Baby Haiti

We decided it was time to tell the girls we are adopting so w did so on my birthday 2-15-2014...

We were at the mall and knew their was a precious dark skinned little baby doll we have been meaning to get them. So we did. We then sat them down on a bench after our carousel ride and just told them they were going to have a  new little sister and she was going to come from another country named Haiti!

We gave them the baby doll and all decided that her name should be Haiti to remind us where their little sister would come from :)

Anna Beth is in love, she can't put her down. 

Mia Grace has started daily praying for our baby to come home soon (we have explained she likely will not be a little baby).

My heart is overflowing with joy at the love these two little ones have already for the new sister we will one day have!

So blessed!

Mia Grace, Baby Haiti and Anna Beth

Pray for Haiti Adoptions....

Hi Friends and family...

This notice was recently posted on the U.S. State Department Website regarding Haiti.  From the statement below, Haiti has deposited it’s policies and procedures with the Hague Convention and are attempting to ratify with the Hague Convention.  The agency we are partnered with is working with adoption advocacy organizations, the Haitian government and the US government to understand the implications of this in terms of how it impacts families’ adoptions.  

We are shooting to have our homestudy submitted to USCIS for approval by 3/31/2014 with the hopes we could be grandfathered in under the old process.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. Pray for the whole process to be ethical, fair and fast so that the precious Haitian children will find their forever homes.
2. Pray specifically THIS (2/3 - 2/7) week as there are some key meetings occurring between the US and Haitian Governments.
3. Pray for our family that we continue to trust HIS timing.
4. Pray that we can get our homestudy submitted by the deadline :)

Thankful for a God who is before all things!

Love -
The Fisher Four

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Notice: Haiti deposits its instrument of ratification for the Hague Adoption Convention

The Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (the Convention) will enter into force for Haiti on April 1, 2014.   Haiti’s adoption authority, Institut du Bien-Être Social et de Recherches (IBESR), deposited its instrument of ratification with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands on December 16, 2013. 

The Department is also currently assessing whether consular officers will be able to verify that the requirements of the Convention and the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000 will have been met with respect to individual adoption cases by the date that the Convention enters into force for Haiti.  This decision includes determining if Haiti has designated a central authority and key competent authorities to undertake specific responsibilities outlined in the Convention as well as determining if those authorities have the capacity to fulfill their stated functions.  The Department must also review Haiti’s adoption laws, procedures, practices, and infrastructure to ensure that key Convention principles will be implemented.  Those principles include consideration of subsidiarity, adoptability of the child, effective consent, determination of habitual residence, prevention of improper financial gain, and prohibition against prior contact with a child’s legal guardian(s) until the appropriate time in the adoption process.  

The Department of State expects to inform the public by April 1, 2014 whether the United States will be able to certify Convention adoptions from Haiti.  The Department of State will provide updated information on adoption.state.gov.

USCIS will continue to accept I-600A applications specifying Haiti until March 31, 2014.  However, we encourage adoption service providers and prospective adoptive parents to contact IBESR prior to initiating a new adoption from Haiti.  If you have questions about the status of your adoption case, please work closely with your adoption agency or facilitator.  

Please refer to our website and to USCIS’ website at uscis.gov for updates on the status of the U.S. adoption program from Haiti as we approach Haiti’s entry into force date.  If you have any questions about this notice, please contact the Office of Children’s Issues via email at Haitiadoptions@state.gov.

Homestudy... Here we go...

Movement! At least that's what it feels like finally!

We had our first home-study visit on Thursday 1-9-2014, the day before Mia Grace's 5th Birthday! There is something unique about discussing the future arrival of our third little one on the 5 year anniversary of the eve of Mia Grace's arrival. It just felt neat to me!

The meeting went well, though not shockingly, resulted in the need for more paperwork. Isn't that the reality of adoption?

I was really encouraged the morning of the visit as I did my morning IPhone devotional out of a 30-Day My Utmost For His Highest You Version plan. The Lord reminded me through it that His Callings occur in HIS timing. How poignant for a process such as this...

"Whenever God gives a vision to a Christian, it is as if He puts him in “the shadow of His hand” (Isaiah 49:2). The saint’s duty is to be still and listen. There is a “darkness” that comes from too much light—that is the time to listen. The story of Abram and Hagar in Genesis 16 is an excellent example of listening to so-called good advice during a time of darkness, rather than waiting for God to send the light. When God gives you a vision and darkness follows, wait. God will bring the vision He has given you to reality in your life if you will wait on His timing. Never try to help God fulfill His word. Abram went through thirteen years of silence, but in those years all of his self-sufficiency was destroyed. He grew past the point of relying on his own common sense. Those years of silence were a time of discipline, not a period of God’s displeasure. There is never any need to pretend that your life is filled with joy and confidence; just wait upon God and be grounded in Him (see Isaiah 50:10–11)."

I am thankful for a God who fulfills his vision.
I am thankful for a husband to journey through this vision on.

What a blessing this journey will be for us.

We will be telling the girls in the next few weeks so stay tuned for more updates!

