Home Sweet Home

We had a great trip home. We got to the airport in Bogota about 3 1/2 hours before our scheduled flight. We thought that was plenty of time. But..... It took every bit of that time, and when we got to our gate, boarding was already in progess. We were slowed down in large part because we had 9 people to get through all the process. We also had to go through 3 seperate security screens, passports, plus the adoption added additional checks. God provisioned for everything and we got on the plane just fine.

Our kids - new and old alike did great on the flight and we got to Atlanta without any problems. It took about 1 1/2 hours to process through customs, passports and imigration and then headed for our connecting flight home. We had 7 tickets for one flight and two for a later flight. Once at the gate we found there were 54 people on standby for our first flight - the flight we needed two more tickets to all fly together. This was not even a challenge for our God who provisioned for us to get the first two standby seats given out. We got to our house fine even though a major ice storm was in the forecast. We were all happy to be back home and all the new guys are settling in well.

They are meeting lots of new people. We have not experienced any problems since arriving home. We continue to integrate together as a family. It was a bit overwhelming for our new kids when we got home. There were so many new toys, they felt like they needed to play with everything at once. We have got to the point where they now know they can play with anything they like- only one thing at a time.

We met with all the people from our small group past and present 3 days after arriving back home. These are the people who have been are consistent prayer partners since we began this journey. We had about 85 people about 60 who were kids. Yession , Tatiana and Santiago did great with this large gathering. They are not having any inhabitions about meeting new people or going new places.

We had a great first Christmas togehter. We had our entire family together for Christmas and were able to take a new group picture with everyone. Today's post includes the new family picture taken at our church and a picture of the 8 children who still live at home.

Jim and Betty

Home!

Just a quick note- we are home!!! Travel went great! God provissioned for us all to fly on the same plane together. Every good and perfect gift is from above! Praise God. Tatiana is much better. Kids are in sensory overload now we ate in our house! More later

Jim and Betty

Happy Birthday Joshua

Happy Birthday Joshua- 10 years old!

Going Home

We got the visas. We have arrangements to leave in the morning. Right now we have seats on two different flights out of Atlanta. We all leave Bogota together however, Three of us have a three hour longer delay gettting out of Atlanta. We need your continued prayer in two main areas:

First that Delta would allow us to bump up or three tickets to the earlier flight. There are seats available, but not at the fare we booked. They can move us up to the same fight if they want.

Second, Tatiana is sick with fairly bad hives. Pray that the will pass quickly. We were made aware today late that we have had bad water in our room for the last three or 4 days. We think the hives are from the bad water, We have drank bottled water but our Colombian kids are use to drinking the tap water so they did. Tatiana got sick.and we didn't know why until today. Pray no one else gets sick and she has nothing more serious than the hives.

God Bless,
Jim and Betty

Visas Day 1

Today was our day to file for the US entry Visas for our new children. Getting the visa is the final hurdle to jump over on the road home and the completion of our journey- well perhaps not the end of the journey as our relationship with Yeisson, Tatiana and Santigo will be a life long journey. We reflect on going home and realize this is actually the beginning. We look forward to nurturing and growing this relationship and eagerly anticipate each new bend in the road. We do feel like getting home will be like a good rest at a roadside hotel on a long car trip. When we get home we will feel refreshed and eager to continue down the road again.

We were able to get our applications turned in, but not without one little challenge! At the US Embassy we were almost complete with our visa application process when the supervissor tells us one of the kids passports has an error! Yeisson's passport had Betty's maiden name misspelled. She told us if we could get it back to her in an hour, all three visas would be ready tomorrow at 3 pm. (Interesting side note: this suppervisor graduated from high school in the same town as Betty and I in Anchorage Alaska- small world!) We dashed for the car and zipped across Bogota to the passport office. David flew through the congested traffic and got us there in around 20 minutes. He ran in the passport office while we waited in the car. He was back in the car in only 5 minutes with a corrected passport. He is the guy to have on your team down here! WOW! We got back to the Embassy in about another 20 minutes. Then just David and I ran for the embassy! I goaded him a bit and said I'm 50, you're a young man ,we can run faster! So we did- boy did I regret it!!! At 9000 feet altitude a 700 to 800 yard sprint left my lungs SCREAMING! But it all ended well, we were told the visas would all be ready tomorrow. YEE HAW! God has been so gracious again today. We are so blessed.

