The Journey's end is the Beginning!

The journey’s end is the beginning

 

I remember once saying in this blog that we would believe she was coming home to us the night we tuck her into her bed in our home.........well, she is home!

I can tell you that whatever we thought the trip from Haiti to our home was going to be like, it has been 1000 times better.  She is constantly singing, dancing and skipping whether it is thru the airports, or in our house.  All the time we were able to spend with her over the past 2 years and nine months in Haiti is really paying off as her understanding of us being “Mama and Papa” is only stronger now that she is home.  Of course there are our “down times” when she is beginning to understand the transformation in her mind from Mama and Papa Santa Clause to just plain Mama and Papa, but each day you can see the progress with that “cruel reality”!

 

For example, when we took her to her closet and she was seeing all of her clothes for the first time, she would point to one pair of shoes and say, “pou mwen?”, (for me?)...then point to the next pair and say, “Pou Mwen”?  So instead of going thru each piece of clothing in the closet Kim explained, “it is all yours” which lit her up like a Christmas tree....(oh-oh, she likes clothes and shoes).

 

I think the thing that is most striking is how this was the perfect time to get her home, not a day late, not a day early.  And when we think of all the consternation, the doubting, the anxiety we endured we can only come the shameful conclusion that we did not trust as we should have.  Do not get me wrong, Kim and I did grow in trust and patience over the years in ways that can only be attributed to God’s grace, but why not earlier? Why not fully surrender and trust?

 

I realize that this blog is read by people who do not share our faith and we appreciate that and are so incredibly thankful to everyone for your support, but I am convicted in this final blog to share the amazing clarity of the reality of God in our lives and how we felt His presence thru this process as sure as if He were sitting in our room, which was confirmed by the perfection of the timing to get her home, THE moment in time she was perfectly ready to be with us.

 

As you watch the video, you too will see how this is clearly the time...a year ago she may have been far more traumatized with lasting effect.....a year from now who knows what was in store for her in the poorest nation in the world....but 3/25/14 I can say she was ready to go!

 

 

We have seen God at work, no doubt, as our trust in Him and His plan for us is closer to complete trust than it has ever been, (as we try to get as close as we can while on this side of the grass).  We now know some of the hurdles in Haiti that could have, and in fact should have ended this process at the start.  Kim and I for several reasons are in fact are not eligible to adopt by current Haitian guidelines.  We were told this was no big deal, but over the weekend came to find out just how it is a big deal and how we still got thru the process.

 

God is real and God is with us, and when we surrender to those facts, our lives becomes an amazing adventure with incredible blessings around every corner, including those disguised as troubles.....like how a painfully long and exhausting adoption process really is a time of amazing growth in peace, joy and understanding.

 

Anyway, no more preaching and no more blogs....we will not keep this going as we get the other two but will let you know when they are here if they get here, because Haiti remains Haiti and the process remains iffy, but is in God’s hands.

 

We are a family, the journey home has ended and the journey to her real home begins anew.

 

So many of you have been so incredibly interested in the process and we thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers and we cannot wait for you all to meet her!

 

THANK YOU!!!!

.

Let The Church Say Amen!!

"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, 

believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."  

                                                                                   Mark 11:24

February 14, 2014: The excitement was mounting...we were told that the only thing left in verifying all of Francesca's paperwork was a simple document that needed to be registered with the court, correctly, correctly, meaning that our lawyer was to re-submit this document the way the US Consulate was requesting. 

Almost two weeks later the good news arrives: (remember "Jessica" is her Haitian name and her name will officially be changed to Francesca once we are home.)

On Wednesday, February 26, 2014 3:46 PM, Port-au-Prince Adoption Services

 wrote:

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Liberatore,

 

I am pleased to inform you that the new documents you submitted in support of your children’s adoption case were verified by our Fraud Prevention Unit, and your cases can now proceed to the interview phase. You should receive an e-mail by tomorrow with an interview appointment, and an explanation of all the documents you or your representative must bring to the interview. Please read these instructions very carefully.

 

Yes!  It was happening, really happening.  When you read these emails after waiting two and a half years, you find yourself re-reading and re-reading to make sure it truly is saying what you have hope for so long. To see in writing that her visa interview is scheduled and knowing that after this interview we will be able to bring our daughter home!  HOME!! is sheer joy ~

 

 From: Port-au-Prince Adoption Services
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2014 3:04 PM

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Liberatore,

 

We are pleased to inform you that the I-604 process is complete, and Jessica Liberatore may now be scheduled for the final visa interview with the Department of State.  The visa interview is scheduled for March 11^th, 2014 at 8:00 am at the Consular Section. 

Jim and I have really enjoyed this weekend preparing for our move to Colorado, our trip to Haiti, our last weekend in our home in Fallbrook,CA, which we have enjoyed immensely. A lot of people have asked if this is a stressful time, and the answer is, "not at all!"  We are truly blessed that our home in Ohio sold when it did, we found a wonderful place to live in Castle Rock, CO and our baby is coming Home!  All at the same time...all in God's perfect timing.  We fought hard to get her here sooner but it is very clear now as we see how God knew that the timing needed to be just right, and just right it truly is.

Big, fun changes ahead and we are so very ready to be Francesca's, "Momma and Papa".   Stay tuned for the rest of the story...

 

 

 

 
"Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!”

Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!

   

We are overjoyed!  

Thank you for your prayers, your thoughts and 

your words of encouragement.  

 

Faithful prayers availeth much!

