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.