Together for the first time

What an amazing trip to Haiti...Dwight & Nicholas met the kids for the first time!  We arrived in Haiti at 9:30am (yes, we had to get up at 3:45am for our early morning flight).  We made it through the customs without any problem and as we were looking for our luggage a man approached and asked if we were traveling to New Life Link.  He helped us find our luggage, escorted us out and found our driver.  We ask our driver for ID (which he did have), so we got in the car.  We drove just outside the airport and our driver pulled over, got out and another driver (who did not have ID) got into the car!!??  I was a little worried, but then he called and let me talk to Dr. Bernard...now I feel better knowing we are with a NLL driver, so off to the Guest House we go!

We arrived around 11am at the Guest House.  We took our luggage to our room & went straight down the the Creche' to see our kids.  Nick could NOT wait to get there, he was SO excited!!!!  We went to the playground and didn't see them...we asked one of the boys where was Claude and he pointed to the top of the stairs behind us. One of the Nannies had them ready and was bringing them to us. 

Here are pictures from that first meeting:

Dwight & Mithe-Love together

Dwight & Claude Jensky

Claude & Nick together for 1st time

Nick & his little sister Mithe-Love

The rest of the day was just hanging out together... bonding...getting to know them, letting them get to know us. Remember, this was the first time they meet daddy & big brother and they hadn't seem me since August.  The afternoon was very smooth and we all had a great time. We found lots of things to do during the week...the boys went swimming (the girls sat on the side and watched because the water was FREEZING), we played basketball, we colored, we played with balloons and we painted hand prints (something I can keep from when they were little), we played with cars and the baby doll.  We had a lot of time on our hands to find things to do.  During the week we were also able to go shopping and sight seeing with the kids.  We ate lunch at the Baptist Mission...well, we ate...Mithe-Love ony licked the ketchup off her french fries and Claude took a couple of bites of his french fries (and licked his ketchup off the rest).  We also celebrated Claude's 5th birthday!!!  How exciting to be able to be there for his birthday!!

Nick made some new friends while there as well.  There were 7 other adoptive families visiting the same time we were there, so there were lots of kids in the Guest House.  I don't think I mentioned this before, but when we visit the Guest House the children are able to stay with us 24/7.  The Creche' is in the building behind the Guest House (only separated by the basketball court, eating area and swimming pool).  In the picture the Creche is the pink/coral colored building and the Guest House is the coral/white (taller building).  So, since there were 7 other families visiting, there were lots of kids with us.  Nick played a lot of basketball with Josh, Junior and Wilnes.  It was so great to watch them all together!  Not to mention, Dwight & I made lots of new friends this week too...all of the other adoptive parents are so supportive.  They are already planning a "Haiti Reunion" for all of the children who are home this summer.  Our kids may not be home yet (PRAYING THAT THEY ARE HOME THEN), but just the thought that we can get all of the kids together is so exciting!  Here is a sneak peek at our week with the kids :)

We were able to move another step forward in the adoption process while we were there as well.  We went to "lower court" which only took a couple of minutes.  We each signed our name twice on a blank piece of paper and that was it!  We had been told that we may be able to meet our children's birth parents at court, but unfortunately that was not the case.  We had come up with a few questions we would have liked to ask them, so that as Claude & Mithe-Love grow we could have information to share with them.  We were told that the birth parents lived quite a distance away and it would have been too hard for them to make it to the court, but that maybe toward the end of the adoption process we may be able to meet them.  Praying that will happen..we would love to have that opportunity!

THEN IT HAPPENED.....WE HAD TO SAY GOODBYE!!!  That was the worst part of the trip!  It's so hard to leave them behind, we pray that we will be able to bring them home soon.  We are still in IBESR, so we have no idea how much longer it will be.  Once we "get out" of IBESR and go to "upper court" it is still about 6 months or so until they will be able to come home. However, we don't know when we will get the email saying we are "out", so we wait and pray it will be soon!  In the meantime, we do know that the children are safe and loved at the Creche'.  Many families travel down and love on our children while we aren't there...for that we say Thank you to them!

These are a few more pictures of the sights around Haiti, in and near the capitol, Port-au-Prince:

 

Waiting and watching...

It's been a long time since I've posted, I guess because there isn't much new news to post.  We entered IBESR on September 8th...and we are still waiting.  This is the part of the process that seems to take the most time.  Not that I'm counting the days (OK- so I really am counting the days)...but on Thursday, we will have been in IBESR for 16 weeks.  Waiting is definitely the hardest part!!


