The Boys!

Hummer Limo

Walker Brian at home

Just had to share these pictures of Brison and Walker. Brison was one of the top money collectors in his school's Walk-A-Thon and got to take a ride in a Hummer Limo to get pizza. The picture of Walker was at his Trike-A-Thon.

Hoping to hear some good news real soon on our adoption, will pass it on when we hear.

Allison

2 Months

Well we are officially 2 months in MOI! The average time is 3 months, so getting closer. We have been busy re-upping some of our information. After a year some things need to be redone. We are scheduled to be fingerprinted again (just in case we committed a crime in the past year and developed a new set of fingers!). Ahh the government! Also our 2007 financial information has to be filed. Brian and I also got some immunization shots done, so that when it comes time to travel we will be good to go! Lots and lots of stuff to keep us busy!

Our latest update was encouraging. Sounds like things are settling down in Haiti once again, but that the cost of food has gone way up. The good news is that it is the rainy season and the orphanage no longer has to rely on the water truck to bring them water. They have a cistern and it is overflowing, praise God!

I thought I would include the following from our update. I think some of my Holland (MI) friends would appreciate this celebration. Lots of people from the Netherlands adopt from Haiti by the way.

We have a special holiday planned for all of our kids, though I think it will have the most meaning to our kids being adopted to the Netherlands. April 30th is Queen’s Day in the Netherlands, and will be as well at GLA. We’re going to celebrate by playing a game where each child lines up in front of a string with their hands behind their back, and competes to eat a piece of spiced bread/cake from a dangling string the fastest without using their hands. Friends from the Netherlands introduced us to this game two years ago when they were visiting and it was a great hit. Even our nannies participated, though laughed to hard to really concentrate on eating theirs the fastest. We of course also have to have orange punch, balloons, flags, and what holiday is complete without a little Haitian singing, music, and dancing!

We learned a little more about how the girls are doing with their English. Falancia (the oldest) is doing great and that is all the workers speak to her in. Jiovenda is not enjoying it so much, but can understand it. And the following is the description of Sivencia's (3 yrs old) love for English...

Sivencia does not seem to understand much but the simplest things. Come here. Please sit down. We are finished. Are you finished? Do you want more? Simple things like this. She is often, I guess I would say annoyed, for lack of a better description. Annoyed that I or Joyce would use English with her when we clearly know that she speaks Creole.

So wish us luck, hopefully they will all learn quickly once they get here. I guess they will have no choice.

They also told us that the girls recieved a package that we had sent down and showed us pictures receiving it. That was exciting!

Well hopefully we will hear more soon! Thank you again for all of your many prayers!

Love,

Alli

Haiti Update

Below is the latest on Haiti. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. Please continue to pray for this fragile country. I will continue to update my blog as I hear any new information.

We also heard that the orphanages have had a meeting with MOI (which is where our paperwork is now). They promised to have paperwork out in a month. Ours has been in there 6 weeks. MOI has made promises before and not kept them. Currently they are taking about 3 1/2 months. We are still hoping for a July homecoming, depending upon the status of Haiti.

04/15/2008
Haiti Update
In speaking to Dixie from God's Littlest Angels last night, she mentioned that all government offices were open once again as of yesterday. GLA's staff were able to travel around and do their business as normal. Things seem to have settled once again, and for that we are all very thankful. Please continue to keep GLA and Haiti in your prayers.

Haiti

Please pray for Haiti and the orphanage where the girls are at (GLA, God's Littlest Angels). Food is hard to come by and the people are starving even worse then before. The following are the updates that we are receiving... I will continue to update you as I hear more news. Thank you for your prayers for our girls and Haiti.
Love,
Allison

04/08/2008
Riots in Haiti - Please Pray Dixie just sent out this update on what is currently happening in Haiti. Please keep this country in your prayers, especially at this time. The situation in the last few days has increasing gotten worse in Port-au-Prince. The price of food has sky rocketed in the last 4 months. Gasoline is now $5.93 USD per gallon which has caused taxi fares to also increase. For the average person and even those of us blessed with donations, day to day life is difficult. Our food bill has increased by 1/3 or more. Over the weekend, rioting started in outlying cities and yesterday we had some in Port-au-Prince. Today, the crowds broke the gates to the Civil Court building and also to the Palace. They are breaking store windows and stealing things out of stores. They are burning tires in the streets and breaking windshields on cars. All government buildings are closed. We tried taking papers to the courts but the court clerk told us not to come. Our son, Mark, had gone to school in PAP before the rioting started. Our driver picked him up at noon due to the problems. They had trouble finding a safe route home. Mark just talked to one of his school friends on the phone and they are blocked at a market in the city and crowds just broke a window in the car next to them. I told my staff that they would get more sympathy if they had mothers marching with their starving children! This violence does not help food prices nor make any sense to the rest of the world! We foresee tomorrow being much of the same. We do not see the courts or Immigration being open. So far, it seems quiet in our area. There is some road blocks on the mountain road but not as far up as we live. Please pray for all of our staff and the babies that everyone will be safe. Pray for Haiti and that food costs will decrease so mothers can feed their children.

04/10/2008
Update from GLA
I just received this update from GLA: The children and staff of GLA are safe. Deliveries to the orphanage have been interrupted because many main routes around Port au Prince and Petion-Ville have been blocked and because fuel is difficult to find. We are carefully monitoring supplies, fuel, and water to ensure we can continue to provide for the children. Offices in Port au Prince are closed, and adoption work is halted (courts, visas, passports, etc.). Please pray for peace and safety for the people of Haiti.

