I was at the UPS store again printing documents and shipping them. Just when we thought we were done, we learn about a new step. We have now had our fingerprints done three times - each for different purposes - go figure! We are waiting for the approval of our I-800a from US customs & immigration services (we got our fingerprints done for this almost a month ago) and now we are also waiting on our federal apostille for our FBI background checks. We should be getting our I-800a approval within a month or so but we are looking at 10-12 weeks for our federal apostille. The downside - due to the delay, we will have to redo a number of documents that will expire while we wait. Boo. The upside - there is no new paperwork coming our way until we have been matched with a child! Many of the documents we submitted (notarized & apostilled) expire after 6 months but we are hopeful we will only have to re-do them once and at least now we know exactly how to complete each one. 
This week felt a little like one step forward, two steps back when we learned about having to re-do so many documents in the coming month(s). But I have channeled my frustration into more research on what to expect when we are matched, what that wait will look like, what documents we will compile in that time, and what our travel to Colombia will look like. The details I read makes it so exciting again! There IS a light at the end of this long tunnel. But boy is it a long tunnel. According to the website of one of the largest adoption institutions in Colombia, there are over 6000 children waiting to be adopted in Colombia right now. It's hard knowing we feel so ready and willing to be a family to one or two of those kids yet realistically won't be travelling to meet our child for at least a year. We had to re-calibrate our expectations a bit this week. 2021 may not be the year we add to our family. Waiting is hard but there is no doubt we are being refined and built up in this time. It's precious time we have to exist together as a family of 5 in hopeful expectation knowing God is in control of every moment and every heartbeat in this universe. 
Daphne just turned 7.5 (yes, we celebrate half birthdays in this family), Clark is 5.5, and Neil will be 4 in April. I realized this week that when Daphne was the age Neil is now, she already had 2 little brothers! Our family has been a unit of 5 for almost 4 years! What?! The last handful of years have flown by and have overflowed with blessing. Adding to our family will forever change the dynamic and being given a long runway to prepare has provided us with many opportunities to talk as a family, dream as a family, and get our hearts ready. It's been 15 months since we officially started our adoption process. In that 15 months (and even a little before) I have heard my kids pray for "our new kid" as we prepare for sleep each night. God's been getting us ready - making room in our hearts to truly, openly, excitedly, & sincerely welcome this new brother/sister/son/daughter. Our impatience now walks hand-in-hand with thanksgiving.