Update!!

Okay - it has been awhile since i've updates this thing. Since then we have been just waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Then on monday we got the call our application for adoption was sent to Homeland security to get approved. Now just another waiting period. I guiess this whole process will teach us patience. So today we are 7 days into waiting for our application to be approved. Our social worker said to expect about a 82 day wait. Until then we are having fun with the new addition to the family -- Introducing ARCHIE!

Full Name: Archie "2 time winnning Heisman" Griffin Schulte (I know it is a mouth full)

He is adorable as a puppy can be. Can't wait for you all to meet him.

Dodger is slowly getting used to having another dog in the house. He is used to being the only dog in the house and that is not the case any more. But, I have caught them playing a couple of times, so it will be soon when they are best buds.

Well, we have also done some fun things in the last month as well. We have just started unpacking from our trip back to Ohio. As exhausting as it is, we had a good time seeing everybody back in god's country.

We were able to see almost everyone. Even Brooke came into town early enough to see us before we left. The best thing we got to do was to see Jacob play his last game of football. He looked soooo cute in his uniform. I haven't been to a football game all season, college or high school or junior high -- so it was wonderful to sit in the stands and cheer Jacob on. Even Archie liked the game.

Homestudy.....check!

Okay, one more thing done on our list of many. Our homestudy is complete. It went very smoothly, our social worker came to the house last Thursday and went through the end of the paperwork. We signed alot of papers and can check those off of the list. She also walked around the house and made sure Nate and I had ample space to a child to our house. Anyone who's been to our house knows there is plenty of space - Dodger even has his own room! It seemed that it almost went to quick, but i can't complain she thought everything looked great.

Now the wait starts --- she e-mailed us the homestudy report to spell check and we are waiting on one piece of paper from Ohio (come on already!!) After we recieve that paper it gets sent to Homeland security and there it will wait until they decide we are fit to recieve a child. Let's hope they approve us quickly!!!!

As we wait..... we still go on. This weekend we went camping at Lake Red Rock. It was a blast. I know you probley think we are crazy we just got back from a long camping trip, but I lovec being with nature and lookign up at the stars. You should all try it soon. THe only problem was - we had a very short time to pack and Lynn forgot the air mattress. That means we had to sleep on the ground. But we did okay!!! It wasn't as comfortable but it wasn't horrible either. Dodger did well on his first camping trip as well. He was an angel as long as other dogs weren't around - then he would show them who was boss!

For now I am in Dallas this week for conferences with Susan G. Komen for the Cure training. And Nate is busy back home going to work and handling the household which includes Dodger.
We are busy and can't wait for a three day weekend coming up - Nate is headed to Wisconsin and Lynn is going to chill at home. Hope everyone is doing well and we will keep you posted when we hear the paperwork has been sent!!!

Love ya all!

All About Colombia

Okay Everyone - Nate and I have been doing alot of research since we decided to adopt our child from Colombia, South America. I thought I would add some info about the country of Colombia so you would get familiar on where your - grandchild, niece/nephew, cousin is coming from.

Introduction to Colombia
Colombia is a country of 46 million people named after Christopher Columbus, who arrived in the Americas in the 1400s. The fourth largest country in South America, its boundaries stretch from the Pacific Ocean coast on the west, to the Caribbean Sea on the north, and with Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, and Venezuela as its close neighbors. Colombia's capital, Bogotá, is a bustling urban area of over eight million people. The Caribbean coast supports major port cities of Cartagena, Barranquilla, and Santa Marta. Other parts of the country are quite rural, with a strong agricultural presence.

Colombia's rich culture and history have been formed by the melding of its indigenous populations with the influx of the Spanish and European explorers of the 15th century. Some of those indigenous peoples continue to follow their traditional ways even today. Colombia gained its independence from the Spaniards in the early 1800's after Simon Bolivar led the resistance against Spain. Today, many Colombian towns have a "Plaza de Bolivar" named in his honor.
Located near the equator, Colombia's varied geography encompasses mountain highlands, arid plateaus, lush rain forests, and tropical Caribbean beaches.

