We love our walking trail!!

Getting ready to go ..sometimes it can take a while but we are finally all ready!



Jack Dog is dog tired already!



But not too tired to make sure he stops at the fire hydrant! What IS it with dogs and hydrants?
We are soon out of construction and looking across "Prairie" .. wait is that a Bison I see?.nope..

 Huge Golf Ball building ahead!


Entering the Green Belt!

And we are OFF! With Gusto!

Ahh.. ye olde watering hole..and a great place to fish!



Stopping for a water break.. good job we brought the stroller to carry the water!
Waiting for Mum to catch up!

No one is going to miss Miss E today!

The first bridge.. no trolls today!

You'll have to take my word for how hard the wind is blowing..my shutter speed was too fast to catch the blur!



We saw a skunk here the last time we walked this way.. not too sad to miss him today!
The Lake by the Fam Camp.. the midway part!

Jack goes for a swim he LOVES the water!!

Katie just submerges herself and looks like she is sticking her tongue out at us!



Hannah takes her water from a cleaner source!
A quick towel off on the grass!

We are walking the trail backwards.. so this is how far we still have to go!  We have been about 2 miles to this point!

Where have the children gone? Mum picks up the pace.

AHA! Me thinks he is between a rock and a hard place!



NO! HE is between a rock and a hard place!

the not so little Little Miss Muffet!


And we are off again.. note the shadows!

 Mum guesses the time spot on..12.15 pmMad dogs and Englishmen as they say!



Hard work being pushed in this stroller.. must drink Mummy's water
The Golf Ball tower behind us in the distance now.

We are watching!


 A beautiful cool stream with tiny little birds flitting around!

Oh..right.. good idea!

Looks like they are serious!


Detouring!



back on the trail.. a safe distance from danger!







Fluffy soft seed of some sort!~


makes the grass look like it has a beard!



Beautiful wild flowers!





The fluff tree!

The last bridge home



Labs and water.. it is imposable to just walk by!


The start..or end!!


Quick victory rest!


This is the park we walk to sometimes..

while the children play I can walk the trail.


 Heading back to our housing area..


 she is really growing up and LOVES the sister's scooter!



last 100 yards... Home is in view!!

Thank-you!!!

My Sister in law just hosted a jewelry party to raise money for Hope For the Children of Haiti. She was focusing specifically on raising money to help defray the costs of the medical care the children often need. Through donations and sales she made over $250!!!

But that's not all. Along the way she gave knowledge and understanding to many folks who responded with love and compassion. That is amazing to me, with all the disasters we hear about people still are able to respond in a compassionate and giving way.. WOW!

But that's not all.. she played our videos and photo slide shows through the party.. so many people got to see how truly adorable my babies are ... if they can't be right here with me I love that they are loved from afar :0)

But that's not all.. her husband was the one who opened this adoption door for us. it's been a long walk since but we will be forever grateful to him for introducing us to the great love we have found in and for Haiti!

But that's not all... my fabulous sis-in-law and her wonderful husband have donated to help us with our adoption journey.. to bring THEIR nephews home. I am so blessed that I have two sets of sisters in laws and brothers in laws that feel the love for their nephews even though they haven't met them yet. They support us in so many ways, emotionally, financially and spiritually.

I am blessed beyond measure by being part of this family and HAD to give them a shout out!

THANK-YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for everything..and for not giving up on us in this journey.. because it has been a LONG haul of "that's not all.."

It ain't over til it's over and then it will be just beginning!!!

Just realised...

That IF we come out of IBESR with Peter THIS week.
And IF the process to bring Wadley and Peter home takes the longer expected time...
(31 weeks)
THEN they would be home one week before Christmas...

Of course the time could go faster.. and they could be home sooner... but first they have to get OUT of IBESR.

It is a little frustrating that our dossier is still in IBESR as the new adoption laws dont put family size as a restriction on adopting thus releasing us from needing a Presidential pardon and we already have presidential permission to adopt two children from Haiti.  At teh same time I understand that every t has to be crossed and every i dotted and every thing has to be in good order. The folks in Haiti work hard in difficult conditions to get the job done.

SO I'm praying tonight to hear THIS week that we have recieved the letter of permissin we need and can procedd to bringing our babies home BEFORE Christmas! wadley will be one in July and Peter will be one in December.

Wendy

Water, Water everywhere...

Back on the road again heading towards Mississippi... we decided to stay in a motel this night due to the rain, storms, damage from tornado's and danger of flooding.. see we aren't as odd as we are crazy looking!

"Did you see that?"

It's hard to process this tornado damage.. A whole neighborhood gone...

