New Pictures

Hey Everyone! Sorry its been so long. Here are some new pictures of New Years, Brison singing in church choir, and Falancia and Sivencia's birthdays (March 3 and 4). Everyone is still alive and doing well. We have our good and bad days, but overall it continues to get a little easier every day. Hard to believe the girls have been here over 4 months now. The Creole is pretty much gone, we only really hear it in songs now. They speak English to each other, but hard to understand Jiovenda and Sivencia at times. Falancia is doing really well with her reading and spelling. Looks like she will have no problem going to 2nd grade next year. Jiovenda will be in Kindergarden again next year, but that is okay because she has a November birthday. She needs the extra year to catch up on her vocabulary. Sivencia is doing well in 3-school and will go to preschool 4 mornings a week next year. She is doing much better with staying on task in class. The boys continue to do well academically and otherwise. Adjustments have been hard at times, but overall they have done great with gaining 3 sisters.

Again thank you for your thoughts and prayers!

Love,

Allison

Pictures from the holidays!

Walker in our street (we got around 3 ft of snow).

Ice Rink

Falancia and Brison

Family watching TV

Girls braiding Aunt Ginger's hair

Girls in the snow

Nanny, Great Poppop, mom and kids

Walker turning 5!!!!







Christmas!

All of us on Christmas Eve (we are blocking the milk and cookies).

Kids opening their one gift on Christmas Eve (skates).

The family breaking bread together.

Happy New Year!

Okay so I'm a little late, but that is how things go now a days. The girls have been home for 2 months now and we were so blessed to be able to celebrate Jesus' birthday with them and to bring in the New Year! The holidays were insanely busy and I am personally glad they are over. I am happy the kids are back to school this week and we can get back to our boring routine life. All of the kids had a great Christmas and got a lot of presents from Santa, including a new Wii. This has been in a big hit in our house, in fact the entire family is playing on it right now (except me). My mom, grandfather, brother and wife all came up for Christmas. So we had a very full house, but it all worked out well. The kids (except Sivencia) all stayed up until 12:00 on New Years to watch the ball drop.

Falancia is enjoying the first grade and is working on her reading skills. We worked hard on some phonic and sight words over the break. It is funny, because she is picking up some of our slang. She keeps saying "Oh man", when she is playing on the Wii.


Jiovenda is coming out of her shell and seems to have a smile on her face a lot (except when being disciplined). She loves to give hugs and sit on her daddy's lap. Her English is improving and she is growing more confident with it daily (even if we don't always understand her).


Sivencia is also greatly improving her English. Her favorite question is "What is this?", but she always said in Creole. In the past few weeks she now says it in English, along with a few other phrases. We are working on getting her to use her "words", instead of just pointing or asking for things with one word.


Brison loves being the big brother, especially to Sivencia. Him and Falancia are getting along a lot better lately, but still have their spats. He is doing great in 2nd grade and we are very proud of him with his piano playing.


Walker loves having more kids to play with. He treats the girls like his brother though and is constantly tackling them and knocking them down. Walker's new thing is chess. He has learned to play through a "no stress chess" game we have, where you use cards to pick the pieces you are to move. He is very good and it is a little scary to play him. He turned 5 on 12/26.


The latest thing at the Shira household is our skating rink Brian and his brother put in our backyard over Thanksgiving. It finally froze over Christmas break and the kids have had a blast skating on it. They all got skates for Christmas and they have loved being on it. They are all pretty good at it for beginners. Falancia scares me most of all, because she has no fear. She skates all out and just falls down. Emergency room here we come... The neighborhood kids have also enjoyed skating on it and we love having everyone over to skate.


Well that is it, hope you all had a Happy New Year! Hope to write again soon, but you know how that goes. If you have specific questions, please ask, it helps with ideas to write about.
God Bless!


Love,
Allison


PS Tried to upload some pictures, but am having problems with my computer. I will try again later.

