Some Pictures for FUN on a Sunday

We have some pictures to post from our Sept 2014 visit that we wanted to post.   This trip was when we filed our I-600 in Port-au-Prince.   We had such a good trip, and we still talk about our time with the boys.  Today is Skype day and we are excited to talk with them this afternoon.  We are still waiting to here if we are closer to getting our adoption decree.   Nothing we can do to help this along.  We did file an extension on our I-600 this month and it will be good until July of this year and we will have to update our fingerprints in August.  Time moves on.... The woman in the second and third photo is Chris Nungester who runs the orphanage where our boys are at.  She is an awesome woman and has done an excellent job taking care of our boys.  We pray for her along with our boys every day.  The orphanage is called HIS Home for Children and you can find that orphanage on the web with any search engine.  It is a great place and you should take a look at their work.

 

 

 

 

Oh, we wish they were here so we could give them a hug and play with them.  Anxiously and Excitedly waiting.  

 

I still have newer pictures but have not gotten them ready yet.

Easter 2015

We just got back from Haiti at the end of March, and we are exhausted.  We had five mobile medical clinics that we ran and saw about 2,000 people in Port-au-Prince that week.  The mission trip was a success with lots of teaching, a gospel meeting, and you could not ask for a better campaign in Haiti.  We did miss our connecting flight in Miami on the way home and spent the night on the floor in the airport, but we are not too sore anymore. 

We did get to spend a Sunday with the boys.  It was marvelous, and I plan to put a whole blog of pictures from that trip later this month with some video of them also.  I don't have it all organized yet.  We have been too busy.

We found out that we are waiting for a birth certificate for Cherdinor's mother to finish up in the Court's so we can move on to get the adoption decree, and we are praying diligently for this to move along smoothly.

I wanted to post today about some lessons we are learning along the way and since today is Easter Day, it is a good day to think about this.  We were singing a song in a devotional called Everlasting God written by Chris Tomlin and this song touched my heart especially with this process of adoption.  This summer will be three years that we have waited, and waited, and waited, and waited.  We thought that we were waiting for the Haitian government, or the American government, or just the adoption itself.  But maybe we are waiting on the LORD.   The lyrics to this song are as follow:

"Strength will rise when we wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord
Strength will rise when we wait upon the Lord,
We will wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord

Our God, You reign forever
Our hope, our Strong Deliverer

You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint
You do not grow weary

(This repeats then)

You're the defender of the Weak
You comfort those in need
You lift us up on the wings
Like eagles

Our God, You reign forever
Our hope, our Strong Deliverer

'Cause You are, You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint
You won't grow weary

(repeating this last part again and then)

From everlasting to everlasting
GOD, You are everlasting."

This song is taken directly from Isaiah 40:30-31 which states, "Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:  But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk, and not faint."  KJV

Waiting on the Lord, to me, means that we become completely dependent on God and we let him worry about the things here on this earth because it is out of our hands.  It also means that we are willing to let him decide the terms of our obedience, and let him lead with us trusting in his plan for us.   This process give us time and opportunity to develop faith and trust in God as he watches over our every care.

This concept is invaluable throughout this international adoption.  We take care of every I-600 renewal, every fingerprint update, every home study update, and we let him take care of everything else knowing that in the end it will work out in his time.

Closing out today I want to share with you some pictures of our Skype session today on Easter 2015.  Most of the pictures are from today.   We are playing with their toys for them trying to make them laugh.  We have been doing this every first and third Sunday for three years this summer and it has become part of our routine.  We love this little bit of time to bond and to let them know they are loved and have a home they are going to be part of soon.  They are waiting on the Lord, too.

 



Make sure and read Isaiah 64:4,  "For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what He hath prepared for him that waiteth for him."

Pictures from our trip to Haiti in March will be coming soon when I get them all organized.

New Pictures

I found some pictures of our boys and wanted to post some of them for the fun of it.

 

 

 

Keep praying with us to get these boys home quickly this year!!!!!!!!

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.