Best Christmas Present Ever

           If you know us well, then you know that the past few months have been kind of a challenge in some ways as we have had some adjustments to get used to in our lives.  After many years of Todd’s work schedule keeping him close to home, he now is traveling a lot and it is a major adjustment for our family.  Add to that the wait of an adoption and it can get crazy.  This past week seemed to be an especially crazy week.  Todd was once again traveling (this time to California) and was gone from Sunday morning to Saturday night.  Ashley was in the Living Christmas Tree performance at our church which is a wonderful ministry but a demanding schedule.  It meant long nights and boring nights for her brother who always seemed lost in the shuffle. (Thanks to good friends who carpooled most of the week to allow me to stay home with him.)

           Sunday came and we went to see both performances.  We went as a family to see one performance and the other so we could watch Ashley with friends and family.  It was amazing.  I laughed and cried through the whole thing.  I have been so proud that Ashley has felt so convicted to be a part of this ministry and has shown such dedication each day!  Even though she was tired she was determined to stick out the week! 

           She saw the fruits of her labor on Sunday…..when Travis asked Jesus into his heart at the 3:00 performance!  When Pastor Rhys said for those that said the prayer of salvation to raise their hands and I saw those big brown eyes look at me from Todd’s lap I just knew!  He was nervous but he had done it!  He raised his little arm as my tears started to flow!  He has talked about asking Jesus into his heart for awhile but we didn’t want to push and I guess Sunday was the perfect day! 

           For those that are so full of adult-wisdom in thinking that a 6 year old is too young to make a decision for Christ…..let’s leave that judgment up to God.  Because to tell him it wasn’t real is like telling him the sky isn’t blue.  He knows what he did and knows why he wanted to do it.  I believe we all need to have faith like a child and love like a child….with abandon!  May I always love that way! 

            So, this Christmas we will rejoice over our second child now being born into God’s family!  Praise the Lord!

           Thank you to all that served in the Living Christmas Tree! It certainly had an impact in our life.  

Family Update

          Where has the time gone?  I have all these stories I have wanted to blog about but days turn into weeks and they are still in my mind and not on the computer.  SO much has happened in our family since I last blogged. 

          The trip to Haiti that Todd and I took in October was wonderful and full of blessings.  It is amazing how we thought we were going to bless others and we were the ones blessed in the end  (more on that trip to come).

          November brought some high points and low points for our family.  Ever since sin entered the world it has brought with it poverty, heartache, illnesses and a host of other problems.  Sometimes it is just the reality that life ends too quickly and unexpectedly.  A dear friend has walked this road recently and it has been hard.  Yet, the joy of the Lord always prevails!  He carries us when we cannot walk ourselves!  His loves never fail!  We have experienced this anew and seen how He can carry us through a hard time.  God is So good.  November also brought illness to our home and with two sick children that can mean tired mamas, yucky everything and not so fun anything!  But it also brought a fun trip to Ohio to visit family and great memories to last a lifetime.  God sent snow to Ohio while we were there (almost 8 inches in one night even) and the children were thrilled!!  Who’s kidding…..we were all thrilled!  We spent one entire day sledding, making snowmen, having snowball fights, and sledding, sledding, sledding. We only came in long enough to warm our fingers and toes and we would go back out again.  Most of you know that Todd and I grew up in Ohio so snow and sledding are not new to us.  BUT, I did experience something new with sledding this time……it was my first time ever sledding with cows!  Yes, we were sledding on the pasture hill at Todd’s uncle’s farm and the cows were incredibly curious as to what we were doing.  In the morning they stayed at a good distance and just watched us.  But by the afternoon, we were zooming within a few feet of their legs.  They crossed the hillside numerous times and just watched us like we were crazy.  They came and sniffed our vehicles and walked all around.  It was hysterical. Todd’s uncle let us borrow a tractor so the kids had a ‘taxi’ to bring them back up the hill at the end of each sled-ride.  It was awesome.  Sled-ride down (miss the cows), call for a taxi, get a ride up, and repeat.  Families are amazing….we had grandparents on the hillside with us, uncles that came and pushed for hours, aunts that came to watch, cousins that came and played for hours and brought an inner tube (so cool!) and more aunts and uncles that let us use their farm (and giggled at us for hours from their front window I believe).   J 

           We are now home and continuing our thankful spirit as we begin to celebrate Christmas.  We have slowly started decorating and we are enjoying doing a little bit each day and spending time together.  