Almost Six Weeks

Jiovenda' 5th birthday

Have the girls really been home almost six weeks now? Time flies when you are having fun (sometimes not so much fun). It has been a tough six weeks, but it has honestly gotten easier every single day. The girls have fallen into some wonderful routines and it has helped all of us get use to each other. Having five children forces you to be very organized and on top of your game. But it also forces you to drop things that just don't matter, like a clean house. People that come over can just say, "well she does have 5 kids", love having that excuse!

The first few weeks were the most difficult, but after a lot of teaching and love the girls are really beginning to understand how we do things around here. We still have many struggles and constant reminders, but we still have that with the boys as well. The best thing we did was to put them into school right away. They all love school and enjoy going. Falancia and Jiovenda have a lot of catching up to do academically, but we are working on it. Falancia and Sivencia are still learning how to act and behave in a classroom. Jiovenda, the quiet one, loves school and having friends and has had no behavior issues. She did cry when it wasn't her days to go to school, but she has gotten over that. She will probably repeat Kindergarten next year, but it will be good for her confidence with English.

The boys are doing great with the adjustment and are eager to teach. Brison and Falancia butt heads at times, some control issues there. Brison loves playing with Sivencia and babies her to death. Walker is a little jealous over this and sometimes wants his big brother all to himself. Overall, they love having siblings and more people to play with. We have a lot of normal sibling clashes (maybe as many as me and my brothers growing up).

Christmas is coming and life is very hectic, I basically live in my car. We are running all over the place shopping and running lots of errands. The girls have all been to the doctor and dentist. They had a few immunization shots to be caught up on, as you can imagine they loved that. Lots of good girl screaming.

Poor Falancia went sledding with some neighbor girls and chose not to come home when everyone else did. She got turned around coming home and started running the wrong way up our street. Carrying three sleds (because Jiovenda left hers at the hill) she could be heard screaming a mile away. Thankfully some of our friends up the street heard her and came to her rescue. She didn't seem too traumatized by the whole event, but she might think twice about going sledding again.

They are all eating well. After a lot of trial and error we have discovered some likes and dislikes. But as we do with the boys, if you don't like what we are having, you can wait for the next meal. No one has starved yet! We have even all gone out for pizza, which is a huge hit with everyone! Another popular food is Italian, lasagna, stuffed shells, spaghetti, etc.

I'm trying to think of more thing people have asked me. Oh I know, hair. I am getting much better and am not intimidated anymore. Falancia's hair is so short, so she just wears it with a head band. Jiovenda and Sivencia I have on rotating weekends. It takes me about 4 hours to do there hair, so that is what I do on Sunday afternoons. I have done beads the last two weeks and Jiovenda's is my best job this past week. Christmas color beads. It is much easier now that I discovered the bead threader that one of my friends bought me. Beads are better with Sivencia, because she can't rip them out as easy as clips, so her hair last longer.

Brian and I are doing well and life is getting into a nice "busy" rhythm. Friends have been wonderful with food and helping to watch the kids. We have been out twice and have to hire 2 babysitters at a time to do it (well worth it). The second time was easier on the girls then the first. They are getting to know our babysitter next door better as well, it helps that she brings a jewelry making kit.

Hope to write sooner next time, but the Lord only knows when I will have time. Thank you for all of your love, support and prayers!

Love,
Allison

Pictures

Kids all together watching TV, I think first day home.
Girls at Babtist Mission zoo (if you could call it that, it was very small).

Just a few days ago, Brison and Falancia watching TV and I caught them leaning on one another. Sivencia jumped in when I started taking pictures.

All of us at the Haitian gathering this past weekend. Molly and Joyce flew up from Haiti and surprised all of us!

Everyone gathered to sing a good-bye song to the girls, very awesome moment!

Our room where we all slept (roosters and dogs right outside those windows).

Molly and Joyce, two very awesome people that God has put on this earth to work for Him!

Haiti, view from our place.

First day with the girls, outside where we were staying.Brian with the girls right after we first met them. Me and Jiovenda, just after we first met them.

This is the couch they were sitting on when we first came in the room and saw our girls!

