A glimmer of good news

Another orphanage recently posted this tidbit of news on their blog:

27 November 2008

Today is American Thanksgiving and we celebrated in many ways here in Haiti. One big way was when we received the news that IBESR and Parquet had their meeting today and decided that they would honor a moratorium on all dossiers that go into IBESR by January 7, 2009. IBESR has agreed to ask for dispensation for all dossiers not fitting the law of 1974 if in IBESR before this date. With them doing this, it should go quicker than if each orphanage asked for dispensation dossier by dossier. IBESR will ask for dispensation in batches.

So tomorrow morning, we will send all dossiers that were returned by Parquet to IBESR and they will apply for the dispensation. This is wonderful news and makes today a GREAT Thanksgiving Day for us and all adoptive parents!

While this doesn't directly apply to our situation, our agency said this is still very good news for us because our case is one that involves dispensation/an exception. So maybe, just maybe, we'll at least be out of IBESR by the end of the year? Let's keep praying!

I keep having to update our 'hopeful' dates on our adoption timeline that is at the bottom of this page. One of these days, I'd really like for our anticipated come-home date to be correct!

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God."
Philippians 4:6

Our week in review

Its a long summary, but I wanted to make sure to get in lots of details :-)

Monday:
This was a travel day for us. We left my parents' house bright and early at 4am to make it to the airport, in order to then sit for the mandatory 2 hrs before an international flight. Jay and I are both reading through a good book series, so it didn't bother us at all. In fact, the flights went by extremelly quickly and smoothly. Our American Airlines frequent flier miles made for a very inexpensive flight (we just had to pay taxes), but it did force us to add an extra layover in Atlanta. We kind of liked doing it that way because it split the trip up, gave us less of a layover in Miama, and still got us into Port-au-Prince at the same time.

Once in Port-au-Prince, we got our luggage, and met up with Rachel (the orphanage director). Having visited a few times now, the intensiveness of not knowing what to expect is gone and it feels more of like a reunion. We got into her new truck (no more stalling while going up the side of a mountain!) and headed to the baby house to go see David.

When we got to the baby house, it was getting dark (sunlight in Haiti is from 6am-6pm) and since the hurricanes, they haven't had any electricity so we only got to stop by for a few minutes. All of the kids were sitting quietly in the front room waiting for dinner, except for David who was climbing down ready to toddle out to Rachel's truck. He adores Rachel and usually comes out to greet her. He was all smiles, but understandably more reserved when Jay or I held him.

After saying goodbye to David until tomorrow, Rachel took us to Beth & Willem's house where we immediately felt at home (Beth is incredible at making you feel welcome). We turned in for bed around 9pm. In fact, every night we were there we did the same - it felt awesome to get a true night's sleep each night!


Tuesday:
Tuesday morning started out as a typical Haitian morning with the roosters crowing, dogs barking, & neighborhood donkey braying bright and early at 6am. We got up, Jay got his coffee, and we sat reading on the balcony.

What a beautiful way to start the day!

Rachel met us at the house and had David with her. From there we went to the older kids orphanage house. David's older sisters constantly wanted to hold and take care of him - its very sweet.



We stayed there through lunch time. And then Jay, David, Rachel, a driver, and I headed out to visit David's birthmother at her home. This was our first time to go to her house and Jay & I are really glad that we had the opportunity to go. It was about a 2 hour drive and David just sat on my lap for the whole time, occasionally napping. He's an amazing traveler!



When we got there, his birthmom, his 2 siblings that live with his mom, and a bunch of aunts were there as well as a lot of the neighbors. David hasn't been there since he left for the orphanage at 4 months old, and his birthmom had a good time showing him to everyone. We were welcomed with the traditional kiss on the cheek and smiles from most everyone - that definitely helped to make us feel welcome.



The neighborhood kids were all over us and got a huge kick out of the digital camera. Its clear that life there is not easy. His mom was telling Rachel that it had been more than a day since they had eaten. Yet, people are still people - there were smiles and hugs and life there. We hope to someday bring David back to visit again when he's older.


Wednesday:
Today was US Embassy day.