Later we tried to change our tickets to Thursday from Friday, but as of right now there are not enough seats available. Friday is also GREAT!

We capped off the day by visiting Unicentro for ice cream cones at Crepes and Waffles. Pictures today are of one of our many games of UNO and some of us enjoying ice cream.

God bless,

Jim and Betty

God is Faithful

God is faithful. This is something we have stood upon for a very long time. I found myself thinking this simple statement over and over today. We had a very successful day and accomplished everything today we set out to complete. Jim left to get the birth certificates at 7 am. 7 1/2 hours later we had them and were arriving at the passport office to link up with Betty and the kids. Nothing went wrong - it was all very smooth thanks to our lawyer Oscar. It just took a long time because we needed to get birth certificates from two different places. It went very well.

God continues to show us just how much He is in control of all the details. We had been told that the courts closed after today - which is true. But God interviened at just the right time last Friday. While I was waiting at the second location for birth certificates, Oscar informs me that all the birth certificate offices in Colombia are closed tomorrow! They are celebrating their 40th anniversary or something like that. If we had not recieved the birth certificates today we could not have left on time this Friday! When Oscar dropped this little fact to me I was absolutely floored as I realized just how much my Heavenly Father is in control of all the details and He is so clearly working all things together for our good. We praise Him and give Him all the glory.

In the passport office we again saw things work out in an amazing way. We walked in to the passport office and saw around 100 to 120 people in line in front of us. 15 minutes later we were on our way out the door with the three passports in hand and the waiting room was still filled with the same 100 to 120 people! WOW. I know a lot of the speed with the passports was due to Oscar and David, however, we credit our Lord.

The doctors visit went well and so now all we need to accomplish is the visa. We put in our request for this tomorrow and should pick them up on Wednesday. If this is all acomplished and if there is space on the Thursday flight for us, there is chance we could leave one day early. Either way, to quote an e-mail Betty sent today, "We consider it all joy to leave on Friday".

Photos today are of the crowded waiting room and us at the passport window without waiting in the line!

God Bless,

Jim and Betty

Praying for a Smooth Monday

This is the night before the crazy hectic Monday to come. But before we talk about tomorrow, we want to reach out to our small group Bible study back home. They are meeting as I type this note lifting up all our final needs before the throne of God. We so much appreciate their faithfullness to pray for us over the last weeks. It has encouraged us immeasurably knowing we have you as our prayer warriors back home- thanks to the Keeleys, Fords, Moldrups and Dugans. We also thank all of the rest who have encouraged us, prayed with us and loved us. Thanks also to our new friends we have met in this journey, we have been particularly enouraged by the Hagertys and Woods. Thanks to our church family back home. We covet your prayers especially tonight and tomorrow. They have a very busy and ambitious day planned for us:

Jim leaves with our lawyer, Oscar at 7 am to go get the new birth cirtificates for the kids. We then link up with Betty and the 3 new kids to get passports around noon. Once that is complete we will all wisk away to get the kids medical exams. If this is all accomplished we will apply for the US entry visa on Tuesday and pick them up on Wednesday. Please pray this is all accomplished in such a way that God is glorified.

God Bless,
Jim and Betty

Growing together

Today was mostly another day of waiting, but this is different. We know we begin to finalize things on Monday- so the waiting this time seams to have more purpose than when we were waiting on court.

We are continuing the process of growing together as a family. You can see from todays pictures all the kids are growing together and we are seeing less and less two groups. They are steadily becoming one family. What a blessing to behold. This is happening faster that we could have hoped.

We walked the mall a bit today and stopped and had ice cream again- one of the bargins we have found. We get 9 two scoop waffle cones for about $15. can't match that at home!

We go after birth cirtificates on Monday at 7 am - please remain in prayer this will go smoothly.

God bless,

Jim and Betty

Sentencia!

May the great Lord God Almighty be praised. We had our court date today- finally. We know this only came about by the intervention of our mighty God. We thank all of you through out the country who have been praying for us and this court date. We went to bed last night discouraged as we were expecting to know our court date a day head of time. When the call did not come last night, we confess we were greatly discouraged and Betty, Kaitlyn and I wept. We knew and still know that God is in control, but we did allow Satan to discourage us. It is very hard here when you wait each day for the court hearing and no word comes. We had reached the point where we rose in the morning and counted down the hours until bed so we could move on to the next day and hopefully our court hearing. The last few days have been sooo long.

