News of Great Joy!!

"Be still in the presence of the LORD, and wait patiently for him to act. Don't worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes."  Psalm 37:7

This verse has been one of many important bible verses for us during this two year, four month journey of adoption.

We have worked on our virtue of "Patience" this year and have had many ups and downs in the process to be sure.  We have, in the end seen the great miracle of God's mercy in the "peace that passes all understanding", through constant prayer and knowledge that He is in control!

So, Today Brings News of Great Joy!

This morning's email began with one from the US Consulate:

Mr. and Mrs. Liberatore:
We are pleased to inform you that an I-604 interview is scheduled for Jessica (Francesca) Liberatore on December 20^th, 2013 at 11:00 am at the Consular Section. 

First we would like to say "Thank you!" to all of you for your kind words, constant prayers and support of our adoption journey.  We know that God has heard all of our prayers and in His timing will bring our family together very soon.

After the interview on December 20th, the consulate will then do a final review of our paperwork and set a date to issue our daughter's visa, at which time we will be able to travel to Haiti and make the journey home with Francesa in our arms!  How long before that trip home, you ask?  We were hoping for a Christmas homecoming but we hear that it will be a week or so after the interview on the 20th...so, it will be a "Happy New Year!"  homecoming.  

 Picture of Francesca taken on her first day of school in October

We ask for your continued prayers as we know that nothing in Haiti is guaranteed to happen as they say it will; as we have seen along the way, anything can happen.  We pray with confidence that Francesca will be with us very soon!

May God's blessings be upon each and every one of you,
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanuakkah!
Kim and Jim 

When Bad News is Good

We were met with some bad news last week that while incredible frustrating, may in fact lead to the conclusion we have been praying for.....

After waiting five months for what should be a 3-8 week process, we learned what we had feared, that our agent is a fraud. For five months when we asked about Francesca's passport being printed, we were told every time, "next week", "there is a delay in the passport agency", "I will have more information in two weeks"..."next Friday"..... "next Monday"....Finally, when we were told the agency was closed until the end of the month, which was the last straw. We instructed our orphanage director to go and get our paperwork, which he did.  When he got to the "agents" office, the paperwork was in total disarray and at least one of our forms is missing.  What is worse, we are actually a few steps behind where we thought we were, as part of the scam is to let us think we are moving thru.  This faux-agent had no ability or intention of doing anything for us.

We have now come to learn this is not an uncommon scam, people posing as agents who are not, taking our money, doing nothing until finally pressed and then, with no oversight or legal alternatives for us in the Haitian world of governance, we get our paperwork, (or not, which I will explain later in the "good news" section), and move on......with the grim result of money and worse, time lost.

So what could possibly be the good news?

First, some people in our situation never get their paperwork back....it just disappears, wow, that would be hard to handle at this point, but some parents need to start over in some areas, and go thru the frustrating process of finding copies of documents in various Haitian governmental departments....that would have been a nightmare if our paperwork was lost, thank God, it is not.

So, we now have our paperwork in the hands of a reputable agent who we know some kids she has successfully put thru the system.  While it's true we never really know anything for certain, we have spoken with this woman several times and she has shared with us the reality of our situation and has assured us to the best of her ability that she will be able to help us through to the end.

Also, she feels she has the connections to get us thru the process in one month...I know what you are thinking but she feels if we can get the paperwork situation taken care of, she can get the passport printed in a month.  We have no choice but to trust her.

She also is the only person we have dealt with who said, "we really need to get these kids out of this country".  This sadly is the first time we heard anyone but us mention the well-being of the kids.  And if you are like me, and see some very serious economic times coming for us here in America, you then must understand the ripple affects of those economic crisis on Haitians.  As it is, food and gas prices have skyrocketed and the Haitians are really hurting right now as much as ever, including prior to the earthquake. Also, there is talk of the President being ousted, which would mean the entire government could shut down which would stop our adoptions for months, maybe over a year.

Also, If our new agent can do what she says she can do, then we will feel very confident we can get Bebej and MissLanda home without any more major glitches, aside from the possibilities I discussed above.

