It's Official!

Finally, good news!

We found out Tuesday night at 6 pm that our court date was scheduled for Wednesday at 3 pm.  We could hear the Hallelujah choruses being sung all over North and South America, but none any louder than in our own hearts!  Having an actual date also meant that I could schedule Andy's flight to leave Thursday morning.  We began the process of packing his things and finished up some laundry so we could all look presentable for the court hearing.

We had planned to run off some energy at the park Wed. morning, but the never-ending rain prevented an excursion outside.  So, we just enjoyed a little quiet time at home and had an early lunch. I let the little girls pick out what dresses they wanted to wear to the court appointment; wouldn't you know...they wanted to wear their Christmas dresses.  So, we headed off to the courthouse looking like we were off to see Santa :)

We arrived at the courthouse early and nervously waited in a hallway. We saw our judge limp off at one point and were worried we wouldn't see him again! Fortunately he limped back and escorted us into the same cramped office that we were in the day before for our signature verification.  Maria José, our in-country representative, and a lawyer (whom we had not previously met) accompanied us into the now very-cramped office.  The judge took a seat at the desk where the lady usually sits to bind documents with string, and we sat at the secretary's desk, which was just as cluttered as the day before.  The judge dictated a few things to the secretary and asked the lawyer to repeat them, then he spoke with Alison briefly.  During the whole brief proceeding, the judge was playing with a couple of rubber bands.  Really.  After a few more words to the secretary, he had Andy and I sign something, and then we were told the procedure was finished. We took pictures behind the very-cluttered secretary's desk, and then said our thank-yous and good-byes.  It was all over in about 15 minutes.  I am not sure what I was expecting, but it was something along the lines of a hallowed courtroom and a judge presiding over a polished bench uttering words of wisdom and responsibility. I was not disappointed really, but it did seem a bit anti-climactic!

We decided to celebrate American-style so we went to a steakhouse and then to McDonald's for ice cream. When we were at the steakhouse, Jenna wanted to order hot chocolate. We were told they didn't have hot chocolate, but they did have cappuccino. Jenna passed on the cappuccino, but Alison said she would like one.  Oh my goodness!  The rest of us walked home after dinner, but I think Alison flew home.  She was literally bouncing off walls and talking non-stop. It was actually very comical--like a hamster on crack, I suppose.  Note to self: no más café for Señorita Alison!

So ended our much-anticipated day. We came home and finished Andy's packing so that he would be ready for the taxi to take him to the airport at 4 am.  Alison has been with us for 3 weeks now and we have felt like she was part of the family since Day 1.  Now it is just official with the courts.  Thank you, Jesus, for seeing us through this part of our venture.

Our family with the secretary (left), the judge (behind Alison) and Maria José (right)

And with lawyer.

What we were we thinking? 8-year old plus cappuccino....?!

The beginning of the caffeine intoxication! 

Sisters!

I just realized that there are hardly any pictures of me and Andy with Alison. I guess we like pictures of the girls, but we will have to work on that!  We will not be as a family again until we get home to Idaho, but I think we will be calling Loni and Shayleen to update our family pictures soon....

Court date, continued...

I will be glad when we get this court date thing worked out so that I can start blogging about more fun and interesting things! But, I promised to keep everybody up-to-date, so here is the latest:

We showed up at the courthouse early yesterday morning to "remind" our judge that he made a court date for us for Tuesday at 4 pm.  We arrived with a letter to him (in Spanish) telling him how important it is that Andy return to the States for work. We also had our sweet translator, Jenny, with us. El Senór Judge wanted nothing to do with us, waved off the letter (wouldn't even look at it) and told poor Jenny in no uncertain terms that he only told us the date would be on Tuesday because he felt pressured last week, and that he had no intentions of honoring that date. He also told Jenny that he is a good judge and a fair judge and that he wanted to take his time to review our case. (I guess he didn't say he was an HONEST judge...!) Needless to say, we were all speechless. He dismissed us with a growl and said something about Miercoles (Wednesday). I dissolved into tears--right after I called him a few choice words (in my head, of course).

We made a quick call to our in-country rep who basically said that there is nothing that she or anyone else could do. Well, we believe that there is a LOT that other people can do....so we put out calls and texts to our prayer warriors.  We received a lot of encouragement throughout the day and went to bed a little more hopeful, praying that the God of the Universe would be the One putting pressure on that judge!

