Journey of Faith:Our Little Guy From China

The Nepal festivals are over and still no word of anything. Our agency tells us nothing. To get me off their back they say they will get back to me "if they hear anything". I know they do not know a lot, but come on, give us something!

There has been some political turmoil in Nepal as of late. To be honest I had let it go and have had positive thoughts that everything was going to work out good for the people of Nepal and those of us waiting. BUT I thought I should post a little for those of you reading this. This was one of the first articles I read about this situation and it lists what the Maoists protest schedule is.

Prachanda sparks torch of protest Last Updated :
2009-11-01 12:11 PM
The Himalayan Times
Himalayan News Service
KATHMANDU:
Pushpa Kamal Dahal `Prachanda', chairman, Unified CPN-Maoist, today kicked off the second phase of the party's struggle to restore `civilian supremacy'. He lit a specially designed torch — to mark the beginning of the nationwide protest — at Old Bus Park this evening, throwing the capital's traffic out of gear during the rush hour. Many scared shopkeepers downed shutters early. Thousands of Maoist cadres took part in the central rally, which was earlier initiated in various parts of the capital like Maha Bouddha, New Road Gate, Bhotahity and Durbar Marg.All prominent Maoist leaders like Narayan Kaji Shrestha `Prakash', Ram Bahadur Thapa `Badal', Krishna Bahadur Mahara and Hit Man Shakya led several torch rallies in and around Ratnapark amid slogans of `People's war is not over'. However, no untoward incident was reported. But the capital's streets were littered with bamboo sticks and doused torches. Earlier this afternoon, Prachanda warned that the government would be held responsible if the Maoists' peaceful protest was suppressed. He made this statement while speaking at a tea reception at his constituency Badbhanjhyang near Thankot. He also accused both the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML for ignoring the politics of consensus. Maoist CA members, including former minister Lekhraj Bhatta, were injured when the police lathicharged on agitators during a sit-in in front of Singha Durbar.The Maoists plan to impose blockade at all entry points of the valley on November 10.

Maoists' stir schedule
• Nov 1: Nationwide torch rally
• Nov 2: Picketing at VDCs, civic bodies
• Nov 4, 5: Picketing at DAOs
• Nov 9: To declare autonomous republican states
• Nov 10: Blockade at entry and exit points in the Kathmandu Valley, include the airport
• Nov 12, 13: Picketing at Singhadurbar

On ekantipur.com dated 11/3/09 It was stated that "Following pressures from the foreign diplomats in Kathmandu, a meeting of the Maoist leaders this evening decided to withdraw the party's plan to picket the TIA, Maoist leader Shakti Bahadur Basnet said."

The TIA is the Tribhuvan International Airport. This was good news. So far the protests have been peaceful. There is still a threat though. Maoists picketed DAOs across Nepal today which blocked gates and employees from entering their place of work. We hope the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare is not being affected by these protests.

AAAAhhhhh!!! I pray for peace in Nepal. I pray for the children, the orphans. I truly pray for those waiting to hear of their travel plans. I know I am so impatient and we have only been waiting 6 months. Others have been waiting years and I think of those families often.

We hear from friends in the wait that the political situation should not affect the adoption process. I know the Ministry is trying to get more adoptions completed by the end of the year. I still wonder where we are in line. I keep hoping that we will have a referral by Christmas--what an awesome gift that would be, but I am realistic too. I hope that our son will be with us by mid next year for sure. We have not seen enough referrals go out to make any sense out of the process.

We wait some more...

Throughout this past year that we have been waiting in our journey to adopt from Nepal, I have been reading a lot about Nepal and adoption in general. Prior to choosing Nepal as the country our child was born in, I knew nothing of beautiful Nepal. I am not even sure I could have told you a year ago that Mount Everest was in Nepal. I am embarrassed to say that, but it is true.
I am now amazed at how this country has grown in my heart. Not just because I know it is the birth country of my son, but because it is truly a grand country. The rich culture, beautiful landscapes, and the meaning of family and friends to the Nepali people is why I have grown to love it so much.
I cannot say that I would have thought about Nepal if it had not been for this journey. I know that God has a perfect plan and his plan for us was to adopt from Nepal and to be connected with this country. Now I blog to tell all I can about this country and the need for adoption!
I cannot wait to meet my son! This will be the most special and blessed day of our lives. I also cannot wait to see what the future holds. My hope is that my family can travel to Nepal with us at least once when we bring our son back to visit his birth country. A LOT of things go through a person’s mind when waiting in the adoption process...

