We've been very blessed with a great visit this time! We knocked out most of the legal stuff we had to get taken care of the first day and have gotten to just spend some good time with Catrina getting to work on bonding since Saturday. It's kind of sad when you think about it...we spent 3 days trying to get out here and it will take us 2 days to get back....we got to vsit with Catrina a total of 4 days. Somehow that math is not my favorite... :-) We are SO looking forward to that day that we get to take her with us, as these goodbyes get harder each time! Praying that day is soon!
Please keep us in your prayers tonight as today is the last time we get to see Catrina before we head back. This afternoon will be our last goodbye for this trip. We also want to convey to her how important it is that she is well-behaved while we aren't here.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Monday, October 29, 2012
Praising God in all storms!
Hi All,
I'm going to have to keep this short as we have very limited internet access on the island and I don't want to hog all the bandwidth.
We arrived safely on the island (only by God's Hand!) on Friday evening. What a blessing to see the Edmonds and their smiling, familiar faces! Arrving at the Edmonds is always like arriving home. Praise God for this precious mission family always willing to accept us in their home!
Saturday morning, the weather had cleared and we went to the orphanage to meet with Mme. S to chat, get the full story of where we are, and see where we go from here. Much to our surprise, when we arrived at the orphanage, Catrina, her birth mother, and her sister were awaiting us. We were able to sit down with them all and Mt. Ives to discuss our situation. Within an hour, we had worked through our situation and established the following:
-Catrina owed Mme. S an apology, which Mme. S gladly accepted
-Mme. S was happy to take Catrina back at the orphanage, with a transition period of Catrina spending the weekend with us, then returning to the orphanage on Sunday evening
-Catrina's birth family is welcome to visit Catrina, but they are NOT to take Catrina from the orphanage
-Should future incidents occur, the birth family will go straight to Mme. S first
This is really the very best situation we could have hoped for! Apparently while we were waiting out Hurricane Sandy on the mainland, God was also calming this storm in the hearts of each person involved. Now we are back to waiting on the birth father, which the birth family now understands the full importance of.
Prasing God for peace and resolution! (Also praising Him for giving us the words to say as we discussed everything. There is no doubt in my mind that we couldn't have managed any of this without Him.) Praying for Him to burden the birth father's heart to do the things he needs to do for us to move forward.
I'm going to have to keep this short as we have very limited internet access on the island and I don't want to hog all the bandwidth.
We arrived safely on the island (only by God's Hand!) on Friday evening. What a blessing to see the Edmonds and their smiling, familiar faces! Arrving at the Edmonds is always like arriving home. Praise God for this precious mission family always willing to accept us in their home!
Saturday morning, the weather had cleared and we went to the orphanage to meet with Mme. S to chat, get the full story of where we are, and see where we go from here. Much to our surprise, when we arrived at the orphanage, Catrina, her birth mother, and her sister were awaiting us. We were able to sit down with them all and Mt. Ives to discuss our situation. Within an hour, we had worked through our situation and established the following:
-Catrina owed Mme. S an apology, which Mme. S gladly accepted
-Mme. S was happy to take Catrina back at the orphanage, with a transition period of Catrina spending the weekend with us, then returning to the orphanage on Sunday evening
-Catrina's birth family is welcome to visit Catrina, but they are NOT to take Catrina from the orphanage
-Should future incidents occur, the birth family will go straight to Mme. S first
This is really the very best situation we could have hoped for! Apparently while we were waiting out Hurricane Sandy on the mainland, God was also calming this storm in the hearts of each person involved. Now we are back to waiting on the birth father, which the birth family now understands the full importance of.
Prasing God for peace and resolution! (Also praising Him for giving us the words to say as we discussed everything. There is no doubt in my mind that we couldn't have managed any of this without Him.) Praying for Him to burden the birth father's heart to do the things he needs to do for us to move forward.
