My Heart is STILL in Colombia!

It’s true.  We have been home from Cali, Colombia for 23 months with our little Colombian princess.  The adoption journey has had bumps and twists that we didn’t expect, but it has been so wonderful and rewarding.

Tomorrow is GOTCHA DAY number two!

TWO YEARS!!!  Hard to believe it has gone by so fast.  Sometimes our month in Colombia seems like forever ago… and sometimes it seems like last week.  I miss the lush greenness of Cali, the vast array of mystery fruits that were scrumptiously yummy, the glimpses of the Andes when the fog lifted, the bamboo forest we drove by to our villa, the coconut ice cream bars, the afternoon rain showers, the neighborhood boys who would come and ask,  “Is Austin Rick’s son?”, the sweet smell of the flowers, arepas filled white cheese, the stickiness of the night air and the pee-po pee-po LOUD evening serenade of the coqui frogs.

People often ask “Why Colombia?”  Quite a few factors lead us to the beautiful and tropical South American country.

1.) My husband, Rick, went to Valledupar, Colombia for a summer to build a church when he was 17-years-old.  He grew to love the warm-hearted people and the countryside teeming with unknown vegetation, never imagining that he would return to meet his daughter twenty-something years later.

2.) We have three bio kids who do not look like Rick AT ALL.  Ok, one does a little, but I was expecting little chubby, black-haired Indian babies when I married a Cree Indian.  Didn’t happen.  The Irish and Finnish genes dominated and we got two blonde-haired, blue-eyed kids and another slightly darker. So, when we had chosen an adoption agency, I looked through the pages for the countries they worked in….   I held up the two pages and announced to Rick, “El Salvador and Colombia are where the kids look like you.”  “Colombia,” he replied.  And it was a done deal.

3.) Not that I was anywhere near proficient, but I thoroughly enjoyed taking Spanish… back in the day.  Larisa also had Spanish courses and was mastering her second language quite nicely.  So a country in South America seemed familiar… somehow.  (Not distant in my mind, like, say, Kazakhstan… or China.) I related to Ellie from the movie UP…. her dream was to visit South America.  She tore pictures right out of a library book of the fascinating country.

I am as American as you could get.  I LOVE my country… the anthem brings me to tears.  Studying and teaching the history of our great land is a deep passion of mine.  But I have to say that my heart beats in thirds… a third for the USA, a third for Canada, where I spent my college years and the first 10 years of marriage, and now a third for Colombia where I fell in love with my daughter’s people and homeland.  My heart is still in Colombia. <3

I Lied Today

A survey came in my email box from our adoption agency.  It was a quick ten minute survey on how the agency did, in my humble opinion.  I gave them a good grade, but I lied.  It was the age group thing again.  They were grouped:  30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49….. see the problem???  Had I taken the survey two weeks ago, I would have been in the same age bracket with my husband… the one that started with 40.  But NOOOOOO!  I took the survey today… and lied.

I justified my lying, however, and I’m okay with it.  I’m a bit emotionally spent at the moment…. and all with due reason: tomorrow marks our fourth month home with Nora, our Colombian princess; I started a new eating plan (talk about stress); there is one month left of homeschooling… and we’re not going to be done…. in fact I scrapped half of it a week or two ago and we’re just doing the basics (adding homeschool mom guilt); my daughter leaves for Africa in one month; we just passed tax season (this doesn’t stress me out at all, but it certainly does my husband); I spent the last two days on field trips with high school girls.  Bam!

If there had have been a “45 and 2 weeks” category, I might have been okay with that.  But there wasn’t.  It was the 4-ty-NINE in the same grouping that I had a problem with.  Instead of tears, I checked 40-44.  And I’m okay with that.

The Good News from the MESS

1.  I did not have orangutan-beating dreams involving our X-adoption agency.  I slept just fine, thank you.  (https://mysistersjar.wordpress.com/2008/05/03/pre-book-signing-nightmare/)

2.  Our case worker, who shall be called Mabel (heh heh heh), found the missing document that actually proves we are approved for an adopcion of la nina from Colombia.  This is fabulous because without it our whole situation was a guessing game.  Thank GOD!

3.  We will never know what REALLY happened with our X-agency, but that’s OK.  In our case, they did what we paid them to do.  Many of the 372 other families were not as fortunate as us.

4.  I’m still an optimistic, cup-half-full, lookin’-on-the-bright-side individual.  No X-agency can change that.

We had neighbors years ago who had ‘visitors’ at all hours of the night and day… drop in and run. Rick was convinced they were drug dealers.  I suggested that maybe they were Amway distributors with customers who worked graveyard shifts.  (Rick was right, by the way.)

I got this Pollyanna trait from my mother.  Case in point: my sister called home from college to trick mom on April Fools Day… probably about 1991.  Christy told mom that she was in trouble because she had been caught with a guy in her dorm room.  Thinking the absolute BEST of her baby girl, our mother asked, “Did you know he was in there?”  See?!  May I always think the best of my kids like my mom did!

www.LindaCrosby.com

Our Little Zaza… the wait continues

Disappointing news today.  Our adoption agency closed.  Bummer, dude.  So we need to find another one to pick up where we are and keep the ball rolling.  We’re not sure what all this entails at the moment, but it is another bump on the very bumpy adoption road.  We are learning that change is indeed the essence of adoption.  The good news is that this wasn’t a surprise to God.  Hold on, Zaza, we’re coming!

Bags for Zaza continues to amaze and raise…. with new styles, fabrics and bidders.  A sincere thank you to all who have been involved in one way or another.  We have raised over $1,900 so far and we’re still sewing.  www.bagsforzaza.blogspot.com  The perfect bags for school!!!

AND for those who are Steven Curtis Chapman fans, his family is being interviewed on Good Morning America on Aug. 6th.  At least that’s the last I heard.  Check out your local stations.  This is their first interview since SCC returned to the stage after the death of their little angel, Maria.  Should prove tear-jerking.  This family is especially dear to us because we received an adoption grant from their organization Shoahannah’s Hope.  What a great family with heart for God and adoption.  Don’t miss the show.  They are also going to be on Larry King Live and on People magazine next week.

Peace out!  Linda and the Crosbys

www.LindaCrosby.com