Slow and Steady? - UPDATED

They say slow and steady wins the race... in the adoption process I say it just builds character!

We are so close to submitting our home-study packet to get that process finally started but keep bumping up against an obstacle in trying to get our psych evaluations done. 

In the grand scheme of things we know HIS timing is perfect but it is still hard sometimes!

What's next you ask?

• Once we submit the paperwork, they have 90 days to finish the home-study....
• While we work on that I can begin submitting our notarized documents to the government to be certified.
• Once we have the home study done and all the documents certified we are one step closer to submitting our Dossier.

Prayer Requests:

1) That we would get our psychological evaluations done ASAP - Had our evaluations done yesterday after a few more ups and downs! PRAISE THE LORD. Hope to have the results (which she said was good) next week to mail off the paacket!!!
2) That we would get the home study started ASAP
3) That we would continue to trust in HIS timing
4) For our precious child to be (who may or may not be born yet)

We are thankful to have you on this journey with us....

WOW.....

That's really the best way to describe it... WOW….

So we thought that the princess pillow case was an amazing confirmation of God’s plan for us to adopt and then, WHAM, He one upped it big time! :)

Let me set the stage, a couple of years ago Daniel tells me in passing one day that he has planned our 10 Year Anniversary, but it was a surprise. He let me know it was nothing tropical but something he thought I would really enjoy.

So, we work out the details to get a sweet friend to watch our girls so we can go away for a night. We head out Friday morning and end up in Statesville, NC – at this point I only know we are staying in a Bed and Breakfast and have something planned for the evening.  We have lunch at a yummy restaurant (Groucho’s) and walk out to head over to our B&B (The Clichy Inn). It is so beautiful out that we turn around and decide to stroll up the main street in Statesville before heading over and checking in.

As we are walking we see Doodlebugs Consignment Shop and decide to pop in and look for a little treat for the girls.... We laugh about how once again we are doing something for the kiddos on “our” day! We found them each a Halloween shirt and a video and are about to head out when Daniel spots a chore chart that reminds him of one I reposted on Facebook from my dear Courtney Mills Jones Willis! As we begin discussing whether we want to get this, there is a Mom and precious little girl playing in the store who catches our eye. She is beautiful and appears she might be adopted…

While Daniel is interacting with her, he smiles at me and says,” You know what she makes me think of right?” and I respond, “Yep, the little one we will adopt”. At this point the mom responds “We did adopt her, we just brought her home from Haiti” – 

Yes, you can bet I get super excited at this point and let her know we are in the process of adopting from Haiti too! The then lets us know they have only had her for 12 days and we are so excited! I then remember seeing something on Facebook from our agency so I ask the mom… “Is your last name *said the name*?” She looks surprised and says yes and then I proceed to let her know we are adopting through the SAME agency and I had seen the post about a family coming home recently and we all get SUPER excited and begin a connection that I know will be one for a lifetime. The post on Facebook simply had their last name and the amount of time it took, we had no idea they were from NC!!! Her newest daughter Charlotte is SO beautiful, vibrant and full of life; we just see our future before us! She is about to turn 3 and they had requested 0-3 like we will!

What a blessing that is by no means a coincidence….

 A trip planned 2 years ago to a town a couple hours away.

 An adoption starting 2 months ago…

A little girl brought home less than 2 weeks ago.

And we all visit the same store at the same time just to shop…

AMAZING.BLESSED.ENCOURAGED.HUMBLED.THANKFUL

 In case you were wondering, the surprise Daniel had planned was a hot air balloon ride at the Carolina Balloon Festival, an annual event in Statesville! It was FANTABULOUS, The Clichy Inn was amazing, but the meeting of our new friends and reminder of the AMAZING God we serve was by far the clincher! 

Princesses

Sweet story of confirmation and encouragement on our journey...

We were out to dinner with some friends last night as a family. We were talking about the girls new found fascination with Cinderella. Daniel was saying how precious it is that he has a...

"Belle" - Mia Grace and a  "Cinderella" - Anna Beth!

I then chimed in and hopefully soon to come...

"Tiana"  - our hopeful little girl from Haiti!

Well, after dinner we decided to run into a linen store to look for curtains and low and behold we found these precious pillow cases...

We bought three and left super encouraged :)

Where are we now...

So our journey has begun....

Where are we in the process now you may ask as I get that a lot so I need to give an update :)

Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork!

That's right, we are currently doing our best to complete all of the requirements for our Home Study to begin. Thankfully a lot of the documents we need to submit to Haiti in our Dossier are part of the Home Study process but it is A LOT of work.

This includes things like physicals, bank statements, SBI clearances, psychological evaluations,  (all notarized) an auto-biography, school history, work history, online trainings, book readings and homework, just to name a few :)

Thankfully every step of the way we know we are in a process that will ultimately bring our little one home and that is amazing!

We are thankful for our family and friends who have started supporting us in prayer and financially, it is really an encouragement to get a new supporter of either kind in a process that can sometimes feel a little overwhelming!

I will give some more background in the next post as to the whole process but this is where we are now...

Step by step walking in faith.