Levi Douglas Bradley: August 2007

Our Adoption Story

Levi was born on April 21, 2007 in Chinautla, Guatemala, a small town known for pottery. He weighed 6.7 pounds and was 19.7 inches long. He was in private foster care in Guatemala City where he lived for 10 1/2 months with his foster mom, her son and daughter and Isaac, his foster brother. Throughout our difficult adoption journey, Isaac's mom, Nancy and I became very good friends. God placed our boys together and had the perfect plan in place long before we ever realized it. When I was undecided on an adoption agency, I joined an online forum where Nancy provided me with information about her agency and recommended them to us. We decided to sign with the same agency and I emailed Nancy back to let her know. Over a few months we emailed back and forth to learn we were both from TN and lived only 30 minutes apart... we thought wow, it's a small world. Little did we know a few months later we'd both get referrals, earlier than we expected, of 2 beautiful Guatemalan angels. When they turned 2 months old our agency called and decided it was time to tell us that they were in the same foster home together and had been since they were 1 day old. We were amazed they were together. Even more so, God amazed us once again when we learned shortly after that they were born on the same day and were from the same town... no longer a coincidence that was for sure. We were being told by the foster mom how attached they were and acted like brothers. But, Nancy and I got the chance in January '08 to go to visit them and see it for ourselves. It was an amazing time of bonding with our boys that we will never forget. After that trip it seemed when one of us would reach a roadblock in the crazy process of international adoption the other would be delayed with something else. We stayed right together until the very day we picked them both up. We had our US Embassy appts the same day and we flew home through Atlanta on the same flight on March 11, 2008 when they both entered the US as citizens! It was an awesome time for us in the Atlanta Airport when we rec'd the congrats they were official! We've made friends for life with Nancy, Eric, and with Isaac's extended families. We look forward to many years of watching them both grow up so close together. Over the past year, as we went through battle after battle to bring our boys home, Nancy and I both would never think of one without the other in our endless prayers to keep them safe, happy and healthy until they could be home with their forever families. We're finally parents and it's what we've both waited for, for so many years.. our families are finally complete!!!

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Anxiously awaiting trip to Guatemala

Well, as you can see we're officially on the countdown until we leave for our visit trip to Guatemala. We are very excited to be going to meet him for the first time. We're pretty nervous too because of all the chaos going on in Guatemala right now. We'll be prayed up and ready to go though in just 2 weeks. We're enjoying every minute of getting all his things together we'll need to care for him while we're there. Unlike some other countries, Levi will get to stay with us from the time we arrive in country until we're ready to leave to come home. I don't even want to think of having to hand him back and come home without him but, unfortunately that is part of the process and hopefully we'll be going back real soon to bring him home for good. We're nearly half way with the expected time frame for our pre-approval. After PA, we move into the last part of the adoption, which can be speedy or drag out. For our family and friends who have been following our process through this blog site, we'll be posting daily during our trip since we won't be doing much calling internationally. We'll try and post some pictures from there of our trip provided the hotel Internet service is adequate to do so. We'll be revolving around his schedule so, we'll post when he lets us- haha! Keep us in your prayers as we travel and pray that he's not too upset to be away from his foster mom and in different surroundings for a few days.

Monday, August 6, 2007

Update

Just wanted to post an update and keep everyone informed of what's going on with the adoption. We found out yesterday we're in Family Court and awaiting PA, which is pre-approval for Levi's Visa to come to the US. They are taking about 45-60 days to complete the PA and then we enter the last phase, PGN. PGN to them is like our Attorney General who signs off the final decree and says we're clear to travel to bring him home. Some make it smoothly through PGN, some don't and it takes awhile. We're praying for smooth sailing the rest of the way and we're done soon. We're still hopeful to have him home by Christmas. The Lord allowed my dad to meet up with a guy who came through his work that so generously donated us some frequent flier miles to allow us to make the trip to meet Levi. We'll be leaving Sept 7th and coming back on Sept 12. We get to keep him with us 24-7 while we're there. The hard part will be handing him back to his foster mom at the end of the trip and walking away to catch our plane home. It's nothing all the other adoptive parents haven't gone through and it'll be worth the time we get to spend with him bonding, just Steve and I. We're counting down the days until take off!! My friend Nancy, Isaac's mom, just came back from her visit trip and they asked the foster mom to bring Levi with her for them to meet him. Nancy got some pictures of our boys together and was able to hold Levi, that made me feel better too. Isaac and Levi have surely bonded by now and will grow up with a story of their own to tell. We learned not long ago the foster mom has them sleeping in the same bed too. Certainly not a coincidence how Nancy and I met and then learned over time that Levi and Isaac were born the same day, same hospital and have the same foster mom. We used to joke about our boys crossing paths somewhere in Guatemala but, we found out later on it was much more than that. It gives us both comfort to know they're together. I'll keep the blog posted with any updates as we wait. until then, keep us in yous prayers.

Levi's Timeline