The Last Three Days

First and foremost I want to say thanks to everyone for your outpouring of support. We have received TONS of phone calls and cards offering to help us out while we get ready for the children and make our plans for our trip. And, thanks so much for your generous gifts...everyone has been so helpful.

Now for an update...

I must say the last three days and the paperwork that I needed to do has been the most challenging up to this point.

Monday night I called Delta Airlines because 2 weeks ago when I started to research possible flights, I found some on Delta that would work for us. I spent and hour on the phone and I put the flights on hold because anyone who knows me knows I had to make sure that these were the best fares that I could find.

So the next day I had my Dad searching online for any possible flights and I had a travel agent looking into flights as well. By Tuesday afternoon, I needed to make a decision because I couldn't complete the next step of the process - the visa application - without having copies of our tickets to attach with it.

The travel agent called and was surprised but could not do better than the flights I found. So we will be flying to Atlanta and then to Bogotá. It is only a 4 hour or so flight to Bogotá from Atlanta and coming home we fly into Atlanta and have a 3 hour layover - then home to Pittsburgh!.

Now with the flights booked, I moved on to the visa application. My agency has been great with providing all the instructions that were needed for each of the documents we have done and I had no problems breezing through the instructions for each. But this one got me!

There are a dozen or more consulate offices for Colombia in the United States. Each state is assigned to a specific office. Pennsylvania happens to be assigned to the one in New York City. So I found the website and printed the applications. Now this is the tricky part. Each office requires a slightly different list of documents...and they always seem to changing the list.

I emailed the consulate and did not hear back, so I started to gather items that my agency felt I would need. This included 2 copies of each of our passport pages, 4 passport size photos each, copies of our tickets, the letter from the ICBF in Colombia matching us with our children and a letter from us requesting visas. With all the documents ready, I met Scott at the post office for him to sign the application. I needed to send this overnight with a prepaid envelope for them to return our passport prior to us leaving on July 23rd.

So last night I sighed a sigh of relief that this was all done...so I thought. Today, when I checked my email, there was an email from New York and it said that if I was going to use a prepaid envelope to make sure it was with the post office and not Fed Ex. I responded saying great that is what I did and that I overnighted the packet to them with a prepaid envelope to return our passports.

An hour later they respond with..."I don't think you understand. You have to apply for a visa IN PERSON"....again a moving target. It seems they change this rule every once in a while and as it stands tonight we will be confirming this tomorrow and confirming that they have our application and will hold it because it looks like Monday we will be going to New York City!...oh my goodness...we'll definitely keep you updated on whether we will be going to NYC next week.

While it really wasn't in our plans to take a trip to NYC (I thought we were supposed to head SOUTH to Colombia not NORTH!) and I'm not quite sure I understand it all I do know this...that since the beginning of this adventure Scott and I have decided to put it all up to God...He has been there for us at every turn...whether the turns have set us back or moved us forward it always seems that He knows best which path we should take...and look where we are now - new parents to Carol, John-Freddy and Anji...wow what gifts He has provided to us ...so I looked to Bible to try and find a way to express what I'm feeling and I think I found it in Proverbs 3:5:
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

This hasn't always been easy to do...sometimes I want to keep a little of my heart for myself...but when I finally end up giving that last little bit to Him He never lets me down.

Love,
Donna