One hand

Things have been super crazy around here. It's hard for me to harness all my nervous energy that I'm using to get things done and slow down enough to sit down and write right now, but I want to at least post something amidst all this wonderful chaos!

I can count on one hand how many days until I get to hold our girls! One hand! Our travel dates were approved by IBESR and our flights begin this Sunday (in 4 days)...and we arrive the next day, so on Monday, in Haiti!

Last weekend I was in New Orleans (from Tours-Sunday) with Mark and my friend Sydnie. We had the trip planned long before our referral because Mark was attending a work conference for an organization where he sits on the board. Even though it wasn't great timing with everything we had to get done we didn't want to cancel (plus our flights were expensive)! It was such a fun long weekend. There was a lot of emailing back and forth about adoption stuff while we were there though, including booking our flights to Haiti.

On Friday I realized that I misunderstood the process for getting travel approval from IBESR. Amidst the shuffle of emails and documents I received I missed the information that I was supposed to edit a travel request document and have it notarized. Somehow I thought that requesting our dates from IBESR was something Chareyl took care of once we had approval from our orphanage. Anyway! Once we found out we immediately headed out in the rain back to the hotel where we edited the document.

Once the document was done Mark went to the guest's office to print the document, but their printer wasn't working. He ended up getting someone at the concierge to help him with it. We then found a place with a notary that was open (some were closed on Fridays) and hurried to where that was located. We arrived there only to find out that I left my ID in my other jacket...so Mark ran back out into the rain all the way back to the hotel to get it. We eventually got the document notarized and headed back to the hotel to scan it in. Of course the scanner in the office didn't work...then they couldn't get the one at the concierge to work either. Thankfully they took us to an executive office where they got it to work, but it wouldn't show up in my email. Finally we figured out they had entered my email address in wrong (missed a letter). Whew! Finally we had the document and sent it off to Chareyl who had to juggle a lot on her end I'm sure also to get it to her rep while she was out in the countryside of Haiti herself managing a volunteer group.

Everything worked out alright, but we are also concerned about a planned demonstration for the day we arrive. We're hopeful our driver can pick us up quickly and get us out of Port au Prince by going around the demonstration sites and get us up to Kenscoff. There is the possibility that if things get out of hand we could get stuck in Florida for another night, but we'll see.

Yesterday I also mailed a cashier's check off to our orphanage to pay for our guest house stay and our transportation.

This is really happening! Now back to paperwork, packing, immunizations...

So glad I know their faces

I just wanted to drop a line to say that while I am anxious to get travel dates so we can book our flights to go meet our little girls...I am so very grateful that I know their little faces. That I know where they are and who is caring for them.

I'm grateful that right now before I fall asleep I can look at their pictures and finally know who this last part of my heart belongs to that has already not belonged to me for so many years.

I love them so much already. And I did before I ever saw their picture. Oh how wonderful it is going to be to actually be able to HOLD them!!!

Shopping and our acceptance letter

Since the twins are at an orphanage in the mountains I needed to go get some leggings, long sleeved shirts and warmer pajamas to send them. It actually gets down into the 50's at night time there this time of year (and it's humid). I was also able to do a little shopping for someone in Haiti that Chareyl knows too. Girl shopping is fun!!

I managed to fit a few outfits for each twin, pajamas and a cardigan each into 2 ziplock baggies! I thought that was pretty good! I dropped them off to Chareyl last night. She leaves for Haiti tomorrow! It makes me so happy that she'll be able to bring these things for our girls!

The other update is that we got our English translation for our referral documents (about 27 pages long). We spent a long time today going over those, trying to understand everything and then finishing our acceptance letter and getting it notarized! Here we are getting it notarized!...

I scanned in and sent that acceptance letter and one other document to Chareyl today and we're excited to hear from the orphanage to pin down travel dates now!

It happened!!! It really happened!!!!!

I'll start at the end of this story first...we received our official referral for our twin girls today!!! We know their names, their birthday, and have a whole bunch of other information that hasn't been translated yet! Some of the big questions we have won't be answered for a few days since it's a 4 day weekend with the holiday this weekend...but in the meantime we are so over the moon!  Let me document how things went down today.

