Dancing in the Kitchen

In a house with three kids, spontaneous dance recitals are a common thing...

I knew this parenting thing would pay off...

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday, Philippe!

I am a day late and a dollar short but I was hoping to have pictures posted...BUT...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PHILIPPE! He turned 9 yesterday and we will get some pics on here soon!

It Has Pigtails!

When my niece, Ava, first saw Olivia's referral picture, she was visibly disappointed. Jenny said, "What's wrong, Ava?" and Ava said, "I thought it would have pigtails"

Well, now it has pigtails! What do you think, Ava?

Happy 10th Birthday, Patricia!

Patricia posing with her cake

Perfection

the cousins

Life is Good!

There have been tough times, of course, (any parent can say that isn't true?) but overall we are very amazed with all that the kids have learned and adapted to. We are pleased with the progress they have made and are glad that Patricia feels comfortable enough to share some of her experiences in Haiti. The kids get along amazingly and it is a blessing to see them all enjoy each other so much. More great pictures and videos to come along shortly!

After such a long wait for parenthood, we have to say...

Haiti Adoption Update

Please pray for our children fervently today.

Orphans Intend to Depart Haiti
Orphans begin procedures to depart Haiti at U.S. Embassy (Port-au-Prince, Haiti)
On January 20, 2010, 133 orphans from the Maison des Enfants de Dieu (Children of the House of God) orphanage will begin the difficult process outlined by the U.S. Department of State for humanitarian parole and onward transportation to the United States.

In accordance with instructions received from the State Department, as relayed by the Joint Council on International Children's Services (JCICS) at 8 p.m. today, orphans along with orphanage staff members have been instructed to arrive at the U.S. Embassy as early as possible on Wednesday morning.

JCICS warned that no food, water or facilities would be available for the children while processing at the U.S. Embassy Port-au-Prince.

JCICS further relayed that orphanage requests to the U.S. Embassy for security and transportation for the children have been denied by the State Department. The U.S. ministry associated with this orphanage, For His Glory Adoption Outreach (FHG), was also asked to stop requesting security, transportation or even water at the orphanage location. Following discussions with staff and board members in Port-au-Prince, the difficult decision was made that all 133 children, including approximately 60 children under the age of 3, will begin early in the morning of January 20th to walk the over 2 kilometers to the U.S. Embassy Port-au-Prince. This decision was made due to the limited staff available and the increasingly dangerous security situation at the orphanage in Port-au-Prince. The staff will carry as much water, food and baby formula as possible with them for the orphans while processing at the U.S. Embassy. JCICS relayed that once processing is completed, the orphans will travel to the United States on "cargo jets to locations that are not often known until an hour or so before the flight leaves."

Kim Harmon, President of FHG, acknowledged that "this arrangement is far from ideal for the safety and well-being of the children. We are calling to all who care about these precious children to pray earnestly for their safety tomorrow."

FHG is a ministry to the people and children of Haiti. Our ministry is dedicated to fundraising and assisting the orphanage, Maison des Enfants de Dieu, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Update on Haiti and Our Kids

Lee and I have had so many emails, phone calls and messages that you are all praying for our family and for Haiti and we appreciate that so much. We are just absolutely SICK about the devastation. It is always terrible to witness a catastrophe, but how different it is when you have traveled there, developed a love for a place and the people, and have CHILDREN there!

We have had confirmed information that the kids are ok (praise you, Lord!) -- there are some bumps and bruises but that is all. The kids slept outside last night as there were 28 aftershocks averaging 5.0, which are large earthquakes on their own. I don't know if they are still sleeping outside. We know there is some structural damage to the orphanage as a wall fell on one of the nannies. We don't know yet the extent of her injuries or the extent of the damage to the orphanage itself. Also, Papi Pierre, pictured with us here in February 2008, sustained an injury to his eye but we don't know how bad that is yet either. Kiki, an employee of the orphanage (he processes the paperwork) and Pierre's brother, has not been located. Please pray for his safety.

We have learned that a French couple in Haiti to bring home their child was killed at their hotel while they were having dinner. Their child was not with them yet and now is an orphan once again.