Friday, October 26, 2012
God`s up to Something
Just a quick update for our prayer warriors:
We made it safely out to the wharf yesterday...several hours later than intended and on our third detour, but we did finally make it. Albeit a bit surprisingly. We are currently staying at the Wesleyan guest house out by the wharf, as the Port Authority has not yet reopened the ports. Ie. no boats are allowed to go out. Yesterday this was COMPLETELY understandable. I can't say I would have wanted to be in a boat with the water as choppy as it was. So far today the ports are still closed, so still a no go unless something major changes in the next hour or so. Unfortunately there is a mission team on La Gonave trying to get back, as their flight leaves from PAP back to the States at 2:00 today. Please do keep them in your prayers too! Currently neither Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) flights nor boats are allowed to go. So basically they are stuck trying to get off the island and we are stuck trying to get on. The good news is, we've had PLENTY of rest. Emotional stress, yes! Physically though, I feel like we've done nothing but eat and sleep! Seriously, what do you do at a Carribbean beach resort in a hurricane? :-D
In other news, a brief update from the meeting with our lawyer. We have to address some issues with Catrina, preferably on this trip (assuming we can get out to the island). First, her mother and sister should have never taken her from the orphanage on La Gonave. Especially since they have no longer have any legal rights to her (those were signed over to us a year ago). Technically we are responsible for the fact that she is no longer where she is supposed to be because we are her legal guardians. Therefore we need to address this with the birth mother and sister to ensure it doesn`t happen again. Then we need to get her into a creche, preferably back in PAP. We have sent some emails and our lawyer is supposed to be checking on a few that she knows of. This is a little difficult for us, as we have no phone to be able to make the necessary phone calls. We were planning to get a phone this trip, but again, due to the rain, all the Digicel stores are closed. So we`re having to beg and borrow until we can get our own. Another issue that just came up is that our lawyer apparently has no way to get in touch with any of Catrina`s birth family. We expected that she would have asked Mme. S for them, especially since she speaks Creole...we don`t. Anyway, while we already knew that things work quite the same way here, we are slowly learning that pretty much anything that needs to be taken care of falls back on us. This is a little frustrating, as had we known this, the issue could have been resolved a year ago. Instead, now we are running around trying to pick up the pieces. Anyway, it is what it is and we will do what we have to do. Just praying for God`s blessings and wisdom as we continue to do so.
So until these issues are resolved, we will continue to be stuck in IBESR (the Haitian Adoption Authority). Praying that we can get out to the island and start working on a resolution to these issues immediately. We would LOVE to have answers to each of these issues before we head back to the States next week. Again, it will take a LOT of work...work we are willing to do, just hoping we can get some clear weather to begin. If any of you recall last October`s La Gonave visit, you`ll recall that we went into it with the same expectations (just a visit), got here to find that we had a LOT of work ahead of us, God provide in some amazing ways and we accomplished much! So far, this trip has started about the same way....now, we are watching for and waiting on God`s amazing provisions! Such is the story of our adoption process so far; God seems to wait until it seems completely impossible to show us how great and powerful He really is! We are faithful and bold in our prayers that He is going to work this out!
One thing that has really been carrying us this week is a song that Eddie only recently discovered and it has been ringing through his mind for the past few weeks. The lyrics for the chorus are:
God’s up to something
God’s up to something good
I know, I know, I know, I know, I know
His plan is working
Everything out for my good
All because I love Him
Go here to check out the full lyrics and see a video.
Pleace and love to you all! Thank you for the continued prayers!