The big "good news" point is that our girls in Haiti are safe, getting three meals a day, are in school, learning, or have learned English, they have medical support, meet new and fun visiting teams almost every week bringing them lots of various "goodies" and have a staff that loves all over them, all day long!!  In fact, we are afraid Francesca, Bebj and MissLanda are going to be bummed to leave their 23 brothers and sisters to come live two old farts like Kim and I!

Finally, it is so important to have hope and a plan, which we now have both. We have identified and remedied the problem and we are moving forward..........Please pray that Marlande, our new agent is legit, will be effective and will get the job done.  Please pray for her wisdom and for God-inspired guidance. 

I find this very popular Bible verse comforting, timely but more importantly, I know it to be true:

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purposes"
                                              (emphasis added)  Romans- 8:28

Little help this week please

I realize that it has been a while since we have updated the blog, but that has been primarily because I kept holding out hope we would actually have some news to share....but we do not.

Francesca's paperwork is now in the passport printing phase which is to take 2-3 months....we are now in month 5.  The frustrating part is that in this phase we have been given a wide array of information ranging from,  "it is coming out next week", (that was a few months ago), to, "there are problems with some of the paperwork and more work needs to be done".

To understand the problem takes an understanding of the Haitian adoption system.  We have an orphanage director, (OD), who we hire, who then needs to hire an "Agent",whose sole purpose is  to push the paperwork thru the process. The OD really holds very little sway over the agent, and in fact needs to treat the agent with kit gloves in fear he may upset him and then things happen, like paperwork mysteriously gets lost.  Furthermore, the agent does not share the paperwork numbers associated with our adoption with the OD, knowing if he did, we would go around his back and hire help, which he does not want us to do.  Consequently, we are powerless to do anything but wait and weekly be told new and often contradictory information that we have no way of ever finding out what is true or not.  This month we were told that the passport division is closed until the end of August, (which we found not to be true when  we called the US Embassy), to yesterday hearing passports are coming out again "this week".  So we now clearly understand we are told what we want to hear as to "kick the can" down the road and get us off the phone and temprarily off our OD back.

Our agent has a travel agency as well, and all we know is his company is "Bob Travel Agency".  (Seriously, not Bob's Travel Agency, just Bob travel Agency!).

However thru a series of events that I will not go into, I am asking everyone to pray this week, that the passport comes out this week.  I want to be clear this is not desperation talking, some form of "The Secret" mumbo-jumbo or the misguided theological "name it and claim it" stuff, it is really a feeling I am getting more and more in prayer that we need to back up and let God work....give Him elbow room and show us His power.

I have been having some sort of spiritual breakthrough's in several areas of my life and this request truly is not a last ditch attempt of desperate parents wanting their kid home, it is simply some direction I feel I am getting, need your help and feel you all can be blessed thru this process.

So, my request is simple, this week, if you are a praying type of person, or even if you are not but feel there is a God out there, please pray that this week, Francesca's passport gets printed....

Thank you so much for helping us, we will be in touch next week.....

Happy Easter and Passover!

Happy Easter and Passover!

As we continue the long wait (20 months and counting) for our beautiful Francesca, she has had another birthday (February 10), she is now 4 years old!  We have also prayed about and have been called to adopt two more girls.  Misslanda is 9 and her sister Bebesh is 7 years old.  They are currently at the orphanage with Francesca, and as you can see they are best of friends.  The wait will undoubtedly be long but very much worth it!

We have been encouraged by those who are bringing their children home from Haiti and we know that the timing is totally in God's hands.  Due to some issues at the passport office we are still waiting to have Francesca's passport printed, once printed we move to the US Consulate where they will issued her visa and we will then be heading home.  How soon??  "soon" is the response we continue to hear and soon will need to be good enough for now.

This Lenten season has given us a real opportunity to deepen our relationship with Christ as well as renew our trust and belief that God loves us and our little girls very much.

We thank all of you for your continued prayers and emails of encouragement.  We pray for all of you as well this Easter Season.  

God's eternal promise came that day upon a cross and we rejoice in Him! – "I came for you, to hold you, to carry you, to save you.”

  Beautiful Sisters!

Striking a pose...Oh, boy!