Question

As we wait and wait and wait for our daughter to come home, i often think about how it will be once she is here and i am not waiting for her to come home. I know i will be busy being a mom but i really wonder what it will feel like not to wait ?

100th post

so it is my 100 post and i wanted to make it a really good one so i was going to wait until i had new pic of Z but we got some excellent news today. We are in M.O.I YEAH our file is moving.

I spoke to soon we just got an update about Z and a pic


Here is some info on M.O.I i got off a adoption blog A Child's Voice Intonational Advocacy


What happens in MOI is that the Office of "Juritique" looks over all the original Haitian adoption related documents (that includes birth certificate of the child, death certificates of the parent(s) if applicable, the adoption decree, the minute de greffe, etc.).Juritique looks for the authenticity of the documents and looks over the documents to ensure that there are no mistakes in the wording, but also looks for typographical/spelling errors.Also, each document has to have the proper legalization stamps (i.e. from Parquet, Foreign Affairs) on it and either a half-page Archive certification document or a full-page Archive certification document has to replace a hand-written birth or death certificate and the adoption decree if the document is more than one year old.Additionally, if a document is less than one year old, a letter of authenticity has to be obtained from the Ministry of Justice (that is a new step implemented about 6 months ago).Apparently, MOI staff has found fake documents in adoption files. This is their job, to ensure that all documents are authentic and that the adoption was processed properly.It can be frustrating because some of the documentation certifications can be time consuming to get. For example, a file may have a full page Archive in it already, but the MOI lawyer may not like what the document looks like, he/she may have questions regarding it authenticity. Thus, the lawyer may ask for a new Archive. That will add several weeks to the process.Or, there can be a spelling error on the Archive, the name could be misspelled, so you get a new Archive and you discover that the name is spelled wrong again...and then there is the realization that the name is spelled wrong in the Log Book where the original document had been recorded....so now, you have to get a judgment from court to state that the mistake is in the Log Book and what the real spelling of the name is.I do not think that anybody can realize just how difficult it is to work in an efficient manner down here. I think that only people who have spent time down here can appreciate the difficulty.Haiti has an extreme amount of bureaucracy and it is mostly inefficient. However, I have always been impressed with the people who work inside of the Director of Political Affairs Office (the office where you go to find out what your file needs and to do the "interview" - filling out the information form on the adoptive, birth family and the child).




I am not sure how long it will take to get out of this step but it is a step closer. YEAH for good news

I will take a "M" for movement please

Our file has been completed to enter in MOI the next step of the adoption process. It took 3 moths + to gather all paper work . We have not entered yet but hopefully soon. Yeah for good news

I just wanted to share Z's referral pictures. I can not believe how chubby she was (and still is)

MIssing Her So Much It Hurts

Today I am feeling very sad. As i go through this adoption process it is like a roller coaster of emotion . Sometimes i am happy and so glad i am a parent other day i miss her so much it hurts. Today is one of those days. I am not saying i do not miss Z everyday because i do but some day are just harder than others. So i will set here all day wondering what she is doing and wishing that he was here to comfort me.


I love you Z and miss you come home soon

Storms in Haiti

Many of you have been asking about the storms in Haiti. So far every thing is good the children are safe and the orphanage director was able to go out and get food for the children. That is all the news we have received. I will keep you posted if there is any changes

A BIG THANKS

Well we need to give a big thanks to some people. Over the last few weeks we have been planning a fund raiser to help us get to Haiti. It all started when the owner of our local pub wanted to help us raise money to get us to see Z in October. So our planning began. We when to local businesses and had prizes donated for a raffle and we also had a poker tournament that people could donate and play poker and win fabulous prizes. We had the fund raiser on Sunday and it was a success we made our goal. We get to see Z.


A few people that we need to thank

My brother Steve..... He is my heart and soul. He did such an amazing job. He spent countless hours trying to get people to sign up for the tournament and promoting this for weeks I do not know how i will ever thank him

Bill and Heidi.... the owners of our local pub (Brewskis a private club for members )
With out their willingness to do this and there support this would of never happened and there generous donation of plane ticket and more we would not be going to Haiti.

And i would like to thank all our friends families and well ...perfect strangers that came together and supported our cause

and last but not least i have a very very special thanks

Shanna ....she is really the reason this all came together. She spent hundreds of hours putting together poster flyer's getting donations. I do not know how i will ever thank her enough. When this whole thing started Shanna and myself were friends and now i consider her my family. She has went beyond what anyone normal human being would do. She has a heart of gold. I love you Shanna Thank you so much

Good News

Well there is good news from Haiti. They have found a teacher to come to the orphanage and he speaks fluent English. This is so great because now the children will be mentally stimulated and start to learn English which will make there transition easier. YEAH

OUr Adoption Story

It has just accrued to me that i started this blog to keep in touch with our adoption family and i have really never shared our story of adoption. Well R and i really never thought about having kids but 2 years after we got married we got the usual pressures for friends and family "when are you going to have kids" i guess that is the next step in most marriages. So we started to talk about it and adoption was the only choice for us.. I have always wanted to adopt ever since i was in the sixth grade and I got my first cabbage patch doll. I told my mom then that i wanted to adopt.

