In the Home Stretch!

I am really happy to announce that we received a phone call this afternoon letting us know that the boys' information was submitted to the passport phase of the process. We are truly in the home stretch now! The remaining steps of the process involve working out the details of allowing them to leave Haiti and enter the US!!! 

This portion of the process varies in length, but lately it has been running roughly one month. Then our paperwork will be submitted to USCIS which is the US government department that processes the Visa and does the medical evaluation and Visa appointment just prior to the boys coming home. The Visa portion of the process takes any where between 10 days and 3-4 weeks.

This means that we will likely be traveling to get the boys at the soonest in late June or sometime shortly after that barring any unforeseen roadblocks. We are hoping for a summer transition for them so it won't be such a temperature shock. Plus it would be nice to spend part of the summer at home with all of the kids, adjusting to a family of seven all together! Maybe we could even squeeze in a Minnesota road trip with the whole family! That would be some pristine bonding time! 

Please continue to pray for us as we journey onward. I would be lying to say that there isn't any anxiousness surrounding this transition, but I must admit that it is no more or less than when we added each of the current DeWit kiddos into the family. It is a transition whenever the make-up of the family changes...and it will require some time to adjust. However, prayers will make that process much smoother, I have NO DOUBT!! 

Thank you so much for your faithfulness in following along on this adventure. We are all thrilled that the adoption is nearing its final stages!

Praise God for a smooth road so far!

Happy Dancing!

Rebecca

Conquered MOI!!

I am happy to announce that on April 17th, we officially moved out of the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) stage of the process and are prepared to move on the the next stage. The next stage is passports, and we are hoping that this next week sometime we will hear that our paperwork has entered. Basically at this stage in the process all we have left is passports and then getting everything lined up for their Visas. I know that there are several substeps...but it is nice to be able to lump the remaining portions of the process into just two main steps. I guess that we are almost there! I can't hardly believe it. I know that some days it feels like we have been at this forever, but other days, it feels like it will be over with before we know it! We can't wait for real life to begin.

Craig and I went on a get-away to Las Vegas about a week ago and had a nice time together. He had a work convention, and while he was busy with exploring the convention center, I took several hours gathering together the information and photos that I need to begin the twins' Life Books. A life book is basically a baby book for adopted children. It not only contains photos of the child but it also includes information about why the adoptive parents chose to adopt, why from that country, information about the birth family, pages about the orphanage and their life before the adoption and then the information about the transition for that child. I know that once the twins come home, I won't get a spare moment to work on their albums for quite some time, so I am trying to get a jump start on the process now. I opened the albums up tonight and placed the pages into each album. It is always hard to get started, but I am excited.

We received an update on the boys this week. They are doing well and got to do a special art project out on the front porch of the orphanage. They got to finger paint and I am going to include some of the photos from their fun! So cute!

So please join with us in praying that their paperwork enters the passport process this week. Rumor has it that in about a week the passport department is going to shut down for roughly a week for a construction project. The timing is a bit of a nuisance, but God can do amazing work. If we are meant to be patient as the construction process happens, then we will have to do that....please help us pray for patience! We know that timelines in Haiti aren't always clear and one week could become more, but we are hopeful still.

Thank you everyone for your prayers, love and support as we journey down this road. It has been such a blessing knowing that we are lifted up along the way. It has also been so fun over the last few weeks as the team we traveled to Haiti with has begun to share more with the congregation about our trip. We have begun to determine what the Lord would have our congregation do in the form of missions in Haiti. We are going to partner with Mission Haiti to sponsor an entire school! It is one of the schools that I did a medical clinic at when I was in Haiti on my first trip. Awesome! Nothing like witnessing the Hands and Feet of Christ firsthand! The Lord moves in such amazing ways!

I hope to be able to send another update later this week to tell you all about entering passports...but until then...let the praying begin!

Patiently waiting,
Rebecca

A Sigh of Relief...

I have about five thousand things that I feel like I should be doing tonight, but I would be using my time poorly if I didn't start my night of many things to accomplish without blogging about the last few weeks first. Unfortunately this is not going to allow for a very thorough account of the trip that we just took to Haiti, but it will provide a quick once over and a much needed update.

Craig and I were blessed to be able to travel back to Haiti from February 27th to March 8th. We traveled with six people from our church and met up with several others on our way. Mike Plasier traveled with us to Haiti through Omaha. It was an amazing time of fellowship and bonding. We were so excited about how the Lord was going to move in our congregation through this mission trip. We were excited to see His leading in what this would mean for our home church.