Last week was a rough week. I could not wait for the weekend. Then the weekend came. I payed bills and put together a kind of budget to see where and when we would have the rest of the money for the adoption. For some reason I have been paying way too much attention to money and I have been getting stressed about it. I just want to have our next payments ready and in the bank. Once we get a referral we have to have $9700 and the post placement fee of $2400. It doesn't help that our cat Romeo had to go in for emergency services last weekend. I wouldn't have had it any other way but to take Romeo in but gosh, I had no idea how my mood would be affected when I saw our savings account.
We went to church this morning and it is exactly what I needed. The memory verse for this week is Luke 12:31--"He will give you all you need from day to day if you make the Kingdom of God your primary concern."
This has been quite an issue for me for many years as I have let my thoughts be consumed by this adoption. I do know that he will provide. He always has and always will. I need to refocus my attention to reaching people for Christ!

Nepal Tidbits:
Nepal's population is 29.5 million
Kathmandu's population is 1 million
UN Human Development Index: 142 out of 177 countries
Life expectancy: 62 years
Nepalis who live on less than US$2 per day:82%

Last week there was no news coming out of Nepal. Will there be some news this week?

I thought the last day of Tihar was October 19th, then I read on the web that some were saying it was October 20th. I figured the source I took it from was wrong until I saw on Nepalnews.com(written on Tuesday, October 20th) that…

“The people of Newar community are celebrating Bhai Tika, the main and final day of Tihar, on Tuesday. The other Nepalis, however, celebrated the same occasion on Monday.
As the Newar community observed ‘Mha Puja (worshipping one’s own body) yesterday, they are celebrating Bhai Tika today.
This is the first time that the final day of Tihar, Bhai Tika is being observed on two days.” Nepalnews.com

This might explain why I couldn’t find a definitive answer on the web.

Well either way, the festival is over and there is no word of anything, not a peep, nothing...waiting...

This just in from the PEAR (Parents for Ethical Adoption Reform):

US Embassy in Kathmandu Not Conducting Preinvestigations

On September 29, 2009, the DOS issued an Adoption Notice for Nepal that contained the following statement:
"As part of required processing for orphan adoption cases, the Embassy conducts a thorough investigation of each case. Prospective adoptive parents should be aware that the investigation process may take several months, which could mean that prospective adoptive parents who travel to Nepal before the investigation is completed will need to spend a significant amount of time in country."
Some US adoption agencies and prospective adoptive parents interpreted this statement to mean that the Embassy would be conducting pre-investigations and completing the investigation prior to the family traveling to Nepal. PEAR contacted both the US Department of State, Office of Children's Issues and US Embassy in Nepal for clarification on the statement. According to both the Office of Children's Issues at the Department of State and the Adoption Unit at the US Embassy in Nepal, visa investigations commence after the final adoption decree and no pre-investigations are occurring at this time.
PEAR has been in continued discussions with the DOS to change the Adoption Notice to correctly reflect the process in order to avoid confusion and misinterpretation. At this point, the DOS and US Embassy are consulting on the proper wording for the Notice.We will update with any further information as we receive it.

I am a little bummed by this news. I just pray that when our time comes to travel that the investigation for our child goes smoothly and there are no issues to be found. I wish we could travel after the investigation is over but it sounds like that will not be the cast. It is not that I would not like to spend more time in the country of my son's birth, but Tim will need to get back to work right away. The 2-3 weeks is going to be tough enough on his job so we hope that this is all the time we will need to be in country at this time.

So I last posted that the two weeks of Dashain were the longest two weeks of our wait so far. What I was not aware of when I said that was that many Nepali people take off the time between the Dashain festival and the Tihar festival. They spend time with family and friends--how awesome. But now I can say that the last month has been the longest wait.

It sounds like the Tihar festival will go through October 19th and then the Ministry of Women and Children and Social Welfare should be back to working on adoption processing. I really do hope that we will hear lots of news in the next few weeks! I believe that there are matches made and waiting to be sent but we will see in the next couple of weeks if more PAPs (prospective adoptive parents) get referrals. I would guess that we will start hearing about travel approvals for those that have recently received referrals too.