A little further down the road we are glad to be on the HIGH highway!

Lakes where fields once were..

The water level is reaching over half way up this telegraph pole!

The road has become a boat ramp... we are glad we have decided NOT to camp in this area. We take a moment to pray for the folks who have been affected and those who are helping to clean up.

Steve and the children eat lunch at a restaurant.. I'm not hungry having munched on Melinda's Trail mix.. so I am out by the van's with our menagerie.

First night ..camping...

We head Westward, first day is about 5-6 hours of driving..
First of many gas fill ups.. Steve is doing push ups because he is feeling a little sleepy!

Yes he is doing push ups in front of the pumps! LOL Push ups and a coke a cola! We should be set now.

We arrive at the camp site.. it has a tire swing!!!!

A river...

and a tent... Actually this was back in the woods..

here is our family tent going up... 

The family did a great job working together to get camp set up, food cooked, dogs walked, guinea pigs watered and fed..

Time for bed.. B trying out the boys tent.. Who will win the battle of the bed... boy or dog?

Katie settles on the end of J's bed.

And so ends the first day of travel.. peace finally reigned.. giggles were heard from the large tent but I can neither confirm nor deny that it was due to the fact that Steve took a running jump onto the blow up bed, shooting me half way across the tent!

Nighty, night....

From there to here...again...

I have been married 17 years this year. I just moved in to my tenth house since getting married. For my 9 year old daughter this is her 7th home! It is always an adventure to move, to discover, to pack, unpack and see what you have left after the process. This time moving with six children, two large dogs and four guinea pigs (one died before we left S.C) was definitely going to be an adventure!

We camped in our old house for a week before moving to TLF's.. that was a GREAT idea and I might do that from here on in. We packed out before a huge exercise that took Steve out of the home for a week. When that was over it was time to farewell us and leave for OK.

Several "last days" of play with our great friends! We have been so blessed with good friends here..

and I am really going to miss my "girl" friends and their crazy kids!

Time to pull away.. We look like a carnival float because we are exercising "No plant left behind"..

and no bit of precious stuff left behind..

  not to forget no guinea pig left behind (although one did die just before we left.. we buried her with much ceremony..(no pics of that though..)

oh yes..and no dog left behind! Here is Jack wondering what is going on... Katie is already loaded up and ready to go..

And yes.. we DID remember all the children too....

Westward Ho!

Next post will show some of our "sights" along the way... please take a moment to pray for Mississippi and the other areas of the US which have been hit so hard by storms, floods and tornadoes.

Saturday 14th May

We are surviving our trek West with dogs, Guinea pigs and plants... oh yes and our six children!

So far we haven't lost anything or anyone and are actually enjoying the travel time.

Thursday night we camped at a beautiful camp site in Georgia. I made camp fire stew, Steve got the tents up, girl's got the screen tent up and boys looked after the animals... smooth!

Heading out Friday morning both vans presented us with check engine lights. The green van had thrown a little protest Thursday and wouldn't shift gears.. so fun on the interstate! I pulled over and turned the engine off.. started up again and it behaved the rest of the trip. We pulled through Chick-Fil-A and filled the children up then headed to a Chevy dealership for an engine check. Miraculously they were able to see us straight away, diagnosed the problems and air filter issue in the grey van and a computer glitch in the green van. A quick fix later and having found and killed a scorpion!! and we were back on the road.

Friday night we chose to camp at the Days Inn, Tupelo MS. A good choice as the severe thunderstorm warnings produced massive rain and small hail. There were tornado's North of us but we had pressed far enough South to miss them!

Today we head into Arkansas to a campsite about five hours away. We may end up staying there two days as we will only be three hours from our final destination by then. Weather forecast is for sunny skies and clear travel. We will cross the Mississippi today, despite pleas from the children for us to caulk the wagons and float across, we WILL be finding an open bridge!

Next time I check in we should be at our destination! I keep checking for emails letting us know the baby's are out of IBESR but no such luck. We continue to wait patiently for our whole family to be together again!

And we're off!

The farewell party and the change of command went smoothly. Lot's of laughter and fun times. Pizza in the park last night, watching our children play together one last time was bitter sweet. I have to keep reminding myself of the Busch's and the King's and how we have been blessed beyond measure in each location with good friends we are still in touch with... however it was hard to see them saying goodbye last night.

I am going to miss my "girl" friends enourmously!! Their friendship, laughter, listening ears, arms of comfort, prayers of hope and example of love has touched me, taught me and made me a better person! Thank-you!!!!

