Positives in the aftermath?

So are there any positives in all of this? Some more thoughts -

• Awareness - Haiti is so close to the US and yet most people knew little to nothing about it (we were the same 3 yrs ago - couldn't have told you where Haiti was on a map). Checking out facebook the day after the earthquake, you found that people suddenly were involved with & praying for this county. A little, too late? Perhaps, but its something and that something can be used! So, don't feel guilty if you didn't know anything about Haiti before, instead use this new awareness as a way to be involved and praying for people who need you.

• God's power clearly acknowledged - The stories that have and will come from this, will clearly point to God's miraculous power. Man alone is not going to be able to overcome the destruction that has occurred in Port-a-Prince and the surrounding areas, but with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).

• A renewed feeling of gratefulness that David came home to us when he did - I can not even imagine the pain of not being with my little boy in this type of situation. Jay and I are so grateful to be able to see this face every day!

What can we do?

So, I guess the question is, what can we do? Here's some of my thoughts -

• Pray!!! - Seriously, people, right now without God's intervention and miraculous hand, I don't see how the amount of hurt and damage there can even be dented. Read first hand reports and look at photos and you'll see what I mean.

• Give - Pretty much any site that you click on will tell you that money is the most helpful thing (besides prayer) that you can do. Give $ to those who know what needs to get done and how to go about doing it. There are many reputable places; I personally recommend here. Maybe set up an auto-check to be sent over the next few months so that giving continues even when this is no longer all over the news and fresh in our minds?

• Call and write - Everyone is looking for something to physically do, congressman included. So why not give them some ideas of how they can help? Contacting your congressmen is easy to do & can be done in a matter of minutes. Here's a website to get their info (if you call, you'll likely talk to an intern or secretary. Or you can drop a quick e-mail to their e-mail address or through a web contact form). Below are two requests to be made:
  
• Hundreds of children are in orphanages who have already been placed with adoptive families, many already legally a part of those families according to Haitian law, and have just been waiting for paperwork processing. Well, that paperwork processing is going to be at a halt, perhaps indefinitely. Government buildings housing adoption papers have been destroyed, many workers killed or missing, and an adoption system which was already drawn out and complicated has now been completely crippled. There are many, many high priorities in Haiti right now, but getting these children with their adoptive families is not only good for these children, but also frees up food, resources, and orphanage space for other children. So contact your congressmen and ask them to have the department of state issue humanitarian parole to all children who had been referred to adoptive families prior to the earthquake. Update: So humanitarian parole has been issued (yea!!!), but the practicals of getting it working is a big mess. Orphanages have to get the kids there with all necessary paperwork (which they may or may not have) and find an escort to take the kids out. Sounds easy enough, but with the roads a mess, gas limited, and tons of people at the embassy - this is not a smooth process. So the US govt needs to get moving and help!!! Want to contact congressmen again? Ask them to make the Dept of State aware that practicals need to be set in place as well (such as having Americans ready to help escort rather than leaving that up to orphanages) and helping arrange for pick-up of children.
  
• Beth at MTM, also urged us to contact our congressmen and urge them to have Craig Fugate at FEMA get involved to help Haiti.
  

Earthquake Map

I've been trying to figure out what to post about the earthquake in Haiti. Our family now has a deep connection to this country, which was home to David for his first 2 1/2 years of life and is still home to his birthmother and 3 of his birth-siblings. Had this earthquake happened just 2 months ago, David would still be there and be in the midst of it... the thought of that... whooh.

The news coming from Haiti is heart-wrenching and unfathomable to me. David's orphanage, Rivers of Hope, is about 15 miles outside of Port-a-Prince. Their town was struck hard by the earthquake, but praise God, everyone at the orphanage & the missionary family that we always stayed with was unharmed in the earthquake. However, the future there is so uncertain right now, with possible structural damage, food/gas shortages, civil unrest, etc. The first-hand person accounts that I've read describe things as your worst nightmare gone bad and things don't look to improve anytime soon...

We have not heard any news about David's birthmother and siblings, but due to communication delays in Haiti, I don't anticipate receiving any word for at least a few weeks. My guess is they are far enough away that they will have survived, but their future survival... well, that's always an unknown.