There are several stages that our paperwork still needs to go through before David is home with us. The last thing to do is file an I-600 form with the USCIS and then they'll issue a visa for David to enter the states. After the I-600 is filed, it can still be several weeks (to unfortunately months) before a visa is issued because the US Embassy wants to ensure that everything is a-okay with the adoption (ie, they'll interview the birthparent, do DNA testing to ensure David is actually her biological child, check all of the paperwork with a fine tooth comb, etc). We are still a ways away from being able to file our I-600, but there is a pilot program in Haiti in which adoptive parents can start the process while still in IBESR (the first stage). The hope is that this way the birth parent interview, paper checking, etc can be done earlier rather than later, hence speeding things up at the end. We had heard that things tend to go much smoother if filed at the US Embassy in Haiti rather than sending it to our local embassy in the States, so that's what we did.

The only hiccup was that our appointment at the Embassy was for 10am and they didn't call our names until noon. Otherwise, everything went smooth as could be. The woman helping us was very friendly. It felt so good to get that taken care of. Even though it doesn't move anything along quicker right now, it was nice to be able to do something at all, rather than continue to sit back and wait.

David sat on my lap for the entire time we were at the embassy, no toys or anything. Haitian children have incredible patience! We have trouble having Josh sit though an hour long church service, and yet David (actually every Haitian child we've seen) can sit for hours without making a sound. There are definitely a lot of cultural differences in raising children, (some better/worse than others) but this is one area where I can't help but wonder if Haitian parents have things figured out a bit more than US parents.

After the embassy, we ran some errands with Rachel and then went to the baby house for the rest of the afternoon. David had done really well with us the past few days, but was always a bit shy. Well, once he was in his own environment, boy, did he come out of his shell! He was running all over, smiling, laughing, blowing kisses, etc. Jay and I loved getting to watch him!



We spent the time there changing babies, feeding kids, holding them, and playing with them. Rachel and the nannies do a really good job with all of the tasks that need to be done there, but that many kids in such a small place makes for an endless amount of things that need to be done. Jay and I were glad to be able to spend some time just playing and holding the kids because we know that that's not something easy for the nannies to find the time to do.


As it started to get dark, they lit 2 pillar candles - 1 for each of the main rooms- and placed them in the center of the rooms. That was all of the light that was in the entire house. Rachel is hoping that eventually the city will get to their area of town to fix the electricity, but until then bedtime will continue to be at 6:00, because there aren't a whole lot of other options.


Thursday:
Definitely my favorite day! David got to spend the entire day at the house with us. No agenda, no to-dos - it was simply a day to bond.

We napped, read books, played, and just had a good time together.

Jay hung a white sheet from the clothes line out on the balcony and we took our own 'professional' pictures of David. I think they came out really well!

Here's a video of David and I:



And here's another shaky, sideways one of him running around:



Two other adoptive families flew into Haiti this day and so we had a chance to meet them that night. The adoptive dad of one of David's sisters was there and it was really good to get to meet him. They live within 1 1/2 hour driving distance of us, so our hope is that the kids will get to see each other throughout the years.

This was our last day with David since we needed to leave for the airport relatively early the next morning. It was hard to say goodbye and we're hoping that the next time we see him, he'll be coming home with us rather than us having to say goodbye again.


Friday:
Travel day again. I woke up about 2am with a horrendous stomach bug, which had me vomiting about once an hour until our plane touched down that night in Chicago. Talk about a lousy way to travel! If anyone walking through the Ft Laurderdale airport thought they saw a walking zombie, that would have been me. Luckily, by Monday morning the stomach bug had completely dissappeared. And in all honesty, I'm glad that it hit while we were traveling rather than on a day that we were with David.

We missed Josh a lot while we were gone and so it was good to get back to him. As usual, he had a great time with his grandparents. We spent the weekend up at my parents seeing friends and family, and we got back home to 'normal' life mode on Sunday night.

Wheew, there you have it!

October visit

We're back in the States. We flew back from Port-au-Prince on Friday after having had several wonderful days with David! Stories to come, but for now here's a link to pictures, since I know that's what most of you are waiting for anyway :-)

Our next visit planned

Jay & I are heading back to visit David for a week in early October. We can't wait to see the little guy!

Hurricanes

Several of you have asked how David is doing and how the orphanage in general has held up throughout the recent hurricanes.

David and all of the other children are safe. The town where the orphanage is located is pretty well protected from the elements. It sounds like they got very strong winds which have caused damage (power lines & trees down, etc), but nothing like what many other parts of the country has experienced. Reading about the destruction in other areas is extremelly sad. I'll warn you that once you start reading, you won't be able to go to sleep in your own bed without saying many thanks for the comforts that we have. I've specifically been following this blog from a rescue center that is located in one of the harder-hit areas.