And so on to Oklahoma, storms moving in from the West is forcing us South through Georgia today. What with dodging tornado damaged areas and now flooded plains, it once again makes me respect the pioneers of long ago!

Tonight we will be camping, tomorrow night we will be in a hotel because of the storm line so I'll try to update the blog tomorrow night.

Wendy

News on adoption..

Not ours.. but several people in the yahoo group I am in! All of us are adopting from New Life Link and in the past few days five families have found out that they are out of IBESR and can head to Haiti ASAP to go to the higher court!

What does it mean to go to higher court I hear you ask?

Well..

After the documents are released from IBESR then they are all authenticated in Parquet.

Once they have been approved to go to the higher court the parents are told to come to Haiti. They will then appear before the judge and, after some questioning, the adoption will be declared legal. The documents are all signed and then sent to MOI for authentication.

Steve and I went to the lower court while we were in Haiti. That was to confirm that we did indeed desire to adopt Peter and Wadley. We are looking forward to hearing that we have to go back to hear the judge tell us we are legally their parents!!! That is a while off for us though because we are still waiting on Peter's IBESR clearance.

Meanwhile we can rejoice for the parents who have heard they are one huge step closer to brining their children home! It's a day of rejoicing in our home today for these prescious gifts of God, many of whom we fell in love with while we were there a few weeks ago.

Wendy

You are going to be doing what?

Taking a brief break from coverage of our Haitian adventures to let you in on our newest plan for family building and togeherness. In a little over a week we will be moving to Oklahoma. Rand Mcnally says the trip is 1170.8 miles and will take 18 hrs 41 min.

Obviously it will take us longer as we are hauling a trailer with our pull along on it. (we only have one hitch so the tag along rides on the pull along.. it makes sense to us.. that will make sense to you all in just a brief moment.

Obviously it will take longer as we are hauling our six children with us.. none of whom have been able to co-ordinate their bladders as of yet so potty breaks are fairly frequent events.

Obviously it will take longer as we are hauling our two dogs.. neither of whom enjoy long periods of time confined to a moving vechicle.

and finally obviously it will take longer as we are hauling 5 guinea pigs and camping along the way, further more proving that we might very well be certifiable! And when I say camping I mean tent camping...

So.. I'm not promising that we will be able to fill you in on our trip every day.. BUT as soon as we can I will. It is going to be QUITE the adventure!

Wendy

Haiti #5 Children of the Cresche

http://home4achild.blogspot.com/2011/04/haiti-1.html
http://home4achild.blogspot.com/2011/04/haiti-2.html
http://home4achild.blogspot.com/2011/04/haiti-3.html
http://home4achild.blogspot.com/2011/04/haiti-4-court.html

When the earthquake hit in 2010 New Life Links cresche was destroyed. By a blessed miracle non of the children in the cresche were hurt but they were unable to stay in the damaged building. Neighbors rallied to help transport the non walking infants to an open space in front of a local church where they were safe from after shocks.
Dr Bernard was at the mayors office at the time of the earthquake and ended up having to jump out of the building onto debris. Once free of the rubble he set to moving the children up to the guest house.. also the place where he and his family live. The children are still at the guest house while plans are underway to rebuild the cresche with enough room for the children to live, eat, school and play.. nearby!
The joy of having the cresche so close to the guest house is that we were able to go and help feed, hold and play with the children every day. My children made some good freinds while they were there and we hope to be able to keep in touch with these children once they go to their forever families.

This is truly one blog post where pictures speak a thousand words!

Haiti #4 (Court)

http://home4achild.blogspot.com/2011/04/haiti-1.html
http://home4achild.blogspot.com/2011/04/haiti-2.html
http://home4achild.blogspot.com/2011/04/haiti-3.html


Since Linds asked the question I thought I'd take a quick detour and describe our court day...

As those of you who are walking this journey with us.. or are walking it in your own shoes.. know there are many, many layers to adopting internationally.
So far we have:
Completed a homestudy, back ground check and multiple life survey type documents stateside/
These all went into one document called our "Dossier".
The dossier was then authenticated by the haitian Consulate here in the States and sent to Haiti.
Once there our dossier then was reviewed by the adoption lawyers at NLL and we were placed with ur children.
The dossier then entered IBESR (Haiti's social services department) where it ws again authenticated and we were granted permission to move on with th adoption of Wadley and Jesley (Wadley's twin).
When Jesley died we had to put our dossier back into IBESR for permission to adopt Peter. Due to the election of a new President in Haiti in the interim time we are still waiting for that processes to complete so we can work on bringing both boys home.....

