our haitian babies?

So, I guess I should have entitled this blog our haitian babies, because we have been matched... with 2. Aaaahhhh! I got news on Tuesday that Gina had matched us with a sibling group, 2 little brothers, the older one is 3 (named Mickenson) and the little one just turned 1 (named Ashley). Of course I naturally assumed Gina had become a raging alcoholic and must have been horribly inebriated when she concluded on this match for me. But, after my initial shock, I took some time to think about it.

Gina did not give me any information on the boys at first. She said she wanted me to think about it for a while because she knew that I was only looking for one child and I should give it some serious thought and decide if it was something I thought I would want to do and something I could handle. After an intense 24 hour deliberation with much thought and prayers from me and my family (and I will admit, initial absolute denial on my part, there was no way I could do this financially or logistically), I knew it was right. I am so excited! I have no idea how I am going to do this, but I am so excited! After I let them know that I was ready to move forward, they told me that the information on the boys, their pictures etc. would probably take at least a week before they would be able to send it to me. About 15 minutes later, they sent me all the info. They are soooooooo freaking cute!!!

As thrilled as I am, I think London is even more. She cannot believe she is going to have 2 brothers (clearly she does not know the full ramifications of such an addition), but she is stoked out of her mind!

The most amazing thing to me is that the very first picture I saw at the beginning of all of this, while looking through my friend Ty's orphanage pictures, was of Mickenson praying over a bowl of soup and peeking his eyes open during the prayer. :) I vividly remember looking at the little boy in the picture and deciding that it was finally time for me to adopt and get down there. I just cannot believe it. On my first trip, I played with him and even have several pictures I took of him!

These first two pictures are the ones sent to me from the orphanage with all of the boys' information. The last 3 are pictures I actually took on my first trip out there!

Mickenson

Mickenson and Ashley (I am dying for more photos of Ashley)

Mickenson in the yellow woody woodpecker shirt!

how cute is he???


Mickenson again in the yellow, look at those lips.

I just know that this match would not have taken place so soon if I had not been able to meet with Gina last weekend during my whirlwind trip. And the fact that I was able to meet up with her at all was nothing short of miraculous. But I will fill you in on all of that next time!

I have two little boys!!!

how much longer will this take

Ok, before I launch into my description of this last trip (which was, if I had to describe it in one word, horrifying) I want to give a little run-down of the adoption process down in Haiti. Several people have asked me where I am at, how much longer will it take, etc. So, here is a little insight. It can basically be broken down into 5 steps...


1. Get oriented with your agency and orphanage (if you are adopting from an orphanage of course)

2. Home study (done, months ago)

3. Get matched

Maybe the trickiest step with Haiti's unique circumstances right now. Usually a match is made after your home study is complete. Gina evaluates you and your home study and feels out which child might be the best match for you. But, right now, and as I have described in past posts, many of the children cannot legally be matched because they do not have legal orphan status yet. Waiting to be matched is proving to be more a question of gathering all the child’s legal documents at this point (I did get some updates from Gina this time though on me being matched, which I will write more on later).

4. Dossier/child’s dossier (long and tedious albeit necessary process; more fully described back in my “documents” post)

My dossier is almost complete at this point. Even if I am still waiting on being matched, I can get my dossier ready in the meantime to hopefully speed things up once I am matched. The child also has a dossier completed and this is happening while they are finding documents regarding their orphan status as well. So steps 3 and 4 are kind of simultaneous.

5. IBESR (the “black hole”)

The last step, IBESR, is where the adoption applications go once they are completed and submitted to the Haitian government. The wait time here ranges anywhere from a few months to a few years. Kind of like a UPS delivery estimate (um, can you just plan on staying home all day?).

going back!