The country is home to a wide range of plant and animal species, some unique to Colombia. The beauty and natural diversity of the country is readily apparent to those who travel outside the major metropolitan areas. Colombia is a major exporter of flowers, particularly roses, to the US and European markets, as well as coffee, leather, and other agricultural goods.

Did you read that.... Colombia is a large exporter of flowers! I hope when Nate and I are over there we get to see fields of flowers, wouldn't that be awesome!

We will continually keep you up to date on information about Colombia - and if you see any information on Colombia on the news or read about it, pass it along. We would love to hear as much as possible about Colombia.

I think i successfully changed the comment section of our blog to allow anyone to comment - (you don't have to be signed on!) Try it and see and let me know if it works. We would love to see if you are reading this and if you enjoy it or not!

You all have a great Sunday and we love you all!

Set Backs

Okay - Most of you know we met with our Bethany Adoption Counseler and Social Worker yesterday. Both Nate and I knew things could slow things down, and at the meeting we found out some of our paper work could take longer than planned. With all the new paperwork since the Hague Treaty went into effect in May, adoption agencies are having a hard time getting the I-800A form approved from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. We initially thought we could have all our paperwork approved done and sent to Colombia at the end of september. NOW - it looks like best case scenario would be to have it sent to Colombia by the end of the year. They really don't know what to expect. It seems like alot of the first applications of I-800A's are being declined.

On the other hand, it looks like our Home Study is scheduled for next Thursday and then We think soon after that we will be able to apply for our I-800A. We knew this could happen and were not that shocked by the delay. We have had lots of work on our patience over the years, and this is not much different.

So it is just back to getting the house ready for next week's home study and making sure that we have everything looking nice. We are hoping on Friday, to go to the local police station and getting our fingerprints done. (after the I-800A is approved we will have another set of FBI fingerprints done at the state office electronic ones COOL!) After next week we will be able to breathe a little easier because over 2/3 of the check off on our adoption checklist will be done.

We will keep ya posted - but there is the long and short of it. We are both learning alot about this process. I mean we spent 3 hours with our social worker/couseler last night asking alot of questions. So if you don't know alot about this process we are going through don't worry, we are learning as we go along. We can only tell you as much as we know, but feel free to ask --

We are Home!

We finally made it back home! Yeah! Why does the way home always feel soooo much longer, it seemed like it would never end. And then we made it in the door we had to unpack the truck, clean all the STUFF out of the backseat which was covered in coats, food, luggage, you name it it was back there, THEN we had to start the laundry! UGH!


But we are here and it feels good to be at home. Just to summarize the trip.....


We drove 3600 miles,


we put 68 engine hours on the truck,


we went through 5 states,


we filled up gas 9 times,


and were only gone 11 days.




We also saw the following animals:

1. Mountain Goats
   
2. Big Horn Sheep
   
3. Prairie Dogs
   
4. Elk
   
5. Mule Deer
   
6. Proghorn
   
7. Coyote
   
8. Red Fox
   
9. Grizzly Bear
   
10. Brown Bear and 2 bear cubs
    
11. Osprey
    
12. Chipmunk
    
13. Ground Squirrel
    
14. Duck
    
15. marmot
    
16. Bison
    
17. "Betty" the crow
    
18. And a Moose

And now we are looking at the cutest of all animals.......Dodger, and he is glad we are home too!
He has been lovey, dovey since we have been home and fell right into his normal routine jumping on Nate's chair and sitting right between Nate's feet. So cute!

For this week on the adoption side (time to get back to the real world) - we meet with our social worker and Colombian adoption counseler on Wed. night. Then we will get a realistic picture on how things are going and what we still have yet to do. Next week is the biggy - our Home Study. We will keep you posted, but we are still just waiting on alot of paper work to get back from Ohio to go on. Nate and I have both completed our 8 hour training online for the adoption. So that is a huge thing to have off of the list. Other than that we are moving right along.......

