Bad news, Good news

Let me start by saying we just spent another week with Francesca and with each visit, the bond deepens and we become more and more ready to get her here, (as if we already weren't!). We feel by the way she acts that she becomes more and more ready to be with us.  The downside is, it is really getting hard to leave her......

                                                Francesca and Papa looking for butterflys
                                             
Anyway, the news from Haiti is that the nation is going to institute the Hague polices for adoptions and the rules for these adoptions will be published on 7/13.  Herein lies the "bad news, good news".

The bad news is that the Hague in conjunction with UNICEF has historically made international adoptions far more difficult.  There are very important reasons as to why this is so, such as combating child trafficking, but there are also very unfortunate ramifications, such as UNICEF's anti-adoption stance.  There are many people and agencies that feel adoption in general is a bad idea and UNCIEF is one such agency.  The feeling is that children born in Haiti, or wherever, should remain in Haiti (or wherever).  I think we can rap our brains around that general concept, yet with 750,000 orphans in Haiti, and maybe a few thousand adoptions pending, it really seems adoption in the end will be a solution for Haiti, not a problem. One reason among many is the idea that adopted kids may one day return to Haiti with an education, and a myriad of ways to potentially help their nation.  For Kim and I this may mean our hope to adopt more Haitians will become more difficult as several Hague nations are no longer adopting kids at all.

The very good news however is that we are being told every kid in the system, including Francesca, is not only grandfathered into the pre-Hague standards, but the desire for the Haitian government to get all of these kids thru the system quickly so Haiti can begin the transformation to the Hague standards.  They have targeted 7/31 as the day they want all the kids out of IBESR, the first step, and then on to the step of getting Visa's. 

If this governmental plan unfolds as we are being told, and that is a big IF, we theoretically can count on Francesca being here by the fall, this winter at the latest.  If our contacts in the US government can help, who knows, maybe she will be here in August/September.  The difficulty now is managing expectations!

We also continue to understand that there are several more hurdles, which for us is why, knowing God in in control, makes all of this far easier than it otherwise would or could be.  Which reminds me, PLEASE KEEP PRAYING FOR US...we may be getting close!

In the Political Crossfire

As you may have read, the current Prime Minister of Haiti, Connelle, resigned this weekend. What this means is that until there is a new PM appointed, all adoptions and the entire adoption process, stops.

In real terms and unless we are the benefactors of miraculous intervention, (which we always believe is possible), this will delay our process by 3-6 months, maybe longer if the Haitian Parliment cannot agree on an acceptable PM, ending our hopes of getting Francesca home this spring/summer.

Kim and I are viewing this as an opportunity to increase our capacity for trust and patience and our ability to live and believe that God, from His superior vantage point, has a plan and as always, is working that plan for good, be it our good, Francesca's or the people and government of Haiti.

thank you again for your continuing prayers, God bless you

Happy Birthday Francesca

February 10th is Francesca's birthday, so this year, Kim and I went down to celebrate her third and hopefully last birthday in Haiti. This was the third time we have taken her out of the orphanage for a week "vacation" and this is the trip we really feel we crossed the threshold of simply being two nice people who take her for occasional trips, to officially becoming "Mama" and "Papa".

The idea that she calls us "Mama" and "Papa" is really the least significant indicator of this realization, as it is more the non-verbals that speak volumes.  Many times this trip while talking to various Haitian friends or members of the visiting team, I would feel her come up to me and lean on me or ask to crawl into my lap.  Several times she would simply come and sit next to me on the stoop and lean against me while softly singing or murmuring to herself.  As she was learning to dribble a soccer ball like a basketball, she ran into our bedroom to find "Mama" so she could show her new skill.  She is talking to us non-stop in both Creole and some pretty decent English.  She also would seek out Mama when it was time to use the bathroom, as potty training is well underway!!

