Apparently American Idol did a special on "giving back" a week or two ago. They went to Africa and raised some amazing amount of money 70 million? I think. WOW! Here is a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaZdYJl7WTo that you should watch. It is very touching.
tash
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
FRUSTRATION City...
Here is an example of WHY adopting from Haiti takes soooo long! (this is a post from an orphanage director describing -another change- to the Haitian adoption process.......the story of OUR adoption has had *stuff* like this with each step :(
HI everyone,
I am posting a message from Dixie which is located on the gla website:
UPDATE April 26, 2007
We are unable to give new proposals as quickly as we always have done them. We
used to give a proposal to a family within 1 month of their dossier arriving in Haiti. Today, it is taking 3 to 5 months for a proposal. Due to some delays with adoptions, we have not been able to send children to their forever families for a couple months. This means that we have no beds to take new children into the orphanage. We have to turn them away.
We have 32 children waiting for passports. The Ministry of Interior, responsible
for approving the passports, has added a step in the process. They did not tell
anyone that they were adding this step; however, no adoption passports have been
approved since January. Finally in early April, we were told that the lawyer needs to fill out a form. They have since changed their mind, and now anyone from the
orphanage can go to the Ministry of Interior and fill out this special form asking
for the child's passport.
The form is very long, asking for a lot of information about each adoptive parent.
LaDawn spent one whole day this week just finding the information for the forms, so
that Terriot can go and fill them out. Of course, when he arrived with 32 forms, they would not receive him and gave him an appointment for Friday, the 27th. They told him they could not do all of them in one day, and he would need to come back three days next week to get them all filled out. They will not give us the forms so we can fill them out in advance. Rather, we must fill them out sitting with the person in charge of doing the form.
We are praying that once we have filled out and submitted these forms, that
the passports will be approved quickly and we can get some children home and beds
opened up!
Parquet is better, but still not going quite as smoothly as we would like. We have
heard that they are adding lawyers (commissioners) to approve the dossiers. They
added one person already and immediately we received a dossier that said the
parents could not adopt because of a problem! It was sent back to Parquet and a
commissioner that had been there longer fixed it. However, we fear there might be
more problems until the new Haitian Adoption Law is legalized.
Now, having said all of the above, we did take in 4 children this week. Two are
newborn babies that we felt needed to be taken in now. Please pray with us that we
can get passports quickly and children out of Haiti to their forever families. Pray that we can find beds for the children coming in to the orphanage. For those of you
waiting for a proposal, I look at your dossiers every day. I have not forgotten any of you! Hopefully, I can start giving out some proposals in the next week or two.
And Life in Haiti goes on...
THIS JUST FRYS ME! I'm on one at the moment so I will leave it at that!
HI everyone,
I am posting a message from Dixie which is located on the gla website:
UPDATE April 26, 2007
We are unable to give new proposals as quickly as we always have done them. We
used to give a proposal to a family within 1 month of their dossier arriving in Haiti. Today, it is taking 3 to 5 months for a proposal. Due to some delays with adoptions, we have not been able to send children to their forever families for a couple months. This means that we have no beds to take new children into the orphanage. We have to turn them away.
We have 32 children waiting for passports. The Ministry of Interior, responsible
for approving the passports, has added a step in the process. They did not tell
anyone that they were adding this step; however, no adoption passports have been
approved since January. Finally in early April, we were told that the lawyer needs to fill out a form. They have since changed their mind, and now anyone from the
orphanage can go to the Ministry of Interior and fill out this special form asking
for the child's passport.
The form is very long, asking for a lot of information about each adoptive parent.
LaDawn spent one whole day this week just finding the information for the forms, so
that Terriot can go and fill them out. Of course, when he arrived with 32 forms, they would not receive him and gave him an appointment for Friday, the 27th. They told him they could not do all of them in one day, and he would need to come back three days next week to get them all filled out. They will not give us the forms so we can fill them out in advance. Rather, we must fill them out sitting with the person in charge of doing the form.
We are praying that once we have filled out and submitted these forms, that
the passports will be approved quickly and we can get some children home and beds
opened up!
Parquet is better, but still not going quite as smoothly as we would like. We have
heard that they are adding lawyers (commissioners) to approve the dossiers. They
added one person already and immediately we received a dossier that said the
parents could not adopt because of a problem! It was sent back to Parquet and a
commissioner that had been there longer fixed it. However, we fear there might be
more problems until the new Haitian Adoption Law is legalized.
