Never a Dull Moment

There is seriously never a dull moment in this adoption process...especially in regards to the obstacles that can be thrown in our path without warning.  As if the Haitian government hasn't provided us with enough problems and red tape in this process, now the U.S. government wants to get in on the action.

I didn't realize until yesterday that this potential government shutdown that is looming next week would have a direct impact on the last step of our adoption process...the approval of the U.S. Visa.  We are not at that point yet, but we hope to be soon, and we know many other families who are just ahead of us in the process, who could be there in the next week or two.

We are still waiting for passport approval.  After Chelley and Naika's passports are approved, they will be submitted for printing.  Once the Haitian passports are printed, the LAST step is the approval of the Visa from the U.S. government...this includes approval of our I600 application to classify an orphan as a close relative, and also involves a Visa appt. at the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince that our girls will need to attend.  As soon as that Visa appt is completed, we could be traveling within 7 days to go and get our girls and bring them home!! 

If Congress cannot reach an agreement and the U.S. government does indeed shut down, all visa applications from foreigners go on hold until the shutdown is resolved.  As you can imagine, this is NOT good news for the families waiting on those Visas for their loved ones!
Another adoptive family found this information regarding the government shutdown in 1995...

"During the shutdown, around 20,000 to 30,000 applications from foreigners for visas went unprocessed each day. The State Department also had to let some 200,000 applications from Americans for visas gather dust."

 If this shutdown does occur, that will lead to a large backlog in this area...and backlogs have already been abundant in this process.  It's so discouraging for many of us to consider delayed homecomings for our children due to this shutdown and the backlog that it would most likely create.  One of my adoptive friends has her son's Visa appt scheduled for next week, Oct 3rd, and was hoping/planning to travel the following week to finally bring him home.  If the shutdown takes place next week, his appt will be postponed indefinitely, which means his homecoming is delayed as well.  This is so hard at the end of this loooooong process, when you are so close to being reunited with your child.  And this scenario could be repeated time and again over the next weeks or months, depending on how long the shutdown would continue and how overwhelming the backlog is.

 I've tried to read the news reports and make sense of whether or not this will happen, but my mind starts to swim as I try to predict the outcome.  So, I've quit reading the reports and am choosing to focus on the fact that God is not at all surprised or distressed by this development, and He is sovereign over ALL the nations and rulers of this world.  Isaiah 40:21-29 pretty much puts the whole situation into perspective...

 
Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
    Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
²² He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
    and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
    and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
²³ He brings princes to naught
    and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
²⁴ No sooner are they planted,
    no sooner are they sown,
    no sooner do they take root in the ground,
than he blows on them and they wither,
    and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

²⁵ “To whom will you compare me?
    Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
²⁶ Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
    Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
    and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
    not one of them is missing.

²⁷ Why do you complain, Jacob?
    Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
    my cause is disregarded by my God”?
²⁸ Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.
²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.

So, would you please join us in lifting up this situation before our everlasting God that calls forth the stars by name?  We know He has not forgotten these children or their forever families.  We know that our cause is not disregarded by our God.  Please pray as the Spirit of God leads you to pray.  May He use this situation to accomplish His purposes and to display His glory!  Thank you for standing with us in prayer as we fight one more obstacle to bringing our girls home.

One Step Closer!

There was much rejoicing in the Saski house today as we received news that we are one (big) step closer to our hearts' desire of bringing Chelley and Naika home!

We received an email from our agency this morning that Chelley and Naika's paperwork was being submitted to the Haitian Ministry of the Interior (otherwise known as MOI) today.  It's been 6 weeks since we found out the girls were legally Saskis.  Since that time, our dossier made it through the 3 necessary steps/offices of attestation and legalization and now that those steps are complete, we get to move on!  Being submitted to MOI means that GLA is now applying for approval of the girls' Haitian passports.  This does not mean that their passports are being printed...just that we are now waiting for approval to print their passports.

In some countries, this would be a fairly quick process...sometimes even done while the adoptive parents are in the country with their child.  In Haiti...I'm not sure there is any such thing as a fairly quick part of the adoption process!  Earlier this spring, the step that we are now in was taking 1-2 weeks.  When families got into MOI in March or April of this year, that meant that they should get serious about packing their bags and making final preparations to bring their kiddos home! 

Then, for some reason, in May, progress in MOI came to a screeching halt and many families that I know of have waited 10, 11, 14...some as many as 18 weeks, simply to have their children's passports approved.  This has NOT been encouraging for those families waiting so much longer than expected, or for those of us behind them in the process.  Even earlier this week, I knew that we needed to get into MOI but I wasn't even necessarily looking forward to it because I wasn't prepared for another stretch of waiting for MONTHS  for something that could be done in weeks. 