Right after we went to bed Jenny called to say that our in-country rep found that our case had been posted on-line; that means that it was actually entered into the system (a good sign). Jenny said that we should be ready early in the morning just in case we got a call to go back to the courthouse. I set the alarm for 5:30, but woke up before then.  Andy and I got up and got some work done around the house and on the computer, but we didn't receive a call until 8:10...when we were told to leave immediately, get copies of our passports, and be at the courthouse.   We hailed a taxi, stopped at a copy shop, and arrived at the courthouse 20 minutes later....only to wait again.

Apparently we were at the courthouse to verify our signatures. (The signatures on our passports, dossier, and adoption application papers must all match before our court date.) We waited in a cramped office in front of a desk absolutely covered with papers (ours was somewhere in that mess!) and twiddled our thumbs while trying to get our breathing back to normal after literally running to the courthouse. As we were waiting, the song "All Out of Love" by Air Supply came on the radio behind us.  I was trying so hard not to laugh that I ended up crying. Here we were, sitting in the midst of South American chaos with a girl at the next desk tying up documents with string (yes, string) and one of my all-time favorite songs from high school took me right back to good old Oklahoma.    It was surreal.  After I got done singing along to Air Supply and a few other 80's soft rock hits, we finally signed a paper and were dismissed.  The secretary said she thinks that our court date will be tomorrow (have I heard that somewhere before?) but we won't find out until tonight.  So, I will call American Airlines yet again and re-schedule Andy's trip back home one more time.  Maybe Thursday?  At this point we would really like him to get home before Jamie leaves on Saturday because she needs the suitcases that he will be bringing back home! She will be filling them with the presents that Andy was supposed to bring when he returned for Christmas.  (Hint to Jamie: plan on packing light for yourself!)

Stay tuned....!

COURT DATE

Thursday was an incredibly disappointing and disheartening day. We went with MJB, our in-country rep, to see the judge to confirm our court date with him for Friday morning. After much gesticulating and pleading on our behalf, MJB was unable to get him to commit to Friday morning.  The judge was also gesticulating and pleading with MJB to make the court date on the following Tuesday. The Spanish was flying rapidly and I easily got lost...but I did keep hearing Martes (Tuesday).  All I could do was fight back tears. The judge happens to be a Christian man, and he was also invoking Dios (God) into the conversation...I am not really sure what that was about! After we left and met with our translator, we found out that he had a big judicial test on Saturday and needed to study on Friday.  Yeah, pretty sure he knew about that before Thursday...  But anyway, it is what it is. We cancelled Andy's flight home for Saturday and called our clinic to see what we could do about getting coverage for him next week. Our relief vet, Monica,  was supposed to have surgery on Tuesday, so that would leave us with no doctor on Tuesday and Wednesday and part of Thursday, at best.  (I can't even tell you how financially devastating that would be...) As of right now, Monica is trying to re-schedule her surgery so that she can continue to be there in Andy's absence.  Regardless of what happens this week, the delay in court date means that Andy will not be able to return to Quito for Christmas. We just simply cannot afford it.  Feliz Navidad, Mr. Judge!

We are also supposed to go to the judge's office this morning to "remind" him that we are supposed to go to court tomorrow.  Imagine if we made an appointment for you at our veterinary clinic, but you had to call the day before to "remind" us of that appointment.  Yeah, it's that crazy. Welcome to Latin America. I hardly slept last night and am just a wreck about this.  All I can do is pray that the God of the universe (and the God of this judge) is going before us to make this happen.

I would love to post some pictures and descriptions of our last few days, but I am just too consumed with this court thing.  I will post later about our meeting with the judge....please keep praying :)

POA, A Special Visit, Day Trippin', and more waiting...

Hi all!  This week started off great as we got the Power-of-Attorney thing taken care of on Monday. (This means that I am now Andy's legal representative in Ecuador and that I can spend all his money. ha!)
We spent the rest of the day Monday eagerly anticipating a visit from the Harlan family from Iowa. They spent a short night here on their way to Cuenca where they are adopting a little girl. The mom, Erin, and I have been communicating almost daily for months; she has been such an encouragement to me. It was wonderful to get to hug her in person and share a little time together. We are hoping that they can return to Quito to celebrate Christmas with us :)

Since we got up early Tuesday to see the Harlans off, we decided it would be a good day to try a day trip. We arranged a tour company to pick us up at our apartment at 7 am to take us to the market towns of Otavalo and Cotacachi. Little Miss Alison is NOT a morning person, so that was a bit of a challenge...but we made it. The drive north on the Pan-American Highway was a beautiful. We traveled through several micro-climates and saw mountains towering over 15,000 feet on our two-hour drive.  We also passed miles and miles of rose farms. Apparently roses grow best at the Equator--because the sun stays in one place, the roses grow straight and strong.  I never thought of that! Below is a picture of Andy and me in front of Imbabura Volcano. The indigenous people here believe that this volcano is their "Father".

