We might have our girls home by April!
Yes, you read that right! April, just a few weeks from now, our girls at home!
Since September we've had plans to travel down and help at an orphanage (not the orphanage where our girls live) from March 7 - 14. William is 16 this year, so it's his turn for a Haiti trip. Because we met the girls in December, we were allowed to go and visit them. So we added on a short visit with them from March 14 - 19th.
Then we got a most MOST exciting call! MOST EXCITING! The girls creche director thinks that their paperwork will be done by early April.
Yahoo! And time to get some serious work done. Bumping up our girls expected home day is a welcome surprise, but we were surprised. That's code for not ready!
So this week we've been happily painting their bedroom, buying some key clothing items, and smiling. A lot of smiling.
If I can work out the details I'm going to stay in Haiti with the girls until they can come home. I'd rather not do another big hard goodbye. I'm taking a maternity leave so, I'll just start it and stay with the girls there until they can come home.
Things to pray for?
We need a travel visa from the Canadian Embassy.
There is still some Haitian paperwork that needs to be done.
Pray that the early April home date really happens.
Pray that communication between the creche and ourselves would be quick over the next few days. I'd like to have as many details as possible worked out before we leave on March 7th.
I'd like to be given permission to stay at a friends house with the girls from March 19 until we bring the girls home. It would be much less chaotic than the creche, and I think it would be a great transition before we come home. It would also be much cheaper, and I'd love to save the guest house fees at the creche.
Pray that all the details work out nicely. That we can find a cheap flight for Steve to get back to Haiti, that there's room on a flight home for us (there are only 2 flights a week that go directly from Haiti to Canada, they shouldn't be full, but still, worth praying for).
Pray for the girls. This is one of the biggest things that will happen to them. They are leaving everything they are familiar with, to travel to a strange place, with people they barely know. I'm not wearing rose colored glasses about what this could look like, but I want their little hearts to be wrapped in love, peace and joy. I want them to feel safe and cared for. I want them to be okay.
I've got my rejoicing face ready to go. I can see the light at the end of this three year tunnel. We are so close.
Thursday, 27 February 2014
Monday, 17 February 2014
Citizenship papers sent in!
We sent in citizenship papers to the Canadian Embassy in Haiti for the girls on Friday.
We've been waiting for their passport photos since the first week in January, and this was the week :)
Cutest thing EVER? Little kids passport photos. I'm especially partial to this set :)
Some eye candy for you!
We've been waiting for their passport photos since the first week in January, and this was the week :)
Cutest thing EVER? Little kids passport photos. I'm especially partial to this set :)
Some eye candy for you!
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| Lovely 'stern' passport photos! |
It's a small thing, but this process seems to be a series of small things. There are about five offices our papers still need to travel through, and our citizenship papers travelling through the Canadian Embassy in Haiti is one of them.
Pray for the Richardson's paperwork to keep moving!!
Saturday, 8 February 2014
I Forgot
There are so many emotions and thoughts to juggle when you are growing your family through international adoption. Big highs and big lows. Everything all at once and months of nothing.
And for a long time we were waiting. We were matched with the girls in May, and then we heard almost nothing for six months. I had pictures, and monthly updates with weights and small milestones, but I wasn't aware of any movement in our adoption. (we hoped the papers were moving through offices, but until the papers exit the IBESR you don't know what is happening.)
While I was waiting I did a lot of wondering and worrying. Here's a smidge of what was floating through my brain: I wonder what the girls are like. I wonder what it will be like to have little kids again. Can I do little kids again? Am I too old for this? How are we going to pay for all this? I wonder when we'll get to meet them. Will I know how to raise black children? I wonder if they'll like us. Is our adoption ethical?
Lots of wondering. Lots of worrying.
But in the middle of all that wondering I forgot something. I forgot the girls were waiting for a family to adopt them.
One of my earliest motivators to adopt internationally was because I knew the planet is full of little people who are being raised with out a family. Orphans. And even if they are raised in a great orphanage, it's still an orphanage.
But then I got busy adopting and I forgot. I was worrying about so many things that I forgot the big thing. That these two girls in my pictures, need a family. That the very same adoption that is a source of joy for me means that they have had a lot of sadness and loss in their life.
There are so many ugly things that can happen in an international adoption. There can be corruption, child trafficking, bribes and extortion. I got stuck worrying that I might unintentionally be a part of that ugly problem. Most of the online buzz about international adoption is bad press. And there's good reason for it. All the things that can go wrong, do go wrong.
Often.
I've seen corruption, heard first hand stories of children who have been trafficked, met many children who shouldn't be in an orphanage, have knowledge of bribes and understand how extortion proliferates in these situations. And I've only been paying attention to international adoption issues for a few years.
(My love for Kofael (www.kofael.org) has grown out of this deep concern about unethical adoptions. There are thousands of children in Haiti who could move home tomorrow if we would could find a way to support their families. If you want to make a big difference, look at this organization, their slogan, "Creating options, not orphans" sums it up nicely).
