We're Approved to Adopt From Colombia!

We got a call today from our adoption agency and they've approved our application to adopt from Colombia! It's a small milestone but it's the first of many, many steps and it makes the whole process official.

We're expecting a ton of paperwork in the mail in the next week or so and a call from our social worker. There's going to be TONS of stuff to do pretty soon and then that loooooooooong wait.

Right after the phone call we got a package from Mom - a little bib for our future baby (she came right out and admitted she wanted to be the first to give us something!). Thanks Mom!

GREAT VIDEO!

This is SO SO SO cute! There's a Colombian boy (or talented voice over actor) narrating a corny tourism video for the country. You have to watch this!

Vive Colombia (English Version)

This is an official tourism video for Colombia. Very cool.

Some Colombia Photos

There are TONS of pictures of Colombia (and that's Colombia with an 'o' not Columbia with a 'u') on Flickr. Just search for "Colombia" and you'll get all kinds of local shots.

Here's a small set of really good professional quality ones of some places in Bogotá, the country's capitol. Actually, a few of these might not be in Bogotá because it looks like there's some coastal shots and the city is not on the coast.

Chances are we'll be in Bogotá for the majority of our trip down to adopt. We'll at least be there for the US Embassy stuff.

Applying for the Colombia Program

Well, we officially did it. We hand delivered our official application to adopt a baby from Colombia!!!!

We met with Denise, the social worker at the adoption agency and talked about some questions we had. We read up on just about everything but we had some questions about referral times, how long the visit to Colombia has been lately, and some financial stuff.

Denise said the referral times have been taking 24 to 26 months - about what we've been seeing from others online who are adopting from Colombia. No surprise here. The stay in Colombia has been about 3 to 4 weeks. She said we should plan on a 4 week stay and the earliest they've ever got anyone out of the country has been 2 1/2 weeks. That's OK - we're looking forward to the vacation part of this process! :)

The financial questions were really just us needing someone to officially confirm our math. It's going to cost right around $20,000 for the whole process, start to finish. Thats about what we expected. Here's the break down.

So now that our application is in, we're just waiting on the official stamp of approval from the adoption agency. After that, we'll have some meetings and we'll fill out some more paperwork and get our home study started.

Of course there's lots of details we're leaving out but we'll hit those as they come. Basically, we'll do a bunch of paperwork for the next several months and then wait 24 to 26 months for a "referral" (assignment of a baby to us). We'll hop a plane to Colombia a few weeks after that and stay down there for a month. Then we'll be home with our new little baby!! All in all, about 3 years from now. Seems like a long time to wait (and it is) but it'll be worth it.

The application itself wasn't too difficult. There was all the standard "form" stuff, a number of medical questions (some medical problems can exclude you ), and some short essay questions. Hopefully we don't run into any problems and we can keep the ball rolling.

Bebé Sueño

For those that don't know or don't know us, we've decided to adopt a baby from the country of Colombia. This is our first child and obviously our first adoption so we're nervous, excited, happy... just about everything rolled in to one. This is going to be a LONG process but we can't wait!

We figured the best way to keep everyone informed of what's up with our adoption was to start a blog (doesn't everybody do that?). We'll update this post every time there is some milestone (paperwork completed, important news, etc... oh yea - and that BABY PICTURE we're waiting on) but we'll make a bigger post on the blog when there's something to talk about.

Bebé Sueño literally means "baby dream" - corny yes (you wouldn't believe the blog names already taken!) and not proper Spanish but hey, it's short. We needed something that made at least a little sense.

Feel free to comment on any post - we'll do our best to reply to each one. We're on day one of this process as we're writing this so we're certainly not adoption experts but if you have any questions that you think we might be able to answer, go ahead and ask. We imagine we'll get a little smarter about this as time goes on (yea, three years ought to do it!).

How Much Does a Colombian Adoption Cost?

Adopting costs money. It just does. It seems weird to talk about it but in reality it's a very big part of the process. $25,000 certainly isn't pocket change, even for a couple that can't have their own kids and would do anything to have a child.