Now, having said all of the above, we did take in 4 children this week. Two are
newborn babies that we felt needed to be taken in now. Please pray with us that we
can get passports quickly and children out of Haiti to their forever families. Pray that we can find beds for the children coming in to the orphanage. For those of you
waiting for a proposal, I look at your dossiers every day. I have not forgotten any of you! Hopefully, I can start giving out some proposals in the next week or two.
And Life in Haiti goes on...
THIS JUST FRYS ME! I'm on one at the moment so I will leave it at that!
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
SMAD!
Today I was SMAD!
SMAD is a mix of two emotions..... sad and mad. I feel this one often. This happens when I waffle back and forth between sad and mad about something that happened or a comment that someone made.
Sad, because fundraising for a good cause leads you to see the best in some people AND it brings out the mediocre and even the worst in others. This also makes me MAD! Truly, I have a new appreciation for people who work so hard to motivate others to do good. I have been touched by the hearts of many who have embraced our efforts to make a difference in Haiti. Many have ordered one and some have ordered up to 200 cookbooks. The quantity doesn't matter as much as the attitude.
It has been challenging to communicate our Haiti experience. We traveled to Haiti one year ago and we still feel the urgency to DO SOMETHING! ......the moment I heard the orphanage had a list of children waiting to be cared for - I knew we had to do something. Transferring that urgency to others has been challenging to say the least. Some "get it" immediately. Why? Probably because life has provided them with experiences that allow understanding. Others "miss it" completely. Sad.
When Peter took us through the jungle in Haiti, we saw things that I had only seen in National Geographic. I witnessed the struggle for life. I saw children -- skinny and malnourished, smiling and curious, living life with way too little. These are the children on the waiting list. NOT because their parents don't love them....just the opposite! They love them so much they are willing to give them up so they can have food. FOOD!
I really should sleep now. This is sounding a little depressing and so much of our experience... in fact, MOST of our Haiti experience was exciting! We witnessed people, working together, determined to make change. I have five new people on my list of those who inspire me - all of them I met in Haiti last year. In two weeks I met five people who had dedicated their lives to serving children -- the children we met in the jungle, the little boy at the clinic and the little four year old girl who only weighed 18 pounds. Sadly I don't have a picture of this beautiful child. These children motivate me to keep going, to be a better steward of that which I have been blessed with, to give what I can - to work at understanding what the Lord would have me do.
We have sold 1400 cookbooks. 600 more to go. My goal - 2000 sold by the end of May! Then I hope Holt will run with it through the summer and sell another 2000. Look for the story at the end of the year. I think it will be a bit more cheerful than this one.
tash
Sunday, April 15, 2007
A funny thing happened at church today...
During Sacrament meeting the little boy in the row in front of us vomited! Yes, that’s right….vomited. (YES Amy….. it was “child’s vomit”!?!) The little boy actually belonged to the couple speaking! So his grandma and grandpa got more than they bargained for today! His parents didn’t have a clue what was going on (thank goodness!)
Well, my instinct was to ignore the situation. At least for the time being, really, what could be done? Then my sweet Marisa leaned over to me and said, “Should I go get some paper towels?” “Of course”, I answered wanting to encourage her inspiration to help. So off she went returning with a wad of paper towels………what was she really going to do with that wad of paper? So I leaned up to survey the damage and suggested she first wipe of the hymn book. Then she wiped up what she could. I knew the only way to properly clean the cloth on the bench was to get my carpet cleaner. So Steven and I left for home. We came back just as the little boy’s father was finishing up his talk. After the meeting we checked with the first counselor about using our carpet cleaner in the chapel and then we began work to clean up the mess.
Many people expressed their gratitude to us for jumping in and cleaning things up as they noticed people leave quickly from the area following the closing prayer. Thanks to Marisa we had the opportunity to serve our Heavenly Father in his house today…..in an interesting, yet special way.
Here is the funny part. Last week was fast and testimony meeting. A family blessed their baby. There was only time for 4 people to bear their testimonies (because three of the four people were long winded and shared details we didn’t need to hear about). Details sometimes cause people to share too much about their trials in an effort to help an audience understand how it relates to their testimony. WELL, this day, one of the testimonies included details of vomiting every 45 minutes…..ugh. I made the mistake of voicing my opinion to my husband that I didn’t think testimony meeting was the place to hear the word VOMIT!