Today was the last possible day for our court date that would allow us all to go home together. We did not know how we were going to handle splitting up to come home. Betty called Lucia (Children's Hope rep in Colombia) after lunch to ask for some help getting our laundry done. She said Oscar (lawyer) was in Soacha trying to get us a date. Lucia said she would call back in an hour after Oscar called and then we would work out the laundry. The call came and Lucia said we had our hearing TODAY. She would pick Betty up in 10 minutes, they would start the laundry and head for the court in Soacha. Everything went --- well it went. Here is how Betty's time went! First when she got to Lucia's she got stuck in the elevator!! Nobody answered the alarm so they finally called Lucias son David and he came and pried the elevator door open so they could head to court. All she could think about was how she could be stuck in an elevator any other day but not when it is going to cause her to miss court! Once at the court in Soacha, they found all the documents were wrong and the court was closing. Somehow our lawyer Oscar convinced them to redo the forms and the Judge was gracious enough to stay around to sign the new decree. All of this in the midst of the hardest downpour we have we ever seen.

The call from Lucia was such an amazing blessing at a time we were struggling the most. Along with all of you, we have been in prayer- often. We have prayed with the children as well. Our immediate response was tears of joy, much hugging and we took the time to remind our children that God is faithful and stealing the line from Facing The Giants, we reminded them that nothing is impossible with God. This is a day we will all remember as a great example of how God answers prayer. At lunch when we prayed today, we asked for the court date and prayed that God would grant a miracle and grant our court date even today. I am reminded of Isaiah 40:31

"but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. "

We feel that the Lord has renewed our strength. Thanks to each of you for your prayers.

So what now? We have 4 things to acomplish next week. We have to have get new birth cirtificates issued, Medical exams at the US Consulate, Passports and lastly, visas from the US Consulate. We are scheduled to take care of birth cirtificates at 7 am monday and the medical exams are at 12 noon. This is normally a 4 day process so pray everything goes well and we will be on our scheduled flight next Friday morning. God is so great.

God bless each of you we appreciate you more than we can say.
Jim and Betty

Happy Birthday Ashley

Happy Birthday Ashley! 5 Years old today.

Happy Birthday Matthew

We just want to wish Matthew a very Happy Birthday! 8 years old today.

Fruit, Rides and the Park

Today we tried a new Colombian fruit called Granadilla. We had heard about it from other people and were told it is a favorite of Colombian children. Check it out in the pictures for today. It looks really slimey and looks like - well I'd rather not say what it looks like. You can use your own imagintion. If you can get past what it looks like it is not bad. Crunchy seeds- with a citrus taste. Yummmm

We also went into an arcade in the mall that we discovered yesterday while we were getting passport photos. Kids had a great time. We had an encouraging note left on our blog yesterday- we hope Beth is right! Please keep our court date in your prayer. God bless each of you.

Jim and Betty y ninos

Still Waiting

 Today we are still waiting on our court date. Hopefully the date will break really soon! Betty and Kaitlyn ventured out today to find a souvenier shop called Maku. We had three sets of directions and in the end went with the Hagerty's directions - they made it! Jim sat in the appartment with the younger kids and worried about them on the streets of Bogota by themselves! They made it back fine with out any adventure or difficulty. However, they got back to the appartment to find me in melt down with worry. David had called about 20 minutes after they left trying to set up for us to go and get passport and visa photos for the new kids. They got back 20 minutes after we were to go for the photos! Fortunately, David was delayed getting to our location for the link up. All ended well, Christ told us not to worry- so why didn't I listen!? it was good to make progress even if it was only photos.

We had chance to start talking to family and friends at home yesterday. Our son Kevin told us about a program called SKYPE. If you are still waiting to travel to Colombia, you must download SKYPE. It allows you to talk via the internet to any other computer in the world if they have speakers and a microphone (for free). We have talked to family back home about 10 times in the last 24 hours. It is such an encouragement to talk to folks back home - it only took about 5 minutes to set it up on our lap top.

