John & Anna Williamson

Updates

• Update 26

  

  We are home!

  September 5, 2023

  We are home! This update is a bit delayed as we have jumped right into life, work and school after returning from Colombia. Our last week in Colombia began with our US Embassy appointment at 7:30am on Monday. All went well, but we still needed our Article 23 in order for the kids VISAs to be approved. The Article 23 is part of the Hague Conventions whereby “an adoption is certified by the competent authority of the State of the adoption as having been made in accordance with the Convention and shall be recognized by operation of law in the other Contracting States.” Essentially this is the final sign off by the Colombian government that everything is is order for our adoption. Recently the director at ICBF has been on a special assignment in another part of Colombia, so the signing of the Article 23 could take up to 8 business days! We were praying that the director was still in town from the previous weeks holiday and it turns out that she must have been, since we heard on Monday afternoon that our Article 23 was ready to be picked up on Tuesday! So on Tuesday our agency arranged for someone to pickup the Article 23 and deliver it to the embassy. The VISAs are usually ready the next day and sure enough ours were ready! We were so excited! When we originally booked our flights, we had to book a return flight and estimated that Aug 31 would be around the latest we would return. Little did we know at the time that it would be the exact day of our return! Crazy. Anna and the girls planned to come home on that day regardless because Anna started school on Friday, Sept 1. We were so excited to be able to travel home together as a family.
  We woke up at 4:00am on Thursday (well Anna never really slept…) and made it to the airport by 5:30. Checked in to our flight and checked our bags. Then we stood in line for about an hour before we made it through immigration. The immigration agents in the Bogotá airport had to check and double-check our paperwork (they ended up taking our original sentencía document) and then we were on our way to grab a bite to eat for breakfast before our flight. The flight was smooth sailing and we were able to make it through US Immigration without issue! The picture in this update is the crew that was waiting for us at the airport when we finished customs. Thank you all so much for coming to see us home!
  What an amazing journey. Thank you, thank you, thank you for how you all have participated and helped us along the way. We could not have done this without you! Today was Jefferson and Halle’s first day of school and is also the 8th business day when we could have received our Article 23. How blessed we are to be here instead of John and the kids still being in Colombia! The Williamson Family Adventure continues into a new chapter. Our lives are full and we give all glory and honor to our Savior Jesus Christ!
  Love John, Anna and Family

• Update 25

  

  Coming Home!

  August 28, 2023

  Thank you so much for praying and all of your encouragement! Our prayers have been answered in such a precious way!! We finished embassy visa appointments this morning and had paperwork notarized that would allow John to bring kids into the US alone in case the kids VISAs were not ready by our return flight on Thursday. There was nothing left for us to do, but wait for our Article 23. Shortly after returning to the hotel, were eating something and we got a text that our article 23 will be ready for pick up tomorrow am!!! 🙌🙌🙌❤️❤️❤️Praise God from whom all blessings flow! We will be able to come home together on Thursday!!💃💃🙌🙌 This was incredible as it could be up to 8 business days!!!
  We have had some fabulous days here that we can’t wait to tell you about! We have visited many interesting places and spent time with amazing people. It has been a blessing for us to get a true understanding of our kid’s culture!

• Update 24

  

  Introducing…

  August 22, 2023

  Introducing…
  Jefferson Steven Levi Williamson
  Levi means united, joined in harmony as God joined us forever as a family
  & Daniela Catherine Ruby Williamson
  Ruby means precious as she is so precious to us and God!
  Our hearts are so full!! ❤️❤️❤️

  We thank you all for your support and prayers to make this day happen!

  Love John, Anna, and Family

• Update 23

  

  La Mesa

  August 19, 2023

  This past week we are still in La Mesa, Colombia waiting for our Sentencia Court Date. This pueblo is where there is an International Adoption Family Friendly Court. If we were to stay in Bogotá for court that could take 3-4 months! The climate here is much warmer as we are at 3,937 feet. Highs in the 80’s and lows in the 60’s. Bogotá is at 8,612 feet, so it is much cooler there even though we are only a 2 hour drive away. The first 8 days in La Mesa we stayed at an Air BNB, but since we did not receive our court date, we had to move to a hotel.

  We were sad to say goodbye to Lilli and Manuel at the Air BNB but not too many other things there. Manuel arranged a friend who had a truck who we paid to transport us and all of our luggage! (Can’t get many people to where we were!) Manuel accompanied us on his motorcycle and watched the luggage in the open back. We had to go through town, traffic, and not safe feeling. Got to our new hotel which is also secluded. It is beautiful and feels clean. But still lots of bugs everywhere, dogs and cats. There are animals and we will go horseback riding today. The relentless peacocks woke us up at 5:45 this morning. Tons of animals here. The pool is beautiful and we met an awesome family from Indiana! They are adopting siblings and their daughter is also named D and we LOVED her when we played with these kids at Imagina! So fun to reconnect.

  Praise the LORD that we did hear yesterday that our court date is Tuesday, Aug 22! Monday is a holiday in Colombia, so we are so excited to know that we will head back to Bogotá that day. We are so happy!
  Right after court, we head back to Bogotá to take care of more and final paperwork! We are at the mercy of our government and theirs, so you can pray that it would all go as quickly as possible! We are desperate to come home. The list of things we take for granted and miss is huge! But the time with our kids here is irreplaceable! We are all trying to keep perspective!

