"...and when he is old he will not depart from it."-Proverbs 22:6 I am; a Christ follower, husband, father, youth minister & writer. My wife is a professional photographer, so if you need pictures for something special, she loves to travel!
// December 21st, 2007 // No Comments » // Adoption, Colombia
Since I wrote about our compassion experience yesterday, I thought I would take a minute to share a video that I found in my feedreader the other day. (ht www.thinkchristian.net)
God is bigger than everything. Merry Christmas.
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// November 23rd, 2007 // No Comments » // Adoption, Colombia
Link: International Adoption :: International Adoption Agency.
Adoption is one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted things in parenthood. Bad press, like corrupt social services, media that has the motto “if it bleeds, it leads,” and people that feel like having adopted children is like being a second class citizen. Recently our county, city, and state governments are facing this very stipulation from a handful of greedy politicians and immature social workers. I don’t want to talk much about that here, because I don’t want to highlight it any more than the press has already done. But, when we saw this, our hearts were broken and our minds baffled by the circumstances.
The thing that I want to focus on is our wonderful agency, Children’s Hope International. I know that there are several great agencies out there but we chose CHI. So my experience with agencies is a little one sided. My vote is for CHI
Some things that will help you make the proper decisions when seeking out an agency to use for adoption. I will list what I believe to be the top 3 things to look for when considering an agency: (all of these we felt strongly characterized our agency and their staff.)
3. Understanding/explaining the process. When you attend the informational seminar (which you should do b4 making any decision) the agency should be able to answer every question you can think of related to the process of adoption and how they will help you. They should be able to clearly define and explain the costs involved and the payment expectations and work with you on seeking individual solutions for financing, and or affording adoption. If the person giving the seminar isn’t “the expert” on the countries policies and procedures you are considering, they should put you in touch with someone from their agency who is, ASAP.
2. Accredited Programs. Any agency you choose should have a valid up to date accreditations in their entire program. They should also have up to date accreditations in the specific country you consider adopting from. A symbol that is important to me also is the ECFA (Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability), this symbol represents trust and accountability with the agencies accounting practices. Knowledge of and adherence to The Hague rules and regulations is also important.
1. Shared Value System with Wonderful Staff. The agency staff has to be friendly and gentle. Their Values must align with your value system. You don’t want to be getting advice from those whose value system you don’t share when you are at times emotionally taxed and looking for support and answers.
You will need to feel treated like a person and like you are the only one that matters. Punctuality in response, knowledge of questions, and reassurance are all important. As you proceed through the process they will be the ones you call with “urgent” questions about the paperwork process. They need to be calm under pressure and above all they need to treat you like you really, really matter.
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// November 8th, 2007 // No Comments » // Adoption, Colombia
Today our friends from Minnesota are going to meet their new 3 children from Colombia. On tuesday the Dressels flew to Bogota, (just a couple days after a massive hail storm flooded the streets with icy water and caused serious chaos in Bogota, check out the video below, it is in spanish but you see it)
They should be meeting their kids right now. I can’t tell you how excited we are for them. You can read their journey at Dressel Temporary Blog. Celebrating adoption and seeing others enjoy the glory of adoption is very encouraging to us. We hope that you will be challenged and encouraged by reading our blog. Know that even more challenging than the entire adoption process is the entire parenting process. What have been some of your struggles through your parenting or adoption stories? Share them with us in the comments.
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// November 5th, 2007 // No Comments » // Colombia, Music
Link: Reflections.
On the left sidebar you can listen to my new favorite song this week. It is a song from one of my favorite bands called Hillsong United. I came across the Spanish version of their "Take it All" and I thought you needed to hear it. For those that are in Colombia or traveling soon, this would be a good CD to pick up. It is called "Unidos Permanecemos" by Hillsong United. Basically it is the same album as "United We Stand" but all the songs are in Spanish. 
I found that while traveling in Colombia you get to meet a lot of new people and even share your faith with them. One young man I keep in contact with from Colombia enjoyed hearing all the english music I brought over on my iPod and likewise, we ended up purchasing some Colombiano music which reminds us of our kids culture. Which is very important as their English strengthens and their Spanish is fading.
In Spanish, the chorus to the song says…
Jesús, Por Ti yo vivire
De Ti nunca me avergonzare
Te doy todo lo que soy
Toma, Tomalo
Toma, Tomalo
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// October 30th, 2007 // Comments Off // Adoption, Children, Colombia
Answers to the Questions.
Q: Why International Adoption?
A: We chose international adoption because of the ability to adopt siblings and the fact that we love other places in the world.
Q: How will you afford adoption?
A:
With the grace of God! If he ultimately owns everything, we believe
that we can trust him to provide for us. We have saved, taken out a
loan, and asked for your help.