Please continue to lift up our court date in your prayers,

God bless,

Jim and Betty

Lazy Sunday

Today we went for a walk about the middle of the day - that is about it! They close off one direction of the main street in front of our apartment for walkers and bicycles. We took advantage of the reduced auto emmission to enjoy a walk together. Unfortunately, we went a bit too far and some of the kids were hurting by the time we got back. Tommorrow is a holiday here so nothing can progress until Tuesday. Here are a few Christmas decorations we have seen - including the red tree I mentioned yesterday. We may not post tomorrow unless something comes up. We appreciate your prayers so much!

God Bless.

Jim and Betty

Winter in Bogota

Today we mostly just hung around the apartment. We did go through the mall today and looked at the the Christmas decorations. we'll share some of those images on another day. Have you ever seen a red Christmas tree? Neither had we - now you have something to eagerly anticipate until we post a picture of it in the next few days. The encouraging thing in the Christmas season down here is that Christ has not been stripped out of the public sector. There are nativity scenes absolutely everywhere you go.

As promised a couple of days ago the photos today are of winter in Bogota.

God bless.

Jim and Betty

Waiting on Court

We have started the wait period for our court date. Today we pretty much just sat around the apartment. We are doing well, but just want to come home. The new kids seam to require less correction each day. We have been letting them watch Animal Planet and some other kids shows to help pass the time. It will be good to hear English again! Betty learned how to chat today and got to talk to Dana and Sue- I think it did her good. Attached are a couple of pictures of Bogota from the church on the top of the mountain, the presidential palace.

God bless.

Jim and Betty

Happy Birthday Kaitlyn

Today was Kaitlyn’s birthday! We celebrated all the December birthdays before we left. Still we felt a bit bad for her we couldn’t recognize the occasion a bit more. Betty did go the mall her with her for a little bit. One of Daddy’s girls is now 14. Wow – where does the time go!? Happy Birthday sweetheart. She did hear from a couple of friends back home to wish her Happy Birthday. Thanks Morgan, Rebecca, Bailey, Jess, Lizzy, Irma and Nancy

Today we took a long walk, met up with the Rimers (family from MO adopting a sibling group of 5) and went to the park. On the way home we stopped and ate at a McDonalds with an indoor playland.

We are constantly reminded that God is so great and His mercy so abundant. He shows us that he has a plan for us and is guiding us through this every step of the way. We are so anxious to get home, but also understanding His plan is perfect for His glory and good purpose. This morning, I was reading from Mark and finished at Chapter 9 verse 37. I wept and was unable to go on. I wept because I am such an unworthy man to be blessed by God at all, and yet he reaches out to me from His word with such encouragement and a time of such need for that encouragement. He continues to bless us as parents and as a family even in light of our shortcomings and failures. All I can do is praise His Holy name and remain in awe of His Majesty and uncomprehendible love.

For those following us back in the states , we appreciate your thoughts and prayers. We are enjoying the climate down here- today it was in the mid 60’s. I don’t think we have worn a jacket more than once. We have kept tabs on the weather back home and know we will FREEZE when we get back. The pictures today are of our outing to the park, and the McDonalds playland. As we wait on the court, we will eventually make a post of the city of Bogotá itself. We also plan to take pictures of the flowers in bloom here- even though it is “Winter” here, there are blossoms everywhere. I tried today to just read and share John 3:16 in Spanish with the kids. No funny looks today, but I think they might have tuned me out. Yeisson said he understood when I asked him at the end. We must remember it is the Lord’s timing on when He brings them unto Himself. We will faithfully sow the seeds and trust that God will bring in the harvest .The internet in the Hotel is down last night and we had to post on 5 Dec.

God bless you and let us here from you.

Jim and Betty

A day of Waiting

Last night after we posted, we were doing some reading aloud as a family. We are reading and advent season read along story called Barthalamew's Passage. The new guys have been very patient to listen. At the end last night, I tried something new. I have a Bible that has English and Spanish (thanks Keeley's and Dugans). I read 10 verses from Mark in English and then gave the same 10 verses a shot in Spanish. It must have been really bad. I was doing my best to read it in Spanish and it was obvious by the great facial expressions from Yeisson that my pronunciation must have been REALLY bad, based on the descriptions of the faces from Betty and Kaitlyn. Oh- well gotta try to share Christ as best I can. After all I have been laughed at plenty, so why let a few faces deter me!! :-)

Today was a mile stone in that Tatiana quit ignoring Ashley and they began to play. Tatiana started reorganizing the toys in the suitcase and Ashley sat down to help. They ended up completely redoing it twice. After that they spent about an hour going around hand in hand playing- nobody but Tatiana knows what they were playing, but they had a lot of fun together. By the time they were finished all 6 of the youngest guys were playing together. It is going to take some time, but all the right signs are there that we will grow together as a family. God is so great.