Settling In

Has it really been over a week since we got home! Well it has been a challenging one to say the least. Brian went back to work today and he is probably glad to go. We ran around like crazy last week, with doctor's appointments, getting the girls signed up for school, and a million other little things. Falancia started 1st grade and Jiovenda started Kindergarden on Thursday, Sivencia started preschool on Friday. They love school and needed the routine, plus they love learning. We are still working through many discilpline things at home, but as we have been saying, it gets a little bit easier everyday. We did their hair and it turned out pretty good. Falancia is easy, now that we got the extensions out of her hair. Her hair is short and we just put a headband in her hair. I braided Jiovenda's hair, half one night and the rest the next morning, it takes several hours to do. Falancia did Sivencia's hair, but her rubber bands are breaking and she pulls out her clips. Hopefully it will last till the weekend and then we can redo it. My finger tips still hurt.

The boys are doing very well, just a little sibling rivalry going on at the moment. I promise to have pictures soon, that is my next project. Please be patient, remember I have 5 kids now! Again, thank you for your many prayers!

In Him!
Allison

HOME AT LAST!!!

We are finally home, we rolled in around 12:00 this afternoon. Sorry I was not able to blog or email earlier, but I did not have access to a computer, nor would I have had time. Yesterday morning we left for the Embassy at 7:00am, still not knowing if our visas were printed or not. Our flight left at 12:40, we weren't sure if we should try to back up our flight or delay it until the next day. Very nerve racking! We got to the embassy around 8:30 and met with an awesome woman, who sympathized with us greatly. We literally begged for the girls' visas. She told us to wait and she would get back to us. We sat for about 45 minutes, in a wonderful government issued waiting room. We only had about 15 more minutes before one of us would have to leave and change our flights at the airport. She finally called us up and there she stood with our packets. She started going over all the information and we all started crying. She said the people in the back were nice enough to print them up early. Usually they don't get them out until about 2:00pm. I'm sure she had a lot to do with getting them printed. She was an amazing woman and God sent. I just wanted to dance like David at that moment, we just kept praising God! I can't tell you how stressful that was. Right after that they took us to the airport. We flew out to Miami, bye bye Haiti!!! We got to Miami and then sat in immigration for awhile and just made our connecting flight to Detroit. We got in at around 10:00pm with only one piece of missing luggage, Brian's, oh well... We stayed the night in Detroit and drove home this morning.

It has been a very difficult week and we are trying to decompress and relax. It feels so good to be home with hot water and wonderful roads. Trust me, none of us should ever complain about a MI pothole again. We have no idea what potholes are. Anyone out there that works on our roads, give them a big high five and say thank you! It is great to be able to use the sink water to brush your teeth.

I want to give a big thank you to Molly and Joyce at GLA. You guys are awesome, you were such big helps and so sympathetic to our needs. Thank you for putting your own agendas aside and focusing on us. The two of you amaze us and we are honored to know you. You are truly walking in God's path. Thank you to everyone else at GLA and Bethany that tirelesly helped us and sypathized with us!

Our girls are wonderful and we are so glad they are home. They have lived a very hard life and it is reflected in their attitudes. We hope to be able to melt some of those old habits and ways of thinking. It is going to be a long, difficult road, but with God's help we know it is all possible. We also ask for a lot of patience from many of you as will, especially with those of you that are close (in proximity) to us.

Thank you for all of your love and support, it has definetly been felt. Trust me, it held us up through this past week that has been very difficult. We knew what we were coming home to and that so greatly comforted us. I have never in my life missed MI so much, so much so I think I can handle the snow! Thank you for the signs on the house, they were great to come home too.

I will post some pictures when I get around to it, but other things are beckoning me, oh yeah I have 5 kids now....

Love,
A Michiganer and American and Mother of 5!!!

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

Extrait

Last week we heard that the girls' extrait was finally stamped and sent through legalization. This was the piece of paper that the US Consulate has been waiting on in order to approve their visas. Dixie brought it over to the US Consulate on the same day and hopefully we will hear something very soon. We are praying that they will not need anything else and that we will hear that their visas are approved some time within the next week or two. We hate to get our hopes up, but we hope that this will finally be it.