These past two months have been pretty hard (especially for me) on the adoption front.  Our trip to Haiti was amazing but I think it just put even more of a yearning in my heart for our child.  When the law passed I had such high hopes that things would move quickly and now 3 months later when nothing has happened it begins to wear me down some days. I know that God’s plan and timing is perfect and we would rather wait for His timing than demand our way, but it is hard.  A close friend must have been able to see it in my demeanor and had a pick-me-up this week by throwing us an adoption fundraiser.  It was a nice night to get together with close friends and visit and share.  This road often feels isolating but I am realizing we are not alone. There are many people with us they just may not know what to do or say.  Those of you reading this are those people, and we are grateful for you! These days when I am sad and even when I cannot put my feelings into words….thank you for understanding.  When we yearn for someone we do not yet know and you do not understand yet you listen…..Thank you.  For in my heart I know they are out there.  I know someone else is caring for them, putting them to bed, playing, rocking and celebrating Christmas with them.  I pray someone else is doing those things. 

           Thank you for loving us through this!  We couldn’t do it without your support!  Sometimes we wonder how much our children ‘get’ what is going on with the adoption since it is so hard for them to fully understand.  Well, on Thursday Ashley went to get the mail and started screaming at the mailbox and came running through the yard.  I went running in my slippers thinking something tragic happened.  She was jumping and thrust an envelope in my hand yelling “Open It!”  As I glanced at the envelope it all became clear and I started crying.  It was the quarterly newsletter from the orphanage we are adopting through.  She thought they were mailing our referral to us.  She (being 9) never knew it came via a phone call.  She went from a mountain to a valley in about 2 seconds.  Oh…. this journey is not for the faint of heart……for any members of a family.  SO thankful we have a loving God to carry us, love us and who will fulfill this journey with us!

           Many blessings to you all!

Nothing like sledding with the cows!

They thought we were crazy!

Get ready for some news.....

                I can’t believe it has been over 2 months since I have posted an update.  Where has the time gone?  Oh yeah….we’ve been waiting!  The days of no news blend together and begin to wear one out.  But for once we have some news….both personally and on the adoption front. 

                In adoption news, the long awaited law was finally voted upon (and passed) a month ago.  It was expected to go into effect October 1^st but that has not happened as of yet.  The law must now be signed by the president and then published in order to be official.  Those steps have not happened yet.  We hope they take place soon.  When they do, IBESR can begin matching families with children again!!  (that would be us…whahoo!)  At this point, we are waiting for that phone call to let us know who our child is and when we can go meet him/her.  That call could come tomorrow or 6 months from now.  We just don’t know.  So, if you see me with my phone and checking it every few minutes to make sure it is on, I am not crazy.  Maybe I am.  I’m a crazy mom waiting anxiously for that phone call that will change our lives! 

                Before we began this adoption journey Todd and I fell in love with the children at MEF (Maison d’Enfant par la Foi which mean House of Children of the Faith) which is an orphanage in Haiti that our church supports.  We have loved and prayed for those children for years.  Todd visited them in 2009 (right before the earthquake) and I went in 2010 and 2011.  With saving money for the adoption and our schedules we have not been able to return since.  That is changing this month! Todd and I will be returning in October for a short mission trip to see the children!  My heart is full just with the anticipation of seeing them again.    

                How can you pray for us?  Pray for all of us as we travel to Haiti.  It will be our first international trip (and only second major trip) away from the kids.  Pray for our team as we prepare for all that God is calling us to do in a short amount of time.  Pray for our hearts while we are there….we will be one hour away from our 3^rd child yet we do not know who they are yet.  We had planned to go early and serve at their orphanage for a few days but we were declined as it appears like we are going to ‘pick’ our child.  Understandable, but hard to be so close yet so far away at the same time. 

                The wait always seems to come right before great blessings.  Praying that call with our blessing comes soon…..

Being Intentional

               Your house may be entirely different than ours, but we often find it hard to ‘teach’ the kids to pray.  Sure we pray at meals but when we really pray and have our quiet times our children aren’t always there.  (Hence the point of quiet = no children) They know we do our quiet times in the mornings or after they go to bed but it isn’t the same at teaching them how to do it.  Let’s just go ahead and talk about bedtimes. Sure I would love to tell you that we have this fabulous bedtime routine where we lie on our beds together and read a bible story every night followed by a wonderful time of prayer with each child, but that isn’t reality.  True life is that we are rushing home from a practice, church or ball field and shouting for everyone to get showers as quickly as possible so that we can all jump in bed with a quick kiss so that I can rush to the kitchen and shuffle through backpacks and folders to get ready for the next day.  Whew.  Where are the quiet moments?  Where are the nightly prayers?  With each night eaten up with sports, church, and commitments our nightly routines kept getting later and later until the nighttime routine was maybe one night a week.   (Anyone with me yet or am I the lone ranger here?)

