The Web Home of Patrick, Mary Ann, Cameron, and now Cooper Mulvehill
 This is the special music recording from May 9th that Mary Ann and I did at our church. If you have been keeping up with our adoption process, the testimony here will make more sense. Special thanks for Wayne Rackley for playing the piano for us.
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Tayrona National Park, Colombia
We have finally reached the end of the USCIS paperwork, Cameron has been given permission to enter the United States as a citizen! This is the final approval (I-800) that we have been waiting for from the US Citizenship and Immigration services department. The application will now be sent to the National Visa Center and then cabled to the US Embassy in Bogota, Colombia. After a few filings from our lawyer in Bogota, we should be set to travel in the next couple of weeks. We will let everyone know the exact dates as soon as we know.
In some ways we are feeling a sigh of relief that we made it through the past couple of months and are still being permitted to adopt Cameron. We truly believe it to be a God thing. Though we can’t understand the timing of it all, we know that we have to trust the One orchestrating the events of our lives.
Now we turn our attention to the next leg of our adventure, traveling to Colombia, South America. We are pretty much ready to go, but there are still a lot of details to be worked out in a very short period of time. We will need to make a day trip to Atlanta to get our travel visas from the Colombian Consulate. We thought we were going to have to travel to Miami or Chicago, but as it turns out, there is a Consulate in Atlanta that should be able to meet our needs.
In addition to travel visas, we will be getting everything together for our trip. Four to five weeks is a long time to be away from home. Thankfully, we are surrounded by wonderful, loving people who want to help in any way they can. My brother Dana has agreed to house/dog sit for us. Bama (our four year old English Springer Spaniel) is looking forward to spend some quality time with her uncle Dana. My parents, and several other dear friends, have offered to drive us to the airport (though as of right now, we are still not sure which airport we will be flying out from). So many of you have offered to help with travel expenses, and we know that the prayers have been continous. We are truly blessed to have so many friends and family that have helped us all along the way.
Thank you to everyone that helped get together the items that we need to have for Cameron once we arrive. We have had those suit cases packed for several weeks, but Mary Ann has gone through them again to make sure we have everything we need. All that is left will be to pack our own bags,…well, I mean “bag†since we only get one a piece without having to pay a small fortune to the airline for additional luggage. How in the world do you pack for a four week trip in one bag!?! Fun, fun.
Below is the list from the last update showing what has been completed and some adjusted dates (all still estimates at this point).
| I-800a – Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country | Application that must approved by the National Benefits Center giving us permission to adopt | Done – Praise the Lord! |
| I-800 – Petition to Classify Convention Adoptee as an Immediate Relative | Application that has to be approved in order for Cameron to be adopted in the US. We are waiting for one more piece from the translator, but should have it soon. We hope to send this off on Monday. | Received |
| Travel Documents |
All these documents have to be apostilled by the Georgia Secretary of State. |
All documents updated and apostilled |
| Article 5 Letter | Issued by the US Embassy in Colombia once they receive our I-800 approval notification. | May 28th at the latest |
| Travel Visas | We can apply for these at the Colombian Consulate once we have the article 5 letter. | Before we travel |
| Bon Voyage | Leave for Colombia to pick up our little boy! | Estimating June 6th if all goes well |
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So please continue to pray that we get our travel dates this week and that everything else from this point on goes smoothly. We have all of the permissions we need from our government and the invitation from Cameron’s government to go and get him, so everything else should be formalities. Please pray that God will provide for all of our travel needs and for the preparations that need to be made in the next couple of weeks.
Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. God Bless!
Awaiting His Coming,
Patrick & Mary Ann Mulvehill
