Leaving on a jet plane.....well in a few months

Finally booked our flights for Haiti! We will travel the last week of January and meet our son! It'll be a crazy time to be there because the orphanage is relocating and the week we're there is moving week...so we'll definitely be able to pitch in and help...or I'll just hold Jivenson and move him while everyone moves everything else:) We are so excited!

baby clothes....

Today I went to Target to buy a baby shower gift and it's going to be a boy. I'm standing there looking at all these sweet little boys clothes, with doggies and monkeys and stripes and all I can think of is Jivenson. My heart ached and tears welled in my eyes. The little fuzzy, footy pajamas are out now and I could just picture him all cuddled up wearing those and playing on our living room floor and then I imagined picking him up and snuggling him.
I don't think I will ever get over the beauty of how when adopting, you actually can fall in love with a child halfway across the world, who looks nothing like you and whom you've never met. It amazes me that 2 months ago I did not know his name or face and now I think of him everyday and my heart warms when I see his picture.
It is an amazing mystery....

Hait Foundation Against Poverty

HFAP is now truly in our vision and our hearts. I wanted to put this link up so that you could see all that they do in Haiti and see Jivenson of course, and the post we saw that has changed everything! :)
Jivenson

Home Study

Yesterday we finally got our first Home Study home visit on the calendar! It'll be on Nov. 10th and while the kids are in school. Our social worker will meet with just Kev and I first and then we'll schedule another time for her to meet and "interview" the girls. Our social worker, and contact at Families Through Adoption has such a passion for adoption and for post adoption needs as well....oh yes, it'd be good to mention the agency we're using:)
We were directed to FTA by a couple different people and were so excited they would work with us, especially seeing as this process is so much different from our first; having "found" our son before USCIS approval and dossier.
We did get some good news in regards to our Home Study..we don't have to fill out most of the initial HS paperwork because our first Home Study can be used for much of that, Hooray for a few less pieces of paperwork...there is so much more to come! Kev will have his physical this week and then we are submitting the rest of the paperwork we need (copy of original Home Study and a few other things).
It has been a relief to come to this next step of the Home Study because it makes it feel more real and official. Jivenson feels so far away sometimes and taking these little steps makes us feel like we are getting closer to him.
Speaking of being closer to him, we are hoping (while waiting for concrete dates) to travel in February to meet him!!! We are so excited to buy our tickets and meet our little man!

Again....

Since January, Kev and I have both been feeling that we'd be growing our family through adoption once again. We did not know however that it would happen so soon. We deliberately prayed about it for several months and over the summer we decided that we would possibly start a home study next Spring or Summer, not sure if we would go through domestic or international. We thought we'd check out some informational meetings local adoption agencies were having this fall.
Friends of ours pastor a church that last year partnered with Haiti Foundation Against Poverty. Their church has sent several teams to work in Haiti with HFAP and one of my best friends went on one of the trips. Knowing they had an orphanage, I just thought as part of our "research" I'd contact them and see if there were any children available for adoption, or even if Haitian adoptions were possible at this point. The reply was honest and not exactly encouraging, but it gave us something to specifically pray about. So we did.
On Tuesday September 14th I was cooking dinner and while waiting for something to boil, I checked Facebook. There was a post by Mallery Thurlow Neptune, founder of HFAP. She had posted a link to the HFAP blog and I read several posts.
Then I scrolled down and there was a post about this baby boy and a picture...Jivenson. I saw his face and read that post and I knew. I felt so strongly that God had this child for us and us for him.
I immediately called Kevin to come upstairs and see!!! We stared at him and Kev asked if I thought we should adopt him and I said "YES!" and he said OK.
It was so surreal and I couldn't explain it but I couldn't ignore it. I wrote HFAP to let them know that we had seen the post and felt such a stirring that we had to respond; not knowing to what end but that we would be praying for this child and would wait to see what would come of all this.
That following week was filled with flurried emails back and forth to Haiti and an amazing time "meeting" him via Skype. Mallery has sent tons of pictures and even video of him. There have been so many confirmations and things falling into place that we can hardly explain. We have even met another family who is also adopting a child from the same orphanage. They have had a similar experience as we have.
God is up to something and we are beyond thrilled to be a part of it! There are still soooo many unknowns ahead. This is uncharted territory for us all. This adoption is and will be very different from our first experience but we are fully trusting that God has us in His hands and that this is his making, not our own.
I've been clinging to Psalm 119:105 since that first night we saw his picture:
"Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path."
We cannot know the steps we have to take on this journey but God does.... and we walk with great expectation!!
So, here we go!