Aaahh! I'm going back to Haiti. Tonight. At midnight. Last minute relief trip where I was able to tag along so I am taking it. I found out about it around, oh I'd say, 11:00 this morning. And thought there was no way I would be able to get on that plane by tonight. But somehow, within 45 minutes, everything had fallen together with remarkable ease. Clearly had some help from above. Most importantly, of course, Little Miss London is all squared away and will be in good hands with my wonderful fam and Micah, I am sooooo grateful for them. I have pretty much heard nothing since my last post on which exact children are available or which child they might have in mind for me. So, I have felt like I really needed to get back down there, as each person in charge of this particular relief trip can attest. I have pestered them incessantly for weeks now (sorry relief trip dudes, I salute you and your kindness towards me). I am hopeful to be able to spend some time with Gina and the children. And I want to help out down there as much as I can, Haiti has become a little part of me now. Wish me luck and keep my in your prayers!

update on being matched

After the earthquake, the number of children brought into the orphanages more than doubled. People were coming out of the woodwork trying to get these post-earthquake children adopted or "moved" out of the country (some for good reason, some in ridiculously idiotic ways, others for personal gain and reasons too horrible to imagine). The problem was that nobody knew if these children were truly orphaned or if they had families somewhere looking for them. One of the reasons why new adoptions were going to take so long was because the government needed to give time for families to come forward and claim their children or find documentation showing true orphan status (ie: parents passed away during the earthquake or relinquished their parental rights, etc.). Frustrating to wait, but clearly for a good reason. It would be devastating to adopt a child and then find out that they had a family looking for them.

This period of time where the government was waiting for families to come forward is coming to a close. And last week I got a report that 25 of the children who were brought in to the orphanages I visited have been reunited with their families since the earthquake. 25, just in the orphanages I visited. Amazing. There are of course several more who are sill in limbo, waiting for documentation one way or another. And there is a much smaller number (about 6 or 8) of the new orphans brought in after the earthquake that have finally been determined actual orphans and will become available for adoption very soon. I really feel like one of these is mine. Gina (the amazing orphanage director) has been reviewing my home study and is extremely insightful in her decisions of which child should go to which family. It is a very personal and spiritual process for her, and London and I have been praying for her every night that she will be directed to the right child. Needless to say, I am dying to find out who he or she is. I think I check my e-mail like 50 times a day at least, waiting for word on which children are available and if we have been matched. Every time I get a little bit of information on the process, it is like my empty tank gets refueled. Everyone I know who has gone through an adoption has described the process as a roller-coaster of emotions. Which it absolutely is. Got to hang on to those ups.

Hopefully in my next post I will be able to include pictures of the little guy (or girl)...

If you are interested in statistics (I am and I’m not afraid to say it) here are a few stats on Haiti. Keep in mind, all of these numbers were from before the earthquake:

Haiti is considered to be the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and one of the poorest countries in the world

Population 9.2 million
Number of estimated orphans in Haiti (in 2007) 380,000
% of the country with no access to clean water or basic health care 60%
Percentage of the country living in poverty 80%
Percentage of the US living in poverty 13%
Percentage of the Haitian population that is illiterate 50%
Percentage of the US that is illiterate 01%
Average total years of education in Haiti 2.5 years
Average total years of education in the United States 16 years
Average life expectancy in Haiti 57 years
Average life expectancy in the US 78 years

utah haiti relief is awesome

First of all, THANK YOU so much to all of you who have already ordered some of our little flowers for Haiti! You are all so incredibly sweet and we appreciate your support more than you could possibly know!!! Our plan to cover the world in flowers is off to a great start.

I know somewhere earlier I mentioned that my friend Ty was still actively involved in helping down in Haiti (with Utah Haiti Relief). Well, he is and I wish everyone could see the amazing things that they are continuing to do down there. Oh wait, they can here on my wonderful blog.

Clearly, one of the biggest problems since the earthquake is how to house the approximately one million displaced persons in and around Port-au-Prince. Thanks to incredible world-wide donations, most of these people are now living in giant tent cities. While the tents are definitely better than nothing, the threats of disease, crime, heat, hurricanes, etc. make them extremely dangerous for these large groups of homeless people to live in for much longer.

A few months ago, Ty (and company) went down to initiate the construction of some styrofoam houses in these tent cities. Yes folks, styrofoam houses. These buildings are made entirely out of foam panels, glued together, and then covered in a concrete composite solution. They can withstand winds of up to 150 mph and hold up to 2,000 pounds on top. An amazing alternative to the tents, these foam houses will provide safe shelter that will hold out during hurricane season.

In these photos they were building a four room foam house to be used as a women’s medical clinic/delivery room in Sean Penn’s camp (around 50,000 displaced people are living in tents in Mr. Penn’s camp). As they were building, Haitians were learning how to construct the houses themselves, an awesome skill for them to have.

