It has been 15 days since our approval, and we are starting to prepare for the ellusive, unknown date when we may hear news of a child being matched with us! We have been asked by our adoption agency to have our annual review meeting with our social worker. This is when they review the information and our situation, 1 year after our panel date (June). We will meet at our home to chat about any changes, concerns and how we are doing with 'The Wait'!

Also we have bought a few little items!

Some stacking cups, which apparently travel well and entertain for hours! (too good to be true?) and a Spanish language course to brush up a little. May be good to have some key phrases!!

Patiently,

x

We had a great week away and came back to this e-mail:

Hola dear Catherine & Luke,

yes, you were declared suitable to adopt!!!, congratulations.

What you have to do now is to wait; you Catherine are pregnant, and you Luke have to spoil Catherine; you have to wait and wait, I do not know if nine months or more. Be very patient and pray, or pray and be very patient.

Congratulations again,

Oh my goodness!!

Was that quick?! That took exactly one month. We were expecting to wait a longer time to hear. This means they have decided we are suitable, and are now officially waiting!! Yes more waiting, but now for the Peruvian authorities to match us with a child. This is a big step and we are so grateful to God for guiding us this far.

Many have asked us what the wait time will be and we really don't know. All we have to go on is what other families have experienced, but as these are from other countries where many people adopt from Peru, we are not sure how things will work for the UK, as we only have three families adopting. Some it has been about 1 year, others nearly 3 years. Now we are this far, I will do some more research into this and let you know what I find!!

Thank you all who prayed. God is slowly revealing His plan for us, and we look forward with hope...

Well we go on our break tomorrow and no news yet. Think we were a bit optimistic thinking we would hear so soon! At this point we don't feel worried about hearing if we are accepted or not, God has got us this far and will get us through the next step too!

We are really looking forward to our break and are glad to have a paperwork/e-mail free week! We plan to sight see, relax and eat! Hopefully will be able to post some good news soon, but could be a while yet- must be realistic!! Thanks for your ongoing support and prayers!

x

Still waiting! We are not sure how long this part will take so are checking our e-mail often, but no news yet. I think when we hear we can finally start preparing for a new arrival without it feeling too premature! We are both keeping busy at work and visiting family, and have booked a short holiday during our Easter break to give us a treat after the hectic year we have had. Would be great if we hear news by then, but bot sure we will. We will keep trusting and praying ...

x

Our papers have made it to Peru! They took a while as the weekend interrupted them, but they are there. Our lawyer is sorting and translating them, and he says he should be able to present them to the government within the next few days. We are not sure how long it will take to be approved, but it will be a big relief when we are! We are grateful for all the support we have received, and are now praying that

• the board are happy with our papers
• they don't ask for anything else
• they approve us soon.

Will let you know when they are officially presented.
x

**** UPDATE ****

8:20pm

We have just received this message from our lawyer:

Hola dear Catherine and Luke,

THIS MORNING your documents were submitted to SNA; please pray.

Our papers are in the government offices of Peru! Please pray that we get accepted, and soon ...

Just a quick note to say that our papers got back from London and were posted to Peru last night. It took quite a while this time, but we are really praying that that is it this time! We will track them again to Lima, and then wait to get approved. Let's hope that happens soon- one couple had to wait four months, other less, so it's a bit unknown at the moment.
Again, God knows and He is in control!

x

Our last papers are still in London, and will hopefully get back early next week ready to be sent. Our lawyer did ask if we were sending out new blood test results, which scared us a bit as we had them done already- but when we pointed out that they should have still been in date when he presented them to the government, he agreed that they were. Phew! (He thought we would have extra done anyway?! More needles? No thanks!)

A HUGE thank you to Mum and Dad who returned from their holidays bearing a paper bag with a hole in! Inside was this gorgeous Peruvian doll holding an infant. (The hole was made by the shop owner to allow for breathing!!) Thank you- this will be a special addition to our Peruvian collection. Also they bought some traditional Peruvian jewellery- beautiful xx

Will post as soon as our last papers are on the move, and then we wait...

The sorters did look after our papers!

Friday, February 19, 2010
Delivered - Signed for: 16:23 Lima - Peru

And this morning our lovely lawyer sent this message:

Hola, I got the documents and BEAUTIFUL pictures; Gracias!

Glad he likes them, as we were not sure what he wanted from his instructions! We can do nothing now but wait. Hopefully he will like the documents too and won't feel like anything is missing. (But I am preparing myself just in case!) The next bundle will be back from London by Friday, and then will also be sent. After that we should make it to THE LIST!! (approved families waiting for a match) Maybe then it will feel super real, rather than theory! During these next few weeks we will practice 'waiting'! We will be doing a lot of that!!

Our sorters in Peru?!

Once again a bundle of our papers has arrived in Peru!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Shipment picked up12:04

Departed Facility in Bristol - UK18:40

Arrived at Sort Facility East Midlands - UK21:16

Thursday, February 18, 2010
Departed Facility in East Midlands - UK02:48
Arrived at Sort Facility Madrid - Spain06:37

Departed Facility in Madrid - Spain12:02

Friday, February 19, 2010
Arrived at Sort Facility Lima - Peru02:10

We visited the notary again last night and sent our last final items to London to be stamped. It is a pain that we could not send them together with the last lot of papers, but we needed to get the bundle translated and out there as soon as possible. This last (?) lot should be back in our notary by thye end of next week, and will then be sent out to Peru. Will this be it? We asked that of our lawyer in Peru and he said 'Maybe tell me what football team you support?' I think that is his way of saying yes!!

