Blog Post from Port au Prince

I arrived at the DFW airport at 6:30 am yesterday.  My flight left on time at 7:35.  Cindy's flight from DFW was scheduled to leave at 8:40. What?!?  She may not make it to Florida in time to catch our flight to Haiti.  What?!?  I did not sign up to go on this trip alone!  I was a little panicky, but headed off the plane.  When I got into the bathroom, it hit me.  I was going to have to go to Haiti alone and to my appointment alone.  I was tired from my weekend at Advocare Success School, I missed my kids and now I wasn't going to have Cindy with me.  So, what did I do?  I cried...in the bathroom stall, I cried.  Rob called after I texted the news.  I cried some more.  He said encouraging things and reassured me.  I gathered myself together and walked to my gate.  Our friend, Dana, texted me and encouraged me with these words, "remember God has already prepared a way for you".  I cried again but knew I could do this.  I sat and waited.  As the time ticked by, I was reassured by the feeling of peace that God gave me.  They called those who had no seat number to come to the desk.  I overheard the lady at the counter tell another that the plane was still not here and would in all likelihood be late. LATE?  Yay!  God was working it out.  Cindy's flight was delayed but so was our plane to Haiti.  At that moment, I knew Dana was right, I was just along for the right.  My way was already paved by my Father who loves me and is with me.  He is in charge of planes, travel arrangements, and appointments. 

Cindy made it to the gate about 10 minutes before we boarded.  We arrived in Haiti at 6:25, almost 3 hours late for our schedule, but right on time for the schedule God had arranged.  We made it to Noah and Nathan, the representatives from Chances for Children who had been waiting a very long time for us to arrive.  We drove to Fermathe to the guesthouse where we are staying.  The creche manager, Kelitta, greeted us and prepared dinner.  It was very good.  After dinner, we sat down and opened our files that we brought with all our paperwork.  We went over our checklists and double checked everything.  We headed to bed around eleven. 

We woke up at six, dressed, ate a yummy breakfast, and headed to our 9:00 appointment at the embassy.  We arrived fifteen minutes late which worried Cindy and me.  Turned out not to be a concern.  We waited outside for the person who lets adoption and visa appointments into the embassy.  While we waited, Kelitta translated all the amusing conversations around us.  We went into the embassy and waited and waited.  We were finally called to the counter.  Gave them our paperwork, answered a couple of questions and returned to our seats.  We again listened to Kelitta translate the creole around us.  We were fascinated by the interview of a married couple trying to get the wife a visa.  Long story short, you will be denied a visa if you tell lies to the interviewer when interviewed separately and your stories do not match up.  Anyway, we were called up again, answered a few questions and returned to our seats. We again waited and watched as adopting parents were called up.  We watched the workers gather the trash and sweep the floors.  When we were the only ones in the room, we were called up to the counter to have our interview.  Nothing too painful.  In the end, we were given a checklist of things they need and a date for Jimmy and a rep from the orphanage to come in and be interviewed.  We left about 3:00 pm. 

We stopped by the store to buy a treat for the children at the Chance for Children creche and headed toward Kenscoff.  We had a minor hiccup in the form of a flight tire which we were able to get changed quickly.  We got to the creche just in time for naps.  :(  We were given a quick tour and headed back to the guesthouse.  We took a little rest and are now enjoying a little time online. 

Thank you for your prayers.  We will fly to Cap Haitien tomorrow to see the boys.  Can't wait.  Hoping to go to court on Wednesday.  It has been a good day.  I am looking forward to the rest.

Paperwork, Packing, Passport Photos, and 1 Pitiful Little Girl

I have been pretty stressed about getting all the PAPERWORK done for my trip.  Forms, copies of the forms, blank ones,filled ones, notaries, translations...it all gets to be a little much.  I am happy to say that the paperwork is ready to go, I think.  I will send it to our agency tomorrow for them to look over, but I am pretty sure what I need I have.  I am so relieved and getting excited.  But before I can get too excited, I must start PACKING.  I really should have this down by now.  It is easier than the first time I traveled to Haiti because I know a little more of what to expect.  However, there is always an element of the unknown when you go and you want to be prepared.  I am sure I will be ready to go, prepared or not.

