Blog
Here we go!
Feb. 12, 2023 - Well, just because we are starting the blog here in February 2023 doesn’t mean that we JUST decided to adopt. This process has been in movement since early 2021. We don’t know the exact date but I see some documents that we signed as early as March ‘21. This is a long arduous process. A lot of prayer. A lot of keeping secrets from family (which we will explain later).
I Think this is worth repeating…
Dear Friends & Family - after three long years of filling out paperwork, participating in various (and numerous) parenting training and a LOT of praying ... we finally have news about our adoption!
We are so blessed to introduce our beautiful baby boy:
Andre Joseph Chase, born in Bogota, Colombia on October 30th, 2023.
"Wait, what adoption!" many of you are asking. Well, adoptions are not an easy process and little is guaranteed for older parents like us. This is the primary reason we kept quiet about it. But through a lot, and I do mean A LOT of prayer we entered this journey again. For as it says in Matthew 6:21 "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also". Our kids, I'm sure like all other parents reading this, are our treasures. In God's plan for our family, adoption has been HIS chosen way for us.
So what's next?
We have received a majority of the necessary paperwork to travel and THIS WEEK got a call asking if we could be in Bogota on the 11th of June (7 days from the receipt of the phone call). Our response was “well, not really, how about the 18th?” They said “It needs to be the 11th or it will be delayed a few more weeks.” Ok, I guess we are traveling without all of our stuff in order. So here we go, on our way to be in country for 6-8 weeks. We anticipate being home in August, just in time for Mariana & Santiago to start school.
Rumors of a GoFundMe page?
This is true. For the first time we have set up a gofundme page at the urging of some of our dearest friends. If you are inclined to, there is a button on top of the page that says “How To Help” which will lead you to it and talk about the “WHY” we are doing it.
Updates?
Once in country, I plan on posting every day. At least thats what my thoughts are now. Let’s see how exhausting the process will be. It should be exciting. We are learning a lot about Andre from recent phone conversations with his care team and actually have had conference calls with him in the room. He is in an orphanage and has seldom been out of the building other than for doctor visits. There are a few strange things that worry us about how scared he might be. Stay tuned!
Time moves soooo slow!
Our days have been praying for speedy movement with the paperwork. Right now, as I type, there is a little boy or girl down in Colombia without parents waiting for us. We pray for them every day. I’d ask you to pray as well but…nobody is there. Nobody has any idea about this blog. Not yet.
So we have been keeping occupied. Last weekend, we got to go to a Wild hockey game. It was my birthday present from a couple weeks ago. We haven’t been to one for several years (5 perhaps?). Wild & Capitals; Wild won 5-2 if you’re keeping score.
Name Changes?
The Dossier is in Colombia! Not sure if I posted that last time but just in case…there you have it! Documents are being translated then some committee is going to determine whether or not we will be permitted to adopt. Sounds ominous but it’ll be fine.
We got a packet in the mail this week from Madison (the adoption agency) who told us that dependent on the age of child we recieve, we might be able to change names! This is pretty big news. Of course for the adoption, the children get our last name but being able to have a say in the childs first or middle name is kind of cool. And, it keeps us occupied while we wait.
For both Mariana & Santiago’s adoption, Claudia and I would go out for coffee when a few of these conversations would happen. In Mariana’s journal from the adoption, we have one of the napkins we took notes on. And up there on the list is the name Mariana. Now this is going to sound really strange. Most parents that i have heard of will have names selected ahead of time before a child is born. For us, we select a name based on the picuture; “does he look like a Santiago?” And that is the truth. For Mariana, her given name in Colombia was close to Mariana so it seemed like the obvious choice. But now, technology has stuck its nose into our process. We downloaded the app “Anylist” and have shared our ideas. Attached, you will find screen shots of names we’re working with right now. Unfortunately, nobody will see any of this post until after we have already selected a name. But honestly, I am pretty intrigued by other names you might have.
So our Dossier is in Colombia! I don’t remember if I posted that in an earlier blog but that is the big news going on right now. They translate documents and review the package to determine whether or not we are eligible to adopt. This is all just part of the normal process but isn’t the purpose behind this post…
We received a packet from Madison, the adoption agency, that stated that we might be able to change the child’s name dependent on a few factors. Of course the last name of the child will change regardless but there may be situations where we might be able to change/add a name. Well, this set us back a little bit. Figuring that adopting an older child, changing names may be confusing for the child, we never really considered it.
This news gave us a new distraction from the waiting game that we are currently in. A name. How exciting and fun! Wait, how hard! This took us back to the fun and games we had picking names for Mariana & Santiago. Mariana specifically, she was our first so we could go through any process we wanted to picking a name. I remember a few Saturday mornings, we would get up and ride our bikes to our local favorite coffee shop in Eden Prairie. Sitting in the shop, shown below, there were times where we would just jot down names on a napkin and then argue.
Of course I am being a bit sarcastic when I say “argue” but we would debate the names. I would try to consider the obvious of what “nick-names” could be derived from a name because I am a child and that’s how my twisted brain works. But we had our little breakfast date and it was fun. In Mariana’s adoption journal, we have one of those napkins saved and right up in the middle of that napkin list is the name “Mariana”. Santiago’s name selection was very similar but now we had a 2-4 year old little girl tagging a long. She was asked what she thought about different names but I do not recall her “adding” any names to the list. HIs list of names is also included in his journal.
