October Adoption Process Update & Josie Better

Well, not really much to update here on the adoption process though. As expected, we're still in IBESR, although I was hoping to find out what our file numbers are. For those of you unfamiliar - it's kind of like when you're waiting in line at the DMV, and you have to take a number. They do process them somewhat in order, although not all are adoption files - some are other social services type files. We've been in this step for about a month, and it can take 4-7 months. Although this year we've heard it's been closer to 4 months. We're praying to be out of IBESR by Christmas - that would be 3 months. God's bigger than the historical figures, right?! :)

Also, Josephine is doing much better now. She has been released from the hospital and is back at the orphanage now. Praise God! Thank you so much for your prayers. There are still others that could use your prayers, as whatever she had is going around. I haven't heard any more updates on Duckenson, but I know that little Brayden is very sick as well. I'm sure there are others that I haven't heard about as well.

Happy Halloween!

Hope you all had a fun Halloween. We did. Kaylen loved being a ballerina princess - don't forget she wasn't just a ballerina or just a princess - she was correcting people all night. :) She scored big on the loot (I think all that candy will last until at least parade time comes around next summer), and we met some more of our neighbors, which was great.

She also wore her costume to daycare today, so that was fun for her. They had a big party at daycare - I made cupcakes, lots of other parents supplied treats, and I think they watched movies all day - sans naps (not that she ever sleeps anyway though).

I'll post pictures later. It's been a long day (actually a long week - even though it's only Wednesday), and I need to get to bed. I'll try to download a couple tomorrow evening. We didn't get many - just a couple before we went out. She was in a big hurry to get out there and start collecting her candy! We did a few pix of pumpkin-carving that we did with Jock's family over the weekend though too.

Josephine getting better

We got a new updated today on Josephine.  She is doing much better and is getting stronger.  Please continue praying for her.  I do not know yet if she is out of the hospital and back at the orphanage, but she is at least getting stronger.  That's such good news to hear.  Please also continue to pray for the other children - Dukenson who was also very ill (I haven't seen another update on him yet), and for the others to stay healthy.  Thank you so much for your prayers.

God's Mission: Adoption

by Max Lucado

When we come to Christ, God not only forgives us, he also adopts us. Through a dramatic series of events, we go from condemned orphans with no hope to adopted children with no fear. Here is how it happens. You come before the judgment seat of God full of rebellion and mistakes. Because of his justice he cannot dismiss your sin, but because of his love he cannot dismiss you. So, in an act which stunned the heavens, he punished himself on the cross for your sins. God's justice and love are equally honored. And you, God's creation, are forgiven. But the story doesn't end with God's forgiveness.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God (Rom. 8:15–16 NASB).

But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons (Gal. 4:4–5 NASB).

It would be enough if God just cleansed your name, but he does more. He gives you his name. It would be enough if God just set you free, but he does more. He takes you home. He takes you home to the Great House of God.

Adoptive parents understand this more than anyone. I certainly don't mean to offend any biological parents—I'm one myself. We biological parents know well the earnest longing to have a child. But in many cases our cribs were filled easily. We decided to have a child and a child came. In fact, sometimes the child came with no decision. I've heard of unplanned pregnancies, but I've never heard of an unplanned adoption.

That's why adoptive parents understand God's passion to adopt us. They know what it means to feel an empty space inside. They know what it means to hunt, to set out on a mission, and take responsibility for a child with a spotted past and a dubious future. If anybody understands God's ardor for his children, it's someone who has rescued an orphan from despair, for that is what God has done for us.

God has adopted you. God sought you, found you, signed the papers and took you home.
 
*Thanks to Linda for sharing this with the FHG Yahoo Group!

Baby Rosenie

We got an update this afternoon that baby Rosenie had passed away. Please pray for her birth family, and the staff and children at the orphanage. We do not know if she had a family that was hoping to adopt her.