Q: How Long will it take and what is involved in the process?
A:
About 6-12 months for us. However, there are many factors that
contribute to bringing children home through adoption. I’ll break it
down into 6 parts for you.
1st-gather lots of money/resources
2nd-you need to fill out lots of paperwork, more paperwork than
buying a house, or applying for the US President (it sure feels like
it).
3rd-you need to have a home study completed, where you pay an agency to evaluate you, your home and finances to approve you for an adoption.
4th-You and/or your agency compiles the mountains of paperwork and homestudy into what is called a dossier and it is then sent to Colombia.
5th-Wait for the country to send a referral
6th-We go and get our children.
Once we get 1-4 done (takes 2-6 months) we will wait around 3-12 months for #5
Q: What is a dossier?
A: Compilation of papers about us
that gets translated for the country we want to adopt from and it says
that our government, the US, approves us to adopt internationally.
Q: What is a home study?
A:
Merely a means of assuring all concerned that the adoptive family is
able to provide all the necessary means to give the child a good home.
Q: Why do you have to wait so long for a referral?
A:
Every country has different limits, regulations, and procedures.
“Sometimes” governments don’t move that quickly or don’t have enough
children cleared and available for adoption. Because we want to adopt
a sibling group of 2 and possibly 3 our wait is reduced because there
aren’t as many families wanting to adopt multiple children at a time.
In Colombia the wait to adopt a single infant after a referral is given
is 9-18 months and for a sibling group of 3 the wait time is
significantly reduced to 4-9 months.
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// October 16th, 2007 // No Comments » // Colombia
Download Fall_07.pdf They made it. Our kids made the front cover of our adoption agency magazine. You can read more about them by clicking on the download fall_07 PDF at the beginning of the post and reading on to page 9 of the magazine where you will find our article.
This is the picture that Meg took that they used on the cover of the magazine. So in one shot, I got something I wrote published and Meg had something she photographed published again.
We love sharing this with you and are excited to have your support.
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// August 31st, 2007 // 1 Comment » // Colombia
This month we celebrated 6 months
home from
Colombia! Wow-wee, we have had fun bonding, attaching,
and adjusting as a family! I’m pretty sure the adjusting part will certainly be
on-going as the children go through different stagesJ We did have
a few "ups and downs" through these months, but overall we just
cannot stop being grateful for how blessed we are to have such beautiful and
precious children. Luis, Ana Maria, and Jeison never cease to amaze us. They have been so resilient in the way they
just opened up their hearts after 8, 6, and 4 years of not knowing us or having
us in their lives and completely by faith, decided to love us and let us into
their hearts. This is such an amazing honor!
We definitely have had a
wonderful summer, where they’ve experienced and learned many new things. Their
favorites have indeed been swimming (anywhere anytime), biking, playing at any
park, finding out how much (extended) family they have and getting to meet
them, especially their “Nuevo primos!”, (new cousins), camping, and visiting
their grandparents. They had never owned
bikes and did not know how to ride them, so they have done soooo much riding…
Luis literally burned a hole right through his tire! It’s amazing how quickly they learned though. Ana Maria, not wanting to be
"outdone" by her big brother, worked VERY, VERY hard at it and the
day before her 6th birthday she said "goodbye" to her
training wheels – Yee-haw! then she just had to learn not to lean too far. Jeison is riding hard to build up his
strength and keep up with the other two, but still taking his good ‘ole
time. He says: why rush? I now have a
"Forever Mami & Papi" and they will help me until I’m ready to
ride on my own!
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// August 31st, 2007 // 2 Comments » // Colombia
They have so enjoyed all of
the new toys, games, music, and other gear that many family and friends have
showered them with since the day we learned about them back in November
2006. They absolutely love to play
together, and they do so, very well! They have great joy and pride to help around the house with anything
that we ask them to do, especially if they get to “work together” on the
task! You name it… setting/clearing the
table, dusting, taking out the trash, feeding Gato and Nala, brushing their
teeth, helping bake, cook, or make sandwiches…. We have to ask ourselves often “How long will this last?” We find ourselves saying, “this must be the
only part of the “honeymoon stage” that we haven’t left behind!”
They are very adventurous, with
new activities and trying all kinds of new foods. They eat just about anything… and a whole lot
of it! It seems they know the difference
between foods that are just: "delicious but not nutritious" and the
ones that are "nutritious and delicious!" Candy and junk food doesn’t
seem to be a big deal to them, but when it is offered or sitting in front of
them… boy oh boy do they get excited and quickly ask “May I please have candy/a
cookie?” On some occasions, like after breakfast, it’s a “No, but you can have
some more grapes.” They quickly respond, “Mmmm,” and squeal with excitement! Now vegetables were a rough territory at
first. But with Mami and Papi placing it
on their plates and with persistent coaxing :>) “little trees, little
clouds” (broccoli and cauliflower), and green peppers (I don’t have one for
that yet) are no longer the enemy but actually a great friend to their tummies.