I'll try to post some of my other thoughts in a future post. For now, here's a map Jay put together which shows the location of the earthquake epicenter, Port-a-Prince, the orphanage, Willem & Beth's (Mountaintop Ministries), the village of David's birthmother (Gerda), and the airport. It really helped me to see things in perspective to one another. Click for a larger image.

Welcome Home Video

Here's a photo video that we put together of David's first weeks home. Enjoy!

Pictures posted

I posted some pictures from the first few days home. Here's the link.




















The first few days have flown by. We knew that life with 3 kids, 3 and under, would be fast-paced and that's certainly been true so far. We are soooo grateful to our church for providing dinner for us these first few nights and the next weeks - we likely would have been eating applesauce and bread & butter every night otherwise!

We are very grateful to have 3 kids who, as of now, take very good naps and sleep all night, because they definitely have been exhausting us! David and Josh are getting along very well together. There are some things (sharing in particular) that can use some work, but I'm guessing that might be an issue no matter what age of brothers. Speaking different languages hasn't slowed them down at all and they simply repeat what each other says and make up their own babbling language to fill in the gaps.

Anyway, I'll try to post more in the next few days. For now, I'll just let you scan through pictures!

Back home

We made it back home this afternoon and are settling in as a family of 5. The energy level in this house has been crazy as Josh & David ran from one thing to the next together! Hectic, but also easy for us to sit-back and smile while watching.

Here's a few pictures and then I'm off to bed to get some rest before the trio wakes up in the morning :-)

Jay and David walking to the plane as they left Port-a-Prince:














At the airport!














Laying on the floor, being goofy, before bed tonight:

Family of 5

They made it! Right now we're back at my parents and have 3 kiddos in bed :-)

I'll post pictures in the next few days.

For now, its time to send many, many praises up to God!

Last leg of the trip

I just got a call from Jay and they've boarded the plane and are waiting to take off from Miami for the last leg of the trip.

Immigration went fine, but took a loooooong time. Jay said that David did amazing during their hour and a half wait in the room at immigration. In fact, he said that David has been an amazing traveler in general. In order to make their next flight, Jay had to sprint across the Miami airport carrying David. He said that he'll be awfully sore tomorrow!

Ends up that there was a missions team staying at the guesthouse with Jay all weekend and coincidentally they also were heading back home today and had the exact same 2 flights that Jay & David have. It sounds like that has been a huge blessing to have the company and extra hands!

U.S. Citizen

Their plane landed in Miami. David is now a U.S. citizen!

In the air

Jay and David's flight from Port-a-Prince is in the air :-) Less than 8 hours until I pick them up from the airport!

Landed in Haiti

After a long day of traveling (he was at the airport at 4:30am), Jay's plane landed in Haiti late this afternoon. He headed straight to the orphanage to get David and then they made it to the guesthouse without any troubles. After some lego playing, David went back to the orphanage for his last time and will return to the guesthouse tomorrow for a full day of time with his daddy.

Josh, Brenna, and I are staying at my parents' house, since they live close to the airport, until Jay & David get back into town. What a crazy realization it was yesterday when the 4 of us left home, realizing that on our return there would be 5 of us!

Ready to come home

David's visa will be ready tomorrow afternoon! So, tickets are booked and Jay will be heading to Haiti this weekend to bring David home :-)

Praise God!!!!

God's Perfect Timing

3 years ago we felt God nudging us toward adoption, 2 years ago we first saw David's picture, and a week and a half from now we can bring him home!!!!

This morning, I got an e-mail from the US Embassy in Port-a-Prince saying that David's visa appointment is scheduled for next Thursday the 12th. That means that as long as there are no crazy unforeseen delays, Jay can travel as early as next Friday to pick him up! We'll likely wait to book tickets until next Friday when we hear that our orphanage director has the visa, just to be on the safe side. So 99% likely that Jay will be on a plane sometime next weekend!!!!

I'm excited and giddy. Yet, also nervous for the unknown. We'd appreciate lots of prayers for travel plans, preparing our house for a new child, and the transition for David and the rest of our family. Please be praying especially for David. We long for him to attach quickly with our family, but we also know that the road will likely be a long one with ups and downs.

"For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever."
Romans 11:36

Waiting on a Visa

We're getting so close - can you feel the excitement in the air?!

