The past weekend we spent time in Madison with my family to celebrate Brian and my mom’s Birthdays!

During the weekend Brian and I both felt God leading us to different people for very specific reasons. Both stories are built around adoption! I will let Brian share his story with you tomorrow, but for now I wanted to share with you what transpired for me this weekend.

This story goes back to a few months ago. My good friend Andrea who lives up north in my home town where my parents live, texted me about a woman who was going to be having a baby and wouldn’t be able to keep the baby. She told me that the baby would be up for foster care/adoption once it was born. At the time, I talked briefly to Brian about it, but kind of put it behind me and went on with life. On Sunday while out for lunch with my family on my moms birthday, I received a text from Andrea telling me that the baby, a boy, was born and they were looking for a family who had an approved home study done to come forward to take the boy or he would be placed in foster care within 48 hours. She was asking if Brian and I wanted to take the baby.  My heart dropped, and I was flooded with emotions.

 I texted Andrea back and forth a bit to get more details, and she sent a photo of the precious baby boy. Brian and my mom noticed I was glued to my phone and was rather quiet, so I handed my phone to my mom and told her to read it. She read it, then as soon as she looked up at me I just started sobbing. We discussed the situation, and Brian and I quickly decided that we needed to stick with Colombia. We knew that we needed to follow through with my dream and what was placed on my heart a long long time ago. I knew in my heart we were making the right decision, but was still horribly torn knowing that if we just said, “YES” this baby could be in our home the following day!

Just to clarify – I wish we could pursue another route while waiting for our kids from Colombia, but we simply cannot pursue any other adoption while waiting or Colombia will drop us off the wait list. The rules and regulations of adoption are tough, and it just killed me knowing that couples wait years and years on the domestic adoption list to get a heathly infant and he could have been ours, but apparently God had other plans.

After lunch we said goodbye to my family and started our 2 hour trek home.  The ride home was quiet, Brian drove while my mind was stuck on this baby boy. I felt stuck on the whole situation and was feeling rather upset about life and waiting for kids. I knew I couldnt dwell on it forever cause it was just making me feel worse. I quietly laid back, closed my eyes and started to pray for the situation. It was then that God put a couple on my heart. I remembered a few months ago, my mom was telling me about a young couple from their church who were having a fundraiser to raise money for their domestic adoption. I knew no other details than that. I really didnt know the couple, except for that I had gone to highschool with Adam, but never really knew him.  I had seen them around my parents church from time to time when we visited. At that point I sat up and went straight to facebook on my iphone and looked up Adam. I sent him a friend invite and also a quick message bacially explaining the situation to him and his wife and asked if they were interested in the baby boy!  Within 2 minutes, I recieved a message back from Adam saying that they were interested, and wanted more details. After going through a few people I was able to get them the social workers number. On Monday they got in touch with the social worker, and started looking more into the situation together.

After not hearing anything back from Adam since yesterday morning, I simply sent Adam a message this afternoon asking if there were any updates with the baby? I stopped at the grocery store on the way home, and while shopping decided to see if he messaged back, and sure enough I had a message from Adam saying,

 ”We spent all day up at the birthing center, and we brought him home this afternoon!”

I could hardly contain my tears. I quickly finished up my shopping and drove home. Once I got home, I just started sobbing. Brian happened to be home early from work, and didnt know what was going on. I told him that Adam and his wife took the baby home today! They are stepping out in faith and have become foster parents to this precious baby boy. The social worker believes that in 15 months the parents rights will become terminated. So for now they are blessed to be able to take home this baby boy and we will continue to pray for blessings on this new family and that everything will work out in the end. I know that God has a plan for this baby boy, and for Adam and Holly.

I am in complete AWE of God this evening as I sit here thinking about how this whole situation played out. As much as I would have loved to bring home that baby boy, God placed it on my heart for Adam and Holly to have him, and I couldnt be happier for them. I cannot wait until Brian and I get to head up to my parents and can formally meet Adam and Holly and the baby. I will probably break down crying, but I am honored knowing that God used me to build this new beautiful family. I also know that God is working on building mine and Brian’s family. I know he is up to something, and when the time comes he will place the perfect Colombian children in our arms.

When they see among them their children, the work of my hands, they will keep my name holy; they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One, and will stand in AWE of the God of Israel!  - Isaiah 29:23

Two weekends ago my parents came down to help us paint the kids room and do some updates around our home.

My mom is a great painter and did a wonderful job in the kids room! Thanks Mom for all your hard work! 

We have new white cordless shades ordered for the windows,

and obvioulsy we have more things to add to the room,

but for now I feel like its a great start!

This is from a good friend of mine that I wanted to share. Its a conversation between her and her 4 year old son.

 While we were driving in the car this morning Felix said to me “some kids don’t have moms and dads.” I said “yes, Brian & Haley are adopting some kids who don’t have parents to take care of them.” I continued saying “maybe you can get their new kids a gift.” He replied saying “yeah, I could get them a compass.” “A compass?!” I said. He explained saying “that way they can find their way to their new parents.” – He’s so thoughtful.