Please continue to lift us up in prayer. We ask your prayer that the court date will come soon. All things are possible in Christ and He shows us this daily. We continue to rely on Him and your prayers. Our lap top is our lifeline to all of you, please let us hear from you.

The photo today is of Ashley and Tatiana organizing the toys.

God Bless,

Jim and Betty

Integration Day

Integration Day was not nearly intense as we had expected it would be. We were only there for around 30 minutes. We were only asked if we wanted to continue to which we gave a huge YES! A couple of questions to Yeisson who told them "bien"! They were able to learn everything they wanted to know by the way the kids were interacting with us while we were there. Things are going well and we are conecting well. As we left Bogota proper and entered the town of Soacha where the kids are from Santiago's mood dramatically changed and he started crying. We had the interpreter tell them why we were going back before we got there, but he got visibly upset about returning to Soacha. Once we arrived, Tatiana was also much less happy. Once we left Soacha, they returned to their old selves- much better. We think they won't have to go back, but the Judge could request it if he so desires- we hope not!

Our prayer request is that the court date will come quickly. After the court date we can be on our way home in about 4 possibly 6 days- all depends on where the weekend falls.

After the integration meeting, we tried to stop by the Hagerty's to say good-bye, but theyr were not in their hotel so we left a note. It was very good to meet them. We spent a little time in a park and then went to lunch in a place called Carbona da Palo. We had a good time and experienced the language barrier at its best. We ordered a favorite of our new kids called empanadas (sp). We ordered 9 ORDERS of empanadas- or so we thought! Each order is suppose to have 6 empanadas in it. When the food came we got 9 empanads. Not much lunch for 9 people. They are small deep fried balls of dough filled with beef and rice and spices very good! They sent out someone with a little bit of English and then they brought us out more! You can't just point to the menu item you want and then say a number! It was a good time, but then we had a long walk back to our appartment. The pictures today show a couple of shots of Soacha ,where the kids came from, and then the family lifting high the empanadas.

God bless.

Jim and Betty

A Visit to the National ICBF Office

Today was a fairly uneventful day, we waited around most of the day to keep the kids looking good as we were to meet with the case workers at the national level ICBF office. They had asked to meet with the three families currently in Bogotá. We were told that they wanted to talk to us about our motive to adopt given we all had biological children also. In the end it was a nice meeting where we met the social workers and psychologist that worked all of our files when they first hit Colombia. I think it was mainly a chance for these guys to see the end result of what they do. We never were asked about our motives, but it was a very nice visit and I hope God will use it to keep the relations between ICBF and Children’s Hope strong. We only stayed about 30 minutes, but it was nice to meet the lady who worked our file. On the way back we had 25 people in a 15 passenger van- no seat belt laws here. Picture attached gives you a feel for it.

This was a great day with the kids they didn’t test us at all today - very compliant and cooperative. This is particularly noteworthy since we spent almost the whole day in in the apartment. They are very very sweet children. Today we saw a continued progress with all the kids working together. Yeisson was asking Josh to draw him pictures. We also played UNO which was a good time for everyone ever though we couldn’t completely explain the rules. Ever try to explain how skip cards and draw two or draw four cards work without using any words! Try it sometime. Ashley just kind of follows Tatiana and Santiago around trying to play with them.

Tatiana has definitely been the most affectionate of the three. She is a constant source of hugs and kisses, and today she gave us her heart. On notebook paper she drew two whole pages of hearts – then she came to Jim and asked him to write Papi on one and Mama on the other then she presented us her heart. OK- maybe that is not fully what she intended but that is how we took it! They will all three say Te amo Mami or Te amo Papi with a tiny bit of prompting. We think the bonding is going pretty good. Tomorrow we go to our integration meeting and after that the kids are ours- God be praised!

The next big step is getting a court date. Please pray this will be more swift than anyone thinks possible. Please also pray for Yeisson, Tatiana and Santiago. The children often get very upset when the go back to their old home area for the integration meeting- they often feel they are being taken back to stay.. Tough time for kids who have been through so much.

God bless,

Jim and Betty