We Got WiFi!!!!!

Okay everyone we are posting today from Yellowstone National Park. We found a campsite with free WiFi! Sweet! I don't know what i did before the internet. It is a scary thought. Well today we ventured around the 1st national park in the World -- Yellowstone. First Thought - not as picturesque as Glacier but beautiful in it's own way. We did see lots of wildlife though; proghorns, elks, mule deer, and even a brown black bear and 2 cubs.

We stopped many different spots along the road to look for wildlife. One time we decided to get closer to a creek and were we surprised to find a mule deer drinking out of the stream. Exciting. It kind of startled me at first, but i think the deer was too because before too long he was making noises and taking off for the woods

We also visited Mammoth Hot Springs, what a beautiful place. The hot springs are a hydrothermal area which causes such interesting crusts in many colors. We did not visit Old Faithful or the hot springs down there yet, we are saving that for tommorrow. Apparently you can't come to Yellowstone without seeing the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. And they were right! We were amazed at the gorge the water carved out of the rock as it twisted and turned through the southern part of Yellowstone. Soon i will have to post a list of the top ten things we saw on this trip -- The Canyon of Yellowstone will be on that list.

The last thing we did before heading back to the campsite was wade in the Galdier River where the Boiling Point River combines with a rushing waters. People were all over the river wading and swimming in the semi-warm water. It was refreshing with the temp outside at 91* degrees and 5:00 at night. Our plans are to head back to the campsite for dinner then go look for more wildlife right before dusk. Can't wait....... we will post soon. Tommorrow we are staying in the Old Faithful Inn (a historical landmark) can't wait for a shower in the room. Sleeping on the air mattress has not been bad at all - but a hotel with a bath sounds inviting! No more shower shoes! Love Ya All!!

Glacier National Park

So we made it to Glacier National Park. It is more than I can imagine, the mountains, the views, the wildlife…. I had read many articles and books to get me ready for this trip but nothing prepared me for the beauty of it all. By the time we got to GNP on Saturday most of the campsites in the park were booked, apparently this weekend is a Canadian Civic Holiday (who would have thunk?) So since Alberta is only 3 hours away and the border is only 22 miles away – the place is packed. We did find a campsite at St. Mary’s Campground just inside the park. We have to mention this campsite does not have a shower, but on a brighter note it does have flushing toilets.
We set up camp and then wondered over to a town a ½ mile away to get firewood and beer. ESSENTIALS! With that we sat around a campfire and relaxed. NOTE: when we went to bed we had 2 sleeping bags, 2 comforters, 1 thin blanket, and a sheet on the air mattress. Nate also slept with a stocking cap on. It was cold!! 44* degrees that morning when we woke up at 8:30am. Even colder the next night. The next morning we really wanted to see the sites, Nate has been here to GNP twice but still couldn’t remember a lot of where they had been in the park. He does remember seeing a bear along the road, but I am really not that excited seeing one up that close. We hopped on a free shuttle the park offers and headed to Logan Pass Visitor Center in the middle of the park where I wanted to start off our trip here with an amazing hike that all the reviews say is “a must do.” The highline trail winds along the Continental Divide and through the Garden Wall and Weeping Wall areas of the park. The trail is 7.6 miles to Granite Chalet and then the trail descends 2200 ft. over 4 miles to the Loop. This was ambitious for our first hike, but we wanted to see it all and this hike offered views beyond belief, waterfalls, cliffs, wildlife, and snow!

The hike was all it said it was! It was exciting from the moment we stepped on the trail. We saw goats on the trail just in front of us that we could have touched. We walked along very thin paths along a cliff and could see for miles and miles. And don’t forget the wildflowers; they were everywhere.