In reality, I do think we gave this process more attention than we should. Sure, it was a fun exercise but I cannot believe how much weight was given to the first pictures we received of Mariana and Santiago. Have any of the two of you who are reading this blog ever thought about what “name your child looks like”? That entered into the ridiculous equation. So unlike biological parents who pick names well in advance to the birth of their children, we actually waited on our referrals with the pictures to determine if Santiago actually looked like a Santiago. Mariana’s name was pretty easy as her given name was very similar to the name we gave. But Santi’s was way off.
According to my Grandpa Ahlgrim, we actually got it wrong. My Grandpa struggled with Santiago’s name and would refer to him as “Tim”. Now anyone who knew my Grandpa knows that he would get tongue tied and mess up names of people or things. I would find it funny when he would talk about different makes or models of cars.
The one that comes to mind was the Mazda Munada (Miata). He just couldnt say it!
But after hearing the name “Tim” repeatedly I finally asked him “Who’s Tim?” and he looked at Santi. I said Grandpa, his name is Santi to which he said “Well, he looks like a Tim”. Who can argue with that? Even now, I will still call Santi “Tim” on occasion.
TODAY, thanks to technology, we are not using napkins. We have downloaded the AnyList app. There we have taken our lists to the digital realm. We share our lists and this week, I learned that my wife is critiquing the names I have on the list by CROSSING THEM OUT! I was at work and went to add a name only to find names I selected crossed out! Who does that?! No conversation, just deleting. She is truly wicked! But I did get even and cross one of her names off the list as well but that was more retaliatory than anything else. Below is our list of boys and girls names that we have thus far. It is our exercise in futility as all these names will fall apart when we get our referral only to learn that our child doesn’t look like any name on that list.
Colombia can’t come soon enough…for more than one reason
Yesterday was interesting. For only the second time in my career, the base was “closed for weather”. We had an incredibly lazy day at home. Ok, I was lazy. Claudia had plenty of work for her business, the kids played out in the snow making snow forts in the piles behind the church. I just enjoyed this view out the front window. 16 inches of snow. At least the threats of blizzard conditions fell flat. It was a decent afternoon with the family. Cleaning the snow? I thank God in heaven for snow blowers but some time in Colombia will certainly be welcomed.
16” of fresh snow.
I imagine our future children experiencing this for the first time. Nani & Santi would teach them all their ways to include sliding down the hills on a sled and not to forget that fort building stuff. I wonder how long it will take them to get “acclimated”. Nani & Santi could stay out there all day long.
The fun part of preparation…
One of our wonderful memories during the paperwork prep for Mariana & Santiago was finding them “the perfect” stuffed animals. Sounds easy, right? Well, Claudia could tell you that I am a bit more complicated than that. Every child needs a teddy bear and that was our goal:
Mariana was paired with Russell, with golden furred bear. Likewise, she was given Pepo, a Beanie Baby Beagle. Both animals she cherishes to this day.
Santiago was paired with Nieve, a black furred bear that looks like a sibling of Russell. Santi was also given a Beanie Baby cat which he named later in life “Crucifica El Gato”. I don’t remember the original name but it doesn’t matter. Nobody will ever forget Crucifica El Gato!
At this point, we do not know what God’s will is for our family. We stated in our paperwork that we were open to siblings so we may be looking at 2-3 children. Of course each child will have a unique personality which we will try to determine what animal to give them. A teddy bear is the standard….but what else? The picture is what we’ve identified so far.
We’re not nuts! But in order to keep our momentum going forward, there does need to be fun along the way. For us, this has been fun!
The Aggravating Side of Preparation…
An exercise in patience!
After nearly 2-years of paperwork, psychological assessments, home study reviews, required reading, online training programs, and meeting with specialists from Colombia telling us how to raise Latino children, you’d think we be a bit callused to “requirements”. We just received, last week, what we thought was our “LAST PIECE OF PAPERWORK” before we could send off our package for translation then down to Colombia. It was that last paper that prompted starting this blog. WE ARE READY!
So we thought…
New email came in today stating that our “fingerprints have expired”. Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? Fingerprints don’t expire, OR DO THEY?! Well, from the last time we were checked by the FBI, we may have become sloppy serial killers who left our fingerprints everywhere thus disqualifying us from adopting children. You never know. It could happen.
Tomorrow will be our impromptu return to the fingerprint place, again, to prove we’re not psychopaths. Wish us luck!
Valentines Day!
Not exactly sure what I am smiling about.
Hopeless romantic. Its days like this that it comes to light what a blessing I really am. I don’t want to make anyone jealous but, what a valentines day we had. I thought it was a perfect day to take some time off to meet my lovely bride for lunch. Not just any lunch, NO NO…but a lunch date-appointment at the FBI fingerprint center. Nothing says I love you more than time spent getting a criminal background check. Claudia…myself…and the FBI fingerprint specialist. Holding hands with the fingerprint guy as he rolled our fingers gently over the scanner. Doing our best to avoid eye contact and cracking a few awkward jokes to break the tension. Honey, I know you would never approve of this post but remember, I do love you. That FBI fingerprint guy means nothing to us. NOTHING!
Te Amo Munequita!
At least that’s over for now. Another 6-months and we’ll be doing it all over again.
Note the fingerprint chart on the wall behind us. Also note the look on Claudia’s face like “what are you doing???”