We Have a Travel Date!

Things are moving quickly!! We have a travel date!

After speaking with the FBI about when our fingerprint results would be back to us, we were finally just this afternoon able to send an official request for a date to pick up little Elkin. Based on what's left to do, we requested Monday, September 22nd as when we could pick him up in Montería, Colombia!

Things moved really fast after that - our letter with our requested date was translated, faxed to Montería, and then our agency heard almost immediately that the 22nd would work out perfect!! We didn't waste any time - we bought our plane tickets this evening and we're working to fill out the paperwork for our Visas. We'll likely be driving to Chicago (about a 9 hour trip - one way) sometime between now and then to pick them up.

So we're REALLY excited now! We actually know what date - for sure - that'll we'll be meeting our little boy!!! We booked our return flights (yes, we did remember to buy one for Elkin on the way back) for about a month later though it's very unlikely we'll return on that date. It'll probably be later though it could be a little bit sooner, who knows. We won't know until right before it's time to come back.

We'll leave the US a few days before we pick up Elkin (Saturday the 20th to be exact) and fly to Bogota (Colombia's capitol). We'll stay there for a night and then get up early and take an intracountry flight to Montería.

It's crazy having an actual date to look at on the calendar!

We're working tirelessly around here - getting the house in shape for a three year old and turning what is now our office into his bedroom. A lot of work, along with preparing all the other paperwork outside our Visas, Tim getting stuff situated at work, etc., etc. Who cares though - we just bought our plane tickets! We're really going to Colombia to get Elkin and it's SOON!

INS Visit Today

We took a trip to US Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS). We needed to get our fingerprints updated because they expire toward the end of October. That's not real soon but we may very well be in Colombia when they expire - not good. We can't legally adopt Elkin if we're not up to date on our prints.

It was no big deal and it was one of the many, many, many things we had to get done before we can leave so it felt good to cross that off the still growing, never-ending list.

On the way back in to town we had a chance to stop by the Secretary of State office to get our medical letters apostilled (official notary verification, if you didn't know what that was). Check. We'll be back several more times I'm sure.

Lots of around-the-house stuff, papwork, and other stuff tomorrow. We feel like we're just starting to really tackle some things. I'm still not sure how it's all going to get done but I'm sure it will. In between the "wow there's so much to do"'s are the "wow - we're going to be Mom and Dad!"

WE HAVE NEWS! Wow... Where to Start?

We'll just cut to the chase and get to the good stuff - WE HAVE AN ASSIGNMENT!!!!

Yep, that's right. So we know we went on and on about how it's going to be three more years until we get a referral. So how did this happen? Well we found a waiting child that was the perfect fit for us and we were lucky enough to quickly get him assigned to us.

So here are the details. Our son is Elkin John and he will be three years old in November. We are told that he likes music and can be quite stubborn at times (he must get that from his new mami!). He lost one of his eyes to an infection when he was a baby and has a prosthesis which we're told he has adapted very well to.

If all goes well we should be leaving in about four weeks to go to Montería, Colombia to get our new son!

As you can imagine we have TONS to do before we go. We just found out for sure that Elkin is ours a few days ago but we've been able to get some of the paper work together, updated our medical letters, and get our FBI fingerprints sent off. The list is mind boggling!!

We'll be posting more soon - info on Montería, our schedule as we find out about it, and all the crazy stuff we have to do before heading down. And then of course we'll blog as much as we can from Colombia and post all the pics of the cutest little boy the world has ever seen!!!