Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Feliz Navidad!

Feliz Navidad!

In Venezuela we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. We get together and have dinner as a family (a very late dinner). Then children go and play and at midnight baby Jesus bring them gifts (usually one per child). Oh, how many good memories I have from this holiday! Of course, now I live in US and I kind of got used to the tradition here to celebrate on the 25th. We will have lunch with Talley's mom and dinner with Talley's dad where my brother Max will join us with his special friend.

No matter what tradition we follow, this year is special. It is the first time that we are working toward expanding our family. Yesterday, December 23rd, we sent the last paperwork needed in our Dossier to be sent to Colombia. That is a HUGE milestone! Anybody who have gone through this process know how important is to complete and collect all the documents. Now start one of the less expected parts of the journey: to wait. Wait to have our documents translated and send to Colombia (2-3 weeks). Wait for the Colombian goverment to give us approval to adopt there (could take three months or more). Then we will have to wait again to get a referral for our beautiful child (+/- 2 years). So we are expecting to be celebrating Christmas with a child in 2011 (if we are lucky). Hey, I'm not complaining because he/she is not here yet, I'm happy because it is sooner than at the beginning of the process!

During this time, and during this particular holiday I will always be greatful for the beautiful family I have. I'm very lucky to have found one of the best human beeing in the world: Talley who will also be one of the best fathers ever! (I saw him last night playing with his little cousins and niece, he is soooo ready to be a dad!). Yes, I have been very blessed in my life to be surrounded by wonderful people on this season.

May this holiday season bring you happiness in your life. Feliz Navidad!



Friday, December 19, 2008

Latest update

New update in our list!!!!

Home Study - ready
FBI Clearance - ready
Birth certificate - ready
Marriage certificate (long form) - ready
Employment letter - ready
Physician letter - ready
Psychological assessment- ready
Name affidavit - ready


As you can see, all the documents changed to ready status.  Including the FBI clearance!  What does it mean?  We are ready to mail our documents to our agency so they can review them and send them to Colombia!!!   YES!!!!!!


On the other hand, Talley and I had to take off from work today to go to San Antonio to the Immigration office to get our fingerprints taken (this time for the I800A document).  Our appointment was schedule at 9am. We left Austin at 6:30am to avoid morning traffic.  We really avoided it!  We arrive to the office around 8am.  We took breakfast in a close IHOP, and arrived back to the office a little bit before 9am.  We were done with the entire process at 9:10! It was less than 10 minutes total!  We headed back to Austin immediately.  I had time to get (again) our physician reports and get them Apostille very quickly.  All before noon, it was a very productive morning!!!  

Now it is time to get ready for Christmas.  The tree is up, decorations are out of the boxes.  We still don't know exactly what are we doing on Christmas day because Talley's dad will have a minor surgery on Tuesday, so maybe we will celebrate another day.  Who knows... we still have time to plan ;-)

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Progress

At this point in Adoption, we are following two different process. One with the US Goverment and the other one with the Colombian Goverment.

The one in US is to request permission to bring an orphan here. They are requesting our biometrics (to be done on 12/19 - received letter on 12/09).

The other one is the paper chasing to complete our dossier to send to Colombia. This is the current status:

Home Study - needs Apostille
FBI Clearance for each adoptive parent. - At the FBI, it will be a week tomorrow that they received it.
Birth certificate of each adoptive parent (long form) - Talley's needs Apostille. Nancy's ready.
Marriage certificate (long form) - Needs to get Apostille.
Employment letter for each adoptive parent (if applicable). Needs Apostille.
Physician letter for each adoptive parent - Needs Apostille.
Psychological assessment of the couple or single adoptive parent - Needs Apostille.
Name affidavit - Needs Apostille.

All the documents that need Apostille are ready to be taken to the Secretary of State. I should be doing very soon!

The dossier also needs to include photos of us, the house, our families and our dogs!!! This is a work in progress.

So, we soon will arrive to a stopping point waiting for the FBI clearance before being able to send the documents to Colombia. When the dossier is ready, it has to be translate and then submit to the ICBF. Hopefully that will happen the second week of January, the latest.

~Nancy

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

I-797C, Notice of Action

So a couple of things had happen these days.

First, Talley's little sister Savannah (17) with her choir sang on the White House today!!!  Check the video (sec. 37). 

