Our final step in the adoption process

Hello from the Theis family!
Today we went to the Dane County Courthouse for the final step in the adoption of Joshua Danford Theis. We submitted Josh's Colombian birth certificate and adoption decree, translated into English, and our social worker did the rest of the paperwork. While Josh became an American citizen the minute the plane landed back in October, we had to apply for a certificate of citizenship. Now this final piece will give Josh a Wisconsin birth certificate and allow us to apply for a social security number. The court process today was very brief and hey, all in English! While all went well when we were in Colombia, so much of the legal process was scary. We signed where we were told and nodded a lot. Today we celebrated with an early lunch out- Josh had mandarin oranges, his current favorite treat!

If you are reading this blog, our LAST entry by the way, I'm sure that you want an update on Josh. He is 8 1/2 months old. He takes two naps a day and usually can't wait to go to bed at night. He eats anything we feed him (except for pureed turkey) and right now, likes any foods he can pick up and feed to himself. Pineapple and pear chunks are a hit right now, along with pureed broccoli. He chews with his mouth wide open and if we make him smile while he's eating, it all comes oozing back out. When he's done eating and we take him out of the highchair, food falls all over the floor. Our dog, Cloey, has a new favorite place to sit! Josh loves to take a bath and kicks, splashes, and screams the whole time. Usually the bath giver needs a dry shirt afterwards. We took him swimming in a pool for the first time this past weekend. The water was a lot colder than his baths but he had a blast in his new swimming suit. He is a healthy boy and he weighs 21 pounds- more than average for his age. He rolls over immediately on the floor and scoots around on his belly a little. He can rotate all the way around but hasn't figured out how to get his knees under him to really get very far yet. He likes to bang toys together and if he can get one of Cloey's toys or bones, that immediately goes in his mouth. He does say ba and ma often, and he has a great range of happy screaming noises to fill in the rest of the time. He pulls himself up to standing if you offer him your hands, and can stand and play at a toy or low table for a long time if he gets some help. We can't believe how much he has changed and grown since meeting him in September.

Thanks to all of our family and friends that have celebrated with us and helped us since we returned home. Love and hugs from this very happy family in Waunakee!!

P. S. I posted new photos...from the past months and from today.

Home Sweet Home

Hello from Waunakee, Wisconsin!!! We are safely home. The day of travel was long but all went well. Our luggage arrived 23 hours after we did, but we enjoyed Josh in our home with family instead of unpacking. Thanks for all of your support and prayers during this journey. Join us on Saturday if you can (details in previous blog entry) and otherwise, we hope that you can meet Joshua soon!

Welcome Home PARTY!!

You are all invited to stop by and meet Josh next Saturday. We are bringing home Colombian coffee, a recipe for Postre de Tres Leches, and flour to make arepas. Join us if you can!

Welcome Home Party
Saturday, October 13
1:00 - 5:00 PM
The Theis home
Waunakee USA

Our visit to Ayudame

Hola from Kristin! We packed up our donations for Ayudame and the staff at the orphanage. We made a stop at Simon Bolivar Hospital where Josh was born. We toured the orphanage and showed Josh off. The staff commented on how healthy Josh looks and they thought he had gained weight and had better color. We certainly think he gets cuter each day! There were many children, especially babies, at Ayudame and very few staff. We brought formula as one of our donations, and the orphanage director said it came just in time because they ran out. Ayudame was very clean and the staff were very nice. But it was still an orphanage in Colombia and we left very sad. With international adoptions slowed right now, Ayudame's main source of income, the future of these children is bleak. We wished that we could do so much more. There are many photos in the photo gallery.

Plane tickets booked!

Hola from a very excited Kristin! This morning, everything went smoothly with Josh's application for a visa to enter the US. Chad and I were both holding our breath the entire 2 hours!!! We will pick up the visa tomorrow afternoon (Friday) at 3:30. As soon as we got back to the hotel, we raced to book tickets. We will be home Saturday night at 8:42 PM. We will be flying into Madison and you are invited to meet us at the airport. I cannot promise that Josh will be awake, but if you can't wait to get a first glimpse, please come and celebrate his arrival to the US with us! Here are our flight details:
Northwest 9002- Bogota to Atlanta- leave 9:30 and arrive 3:32
Northwest 1433- Atlanta to Minneapolis- leave 5:15 and arrive 7:05
Northwest 0398- Minneapolis to Madison- leave 7:35 and arrive 8:42

We only have 30 minutes when we land in Minneapolis, so pray that everything is on time and that we can be fast!

We are visiting and touring Ayudame this afternoon. We will post some pictures later tonight.

See you SOON!!!!

We will be coming home...

Hola! We just got back from the doctor's appointment. He cleared Josh to travel to the United States. Hooray! Josh is now up to 14.25 pounds and he is 25 inches long. He has gained a little weight and the doc said he looks good.

