A cousin reminded me that I haven’t posted since August. I went online and I guess it was true! I apologize to my faithful readers. Time has sped up I think, from what it used to be. I will blame it on that. J
I did however find a started blog from September, which I have just posted now. Sorry!
I feel very blessed of God. I LOVE my life. Having said that, of course it’s not perfect. I am definitelyin the waiting period. But sometimes I wonder why God gave me such a great place to recuperate. I say recuperate, because I feel like emotionally I am recuperating. I feel like I am being healed in a lot of areas; at the same time, I am learning lessons that I wonder if most people don’t learn about 20 years earlier in life; Namely, relationships with friends and fellow workers. Although, a lot of the relationship issues that I’m having probably wouldn’t come up quite that young in life; At least not my life. So I am trying to learn and be faithful to God as I go. I am grateful for the chance to learn these lessons.
Yesterday, a lady that lives here as well asked me if I don’t go stir crazy here. I told her ‘No’. I love it here. I think I get around a lot more than she does, despite my two babies. And also, I guess my focus is different. She’s waiting for a place to live to be done. I live here and am busy with my babies. I’ve always wanted to live somewhere on the ocean for awhile, by myself; me and God (and now my kids). It’s giving me a chance to get to know God better.
Having said that, yes, I do feel like I’m in a waiting period, and when you wait, you have to be strong not to get impatient. I find myself waiting anxiously for all the paperwork to be done. Not sure why, since I love it here (beside the expensiveness of it) but I think part of it is just wanting to have all the paperwork done and not worrying anymore, “what if”. In Haiti anything can happen, and I want to be free to take my little ones whenever, wherever. It’s not so much what I’m going to (although it will be good to see many of you again) since I don’t even know where I’m going, but just being able to close this chapter in my life.
OK, enough ramblings….. and down to logistics.
Caleb’s adoption is still just waiting on the judge to sign the adoption decree. This should have been done the about a month ago, but the Judge went out of the country, on vacation. And now, apparently because he was gone longer than he should have been, they have fired him and are replacing him with another next week. Our lawyer plans tomake friends with him (that’s her way of getting things done, making good relationships with key people) and hopefully get him to sign it next week. That will mean after that, he’s legally mine! YEA!!! I will celebrate somehow!! Of course, there’ll be more paperwork to do afterwards, like name changes, new birth certificate with me as mother, and of course a Haitian passport.
Chania’s paperwork has been held up more than I liked too because of the authentication of the mom’s death certificate. There's too much fraud - people making death certificates of people still alive. The dad finally did show up yesterday (He lives way up close to the northern border of Haiti) and he brought the death certificate, so now that is ready to go into IBESR, the Social Service that has to approve all adoptions. That can take awhile in there normally, but hopefully hers won’t, since I’vealready been approved for adoption.
I was happy to meet Chania’s dad (Eddy) and ask more questions about Chania. He seemed happy to see her doing so well, and that I’m adopting her but when I asked if he wanted to hold her, he said “no”. It’s gotten me thinking about emotions. What do the parents feel when they give up a child? I think not holding them is often a protective issue – they’re protecting their hearts from being attached to the child. I can see this dad can’t afford Chania, since he’s poor and has 8 other children (which is a whole different issue in my book - birth control L.) His other children are ages 4,6,8,10, 14,16X2, 18.
I don’t understand why the mom died. She had the baby in a hospital; everything was normal. She went home, ate and drank something, and then died. But God had a hand on Chania, and I’m grateful she ended up all the way over here with me. It really can only be God. Makes me realize more than ever that God intended her for me.
Vanessa, a missionary from Angel Missions who worked at getting medical visas for kids needing treatment in the US, was way up north visiting a friend for 20 days. Her car had trouble and Eddy (a mechanic) ended up working on it. He told her about his wife dying and his newborn baby. She offered to help but since she couldn’t keep her, she asked him to find a lady to take care of her, and she would provide the formula. After 15 days, she found out little of the formula actually went to Chania. The lady was giving it to other children as well. She was feeding Chania other foods too, gerber, etc.(Yea a newborn!) They said she almost died. Vanessa took her than and kept her for 5 days, and then returned to Port au Prince with her and put her in an orphanage. Again the formula she provided was given to other babies as well, and she wasn’t being taken care of well – dirty, no diapers, etc. When Vanessa met Heather (from my Creshe), she asked her to take her and give her a home, and Heather took her for me.
Yes, the first month was difficult – she was very anemic, and didn’t know how to suck, and was full of gas. But now… She is a different baby!!! So easy to take care of, and smiles so easy. (I must be the most beautiful person in the world to her, cause all it takes is seeing me, and she smiles J ) I guess that’s how that unconditional mother love gets developed, eh?
My first step in sponsoring them to Canada is done too. I just heard from Canadian immigration yesterday, that I’m eligible to sponsor them. I think now we have to wait to finish the adoption before I can do the next phase, although I can definitely get all the paperwork ready. Right now I feel a little lost of all that I need for that, but I’m hoping the Embassy will guide me in that. They get notified from the government of my eligibility, and tell me what I need, I believe. So that will be my job in the next few weeks.
So my prayer requests I guess are obvious: A quick Judge appointment to be able to finish Caleb’s adoption, fast proceedings in IBESR for Chania, and for me to know how to get ready for the application for Permanent Residency to Canada for them.
May God bless you, guide you and give you a good day today!!!!
Elsie, Caleb & Chania