On Sunday, after arriving from work I decided to look at our mailbox.  Silly me because Talley check the mail on Saturday, and there is not delivery on Sunday!!!  But when I opened it, I found the letter from USCIS acknowledging that they received our I800!!!  That is very exciting :-)  But not only that, but today we got our letters with appointments to get our Biometrics done!  That means that the process is moving :D
Other than that, we put out our Christmas tree, and decided that our child will learn about the true meaning of this festivities.  Baby Jesus will bring our child a gift on Christmas.   Santa can take care of the rest of the world ;-)

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Dossier

We are currently working on getting together our dossier.  This is a collection of documents that we need to send to Colombia to get their approval and enter the waiting list.  

So far, this is what we need to collect:

  • Home Study - Received, needs Apostille
  • FBI Clearance for each adoptive parent. - Sent today to FBI!!  Yes!! It may take a couple of weeks to have it back.
  • Birth certificate of each adoptive parent (long form) - Getting Nancy's Apostille in LA; Talley's gets Apostille in Austin.
  • Marriage certificate (long form) - Needs to get Apostille.
  • Employment letter for each adoptive parent (if applicable). Waiting for HR to give them to us to have them notarized and Apostille.
  • Physician letter for each adoptive parent - Should arrive on the mail next week, then needs to gets Apostille.
  • Psychological assessment of the couple or single adoptive parent - Waiting for psychologist to finish the report, notarized and Apostille. .
  • Name affidavit - explaining that I'm the same person with maiden and married last name. Needs notary and Apostille.

  • We are waiting to have all the documents together and notarized to go to the Secretary of State and authenticate the notary signature (that is Apostille). So right now, there is nothing else that we can do about the dossier, we are waiting in everybody else to get back to us.

    In another hand, I (Nancy) found that we are able to get our fingerprints done for FREE in our office!!!  And the Administrative Assistance will notarized all our documents there too...FREE!  That saves us trips to the bank and money!!!!

    Wow... today is a good day :-)

    Thursday, November 20, 2008

    I800A

    I800a form is on its way to Chicago!!!
    Talley reviewed the form yesterday, we re-read our home study to make sure we were really approve to have a child. All the documents were attached.

    After considering several times how to send the document out, I though about doing it via USPS. They have never lost one of my packages, and they are usually on time with delivery. So right when I was turning to the street where the postal office is it at, I though that I don't want to take the risk with this important document, so I went to the UPS distribution center (very close to the postal office). There this beautiful lady took my package and told me that it will be there on Monday!. I felt so good sending this out that I went to Starbucks to get a White Chocolate Mocha to celebrate. When I arrive home I realized that I didn't put the money order on the envelope to USCIS!! OMG! I was freaking out. Without the money order, they will not do ANYTHING and things may get delayed just for that. So I called their customer service to ask them not to ship the package, and the lady told me to go back to the office that should not be any problem. I got there, explained to the lady what happened, and she without any problem got my package back, opened, got a new envelope, printed a new sticker, put the documents inside with the money order. No problems no delays!!!

    I'm sure that if I tried to do the same with USPS it would be impossible because I usually use their kiosk and nobody should be able to help me. God is in our side in this journey, and he made me change my mind about the courier right in time!

    I LOVE UPS! I will be there very often with adoption documents!

    Tuesday, November 18, 2008

    What is next?


    Ok, great, we got approved!!! That is a HUGE milestone, but it is one of many steps in our path.

    What are we doing now?
    We are completing all the documents needed to send to Colombia. The psychologist report should be ready this week. Employment letters need to be re-written, doctor report needs to be redone And there are still more papers to get. But it will not take us too long. This collection of documents is called dossier.

    Also, we are filling our I800A form, that is basically asking permission to the goverment of US to bring an orphan to the country. It usually takes 90 days to get the approval. Luckily, this document doesn't hold the process at all.

    Tuesday, November 4, 2008

    We voted

    I just realized that I was very excited this morning when I posted here, that I totally forgot about the election!

    For our child who will eventually read this blog: I want to let you know that your parents participated in this historic elections. We went last week to vote. Your dad and I went to the Goodwill close to our house and casted our vote for Obama. You should be very proud of us, because we were thinking about the future that we want you to have in this country. I hope we made the right decision ;-)


    I am not a criminal!

    I am not a criminal! At least not in Venezuela (or Texas). And I have a document in my hands that says so. Well, I don’t have the original any more because it was delivered this morning to our home study agency. But I have pretty copies that remind me that I have clearance in my own country!
    I was glowing this morning when I delivered the background check to the agency, a HUGE smile was in my face, ear to ear. I’m still glowing, and it will last for a long time :-)

    Disclaimer: Talley and I have FBI clearance in most of the states of US thanks to our line of work. We get a background check at work very often!!!