But, all the horrible things that happen in international adoptions doesn't mean that there aren't children out there that need families. There are. There are thousands of kids on the planet that need a family. You have to pay attention, and be sure to deal with organizations that are upright, but there is such a thing as an ethical adoption.
I hope my girls adoption is ethical. But I'll never know 100%. I think I asked all the right questions, and I think that Canada follows a very clean procedure, but there is always a chance that it's not.
Worrying about that took up so much mental real estate that I forgot.
And then I got to their creche (a type of Haitian orphanage) and I remembered. It smacked me right in the face that these little girls don't live with a family. That my five year old is primarily responsible for the emotional well-being of my two year old. That my two year old might cry with out anyone to pick her up and tell her it will be okay. That on a daily basis they spend a lot of their time without the kind of adult attention that we know children need. That if they should remain in an orphanage it would greatly affect their long term trajectory. That it's a big deal to grow up in an orphanage. That they've had a story of heart break and disappointment.
The girls creche is really nice by creche standards. They get three meals a day. They see a doctor when their sick. They have aunties who love them. They have clean clothes. There are things I would do differently (shocking, I know) but for a Haitian creche, it's top notch. But it's still an orphanage.
So, now I remember. I remember that my two girls are living apart from us. I remember the loss they have been through in their little lives. I remember that we will be their family, and they are not with us. I remember and it hurts in a way that I didn't expect, right to the core of my being. I'm not sad for myself, I'm a big girl and I can take it. But they're not, they're little, and they're living in an orphanage, and every day they're there is a day they aren't with us.
And now that that truth has really settled in, it makes this waiting even harder.
And for a long time we were waiting. We were matched with the girls in May, and then we heard almost nothing for six months. I had pictures, and monthly updates with weights and small milestones, but I wasn't aware of any movement in our adoption. (we hoped the papers were moving through offices, but until the papers exit the IBESR you don't know what is happening.)
While I was waiting I did a lot of wondering and worrying. Here's a smidge of what was floating through my brain: I wonder what the girls are like. I wonder what it will be like to have little kids again. Can I do little kids again? Am I too old for this? How are we going to pay for all this? I wonder when we'll get to meet them. Will I know how to raise black children? I wonder if they'll like us. Is our adoption ethical?
Lots of wondering. Lots of worrying.
But in the middle of all that wondering I forgot something. I forgot the girls were waiting for a family to adopt them.
 |
| Saying grace before dinner. |
 |
| Always lots of kids to occupy laps. |
There are so many ugly things that can happen in an international adoption. There can be corruption, child trafficking, bribes and extortion. I got stuck worrying that I might unintentionally be a part of that ugly problem. Most of the online buzz about international adoption is bad press. And there's good reason for it. All the things that can go wrong, do go wrong.
Often.
I've seen corruption, heard first hand stories of children who have been trafficked, met many children who shouldn't be in an orphanage, have knowledge of bribes and understand how extortion proliferates in these situations. And I've only been paying attention to international adoption issues for a few years.
(My love for Kofael (www.kofael.org) has grown out of this deep concern about unethical adoptions. There are thousands of children in Haiti who could move home tomorrow if we would could find a way to support their families. If you want to make a big difference, look at this organization, their slogan, "Creating options, not orphans" sums it up nicely).
But, all the horrible things that happen in international adoptions doesn't mean that there aren't children out there that need families. There are. There are thousands of kids on the planet that need a family. You have to pay attention, and be sure to deal with organizations that are upright, but there is such a thing as an ethical adoption.
I hope my girls adoption is ethical. But I'll never know 100%. I think I asked all the right questions, and I think that Canada follows a very clean procedure, but there is always a chance that it's not.
Worrying about that took up so much mental real estate that I forgot.
And then I got to their creche (a type of Haitian orphanage) and I remembered. It smacked me right in the face that these little girls don't live with a family. That my five year old is primarily responsible for the emotional well-being of my two year old. That my two year old might cry with out anyone to pick her up and tell her it will be okay. That on a daily basis they spend a lot of their time without the kind of adult attention that we know children need. That if they should remain in an orphanage it would greatly affect their long term trajectory. That it's a big deal to grow up in an orphanage. That they've had a story of heart break and disappointment.
The girls creche is really nice by creche standards. They get three meals a day. They see a doctor when their sick. They have aunties who love them. They have clean clothes. There are things I would do differently (shocking, I know) but for a Haitian creche, it's top notch. But it's still an orphanage.
So, now I remember. I remember that my two girls are living apart from us. I remember the loss they have been through in their little lives. I remember that we will be their family, and they are not with us. I remember and it hurts in a way that I didn't expect, right to the core of my being. I'm not sad for myself, I'm a big girl and I can take it. But they're not, they're little, and they're living in an orphanage, and every day they're there is a day they aren't with us.
And now that that truth has really settled in, it makes this waiting even harder.
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