Not so fast...

First off we apologize for the multiple emails you received concerning this entry. There was an issue with our mail servers last night and when we sent out the notifications we were receiving no indication that they had sent successfully...so we kept resending.

Now for the entry...

It's funny...lately I've been reading (and re-reading) a book - Chasing Daylight by Erwin McManus - lead pastor of Mosaic church in Los Angeles. The book basically uses the biblical account of Israel's war with the Philistines (1 Samuel 13 and 14) and the characters of Saul and Jonathan to demonstrate the difference between living a life of purpose and adventure, and living one of apathy and missed opportunity.

I just read where McManus discusses the phrase "When God closes a door He opens a window". Or the one that goes "The safest place to be is in the center of God’s will". But McManus counters these with the following:

Stick with me here I'm getting to a point...I promise...

Earlier this week when I read this I said "Amen!"...little did I know that I would be put to the test on this just a few days later...it seems we've hit a bit of 'wall' that stands between us and this 'great opportunity'. Without going into much detail basically there has been some confusion with the process of gaining our visas from the Colombian consulate.

I realize that earlier this week we wrote that this had been all settled and that we did NOT have to go in person - based on the fact that the Colombian consulate called us personally and said "you do not need to be here in person we will issue the visas ". However, Wednesday afternoon we received word from them that WE(?!) were mistaken and that we do, in fact, need to go in person to be interviewed. Today our agency exhausted every effort to try and get this overturned. But to no avail.

So now comes the "genuine effort" requirement that Erwin McManus was talking about.

None of this would be much of problem - we could just go up there tomorrow, Friday, to be interviewed and receive our visas and then leave Monday...however, tomorrow happens to be Colombia's Independence Day and the consulate's office is closed. Therefore nothing can be done until Monday at the earliest to attempt to get them. Which means we cannot leave for Colombia Monday and we need to reschedule our flights for another day. Which, by the way we need copies of the tickets as part of the paperwork in order to get our visas.

No biggie right? Except that with nothing being able to be done about the visas until Monday - that makes it impossible for us to make it for the appointment set up for Wednesday of next week for us to meet the children. And again, with it being Colombia's Independence Day tomorrow, nothing is open and we cannot reschedule until Monday and we do not know how soon they will be able to reschedule the "Presentation of the Children" appointment. Could be next Thursday or a week from next Thursday...we won't know until Monday.

Therefore, we need to do the following steps:
Monday
1. Call and reschedule the children presentation meeting
2. Re-book the flights dependent upon that appt.
3. Call the consulate and make an appt. for an interview for our visas since we would now have copies of our tickets to present

Hopefully, we'll be heading to NYC Tuesday or Wednesday for the visas. Then head out to Colombia a day or two after that - but that is a best guess based on the info we have at the moment.

So, now we have a few extra days to prepare the house, watch a few more episodes of 'Leave it to Beaver' and look forward to meeting our children. This'll just make the day we meet that much sweeter. This is all part of it...its almost like Donna was having false contractions and we had one foot out the door to the hospital. We'll get there - it's all in His timing.

Thanks again for everyone's support and love. We'll keep you updated.

Love,
Scott & Donna