    Wednesday, October 29, 2008

    Happy Dance... Miracles DO happen!



    OMG.. thinking about the title of this very short post I have come with more than a thousand!

    My mom just received my background check and she already shipped it to us! It should be arriving to Austin very soon. What about that? Miracles do happen :-)
    With this document, our home study will be ready!

    On the other hand… Talley and I talked about where to apply for our child, in a casa privada or at ICBF. With the suggestion of our placement agency, we decided to submit a preliminary application to the casa privada (they only need the official home study and the report from the psychologist). If we do not get in their wait list in six months, we will apply with ICBF.

    At the same time that we apply for the casa privada (Los Pisingos), we will request permission to the government of US to bring an orphan home, and that could take up to 90 days to get. So our decision may only delay the process three months.

    So we may be submitting paperwork to Colombia in the next couple of weeks!!! HAPPY DANCE!

    Saturday, October 25, 2008

    Any news?

    News Pictures, Images and Photos


    I wish I have better news to post, but we are kind of stuck. Our homestudy report is almost ready. We already got the draft from our fabulous social worker Charlotte. We reviewed and sent it back to her. So, it should be ready, right?
    Nope, our home study cannot be completed until all our clearances have been received by the agency. The government of US wants to make sure that we have not commited a crime or abuse any child in any place in the world (or at least on the places where we have lived) since we were 18 years old. What does it mean? That we need to wait for a background check back from Venezuela for me (Nancy). Any problem with that? Think about any burocracy possible in a country and you will find it in Venezuela.
    Neither of our agencies have the power to request this document there. So we ‘hired’ somebody to request it in my behalf. I had up and downs with this person, but it looks like finally he will send the documents to our house next Monday 10/27. If this really happen, we may have the background check here at the end of the week! If not, well, plan B. I will have my cousin to find them. If the documents show up at the end of the week, it will be a miracle!

    On the other hand, we are changing the age of the child we want to adopt. Talley was listening a show in NPR and he understood how important is the influence of the parents in the first years of age. Well, the same guy who wanted a potty trained child at the beginning of the process is now more inclined to get a younger child. Amazing! Talley surprises me everyday! Thank you NPR!

    Also, we are getting close to decide which way to adopt in Colombia. There are two posibilities. One with the government (ICBF, free) and the second is with a private house (kind of orphanages: casa privada, donations highly welcome). The casas privadas provide very good care of their children, ICBF place children in foster care. We don’t doubt that either way the child will be taken care of. But with casas privadas we have a bigger chance to get a younger child (almost newborn!), but it is more expensive. Also, with ICBF we understand that our wait could be between 24 and 30 months. With the private organization, we don’t know the length of the wait. We are requesting counseling from our placement agency, but at the end we have the last word. Lets pray we make the right decision!

    BTW, Halloween is coming up and we will dress up!!!

    Saturday, October 18, 2008

    How much can a test say about you?



    I had my psychological test done yesterday. A full four hours with the psychologist! It even included an IQ test! I have to draw a couple of pictures, form figures with blocks, say the meaning of words! (that was difficult considering that English is my second language!).  

    The best part was the questionnaire (True/false) with more than five hundred questions!!!!  that was the Minnesota Multiphasic personality Inventory-2. These were some of the questions:
    1. I like mechanics magazines
    2. I have a good appetite
    3. I wake up fresh & rested most mornings
    4. I think I would like the work of a librarian
    5. I am easily awakened by noise
    6. I like to read newspaper articles on crime
    7. My hands and feet are usually warm enough
    8. My daily life is full of things that keep me interested
    9. I am about as able to work as I ever was
    10. There seems to be a lump in my throat much of the time
    11. A person should try to understand his dreams and be guided by or take warning from them
    12. I enjoy detective or mystery stories
    13. I work under a great deal of tension
    14. I have diarrhea once a month or more
    15. Once in a while I think of things too bad to talk about
    16. I am sure I get a raw deal from life
    17. My father was a good man
    18. I am very seldom troubled by constipation
    19. When I take a new, I like to be tipped off on whom should be gotten next to
    20. My sex life is satisfactory
    So yes, they ask about EVERYTHING!!!  And not only once but like 10 times in different words!!!  Recommendation:  stick to the true during the entire test, after question #200 you will not remember what you reply previously!  

