Grants

Several months ago, Jay and I got into grant application mode. Basically, we researched adoption grants and then applied for everything and anything we found that seemed to even remotely apply to us.

We're happy to announce that a few weeks ago we received a $3000 grant and today we got a phone call that we received a $2500 matching grant. Woohoo!!

News from the agency's Haitian visit

Lots more info! The people from our agency who visited Haiti and the orphanage 2 weeks ago are back and gave us some updates. Every little bit of info we receive about Haiti, the orphanage, etc. makes the finalized adoption just seem closer.

Some cool news:

• According to the orphanage's attorney, our dossier is in perfect order (Definitely nice to hear after the work that went into it!)
• Talks and processes for our adoption have been going on the past few months even though we haven't been aware of it :-)
  
• There is a little boy that had bloodwork done two weeks ago. The assumption is that he'll be referred to us :-) We've been told not to be in 'expectation mode' yet for this specific child, because there are always lots of unknowns, but it sure is nice to have an idea that he could be the one.
  

Here are some quotes from the e-mail we received. Its eye-opening to the differences of life here versus there.

"On our way to the hotel they gave us a little sight seeing tour around downtown PAP. People are always outside socializing, selling, and buying. There is virtually no infrastructure in Haiti - most have no power at all and those who do may only get it for an hour or two a week unless you have a $10,000 generator/inverter set-up (only the wealthy have this.) There is also no public water so everyone has to get it from streams (dirty) or buy it from the water truck."

"The orphanage is a small house with a foyer which is the play room, a dining area with a child sized table and two long benches, a bedroom with a row of bunks and a couple of cribs, a store room, bathroom, and kitchen. There is no power or running water. The food is cooked on a camp style stove and water is purchased in big "culligan man" style bottles. A refrigerator and stove were donated but there is not power to operate them. We will be doing a fundraising effort to help purchase a generator (~$7,000). Nothing is cheaper in Haiti - almost nothing is made there so things are imported from the US or other countries. Land is expensive, food is expensive, gas is expensive, everything is expensive. I think this is shocking to most people as we tend to assume the US dollar would go far in a poor country - not so here. "

"The children were all delightful each with their own personalities and senses of humor. At first they just took us in but when the playtime started (Rachel can start an instant party by pulling out the plastic sunglasses) they were such a hoot. They wanted us to hold them and play games with them and loved seeing their faces in the digital camera. There are three caretakers for the children who do all the cooking, cleaning, laundry by hand, and child minding. We dined with the children and were amazed at how good rice and beans (and I think eggplant) could be and at how much the children eat. Little ones eat a big plateful and they don't leave a morsel on their plates."

"The office [I'm assuming government office] is hard to describe - hotter than heck, people everywhere, people behind old desks with manual typewriters, and yes, a storage closet full of dossiers. I did see one man on a lap top though. It appears that they [the heads of the orphanage] have good relationships with the officials but everything seems to take a long time here - nothing is logistically easy."

"On our last day we returned to [the orphanage] where [the director] was already there visiting with birth parents. We sat around on little toddler chairs and talked about their lives - and family planning. It is hard to put yourself in other people's shoes. It was very hard for me to accept the reality that these children have families who love them but who are so desperate that they want to relinquish them in the hopes that they will have a better life and that it will lessen their burden such that they too may have a better life. You can't help but want to scream at the injustice of their lives."

Almost but not meant to be referral

We got an e-mail last night letting us know that there was a little girl they were considering for us. However, they found that she has active syphilis and thus is 'unadoptable'. We don't know anything more about her or her situation, but we're assuming that her chances of survival are very low. Our prayers are with this little girl.