One of the next best things to being with him

One of the couples that went to Haiti this past weekend, live just a few miles from us. They stopped by tonight and dropped off some pictures they took of David. (Thanks again!!!) Jay, Josh, and I have already looked through them about 50 times! We just can't get enough of seeing him.

Here are some of my favorites. I thought you'd want to share in the adorableness too :-)

Long time no post

So I know that its been a crazy long time since we've last posted.  Basically there just hasn't been much news to report.  I know, no excuses :-P

Our papers are still waiting to be signed out of IBESR - the stage that we've been in since October.  Our ages appear to be the issue.  When we first started the adoption process, Haiti didn't seem to be enforcing their age restriction that adoptive parents need to be 35 or older.  Well, now they're enforcing it, or at least enforcing that adoptive parents need to be at least 30. We're close to that mark, but not that close.

The good news though is that our papers haven't been denied (unfortunately, until we're through the next few stages that's still a possibility).  The bad news is that our papers aren't moving anywhere, and so we have no idea when David will be home with us.  It could still be by the end of this year; it could be another year or two (crazy to even think about, yet also possible).  We definitely haven't lost hope though.  As we continue to remember, God has brought us this far and whatever comes next is totally in his hands!  Haiti is such a relational country and who you're connected with seems to carry a lot of weight.  The connections that our orphanage have seem to be very strong and I know that people down there are advocating for us.  So for now, we just continue to wait, sigh.  

On happier notes, I do have some fun David updates to share.

• David is walking! In fact, it sounds like he's all over the place. :-)
• Our orphanage director told us that he's always smiling and laughing and "looks like somebody discovering the world for the first time." Oh, how that makes me wish I could be there with him to watch!
• Another couple just got back from visiting their son and told us that David is definitely a little jokester.

Jay and I are planning to go back down later this fall to visit. Jay hasn't been there since January and he's pretty anxious to get to see David (as am I!). We're just waiting to get the go ahead on dates from the people we stay with in Haiti and then we'll book our airplane tickets. Thanks to our many frequent flier miles we've been able to earn we should be able to fly for free, which makes traveling even sweeter.

"You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you" Isaiah 26:3

Pictures

Sorry for the delay in getting pictures up. Picassa has been giving me a hard time with uploading this past week.

Here's the link to pictures from this past trip. Enjoy!

Back home

It was a fantastic visit! Our plane got into Chicago late Wednesday night (we missed our original connecting flight out of Miami due to the loooong line in customs so we caught the next flight out) and then I drove back home Thursday afternoon. I'm working on sorting through the many pictures we took - about 1000 pictures total over 5 days, that must be a record or something, don't you think? For all of the other adopting parents from our orphanage, I have a bunch of pictures of the kids that I'll send your way sometime next week.

Today I'm just enjoying spending time with Jay & Josh after being away from them for the past week. I promise to get pictures and stories posted soon though!

Here's a picture from Sunday of David waiting to dive into his birthday cake. He turns 1 today!

We're here!

We made it here on Friday afternoon with no troubles. We spent yesterday at the two orphanages and then today David came to the house and is actually upstairs napping right now. I'll type more when we're back at home, but for now here are some photos from our first few days.

At the baby orphanage:


Playing:


Eating:


Going for a walk:


Ready for a nap:


Getting dressed for church:


Mom & Dad making friends at church:


Staring down his stuffed giraffe (he has a bit of a love/hate relationship with it):


Opening birthday gifts:


Enjoying the swing;

Off to Haiti

In less than 24 hours, I'll be in Haiti. My parents and I are all packed and ready to go. I'll update with pictures as soon as we're back next Thursday!

Some unrest in Haiti

Some of you may have heard about the recent protests that took place in Haiti this past week. I've been pretty glued to the internet news and various Haitian blogs, trying to get whatever updates are posted.

The basic gist of what's going on is that people all over the world are starving. As food prices continue to rise, what little food they were once able to afford is now too expensive. This has resulted in people taking to the streets and demonstrating. Some of these protests in Haiti became violent this week, leading to a lot of destruction and some deaths throughout the country. Even the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince closed down -- not exactly what I wanted to hear before getting ready to soon travel there!

To put the food crisis into perspective, you have to realize that food in Haiti costs MORE than it does here in the United States; yet, much of their population makes less than $2 a day -- that's less than $800 a year. Unlike in the U.S., Haitians don't have the option to start clipping coupons or shopping at Aldi if food prices get higher. So, when you can't afford food, you and your family don't eat.

