I'll start out with the ending... there isn't any new news since we exited MOI (which was 4 weeks ago yesterday).
Honestly, I was hopeful that finally exiting meant that we would have our passport quickly, we'd get our article 23 & medicals done while we waited for passports and when we got all of that our visas would happen shortly afterward and we would have had our girls home by now. Obviously that's not the case. Here's the short version of the story...
Due to a tragic personal situation in the life of one of our reps, things haven't been happening. Article 23 appointments have been missed and passports haven't been applied for. That was really hard to hear, but when put in context of the situation understandable. Interestingly enough I put this man's name on the prayer list at our temple 2 weeks ago prior to knowing about any of this. My prayer is that he and his family will feel comfort and support as they grieve and that he will be able to find the strength to do what he needs to at work to both support his family and to help the children at the orphanage in his care go home to families that are waiting for them.
Of course we miss our girls and are aching to have them home in our arms. It has been 5 months since we visited and otherwise we've normally visited every 2-3 months since meeting them for the first time. This has felt like forever. I know we've been very blessed to have been able to make those visits, but I feel worried that that we are taking steps back in our bonding process. We've made progress each visit and I had some break throughs in September, but then we just disappeared (from their perspective) for 5 months. That's a long time to a 3 year old. And I worry that it will complicate helping them feel secure during our attachment process and them feeling confident in it being permanent once it actually is. All we can do is pray that we get passports soon and I am very, very hopeful to have the girls home by the end of February.
All that being said, we are trying to make really good use of this time we have prior to the girls coming home. I took a girls' trip to Hawaii (which when we booked it I thought it was very likely that I'd have to miss out with how late it was booked). We've been fitting in lots of family and one-on-one activities with the boys (campouts, dates, skiing as a family, temple days, etc). Trying to fill their wells with lots of attention so when the hard work of bonding and attachment happens and a lot of attention goes to the girls that the boys aren't already starting out with an emotional-deficit, you know? In that vein...when we found out a few days ago that our passports weren't actually almost complete, but rather that they haven't been applied for - Mark and I decided to hurry and book a one-on-one trip for Lincoln and myself! (Yes, I'm spoiled). Here's the story on that:
When Noah was 11 years old I took him on a one-on-one vacation to Universal Studios Florida. It was awesome. Mark and I felt like doing a one-on-one trip with each child was important and doing it at that age right before going into junior high and all the changes that come with that would be a smart time. So, we told the other boys that for either their 11th or 12th birthdays we'd do the same thing for them. Now fast forward...
We received our official referral for the girls just before Lincoln's 11th birthday and left for Haiti 5 days after his birthday. So, obviously, no trip for him that year. Then we were hopeful that we'd be bringing the girls home by his birthday the next year so we didn't want to invest in planning anything ahead then either! So, he turned 12 almost 3 months ago now. With the new information of another little delay we decided to jump on planning that trip and he and I are going to Disney in 3 days! I am praying that we'll get good news while we are gone and the trip (especially amidst the crazy winter weather) is another welcome distraction to the hard wait here at the end of this journey.
So! Hopefully the next time I write on this blog it will be to say that we have passports and that we'll be bringing those two amazing little girls home soon!
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