Remembering the Haitian Earthquake 2010

We were able to Skype with our boys today, and it always gives us so much joy to see their smiling faces.  We love to show them their room and their toys.  They are getting really good at naming the whole family and they always want to see their room the things we have ready for them.   We are waiting right now for Cherdinor's mother and father to appear in court to sign over custody to us.  She has recently had another child and she could not come because she had given birth at the December appointment, and then she was supposed to be in court a week ago but she had an infection so we have continued to wait on this appointment.  She is giving up the newborn to the orphanage when she comes.  Once this is done then they will be able to get their adoption decree and we will just need passports, visas and finishing up the American side of the adoption.  We are closer but still not there yet.

I did find some pictures of Cherdinor during the earthquake in Port-au-Prince which was five years ago in 2010.  The orphanage where they live was hit hard, but they both survived and their story is recorded by Chris Nungester at www.hishomeforchildren.org.  If you get a chance to read what she went through, it is amazing. It sounds like Cherdinor and Davidson are just blessed by GOD to still be alive.   Here are a few pictures of Cherdinor during January 5 years ago after the earthquake (2010).  I have found none of Davidson, he would have been 5 months old at that time. (Even though some of these have date mark of 2009 it is really 2010)

These children have been through more than most of us in a lifetime....

 

 

They were outside in the yard of the orphanage at first, and then were evacuated to the lobby of the American Embassy in Port-au-Prince.  They may not remember all of this but we will have it documented well for them so they can tell their story one day.

 

 

 

 

This is one of my favorites pictures of that time, and that is Cherdinor at her leg.

 

 

Keep praying for us, this wait takes a toll, and we are so ready for them to be here.

Merry Christmas - 2014 and Happy New Year - 2015

Merry Christmas everyone.  At the end of this year we are excited to know that we are getting even closer to bringing the boys home from Haiti.  We were originally hoping in the summer that we might have them for Christmas, but I told Christy that it was only a small chance.  We had a wonderful Christmas with our children here in the US, and God has blessed us with health, peace, and joy.   We still have that place in our heart that is missing, by not having our whole family here and our family not being complete.  This wait can sometimes make you a little crazy.  We again must leave this in God's time and in God's plan for us.




The latest update from the beginning of December was that we are waiting for Davidson's abandonment paperwork to be signed by the Mayor of Port-au-Prince, and Cherdinor had his court date on December 12, 2014 for his parents to come and sign them over to us.  We still do not know how that went.  I guess no news is good news.  Once they get our of the court system they will have our names, and they will officially be Cherdinor Joseph Miskelly and Davidson Jean Francois Miskelly.   Then we will just need passports, visas and I-600 approval on the American side.  We sent our extension in on our I-600 at the beginning of December and like everything else, we haven't heard from it either.  I am optimistic that January will see some movement at multiple areas.




I wanted to post some good pictures of our past year with our Haitian boys from our two bonding trips and from our American kids over Christmas.  We do have fun.  It is going to be difficult for the boys as they come to the US hopefully in 2015 but our joy and love for God will see them through and help them adjust to their happy, forever home.


                                The theme of this photo gallery is "Smiles"  (or almost)

 

Finally, here is the orphanages Christmas song for 2014.  It is on someone else's you tube account so I hope he never takes it off so it will stay a part of this blog.  We hope that this next year is going to be AWESOME!!!!!!!

 

Cherdinor is in the orange shirt to your left, and Davidson is front row, white shirt, sucking his thumb.

 





Thanksgiving - What are we thankful for?

Thanksgiving Holidays 2014

 

 

As we enjoy our holidays with family and friends, we are thankful for so many things.  Even though are Haitian boys aren't home yet, we are still having a wonderful holiday with our other three children.  And, of course, we are eating more than we should.  As we go to our different families for meals, my children have given us a theme this year from Disney's Bug's Life...."They come, they eat, they leave."  We are also having a wonderful time catching up on our distant relatives.  We have been asked numerous times, "when are the boys going to get here?" and we still do not know.  All is silent in Haiti and we are still waiting to get our of the court system down there.  Once they do get out, then they will have a court decree declaring them ours, and they will take our last name.  We could literally go to Haiti and they would be ours, but we will still need to get passports, Visas, and finish up the USA side of the adoption to be able to come home.  Not sure how long this will take but estimate of three months is good. 

 

 

Even though we do not have the boys with us we are thankful that hopefully by the Spring they will be home with us. 

 

We are thankful that God placed them in our path so that we could find them. 

 

We are thankful for Chris and Hal Nungester for running the orphanage where are boys are, and the influence they have had on our boys in their informative years.

 

We are thankful for our three children here in the US that have accepted this adoption and are as excited as we are to get them here.

 

We are thankful to God for working in our lives and prayerful that all five of our children will come to know HIM and have an active faith in HIM.