This information isn't so much for our family that's keeping tabs on us (unless you're interested in this part) but more for those that stumble on this blog that are also interested in adopting from Colombia. We had a very hard time finding information on how much a Colombian adoption costs so hopefully we can help others by making this information available.

$100 - Agency's Application Fee (2007-05-24)
$700 - Agency's Approval Fee [Adoption Agreement Fee] (2007-06-05)
$600 - First 1/2 of Home Study Fee (2007-06-05)
$300 - First 1/2 of Post Adoption Report Fees [3 at $200 each] (2007-06-05)
$12 - State certified copy of marriage license (2007-06-07)
$38 - State certified copy of birth certificates [1 each for passport*, 1 each for ICBF] (2007-06-07)
$51.51 - Photos [for home study, dossier, passports*] (2007-06-07)
$314 - US Passport Application Fees [expedited, $157 per adult]* (2007-06-07)
$20 - SRS Child Abuse or Neglect Check [$10 per adult] (2007-06-14)
$60 - State Bureau of Investigation Certified Clearance Letters [$30 per adult] (2007-06-19)
$450 - Psychological Evaluation [$225 per adult] (2007-06-19)
$38 - State Bureau of Investigation Clearance Letters [$19 per adult, including money order fees] (2007-06-22)
$30 - Agency Commitment Letter to ICBF Apostilling Fee [Secretary of State] (2007-07-13)
$600 - Second 1/2 of Home Study Fee (2007-07-20)
$300 - Second 1/2 of Post Adoption Report Fees [3 at $200 each] (2007-07-20)
$545 - I-600A Filing Fee [USCIS / Dept. of Homeland Security] (2007-07-20)
$140 - I-600A Fingerprinting Fee [$70 per adult] (2007-07-20)
$97.50 - Apostilling Fees [13 docs, $7.50 per document, Secretary of State] (2007-08-24)
$5.00 - Apostilling Fees [1 doc, $5 per document, Secretary of State] (2007-08-24)
$750 - Dossier Translation Fee (2007-08-24)
$14 - Copies of Dossier (2007-08-24)
$64.47 - Postage [Thanks to our "tiny snafu"] (2007-08-24)
$5,175 - Agency's Colombia Program Fee (2007-09-27)
$7.50 - Apostilling Fee [1 doc, Secretary of State, Updated information to ICBF] (2008-03-20)
$37.05 - FBI Clearance Letters [2nd set, $19 per adult, including money order fees] (2008-08-21)
$40.55 - Postage [2nd set of FBI Clearance Letters] (2008-08-21)
$1.17 - Postage [Agency's Post-Adoption Agreement form] (2008-08-23)
$10 - Agency Commitment Letter to ICBF Apostilling Fee [Secretary of State] (2008-08-25)
$500 - Agency's Refinalization Fee [Refundable, to guarantee State adoption finalization] (2008-08-25)
$15 - Apostilling Fees [2 docs, $7.50 per document, Secretary of State] (2008-08-26)
$1616.60 - Flight to Bogota, Colombia [Round Trip, 2 adults, American Airlines] (2008-08-27)
$935.70 - Flight Home from Bogota, Colombia [One Way, 1 child, American Airlines] (2008-08-27)
$15 - Apostilling Fees [2 docs, $7.50 per document, Secretary of State] (2008-08-28)
$10 - Copies of Colombian Visa application (2008-08-28)
$44.99 - Postage [Colombian Visa application] (2008-08-28)
$10 - Fingerprinting Fee [Reprinting needed due to FBI rejection] (2008-09-05)
$79.83 - Postage [Tim's 2nd FBI Clearance Letter attempt] (2008-09-05)
$960 - Translation / In-Country Fees (2008-09-10)
$15 - Apostilling Fees [2 docs, $7.50 per document, Secretary of State] (2008-09-10)
$20.71 - Postage [Documentation sent to agency for translation] (2008-09-10)
$10 - Copies of documents to take to Colombia (2008-09-18)
$67.08 - Rental car [Avis, for trip from home to airport] (2008-19-20)
$2.35 - Turnpike fee [for trip from home to airport] (2008-19-20)
