Case Closed

We got an email saying our case was closed and that they would write and tell us when the visas were ready. Well their office closed 3 minutes ago, so we have no idea when the visas will actually be issued. Someone went to pick up Falancia's visa today, still waiting to see if they got it or not. Our flight leaves at 12:40, so tomorrow should be an interesting day. There is a chance that just Falancia and I will be coming home. This will make it cheaper to change 3 flights instead of 5. Will update soon.

Still No Word

Our Representative, Senator, and a few other offices over the Consulate have all been contacted. Still no word and seemingly no help. This guy seems to be on a power trip. We are looking into if we have to extend our stay here, but we really don't want to. This is very frustrating and boring. We are trying to come up with stuff to do with the girls and we are all going a little stir crazy, I can't imagine being here any longer.

Will keep you posted!
Thanks for your prayers!
Allison and Brian

Pray

It is Thursday morning and we still don't have the visas. We are starting to get scared. We finally got through to someone in the Consulate and they told us to send an email. The internet has been very, very slow. So we are waiting on a response. I will try to keep you updated on what is going on.

The girls are glued to TV at the moment and it has been a great babysitter, while we try to work all of this out.

I am soooo missing my boys and can't wait to come home!!! Love you Brison and Walker!!!

Love,
Alli and Brian
Mom and Dad

Still Here

Well it has been a long day, up since 5:30 with the roosters crowing. The honeymoon period has ended and the girls are officially challenging us at every turn. We got the girl attitude going on. Falancia has already been in two time-outs. Lots of discipline when we get home.

Funny story - the girls giggled and laughed the entire time I was drying my hair. They kept touching it, amazed that it was drying. Falancia didn't like when I turned the dryer on her.

We went to the Babtist Mission today and bought a couple of souvenirs. We ate pizza and ice cream. I have drank more coke then I have in the last 2 years. Trying to keep myself awake! Lots of down time, just spending time with the girls.

Latest on our visas, don't have them yet. I think LaDawn at Bethany is getting a Senator involved. We are planning to travel to the Embassy tomorrow if we don't get them before. Starting to get a little scared, but they say going in person goes a long way. We hope! Thanks for all your prayers. Forgot our camara to send some pictures. We have limited computer time, so I will try, but can't promise.

Brison and Walker, we miss you so much!!!!! We can't wait to see you on Saturday, be good for Nanny! Have fun on Halloween!!!! Wish we were there, can't wait to see you in your costumes!

Love,
Allison and Mom

We are Here!!!

We made it! We got to GLA's guest house around 2:00, got our luggage out of the car and were told the girls were waiting right in side. We went inside and came around the corner to find the three of them sitting patiently on a couch. We ran up to them and hugged them. They got into our laps. They were shy at first, but that quickly faded. Falancia is very talkative. Jiovenda and Sivencia are very quiet. Sivencia has already given Brian kisses and wants to be constantly held. She calls him "papa".

We ate spagetti for lunch. We are now at the Main House, where the babies live upstairs and kitchen and offices are downstairs. We are waiting on dinner.

Our paperwork got here ahead of us. The Embassy would not take photocopies, but they have the originals that came and will be emailing about the visa soon. We are hoping that we do not have to go to Port Au Prince. It was a long, very bumpy road and drivers are crazy.

We will post pictures later when we can. Flights were all good. Hope my boys are reading this. We miss you very much and can't wait to come home.
Love,
Allison

Treat!!!!!!!!!!

Okay disregard last blog submission! We are booked to go to Haiti on Monday!!!!! We got late day word that the Consulate will accept our faxed forms. We leave on Monday from Detroit into Dallas and then onto Miami. We fly into Port Au Prince Tuesday morning. We go to the Consulate on Wednesday to get their visas (I promise to be on my best behavior). Sight see on Thursday and fly out on Friday morning. We get back into Detroit very late Friday night. We are still debating whether to spend the night in Detroit. Please no one come to Detroit, it is too late and too far. We will plan to see everyone once we get back. My mom is booked to come in tomorrow afternoon to stay with the boys. Also, we got great rates on our airfare and actually booked all of our seats one-way and came out better.

We are still flying high and haven't come down to earth yet! It is still hard to believe we are going. I already have a list going and I feel like I need to clean something. I think I am nesting! Thank you for all of your prayers! We will keep you updated as we go from here. Keep checking back and we will try to post while we are down in Haiti!

Praise God!!!!
Love,
Allison

Trick or Treat

I should have known that the Consulate would have another trick up their sleeve. If this isn't true red tape then I don't know what is. The good news is is that we have Falancia's visa. Bad news, we don't have Jiovenda's or Sivencia's. They want us to fill out individual I-864A forms for each girl. This has never been requested before, again we are the trend setters. And let me tell you why this has never been requested before and shouldn't be requested now. I wish I could cut and paste this portion of the form to show you. The form has a place to list up to five children. It also has two blanks where you need to fill in how many children you are intending to immigrate. Now by filling out two additional forms, we are providing the same exact information in triplicate. Have you ever heard of a copy machine!!!

So I ran around in the rain today, getting Brian to sign the form and then sending the forms DSL to Haiti. Then the real kick in the stomach came when she told me it would cost over $60 to send the forms. I love our government, it is the greatest in the world, but Lord have Mercy!!! Hope we are here to vote in November!

We hope these forms get there by the middle of next week. Then who knows what else after that.

