Balancing act...prayer praises and request

At times life, parenting, and adoptions all require balancing, hard balancing.

When to ask or when to continue to wait quietly??

Tuesday we sent out a couple of different e-mails. One requesting information about our fingerprint renewal [as we heard nothing in the 2 week time line and the prints were set to expire in three weeks].

In the second we asked what the guys learned back in March when they went again to IBESR to ask about the I600 paperwork and if a "Plan B" existed if the paper kept getting misplaced.

Just received word that our fingerprints were renewed on March 30 !! Very happy not to travel to the USA, Dominican Republic or even Port-au-Prince for this step. Thank you Lord.

Equally exciting news arrived by email on Tuesday that our referral is printed and ready to be signed out! Hoping and praying that it can be picked up this week. Praise the Lord!!!

Thank you for praying the I-600 paperwork into the right spot!

The person who needs to sign it doesn't work every day so praying they already worked this week and signed so when the agency staff go to check, everything is ready to be picked up.

Prayers:

• Signature and dossier / chart pick up this week.
• Protection and safe travels for the paperwork to the North, in a timely fashion
• That the judge and court officials will have time in their schedules to rapidly process our case.
• Praising the Lord for the good news on both requests. 

A third piece of good news-for other families still under the I-600 visa. Everyone thought that if an official referral had not been signed by April 1st, that these transition families would need to redo their paperwork and resubmit it all for a I800 visa [Hauge treaty].

But an announcement from the US State Department makes things sound very good-that they will continue to work with IBESR on these cases and they may be able to continue as I600 cases. Another answer to prayer.

They plan to meet next week to work on details...another reason it would be great to exit this week so that the meetings do not delay our exit any further. 

Also received a two month update on F. He's doing well. Lost a tooth, enjoyed a morning at a pool, learning more manners and letters! He already politely used 'please' and 'thank-you' when we met him 11 months ago but adding 'excuse me'

All these answers to prayer have my hopes flying and increased my e-mail checking frequency a lot!

The Lord is working. Keep praying!

Day Visit

Today we headed out at 7 a.m. for a day trip, to see F and deliver some plants, trees and Konsey II books.

We arrived right at 8:30 a.m. and after greeting / meeting some folks and praying with the visitor staff, three of us headed to the house while Cory remained behind a bit to tell the cook about the chaya we'd brought for lunch.

F came running down the drive once he recognized who we were, immediately asking where Mr. Cory was and could he pull the wagon for a ride.

We spent a bit over an hour with 2-3 of the kids from the house: riding in the wagon, feeding the near by goats; picking guava fruit, swimming [with Eli being requested as he pushes HIGH].

F talks excitedly about getting to ride on a plane soon to Port au Prince with "Kevin" [new foster uncle]. One of the children recently went on the trip, so he's excited to go as well.

He also talked about going to the beach and how much he liked the trip.

I took part of the time to get some pictures and video. Then we walked F along with his foster mom to pre-school.

When I, Kris tried this during our longer visit, he became upset but today thankfully a new child joined the pre-school for the first time and during this distraction, we slipped way.

Anna and Eli reconnected with some of the other missionary kids; Cory planted moringa and chaya cuttings as well as some aloe. I chatted with the foster family about their plans and transition time.

Soon it was time for lunch. Not wanting to disrupt F's normal routine, we only saw him a bit after school and afterward his family left for lunch and nap time.

We visited with some of the staff, another adopting family who received their referral the same day we did, and some short term interns.

Now it was time to go. Following our good-byes we did a bit of shopping near Cap Haitian, stopped by a friend's place in Limbée and connected with another friend.

Home. Tired after a good day.

Prayers:

• F's transition to a new foster family. Thankful that the other four Haitian children in the home will remain the same as will the nannies.
• Exit from IBESR and moving on to the lower-court stage of the Haitian adoption.
• F's visit to the Port au Prince Embassy on June 30th.