Look after our papers please sorters!!

Hi all,

Our paperwork is travelling to Peru after visiting London, and has just left Spain!! Should be in Lima soon.

We got an e-mail yesterday from Peru outlining the new deadline. Thanks for your prayers because they were heard... we have been awarded 90 extra days!! A record?! Longer than others have been given and more than enough time for us to get sorted.

Also the extra documents that we didn't have ready are now together and will be going to the notary today, ready for us to sign and get going. The last papers we need?!! We've said that before so we are trying not to get too hopeful! Will let you know..

Just to let you know, we went to our notary/lawyer in the UK tonight to sign a few documents and get them sent to the consulate, embassy, back here and then off to Peru. We even had to lay our hands on a Bible and swear that all was true and accurate! It feels good to see them go, and now we think we have 2 more items to complete to send at a later date, hopefully!! Will keep you posted...

The last few days have been very stressful, and the process really does test you to the limit! On Thursday evening we received the official paper from the Peruvian Government, which outlines the extra things you need to provide in order for your application to be complete. When you first submit your papers the read it and will ask for clarification on points on anything that is missing (I'm pretty sure they will always find something so brace yourself if you are going through this too!) It came to us in Spanish, and thanks to our lovely international family we got it translated straight away! Thank you xx

As our lawyer in Peru had already told us what he thought we would need, we didn't think there would be any surprises. There was! Most of it we have or is on the way (except the darn medical forms, which after another, slightly stronger phone call should be returned early next week). However, they also want clarification on details about Catherine's social history, how our relationship evolved, and how long we have been preparing for this process. All of which has to be submitted by our social worker, WITHIN 15 DAYS!!! If we hadn't already done most of it this would have been so much worse, and we are so grateful that our lawyer knows his stuff. (I would really recommend him!) The deadline scared us allot, so we e-mailed him straight away and asked if we could get an extension. We also prayed hard that we could get the medicals, we could begin collecting any extra details soon, and above all that we would feel Gods peace which surpasses understanding. That night neither of us slept well, and teaching the next day was a struggle. It is hard thinking you are nearly there each time, and then facing more bureaucracy and more waits. We keep asking, how much more?! Surely they know enough? But no!

Anyway, during yesterday our friends and family prayed, and their friends prayed. By the end of the day, the medicals were done and are being sent, our lawyer told us not to worry, he would get an extension on the time, and peace prevailed! We had so many encouraging words and both felt so much happier. We had relayed our anxiety to our lawyer in Peru, who sent us the sweetest message:

VERY DEAR CATHERINE,

FIRST THAN ANYTHING, YOU CAN NOT BE STRESSED OR LOOSING SLEEP, BECAUSE YOU ARE PREGNANT, SO YOU HAVE TO BE VERY BEAUTIFUL, RELAXED AND HAPPY FOR THE MOMENT YOU GET YOUR CHILD.

It is so amazing to be working with someone who really understands the significance and enormity of this process, and has their eyes on the end goal. It is so easy to only see hurdles and paperwork, bills and appointments.

As we were reminded, this is sorted in the heavens, it's just working out on earth! We needed to know His peace. The night we received the e-mail, the lyrics of this Hillsongs song became my prayer:

Father of life draw me closer
Lord, my heart is set on you
Let me run the race of time
With you life unfolding mine
And let the peace of God
Let it reign

Oh Holy Spirit Lord my comfort
Strengthen me hold my head up high
And I stand upon your truth
Bringing glory unto you
And let the peace of God
Let it reign

(Chorus)
Oh Lord I hunger for more of you
Rise up within me let me know your truth
Oh Holy Spirit, saturate my soul
And let the life of God
Fill me now
Let your healing power
Breathe life and make me whole
And the peace of God
Let it reign


We are praying that His peace and truth will sustain us, and despite the emotional ups and downs, we would know His peace, strength and comfort filling us each day. That we can 'hold our head up high' and not be downhearted! Thanks for your ongoing support, will keep you updated x

It's my birthday! It was great to spend time with special fiends and chat to my family. And I recieved a special birthday message from our lawyer in Peru! How nice!!x

We have asked the doctor today to write a note to go with our renewed medical docs to state that 'we are free from infectious illness'! Apparently Peru like that phrase to be included in your medical details, and we don't want to give them any reason to send them back or ask for things to be redone!! We have got an appointment to see our UK lawyers on Friday, but we are really praying that the medical docs come earlier and we can get things moving ASAP! More photos to get printed tomorrow, ones of our wedding and if possible 'a kissing one would be good'!!! One more job done ...

Just an update, our psychological report was completed and sent to us this week, so we are just waiting on our medical paperwork. We will meet with our notary this week, and get everything ready to be sent to the embassy and consulate, before sending it to Peru. Our lawyer there has also asked for more photos, so we will print those too! Can we say it yet....nearly there?!

