Spring 2017 Mission Campaign

It has been a good bit of time since I last blogged and some of that is due to being busy and some of that is due to lack of movement.   We have been waiting and still are waiting to get our simple adoption changed over to a plenary adoption and we have finally moved out of IBESR and are in the court system once again.   We found out about this in January of 2018.   We have updated our finger prints and home study, and we sit and wait on that paperwork machine to move.   We hope the boys understand that we are doing everything we can to get them here even though there is not much that we can do.   Patience at this point is hard.   This summer will be six years we have been working on our adoption.  Our friends and family do not think we are going to be able to get them here or their adoptions are not going to happen, but we still have faith and will continue to let this be in God's time and God's way.  

We did see them twice in 2017.     The first time was in early June when we went on a medical campaign and we got to see them for a week.   Here are some pictures from this trip and I will post about our second trip when we spent Thanksgiving with them again the next two posts.

Sunday, their reward was a Pepsi.  Couldn't drink one during clinic days or they would not stay out of the bathroom.

Showing off their muscles.

Helping in clinic and they were great help.  Cherdinor helped worm every patient that came through and Davidson kept all of the medical team and the interpreters filled up with water.

Can't beat Jan's banana pudding, and yes, they did taste test.

Soccer, Haiti style, and they had fun that day.

Showing off their new clothes.

One day we are going to help straighten Davidson's feet and legs.

Wishing Wilson a Happy Birthday.

Sunday clothes.

And it was Father's Day in Haiti that Sunday.

Thanksgiving Baking and Eating - 2016

During our Thanksgiving stay at the guest house, we had a lot of time to bake with the boys and have a sit down meal.   We always asked what was the favorite part of the day and that led to a lot of laughter.   It was fun doing it in two languages but we understood each other as any family does the bond of eating and laughing together.   The boys always helped set the table and they always picked up their plates and took them to be washed.   They are very polite.   Before they eat they have a little song of thanks that they sing and it is recorded below.   We made pumpkin pie, cookies, rice krispies, and a meal for another local orphanage and served it to them.   We we able to bring into the country three heavenly hams and plenty of food for an entire orphanage and had fun serving them.   Needless to say we all had a great time.  Here are some pictures and videos.

This last picture is of "rhum raisin" ice cream that actually had a good taste.

Thanksgiving Haircuts- November 2016

When we first picked up the boys and got them back to our guest house our translator wanted to send his good friend over to give them a haircut so that they would look for the week.    They were so pleased with their haircuts and watching them made me smile.

Before haircuts-

 During haircuts-

After haircuts-

They looked sharp.   After a couple of days of coconut oil to their scalp it was looking good and they were so happy. 

Our next blog will be baking and eating with the boys.

Beach Day - 11/21/16

As far as we know this is the first beach trip for the boys and we had a great time.   We were about 45 minutes outside of Port-au-Prince and we had a blast.  I can honestly say that I have never been to the beach over Thanksgiving but when you are on a Caribbean island go to the beach.  Here are my kids.

Here are some videos of the beach.

What a great day.  We had so much fun. 

"The Best Thanksgiving Ever" - 2016

That is what my children said after our last trip to Haiti over Thanksgiving.   We made the decision to take the whole family to visit with the boys for an entire week of bonding, and it was amazing.    My daughter stated that they actually became part of us on this trip and she is right.  It has been 4 1/2 years now in this adoption process and we have Skyped every other week and had short visits but never all together.  I do not know how much longer we can take of this but we continue to wait.  For those who are interested we are still working on changing the wording from simple to plenary (complete) in our paperwork and are not sure how much longer this will take.  This has been really tough on us because we are missing valuable bonding time but we hope that we will be able to make up time after we get them home.

The best way to show you just how much fun we had is to let you look at this video.   Darby, my oldest made it out of all of our little video clips and it is just the best.  There are a lot of our emotions in this video.

I am going to post some pictures and videos in the next few posts that are themed so be watching for them.

Day 3 - Last day

June 20, 2016

Before we traveled to Haiti, I bought children's scrubs for our boys and had their names embroidered on them.  They were called little doctors all day at the clinic and they loved their clothes.   I asked Davidson the other day if he still had his scrubs and he told me that he did.   They had Spider-man and Ninja Turtle shoes also.   They even had their on medical bags with a play doctor set that Christy had bought them and packed for them.  They were little doctors at the medical clinic.  

Getting packed to go to the clinic

Dressed and ready for the day in their scrubs.

Davidson handed out candy to our patients and was very helpful.  He made sure my interpreter had candy, too.

Dr. Davidson Miskelly

Dr. Cherdinor Miskelly

You must get your immunizations before going to Haiti!!!

The boys were so helpful and even helped me with my big medical bag that was bigger then the both of them.  Wanted to hide them in the bag and take them home but thought I better not.

Both boys exhausted on the way back to the guest house and zonked.  

Cherdinor did cry on the way back to the orphanage and that was the first time that either had cried when we left them.  It literally broke my heart.  All I could do was take them by to get some ice cream to dry the tears.  

I had told Davidson that he needed to stop eating candy because he was going to get sick and he was staying out of the candy bag for the other kids.   He was playing beside me and I saw he had some gummies he was putting in this mouth.  I asked him where he got them and he told me the "blan fe" had given it to him.   That means white woman.    I went behind the curtain and the lunch lady told me that she could not resist those eyes especially when he asked so nicely.  I laughed at the both of them.

I will post again when I have some news.   Nothing really since the middle of July.   Fingerprinting again will be coming up next month.

We sure do miss these boys.

R. Scott Miskelly