End of June.

At 6.5 weeks the last lab result came back from Port-au-Prince. So a bit early from the laboratory's estimation of 2-3 months! We rapidly sent off the results to the USA by scanning the results for E-mail.

Received word yesterday from the doctor that he will be working on the documents in the next few days.

The original headed to the USA on Tuesday along with the other paperwork for our file.

Think [hope] that the last referral letter was notarized and on it's way to the agency this week but not yet confirmed. So looks like we moved from mailing our first application letter to completing Applications 1 and 2 and [most] the home study requirements in 3.5 months!!

Also in the mail our Haitian bank letter and our certificates of good conduct from the Port Margot, justice of the peace.

 We scanned a cope of a needed guardianship from via computer to the social worker. A letter stating that Cory and I know first aid and CPR also headed to the agency this week.

The write up of our home study will start next week.

Our first full day in Michigan in August we plan to have the last two documents notarized and certified as well as get our fingerprints done.

Once our home study is finalized we will file our I-600A application with the American government as well as adding it to our dossier so it can be sent off for translation.

Will start to research and contact French translators in July so that when our dossier is complete we can move to the translation without delay.

It's our prayer that we can finish the dossier, translation and legalization during our trip to the USA, Lord willing.

Home Study Happiness

After months of wondering and praying about how and where we would be able to complete the needed home study it feels great to cross it off the list!

We applied for the home study a mere 3 weeks before the study occurred.

Travel can be tricky to figure out and due to heavy rains in central Haiti we did need to change her travel plans to get to the second family but as far as we know everything worked out.

We enjoyed getting to know Rhonda and learning more about how to met the needs of our little ones when they join our family. Anna and Eli joined us for some of the classes.

Thankfully, Rhonda as an experienced overseas traveler and home study provider, recognized how different our lives here really are compared to most Americans and with flexibility adjusted the questions and training to better fit our situation and needs.

Tuesday Cory and I showed her a bit of Port Margot including the bakery and market. Several ladies commented on how I do not often go to market and once I was called Anna.

Wednesday we brought Rhonda back to the airport for the second home study in Haiti. We have a few pieces of paperwork to complete this week before Cory travels to LaGonave.

Praises:

• Successful home study training and visit
• Notarized bank letter obtained
• On-line training completed

Prayers:

• One last lab result to come
• Trying to find the timing of the fingerprints- here vs. in the USA in Aug. 
• Final paperwork to agencies for our dossier

Paperwork Praises

Tired after this week but a good kind of tired.

Praising the Lord for:

• Home study scheduled for June 17-19
• Thanking the Lord that a second family in Haiti can also get their needed home study done on the social worker's trip. 
• 5 envelopes in the mail for home study paperwork on Tuesday's flight:
• 2 to doctors for medical paperwork
• 1 to potential guardians-need to be prepared
• 1 to Michigan DMV to request driving records
• 1 to agency full of forms and documents
• Obtained our letters of good conduct from the justice of the peace.
• Eli and Anna's TB tests came back negative.
• Know of at least 2 reference letters sent to the agency
• Signed up for our 10 hours of on-line education
• Both Cory and I started our classes
• Both continue with our book / web site reading list and required write-ups
• Cory spoke with the Embassy and resent an e-mail, trying to learn how to get our background checks completed. 

Praying for:

• One last lab result to come.
• Trying to find the timing of the fingerprints-soon here vs. in the USA in Aug. 
• All paperwork to be done correctly and nothing lost in the mail.
• Good heath, travel, weather for the home study visit. 
• Cory to be able to get a notarized bank letter, here in Haiti.

Home Study Paperwork

This week we continued to talk to an agency in California about our home study and as of now a social worker is planning to come the week of June 17th to do the study and provide education classes.

Still smiling. 

She will be in Florida for a conference before coming down and we found a second couple roughly 60 miles south-east of us who will share in the travel costs and also have a home study done that same week.

Travel plans, finding the right flights and a seat on the plane continue to be researched but looks like she will fly in and out of Port-au-Prince. Pray she can get the needed tickets, as well as for good travel.

People flying into Cap Haitian this week experienced weather delays and early in the week the Port-au-Prince runway was closed due to a Brazilian plane running off the runway and needing to be investigated.

