Patience is a Virtue

Let's keep it going!

2009-08-05T13:03:00.000-07:00

So I got a call yesterday stating we are out of parquet. We went in on July 1st and got out on July 23, so that was pretty quick. Now on to 2nd legal, then MOI then Visa appointment and home. Hopefully the rest of the steps go quickly relative to what parquet did!

Long Time..No Post

2009-06-15T12:06:00.000-07:00

It has been a long long time since I last posted, but why post when there is no news right? Well at least we have some good news to post. Back in April I think, we found our name on the Le Mineteur, a Haitian Newspaper, that had listings of the Presidential Dispensations given. The paper was dated February 26, 2009, so our Dispensation had been signed sometime prior to that. As such, we thought we would get out of IBESR very quickly, but that wasn't the case. We did however get a call a couple of weeks ago letting us know we were out of IBESR and in Parquet. Not sure of the exact date, but it was somewhere around the 25th of May. Hopefully now Parquet will be a very short stay and the same for 2nd legal. I am looking forward to going to Haiti with the purpose of filing our I-600, but that can't happen until we are out of 2nd legal.
We aren't there yet, but hey, here is to progress!

Change of Pace

2008-09-24T14:37:00.000-07:00

I've decided instead of talk about our lack of progress in the adoption to change the focus for awhile and talk about the three I have at home. It has come across my mind several times to document some of the funny things kids say, so I think I will post little stories that I find particularly funny on this blog. To start with I have two such instances....

One day last week, Payton and Paris were out in the front yard before school waiting for the bus to come. They found a dead bird in the front yard, hurried inside and told their mother and Presley about it. Presley, of course, had to go see it as well. Once Payton and Paris went to school Kristen took care of the birds remains via a shovel and the garbage. Once time came for Presley to go to preschool she ran out the garage when Kristen opened it to back the car out. She promptly went over to the spot where the bird met its fate, found it gone and told Kristen, " I knew that bird was going to make it to heaven! I just knew it!" Obviously in her 4 year old sweet little mind the bird went to heaven not only in spirit, but body as well. Bless her little heart.

Now, the second story... Paris was at school, she is now in first grade, and was in music class with Mrs. Schenk. Mrs. Schenk evidently looked real good that day because Paris said to Mrs. Schenk ," You look beauuutifullll Mrs Schenk!...Kind of like an Elephant Trainer!" I think that was a compliment, but not sure where the Elephant Trainer comparison came from? I would think it came from going to a circus, but since Presley is DEATHLY afraid of clowns and such we haven't taken the kids to a circus in quite sometime. Evidently Paris, at one point in her life, remembers going to the circus and seeing an attractive Elephant Trainer.

I'm sure there will be more to come....

Take Care

What is the Purpose?

2008-06-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

That is what I am pondering right now. Why are we having this struggle. I know there is some reason, but for an impatient high strung personality like I have, it is really hard to deal with. I spoke with ANA's attorney of Friday and after three meetings in three days with IBESR officials, they are still reluctant to sign us out. They are playing the " We don't understand why couples as young as you with three biological children want to adopt." Apparently there are still issues with Parquet as they claim they still are afraid of what will happen if our case gets signed out and passed along to that step. They told the attorney maybe when the new law gets passed we will be closer to the guidelines and it will be time to sign. How can they say they care about the children when willing parents are waiting. Their age requirement is 35 or over and they sign other cases that are over 30 but under 35. If they fudge that far why is 28 so much different? Why is 30 such a magic number? Now the attorney doesn't even know what to do, so we get to try and find contacts on our own. I swear this process is going to take 10 years off my life. This is the single most frustrating thing I have ever done and it feels like we are no closer to the end that when we begun. What a day!

NEW FAMILY MEMBER

2008-04-22T06:52:00.000-07:00

So we have a new family member, and no, it is not our children from Haiti. We have a two week old Bulldog puppy. A couple of years ago, my wife bought a Bulldog while I was gone. This Bulldog, Lucy, became her little shadow and follows her everywhere. Well, we decided to get her bred to a great male named Edgar back in February. So come a couple of weeks ago we became the proud owners of two little Bulldog pups. We did this with the intention of selling them, of course my wife wanted to keep one, but since there was only two I said, "No Way, this is way to expensive of an endeavor to keep one". If you don't know, Bulldog pups sell for 1500 and up and normally the Bitches need C-Sections, which held true in our case. Unfortunately, Lucy didn't have enough milk and before we could figure it out, we lost one of the pups :( Since then, we have been bottle feeding this little pup every 3 hours. It has become our little baby, it really is ridiculous. Kristen has had baby fever, so I think this is helping that a little. Needless to say, after taking such care on this one little pup there is no way we are going to part with it. Not only do I think it is pretty cool, but my children would sacrifice me if I were to sell it and I don't even want to think of what Kristen would do. Hence, we have our third dog, a Bulldog named Lily. I will post some pictures of the little thing when I remember to bring my camera to work.

13 Months.....and STILL counting :(

2008-02-18T20:08:00.000-08:00

I remember January 16, 2007 very fondly. We were so excited because 1. It was Payton's sixth birthday and 2. We finally got into IBESR....YEAH!!!! Now the problem is getting out of the place. How can we go from being so excited to be in a place to so sick of it? I'll tell you, from spending thirteen months in what feels like solitary confinement. Anybody out there watched The Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End? I personally feel like Capt. Jack Sparrow in the scene where he is all by his lonesome in Davey Jones Locker. He and the Black Pearl are surrounded by sand and he is going CRAZY. I just want out of here!!!!! I know however if we get out we face the Great Gassant! I know deep in my heart that in order to get this thing done, Gassants heart or his employment has to be changed, but at the same time I would really like to have IBESR say, " Hey, you're a great family, you have our permission to adopt these kids". Until that day however I just ride the frustration rollercoaster, problem is it just keeps going up and up and up. There hasn't been the thrill of heading downhill towards the finish yet, but when it does there is going to be one heckuva ride and I am going to enjoy every minute of bringing those kids home...

Take care

Chad

Happy Birthday!

2008-01-16T13:16:00.000-08:00

Today is Payton's 7th birthday. He is really excited and is having a birthday party in about 2 hours after school. Kristen, Uncle Josh (Kristen's older brother) and myself are taking 10 of his friends from school to bowl. God be with us! Then we will have pizza and cake afterward. As has been his obsession since October, the theme for his birthday party is.....HUNTING. He is really into it. His Uncle Josh, who is a former Army Sniper and gun freak, absolutely loves it too! He volunteered to get by the cake as his birthday present. We are a little scared as to what it might have on it. Kristen gets the feeling it will be deer with arrows in them or something like that. Payton also received a hunting blind and a coyote call for Christmas from his Uncle Josh. Needless to say, I spent some time over the Christmas break taking Payton out to hunt coyotes. I'm sorry for anyone reading this who might be anti-hunting.... OK I guess that would be false! It is a part of life here in the hillbilly state of Montana, but we really love it here and wouldn't live in another state. So here is to Payton, Happy Birthday! I love you lots!

I Have Hair Now

2008-01-07T14:05:00.000-08:00

After nearly five years of shaving my head, I have grown my hair out. It is quite funny because my kids tell me, particularly Payton, that they like me better with hair. When I first started to grow it out, Kristen and the Kids and I went down to Bozeman to watch MSU play football. I went to the concession stand and when I came back I handed Kristen some soda and hot dogs and she didn't recognize me. She told me after realizing who I was that she was wondering who this weird guy was that was handing her food. Kristen talked me into too. She had mentioned to me a couple times that I should grow my hair back and since I am such a loving husband :), I decided to do what I though would make her happy. Everybody tells me I look 10 years younger, so I am not sure if I look 18... or if before I looked 38 and now I look 28.... You be the judge. I am not posting any pictures if it yet, because I have none. I will post some for your enjoyment, or to scare you (your choice), when we get pictures from Haiti. That way you can divert your focus from my ugly face to my beautiful wife and children. I realize this is a stupid post, but I felt the need to write something humorous or different to take the edge off. Till next time...

Chad

21 days and counting

2008-01-02T10:21:00.000-08:00

Man, it has been awhile since I've posted. Since we are due to leave for another trip to Haiti on January 23, I figured another post is in order. Unfortunately we have not gone any further in the process since the last time I posted. We are still in IBESR and trying to PATIENTLY wait. Although that is difficult to do. I think we are going to try and contact some people, including the attorney and see if we can't have him take us into IBESR's office when we are down there. Aside from that and calling that office we have done everything we can to get things to the next wait. A senators letter has been written, a letter from Kristen's doctor documenting her inability to have more children and an letter from us regarding our young age (28 and 26). I don't know what else to do? We just don't want to endure a third Christmas without our children. We never thought they wouldn't be home for this past Christmas. The thought of having to leave them again when we are down there in January already weighs heavily on my heart, but I know we will get through it. We just have to keep our faith and know it will come in the Lord's time, not ours. Until then we just do what we can, which isn't much :)

Till the next time

Chad

These Kids Are Crazy!

