Approved!

On Friday we got word that we’ve been approved by U.S. Customs & Immigration to bring our four kids home. That was the last level of approval we were waiting for — which means it’s go time!

Theoretically we could travel to pick up the kids tomorrow!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But we’re most likely going to travel first week of August. That’s the kids’ mid-year break from school (southern hemisphere) so hopefully that will help make their transition a little less abrupt. There's also the matter of our smelly house and threatened eviction... no news on that yet, but we hired an attorney and hope to get it resolved one way or another by the end of June.

Jose, the orphanage director, wrote and told us that the kids probably suspect something is up because there have been social workers coming to the orphanage to interview them and photograph them. He's planning to tell them this week what's going on. David and I wrote them a letter and asked Jose to read it to the kids when he talks to them. Here's what the letter said (or at least, what I hope it said ... we wrote it in Spanish, so who knows how it really came out):

E, A, I and J,

Hello! First of all, happy birthday to everyone! (Late for E, I and J and early to A!)  Since we left Peru two years ago, we have been thinking about you and praying for you. And now, finally, we finished the paperwork to adopt you. We hope you want to join us to be a family.

Recently, we moved to a larger new house where there's plenty of room for the four of you. Every day we think it will be like to have you here -- playing games, watching movies, reading books together, going to the park near our house, eating together ... and much more. We are VERY VERY excited to welcome you to our family. In fact, we already have your photos hanging on the wall in our house!

We know that we will have good times and also very difficult times (for you and for us). You are going to have challenges because the United States is a very different place from Peru. And we're going to have challenges because we've never been parents before! We'll all have a lot to learn and we will have to be patient with each other. But that's what families do: live together through the good and the bad, with love at all times. And with God's help, we are confident that we will have a very good, strong and loving family.

We already love you so much.

With big hugs,

Hermano David and Hermana Karen (soon ... hopefully ... Dad and Mom)