Today I received an early Birthday present from my parents!

A beautiful La Chamba Clay Colombian Dish from Williams Sonoma!

Williams Sonoma carries an entire line of the La Chamba Colombian dishes. These dishes are made by Colombian artisans in La Chamba, Colombia!

You can find the link here: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/search/results.html?activeTab=products&words=la+chamba+cookware&cm_sp=OnsiteSearch-_-GlobalNav-_-Button&type-ahead-viewset=ecom

The Secrets of Colombian Cooking book we bought on Amazon a while ago. We have yet to try any of the recipes, but look forward to creating some Colombian cuisine in the near future.

Another great place for Colombian recipes that I have found online is My Colombian Recipes Blog

 http://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/

Alot of the recipes posted on this site are actually very simple recipes that look great.

Time to get cooking!

On Wednesday, a woman who I have only been in contact with through our Adoption blogs walked into my sisters Starbucks and overheard my sister Jill telling another customer about my Colombian adoption. Then this (bloggy friend) woman talked to Jill, told her she had 4 adopted daughters from Colombia and gave Jill her info for me to contact her. Well as soon as Jill texted me her name and info, I knew exactly who it was! Crazy! I completely believe that for some reason God set up this meeting to happen. I emailed her and we both laughed about the chances of this happening. I think she was as shocked as I was about it!  Brian and I are looking forward to meeting up with this family sometime in the near future. Its always fun meeting new families who have adopted from Colombia.

My bloggy friends blog is: http://martinrivera349.blogspot.com/

What’s been on my mind lately is the concept of preparation.

Haley and I have been slowly preparing ourselves mentally, spiritually and physically for having kids. I want to note that we do realize that how we picture things to be may not necessarily the way things turn out.  It’s been an interesting journey so far and I’ve been enjoying the ride.

As a father I want to be able to provide the best for my kids.  As part of the preparation, I’ve been slowly giving up certain habits that I have had in the past.  An example of that would be buying / playing video games.  While I haven’t given this habit up completely, it’s one that has diminished over the past year.  I was really gung-ho about playing Halo and playing games online.  However it’s been a while since I’ve played Halo (and we’ll see how I do this winter) and only recently played a video game this past Sunday.

Why do I talk about video games? Well video games do two things (1) cause me to spend $ and (2) cause me to spend time. It’s important to realize that the $60.00 I used to spend on a game will be better spent on care for my kids.  And then the time playing the game itself will be better spent on interacting with my kids, being there for them etc.

Maybe this post would be better titled “priorities”.  As I go through the adoption process, I am learning about the changed priorities in life.

For me I am striving to have my priorities be God, Haley, Family (including kids), Friends then myself.

So what are your priorities?

-brian

The most recent Wait List was published by ICBF on October 21, 2011.There has been a lot of movement, but our category is still behind where we would like it to be. Our official approval date is Nov. 5th, 2010 and for our catagory they are currently processing dossiers from Feb 2008 (this means we are still 9 months behind with our 3 yr wait.) I put the age category we are currently approved for in red.

Age of Child ——- Date of Application Approval by ICBF

Child 0-12 months —— Dec – 2007

Child 13 – 23 months —- Dec – 2007

Child 2 years ———– Jun – 2007

Child 2 – 3 years ——– May – 2007

Child 3 years ———– Dec – 2007

Child 3 – 4 years ——– Dec – 2007

Child 4 years ———– NOT LISTED ON NEW FORM

Child 4 -5 years ——– Jan – 2009

Child 5 years ———– Oct – 2009

Child 5 – 6 years ——- Oct – 2009

Child 6 years ———– NOT LISTED ON FORM

Child 7 years ———– Jul – 2011

—————————————————————————

2 Siblings 0 – 4 years — Apr – 2008

2 Siblings 0 – 5 years — Feb – 2008

2 Siblings 0 – 6 years — Sep – 2009

2 Siblings 0 – 7 years — Feb – 2010

2 Siblings 0 – 8 years — Feb – 2011

Last night Brian and I, along with Brian’s parents headed down to Chicago to eat at Las Tablas Colombian Steakhouse http://www.lastablas.com/#!home . We had a wonderful time trying all kinds of different Colombian foods like empanadas, arepas, entrana skirt steak, chicken, calamari, shrimp, pork loin, sweet plantain, yuca, potatos, rice, salad, and soup. We also enjoyed listening to the live music. People generally think that Colombian food is similar to Mexican, but its actually nothing like Mexican food. The food was excellent, and the experience was alot of fun. Brian and I look forward to going back someday with our kids

Beef, Chicken & Cheese Empanadas                   Combinaciones platter                                   Pollo Relleno                       

Brian’s Brevas con Arequipe – Figs w/ dulce de leche caramel                          Flan de Coco – custard w/ hint of coconut