Tomorrow we will apply for Josh's visa in the morning. After that appointment, we will know for SURE when we can come home. If all goes without hitch, we will pick up his visa and travel home on SATURDAY!! We have tickets on hold that leave Saturday at 9am and arrive in Madison around 8pm. We'll update you tomorrow!

Off for pizza at Archie's again. SOOOOO many reasons to celebrate!

Josh has a passport!

Josh has an official passport! Isabel and Johnny picked us up this morning at 9:00 to go get his passport. It wasn't very far away. We took Josh's photo at a photograph place right outside the passport place, and then walked into the passport place. We were once again, amazed by Isabel's networking skills. We walked right past the lines and up to the counter. We paid, filled out some paperwork, and they put my (Chad) fingerprint on some paperwork and then we sat and waited. It wasn't long before Isabel jumped up and went over to an office. We saw her exchange hugs and kisses with someone. Soon after we were on our way with his passport!

And Josh Becomes a Theis!

Josh is officially our son tonight! Wow- what a great and long-awaited day. We walked and did some shopping this morning for our orphanage donations. We both needed to keep busy and distracted. Isabel told us that downtown is not a place for babies, so Josh had his first babysitter today. Our friend Kim watched him and he was his very best for this special day. We were picked up from the hotel at 1:45 and drove about a half hour. We entered an old office building (and an elevator with a maximum of 3 people!) and went up to Court 7. It was a very small office with a counter and at 2:30 exactly, Isabel marched up and received our paperwork. We checked it over carefully for mistakes in spellings, names, and passport numbers. The back page was stamped, we both signed, and that was it! Chad and our driver Jonny went to another building to get photocopies and the lawyer arrived just in time. All of the 8 necessary copies then needed to be signed and so Isabel suggested that we have some coffee while waiting. Unexpectedly, our lawyer showed up with the paperwork at this cafe a half hour later. We drove another half hour to the notary and Josh's birth certificate was changed from his Colombian name to Joshua Danford Theis!! Hooray! This process took about an hour, and during this time Isabel helped us get all the rest of our paperwork ready for tomorrow. She told us not to book plane tickets yet BUT when the lawyer asked, she said that we would fly home THIS WEEKEND as long as Maria (from Ayudame) would have time to meet with us yet this week. Did you read that? THIS WEEKEND!! So, two prayers requests: 1. Maria would agree and have time to meet with us this week (there is one piece of paperwork that she still has) and 2. we could change our plane tickets for this weekend, hopefully not only will a plane have 2 seats for us but also that we could have an easy trip home (10 hours total versus 26 hours total!!).

Tomorrow we are leaving at 9 AM to get Josh a passport. In the afternoon, Josh will have an appointment with a US doctor to clear him for entrance to the US. On Thursday we will apply for his visa and on Friday we will pick it up.

We can't WAIT to see you with our NEW SON!!!

WE HAVE SENTENCIA!!!!!!!!!

Hi Everyone,
At 4:30 today, we got the phone call telling us that we have Sentencia tomorrow at 2:30pm! This is a MAJOR milestone for us, and was completed in RECORD TIME! It's been 3 weeks since we got Josh as of tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll sign the papers, making him Joshua Danford Theis, son of Chad and Kristin Theis! We are then free to leave the country. Of course we need to get a passport, get him checked by a doctor, and get a visa to leave. This process can take anywhere from 3-5 business days. That means that if everything goes at it's absolute fastest pace, we could be home by the weekend(!!!!!) or worst case possibly Tuesday of next week. We cannot express how happy we are! At the current moment Josh is squealing away, I'd like to think it's because he is happy too. We've learned how incredible our agency (Children's Home Society and Family Services) has been. The other couple, Kim and John, also used Children's Home Society. They had Sentencia today, and also got their passport & medical evaluation completed today. We hope that you will see Josh's happy smile in just a matter of DAYS!!!!!!!!!
(Can you tell we're excited?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!)

Three weeks

Hola from both of us! We sit here in our hotel room, tired after a lot of fresh air today. Both Chad and I have pink noses! We did indeed enjoy our pancakes this morning and then walked to a different flea market.
As we have said before, on Sundays, some of the main roads are closed in one direction to traffic. Bikers, rollerbladers, and walkers fill the streets. The people in Bogota are usually dressed up (compared to us anyway) and it is nice to see some shorts, t-shirts, and tennis shoes! We don't stand out as much these days.
I took a picture of the flea market- it looks very similar to what we have in the US. There are a lot of handmade items and we hear many different languages as we walk around. Josh rode in the stroller and seemed to enjoy the wind and the sights. After lunch back at the hotel, we headed out again. The family from Delaware and the family from New York came with us. We hit a different flea market and enjoyed another beautiful day in Bogota.

