IBESR Approval!!!!!

Well, I didn't think I would be writing this so soon, but we received word today that we are out of IBESR! The big black hole has been conquered! We are in shock and obviously extremely excited. I'll share more about what this means and the next steps in the process in my next post.

Promising news

We had heard rumors that things in IBESR might be speeding up. We got confirmation of that yesterday when one of the families we traveled with heard their dossier was released. Our lawyer, Kiki, was stunned. We are overjoyed. IBESR might not be the black hole it once was. This families' dossier went in on January 31st. Ours went in on February 3rd. This doesn't necessarily mean ours will come out next week as in the past there was really no rhyme or reason to it. But we know Who is moving the mountains and we are relying on His perfect timing.

Birth parent interviews and other news

We were pleased to find out this week that all of the families' birth parent interviews were conducted at the US Embassy in Haiti. Our lawyer in Haiti (Kiki) contacted Patrick and informed us that all went well. This is yet another huge step to be completed in the process. We also found out that the US Embassy did not request DNA testing. Sometimes the embassy will request this if there is a concern that the person claiming to be the child's parent isn't really the parent. They also request testing a lot of times if the father is the one who brought the child to the orphanage. We are so thankful that DNA testing wasn't required because it is quite expensive.

We have been praying for one of the families we traveled with because their daughter, Celine's birth certificate could not be located. They informed us this morning that Celine's birth certificate has been found and hopefully their Dossier will be sent to IBESR in a couple weeks.

Due to the recent elections in Haiti, there will be a new director appointed to the IBESR. We are praying and hopeful that this new director will help speed up the process. In the meantime, we would prefer that our Dossier would get out of IBESR before the changeover takes place. It takes time for people to get settled in to their new positions so this can cause a backlog in paperwork. Our Dossier has been in IBESR for a little over 2 months now.

We recently purchased the documentary "Adopting Haiti" for Lydie. We are thankful to have a resource for her to help her understand where she came from and what she experienced when she gets older.  If you haven't watched "Adopting Haiti", you can by going to Hulu.com and typing "Adopting Haiti" in the search box. The documentary is about an hour long.  Patrick sent us post-earthquake pictures of the truck she slept in for four months. It's hard to imagine what life must have been like for the nannies at that time. I think the nannie's face in the foreground speaks to the desperate situation they were in. The little girl the nanny is holding is Patrick's daughter, Valancia. She was barely holding onto life. Her skin was literally hanging off her little body.  Valancia was humanitarian paroled after the earthquake and Patrick showed us a picture of her now and she is a beautiful, bubbly, healthy little girl.

I should add the that the white stuff under the nanny's nose is toothpaste. It was used to mask the horrible stench in the air.

New pictures!!

These were taken by our CCAI guide, Patrick

Pretty Lydie

Angie trying to give Lydie to us. Lydie isn't so sure.

Samson's grumpy face

New pictures of Samson

I was feeling pretty sad tonight when one of our Haiti families emailed me pictures of Samson. She felt so bad for us when she found out our plane had been delayed so she went in the baby room and started snapping pictures of him and telling him his momma was coming. He's such a sweet little boy. 

New pictures!

One of our friends from our trip sent us these. They made me smile.

Silence

We have not heard a single thing from Haiti since we left. Angie is still in the states so her blog has been silent too. In a way it's easy to trust the Lord in this, because you have no other choice. I suppose instead of trusting God you could roll up in a ball and worry yourself to death about how your children are doing, but I've been in that place before in a different circumstance and I refuse to go back there again. It nearly killed me.

A few of the other Haiti families are having a really hard time. Some of them have already started pricing tickets to return in Haiti in June for a family bonding trip. The orphanage plans a few of these throughout the year. It's difficult for us to decide what's best. Our kids are young enough, we don't know if it's worth the emotional pain to go see them and not be able to take them home again. Part of me wants the next time I see them to be for good.

April is a big month for us though as the kids' birth mothers have their interviews at the US Embassy in Haiti on the 11th. Please pray. Things can potentially go wrong during these interviews, so pray the birth moms show up and are honest. One thing we don't know how it will play out is the fact that Lydie's birth father is deceased. Our lawyer was not aware of that information until we met her that day, so hopefully there won't be any hiccups with that. Sometimes in the case of a deceased parent, a death certificate needs to be issued, so we will wait and see what happens with that.

I had the opportunity to share about our journey at a concert on Saturday.  I made a quick video, because it's easier to do that then speak in public. I was able to talk to several people after the concert and share my experience. I met several people who also had some sort of connection with Haiti.  We all said the same thing. Haiti is a beautiful country with beautiful people and your heart just breaks for the situation there. I am posting the video that we played at the concert. Sorry for the rough-edit. I finished the project the day of the concert!