2011 Highlights - Part 3 of 3

We started paperwork for our next adoption in late May, and FINALLY had our dossier completed and ready to send to Haiti in September. We had some local friends deliver it to the orphanage for us while on a mission trip there.







Kaylen played fall soccer again this fall. At U9, they're now playing with a goalie, and have to choose between the rec league and academy. She decided to stay rec, as did 6/8 girls from her former team. They had a great season with 6 veterans, 2 newbies, and the same great coach!



My sister had her baby in early August - Bo Lucas. Josephine turned out to be quite the baby-hog - although the rest of us did get a turn also - who wouldn't fight for their turn to hold this cute little bug!







We spent 7 days at Walt Disney World at the end of September. We were so blessed to have been able to have such an awesome vacation!
(I couldn't choose just one or two photos from this highlight!)






Elijah played soccer this fall as well. It's pretty fun watching preschoolers and kindergartners playing indoor soccer - they pretty much kick the ball as hard as they can and then chase after it in a clump. :)




Halloween is always fun. This year we had a Southern Belle, a Knight, and a Cinderella. As usual, we came home with WAY too much candy!





Josephine and Kaylen started dance lessons this fall as well. I really enjoyed Parent Watch day in November, and was surprised how much they'd learned in only 8 weeks! Josephine's in the back second from the left in her photo; Kaylen's in the middle of her photo, in a dark blue leotard.

Jock made TWO turduckens this year! This was after de-boning and assembly, while he was sewing the turkey back together. The dinner was at our church, with our small group, another small group, and some other invited families who didn't already have a small group. The adults played volleyball afterwards, while the kids played together.




We finished off the year with a wonderful Christmas season.
Hope you all had a wonderful 2011! Happy New Year!

2011 Highlights - Part 2 of 3

Josephine and I both celebrated our birthdays in May, a week apart - her 4th, my 34th. We just had a small family party for Josephine. I worked on my birthday, but Jock sent me flowers, and I took a long lunch break to get a pedicure.

These deserve a little more explanation... Memorial Day weekend we spent at my dad and step-mom's in NE Iowa. Up until this point, Elijah & Josephine were VERY afraid of the dogs. Saturday we spent a couple hours on Dad's new deck. They sat on the bench with me, but stood up and scooted back every time the dogs came near. Eventually they started petting the dogs with me holding them. Then they'd call them over and pet them without me holding them. Soon they were off playing with them in the yard. They're still a little hesitant with animals - which is OK with me - and still at first with my dad's dogs, but they are much better without the crippling fear they did have!

Elijah & Josephine played BlastBall in the spring. Blastball is like t-ball. They only practice hitting, running to 1st based, and fielding/throwing. Very cute! And they both had fun.








After one of their Blastball games, we saw a med-evac helicopter landing at the fire station. We didn't realize there was an open house going on, so we stopped by there before we went home.

Kaylen played spring soccer, and also played several tournaments in the summer.

Kaylen took Level 3 Red Cross swimming lessons over the summer. She didn't quite have all the skills down so will have to take it again, but she did a great job, and made some big improvements! We also saw a beautiful rainbow on the way home from lessons one day.

I ran my first 5K in June, with a friend of mine. Her husband and several other friends from our church ran the full Dam to Dam race (approx 12 miles) that day. I didn't do as well as I wanted to, but I'm proud of myself for completing it.


Jock and I did some clean-up in our landscaping beds in June - pulling up the mulch and weeds, and putting down new felt and rock.

Jock also spent a lot of time working on a playset for the kids. I can't seem to find a photo, but the roof and railings are done now as well. He plans to finish it this spring with the addition of monkey bars.

This summer, Elijah & Josephine worked on their alphabet. Can you guess what letter this was?







Josephine got glasses in July.










Elijah celebrated his 5th birthday in August, and Jock celebrated his 36th.








Kaylen started the 3rd grade this fall, and all the kids started a new daycare the same day. Elijah & Josephine are in preschool classes!

2011 Highlights - Part 1 of 3

We hope you had an awesome 2011! We sure did! All the media outlets are showing top stories, top photos, top weather disasters, top entertainment headlines for the year. So I thought I'd to top highlights of 2011 in our family, in pictures...

We celebrated late Christmas with my family over New Year's last year.













Kaylen celebrated her 8th birthday with her first slumber party, then a bowling party with Jock's family.












We had a lot of snow last winter, and the kids had fun helping Daddy clear the driveway and sidewalk one Saturday in February.











I stayed home with the kids the week of spring break, and we tried to visit a different city park or school playground every day.One day we also visited the Science Center with friends.

















The kids got had their Awana awards/program in April, just before Easter. Kaylen finished two books in one year, so got two big ribbons. Elijah & Josephine's preschool class did a couple songs, and got prizes as well.














Easter!

Roller Skating

Well, since the ice skating went so well...

When our church announced that they were going to have a skate night at the local roller rink, we jumped at the opportunity.

It was the evening of the last day of school before winter break. We still had to work, and the kids had daycare the next day, but we're usually up late on Thursdays anyway, because of Bible study which had wrapped up the previous week.

It was free admission, and $2 skate rental, for 2 hours of exhausting fun!

