Naps

Today we had some issues with Droiy. He doesn't want to nap but we do. He ended up winning in the end and did not take a nap other than in church. The good news is that without a nap, he went right to sleep at bedtime. Here are two pictures that give a good example of Droiy's size.

Big Wheel

We got Droiy a Big Wheel yesterday. I know that it is for ages 3 to 6 but he had to have it. It is a little big, but he looks good on it. Right now he is eating eggs. He has had seven so far and does not want to stop. This boy can eat! He gets to meet his sister for the first time today! We will take lots of pictures and let you know how it goes.

Home Sweet Home!

We are finally all home and now are a big happy family. Well, Droiy is a little confused and a little grumpy, but his mom and dad couldn’t be happier. It was a long week ending with a long flight, but we made it. Sarah and Droiy did some coloring and now Sarah is pushing Droiy around the house on a chair that he calls a “machine.” They seem to be having a blast. Thank you so much for all of your prayers. As soon as we get settled in we want to see you all!

The Boys are coming home!

The home study was faxed in today at 11:30 our time, 2:30 Ben's time. It took a good 4 hours for everything to get looked over and approved. But finally, around 6:30 PM, I got a text from Ben that said "it is done." So I knew it was time to go ahead and book his flight. He is coming home tomorrow.

They are leaving tomorrow morning at 6 AM eastern and arriving at 11:30 AM in Portland. It is going to be a long trip with the 2 boys. I don't think Droiy knows how to sit still.

Tonight "Papa" and Droiy stayed in the Holiday Inn near the FLL airport. Finally, around 9 PM, Ben got Droiy settled down. He didn't cry about going to bed, because Ben was laying in bed with him. But he just sat up in bed and laughed at Ben. I sang to him over the phone - the only words about sleep I know in Creole right now. Dome and kabann, sleep and ben. So I just kept singing "Dome, Droiy, Dome, Kabann, Droiy, Kabann." The he started signing back to me.

Anyway, they'll be home soon and we will bring Droiy around soon to show him off to all our friends. Thanks for all your prayers and support.

Weekend with the Boys

Ben spent most of the day with Droiy. He is having the time of his life. He was definitely meant to be a dad. The home study paper work was completed. It just needs to be reviewed by the adoption agency director on Monday. She will sign it and we can then send it HHS in Miami. Ben should be able to come home with Droiy on Tuesday morning. Here is another slide show of their weekend. Droiy played in the park, had a bath, ate dinner, and then they went to church this morning together. Thank you again for all your support, prayers and many emails. They are much appreciated!

Slideshow

Ben couldn't upload the video, but here is a slideshow of the pictures he took yesterday. Droiy has been calling him Papa with his adorable little Croele accent. I got to listen to him and try to talk to him on the phone. It was great. Droiy really likes apples but does not like the peel. You can see him with an apple in his hand in one of the pictures. He bit of parts of the apple, chewed it up and spit out the peel, then put the peel in Ben’s mouth. This morning, Droiy got mad at Ben and hit him because Ben was pushing him on the bike and would not push him where he wanted to go. So Ben told him he wouldn’t push him any more and stopped pushing him. Then Droiy wouldn’t look at Ben or play with him for a while. Very opinionated little boy! Just like another little family member I know.

Sighs of relief…

The home study just ended. It went well. Cindy was awesome; she gave great advice and it was nice to be able to bounce idea off someone who knows way more than I do about adoption.

We called Ben and he was hanging out with Droiy. This is exactly what he needs! Ben gets to bond with our son so he’s not scared when he comes home on the airplane. Ben showed Droiy a picture of me on his phone and said “Mama.” He said Droiy just kept pointing at it and saying “Mama!”

Ben has video and pictures that he'll upload when he gets back to his room, as long as he has an internet connection. So be on the look out. I’m going to go finish working on Droiy’s room right now!

Good News!

The amazing people here at His House just informed me that their director is going to allow me to stay with Droiy. They are going to let me stay the night as well. No more sleeping at in scary hotel rooms. They just took me to a room full of donated clothes and let me pick out some clean things to wear. Good thing too because I am on my last set of “clean” clothes. They also let me pick out some things for Droiy. Hopefully I can get my interview done soon so that I can go see him when he gets up from his nap. Thank you for all of your prayers!

Friday

I can’t believe that it is already Friday. I haven’t slept in my bed for over a week now. The good news is that our home study starts in a few minutes. Sara’s mom and sister came over yesterday and helped her get the house ready. They are awesome. We finished all ten hours of our parent training and now are ready to be parents. Hopefully they will let me take Droiy home soon. If they don’t we are hoping that they let me hang out with him this weekend so that we can start to bond. If they do let me hang out with him, I will take as many pictures as possible and update the blog as often as possible. Thanks again for all of your prayers.

Alone

Sarah left for the airport at 4:00 this morning. That leaves me here by myself in Miami. I am going to hang out in the hotel room all day and take adoption parenting classes online. We need to complete ten hours of training by tomorrow so it won’t be a very exciting day for me. I tried to get breakfast at Dunkin Doughnuts this morning but didn’t want to run across six lanes of traffic to get there so I will be staying on my side of the street. That leaves me with 7 eleven for my meals for the next few days. Thank you for all of your prayers! Please continue to pray that the process happens as quickly as possible.