Each house costs a few thousand dollars to build. A minuscule fraction of the cost of a normal house, but still requires significant investments to create these shelters for large numbers of people. They are working on generating more funds to keep these houses coming. Ty just informed me that they are also coming up with other domed structures that are cheap and fairly simple to construct. I will keep you posted when I get more pictures!

Pretty amazing what a few good people can do when they put everything they have into a really good cause.

If you want to learn more about Utah Haiti Relief, I have a link to their site in my right-hand column. There is also a youtube link to see a video of the construction of the foam houses down in Haiti.

Ty (far left) & Company

Mr. Penn

flowers for our baby

So, as briefly stated in my last post, I am currently working on finishing up my dossier, planning my next trip to Haiti, and, the biggest hurdle, coming up with the funds for the adoption.

I will whole-heartedly admit that I am not, by nature, a good sales-person or fund-raiser. And, for those of you who know me well, I have this somewhat-unfortunate fierce independent streak. But, my family means more to me than my silly pride so we are coming up with all sorts of creative ways to get money together. The adoption will cost around $26,000, so any amount we can raise will help.

London and I decided to make some pretty flower brooches and baby poppy clips to raise some funds for the adoption costs. The peony brooches have magnets on the back so you can attach them to a shirt, bag, head-band, scarf, what-have-you, and the baby poppies have a little baby hair clip on the back. The peony brooches are $10 apiece and the little poppies are $5 (see pics below). If you would like to buy one there is a link on the right-hand side column of my page where you can choose whatever style you want and add it to your cart. :) Please, tell anyone you know who might like to buy one!

The cost of our particular adoption is, shockingly, considered cheap for an international adoption. I remember thinking, going into this, that there is no way an adoption could cost that much. Where does all the money go? There is a link on my chip-in page to my adoption agency that breaks it all down. About one-third to one-half goes to the Haitian government and the rest gets sucked up pretty quickly. Completely ridiculous and the main deterrent for most people wanting to adopt. Hopefully one day they will be better able to streamline these costs for adopting families.

Thank you for all of your support, it means so much more than you could ever know! We love you all. And please feel free to share if any of you have other fundraising ideas (I know some of you are experts).

my stunning sister and her daughter graciously agreed to be my models

peony brooches (gray, white, mustard, or olive)

baby poppies clips (mustard, pink, or white)

documents, documents, documents.

Since my return, I have completed my home study with the help of a wonderful woman named Suzanne Stott (my home study social worker). If you ever have the privilege to meet and chat with her, consider yourself lucky. I am now in the middle of compiling my dossier, a lengthy process full of legalizing, notarizing, and copying documents. Just to give you a taste of the process, lets take my birth certificate. You must obtain 6 certified copies of the original birth certificate, have them all notarized, then send them to the state to have them authenticated, then send them to the Haitian Consulate in Washington D.C. to have them legalized by the Haitian government. Ya, that’s just my birth certificate. And don’t have them notarized in the wrong color pen. You can just go ahead and start all over. Then there are medical exams, psychological exams, letters of recommendation, criminal background checks, legal forms, employment letters, financial statements, passports, visas, immigration forms... (several of which, by the way, have to go through the same process as the birth certificate)!!! A daunting task. But, I am taking it one document at a time and hopefully it shouldn’t take me too long. I am planning on going back down to Haiti in September, that is my goal. I am dying to go back, and absolutely dying to get matched. And I feel strongly (just like I did the first time I went down) that I need to go back down there before being matched. I think I dream about it every night.

LBC (“London Broadcasting Company”) Update: I don’t know if I mentioned this earlier, but London and I have a bit of a struggle going on regarding the little person we are going to adopt. She wants a girl, I want a boy. I will admit that usually in a power struggle between the two of us, she wins. But, I’m pretty sure this time I shall prevail. London is slightly more than psyched out of her mind to be getting a brother or sister. What, I guess she is bored of me or something? Every night, she prays for our baby in Haiti. I am excited for myself, and even more excited for her.

I also want to say thank you to everyone for your support in this. I have a truly amazing family and truly amazing friends and know that you have all been put into my life for a reason. I hope I can help you all as much as you have helped me.

my london and her buddy, meep

...and she is a professional hippie hula-hooper

me and L