Day 1 - Visit with Our Boys

First, apologies for not posting in some time.  Our paperwork is still being converted from a simple adoption to a complete adoption to satisfy the requirements of the U.S. Government.  We have been trying to correct this since last October/2015 and still working on it.  We had some trouble with ID card for Cherdinor's mother and it is just taking longer than our lawyer thought it would.  Our hearts are literally aching to have our boys home, but there is nothing we can do to make this go faster.  We still Skype every first and third Sunday's of every month and laugh and fall in love with them more, but we still long to have them in our arms to hug and hold as soon as possible.  The ironic part of this is that if we had gotten them home a few months earlier we would not have had to go back into the Haitian court system to redo their paperwork.  Oh, well, nothing we can do about all of this.

I did get to lead a medical campaign to Haiti with the Estes Church of Christ in Henderson, TN.  The only sad part was I was the only one of our family who got to go this time.  We went to Santo which is a suburb of port-au-prince.   I was able to go pick the boys up and spend three days of absolute joy with them at our guest house.  I want to make three posts of the trip and do it in pictures.  They became part of the medical team and they helped with the clinic and were just wonderful.   They were well-behaved and polite, and we had a blast.  So here we go....

June 18, 2016...

 

When I picked up the boys they were all smiles.  They were so excited!!!!  This is us in the back of the truck going back to the guest house.  Notice Davidson has lost his front teeth making him so much cuter.  At the time of this visit Cherdinor is 9 and Davidson is 6.

After playing most of the evening we started getting ready for bed and they saw their clothes and shoes for the first time.  Their eyes glowed, and they were so excited a friend had to take a picture for me.  They loved their shoes and church clothes.  Davidson found his belt and gave me a sad face because his pants did not have belt loops.  I quickly showed him his church pants for tomorrow with belt loops and he was back to smiles. 

Shower that night was cold water and you would have thought they were in a water park. They played for almost thirty minutes in the water. 

These are two videos of our night of playing in that hot Haitian guest house.  No air conditioning, but Cherdinor has long sleeves on???    We had a great time.  We slept on the floor on a mattress but they did not complain because they were by my side and loved.

I will post day two soon with more pictures and wonderful stories.

R. Scott Miskelly

The Wait Continues

First, it has been three months since I posted, so let me give you an update.   We were told in October that we needed to change or adoption paperwork from a simple adoption to a plenary or complete adoption.   We were told at that time we were looking at least 6 months.    It has now been 8 months, almost 9, and we are slowly moving.  We have been waiting since April for an ID card for Cherdinor's mother and I was told two weeks ago that she had this and they were supposed to be in court last week.   I have messaged them today and hope this week to hear whether they were able to get her in court.  If that took place then we will start the process of getting all of the paperwork legalized again and through MOI so it can get finally to the American Embassy.  This will still take a good bit of time, but we are making progress and that is all we want, progress.  It has been 4 years this summer that our paperwork was sent to Haiti for the adoption of these boys and it is time for them to come home.

I was able to go on a Medical Mission trip with the Estes Church of Christ in Henderson, TN to Santo - Port-au-Prince, Haiti last week.    We were there from the 17th to the 24th of June and I have pictures and videos that I am downloading and getting ready for a long post with lots of information about the trip.  They were able to spend two days with me at the guest house.  My family was not able to travel this time to Haiti. It will be posted hopefully this next week.  Hopefully I will have heard from the orphanage by next week and come update the status of the adoption.

Keep us all, especially our boys in your prayers.

Miskelly Family

Waiting would be horrible without Skype

Today was the third Sunday of the month which means Skype day.  We have been skypeing every first and third Sunday of each month for four years this summer.   We have learned a lot about our boys through this process. Today, though, we skyped for fifty-five minutes and we learned that we are ready for them to be home with us. We miss them so much. We talked with the director of the orphanage today and no new movement with our paperwork. The wait goes on.  Here are some videos of our Skype today.  The phrase "pou mwen" means literally for me or they are saying that's mine.  When we Skype we ask them what they want to see in our house and they will answer jwet -toys, their "Cham"- room, and  their "mayo" -shirts/clothes in closet.  They will start arguing over the stuff calling it theirs and we laugh.  These videos are from today.

    

Hope you have a great day today.  Keep us in your prayers!!

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!!!!!