Along the way, we also stopped at the Cotacachi Ecological Reserve and hiked up a ridge (in very thin air,  I might add...) to overlook a huge lake that formed in the mouth of the volcano. This lake is over 180 meters deep and 1.5 km in diameter and is a remnant of glacial melt from the last ice age.  They know that the volcano is not entirely dormant as there are areas of the lake where bubbles and the smell of sulfur are observed occasionally.  I wouldn't want to be there if that thing blows!

We arrived early at the market in Otavalo and practically had the place to ourselves.  On the weekends, all the roads are closed and the place is teeming with vendors and tourists, but it was pretty quiet on a Tuesday morning. The colors of the marketplace were so beautiful.

Jenna loved trying on all the cute hats.

Alison was pretty thrilled with this llama.
She named him Bernado Jose Broaddus.

We then visited the lovely town of Cotacachi, best known for its leather goods. We ate at a great restaurant and sampled typical Ecuadorian dishes. We did not, however, order the cuy (guinea pig). But at $15 a cuy, we are thinking of going into the business!  haha  We were entertained at lunch by this three-some....the little boy could not have been more than 4 or 5!

So, after doing our best to support the local economy, we decided to call it a day and headed home. We enjoyed the scenery just as much on the way home as we did on the way there. 

We spent yesterday (Wednesday) trying to get caught up on school work for Allie and Jenna (trying...) and waiting to hear from our agency representative here (Maria José) as to whether or not we got a court date for this coming Friday. We finally heard from her at 10 pm...and she said she is still not sure. Apparently the judge has tentatively agreed to meet with us Friday morning at 8 am, but we are still waiting confirmation. We will go to the courthouse with Maria José this afternoon to see what we can do. We are fervently praying that we get our court date for tomorrow morning (Friday) as Andy is scheduled to go home on Saturday. As much as I don't want him to leave, we need him to go home and work for a few weeks. So, we are still in the business of praying....and waiting.  Please pray with us :) Thanks, ya'll!  

Flying backwards....upside down...into uncharted territory!

Yep, that's me, on a zip line. Suspended hundreds of feet above the forest canopy, upside down, and traveling backwards at a high rate of speed towards an unknown destination. What a rush! (I know, I still can't believe I did it!)  Anyhow, that experience pretty much sums up our last week.  We have entered "uncharted territory" in our family and sometimes it feels like we are going to take a huge fall from a very high place. 

Our first week with Alison was really good, but now she has begun to test our boundaries and our love.  I know that she is processing a lot of grief and fear and uncertainty right now and that behavioral issues are only to be expected.  We have just had to adjust our lives to prevent some of the predictable problems. We seem to have more problems when we leave our home (to do shopping or touristy things) so we are just limiting our excursions. Alison does really well outside at the park, so we are spending more time there.  

The good news is that after a big melt-down last week, she is doing much better. She is also communicating with us more, so I am sure that is helping. I can't believe how quickly she is picking up English words! We celebrate each new "palabra" (word) with a big high-five and she seems really proud of herself.  Andy and I are also getting better with our Spanish, and she doesn't hesitate to correct us now. I am sure she hates hearing her native language so butchered! We also use Google translate; that has helped a lot. 

Although we had to cut our trip short, our excursion to Mindo last week was fascinating. It was so beautiful and we stayed at a really nice hotel that surprised me with a birthday cake after dinner. 

The girls really enjoyed swimming in the big pools and watching the beautiful butterflies. We all did the zipline excursion and it really was a blast. Jenna and Alison went with guides for 5 of the 7 lines, but did two of them solo! Crazy stuff! 

We did a little Christmas decoration shopping this weekend, so our home is looking a little festive. The owner of our apartment left us a nice Christmas tree and decorations. Wasn't that so nice?   We now have lights and garland and a nativity that we got at the historical center of Quito last week. (I collect nativities, and I am excited to have an authentic Ecuadorian nativity.) 

