Praises, Prayers, and Progress!

First of all, THANK YOU to those who prayed for our U.S. Embassy appointments and adoption re-approval paperwork. Our Embassy appointments on Dec. 7th went well and we got a "Congratulations" from the interviewer. PRAISE! We (along with the help of best friends and the best social worker) got our homestudy update and extension request delivered to USCIS in MO just one day shy of our expiration date! I e-mailed our officer a few days later to tell him that we had confirmation that our paperwork had arrived before the expiration date and asked when we could expect an update about our re-approval status? The SAME DAY (a rare occurance...at least in our adoption saga) I got an e-mail back from him saying, "I just re-approved your adoptions"! PRAISE!

We learned a few days ago that we are out of Parquet and that our adoption attorney has prepared our Act of Adoption (adoption decree). Another PRAISE! However, the decree needs to be signed by the commisary who is currently on Christmas vacation. PRAYERS NEEDED NOW! It is "expected" (but we all know by now that you can't expect anything on time in Haiti) that Mr. Signature will return to office on Dec. 26th. We are praying hard that he will sign our decree (and others) before the sunset of the 31st. There are several reasons why it is important for us to receive our adoption decree before 2011 ends. One of these reasons is that the adoption tax laws are changing in 2012. For us this change will mean (as far as we have gathered) that we will no longer be eligible for reimbursement on adoption expenses (like $25,000 of accumulated expenses in 2010-2011!) but only will receive a "credit" toward what we owe the IRS. Since we never owe the IRS anything, we won't even get the credit. We expected the amount of the refund to be reduced in 2012 but not turned into something totally different! If anyone out there knows a little more about this issue, we would love to understand it better...though we're not liking what we are understanding so far! We are trusting that God knew all this beforehand and will never forget the way He has provided the resources necessary to complete our adoptions. PRAISE! We were hoping the tax refund would be the provision for post adoption expenses (especially now that we are living on missionary support), but our real hope doesn't rest with some tax refund but with our Provider. Yet we can still pray that we receive the adoption decree (which is the document listed on the U.S. tax law to verify the adoption took place) before the end of 2011! We have sacrificed so much and are so close and know that this is possible if it is God's will! We know that if this is not God's will, He will provide a way. He always does. 

Our adoption decree (whether that comes in 2011 or 2012) still isn't the end of the road, but it is a significant landmark pointing to the end. Our adoption decree will allow for our girls new birth certificates (with Ream as their last name!) to be issued and later for their passports to be made. Marguerite's aunt and Esmée's bio father will appear in court once again (this time at the U.S. Embassy and with the girls) on January 9th to be told that the girls are being adopted abroad and will have to give their consent to this (for the 4th time). Our paperwork will go to Archives yet again and travel back and forth between the Minitstry of Immigration and Minister of Interior to approve the visas. There is another medical appointment for the girls in order to receive the visa and then an appointment for us to obtain the visas. And of course this is only a simple reading between the lines of the intricate web of complications we call the "Haiti adoption process". Or what I call "my life for the past 2 years"! I won't bore you with anymore complicated details. Just know that we are "close" but that "close" could still mean a few more months. Never thought I would say this, but if it is still a few more months, we might be ok with that. You see, when the girls get their visas we only have a short time (we've been told 3 weeks) to get them to the states. Once they are in the states they will automatically be U.S. citizens. However, we will not have proof of U.S. citizenship until we go through several steps (more papework...Ugh...will it ever end?) to obtain this proof. We have to do this in order to obtain U.S. passports for the girls so that we can travel with them back and forth from the U.S. to Haiti. The process to obtain proof of U.S. citizenship and then U.S. passports will most likely be at least 3 months. I don't want to have to leave Eric and the boys in Haiti for 3 months while stuck in the states with the girls! It looks like (from approximate timelines) that we will be able to travel back to the states as a family next summer as planned. We would then have the summer months to obtain the proof of citizenship before returning to Haiti in the fall. But we know that our plans are not always His plans. I mean, we cetainly didn't plan to move to Haiti when we started this process! So we are just praising Him for where we are now, for progress, petitioning that we will trust in His perfect plan and provison in all these things. 

One more PRAISE! We picked up our girls from the orphanage today and we will be spending our first Christmas together! 

One more prayer request for Christmas! Eric and I feel we are getting the best Christmas present ever just to have our girls with us for Christmas. While our 4 kids think that's great too, they are really hoping (and expecting) a few presents that fit under the tree. Our families have sent such presents but they are currently stuck in Haiti customs. Tomorrow (Friday Dec. 23rd) is the last chance to try and get some (if not all) of them out. Will you pray with us that we will be able to at least get the boxes with our children's Christmas presents please? Today we went to a toy store hoping to pick up a couple "just in case" items. The prices were 50-75% markup from the states! As much as we wanted to grab a few things to put under the tree, we just couldn't bring ourselves to pay $60 for ONE Barbie or $35 for ONE boy toy action figure! Our kids don't have many toys here. The boys fit all the toys they were able to bring to Haiti in one small carry on duffle bag. Our girls have a few dolls (most of which are now missing limbs and/or accoutrements). When I start to think about their spoiled brat response at the toy store today, I am WAY happy we didn't buy that $35 action figure! But when I think about little expectant faces on Chrismas morning...let's just say that I've shed a few tears over not having stupid toys available (or affordable) for Christmas. Once again, trusting in His perfect plan and provision to display His glory and mold us into His image. Praying our kids have a good attitude (should the trip to customs tomorrow be a bust) about this molding as well! 

Merry CHRISTmas from our family in Haiti to yours! 

Pics and stories about life with our girls coming soon!