So many need prayer, I don't even know where to start. One thing I will add is that we are praying for a miracle that maybe somehow the governments can work together to expedite the kids who are matched with families OUT of Haiti. There are many more orphans now who will need the beds at the orphanages. Let these kids come home! From the president of the board of directors at our orphanage:

I know many of you would like some adoption news. All Haitian adoptions will be impacted by this disaster. I have received news that the Joint Council on International Children's Services (JCICS) and the U.S. State Department are discussing possible solutions. Please be in prayer about this.

I fear if we do not get some sort of aid from the government, it could be YEARS before they come home.

If you have not been in our shoes, perhaps you can't understand the deep love we have for these kids - that we had in our hearts even before we met them. They love us just as much, and we are so blessed. What a joy to hear "Mama" and "Papa" from their lips, with their cute little accents. What we love is how they call us different names at different times... if they are TELLING us they are doing something or trying to get our attention to show of f jumping in the pool or the like, it's "MOM!", "DAD!" and if they want something it's "Daddy?" and Mama and Papa for "regular" conversation :) We love them so much our hearts ache. And we already felt so much for this country before this happened that this is very hard to take this in. We can't believe how much our kids have survived in their young lives. The orphanage expects to have trouble getting meds for the kids with medical needs; they are concerned about drinking water and are concerned about the looming possibility of disease.

Typhoid could be an issue and they want to get meds for that in case. Also, many times, the biological parents come back to the orphanage for food so suppl ies could be thin. If you feel led to donate to our kids' orphanage or read more about it, click HERE. You will receive a tax donation receipt.

James 1:27 - Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Psalm 46:1 - God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 - Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, 3 - though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

Six Months Together

Six months ago today, we met our beautiful Olivia. Our friend, Beth, another China adoptive mom, said it best - "ultimate joy and sadness colliding". I was so looking forward to doing a really fun, celebratory post for the 13th, but these months later, I feel the same way - "ultimate joy and sadness colliding". We are so grateful, beyond words, to have this lovely child in our home and in our arms, but we are sick to our stomachs over the devastation in Haiti. We have word that our kids are ok, but there are concerns of looting and the need for fresh water among other things. Please pray for Patricia, Philippe, their orphanage and those in their homeland. We will post more about Haiti later, but for now I am going to turn my focus to little Olivia.

Olivia is a feisty, fun, smart little girl. She loves music and any toys that make music! She has grown so much! She had two teeth when we brought her home and now she has 12. She has gained 6 lbs. and grown nearly two inches!

Olivia in July, in China

Olivia this week, doing one of her favorite activities. In fact, she cries when we take the toothbrush away from her!

Another of Olivia's favorite things to do!

Our home is finally full of noise (besides the dogs barking!) and full of joy. We can't wait for her brother and sister to come home from Haiti. When she sees their pictures she says, "P! P!"
Thank you, Jesus for answering our prayers by bringing us a child and for bringing us THIS child. She was prayed for by name nearly three years before she was born. For more pictures of the day we met Miss O, click HERE.

Merry Christmas from Olivia!

Thankful Thursday!

Hip, Hip - (you say, Hurraaaay!) Hip, Hip - Hurraaaay! Mama is STILL cancer-free. Our Miracle Mama is living up to her nickname!! Thank you, Lord, for this gift! What a fun Christmas we will have with Olivia and my Miracle Mama!

We are also very grateful to Sherri, who is in Haiti for her court appointment. She sent us this picture and note: "She (Patricia) REALLY wanted to make sure that I told you she loves and misses you so much. Even as we were getting ready to drive away she was in the window asking me to tell you :-)"
This of course brought tears of joy and sadness. It is bittersweet to be having another Christmas without them, but let me tell you, when these kids are home, what a celebration that will be!!! Love to get new pictures!!

Two Years Ago Today...