                We have tried putting our prayer lists on the bathroom mirrors so the kids can see as we add and remove the requests.  It was great to see them adding requests as well as knowing that we would be praying for them each morning but it just wasn't personal. 

                This summer we really felt that we had to be intentional about teaching prayer.  If we weren’t intentional about it then it would be passed by and we would unintentionally put something else in its place. 

                Well, our newest prayer focus is for the children that live in the orphanage that we are adopting from in Haiti.  We printed a picture of each child and glued it to a popsicle stick with their name on it and placed it in a can.  Every day we each pick a child to pray for.  It has been wonderful!   I think the pictures have been the connection to really hitting home for them.  They realize that it is their responsibility to pray for that child.  They took ownership of it!  Their prayers have been very sweet and it has been amazing.  SO amazing that my children had a lesson for me the other night….

                If you have talked with us recently you know that Todd has been working long hours and this particular night he was home and we were having a family dinner at a normal time.  I had cooked and we were all sitting down to dinner.  All the women will understand this completely because after you have shopped, prepared, plated, served and everyone is now seated you just want to have everyone eat and enjoy this meal that you have made just for them right?  Well, I (in the ‘all about me’ haste) announce that daddy will pray a prayer for all of our kiddos tonight in one big prayer for everything so we can get right on into eating.  I mean, seriously, we have prayed for them at breakfast and at lunch and God would completely understand a blanket prayer from daddy covering these children.  It’s all good right?  As we bow our heads this little voice speaks up and says “But, I want to pray for my own child….daddy doesn’t know what I want to pray for.”  And another little voice says:  “Me too…I want to say my own prayer”.  It took a millisecond for my heart to be checked and for me to see my gross sin and my Savior in my children.  They got it!  They got Him!  I can’t tell you exactly what they prayed for because I cried through it.  Our amazing Savior can hear the prayers of 5 and 8 year olds while their mama is praying for forgiveness and still listening to everyone else around the world!  What an awesome God we serve!

                Our slightly cold meal tasted even better as it was covered with amazing prayers for precious children.  Some day we will be in Haiti and I don’t know if we will ever meet these children.  They may still be at the orphanage or (I pray) they are home with their forever families.  No matter where they are I know they are prayed for each day.

                Here’s a picture of our prayer can in case you want to be intentional with your kiddos. 

Meeting Update

                          Thank you for all of your prayers!  We (finally) received word on Sunday afternoon about the meeting from Friday morning.  Time (and life) in Haiti does not work like we in first world countries want or often expect it to.  They can’t blog or facebook like we want them to.  They must drive through rough roads for hours to get to the meeting, have the meeting all day, travel those same roads home again and that is not the end of their day.  You know how it is when you have been gone….there’s paperwork to catch up on, people that have been waiting to ask you questions, problems that have come up that need your attention, and the list goes on.  Notice anything missing?  Ahhh yes….the little arms that come running when you come home that want hugs that only you can fill!  That is just a tidbit of the life of our director. SO many people hinge on her words but she is mama to many children, a leader to a large staff, a fighter for the plight of the orphan and the contact person for the adoptive families across the world adopting from that orphanage as well.  While the staff and kids in her care look up to her daily there are people all over the world just watching computers for her words to appear with tidbits of information and pictures of their kids and the process.  It’s amazing really.  I’ll tell you about her full story soon.  God has used her greatly and is continuing to do so each day but back to the present meeting.

                The blog came across on Sunday with detailed yet confusing information.  As with everything we must remain positive, look for God’s hand pray through the rest!  The best news is that the referral process (matching families with children) is beginning again….Praise the Lord!  Any time that children can be matched with their forever families and begin that process of coming home is a huge praise!!  We need to continue to pray for the process.  It is easy for those in government or those not involved to make requirements without realizing the implications of their decisions.  As of now, the birth parents must come to the capital city for 3 different interviews with the courts AFTER they have signed over their parental rights.  One must understand poverty to understand how this affects them….a trip to the city may mean they will not have food for the month, if the father must miss work to travel he could lose the only job he has.  If they do not come, the child cannot be adopted.  Then they must begin paperwork for the child to be abandoned and try to track down the parents.  That means more paperwork and a lengthy time to ‘wait’ before the child becomes available for adoption.  This means the child could live in an orphanage for many years before they could become adopted. If the parent comes at any point to the orphanage to check on them, or contacts at any point in this process, it all starts over and the clock begins again.  This applies if it is a grandmother, uncle or anyone that dropped the child off at an orphanage. 

