Snapshots of Chelley

It's been 3 weeks since we met Chelley and Naika for the first time and I have so many more thoughts and experiences to share from our trip.  I want to document these details while they are still fresh in my mind and heart.  I decided it will work best to dedicate a blog post to each of the girls individually, and then another post or two about our impressions of Haiti, GLA, and more.  I could talk for a long time about the non-existent Haitian traffic laws but I'll save that for another time.

Chelley is 7 years old and has been at GLA for 2 years.  In the updates we've gotten from GLA over the last several months, we've heard that Chelley is easy-going, sweet, full of smiles, compliant, fairly quiet and reserved, but also very friendly.  As God has blessed us with our 3 wonderful biological daughters, it's become quite apparent that we simply don't make compliant and easy-going children so it looks like we're going to get lucky and have a compliant child through adoption instead! :)  Chelley is a girly-girl, likes dolls, princesses, dress-up, and her favorite color is pink.  We think she'll fit right in here!

We found all of those things to be true of Chelley in the few days that we spent with her.  On that Tuesday morning when we met her, Chelley was quiet and a bit reserved but also very willing to come to us and interact with us.  I just received this picture from GLA of Chelley's sweet smile as we hugged for the first time.  What a priceless gift for this mama's heart!

We had brought a few gifts for them to help break the ice and Chelley loved opening her presents! 

She was very fastidious and focused as she colored in the coloring books we had brought for her and she didn't mind one bit sitting in her Papa's arms while she worked on her coloring.
 

  

  We couldn't have asked for a better first meeting with both of our girls.  We spent about an hour and a half with them before it was time for them to eat lunch with the other kids and it flew by.  It was so amazing to finally be seeing them, playing with them, and holding them.  God answered the prayers of so many by giving us more than we could ask for or imagine in that first meeting.

Chelley had moments during our visits when she'd get overwhelmed by everything and would be more reserved or uncomfortable with us.  That's when I was shaming myself for not having studied my Creole more!  I can't imagine what all was going through her 7 year old mind and heart as she got to know these strangers that called themselves Mama and Papa. 

She's used to seeing this process happen and all of the kids at the Toddler House (ages 3 and up) have a very detailed understanding of the adoption process.  They know that when you get a family, they will come to see you and you have a few days to be with them, and then they will leave, but they will eventually come to take you home with them.  Many of them even know exactly where they are in the process and they compare notes with each other constantly.  There was a special room and balcony in the Toddler House that is reserved just for kids with their adoptive parents and Chelley only wanted to spend time in those spots.  She didn't have any interest in sharing us with her friends or playing on the playset with us.  She'd been watching other kids get to go to that special room for 2 years and this was finally her turn. It's comforting to know how much Chelley and her friends understand about the process, but I'm sure that didn't stop it from being an incredibly overwhelming few days for her. 

As much as I hated having to leave them there, it was helpful to get a glimpse into their personalities before we bring them home.  Now we'll know that Chelley may not speak a single word on the entire trip home and we won't be worried about it. When she is uncomfortable she is quiet, taking things in, and as she gets more comfortable, she opens up and is a playful, delightful young girl, as many of you have seen from our video.  We look forward to the time when she's been home long enough to really feel comfortable here and we get to start seeing her talkative and playful side more often.  She is generous with that sweet, sparkly smile of hers and we did see that often during our visit!  We found out that there is no such thing as too many bubbles or balloons with the kids at GLA and she had a great time blowing bubbles for us and over the balcony to the kids down below. 

Chelley has one hour of English class and two and a half hours of school in Creole every weekday.  She seemed to understand much of what we said in English and I think she can say more than she was willing to try out on us.  Sometimes she would answer a question with "Wi" (Creole for "yes") and other times she'd answer with "Yep". :)  We really intend to work on our Creole much more in the next few months so that the burden of language isn't all on her when we bring her home, but it's nice to know that she has a basic foundation in English to help her in the transition. 
 On our last day there, we were able to see where she eats, sleeps, and attends English class.  It's nice to be able to picture her in those settings as we wait to bring her home.

 

Our last time with her was so bittersweet.  She was precious and playful, but every minute our hearts felt the burden of the goodbye that was coming.  We spent a couple of hours with her at the Toddler House and then went with her down to the Main House to spend time with both girls together.  Chelley played soccer and basketball with Daddy during those last few minutes, we took some more pictures (that girl probably thinks that her new Mama has a camera permanently attached to her face), and then as the time came to say goodbye, her smile disappeared and she became serious once again.  She didn't shed any tears when she was with us but my heart broke as I watched the heavy load she was carrying written all over her face.  She knows we'll come back as soon as we can but that didn't make that moment any easier on any of us.