I saw this face for the first time. I would have NEVER imagined that she would not be home yet, nor that we would not have any idea at all when she would be home. Adoption is hard. It downright stinks sometimes. But for those adopting from Haiti, you know that it is different than other countries...it is indescribable. I heard one woman, who was adopting from Ethiopia, state that she was very eager for her kids to come home because they had been at their orphanage for almost six months (her kids were coming home within a month of her saying that). I know that any amount of time in an orphanage is too long, and I know that any wait for any child or any adoptive parent is too long, but there are kids who have been in institutions for years. Some perhaps have spent their entire lives there. Patricia has been at her orphanage since March 2006 and Philippe has been there since March 2008. Too long. They have been matched with us since January 2008 (Patricia) and March 2008 (Philippe). It is crazy to me that the entire time Philippe has been there he has been matched. Lord have mercy on all the children MATCHED with families and still languishing in orphanages and even more, bless the children waiting for a match.

Lord, we plead with you to move the paperwork mountains for all the kids who are waiting for their mommies and daddies to tuck them in. It is hard to even pray to ask to bring these kids home because it feels like the prayers fall on deaf ears. But we ask anyway. Even though it feels impossible. Even though we sound like broken records. Even though our faith is small. Even though...

Kissing Cousins

Olivia just LOVES her cousin, Isaac. When she sees him she practically leaps out of my arms to get down to hug and kiss him. We are so happy that they have a special friendship and can grow up together! Here they are at church.

Four Months Together!

We love you so much, Olivia!

Halloween

On the journey to Olivia, I put a post-it note on my monitor with a quote by Jean de la Bruyere - "Out of difficulties grow miracles" (it's still there - we need a few more miracles). Never did I imagine that a flower this beautiful would grow out of that long, difficult wait.We went trick or treating with (who else!?) my great-nieces and great-nephew and of course Jenny. Another friend joined us later. Jenny's kids are all from Wizard of Oz (poor Minnesotan kids have to wear coats over their dresses!) We have Dorothy, Glinda the Good Witch and Toto. We decided that Olivia was a poppy from the poppy field so that she fit the theme :)
What a fun night! Jenny brought homemade wild rice soup, we sipped apple cider, we all ate too much candy and the kids fell asleep all over the house while Jenny and I talked and the Daddies watched football. Just look at that face! I get and give a thousand kisses a day and I LOVE my little blossoming flower!

Haiti Trip #2

In case you missed it, we, along with several other families, had to go to Haiti on short notice to appear in court, in order for our adoptions to proceed. We were told we would meet with a judge, but if he was in the room, we didn't know it. We all signed blank pages in a notebook...a smidge unnerving! Thankfully, folks were discussing how many times they signed while we all waited and it turns out that both spouses were to sign TWICE per child that you are adopting. Two families, us included, discovered that we had not signed enough times and we went back in. We are so glad that this was discovered while we were still in Haiti. Can you imagine if we hadn't caught that?

Regarding our case, we are not going to share it all on the blog. If you want to know more, please email us privately and we will be happy to discuss it with you, but for the purposes of this open blog, we are simply asking for prayer over our kids and their adoption cases. We were told that they were likely about six months from coming home, but with some recent developments, their homecoming date is unsure.

Here are our photos:

Arriving in Haiti

A school girl, in uniform, walking home

Philippe swimming with Mama - by the last day he was going underwater and was much more gutsy

Three of us - Patricia learned how to swim on our last trip and she did great again, even wanting to take off her water wings...we let her but she had to stay by the edge in the shallow end!

Love it! This is one of our favorite things - watching our kids sleep. Can't wait until they do this at HOME

Our babes...We had a rough start, with lots of attitude and them pretty much flat out ignoring us. Even though we know they understand a lot of English, we asked a translator to sit down with us for a moment, just to make SURE they understood. We asked him to please explain to the kids that we know it is hard to have us come for such a short time and then have to leave. We know it must be confusing. That we want to take them home right now, but we have to wait for the paperwork. That we have only TWO days together and that we can make it a great two days, or it can be miserable. We expect them to look at us and answer us when we speak to them. We want to have fun with them. That we want to have a wonderful visit, but they need to help make that happen.

I guess this worked, because they were totally different after that!