Sick Babies

No update yet on Josephine, but we have heard that two other babies are sick and in the hospital. The pediatrician is very concerned for little Rosenie, who has pneumonia. Dukenson is the other who has been sick. Please pray for all the children - this time of year when the temperature drops is hard on the babies. I checked Port-au-Prince, Haiti's weather forecast for this week, and it shows highs in the mid-80s and lows in the mid-60s. Granted the temps don't change as drastically as they do up north, but in relation to their usual temperatures it's still a drop. In case you are interested, I found some graphics on weather.com showing average temps by month, and average precipitation by month (you can click on them to see them better):

Haiti:

Iowa:

Please pray for Josephine

I just got an email that our adoption coordinator sent late last night:

Celena is in the hospital. She is dehydrated and is running a high fever. The pediatrician is running tests. The good news is that she is stable now. We will be praying with you for a quick recovery. I will let you know as soon as I hear something new.

That's all I know right now. Please pray for her quick recovery, and for God's hand of comfort and healing on her right now. Pray for those caring for her as well. I'll let you know when I hear any more.

Updated... I asked if Josephine has been sick, and if there was anything we could do. Here's the response I just got back from Cate:

I don't know how quickly she got sick. They will try and treat the babies at the orphanage so they can be in their own environment but sometimes they need to go to the hospital. It is not uncommon for many babies to be sick this time of year. As a mom of a baby that was in the hospital several times, I absolutely know the ache in your heart to be the one to comfort her right now. Please know that one of her nannies will stay by her bedside while she is there. The best and only thing you can be doing right now is praying. I will let you know as soon as I hear something.

It's comforting to know that one of her nannies is staying with her in the hospital. I know of at least one other baby from our orphanage that had been sick and in the hospital in the last week, but I believe he is back at the orphanage now. Please also pray for the health of all the children.

More Pictures...

These are from back in August. There were a few that we weren't sure if it was Josephine or another baby girl. There are also some that I pulled from a video, which showed Elijah crawling - he was very mobile, and then standing up next to the nanny. I'm sure he's probably walking by now - early three months later. I took some print screens in progression - you'll just have to imagine the crawling in between, because the video is too long for me to post.









This first one is of Josephine that I pulled off the video. In the others, Josephine is sleeping in a bouncy chair during playtime in the baby room. Look carefully - she's in the background in a couple of them, but I thought you might like to see the other babies playing too.

Saturday - Yucky, Beautiful, Productive, Nice, Relaxing

So, you ask, how do you combine all those adjectives in one day? Well here's how you do it...

You have to start out really early - like around 3:30 am... with a screaming 4-year-old telling you she just threw up... in her bed. YUCKY! There's nothing quite like cleaning up vomit from the bed, carpet, PJ's, and girl in the middle of the night! We got her all showered and cleaned up and back to bed (in a different room/bed) only to learn a few minutes later that she was sick again - but this time she made it to the bathroom. I then decided to sleep in the room with her so I could hear her better if this was going to continue. This was about 4:30 am, so I only about half-slept until about 7:30 when she was up again - still not feeling great but definitely wide awake.

She was mostly fine the rest of the day, but we played it pretty safe, starting with two saltine crackers and an ice cube just to see if it'd stay down - it did, so we graduated to toast and gatorade. Then chicken soup for lunch, and a better dinner, but tried to keep it still fairly bland and light.

It was a BEAUTIFUL day today! It was pretty warm outside today too - even though I didn't even get out much. Kaylen and I spent most of the morning cuddling in the recliner watching cartoons and reading books. Jock worked a bit on the roof - we had a leak in our garage, and he wanted to get it fixed before winter. Apparently the water was going right under a piece of flashing - a lot of good that did! :) He also got the lawn mowed. Hopefully it'll be nice again tomorrow (it's supposed to be), so we can get those bulbs planted!

