Passport delay

After waiting nearly 7 weeks for R.J.'s passport, we got this message today from Dixie, the orphanage director at GLA:

We have 32 children waiting for passports. The Ministry of Interior, responsible for approving the passports, has added a step in the process. They did not tell anyone that they were adding this step; however, no adoption passports have been approved since January. Finally in early April, we were told that the lawyer needs to fill out a form. They have since changed their mind, and now anyone from the orphanage can go to the Ministry of Interior and fill out this special form asking for the child's passport.

The form is very long, asking for a lot of information about each adoptive parent. LaDawn spent one whole day this week just finding the information for the forms, so that Terriot can go and fill them out. Of course, when he arrived with 32 forms, they would not receive him and gave him an appointment for Friday, the 27th. They told him they could not do all of them in one day, and he would need to come back three days next week to get them all filled out. They will not give us the forms so we can fill them out in advance. Rather, we must fill them out sitting with the person in charge of doing the form.

We are praying that once we have filled out and submitted these forms, that the passports will be approved quickly and we can get some children home and beds opened up!

Donations welcome for the GLA Toddler House

With an estimated 40 days until we travel to Haiti to bring R.J. home, we are beginning to plan ahead for our trip. It is customary for anyone traveling to an overseas orphanage to take along some donations, and we will be able to take 100-150 lbs. of supplies with us. We asked Molly for ideas of things that could be used at the Toddler House where R.J. lives, and we now have a list to share with anyone who might wish to contribute something to our collection of donations to take to Haiti.

Click here to download the list.

There are 65 kids, ages 2 and up, who live at the Toddler House at God's Littlest Angels orphanage. Just imagine the numbers of supplies they go through -- for instance, that's several 150-count bottles of multivitamins each week! School supplies are needed because all of the kids are schooled right there at the orphanage, which includes learning to read and write in English (since the majority of children at GLA are adopted by families from the U.S. and Canada).

As Molly said, Whatever you are willing to donate will be used and fully appreciated! Sincere thanks in advance to all who are able to help out! :)

~Angie & Phil

March photos and update from GLA

Dear Phil and Angie,

Thank you for the email. I really enjoyed hearing from you. I hope all is going well for you and your family there. It’s hard to believe that another six weeks have flow by since I last wrote. It’s been a great March! We’ve had a lot going on at the GLA toddler house, and I am excited to be able to share a little bit of it with you!

The third week of February was Kanaval week in Haiti. As in tradition with the Haitian custom we had a kids’ Kanaval party here, one morning, at the toddler house as well. The kids dressed up and made bright masks and head bands covered in glitter. We sang and danced, until everyone was exhausted and then we turned on national television to watch the festivities live in Port Au Prince. This is the first time the kids were able to watch it on TV. It was quieter than nap time in the room as they stared in amazement at the parade floats and artists performing. That night bath time was a little extra long as the nannies scrubbed to remove the last traces of face paint from each child.

Ronaldo is healthy and doing well. He has not been on any medications. He is growing at a steady rate. His current measurements follow:
Height: 112 cm (44 inches)
Weight: 51 lbs

We have started a new tradition here at the toddler house. Every Friday night Ronaldo and a group of his friends sit outside anxiously waiting for my arrival from dinner at the other house so I can start up movie night! I open up the door as a dozen kids pile in to find their seats and vote on which movie to watch. I let them choose and slip out to start up popcorn and juice for the movie. As I come back in with the bowls and cups in my hands I get a smile and a thank you but it seems that their eyes never leave the screen. They reach into the bowls packing popcorn into their mouths still with both eyes glued to the television. The movie room is underneath my room and I can hear their explosive laughter and cute comments all throughout the movie. I love hearing the excitement of movie night even if it does mean answering the questions of what movie we will watch and what we will eat and when and how long it will be every day until next Friday.

Earlier in the month Ronaldo was picked up by Ernst (a worker at GLA) with his Haitian mother in the car heading off to INS for some paperwork. Ronaldo was very excited for this outing. He picked out the clothes he was going to wear and waited at the gate for the car horn to sound telling him it was time. With his backpack full of goodies and a smile on his face he hopped into the car ready for his day out. Several hours later Ronaldo returned with a satisfied grin and a big plate full of rice and chicken and veggies that he had been saving since lunch. Noticing it was hours past lunch I curiously asked why he had not eaten earlier and he just opened his lunch with a grin on his face and started stuffing spoonfuls of rice and chicken in the mouths of several other children. That’s when I realized he sat with his food on his lap in the car the whole time waiting to get home to share his special meal with his friends.

