first, a little history...

Before I officially begin with the new posts, I thought a little background is needed. We started the international adoption process in September 2009, after 2 years of similar stuff in Oregon. We have a local agency in Rochester, an agency in New York city, Spence Chapin (you'll hear much more about them later, trust me) and the orphanage in Bogota, called Ayudame. We have to navigate between all of them as well as the US and Colombian governments. Ugh. Plus, we have 4 social workers, one additional liaison in Bogota, Manuela, and countless other people we rely on throughout this process. We have never met Harry, we dont even know if he likes the name Harry. He has seen pictures of us, and some brief bio's we sent down with our Dossier. We have sent him gifts for him and the other kids at the orphanage, so we know he knows about us, but more than that remains a mystery. He knows we live in the US, but I can't imagine he has any idea what Rochester means. In all honesty, how do you prepare anyone for a one way trip to Rochester? How do you describe knee deep snow and frostbite for 4 months? We hope he is not allergic/terrified of dogs, because we have plenty of those around the house. And to be perfectly honest, we are not 100% sure the picture above is actually Harry. There are written descriptions that contradict what the picture seems to suggest. He lived on the streets of Bogota for a few years and had a rough upbringing in many, many ways. We feel confident he is negotiating through this well, but we are as prepared as we can be to deal and cope. The term 'prepare for impact' comes to mind, but when you hear that do you really have any clue what it means or what you're supposed to do? so we are in a very real sense, helpless as kittens as we hurl ourselves face-first in to this coming storm. should be fun. so now you are caught up. we are happy to clarify anything you think of, or respond to comments on this blog. you can sign up for alerts by email or just check in every once in a while, I'll try to update often as I'm sure its going to get busy soon!