Then, yesterday, many of us in this process were given great news and renewed hope.  7 families that are just ahead of us on this journey (through the same orphanage) got word yesterday that they had made it OUT of MOI.  Some of them were in MOI 8-9 weeks but some were only in for 4-5 weeks.  That is faster than anything we've seen in months!  We've all been praying that God would release the floodgates of MOI and He mercifully answered those prayers yesterday!   Our prayer is that it continues that way, and maybe even returns to the earlier timelines of 1-2 weeks.

MOI is the last big step that we have left.  The next news that we will receive is that we are out of MOI and after that, it is just a series of shorter steps...Passport printing (1-2 weeks), and then on to a few different steps of the Visa process on the U.S. side of things, which only take a few weeks and then you're planning travel dates and buying airline tickets!!  On average, as people have exited MOI, it is taking about 6-8 weeks until they are given the best news of all...that they can come to Haiti ASAP and pick up their children and bring them HOME!!

The biggest date looming in our hearts and minds is Naika's 3rd birthday on December 2nd.  We are really hoping and praying that God will allow us to spend her birthday with her and not miss yet another birthday.  We've already missed too many birthdays and other milestones for both of our precious Haitian daughters!  So, that means that we would either have them home already or that we would be traveling to go get them in time to spend Naika's 3rd birthday with her.  (Chelley's birthday is in January so this would allow us to have both of their birthdays AND Christmas all together as a family!)  In order for this to happen, we need to be out of MOI in about 4 weeks.  Earlier this week, that would've been possible (because NOTHING is impossible with our God) but not likely.  Now, it's seeming more likely that it could actually happen!!

We know that if God's timing is such that we do miss her birthday, He will redeem and restore all the time that we have missed with our girls.  However, we also know that He wants us to pray specifically and that He delights in giving His children wonderful gifts.  What a gift it would be to have our girls home in time for birthday and Christmas celebrations!!  So, if you will join us in praying along with us for that possibility, we would be so grateful.

Thank you for continuing to stand with us on this journey.  I know it's looooooong and the adoption updates might get old, but we appreciate your love and support so much and pray that God blesses you richly for your kindness and generosity towards us.  We are one BIG step closer and can begin to see the faint outline of the finish line in the distance.  Praise God for all that He has done and is doing in and through this process.  He is ALWAYS faithful!!

It's Our 1 Year "Referral-versary"!

 "O Lord, You are my God. I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; For You have worked wonders, plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness." ~ Isaiah 25:1

We all have moments that will forever stand out in our memories as milestone moments.  They change our lives irrevocably and after those moments, we know that nothing will ever be the same.

September 10, 2012, 5:15 pm is a moment that will always be remembered as one of those life-changing milestones for our family.  That was the moment...one year ago...that we first saw the faces of the 2 adorable and precious Haitian girls that God has chosen to join our family through adoption.

At that point, I wasn't doing a good job of keeping this blog up to date, so I didn't share our referral excitement here.  We shared our excitement with phone calls, emails, and facebook posts, but I've never shared the story of those amazing moments here, in this space that is meant to document our adoption journey.  So, I decided that sharing that story here today would be the perfect way to celebrate our 1 year referral-versary.  Technically, I'm writing this on Sept 9th, and the anniversary is officially tomorrow.  However, it is a Monday evening as I write this, and it was a Monday evening last year when we fell in love with 2 (more) little girls and our lives were changed forever.

To give some background, we had started our adoption process (this time) in June of 2011.  It took us about a year to do the ridiculous amounts of paperwork for our home study and dossier, as well as to do enough fund raising to submit our completed paperwork to Haiti.  At the end of June 2012, we sent off that gigantic stack of paperwork (along with a gigantic check) and by early July, it was on its way to Haiti (after having been double-checked by our agency).  We were told that it would take about a month to get to our orphanage and that when they received it, the first thing they would do is look over our information and give us a referral of the children that they felt would be the best fit for our family.  We weren't sure how long it would take the staff at our orphanage, God's Littlest Angels, to make that decision.  However, once we got word that our paperwork had arrived at GLA in early August, I woke up every day wondering if this would be the day that we would find out who God had chosen for our family.  It's a strange feeling knowing that your life is about to change in amazing ways, with one simple phone call...but to have no idea when that phone call might come.  It's a REALLY good thing that I didn't know then just HOW MUCH of that kind of waiting we'd be doing in the months ahead!!

We had specified in our dossier that we wanted 2 children who were biological siblings, age 6 or under at the time of referral.  We were open to some moderate special needs and didn't specify gender.  We thought this might be the only way that we would get a boy, but God has such a sense of humor!!  We already knew that there were at least five sibling sets at GLA that fit into our age range, and all of them had at least one boy, except one. :)

As August rolled into September, we were hearing talk about how the Haitian adoption process would be undergoing major changes, due to the fact that Haiti was now becoming a "Hague" country.  (The Hague convention was put into place by several countries years ago in an effort to reform the international adoption process and reduce the corruption present in so many countries' adoption processes).  The Haitian government agency in charge of adoptions, IBESR, released a deadline of September 15th.  All families' dossiers had to be matched with a referral and submitted by that deadline in order to be under the "old" process.  If we didn't make that deadline, we would have to switch adoption agencies, which could've added several months and/or several thousand dollars to our adoption process.  No one really knew (and still don't!!) what the new process would entail.  We knew that it was in God's hands, and that if we missed that deadline and needed to switch agencies, He would work out those details.  As that date drew closer, I began to doubt that we would make that deadline.  I remember commenting to someone at church on Sept 9th that if we hadn't received our referral yet, the chances of us getting our referral and making that deadline were slim.

Enter your average weekday...Monday, September 10th.  Matt went to work in Winona, the girls and I had a normal school day and their first American Heritage Girls meeting was that evening.  As I was preparing supper just before 5:00 pm, I got a call and saw on the caller ID that it was from our adoption agency.  They very rarely call us...99% of our correspondence with them is through email.  So, my heart started racing as I answered the phone.  It was our agency director, Amy, and she said that I should get to my computer as soon as possible because she'd be sending me several emails with our referral information.  The call lasted all of 45 seconds, but our lives changed right then and there.

Matt wasn't home from work yet, the girls were spread all over the house, I was cooking supper, and everyone needed to be out of the house in less than an hour...and yet the pictures and information about our children was waiting for us in my inbox.  I don't know how but I managed to wait the 10 minutes until Matt got home so that we could find out all together.  As soon as he walked in the door, I asked him if he wanted to find out who his children would be.  He, of course, answered with a resounding YES and we gathered the girls together to open our emails.

The first email we opened, at 5:15 pm, had this info at the top of the message... Karmen and Matt, Congratulations, you have been referred two beautiful little girls by the names of Naika and Chelley. I am going to be sending you quite a few e-mails now, so cancel all plans for this evening! 

Immediately, I knew exactly who she was talking about because Annika had chosen Chelley and Naika for our family months before.  In April of 2012, we received a newsletter from GLA with pictures of all the sibling sets that were available for adoption.  We hung that on the fridge, stared at those pictures, and wondered if we were looking at the faces of our children.   Chelley and Naika were the first pair pictured and Annika picked them early on.  She even had the whole plan worked out for who would share rooms.  She wanted to share with Chelley, Livie could share with Naika, and Maria would finally get her own room that she'd been asking for.  (And that is, indeed, what the plan is for when they do finally come home!)  I had tried to let Annika down gently, informing her that we didn't get to choose the children and that I didn't want her to get her hopes set on someone in particular, only to be disappointed. So, my first words as we opened the email that night were, "Annika, you were right!" 

It was also not lost on us that they had just referred us two beautiful little GIRLS, bringing us to a grand total of FIVE DAUGHTERS!!  Matt adjusted pretty quickly to the idea of raising five girls and we all rejoiced as we looked at all the pictures they had sent us of Chelley and Naika.  We were instantly in love with both of them, and that love has only increased every day since then. We received about 10 pictures of each of them, as well as descriptions of their personalities, medical info, legal documents, and 4 videos (3 of Chelley, 1 of Naika).  We eagerly soaked up every little piece of information about our newest daughters. 

We emailed pictures and then called our immediate family so that we could hear their reaction to our news and to the sweet faces of our newest daughters.  After we'd given close family and friends the news, we joyfully shared our announcement on facebook so that we could spread the great news as far as possible.  The joy of finally knowing who our children were and being able to gaze at their unbelievably precious faces lasted for months before the waiting started to get really difficult.  I simply couldn't get enough of staring at their sweet and innocent smiles.  My facebook post from September 12th says it all...

"You know how when you first fell in love with your spouse and you could literally spend hours gazing at their picture? That's how I am with these pictures of our newest daughters...I'm particularly captivated by their ADORABLE dimples and big brown eyes!! Overwhelmed by God's faithfulness and great gifts for us!"

Here are a couple of the pictures that I couldn't take my eyes off of that we received that day...

 We received many more wonderful pictures that evening, but due to computer problems since then, these two are the only referral pictures that I can post right now.  Since this blog post is already one of the longest in the history of mankind, I'll save the rest of the pictures, and the videos, for another day. 

Thank you so much for walking alongside us on this journey.  You've celebrated with us, cried with us, and prayed for us and for Chelley and Naika continuously over the last 12 months and we are so grateful for your support, friendship, and love.  We look forward to NEXT September 10th, when we can celebrate this life-changing day WITH Chelley and Naika. 

