By the grace of God, we have been blessed with the opportunity to grow our family through adoption. We are pursuing a sibling group in Colombia and hope to bring them home soon. For several years, we have anticipated and prayed for this adoption. There have been many twists and turns, but we’re now making some tangible progress. There’s so much uncertainty with international adoption, but we’re so grateful to know that God is our provider. There’s no way we can do this without Him! Never in a million years would we have imagined adoption from Colombia and yet, God knew! For years, He has been preparing us for this moment; we are grateful and humbled to follow His will! We come to you, our family and friends, to join us on this journey.
As we close out 2024, our hearts are full of hope and longing. This year brought so much change, anticipation, struggle, heartache, and a deep yearning for our twins. We are ending this year with renewed hope that 2025 will be the year we finally bring our children home. Our dossier is approved, and Colombia is working to update the twins’ files so we can officially be matched and move forward with adopting them. We’re praying for a quick turnaround and for immigration paperwork to be completed smoothly, so we can have our family together in just a few months.
We’re still selling our adoption T-shirts to help with the costs! If you’ve already ordered one, we are eternally grateful. Thank you to everyone who has donated, prayed, and walked alongside us during this adoption journey. In the next couple of months, we’ll be collecting photos of everyone in their shirts to include in a care package for the twins. If you’ve ordered one, please message me a picture of you wearing it—we’d love to send these to the kids to show how loved they already are!
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” – Romans 12:12
Thank you for standing with us in faith and love as we continue moving closer to bringing our twins home. Your support means the world to us!
We are dossier approved! We are approved to adopt from Colombia!!!
Next steps:
1. Officially “matching” with the twins. This can take 1-2 months, depending on how long it takes to update their files. Since their integral files are almost two years old, we’re praying they were already in the process of updating their paperwork. If we could be matched before Christmas would be a huge blessing and miracle.
2. Transfer from their foster home to the orphanage takes another 1-2 months, with a mandatory 21 day integration period.
3. Travel to Colombia! For 4-6 weeks, we’ll be finalizing the adoption in Colombia! We’re hoping and praying to travel this Spring, around March or April!
Our dossier and updated application has been registered with FANA this week! We sent off an updated application and our dossier to the private orphanage this week. We were anticipating this taking a few more days, but it made it's way from AL to Colombia over the weekend!
This gives us about 4 weeks until the dreaded Colombian "shut down" that occurs around mid-December to early January in observance for Christmas and New Year's. The average FANA dossier approval timeline is 4-8 weeks, but we are hopeful it can be approved right before then!
We know that our God is a miracle-working God. He can move mountains, heal the lame, and part the seas. We know that although this adoption may seem like such a small prayer compared to all we have going on in the world, we know that He holds us and our kids close. All of that to say, we are humbly asking for your prayers that our dossier be reviewed and approved within the next four weeks! It would be the greatest Christmas gift to be approved to adopt this year - roughly 3 years since we started this process!
We just received a call from our agency today. After speaking with the person in Colombia assigned to review our dossier, they informed us that our dossier is taking much longer than anticipated to review. Originally, based on recent timelines, we were hoping for a 1-2 month review time. However, as we approach month 3, the reviewer recommended we transfer our dossier to one of the private IAPAs, FANA, to review. Since they typically have fewer dossiers to review than ICBF, we could hear back within 4-8 weeks, instead of an indefinite amount of time. Typically, families choose to submit their dossier to specific IAPAs as they are preparing the dossier, but since we have the approved LOI, we are able to submit now to speed up the process.
This is a huge answer to our prayers of waiting and anticipation over the past couple of months. Additionally, our agency shared that FANA does a great job of preparing the children for the adoption during the short time they are transferred there before we travel to bring them home. This is a HUGE blessing for our children, as they have been in the same foster home for most of their lives. This also means less travel for us in Colombia, as we will not need to travel to their current city + Bogota, but will meet our children at FANA in Bogota. We continue to pray for the Lord’a mercy upon our children as we work to bring them home. We are fervently praying that the Lord continues to use this time of waiting to prepare their hearts and minds for their adoption!
Our dossier has been in Colombia, under review by ICBF, for two months now. For families like us pursuing waiting children—those who have been in care for a while or may face challenges finding a family—the review typically takes 2-4 months. We’ve been waiting for so long now, but we know there is power in prayer. Please join us in praying that we hear back soon! Our LOI was approved a few months ago, and we’re longing to bring our children home. We trust in God's perfect timing and ask Him to guide this process.
'But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.' (Isaiah 40:31)
We are holding fast to His promises, believing that He will complete what He has begun. Thank you for your prayers and support!