After we got back from our second walk of the day, we enjoyed Josh a little too much. He probably should have been sleeping, but instead Mom and Dad couldn't put him down. He's getting cuter each day and makes the greatest sounds! We can tell that he is getting stronger all the time, and he's holding his head up better each day. He can handle longer tummy times without complaint. He seems to like standing up, sitting up with help, and in general, being moved around in any way that makes him laugh. We had to give him some alone time to calm down and now he's fast asleep.

Keep praying for Sentencia! We're ready to come home!!

A quiet day

Hola from Kristin! After our adventures yesterday, we are all tired. I took as many naps as Josh did and we only left the hotel for a brief walk to the grocery store. It is nice not to worry about the usual things in life- work, laundry, meals, etc... I know, I know- enjoy it while I can! Tomorrow is- yep, you guessed it- pancake day and then off to the flea market. There is apparently a bigger and better one that is farther away that we will venture to tomorrow. Right now, Chad is trying to get the DVD player to work in one of the family rooms so that we can watch a movie with anyone else that is interested. Josh is asleep and we have a baby monitor along. It will be nice to be out of bed for a little while!
Keep praying for Sentencia!!

A visit to Monserrate

Hola from Kristin! We left this morning at 9:30 with the Michigan family on a sightseeing trip. We went to Cerro de Monserrate, one of the peaks in the Andean mountain range. Monserrate is a church at the top, overlooking Bogota. We took a cable car up to the top and a funicular back down. We were at 10,370 feet and we could feel the change in altitude. We posted lots of pictures from our journey, so check out our photo gallery. Josh didn't seem too impressed with the view since he slept the entire time. He is an easy baby to take with us, as long as we have plenty of bottles! We ate lunch out at a local burger place and it was a delicious treat- they were serving fish at the hotel! Then we had a birthday party to attend for Luisa who turned 4 today. She recently joined a family from Delaware along with her 3 brothers. This was her first birthday celebration and everyone from the hotel attended and brought little gifts. The kitchen made a Tres Leche cake (3 milk cake) that was fantastic and a popular Colombian birthday treat. We are both tired from our long day and Josh went to bed at 6:00. We'll see if that means an early morning... We are very homesick and miss you all! Keep praying for us to get Sentencia so we can come home soon!

New friends

Hola from Kristin! We are falling into routine and our mornings are pretty peaceful and relaxed. Today was a beautifully sunny day in Bogota and we went for a walk this afternoon. Another American family is adopting a baby boy from Ayudame. We met them at our ICBF interview and today we walked over for a visit. Marco is 5 months old and his parents live in South Dakota. Josh and Marco probably were in the same room for the last months together. What a neat connection! Marco's dad had to go back to the US for work, Marco's mom, Deb, showed us around her part of the city today. We did a little shopping and found a place to chat over Diet Cokes and treats. Josh must have had a fun time because when we got back to the hotel, he had the best giggle session so far. Chad and I loved every minute of it! Josh seems to be over his cold, although he does still have the occasional fever, and he is definitely growing. His hair is getting longer and he is growing out of some of his clothes. He is usually in his best mood late at night (right now as a matter of fact- 10PM!) and Chad has a hard time finally putting him to bed. We should all sign off because tomorrow we are taking a day trip. We'll post pictures and stories when we get home tomorrow!

The legal steps for our adoption - Updated

Hello! Lots of you have asked what we need to happen in order to come home. Here's our checklist.

UPDATE:We just spoke with Isabel at 12:10 today. She updated us on our progress. Step 4 and 5 have been completed. We are in court #7. We now are waiting for the Defender of Minors to approve us.

1. Receive you child. DONE 9/11
2. Notarized documents. DONE 9/12
3. Interview with ICBF. DONE 9/17
4. The case if filed after receiving the ICBF approval and is distributed to a court 2 days later. DONE 9/25 (Just found out today)
5. The judge has up to 10 business days to review and approve our case. DONE 9/25 (Just found out today)
6. The defender of miniors has up to 5 business days to approve our case.
7. The judge then has up to 10 business days to dictate the Sentencia
8. The defender of minors has up to 5 business days to approve the Sentencia.
9. Change the old birth cerfiticate and get a new one for Joshua Danford Theis.
10. Get a Colombian passport for Josh.
11. Go to the doctor at the US Embassy and get the okay for Josh to enter the US.
12. Go to the US Consulate to get Josh's Visa.
13. Buy a plane ticket for Josh to come HOME!!!!

We may not hear anything until step 7 and we get sentencia OR our lawyer may let us know as 4, 5, and 6 happen. We don't have anything to do until we sign one last piece of paper associated with step 7, the final adoption decree. This is the big day we really wait for! As you can see if you add up the days, we could be here 2 more weeks or 6 more weeks. Some courts are fast and some courts are slow. Now you know exactly how to pray for us! Thanks!!