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.

Confusion

Me, Adeline, Lovely, Brian, Walker, Ellie, and Brison

We got some great news about our adoption, out paperwork is moving super fast! We made it through the courts in three weeks. The only problem is that I thought we were past this point already. I thought we were moving onto MOI after Parquet, but I midread my information. After Parquet (which it left on December 31, 2007) it moved onto the courts (which it left last Friday, the 25th). This the email we got last Friday...

From LaDawn (at the Bethany main office) - Great news to start the morning ... the Shira dossier is through in the courts, and is moving on for the Attestation Signatures on the girls' Acts of Adoption today! Once the Attestation Signatures have been received, the adoption documents all need to be legalized, and then GLA can apply for the girls' passports. The Shira are another step closer to having their daughters at home! A big Congratulations to them!!!

From Léa (at GLA)- This has to be the fastest adoption I've seen! I am sending this dossier for attestation signature tomorrow. I am happy for Brian and Allison!

So we are very happy about the progress of our paperwork, we just thought it was in a different spot. I don't know how long the attestation signature takes and then the documents have to be legalized. THEN the paperwork goes to MOI (see last blog entry about this).

Praise God for sending our paperwork through as quickly as He has! Hopefully the girls will be home sometime this Spring!

We got to visit friends who recently brought home their two girls from Haiti (they now have 6 children). That was very exciting! We got to hear more about the girls and about the orphanage and what to expect when we travel. The above picture is from our visit with them. When we walked through the door, the oldest immediately asked us if we were Falancia's mom and dad. They thought we were bringing the girls when we came to visit, but their parents told them that our girls were still in Haiti. Shelby, their mom, told me how she met Falancia and told her she knew her mommy and daddy. Falancia proceded to follow Shelby around for the remainder of her visit to the orphanage for that day. We can't wait to go get our girls!

Well, thanks for reading! Hopefully we will get an update on the girls soon and I will pass it along. Thank you for all of your prayers!

Love,
Allison

3 Weeks!!!

We got some great news at 4:30pm on December 31. Our paperwork came out of Parquet after being in there for only 3 weeks! Considering we know some people that have been stuck there since April, we are thrilled! We were expecting at least 2-3 months, if not longer. Earlier that day I had just read Matthew 8:13, where Jesus says, "...it shall be done for you as you have believed...". I said a prayer after that, "Please God, bring the girls home tomorrow." Then I got realistic and prayed, "Please God, have our dossier out of Parquet by Valentine's Day". I prayed this knowing that God can do anything and will honor our requests if we truely have faith in Him. He delivered my Valentine's gift an hour later. Isn't God great!?! Honor Him and He just loves to give us gifts.

So now our paperwork is onto MOI (Minister of Interior), this is where the girls' passports are issued. This is suppose to take 6-8 weeks, but some have been there since May. Back in September there was a huge backlog of like 300 dossiers. The dam seems to be breaking and dossiers are being signed and passports are again being issued. Please pray that this trend continues. The longer kids stay at the orphanage, the more the orpanage has to turn away others. These kids being turned away, most likely die from malnutrition. So the sooner our girls come home, the sooner another three children can enter the orphanage. It is just a vicious cycle. Anyway I digress, once the passports are issued, we are onto the US Consulate for the girls' visas. This is another area where there has been a hold up, but we are hoping the kinks are being worked out there as well.

So right now Brian and I are praying that the girls are home around Springbreak, which is in the beginning of April. I would say this is the earliest we expect them, but it is all in God's hands. Like I keep saying, He will bring them home at the perfect moment! Needless to say, this is earlier then we were recently expecting, so now we are starting to "nest". Making lists of things that need to be done before they get here. First probably being a new and larger vehicle...

So please keep us in your prayers, as you are all in mine. Thanks for listening and caring!
Love,
Allison