Again, thanks for your prayers!
Have a great weekend!
Sad Mama

Running in Circles

Okay, let me start by going back to last week Monday. Bethany calls and tells me they have a phone number for the US Consulate in Haiti and they feel it is time for me to call and find out what is going on. The orphanage had been getting no where with them and at this point they felt no harm could be done by us putting some pressure on them. Unfortunately they only take phone calls between 3-4pm from family members. All excited I called, only to get a message that they were closed for Columbus Day (hope you all enjoyed your Columbus Day off). That phone call probably cost me a gazillion dollars. So I waited until the next day and again waited until 3:00. I think I called about six times, cha ching, cha ching (that is money going to AT&T) only to be cut off or put into full voice mails and then again cut off. Finally I found a voice mail to leave a message, how far do you think that got? Undeterred (the power of a an upset mother) I called again the next day, because no one called me back (surprised?). Finally I got a human, of course they were the wrong department. Then another human, again wrong department. Third human, finally the right place. She tells me, "We don't have your file, the Adoption Officer has it, so I can't tell you anything. But here is an email address." Okay, so I send an email, literally begging for information. I get a form email telling me they will contact me in 3-4 days. They do contact me within the 3 days, only to tell me the Adoption Officer has the file and they can't give me anymore information. Arghh!!!! I know a way they can save on medical care, get rid of the bureaucracy of the US, because they are putting everyone in the loony bin!!! Still undeterred, I write another email on Friday, groveling to please let our daughters come home. Nothing. Also, it has been two weeks at this point since I heard anything from our US Reps office as well.

New week begins.... Monday, I get an email from the US Consulate, basically telling me to back off and when they have information they will pass it on. We are wondering what is the big secret and why can't they tell us why our process is taking so long. Then within minutes we also get an email from Bethany, who has finally gotten into contact with this Adoption Officer and this is what they wrote (AU stands for Adoption Unit)...

AU only recently received word from National Archives that certain documents submitted in the case won't be available for review until May or June 2009. AU understands this date is very far in the future. AU is currently considering other means that would allow it to adjudicate the subject cases before the end of this month without input from National Archives.

MAY OR JUNE????? Talk about a punch to the stomach. There is a silver lining in that email though, they may consider going forward without this input from the Archives before the end of this month. Monday was not such a good day for me though, I had had it with the Consulate.

Then comes Monday at 5:10pm, I get an email from this Adoption Officer directly telling me that I need to be in contact with Dixie (she is charge of the orphanage) directly and that they have a meeting set up the following day to discuss our case. Okay, why did I not hear this from Bethany. Well it is after 5:00 and business is closed.

Tuesday morning, Bethany gets my forwarded email and contacts the orphanage about this meeting. Of course the orphanage knew absolutely nothing about this meeting and by this time, it was too late for them to make this meeting. So it has been rescheduled for Thursday.

Okay, at this point I am really afraid to get my hopes up, but the orphanage and Bethany both feel that this is it. That the Consulate is ready to issue the girls' their visas. If that is the case, we will probably be traveling in a week or two. Soooo, I ask again for your prayers on Thursday. Thank you all for sticking with us through this whole thing. Without your support and your prayers, I am not sure how we would have gotten through all of this. I just want you to know that I pray for each of you as well, which has helped me keep my mind off my selfish needs and wants. I am currently doing a bible study on the Psalms of the Assent and it talks a lot about the journeys we take and how much God grows us and uses us in those journeys. Can I get an "Amen"? He has stretched me beyond anything I could imagine. Believe me it wasn't always pretty, just ask Brian.

Thanks for reading through this. I try to keep these short, but I had a lot built up. I will be back as soon as I hear something about Thursday. God called me to a devotional book this weekend that I haven't picked up since July. I didn't know the date, so I guessed and this was the message (it was the wrong date, I love the Spirit)....

"I can be sure that part of God's blessing to me is delay and suffering. The delay in Abraham's lifetime that seemed to put God's promise well beyond fulfillment was then followed by the seemingly unending delay experienced by Abraham's descendants. But it was indeed only a delay - the promise was fulfilled, for ultimately they did 'come out with great possessions.'

God is going to test me with delays, and along with the delays will come suffering. Yet through it all God's promise stands. I have His new covenant in Christ, and His sacred promise of every smaller blessing that I need. The delays and the suffering are actually part of the promised blessings, so may I praise Him for them today. May I 'be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord' (Psalm 27:14)." Charles Gallaudet Trumbull, Streams in the Desert

Love,
Allison

Running...(kind of)

She'll be coming round the mountain...

Tae Kwon Do
I think I can....almost there....

Still no word on the girls' visas, been about 3 weeks since the last piece of paper went in. We have no idea what the hold up is currently. We have contacted our US Representative for some assistance (because he has nothing else going on right now, economy, re-election...). He has agreed to contact the US Embassy in Haiti to see what the hold up is, no word yet though.

On another note, I completed my first (and maybe my last) 5K this past weekend. I am very proud of myself and although I was definitely not the fastest (no all of the 65+ group was faster then me), my goal was to run the entire way without stopping and I did (more like a slow jog, but I like to call it running). Of course it was the coldest morning we have had thus far, 34 degrees and lots of frost. I'm sure I could have run much faster if it wasn't so cold....maybe.... Enjoy the pics. Oh, Walker ran a 1/4 of a mile, screaming the whole way, because Daddy was mean (his words). Brian wouldn't let him catch up (really, every time Brian slowed down, Walker would start walking, so Brian kept running). I think the screaming had something to do with the cold temps and running at 8 in the morning. That is why I was screaming anyway. Ahhh, family fun! Whose idea was this anyway? The donuts were great afterwards...shh, don't tell anyone!

Walker and I are still loyal Yankee fans, even after a not so good year this year. That's okay, next year in a new stadium will be the trick. We are cheering for Joe Torre, our former leader, go Dodgers!

Also, some pictures of the boys at Tae Kwon Do!

Love,

Alli