I had a PRODUCTIVE afternoon. When Kaylen went up for her nap, I got started on her tutu for her ballerina halloween costume. It was fairly easy sewing, despite my sewing maching getting caught up trying to go through two layers of elastic. I'm not much of a sewer, but I'm rather proud of myself. I've only done curtains - square/rectangular sewing up until today. I didn't finish it before Kaylen went to bed, so you'll have to wait until Halloween to see it on her.


Kaylen didn't get to her soccer game. We didn't think it was such a good idea, as her team's game was early today. As it turns out she was fine, but the running around would not have been good. (We think she either just ate too much for supper last night (which she tends to do sometimes), or she just ate something bad, or a combination of the two). So, by supper she was fine, and since Kaylen's Grandma Julie and Great Grandma Cheryl didn't get to see us this morning at soccer as they'd planned, we decided it'd be OK to go out for supper with them. It was NICE to see both of them. We don't see Grandma Julie as often as we should - especially when she lives fairly close to us. And it was nice to see Great Grandma while she was in town visiting for the weekend.

Now, Kaylen's in bed, and Jock and I are RELAXING for the remainder of the evening - or at least for me until I collapse - 3:30 is way too early! I think I dozed a bit between 4:30 and 7:30, but not much. Hope you're all having a great weekend!

Psalm 23

This is just awesome. Thanks Kathie & Vince for sharing!

(And just a clarification - I don't know this little girl - just a cute video someone found online that somebody sent me a link to. By the way - there's lots of of other interesting stuff at www.GodTube.com.)

New Pictures! Oct07

We got new pictures of the babies - just took me a while to get them loaded. Heather says she has all the kids' pictures now, she's just waiting for her hubby to help her load them to the adoptive families' website. What a blessing Heather and Heath are to us adoptive families gathering the pictures and posting them for the adoptive families each month! Here they are:

Haiti Process

I found another description of the Haiti process I thought I'd post FYI. This one starts after we've put together our dossier, and it's arrived in Haiti. I thought this had very good descriptions of each step, although I'm sure even after we've been through it all I still won't completely understand. This comes from a post on one of the Yahoo Groups I'm on, from someone who's adopting from another orphanage. We are currently in step 4 below (since sometime in September), which our orphanage has told us has been taking 4-7 months.

1. First Legal: Any document that had to be authenticated by the Haitian Consulate has to be taken to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for further legalization. They legalize the signature of the Haitian Consular Officer that legalized your dossier at the foreign Haitian Embassy in your country.

2. If the child to be adopted is already identified and/or as soon as the child is identified, the child's portion of the adoption dossier has to be compiled. This dossier portion includes the social history on the child which is prepared by a Haitian Social Worker, a Psychologist report, a Medical report and a Lab Report is made. Additionally, the child's birth certificate, parent's death certificate or relinquishment papers are added to the dossier at the time. Additionally, any birth or death certificates have to have Archive Papers attached to the document. this certifies that the signature on the birth certificate and/or death certificate corresponds with the signature of the official who signed it.

3. When all the papers are back from Legalization and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the child's paperwork is finished, the dossier is prepared for the National Office of Social Welfare (Institut du Bien Etre Social et de Recherches, or IBESR for short) and send it to the lawyer.

4. Dossier is given to IBESR. The dossier has to get approval from three offices within the IBESR office. About 500+ dossiers from various countries (U.S., Canada, Spain, France, Netherlands, Belgium, etc.) are in IBESR at any one time... Although FHG's documentation states that we need four signatures in IBESR, so this is different than we've heard.

5. Once the dossier is approved at IBESR, it must be studied and signed at the Parquet Office. (We've heard that recently this step is VERY slow - the people in charge in this office are against adoptions, and are in no rush to get what should be a very quick signature is taking an extraordinary amount of time. Papers are also coming out randomly, in no particular order.)

6. Courts (2nd Legalization) Once the dossier is released from the Parquet, the dossier comes back to the Lawyer. The court papers are typed and turned in to the court for the finalization of the adoption process. There are several steps that have to happen.
- Attestation of the signature on the act of adoption. This is when Archives in Haiti says that the signature on the act of adoption corresponds with the signature of the judge who signed it. Just legalizing the signature.
- Legalization at the Minister of Justice Office. Papers must be legalized here for all countries, saying that the signature is the legal signature of the Judges involved on ALL papers.
- Legalization at the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Legalizing the signature of the Minister of Justice.

