Lower Court

We had an appointment at lower court at 9am. We were told we needed to leave around 8. That was the night before. Things are always changing and plans will be different at a moments notice, so you really gotta be able to go with the flow. That morning, we learned plans changed. Mike & Missy needed to go shopping at The Giant (think lowscale Wal Mart). I went with them. Dr. Bernard had a doctors appointment, and Brandon went with him in his car. Then we were going to meet up at the office. Dr. Bernard's driver took him to the doctor and then went and dropped off Brandon at his office. A few minutes later, we arrived. We walked in and there is a plexiglass window. They immediately took us back and gave us a fold up chair to sit in.

We sat. And sat. And sat. This was about 10:15 or so. Our appointment was at 9, remember? lol. Clearly we are on Haiti time!! We finally got called over to sign the book. It was basically a blank sheet in a binder. Then they go back and add whatever it is they need to write. Then we went and sat some more. Then we got called over to talk with the biological parents. Yes, it was initially ackward. We had a chance to ask them questions. We found out about their background, their medical history, other siblings, their faith, and above all, they are happy that we are taking their children. The dad stated that they live everyday in misery and do not want that for their children. He asked for us to send pictures through NLL. It was very important to him that the kids go to school and get a good education. Neither of them went to school and/or have jobs. Mom did not say much of anything. She was pretty emotionless throughout the whole ordeal. I'm sure that is just her way of coping with the situation. I gave the bio parents a picture album I had made with pictures of the children and of our family. Dad couldn't stop looking at them!


After the emotional conversation between us parents, we sat some more. We had to wait for our ride to come get us. Sooo glad there was another couple there with us to chit chat with because we sat there until 4:00. When our ride did arrive and we were ready to go, we found out that a bio mom, her infant and 6/7 year old daughter were coming with us back to the creche. It was heartbreaking to later talk to the mom and hear how she decided to turn her kids over. More on that later...

A not so warm welcome to Haiti, also known as the scariest day of my life

Our flight into Haiti was uneventful. Everything went as planned, except for being delayed a few minutes.

And then we got to Haiti....

You might recall my biggest fear was our driver not meeting us at the airport to pick us up and drive us to the guest house. We got off the plane, got our passports stamped, and walked out to meet our driver. In the past, we have gotten picked up right when we walked out of the airport doors. This time, nobody was there. So we walked out to the parking lot thinking maybe they were out there. Yeah.... not so much.

We saw nobody who resembled a driver from our place. I must admit I was a little worried. But at the same time, when you walk out of the airport, there is probably like a hundred people standing around. So it was still very likely that our driver was there somewhere. Brandon's and my phone had no service. Luckily, my mom's phone was working so we got it out to call. I pulled up my email on my phone to get the phone numbers. The office was closed already since it was after 5, so that number was no good. We called the cell and home numbers and we couldn't get either to go through. Of course during this time there were a handful of people trying to get us to get in their taxi. Um, no thanks. After all, our ride just HAS to be here. One of the guys who worked at the airport let us use his phone. He tried calling the numbers we had and he said the recording said the number changed. Excellent. So we literally had no way to get ahold of this man. And it is getting dark. And Port au Prince is not a place you want to be out after dark.

At this point, we had limited choices... take a taxi. Which is not a good idea, for safety reasons. Plus, I don't even have the address of the guest house. Or we could sit outside the airport and pray someone comes for us and hope that noone bothers us.

We pulled up the guest house's website and got the address. And decided to let the guy we had been talking to take us to the guest house. I knew it wasn't a wise idea. But I really didn't know what else to do. It wasn't until we were in the taxi and on our way that I was overcome with fear and the realization that the two guys driving us literally had our lives in their hands. They could have taken us anywhere and dumped us off.

During the ride, my mom got a text that Dr. Bernard was looking for us. Turns out there was a mis-communication with the driver and he was on the way to get us from the airport. After explaining that we waited for over an hour and it was dark, I told him we got in a cab. His response was that he was concerned for our safety and to be careful. I guess that was my confirmation that I should be worried. He then talked to our cab driver and asked him to take us to the police station in town and he would have someone come get us. After some arguing and disagreeing about where we should be dropped off at, we agreed that was a good idea. I think it was about this time when they decided to up our fare from $60 to $90. Really?? But we did want to live and make it to our destination, so we didn't argue.

After what seemed like a really, really long drive through town, fearing for my life the entire way, we finally made it to the police station. A few seconds later, Katie and Ralph showed up. I have never been so happy to find a familiar face!! We followed them in the taxi to the guest house.

Whew!! We made it!! Alive and well. Dr. Bernard was waiting on the porch for us. He walked over and proceeded to yell at the taxi drivers for ripping us off on their cab fare. At that point, money was no object and I would have paid whatever just to get there safely.

We took our luggage in the door and peeking around the corner, were my 2 babies waiting on us!! They had brought them up from the creche to greet us. At that moment, none of what just happened seemed so bad. Although I don't want to go in a cab there again any time soon. Or ever for that matter.

And the adventures begin......

Bracelets & Baby Clothes

Thursday can't get here soon enough! I am determined to get things ready to go this weekend. Not sure why I find getting packed to go out of town so stressful. This time particularly because I am not sure what all to expect. And I know that if I forget something, I can't just run down to WalMart to pick it up. That's not happening in Haiti!! I don't want to have to worry about packing during the week. It will be hard enough having to get sub plans ready for my class and getting Avery ready to stay with friends to have to mess with all of my "stuff" too. Although I figure no matter how much I plan ahead, there will be lots of last minute things I haven't thought of. That is usually how it works with me. Any of you other mamas have any tips for thing I should take with me??

