Last day with the girls Dec 6

Sunday was our last day with the girls. We went to the orphanage in the morning and played with all the kids. After lunch took Widline, Widelene, Jurane and Avena to the hotel.
We walked on the beach and stood in the Ocean. The kids went swimming and as I was the only adult without a sunburn I went in to. I swam with the girls and was really surprised how brave Widelene(the youngest) was getting. She floated on some swimming tubes and was putting her face in the water. Then she was swimming on the tubes all by here self. She would dunk her head and then look up to see if papa was watching. After swimming we walked down to the beach again. The the girls all came to our room to watch Cinderella 2 and play with the soccer ball.
We took my computer down by the pool and let the girls look at our blog, which they get excited when they see their pictures. We also showed them Via's moms blog and let them play games too.
We took the girls to supper at the hotel, I think this was probably the first time they had ever ate at a restaurant, they were so well behaved and had really good table manners you can tell they teach them this at the orphanage. Both ate really well and we had to show them how to dip their fries in ketchup and they liked it.
Then Francois came to pick them up so we walked with them to the car. It felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. We hugged them and said we loved them and I gave them each a picture of us. I started to cry. They got in the car and Deb gave me a big hug.
Then we waved good-bye.
As we turned to walk back to our room Steve's foot bumped something on the path. Then it moved. It was a Tarantula. I asked him to take pictures of it for the boys. We were ahead of him. As he did the spider got scarred and started running right toward Deb and I. We grabbed hands and screamed and ran away. I sure it had to be quit the sight. everyone knows how much I like spiders.... Well if nothing else it was a good ice breaker after having to leave the kids.
Tomorrow we head for Port-Au-Prince in the morning.

Saturday in Haiti

Today we went out with Monsour and Bruce snorkeling. It was a good time for all saw lots of small fish and coral. The water was warm and we saw squid and Steve saw and eel. Then we rested for about and 1 1/2 and then they brought the girls and some other kids to swim. The three younger boys had a great time swimming and playing ball. They just left and now we will get ready for supper. All of us are doing well and it is so beautiful here. There are mountains, the ocean and palm trees where we are. There is some garbage which reminds you were are in Haiti, but I believe we both are in love with the people especially the kids and the beautiful landscaping here. We will stay here till Monday morning then head for Port-Au-Prince. The other family will have their interview and then we will look around a little with Monsour. He wants to show us his paintings. Then spend Monday night in there and fly home on Tuesday. We love and miss you all and can not wait to tell you all about the girls. We love them so much. Love you Gage and Dakota..
Mom and Dad

Hello from Haiti Again

Please note our cell phone is not working even though the lady at US cellular said it would. So have not been able to call or receive calls here. Love everyone and miss you all. We had another busy day at the Orphanage, played with all the kids till lunch and then took girls back to the hotel to swim and play with. They just left and now we are getting ready to eat.
Can't wait to tell you all how special these girls are.
Tonya and Steve.

Haiti Christmas Party at Orphanage

Today we held a Christmas party at the Orphanage. It was really fun! The kids got really excited over Ballons and Bubbles... we thought wow and they have not even seen there gifts. They danced and had a great time with their Christmas stockings and all the gifts inside of them. The girls liked their hair pretties and their stuffed animals, their candy and their cake.
Write more later
Tonya

Hello from Haiti

We love it here. We meet the girls last night, wow they came right up to us and wanted us to hold them and hug and kiss them. They are even more beautiful in person.
The youngest really loves her Papa, all you hear all day is Papa, I sit with Papa, come here Papa pick me up Papa. She does not want him to put her down.
The oldest is very loving a little quieter then the youngest but she is loving too. The youngest is more like Gage, boy she is active and loves to talk. They get along so well with each other and are very good at sharing.
We have felt safe the whole time and it is really pretty at the resort.
Well more later. Love to my family and friends!
Tonya and Steve proud parents of 4 wonderful children.

We are going to Haiti

Yes you read the title right we are leaving for Haiti, December 1 and coming back December 8.
We are traveling with another couple(friends of ours) from Iowa too. We are delivering Christmas gifts and donations to the Orphanage.

We get to meet and spend time with the girls... and we are so excited to hear that they have already been told about us.

I know I will never be the same after this trip for many reasons. Just to go to Haiti can be a life altering experience and then meet our two daughters too on top of that.

The Grandma's are going to take really good care of the boys while we are gone. I know we will miss them so much.

God is so good, as Holt normally does not let you travel this early in the process. We feel so blessed.
It has been pretty crazy here as we just found out we were going on Monday 11/16, and the trip was not even thought of for us till 11/14.

Can't wait to share all the pictures when we get back.

Our Youngest turned 4 today

Happy Birthday! We love you so much, hope you got the singing pooh card from us.

New Adoption Process and Travel requirements

We received this update from Holt on the adoption process and when we would travel.
With this new process we would make our first trip to see the girls a lot sooner. Hope to have an update on getting into IBESR soon.

Travel to sign papers in Court – Not too long ago, Parquet (the Civil Court), decided to require adoptive applicants to travel to Haiti and sign papers at the local court where the child they are adopting was relinquished. Some of you have already heard about this. We had received conflicting information about whether or not this was really true, so wanted to verify it for ourselves before acting on it. This signing must occur before Parquet will ultimately approve a case. This new requirement meant an additional trip for adoptive applicants, other than the two already required at the end of the process for a family to file their I-600 with DHS and then the last one to bring their child home.

The Adjudicate Orphan Status First Program (AOF) – In light of this new requirement, Mansour and I met with the DHS office to see if they might now be willing to allow Mansour to file the adoptive family’s I-600 with a Power of Attorney (POA), thus reducing the number of trips back to two. They were not willing/able to accept this recommendation based solely on the basis of families having to travel to sign papers in the court.

However, we also discussed the AOF with them. The AOF is a pilot program being offered for only 4 different countries in the world, Haiti being one of them. It allows a family to file their I-600 early in the process. The DHS office said families could file the AOF with them in Haiti at any point, as long as the adoptive family’s I-600a and fingerprints were up to date.

Since adoptive families must now travel to file papers at the local court, we are going to recommend that families file the I-600 AOF with DHS in the same trip. This means that with a POA to Mansour, the adoptive family would not need to return to Haiti again until the end of the process to bring their child home, after the child’s visa has already been obtained – thus reducing the number of trips to two again.

Signing papers in the court and filing the I-600 AOF can be done fairly quickly, thus making this trip a fairly quick one (3 – 4 days more or less). Since families will be signing papers in the local court near Holt Fontana, they will also be able to see their child and visit the Holt Fontana Village as well.

Waiting Haiti Children

These children are so precious! Please tell eveyone you know, that they need a family. http://www.holtintl.org/ then waiting child photo list, then Caribbean to learn more.

New pictures from a good friend that was in Haiti

Finally! My first post

We started our Haiti adoption journey last August 20, 2008. When we were choosen to adopt two sisters, ages 2 and 5 then, to join our family.
This will be a place to record the process of bringing them home to Iowa.