Approved

Today we received our approval letter from the oldest private orphanage in Colombia, Casa de la Madre y el Nino.

The approval letter means that they have reviewed all of the information about our family (our pictures, our home study, our FBI fingerprints, our medicals, our psychological evaluations, etc) and they have agreed, "YES... we will refer a child to this family".

The orphanage director has assured our adoption agency that when they agree to work with a family they will refer a child to them within 12 months, so for the first time we feel we can officially share the news that a third child will be joining our family.  Although our US Central Immigration Approval was for a child 0-59 months, the casa's committee approved us for a 3 to 5 year-old child based on our stated preference for a toddler, and probably taking into consideration the ages of the two children already in our home.  When we receive the referral we will have approximately 60 days notice that we will be traveling to Colombia to live for 6-8 weeks in Bogota before we can bring our child home.

Wow.  I am overwhelmed that we know the city where our child resides.  I am overwhelmed that I have already missed so much of his life.  I am grieving for the losses he has already endured and will continue to endure when he leaves behind the country, people, smells and foods he is used to. We are so ready to love him.  Please, whether you say prayers or meditations or call on karma... we could use your thoughts and positive energy!  Thanks to our family and friends who have given support over the last eighteen months.  Hopefully in the next year we will finally bring our third child home.