On the President's Desk!!!

We got a new update on the boys on August 20th, 2012. It had the most recent measurements for the boys. The results are as follows:
Elie (Elijah)
Weight (kg): 8.80
Height (cm): 66.50
Head Circumference (cm): 45
Chicken Pox: i think he had it while his parents were here

Elysee (Judah)
Weight (kg): 8.40
Height (cm): 66.0
Head Circumference (cm): 45
Chicken Pox: no, but had a few; not a full breakout

It is always so nice to get the monthly updates. It is nice to know that they are growing...but it would be more wonderful to be there holding them! Hmmm...and even more wonderful to be HERE holding them!!!! I can't believe how empty my arms feel sometimes...crazy, because they are usually filled with one of my other children!

Every year over Labor Day Weekend, we spend our time at the LifeLight Christian Music Festival as a family. This year was spent with three of our five children and several of our friends. It was a wonderful time of feeling close to the Lord and a blessed time of worship through music. This year, Craig and I often found ourselves near to tears because of the rawness that we are feeling about the adoption. This entire experience is so bittersweet. We are so excited about what the future will hold for our family...but this waiting is a greater challenge than I even expected.

When Leeland got up on stage and sang Follow You, we were unable to keep ourselves from tears. This was the song that came out shortly before my trip to Haiti and I listened to it every day while I was there on my Mission trip. Now that we have traveled to Haiti and spent time with the boys, the song makes me think of my boys and how much I long to be with them. The tears on Craig's face indicated that he felt the same way.

We shared with several of our friends that we were struggling that sometimes it feels like we are stuck in a stage of the process for so long...that we fear that things won't continue to move forward. It is especially difficult when we look at the entire process and see that there are so many steps left to go.

Just when we were beginning to feel overwhelmed with the process...we received an update! God is so good. We received an email on Tuesday, September 4th updating us on the stage we are in at IBESR (Haitian government adoption process). "I am so pleased to give you an IBESR update on  your file! It has been confirmed that your file is waiting for Dispensation in the President's Office. I am hoping to receive more details about the date it arrived to the President's Office soon."

This means that our paperwork is seriously sitting on the president of Haiti's desk waiting to be signed. A law for Haiti adoption states that you can't have more than 2 biological children when adopting from Haiti. The Dispensation is a document that gives us permission to adopt the twins despite the fact that we have three biological children.

We wrote to Kristy at CAN to clarify what part of the IBESR process the Dispensation gets signed to determine if we are close to the end of this stage and she wrote back, "Generally yes, Presidential Dispensation is the last step before IBESR issues approval. The Presidential Dispensations are printed in the Le Moniteur publication and then after publication IBSER is able to grant approval. I am not 100% certain this is for every single case but for most families they exit IBESR after receiving their Presidential Dispensation." This is encouraging! We are moving in the right direction! Now we just need to find the patience to continue moving through this slow process.

So....we are busy trying to distract ourselves. We have been in the process of building our home and have been watching as piece by piece the house is coming together. We are thrilled that we are getting so close to moving time...and amazed at God's perfect timing of having the closing on the house on the twins' birthday! It will be so special to move in and create the nest for these two little ones!

Please pray that everything goes smoothly with the process at IBESR, and that the adoption and house will move forward...and quickly if that is God's will! We have been so blessed with such amazing support on this journey and thank each of you for your love and prayers! We can feel them!

Blessings,
Rebecca