Ti Gason

This will be a quickie.  My computer at home is down and I am at the library WITH MY LITTLE BOY! 

Late in the evening of my last post, I recieved several frantic phone calls.  I did not hear any of them because I was in bed with the girls and knocked out like a light.  Finally my older son came to the door and said "somebody must be trying to get ahold of you"...it was 10pm. 

It was a messege from the orphanage director...Stevenson was on the plane!!!  Getting ready to land in Miami!!!  Wait...What???

The next morning I loaded up the girls and drove to Orlando, stayed with a friend.  The day after that Ava and I droved to Miami, picked him up at the children's home and drove back to Orlando.  The day after that we drove home. 

He was so scared when he came into that room at the children's home.  Totally shell shocked.  It was great that I had Ava with me.  She started playing with him and he came out of that in about 15 minutes.  He has been doing pretty well at home.  He is very funny.  He calls Lucas 'ti gason' (little boy)...he calls the girls 'ti fi' and sometimes 'madame'.  He calls me madame, sometimes mama blan.  His heart has alot of healing to do, and I don't really think he knows what is going on.  He misses his first mama alot, I can tell.  So we have alot of work ahead of us.

I will post more with pictures, when I get my computer going again, but I just wanted everyone to know we are home and doing fine!

Double D=Drama+Delay

Delay when it comes to international adoption???  You must be kidding!!!

Perhaps you detect a bit of sarcasm in my tone. It's my latest coping mechansim.

As you may or may not know, Stevenson was on the list (or supposed to be) that went to the Prime Minister in Haiti last Monday, the 8th.  We got the call (from our internal network, not the G-Men, those guys never did call anyone!) that the signature was done, and those of us that were not in Florida already got moving.  I had a flight out of Atlanta at 8:37.  Just before I got to the airport, I received the messege that Stevenson was not coming with this group.

Wait...What???

I was encouraged to come anyway, the feeling being that his 'problem' could be remedied quickly and he would fly out on Tuesday instead. Admittedly, alarm bells were going off in me, because in Haiti, well, NOTHING ever goes as you think it will.  However, I decided to go for it and hope for the best.  My feeling was that I had everything in place (pets, kids) and also, I would be half-way to Haiti in case I had to go that far.

His 'problem' was that the Embassy did not like his identifying photograph, and there was another boy in the group with his name.  So they rejected him.  What I found out (much) later is that it happened before the list went to the PM, but nobody knew that.  Nobody knew there was a problem until he was taken for travel that night with the other kids.  Indeed, the next day he did have his photo redone, but he still had no signature from the PM.  It took me 3 days in Florida and alot of phone calls and text messeges to find this out. Marie sat with Stevenson all day at the Embassy on Thursday, hoping the signature would come back and he would fly out, but it did not happen, and when it was said and done, she told me not to worry, but go home for now.  The Embassy was closing for 4 days plus the week-end, and so nothing was going to happen for awhile.

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One good thing that happened was I got to meet, in real time, people I had 'known' for years through our adoption group, people who's stories I had followed and who had followed mine.  I got to see their kids come home.  Some of them had waited for unimaginable amounts of time.  I also filed my paperwork at the children's home where the kids are recieved.

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I spent my time at the hotel trying to make contact with US officials and others who could make something happen.   The good news is that they are now fully aware of my case!  But finally I had to get on that last plane out of Miami on Friday and fly back to Atlanta, landing in a snowstorm.  I was on the road by 5:30 pm in all that lovely traffic and about 4 inches of snow with 3 passable tires and one bald one.  It took nearly 4 hours to get home, which is about 2.5 times longer than normal.  But I made it safe and sound, praise God!

Elle did fine on her extended stay away from home, but Ava... not so much.  They stayed with my ex-husband and his wife (I know, we are the wierdest family in the world) and Ava and his wife Emily did not hit it off in the long term.  If I were to give it a short diagnosis, I'd say they are both just too much alike. Both pretty much Type A personalities.   Poor Ava cried every single night for me to come home, and by the last day, she was a  pretty difficult child.

I was afraid that the rest of the week-end would be rough as a result of all that, but she just seemed happy to be home.  Saturday she would not let me out of her sight. 

So, I am here.  Waiting again, to go.

Part Of The Miracle

Haiti from Compass Church on Vimeo.

He got some his facts wrong, as he was told the story second hand, (ie I'm not a school teacher, but my salary is equivalent to that!  And Elle would die if she knew he called her Ellie, lol) but the result was that we reached our entire goal in one week! It was amazing!

Our church rocks but it's not huge. It's not rich. Right now it's running 12% unemployment. But they met the need, and it totally overwhelms me. They blew their own selves away with what they did.  Grown men and women were crying.  I did not cry.  I might cry when it's all over, but right now there is still too much work to do.  But God does not surprise me anymore by what He does when it comes to Haiti.

The majority of the money goes to Marie. Some of it will go towards adoption fees on the US side.

Truely a miracle.