ALL IS WELL!!

I can't even begin to express the range of emotions we have felt today! The greatest is that we feel very thankful that God has called us to parent these 4 precious children. Today started early with the presentation of the children at 8:30am. It was so amazing to finally get to hug and love on Angi Camila and Leandro!! We were surprised at how petite Angi Camila is. In the pictures we have and the information we received, she seemed bigger. The biggest glitch of the day was that none of the many cute clothes we brought fit her. Oh well, she'll be set in a year or two! Leandro and Tori are about the same size only he may be slightly shorter. All the kids have had a great time together and have been very loving. What a blessing! The language barrier between the kids has been interesting to watch. Tori keeps talking louder and louder to Leandro to get him to understand. Evie and Camila have used lots of sign language. I'm not sure what language I'm speaking as we have been the translators for them all day. Earlier I was asking Evie to do something and couldn't figure out why she was not obeying when I realized that I had given her instructions in Spanish.

There's lots of funny stories from the day to share but we have another early morning so I better head to bed. We meet with our lawyer first thing to go to the court and sign some important documents. At that point, our adoption officially begins the legal process.

I'm going to attempt to add a pick from this morning. The only good one of all four kiddos has a very distracting background. I'll work on that later. Here are Los Niños!!

We're in Medellín!!!

We FINALLY made it to Medellín, Colombia!! Woo Hoo!!! Thanks so much for your prayers. After a VERY long day in Atlanta, we flew to Bogota on Monday where we spent a really short night and were back at the airport to head to Medellín yesterday morning. A taxi driver met us at the airport and brought us to the apartment we will be renting for the 3-4 weeks we are here. I have a few pics and will try to add them later. We were starving when we arrived early afternoon so we promptly headed out to explore and found a nice shopping center within walking distance. We also stopped by a grocery store to pick up a few staples to get us through our first few meals. The apartment is basic but has three rooms and a small living area, kitchen and eating are. It is in a safe, convenient area we have been told. The view from our 16th floor balcony is beautiful -- the only drawback being we are right next to a HUGE construction area that is extremely noisy and not beautiful. I think we will be glad that we have more room than a hotel would have allowed us. Also, this set-up will allow us to begin to have a little bit of routine as we settle into becoming a family of 6!!

We received word late yesterday that our "encuentro" (encounter) with the children has been moved from 10am to 8:30am so I need to run along and get everyone else moving!! I must admit that I'm more nervous than I imagined I would be. You moms of many will have to give me some pointers.

We are grateful for you prayers and thrilled to have so many followers. Can't wait to post our first picture of the new and improved "Nichols Niños!"

Let's Try This Again!

After waking to this amazing site out our bedroom windows early this morning, we knew we should check on the status of our flights. Sure enough, our flight had been cancelled due to a winter weather advisory. Our area received more snow today than we have had in over 10 years -- on March 1st!! The girls' excitement about the snow was short lived when they realized that it meant we probably wouldn't be traveling to Colombia today. Thankfully, they managed to change gears and had a wonderful time playing in the snow while I spent HOURS on the phone with Delta agents. After changing our flights several times and even preparing to leave at 7pm, it became apparent that there was no way for us to get to Atlanta today and the flight to Bogota had also been cancelled. So as it stands right now, we are scheduled to depart in the morning at 7am. While we're thrilled to finally be going, we're dreading leaving the house around 4am and spending 8 hours in the Atlanta airport. Please pray that we will indeed be able to leave tomorrow and that our arrangements in Bogota will be easily changed. We do not know if we will still receive the children on Tuesday or if our meeting will be changed to Wednesday. I will post again as soon as we know something further.

Thanks for all the messages in our guestbook and the fun comments! It is so wonderful to know that so many are praying for us. We can't wait to show Angi Camila and Leandro how much they are loved.

Hopefully our next post will indeed be from Colombia!!

We're Off!!

As silly Tori kept saying all day -- we're leaving on a jet plane!!

Well, so much for having time to write some background on our journey! I'll just have to catch everybody up as we go along. This week has been a whirlwind of activity. Victor's mother was hospitalized on Thursday and is undergoing further testing. Please be in prayer for his parents during this difficult time. It is hard to leave while she is so sick but we know she's in good hands. Many of you also know that my father underwent open heart surgery just two weeks ago yesterday. We'd also appreciate prayers for his complete recovery and for stamina for my mom as she is filling in the gap for Daddy at work. Thanks for your continued prayers for both of our parents. We need them to be healthy! Their new grandkids are anxious to spend time getting to know them.

The rest of the week was spent packing, shopping, shopping and then packing some more. We have weighed, rearranged and weighed the bags again and again and I think we only have one bag over the 50lb. limit. Wouldn't you know it's mine!?! I think we're finally ready -- or at least as ready as we're going to be.

We leave Sunday after lunch and arrive in Bogota late in the evening. Monday morning we'll head to Medellín. We plan to spend the afternoon getting settled in to the apartment we'll be renting. Then, first thing Tuesday morning we will meet our new children and they will be with us from that point on!! It's hard to believe that we're finally traveling. It seems like so very long that we have been waiting to meet Angi Camila and Leandro. Really, it's only been 9 months since we first learned about them and 9 months is not long at all in the adoption world. However, we were told since our kids were waiting children and we only needed an update to our homestudy it would only be about 3-4 months. That was not the case but we are trusting in God's perfect timing.

So, the next post will be from Colombia! Thanks for the prayers and wonderful support from so many friends and our amazing family. I won't mention names because I know I'll leave someone out; but you faithful ones know we wouldn't have made it this far without you!! Many thanks!!

And as our sweet Angi Camila kept saying on our video call with them this morning -- ¡Tres días, tres días! Only 3 more days!!

First Post

How exciting to finally have a blog to keep everyone updated on our journey to Colombia!! Many thanks to my dear friend, Sarah, for helping me get it all set up. We're hoping this will be an easy way for family and friends to keep up with us and pray for us as we travel.

As most of you know by now, we are adopting two siblings from Medellín, Colombia. Our beautiful Angi Camila is 11 years old and her adorable little brother, Leandro, is 5. Our girls are SO excited to be getting another sister AND a brother!!

At the moment our plans are to travel to Colombia on March 1st. Yes, that's ONE week away!! I've always worked best under pressure -- so, here goes! As I have a few moments over the next few days, I'll give a little background info. on our adoption for all those inquiring minds. Our favorite comments are, "Wow, 2 more kids!?! 2 . . . at once?!? 4 kids!! They are not babies. Do you know what you're doing? Are you crazy?!?" Well, YES, it's confirmed, we're crazy!! We're also thrilled that God has called us on this journey and we covet your prayers.

More soon . . .