$256.63 - Flight from Bogotá to Montería, 2 adults (2008-09-20) {COP}
$125.31 - B&B in Bogotá [El Refugio, 1 night, 2 adults] (2008-09-21) {COP}
$30.69 - Taxis in Bogotá [first visit] (2008-09-20 to 2008-09-21) {COP}
$5.12 - Copies of Sentencia [10 copies] (2008-10-03) {COP}
$4.61 - Passport photos [12 copies] (2008-10-04) {COP}
$25.58 - New birth certificate [10 certified copies] (2008-10-06) {COP}
$66.54 - Passport for Elkin [4 different charges] (2008-10-07) {COP}
$0.21 - Copies of Elkin's passport (2008-10-07) {COP}
$0.41 - Copies of receipts for passport charges [4 pages, 1 copy each] (2008-10-07) {COP}
$1,512.87 - Attorney's fee (2008-10-07) {COP}
$114.57 - Taxis in Montería [official trips, few trips to Exito] (2008-09-21 to 2008-10-08) {COP}
$3001.00 - Hotel in Montería [Hotel Sinú, 17 nights, $176.53 per night] (2008-09-21 to 2008-10-08) {COP}
$104.40 - Laundry [2 small laundry services at Hotel Sinú (very expensive!)] (2008-09-21 to 2008-10-08) {COP}
$443.54 - Flight from Montería to Bogotá [2 adults & 1 child] (2008-10-08) {COP}
$291.53 - Interpreter's Fee (2008-10-08) {COP}
$73.14 - Embassy Dr. visit (2008-10-08) {COP}
$3.07 - US Visa photos [2 copies] (2008-10-08) {COP}
$400 - US Visa fee for Elkin [US Embassy in Bogotá] (2008-10-09)
$666.59 - Flight change [flight cost difference plus fees, 1 child] (2008-10-09)
$121.30 - Foreign Transaction Fee [one of our CCs charged this fee separately] (2008-10-09)
$659.59 - Flight change [flight cost difference plus fees, 2 adults] (2008-10-11)
$375.93 - B&B in Bogotá [El Refugio, 3 nights, $125.31 per night] (2008-10-11) {COP}
$78.77 - Taxis in Bogotá [second visit] (2008-10-08 to 2008-10-11) {COP}
$800.00 - Meals/Snacks in Colombia [approximate amount] (2008-09-21 to 2008-10-18) {COP}
$100.74 - Rental car [Avis, for evening in Miami, FL] (2008-10-11 to 2008-10-12)
$145.77 - Hotel in Miami [La Quinta, Miami FL, 1 night] (2008-10-12)
$27.13 - Foreign Transaction Fee [one of our CCs charged this fee separately] (2008-11-07)
$14.00 - State Adoption Finalization [court fee] (2008-11-24)
$106.00 - Post Adoption Report Fee [1st Post Adopt Report] (2008-12-11)
$7.50 - Apostilling Fees [1 doc (1st Post Adopt Report), $7.50 per document, Secretary of State] (2008-12-29)
$2.71 - Postage [1st Post Adopt Report sent to agency for translation] (2008-12-29)
$12.00 - State Birth Certificate Filing Fee (2009-01-18)
$19.00 - Certified State Birth Certificate Copy [2 copies] (2009-01-18)
$106.00 - Post Adoption Report Fee [2nd Post Adopt Report] (2009-03-26)
$7.50 - Apostilling Fees [1 doc (2nd Post Adopt Report), $7.50 per document, Secretary of State] (2009-04-06)
$2.71 - Postage [2nd Post Adopt Report sent to agency for translation] (2009-04-06)
$162.22 - Post Adoption Report Fee [3rd Post Adopt Report] (2009-09-24)
$7.50 - Apostilling Fees [1 doc (3rd Post Adopt Report), $7.50 per document, Secretary of State] (2009-10-02)
$2.71 - Postage [3rd Post Adopt Report sent to agency for translation] (2009-10-02)
$300.00 - Post Adoption Report Fee [4th (Final) Post Adopt Report] (2010-06-07)
$4.04 - Postage [4th Post Adopt Report sent to state for Apostilling (which was free)] (2010-07-10)
$130.00 - Mileage Fee for Post Adoption Report [4th Post Adopt] (2010-07-16)
$5.38 - Postage [4th Post Adopt Report sent to agency for translation] (2010-07-31)
$9.20 - Rental Car Gas Fee for Post Adoption Report [4th Post Adopt] (2010-08-26)
$21.97 - Rental Car Fee for Post Adoption Report [4th Post Adopt] (2010-10-16)
_____________

