Joy into words…

Plans for this week…

Adoption paperwork arrived in Colombia

Orphanage Board meeting about us on Monday June 25 to approve/disapprove us for the 5 kiddos

Tyler working normal hours

Beth teaching Kindergarten at VBS

On Friday afternoon I opened my email and found this:

You guys were approved in the committee meeting and the referral is on the way!!!!  The psychologist at La Casa is going on vacation and wants to talk to you guys before she leaves….Like today  🙂  Do you have Skype? If not please download it real quick and send me your username.  Also let me know what time you’ll be available to talk!  Sorry for the last minute request, but CONGrATS and being officially selected as the parents!!!!

They are our kids!!!  We are not sure how/when the committee decided to meet on a Friday instead of their usual Monday but they did and we are approved!!!  Our caseworker said that the orphanage director called her once during the meeting to ask about our finances; if we can support five kids.  Miraculously,  Tyler just got an adjunct professor position at DBU.  A job that he applied for nearly a year ago.  God’s perfect timing!!

I called a tech-savy friend & thankfully Julie was able to walk me through setting up Skype (one of the greatest inventions of all time!).  I then waited patiently for Tyler to come home & for the orphanage to call.  At 4:05 we had a phone call that forever changed our life…

The orphanage’s director, psychologist & the kid’s teacher were all gathered in a room to give us some information about the children.  We learned that the boys are boys, they fight, they argue, they love each other.  The oldest girl mother’s the younger ones & is the boss.  They like to learn & do well with structure, & get mischievous when there is too much free time.  They asked if we had any questions, and we honestly responded, ” we are a little overwhelmed & just found out about this meeting a short while ago but we will definitely have questions for you next time.”  Then the director said, “alright, we’ll try bringing in the kids one by one…”

WE GOT TO MEET THE KIDS!!!

So they walk in and we awkwardly and nervously stared at each other.  They are so beautiful!  We are so incredibly blessed!  We have to learn so much more Spanish because all I want to do is talk to my kids!  They were eating strawberries (big brother sweetly crammed one into baby girl’s face), some of them told us their favorite colors (brown & red), they all said “hola” and the orphanage staff said, “this is your papi y mami”.  Then they asked if they can see the dogs. 🙂 Loved that!  As Tyler held up Lucy, our oldest son exclaimed, “that one is my dog”.  Tyler then help up Saydie and we fluffed her ears and our oldest daughter squealed with delight!  Then very softly my oldest daughter reached out to the screen and pointed to us and told to the orphanage director, “they look like us, we have the same hair & big brown eyes; we are the same.”

Earlier today my kids were told that they are getting adopted.  The first question they asked, “They want all of us, we get to stay together?”  “Yes, they want all of you, they love all of you and want you to be their family!”  Thoughtfully the orphanage got this whole exchange on video & are going to post it for us to see!

Today was supposed to be an ordinary day.  The first time I met my kids I had planned on wearing a dress, having my hair down, make-up perfect, house spot-less, husband perfectly pressed, and be stressed-out over the anticipation of it all but trying to keep my emotions in check.  Instead I was in a plain blue tshirt, hair frazzled from teaching at church, house is a disaster zone, husband got to the house 5min before the phone call, and our emotions were everywhere but controlled!  It was beautiful, honest and a family.  I felt like a mom, it didn’t matter that it wasn’t “perfect”, it mattered that we got to be there with our kids.

At the dinnermesa,

Beth