We've loved Chelley since we found out that she was ours on September 10, 2012.  That love has grown each month as we've gotten to fill in more pieces in our picture of who she is.  Now that we've met her, spent time together, and gotten to see her sweet personality in person, we are more deeply in love than ever.  We know that God has chosen her for our family and has chosen our family for her, and we are so grateful.  We know that we'll all have hard days when she comes home and that transitioning a seven year old to a whole new family and way of life is no small thing.  But we know that we love her, and she loves us, and we can't wait for the day that she is home with us, where she belongs, for good. We love you, Chelley!!

Praising God in the Bittersweet...

Happy Friday!  We are praising God this morning as we woke up to great news from our agency today...we have moved out of Parquet in just 2 short weeks!!  For those of you who aren't quite as well acquainted with the Haitian adoption process as we are, Parquet is the first step in the Haitian legal process that our paperwork has to go through after our first trip down to Haiti.  This step has been averaging 1-2 months and I know of some families who have been stuck in this step for several months for one reason or another.  So, to pass through this step in just 2 weeks is a MIRACLE!!  We are so excited that we are one step closer to bringing our girls home...albeit, still several months away from that great day.

Here is what the process looks like from the first trip on...

• First trip to Haiti (to file I600 form at the US embassy in Haiti and to "appear" in the Haitian courts...also known as, somebody came and took a copy of our passports proving that we were in Haiti and that was our "court appearance".)

• Parquet (Haitian legal side of the process) -- averaging 1-2 months, Praise God that we sped through in 2 weeks!

• Courts (paperwork goes through the Haitian courts and when we exit courts, the girls will be legally ours and will legally have our last name!) -- averaging 1-2 months.

• Random legalization process (after courts, our paperwork has to be legalized, attested, and some other random steps just to make sure it's all good to go.  Basically, about 5 people in various offices have to sign off on the legality of the whole thing and attest to each others' signatures) -- averaging 5-10 weeks total for all those steps combined

• MOI/Passport printing (after everything is all legalized and official, then we get submitted to the Ministry of the Interior for our girls' passports to be printed).  -- averaging 1 month but have seen some that are taking longer than that.

• US Visa/I-600 (Once it gets to this point, it is out of the Haitian government's hands and into the US government's hands.  They must approve the Visa for us to bring our girls into the US and when this is done and we come home, I believe that this will complete their adoption and we won't need to "re-adopt" them here as is sometimes the case.  This step also includes a birth-parent interview on July 3rd (my birthday!) where our girls have to come to the US Embassy and their birth father has to show up and confirm that he is indeed willing to give them up for adoption.  Don't even get me started on the timing and logistics of this particular step.  They will not have seen him for 2 years and I can't imagine how hard this is for ALL involved, especially at this point in the process when they know that they are going to be coming home with us.   Like I said, don't get me started!) -- averaging 1-2 months.  When this is done, we'll get notice that we can finally go back to Haiti and bring Chelley and Naika home!!

So, you can see, every step that we move through on this process brings us closer to that long-awaited day that we can bring them home.  We thank God that He allowed us to move quickly through this step and ask that He continue to show us favor in the next steps so that we can get Chelley and Naika home where they belong.

The bittersweet comes as we remember that there are so many other families adopting from our orphanage who have been waiting for SO LONG and who are stuck in various steps of the process.  Please join us in fervently praying that ALL of these families and kids would get to move forward towards the day when they can all be home where they belong.  The waiting is indescribably hard, especially for those stuck for months with no explanation.  We know and trust that God's timing is perfect but we also know He is moved by the prayers of His people, so please pray for the families that are "stuck" and the kids that are waiting for their families.

Also, this has been a week of grief and heart break for those connected with GLA.  For those of you that aren't on face book, you may not have heard that an 18 month old little girl died at GLA this week as the result of a virus that's going through all the babies and little ones at the Main House.  Her adoptive family was farther along in the process than we are and were only a month or two away from bringing her home.  The adoptive family, their friends, the staff at GLA (and the rest of the adoptive families) are overwhelmed by shock, grief, and heartbreak.  And on top of that, the nannies and nurses at GLA are trying to care for 70 little ones that are all sick with vomiting, diarrhea, and fever.  Please lift up this heartbroken family and the GLA staff in your prayers as they deal with this terrible reality.  Pray for healing and strength for the rest of these precious babies (including our sweet Naika) as they fight off this virus.

I have many more details, experiences, and pictures to share from our trip but that will have to wait for another day.  For now, have a blessed weekend and if you have the privilege of having your family safe and all in one place, squeeze them tight and tell them how much you love them...even if they're driving you crazy with their "boredom" on the first day of summer.  Thank you again for celebrating the highs and lows of this journey with us.