David's paperwork has all been turned into the US Embassy and he just needs this little slip of very important paper inside of his passport (aka his visa). Then Jay will get on an airplane and bring our little guy home! His bed, car seat, clothes, etc. and family are waiting and ready!

We could be waiting as little as a few days to a few weeks, but I definitely know what I'll be thankful for at Thanksgiving this year :-)

Passport in hand

Well, clearly David is not going to be home in time for Halloween. So his Halloween costume will remain in the closet :-(

I've been waiting to post until I got the official word that our orphanage director had his passport in her hand. We've noticed that 'next week' doesn't always mean 'next week', which was true again in this situation. There were a few delays, but I just received an e-mail letting me know that she DOES have his passport in her possession.

Next week she's supposed to be at the embassy to hand in the necessary documents for his visa. Once that's done, then we can start a countdown of 1-4 weeks until Jay will be on a plane to go pick him up.

I'll post again once I get word that all necessary paperwork is at the embassy. Cross your fingers that 'next week' really will mean 'this coming Monday'!

Passport?

I just got an e-mail saying that our orphanage director should have David's passport in hand next week!!!! Getting his visa should hopefully be a smooth, quick process because we were able to file our I-600 way back when he was still in IBESR thus most of the paper processing is already done.

So maybe, just maybe he'll be able to wear the Halloween costume that I have for him?

:-)

Fingerprints updated, again

Yesterday, we headed over to Indianapolis to be refingerprinted by the Dept of Homeland Security. According to the US govt, fingerprints expire every 15 months, so rather than being able to just send in money to have our fingerprints rerun to check that we're still crime-free, Jay took the day off of work, we packed up the kids and drove the drove 2 hours each way to be fingerprinted. We hit Dunkin Donuts on the way there and McDonalds on the way home as an attempt to make the car-trip more fun for Josh. Mix that with some books to look through and Josh was a happy little boy. Brenna slept most of the trip and then cooed at and watched Josh for the rest of the time. All in all, it was a pretty uneventful trip. At the fingerprinting office, there was a security guard who had to use the security wand on everyone entering. Josh has been excitedly talking nonstop about that every since :-P

In the past 4 years we have now been to 3 different Homeland Security offices (ranging from 2-3 hours from our home) and have been fingerprinted 5 different times. Hoping to not jinx anything, but we should now be through with our fingerprinting days because it will not be another 15 months before David is home.

The latest word is that we're in Immigration waiting for David's Haitian passport. Once that's done, then we're looking at a week or two until we can travel to pick him up.

Our big boy

Here's a new picture of David :-)

Craziness in the details

A few weeks back, I was reading a blog entry which listed updates on how the general adoption process in Haiti has been going. For MOI, it was mentioned that "the workers in MOI have been instructed to go through every document with a fine tooth comb". Well, the next day we experienced this first hand. I received an e-mail from our orphanage director who had just come from MOI and was told that there was a problem with one of our papers. Our papers were essentially stuck unless we got it fixed.

The big problem that could cause months of delay? On one of our papers, Jay's name was listed without his middle name. Now mind you, none of our papers, other than his birth certificate, include his middle name, but for some reason MOI decided that it was essential for this one page. Why? We have no idea.

In the big picture, this was at least a relatively easy thing to get corrected. Of course, nothing is ever simple either :-) It wasn't as straight-forward as just printing off a new page and sending it because everything has to be 'official.' Hence, we printed it off then had to get it notarized, authenticated by the secretary of state, stamped by the Haitian consulate, translated into french, and then quickly get to Haiti. All of these steps could have easily delayed everything a month! Luckily, I was already planning to be in the Chicago area that week, so rather than having to use the mail, I was able to personally go to the secretary of state and Haitian consulate. I then overnighted it to a family that was traveling to Haiti a few days later and they were able to hand-deliver it to our orphanage director who had it at MOI a week after the initial 'problem' was discovered. In the end, it only cost us about a week delay, about a day & a half of my time, and ~$75.

Ahh, bureaucracy.

Onto MOI we go!

Just got news that we're out of 2nd legal and, as of Monday, David's dossier is now at the Ministry of Interiors (MOI). This office seems to be taking ~5 months to get through, but clearly we've learned that estimates are pretty pointless when it comes to Haitian adoptions. So let's pray for quicker!

As soon as it gets out of the ministry, then we're onto visa processing with the US govt and then we get on a plane and go get our little man :-)