Walk with us on our journey...to bring our children HOME!: July 2012

As a family we debated on what we should do about our kids names. Should we keep their names the same...should we give them American names? Claude is a name you hear (not often, but it's not that unusual). However, Mithe-Love is a different story. She has a name that when you look at it, you can't figure out how to pronounce it. I had always said that I would name my children something people can pronounce...believe me, I've had my name mispronounced a 1000 times. We decided to give them new American first names and their Haitian names would stay as their middle names...it's the best of both worlds. Well, let me tell you that it was much easier naming our first 3 children. Why? Because we didn't have other children putting in their "two cents worth". MANY names were tossed around... MANY names were tossed out! Then it happened...we agreed on a name... Michael Claude Jensky Finch. We had narrowed Mithe-Love's name down to 3 possibilities. However, when I went to the US Embassy to file our I600 in Haiti, I found out that I needed to put their new names on one of the forms. I couldn't text Dwight for his opinion since my phone was in the car (you can't take phones into the Embassy), so it was up to me to decide. Her name is Madison Mithe-Love Finch :)

Claude with his backpack ready to go!

Haley and I arrived in Haiti on Saturday afternoon having no major problems getting to the guest house. As many of you know, getting through the airport, finding our luggage and then finding our driver was my biggest fear of the whole trip. Thankfully we had no problems!! We made it up to the guest house about 2:30 and headed straight to the Creche. Claude was at the bottom of the stairs (on the playground) when we arrived and he looked at us and just smiled! He stayed with us for just a few minutes and then took my hand and was leading back inside the creche. I thought he was going to find Mithe-Love for us, but he ran through the main room, through the tv room and headed up the stairs. About that time, Wilnes (an amazing little boy, who is so very sweet and who speaks English) grabbed my hand and said "Mithe-Love is in there". I turned and followed Wilnes and he was correct, Mithe-Love was in her room. A few minutes later, Claude returned , with a backpack full of clothes ready to head to our room for the week! Amazing to think that he knew we were coming to visit & he grabbed his bag and was ready to go!

On our way to the see the Judge

We were able to complete another two steps of our adoption process while we were in Haiti. First, on Monday, we headed to the Court House to appear before the Judge. Our appointment was scheduled for 10am. Well, we left for the court at 8:45am, stopped by the NLL office and arrived at the court at 11:15. Of course we were late getting there, but no one seemed to mind, so I guess that was ok.    We got inside and there were no seats in the "waiting room" so we stood in the hallway for about an hour or so. It was miserably HOT! We had one small battery operated fan to cool all of us. Eventually we did get a seat. It still wasn't any cooler, but at least we got to sit down. We were finally called into the waiting room where we would see the Judge. What a relief to find out there was a fan in this room (not cool, but the so much better than nothing). Anyway after a total of 2 hours waiting, a gentleman came out an asked for my passport (along with two other ladies waiting to see the judge). He took our passports, went into the room where the judge. He returned about 10 minutes later saying we were "Fini"- finished! We did not even see the Judge, but he signed off on our dossier and we really were finished!!

Then on Tuesday, I went to the US Embassy to file our I600 form. Haley decided to stay at the Guest House and not go with me...remembering the LONG, HOT day we had the day before. I took the kids down to the Creche so Haley could have some time to herself (she was still sleeping when I left). Of course as soon as she woke up, she went down and to the creche to get the kids. She had some one on one time with them while I was gone...priceless! :) Since you never know what kind of traffic you may hit in Port-au-Prince, so we left at 6:15am for our 8:00 appointment. They only let people in at 8am and again at 10 am, so if you miss the doors open at 8 you have to wait until 10am to even get inside.    We arrived at 7am because there was no traffic this morning...we waited in the car until 8am when Smith came to meet me. We headed inside (YEAH...it has air conditioning). After waiting for an hour or so, the lady called me up and went over my forms. When it was all correct, she had me sit back down and wait for my "interview". We waited, and waited and waited (I should be really good at waiting by now, but I'm not). Finally, after a total of 4 hours, a different lady called me back up. She asked questions about the kids, how we met them, what they like to do and how we have bonded. She asked a few question about my kids at home and our jobs, then she had me sign the forms and she gave me the date of July 18th (the birth parent interview). This is the day when Claude & Mithe-Love and their birth parents have to travel to the US Embassy to answer questions regarding the adoption. Please keep the kids and their birth parents in your prayers on this day! I can't imagine how hard this will be for them.

Well, the rest of the week was bonding, playing and having a great time with all the children at the creche. If all goes well, the next visit to Haiti will to bring the kids home. When will that be? Not sure. We pray that they will be home by Christmas! We know that Dr. Bernard & Smith are working very hard to get all of the kids at the Creche home to their forever families...but it is Haiti...so we will continue to wait and will keep you all updated!!