                The second requirement that may be changing is that the adoptive family may need to make an additional trip to Haiti making a total of 3 trips before the adoption can be finalized.  For some families this is not a problem but for many this will be.  This could also keep many families from choosing to adopt from Haiti when looking at costs and travel plans.  Not only does it affect jobs and biological children but think about the children in Haiti that must meet, love and bond with their parents 2 times and then be ripped apart and watch them leave.  It’s heartbreaking!  Bonding and building trust could be increasingly difficult after breaking that 2 times before. 

                Let me take a moment to say something about my heart and our adoption (I know this is long and I apologize).  Every psychologist and counselor tells me that having a background on our child will help them greatly in their future but I have a secret fear.  I am fearful that I will be in Haiti to adopt our child and in will walk the mother or father of our child….and I will break.  (Stay with me now).  You see my heart is to help a child who does not have a parent to love on them.  I never want to take a child from a mother or father.  If the parents cannot afford to raise them I would rather spend my life helping the parents and keep the family together (family preservation programs) than see a family ripped apart!!  BUT, if a parent, grandparent, uncle or whatever family member does make that unbelievable selfless decision that they cannot possibly care for this precious child and they want them to have a better life then it should be a simpler process.  I believe we should honor that decision.  That grandmother who may have watched her daughter die in childbirth and carried her grandson to an orphanage should not have to travel three times to the capital to complete 3 interviews after signing over the rights as the only known relative.  Can you imagine making that incredibly hard decision to give up your child only to find out it took them 4 years to actually be adopted into a family? Or sometimes even longer if the interviews or paperwork is a problem?  I would be SO upset to miss time with my child AND know they missed a family as well.  Or if someone is left with children to care for some relatives may find it easier to turn the children over as child slaves (restavac’s) instead of turning them over to orphanges for adoption.  In a country that poverty is so high and people are willing to almost sell their children for a better life we need to be very careful to protect the children against child trafficking.  Yet, we cannot hurt the adoption process in the meantime and keep our orphanages full of children that need to come home.  It is a delicate balance.  I am just a mother stuck in this process with a little one stuck in it too.  Only prayer will break through these walls. 

                Satan is trying to get to God’s children.  Let’s not let him.  Matthew 25:40:  “The King will reply ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” 

Prayers Please

                Are there any prayer warriors out there?  Great….because we need ‘ya!  This Friday, July 5^th, at 10:00 there will be a very important meeting in Haiti that will have a large impact on our referral (matching of us with our child).  If anyone has a few moments between now and then and would like to lift up those involved we would be grateful!  We want God’s hands and plans to be all over this process and would like it to be covered in prayer!

                For those that love the details (like me):  Yes, we entered IBESR but they are not matching families with children right now.  In fact, they have not matched anyone in 2013.  They have not put any procedures in place and no one knows when that will happen.  Rumor has it that they are waiting on the new laws to pass before they begin matching.  (Since it has been over a year and the law has not passed everyone is concerned as to when it will happen.)  Many adoption agencies, orphanage directors and lawyers are meeting with the IBESR administrators on Friday at 10:00AM to come to an agreement on how to proceed with the referrals.  If they come to an agreement (which we are praying they will…AMEN!!) then referrals could start right away! 

                And a referral means we could possibly learn who God has ordained for our family.  And that would mean we could start praying specifically.  And that would mean a trip to meet them……Oh I must stop.   My heart cannot handle the anticipation. 

                Would you join us in praying for these next few days?  This is not just for us.  These people are meeting in rooms and discussing procedures but may they never forget that they are discussing children.  May all of their decisions be made in the best interest of the children and not for policies or procedures.  Praying God will be in control of everything.

Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

                This is one of my favorites from the devotional Jesus Calling.  “Trust Me by relinquishing control into My hands.  Let go, and recognize that I am God…..When you bring Me prayer requests, lay out your concerns before Me.  Speak to Me candidly; pour out your heart.  Then thank Me for the answers that I have set into motion long before you can discern results. 

Lord….we are praying and thanking you already for all that you are doing!  AMEN!

Entering IBESR

                We have news!  We finally have some movement to share!  Yay!  We’ve known for a few weeks that things might be moving along a little faster than we had anticipated but you just never know and putting it out there on a blog just wasn’t a good idea.  Don’t jump ahead of me…..no, we don’t have our child’s information yet.  One step at a time everyone!!  Remember….we are adopting from Haiti.  We love them but they are slow.  Our official news is that our dossier (that huge pile of papers that we collected for what seemed like FOREVER) has been officially accepted into IBESR (the DEFACS of Haiti)!!!  What?  That doesn’t sound very exciting?  Oh it is!!  It is super exciting!!  In fact, this is a huge step in our process!  One of our largest!!  Haiti announced not long ago that only one family can enter IBESR per month per agency and we were slotted to be the October or November family.  Through many events we were notified in May that we could be the June family (gasp)!  It’s been a roller coaster of emotions but YES we were entered into IBESR yesterday!!  For once, our paperwork was pushed UP faster than we had anticipated!  Whahoo!!  We will celebrate this step for sure!! 

                Ok, so what everyone really wants to know is what this means in the real world and what happens next. Honestly, that is a very good question.  Haiti is still working on ratifying (changing) their adoption laws and nothing has been passed yet; therefore, we do not know how the end of our process will even look and/or timelines.  We are taking it day by day and with complete trust that God is in control.  What we DO know is that IBESR is where it all begins.  They will be matching us with our child and they will be handling the paperwork in the civil and state courts (Visa’s, birth certificates, passports, etc). In regards to adoptions, it all begins and ends with them.  Our next step will be to receive our referral (to be matched with our child).  Did you hear that? It was my scream of excitement!  It is getting closer! 

                Our kiddos are getting excited as well. Travis was home sick with a fever when the call came yet he got up and hugged me tight when he heard.  Ashley was at a friend’s house and after texting the mom with the news the reply came back that she was screaming and jumping up and down!  They pray daily for this process to move faster. It is hard to understand.  Please pray for their hearts to remain protected through all of this. 

                We hope you all had a wonderful Father’s Day.  We snuck away for a few days at the beach to get away and to help with the wait.  It was great time together and great time to play, pray and relax.  We snorkeled every day, caught more things than you can imagine and had a blast exploring this wonderful world our Father made.  Thank you again for joining us on this journey.  We are all learning to trust and rely more on our Heavenly Father than we ever thought possible.  Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy. Blessings~         

  Proudly showing their 'finds'.  

  Our last night on the beach (and because a family shot is basically impossible to get).  

 Ashley's favorite thing to find of the whole trip.  Isn't it beautiful!  Our God makes beautiful things!  

Being 'Real'

       My whole life I thought I was supposed to be a ‘good example’ or to shine my light brightly so to speak. But I read a blog the other day and it really hit home to me that we aren’t really supposed to be a good example for other people.  We are called to be ‘real’ and Jesus is to be the example.  So here’s me being real……this whole adoption thing is just plain hard.  And I mean to-the-core-hard.  This month for me seems to be the worst for some reason.  Many of you have been asking and I have probably plastered a smile and said “Great” and you notice my blog has been quiet but it wasn’t me being honest.  Here’s honesty:

         *May marked one full year of actively pursuing adoption and that date for some reason has been hard for me to take in.  One full year of more paperwork than you can imagine.  One year of praying.  One year of what seems like little progress.

        *Our paperwork has been in legalization (in Haiti) since March which is where they review everything and approve/deny everything we have done.  We cannot move forward until this is done.  Calling all prayer warriors….if you would join us in praying us forward and that they accept everything that would be wonderful!

        *I know that God is in total control and that the wait has a purpose.  He has a plan for all of this.  I know that.  I trust that.  I trust Him.  But the wait is unbearable some days.   To know that our paperwork is already in country and that our child is already at an orphanage and yet will live there for probably 1 or 2 years before we can bring them home breaks my heart.

        The months of pain that we will go through will still not compare to what our child will go through.  This process is just hard all the way around.  Honestly….waiting stinks.  There I said it.  There may be a purpose for it but it still stinks.  I’m just sayin.  

The Steps

            Have you ever walked down a path that you really felt God had put before you and felt a wonderful all-encompassing peace that can only come from God?  Maybe He even gives you a glimpse of encouragement to show you that you are on the right path!  And then all of a sudden…..WHAM!  You feel like you walked into something like this?

What did it make you do?  Did it make you stop and re-evaluate?  Question what you were called to do?  Give up and go in the other direction? Or did you stop and wait?

We see this brick wall as impossible!  

But God can change it into something else!

A new path, a new direction, and even more beautiful than before!

          Our adoption journey had seemed to hit a brick wall a few months ago.  We were given all sorts of options and at times it became overwhelming.  I felt at times like I was up against this brick wall and I could not see the path ahead anymore.  We decided to stand still, wait and have confidence in where He had led us already.

          Tomorrow our completed dossier will be mailed to Haiti!  Yay!  I know many of you are wondering what that really means.  It basically means that our part of the paperwork is completed.  Our home study, dossier, translation, application to Immigration Department and everything in the U. S. has been completed and accepted.  It was accepted by the Haitian Consulate in Chicago this past week and now is being sent to Haiti.  We will now begin the wait to be matched with our child and the legal process in Haiti to bring them HOME!!

          The picture of the brick steps vividly describes our path.   Our wall (Haiti being open/closed for months) was changed to these beautiful brick steps that are so inviting and allow you to almost see the path ahead.  That’s how I feel about our journey.  We are again moving and we can see the path right where we are but the path ahead we cannot see.  We do not know what lies ahead.   We step up in faith knowing that our God loves us and protects us and He knows what is to come.

          Thank you for your love and support through these months of ups and downs!  Each day is one day closer to our family of 5.

The big deal with staples….

             We haven’t had a bunch of good news to update on the adoption front, but since everyone is asking we’ll just give an update. I’m reminded that life isn’t always perfect and it is ok to share the struggles and challenges as well as the successes. 

                I’ll be honest and share what I did to set us back a few steps on this journey. Yes, I did a huge blunder on the whole adoption journey.  Not intentional of course and I’m still baffled that it was so major but major it was.  If you are a reader of our blog or you know us personally, then you know of our trip to the capital to get the long awaited gold seals for our dossier.  (We have waited for the go-ahead for awhile now. )  For those who like us knew nothing about a gold seal……they attach the gold seal paper to the authentication form and notary signed letter with a blue paper and 2 staples.  As soon as we get in the car with our precious gold seals we called our agency and they tell us to go home and scan all the papers and send them to their office asap (all 100 pages).  Whew.  So, I spend an hour ripping all the staples out so Todd can scan all the documents at work and email them to the agency that afternoon.  After countless conversations with them we copy the package (now over 250 pages) 7 times and mail it to them and consider our part of the process DONE!   It is an amazing feeling knowing that we have completed our part and we are now waiting to be matched with our child.  Our social worker calls to congratulate us and the feeling is amazing. 

                THEN……I get an email that says our entire dossier has been rejected.  I guess they consider those little staples a pretty big deal and no one can ‘tamper’ with them.  Because I removed the staples to scan and copy the package I nullified our package and it will not be accepted.  They are returning it to us.  (*gasp and tears here*).  I have since been told I should have scanned and copied them individually.  It would have been nice to know that before but oh well.  It is done now. 

                What does this mean?  Well, we must begin that part of the process again.  They will return our dossier and we must get the state seals again.  It means we’ll make another trip to the capital, scan the new documents, have them translated again, copy the package again and then send it back to MI and see if it will be accepted by the Haitian Consulate this time. 

                Many of you ask if we know the information about our child yet and when they are coming home and I feel I must be honest while we are putting it all out there on this blog today.  As much as we love Haiti, it is known for having very slow adoptions.  It very well may be 2+ years before we can bring our child home.  We are praying that this is not the case!  We are praying that these new laws and procedures will shorten the adoption timelines but the current times are 2+ years. 

                Just in January of 2013 Haiti has made a new law that says that each agency can only submit ONE family for an adoption a month.  Yes, one family per month.  There are 6 families already waiting with our agency and we are praying to get our paperwork there to be family #7.  If they begin accepting families in Feb, (when they open) then the very earliest that we would be put into the system would be August.  We would be matched with a child sometime after that point.  Yes it is difficult for us too.  We thought we would have our package in Haiti long before now and now even if we get it there it won’t be accepted for many months.  Very hard to accept. 

                Basically, Haiti still does not have a system worked out.  They are making new laws and working out a system as they go which is hard for us (and a control freak like me).  We are learning as we go and making mistakes along the way.  We are praying God uses us and this to bring us together with our child and protects our hearts and all of our children’s hearts through this process. 

