Christmas 2015

At the beginning of this year we were confident that 2015 was going to be the year we celebrated our first Christmas as a complete family, but that was not to be.   We still have not heard anything from Haiti since October 4th, 2015, but we know and pray that our paperwork is still moving down there.  The people we work with at the orphanage are wonderful, but this wait at three and half years really takes a toll on us.   Not hearing anything also drives us absolutely crazy.  We still have had a wonderful Christmas with our family and we will post some holiday pictures today.  We also have downloaded pictures of our boys with Santa to put here.

We all have one Christmas wish, we pray this in unison. that Cherdinor and Davidson area here with us very soon and the mountain of paperwork that goes on in an international adoption is moved because we have faith that can move a mountain.  Next year we will all be together celebrating Christmas morning in the warmth of our home.  We look forward to 2016 and what is ahead for us.  Everyone help us pray this together.

 

We wish you all a Merry Christmas from the Miskellys!!!!!

Skype Day Smiles

Not much has been going on with our adoption paperwork.   I wish we had some good news to report but we do not.  On 10/04/15 we learned that our paperwork like everyone else's needed new wording and has to go back through to get some some changes. The word plenary, which means complete and full, has to be added.  The law that made this wording necessary was changed back in 2013 and they just started implementing this in September of this year.  How about that for timing.  We were almost in USCIS.  We were sad that day but Chris, the orphanage director,  had a surprise for us.  She waited until we started Skypeing to remove Davidson's first tooth.  It was almost out that morning but she waited until skype time so we could see it come out.  That was really special and we can not tell her how much we appreciated this.  We have missed so many firsts already.

Skype has been such a blessing to us.  I think we would have gone crazy these three plus years without it.  Today, we laughed so hard during skype day. We ask them what they want to see and it is usually two things:  Jwet (toys) and rad (clothes).  Today, we played batman with them and here is the video of this.

That is just great.   We can not wait to play with them at home with their toys.  The waiting is horrible because we can not do a thing.

Wilson finished his football career at Chester County High School.   I wish our Haitian boys could have seen him kick.  He ended with 120 points for his career.  Madelyn finished her Junior year of High School soccer and is starting basketball.  Hopefully, they will be able to see her play her Senior year next year.  It would be great if they could see Wilson play soccer in the Spring but we will have to wait and see. 

Here are some various picture from this Fall before we go into the holidays.

 

Most recent picture.

 

Wilson kicking winning kick vs Lexington High School

 

Madelyn after winning district in Lexington

 

Madelyn after District Championship

 

 

Most recent picture of Davidson

 

Most recent picture of CJ

 

Typical skypeing day

11/15/15

 

Wilson went over 100 points for his career at the Lexington game and finished with 120 points for his kicking career.

 

 

Wish I could hold there hands today.

 

 

We miss them so much but we know that one day they will be with us very soon.  It is all in God's hands.

 

 

Miskelly Family

Finally a little movement

There has not been much to post this summer.  We have continued to Skype with our boys every first and third Sunday of the month.  This is a wonderful blessing that HIS Home For Children does for us.   The boys are so excited to see us at the beginning of the Skype session but due to the language barrier there is only so much we can communicate.  Just as long as they know that we love them and can't wait for them to get here.

In July we had to update our home study once again because of fingerprinting.   My middle son turned 18 this summer, and he had to be fingerprinted.  They would not let him be fingerprinted until we had a new home study done.   Now we have four out of 5 of our family fingerprinted.   We know that we have no criminals in our family at this point. Hopefully, no more home studies either.

I have been corresponding with our Haitian lawyer all summer.   We have been trying to get out of the court system since July of 2014, and finally at the end of August we got word that we had received our Adoption Decree.   They finally have our last name.  Just knowing that in Haiti they are already ours makes us excited.   Their files are in MOI now and when they finish there they will go to Passports and we will be finished on the Haitian side of the adoption process.  The dossiers will then go to the US embassy in Port-au-Prince for visa approval and travel documents.   This process will take about 2-3 months.   We could possibly have our boys by Christmas.   This is the first time in three years that we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and actually picturing them coming home this Winter.  They are going to be cold for sure. 

I can not tell you how excited we are and how excited our American children are.  Football season and Girl's Soccer season have started at Chester County.   We are busy going to games and working so the time will pass quickly.  My oldest child Darby and her friend Kristen have finally finished the boys' play room.  It looks great and I will post some pictures.

 

 

Isn't that room terrific.  I know that they will have a good time in there playing.   They put the truck that hold the hot wheel cars down low so that Davidson can get to it easily.  I can see them piled up on the bean bags watching Disney movies with popcorn.

 

We did celebrate my parents 50th wedding anniversary this summer and I will put a picture here of that day.  This is a good Christian couple, and you will not meet any finer, hard-working, country people from North Mississippi..

 

 

 

I will also put a picture of Wilson playing football and Madelyn playing soccer.   Fall sports are big around the Miskelly house.  Wilson will soon surpass 100 pts in his career as a kicker for Chester County and this has never been done.   He has scored more points than any kicker ever has at Chester County and we are extremely pleased with his success.  Madelyn has worked her way into a starting position on the soccer team and we are extremely proud of her too.   Darby is a Junior in college and still working hard on her degree.   God has blessed us tremendously.

 

 

 

I will try to give an update when we have passports.  Keep us in your prayers.







"I will rejoice in trials.."

As we go through this long adoption process, there are several times in church services that Bible passages have spoken to us and have helped us through this long process.   This last Sunday, II Corinthians 12:7 - 10 touched me, and I would like to share this thought with you. 

Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure.   For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.  And he said unto me, 'My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.'  Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake:  for when I am weak, then am I strong."

This last week I emailed to get our fingerprints extended.   They expire in August and we are almost into the US embassy with our paperwork.  We can see the end of this long distance race.   When they responded to my email I was told that we would have to update our home study to get fingerprinted since Wilson has turned 18 years old this summer.   For those of you adopting, you understand how much work has to be done to get a home study done.  Medical exams, background checks, financial statements, documentation of pet's rabies vaccination, and just general paperwork to be filled out.  My first emotion was frustration.  I called and asked if we could just extend the fingerprints without the home study and the answer was no way.

As we read this passage last Sunday I felt that this fit our circumstances perfectly.   Satan will continue to buffet us in this process.  We have prayed almost every day for our paperwork to move quickly with our adoption, but we are lagging behind everyone.  Almost everyone who started this adoption process in Sept of 2012 at our orphanage has been able to bring their children home.  We truly feel that this wait and this process is a thorn in our flesh and our test.   The question though is how are we going to handle ourselves and our emotions? Will we get mad at every US adoption employee who is following the rules, will we get frustrated at God for not answering our prayer like we want him to, or will we be like Paul and take pleasure in our infirmities and distresses because only through our weakness can we show God's strength.

I will once again turn all of this over to God and give him the glory for allowing us to adopt these boys.  We will praise him for allowing us to teach them and show them about our God's grace and peace.  We will give God all of the glory and praise for this adoption and make this about HIM and not about us.   We will take pleasure in this process because we know that HE is in control and will bless us and make us strong.   We will make him strong through our weakness.  We pray for humility to help us not be proud  or "exalted above measure" about this adoption, but humble and weak knowing God, our strength, is in control .

Pictures to Post



I would like to thank Julie Manfred for taking some pictures when she went to HIS Home for Children this Spring.  She raises money to buy formula and takes it to the orphanage.   She always takes some pictures for us and we will share them with you.  

 

 



The first picture is of CJ in his school and he is actually studying English.  He knew his colors the last visit we made.  He told me that he did not speak English when I asked him this in English.  That made me smile.

 

 

The next picture is at the orphanage with the toddlers where Davidson spends most of his time.

 

CJ showing his beautiful smile. 

 

This is Julie Manfred and this is the eating area.  Davidson is in the back in blue.  That is their latrine in that open door in the back.

 

The man is Hal Nungester and this is Sunday morning service.

 

Not only does he have a beautiful smile but John 1:1 is behind him which means he is learning God's word.

 

Davidson at the toddler sleeping area.

 

This is a good picture of Julie and the toddler room.  Davidson center.

 

Now how about that smile.  Davidson you a ham.

 

I can't wait to get him here so we can play ball.

 

The next two pictures are their yearly pictures for the sponsorship page.  They are getting so old.  Our hearts ache for them to be here with us

 

We love these boys and can't wait to bring them home to their forever home.

We love updates

Another Father's Day has passed.  After each holiday we tell ourselves that we will have CJ and Davidson the next time we celebrate it, and the time just keeps passing on.   We still do things as a family and have fun, but we always say we wish our boys were here.  We recently celebrated Memorial Day by camping and floating the Buffalo River in canoes.   We had a blast.  Here are some photo highlights.

 

 

 

Camping is the best and yes that is me napping in the second hammock under Darby.

 

As far as updates are concerned we did here from our lawyer in Haiti at the beginning of June.  We have not heard back from her and that is the way it is with updates, few and very infrequent.  We are almost out of the courts and they will have their adoption decrees with our last name.  Can't wait to see that paper.   Then we go into MOI and then into the US Embassy.   We are hoping that we can get them home before Christmas time.   We can hope can't we.   Lots of prayer.  Here is our email.

Dear Mr. Miskelly,

All the documents have been signed for both children and we already started the legalization process. I believe that in a couple of weeks the dossiers will be finalized including Davidson's dossier.

I will give you an update in a week.

Best regards 

Ketlie Thybulle Woolley
Cabinet Hudicourt-Woolley
16 Rue Tertulien Guilbaud
Christ Roi, Port-au-Prince
Haiti

This summer is three years into this process.   CJ turned 8 in May and Davidson will be 6 in August.  It is hard to believe that we have known them since they were 5 and 3 back in 2012 and they are still not here with us.   We continue to pray daily.  I'll try to put their latest pictures on the next post.

Mother's Day Video Message and some pictures from our last visit.

All is quiet this month except we got a video message on Mother's Day that made Christy cry.  We were not expecting the message and sometimes those things really surprise you.   Our last Skype with the boys was really fun.  They actually like to go to their room and look at their toys and clothes that are waiting for them.  They already like a pair of Spiderman boots and we can here them say "pou mwen"  meaning "for Me".    I sure there will be some discussion over whose toys are whose, but we will help them work through that.  Here is the video message for Mother's Day.

Here are some pictures from our trip to see the boys at the end of March.  What a wonderful trip and it was really hard to leave them there this time.  This was Madelyn's first trip to Haiti.

 This is Chedna, Cherdinor's little sister.

We played like were getting an exam, they loved it.

This was as soon as we walked in, and they came running to see us.  Madelyn's first time to see them.

 

 

What a fun time the last week in March 2015.  We had a blast.  WE are still waiting on the final paperwork to get them out of court and we anxiously wait every day to here some kind of news about them.    Other than Skype we will not see them again this year unless we go down to pick them up.  We hope we can do that soon.  I'll keep posting pictures and keeping everyone updated.