One of the things we had to get for our I-600 appointment was a PASSPORT PHOTO of Jimmy.  Jillian was nice enough to take Jimmy and Rishard downtown to get one taken.  We received a scanned copy of the photo tonight.  My first reaction..."Where did that young man come from?"  Oh my he looks so grown up.  I am really loving the jacket the photo place put on him. 

Last but not least in this post, 1 PITIFUL little girl.  Kyndal is very sad that I am leaving.  She and Rylan will be going to my mom's family reunion for the weekend then to their house until next Friday.  I was trying to pack her tonight.  Every time I asked if she wanted to pack something she would say "I'm not going so I don't have to pack."  I said well I am practicing packing.  Her response was "ok but it will be your responsibility to put it all up."  So, I would say "do you want to pretend pack this?"  She would answer yes or no but refused to say she was going anywhere.  It makes it very hard to leave when I know she is struggling with me being gone before I even leave.  Please pray for my sweet girl and Rylan too.  10 days is a long time for mom to be away, especially when Dad isn't with them for most of that time.  Prayers for Rob too since he will be home alone.  If you live in Ada, take pity on him and invite him over for a meal.  Poor thing will probably starve with no one to cook his meals.  :)

It changes from one day to the next.

Since my last post, my trip to Haiti has changed about a million times in a million different ways.  Yes, I am exaggerating but it is the way we feel.  We, Cindy Hoover and myself, finally have a plan for our trip.  We are so excited to go with the expectation that little will go the way we are planning.  I was telling a friend today that isn't that one of the lessons we get to learn from this journey.  The lesson of letting go of our idea that we have control over something, anything.  Cindy and I are letting go and letting ourselves follow God and what he has planned for us on the trip.

We leave on Sunday.  She will fly from OKC and I will fly from DFW.  We will meet in Florida and fly onto Port au Prince.  Our I600 appointments are at 9:00 am on Monday morning at the US Embassy.  We will fly to Cap Haitien on Tuesday morning.  We were told that our cases will be heard in Cap Haitien instead of PaP.  Court is a little more unpredictable than PaP but really everything in this process has been unpredictable.  So, nothing new there.  We hope to go to court on Wednesday.  Notice I said hope.  We will more than likely go and sit and sweat and pray our name will be called.  If Wednesday doesn't work out, we will try again on Thursday or Friday or both days.  We will spend from Tuesday through Monday morning with our boys.  Soooooo excited about seeing them.  It has been since December that I have been to Haiti.  That is too long.  We will be staying at the CBT (preaching school) half of the time.  It is so nice there and will give us some quiet, private time together.

Prayer Requests:
>Travel to be safe, on schedule and uneventful.
>Our I600 appointment and that all our paperwork is correct and accepted.
>Our court date will happen and be quick and painless.
>Lastly but most important, pray for our time shared with Jimmy and Rishard.  We know God will bless our visit but saying goodbye will be the worst.  Every time it is harder.  Cindy and I would love to hear that we can just take them home, but that would be a miracle.  So, if you feel moved, pray for a miracle.  We wouldn't complain if God had that in mind.  :)

Girls Night Out Fundraiser

We are postponing our fundraiser on July 14.  Summer is a tough time to catch everyone home at once.  There were just not enough "yeses" to have it.  Please keep looking for the new date.

I-600 appointment

Call the US Embassy this morning.  It has been two weeks since we requested our appointment to file the I-600.  Just FYI, the I-600 is the petition to make an orphan your immediate relative.  It is on the US side of the adoption.  It must be approved before we can bring him home. 

Well, I called this morning expecting to place numerous calls throughout the day and hoping to get through.  God however knew I needed to get through this morning.  The first call placed was successful.  I was able to get an appointment for us and the Hoover family.  July 25 at 7:00 am.  Our agency will now coordinate our court date with our lawyer.  Cindy Hoover and I will be traveling to Port au Prince that week.  I am excited, scared, nervous, exhilarated, and so many other things.

Prayer requests: 
*Travel plans:  all our flights, hotel stays, etc will be able to be coordinated easily at a reasonable price
*Appointments:  our appointments in Haiti will be easily coordinated and go smoothly
*Finances:  we will have enough money to cover the trip and expenses that we will incur.