Wednesday, October 10, 2012

The Exodus & the Rest of the Journey Home



The waters saw you, God,
the waters saw you and writhed;
the very depths were convulsed.
The clouds poured down water,
the heavens resounded with thunder;
your arrows flashed back and forth.
Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind,
your lightning lit up the world;
the earth trembled and quaked.
Your path led through the sea,
your way through the mighty waters,
though your footprints were not seen.
You led your people like a flock
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Psalm 77:16-20

And He made a way and led us out of IBESR.

Okay so maybe getting out of IBESR and the parting of the Red Sea are not on the same playing field. But for our hearts,waiting and longing for 11 months and one day, to hear those words, it sure felt like a small miracle.

We have our "Authorization to Adopt." After 3 yrs and 9 months we have Haiti's permission to adopt Nephtali.

Now I know some of you are saying "Huh?" "She isn't coming home yet?" "You still haven't adopted her yet?"

She is closer to coming home. This step was a big one. We are now on to the next step. Possibly even right now as I type, the lawyer will be bringing our file to the Dean of the Court in Croix-des-Bouquets. This next step is known as Parquet (generally pronounced as "par-kett"). It is here that an adoption decree will be created making us the legal parents of one precious Haitian butterfly. But along with that paper being created, is a very complex series of steps and processes involving several offices and repeated trips between them to have everything legalized.

There have been some changes for the good that we are hoping could make this process much quicker than it has been in the past. But there are no guaranties. Other families are seeing this take anywhere from one month to three or four. So please pray with us that God's plan for our adoption has this process take the shorter time-frame.

Once we have the adoption decree and it is legalized, we will still need to wait a little bit longer for our Butterfly to flap her wings and come home. But again, she is much closer.

From there, our file will go to an office called the Ministry of Interior (MOI). At MOI, our file will be checked, and double-checked, for spelling mistakes, forged documentation, and other things. Once everything is found to be in good order, authorization will be granted and our file will be submitted to Haitian Immigration for a passport. Again I cannot say how long this will take. But other families have seen time-frames as small as a few weeks, while others have had problems and were there for as long as seven months. The average seems to be two or three months. But this too, is in God's hands.

Once the request for passports has been made, it can be just a few weeks before they are in hand. After that, there is one more stage: Nephtali's visa. Steps have already been taken toward getting this and once we are at this stage we could be ready to fly within a month to bring our daughter home and this long journey to it's end. 

Then... we will be begin the new journey of being Nephtali's family.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Kisses in the Wind






KISSES IN THE WIND (The Waiting Child's Lullaby)


 [ Dear Nephtali,]  I hold you in my heart and touch you in my dreams.

You are here each day with me, at least that's how it seems.


I know you wonder where we are... what's taking us so long.
But remember child, I love you so and God will keep you strong.



Now go outside and feel the breeze and let it touch your skin...
Because tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.



May God hold you in His hand until I can be with you.
I promise you, my darling, I'm doing all that I can do.



Very soon, you'll have a family for real, not just pretend.
But for tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.



May God wrap you in His arms and hold you very tight.
And let the angels bring the kisses that I send to you each night.



--- © Pamela Durkota, written for Josh