    Why do we have to have all these done?  Simple, they want to make sure we are smart and sane enough to have a kid!  How many people who has biological children will pass this test?  Who knows... I'm not even sure that we will pass it!!!!     


    On the other hand, I'm having some issues getting my background check in Venezuela.  The person who was doing it is asking me for an outrageous amount of money!  I wish we were rich, but we are not!  Anyway, lets see what happen next. 


    That is it!  These are all the new news about adoption... stay tune!




    Thursday, October 2, 2008

    Adoption letter

    This is the letter that we are sending our family and friends to let them know about our adoption process.


    October 3, 2008
    Dear Family and Friends,
    Please forgive us for not telling you this in person, but it is time to announce the big news for us and we want to share it as soon as possible with everyone: We are expanding our family! Some of you may know already that we have been thinking about this for some time. For those who don’t know, we are following the path of adoption. This is something we always planned to do, and we are certain that our current situation will allow us to bring a child to our lives.
    Since last July we have been reading about it, asking question in several places and to several people. After extensive research, we decided to find the next Spiller in a foreign country: Colombia. Everything in our investigation leads us towards there. We have researched domestic and every country that allows international adoption, but there has been a constant "pull" towards Colombia.
    1. Colombia shares a lot of history with Venezuela, so it will be easy to introduce our child to his or her culture.
    2. Colombia allows adoption of children as young as four months old. We would like to have a child that young and up to four years old.
    3. The cost is much less than other countries.
    We started our paperwork early September. We are almost done with our home study. When the final report is done, we need to get approval from the government of the United States to bring an orphan to the country. Then we will need to put together a dossier to send to the authorities in Colombia. After they approve us, they will assign a region where our child will come from. Finally we will get a referral for a child and we can travel to get our kid! Our expectation is to bring our little Spiller home in around two years! It may look like a lot of time, but we feel that this will give us time to get ready.
    We have a lot of love to give, and there will be a child that could thrive in our home. So, there's our big news! Please keep us in your prayers that God will give us patience!!! Please pray for our son or daughter that is or will be born in Colombia. Our child will be so lucky to have all of you in his life.
    If you want to stay up to date with the process, please check out our website: http://nextspiller.blogspot.com/

    With love,
    Talley and Nancy

    Lessons from the training

    Talley and I went to a training class past weekend. It was so informative! I can not believe how much information we got in just 10 hours. I wish it was even longer!
    A few things we learned:
    1. We need to be the only caretakers of our child for the first six to eight weeks we have him/her. That will help with the attachment and bonding between us.
    2. We need to be prepare to deal with the grief that our child may experience for the separation his/her environment.
    3. Our child may have some development issues, but there are tools out there that could help us.
    4. It is important to keep the identity of our child, therefore Colombian culture will be preserve in our house.
    5. We are not alone in this process. There are many other couples who are walking the path of adoption, and there are many tools that can help us to do the transicion as smooth as possible.

    Our biggest lesson: more than ever, we are sure that we want to expand our family through adoption. I’m sure we will be good parents!

    Sunday, September 28, 2008

    Timeline

    So far this is what we have been doing for the adoption of our little child. I will try to upload to the side of this blog and keep it up-to-date as much as possible:

    08-23-08 Started paper chasing
    08-29-08 Received documents from Home Study Agency
    09-03-08 Nancy's initial interview with Psychologist
    09-04-08 Talley's initial interview with Psychologist
    09-08-08 Hand delivered application and with paperwork to home study Agency (LSSS)
    09-09-08 Nancy's physical exam
    09-11-08 LSSS cashed check
    09-11-08 Sent Application to Placement Agency (Adopolis)
    09-11-08 Fourth wedding anniversary
    09-17-08 Talley's physical exam
    09-19-08 First Home Study (Talley's and couple's interview)
    09-20-08 Last Home Visit (Nancy's interview, home inspection)
    09-27-08 Started Hague training (7 hours)
    09-28-08 Finished Hage training (3 hours)
    10-03-08 Talley's psychological test
    10-17-08 Nancy's psychological test

    Thursday, September 25, 2008

    Training



    Our social worker emailed me yesterday to let us know that the first draft for our homestudy should be ready tomorrow Friday.. yes!  

    This weekend we have our Hague training.  It is mandatory that any person adopting from a Hague country takes 10 hours of these classes.  We are getting them all this weekend!  It should include topics as attachment, bonding, doctors for children adopted internationally, and topics like that....