Over the weekend I went to my cousins wedding reception in Zimmerman. There were a lot of kids there. As I spoke to people and watched the kids run around I couldn't help but think how I wished my son were here, he would have had a lot of fun. I thought that same thing when we went to an apple orchard a few weeks back. I think of him always. I pray that he is safe and that he would have peace to know that Mommy and Daddy will be coming to meet and bring him home soon.

The weather has gotten cold here in Minnesota this week. Over the weekend we saw our first snow fall (the photo below is what we saw at home over the weekend--this was way too early). Then on Monday we had at least an inch that stuck around for a few days. I need to get a lot done before our actual winter starts. I hope we get some decent weather so we can finish up our fall chores. Then we can settle in for the winter, maybe work on finishing another room in the basement and pray that we get a referral. I have been sick for two and a half weeks so far. I hope to get over this soon, however my symptoms have worsened and now I have more of them. I am so sick of my bed! So far I have been out of work for three days due to my illness. I hate that. I hope to get back on my feet this weekend. I have been able to read my Nepal books though!

Nothing to report on the adoption front but will keep you all posted when we hear more news!

These were the longest two weeks we have had during our wait so far. We love that Nepal has these festivals and we find the want to learn more about them is even greater when they are actually happening real time. But I cannot lie, for one waiting in this adoption process, it was hard. I think it was hard to wait because there was so much movement just prior to the festival and then all of the sudden nothing. We are very grateful that the program is moving.

The weekend was good. I went to my Mom and Dad's for most of the day on Saturday and spent the day with my family helping my Mom and Dad take down some trees. Tim was on a 4-wheeling trip for the weekend. My Mom and Dad gave me a bunch of gifts for my birthday already and two of them are books from Nepal (thank you Mom and Dad!). One is the newest Lonely Planet Nepal book and the other is a Nepali phrase book. I love reading these. It makes me feel closer to Nepal and my child. I love being with my family and if we are doing something to help them I love it even more.

So now it is Sunday night and I am thinking about work. I am also wondering what will take place this week in the Nepal adoption world. I will be taking Tuesday off to wait with my Dad while my Mom has a surgery. Then the rest of the week will be full of projects at work that I NEED to get done.

Dashain bids adieu, people back to work

Last Updated : 2009-10-03 2:15 PM
The Himalayan Times - Saved Articles(s)

Himalayan News Service
KATHMANDU: Hindus observed Kojagrat Purnima - the last day of their greatest festival of Dashain today. With this, the festival, which began two weeks ago on the Ghatasthapana day, is over. During the fifteen days of celebration the Goddess Durga in all her manifestations are worshiped with pujas, abundant offerings and sacrifices of thousands of animals.On the last day, it’s believed that the Hindu goddess of wealth Laxmi bestows one with wealth if found anyone awake till late into the night.According to Hindu mythology, the festival commemorates a victory of the gods over the wicked demons. The main celebration glorifies the triumph of good over evil and is symbolised by Goddess Durga slaying the terrible demon Mahisasur, who terrorised the earth denizens in the guise of a brutal water buffalo. The first nine days of Dashain signify the nine days of ferrous battle between goddess Durga and the demon Mahisasur. The tenth day, Dashain, is the day when Mahisasur was slain and the last five days symbolise the celebration of the victory with the blessing of the goddess. Another story related to the festival is the Ramayan, where Lord Ram slaughtered Ravana, the monstrous king of demons. It is said that Ram was successful in the battle only when goddess Durga was evoked. After receiving the blessing of Goddess Durga, people are ready to work and acquire virtue, power and wealth.