 Over the Thanksgiving holiday, several families who are adopting through NLL traveled to Haiti to visit their children.  They always try to take pictures of each child and post them on the adoption blog website so that we can "see" our children and watch them grow.  Below are several of the pictures that came from their trips. Thank you to all of the families who sent these... What a priceless blessing these pictures are!

Mithe-Love on the swings,

looking as serious as always

Claude making funny faces...when Brittany saw this picture- she said he looked like Nicholas (who is always making funny faces).

Three little girls having the time of their life :) 

Mithe-Love and her "roommates"- what a bunch of cute little girls!!

Mithe-Love and  Claude together!

What a handsome looking little boy (I'm not biased at all)

And our gorgeous little girl (again, not biases at all)

We are excited to receive the pictures every time a family travels to Haiti.  We can watch them grow even when we can't be there ourselves.  Luckily, we do get to travel down in January to see them again.  We will take lots of pictures of the other children as well, to send them to the families at home...who are waiting and watching!

What's the next step?

Thought I would post and update as to where we are since our trip to Haiti.  We had our fingerprints completed on August 29th for USCIS (U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services).  We received our I600A approval from USCIS on September 1st.  We forwarded this approval to Dr. Bernard at NLL (New Life Link- the orphanage) and with that approval we are able to move forward. On September 8th we received an email saying we are now "in" IBESR.  IBESR is the court system in Haiti.  The amount of time spent in IBESR varies widely.  I've read where some cases are in/out in as little as 10 weeks, yet another family was in for a full year.  There is no consistancy when it comes to adoption paperwork in Haiti. We are praying that it moves quickly- this has always seemed to be the "longest part" of the adoption process.  

On the good side, Haiti just approved a new Prime Minister this week.  The new President had recommendations two other people for this position, but could not get them approved.  Now with the approval of a new Prime Minister, we hope this will speed up the adoption waiting period.  There are a lot of children waiting to come home to their new families!

While we wait for our children to come home I must say that we are extremely blessed to have a support group through NLL.  They created a blog of parents who are adopting through NLL, thinking about adopting, have adopted, etc.  This website is priceless...we are all able to ask questions (and get answers) from other families who may be a "step ahead" of us in the adoption journey.  It's nice to be able to ask questions, get opinions and help others who may be behind us in their journey.  I'm not sure we would have been able to complete our paperwork stateside without an agency if it were not for this great group!

Another blessing with this group...someone is always traveling to Haiti.  Just last week a family went over so they could go to court to finalize their adoption.  Everyone is so sweet, they take LOTS of pictures of the kids..so we get to "see" our kids more often.  Just this last visit, we had a few pictures of Claude & Mithe-Love.  A few other families will be traveling in November, so we hope to see more pictures soon.  NLL does send monthly updates of our kids, which include an updated picture, their height & weight.  They look great, but can't wait to see them again!!!

I'll post more...when I know more :)

What an exciting week in Haiti...

Thanks everyone for your prayers!  We had an amazing time in Haiti this week.  We arrived at the Bethel Guest House on Saturday afternoon.  After we arrived (we had to wait about 3 hours for the second half of our mission team to arrive) I introduced myself to Dr. Bernard and told him that I had brought our dossier with us.  He immediately told me to sit down and he took the dossier and we had a quick chat.  Initally, we had asked for a brother/sister sibling group...he said he did not think he had a brother/sister, but he thought he had a brother/brother  and a sister/sister group.  He asked which I thought we may like, I wasn't sure (I wanted to touch base with Dwight & the kids).  He said he may be able to get a match before the end of the week.  We left it at that and said we would get back together later.

On Monday, he said he wanted to meet with me after dinner.  I wasn't sure what the meeting would be about... I assumed he wanted to know what we had decided as far as which group we would rather have.  About 7:15 he said he was ready...we went into the "living room" downstairs.  He pulled out his paper and said he had three groups:  brother/brother, brother/sister and brother/sister/sister.  After chatting for a few minutes, I told him we had initially wanted a boy/girl sibling group and since he had one available that is what we would like to have.  He said "well then, they're yours".  WOW!!  I asked if we could meet them in the morning (since it was getting late) and he said we could met them in about 30 minutes!  I must admit at that point, my knees were shaking and the tears started to flow (and they flowed, and they flowed).  About a half hour later they brought them up from the creche (craddle).  That was amazing!  For the first time in my life... I was speechless!  I had no idea what to say to them!  Finally, I was able to tell them how excited we were and introduced them to the their "ser"- Brittany & Haley.  WOW!

