Processing

It will take a few days to process all that we have seen and experienced this week. We are overwhelmed with the Lord's protection and guidance while we were in Haiti. I have lots of photos and video I will be posting as I get organized. Thanks again for your prayers. They were answered. We are grateful. We did feel like we were leaving a big piece of us back in Haiti, but we know that God's timing is perfect.

We live in a great country

Complain all you want about the USA, but the majority of us in this country have clean water to drink and don't have to worry about getting sick from a tiny mosquito bite. We are blessed.

Teleconference

We had a teleconference Monday night with everybody who will be traveling with us. The teleconference was hosted by For His Glory, the Texas-based mission who runs Maison Orphanage. We started the teleconference at 9:00 that night and it didn't get done until 10:30. It was a lot of information and unfortunately, I had a hard time getting to sleep that night after taking in all they had to say.

Once again, they went over the airport situation and how overwhelming it can be. Once we get out of the terminal, we will be greeted by our adoption agency rep, Patrick and somebody from Maison. They will take us to the hotel and give us a chance to settle in and then, we will be going to the orphanage to meet our kids for the first time. They told us the nannies there take their jobs very seriously so they will not bring the kids out until they are "picture perfect". Washed up, hair done, diapers changed. The nannies take great pride in their work and want the kids looking their best. When they told us this, it brought tears to my eyes. The reward in Heaven will be huge for those ladies and I can't wait to meet them and thank them for taking care of our precious little ones.

As far as itineraries go, we don't have one set in stone. The way things go in Haiti, if you plan something, plans usually change. We have two appointments though. One will be in front of a judge where we swear to take good care of our kiddos and the other is at the Embassy. We will be filing our I-600 there (immigration papers). This step is usually done at the end of the adoption process, but to speed things up, they have changed things and are having us file this form in Haiti. They hope to take us on a driving tour of some of Haiti, but stressed that they will not travel into the slum areas. All kinds of violence and kidnappings happen in places like Cite Soleil so we won't be going there. That is fine by me. But they want to give us a chance to see where our kids are coming from.

One of the biggest things that might happen there other than meeting our children is we might have an opportunity to meet the birthmothers. Some of the adoptive families did not welcome this idea, but Stephen and I are very happy to be able to meet and talk with them.

We have purchased a little book and CD entitled Simple Creole for Adoptive Families. Stephen and I are learning how to say, "I am your mommy, I am your daddy, and I love you." It is quite entertaining. I hope we don't screw up.

Our travel group seems like it will be quite large. Along with the other 3 families from our adoption agency, there are other agencies represented on this trip. Plus, members of For His Glory (including the president) will be with us. Some of the families are even bringing their teenage children with them. We will all be in the same hotel together, going through the same things. It's nice to know we are not doing this alone.

There is a slow internet connection at the hotel so I thought twitter would be the best way to keep people updated while we are down there. I will try to post updates as much as possible. I have set up my twitter feed so it's visible on this blog. We appreciate your prayers as we are getting ready to go in ONE WEEK!

New info about our trip

We are so excited to travel to Haiti! We are going to be staying at the Habitation Hatt Hotel www.habitationhatt.com  It is safe, secure and clean according to our adoption agency guide who will be traveling with us. As I've mentioned before, we will be traveling with 3 other families as well and the hotel rooms are apartment style so we will be sharing with another couple. The apartments have 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a community room. 

The hotel has internet access and clean water so we can fill our water bottles in the morning before we head to the orphanage where there is also access to clean water. On February 28th we have a teleconference with For His Glory (the Texas-based ministry that sponsors our orphanage) about our trip. 

It sounds like our biggest challenge may be the airport. This is what our agency rep wrote about the airport experience: 

