Hola Colombia!!!

We've had a great time on vacation so far. We started the trip off staying with Eric's brother and sister-in-law in Indy for a couple of days and then stayed two days in Orlando where we hung out with Eric's sister, brother-in-law and niece. We all had a blast as we visited Downtown Disney and swam in the rain for about 4 hours one of the days. Then traveled to Ft. Lauderdale, where we stayed with a sweet friend (the mother of one of my friend's from home). She was such a delight to us, taking care of us as if we were her own. She sat with the kids for about 4 hours while Eric and I had our orientation with our adoption agency. A few weeks ago we had the first visit of our home study at the office of the agency giving our home study. We were going in thinking we'd be adopting from the Congo. On our way out, our social worker, knowing our hearts for the waiting child, shared her experience concerning waiting children from Colombia with us. We went home, prayed and decided to go on vacation praying and to come back with an answer from vacation, Lord willing. Was it going to be Congo or Colombia? We really believed our orientation with this agency in Ft. Lauderdale would confirm one way or the other, and it did! It's final, we will be bringing our little Colombians! Our orientation was amazing! A lot of emotion and excitement was partnered with the education of what to expect on this journey. Of course that would happen when one of the ladies who met with us adopted from Colombia and the other is Colombian! We left 45 minutes later than we should've but are prepared to walk forward towards bringing our children home from Colombia. Eric and I have a big heart for two specific details in this adoption process. These are: the age range of 0-9 years old and to have 2 siblings. While we will prayerfully consider anything that comes to us along the way, as I said earlier, we are strongly burdened for the waiting child. While birthdays are one of the most exciting days in the year for a child, it it is quite the opposite for the waiting orphan who has no family to celebrate with. Every birthday for an orphan is a reminder that they are only getting older and the chances of them getting adopted goes down with each year. Here are some statistics about Colombia that were tools for our decision making along the way. These statistics reveal a social crisis: * 54% of pregnancies in Colombia are unplanned. * 60% of the population is under the age of eighteen. * There are 800,000 children born yearly. * Over 56,000 children are currently in protective custody. * There are only 8 private orphanages in the country. * Currently over 7,200 children in Colombia are legally free for adoption but are awaiting homes. The government considers these children to be "special needs" because they are over 2 years of age. "Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act." Proverbs 24:12 So, there you have it. Please pray for us as we continue on this journey of bringing our children home. Spread the word about our music. Buy a song or two, and help bring our children to us! God bless.