We made it safely out to the wharf yesterday...several hours later than intended and on our third detour, but we did finally make it. Albeit a bit surprisingly. We are currently staying at the Wesleyan guest house out by the wharf, as the Port Authority has not yet reopened the ports. Ie. no boats are allowed to go out. Yesterday this was COMPLETELY understandable. I can't say I would have wanted to be in a boat with the water as choppy as it was. So far today the ports are still closed, so still a no go unless something major changes in the next hour or so. Unfortunately there is a mission team on La Gonave trying to get back, as their flight leaves from PAP back to the States at 2:00 today. Please do keep them in your prayers too! Currently neither Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) flights nor boats are allowed to go. So basically they are stuck trying to get off the island and we are stuck trying to get on. The good news is, we've had PLENTY of rest. Emotional stress, yes! Physically though, I feel like we've done nothing but eat and sleep! Seriously, what do you do at a Carribbean beach resort in a hurricane? :-D
In other news, a brief update from the meeting with our lawyer. We have to address some issues with Catrina, preferably on this trip (assuming we can get out to the island). First, her mother and sister should have never taken her from the orphanage on La Gonave. Especially since they have no longer have any legal rights to her (those were signed over to us a year ago). Technically we are responsible for the fact that she is no longer where she is supposed to be because we are her legal guardians. Therefore we need to address this with the birth mother and sister to ensure it doesn`t happen again. Then we need to get her into a creche, preferably back in PAP. We have sent some emails and our lawyer is supposed to be checking on a few that she knows of. This is a little difficult for us, as we have no phone to be able to make the necessary phone calls. We were planning to get a phone this trip, but again, due to the rain, all the Digicel stores are closed. So we`re having to beg and borrow until we can get our own. Another issue that just came up is that our lawyer apparently has no way to get in touch with any of Catrina`s birth family. We expected that she would have asked Mme. S for them, especially since she speaks Creole...we don`t. Anyway, while we already knew that things work quite the same way here, we are slowly learning that pretty much anything that needs to be taken care of falls back on us. This is a little frustrating, as had we known this, the issue could have been resolved a year ago. Instead, now we are running around trying to pick up the pieces. Anyway, it is what it is and we will do what we have to do. Just praying for God`s blessings and wisdom as we continue to do so.
So until these issues are resolved, we will continue to be stuck in IBESR (the Haitian Adoption Authority). Praying that we can get out to the island and start working on a resolution to these issues immediately. We would LOVE to have answers to each of these issues before we head back to the States next week. Again, it will take a LOT of work...work we are willing to do, just hoping we can get some clear weather to begin. If any of you recall last October`s La Gonave visit, you`ll recall that we went into it with the same expectations (just a visit), got here to find that we had a LOT of work ahead of us, God provide in some amazing ways and we accomplished much! So far, this trip has started about the same way....now, we are watching for and waiting on God`s amazing provisions! Such is the story of our adoption process so far; God seems to wait until it seems completely impossible to show us how great and powerful He really is! We are faithful and bold in our prayers that He is going to work this out!
One thing that has really been carrying us this week is a song that Eddie only recently discovered and it has been ringing through his mind for the past few weeks. The lyrics for the chorus are:
God’s up to something
God’s up to something good
I know, I know, I know, I know, I know
His plan is working
Everything out for my good
All because I love Him
Go here to check out the full lyrics and see a video.
Pleace and love to you all! Thank you for the continued prayers!
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Praying for guidance and wisdom
"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting..." ~James 1:5-6
Praise God for safe travels! We had a fairly uneventful trip into Port-au-Prince today. Tropical Storm Sandy definitely has things a little chaotic around here... SO not what we are used to in North America! Not sure whether we will be able to make it out to La Gonave tomorrow, but we are getting in a taxi at 7:30 am one way or another and heading to the wharf.
Praise God for Carl! Despite the crazy weather, our dear friend Carl took us to meet with our lawyer tonight (as she could not make it to us due to the rain). What a blessing that we got to meet with her! No good news, but at least we now know where we stand and what needs to be done. More details later (when I have an actual keyboard), for now, we are praising God for His Grace and Mercies and praying specifically for:
- Clarity for where to go from here. May God slam shut any doors through which we should not enter and widen those we need to find!
- Catrina's birth father's heart to be burdened to do what he needs to do
- Wisdom (which we have faith we will receive) to know God's Will in each step of this process
- Compassion for everyone involved in this process
- Safety and the ability to travel as necessary. (Jesus is going to calm another storm...how cool!)
Many of you knew I was a little anxious about this trip for some reason...I think it was likely just because I knew we'd be faced with some tough choices while here. Rest assured that anxiety has been relaced with excitement and joy that I get to see in what xool ways God is going to make Himself known over the next week! Praise God for lifting my spirit and keeping my focus on Him!
Praise God for safe travels! We had a fairly uneventful trip into Port-au-Prince today. Tropical Storm Sandy definitely has things a little chaotic around here... SO not what we are used to in North America! Not sure whether we will be able to make it out to La Gonave tomorrow, but we are getting in a taxi at 7:30 am one way or another and heading to the wharf.
