Yay! We got our letters last night to schedule our FBI fingerprinting. We are scheduled to go March 15, with the added blessing that it was not scheduled when I have to be out of town for work.
That's one more babystep in the right direction. We may be crawling along, but it's nice to know everything is at least headed in the right direction!
Overall update: Home study is complete and has been approved by the state of SC. We've submitted our I-600A for approval by the US to persue our adoption.
Next: We are gathering the final paperwork (we think it's all that's left, anyway) and we have to wait on our official approval from the US (typically 4-6 weeks), then get it and all remaining paperwork translated, then authenticated, then validated.
Again...at least we're headed in the right direction. :-) Please be in prayer for us to know everything we need and be able to get everything together as quickly as possible. Please also be in prayer for Catrina, as I know how hard all of this is for us, but I can only imagine how hard it must be for her!
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Most recent update email (11/18/2011)
Thank you all for your continued prayers! What a blessing you have been to us! Sorry for the long delay since the last update. Between work and running around getting paperwork together in our off time, we've been crazy busy in the past month or so! I appreciate your patience!
Just a quick update on our adoption status. We are officially in the process of getting our Home Study done in the US. Our social worker is great! From the moment we met her, we instantly felt like she was an old friend. That certainly makes it a lot easier to spill your entire life & history with someone. :-) Our second meeting is Dec. 2. We have lots of paperwork to complete before then, so please be in prayer about that!
Catrina has had all of her necessary exams, in Haiti. She traveled to PAP around the beginning of last week and all of the results of her various exams and tests show her to be in good health and completely adoptable. Praise God! We also received an email last night to let us know that EVERYTHING is ready in Haiti. They just need translated copies of the rest of our paperwork (which is mainly the Home Study and reference letters) to be able to submit it to the IBESR for approval.
God is blessing and things are moving along nicely at the moment! Please be in prayer that He will continue to bless this process and that we will be able to get all of our paperwork together and submitted as quickly as possible.
Thanks so much for your love and support as we go through this process. It is so nice to know we have such great loved ones praying for us! Hope you have a fabulous Thanksgiving! I know we have even more to be thankful for this year than in years past!
Blessings In Christ!
Update email after our October trip to Haiti (10/19/2011)
Thank you all for your patience! I have been swamped since we returned last week, but have also been waiting on official news to share, which I have not yet received. Even so, I wanted to update you on most recent happenings.
As most of you know, on our trip to Haiti, Eddie and I intended to obtain two pieces of information: 1 - Is Catrina eligible for adoption; 2 - Would Madame Soliette give us her blessing to begin the adoption process. However, through God's grace, guidance, and the amazing friends He has provided along the way (Jenny, Gilles, & Edmonds - you all are wonderful!!!), we were able to accomplish far more than this!
Because our trip had been postponed from August, we had the opportunity to meet with an adoption lawyer on our first night there. At this meeting, we were able to establish a relationship with our lawyer, get answers to many questions we had about the whole process and develop an ambitious plan for our visit. At this point, we thought Catrina had only a living mother from whom to obtain permission for the adoption.
The next morning (EARLY Thursday morning), we got to fly to the island of La Gonave with one of the MAF pilots we had already befriended on our first trip to Haiti. We had so much fun on that flight! (It wasn't ALL work, no play...) Then what we thought was to be a day of liesure resulted in two long meetings. The first impromptu meeting was with Madame Soliette. In this meeting, we got her blessing to begin the adoption process, and we found out that Catrina does have a living biological father, which makes it all a little more difficult, especially considering no one really knew where he was and we'd have to track him down to get his permission, too. After our meeting with Madame Soliette, we were taking her and some of the children back to the orphanage and arrived to find Catrina's biological mother and sister waiting on us at the door. So, we took the opportunity God laid in front of us to invite them back to the Wesleyan church compound (where we were staying) to chat. At the end of this meeting, we had explained to Catrina's mother our intentions. She had the opportunity to ask about us and was going to think about our request and would let us know something Friday morning. Her very first question was "Are you Christians?" We took that as a pretty good sign!
On Friday morning, we met with Madame Soliette and Catrina’s biological family again. In this meeting, Catrina’s mother decided that she would, in fact, sign for us to begin the adoption. This was truly a bittersweet moment. Part of me wanted to jump up and down while the other part of me mourned this mother’s loss. It certainly takes a lot of love to give your child up to a better life; not knowing when/if you’ll ever see them again!
As it turns out, Catrina’s mother actually had all of the necessary paperwork with her (birth certificates for both Catrina and herself and her social assurance card) for us to be able to go to court and sign for guardianship. This would be a feat in America and was certainly more than a coincidence in Haiti! Since the older children from the orphanage were coming to the compond after lunch that day, Madame Soliette gave us permission to keep the Catrina a little later and tell her about our plans to adopt her. I’m not sure our friend and translator Jenny was expecting this responsibility, but God gave her the exact words to say. At first, Jenny asked Catrina if she knew what was going on, since her mother had been there at a time she wouldn’t normally have been and there had been many meetings with us. Catrina did not. So then, Jenny asked Catrina if she knew what adoption was. At first Catrina’s response was a heartbreaking “It’s when they take you away.” After some more discussion, she made mention of getting a new family, so we think she understood. For the next half hour or so, we got to converse with Catrina through Jenny and get to know her a little better. Then we spent a few hours playing with her and the other kids around the compound before taking her back to the orphanage for the evening. When we dropped her off, Catrina asked if we would be back the next day. Jenny told her we had to go take care of some business in Port-au-Prince, but we would be up to see her in the afternoon.
