The Boys!

Here are some pictures of the boys on their first day of school. See new update on the girls below.

Allison

Status Que

Well we got our latest update a little early. Molly who writes them is coming to the States for a month, so she got it off a little early. Which means the next one will probably be a little late. Everything is status que with the girls, nothing much new with them. It is the rainy season down there so they are struggling with colds and sniffles at the orphanage, as are we in our household. Brison was out of school last week for a few days and then made his brother sick. They had sore throats and fevers.

We got some great pictures of the girls and they look great! I will post some here. Our paperwork is still in IBESR and expect it to be there for another month. We just got an update on the status of the different governmental agencies our paperwork has to go through and IBESR seems to be the only one running smoothly. The others are all a coin toss and those are the ones our stuff goes to next. So who knows what our timeframe is going to look like. We are hoping Spring, but at this point it could be Summer. I just hope it is prior to the start of school next year. Only God knows and His timing is perfect!

I just had lunch with a woman who is also adopting from Haiti. She is adopting two girls, who are 5 and 7. Our girls and her girls are friends down at the orphanage and now they will be living 20 minutes away from each other. Isn't that great? I love that our girls will have some kind of reminder of home up here.

Brison has been at school for a month and is doing great. He loves his teacher and is making friends. He has also started piano lessons and seems to be really enjoying that as well.

Walker started preschool and loves it! He doesn't understand why everyone is in school and he is the only one home during the day. Tough to be one of the youngest in the neighborhood. We have bible study and Kindermusik to keep us busy during the week as well.

Well that is about it. Thank you for your many prayers, they sure are felt. We have such a great peace about our adoption and we know it is all from God. I hope this message finds you all well.

Love,

Allison

Latest Update

We have received a new update on the girls and I thought I would share some of what they wrote us. We will be receiving monthly updates on the girls and if anything else happens with the paperwork, I will post it here. As far as we know, it is still in IBESR and will be until around Halloween (we hope). Then it is onto another agency. Our timeframe is still Spring sometime (we hope). Also, see below on the new hold up on our adoption process.

Dear Allison & Brian,

I hope you are doing well there! I know it sounds repetitious every month when I say this, but it really truly has been a great month! Even with the trials, sadness, sickness, set backs, and frustrations that are laced throughout seemingly each moment our days are full of goodness and grace. God blesses us beyond measure with His joy and fills us with His strength. Without His continuing presence we would not be here, there would be no God’s Littlest Angels. His protection covers over each of these little angels and His arms hold them even when ours cannot. What a gracious and compassionate Father! And what a privilege is it to serve Him!

Thank you very much for your email! It was so nice to hear from you and to be able to share you letter with the girls making another connection and helping them create more of an idea in their head about you. It has been very hot here! The afternoon sun bakes down on everything and makes it hot to the touch. No one can walk outside in the paved yard after 1pm without sandals on because its too hot for their feet. So… we brought out the wading pool! Falancia & Jiovenda LOVE the pool!!!! Sivencia loves it too, but not the same way the other girls do. Its quite small, so that we don’t have to use too much water… only about 15 gallons. We put it up on the balcony, so that the kids have some privacy and they are in the shade. Then because it’s so tiny, we get one group of three or four at time to come and play. When Jiovenda was called up to play she could not get out of her clothes and into her swimsuit fast enough! She was the first one changed (with a little help cause those stretchy suits aren’t so easy to get intoJ) and out the door, she hesitated for a moment at the edge of the pool, but with just a word of coaxing, she had her feet in and was laughing. She didn’t stop laughing for over and hour, even when her teeth were chattering and she was all goosebumps she was still giggling away. She loved everything about the water. As I dried Jiovenda off she kept asking when she would get to swim again!! I wonder what her thoughts will be when she sees a real pool, or a lake? I can only imagine how big her eyes will get! Sivencia as well enjoyed the pool, but in a much quieter more subdued way. She came up to play with three other kids that were her size. She didn’t want to lay in the water though, she just wanted to sit on the side of the pool and put her feet in. She picked up a squirt toy shaped like a fish and held it out to me. I showed her how to fill it with water and I squirted it at her. She wasn’t so sure how she should react. Then I gave the fish to her and told her to squirt me. She wasn’t too keen on the idea and traded the fish in for a boat to float around instead, pretty much ignoring me for the rest of her play time. I think she figured it was the best way to make a statement and let me know she did not appreciate my getting her wet. Falancia could get wet enough. By the time her group was done playing in the pool there was no water left in the pool, it was all over the balcony floor. Somewhere along the way someone had decided it would be fun to dump water from the balcony on to the dry unsuspecting kids below. This seemed to interest Falancia more than playing in the water herself and she spent most of her time just refilling her fish and taking it back to squirt everyone through the railings and watch then scream and run away.