After hearing yesterday that IBESR had received the document it requested on Monday a tiny part of me was really hopeful that we could get a referral today, but I hardly dared give that thought any attention let alone mutter those words out loud. Thursday and Friday are a holiday in Haiti so I knew it was likely that we wouldn't hear anything sooner than next week - assuming that the document was in order and they were satisfied with it (and if not that could have led to long delays having it redone).

So! Today was Halloween. Anyone who knows me is aware that I am a huge fan of Halloween. It's my favorite holiday. So it was so appropriate to me to get this long awaited news today of all days. I was at the elementary school for Max's costume parade and class party. My mom came also, but we found out that the parade she came to watch happened earlier that day, so she decided that she'd walk by her other grandkids' classrooms and then be on her way. I went in to help with the party and dose Max insulin for any snacks they were having at the party. About 5-10 minutes into things I was looking at my phone to manage Max's numbers and saw a text from Chareyl come across my screen. It said:

"It's your best Halloween! I am just getting home but got a message from Nisthone that he just sent me your referral packets. A____ and A____ born September 22, 2016. I'll be sending to translator and to you soon!"

I gasped and dropped what I was doing and instinctively ran out into the hallway. I was trying to hold back happy tears and half hyperventilating and ran right out the door into my mom that was still at the school after saying hello to her other grandkids! She immediately got all worried and quickly asked what was wrong (thinking I was upset). I told her that we got our referral and she was so excited...and wanted to see the text for herself. I had her video me trying to FaceTime Mark, but he didn't answer. I was so overwhelmed, emotional, happy and couldn't think straight.

I began to get texts from Mark saying he had a really bad headache so I offered to bring him something and he asked for Excedrin. At this point I realized that I had forgotten about Noah who was just getting out of school, so my mom drove over to pick him up. Before going back in to finish Max's party I FaceTimed my dear friend Sarah to tell her the news. I was so emotional and excited and trying to hold it together.

When I went back into Max's classroom I went over to the game of musical chairs he was playing and when he got out I couldn't contain things...I called him over to me and whispered to him, "We got our referral! We got the referral for the twins!" He was really excited and just kept saying over and over how happy he was. Then I snapped this picture with Max to remember that moment.

I asked Max not to tell his brothers and then after school was out I told them myself right away! Then my mom took Noah and Lincoln and dropped them off at home while I took Max with me to tell Mark!

I did bring Mark Excedrin, but Max and I also had an elaborate plan of how Max would video me telling Mark about the referral and when it came down to it...as soon as he was filming I just blurted it out. Mark managed to stay calm and see 3 more patients while I about crawled out of my seat waiting to open it with him!

We already received the huge news about being matched to twins, who they were, how old, and what orphanage they're at (things you normally find out with referral) so the thrill with this was knowing that it's official. The photos that were included were older black and white copies of photos, so we're anxious for more updated photos! We did find out their names though which was exciting. I'm not going to type them here as I don't think we should share any specific information about them or pictures of them until the adoption is finalized.

I still feel elated though. It's after midnight and I should definitely be sleeping, but after we finished at   Mark's office we sped home and immediately jumped straight into costumes and trick or treating! I haven't had enough time to digest our big news! I just got online and announced it on the Adopting from Haiti page and joined the facebook page for families adopting from our agency.

Chareyl has emailed me several things we need to get going on, but we can't do anything regarding solidifying travel dates until we can coordinate with both the orphanage and IBESR so that won't happen until after the holiday weekend. There is paperwork I can't get going on tomorrow when I have slept and have a clearer head though.

Honestly my head is so foggy right now. I just didn't want to wait even one day to document this. I feel so overwhelmed with gratitude. So excited to be able to move forward to the next step of this journey. We started this adoption journey over 6 years ago. Six years. In 6 weeks we'll have been in process with Haiti for 4 of those years. We still have about another year to go, but we are so excited to know who our children are! Where they are! To know that we'll be able to hold them in a few short weeks!! I feel so, so grateful.