Defender of Minors

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his Holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing. Psalm 68:5-6



The past week has been incredible and we are so thankful to have made it to this point in the process with the children. Today we went before the person here in Colombia known as the Defender of Minors. The woman whom we met with is basically in charge of the children's wellbeing programs for this region. We needed her approval in order to continue on with our adoption and present our case before the judge. After our meeting we went to our lawyer's office and then to the notary. Long before that point, the children were done with the running around and began asking when they could come back to the house we are now staying at. Instead of adding the court to our list of places to go, we gave the lawyer power of attorney and she headed to the courts without us to submit our case. This was a much better plan since it was lunch time and all the children were ready to crash and recover from the morning.



This morning's meeting with the Defensora was good and difficult. The children were very scared to go back to the building where we recieved them. I imagine that for them this building and some of the key figures there (psychologist, social workers, etc.) represent all of the loss in their lives up to this point. It was there and through the diligent work of those people that they lost their first family, and then again that they lost their subsequent foster family. There was an understandable fear that by us bringing them back there for this meeting we were going to leave them there; and that they would lose us, too. What a process for such young minds to try to grasp!



I am thankful that the older girls and I sat up last night and talked through the process for an hour and a half. We worked through details about what it means to be adopted and what it feels like to be adopted, how adoptive families function and what other people think of adoptive families. They don't know other children who have been adopted, so they are at a loss as to be able to imagine what it will be like for them in the future. In the entire discussion I couldn't help but be amazed at the way that the Lord paved the way for this discussion to take place. He orchestrated in my life the key events and people to help me to be able to explain this to them. They were amazed to hear how my parents had always told my brother and I with love about our adoptions. How it wasn't a secret or something we were forbidden to talk about, nor was it something we had to constantly discuss. My parents provided a strong, clear foundation for my understanding of my adoption that has continued to reap benefits even today. In addition, the girls were surprised to find out that we know other people with adopted children. They were worried that they would be the only ones who were adopted, that our family would be the only family who was "different" in this way. These are such well thought out questions and so deserving of answers. I am so grateful for the teachers in my past who diligently pressed on to teach me Spanish, espcially Dr. Giovenco at Northwestern. Without all of the homework from his class, I never could have successfully explained all of this to the girls without an interpreter adding her own thoughts to it or "sharing" our moment. It was so special to have that time with the girls last night and it made today's meeting even better because I knew we had shared our hearts and our hopes for the future. I am in awe of how the Lord has paved the way to bring each of our precious children home!



The past week has been overwhelming trying to adjust to all of the new things for our family, but with God's grace we are managing one day, one step at a time. Right now we have one little one with a fever and some tummy troubles (but nothing severe enough to miss out on a movie with the hermanos). We have battled the blessing of lice together. (Those of you who have adopted and dealt with lice know how much of a bonding time this can be.) And we have ventured out and changed lodging options to a very quiet place in the country in order to give the kids some space to run and a pool to splash in. This was a particularily difficult decision because we loved the people who owned and worked at the last hotel where we stayed, but it was in the center of the city and too difficult for us to do anything with the children there. The people there were an incredible blessing to us, praying for us and ministering to our hearts, but after spending the weekend here in the country we have decided this is where we need to stay as we wait out the sentencia. We have the option of returning to Bogota to wait it out and having Nic return to sign the sentencia, but being together here where it is warm and sunny every day is good for all of us, especially when we will be returning to the arctic soon enough! Unfortunatley, the children are getting very used to playing in the pool every day and taking walks down the country road with the neighbor's dog. The new children have trouble remembering that this is not "home" and all of the children have trouble remembering that Simon, the dog next door, is NOT our dog. The poor sweeties are all animal lovers - we'll have to get a fish!



The next step of the process can take anywhere from one week to three or four depending on the judge we are assigned to. This region is typically much faster and we were told to expect two weeks for the judge to sign the sentencia (adoption decree). Please pray for there to be no errors in any paperwork and for the judge to be gracious towards our family. Pray for the lousy lice to just go away! And pray for our littlest girl with the tummy troubles. Hopefully this was food related and not parasite or otherwise related! Ah, the joys of being a cheerful giver in a large family - so much to share and receive: lice, intestinal parasites, colds, and lots, and lots of hugs! Praise the Lord for the blessing of the children who all seem to love one another so much.