On Saturday morning, we took the 5:30 AM fly boat with Jenny (did I mention she’s a saint?!!!), Madame Solietete, Catrina’s mother, and Catrina’s sister, Francesca. T-Prince, a co-worker of Jenny’s, met us at the wharf to drive us into Port-au-Prince where we met with Catrina’s older brother James, who is a tap-tap driver in Port-au-Prince. For the next 2 hours, we sat in a small, crowded room in the courthouse with no electricity (so it was hot and the fans weren’t working) while the judge handwrote the necessary paperwork for us to sign to become Catrina’s legal guardians. This was certainly another bittersweet moment, but oddly I felt nothing but peace all around.
After meeting with the judge, we were rushed to get back to the island on the last ferry, so we had lunch in the car while T-Prince drove us back out to the wharf. Once back on the island, we had a late lunch. Then, I headed up to the orphanage to get Catrina. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing, jumping rope, drawing all over our front stoop with sidewalk chalk, and showering Catrina with lots of love. While walking through the yard this afternoon, Catrina put my arm around her, looked up at me and said in perfect English “I love you Bethany!” Oh wow! That was one of the sweetest moments of our whole trip! That alone makes all of the paperwork and adoption struggles worth it!
After church on Sunday morning, we got Catrina just before lunch and got to keep her until after dinner. We also received great news from Madame Soliette: she had managed to track down Catrina’s birth father and he was willing to approve of the adoption! We are still waiting on Madame Soliette to be able to bring him into Port-au-Prince to sign the necessary paperwork.
On Sunday, once again, we just spent lots of time playing with her, spending time with her, and just showing her as much love as we possibly could! We went swimming in the ocean, where she and Eddie really got to spend a lot of good time together. Catrina, Haley, and I baked peanut butter cookies, we danced, we sang, we colored, we had so much fun! Then after dinner (where I found out that Catrina does NOT enjoy chicken noodle soup J ), we had to try to explain to Catrina that we would not be back the next day, but that we would be back. Once again, our dear friend Jenny got to take on this task. As I prayed and tried my best not to cry, Jenny explained that we had to go back to the states and would not be around for a while, but that we would certainly be back for her. The entire drive back to the orphanage (where we were a little late…praise God for Madame Soliette’s forgiveness!), I held Catrina close and kept promising myself I wouldn’t cry in front of her. Once we got back, I hugged her and told her how much I love her before walking up the hill to the orphanage. At the top of the hill, Catrina pulled away from me and ran into the orphanage, where she ran to a corner and started sobbing! I broke my promise…I went after her and just held her, both of us crying until she calmed down. Leaving my child at that orphanage was one of the hardest things I have ever done, and I long for the day that I will never have to do it again.
Back in the States, Eddie and I immediately got to work on filing for our Home Study and gathering the necessary documents for both the US and Haiti. We have also found out since our return that there is another reason we need to put a rush on things. The US is pushing Haiti to pass additional adoption laws that would outlaw private adoptions. Since we aren’t yet eligible to go through an agency, this would put a hold on our adoption and by the time we are eligible, Catrina would likely be too old to be adopted internationally. God has blessed us beyond measure and we praise Him for all the mighty works He has accomplished so far and will no doubt continue to provide. Please keep us in your prayers that our Home Study will go well (I’ve heard some horror stories, so we’re a little anxious), that the Haitian authorities will approve our adoption, that the US will approve Catrina’s visa and that this adoption process will continue to move with the same momentum we experienced in Haiti.
Please don't hesitate to let me know if you would prefer not to receive these emails, as I intend to send out regular updates so you all know how to pray specifically for this process.
Thank you so much for your love and prayers!
How it all began...the Reader's Digest version... :-)
In May 2009, we made our first visit to the beautiful nation of Haiti. While there, we had the opportunity to work with Haitian youth in by taking part in an afternoon youth retreat on the beaches of Jacmel and visiting a Boys and Girls Home. It was on this trip that we both discovered that we had a heart for Haiti and that God had something special planned for us concerning this country.
It wasn’t until January of 2011 that we discovered what that plan was. I visited Haiti once again as part of a construction mission team to La Gonave. After two days of long travel, I arrived on La Gonave and had the opportunity to visit the local orphanage. As several children began to sing, I looked over and saw the beautiful little girl I would later know to be Catrina. The moment I saw Catrina, I felt God tell me, this child is my daughter. For the next few days, I prayed about this idea and received more and more confirmation each time I saw Catrina during the mission trip.
After I returned home, Eddie was looking at pictures from my trip and he knew instantly that I wanted to adopt and was even able to pick Catrina out without any guidance from me. For several weeks Eddie contemplated this idea and prayed over it and he was led to the same decision. Since then, we have seen several signs pointing us toward bringing Catrina to the US and welcoming her into our family and our home.
Last October, Eddie and I made a trip to Haiti to 1-find out if Catrina was even eligible for adoption and 2-to ask Mme. Soliette for her blessing to start the adoption process. After a VERY busy weekend and God's hand over the entire situation, we returned home 5 quick days later as the legal guardians of Catrina in Haiti. We had managed to speak with her birth mother and get her blessing, and her birth father (whom we didnt' even know existed until we got there) had been located and contacted for a verbal approval as well. We also have a trust-worthy lawyer who we met with for the first time on this trip:
It seems that everything always takes longer than expected and the "rules" are very unclear at this point. However, God is so amazing and has been working this out so far. We will certainly continue to trust in Him, and ae appreciate all prayers along our journey!
So far, we've certainly had our ups and we've had our downs. I can't go back and mention them all, but I'm sure I'll allude to them and explain them in future posts. Moving forward, I plan to post any updates here so you can all check back and know what's going on at the moment.
Thanks again for all your love and prayers!
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