  Please pray for our next steps in Bogotá to go quickly. We tentatively booked our flight back for Aug 31 because Anna and the kids start school on Sept 1. We hope we are traveling before that, but there is a person who works for the Colombian government that has to sign off on our Article 23 paperwork, and this person is on special assignment someplace else in Colombia away from Bogotá. This has added an additional 8 business days to that step for some families. Ugh. Just pray that this all aligns for us and we can travel back together. Worst case, Anna and the girls fly back on Aug 31 and John stays with J and D.

  Miss and love you all!
  PS did you read about the earthquake in Bogotá?! Glad we were in La Mesa for that!!! Bugs, snakes, earthquakes… what else?!

• Update 22

  

  EVERY DAY IS AN ADVENTURE!!

  August 12, 2023

  Here is an update on our past week...
  8/6 Sunday we had a great day! Lorena (the kids chaperone from last summer during their Project 143 hosting visit with us in the USA) and her boyfriend David brought lunch! (Tamales) then we went for a HUGE walk eating all kinds of things along the way! Ended in a big mall and found a store J, Halle and KK all bought some clothes. We also found a book store and found a book for J!
  8/7 Monday
  We relaxed and played games. Went to the pool. Went to Karen’s Pizza for dinner and were so hungry and liked it so much we ordered exactly the same thing twice!! D drew a picture of me. We had a great night taking to J about many different things.
  8/8 kind of bummer of a day! We got picked up early for an Integración meeting with the psychologist at La Casa where they interview the 4 of us. After tons of waiting etc, turns out the psychologist wasn’t there. We tried to get more medicine while we waited for mtg (we need more for La Mesa) and they were out. So we talked to La Casa nurse and did pay ahead to pick up some tomorrow when we have mtg! Then I made guacamole and also egg salad in our kitchen that has virtually nothing using a dull table knife and eggs took maybe an hour to even come to a boil! Went to pool and it is closed for renovations! Turns out first Monday of every month they close pool and gym. Yesterday was a holiday so it is closed today. Lots of things gone wrong today. I am ready for normal!
  We will have our Integración and meeting with the kids public defender tomorrow. And still go to La Mesa thank goodness.
  8/9 Wednesday
  Our kids are officially released from the system. We are now on our way to La Mesa to finalize the adoption! I can’t even tell you how emotional it was with the public defender! Martha (our translator ) was even crying translating! It was the sweetest mtg. Their lawyer loves them so much, has been with them since they entered the system, and is so happy for them and at the end when she asked us one by one if we want to adopt (formal questions) etc and we each had to answer… it was overwhelming and precious and I can’t even explain!! We are so happy to be onto the next step!
  *We first had a mtg at la casa with the psychologist and it was so sweet to see all the kids come home from school and D hugging them and both so famous and proud of us there. And we could see all the babies and young ones playing across the courtyard from where we were. This is an amazing orphanage where these kids are loved so so much!!
  Wednesday to la mesa-
  Stopped to eat and go to bathroom (fyi you need to buy toilet paper in dispenser outside of bathrooms)
  This does not do justice… but it is a snippet of what i went through. If I don’t have a nervous breakdown i think i might be able to do anything!! It got dark by the time we got to la mesa after food shopping on way. The ride was indescribable (scary) and our driver had never been here before and the horrific one way dirt road was insane and he pulled over trying to get in touch with Martha, and our airb&b etc. I was terrified!! Vehicles pulling up next to us… pulling over..Ultimately Manuel, the caretaker of this place found us on his motorcycle and escorted us to the home… on roads you absolutely cannot imagine… which is beautiful, but not what you think in terms of vacation. Bugs, no ac, cool with open doors but have to lock at night. I don’t know how long i will make it. I know everything will be better in the light. Trying to stay positive.
  8/10 Waking up here was incredible. The views are unbelievable!! Gorgeous mountains, jungle views, sounds , birds like you have never seen or heard, dogs walking around lime and banana trees and the pool is beautiful. We had a super relaxing day at the pool. I reached out to owner as i had trouble with oven and she sent Manuel and lili over. They will do anything for us, food shop, cook, anything. Lili cooked us an amazing dinner while J taught us how to play Parchese! She made potato chips out of our potatoes, rice and delicious chicken! It was a meal we all needed and loved!!
  8/11 Friday Lilli made Breakfast eggs with tomatoes onions and arepas then John went on motorcycle with Manuel to get some more food for the menu for the week. Went to a supermarket, fresh produce store and butcher.
  Lunch - ajiaco con rice guacamole, mandarin juice
  Everyone loved it and were full and happy, and then I walk out of my bathroom to almost step on a poisonous snake in hall!! Lilli said do not touch i will call Manuel to kill. It is dangerous. She said do not worry there are a lot of dangerous animals here. (Not sure why I shouldn’t worry!) they have 7 dogs but the many cats are the protectors. We are trying to stay positive and this place is amazing. We love relaxing with music by the pool. Manuel cut bananas and gave them to us fresh off the tree and we can pick limes, oranges and some kind of fruit from Brazilian tree. We are literally in the jungle enjoying incredible views.

  We also found out that we were awarded two adoption grants that we applied for!!! One grant is for $6000 and the other is for $2500. Because of these grants we are able to reduce this crowd funding goal to $31,500. God is so good and truly provides our daily bread! Thank you all so much for how you have helped us to reach our goal!

  Love John and Anna

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