It is hard to explain what it feels like to be blessed with the opportunity to get to know her this way before she comes home, but much more of an impact for me was the idea that for the first time in my life,  I am recognized as "Papa"....wow...words cannot express....

She is an adorable, energetic, strong, fun and funny girl with a very big personality and an incredible spirit.  At times she will sit back and observe and you can see the smoke coming out of her ears as she is probably trying to understand what all is happening...and then at times she jumps in and takes over.  We love both of those aspects of her personality

As far as getting her here, Francesca's paperwork is in the first in-country phase and we are told we are getting very close to advancing to stage two.  Stage two is in the hands of our lawyer and he feels they can do that work in a week.  After that it goes to the Haitian Ministry of the Interior and is out of our control which will be very uncomfortable.  We are told that this phase at a minimum could be 3-6 months!  However, and where we are asking for prayers, Kim and I have established a "two degrees of separation" contact with Secretary Hilary Clinton, and IF we can get Secretary Clinton to write a letter, email or place a phone call on our behalf, a nebulous, black hole minimum period of 3-6 months could turn into one week!!  That would be incredible so please do remember us in your prayers.

We are not sure when we are going back down, it may be a short trip in early May or a week in June or both, I do not know, but we are really looking forward to seeing Francesca again.  It is getting very exciting!


May God bless you all.....

Beautiful Papers

Kim and I never thought we would look at paperwork as "beautiful", but this paperwork truly is gorgeous in more ways than one.  First, the lovely gold stickers, the red ribbons, the neat stamps and signatures.  It really is lovely.  More importantly, much more importantly, this is the paperwork that is going to bring Francesca home!

Kim has worked so hard on all of this and after hundreds of phone calls, many hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars capped off by a trip to Columbus to personally usher our papers thru the Ohio Secretary of State's office and then phone calls and hiring a company to personally usher it thru the US Secretary of State's office, (yes, Hillary signed each packet!), and then the Haitian Consulate, the completed paperwork was returned to us in a very short period of time.  On Monday, a friend and employee of Christianville took it all to Haiti in his carry-on bag and hand delivered it to our facilitator waiting for him at the Port Au Prince airport.  Today it will go to get all of the seals verified and we are off.....

The process has been incredible and at times extremely frustrating. However you can at least understand why you need to do all the they ask of you.  It is of note that the US and Haitian government will now know exactly what is in my bank account and criminal record, to what is in my colon!, (nothing of note in any of those, by the way).

While the paperwork is off and running, it is important for us to remember there are still several things that can derail this process and we have heard the stories.  So, please continue to pray for us if you would.  Please pray that the process continues successfully and on God's timing, (hoping of course God's timing is the same as ours!), and pray Francesca remains happy, healthy, well fed and comfortable......

thank you all and may God bless you......

Strengthening Family Ties

Wow, what a great week! Kim and I along with my sister, my niece and two of her friends spent last week in Haiti working on a school sponsorship program, (coming soon), but also spent the week with our daughter, Francesca. We packed her up and took her out of the orphanage to spend the week with us at Christianville, It was awesome being with her night and day for a week and for the first time in my life I began to feel like a dad. A dad who already is proud of his little girl. I cannot tell you what it feels like to hear her say "Papa"....it feels like God touching me.

I hope I can do justice in telling you how amazing Francesca is, and I will try. She is strong both mentally and physically, she is independent, she has an incredible spirit and she is really smart. In fact Kim and I have spent a lot of time since we have been back discussing and praying that we do not ruin her by bringing her here, seriously. She has such a beautiful spirit and you can tell her hardships have in many ways have made her a stronger, special, unique child, a unique person. She has a smile and a giggle that force a smile and warm the heart. We loved spending time with her knowing at the end of the week, leaving her was going to be rough, and it was, trust me. But, if all goes as planned, we will be back in October.

