A Smile From Our Girl

It's funny, as I was leaving work last night I had this image in my head of Mia smiling. Then today, we are sent her very first picture with a smile on her face. Looks like she is enjoying her snack!

Missing My Children

A new picture of my little girl. They say she is shy and does not like to smile for pictures. I can't wait until she sees her mom and dad and then we can get a smile on that face!



Look at our boy, so happy and looks like he is having so much fun!



I have really been missing my children lately. I try not to think about it too much and I have my good days and my bad days, but it seems like recently I have been having more bad days than good. I am getting down because a lot of people on the chat group I am a part of keep putting posts that every step in the process seems to be taking longer than expected. It also seems that Haiti keeps adding steps to the process making it longer. I was so sure we would have our kids home by December or January, but it seems that every day that passes, those dates of them coming home keep getting pushed out more and more. I feel like I am putting out my arms to hold Wadner and Mia and they keep getting further away. What keeps me going at the moment is that we are planning a trip to visit them in June, so in two months I will be holding my sweet angels in my arms. I just think about holding them and loving on them. And of course, to take lots of pictures with them as a family to keep us going until they come home. Sorry for going on, I just miss them so much and I desperately want them home so I can mother them. I LOVE YOU WADNER AND MIA!!!!!

Ladies Man

Apparently we are going to have to keep an eye on him!!

Maybe Mia's B-day and An Update

We have not received a copy of Mia's birth certificate yet, but from what I was told, Mia's birthday is today and that means she has just turned 2. It's hard that she is not home with us to celebrate this occasion. I just pray that Wadner and Mia are home before their birthday's next year. We already know we will miss Wadner's 5th birthday since it is in June. It is just so hard to have these special times come and go without my children here. Easter was another hard day for me. I was able to spend it with my family here in Colorado, which was so nice, but watching all of the kids look for Easter eggs and not seeing my children there looking too was tough.

I emailed Diana at the adoption agency just to ask for an update on Mia's papers and she told me the staff in Haiti are pushing to get all of her documents in order and to get them legalized. She also said that they are due for a batch of files to go into IBESR (Haiti social services) and will hopefully have good news soon that we are in IBESR and our file numbers. I am praying it happens really soon, as we still have about 8-10 months of waiting to bring our children home after we are notified that we are in IBESR.

Second Referral--For Our Little Girl

We received a phone call yesterday afternoon from Erin at our adoption agency that the blood work FINALLY came back. Everything looks good and we were given the referral. Mike and I had a doctor look over the results and then we wanted to talk last night before we gave the news to everyone. We officially said yes this morning, and Mia is our daughter. I don't have many pictures of her yet, but above are two that were taken of her about 2 weeks ago. We also haven't been given a lot of specific information, I know for sure that she was born in 2005 and I have been told her birthday may be April 13, so she will be turning 2 in the next couple of weeks. As soon as this information is confirmed, I will post it. I am happy beyond words that this little girl is our daughter; we had the same feeling about her as we did the first time we saw Wadner's picture. I know in my heart that these 2 children are my son and daughter. I will post more pictures when I get them. I am just enjoying the moment!!!!

More Pic's of My Boy

There is a wonderful woman named Sue (I have a link to her blog page to the right) and she took a trip to see her beautiful daughter last week. She is on the chat group that I am a part of, along with anyone who has or is in the process of adopting from BRESMA orphanage. While she was there, Sue tried to take pictures of all of the children for the parents who are on the chat group we all belong to. She told me that she made a point to make sure she asked where Wadner was so that she could take some pictures of him for me. The pictures she took are above. I am so grateful to her for doing that, because until he comes home to me, pictures are all I have of my baby. Sue, if you read this, thank you again!!

Back To Being Stressed

I was doing so good for awhile not stressing myself out over this situation with the lab results on the little girl they are looking at for us. I received an email from Diana yesterday (at Lighthouse Adoptions) that she asked for the lab results again. She emailed me today that normally the place they get the tests done is pretty "Americanized" in that they get them done quickly. She has no idea what the hold-up is, if they lost them or what. Diana said she is continuing to look into it to find out if they are delayed or lost and if they are lost, she will have them done again right away. She has assured me she will contact us as soon as she hears anything, but not to expect anything today. I hate when I see that answer, because it takes away any hope for that day that we will find out who are daughter is. I feel like I am never going to find out who she is. I know that I am, but right now I feel like it is taking so long and it is so hard not knowing.

I am trying to look at it this way. There will be a day, when my kids are running around with their cousins and having a great time, and I am taking pictures and laughing with them, that this day will seem so far away and unimportant. But right now, it is my life. My life is wanting my kids home, wanting to see them, to hold them, wanting so badly to be a family with them. I just can't stand everyday that goes by it another day I will never have with them.

Okay, enough with all the sadness and stress :) I will just keep on praying that I hear something "soon." And, at least I have gotten some updated pictures of my boy, that always makes my day!!

New Pictures of Wadner

These are some pictures that were recently taken and sent to us by Jamie, who is currently living in Haiti to help look after the kids and take pictures for the moms and dads to see while they wait. I think he is so cute and I love him so much!

Looking for a home for Jimmy

Jimmy is a little boy who has been at the Orphanage for over 3 years. He has been waiting for a very long time for a family and we are hoping to help his family find him. A friend has put together a video you can view on YouTube, so please take a look at (you can get to it from the link below, just copy and paste the link into your web browser) and please forward it on to anyone you think might be his forever family. Be ready to cry!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_XjPcUque8

Less Stressed

We still don't know who are little girl is yet and I just wanted to post a quick update, since in my last post we were hoping to know who she was before the weekend. I received an email yesterday from Diana (the programs coordinator for Lighthouse Adoptions) that she is working very hard to get the lab results on the little girl they are looking at as a possible daughter for us. My fingers are crossed that we find out before the end of the week.