Finally, let’s talk about your Haiti airport experience. It is a little chaotic, but manageable. Due to some internal damages that the airport sustained during the earthquake you will have to do a little moving around. Once you arrive inside the airport you will follow the line of people which will eventually lead you down an escalator and into a bus that will take you to customs at the other end of the airport. You will have to wait in line for anywhere between 5 and 30 minutes to get through customs. I have never had an issue getting through customs, but answer their questions honestly should they ask about your purpose for visiting Haiti and/or your luggage contents. Once you are through customs you will enter “baggage claim.” This is essentially a room with a rotating conveyer belt that contains bags. Be advised that bags are continuously being removed from the conveyer belt by both staff and passengers and placed inside a roped off area, which you will see. Please check both the roped off area, as well as the conveyor belt for your bags. It’s not a huge room, but your bags literally could be anywhere inside the room. This part of the process can be really chaotic and unorganized. However, with a little time and patience you will find your bag. When you have your bag you need to exit the baggage claim area and go outside. This is where it can get even more chaotic. You will approached by a slew of airport workers in uniforms asking if they can carry your bag for you. Some of them may be quite persistent and aggressive as this is their livelihood after all.  There is no danger in allowing them to take your bags, but you will need to tip them afterwards ($5 a bag is a good rule of thumb, but only pay one person regardless of how many people help you….let them separate the money). You can also choose not to use their services and instead carry your bags yourselves. Regardless, you will have to walk about 200 yards to the other end of the airport where transportation will be awaiting you. Everybody will be walking in this direction, so don’t worry about getting lost. I will be waiting for you with someone from Maison.  

 

My final piece of advice is to bring a sense of adventure with you. Haiti is not the United States. It will be so radically different from what most of you have experienced that it might make your head spin. That’s alright. Haiti is a great country with amazing people. Yes, Haiti has a lot of problems and yes it can be oppressive (especially Port-au-Prince) with the poverty, overpopulation, pollution, and traffic, but it is also an incredible place to learn, grow, and experience life. I am really excited to have the opportunity to experience Haiti with you. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. I will continue to communicate with you as our trip draws near. I look forward to receiving everyone’s itinerary and confirmation on who is traveling. Have a great weekend!

We're going to Haiti!

It's official. Our adoption agency has heard from the embassy in Haiti and we have an appointment set up March 16th! So we've booked our flights and we are departing to Haiti on Saturday, March 12th. We have an overnight in Miami and leave Sunday, March 13th at 9:45 a.m. The flight to Haiti from Miami is only 2 hours. We are so excited to see our kids! We will leave Haiti on Thursday, March 17th.

Dossier's are at IBESR!!!!

We were excited to hear that our Dossier (along with Lydie & Samson's) were submitted to IBESR today! This is a HUGE step and a big relief. What is the IBESR? Well, let me tell you. It's Haiti's social service department and otherwise known as "the black hole." The Dossier can spent up to a year in this place so it will take an act of Almighty God to move it out of there. While the Dossier is in IBESR a social worker will examine our documents and determine whether or not to approve our adoption request.  The director of IBESR, the IBESR lawyer, the head of adoption services at IBESR, and the IBESR social worker must all sign the approval. This is 4 stages of approval. So--pray, pray, pray that our dossier would find favor while it's in "the black hole."

Waiting and more waiting

We are patiently waiting to hear if we are going to Haiti in March. We are about 80% sure we are going, but it would be nice to finally hear it from people in authority that we are going. We have connected on Facebook with the other families that will be traveling with us. There are three other families in the same boat as us. One family, the V's, live in Peoria. (I'm protecting their identity by just giving the initial of their last name).  They are adopting twin girls. They have a cousin who lives in Haiti and has visited the orphanage. Mrs. V. sent me pictures of our girls playing together. I'm sure when the adoption is complete, we will have to visit the V. family so Lydie can see her orphanage playmates.

The H. family is from North Carolina, they are adopting an older child but I can't remember if it's a boy or girl. And the K family is from Colorado. They are adopting an older girl. It's been really nice to get to know them and it's been very helpful too. Some of the families have contacted Angie, the missionary in Maison and ask what they needed there. We are going to be bringing a suitcase full of donations for the orphanage and if you would like to contribute, this is what she said they need:

disposable diapers
baby wipes
clothes for children (all sizes, for ages birth-9 years, boys and girls)
sandals (crocs, sturdy flip flops, etc.)
girls and boys underwear

We have also decided it would be a good time to get our immunizations. The other families were getting theirs so we thought it would probably be a good idea to get ours too. We need to get hepatitis A, hepatitis B (for Stephen, I may just need a booster), typhoid, tetanus, and we will need to get pills for malaria to take just before we go. Unfortunately there is no vaccine in the US for cholera. The V families doctor freaked them out and told them don't even take a shower while you are down there! Yikes. I think he's overreacting a little bit, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.