Earlier this week the oldest child at our house celebrated her 17th birthday. Ronaldo was invited to the party and he had a great time. We ate small chocolate cakes, he carefully peeled off the paper wrapper, and then ate the crumbs from it, before calling me and asking me to throw it out for him. After it got dark we had a fun time with “glow sticks” they are plastic tubes that illuminate in the dark. We made a parade around the yard waving the sticks and singing. Ronaldo looked at them with so much excitement in his face just waiting for his turn to come up and get his glowstick. He picked up his blue and yellow glow sticks and immediately went crazy spinning them around in the air and jumping up and down. The night continued with lots of singing and dancing and laughter. :)

Just this morning Joyce was telling a story about his thoughtfulness:
"Yesterday I (Joyce) was watching the older boys attempting to make paper airplanes. The airplanes wouldn’t stay together and weren’t getting any distance. This morning I went down into the school room and started making airplanes by the dozen. I called Ronaldo down to help and he picked up the markers and named all the airplanes according to who he thought needed one. After writing the names of all the kids in his room he ran out of ideas and asked me who else so I started naming some other kids I thought would enjoy the airplanes. He continued to write thinking of some more names. Not only did our youngest girl here get one but so did Jesus and David. (He made it clear that he wasn’t going to make one for Goliath.) Ronaldo and I packed up the airplanes in a big zip lock bag and he ran upstairs to give out the new planes (which were pretty awesome). I stood from a few feet away watching him excitedly call out the kids' names. Finally all the airplanes were given out. Ronaldo stood there looking at empty bag while all the kids around him were playing with their new airplanes. He continued to stare at the bag and I knew what he was thinking. I walked up to him with a little grin on my face asking him what was wrong and he looked at me and said 'I forgot to make one for myself.' I let out a little laugh and we headed downstairs to make one last airplane which turned out to fly farther than any of the other planes."

I hope you enjoy the photos!

Many Blessings,
Molly

Last piece of paperwork filed!

On Saturday, we received our finalized adoption documents (in French) along with their English translations via e-mail from the orphanage director in Haiti. These documents are needed so that we can file our very last piece of paperwork for the adoption! This morning (Tuesday), Phil and I drove to Indianapolis to the office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (formerly known as INS) to turn in the papers. It was a very exciting 5-minute appointment and the lady sent us off saying, "Congratulations! Is it a boy or a girl?" "A boy. He's 7," I proudly replied.

Here's what all this means: There are two things left that we're waiting on before we can bring R.J. home -- a Haitian passport so he can leave Haiti and a U.S. visa so he can enter the U.S. as an immigrant. R.J.'s passport was applied for in Haiti two weeks ago, and the paperwork we filed today (I-600) finalized the visa application.

In a few days, we should receive the visa application approval in the mail, which we will then fax to Haiti, so that the U.S. Immigration office in Haiti can begin the work needed to issue the visa, which we will pick up when we go to Haiti to get R.J. Then, as soon as both Phil and R.J. have their passports, we're ready to go!

We probably have less than 50 days now ... :)

Getting a big brother

To say the very least, Charlie is excited to be getting a big brother! The anticipation has been growing for all of us, as we get closer and closer to the end of this adoption journey. In fact, for the last month or so, Charlie has regularly gotten up in the morning telling me all about the dream he had the night before of what he and R.J. are going to do when R.J. comes home. In these dreams, Charlie and R.J. have gone sledding, had snowball fights, and built snow forts; they have been playfully chased by our dog Honey, thrown a football, ridden bikes and scooters, gone swimming, played on the swingset in our backyard, and more!

It occurred to me the other day that Charlie has a very unique experience of looking forward to the arrival of an instant and permanent new playmate and best friend; so one evening at dinner I said to Charlie, "Do you know that when most kids get a brother or sister, they get a baby?" There was silence as this sunk in. Charlie looked absolutely incredulous! "They do?! Why?!" he said. I went on to tell him that he is very special to be one of only a few people in the entire world to be getting a BIG brother and not a baby.

Charlie still can't fathom why anyone would get a baby when they can get a big brother instead. Neither can I, now that I think about it. :)

Phil's passport renewal

After receiving word that R.J.'s passport was to be applied for yesterday, we are cautiously estimating that we could travel to Haiti May 14th (which is Finals Week at Taylor University, where I teach) -- since passports are averaging 6-8 weeks, and then it is typically one more week before being able to travel. We also decided we needed to get Phil's passport renewal in the mail, because it will expire June 1, 2007. Much to our chagrin, we discovered that the U.S. passport office is overwhelmed with applications, and it is taking 2-4 weeks longer than usual! We thought we needed to allow the usual 6 weeks for renewing Phil's passport; as it turns out, we need 10 -- although May 14 is just under 9 weeks away! Yikes! The most interesting twist is that you MUST send in the expiring passport in order to receive an updated one. (Otherwise, it takes longer and costs more!) So we put the passport and application for renewal in the mail today. Now we'll wait and see: Will Papa's or R.J.'s passport be ready first?!