Haiti....again

Friday was the last time we will be leaving Hope House without our boys.

This past week we had our I600 filing, went to court and saw the Dean. The filing includes going to the US Embassy, singing a form in front of an officer, answering questions and submitting more paperwork. That same day, along with another adoptive couple, we went to "court". This included making our way through a busy street, stepping into a very dark, people filled room and being led to a small airless room in the back to answer some simple questions in front of the lower court judge. After hearing our answers he said he believed us. We then signed our names in a hand written ledger. We then proceeded to drive to see the Dean. Appointments are not made for this step, you just show up. We waited in another small office, while having our passports copied and stamped. The Dean was in a meeting and was unable to see us. Thankfully, him seeing our passports stamped, showing that we were there, was enough. Done in one day!

We thought we'd need to take the boys with us for these appointments but that has recently changed. We were very thankful because that would have been hard on them, all that sitting, all that sweating.

Connecting with the boys was awesome and natural. Guerlens is a momma's boy and Caleb is all about Daddy. They are some busy boys! We brought them up to our container where we stayed and they loved that! We'd be doing something, playing guitar, coloring or watching a movie and he'd have to go tell the kids and nannies what we were doing. He loved it! The day we left Caleb was sad but it was wonderful to tell him that the next time we come, they'll be coming with us. He brightened up at that and told the kids that he would be going to Michigan and never come back!:)

6-9 months is what we've been told. There are a lot of steps left to go for the Haiti side and then we deal with the US side. What we are waiting for now is the adoption decree....they will legally be our children in Haiti and will be Perbergs! But even after that there's a lot of steps to go.
Adopting from Haiti is complicated and hard to wrap my mind around. It does feel like we finally have some momentum now and was so encouraging to be productive on our trip.

Things are moving and we are thankful.

DISPENSATION & moving forward!

On May 20th we got word that we received Presidential Dispensation, basically the Haitian Presidents signature saying we can move forward to adopt the boys despite having a biological child.
We are so thankful!!! We were signed out of IBESR in a couple days, much faster than expected!

We now are planning to return to Haiti in late June for court and to file some more paperwork! Things are starting to move forward!

I had the opportunity to travel to Haiti and spend 6 days with our boys! A friend, also adopting from Hope House, was going to be traveling alone to file some paperwork there. Kev surprised me by planning for me to travel with her! It was an awesome week!!! It was great connecting with the boys and hard to leave them...but I know we are heading back very soon!

Mother's Day

Another Mother's Day with my precious girls and hubby is here and it's been wonderful....but it's also another Mother's Day without all of my children together. Cherishing the ones in my arms, missing the ones that I pray will be here next Mother's Day.

Christmas

These last few months I've been saying, with some confidence, that the boys could be home in the fall. At this point, and still waiting for dispensation, that isn't realistic anymore. I realize God can do anything and he is capable of moving our paperwork through quickly. However, based on how every other family is moving through the process and based on their pace, it's looking more like very late 2013.

At this point we are praying that the boys will be home by Christmas. I didn't think we could be cutting it so close but now it is looking that way and it is discouraging.

If anyone is reading this and believes in the power of prayer, would you please pray with us that our boys will be home for Christmas?

Still waiting.....

Our paperwork entered IBESR in mid October and we have been waiting for Presidential Dispensation ever since. This signature from the President of Haiti is all we need to move forward with our process. We will then move onto Court, when we will travel again and go through the legal proceedings in Haiti. Then we will wait some more for visas for the boys from the US. Our hope and prayer is that the boys would be home this fall!

Tonight there will be an event to benefit our adoption. It will be held at a local jewelry shop called Dear Pru in the Gaslight Village. Noonday Collection jewelry will be set up there, with proceeds from their sales going toward our adoption. All of their jewelry is Fair Trade, made by women around the world to empower them and give opportunity for sustaining their families. They have some beautiful jewelry, unique and precious. Dear Pru also has wonderful jewelry as well, some of it made locally.
We had the chance to go on a radio show on Wednesday morning and also go on FOX tv this morning to tell our story and promote the event. We are so incredibly grateful for these amazing opportunities!

Remembering Jivenson

Mallery and Frentz brought this over to our home to show us before they took it to Haiti. A group at our church had this made to be placed where Jivenson's ashes were buried in Haiti, next to the orphanage. What a beautiful tribute it is. It was placed there on his birthday, October 26th, when he would have turned 3.

Guerlens is 2!

Yesterday was Guerlens 2nd birthday. I could not help but remember his last birthday, his first birthday that was spent with us.

It was so precious, special and unique. It makes my heart feel a bit heavy but truly I genuinely feel grateful. I'm so grateful for all the firsts we had with him! For an International adoption, we had a very rare and wonderful experience. We've got nothing else but to look forward to all the birthdays when we will be all together.

We were able to Skype yesterday while the boys finished their dinner then got cake and Guerlens opened a present. The girls wanted to make a cake for Guerlens so they ate their cake while the boys ate theirs. It was a virtual birthday party.

Adoption wise we are at a stand still, still waiting for Presidential Dispensation, telling us we can move forward with a court date. There are so many steps left in this process that it feels discouraging sometimes. We still hold out hope and prayers that they could be home by next fall. This is how I'm praying, for fall.