Praise God for Carl! Despite the crazy weather, our dear friend Carl took us to meet with our lawyer tonight (as she could not make it to us due to the rain). What a blessing that we got to meet with her! No good news, but at least we now know where we stand and what needs to be done. More details later (when I have an actual keyboard), for now, we are praising God for His Grace and Mercies and praying specifically for:
- Clarity for where to go from here. May God slam shut any doors through which we should not enter and widen those we need to find!
- Catrina's birth father's heart to be burdened to do what he needs to do
- Wisdom (which we have faith we will receive) to know God's Will in each step of this process
- Compassion for everyone involved in this process
- Safety and the ability to travel as necessary. (Jesus is going to calm another storm...how cool!)
Many of you knew I was a little anxious about this trip for some reason...I think it was likely just because I knew we'd be faced with some tough choices while here. Rest assured that anxiety has been relaced with excitement and joy that I get to see in what xool ways God is going to make Himself known over the next week! Praise God for lifting my spirit and keeping my focus on Him!
Monday, October 22, 2012
Catch-up with the Bates
I must admit, I've been putting off posting as things have been just a bit up in the air at the moment. Here are the major updates:
- Eddie and I head to Haiti bright and early Wednesday morning. A trip that we scheduled earlier this month as a replacement for our September trip that fell through.
-Catrina is no longer at Mme. S's orphanage. An odd array of events led to this and we are hoping to work out the details of what this means for our adoption while we are there. The most important thing is that yes, she is safe. She's currently living with her sister again, tough this is only a temporary possibility.
As always, I plan to try to update from Haiti, but one way or another, please do keep Catrina and us in your prayers, especially over the next two weeks. Our specific prayers are for:
-Catrina's safety and health
-God's blessings on this recent development and the entirety of our adoption process (no movement there that we know of...)
-God's perfect Wisdom for any decisions we may face while there.
-God's Peace that transcends all understanding as we move forward and/or wait.
Many thanks to you all for all of the love and support you are so faithful to provide and the ceaseless prayers!
- Eddie and I head to Haiti bright and early Wednesday morning. A trip that we scheduled earlier this month as a replacement for our September trip that fell through.
-Catrina is no longer at Mme. S's orphanage. An odd array of events led to this and we are hoping to work out the details of what this means for our adoption while we are there. The most important thing is that yes, she is safe. She's currently living with her sister again, tough this is only a temporary possibility.
As always, I plan to try to update from Haiti, but one way or another, please do keep Catrina and us in your prayers, especially over the next two weeks. Our specific prayers are for:
-Catrina's safety and health
-God's blessings on this recent development and the entirety of our adoption process (no movement there that we know of...)
-God's perfect Wisdom for any decisions we may face while there.
-God's Peace that transcends all understanding as we move forward and/or wait.
Many thanks to you all for all of the love and support you are so faithful to provide and the ceaseless prayers!
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Yard/Bake Sale a success!
To those who came out and helped participate on Saturday, I can't thank you enough! It was a long morning that was CRAZY busy (and most of us hadn't had nearly enough sleep...), but it was SUCH a blessing! We had more stuff than we could possibly sale (thanks so much for all the donations!!!) and the perfect people to get it all set-up and sold! We were seriously selling tons of stuff for about 4 hours before you could even see a dent in it! We were calling it our "Fishes & Loaves" yard sale.
We were so blessed to see our church family and people in the community surround us with love and encouraement! All in all, we had some amazing people pull together this great event, which raised just over $1500 toward our adoption costs! Thank you so much to our Vineyard Community Church family and the sweet Bush family for letting us use their driveway for the morning!
We were so blessed to see our church family and people in the community surround us with love and encouraement! All in all, we had some amazing people pull together this great event, which raised just over $1500 toward our adoption costs! Thank you so much to our Vineyard Community Church family and the sweet Bush family for letting us use their driveway for the morning!
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| Several people generously made donations...even after haggling on prices :) |
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| The driveway was FULL (this in about the 3rd hour of selling). |
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| We even had the front walk covered in yard sale items! |
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| Who can resist yummy baked goods sold by cute kids?! |
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| Yup...still selling...still tons of stuff... :-) AWESOME! |
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