    What Is the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption?

    The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption is an international agreement between participating countries on best adoption procedures. These procedures have basically two goals in mind:

    • The best interest of children are considered with each intercountry adoption.
    • The prevention of abduction, exploitation, sale, or trafficking of children.

    The guidelines and procedures that are set forth in the Hague Convention are also for the protection of birth families, as well as adoptive families. Part of the Convention's guidelines ensures that one Central Authority is in place in each country so that adoptive parents get the most accurate information regarding adoption. The Department of State is the U.S. Central Authority for the Convention.

    From:  http://adoption.about.com/od/international/f/whathague.htm


    Saturday, September 20, 2008

    Anniversary Day

    September 11th was our 4th wedding anniversary.  That was past week, a Thursday.  A couple of things happened that day:

    • Talley got me flowers, beautiful!!!!  The same color that I picked for him in our wedding.
    • I had a job interview for a different position in the same company.  I'm still waiting to hear back from them.
    • We mailed the application out for the adoption agency.  
    • The home study agency cashed our check.
    • We had a romantic dinner in a nice restaurant downtown.  Talley picked it and it was really good!
    I'm still very gratefull to have found a wonderful man like Talley to become my husband, my life's partner and the future dad of my child.  I LOVE YOU HONEY!

    Friday, September 19, 2008

    Home Study update!

    We had the social worker's visit and interviews!  

    On Monday I was announced to switch my work schedule, so I had to work Wednesday, the same day the social worker was coming to visit!  That made my Tuesday a cleaning day, dusting everything in our house!  Everybody tells you that this is not a 'white-glove inspection', but I wanted to be ready just in case!  Talley helped to clean a little bit more when he came from work.

    So here is how it went:  she came to the house, we offered her something to drink, she sat in our living room, explained the process and then started asking questions about discipline, grief, bonding and other things that I barely understood!  Talley did great answering most of them :-)
    Then she asked me to leave so she can have the individual interview with Talley, I left to walk the dogs.  Later she left.

    So... did you look at the house?  did she noticed that I cleaned everything?  Nop!!!  If all visits were the same than this one, this is a piece of cake!

    Thursday was my individual interview.  She came to the house again.  But this time I did not clean or get ready!  I was at work and running just on time to make it to the appointment (thanks Cali!).  I noticed immediately that the house was not totally clean, but considering past day, I did not care that much.  She came to our door 5 minutes after I walked in.  She asked questions about my family, my relationship with them, our hobbies, what do we do together.  Then she asked me to tour the house!!!  OMG, I was not ready for this! We did not make the bed that morning (like usual), and I have a pair of socks in our bedroom.  Well, she saw how we live everyday.  Our house is not messy, but I wanted to have everything perfect.  She was fine, opened closets, refrigerator, freezer, pantry, cabinets and even flush the toilets!  Anyway, I guess she wanted to make sure we live there and there is space for a child.

    She will be drafting our home study report and sending  it to us to check it out before going to our agency... it was so easy!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Saturday, September 13, 2008

    Home Study

    We just talked to our social worker and she is coming to visit next Wednesday!  This should be exciting.  The same day we will have the couple's interview and Talley will have his interview.  Mine will be on Thursday.

    We turned out papers to the home study agency past Monday (9/08), and mail out the papers for the adoption agency on Thursday (9/11, our anniversary!).

    Now it is time to get the house ready for the home study!!!

    Friday, September 5, 2008

    Agency

    We found an agency!!! We are all set! Well, kind of. They don't have our application, but they know we like them and that we will go with them.

    How did we pick them? First of all, we coudn't find any negative review about them. Second, they have been working with Colombian adoptions forever! And third, it was recommended. When I talked to the lady in charge of the program she was very nice, and made me feel comfortable. I did not have to leave a message in a machine like with a whole bunch of other agencies!

    So, here are our partners for adoption:

    Home Study Agency: Lutheral Social Services of the South
    Adoption Agency: Adopolis

    BTW, we already had our interviews with the psychologist... we only need a test and we are done with him!

