Moise playing soccer

Moise is in the light blue shirt and, as usual, has to stop whatever he's doing to imitate his favorite superhero - Spiderman!

Mmmmmm bread!

You have to appreciate the beauty of this french bread. No, it was not bought at the Publix bakery. It was crafted lovingly, by hand, from scratch, by me! Yes, me. It shall be enjoyed tonight with Swedish meatballs...mmmm swedish meatballs. Why does dinner have to be at the END of the day? Grrrrr.

IKEA=B*L*I*S*S

Since we had to go all the way into Orlando yesterday to get our fingerprints redone, we decided to make a day of it. Unlike the first fingerprinting (which took 1/2 the day even though we had an appointment), this time we were in and out in literally 15 minutes. It was a thing of beauty. So, off to the land of bliss we happily went. Keep in mind, neither of us have ever been to an Ikea store. We were Ikea virgins. I have to say, our first time was nothing short of pure, unadulterated BLISS! As we entered the store about 15 minutes before it actually opened, we were ushered upstairs to a land of brilliant colors and whimsical simplicity. The first "showroom" area we walk into was the children's area and our 2 boys immediately went bat**** crazy! And, since you are encouraged to touch, play with and try out everything in the store, the boys happily complied!

There really is a very special feeling that radiates throughout your entire being once you take your first step into an IKEA, like utter euphoria. It is difficult to put into words, but I will tell you that I had to fight the urge to sit down and cry in the middle of the store. (DO keep in mind how stressed we've been over the past 2 weeks with all of the adoption troubles and work situations that this was nothing short of a beautiful release.) After the children had sufficiently tried every toy and every bed, climbed through castle tunnels and hugged stuffed animals, we had the brilliant idea of checking them into Smaland, IKEA's supervised children's playroom. The boys were so delighted to swim in the enormous ballpit, climb the rock wall, slide down the slides and hide in forts to watch movies, that they were actually pretty pissed at us when we had to pick them up at the end of their allotted hour. During that one hour of glorious mommy/daddy alone time, we fell in love with the furniture, textiles and everything IKEA had to offer.

Once we picked up the boys, it was off to the in-store cafe and the moment mommy had been waiting for all week: swedish meatballs! IKEA certainly does not disappoint in the quality of their food, the beauty of their presentation and the ridiculous affordability of everything they have to offer. How can you beat a completely balanced and yummy kid's meal for 99 cents? CRAZY!

Before we left with a birthday present for Cai and a few essentials for mommy's kitchen, we made sure to hit the swedish food market for absolute essentials like rasperberry jam cookies, lingonberry jam, swedish meatball sauce mix and a few other confectionary treats.

4 hours! That is how long we reveled in the beauty, simplicity, whimsy and utter delight that is IKEA. Truthfully, it's my new Disney, my new mecca.

After the IKEA experience, we met up with a friend at the Millenia Mall (right behind IKEA) and chilled there for a while before grabbing some lunch at the Mellow Mushroom - an incredible all organic pizza joint. We shared a tremendous jerk chicken pizza that is not to be missed!

All in all, a full day spent in Orlando, tremendous fun and much needed stress relief. Hooray!

More pics of the boys

Thanks for the awesome pics, Nick! You rock!

Thank you

to everyone who has written and who is praying for our situation. It would truly be a miracle if they were able to come home when their escort is scheduled to come home, and that is exactly what we are praying for. Let;s all join together to pray for God to be glorified in what would be a seemingly impossible feat of miraculous mountain moving!

Thank you Kathy....

...for this awesome video of my musical boy! And super thanks to Nichole who threw me the heads up! I needed this SO much today! For those of you who can't distinguish - they're singing a CrEnglish version of Father Abraham!

whatevs...

so NOW we have to have our entire home study redone. everything. police background checks, physicals, employment letter and financial records, dcf clearances - EVERYTHING.

what REALLY makes me mad is this is OUR GOVERNMENT! you would expect this kind of behavior, this kind of detrimental bureaucratic bullshizz from a third world country, not from our gov. i did all your stupid paperwork, paid all your stupid fees. now my children, who have my last name and passports that say they are my chidlren, can;t come into the country because you want to friggin steal MORE money from me? isn't that what taxes are for?