Summer Fun at GLA

It's been exactly one month since my last blog post...and one month since we had any news to share of forward progress in our adoption process.  The waiting for the day that we will finally be able to bring our girls home continues to be a slow and difficult "long obedience in the same direction".  We're all feeling it every day.  Our sweet Livie asks EVERY time that we tuck her in for nap or bedtime, "Are Chelley and Naika coming home soon?"  Only, in Livie's 3 year old accent, it's "Chedey and Micah". :)  It's difficult to answer that question with hope and faith twice every day and to continue to reassure Maria and Annika, and to wonder how Chelley and Naika are doing as they wonder when their Mama and Papa will return to take them home.  I recently reread some of Jen Hatmaker's blogs on her adoption process and was so encouraged by this reminder of TRUTH... 

"If you are confused right now, if your story isn't going the way you thought, or if you're tangled up in the messy middle where hope is deferred, dear reader, it could just be that God isn't done yet. Your story is not finished. Every hero and heroine must wade through the conflict to get to the end, and you can trust God because he is good. If you have nothing else to cling to, remember this: God is good. He loves goodness and justice. He heals and redeems. He is on the side of love and beauty. He is for you. He is never against you. You may be against you, other people may be against you, but God is not against you.

It is okay to be confused; I'm afraid that is our lot as finite creatures dealing with an infinite God. Some of God's best heros were confused in their subplots. But I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on. Because God is good and he is for goodness."

I'm so grateful that, as a family, we can all know and lean hard into these truths about God as many times a day (or an hour) as we need to.  He is faithful...always.  He is good...always.  He loves us and loves our children...perfectly.  He is writing a beautiful story with our lives....right now.  He heals.  He redeems.  He restores.  He will never leave us or forsake us.  This difficult time will end, but the word of the Lord stands forever.  Oh what good news this is!! 

As I've mentioned before, one of our lifelines that keep us afloat during this waiting process are the monthly updates that we receive from our orphanage.  We received our August update last week, while we were enjoying our last brief vacation as a family of 5.  Here are the sweet and fun glimpses that we received of our girls enjoying their summer.  If you have time to watch the slideshow that is linked below, it'll bring a smile to your face and will give you a great idea of how wonderful and amazing our orphanage really is! Enjoy!

This month we took advantage of summer vacation and the hot sun and had a pool day at both the Toddler House and the Main House.  The Toddler House pool day was held on a Saturday in August.  All of the kids had been asking for and anticipating a pool day for months and when they found out the day had come, they were beside themselves with excitement.  If you have not seen it please check out Molly's video slideshow on her blog to see the smiles and excitement for yourself.  A number of pools were set up and filled the night before so the kids all went to bed that night just imagining what the next day was going to hold.  The kids were split into two groups on Saturday.  The morning group was the youngest half of the kiddos and the afternoon was for the older group.  The day was a success and everyone involved seemed to have a GREAT time!  

Another exciting event that most of the Toddler House kids were able to do on their summer vacation is take a trip to the nice big playground that was built at the Baptist Mission, not too far from GLA.  Not only did they get to play on the playground but they were able to explore the small zoo complete with goats, birds, snakes, and rabbits as well as a small museum.  All of the kids who went had an excellent time.  They each were sure to explore all the play equipment available and some of the favorite, most talked about things, ended up being the teeter-totters, the slides, and seeing the snakes.  The photos you will find attached to this update are photos that were taken on the infamous pool day plus a few bonus photos of the kids at the playground (if they were old enough to make the trip).  Chelley was involved in both the pool day and the day at the Baptist Mission and she absolutely loved both events.  She was in the morning group on pool day and enjoyed jumping from pool to pool and splashing in the water with her friends.  She especially enjoyed when Molly put together a little “slip and slide” on a tarp and gave the kids a push.

Chelley is healthy and growing:
Height: 114.5 cm
Weight: 45 lbs

 The Main House pool day was split up into a couple of days we set up two small pools and brought up the kiddos in groups of 5-8 at a time based on age.  For the most part all of the kids loved playing, splashing, and enjoying the water while a few of them took some time to warm up to the idea.   You will find that this month's photos are of Naika playing in the pools on the balcony.  She was a bit apprehensive to get in the pool at first and was content to watch the other kids from the sidelines.  After some time she warmed up to the idea and was willing to interact with the water while one of the volunteers poured out water from a cup.  She also went into the pool and stood in the water for the second half of her pool time.   She especially loved the rubber ducks toys, she held onto one the entire time!

Naika is healthy and growing:
Height: 89.5 cm
Weight: 29 lb 2.5 oz