We went to church at the English Fellowship Church yesterday and really enjoyed the service again. We also met a lot of people and just enjoyed soaking up some familiar American culture. The highlight of our weekend was getting to know a missionary family that we initially met at the park our first day here. Allie met some nice girls, ages 15 and 13, at the park that first day and then we ran into their mom at the grocery store on Saturday. The whole family (there are 6 beautiful kids)  came to visit yesterday and we couldn't have been more thrilled.  We were incredibly blessed to hear their life story and how they were called into full-time missions work.  They live near us and we hope to get together with them again soon :)

Today we are anticipating the arrival of some dear friends from Iowa. Although we have never met, I have been communicating with the mom, Erin, since last summer as we were both involved with the Ecuadorian adoption process. She and her husband are adopting a little girl from Cuenca (south of here). They will fly into Quito tonight and spend the night with us before going to Cuenca in the morning. We are soooo excited to see them and spend a little time with them! 

I will close out for now. If you want to see more pictures, check out my Facebook :)  Allie will be getting more up today. (She is my picture guru!) Thank you so much for the words of encouragement and for all the prayers that have been lifted up for us the past week. We cherish each and every one of them and know that your prayers are working.  I can't wait to see what God has in store for us this week...!

Catch Up

I knew I never should have taken a day off from blogging...now I am overwhelmed and avoiding it! I will just do a quick re-cap of the last four days and then plan to do a better job of staying up-to-date from now on!

Saturday: We spent the day with Alison's foster family and went to a wonderful restaurant called El Cafe de la Vaca outside of the city (in Machachi) where we got to sample a lot of traditional Ecuadorian food. I think my favorite was the empanadas...and the little corn cakes....and the roasted corn...etc! The highlight of the trip for Jenna were the cow-spotted toilets that went along with the rest of the cow decor in the restaurant :) All in all, we had a great day getting to know Alison's foster family better and learning a lot about Ecuador with them.

Sunday: We visited an English Fellowship Church that is only 6 blocks from our apartment.  It was a wonderful service and we enjoyed meeting people from all over the US that are here in Ecuador for many different reasons. We look forward to worshipping there in the weeks to come and making new friends.

Monday: We visited the historical center of Quito, including a church that was built in the 1500's! The historical churches are just amazing...incredibly ornate and beautiful. Of course, I kept thinking that the amount of gold that was used in the decor of those churches could possibly solve world hunger today...but hey, who am I to question how the pontiffs invested their cash hundreds of years ago?! There is much to see and do in the historical center and I am sure we will go there again during our stay here.

Tuesday: We went to a shopping mall and then to Parque Carolina. Parque Carolina is Quito's "Central Park". It was a beautiful day and the girls got to run off some pent-up energy and we got to enjoy some sunshine. Andy got a nice sunburn on his face and Allie's nose is a little pink....it did not seem that warm out, but at 10,000 feet altitude and at the equator the sun is much closer than you realize!

Today we also met again with our in-country adoption rep who attempted to explain to us where we are at in the adoption process. Basically she told us that our "bonding period" is over now and that the social worker wrote a favorable report that was submitted to the Ecuadorian committee of adoptions. The next step is to get a court date with a judge who will grant us the adoption decree. We are still hoping that we can go to court next week. After that, Andy can go home for a couple weeks and I can continue the process here with his power of attorney.  We have a problem with the power of attorney that needs to be taken care of soon, however. As it turns out, there was a typo with my middle name and that needs to be fixed with the adoption committee before we can get the power-of-attorney.  The adoption committee meets this Thursday and it can hopefully be fixed then. Please pray with us that it can be taken care of without incident on Thursday!

We have been given the okay to travel a little and do some tourist-y stuff while we are waiting for a court date. We are looking into going to the Mindo cloud forest tomorrow and staying there for a couple days.  Hopefully I can find a wi-fi spot so I can keep in touch and share photos of the scenery there! The cloud forest is like the Amazon rainforest...only much closer to Quito and without a lot of the health concerns that plague the rainforest area (like yellow fever).  We are really looking forward to going there and seeing a lot of really cool plants and animals.  Time to do a little laundry and pack...again.  Thank goodness we will be packing much lighter for this trip!

Retail Therapy

     Today we had our first visit from the social worker since Alison came to stay with us. To be honest, it was the first time we had seen Alison a little bit sad. I cannot even imagine what is going through her mind right now and we think she is doing amazingly well...but she must be dealing with so many feelings.  So, we decided to keep her busy today and do what any good American girl does when she is stressed....go shopping! Actually, it was Alison's idea and we were happy to oblige :) She and Jenna rode the little kiddie rides at the mall and bought sweets and giggled...a lot. They also bought new shoes to go with their Christmas dresses. I should note that clothes and shoes here (even at Payless) cost about 1-1/2 to 2 times as much as in the States! The taxi ride to the mall was pretty cheap, though, and it was a good way to spend the day.  The malls here are decorated for Christmas and I liked the purple decor on the trees in this picture. I also like the mischievous expression on Alison's face :)
    I was sorry to miss Black Friday shopping with my friend Angie today, but we enjoyed our shopping adventure in Ecuador. (We definitely could have used some Black Friday deals, however...!) And we didn't have to stay up all night :)  All in all, it was a very good day.