what makes this worse, is that not everyone that adopts has to go through this. apparently, immigration laws (re: adoption) are different in every state and can even differ from adoption agency to adoption agency. for instance - homestudies in the state of florida must be fully updated (that's everything we have to go through right now at the cost of $500 plus physicals and background checks and fingerprints for a grand total of about $800) every 12 months. now to be clear - there is no country on the planet that processes adoption faster than 12 months. so, for anyone adopting in the state of florida, you are guaranteed to be milked at least twice. prices even differ between agencies. one agency wanted to charge me $1200 for the update (in other words, just for them to type up the new info) and $250 extra because we needed it expedited. SERIOUSLY? shouldn't there be some sort of regulation put on these people? there are regulations preventing gas stations from hiking up the prices during hurricanes, but no regulation on completely taking advantage of a life altering,emergency situation such as this? my children, legally mine, are stuck in a third world country and can't come home until this paperwork gets redone and you are seriosuly gonna sit there and say you need $1450 just to coax your fingers into remembering how to use the keyboard? honestly, doesn't that border on - dip into the genre of - enabling/contributing to - human trafficking - in a way? i know its a stretch, but think about it.

i digress. something needs done, but where to start? i guess i have to start with bending over......

So here's where we're at.....

It's 8:15 am on Monday morning and already I've been on the phone with both the Haitian Immigration office and the one in Orlando.  Though what the Haitian office emailed them wasn't exactly what they were looking for, the Orlando office decided to go ahead and process our fingerprints anyway.  Wow - okay - so, Monday morning is starting off better than expected.  Then the caveat: even though the fingerprints are being reprocessed, once everything gets to Haiti, the state department could still decide to kick everything back, requiring us to refile our i600a, repay all of those fees and redo our homestudy, including but not limited to physicals and background checks.  For those of you not in the know, this could translate to a couple extra months of wait time and a couple thousand dollars in fees and crap.  All of that is a possibility - all small one, but a possibility nonetheless.

So, what we need from everyone right now, is prayer.  Lots and lots of prayer.  Our homestudy update is scheduled for Friday and our fingerprints for Saturday, so we basically have an entire week in which our hands are tied, our train is stuck on the tracks and we have nothing to do but pray for a whole week.  And maybe that's what He wanted all along.....

I know God is sovereign.  I know that part of our calling, as a family, is to be the family for these two beautiful boys.  I know that now that it has come down to the end and they are ready to come home, all hell, literally, is going to break loose and try to prevent this from happening.  I get it.  I don't like it and no one ever said I HAD to like it.  But, I do have to be content, even in THIS situation and trust that what God has on the other side of this is for our good, to His glory.  So, so, SO much easier said, than done.  But, that is what I'm working on this week.  Remembering the lessons I learned in Haiti nearly a year ago - to say (and mean) that "it is well with my soul."  

(Note to God: I said I'm WORKING on it!  That DOESN'T mean I'm begging you to test me on this.  Okay, let's clarify: I'm working on working on this.  Better?)

Roller Coaster Week

So this has been one ridiculous roller coaster of a week. First, we anxiously called the Embassy every day last week, hoping we would be able to schedule the visa appointment for our boys. Every day we were told that Immigration had not couriered over our dossier. Okay, that's normal. No biggie. Then, by Wednesday, we received an email stating that the visas couldn't be issued because our fingerprints had expired and we would need to get them redone ASAP. Okay - loop#1 in the roller coaster. Ugly, painful, but not unmanageable. Just a drive to Orlando and a 1/2 day sitting in an INS office. 

Wait for it...here comes loop #2. The Orlando INS office says it needs a paper to be able to process our fingerprints that the Haitian INS office is saying doesn't even exist! $20 in Skype charges and 3 days later, we get it worked out only to find out that loop #3 was upon us. 

We had moved and because we never submitted an update to our Home Study stating this, the Embassy was not happy and still not willing to issue a visa. This was contrary to the info originally given us, but that's a different story. So, now our original agency is unwilling to do just a simple update because they say since the homestudy is more than a year old, it will need to be completely redone at $1500. (Me thinks they want my $$) Another, much closer (in location) agency said they will do the update and that the other agency was incorrect. So, I'm just gonna go with what the American Embassy in Haiti is asking for and that's all. Immigration in Haiti emailed all the necessary paperwork to Immigration in Orlando on Friday, but of course, too late for me to confirm or find out what my next plan of attack is. So, come tomorrow, I could be looking at a very easy fix or a very BIG DISASTER. 

