Dossier to Haiti!

Nobody said compiling a dossier (the huge stack of paperwork for an adoption) was eco-friendly! (Sorry, Liz) But, I guess we are exempt, considering the purpose! Last night we finally finished organizing all the required paperwork: Letter to Haiti, homestudy, power of attorney, psychological exams, medical exams, bank statements, police reports, immigration papers, passport photos, tax returns from the last 3 years with all w-2's, birth certificates, marriage license, 3 letters of reference, and employment letters. All the papers were then state authenticated, translated into Creole (French) and then copied 4 times. I was able to get them in order only after the cat ran across the room (and all over the papers) a few times, making my mess a complete disaster!

When I arrived at work this morning, I realized our power of attorney document had an error, and I had to retype the entire document in Creole. What a challenge that was, as many letters have little symbols above them, etc.

Next, our papers land in Haiti into a department called First Legal...and the process begins! Even though we have switched countries a few times, we have never offically gotten this far before! No turning back now! Let the countdown begin!

It's the small things

Having a child who is diabetic is really not that big a deal, compared to what a lot of other families go through with more serious issues. However, little situations become complex especially now that Caden is in school. For example, he can't go home from school with a friend for a play date and he can't go on field trips without a parent. He can't be dropped off at summer camp (except his diabetes camp!) and he can't go to sleepovers.

However, we have another new neighbor who moved in last fall. His name is Guy. Guy, had a birthday today and he turned 6. Caden and Guy are inseparable. Even though this might not seem like a miracle (to read about real miracles, visit Miracle Monday) this is a huge deal for us. Caden is able to go to Guy's house alone, he eats dinner over their house, and plays in their yard. Even though they live directly across the street, Caden still feels like he getting to do what regular kids do! And to top it all off, Guy just got a Weii (not sure that is spelled correctly) for his birthday today...Caden is thrilled since we are not buying him one!

We have the best neighbors and we are so thankful to be back in NC!

Does one of these belong to you?

I normally post about the whacky things our 3 year old says, but tonight it was Caden's turn:

He asks, "Mom, what is in our ears that needs to get cleared out?" He was referring to his dad, who occassionally complains of having his ear plugged up. I said, "Sometimes people get wax in their ears and it might feel plugged up or hard to hear."

Anyway, he asks, "Does the crayon company collect the wax from people and dip it into colors to make our crayons"

Hmmm...great question! I SURE HOPE NOT!

Welcome to our blog...finally some photos!

I wasn't going to post photos of the little one we plan to adopt because as we have learned, things don't always work out as planned. But, so far everything this time around is going just fine, and we have a few photos that we would love to share. So, here she is...her given name is Estherline. She is about 7 1/2 months old now. We hope to have her here by the time she is 18 months old.

She lives in an orphange in Haiti, and has only been there for a couple months. She seems to be doing well, all things considering. We appreciate all your thoughts and prayers and hope you enjoy her photos.