    Thursday, September 4, 2008

    Random thoughts

    • We have wonderful friends and neighbors who have agree to write personal recommendations for us. They are mailing the letters out to our home study agency. OMG! I'm so excited that this is happening. A lot of people are helping us to have a kid.
    • On the other hand, I got an email from my mom. She is still trying to figure out how to adopt in Venezuela. I wish there is a hope to do it there, but we know it is very difficult.
    • I had an interview with the psychologist yesterday. Today is Talley's turn. Hopefully he will declare us ready to be parents!
    • We got news today that Talley's birth certificate is on its way!!!!
    • I have a doctor appointment next week to get the physical test. It will even include a drug test!!! Talley's will have to be done the following week.
    • I keep trying to contact agencies for the adoption. There is an slide chance that we will be able to do a semi-independent adoption! Yes!!! I hope this happen.
    • I stopped in Half books yesterday and got two books about how to raise a toddler. We may not have one for two years, but hey! it is never too soon to be ready.

    Tuesday, September 2, 2008

    Home Study documents

    We are killing trees! And this is just the beginning of how to kill a forest!. Our application for the home study needs a whole bunch of documents fill out. To get an idea, here is what they are asking:

    Materials needed for Home Study with Lutheran Social Services of South

    1. Applications - Done
    2. Directions for reaching home - Done, the agency is 5 minutes from our house!
    3. Medical forms on each member of the family - Need to get the appointments.
    4. Autobiography - Half done
    5. Marriage and Parental questionnaires. - Almost done
    6. Clear snapshots of all family members. - Working on that this weekend.
    7. Photo of the front of the residence and proposed outdoor play area for children. - Waiting for prints of the front of the house and need to take picture of outdoor play area.
    8. Budget sheet. - Done
    9. Copy of marriage certificate. - Done
    10. Proof of citizenship. - Done
    11. Reference letters. - On their way
    12. Statement verifying employment and salary. - On their way (HR will send them tomorrow)
    13. Copy of front page of most current tax return. - Done
    14. A photo release permitting the sharing of information and pictures in the management program. - Done
    15. Financial agreement with a check (application fee). - Done
    16. Authorization for Criminal History & Child Abuse Record Check. - Done
    17. A copy of the driver’s license and SS card. - Done
    18. Copy of each applicant’s birth certificate. - Missing Talley's... waiting for delivery
    19. A floor plan of the house, identifying the dimensions and purposes of each room in our home. - Done
    20. Firearms Safety Verification. - Done
    21. Statement verifying we received a whole bunch of information from the Agency! - Done


    PS: I almost forgot to mention, but we need an agency to proceed with the adoption process. So we are hunting for one now!

    Tuesday, August 26, 2008

    What is next?

    We keep researching about adoption, where to do it, what do we need to do and other million questions that come to our mind.

    Ukraine was an option for international adoption, but after reading so many people coming back home with their arms empty was not motivating. We don't want to make it all the way there and still come back childless.

    So, we thought about adopting from Venezuela, but I called the Central Authority there and it is almost hopeless, the process way to complicated!! (In 2007 there were only 5 adoptions reported from Venezuela in USA, that means something!). However, my parents will try to research more locally to see if there is any chance. I would love to have a Venezuelan kid!!!

    But... maybe it will not be Venezuelan, what about Colombian? They have a very well known program that is really good. There is culture of adoption in that country. For those who don't know, Venezuela and Colombia were once one country. This video shows this country. This is our adoption country of choice!



    Deciding that we want a child from Colombia means that we may have to wait two years to get a kid. It sounds like a lot of time, but we are ready to wait for our son/daughter to join us. Now it is time to put together our dossier.

    One of our big steps is deciding to go through this process without an Agency in US. I'm researching as much information as possible to get everything right. There are dozens of websites that can help you with this task. I contacted the central authority in Colombia to verify they do not request us to have an agency. I also contacted the USCIS to make sure there are not problems with them either. We got green light from them!!!

    Please keep us in your prayers, this will be a very long process and we need all the support we can get.

    Talk to you later!

    Saturday, July 26, 2008

    First step

    This Spiller family is looking for a little boy!

    Talley and I have decided that it is time to become a family of three! Do not panic, we are not pregnant! We are researching our choices for adoption, however we have a very strong feeling that our little boy is waiting for us somwhere!. Please keep us in your prayers while we go through this journey!

    ~ Nancy

    ----------------------------

    Esta familia Spiller esta buscando a su pequeño hijo!

    Talley y yo hemos decidido que es tiempo de hacer nuestra familia una familia de tres! No hay de que preocuparse, no estamos embarazados ;-) En este momento estamos investigando que opciones tenemos para adoptar, no obstante sentimos desde ya que nuestro pequeño nos esta esperando en algun lugar!. Por favor, mantenos en tus oraciones mientras estamos en esta jornada!

    ~ Nancy