7. Application for the child's Haitian Passport. The Orphanage representative submits a "mini" dossier that contains all the adopted child's and adoption documents to the Ministry of Immigration. From there, the dossier is sent to the Ministry of Interior (MOI).
- Dossier goes to the Minister of Interior for study and approval. This is the portion in the current process that has been very slow. The average wait for the MOI portion is about 4-5 months but hopefully that will change soon. Inside of MOI, there are 4 steps.
- Approved Dossier is sent back to Immigration from MOI. The Orphanage submits some additional paperwork so that the the passport can get printed.

8. Child is taken to have a Visa Medical Examination which is required as part of the visa application. Usually the medical exam has to be done after the passport is issued because the Embassy Doctor has to ensure that he/she is examining the child who is applying for the visa.

9. At the same time that the passport application is in the works, the U.S. Immigration process must be completed:
- Haitian adoption papers are translated into English, so that an I-600 can be filed in the United States or in Haiti if the adoptive parents come to Haiti.
- As soon as the family receives the I-600 approval in the mail from USCIS, the Orphanage needs to get a copy of it so that the U.S.Immigration Office in Haiti can finalize the orphan investigation process, which is necessary for the granting of the child's visa that allows him to travel as an immigrant to the U.S.

10. The Orphanage submits the Visa Application with copies of certain documents to the U.S. Consulate. Mr. Jeff Duffy at the U.S.Consulate reviews the completed dossier before approving the visa.

11. The adoptive parents' have their appointment in Haiti to receive the visa.

12. Get on the plane and go HOME with your child! :-)

Dreary Day

Yesterday it was cloudy and misting rain part of the day. This morning it was raining pretty steady, and cloudy and drippy on and off this afternoon too. 'Twas a good day for watching football and napping, though. :) Too bad we couldn't get the flower bulbs planted today though. And there's rain in the forecast every day this week. YICK! Oh well... At least the ground should be fairly soft when we get them in.

Fun Saturday

Today Jock went to the quarterly district meeting for the Optimist Club, so Kaylen and I have a girls' day. We used to do a girls' night once a week, and she and Jock would have a daddy-daughter night once a week as well, but we each are no longer doing the activities that required this. Kaylen asked me a week or so ago when we could have daddy-daughter night and girls night again. So, by necessity and with a fun attitude, it was reinstituted today, and we'll try to keep it up - maybe not once a week, but once in a while.

Kaylen had soccer this morning - first game of the day, and then we went shopping to take a look at winter coats and snowpants. Didn't find any boots, but the coat and snowpants we found will be very easy to match. Then of course while we were there we had to stock up on some needed paper products & toiletries, groceries, and socks for both of us. Afterwards, we stopped at Burger King for lunch (Kaylen got a crown, and I even let her get french fries instead of apples), and then came home for nap and laundry time. We're out of socks and towels, and the sheets-changing was overdue!

After naptime, we'll probably head back out shopping to get the last few remaining items on the list. (I'd lost the list somewhere along the way - but thankfully Kaylen found it when we got back out to the van - it didn't even make it into the store!) We also need to take back the winter coat we'd already gotten that was impossible to match snowpants and boots to, and take a look at snow boots.

Oh - the best thing about the coat - it's a two-piece coat, and can be worn four different ways: the outside by itself, the inside by itself-either way-it's reversible, or two parts together for the most warmth. I'm so excited about it, and I think Kaylen is too. She now has a good fall coat too, rather than just wearing a hooded sweatshirt or her raincoat - she had a summer jacket, but it's way too thin, and the zipper was impossible - even for adults to try to zip!