Adoption Notice

http://adoption. state.gov/ news/nepal. html

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of Consular AffairsOffice of Children’s Issues

September 29, 2009
On January 1, 2009, the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MWCSW) announced procedures for processing adoptions pursuant to the Government of Nepal’s (GON) new “Terms and Conditions” for adoptions. The initial announcement stated that only 10 applications will be processed from each Embassy, Mission, or approved Agency in 2009. The GON provided copies of the new requirements, to all approved agencies. According to Nepali officials, the new requirements apply to all intercountry adoptions. There is NO provision to permit prospective adoptive families who had already begun an adoption to be “grandfathered” under the previous Nepali regulation. All but one of the prospective adoptive parents matched with children under the previous system relinquished the match so the children could be available for adoption under Nepal’s new Terms and Conditions. Some of these children have since been matched with new prospective adoptive parents.On September 2, 2009, the Nepali Prime Minister appointed a new minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare. This minister has authority to sign final adoption decrees. Since then, under its new “Terms and Conditions,” the GON has granted adoptions to U.S. families in four cases. As a result, these families have now approached the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu to complete their processing under U.S. law. The GON has also indicated that they will likely process several more adoption cases for U.S. families in October and that approximately two dozen additional case referrals have been sent to U.S. families. The U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu continues to meet with GON officials and is working with the Office of Children’s Issues to provide timely public updates. As part of required processing for orphan adoption cases, the Embassy conducts a thorough investigation of each case. Prospective adoptive parents should be aware that the investigation process may take several months, which could mean that prospective adoptive parents who travel to Nepal before the investigation is completed will need to spend a significant amount of time in country.

So it has been one week since I posted last! I really thought I would post more. I have been debating on whether to keep this blog more about our adoption news or to add day to day life stories/thoughts as we wait. I am still not sure…
This past weekend was a nice summer weekend. Tim went on a bike ride all day Saturday and I ventured out to stores to purchase items for travel from our long list. We went to church with my Grandma and took her to lunch. We loved it and I am sad to say I had not done that in awhile. We both love talking with her and learning from her. She is such strong Christian and she shows it. She walks the walk and talks the talk. I pray that I will be more like her.
When I posted last we were getting a lot of news about travel approvals and some referrals. Towards the end of last week we heard from a couple more families about referrals. They are still trickling in! We may not hear much news until Dashain is over. Here is a little bit about the Dashain festival:
“During the month of Kartik (late September and early October), the Nepalese people indulge in the biggest festival of the year, Dashain. Dashain is the longest and the most auspicious festival in the Nepalese annual calendar, celebrated by Nepalese of all caste and creed throughout the country. The fifteen days of celebration occurs during the bright lunar fortnight ending on the day of the full moon. Thorough out the kingdom of Nepal the goddess Durga in all her manifestations are worshiped with innumerable pujas, abundant offerings and thousands of animal sacrifices for the ritual holy bathing, thus drenching the goddess for days in blood.”
Since this festival ends on October 3rd I think we will hear more good news in early October.
When I got home this evening there were a few posts on the Yahoo group about some referrals. We will take it—anything, any news! Yeah for those families that have received referrals!

These verse spoke to me today--
James 1:27
“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for the orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”

When I read this verse I feel so happy that God had a plan all along. We are to be a visible picture to the world of what God is doing for us--we are His orphans! Bringing a child into our home will be glorifying Him.

Another little bit from "Hope for the Journey: an adoption companion" from Shaohannah's Hope (I love this two week devotional study. It is one of the best pieces of literature that I have received while on this journey. I read it every day!)--"Adoption is the visible gospel". Ponder that!

Although we went through some very sad times in the last years I have learned a lot about God, people, family and friends. I am a much stronger person because of all we went through. I know these past years of waiting will all make sense when we are holding our son!

On the NepalAdopt group there is word of more referrals! It seems like there is some sort of news every day! This is great, but I do have to remember that we requested a child from 0-18 months and there are not a lot of infants available. We shall continue to wait and all this news definitely helps while waiting.

From ekantipur: http://www.kantipur%20online.com/%20news/news-%20detail.php?