Just to prove I am not completely blinded, I can also tell you she is spoiled, big time. In her orphanage, every girl of about ten years or older takes on a mothering role and kind of caters to her needs. When she cries, she is picked up, when she is bullied, she is defended, when she wants something, she likely gets it. You would think that living in a tent city and then a Haitian orphanage that this may not be the case, but it is true. As soon as things did not go her way, she had a very clear and loud way of showing her disapproval! However once we simply left her alone and allowed her to cry, I think she quickly understood that Toto was no longer in Kansas!

The last night when she was having one of her mini tantrums, we took her to another room and sat her on the ground and let her cry. She realized we were not coming to rescue her and in about five minutes she was back up and playing. You could almost see her thinking, "well shoot, that didn't work".

Hopefully in the next week our paperwork will be making its way thru the US side of the process and will be in Haiti by mid September. Also, concurrently, our guys in Haiti have begun the process down there. They tell us it could be as long as a year, (UGH!), but could be, should be sooner than that. We are working every angle to make it sooner, God willing, much sooner.

Thanks for your continuing prayers!! I hope you all meet her very soon!

It's a Girl

Meet Francesca, the 1 1/2 year old girl who is going into the system in Haiti and God willing will be in Avon Lake, Ohio within the year!!! While we understand there remain many potential pitfalls, Francesca does not come with any strings like fighting parents, bad information or any concern if she will get into the orphanage, because she is already there.  We are off with a clean start.

Kim and I were in Haiti last week and we met Francesca and really had a blast with her.  We cannot wait to get back down there and spend some more time with her or take her to Christianville for a weekend.  We will be going back and forth to be with her every reasonable chance we get and cannot wait to get to know her better over the next few months.

Francesca was born a few months before the earthquake.  Her dad has not been around since the beginning and has legally abandoned her.  Her home was destroyed in the earthquake and she, her mom and two sisters have been living in a tent city since the earthquake.  Her mom surrendered her to an orphanage as she was simply unable to support her or care for her.  Also, those tent cities can be very rough especially on girls with no fathers around. The orphanage she took her to requires the mom's written, (but not legally binding), consent to adopt at the time she dropped her off, which she happily gave.  That orphanage however was full; luckily this place has worked with Sue's orphanage, our friend, to accommodate overflow kids when necessary, and thus, Francesca went to Sue's....this is where we met Francesca!

We hope to be back down late July or early August to see her again.  At the same time, Jimmy Carter may be going to Christianville in late July and August with 400 people to build 1200 homes in 6 weeks as part of Habitat for Humanity program.  If that happens, Kim and I and maybe a small group will go down and stay at the orphanage, but spend time documenting some of this amazing efforts on our campus.

on another front, while we were there we had a very sad meeting with Jhonnico, Gladine's dad.  He so desperately wants Kim and I to adopt Gladine, but her mother, who actually is not living with Gladine at this time but with another guy, is saying "no".  He knows her "no" is all about him and not about Gladine and he is really heartbroken.  As we explained to Jhonnico that our pursuit of Gladine is over, he kept asking for "more time, more time", but we explained, without the enthusiastic consent of Ket li, the mom, the process is far too risky for us.  We cannot invest the time and money if at any point the mother can change her mind.  As we told him, "Fini.... Fini" he pushed back from the table and I think he may have been crying a little. Even as he left he was telling me he was going to work it out, but I cannot see how. We did tell him we wanted to sponsor Gladines education and this way, we can stay in touch....(and who knows??......did I just say that?)

This is Fedeline (in the pink) and Gladine (in the red dress)

We went up to see Gladine and she was as is usual with a lot of these kids, a little sick, in a t-shirt and no shoes.  We found out their well is not working, which may be a good thing as two of the kids are suffering with Cholera.  We now are also looking at adopting one or two sisters from on the Hill, (officially named Bognette), Samantha and Donna. I wish we could take all 16 kids up there.  The conditions are deplorable, I am led to believe that some of the adults are stealing provisions, as I said the well is broken, a few kids have cholera and yet when we see them, they smile and laugh.....that seems to be what they are doing every time we see them, smiling and laughing. We do have plans underway to help these kids. Kim and I are going to start a program to get all 16 kids education sponsored, we are working with FISH Ministries, our sister mission, to build a kitchen so they can stop cooking in the dirt and we are regularly sending food and supplies up there.  We are also talking to a Haitian we know and trust to oversee all these projects so we can be sure what we need to happen, is happening..

