We are GOING to HAITI!!!

Finally...we have plane tickets to go back to Haiti! It took me the entire day to purchase our tickets. Something weird was going on with flights changing right before my eyes! Because the flights were coming up different every time we did a search (and this was even happening for our travel agent) we started checking a later date which was going to require changing our Visa appointment. When I called our agency about changing the appointment I realized we may have to wait even longer if we didn't just try to work with our Sept. 6th appointment. SO.....I went back to looking for airfare on the 4th. At this point our travel agent had gone to lunch. So, I did a quick search on my own at Mobissimo.com and found GREAT tickets!!! Of course, I knew I needed to buy "K's" ticket to match ours on the return flight.....so I called and had Cheaptickets stay on the phone with me as I purchased our tickets....then the agent *planned* to assist me in purchasing "K's" ticket......well, she wasn't able to book the ticket and told me I would have to contact the airline directly. After going back and forth between American Airlines, Delta and Cheaptickets several times......they finally called American for me. Apparently, American Airlines didn't recognize the Delta portion of our tickets until Cheaptickets called both airlines (basically they repeated all my calls) to confirm they were REAL flights and could be booked! So.....lets just say, I will never be able to listen to the celebrated "Canon in D" by Pachelbel ever again without memories of 45 minutes of it playing over and over and over as I was sweating bullets about getting "K" on our flight!

THE GOOD NEWS....we are going to Haiti on Tuesday, September 4 and returning Friday, September 14 *WITH* Katian*a!!!

Please pray for us....the last wild card is the possibility of the U.S. wanting DNA testing. We don't think this will happen....but I'm nervous because so much HAS happened with our effort in bringing "K" home.

ONE MORE WEEK!!! I can't believe it!

Amazing friends!

LOOK at my living room! We certainly have some amazing friends! We have 80 pairs of brand new shoes to take with us to Haiti, 28 *new* sheet sets and lots of cute *new* clothes! ON TOP of everything, we received another $500 donation from our friends at Photo Express in Canada http://photoexpress.typepad.com/scrapblog/2007/08/sponsor-a-shoe-.html Wow! We are overwhelmed by our generous friends and family. Thank you all for your support! Our friends in Haiti will be so excited and we will be sure to take lots of photos to share with all of you!

Beside myself with EXCITEMENT!!!

TODAY I received a wonderful phone call from our agency!!! The best one yet!!! KATIAN*A HAS A PRINTED PASSPORT!!!!! I can't believe I could be back on this beach as soon as next week sharing this beautiful view with my daughter Katian*a!!! We have all worked so hard for this day to arrive! Katian*a has had a challenging week too and we have been praying for her. She attended her mothers funeral just two days ago. Today, I'm sure she got the news that she actually has a passport. What an emotional rollercoaster this has been! We are so excited and when Mike asked when the soonest day was that we could travel....I had to actually call him back. It took me 30 minutes for his request to actually set in.

We wouldn't know what to do without a glitch....so even the good news comes with a little glitch. We will wait until Friday to set the DHS appointment because there is a spelling error on the death certificate that needs correcting. Because of this little error - Monsour will have to make a 6 hour drive back to the court. He plans to do that tomorrow and hopefully by Friday we will have a date to meet with DHS !!! which could be as soon as next Thursday!!! WOW!!! At any rate, we WILL be traveling to Haiti very soon.....so I have much to do!

YEAH!!!!!!!!! It is a happy day and it is also my BIRTHDAY! What a great birthday present.....and the funny thing, my good friend Polly told me yesterday (after hearing me complain about how slow this was all going) "don't worry, tomorrow is your birthday and you will get her passport for your birthday." SHE WAS RIGHT!!! I wish I could describe the thoughts that went through my mind when I saw HOLT calling --- I did think of Polly's prediction and the moment I heard the cheeriness in Mike's voice I KNEW we had her passport!!! :)

if you believe in prayer...

...please pray for our sweet "K" who will learn tomorrow morning that her birth mother passed away last Wednesday.

...please pray that we will be able to be with her soon. After 4 weeks we are still waiting for her passport to be printed and now we will have to obtain her birth mothers death certificate before "K" can get her VISA.

My mother heart is full as I try to take on her pain. I am praying she will be comforted and find peace about her mothers passing.

GREAT News!!!

We found out last Thursday that MV and R's files were signed out of IBESR!!! This is GREAT news! As we have learned with K's file, making progress with Haitian adoptions is close to molasses going uphill! Well, progress DOES happen but certainly in a different time zone - perhaps one that doesn't really exist in any other place than the Caribbean. Mark calls it Kolob time.

Anyway, we are thrilled things are moving for our files - all of them! We are STILL WAITING for K's passport to be printed. Hopefully we will hear about that soon so we can plan our trip to Haiti.

Speaking of our trip to Haiti....THANK YOU to all who have donated and are planning on donating shoes, clothing and bed sheets. Some have asked if used items are okay. YES!!! Like new would be best. If we are overwhelmed with donations ;) we will save some to donate to Foyer de Sion when we travel again to Haiti to bring home MV and R.

We also found out American Airlines is lifting their luggage embargo on August 12. This will allow us to take extra luggage. Each extra suitcase will cost $80 and over weight luggage will cost $25. I'm not fond of asking for money but if you feel inclined... we would use it for this.

Thanks to all who have already sent donations!!!