The Miskellys' Haitian Adoption Journey: August 2013

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Time is Moving so Quickly/Slowly.....It is all in Perspective.

This past week we moved our oldest child into a dormitory at Freed-Hardeman University. She is the first of our children to move out. She did not go far but the absence is still there. As we were driving around last night with our 16 year old and 14 year old we noticed it is still not the same. The whole group is not together. We discussed how we wished that time would slow down because before long our Sophomore and Freshman in high school will be graduating. Time moves so quickly...

I thought about this last night as I was going to sleep. We have been praying everyday that our Haitian boys will get to us quickly not really thinking that the quicker time passes, the quicker our children will be leaving us. We do seem to be fickle.

"Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." James 4:14.

Time seems to be moving agonizingly snail-paced with our adoption. We saw our boys at the beginning of June in Haiti, and we have only skyped with them once since then. It was a joy talking with them, and they are so full of life. We want them here right now so we can teach them how to be a family, how to love God, and to be able to read them Bible stories every night like we did our older children. We know they are in good orphanage and being cared for well, but nothing has moved with our paperwork, that we can see, since September 15, 2012. Time moves so slowly......

God will get our boys to us in HIS time and HE will also take care of our older children as they grow up and leave the nest. Our job is to just teach them all about HIM and be the example that we need to be to point them to HIM. Give us all the patience to persevere no matter the situation.

Miskellys' Adoption Journey Timeline

01/06/07 - Baby Paul born

04/02/07 - First ever home study

06/05/07 - Entire completed and translated dossier arrives in Haiti

06/28/07 - Baby Paul's physical and he is healthy

06/30/07 - Baby Paul has been sick and getting worse

07/01/07 - Baby Paul dies

Long Pause for almost three years as we mourn and contemplate trying again.

03/10 - Met the first Davidson and family decided to try adopting a child again

03/11 - continue to work with grandmother trying to adopt him

07/11 -Grandmother finally agrees to proceed with adoption

08/08/11 - New home study done

09/11 - Pretty much completed Dossier

09/11 - Signed agreement with His Home for Children to do the adoption.

09/22/11 - First fingerprinting done

09/23/11 - Recieved I-171, approval to adopt children

03/12 - Grandmother finally refuses to let us adopt the first Davidson and moved on to other options

05/12/12 - Tell Chris Nungester at HIS Home for Children to find us a child placing this in God's hands. She chose a boy named of all things "Davidson".

07/26/12 - Dossier arrived in Haiti and ready for Minister of Foreign Affairs to legalize the paperwork

08/23/12 - Due to new law changes in Haiti we were asked about taking a beautiful, sweet boy named Cherdinor to go with Davidson

09/15/12 - Paper sent to IBESR (institute du Bien-Etre Social et Recherches - Institute of Social Well-Being and Research)

12/04/12 - Updated home study

01/18/13- Updated fingerprinting

06/01/13 - Met the boys for the first time Face to Face.

05/06/14 - Updated fingerprinting

05/29/14 - Travelled to Haiti for mission trip and for first bonding trip with the boys and spent 3 days in hotel with them.

07/16/14 - Received notification from lawyer that we are out of IBESR and that she has dossiers in hand and will move them to the court system this month.

09/12/14 - 09/16/14 - Went to Haiti for our second bonding trip and spent 4 days in hotel with our boys.

09/15/14 - Had embassy appointment to file our I600.

09/30/14 - Cherdinor moved to the boys home to start his first day of school.

10/15/14 - Cherdinor's parents go to American Embassy to give away their rights. We learn more detail about his family.

03/22/15 - We spent a day with CJ and Davidson at our guest house in Port-au-Prince. Loved the play day. We were in Haiti on medical mission trip.

07/15/15 - Updated home study one more time to get our fingerprints updated. They would not do this without a new home study since Wilson has turned 18.

08/25/15 - Finally out of Haitian court system and we have moved into MOI. We have our official Adoption Decree and their names have been changed with the last name of Miskelly. THEY ARE OURS IN THE EYES OF HAITI.

09/01/15 - Davidson moved over to boys home with CJ and they will be together until we bring them home. They are learning English at American run school.

10/04/15 - Learned that our paperwork would have to be converted from a simple adoption to a pleniere or full adoption. This is the first time in Haiti they have required this law to be followed that was passed in 2013. This will affect several families who are almost finished to turn around and make corrections.