We arrived in Haiti on February 28th and were able to stop by the orphanage prior to leaving for Petite Rivier. It brought tears to our eyes because that meant that we would be able to see our boys! We couldn't have been more excited. We weaved through the neighborhoods trying to find the orphanage and eventually happened upon it. We were only able to stay for about 15 minutes to drop off the supplies and introduce our team to the twin boys that the Lord is blessing us with. There was something very moving about sharing that moment with the team. The snuggles were certainly not enough for either of us...but we knew that we were going to be coming back later that week.

We headed to Petite Rivier and spent four days there enjoying fellowship with the youth, the team and the children at the orphanage. We helped throw a wedding reception for twelve Haitian couples, did home visits to many families in the region, provided therapy to a young man involved in a four-wheeler accident, spent time playing basketball with and reading to the orphanage children, and got to hike up the mountain to spend time with our sponsored family. It was a fantastic experience and it was so special watching Haiti become nestled in the hearts of those that had traveled with us.

On the way back to Port-au-Prince, I was having some anxiety about having the others head home. I have always been more anxious than Craig. He was very comfortable about having our plans loosely put together. I guess I like to have all of the questions to have answers before venturing out on our own in a fourth world country. I was nervous.  As the bus pulled out of the orphanage gate, I found myself in tears. My emotions were all over the place. My heart was so ready to spend time with the boys, but for some reason my heart was struggling with fear at the same time.

That fear was relieved when Craig and I walked into Maison and headed to the Baby 2 room. The boys were there and seemed to remember us. The nannies were very sweet. Told me I was beautiful and introduced us to the boys again. We spent the rest of the day with the boys at the orphanage. We held them much of the time and played with them on the grounds of the orphanage. It was much the same the next two days. We were able to spend the entire day at the orphanage loving on our boys and soaking up the environment.  We also were able to love on many of the other kids as well.

We brought many fun things from home to share with the kids. We brought bubbles that were left over from Ryan and Lindsey's wedding and were blessed by being able to blow bubbles with kids of all ages at the orphanage. They were all so cute and had such fun. We brought Match Box Cars for the older kids to play with and they had so much fun racing them and playing with them. We also had Salvation bracelets for the two oldest classes and gave the girls hair ties with colorful ribbons tied onto them. It was fun doing their hair and loving on these little dolls! We then broke out the jump ropes and soccer ball. Fun was had by everyone. I also got to read a book to one of the school classes. One of the most tender times was bringing stuffed animals to the kids in Baby Room 1 and 2. These are the little pals of our boys and they snuggled the stuffed animals and shared some of the best smiles.

We learned a lot about how the nannies operated. They do a very efficient work at Maison...and every moment is done in love. They spend time in prayer and Bible reading every day and they were patient with all portions of the care that they provided. The boys' schedule for the day consists of getting dressed, breakfast, bath, getting dressed into a new outfit, play time, nap, lunch, bath, getting dressed into the third outfit, play time, second nap, dinner, bath, pjs and bed. This then repeats the next day. Not only do the nannies do this for our boys...but they do it for the other 12 kids in that room as well. Unbelievable. It was amazing to watch them at work. I will never be able to feed my boys as efficiently and speedy as those amazing nannies!

We stayed at a different place during this visit. It was called the Shama House. It was a different setup than the hotel we had stayed at last time we visited the boys. This room had four sets of bunk beds. We of course only used two. There was an attached kitchen where a cook prepared two meals per day. It was all very good food and included in the room rate. We caught up on some rest but were wakened by the rooster crowing each morning in Haiti. It didn't matter if we were in the rural mountains or in the thick of the city...the roosters were everywhere.

It was difficult to leave the boys, but we were blessed to be able to say goodbye with the boys the morning we left for the airport. This was much better than having to say goodbye the night before. I really feel like we had wonderful bonding times with both of them. By the last day, Elie (Elijah) would not let either of us set him down. He was soaking up every chance for snuggles he could get! Elysee (Judah) was a bit more laid back and didn't mind much whether he was held or not, but when he was, he enjoyed the snuggles. I think we have one easy going little man and one that is a bit more particular about things. It will be interesting to see if these mannerisms are the same when they come home with us. Should be an interesting adventure any way we look at it! Lots of fun in store for us, I am sure!

It was a very LONG trip home. That trip is always so draining. Physically our bodies were hurting in so many ways by the time we arrived home. My right leg was cramping and my tummy was not too happy with me. Needless to say, it was nice when we finally touched down in Sioux Falls and reunited with our other three little ones! What a blessing to be greeted by such a wonderful family. It made the hurt of leaving the boys a bit more bearable.

So the adjustment back to life in the states is always a bit difficult. We had a few bumps in the road and discovered that getting back to doing our devotional was very helpful in processing the many emotions that were coursing through our bodies and souls. More than anything, we were impatient to see some movement in our paperwork.

