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.

*****************************************

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.

*****************************************

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.

Transporting

Kids are starting to be transported out of Port-au-Prince again.  In case I was not clear about this in the previous post, the Haitian and American governments put a stop to evacuations effective last Monday.  There was concern about the process, mostly I assume the receiving end.  Now there is a very stringent process in place which apparently will take many hours/days to get thru.  As the rules seems to change daily, even hourly, I can only pray I have all that I need when our time comes.  Right now I am praying that our time will come.  Like others, I feel that time is of the essence.  There is enormous politcal pressure surrounding the evacuation of these orphans, who were orphans before the quake, who were matched with American families before the quake.  Please pray that Stevenson ("Estivenson" in Creole) will soon be reunited with his sisters and with his new mommy. Please pray for our PAC group, that all these families will be reunited, and soon. 

Topsy Turvey

What a topsy-turvey week this has been.  Been told to expect our babies home at anytime since Friday, running around desperately trying to finish my homestudy update,  having the chruch raise the entire amount for the adoption fees (!!!!) and then having the entire process put on ice.  Sickingly wondering if they would ever come home.  Hurting for myself, Stevenson, the girls, Lucas, and all our friends going thru the same.

It's been the highest of highs, and the lowest of lows. Yesterday I was so depressed I could barely function. And yet somehow I knew we were not done yet, no matter how discouraging the news.  So I held on to that gift of deep knowledge. It really is difficult to go thru all these extremes.    Right now it looks as though it's all going to work out.  The State Department and USCIS and the Embassy in PAP, and the Orphanages, and most of all, individuls on the ground, in ways big and small, working now to resolve the issues, move forward, and get these kids home. 

Pray for us.  We need all the help we can get!

Our Kids In Haiti

I'm scrambling around for paperwork and funds.  Please, please pray that it all comes together.  My son is coming home, and Lord, I have to be ready.


The situation on the ground in Haiti is as I feared it would become.  Beyond bad.  The Joint Council released news last night that was very discouraging.  Running out, some orphanages completely out, of food and water and fuel.  Difficult to transport kids, and dangerous.  The embassy is surrounded by people desperate to get in so they can get out of Haiti.  There is no food, water, or 'facilities' at the Embassy.  HOWEVER! We have a wonderful advocate gaining entry into the country today.  Marie has been working on her end of the paperwork and this person will eventually be processing the kids out of there.  There is much work to do in between and some of it is dangerous.  There is no way for these kids to avoid danger at this point, so we must pray for their safety and their release.

For me specifically here is my biggest obstacle(that I am aware of)...I redid my fingerprints in March.  They are in the database at USCIS...somewhere....old case is closed, but those fingerprints are not 15 months old...FBI says new fingerprints are two weeks out even expidited...USCIS are the people that need the prints.The irony is  they actually have them from my previous case but they don't know it and/or can't/won't use them; how crazy is that?  Do they not get that this is an EMERGENCY?

Haiti fatigue.  It's setting in even as the situation gets worse down there. 

Our Local Church

Saturday we had a church meeting, in which I asked the Youth Pastor to pray for Haiti and gave him a short synopsis of the situation with Stevenson.  I knew they were planning on praying for Haiti on Sunday and I wanted to jump in the loop. I was asking for the Lord to smooth the way for Stevensons journey home.  We need all the help we can get!  Wesley called me later and asked me if it would be ok to make the donation request specific to Stevenson and our family.  This is the blog post they sent out on Saturday eveing.

***********************************


I’m sure your hearts have been heavy as you’ve heard and seen the devastation in the aftermath of this week’s earthquake in Haiti. Our immediate reaction at seeing something so tragic is wondering how to best respond to help alleviate the suffering. You may be wondering how we as a church can respond to this tragedy.


Tomorrow, at the end of our service we will be taking up a special offering for Haiti. We have a unique opportunity to reach out in a way that is very personal, and will make an impact for years to come. Please come ready to be generous tomorrow as our Pastor, Jim, shares with you the opportunity we have as a church to be generous and reach out in a powerful way.

James 1:27 says “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”

Compass, tomorrow we’re going to get as pure and genuine as we can get. I can’t wait!

*******************************

The response was overwhelming, both in terms of moral support and monetary means.  I am so grateful and overwhelmed!  God is great and God is moving! I will write more about this later, but I just wanted to SHOUT OUT to God for his grace and mercy.


Compass Church, you rock!