By the way - Kaylen did awesome at soccer today! I didn't see her touch the soccer ball with her hands once, or lay on the ball like she did last week. I guess she really took to heart our talks after last week's problems. If you didn't hear the story, just know it wasn't pretty. I gave her a hint today to help her remember - just that when the ball went to the walls or corners, to clasp her hands behind her back. She didn't do that much, but whatever we said worked.

Kaylen also was coughing quite a bit this morning at soccer, and acted very tired - strange because I know she was asleep by 7:30 last night (she was really cranky last night and had a bad day at daycare, so we had her to bed by 7) and got up around 7 this morning. She even came over to sit by me for a while, while she was supposed to be playing, which is so not like her. The last few weeks, when it's been her turn to sit out a quarter, she didn't like it.. She'd had a slight cough, but this was different - like the exercising made it worse. Hoping it's not a sign of exercise-induced asthma to come - I'll try to pay attention to her breathing a little more. She may just be coming down with a cold, or just the cough she's had is getting worse - although she wasn't coughing during shopping or when she laid down at naptime either. Hmmm...

Well, my laundry's ready to be switched and Kaylen's up, so I better go. Hope you're all having a great weekend!

10/10 Tidbits

Not really much news to pass along to you today, just some tidbits of information that you might be interested in - or if not, just ignore...

Happy belated Birthdays to my nephew Jared and my sister Karen, earlier this week! They're 10 and 20 now - where has the time gone?!

Our little girl is getting to be quite the reader! At preschool, they're learning one letter per week - what it looks like, what it sounds like, and what words start with that letter. Today was "E" sharing day. Kaylen took an egg carton and "The Ear Book". At home, we're working with her to practice writing her letters - especially the lower case ones, and also working on sight words and sounding out some easy rhyming words. She's doing so well - I'm so proud of her, and she's proud of herself. She'll start up with the attitude, saying, "I know how to spell ____", and spell it for us. So far she knows the following words: and, a, I, the, see, ride, on. And she can sound out many other short words if we help her with the vowel sounds.

We're also going to start working with Kaylen on numbers. She gets really confused between 6 and 9, and I think sometimes she misses 7 and 8 as well. She counts very well - up to the 30s, and beyond if we help her after the x9's, but she doesn't know what the numbers all look like. I'm working on a big chart to post somewhere. She's also started getting curious about the clock and telling time. So, what do we do when she starts to learn to tell time? Sometimes it's good that she doesn't know what time it is - like when it's only 7:30 and we decide it's "bedtime", instead of her normal 8:00. :)

It's a chilly week. I was hoping it'd go down about 10 more degrees so we could have our hard freeze, even if for just one night. The allergies have been horrible this fall! No such luck this week though, try again next week. The leaves sure are a-turnin'. It'd be a beautiful weekend for a drive/hike out in the country or along the lake - if only the wind would die down so those pretty leaves don't all blow away by then!

The cold weather a couple weeks ago (despite the 80s last week) got me thinking about winter gear for Kaylen. We got her a winter jacket, but I'm thinking I"m going to take it back. It's an impossible color to try to match for snowpants and boots (especially knowing she doesn't want black ones - she'd survive, but you should have seen her face when that was suggested!), and I was in another store today that had matched coat-snowpants sets for fairly low prices, and they'd would be easy to find boots to match too. We'll see...

I filled up my gas tank today for $2.44 per gallon - and I thought last week's 2.47 was good. Hope the downward trend continues - especially since we started the heater this morning. The tile floor was biting my toes this morning, and Kaylen was probably shivering at breakfast. I'm gonna have to get out my fuzzy slippers too!

We should have our monthly photos of Elijah & Josephine soon. We're so excited for the little bits of information and pictures we receive each month. This adoption process is a strenuous exercise in patience!