It has been hard these past few months, but only through our faith have we gotten through it all. This has definitely taught us that we are not in control and that only God knows the whole picture. We have learned to lean more heavily on Him and to let Him play this whole thing out the way it needs to. I can't tell you how comforting it has been to stay in His word everyday. I read somewhere that the Bible is a letter from God to us. He uses it to remind us how much He loves us and if we continually read it, it will always bring us great comfort. I can't tell you how much it has lately! So whenever you need a quick pick me up, open up His word. He is never far away!

Thank you all again for all of your thoughts and prayers! Hopefully we will be hearing something real soon!
Love,
Allison

Department of State Update

A Bethany worker (who use to live and work at GLA) recently went to GLA for a visit and was updated on many different areas of the Haitian adoption process. The following was her experience with the US Consulate/Embassy. It helps explain some of the delays we are currently experiencing.

US Department of State
We met with Donald Moore (Consular General) and Garry Pierrot (Adoptions Unit Officer) at the new US Consulate/Embassy. Mr. Moore led our meeting for the most part. He is extremely enthusiastic about his position, and in working alongside families with adoptions. He mentioned “we want to give good news …” Transparency is very important to Mr. Moore, and wants services to be as transparent as possible. If there are problems, he wants to be able to have this communicated. One of the issues that the Consulate has been dealing with is not having sufficient staff. He is expecting that by November, they will be full staffed, which should result in speeding up processing time. DOS is currently processing 7-8 adoption cases a week.

Mr. Moore and Mr. Pierrot indicated that they are mandated to prevent fraud. They mentioned that fraudulent documents are statistically quite common in Haiti visa applications, often unbeknownst to orphanages that are submitting them. Orphanages believe that they have obtained the documents legitimately; however, it turns out that these documents are not always as they appear. As a result, Mr. Pierrot’s job is to ensure that no child leaves Haiti and enters the U.S. with fraudulent documents. Mr. Pierrot indicated that adoptions have priority with the Fraud Unit at DOS, and fraud investigations for adoption cases are normally completed before other fraud investigations. This is good news that adoptions are seen as important, and that DOS does recognize their urgency. However, after this discussion, we could better understand why the visa process has been taking longer lately. I expressed some concerns with these two regarding some recent frustrations Dixie has been having in correspondence with DOS (when emailing/phoning about orphan investigations, specific case questions, etc). Mr. Moore was very apologetic. He indicated that they have been short-staffed, and are hoping that correspondence issues will be resolved with more staff. We also presented the idea of JCICS developing Standards of Practice for Haiti, and they were very supportive of this. They indicated that if, in the future, training would be required, they would be more than willing to assist with the training if they could.

Hurricanes

No new news on our front, but I thought I would update you on Haiti and GLA, in regards to the hurricanes....

FAY - lots of rain and wind, but no damage.
GUSTAV - a lot more rain, but GLA weathered the storm well
HANNA - This was posted on GLA's website:
Hurricane Hannah brought destruction to Haiti last night , September 2nd. Our area sustained downed trees, toppled brick walls, and roads blocked. People are already out cutting the trees blocking the roads. Our metal roofs got blown off the house and we lost the internet dish at the Toddler House. The wind was blowing so hard the rain came in around the closed windows of the orphanage and flooded our dining room table and floor! There seems to be as many leaves inside the house as outside! Thankfully, we are all safe and God kept us from harm. Now we just have to clean up from the storm. This was much worse than any storm we have personally seen in the 17 years we have lived in Haiti.

Two more storms are headed in their direction, please pray for Haiti, the people, and GLA. The flooding on the island is horrible and many have lost their homes. Many consider Haiti a 5th world country, because there is no hope. I refuse to believe that as long as we believe in the power and glory of Jesus Christ, He is our hope, even for the people in Haiti. I praise God for keeping the orphanage safe and out of harms way!