We saw Droiy!

Jim from Health and Human Services let us see Droiy for about 15 minutes as long as we promised not to get all emotional. Which we promised! And we did a great job! He is so adorable and he is so tiny. We can't wait to get him!
Ben says that is what is going to help him make it through sitting here by himself for the next few days. We just can't wait!!!
Thanks for your prayers, we will keep you posted on the progress of the home study.

Compromise by DHS

Our adoption agency emailed and said Sarah could go home and do the home study while Ben stays and does a phone interview. So Sarah is leaving Miami tomorrow morning at 6 AM. She’ll be home to pick up the house and get ready for the home study on Friday. We also have 10 hours of adoptive parent training to do, which we can do online. The adoption agency is going to interview Ben on the phone. So hopefully it will all work out and we will have Droiy back this weekend. Keep us in your prayers!!

Sitting

We are still sitting in the cafeteria of this compound. While sitting here we have met many nice people that are picking up their kids. It is tough to watch people come in and walk out with their kids in only a couple of hours. Of course we are happy for them; we just want our little boy too. We are still trying to make things work with the state and our home study. We seem to be making a tiny bit of progress. It is not much but it feels like we are starting to move. Our biggest need right now is prayer. Please pray that the state steps in and allows us to take him with only part of the home study done.

Ups and Downs

We got to the airport in Miami around noon eastern time. We called Health and Human Services and asked where they were keeping the children from Haiti. They referred us to a place called His House in Miami. Our first call from His House said they had no record of Droiy. Then about 5 minutes later, they called back. They said they had him listed under his middle name first Philippe Droiy and told us we could come and start the paper work to get him!!
His House is about a half an hour away from the airport. We took a cab to His House by a Haitian cabby – it seems like there are quite a few Haitians in Miami. His House is a residential program for abused children that have opened their doors to Haitian orphans during the aftermath of the earthquake. HHS is also headquartered here.
When we arrived, HHS made sure we had all our documents to proceed with taking Droiy home. At this point we thought that we were going to see Droiy soon. This is when we ran into our first problem. We did not ever complete our home study. Long story short, we were told that we did not need to complete the home study for this portion of the process.
We have been working on a way to get our home study done without us going home without Droiy. HHS has been extremely helpful in this process. They have been working on it almost non-stop. The staff at His House has been great as well. We were on our way to a hotel in a shady part of Miami last night when they called us and offered for us to stay here on campus.
We are getting closer, but we still need all of your prayers. Although we have been here for almost 24 hours, we still haven’t seen Droiy. It is tough knowing that he is only two buildings away from us and we still can’t see him.
If you want more information about His House and the amazing work that they are doing for kids, check out: www.hhch.org
We will update you with any new information as soon as we can.

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective

James 5:16

We talked to Dr Bernard today and he asked who was helping us adopt Droiy and process his paper work. We told him USCIS. He just seemed surprised that everything was going so smoothly. He did not think we would be able to adopt him and was not sure the Presidential exception would have gone through, even if we applied for it. However, it seemed that everything is looking like it will clear.

Once Droiy’s visa goes through, he wants us to contact another family that was in the same situation we were in before the earthquake. Which, we will do. We just want to say thanks to you all for all your support and prayers. We know that is what has made all the difference.

Update

Dr. Bernard took Droiy to the embassy today to prove that Droiy is available for adoption and get his transportation documents. We waited all day to find out how it went but did not hear until about 9:00pm. Dr. Bernard said that things went well but they needed our address. We emailed him our address and are again waiting for more information. Once they give us the okay, the prime minister still needs to sign off. When that happens Droiy will get put on a plane for Miami. At that point they will call us and tell us to come get him! We will do our best to update everyone as often as possible.

Almost there!!

We got invited to teleconference with USCIS to provide information on the process for Haitian adoptions. What we found out was great and gave us some answers as to where we are at in the process.

If they are processing our case, these are the steps in the process:

1. Get info emailed from parents – done
2. Initial review to see if they meet category 1 or 2 criteria – done
3. Send it on for 2nd more intense review – done
4. Background checks – done
5. Fingerprint checks – in process
6. Parents, orphanage and embassy notified of preliminary decision
7. Final decision made in embassy in Haiti
8. Final decision signed by Prime minister in Haiti and Droiy flies to Miami!

So, at the end of the conference we determined we were about 5/8ths of the way done. 62.5% there!
Then at 7PM tonight we got an email, saying we completed step 6!!

We just need to prove he is adoptable to the US embassy in Haiti and then the Haitian Prime minister has to sign off.

75% of the way there! He’s almost here!

Fingerprinting!

Hey guys. Quick update; nothing official… We got a phone call from USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) this morning. They told us to go get fingerprinted at their local Portland office. So we did! It was cool to get a real phone call from the government working on our Haitian adoption case. We are hoping that means our case is progressing. Thanks for all of your prayers and support. We’ll let you know if we find out anything new.