04/11/2008
Update on how GLA is doing
Category NoneBookmark : Things seem to have calmed in Haiti once again. There are still roadblocks that are needing to be cleaned up; however, people are, once again, able to move around. Last night, GLA was in quite a bind as they were out of propane for the stoves. They had to get quite creative with their supper and meals earlier in the day today. Thankfully, today the propane delivery company was able to make their way to GLA, and so once again, GLA has propane and can use their stoves. The latest "hurdle" GLA is facing is that they are out of water, and due to three large powerline poles across the road that GLA is on, the water truck cannot make it to the orphanage. They have been able to move the poles enough for smaller vehicles to pass; however, large trucks like the water truck cannot go through yet. Please continue to pray for Haiti and for GLA as things are settling down.

Visa paperwork

Allison and Walker
Falancia Jiovenda Sivencia

We just received the paperwork from Haiti that we needed in order to complete the visa applications for the girls here in the US. I mailed off the applications today. It is wonderful to get that paperwork and to see that the girls are legally ours and now have our last name! It is also frustrating, because we just want to fly down there and bring them home! We are still hoping for a July timeline. The paperwork has now been in MOI awaiting their passports for about a month (still saying 3 1/2 months).

We just received an update on the girls and they are all healthy and doing well. Brian was a proud papa when he heard that Falancia traded her Easter "rocks" in for gummies (Brian's favorite candy). We heard about their Easter and Falancia's and Sivencia's birthdays. We also got the following story about Jiovenda, that I thought I would share...

Jiovenda decided that the walls were a much better writing pallet than paper earlier in the month, and she along with three others took their pencils to the white paint. They made quite a mess and were not even concerned when they were caught. Wanting to teach them that their actions have consequences Joyce marched them all out to the wall, gave them a pale, brushes, and soap and made them scrub off their mess. It backfired on her however as Jiovenda LOVED the chore! She was more than happy to scrub and gave orders to the others as to where they should scrub, to scrub harder, and how much soap to use. Though the chore did not seem like punishment to her she has not written on the walls again, so it did the trick.

So if you haven't already, start praying for me now...

Thanks for reading. Love you all!!!
In Him!
Allison

MOI

YEAH!!! Our dossier has entered MOI (Minister of the Interior), which begins the girls' passports. We found out today that it went in last Thursday. On our paperwork it says MOI takes 3-5 months, but they are saying it is currently taking about 3 1/2 months. After MOI it is onto obtaining their US visas, which takes about a month. Then we can go get them! I would love it if they were here by the 4th of July, God only knows. We shall see! Thanks for all of your love, support and most of all your prayers!

Please also pray for all of the people in Haiti. If you have read the paper lately, there has been a problem importing food into the country. Food is just sitting on barges and in port rotting away and getting eaten by bugs because of bureaucratic nightmares. The orphanage is doing okay, but has had to change its menu, because they can't get eggs over from the DR.

GOD is GOOD! All the TIME!!!

Patience

Walker Walker and Brison Michigan yuk! FalanciaThe Girls Sivencia Falancia and Sivencia Jiovenda

Hi everyone!

I know it has been awhile since I have posted, but there has been little change. Our paperwork is currently being legalized and we are anxiously waiting for it to go into MOI. The time frame for MOI is 3-5 months and is our last big step until we go to get them. After MOI there are still some other things that need to occur, but hopefully those won't take to long. We are hoping and praying that they are home sometime in early summer. But for now life goes on and we are enjoying being a family of four. I remember back to when I was pregnant with Walker and how much I cherished that time alone with Brison. Although, I can't imagine Walker not in our lives, time alone with each of your kids is special. That time will become even more stretched when there are five kids running around.

God is so good and kind and giving! Patience is a fruit of the Spirit that He placed in each and every one of us, when we accepted Jesus into our hearts. He continually asks us to exercise our fruits with the daily struggles of life. It is not always easy, but He is glorified when we do!

Please keep our girls in your prayers. Falancia's birthday was yesterday, she just turned 7 and Sivencia's is today, she turns 3. The following is from the update we just received on the girls yesterday. Enjoy! Love you all! Alli

Falancia has been called upon to be a helper in the preschool classes in the morning before she goes to school. Kiki is Sivencia’s preschool teacher and she loves having Falancia in class to be a helper. Falancia is great with the younger kids and is really becoming a great helper for the teachers, nannies and myself. Falancia loves the praise by everyone and is very willing to help out in any situation.

Jiovenda has moved up in school with the Haitian teachers. She is now in class for four hours in the afternoon with a teacher named Mona. This is the same creole class that Falancia and ten of the other big kids are in. Jiovenda really seems to enjoy class and does well. She does however seem to pick on Falancia a bit in class so we make sure that before class is started that they are sitting at two different tables.

Falancia’s hair is growing out very nicely and she now has enough hair to have it braided so she patiently sat while her nanny, Bernadette braided her hair using thread. Falancia was so proud when it was all finished and ran outside so show me. When I called her over to see it she started getting shy and ran towards me covering her face with her hands. This was a very special moment for her because before she was one of the only big kids that didn’t have enough hair to have it braided.

The girls are healthy and doing well.