 

We are thankful that Cherdinor's mother and father came to the US Embassy in October and gave up their rights to us so that we can adopt him.

 

I will leave you with some photos from our trip in September and some videos that make us smile.  I will also put pictures of my other children.  These five children are what I am thankful for most this Thanksgiving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

by the way "tout moun" means everyone.

 

Happy Thanksgiving



September Filing of I-600 and Second Bonding

 

What a wonderful trip!!!  We had an appointment on September 15, 2014 at the American embassy to file our I-600, and we took advantage of being in Haiti to spend 4 days with our boys in a nice hotel and do some more bonding.  This was our second time to spend some time with our boys and we loved it.  These boys have grown, and they are now 7 and 5, respectively.  They were 5 and 3 when we started this long journey.  I have posted some pictures and videos to tell you about our trip.

 

 

 

This is our selfie, all smiles.

 

After our appointment at the embassy we had nice meal at the hotel.

 

Pool time was awesome. 

 

 

 

 

Hide and Seek in the hotel.  They were always busy.

 

 

I finally got them in the pool and they loved it. 

 

 

Making progress and we took his braces off so he could show off.

 

 

 

We will hopefully have everything done by January to April of next year and we can go get these boys.   On October 14th 2014, Cherdinor's parents will have to go to the American Embassy for the purpose of officially giving him up.  He has not met them so this is going to be a tough day for him and for us here in the United States.  Lots of prayers will be going up.  Davidson was abandoned so we will not have to have any parent interviews.  Everything is at least moving along.  Keep us all in your prayers that things will keep on moving.

 

 

A Poem of My Feelings Today

Feelings While Adopting Internationally
The Roller Coaster 

One day, trying to grab something you want so badly you can taste it but seeing it out of reach,

 knowing that you will get it one day,

but no increased efforts on your part makes it come to you any faster.

Next day, not looking at the thing out of reach

because looking at it only makes you want it more,
and not getting it only makes your heart hurt and tears well up.

Then, glancing at the thing out of reach

realizing how much you really want it,

so you increase your efforts to grab it again.

Only to understand how truly out of reach it is

and that you must wait

until someone gives it to you.

Knowing that they are in no rush to give it to you

no matter

HOW MUCH YOU ASK.

Praying to GOD daily to intervene and make that wait shorter

but not getting the answer you want.

Anger because you feel like even HE is not listening,

but resigned that HIS timing is wise and
patience is needed.

Back to trying to grab something you want that is out of your reach

and continuing this cycle for years.

R. Scott Miskelly



Georgeous Pictures of the Boys

A friend went with us to see the boys May, 2014, and she happens to be a professional photographer and I wanted to post these pictures she took of them, also.  Cherdinor had Chikungunya during these photos and his fever was greater than 100.

I absolutely love these:

We wish we were holding them now.

Our First Bonding Trip, May - 2014

At the end of May after we finished up our mission trip in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, we were able to stay over three days and do some bonding with our boys.  We picked them up from their orphanage and took them to stay with us at an American hotel with swimming pool.  We had a blast.  We had Cherdinor's 7th birthday party and present for them both.  We had a great time.  The only thing that took from our stay was Christy being sick with stomach problem and Cherdinor just getting over Chikungunya.  He had just stopped running fever but his feet hurt him every night and he woke up crying.   The highlight of this trip was the flushing toilets.  They wanted to go to the bathroom all of the time to flush the toilets and wash there hands.  Afterward they would get a little bit of lotion and they loved this.  They had to be watched though because they kept flushing things down the toilet. My favorite thing to here them say was "pitsy, pitsy crem pou mwen?"

They had never been to a swimming pool so they were scared to death of the water.  My son and I could barely get them in the water but they did enjoy sitting around the pool and playing with the water.  They loved the bubbles and the balloons, too.  They were also afraid of the candles on the birthday cake, or it could have just been the fire, but we could not get them to blow the candles out.

We had a great time and I will put some pictures and video on this post to let you live some of our trip with us.

I did get Chikungunya when we got back to the US and had 101.0 or greater fever for 7 days and acute joint pain with a rash.  It was miserable and I understood why Cherdinor cried every night. 

 

Sorry, Madelyn, the only family member not present.

Cherdinor has fever over 100 in this picture.

 

Birthday bags with their presents that they carried around all three days.

 

My first Bible bedtime story in Haitian Creole. (My favorite picture)

 

New clothes - The best.

 

Pool time

 

I was getting a shampoo, but it was a spit shampoo.

 

 

We were playing with bubbles.

 

 

Davidson is settling down for nap time can't you tell.

 

 

 

 

Our First bonding trip was amazing and I would not change a thing except we would have liked to put them in our luggage and carry them home with us.  I wish Madelyn and Darby could have been with us, also.  This post is a little late but we had fun our trip in May, 2014.