The other afternoon, when all the kids were down for nap, I was walking through the yard and glanced up to Jiovenda’s room’s balcony. There she was outside with her little friend Ketia, just the two of them quietly sitting on the floor doing something. I was curious what it might be, so I went to investigate. And here was Jiovenda happily working on her homework and trying to explain what she was doing to Ketia. One of Falancia’s many pastimes is playing jacks. She plays pretty much every day, and is quite good. The only thing is she has never played with a real set of jacks. She plays with rocks. It’s an important job to make sure you get the right rocks. They have to be a good size and shape. There are several other creative games that Falancia plays with the rocks, one is similar to marbles.

The girls are growing! All have good appetites, are sleeping soundly through the night, and are fully of energy and ambition. Their current measurements are:

Falancia - Height: 112.5 cm / 44.25 in Weight: 40 lbs

Jiovenda – Height: 106 cm / 41.75 in Weight: 31 lbs

Sivencia– Height: 85 cm / 33.5 in Weight: 24.5 lbs

Hope you have a great week!

Blessings,

Molly

GLA – Haiti

The latest update on the flow of paperwork is not on the Hatian end, but the US. We received the following email today, so if any of you are interested in helping, please call your Senators.

Bureaucracy Stops Adoptions in Haiti

A CALL TO ACTION

Dear friends of Haiti, A bureaucratic nightmare has forced the stoppage of Haitian children fromreceiving their U.S. visa and joining their forever families here in theU.S. A simple phone call from the U.S. Department of State to the U.S.Department of Homeland Security would quickly and easily resolve thissituation. To date, no such phone call has occurred and Haitian childrencontinue to suffer needlessly. We are asking everyone with a heart forHaitian children to rally together, make some noise and help our childrenfind their permanent, safe and loving families.

What can you do? Make four simple phone calls.

1. Call your U.S. Senator. You can find your Senators' phone numbers at www.senate.govo Ask to speak with the Legislative Director or Chief of Staff

2. Call your second U.S. Senator.

3. Call your representative to the U.S. House of Representative. You can find your representative at www.house.govo Ask to speak with the Legislative Director or Chief of Staff

4. Call the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Their number is 202-544-8500

When should you call? Today, Thursday or Friday For maximum affect, we are asking you to make these calls within the next 72 hours - sometime before the end of the day Friday. What should you say? Speak from your heart and give them the following information. The Department of State has stopped issuing visas to Haitian orphans. The problem behind the stoppage was fixed by the Department ofHomeland Security. BUT, no one told the Department of State. Your office must get involved and make the Department of HomelandSecurity communicate with the Department of State. Your office should contact the Office of Children's Issues at theDepartment of State. Their number is 202-736-9090 Can you explain the problem behind the stoppage? Here is some additional information... The U.S. Department of State (the consular office in Haiti) is ruling that visas can not be issued to legally adopted children due to theabsence of the words 'irrevocable and unconditional' in the Haitian parentalrelinquishment documents. The Department of State is incorrect. USCIS hasalready resolved this issue and has been approving orphan status since June2007. Sadly, USCIS has not communicated the resolution to the Department ofState. USCIS has already written a legal opinion that orphan status canlegitimately be granted to these cases, but the Department of State andUSCIS have thus far failed to communicate the information that will releasethe children. We need to send the same concise message to each of these offices: there arelegally adopted children in Haiti who cannot get Visas and come home due tothe lack of communication between DOS and USCIS. Please act on this message yourself, and pass it along to anyone you knowwho has children waiting, has adopted in the past, or just has a heart forHaiti. Each adult member of your household can call separately. We need to depend upon sheer volume to get our point across so please call today!

Well that is about it! Brison started school this week, he is very tired going all day, every day, but enjoying it. Walker starts preschool next week and he can't wait. He has declared that his classroom is better than Brison's, because it has more toys! We went to Chicago last week for a few days and had fun. I think their favorite place was the Lego store! Hope all of you are doing well. Thank you for your prayers and as always you are all in ours!

Love,

Allison