The snow/glaciers were amazing to be up on the mountains and still there even in August! They were a little slippery to cross but we managed just fine. About ¾ of the way up the trail we stopped and ate lunch – apple butter sandwiches and granola bars. YUM! Then we turned around a bend and there was the chalet still at least a mile away! UGH! The chalet was mainly a bathroom break for us. We could not spend to much time there because we had to make the last free shuttle back to our campsite. But the way down was no laughing matter. 4 miles downhill can hurt! We finally made it and were exhausted – bed came early that night!

Monday

MONDAY
Before we came to GNP, I had booked a few things like going on a Horseback ride through the park. Today was the day! We packed up camp that morning and headed to West Glacier to reach our destination by 12:30 that afternoon. But along our way we couldn’t help but stop and look at the wildlife that was out that morning. At Logan Pass, Nate stopped the truck to get out to take pics of some goats and before we knew it a big horn sheep was out in the parking lot by our truck. Yes, look at the pic … that is Nate’s precious truck by that giant animal who at any moment could scratch the paint job.

We also stopped not too much further down the road to get a glimpse at some baby goats standing with their mom. They were sizing Nate up and down!

We did make it to the Horseback riding that afternoon and spent 2 hours trampling through the woods on horses! Even Nate enjoyed it. That night we checked in to our plush accommodations at the Belton Chalet. Very Nice – even though no t.v.’s, no internet, and no cell phone coverage! What am I going to do!

Tuesday

TUESDAY
The Red Bus Tour – we took today to get a guided tour with commentary of almost the entire park. The Red bus Tour is a historic tour that has been around in the park since 1936. They were so cute, and the roofs of the cars pulled back to give the passengers amazing views. We went up the Going-to-the-Sun Road and the driver showed us many things we hadn’t yet seen. The tour stopped for lunch in the northern part of the park and we had lunch at the Many Glacier Hotel. After lunch we went out back to take some pics of the Lake, and everyone was scrambling to get pictures of a black bear off in the distance. EXCITING! As our trip returned we also passed a long meadow which down near the water was a Grizzly! I am just glad they are far away – my biggest fear this whole trip was that we were going to turn around the corner on one of our hikes and come across a big bear!

After being in Glacier for 5 days, we have been busy non-stop. We have hiked many miles, driven the Going-to-the-Sun road at least 4 times (and it is 52 miles long!), seen lots of animals, stayed on both sides of the park, and did everything that was in my mind to do. There are still lots of trails out there to see and hike, but I think after debating about it last night – we are going to modify our trip and head down to Yellowstone just for a few days so I can see that to. Isn’t Nate sweet! I guess we don’t know when we will be out here again and this is my first time “Out West”, so why not see as much as we can. So tomorrow morning we pack up the truck again, and head south for Yellowstone – stayed tuned .
Let’s just say by now we have put 30 hours on the truck, filled up the truck 7 times and played the state license plate game and almost have every state (okay we had 29 of them until we got bored with it and stopped) PLUS a lot of the Canadian Provinces! But we are having the time of our lives and are more relaxed than either of us have been in a long time. Every day is just perfect!

Discovering the West

Okay today is Friday! We can't believe it, we have been gone two days. We left Wed. and headed as far as we could get away from Ottumwa. That happened to be Oacoma, South Dakota. We stayed there over night and got started bright and early the next morning. One thing i've got to say is I love South Dakota - the speed limit is 75mph Can you believe it!!! We cruised right along until we got to the first stop on our whorlwind tour -THE BADLANDS. What an amazing place. The scenery is just amazing and who could imagine such a thing that nature created.

We then left the badlands and stopped in the famous Wall Drug. If you have been out west you have definately seen signs for this place - they started billboards in Nebraska! Then we continued on to the Black Hills where we set up camp. We also had an awesome chicken cordon bleu meal on our dutch oven - absolutely fabulous if i do say so myself all done on the fire!!
Then we cleaned up camp and headed to Mount Rushmore for the lighting ceremony.