Ha, ha, ha…….so on my way home from church today – I laughed with Mark about the Lord’s sense of humor……even funnier, I led our family into the chapel today and we had a choice; to sit in the row behind this family or to sit next to them... which would have put ME in the line of fire! Thank goodness I picked wisely!
Well, my instinct was to ignore the situation. At least for the time being, really, what could be done? Then my sweet Marisa leaned over to me and said, “Should I go get some paper towels?” “Of course”, I answered wanting to encourage her inspiration to help. So off she went returning with a wad of paper towels………what was she really going to do with that wad of paper? So I leaned up to survey the damage and suggested she first wipe of the hymn book. Then she wiped up what she could. I knew the only way to properly clean the cloth on the bench was to get my carpet cleaner. So Steven and I left for home. We came back just as the little boy’s father was finishing up his talk. After the meeting we checked with the first counselor about using our carpet cleaner in the chapel and then we began work to clean up the mess.
Many people expressed their gratitude to us for jumping in and cleaning things up as they noticed people leave quickly from the area following the closing prayer. Thanks to Marisa we had the opportunity to serve our Heavenly Father in his house today…..in an interesting, yet special way.
Here is the funny part. Last week was fast and testimony meeting. A family blessed their baby. There was only time for 4 people to bear their testimonies (because three of the four people were long winded and shared details we didn’t need to hear about). Details sometimes cause people to share too much about their trials in an effort to help an audience understand how it relates to their testimony. WELL, this day, one of the testimonies included details of vomiting every 45 minutes…..ugh. I made the mistake of voicing my opinion to my husband that I didn’t think testimony meeting was the place to hear the word VOMIT!
Ha, ha, ha…….so on my way home from church today – I laughed with Mark about the Lord’s sense of humor……even funnier, I led our family into the chapel today and we had a choice; to sit in the row behind this family or to sit next to them... which would have put ME in the line of fire! Thank goodness I picked wisely!
Friday, April 13, 2007
To wait... or not to wait?
TODAY....we rec'd our I171-H form which gives us approval to adopt orphan children abroad. We had this form already but it expired on March 13, 2007. On March 1 we started over and now we once again have our governments blessing to adopt our children from Haiti.
Our file just entered the Haitian passport office last week. Our friends who brought their little boy home in December had Senator Hatch's office contact the U.S. Embassy in Haiti who works closely with the Haitian Consulate to persuade them to move a little quicker on their childs passport. It seemed to work - of course, they had been stuck in the Haitian passport office for several weeks.
So we need to gauge whether making a phone call after our file just made it to the passport office is the right thing to do. OR....do we wait another couple of weeks before we pull these strings.
hmmm....
Our file just entered the Haitian passport office last week. Our friends who brought their little boy home in December had Senator Hatch's office contact the U.S. Embassy in Haiti who works closely with the Haitian Consulate to persuade them to move a little quicker on their childs passport. It seemed to work - of course, they had been stuck in the Haitian passport office for several weeks.
So we need to gauge whether making a phone call after our file just made it to the passport office is the right thing to do. OR....do we wait another couple of weeks before we pull these strings.
hmmm....
Thursday, April 5, 2007
GOOD NEWS!!!
K's file made it!!! IT IS IN THE PASSPORT OFFICE in Haiti! Yeah!!! This is the final step before we get our appointment with DHS. The next news will be the call to GO TO HAITI for our appointment to bring her home! This picture from last year is of Me showing K & M my passport! FINALLY!
Tears of joy....!
Q: How is it that four little pictures can just MAKE MY DAY?! A: When they come as a surprise and they are of two of the cutest little people I know! Q: Why do they come with such power to make me cry? A: Because they look so happy and beautiful and every time I receive new pictures of my children waiting in Haiti, I am overcome with this feeling of joy! Every time we get good news or new pictures I experience again, the sweet confirmation that they are our children! We love them so much and miss them! It brings so much comfort knowing all three of them are being cared for while we are apart. For K at the Holt Fontana Village and M & R living with the Mardy's at Foyer. THEY are being cared for and it shows in their beautiful smiles!
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