the language barrier

One thing we know that will be a huge adjustment for our kids from Haiti and for us as parents is learning to communicate beyond the language barrier.  Most likely our children will not have learned English, so we are going to do our best to learn some basic Creole to help open the communication lines until they learn English.

We came across this ministry and their website with helps for learning basics of Creole and thought it would be fun to share with you all.

http://www.haitihub.com/haitian-creole-phrases/

N a we! (see you later)

This could be the week we have a complete homestudy report!

Today we got word that our social worker received the clearance report from Illinois, which was the only missing part to our homestudy!  What all this means is that if our adoption agency can review and finalize our homestudy report this week, we maybe be able to get it certified and mailed off to the USCIS by the end of the week or early next week.  We then wait for approval to adopt internationally by the US government, which could take 6-8 weeks to process.  At that point our agency can then translate all our documents into French and finally get them sent off to Haiti (of course by finally I mean 3-4 months from now).

Thanks for those who have been praying that piece of the puzzle would come in quickly.  Please continue to be praying for Haiti and the political turmoil they are facing.

Oh so close

Well, February is here and still no completed homestudy; but we are oh so close!  Our social worker informed us she has completed the homestudy report, but that they are waiting on my background check from Illinois to come through so they can include in the report a date that my background check was cleared.

While we wait for this last piece of the puzzle, we'd like for you to specifically be praying for the nation of Haiti.  The current president has stepped down effective immediately even though a new president has not yet been elected.  The two previously scheduled elections were postponed due to concerns with election fraud.  Here is a brief news story on it :  http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/07/americas/haiti-president-no-successor/index.html

This is just another reminder of how volatile things are in Haiti and the effect of "third world" problems.  Please continue to pray for our children, and all the children and people of Haiti.