Because HE Adopted Us: Fifth Update from Colombia

Another update from Colombia was the subject of our last email out to family and friends:I realize that subject made it sounds like some super big news happened, sorry it has not yet. Keep praying though. We are hopeful that the Judge here will sign this week and we prefer it be at the beginning of the week.

About the time that Ashlee wrapped up her trip here we decided to have a rest day. Ever since then at least one of the kids has been some sort of sick. We've had mostly just fever until today when fever turned into throwing up for Brandon. We have been able to work as a team, stay well, and care for the kids. I cannot imagine taking care of sick kids on top of work but even in those discussions here we have realized when we get home, God has already provided a way by Nick being able to work from home in those situations and me being at school with the kids I could run them home if they got sick.
Them being sick sure makes us miss our support of you guys in person. I called my dad almost in tears the other morning as we woke up to Brandon crying and had a 103.5 fever! Yikes! Today he was unable to keep down medicine so we gave him a luke-warm bath and he seems to be doing well enough to go to sleep.

On a positive note all 3 kids took a nap today! That is a first!! Jenn got to go to the market to shop for some gifts for family and friends and Nick got to watch football while they slept!
They are troopers I'll tell you what! They try to explain what hurts, we point to every body part and we hug them and say sorry. We don't know much else to do but to love them through it and use the medicine we have or can buy here. We have resorted to blowing kisses for today and tomorrow and they are not thrilled about that but we remind them we don't want them sick.

We also talked to Delta Airlines today and got our plane tickets booked to come home. I say that in an excited and nervous tone. Since the Judge has not signed yet, we technically could still need to change them. Again, here is where you come in big time with prayers. Either way my best friend phrased it, "that's next week!" I looked at the calendar and sure enough September 19th is actually next week! We'd love to have you pray that that date works out. We would actually be flying to Atlanta and driving home from there instead of eating 6 hours of layover at the airport with 3 jet lagged kiddos. Please pray that date works for us a few reasons: A) for our sanity, we're about over it here. B) for the kids starting school (that date would give us a good solid week of at home time before beginning school C) That date has some cool details in it...

Details: God is all about them, that has sort of been our "motto" through this whole thing and I hope it will continue to be. So last year on September 18th we got an email from our agency saying they had 3 kiddos files. I was like 3! Whew, ages... 3.5.7.at the time. We looked at their files and I noticed a date on the front of the packet. September 19th, 2011. Their date of resolution of adaptability. The date their parental rights were terminated and they became children of Colombia. So exactly two years after they had officially become orphans, we spent the good part of the night praying for them. God laid on our hearts that these kids had NEVER been prayed for. See blog for a cool post on this. Right Here but we prayed for them anyway. We actually took over 6 months to officially commit to them; but we never again prayed the same way about a group of kids the way we did about them that night. It was a cool couple of days last September, never did we think we'd be here with them in the room next to us calling us Papi and Mami.

Needless to say, those couple of days are special to us. Please pray we get to make them even more special and make God even more glorified in His details that he knew before any of us were born!
We love each one of you! We will keep you updated this week on the judge and if he signs we will let you know as soon as we do!

Prayers:

-Judge to sign Setencia soon
-That sickness would not spread and that Nick and I would stay healthy and get them well
-Flight date we have chosen that it work out well, all details of process to finish smoothly
-continue to learn English words and phrases
-for us to show them what a "good attitude" means and to teach them to love one another because of Christ's love
-That we would continue to adjust to this crazy new life and trust God's plan for it all, it's honestly overwhelming some days and we've realized our lives will never look the same, but you guys are so encouraging to remind us that is what he's called us to.... we don't want our lives to look the same after he's been at work!

Praises:

-We were able to handle our first fevers, throwing up, and colds without dr visits or too much panic
-Church here at Vida Bogota continues to be a blessing while we miss our home
-we've gotten to have some much needed "lazy" days
-still sleeping well and through the night (all of us)
-Michelle is warming up to Jenn more and more

- Seeing them sing and dance in Church here is one of our favorite parts in a week!