Again, a definate sight to see. Beautiful!!!

Nate and I both had sun taking pictures with the new SLR digital camera, and took tons of pics. We also got to play with my new Gorillapod. It is a tripod made out of small balls that can be a tripod on all terrain, around trees and even on a rocky ledge like the pic below. It is so nice to take pics we are both in!!
After the lighting ceremony we headed back to the tent and crashed! Only to wake up in the middle of the night Freezing! Mental note next time get out all the warm blankets so you don't have to do it in the middle of the night! We woke up in the morning and packed up our stuff and tried to get some more miles behind us. We made it to Devil's Tower, Wyoming by 11:00am - And we hiked around the whole thing. 1.5 miles, a good starting hike to get us ready for the big one's in Glacier.

Hopefully we will be able to publish more pics soon.
For those of you who have asked how to leave comment -- at the end of each blog there is a line with 0 comment -- just click that and post your comment. We would love to here if you have seen the sight. As for adoption stuff, we are just spending our time here relaxing, before getting back to real life and all the paperwork. Talk to ya soon!

Finally Going Away to Relax.....

Okay, Finally we are taking a vacation(ok nate is finally taking one) and getting away. And when we say away we mean where no one can contact us or e-mail or anything! We are headed to Glacier National Park in Montana if you did not know. We are leaving in an hour so I will have to make this post quick. We will be gone till AUgust 11th. It will be great for us to relax and have some peace and quiet for awhile. We are leaving dodger behind :-(

But he will be at the dog sitters having tons of fun, so don't feel sorry for him.

We will hopefully be ableto update you with pics from our trip as we get to places that would have wireless internet. Of course we can't leave without taking our laptop. That would be silly!! So we will see or talk to you all in about 11-12 days if we decide to come back. Bye-Bye!

The process - Step 1.

Okay - so when you make the decision to adopt it is not an easy process from there. We started the paperwork on June 23rd, 2008. Since then it has been a whirlwind of paper to intial, sign, notarize, and who knows what.

We have been moving right along. We have completed at this time about half of our dossier documents. Which are social worker says is good. We have been pricked and prodded at our physicals - don't worry we passed that with flying colors! We have completed the 12 page 49 question family autobiography -- which was great fun!! Right, Nate! and about a half a dozen other checkmarks on our list of things to do. Not much exciting going on with that. I will soon be listing a checklist on our blog of what we have completed and what we have still yet to do, so you can get a picture of the mountain of paperwork which needs to be completed to give a child a loving home. It is ridiculous!! I mean if all other parents had to go through this process to just concieve their children the world would be a different place.

Today specifically was our day to get our heads examined by our psycologist. We spent 2 hours filling out a 567 true/false bubble sheet for our personalities and then only 40 minutes with the doctor!! Man, does he get paid well. But it looks like neither Nate or I are Insane, so that is a relief.

We also met our personal social worker. She is going to be doing our Homestudy. After meeting her I feel much better and relaxed. I was a little worried on how detailed they get when they come visit the home, but she assured us t would go by quickly and painlessly. So we have our homestudy scheduled and on the calender. Things just keep rolling along. As for the fun stuff 2 MORE DAYS UNTIL VACATION!!! Can't wait to get in touch with Nature and be relaxed. Aren't you jealous!?!

Our Adoption

If you have not already heard.......Nate and I are adopting!!! We are so excited to start this new journey, and we have already been educated so much in the adoption process. We have chosen to adopt from Colombia, South America.

We have prayed much about it, and we believe that we were lead to Colombia to give a child a loving home. We have created this blog to keep others in touch since there is so much going on right now, and we are not able to talk to each one of you family members and friends everyday-- we thought this was the best way to keep you informed. And then when we travel to pick up our "bebe" then you will hopefully get up to date pics while we are in Colombia. Please pray for us throughout this journey, Nate and I will both need guidance and strength to get through the paperwork and the waiting until that little bebe is in our arms.