Waiting to travel

I am starting this blog mostly as way to remember this special time waiting for Stefania to join us.  We meaning, my husband Angel, our two biological daughters, Iliana, almost 5, and Natalia almost 2 and a half and our menagerie of pets.  (Okay it's only a dog, a cat and a box turtle).

For the last two years, we knew we would be adopting from Colombia.  We swore it was a boy and we had a nickname for him.  We called him Max and we prayed for him every night.  I prayed for his birth mother and whatever circumstances that were leading her to place her baby for adoption.  I would pick up little trinkets for a boy being that I had two girls, I loved thinking of blue for a change.  What's that saying, when we make plans, God laughs?  

In early February this year, I contacted our adoption agency and asked if they thought we would be traveling this year since we were making our plans for the year.  We were told it was highly unlikely.  We had at least another year wait to get our son.  We were approved to adopt an infant 0-3 from Chiquitines, an orphanage from Cali, Colombia, but the waiting list was long for infants and toddlers.  I was disappointed but decided to go forward with plans to return to work when the girls went to school.  I signed up to do a triathlon and another half marathon.  

Imagine my surprise when I received a call from our original social worker about a possible referral.  I asked why was it a "possible" referral?  "Well..."she replied, "it's a girl."  I laughed because many times I had joked with Angel, "you know we are going to end up with another girl, right?"  Angel and I had said if a special girl was presented to us, we would consider it.  Turns out, this baby, and she was a 7 month old baby, had been diagnosed with psycho motor retardation because of a leg that had uncontrollable spasms when she was 2 months old.  Because of this diagnosis, she had not been adopted yet.  She had been in the orphanage since she was born and was perfectly healthy except for these spasms in her left leg.  Angel and I discussed this referral after getting all of her history.  For days we went back and forth on whether we should accept the referral, not based on her health, which we were prepared for (which is why we got the call, we were open to some minor special health needs) but because in our hearts and minds, we were prepared for a boy.   We didn't want to say anything to anyone until we were sure but the more we talked, the more we realized this is a house of princesses.  We asked our eldest, a very wise 4 and a half going on 34 year old, what if she got a baby sister instead of a baby brother.  She said, "another baby sister? That would be awesome!"  And so with the blessing of our two daughters, we accepted the referral for another beautiful daughter.  Even her name blended in perfectly with our other daughters' names: Iliana, Natalia, Stefania.  She was meant to be in our family.

Since late February, we have been running around updating documents and psych reports, struggling with NJ's Notary Unit to get everything apostilled or authenticated for the adoption process.  Our I 800 was approved in a record 10 days and now we are just waiting for our Article 5 letter so we can travel to Colombia to pick up our new princess. 

Today we received some new pictures and development information since our doctor had asked for it.  She is crawling, sits up on her own, and says "Tata".  (She is saving Mama for me:)  She does have a lazy eye but that is nothing.  She is growing beautifully.  Iliana and Natalia were so excited to see her picture and said their baby sister is "sooooo cute."  Angel and I agree.