I had to remember how to roller skate, and helped Josephine around the rink several times. She was having a rough go, but finally let go and went around a couple times on her own towards the end.

Elijah didn't want to hang on to anybody, and did OK, but was pretty slow and fell down a lot. I must say, though, he's got good balance, and was the best at getting back on his feet himself without hanging on to anything/anyone. Actually though, he had more fun playing with the arcade games - even though he didn't have any quarters.

Kaylen was doing pretty well on her own, but did much better when we switched out her roller skates for roller blades. Jock's awesome with roller blades, so he was showing her some tricks. Like ice skating, she looks VERY clumsy when she's skating, but she can get along pretty fast!

I didn't get a chance to actually skate until almost the end (when Josephine let me let go of her hand and go around myself about 3 times), but I still remember how.

A few photos of the fun:

Josephine taking a breather with her friends Emily & Abby.

Elijah & Abby holding hands and skating together - too cute!

Yes, a little too fast for me to get a photo of her!

Jock & Chad (Emily & Abby's Daddy) chasing after the kids.

Ice Skating

A few weeks ago we had a beautiful 40-degree day, with nothing else going on, and our shopping mostly done, so we decided to go have some fun - ice skating! It was a first for Elijah & Josephine, and we weren't quite sure how it was going to go. I commented on our way there, that I figured we'd have one natural, and one that would struggle. I was partially right - one was a natural - just not the one I thought it'd be. Not really any struggles.Josephine wasn't the one I anticipated being the natural, but she was pretty much dragging me around on the ice - fast! She fell a few times, but not a lot (although I caught her a lot at the beginning). "Mom, it's too slippery!" If she hadn't been so scared to let go of my hand, she could've gone off on her own quite well. I wasn't really steadying her balance much towards the end - just holding her hand because of her fears.
Elijah was a daredevil, but not so steady. He was letting go and doing pretty well after a while but slow going.
Kaylen was hesitant at first, but then remembered how to do it. Funny though, she looks so clumsy when she's out on the ice - although she sort of is actually. :)

We all had a great time! Hopefully we can make it out again before the winter's over.

GLA Adoption News

Dixie's latest update was full of information and hope. We had been hoping for a Christmas referral, since Dixie has been back in Haiti since the first week in December. But no news came. Our agency was closed Friday afternoon, and is closed today as well. It's hard to not get hopes up when we see notes like this from Dixie.

It has been awhile since I have had news to pass on to everyone about adoptions. On Monday, fourteen members from the Association of crèches had a meeting with the new director of IBESR, Mme Arielle Jeanty Villedrouin. Unfortunately, I could not attend but Magaly and Ernst attended in my place. The members of the Association had questions about why the director has not approved any dossiers since she took her position. Mme Jeanty Villedrouin said that she was trying to learn about her position. She said that she also has someone in mind to help her go over the dossiers who has experience with adoptions but she did not have the funds to hire her full time, so it is taking a while to look through the dossiers. She promised that she would be signing dossiers very soon.

Mme Jeanty Villedrouin also had concerns about the costs of adoptions in Haiti. I am sure that idea comes from talks with organizations that are working to limit adoptions from Haiti. Ernst and Magaly said that only a couple of directors were allowed to talk because of the time limit of the meeting, but that they did try to explain to her the costs of feeding the children, caring for them, medical care for the children, educations, supplies, etc! They also explained that adoptions did not cost so much until it started taking 2 years to finish an adoption plus the time the children spent in the orphanage!

I do not think that she has any concept of what it costs to care for the children. She suggested that the directors find sponsors to help with all of the expenses of the orphanage. I know for GLA that even with sponsors the expenses are very difficult to cover! And it is even more difficult for a Haitian orphanage to find sponsors for their children. They might not have the resources and media possibilities that GLA has available to us.

There is supposed to be a general meeting of all orphanages and creches on 17 January 2012. Because there are so many registered orphanages/creches now, she said they needed to find somewhere large enough for everyone to meet. At that time, we will be able to ask questions and share our thoughts with her.

President Martelly has started signing presidential dispensations again. We hope to see more coming out of IBESR soon. We have some dossiers that have now sat in IBESR for more than 6 months which has been discouraging when things were going so well for the last year. I hope that it gets back on track to taking 8 to 12 months again as soon as the new government gets organized. It seems to be mainly our families with children who are taking the extra time right now.

I have a meeting at the US Consulate on Thursday the 29th with the Adoption Unit Staff. I asked for the meeting to discuss what I have heard about the changes in the new adoption law and also the changes in IBESR. Please pray that I will be able to express my concerns clearly and be able to motivate them to help us lobby for adoptions for those children who will most benefit for a life in a family instead of an institution!

I spent today sending proposals. Some of the agencies are closed for the holidays and so it will be next week unfortunately before the proposals are delivered. For others, they will receive the proposals tomorrow, I have been told. I will be up working on finishing up two of the proposals early tomorrow morning. What better Christmas gift could these families get? I can’t think of one better gift than a new son or daughter! Can you?

Merry Christmas everyone!

And Life in Haiti goes on…

We are hoping that our referral is in this batch and we'll hear something this week. We'll also be praying over the adoption process and the Haitian adoption officials, specifically given the information here. Will you pray with us?

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours.