Colombian Approval Received!!

We received an e-mail on Saturday, April 22nd that our dossier was approved by Colombia. We are now officially allowed to adopt from the country. We prayed for a shorter than estimated approval time and it came in a few weeks early. The original estimate was 4-5 months, which would have put our approval in early June at the latest. We were blessed that we received ours in almost exactly 3 months.
We have been told that the country’s government completely closes down from the middle of December through January. We were also told, by some parents who traveled in January, that this is an election year and that has slowed things down, as the government has to compensate for the turnover in officers/staff.
The next step in the process is being assigned to a region in Colombia. Our child will come from an orphanage in this region. We will receive our regional assignment a couple of months before we travel.
When do we get to meet Baby Sinclair? Our social worker said we can expect a referral in 14-20 months! (A referral is what they call it when they have a baby for us. They will send us a picture and their medical information). This is much longer than when we first began the process, but it gives us more time to prepare.
We have had a name picked out for a baby girl for a long time now, but we are still struggling to come up with a boy’s name. If it is a girl, she will be Isabelle, which means “Consecrated to God.” We are planning to call her Belle for short.
I have a couple of boy’s names that I have asked Paul about at least a dozen times, but nothing seems to “feel right” to us.
Every step and every month we get more excited. We still have a lot to do to get ready for Baby Sinclair. We will keep you all posted on the progress of things. As always, we sincerely appreciate your prayers and sentiments. Please do not hesitate to call or email us; we enjoy hearing from everyone.