Homework Breakdown [home study and dossier]:

• 3 new books and written paragraphs
• 4 web sites to read and 2 sentence overview
• Forms/lists/documents [over 20 total]
• similar to first agency-5 reference letters, financial, medical, family picture, marriage and birth certificates
• new-driving records, house floor plan, guardianship form, new questions for autobiography, safe home study questionnaire, personal profiles, credit check
• Eli and Anna will need TB skin tests to complete their medical forms.
• Cory found out how to do our local police letters so we plan to head to Port Margot next week to do this.
• Cory will also need to head to the bank to ask about the bank letter soon
• Need to continue to research the how and where for our background checks.
• 10 hours each on-line classes about adoptions to be done before the home study 
• Fingerprints for back ground checks. 

Dossier and Home Study Search Progress

Progress this week but not really many items checked off the to-do list.

We learned that copies of Eli and Anna's birth certificates needed to be ordered and sent to our agency. Done.

Serious searching on-line for experienced agencies who provide over-seas adoption home studies and we identified a couple of agencies we did not know about. 

Phone calls and E-mails later we are now working with a social worker from California to arrange travel and complete applications for a potential visit in mid-June. 

A couple other missionaries in the central Plateau are also communicating with her so if it works out we could split travel costs.

Although the plans are not confirmed we will start working on the 'homework' that needs to be completed before the study. Three additional books and 4 web sites round out the reading requirements and we will need to write short paragraphs. One of the three we are working through as a family.

Both of the others I've already read, one we borrowed from friends and the last one we own on Kindle so Cory has also started his reading. 

A call from Cap let us know that our laboratory work returned from Port-au-Prince. Hoping that all the tests returned so we can send them on to the doctors for our medical letters.

Then the last document we need to complete our paperwork is a local police letter. While we've not explored the how-to a lot we did get a example copy which we will translate into French before asking for advice from a Christian police officer we know in Port Margot. 

Colored Glasses

I find it very interesting how a lady sitting on our top step with a baby in her arms changed my life.

A pivotal moment that changed my whole out look on life-much like putting on a pair of colored glasses would.

The world basically looks and acts the same but every moment contains a new layer of meaning.

Words of a familiar song now loaded with new meaning due to adoption.

Sermons, verses or well known books take on a whole new dimension.

One never knows when the brain will be suddenly triggered to think and wonder about 'our kids'.

As even getting to the point of knowing who our 'little ones' could be months to years in the future I do not even know if our kids' birthdays exists in the history of the world or remains in the future.

Assuming at least one breaths the same air as we at this time, many questions flood my mind: Where? In a loving home or already living at a crèche? With relatives or other people who really do not want a additional mouth (s) to feed? Basic needs supplied? Clean water, food, dry home, a bed, medical care? How about mental stimulation so important in the first 3 years of life? What circumstances will direct them to the crèche? What is the family like? Do they love the Lord? Will we meet? Did their mom celebrate her pregnancies or mourn? How long before we know them? How can we prepare now to be the family they need?

How can I pray? I pray for the family. I pray for strength and courage. I pray for a strong faith. I pray that the Lord provides for their needs.

Any time of day or night a question . . . two or ten can drift into my consciousness. Sometimes something will trigger new questions or thoughts like the books on adoption we read or on raising hurt kids.

Sometimes the thoughts just come "I wonder...."

My world holds a new color, a new perspective, a new consciousness, a new path with new challenges, new hopes, new dreams and new prayers.

Application II, part 2.

Praise the Lord as we finish up preparing a second set of documents to mail to the USA.

Yesterday we completed a couple big steps for dossier documents and our secondary application. Cory and I traveled to Cap Haitian to have medical testing and visit the notary office. Cap trip.

We prepared 3 non-notarized documents as well as filling in, signing and notarized 5 additional documents. I finished reading the second book of required reading and Cory completed one book and almost the second in the last couple of weeks. 

We located someone in Cap Haitian who can translate legal documents into French.

We continue to search for the best way to complete the home study and background checks needed for our dossier. 

Hoping this picture does NOT change. 

We rejoice that several of the reference letters including employer, physiology, bank, and some personal reference have been completed, notarized and mailed.

Once we receive our medical test results we will mail them to the doctors who only need these results to finish out medical paperwork. I had a false positive TB skin test last year and am praying that my body does not repeat the mistake.  A positive test would mean that I need a chest x-ray. 

The only thing that remains for us personally to work on at this stage is some required on-line study. As we hope to figure out soon which agency to work with for our home study we will hold off on this a bit realizing that the home study agency may have a preference to which on-line study we do.

Praising the Lord for the progress.

Praying for the final steps and timing to become clear.

Praying the lab results return within a month.