Oh, but we're not done yet. Loop #4. So, I get this email this morning: Phoenix has been taken to the hospital and is being admitted for surgery....call for more details. AHHHHH! WHAT? I know my little guy's been dealing with what the orphanage thought was hemorrhoids for the past month, but the hospital?  Yup, little dude's got a prolapsed sphincter. Um, ewww. So, they have to give him massive amounts of protein in his diet via some meds and tape his little booty shut between BMs and maybe, sorta, kinda it should fix itself in a month or two. Oh, and lets pray it doesn't pop out while they're giving him his visa physical or he won't be cleared to fly. WHAT? Sonova....are you kidding me? It's cause he was born so malnourished and remained that way for the first 11 months or so and nearly died form it that he's now having issues. 

Did I mention I've been dealing with all this whilst in the throws of a wicked head cold? Every time I have asked if it could possibly get any worse this week, the answer has promptly been yes. One would think I would learn to stop asking that question, but no. So now, here we are, about to start a new week. I am no less settled, no more in the know and no less terrified of the unknown that I was when this all started last Monday. My faith, what little there is left, is desperately clinging to what I hope is the Hand that is supposed to be leading me through this. In this past week alone I have doubted, praised, shaken my fist, been thankful for tender mercies, screamed in anger and frustration and jumped for joy at momentary relief. I have been more hot and cold in Him and towards Him this week than I ever have been in my entire life. Maybe that means I am finally feeling - finally growing and moving out of this hellova rut I have been in for so long. Maybe I'm just that 5th ball - the one stuck in the middle of the novelty desk toy - the one that's constantly getting beat on by two balls on each side, but never yielding itself?

So, I realize now my family update has turned into a spiritual tirade.  One for which this blog does not have the room, nor the inclination to house.  So, until I know more, for those of you who are willing, please pray for our little family to be reunited and whole very soon.

Cai & Jazzy's Double Birthday!

I still need to get some pics from my mom to complete the slideshow, but here's what I have so far. Jazzy's birthday was today and Cai's is in 2 weeks. But, since we won't be seeing any family even close to his b-day, we figured we'd do a double celebration! Cai indulged in his 2 current obsessions. He got a black Spider-man costume and ran around singing "Spectacular Spider-man." For Jazz's bday, all day, playing with his talking, interative Wall-E toy. I had already taken her to Barnes & Noble for a "girl's night out" where we gnoshed on yummies at the cafe and she got to pick out a couple books. Fun times, but 6 hours in a car all in one day is pretty exhausting.....

Well, here it is, the finale! Tomorrw Jazz heads home and we breathe a momentary sigh of relief before we spend the next 3 weeks, breathlessly preparing for the arrival of our boys. Each child received a scorecard of their performance over the week. Logan was good in most all areas, but was advanced in his individual footwork skills, meaning he had the ability to effectively execute individual technical moves. Jazzy was equally good in most areas, but was advanced in her shooting accuracy and power. All in all it was a really great experience for them and they're both way excited about playing soccer on a team in the fall. Can I get a HOLLA! for the end of summer!

Soccer Camp-Day Four

I don't have much to say about Day Four. And that's all there is. Here's a pic.On another note, the kids did one of their last crafts today. This one was REALLY hard, but the end results looked great!

Soccer Camp-Day Three

Pretty awesome stuff today. They practice most of the morning, working on essentials, them have 2-3 World Cup matches of 15 minutes each at the end. After each the kids sit down in their groups and the coaches make a few individual kids (different each time) stand up and be acknowledged for the some awesome display of skills in the previous game. Guess who got acknowledged today? That's right - LOGAN!!!! They said he got 2 World Cup saves, had a couple great tackles and 2 goals! Yup! Soccer Superstar! He kicks butt on the soccer field and plays harder than I've ever seen him play!

I also saw Jazz execute a few tackles, a save and assist in a goal. Super awesome! They're having fun and loving it!

