Day 3 - Last day

June 20, 2016

Before we traveled to Haiti, I bought children's scrubs for our boys and had their names embroidered on them.  They were called little doctors all day at the clinic and they loved their clothes.   I asked Davidson the other day if he still had his scrubs and he told me that he did.   They had Spider-man and Ninja Turtle shoes also.   They even had their on medical bags with a play doctor set that Christy had bought them and packed for them.  They were little doctors at the medical clinic.  

Getting packed to go to the clinic

Dressed and ready for the day in their scrubs.

Davidson handed out candy to our patients and was very helpful.  He made sure my interpreter had candy, too.

Dr. Davidson Miskelly

Dr. Cherdinor Miskelly

You must get your immunizations before going to Haiti!!!

The boys were so helpful and even helped me with my big medical bag that was bigger then the both of them.  Wanted to hide them in the bag and take them home but thought I better not.

Both boys exhausted on the way back to the guest house and zonked.  

Cherdinor did cry on the way back to the orphanage and that was the first time that either had cried when we left them.  It literally broke my heart.  All I could do was take them by to get some ice cream to dry the tears.  

I had told Davidson that he needed to stop eating candy because he was going to get sick and he was staying out of the candy bag for the other kids.   He was playing beside me and I saw he had some gummies he was putting in this mouth.  I asked him where he got them and he told me the "blan fe" had given it to him.   That means white woman.    I went behind the curtain and the lunch lady told me that she could not resist those eyes especially when he asked so nicely.  I laughed at the both of them.

I will post again when I have some news.   Nothing really since the middle of July.   Fingerprinting again will be coming up next month.

We sure do miss these boys.

R. Scott Miskelly

Day 2 - First Father's Day with our boys

This is day 2 of our photo diary of our medical campaign in Haiti with our boys June, 19, 2016.   This was actually Father's Day, so it was the first time I got to spend Father's Day with our boys.  What a blessing..   I will let the pictures tells our story.

The first thing Sunday morning I woke up early to get my lessons ready for the day.  I was preaching at a small church in Port-au-Prince, and I needed to go over my lesson.   It was not long before our boys woke up and decided to help me with my studies.  Could not do much studying with my buddies helping me but I did not care at all.  Loved the bonding time.

They thought my reading glasses were the best so they had to try them out.

They showed me how well they could write their names in English and I thought they did an excellent job.

Finally, all ready for church.  We were so hot, but they were so proud of their clothes.  Their shoes, their belts and those smiles.  I think they looked extremely handsome.

They were so good in church.   They went to Bible class and they sat through the lesson that I preached like little troopers.  Our reward was Father's Day lunch at the guest house with Oreo cookies.   They also wanted to eat the center out first.  A little difficult when you don't have front teeth.  

The rest of pictures are either on the roof of the guest house playing soccer, having devotional and playing in the hammock.   We had a great afternoon and evening worship.   You could tell that they had a great time.

Davidson liked tape from some reason.   That roll of tape kept showing up in his pocket all day and even the next day in his scrubs.  he loved that roll of tape.

Video of Davidson showing of his skills doing pull-ups.  He may have weak legs but his upper body is strong.  Cherdinor also showed off his soccer skills as the play on the roof of the guest house.

I absolutely love the hammock video below with them laughing.   It makes me smile every time I listen to it.       I will post day 3 soon.

R. Scott Miskelly

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.