                In our Sunday school class we have been studying the Israelites as they wandered in the desert and I feel like one of them.  One day I am close with God and high on a mountain and the next I am complaining and looking for water.  I forget what I saw Him do and I begin to doubt.  Sometimes I feel like we have wandered around these many months collecting paperwork from everywhere and now we are right there standing next to the Promise Land but it’s just not time to enter in or to cross the Jordan river.  I feel like I can almost see it but there is something I must learn or experience before it is our time.  Pastor preached this week about Jericho and the walls coming down.  I’m praying the walls around adoptions in Haiti will come crashing down.  Not just for us but for all those wanting to adopt.  The orphanages are overrun with children who need to come home to their forever families but can’t because of the stand-stills.  There are children who need care but can’t go anywhere because the orphanages are full.  There are families all over who have empty bedrooms waiting on children while there are children in Haiti sleeping 3 to a bed or on the floors because lawmakers can’t come together.  We need walls to come down!  We need people to come together for the sake of children and get these kids home where they can be loved and cared for by their families!  Yes, we are blessed with a Christian orphanage that does a wonderful job caring for our kids but they will be the first to tell you that these kids need to come home! 

                Thank you for supporting us through the mountains and the valleys.   Join us in praying the walls will come down and that we will see real movement in this process.  Blessings~

Progress in this Process

     As I reflect over this day and in fact the past weeks and months, I am still in awe of where this journey has taken us.  I never thought that paperwork could take so very long to collect from so many different places.  I never realized how much of our life is controlled by “us” and this process is truly about waiting….on many levels.  We wait for people to get us documents, we wait for things in the mail, we wait for emails, we wait for news, we wait for phone calls……we wait. 

     I moved John Waller’s CD and song “While I’m Waiting” back into the front of my car playlist so I can hear and sing it all the time.  It is right where we have been.   It is where we will be for a long time and until our child is in our arms.  But isn’t life just a series of ‘wait’s?  We waited for our children to be able to talk and walk?  Now we are waiting for our child to be home with us?  We wait and pray for each of our children to know Jesus personally!  

     I think we do some of our best growing and learning in the waiting.  God speaks to us in the waiting.  Maybe we are able to listen more in the quiet.  I know it is true for my life sometimes. But let’s be honest….waiting isn’t easy.  I’m just like everyone else and there are days that waiting is just plain hard.  We heard that Haiti was open early in January and expected a call any day.  It never came.  Then the news came, that agency announcements would be made on the 10^th…..then the 14^th…..then for sure on the 15^th.  Well, by this point I was not waiting very patiently.  I was becoming a tad obsessed.  Every time I walked by the computer I just had to hit refresh and check to see if an email had posted.  I must have checked my cell phone every ½ hour just to make sure I didn’t miss a call.  It was crazy!  I knew it was crazy and I would pray and calm myself down and then minutes later I was grabbing my cell phone just to check.  Ugh.  Oh me of little faith.  I had a peace.  I knew the call was coming I just was so anxious that I couldn’t wait.  Patience….that is what I lack!   Well, of course, the day came that I got “the call”.  I was at Ashley’s gymnastics evaluation at a new gym when I glanced at my phone and saw the number.  I instantly started praying and staring at my phone.  There was such a moment of shock that I literally almost missed the phone call!  It was our Bethany representative calling to say they got their approval and we were ready to submit our application!  Of course the tears started coming.   The kids looked at me and just knew!  It was cool!     

     Ever since then it has been trying to work out schedules to get things moving.  Today was the day that Todd and I could get to the state to get the paperwork all sealed by the state of Georgia.  We had a beautiful morning to drive up and it all worked out perfectly.  We snapped a few pictures to remember the day.  The capital building is actually across the street from where we went but it was so beautiful that we had to share this picture.  All of our documents now hold the huge official gold seal of the state of Georgia!!  Yay! 

     Walking out of that building was surreal.  To them, they were just pieces of paper.  They have no idea what went into getting those pieces of paper!!  To us, they are priceless!! 

      What is next?  We are waiting for 3 documents that are being sealed by the state of Ohio.  When we receive those we will get these state pages translated and then we will send our package (dossier) to Haiti! 

     Progress! Yes! 

     If we haven’t said it before….thank you for joining us on this journey!  The support to us and the kids has been just wonderful!  We appreciate it! 

     Prayer Requests:  continue to pray for the process and for all of our children that God would prepare all of our hearts to be united.  

     Blessings to you all~

 Yay!!!  There are precious 'Gold Seals' inside that bag that match the top of that capital building!!  : )

Finally!!!