Donna is 9 and Samantha is 4 and they have a screwed up parent situation as well, but we are still going to try.  The dad has not seen them in over a year but last week said he would love to have them adopted and prayed it would happen.  The mom lives in Ghana....that's right, Ghana Africa, (OK, I know what you are thinking but we are going to try anyway! We have to try). We will contact the mom this week and hope she is as enthusiastic as the dad because she is really going to have to want it and to work for it given her location.

 Donna age 9

 Samantha age 5

bottom-line, (today), we are thrilled we at least have Francesca on the line now and we will keep working for at least one more, maybe two, (why am I picturing rows of bunk beds in our basement?)

Anyway, it is a happy, exciting time and we know it is because of your prayers and the gracious God we serve.  THANK YOU!  Keep 'em coming.

Guarded Optimism....

Things have been kind of quiet until last week when Kim stumbled across a new orphanage who has three young girls for adoption and because of over crowding, are sending them all to our orphanage!  At the same time, Gladine has reentered the picture but that is kind of background noise now as we are not getting sucked into the soap opera with the parents.  If Gladine gets to the orphanage, great, if not, fine. 

Kim and I are headed down on the 23rd to meet the three girls who are already at our orphanage, Jessica, Diane and the third, a 7 month old who we do not know her name yet but we are told will be at the orphanage this week.  So the very exciting news is that we are heading down to spend some time with these girls and assuming all goes well, when we leave, the applications for 2 of them will be filed and the process will begin......so we proceed with guarded optimism. (our biggest concern is to hold off the temptation of submitting four applications!)

Conditions in Haiti this month have been awful.  The rain simply does not stop.  We were told the yard of the orphanage is flooded and the poor kids on the hill where Gladine lives are literally living in mud.  The last team sent us some pictures and you can see the muddy ground beneath them and the tents in total disarray, yet the kids are out smiling and playing and as usual, accept whatever comes and really find whatever joy they can.  (The joy in this case was s team that came and visited with them bubbles).  BTW, It is the horrible living conditions which have convinced Gladine's dad she needs to get off the hill.

We know just a little about Jessica and Diane.  Jessica lost both her parents in the earthquake and her uncle brought her to the orphanage.  I think Diane lost at least one parent in the earthquake as well.  They are not related but both were living in the same tent city.  They are not adjusting to the orphanage very well as the 1 1/2 year olds are apparently a bit aggressive, feeling they need to fight to get what they want.  A little too much slapping, hitting and pushing.  Sue, the director, said the good news is they are happy to be held and are comfortable with being handled and in fact will take a "nap in a lap" without any problems, so that is good.  But to think about the violence and chaos of the first year and a half of these two young lives is difficult to imagine.

We have no information on the 7 month old.

Seeing the pictures from last week of the mud up on the hill makes you so desperately want to be there with them.  We are looking forward to hanging out with all the kids, playing with them, holding them.  When you realize the joy a bottle of bubbles can bring, you really feel compelled to get down there with your own brand of joy to distribute and give these kids a great afternoon or evening.  Being with them redefines enjoying life's "simple pleasures". There are incredible lessons to be learned from them when witnessing how little it takes to bring a smile to a face or  fill a hillside with children's laughter.....it is awesome, it makes you think about what it takes to help us become truly joyful.  Anyway, we march on, Thanks again for all your prayers...one day, we will explain to our kids that they are the daughters of many praying, concerned "parents"!

Orphans walking through the mud

Enjoying the bubbles!

Fedeline is healthy and happy!