I-800 Application Going in today!

Just this morning, via email, we received our referral documents translated to English, which allows us to send in our I-800 application. This is the last major bureaucratic step before we can plan to travel to pick up Yamile. This approval can take anywhere from two to four weeks; we've been told it's taking about three weeks right now. (We can pray that it goes faster!)

Once the approval comes, we could travel as soon as two weeks after that. That would get us to Colombia before Yamile's tenth birthday - a goal we've been shooting for.

Heading up to this translation of documents, this week we received copies the referral materials in Spanish. They included a couple more recent photos of Yamile - she is so pretty! (Of course, I'm not biased or anything.) And she looks older (imagine that!). Sometimes you get caught up in a "time warp" kind of thing and keep imagining she is the same as she was when we met her last August. But she keeps growing up. All the more reason for us to get to Colombia ASAP and have her in her forever family here in Fallon.

Another Step in the Process

We found out on July 2nd that our "contact" on the ground in Colombia has now received Yamile's referral paperwork so she can begin translating it into English now. This information is critical - until we have it we can't apply for our I800. And we know the I800 takes probably four weeks to process. We're hoping the translation will be done by July 9th so we can keep moving forward. Yamile's birthday is August 24th and we'd sure like to be there to celebrate it with her!

We are now pulling items together for a care package for Yamile. We've been given the go-ahead to get the package ready. We'll be putting together a DVD that she can view about her new home and family. Lenna's already made a photo album for her as well. We'll probably send her a couple small stuffed animals and some clothes. And Rebecca (and the rest of us) is getting her room set up to be shared with a sister.

Every little thing we do now makes the adoption that much more tangible as the "Gotcha" day comes closer.

Learning Spanish

Well, it's been a month since I wrote anything. During that time we've been extremely busy. We decided that the four of us would take a semester of college Spanish in a five-week period during the summer. That meant driving to Reno four nights a week, sitting in class for two and a half hours, and driving home. Tack that on to whatever else we were doing each day, and it doesn't leave much time for anything else.

The class only had eleven students, so we got pretty comfortable with each other during the class. Believe it or not, our instructor was adopted from Colombia when she was 16 months old. She was a great encouragement to us throughout the class and we appreciated her work in helping us pick up the language.

Spanish class ended on July 1st - and it appears that all the Starks received A's for the class. I think it's provided us a great foundation for talking with Yamile and for our time in Colombia.

Because of where we are in the adoption process, we think we're going to "pass" on the second semester (and another five weeks of busy life) of Spanish. We'll continue to work on the language on our own and our girls are very motivated to continue on officially and receive more college credit. We need to use our time to continue our adoption preparation.