Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Emmanuel Jean....3 years ago


When my Brig, my 4th baby, was only 4 months old I started to have an overwhelming feeling that I needed to adopt . I had already decided that I wasn't going to go through another pregnancy. We had talked about adopting in a few years.....but I couldn't get it out of my head.....It had to be now!!! We started our paperwork!

8 amazing, faith strengthening months later.....
we got our first glimpse of a 4 day old baby that we knew was ours. The first, of many things keeping apart was our home study. The Social Worker doing it was in no hurry, he caused us a delay of several months.

This is one of the first pictures we got of him with his eyes open. He was already 6 months old.
In June, when he was 13 months old, my Parents and Sisters came with us to pick him up from his Haitian home.

This is our first encounter. I was hysterically bawling.... Emmanuel (his Haitian name) was all smiles!Mom was crying too.
It was such an incredible day! We went from such a high from our meeting, to a devastating low. The Orphanage director, Margarette, told us that the Us Government was requiring a DNA test of our baby and his mother. She was unable to sign her name, she had no ID, therefore there was a question about whether or not they were related. This was going to cause a delay of 6 weeks, or more.

We all cried, and 2 days later I had to leave my baby at the Orphanage. I was sure that my heart would break.

When we arrived home we found out that if we paid extra the DNA test would be expedited. Only 4 weeks had passed when we got the call. We had the DNA co. fax the results to the American embassy.....We could go and pick up our baby.

This time, only Jeff and I went to Haiti. We arrived at the orphanage, the weekend of July 4th, to find out that they hadn't recieved the DNA results. There was NOTHING we could do about it because the govt. offices were closed for the holiday weekend.

We left Haiti without our baby again. I wanted to stay there, but Jeff wouldn't let me. Instead I stayed in Florida.....alone, hoping that we could get the problem resolved quickly. I stayed there 5 days. Our paperwork had been sent to Mexico, by mistake. They weren't sure when they could get it to Haiti. Jeff made me come home...during a hurricane (for real).

July 22nd, we finally got the final OK to pick our baby up. They weren't going to make us come to Haiti again, Margarette was going to escort him to Florida (for a fee...of course!)
July 23, we were in the Miami airport.......waiting to see if our baby was going to come.....we weren't very optimistic.
And then....about 20 minutes before our flight was supposed to Utah was to leave.....they came through the gate. He was finally home! Finally ours!

14 comments:

Kathi D said...

Thank goodness for the happy ending (well, many happy endings, I'm sure!) to that hair-raising tale! And your curly-haired twin must know how much he is loved, that you went through so much to bring him home to you.

What a sweet, sweet story!

Mrs Jelly said...

A very moving story that umm, made my eyes leak

Barb said...

Wow, what an amazing story. We had looked into international adoptions and lots of them looked pretty "iffy". We got lucky both times and adopted here in the states. I'll have to post about our little girls adoptions some day.. it is not a fun story ~ but had a great outcome!

Purple and Paisley said...

tater is such a little doll...and your story always reminds me of my favorite saying: blood is thicker than water but love is thicker than blood...your are an angel and your family is beautiful...=)

Melanie said...

Great story about enduring through trials..somehow we find the strength and determination to live through it with beautiful results!

Claudia said...

Both my nephew and my niece are adopted and they come into our family when they were 2 months old. Congrats on you and your family to be up to the job to give more children a happy family and a good life. But my brother and sister-in-law adopted inside our country. It isn't more complicate to do an international adoption? Just curious.

lera said...

What a sweet story.

Christine said...

Congratulations to you and your family. Our family was increased by adoption- I'm the proud aunt of 4 adopted children. We went through the pregnancy of the 1st 2 and I was worried that I would not instantly love them like I did our birthed into the family nieces and nephews. It was just the opposite and we are so blessed by these children being part of our family. I wish more people understood that adoption is a wonderful way to spread more love!

Christine

Hey It's Di said...

Ahhhh brings back sweet memories of Haiti and the Orphanages. Thanks for taking me along!

Very Mary said...

I needed that uplifting story today, thank you!

Unknown said...

What a great story. I'm adopted and I love hearing when my parents got to bring me home. I was one when I became their daughter!

Our Hands For Hope said...

As we stand firm God strengthens us!
We are adoptive parents also...5 times!
I love it..Emmanuel...God with us!
Blessings,
Terisa

Tausha said...

thanks for the great story! So glad that you were so in tune that you were able to know what you needed to complete your family!
So jelaous that you are on vacation. Here I am at home, spending all my money on lame school supplies. Hope you are having a fantastic time. You deserve it!!

Jenny said...

Sniff, Sniff.