Haiti Trip - 8Nov09

Our first trip to Haiti started on Sunday, Nov 8.

This initial trip is a fairly new step in Haitian adoptions. The purpose is to meet the kids, file paperwork for immigration at the US Consulate and sign paperwork with a Haitian judge.

Derk's Dad drove out to pick up Eildert and Owen around noon, then the two of us took off for Chicago's O'hare airport. We planned for a little extra time to make sure we were there on time and that was a good idea. We ran into slow moving traffic on our way through Chicago. However, our plane ended up being delayed by about a half hour because the flight crew for our flight was on another flight that was late coming in. After a late lunch on the road, we weren't ready to eat when we boarded the flight, but by the time we landed at 11:20pm in Miami, all the restaurants were closed and we couldn't find any vending machines, so we had a meal of cheese crackers with peanut butter.

We tried a few spots in the airport to settle in for the night since we had already decided that it wasn't worth leaving the airport, paying for a cab and a hotel, then returning and going through security again. Between the time updates every 15 minutes over the loudspeakers, A/C running on high and lack of benches without armrests, it was a long unconfortable night.

More updates coming soon

So, we've been told by a few people that we need to start making more posts here. Our recent trip to Haiti to meet the girls means we really should. But first, just a few notes to catch up from all the events of the summer.

The last post highlighted Owen's first lost tooth. He's lost 4 now and is waiting for the top two front teeth to grow in. If they take much longer, we'll have to teach him "All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth."

Eildert had a good time playing his first year of machine pitch baseball this spring. He did well and is looking forward to next year.

We took a week of vacation at Sandy Pines in August and enjoyed a quiet week together swimming, fishing, taking golf cart rides and playing at the waterpark.

This fall as school started, both boys started Cub Scouts. Eildert is now a Weeblos Scout and Owen is starting as a Tiger Scout.

Owen also took us into a new adventure by signing up to play soccer this fall. He enjoyed being part of the team and really enjoyed playing goalie (he didn't need to run as much there).

We'll start writing and posting about our trip soon.

1st lost tooth

Today Owen lost his first tooth!

Busy weekend

Saturday, April 25 was the Math Pentathalon tournament in Elkhart, IN. Eildert was competing for the 2nd year in a row. Cindra took him down and spent the day judging one of the events.

With Owen and I at home, I decided to take him out to Sandy Pines for a little fishing on Friday night. Owen had a blast catching 4 bluegill and sunfish, even ones as small as these.

More photos of the girls

Here are some more photos that GLA shared with us when they sent the referral.

Ermithe

















































Destinee




































































Ermithe & Destinee

Meet the girls!

As we have shared with many of you, Cindra and I have been working with Bethany Christian Services for over a year now toward adopting a daughter from Haiti. This week, we received our official referral letter from the orphanage outside Port Au Prince, God's Littlest Angels. Although we initially planned to adopt one girl, younger than Owen, we spoke up when Ermithe (8) and Destinee's (3) story and pictures were shared with us a few weeks ago. We are working on the acceptance documents and looking into the many steps ahead to complete this long journey and bring these girls home. We have been told that the process typically takes 12-18 months from the referral. Please continue to pray that the process goes smoothly and that they can be home as soon as possible.