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!

First Visit

Our tickets are booked and plans are set to go to Haiti in the middle of January for about 3 days. We'll get a chance to meet David!, see the orphanage, and have a mini-tour of the area.

David update

We just got an e-mail letting us know that as of this week, David can now stand up by himself in the crib. Woo hoo, way to go David!

I love hearing snippets of information like this. But it also makes it a lot harder not to be there with him. We're planning a trip for mid-January to go to Haiti and meet him. We wish we could go there tomorrow, but practically we know that it makes more sense to wait. We're definitely looking forward to planning the trip!

We have entered IBESR

Our dossier is now in the hands of IBESR.

Here's a more detailed description of the steps to come (taken from this website). We're through the first two parts and are onto the third part.

Minister of Foreign Affairs (MFA) (2-4 weeks)
First Legalization (1st Legal). This is where all of the papers are authenticated.

File prepared for IBESR (Concurrent with MFA) (1-4 weeks)
When the paperwork is at Foreign Affairs, your lawyer must prepare your file for IBESR. IBESR requires that the paperwork be in a certain order. The social history and psychological examination required by IBESR for your child must be made during this period. It involves putting the child's social information into a home study format with your home study information.

IBESR (2-6 months)
Your child's paperwork is put together with your documents and the file is then presented to IBESR (Haiti's Social Service Department) where a social worker will look over all of your documents and decide whether to approve your adoption request.The director of IBESR, the IBESR lawyer, the head of adoption services at IBESR, and the IBESR social worker must all sign off on your dossier. This is four stages of approval.

Parquet (2-12 weeks)
This step involves one person(?) releasing the child(ren)'s file(s). Parquet is the head commissioner. He is intertwined with court. He asks all of the birth parents to come for interviews to make sure that they understand that there children are being adopted. Apparently there was some fraudulent activity going on and he wants to protect the birth parents interests. i.e. make sure they are in agreement.

Civil Court Legalization (2-8 weeks)
The adoption is finalized. After this point, the children are legally yours. (2nd Legal)

Minister of Interior Affairs (MOI)/Haitian Immigration (2-14 weeks)
The file is submitted into the passport process. The passports are printed in the adopting parents last name.

DHS Processing (U.S. Parents) (1-3 weeks)
I-600 is filed by adopting parents. File is reviewed and approved by DHS.

DNA Testing (0-6 weeks)
May or may not be necessary. Depends on DHS' opinion.

Consulate/Visa Appointment (1 week lead time)
Child receives visa in preparation for travel to their new home

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Total Time: 19 week - 76 weeks (~5- 19 months)

Cry of the Orphans Week

A year ago, Jay and I tuned into some radio broadcasts during 'Cry of the Orphan' week. What a life-changing week that was for us! From those broadcasts, Jay and I first began to seriously discuss adoption as a possibility in our lives.

Well, its that time of year again and Family Life Ministries has teamed up with some other organizations to dedicate this week of broadcasts to the Cry of the Orphan. If you want to listen to these broadcasts, they will be on the radio, downloadable from online, or available as Podcasts. Here's a link for more info.

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Here's a copy of the e-mail I received last week:

Today there are more than 143 million orphans in the world. That's approximately one-half of the population of the U.S.! Most of these children live in poverty, are malnourished and experience daily rejection. For this reason, FamilyLife™, Focus on the Family®, and Shaohannah's Hope along with Crown Financial Ministries are joining hands and voices with more than 75 orphan care providers, church-based orphan ministries, and adoption agencies to plead the cause of orphans in need. But we can't do it alone. No matter who you are, where you live or what you do, you can make a difference. From praying for orphans, to going on mission trips, from mentoring a child, to adopting one (or more), there is a place for everyone because you are God's plan for the orphan. To learn more, listen to the special radio broadcasts during "Cry of the Orphan" week on “FamilyLife Today," “Focus on the Family," and "Money Matters" Nov. 12-16, and visit cryoftheorphan.org. Join us as we boldly endeavor to answer God's call.