Kathmandu, September 15 - The Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MWCSW) has handed over seven children to their foreign adoptive parents, after a gap of one and half years. Three Nepali orphans were handed over to American adoptive parents, another three children to French parents and one to British parents, all of whom have been residing in the country. The seven Nepali children were officially adopted after the government approved their documents regarding inter-country adoption. Officials at MWCSW stated on Monday that the six adoptive parents are planning to take their new children to their new homes at the earliest date possible. Only one child will remain in Nepal with her British parents, who are currently residing in the country. This is good news for both the parents and the children, who have been involved in the adoption process for the past seven months. The concerned authorities, including MWCSW, have also recently given the go ahead to the adoption documents belonging to another 14 children and the adopting parents. Officials stated that they have already informed Nepali representatives of the Nepal-based international adoption agencies about the approval. This means that other prospective parents can begin plans to return home, with their adopted children. Over 80 children, who have already gone through matching process, (in which prospective parents are paired with orphans) are awaiting the decision of the recommendation committee. The recommendation committee, comprises representatives from the ministries of home and law, as well as MWCSW, who will collectively make the final decision. The committee selects children in accordance with the adopting parents' preferences. The applications of over 300 prospective foreign parents for adoption are also simultaneously being examined MWCSW.The new adoption process was started in January after a gap of one-and-half- years. The ministry had put the process on hold owing to loopholes existing in the previous system. Earlier, prospective parents dealt directly with orphanages. As there was no fixed adoption fee, parents often ended up paying huge amounts of money for the adoption. Now, with the improved system, they deal with registered adoption agencies from their home country or Nepal-based embassies.

I saw this poem on someone's website and I just loved it!

Not flesh of my flesh
Nor bone of my bone,
But still miraculously
My own.
Never forget
For a single minute:
You didn't grow under my heart
But in it.

© Fleur Conkling Heyliger

There are two blogs of families that are in Nepal that I have listed on the right side bar for you to read. Unfortunately they have decided to make their blogs private. One family has decided to recreate another blog just for all of us waiting on any news. You can follow this at: http://nepaladoptionrumors.blogspot.com/. This blog will still contain the same content we are all looking for, however there will not be pictures of the children.

Another piece of news is another family had received a referral on Friday! We hope this week will be a big week of news, particularly of referrals.

We do not even have a referral and sometimes I go in panic mode about all the news happening so quickly! I have been on the kick of learning from others that have traveled internationally (thanks Julie!) and making a list of everything to look into and purchase or borrow. I think about who is going to watch the cats-when and how? (they are pretty needy cats) Will it be winter and how often should we have someone come over and make sure we don't have broken water pipes? How do we get the best deal on a flight? Should we use a travel agent to take care of our flight stuff? How am I going to handle this flight? How can Tim still do some work while over there and what will he need to do that? How and where do we get money? Making sure I have a list of what to bring-clothes, cameras, medicines and how they have to be labeled. What size clothes will we need to get for our child (won't be known until we get a referral)? What kind of toys and books can I buy to bring with to Nepal? I worry about our long flight home with our child. I could go on and on...

So to ease some of this I have been coupon collecting and checking out websites that help save money. I have been getting some small items for free. I go to dollar stores and pick up an item here and there.

Keep us in your prayers!

My excitement of this adoption has been sky high since we found out the first families received their travel approval last week and have traveled and are in Nepal. I truly look forward to hearing more about matches being made. From reading and seeing the pictures on the blogs of those in Nepal it is that much more real to me. I realize I should be reading more about Nepal and learning more about attachment. I am going in search of more books.

I was a little disappointed to find out that our registration date was not 5/1/09 it is 5/14/09. We have a registration number of 5095. I really do not know what this means, but since it is a Nepal number I know for sure that we are registered.

The rumor is that more matches will be sent out toward the end of this month. I am certain we will not be part of this group, but I know that many I have spoken to online will be part of this group and I get soooo excited thinking about them receiving their referrals! I am hoping we will be in the next group!!

Have you ever had one of those weekends that felt long? I just had one. I had Thursday and Friday off before the Labor Day holiday too so that helped. Thursday we spent the day with friends from Colorado and Minneapolis at the State Fair. That was a lot of fun. We left and went to Mark and Tracy's house and just hung around talking and making dinner. That was nice! Here is a photo of all of us at the Fair (oh and the guy on the far right is part of the camera crew!)

We got home late and went to bed. Friday Tim and I spent the day together. We can't even really remember what we did. Saturday we got up late, Tim mowed the lawn, I edged some of my gardens and then we headed off to Ryan and Di's house for the evening. Everyone's kids were there and that was fun to catch up with everyone. I forgot to take pictures! That was another late night. We got up late on Sunday morning. I went shopping and then we headed to see my family at my Mom and Dad's house for the afternoon. I loved that. It was such a beautiful weekend weather wise I just can't get enough! We headed home about 7:30 or so and Dave and Carol called (it was Dave's birthday). They were just getting back from the casino and wanted to see if we could meet up at Heather's house, so we did. Tim and Dave and Heather put together Heather's new grill. Carol and I sat on the sidelines watching! :) That was another late night.