And, last but not least... For His Glory is starting to organize their Christmas drive for the orphanage. They want to be sure that each child has a gift to receive at Christmas. I assume that most children will be sponsored by their adoptive families, but some families may not be able to, and some children don't have adoptive families. The Christmas drive also includes a donation drive for Christmas bonuses for the staff, which by Haitian law, is to be equal to one month's salary. This doubles the December payroll, during a time when they are struggling financially already. If you'd like to participate in this, you may contact me, and I can forward your message on to the person organizing this. Or, you may be able to contact FHG's director through the website if you'd like to participate. It's hard to believe that Christmas is only a little more than 2 months away already!

I guess I had more news/info to pass along to you than I though. Tidbits are fun, aren't they?! I'll have to do this more often!

Enemies

Yesterday was Monday - I did my fasting/prayer/time in the Word. As I prayed for the children of Haiti, their famillies, all involved in caring for them, and those involved in processing adoptions, I was focusing on the word enemy (see the end of my "A word about comments" post for why), and using my concordance to find verses and use them for my prayer. The last passage I found was awesome, and thought I'd share it with you...

1 Peter 5:6-11
⁶Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

⁸Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

¹⁰And the God of grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. ¹¹To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

No matter the specific situation, we all go through trials in our lives. Through the passages I read and prayed over today, God showed me today that we are to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:27,35) and pray for them. God will shine light on them in his timing (Matthew 5:45). I will instead, put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6), remain strong, firm, and steadfast in my faith, cast all my cares and anxiety upon Him in prayer. God's mighty hand will life me up and restore me from my times of suffering, to eternal glory in Christ Jesus.

If you do not have time each day/week that you spend in prayer and reflection, I want to encourage you to find some time to do this. I have found this to be such a blessing in my life.

In Memory of Mom

Saturday, Jock, Kaylen, and I all walked in the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's Race for the Cure in Des Moines. I've always wanted to participate in it, and the company I work for always pays the registration fees for us, but it's never worked out before. Especially when my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, and subsequently lost her fight, I've wanted to do this. This year everything worked out.

We of course walked the 5K (~3.1 miles) instead of running, and Kaylen rode part of the way on Jock's shoulders or in the stroller, and walked/ran part of it. It was a rather hot day for early October. Usually the day of this event people have been bundling up for the chilly or freezing walk through downtown. Not today! I think it was above 80 by the time we finished!

It was an awesome experience joining the 20,000+ crowd for this awesome event. In addition to the numbers we got with our registration, they also had "In Celebration of", and "In Memory of" placards available for people to wear. I also noticed many, many women wearing shirts just like ours that were pink instead of white, that said "Survivor" on the front. Probably the thing that stood out to me the most, and brought a tear to my eye as I was walking, was an older woman standing along the race route with a sign that said "Thank You" to her relatives that were walking for her. It's sobering how many people are affected by breast cancer!

Our experience with my mom having breast cancer was probably the toughest time of my life. It was so hard to watch her suffering from something that we could do little about. We just did our best to help out where we could. Our family really came together during that time, and has been so much closer than we ever were before that. As much as we all miss Mom, we know she is in a much better place today, and is watching over each and every one of us. Someday we will see her again. We love you mom!

Some pictures from the race:











These pictures don't do it justice though. The last one shows only a small fraction of the people that were there. At a few points in the race as we'd turn corners, we'd look down a few blocks and see the streets just as crowded as where we were - in the same race as us. The runners/walkers extended many blocks ahead and many blocks behind - it was just amazing!

Congratulations Karen!

This blog is dedicated to my sister, Karen. I'm so proud of her! She just finished degree in cosmetology today. I think she still has to take her boards, but we already know she's awesome. Since she started at cosmetology school last fall, she has been coloring and cutting for our whole family and many of her friends. Dad and Terry's kitchen and porch sure get a lot of use, and she's sure busy on holiday weekends. Sometimes we give her a break though.

She's just awesome. Jock says she does better than his barber that's been cutting hair for many years. Now, if we could just get her to move closer to us! Maybe we need to convince Alex first?! :) Here's a few pictures of her at work...

Cutting our sister, Amy's hair:


Coloring our neice, Kelsey's Hair: