fly like an eagle

Dinner = yum. Enough said. Gina and the women helping her are masters of the culinary arts. Platanos (one of my favorite foods ever, fried plantains squished and salted), seasoned chicken, salad with this amazing homemade dressing that was out of this world, and the corn. Oh the corn. I don’t know what she put on that corn, but dang. It was good.

After we ate dinner, Gina took some time to speak to another one of the guys with us, Erik, who is adopting a little baby girl, mostly about where they were in the process, etc. I stood on Gina’s deck and took in the amazing mountain views, and it was starting to get foggy and thunder-y. Is that a word? Ty and somebody (I can’t remember who, sorry to whoever it was, probably Ryan) were starting to fly people back down to the valley orphanage so we wouldn’t have to take the bumpy deadly ride back down the mountain in the car at night. They would only have time for a couple of loads in the helicopter back to the valley creche before it would be too dark and foggy to fly, so they were taking everybody pretty quickly.

I tried to wait until the last load so that I could stay at Gina’s as long as possible. I kept hoping that maybe Gina would say something about me wanting to adopt, but, truthfully I was doubtful that she even remembered that I was interested in adopting. I knew that I was leaving the next day and that after tonight’s dinner I would not likely be seeing Gina again before I left.

Time was ticking. I stuck to my guns and decided not to bring up anything about adopting if Gina didn’t bring it up. The guys came back for the last helicopter trip down to the valley and I started to stand up and thank Gina for the amazing dinner. And the heavens opened. Gina looked at me and said, "you are going home tomorrow, right? How am I going to be able to talk to you if you leave right now?" Easy decision. Hallelujah. And I sat back down. Ty and two of the other girls left in the helicopter and the rest of us stayed. We all talked about politics and Haiti for about an hour and then had dessert (way glad I stayed, it was tasty). Then, Gina pulled up a chair right in front of me and said, ok, lets talk. Tell me about what you are wanting to do. I filled her in a little bit on what had led me to this point (for additional details, please refer back to my first post, "the beginning...") and waited for her response.

Gina informed me again that the Haitian adoption laws say you have to be at least 35 if you are single and that adopting from Haiti was not easy right now. The hilariously generous guys sitting around said they could find somebody for me to marry (nice). But, that really wouldn’t have helped seeing as how if you are married, you have to be married for at least 10 years anyway before you can adopt. Gina went on to say that occasionally there are instances where you can get around the age requirement, but it really helps if you have some kind of medical condition where you aren’t able to have your own children. Bummer - so, now I wanted to be older and/or infertile. Gina still seemed somewhat positive about my chances of adopting though and told me to get all of my paperwork done on my end, and then they would start getting things prepared on their end. We talked for a while on other subjects when it dawned on me, I did have a medical condition that may help me out here.

Sorry if you weren’t planning on reading up on my medical history, but now you get to. It is, after all, an integral part of this little path being laid out for me and London and our soon-to-be new little family member. A little over a year ago, I started having what are called "petit mal seizures." Not like the big limbs flying all over the place as in grand mal seizures. But odd periods where I would kind of blank out and no one knew why. Very strange, as these usually happen in small children, and rarely in adults. So, about a week before Ty initially contacted me, I had a really bad one of these "blank out" periods (aka: seizures). I succumbed to going to the doctor and they ran all sorts of stupid tests on me, and I was ultimately diagnosed with an out-of-nowhere case of adult-onset epilepsy. Weird, I know. But, here’s the great part. Well, for me anyway. My neurologist had informed me (the very day I left for Haiti mind you) that epilepsy is very easily treated with daily medication, but that all anti-seizure medications currently available run a risk of birth defects. Ya, I can see how this would usually be considered a negative. But, not right now! I related this tidbit of information to the table and to Gina and Gina clapped her hands over her head and shouted, there’s your loophole! It was awesome. She seemed genuinely excited, especially for someone who seemed so skeptical in the beginning. Yay for my disability. I don’t believe in coincidences, and, as if I didn’t already KNOW that I was exactly where I was supposed to be, this simply slapped on another layer of cement.

The level of my elation after leaving Gina’s home pretty much can’t be documented in human measurements. Not sure why, I mean I had not been matched with a particular child, there was no guarantee I would qualify, and I certainly knew it was going to be a long and difficult road before ever finalizing the adoption. Not to mention the funds I was going to need to generate. But, I felt totally great. It was going to happen, and Gina the Great was on my side.

me and gina :)