She is now walking at just over 2 years old. :)

Kaz or Colombia?

This past year, Chris and I have been discussing our family. How are we going to grow it, and when? This past year, we discussed growing through adoption, both domestic & international, adopting through the foster care system and we entertained having a biological child. We both are quite certain that we could get pregnant should we choose this, but honestly, it just hasn't felt like the right decision for our family. We've spoken with a couple agencies, attended seminars at the county and sat in on teleconferences. Little by little we have narrowed in our thinking, we know that adoption is the right path for us and for our kids. Now, the million dollar question is will we go to Colobmia and Kazakhstan? :) As many of you know, our hearts are quite tied to Kazakhstan....since our beautiful 5-year old daughter was born in Aqtobe, Kaz. However, the time in country has us concerned as to whether we can truly logistically make a 2nd trip to Kaz a reality. And then there is Colombia, we are loving a lot about the adoption program in Colombia. In Highschool, our family had a foreign exchange student from Cucuta, Colombia, Sergio, and we LOVED him so much! Sergio was a Junior when I was a Freshmen! He taught us about 'women's work and man's work.' Who knew! And he was serious! He was horrified when my sister and I helped stack wood or did anything that semi-resembled outside work or heavy lifting. Likewise, he would not, I mean would NOT, be seen in the Kitchen. No way, that was 'women's work!' Dad loved it! After Sergio's Junior year, he returned home to his family in Cucuta. For the next 3 years we all stayed in touch, and when my sister was getting married in 94', Sergio was planning to come. But, no word, Sergio didn't make it to the wedding. A year later, our family received a letter from Sergio's Mom. Sergio passed away that year. Come to find out, Sergio found out that he had Cancer the year he left us, and sadly, he didn't want to 'burden' us with the news. We all mourned, and still think of him often. We wish dearly that he had let us all know. Maybe we could have helped? He could have come back to the U.S. for treatment. So, yes, parts of my heart are in Colombia!!