2007-08-03T06:05:00.001-07:00

It never ceases to amaze me how happy and joyful these kids are despite of what they have been through. This obviously speaks to the awesome job Rock and all the orphanage staff do! There is always someone mad, upset or crying, but I have three at home and there is often two or three out of three upset and there is 50 kids or so here. I have to say, whoever is taking John Mary Lozard to WATCHOUT! This kid is a firecracker. He makes me laugh everytime I see him. Yesterday Kristen was handing out Blow Pop suckers that we brought down. With one small statement Sabrina gets all these kids to line up, they are very mindful, and they all get there suckers one by one. Well, John Mary Lozard (sp) comes back around in line and Kristen says with a smile, I gave you one already! He gives her a big grin, I look down and he had his sucker wrapped up and hidden in the bottom of his shirt! He is not a big kid, but he is into everything going on. We were playing soccer again yesterday and I went to kick the ball somewhat hard at the wall, unfortunately I kicked it a little too hard and it went up and over the wall and we looked and looked and looked for it and couldnt find it. I climbed up on the wall of a place next to the orphanage to see if it was in there, went to get down and when I did I pulled the top layer of cinder block down with me and fell right on my butt. Kristen had been recording the whole thing from the deck of the orphanage, but she had just stopped before that. Too bad, we could have made some money off of that! Anyway the next person that comes down, let me know and I will send you a soccer ball for the kids. There was a volleyball here, but not quite the same. The Myas are becoming mother hens. Im not sure which one, but one of them was feeding Guerna and Lovely last night at supper and earlier in the day was mopping up the water mess I made when I was getting the mob around me drinks. They are big helpers. Stephanie as we all know is a big helper too. Her and John Peter really take charge of the kids. Manuella and Gerlande are cute as can be and Guerline has grown very much too. Nancy looks 100 times better, her hair has thickened and even though she has that heat rash, she is doing very well. Im sure Kristen remembers more and I will get her to help me post more when we get time. Until then take care and rest easy, all the kids are doing great!

Finally Here

2007-08-01T11:20:00.000-07:00

We are in Haiti and it is HOT! We left Monday about noon MDT and got to Fort Lauderdale about 1:00am, to our Hotel at 2:00 am into our room about 2:30am and back up to go to the airport at 5:30 am. Flight was great from Ft. Lauderdale to Port Au Prince until two of our bags didn't show up. The bags that had clothes for the children and my clothes, of course. Rock brought us back to the airport in the afternoon and they had come in so all is well. All of the kids are doing great. I taught Stephanie the half nelson as her and John Peter wrestled. She proceeded to whip him as a result. I don't think he appreciated it :) Midrine and Kervens were fighting over Kristen's lap. Kristen is convinced Midrine is going to be a dentist as she was infacutated with Kristen's mouth! The baby's look great, especially a new one named Sebastian! He is a BIG BOY! Guerna is still very small, but getting around better than she had been earlier, at least from what we were told. I played soccer with John Peter and Aquillage and they are very good! Despite the heat the kids are very playful and happy as usual. They all know how to play you, especially Midrine, as she will go off by herself and cry if you are not paying attention, all the while keeping an eye on you to make sure you notice. Kethia is the sweetest little girl and is very hard to ignore :) There will be plenty of stories and I will try to remember them all. I am getting some video, some of it taken by John Peter and I am sure it is great. P.S. The John Peter I have spoke of is the older one, not the baby, although the little baby is a beautiful little boy! Anyway, lots of pictures and video and I will do my best to get them posted. Also, everyone is doing very well with their English. Till later, take care.

Chad

ONLY TWO MORE DAYS!!!!