I just learned of another family that is posting information from their trip to Nepal on their blog. They just arrived in Nepal to also pick up their daughter. Here is the blog:

http://donohueadopt.blogspot.com/

This morning I turned on the computer to see what was happening and one family that is in Nepal has created a blog. Follow along as they post happenings from Nepal. Their daughter is beautiful! Here is the blog:

http://bugbeanandreed.blogspot.com/

Namaste.

Today three French families got their travel approval! They are traveling to Nepal on Sunday. This is great news. We pray the approvals keep coming as well as more referrals. We are praying for all the traveling families for a safe trip to and from Nepal. Congratulations to all the families!

We just wonder where we are on the waiting list. There is word that there is roughly 150 more dossiers matched and waiting. I don't believe we are going to be in this group, but you never know! We believed months ago that we were somewhere in the range of 200-250.

There is a database that families waiting in the Nepal program can enter information into. The information that can be entered is agency name, age requested, when dossier in country, when dossier was registered with the Ministry and things such as that. The database was set up with about 200 lines because that is roughly when Nepal stopped giving numbers. The numbers were a sort of way to know where you were in line. I am not positive, but believe they stopped giving numbers in mid April and we did not receive a number as our log in date at the Ministry was May 1st. Many people have entered their information but there are many, many lines that are not filled in. So what I am really trying to get at is that we hope that some of those numbers do not have a family attached to them and that would move us up in line, but I do know that is wishful thinking!

We try not to lose sight of the fact that everything is in God's timing and God's timing is nothing less than perfect. We continue to pray for the children in Nepal and that they will soon be with their families.

Today is a great day! I came in to work today knowing this is my last day for the week and have Labor Day off too. I am really looking forward to this. Friends from Colorado are coming in Thursday and we are going to the State Fair--can’t wait to see them. Then we are getting together with friends on Saturday evening and Tim and I cannot wait for that either since we did not do much with friends this summer. Then, to top it all off we are getting together with my family on Sunday and I really look forward to seeing my family. So it will be a great weekend!

Then… when I checked my emails I saw that my little sister is having a boy! She sent ultrasound pictures!

Then……(see news below)!!!

2 Ministers sworn in
The Himalayan Times

KATHMANDU: Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal expanded the government for the sixth time on Wednesday. Two of the ministers already have taken oath Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare Sarbadev Ojha from Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Loktantrik and Minister without portfolio of Sadhbhawna Party Laxman Lal Karna have taken oath. Karna took his oath in the Hindi language. Other Ministers are in the process of taking oath.

Wow, all in one early morning!!

We are praying for you three families that are traveling this week to Nepal. We are truly thankful that you take the time to post as much as you know. It gives us hope that we will be with our child soon as well.

I am finally thinking about blogging again. You know why? Today a few families got their final approval from Nepal! These are families on the Yahoo Group I check out that have received their final approval. We also heard that one family is traveling this Wednesday--already!! The reason it is so quick is to miss the Nepal Holidays which go through much of October. I am so happy for these families and this news gives me a lot of hope that one day soon we will get a referral and will travel. So in preparation for our news to friends and family I am really going to try to keep up on this--at least as much as one can when there is not always news coming from Nepal.

In late 2008 we were at a point where we did not know what road to take on our journey to have a child. In the past two years we hadn't really talked much about adoption, just here and there, but it was never serious. We knew we were both open to it. In October I started checking out adoption agency websites just to see what I could learn.

On October 27th, 2008 our lives changed forever. We met Santiago, a little boy from Colombia who was here on a medical visa. I found out about this boy through an adoption agency website. Unlike me, I jumped at the chance and made a call to inquire about this boy. At the time I was only checking MN adoption agencies websites to see what kind of information I could gather, so looking back this was a stepping stone. I contacted Patti here in the metro area who was housing Santiago and his nurse. Tim and I were fortunate enough to meet this boy just before he needed to head back to Colombia. We fell in love with this little bundle of joy. He had such a personality! He really liked Tim's beard.

Needless to say, we were not chosen to be the parents to Santiago, but I thank God every day for letting us meet this little guy. (He is now with his new family which is why I am not posting the best picture).