We now have a new son, Claude Jensky.  He turned 4 year old in January.  He is full of  energy!  He is missing two of his front teeth (not sure what happened to them), but his smile is beautiful!   His favorite thing to do is.... EAT.  He will eat his entire plate, ask for seconds and then eat food off of everyone else's plate if you don't watch him.  He loves "bon,bon"- which are cookies, but he's not picky..he will eat anything he can find. 

We also have a new daughter, Mithe-Love.  She just turned 2 in July.  She is very quiet and VERY SERIOUS!!  We only managed to get a couple of grins out of her (smiled twice I think).  She seems to be taking in all in...it's alot for a 2 year to fiqure out.  She loves her brother (he could get her to grin the easiest).  She took to Brittany & Haley right away.  She loves to be held (and cries when you put her down).  She is cute as a button!

We were able to spend the rest of the week together. They moved into our room that very first night and stayed with us every night afterwards.  On Tuesday, they stayed with us all day, but the rest of the week we did take them back down to the crech for a few hours each day while we were out in the villages.  What an amazing week!  It was so hard to say goodbye to them (the tears flowed again from all of us).  But they know that we are coming back for them.  We continue to pray that the adoption process is smooth and quick!  We can't wait to get them home with us forever!!!

 

Traveling to Haiti...our next step

Well, we are down to 4 days until Brittany, Haley & I leave for our mission trip to Haiti.  We have so much to do, but slowly getting it all done.  We are still hoping to take our completed dossier with us when we go.  The dossier is all of the paperwork that we have been working on for the last 4 months. We have everything complete, except we are still waiting to receive the last 13 pages of translation back from our translator in California.  The first half (the longer half) that he already translated for us took exactly one week.  If this half takes a week then we will receive it on Friday...yeap, that is the same day we leave for Haiti.  Hopefully we will get it a day or two earlier, but no word from him yet.  Nothing like coming down to the wire.  We have faith it will arrive before we leave!  Once we submit our dossier- we will be able to get our referral.  We hope & pray that we will get our referral while we are in Haiti.  How awesome would it be to meet, play and get to know them while we are there!  To come home with pictures and videos of OUR CHILDREN...WOW!!!  We are praying that God will lead our children to us...that we will know it's them when we meet them. 

Dwight will have to travel to Haiti at some point to meet them before the adoption is final.  There are two types of visa's that can be issued.  If both parents have travelled to met the kids then they become US Citizens when they arrive here.  If only one parent has visited the kids, then a second type of visa is issued, meaning we will have to leagally adopt  them when they arrive in the US (they are considered orphans coming to the US to be adopted).  We want it all finished when they come home, so Dwight will be traveling to Haiti at some point over the next several months (he will have to go to court in Haiti- once the dossier comes out of IBESR).  The way we understand what IBESR is- it is sortof like childrens services of Haiti...they paperwork enters IBESR and when it comes out then the adoption has been approved.  That could take anywhere from 3 months to a year!  We will keep everyone posted when we get that far.  Right now it is a matter of getting our dossier completed and hand delivered to Dr. Bernard and receiving our referral!!

Looking forward to seeing how God will use us to do  His work in Haiti!

I'm getting the hang of this :)

I'm learning how this blogsite works, so I thought I would update everyone as to where we are in our adoption journey.  We sent our paperwork to the Haitian Consulate in Chicago on Thursday, with hopes we will have it back in time for our trip to Haiti in a couple of weeks.  It looks like God has answered yet another prayer.  Since I don't have patience,  I've tracked our package on the UPS website (many times) and it looks like it is already on the way back...scheduled to be delivered Monday morning.  YEAH!!  We only have one step left before our dossier is ready for Haiti.  We still have the other half of our dossier to be translated into French (our translator did us a HUGE favor and translated half of it so we could get it on it's way to Chicago).  It is scheduled for translation next Friday (7/22)- it takes 3 or 4 days, plus mailing time.  We leave the following Friday (7/29), so we once again are praying we can get it back before we leave.  IF we can get the translation back before we leave, there is a chance we could actually get our referral while in Haiti...to come home knowing which children are ours...WOW!

Starting our own blog

Hey everyone!  We have decided to start our own blog, so that we can keep everyone informed as we journey through our adoption process.  This is a learning experience (both the adoption and learning how to use this blogpage).  This is our "test" so once we have it figured out... we'll get started with updating you :)