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.

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.