We had been waiting to get into MOI for a month when we returned and it was beginning to get more difficult to wait. In the meantime, we received a notice that there had been a TB exposure at the orphanage. A baby girl had been admitted to the hospital with an active case of TB. There were questions as to whether the kids at the orphanage could possibly have contracted it and there was a lot of testing that had to take place. Our boys had been in the same room as this little girl when the TB was discovered. UGH. Not fun. We fretted in our subconscious but remained mostly calm. We really thought that the boys seemed healthy, and we were pretty confident that it would be negative. However, because an active case of TB is something than can stand in the way of being allowed to come to the States, we needed to know if they had been exposed.

I am happy to tell everyone that today I received an update on this and they are negative. None of the remaining kids at the orphanage have an active form of the disease. Praise God. The boys did not test positive for the skin test or the chest x-ray. First sigh of relief.

As the days flew by...the tension over waiting with entering MOI was becoming a bit more difficult. It didn't help that we knew that several of the other families waiting at the stage we were waiting at had just been able to enter. We heard nothing. The lack of information at this point was difficult for me to take. I decided that I just needed to touch base with my international agency. I guess I needed some moral support. I placed a call to them on 3.25.13 and didn't hear back for two days. That was torture. I kept telling myself that a busy international counselor is a good thing and that I want her to be working on cases...not just calling me...but it was getting harder.

Today at 3:30 pm I finally got the call I had been waiting for...AND I GOT THE NEWS THAT WE HAD BEEN WAITING FOR!!! Kristy couldn't remember if she had called us yet or not, but she was able to inform us that she had received information that our dossier had moved to the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) on 3.19.13. YES!!! That was fantastic news. We also were able to talk about a few more logistical things. There is not much that we can do at this point but wait for the paperwork to continue its journey and try our best to be patient. So prayers to accomplish both of these things would be fantastic!

I think that as the date the boys will come home draws closer, the harder it is to not become discouraged about the wait. I think that we need prayers more now than ever before. My heart is quite tender these days and it is hard to see the date the boys will come home constantly move further into the future. It is looking like they could possibly still come home sometime this summer...but the longer the paperwork takes to move...the further out it will be.

I will do my best to keep all of you informed about the updates I receive. I treasure your thoughts and prayers more than you know, as does Craig. We love you all so much!

Blessings from a heart filled with relief,

Rebecca

A Handsome Reunion

Oh my!!! We were given a wonderful gift today. Something that I have been praying for. I received a phone call from the adoption agency, and we were informed that the twins' monthly photos would be coming in our email. The blessing is that the orphanage hosted a birth parent meal and the twins' birth dad was able to attend. They were shown in their monthly photos sitting on their birth dad's lap!

I just know that this man and their mom loved them so much. They entered the orphanage almost exactly one year ago...and handed over their boys because they knew that with their birth mom being ill, they would be unable to provide for them. The fact that the birth dad involves himself in their lives at this point speaks to the love that he still carries for them.

In some respects, this makes me sad because I know that it must be terribly painful to know that their adoption is almost final and they will be leaving to be a part of our lives soon. But I hope and pray that he finds comfort that they will be well cared for and that hopefully, God-willing, in the future, we might be able to be a part of his life again.

I hope that you find these photos as meaningful as I have. All three of them are so handsome. This just gives us a glimpse of what the boys may look like as they mature!

We continue to pack and prepare our donations. We are counting down each day and at this point are at 12 more days until we travel to go to Mission Haiti and to see the boys. I just don't think that we could be more excited!

We received another confirmation today that we are now in the archives stage of the adoption process and first legalization is completely finished. We are pleased that the process continues to move on. We pray that this summer is when they will come home with us. It would make for a warm transition for them and would be wonderful to have it be so soon!

Please continue to pray for our team of missionaries as we meet this Saturday to discuss the trip and the preparations. Please pray that the boys continue to be healthy and that we would have a blessed visit with them! Praise God because He is SO GOOD!!!

Joyful,
Rebecca

Preparing to Journey

It is that time again. A time that we begin to prepare to return to Haiti. It is especially exciting this time because we are able to combine a mission trip with Mission Haiti along with a "bonding" trip with the twins. It is truly the best of both worlds. We will be leaving on February 27th and will be spending the first portion of our trip in the southern peninsula of Haiti at Ti Rivier. We will be going with 6 other people from our congregation. It will be a vision trip to see how our congregation can partner more with Mission Haiti. What a blessing it is to be a part of this meaningful trip.