Dia de Gracias

    Today was no ordinary Thanksgiving Day for our family. As you can see, we celebrated Alison's first full day with our family and we have ever so much to be thankful for.  We met Alison for the first time yesterday and she chose to come back to our apartment to spend the night. The girls have been inseparable since and we are so enjoying getting to know this sweet, beautiful, and funny girl who is already calling me "Mo-om" with two syllables, just like Jenna does.
   The only thing that would have made today more perfect is if Jamie could have been with us. Instead, she celebrated with my family in Oklahoma and got to have two dinners :) I figured out how to call her over Skype tonight so we had a long conversation and she got to try out her Spanish conversational skills with her new sister. Alison is already picking up English words and we think that she is very intelligent. She knows her way around an iPad and is using a translation app to communicate with us when we just don't get it. She just types in the Spanish words and it translates to English! Pretty amazing!
    Alison was with a wonderful foster family who I know are grieving terribly for her right now. As much as we are enjoying Alison, I know they are missing her so much. I can't help but think of them today and am so incredibly thankful for how much they have loved Alison and cared for her--all while preparing her for her forever family. I am amazed at how God is weaving our lives together and I know that they will be a part of our family forever.
    We meet with the social workers tomorrow who will observe Alison with us and see how she is doing. If all goes well, they will write a favorable report and we will proceed with the next steps of the adoption.
Alison seems to be happy and when she spoke with her foster mom tonight she told her that she is "muy, muy, muy feliz...a very good sign.
    A very happy Thanksgiving indeed!
   

And we are off...

Aside from some weight "re-distribution" issues and a ticket agent asking us if we were MOVING to Ecuador, we managed to get on the plane with little incident. I want to throw out a huge thank-you to my dad for donating his air miles to our trip. His Platinum status meant we got Priority Seating...definitely a bonus! Jamie is also boarding a flight to Tulsa right now..so we ask for prayers for travel mercies for all of us. We will be in touch!

Ready to Go!

Can you believe all these bags? Trust me, it was no small feat packing for a family of 5, soon to be 6, for a period of six weeks! We also have 3 large duffel bags full of supplies/gifts that we can't wait to take to the orphanage. Thank you so much to all you generous friends who helped fill those bags! (One question: where were you when it was time to load those bags? FYI: peanut butter is HEAVY...) haha
We managed to fit all those bags in the Durango and even left a little room for Allie and Jenna. We are on the road now to Seattle. More later...

I wonder what she will think about this?

In the midst of my crazy day today, I took out time to take some pictures of our beautiful snow so that we could show our new daughter in Ecuador what she has to look forward to upon coming to Idaho. I couldn't help but wonder what she is going to think about SNOW...and about so many other foreign things. I can't even begin to imagine what is going through her little mind right now. She knows that we are coming, and we are told that she is excited....but I am sure that she is very scared as well.  Even though she does not have a family in Ecuador, she will be leaving everything familiar in her life to start a new life in a new place with a new language, new foods, new routines, and new sights. And snow. I hope she will like the snow. We can work on all the rest....but not much can be done about snow in north Idaho! I like snow because it blankets the world with beauty and makes everything seem brand new. It's like we get a fresh start each time it snows.  I hope Alison is looking forward to her fresh start. And snow.

The purpose of this blog...

     Hello there and welcome to my feeble attempt to join the blogosphere! I have created this blog so that I can keep friends and family updated as we travel to Ecuador to adopt our daughter.
     For those of you who don't know by now, we have been in the process of adopting an 8-year old girl from Quito, Ecuador since January of this year. I could write a book about our international adoption adventure up until this point...but our upcoming travels promise to be much more exciting than the interminable waiting that has been the sum of our experience so far. Suffice it to say that this whole adoption process is not for the faint-at-heart...it has been a rollercoaster ride and has definitely tested our faith at times. However, we serve a God who is incredibly good;  His will has prevailed and His peace has kept us sane (well, mostly).
     I hope to give you some background information about what led us to adopt an older child from a foreign country in future posts.  However....I am completely overwhelmed with a million and one details that must be attended to before we can leave the country IN 3 DAYS, so consider this the "practice post" so I can see if it really works.  Hopefully I will have time to keep up with this blog so that you can join us on our journey to Ecuador :)