Nothing much going on

Nothing much going on.  We are still trying to get our paperwork changed over to plenary and it is taking a little longer than we expected, but we could say that of the entire adoption.  I heard a good description of international adoption in Haiti, it is like trying to nail  jello to the wall.  That's about right.  We did get to skype with the boys today.  We tried to work on their English from a different country and they seemed to have fun.   Our hearts just ache to have them here.  

You have to just love these guys.  Keep us in your prayers. 

Sometimes the news is not good.

We received a message from Chris Nungester yesterday at our orphanage in Haiti that really made us get on our knees and pray.  We were waiting for word about how our transition from simple to pleniere was going, and this is what we received.

"Hi Scott Miskelly!  I wanted to let you know that today Junior took CJ's parents to IBRSR to complete the interview needed to change his file from simple to plenary.  The mother made a couple mistakes in her interview, not being able to tell them her birthdate or CJ's Birthdate.  There was also a problem regarding their not having Electoral cards.  (The do have National ID cards, but they also want them to have Electoral cards.)  IBESR agreed to re-interview them with CJ present and will consider allowing them to sign but because the political situation on the street was becoming violent, they closed before conducting the interview.  We will follow-up with them at the earliest opportunity.  Pastor Pierre brought CJ's parents to PAP for the interview and met Junior on the way. Afterward, Junior returned CJ to HIS, and was giving all 3 adults a ride back to Kenscoff this afternoon when they all became trapped in traffic and surrounded by the manifestation.  They watched as 2 people were killed in front of them.  They abandoned Junior's car in front of the Petionville police station and took off running to get out of the crowd.  They made it to the edge of the crowd and Junior found 2 motorcycle taxis.  All 4 of them rode the motos back to Kenscoff.  I am sharing this with you so that you can be praying for CJ's parents, as well as Junior and Pastor Pierre while they recover from this experience tonight.  Tonight I am praising God for His divine protection, and praying that God will give them a peaceful night!  Blessings!  Chris."

We were so thankful to God that Junior was safe as well as CJs family.  At the same time we realize this process is going slowly and we have no idea when they will be able to get all of this paperwork corrected and to the U.S. Embassy.

If you have never gone through an international adoption it is difficult to understand how we feel. It is like running a marathon, and at the twentieth mile you are told you will have to run an extra ten miles just because.  At this three and a half year mark we are just emotionally exhausted.  We are asked numerous times daily when will the boys be here and we do not know.  I pray for all families trying to adopt internationally to give them strength to finish this race.  Someday we will look back at this blog and it will all be a memory, but for right now all I can say is we are very tired of this process.  The good thing is we were able to skype with them for thirty minutes last Sunday and there laughter gives us hope and encouragement.

Keep us in your prayers tonight.

Simple Right ?

 I just found a post of what our paperwork is going through to get switched from simple to pleniere. This information comes from Diana Boni.

This looks a little bit more difficult than I thought.  We pray our lawyer is hard at it so we can get into the U.S. Embassy soon.

Christmas 2015

At the beginning of this year we were confident that 2015 was going to be the year we celebrated our first Christmas as a complete family, but that was not to be.   We still have not heard anything from Haiti since October 4th, 2015, but we know and pray that our paperwork is still moving down there.  The people we work with at the orphanage are wonderful, but this wait at three and half years really takes a toll on us.   Not hearing anything also drives us absolutely crazy.  We still have had a wonderful Christmas with our family and we will post some holiday pictures today.  We also have downloaded pictures of our boys with Santa to put here.

We all have one Christmas wish, we pray this in unison. that Cherdinor and Davidson area here with us very soon and the mountain of paperwork that goes on in an international adoption is moved because we have faith that can move a mountain.  Next year we will all be together celebrating Christmas morning in the warmth of our home.  We look forward to 2016 and what is ahead for us.  Everyone help us pray this together.

 

We wish you all a Merry Christmas from the Miskellys!!!!!

Skype Day Smiles

Not much has been going on with our adoption paperwork.   I wish we had some good news to report but we do not.  On 10/04/15 we learned that our paperwork like everyone else's needed new wording and has to go back through to get some some changes. The word plenary, which means complete and full, has to be added.  The law that made this wording necessary was changed back in 2013 and they just started implementing this in September of this year.  How about that for timing.  We were almost in USCIS.  We were sad that day but Chris, the orphanage director,  had a surprise for us.  She waited until we started Skypeing to remove Davidson's first tooth.  It was almost out that morning but she waited until skype time so we could see it come out.  That was really special and we can not tell her how much we appreciated this.  We have missed so many firsts already.

Skype has been such a blessing to us.  I think we would have gone crazy these three plus years without it.  Today, we laughed so hard during skype day. We ask them what they want to see and it is usually two things:  Jwet (toys) and rad (clothes).  Today, we played batman with them and here is the video of this.

That is just great.   We can not wait to play with them at home with their toys.  The waiting is horrible because we can not do a thing.

Wilson finished his football career at Chester County High School.   I wish our Haitian boys could have seen him kick.  He ended with 120 points for his career.  Madelyn finished her Junior year of High School soccer and is starting basketball.  Hopefully, they will be able to see her play her Senior year next year.  It would be great if they could see Wilson play soccer in the Spring but we will have to wait and see. 

Here are some various picture from this Fall before we go into the holidays.

 

Most recent picture.

 

Wilson kicking winning kick vs Lexington High School

 

Madelyn after winning district in Lexington

 

Madelyn after District Championship

 

 

Most recent picture of Davidson

 

Most recent picture of CJ

 

Typical skypeing day

11/15/15

 

Wilson went over 100 points for his career at the Lexington game and finished with 120 points for his kicking career.

 

 

Wish I could hold there hands today.

 

 

We miss them so much but we know that one day they will be with us very soon.  It is all in God's hands.

 

 

Miskelly Family

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 .