                 It’s amazing how things can change in just a few short weeks. There are still a lot of questions and unknowns but we took a huge step today!  We are SO excited!!   Ok, here’s what happened……

                On Wednesday, January 2^nd there was a posting on the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services website that said the following: Haiti’s adoption authority (IBESR) has informed the US Government that they are now accepting new adoption applications.  (Can you hear my screams?  Just checking!!)

                I didn’t see the post until Thursday but when I saw it the tears began flowing!!   Yes it is great news but there are still questions.  For instance, Haiti has announced that they will accept applications again, but, they must be submitted through an approved agency.  And yet they have not approved any agencies!   It is obviously a contradiction!  We must still wait for the approval of the agencies before we can submit anything.  Ugh…..but we are thankful to see movement in the right direction!

                We decided to take a risk.  We talked with our agency and we are going to go ahead and get everything translated and ready to go.  So today, we got all of the paperwork that needs translated together.  Since I can only scan one page at a time, Todd went to Yamaha and scanned all 76 pages.  We came home and emailed them! 

                Tomorrow morning they should be forwarded to the translated.  We now will wait until Haiti announces the approved agencies.  We pray that ours is approved but will take each day as it comes.  Today we celebrate a huge step forward in this process! 

                I hope to update this page soon with more detailed information on the steps we have completed as well as what to expect to see happen in the future.  Thank you for all of your support and questions.  We feel the prayers!  The peace we have felt for the past 3 weeks could only come from God!  He gave us that time to confirm our path.  

                Here’s a cheesy picture of the 4 of us tonight as we returned from scanning the documents.  The kids could feel our excitement.  Ashley prayed tonight for her new sibling and Travis thought they were coming home today.  : )  The mound of paperwork is what we have accumulated so far through this process and Ashley is holding the precious stack that was sent tonight! 

                Blessings to you all!  ~

Be still and wait.....

           The past few months have been busy and I apologize for not updating before now.  We enjoyed Thanksgiving and Christmas with our children and families and spent any free time (haha) trying to gather the last of our paperwork and fundraising.  With Christmas approaching I was selling jewelry constantly and it was such a blessing!  (A huge Thank you to everyone who purchased jewelry or sent others to me!  You  are helping and we appreciate it!!!)   As our paperwork was coming together, I was in close communication with our agency to make sure I was following the steps correctly.  We were planning on going to the state on the Friday before Christmas to get everything sealed and sent for translation.  The day before (Thursday the 20^th) we got a call from our agency.   Yes, they called to say that Haiti had closed for new adoptions.  They are no longer accepting new dossiers (new adoptions).  My first reaction felt like a huge loss and felt like something was just out of my grasp.  Yes, there were tears.  No, I couldn’t really talk about it.  I really didn’t even share with many close to me at first.  You see I needed those days with my Father.  I needed Him to hold and comfort me in a way that only He can!  We had prayed from the beginning that HE open and close the doors and that HE would show us what to do.  Well, He sure shut a door!  And with perfect timing too!  If we had gone and had the documents sealed then they would have not been able to be used again and we would have had to start the process over again so to speak.  He was protecting us all along just like He always does!!!  Our God is SO good!!  I am SO thankful that He is always looking out for us and protecting us even when it hurts.  He loves us that much! 

                So where does that leave us you ask?  That is a very good question.  Right now we are waiting.  We are waiting for God to show us the next step in our journey.  It is peaceful.  There’s something peaceful about resting in HIM.  I have been SO stressed about getting our paperwork and rushing to get it all done.  Well, it is all sitting here and ready to go.  We now are just waiting.  Haiti may re-open soon and we can reapply with them or we may need to move our paperwork to another country.  We do not know.  Thankfully our heavenly Father knows and He is preparing the way for us.  We are just trying to be faithful in the wait. We would love your prayers!  If you know me…I am not a very patient person!   J  Exactly one week after knowing that Haiti was closed we received pictures of all the children that were now available for adoption in Haiti. It is such a contradiction.  There are so many children in need.  But they are His children first and God has His hand in all of this.  He will direct our path whether it is to wait on Haiti to reopen or move to another country it is all on the journey to bringing our little one home. 

                Please join us in praying.  It is hard on our little ones too.  I began to tell Todd at dinner tonight that the Adoption Tax Credit had passed and when I began the first words Ashley jumped up and screamed “We Can…..” all excited.  She thought I was telling him that Haiti had opened and we were back to adopting from Haiti.  Their little hearts are affected as well.  We, as adults, don’t understand these things so explaining to children can often be difficult.  Please pray for all of our children, here and afar that we can be united quickly.  Blessings.