I was asking one of the older girls about how to do Patricia's hair, and then before I knew it, I was actually DOING her hair. Here it is in transition...

Self-portrait by Philippe - eating a gummy worm

Another self-portrait :)

Philippe took some (many!) pictures of his gift from us...

Philippe pushing Patricia out of the bed! Just like last time!

Our dear ones...once again, check out that hair...those twists were done by me! Not too bad for a "blanc" lady! I need to get better, but when I finished, Patricia said, "Thanks Mama!"

Overall we had a great visit with the kids, those representing us and other adoptive parents. We left a bit downtrodden over our adoption process, and a few other things that happened, but the Lord blessed us with safe travels and good health. Last time we ended up in the ER upon returning home!

Please, PLEASE lift up our kids, their orphanage and the staff, and all the kids waiting to go HOME. We need to pray for paperwork to MOVE as it is such a WASTE to have children who are matched with families sit in institutions. Blessings to all the waiting families and thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers!

Three Months Together!

Our Log In Date (LID) was 3-13-06. As the time dragged on to meet our daughter, I began to dread the 13th of the month. Marking that date was just a constant reminder of how long it was taking. Ironically, the day that we met our Olivia was July 13th, so now the 13th is a very happy marker for our family. It has been three months since we were united as a family of three. We still wait to be a family of five.

Here are pictures of our first meeting and pictures from September and October.

The first moment Olivia is handed to me - like my friend Beth said, "Those first few moments of ultimate joy and sadness colliding". That is exactly how I felt. We were so happy and she was so sad. Our tears of joy quickly ceased as we shifted our focus on comforting her.
Back on the bus

Who ARE you?

We recently received these photos from someone seated behind us - they bring tears to my eyes! Our poor baby. So confused. So tired. So shell-shocked. The girls had a six hour drive to get to us that day already and then to be handed to complete strangers who look different and sound different. It was so jarring.

Proud Papa. And finally she sleeps.
Back at the hotel, peering over the mattress (her crib was right next to my side of the bed). Such sad eyes. She didn't cry unless we picked her up. She just stared. At us. At the toys in front of her.

The very next morning she is like a different child and never seems to go back to that sad baby. She slept for hours and hours and it must have been what she needed. I find it so interesting how her eyes changed from day one to day two. From fearful to peaceful. Click here, here, here or here for more posts, or search back for even more, if you need to get caught up!
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Here we are in September. I just love this picture of Olivia with my Dad!

She likes playing with these rain boots that are too big for her so I couldn't resist adding the hat!

At her Aunt Sharla's wedding

She LOVES the computer.

She also loves Nutella...

Just before her first bite of Wild Rice Soup (she IS a Minnesotan, after all!)

And it's a hit! She devoured it!

At the dealership the day we bought the van. What a good baby...it took so much longer than we planned. Thankfully they had a play area!

I believe that this is the first of many looks saying, "Oh, MOM!"

At music class

Just a happy baby!
Such a good sleeper! We feel so lucky!

First pickle...not a fan.

This was after successfully pulling herself up on the couch. You can just see the look of accomplishment and pride, can't you?

Hanging out at the Mall of America

Music class again

She just loves it

And first snow. She isn't too sure what to think at first...(we aren't sure either! It is so early! But it was a pretty snowfall...)

But then she makes up her mind!

Olivia is a beautiful baby and we feel so blessed that she is our daughter. She is something else! For being a mere 15 months old, she seems to know exactly what she wants and when (no, she doesn't always get it!) She is tenacious, resilient and oh-so-feisty, but she is well matched. Bring it on, Olivia! hee hee! She loves music and taps her hands in her lap, claps and bops her head whenever she hears any music. She is walking with help (down to one hand now!) and says many words. She says, "Mama", "Dada", "dogga", "all-da" (all done), "guh ger" (good girl), tee tew (thank you), ett (eat), "dow" (down), "hi", and has said some other words along the way. She has grown a couple of inches and gained a fair amount since we got home and she just moved up a shoe size (stay little! stay little!) We love Olivia!! Thank you, Jesus, for this baby and for our many blessings!