Every type of condiment that could be
put on food seems to be called “salsa”, and they reallllly love salsa! Papi just loves to see them eat a helping of
salad without any dressing, just like him!
Spiritually, Luis, Ana Maria, and
Jeison are growing. They treasure
devotion time, and especially enjoy acting out the Bible stories. They just love to pray, especially before
their meals and before bed. And it’s so
sweet to hear Ana Maria be outside in the middle of the day, for example and
say “Thank You Jesus for the sun, es un dia bonito!” (It’s a pretty day!) Their
prayers are letters straight from their hearts of complete thanksgiving to God
right now, and it’s precious. They have
amazing memory’s and nobody that is a part of their life is left out! We so appreciate how they always thank God for having food and for
Papi’s “trabajo” (work).
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// August 31st, 2007 // 3 Comments » // Colombia
Physically, they are each thriving.
With as much as they eat, I can’t believe they haven’t gained weight
though. When we met Luis and Jeison, although
always very excited to run around, jump, and play, they would so easily get out
of breath and just simply didn’t have very smooth form, as if physical activity
had not been encouraged much. Jeison
can keep up with the rest of us pretty well on a walk now, that of course is
with him jogging… and he now climbs and runs up the play place at Chick-Fil-A,
no more crawling one leg at a time! Luis
is working on his running form and practicing a lot of soccer and enjoys going
to practice with Coach Papi for the High School boys. Ana Maria, well she never runs out of
energy. Jose describes bedtime with her
like “trying to put a cat to bed!”, kicking and laughing she goes down and is
the first up in the whole house in the morning. It’s like the “on” switch is turned on and she is rearin’ to go!
Academically, they are doing
quite well. They are a bit behind, but we just have to work hard with them, to
build the foundation they lack and help them catch up. Our #1 goal this year is English
acquisition. Luis and Ana are learning
to read, which is a very big goal as well, when you’re learning to read and the
words are in English… I’ve seen that it’s hard for them to get excited that they
just read a word or a sentence when they
don’t recognize the language. Jeison is
working on his writing, coloring and numbers right now. As a reminder, Jeison still can’t talk, but
he is trying so hard and wants to so badly!
Acquisition of the English
language has finally become more natural to them, they were really struggling
with the language for the first several months that we almost felt as though
they were afraid to start trying, just to be sent back to Colombia.
They
acted as though they didn’t believe this new
family situation was really true and permanent, maybe it was just too good
to be true. Now that they are more comfortable and accepting of their
"Forever Family" it is wonderful and since this summer we have
started to hear them interacting with one another and listen to them use
English amongst themselves. We just laugh and laugh with them, when they use
some of our expressions at the right time. Luis’ favorites: "Oh my
goodness" and “Nala wupper pupper,” Ana Maria’s favorite: "Okie-Dokie,”
and Jeison simply likes to say our names over and over and over and over again…
because that is what he can say!
Whew! This has been one long update of
our first, technically seven months together! God is good! We have such a collection of ‘Stories of God’s
Faithfulness” throughout the adoption process and the past couple of
years. We really do – what a treasure
that will be to look back upon and share with our children how they were loved
and prayed for and supported to bring home by so many. Thank you!!!
Hope you have a fantastic fall
season! Don’t forget to leave a comment
for the kiddos, they just love it when we read them to them and enjoy knowing others
have been enjoying their journey!
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// February 15th, 2007 // 8 Comments » // Adoption, Colombia
The Whole Gang
Originally uploaded by Abba’s Girl.
We are HOME! We landed around 7:23pm last night. We got home around 8:30pm. Our kiddos were so tired they fell right asleep at 9:15 pm. They were so excited to finally be home. They have been playing all morning and enjoying finding more of their toys in their rooms… The looks on their faces said so much as they anticipated meeting Nala for the first time, then they ran to their beds and hid from Nala cause I guess she looked so big and threatening wagging that big tail of hers.
Last night as I was sitting on the plane crowded between my 2 oldest I couldn’t hold back tears as I thought about coming to the end of the journey to adoption and beginning our journey as parents of 3 rambunctious, beautiful, and endearing children. The emotions of seeing our family again after a long time away, coming back to the soil I call home, I love, and am attached to. The warmth and comfort of my own bed was beconing me. We were saying goodbye to a place we called home for just over 3 weeks and our kids have called home for their entire lives.
We are so grateful to everyone that reads our blog and will continue to stay updated on our day to day journeys as a family, many firsts to come, bikes, swimming, camping, hiking, and playing. Stay tuned for more of the excitement.
LOVE YOU ALL
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