The following is a quote from another blogger. It was written by a Haitian who has been through this type of unrest numerous times. I thought it was well-written and seemed to go along with what we'd been told and seen while we were there in January:

"There are several different things going on. First, many, many people are really suffering. They are hungry and they see no future for themselves or their children. People like that demonstrate peacefully - as is their right - and express their legitimate frustration and despair. But there are also people who are taking advantage of the situation to loot and steal. These people I saw today were not Jean Valjeans stealing a loaf of bread because they were hungry. They were taking 5 gallon water bottles and emptying them out, taking ice from the machine and throwing it in the road. They were going from one store to another and breaking all the windows. They were carrying away furniture and even the fire extinguishers. I don't know what all their motives were for this but clearly the motive wasn't to make food prices go down.Without exception, the people from this country with whom I have talked have expressed their disgust with those who are doing these things. They aren't improving the situation of high food prices and a difficult life - they are making the situation worse. Most people here are ashamed that the world is seeing these actions and associating this country with violence and destruction. This is not a violent country. Looters and destroyers do not represent this country any more than serial killers represent the United States."

Right now things appear to have calmed down, and as long as the roads to and from the airport are clear, we should be set for our trip in 2 weeks. The orphanage is far enough away from the capital, that I'm not worried about our safety once we get there. (By the way, I heard from our agency and everyone at the orphanage is doing just fine.)

So unless we hear otherwise from the people we're staying with, my parents and I are still planning on traveling to Haiti at the end of the month. Well, that is if our airplane gets there :-P

More Pictures

Thanks to Laura, here are some more David pics.
3 more weeks till I'm there snapping pictures of my own :-)

Missions trip to Honduras

This isn't an adoption related post, but it is related to kids worldwide so I figured I'd post about it anyway.

As some of you know I was in Honduras on a mission's trip last week. Honduras is one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere and the parts that we visited were some of the poorest of the poor. It was really educational for me and I came back feeling like I have at least a little bit better understanding of that part of the world; we were able to see firsthand the plights people are going through there as well as some of the amazing work God is doing. And as is true everywhere, kids are kids and they were goofy and fun to be around :-)

Below is a photo-video that we showed to our church when we got back. Enjoy!
(Sorry that it's blurry, but that's the only way I could post it without it taking a million years to load)

Getting so big!

Another adopting couple is visiting the orphanage right now and posted some pictures of David. He's getting so big!!!!









I barely recognized him with his newly shaved hairdo, teeth, and slimmer face. His big eyes, dimples, and thumb sucking were a sure give-away though :-)

Laura's comments (the mom who took the photos) made me smile too:
"I had a hard time recognizing him myself. He looks like a little man. My goodness is he precious. His smile makes me melt."

Its hard to watch him change so much while we're not there with him. I'm so looking forward to seeing him in less than a month.

Laura, thanks so much for the pictures!

Next trip planned

I just bought plane tickets for my next trip to visit David! I'm going to go down for about a week at the end up April. Due to some practicals (cost, watching Josh, taking time off of work, etc), Jay isn't going to be going this time. But, my parents are planning to come with me. I'm really excited for them to get to meet David and to see Haiti and the orphanage firsthand. We'll be going right around David's 1st birthday too (May 2), which makes me glad that we'll be there to celebrate with him.

So the countdown has begun, less than 2 months until I get to be with David again!

Mud cookies and cakes

Here's an article from the associated press about how many Haitians find themselves eating dirt in order to fill their bellies. The other adoptive families that had previously visited David's birth family's village had mentioned to us that families there were making pancakes out of dirt.














Link to ABC news article

Our trip

What an amazing past week! Here's the short version - although, I guess it doesn't seem that short now that I typed it :-)

We couldn't have asked for better in terms of air travel. We were pretty freaked out by the stories we'd heard of the Port-au-Prince airport, but the airport was awfully tame - the Miami airport was probably scarier! It definitely helped that we were met in the baggage claim by Willem, the head of Mountaintop Ministries. Willem seems to know everyone, and was able to speed us through customs, etc. We stayed at the Mountaintop Ministries guest house (our orphanage is loosely associated with this ministry), which was about 13 miles from the airport. Well, 13 miles through the mountains equals over an hour and a half of driving! So, unfortunately, it was too late by the time we got there to go and see David that day. Instead, we got a chance to talk to Willem and Rachel (the director of the orphanage) about the adoption process and Haiti in general. It was so eyeopening!