When we got an e-mail on Wednesday 20th January from Peru, our lawyer wrote casually:

Yes, your paper are in SNA.

That means our papers are officially with the government in Peru!! Not sure what day this happened, but at least we know they are in! (That's great because it means we don't have to redo our x-rays or blood tests that run out after only 3 months!)

We have met with our notary in the UK ready to authenticate our extra documents, and now are just waiting for our doctor to complete our medicals, and our psychologist to send us her report. We have made an appointment to visit the notary on Thursday, but we are not sure if we will have all the papers by then. Might have to re-schedule.

We are really looking forward to getting this done now! Looking forward to the day when we can relax a bit, and let go of rushing about collecting evidence every weekend and making phone calls in our lunch breaks! Will the paperwork ever end?! Including the home study, we have been collecting and completing paperwork for over a year now- phew! Nearly there?

We met with the psychologist for the last time last night. We are glad that is done! We had more questions and forms, this time about our relationship. Once again we had to laugh at the questions put to us

I feel like we are on the brink of separating, I always force people to do things my way, Bad things always happen to me...

but some made us think a bit more. After a few more questions she felt happy to go and write her report, which should be done Friday and with us by Monday.
Our medical forms are with the doctors, who need to just fill it out (although we think they are going to insist on meeting with us which shouldn't be necessary!) and the sent to our agency, who will check it and send it to our notary. We are waiting to hear from our lawyer if he has handed in our papers to the SNA (Peruvian government), at which point it will feel a little more real- they will know about us then! We are about to jump through the last hoop for a while..we hope!

Thank you for your ongoing prayers,
all in His timing

Well that was weird! We met with the psychologist last night and it was pretty strange. One of us had an interview while the other completed paper tests. In the interview we had to answer questions that we have answered a LOT of times before, what led you to this point, what is your family like, how did you feel growing up...

The odd part was doing the paper tests! The statements we had to rate or say true/false to ranged from interesting to very strange:

I am friendly. I feel like smashing things right now. I like to be organised. I have flown over the Atlantic 30 times this year. I get annoyed easily. People need special skills to understand my extraordinary talents. I control my temper. I don't think my drinking or drug taking is effecting my job.

Just an example of the hundreds we had to complete!! We're not sure we would have got this far is the majority of what we read was true for us, but just another hoop to jump through! We had to laugh at the bizarre ones, but having so many questions to answer, you do start to worry that you are answering them wrong!!

We are meeting with her again next week for a joint interview, after which she will compile an extensive report which we can add to our other papers. We are waiting still for our doctors reports to be completed. We hope they understand that they are urgent and need to get sorted soon.

While talking to the psychologist I realised that even when our papers are done (again!) and sent, if we are waiting more than a year to be matched with a child, several documents will have to be renewed. I really hope we are not waiting too long as the paper chase can be quite tiring, never really feeling like you are there, finished, done, and just waiting.

Thanks to our good friends who provided us with another memento of our journey so far, a llama to celebrate our papers getting sent! Thanks xx


Will let you know when our medicals are done, or how it goes with the psychologist next week, which ever comes first!

Feliz Navidad Y Prospero Año Nuevo!

We have been in touch with the psychologist, and are meeting with her on Friday 6th at our home. She will quiz us and perform a psychological test on us. Should be interesting! Not sure how many meetings we will need with her.

The good news is that all the other papers we need are together now. We are just waiting on the health reports and the psychologist to complete her reports. The other good news is that our lawyer should be ready to present our papers to the SNA (Peruvian government) soon, he thinks the translator will be done by next week! This is very quick. That should mean we don't need to redo our x-rays or blood tests, which will save us a bit of money! We plan to get all the papers that we are doing at the moment off to our lawyer soon, by the middle of January we hope. Will let you know how it goes this week,

Happy Christmas! The break is finally here!!

(Peruvian Nativity)
We thought we would be able to relax over the holidays with our papers in Peru, but we had an e-mail asking for more documents! We have to get health checks redone because they are over 3 months old- we had to get them done at the beginning of the process a year ago in order to proceed. We also need to get new letters from our employer, new marriage and birth certificates (they are older than a year!!) and a psychological evaluation done! These need to be done ASAP so that we can get the notarized and sent to Peru to add to our original bundle.

We had a psychiatrist do a profile of us last week, but now need to see a psychologist, because we have to have certain tests done. Hopefully we can get this done very soon. We have sent our new health checks off to be processed, ordered new certificates and completed a lot of extra forms. Hopefully this will be the last!!

Will keep you posted,

We kept checking the tracker last night, but no news. This morning we read:

11 Dec 2009 11:58:00 Lima Shipment Delivered In Good Condition.

Delivered!! (Red arrow marks the spot!) Our lawyer will pick it up and then get it translated. Not sure when, as it is now the weekend. Might have to wait till Monday. At least it is there and ready to go! Thanks to those who prayed for a speedy turnaround. Despite swine flu, this has happened very quickly and we are hopeful that it will get translated before our medical docs run out at the end of January. We are still learning to trust His timing!