I was talking to a friend who suggested I take clothes for the kids to wear while we are there. Of course they have clothes, but they may not be very clean or smell the best since they are often shared day after day. So when I got home from school, we got up in the attic and dug through tubs of Avery's old clothes that I saved. I picked out several adorable little 3T girly outfits to take. A friend of mine was nice enough to give me tons of her boys clothes for James. I went through those and picked out some tiny 2T outfits for him. Looking through all of Avery's old clothes brought back so many fun memories of when she was a little toddler. I can still remember things we did when she was wearing certain outfits. Those were such fun times. Can't wait to have 2 more around to make many more memories!!

I spent tonight packaging up Apparent Project bracelets to ship out tomorrow. Our friends & family have been so supportive! We still have quite a few left. If you are interested, they are $8. You can email me at whitaker_lori@yahoo.com

That's my boy!

My friend Lacie sent me this picture yesterday of James.



I can't wait to see this precious boy with his big, brown eyes!! This time next week....

Flights booked!

We booked Brandon's flight today! A week from now the kids will be spending time with their mommy, daddy & GiGi. Thanks so much to everyone who offered up their babysitting services to make this last minute journey possible... we are so blessed to have such awesome friends & family!!

The Apparent Project

From the Apparent Project website:

Unfortunately, orphanages have often only enabled the dissolution of Haitian families. Haiti was said to have as many as 500,000 orphans before the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010. The vast majority of these "orphans" were actually not true orphans. They were children given up by living parents because of extreme poverty. A history of corruption and inefficiency in the Haitian governments adoption processes has caused orphanages to be overcrowded and short on funding, also creating emotional, physical, and developmental problems for institutionalized children. Yet, while a single adoption costs $15,000-20,000, these funds could sustain up to 40 families by providing seed money for ongoing small businesses!

Most orphanages are focused primarily on childcare, without addressing the roots of child abandonment. Unfortunately, many, many orphanages also take in way too many kids way too easily. While the Apparent Project advocates passionately for the adoption of true orphans, they also believe that preventing child abandonment by economically empowering Haitian families is the best way to rescue children. The Apparent Project has created opportunities for impoverished parents to earn an income through their artisan program. We train each parent in a specialized skill, such as jewelry making, bookbinding, sewing, or another craft, building relationships along the way. Through addressing educational needs, homelessness, joblessness, nutritional problems, medical needs, and building emotionally and spiritually enriching relationships, they are trying to bring dignity and wholeness to the whole person, strengthening each to be a support and encouragement to others.

Of course we are advocates of adoption. But we also believe that with their bio parents is where kids belong, as long as they can be cared for and their needs met properly. Supporting The Apparent Project will help parents be able to keep their children and make sure they are taken care of.



To help support this project, we are selling bracelets made by these trained artists, who are parents trying to earn money to be able to care for their children. Each bracelet is unique and made from recycled cereal boxes.



They are $8 each. Half of that money goes back to Haiti, while the other half supports our adoption. For $2 more, we are able to ship them anywhere in the US.

If you would like to help support this cause, you can message me here or email me at whitaker_lori@yahoo.com.

Lower Court

Today I emailed NLL to remind them that we are coming next week for a visit. We, being me and my mom. We have been planning this trip since August and she is just a tad excited to meet her new grandbabies! The last thing I want is to be stranded in the airport in Port-au-Prince without a ride. It has occurred to me to email them on a daily basis to beg them not to forget us. But with the possibility that daily reminders may be a tad bit obnoxious, I settled for a week before reminder and possibly the day before :) Hey, those of you who have been know exactly what I'm talkin' about....

I immediately got an email back stating that they would like for me and my husband to appear at Lower Court on that Friday morning. UM.... that is fine and great. And kind of exciting. Except for one small fact... my husband isn't going to be there!!!

OR IS HE?!?!?

The email went on to say that it is required for both adoptive parents to attend the first court and since I am going to already be there, why not go then. Sounds good to me....

Oh yeah, except the husband doesn't have a plane ticket. Remember, we planned this trip in August and at that time had no idea court would be a possibility yet. And, uh, he was going to be the babysitter back home while I am in Haiti with our other babies..... Hmm..... Normally we would call the grandparents. But one of them will be in Haiti with me. And the other just left a few days ago to drive 13 hours home. Oh me oh my.

So that's where we are right now. Deciding what to do and how we are going to pull it off. Wish us luck.

I just have to say... Those of you who know my husband well, knows he prefers cooler climates and has had concerns about going to Haiti when it can get so terribly hot there, especially during the summer months. I have been praying about this all along and hoping that when we did have to go to court that it would be during the winter when it is not as hot. Thankfully, God listened and prayers were answered when I got that email today!! It is amazing how things are falling into place. You know, when we were originally planning on adopting Javonika and got the call that they wanted us to take her brother as well, I initially freaked out, I'm not gonna lie. We had a plan to adopt one little girl. We weren't planning on two... Certainly not two toddlers who were ten months apart. Whoa! Clearly our plan was not working out how we expected. After stepping back, a friend reminded me that God's plan is always bigger and better than the one we have for ourselves. He never gives us more than we can handle. Many times during this process I have had to remember that and that has become my favorite saying. And, for the record, I can't wait to have 3 little kiddos running around our home :) I can't imagine "the plan" working out any other way!

Won't that be so exciting if the children get to meet their daddy AND their GiGi for the very first time?? Of course, it will be the first time any of us meet our little guy James ~~~ I am soooooo excited!!!!