So growing up I never wanted children. Even when R and I first met i still did not want children and neither did he at that point in are lives, we were only 21 at the time so as time went on and we dated for 5 years we talk about marriage and children but it just was not in the cards and that time. We broke up and went on with our lives.

After four years we both were single again and coming out of fairly long relationships I called him out of the blue to see what he was doing and to my surprise he was happy to hear from me he came to my house that evening , two months later he propose and a year later we were married.

We started talking about adoption couple years after we were married. We researched agency and we found WIA. At first we wanted to adopt from the Ukraine so we requested info and WIA sent us a packet. One Day while i was looking through the info i was watching The Adoption Story on TV and this family was adopting from Haiti. I call R into the room and basically that is how we started to adopt from Haiti. Once we seen the children it was over we, submitted our application and here we are today waiting for a beautiful baby girl who we call Z

So this is our story, simple but all ours. Everyone has their own reasons for adopting and for the most part they are all different but one thing that is the same in all the stories. We all just want to be parents.

It is official

It is official we are going to Haiti. We booked our flights yesterday. I can not wait. October seems so far away now. What a great anniversary gift this will be. We were married on Oct. 31 2003. WOW five years. well i have known R since 1993 so most of my life really, but that story i will save for another time. Anyways.... We are so excited to be going and get to see Z again and our other adoption peeps. It will be fun and sad at the same time. i really can not wait for the last time i HAVE to go to Haiti because that will be the time we bring Z home. PLEASE BE SOON.

Z update

Here is the latest and greatest picture of Z
She is giving such a great dirty look just like her mom. What great hat they found. At least she looks healthily and happy. I just can not wait until i am the one in the picture holding her. The Oct. trip is in motion so we will be seeing her soon. We are going to celebrate her first birthday while we are there her grandma Milly has already got her a build a bear monkey it is so cute and me and R got her a sock monkey..... I hope she likes monkeys since that seems to be the theme. We are going the take a cupcake for her first cake and get hats and stuff for the other little kids it will be fun. Come on October

Mental Parents

I think i am going through a weird period in my life, my adoption life. I feel like we should not have any fun or doing anything without Z because she is not here yet. Like we are going to go on vacation to see R family and i feel a little guilty. It feels like we should be going to see her i know this is not possible but i still feel like that what we should do. I really miss her and i guess this is natural? When me and R go places we always wonder "will Z like this?" "what will she like to do?" i think we even have her wedding planned , well at least college. We always go over different scenarios, Like we will see a girl in the mall with her boyfriend she looks to be about 15 or 16 and she is making out with her him and me and R think we are never letting Z out of the house.We are always thinking and coming up with solutions to up coming predicaments that we might encounter later in life So i guess at this point in our adoption journey we are just mental parents not physically.

"Medika Mamba"

Here is an article that i got off a yahoo group about the food shortage in Haiti. at the end of the article it talks about "Medika Mamba" this is something that we are tyring to get into our orphanage

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080720/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/haiti_hidden_hunger

Feeling Better

I had a great conversation with L, she is one of the moms that went on the trip with us to Haiti. She was able to go to Haiti in June. She made me feel way better about the birth mom situation. She told me that she has come to the realization that Z will be going home with us and she could not be happier,that she really just wants a better life for Z and that made R and myself feel way better although it is still sad. Haiti is that saddest place on earth well.... the saddest place i have ever been no i am going with on the earth. I think every day,because when you adopt you have a lot of time to think about how much you wish your child was home and we want Z home. I wish she was here because then i would not have enough time to blog i would probably be exhausted and i would actually sleep at night instead of being a insomniac.

Haiti june 2008

not a happy girl

Well today we received a dvd and a cd with pictures of Z on it and also her birth mother and older brother. When we went to the Haiti in January there was a lady that keep saying something to us in Creole. We tried to get someone to translate but no one knew what she was saying. (i guess) So we got back our hotel room and R and I discussed that we thought that this lady was her birth mother. We asked the coordinator's to ask when they came back from the orphanage they just told us that she was her nanny we still thought that there was some thing there but we just left it alone and come to find out the group that went in June found out that it is Z birth mother and she works at the orphanage. I have mixed feeling about this

i am so happy that Z has her birth mom there to get her all the love and attention she needs and i know that this is the best case scenario and it is comforting to know that she is being cared for in the most nurturing way but i feel so sad for the birth mom because she is giving us the greatest gift and when we take her home this will be so heart breaking for both of us and i know that this is true for any birth mom but most of the time the birth mom has left them in the O and does not return. I don't know i am over analyzing this.