I put as the title of my post "less stressed" because I am feeling much calmer this week than I was last week about not knowing who my little girl is. I think part of my problem is that I am scared to death that something is going to go wrong and my children won't come home. I am afraid that Haiti will stop adoptions or something won't get approved, etc. This weekend Michael and I bought some things for Wadner's and our little girl's rooms' and I think it was a way for me to say "I am buying these things because THEY WILL COME HOME." Ever since then, I have felt much better about the situation. I have made a friend who lives about 2 minutes away from us and their family is also adopting from Haiti (and they are using the same adoption agency as us). She is wonderful and in an email she sent to me the other day, she told me that she often reminds herself that God has a plan for all of us and we just have to trust Him. That is what I am trying to do. Of course I am hoping His plan is to have them home sooner rather than later :), but I am trying to trust that He knows what He is doing. I am not the most patient person (as many of you know!) but, usually when I am upset about the way something in my life is going, later on I see that when I look at the big picture, things happened for a reason. I just don't always see that when I am caught up in a situation.

So, hopefully I will be posting some good news soon about our little girl, but until then I will try my best to be patient :)

Nothing yet

We still have not heard anything about our little girl yet. I am going crazy not knowing who she will be. It is all I think about and I have not been sleeping well because my mind won't stop going; wondering who are daughter will be and how Wadner is doing, etc. I am really praying I find out today or tomorrow about our little girl, because I can't imagine going another weekend not knowing. I have been feeling lately like I need to just sit and cry it out for awhile, to get rid of the emotions that are bottled up inside of me.

Some good news though....another family who lives in the same city as us just brought home their 2 little girls yesterday!!! So....it does happen. They do get to come home. It's just getting to the part when they are coming home that seems to take an eternity!

Wadner seeing his mom and dad

I just received some pictures from Candy of Wadner opening his gifts from us. This is a picture of Jamie showing Wadner pictures of Michael and me. Jamie is someone that Lighthouse Adoptions hired to live in Haiti for 1 year to take care of the infants and other children with critical needs. She is staying there with her husband and friend. We are so lucky to have Jamie staying in Haiti, because with her there we should be getting more updates on our children.

I was hoping that we would be entering IBESR (Haiti social services) last week, but we found out that they want to wait until we have the referral for both of our children. So as soon as we know who are little girl will be, we will then go into IBESR and start the LONG wait. We have been hearing some good news that things should hopefully get faster, so we are praying that the process starts to speed up so we can have our children home sooner!

On our little girl, Diana emailed us that she is trying to have the lab results rushed so hopefully they will be back next week. Once the lab results come back we still have to wait on an evaluation to be done and for them to figure out if it is the same little girl Candy saw on her trip. We are hoping to know by the end of next week if this is the little girl for us, but it may not be until the following week by the time all of this gets done. It seems like a lot of steps, but they are doing this to make sure there are no "surprise" special needs that we are not aware of and that she will fit with our family. I can't wait to know if she will be our daughter :)

Candy's trip to Haiti

I received an email from Candy yesterday that she showed Wadner the pictures of his new mom and dad. She said that he did not quite understand we are his new family, but that will come with time as he looks at our pictures more and more.

Apparently he really loved the bag of gifts we sent to him. She said that he did not want any of the other kids to touch his new toys. Later on she saw another little boy with the dinosaurs we sent him and she figured he had wrestled them away from Wadner. Come to find out Wadner and this little boy are friends and he shared his toys with this other little boy. I wish I was there to witness this adorable scene.

About our little girl. Candy did look at a little girl when she was there that will be 2 next month. Diana, from Lighthouse Adoptions, emailed us yesterday that she received information on a little girl but all she knows is she was born in 2005. Right now they are waiting on lab tests to come back and an evaluation to be done on her and then they will see if it is the same girl that Candy saw on her trip. Then they will decide if she is the right little girl for our family. We are hoping that the lab results come back next week and that a referral comes soon after. So on a little girl for us, we probably won't know until late next week or early the following week. I will post as soon as we have any information.

My Son

I have been a little scared to let myself really feel this was real, because I am always worried, "what if something happens and we don't get to bring our children home." I keep a picture of Wadner at my desk at work. I don't know when it happened, but I came into work one morning last week, looked at Wadner's picture, and said to the picture "I love you." I don't know how to explain it, but all of the sudden, I feel this over-whelming love for this little boy I have never met. I feel like he is truly my son and I cannot wait to meet him and hold him in my arms. I think about him all the time; I hope he is safe, loved, warm, happy. I want so much to take him home and be his mother. I know the time will come....I just hope it comes quickly.

I also have an update. I received an email yesterday from the adoption agency that all of our paperwork came back from legalization and will be sent to Haiti. This means that we should be going into IBESR soon!

Gifts for Wadner

Last Saturday our adoption agency had a get-together for all of the adoptive families, including their children. Some of the families are like us, waiting for their first children from Haiti. Other families have children from Haiti and are going through the process for a second time. It was nice to get to meet these families.

We were also able to give Candy, a woman who works at Lighthouse Adoptions, some gifts and things to bring to Wadner when she goes on her trip to Haiti in March. We sent him a couple of shirts, some under ware (always needed at the orphanage), matchbox cars, plastic dinosaurs, side-walk chalk, and a photo album with some pictures of us, our house and animals. This way Candy can show him who his mom and dad will be:)

Shortly after Candy gets back from her trip we should find out who are little girl will be. I am so excited! There are two houses at the Orphanage, one called the "Big kid house" that has all of the kids about 5 or 6 years old and up and a "Baby house" which has all of the toddlers and babies. Wadner is in the baby house, so he should know who are little girl is and they will be able to spend time together before they come home.