After talking with them, all of our fears of the adoption possibly falling through, were completely erased. Since our paperwork got filed with the Haitian govt. in October 2007, their assumption is that David will be able to come home with us in October 2008. Of course, nothing is definite, and it may go longer than that too. Our prayers though are still that David comes home this summer (nothing is impossible for God!). Rachel & Willem have a lot of contacts in the various offices that our paperwork will go through, and they appear to be well known and respected by the people who work there. Connections seem to be so important in Haiti and our hope is that their connections will keep things moving along smoothly. Rachel actually took us to IBESR, the place where our papers are at currently, and introduced us to the director who will eventually sign off on our papers. Our assumption is that not every adoptive couple gets to meet the director, so we were pretty amazed to do so.

Coincidentally, another adoptive couple was also visiting the orphanage at the same time as us. David has 3 older sisters also in the orphanage and this couple is adopting 2 of the girls. We were very excited to get to meet them as we'd all like to stay in contact as they kids grow up. The other sister is placed with a family in Indiana that are not too far from us. We're hoping that we'll get to meet them one of these days too.

Thursday morning we woke up and headed for the orphanage! David is adorable!!! All smiles and a very happy little guy. One of the coolest parts of this week was how easy it was for Jay and I to truly feel like he's our son. All of the kids at the orphanage referred to us as Davidson's mama and papa, and it just fit - not awkward in the least. We were able to spend all of Thursday, Friday, and then Saturday morning with him. Rachel took us all around the Port-au-Prince area and David would come with us. For an 8-month old, I have never seen such contentment just sitting in a lap or being carried around for such long periods. The entire time we were there he cried for 2 times (once when he bumped his head and once when we had to pause him during lunch). The rest of the time he was so smiley. He's able to scoot around quite well, although the tiled floors cause him to slip around. :-) For the most part, he's quiet, but still does his fair share of babbling and other baby noises. Developmentally and health wise, he seems to be right where he should be.

On Friday Willem took Jay and I to the village that Mountaintop Ministries works with. The work that they do there is incredible, and it was awesome to hear and see the drastic change that has come to the village through Mountaintop's involvement. They now have clean water, which has removed so many sicknesses and enabled farming, all of the kids have the chance to go to school, there's an available medical clinic, and the 5 voodoo temples that used to reside there have all left. It was clear that the people of the village deeply respected Willem. Basically they went from being a poverty-stricken village to one of the wealthiest villages in Haiti.

Also on Friday, we met David's birth mother. I had foreshadowed this being awkward, but it wasn't. Although I definitely wished we spoke creole so that we could have spoken to her directly rather than through Rachel translating. Rachel & Willem had told us what a good woman she is, and we were able to see that first hand. We got to hear a lot of her story, and share with her about who we are. David is the youngest of 6 children. The two oldest live with their mom and the 4 youngest are at Rachel's orphanage. From the U.S. perspective, it seems like this is such a sad situation, but that's not how its viewed in Haiti. His mom was very happy to have the chance to have her children adopted. Rachel told us that no one cries about adoption (the birthmoms or the kids); instead, they see this as a positive thing. That was and still is very difficult for me to grasp, and I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to meet her and take many pictures and videos of her and David together.

On Saturday we got to spend the morning with David and then left for the airport around noon. It was tough leaving him, but at the same time seeing the orphanage and how much love and care is there, makes having him there much easier than what I had felt over the past few months. Right now the thought is that I may go down with some of the other adoptive mom's sometime in April or May. Jay and I know that there's no way we're going to make it until October without seeing David!

Click here for pictures from our visit and travels around Haiti.

Back home

Just a quick update that we made it back home today. We had a fantastic trip! I'll post more soon, but we're exhausted!

So for now here's some pics to hold you over :-)

We're on our way to meet David

In less than 36 hours, we'll have David in our arms. My emotions are all over the place! What will it be like to meet our son who according to the law is not yet our son? What will it be like to leave after having spent several days with him, not knowing when we'll see him next? Will there be an immediate connection? Will David have any understanding of who we are? What will this little boy who we've been praying for for months be like? Are we going to get lost in what we've heard is a chaotic Port-au-Prince airport?! I'm so curious to see the orphanage, meet the missionaries and workers, experience Haiti, etc. I guess my feelings can best be summed up as lots of excitement mixed with a whole bunch of nervousness.

Our bags are pretty much packed and when Jay gets home from work today we're heading off. Josh is staying with Jay's parents, so we'll head there first. This will be the longest we've ever been away from him -- lots of firsts for all of us this week! Then off to my parent's house where they'll drive us to the airport early tomorrow morning.

We'll be back in a few days with pictures and stories!