We have been preparing at church by doing a drive for the supplies that are needed in Haiti. It will be so exciting to see how many donations we receive and to be a part of bringing those supplies to Haiti. In the Wednesday night youth gatherings, we have been doing some activities allowing the children to get involved in missions with Haiti as well. I was able to give a presentation about how Haiti has touched my life and then we discussed how the kids can make a difference even now. They have already helped to fund raise money to build a home for a widowed father and his four children. We hope to take photos of the home when we are there at the end of the month. The youth girls were also able to donate books from home to the orphanage at Mission Haiti. These same girls also prepared hair ties and bracelets for the girls at Maison where our twins live in Port au Prince. They are also hosting a bake sale to raise money to fund taking additional suitcases filled with crib sheets for the babies at Maison. The young boys are collecting Hot Wheels and Match Box cars to send for the little boys there as well. What a blessing to be a part of this and to be able to capture giving these items to the children there so the youth at our church can see the difference they have made in the lives of these children so very far away.

At home we have been preparing for this trip as well. (Well, I have, anyway.  Craig is a last minute packer.) We are gathering snacks and appropriate clothing, pictures, getting a journal ready, getting the prescriptions, arranging a stay at a guest house in Port au Prince, preparing devotions, purchasing gifts for our own sponsored children there, packing clothing for our children, gathering up crib sheets to take to Maison....and that is probably just the beginning of the list! The more I think about it, the happier I am that I am getting started on that list already...because the next 16 days will go very fast and we will be on a plane before we know it. I just hope that we will be able to get all of our ducks in a row before that.

In the meantime, between bouts of packing, I am NESTING!! I am so ready for the twins to come home. Just like a pregnant mama, I am busy making their beds, finding decorations for their walls and thinking about finding hand-me-downs and other clothing to fill their closet. I have been printing photos of the boys and the family and putting them into frames throughout the house. We have a family photo package purchased for a photo shoot when the boys come home as well! I am so excited about that. I got tearful when Craig gave me that gift! Next on the list of to-dos in regards to the boys is to finish a couple of things with my personal scrapbooking photo album so I can begin to put together their baby books! I would love to start to gather the information to put them together somewhat before they come home and I probably won't have time to work on them until they are 10! We'll see how much progress I make. It does help to pass the time in the evenings when the big kiddos are in bed.

We received some information last week that clarified that CAN will be able to continue to process our adoption until it is final and the twins are home. We are very thankful about this. It has been an emotional journey and it will be nice to be able to finish the process with the same team in place and without worries of additional fees.

Thank you once again for all of your prayers. We really see and feel God at work here and are so very excited to see how He is working in our lives. We are humbled by His faithfulness. We know that in the last couple of weeks prior to our departure, the devil will be hard at work trying to create worry, fears and stress surrounding this trip. Please pray for us, our children (here and in Haiti), the rest of the team members and all of the staff and children at Maison and Mission Haiti. Pray that God will do a wonderful work through each of us and that the time spent in Haiti would bring glory to Him. He is the most amazing God. We cannot even fathom the amazing works He will accomplish through willing servants!

Heart filled with excitement,
Rebecca

What's In a Name????

We are happy to announce that the twins officially have a new last name tonight!!! The adoption decree was finalized on 1/25/13 and we were notified today that they were formally given our last name. In the country of Haiti, our adoption is officially final! Unfortunately that does not mean that the journey home is over...it just means that there are a few steps to get them approval to come home! We are still in the legalization phase of the Immigration Process and will be notified when we enter the next phase of the process. Currently we are in a phase unofficially called "limbo." The next phase is called MOI (Ministry of the Interior). We won't be notified with each legal step...but hopefully this will move quickly. We have been told that MOI is currently taking about 2 weeks...then it is passports and visas!!!

I seriously cannot wipe the smile off of my face tonight. I feel all worked up about this, I am so excited! I chatted on Facebook with some of the other families that are adopting and in the same phase as us...and I asked them how much longer they think this process will take. They said 4-6 months!!!!! WHAT!!!??? I have been telling people about a year still! I need to change my response!! I hope this is right...but it is still speculation. Another family said that they are telling people it will likely be in MAY!!! WHAT???  Crazy excited! Please let it be so!!!

That got me thinking and I could possibly be at home for the summer with my beautiful children all bonding together!!!!! Oh my!! What an adventure! Something to definitely pray for. We were hoping for this all to be wrapped up by next Christmas...but now I have my hopes up for the summer!!!  Hands outstretched and HUGE prayers raised to the Lord!

So the boys are officially Elie DeWit and Elysee DeWit tonight as they are snuggled in their little cribs in baby room 1 at Maison. Unbelievable. I think that there is much in a name. These boys are already adopted into our hearts, but now they are adopted into our name and soon they will be inseparable from our family. Praise the Lord!!!

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and petitions on the time frame for our family's benefit! We are so blessed with prayer warriors! God is moving and this is happening!!!

Heart filled with praise,
Rebecca

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