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!