Not Approved

Well, yesterday we got the news. Our dossier was sent back from Colombia and they want some additional items from us so we are not approved at this time. They have two items that they want us to address before they will consider us.

The first item they want is a more detailed explanation of our motivation to adopt. Our agency finds this request abnormal and feels, as we do, that this was outlined clearly in our home study. So we are sending a letter to the ICBF basically repeating ourselves on why we want to adopt a child.

The second item is that they don't want to approve us for a 0-12 month old infant. They want to approve us for a 0-2 (which is really 0-2 and 12 month - so basically 0-3) child. They did not state why, and our agency isn't sure as well. Colombia has always matched the youngest children with the youngest adoptive parents and since we are not yet 30 (you have to be at least 25 to adopt from Colombia) we aren't sure why we are getting this restriction.

Needless to say we are upset about the news. It makes me nervous that they are asking for information we have already provided and they seem to be telling us that we won't get a young baby. I can't help but have a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I made myself wait until this morning to write this post but I still don't think I'm ready to delve into my feelings about this right now. I do still hope that we get approved but any confidence I had on that happening is gone. I'm just not sure what will happen next - I feel a lot of uncertainty and sadness right now.

Weekend Colombian News

The situation between Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador has seemed to really cool off over the weekend. Not that they are going to all be buddies anytime soon but we are very thankful that the situation is being resolved. It's in my opinion that Latin American will not be able to start getting rid of FARC until Chavez gets chased out of there... and by the way he is treating his people and and the rest of the world I don't think it will be long.

In other news over the weekend, there was a riot at a soccer game in Cali. At least 80 are injured with ten of them being pretty seriously injured. We hope everyone has a speedy recovery, apparently a pregnant woman was hurt as well. You can read a short article and see video of the brawl here.

Possible War Brewing in Colombia

A few days ago, Colombia bombed a group of FARC (see previous post) 1 mile into Ecuador and killed the second-highest ranking FARC official. Ecuador sent troops to their Colombian border and now Venezuela has done the same. They are now threatening war against Colombia. We praise Colombia for taking a stance against terrorism that has threatened their country and all of Latin America for decades. Hugo Chavez (the - let's be honest here - dictator - of Venezuela) has been the biggest bully on the block for too long. We hope that this situation gets resolved peacefully and quickly. Our hearts go out to to the Colombian, Venezuelan and all other people in Latin America during this time of difficulty and political turmoil.