How to buy a child in 10 hours

People have often asked us, "Why Haiti?" That question is considerably more difficult to answer than what people might think. Africa and all of its troubles are featured in countless reports, articles and fundraising efforts, but Haiti (which is far worse off in many respects) is largely ignored by the US. Truth is, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and its child trafficking and slavery issues rival that of any country on the planet. It is discomforting to know, devastating to watch and see first hand. Check out the article, pictures and video from the NBC Nightline exclusive that aired the other night by clicking here. While watching and reading, try to remove yourself from the comforts of your spoiled, self-centered, American life and ask yourself, "What if I were so poor I could not afford even the smallest bite of food to keep my child alive? What if the only option I had was to give her to someone whose promises of a better life I believed, but knew deep down were not as true as spoken? What if fate had chosen for me to be born Haitian instead of American?"  

Once you have watched and read, I encourage you to not just walk away saddened, disturned or worse, apathetic. Do something. For HIS Glory Outreach is a ministry that supports an orphanage and community outreach program in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  Though they currently have well over 100 children in the orphanage who they feed, clothe, provide shelter and education for, they must still turn away over 80 children per day.  For the cost of a single Starbuck's latte a day, you can have a hand in helping them provide a safe environment for these abandoned children.  Check out their website and follow the links for donation.  And check out this video, which explains a little more about the plight of the children and what this ministry and orphanage is doing to help. (Double click the video to start viewing)

Doing nothing, being apathetic, only serves to perpetuate the problems and seal the fate of these precious children.  So click, become educated, do something.

.....because the more you know......(bing bing bing BIIIIING)

Toothless Wonder

So, in the 6 weeks Jasmine's been here, she's had 2 teeth knocked out.  Yes, knocked out.  Granted they were loose to begin with, but only slightly loose.  The first was the week she arrived and it was Logan's foot to her mouth.  Then, last night, a very excited puppy jumped up and clobbered Jazz in the mouth with her head.  Out popped the tooth and down flowed the blood.  Mmmmm, blood.  I mean, really....

Soccer Camp - Day Two

Bruises, Bad Days and Brits

Day 2 was hotter than day 1 by far. Mostly overcast, but still enough sun to fry an egg on the sidewalk. Ridiculous! I arrived, as usual, about 15 minutes early to watch the kids play their "World Cup match." At kickoff, Logan faced off with a much bigger boy and promptly received a kiss from the soccerball square on his cheek. The kid was much bigger and I could feel the impact from where I was standing. Luckily, Logan did not see me, or it would have been all tears, but he sucked it up and tried to continue until the coach told him to go sit on the bench and chill. That's when the tears came, but in a markedly lighter rain than had I been present. Jasmine woke up today and was playin like she meant it. All in all, a good day of scrimmage.

Soccer Camp - Day One

So, Jazz & Logan are enrolled in this British Soccer Camp.  Kinda cool - they fly in british soccer players to coach the kids & teach them about their culture and the proper way to play football.  The kids had a great time, but were FRIED because the camp is from 9-12 - a HORRIBLE time of day for Florida.  Look for more pics in the days to come!

4th=Fun!

This is effectively our last weekend with Jazzy, so we tried to make it as fun as possible. The 4th was filled with playing at the pool, arts & crafts, movies (introduced to my childhood FAVE Princess Bride for the first time!) and outside our front door, fireworks at night.

Saturday, we took off early in the morning and drove over to Mill Dam Lake. It's a bit of a change, for native Southern Floridians to make the trade - beach for lake, but it was nice. Tons of shady oak trees, dripping with Spanish Moss, a white sand beach, beautiful clear, blue, fresh water and about 18 signs warning us of the presence and danger of black bears! Like I said - different, but nice. Trading sharks, man-o-war, sea lice and sand lice for black bears and alligators. Did I say alligators? No! Never in fresh water lakes of inland Florida! ;0) We had so much fun swimming and building sand castles, grilling and just being together.

Sunday, we awoke to please of Cuck E. Cheese and succumbed to the visceral whines. After a morning spent within the 4th dimension of hell (cheesy, disposable toys included), we made a quick stop at McD's for happy meals. More crafts, video games and fun throughout the afternoon and a beautiful dinner made by Jeremy to round out the evening.

Tomorrow is the beginning of soccer camp and nearly 2 hours of roundtrip driving per day for me. Kill me now. I have become what I dreaded most. I am. A Soccer mom.