$25,158.49 Grand Total

There will be other costs too that are hard to calculate like gas running adoption related errands, having to catch dinner out, etc. There are other times you'll spend money too even though we wouldn't consider them "costs" per se - like gifts for family back home, gifts for those that help you out in Colombia, clothes for the child bought in Colombia (if needed), donations to an agency in Colombia, Colombian things for your child when he or she is older, Colombian knickknacks for your home, etc.

Keep in mind that some costs can vary depending on your situation. From what we can tell so far, here are the main reasons that your costs might be different than ours:

1) the chosen agency
2) the organization that conducts the home study program - if your agency doesn't have a local office you will probably do your home study with another agency which may increase the cost
3) the time it takes from application to coming home with your new child - if it takes a long time, you could be faced with several necessary updates to paperwork, which can continue to add expense and of course if you find yourself having to stay in Colombia longer than expected, that will obviously add expense as well.
4) the city in Colombia that you stay in - there can be drastic differences in hotel and taxi prices from city to city
4) the fact that most fees will go up - for example, I know that after we adopted in 2007-2010, the I-600A filing fee, passport fees, most post-adopt fees, and postage rates have all gone up

* We're considering passport fees as part of the cost of an adoption because neither of us needed one until now.

{COP} - All these costs were paid in cash or CC in Colombian Pesos. These are USD totals based on current exchange rate and include fees charged by our credit and debit cards for withdrawing cash or charging out of the US so these costs are sure to vary for you. For us, it averaged to $0.51145 USD per 1000 COP (1 USD = 1955 COP including all our fees).

From Start to Finish

We edited this post as things progressed for us. It's a good overview of how the trip went. The trip was 22 days long - VERY short considering everything.

October 11, 2008 - Back in the States! (Day 22)

October 10, 2008 - Picked up Elkin's US Visa (Day 21)

October 9, 2008 - US Embassy Visit (Day 20)

October 8, 2008 - Embassy Doctor Visit (Day 19)

October 8, 2008 - Picked up Passport and Headed to Bogota (Day 19)

October 6, 2008 - Received Updated Birth Certificate (Day 17)

October 3, 2008 - Received Sentencia (Day 14)

September 29, 2008 - Integration Meeting (Day 10)

September 22, 2008 - Picked Up Elkin!!! (Day 3)

September 20, 2008 - Arrived in Colombia! (Day 1)

August 22, 2008 - Confirmed travel date

August 21, 2008 - Received assignment of Elkin!

June 6, 2008 - Received dossier approval (approval dated 5/22/08).

March 20, 2008 - Updated information sent to Colombia.

August 29, 2007 - Dossier sent to Colombia.

August 28, 2007 - Dossier completed and sent to agency.

August 17, 2007 - Received I-171H in the mail.

July 20, 2007 - Applied/fingerprinted for I-600A.

July 20, 2007 - Home study completed.

June 7, 2007 - Started our Home Study with our agency.

May 31, 2007 - Approved for Colombia program through our agency.

May 24, 2007 - Applied to the Colombia program through an adoption agency.

May 22, 2007 - Made an appointment to meet with the local director of the Colombia program at an adoption agency near us.