 

The Long And Winding Road

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

                                                                      Romans 12:12 

 Francesca turned "5" on February 10th

Well, long time no talk!  During our move I lost my original distribution list of the Haiti babies blog and therefore, could not send anything out to the group.  For those of you “bottom-liners”....Francesca is still In Haiti......this is a long update but I think kind of interesting.

It has been an amazing process as each step came with some incredible stories and craziness, most of which you were able to follow.  But as we went along and as we realized more and more how little control we had in this process, and how the next complication was more unthinkable than the last, the easier it become to turn it over to God.  We now are 100% OK with whatever happens, and that meant on some days thinking God possibly was/is wanting Francesca to stay in Haiti.  If that is the case, then that too would be OK, in fact we believe that if that was the outcome, it would be the best outcome for Francesca.  Once we relinquished control and trusted God was going to do with her what He wanted, and once we took our own selfishness out of the equation, it became easier to get comfortable with any outcome.....and that is where we are today.

So now to the crazy stories......and these follow the crook who took our money, lied to us about the progress only to find Francesca’s paperwork was at the exact same place it was when we gave it to him 5-6 months earlier, in some drawer in his desk!!!

After our time with Agent Jean Louise McCrooked,  we found a new agent, Mirlande who really did good work for us and got Francesca to the point of getting her passport.  This theoretically, was to leave a week or two review of the paperwork by the US Consulate and then a two-four week wait for our appointment to go and get her.  So, we spent another Christmas thinking she may be home in time to unwrap presents....why did we do that to ourselves?

First amazing tale, Francesca’s mother was required to show up at the US Consulate with her photo ID and have a final interview.  After several hours of waiting, Francesca’s Mom went to the consulate with an ID with no photo.  We warned our Orphanage Director OD), she needed a photo ID, he said it would not be a problem.  Guess what, it was a problem.  She was told to go get a photo ID, so what she did was went out with our Orphanage Director, took a passport photo and taped it on to the same ID she was already rejected with.  We told the OD this likely would not work, but he told us it would be no problem...guess what, It was a problem. So after another long wait she was rejected again......So now we were told we would need to wait for her to get a country approved Photo ID, (which by the way even in Haiti a photo ID is needed to vote, so we should not complain about it in the US).  She told us she had been trying to get the photo ID for over a year!  Uh-oh...here we go again, a very long wait for the ID.  But, thank God, Kim found out that a DNA test would suffice, so we went down that road.  This whole process took many weeks.

So we call a firm in Maryland, pay the hefty fee and send the DNA kit down to the US Consulate in Haiti.  Francesca and her Mom wait for a third time, three hours in a crazy long line and incredible heat with no shade outside the consulate to get the test done.  They overnight the kit to Maryland, Maryland gets the kit and informs us that the Consulate did not fill out Francesca’s paperwork at all...left it all blank, soooooo, we need to overnight another kit down to Haiti, Francesca needs to get back in that long hot line (trip 4), and take the test again. They then overnight the kit back to Maryland and we then get a call from the DNA company....the information is still not filled out correctly!!  After Kim spent time on the phone to Maryland and Haiti, after wailing and gnashing of teeth they allowed the information to be transmitted by phone....great job Kim!!  And thank God, they passed the test!!

As that was going on, we were met with some gut wrenching news. The US Consulate told us that after going to check our paperwork at the courts, they found that none of our paperwork was filed at the those courts, none!!  The Consulate told us they have had issues with our Lawyer in the past and they suspected fraud!!!  Our you freakin’ kidding me?!? They cautioned us on the fact he may have taken our money, created the documents himself and never even went to the courts and appeared before the judges, and if so, we were looking at starting over.....starting over.....needless to say, lots of time in prayer that week...............

Last week I went to Haiti and met with the ladies at the Consulate and with our OD and they told me if our lawyer did in fact appear before the various courts, (they were very skeptical), then he for some reason did not take the final step of filing the paperwork with the courts.  If it was just a matter of him filing the documents, they were going to allow him to go back and file the existing documents which would take a few weeks and we would not need to start over or, possibly, even likely be banned from adopting in Haiti since we were involved in fraud! We were shocked. However, It appears now thank God, the problem is fixable and all the lawyer needs to do is re-file the paperwork properly in the courts.

So, as we sit here today, we are told that all of the paperwork is filed, our OD is taking all of the filed paperwork to the consulate on Friday, February 14, 2014.  They have told us they fully understand the crazy process we have endured and that they will expedite our file and if it all is legit, they will set up our visa appointment to go get Francesca!

So we are looking at anywhere from three weeks, to never, and never only goes off the “possibility” list the day our airplane touches down in the US and she is sitting next to us.......
There you have it....if you read all of this you are likely exhausted......I think losing the distribution list saved us a lot of embarrassment as we would have kept coming back with bad news and broken promises and most of you would likely think that we are suckers and Francesca is never coming home, but I can end with one great story:

Our friends Amy and Wayne went into the adoption process about a year after Kim and I and their baby was home before Thanksgiving!!  We were so blessed to spend time with Nadedge and her new family when we went home to Cleveland for Thanksgiving. We realized that it can happen, we saw it in action and really got the feeling of what it will be like with Francesca running around. 

I also spent a week in Haiti with all three of our girls last week and all three girls are awesome.  I cannot tell you what it feels like to hear one of them yelling Papa, Papa or when Francesca came to me saying she wanted her Papa to walk her to school, or Misslanda, our 9 year old asking me, “what things does Mama like”?....very cool stuff......and if God wants them here, they will be here in a perfect time....if not, they will do amazing things for Him in Haiti, and no matter where they are, they are Francesca, Bebej and Misslanda Liberatore.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!!!