2007-07-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

Kristen and I leave in two days for Port Au Prince and I am positive I will forget something! Fortunately time has flown by in the past few weeks and the trip has come up on us fast. I'm afraid though, that it will pass by us fast too. I am already dreading having to leave the children there again, it is one of the worst feelings I have ever had. It wouldn't be normal to not have some drama leading up to our trip either. I called our Haiti program director (Jenny) yesterday to ask her a question and she asked me why Kristen hadn't called on her daily call to her yet. Seriously, the program director is a friend of Kristen's, but my wife really does call there every day and asks if she has heard of any news on our adoption. Rest easy everybody, it is not a call to Haiti, our director also lives here in MT, although my wife does call the Orphanage and talks to the teacher once, maybe twice....OK like four times a month! Anyway, I call down to Jenny and she says our dossier is on Mdm Beaudoin's, the IBESR director for those of who may not know, desk. So that is a good thing, right? Except for the fact that she isn't necessarily inclined to sign it right away because we are young (I'm 27 and Kristen is 26). Well the lawyer thinks it will just take some time, but Jenny thinks we should write a letter and tell her why even though we are young, we are good adopting parents and why we are adopting. So I got this letter written and it is getting translated this weekend and we are hoping to take it with us on Monday and to IBESR's office. I am not real optimistic that we can actually talk to Mdm Beaudoin, as it has been proven near impossible to do lately, but you know what....I'm praying and I know God is capable of ANYTHING and I am believing that we are going to take that letter to IBESR and we are going to see Mdm Beaudoin in person and she is going to sign our dossiers 14528 and 14529 (submitted on Jan. 16, 2007, my son Payton's 6th b-day) out! So thats that. Enough of that rambling. I am really excited to go. I left work early today and Kristen and the kids and I went shopping for all the things we need on the trip. I got the scale out and am making sure each bag is as close to the 50 lb. weight limit as it can be. If anyone is reading this and is adopting from Haiti, but hasn't been down there yet, all I can say is " What are you waiting for?!" It is an unbelievable place in more than one way. It will change your life guaranteed. It will make you so thankful for what you have and it will rip your heart out with compassion and sympathy for what those people go through. I will be blogging on the trip as much as I can remember to.
God Bless

Chad

Against All That Seems To Reason

2007-07-02T19:23:00.000-07:00

Kristen and I are going to Haiti!!! After talking about it for a month and coming to terms that is going to be a longer wait than we thought, we booked our tickets to Haiti for the last week in July/first week in August. I now find myself in that mode of trying to distract myself from thinking about the trip. I am really excited to get down there again. It has been a long 8 months since our October trip. The worst part of it is having to leave our 3 children at home. I hate being away from them as much as I hate being away from our 2 in Haiti. When we tell those around us that we are going back over they kind of give us that look like, "Weren't you just there?" and, "Isn't that cost alot?" My reply is yes we were just there 8 months ago and yes it costs some money.....but 8 months is a really longgggggggg time to go without seing your children. Regardless of the fact they have not spent a single day in the USA with us or not and regardless of the fact they are adopted, God has given us a love for them just the same as the day we saw our children on that Ultrasound or the day they born. It just amazes me that they are ours even though we can't bring them home yet. As far as the cost of it all, I can live without some other extras if I can see my children, even if it is only for 4 or 5 days. God Bless and lets pray for all the people involved getting our children home!

Green Bay Is No Haiti

2007-06-20T21:51:00.000-07:00

This weekend I am going to Green Bay for my friends wedding. I am excited to see him and witness his wedding. However, I know that when I am flying to Green Bay, I will be wishing Kristen was by my side and it was a flight to Miami or to Port Au Prince. We went down in October and it was an amazing time and once you get to see and hug and play with your kids, the adoption becomes reality. Leaving them is heart wrenching and being able to look forward to seeing them again is something I long for. I just wish we could plan a trip right now. Kristen really wants to go down, but it is just such a hard period to take a trip in. We feel like we are close enough to being out of IBESR that it could only be until fall that we can get our kiddos. We don't want to run out of resources to go down when it is time to pick up the kids. It would be great to spend a few extra days down there and see some more things. I long to wake up in Hotel Montana and see the smiling face of my son and watch him devour the bread at the breakfast buffet. I long to hold my baby and look at her beautiful eyes and sweet smile. Green Bay is nice, but it is no Haiti

Rookie

2007-06-19T15:58:00.000-07:00

Not sure who all is going to read this, but just to let you know we are rookies. Kristen and I are going crazy today as we wait the seemingly endless wait of getting out of IBESR. We torture ourselves by looking at the IBESR blogspot and see now that a March file has been signed out. It is so frustrating to be one of the passed up ones, we were submitted in January, that has to wonder why we aren't signed out yet. Only God knows this and we know there is a reason for it, we just wish he would reveal that right now!!! :) It is so hard to concentrate on the things that need to be done at home. Anyway, it is just hard to deal with things such as these. We know we aren't in control of God's plan and that is sometimes difficult to understand, especially when it is something we have been wanting so much.