Haiti has several security steps in place to make sure that the right children are placed with the right families. While these steps can be frustrating if you are in the process of trying to climb up to the lace of bringing children home.. they are there for the protection of the children and the famililes, something we are all for if adopting legally from any country.

One of those steps is "Lower court". while we were in Haiti Steve and I went to the court to see the "Lower" or First Judge. We took our children with us and signed to state that we acknowledged that these children were the children we wanted to adopt.The fact that we were abe to do this is a testimony to the Haitian people and their dedication to restore order as they can to their country. Despite there being no courthouse rebuilt since the earthquake we were able to complete this stage of the process in a timely manner. Once again my admiration for the tireless work the lawyers at NLL do increased. I understand all the more clearly why things take a little longer than we think they should.. I hope I don't quickly forget waiting with the other folks looking for legal help and resolution, in the hot sun, on the street in Port Au Prince.

The next stop was to IBESR to see if we could find out how Peter's dossier was doing. Unfortunately I was a little distraught by having to go through this process.. it highlighted the fact that Jesley was really and truly gone and I found it hard to stop the tears that desided to make an untimely appearance. The short answer from this visit was that our dossier needs to get Presidential approval..again.. in order for us to move forward. We can only hope that this process is completed in a timely manner so we can move to the rest of the paper work and court appearances.we will need to return to complete the adoption and again to bring the boys home. We continue to save the pennies and pray for completion.

 Wadley with Jesley

We miss Jesley, I don't think we will ever not miss him even though we know he is safe in the arms of a loving God and Savior. He can not be replaced because God created him unique, as He does each of us, but God in His great mercy allowed Peter to come into our lives. we now have the opportunity to love and raise him along side his big brother Wadley. And let me tell you! Wadley is a fabulous big brother, he would reach over and gently pat Peter if he cried... just as he used to if Jesley cried... we really are so in love with these chldren of ours.... all of them!

Wadley with Peter

Haiti #3

http://home4achild.blogspot.com/2011/04/haiti-1.html
http://home4achild.blogspot.com/2011/04/haiti-2.html

Arriving at the guest house and having Wadley in my arms made everything else disappear...

To actually be able to hold him and kiss his cheeks, to see him looking so healthy and to feel his little heart beating in my arms was a joy I can't begin to explain.. the pain oand loss of Jesley was so very real too and then there was Peter... I mean.. LOOK at those cheeks and that little bundle of cuteness! He truly is an adorable and happy baby and a joy. 

Yes arriving at the guest house was a bundle of emotions but over all I had a deep sense of peace and "rightnesses". It felt like coming home. Seeing the familiar faces from our trip before.. gettig a hug from Naomi the head of the cresche and hearing the loss in her voice as she mentioned Jesley, the folks at Bethel love the children so very much that the shock of losing Jesley hit hard. KNowing he is  in place of no pain, in the arms of Jesus allows us to look forward with hope to the time we can all be together again.. and for now focus on the children here with us....

and focus we did! Not just on our children but on the children of the cresche. Playing, holding, loving, singing to and with, enjoying and feeding.. we brought clothes, food, meds and toys but we took home a heart full of memories and love for these beautiful people!

Haiti #2

 Haiti #1 :0) http://home4achild.blogspot.com/2011/04/haiti-1.html

The trip to Haiti was uneventful.. we even managed a short cat nap.. and then we landed!

Heading to the terminal we were greeted with lively music and broad smiles...

 a brief bus ride past a still damaged but slated for renovation airport..

and we pass through immigration and into the chaos....

trying to keep track of all our bags and children, while communicating in English and Creole to multiple porters, while looking for a driver from the Guest house and not giving all your money to said multiple porters ..is quite the challenge.. adding taking photos or video of the whole experience and it becomes an imposable task.. next time.. we will try to get it on tape next time.. for now just take our word for it.. CRAZY!!!!

But we made it..ran the gauntlet and got packed into the back of a Tap Tap... (truck with bench seats and a cage like structure around you...

weaving through the streets of Port Au Prince I was encouraged to see progress being made even since February.. there is still SO much that still needs to be done, but there seemed to be more people out trading and working. I am always impressed with how neat and tidy the school children look and equally depressed by the poverty and conditions other children continue to survive in.

Soon the city was left behind and we were climbing up into the hills...headed to Bethel Guest House and our sons!

Haiti #1

I tried to think of a catchy title for this first blog post about our recent trip to Haiti, obviously I failed. each day was so cram packed with highs, lows and action that to sum the experience up in a catchy phrase eludes me.

I am honestly having a hard time putting into words the trip so bear with me and I will do the best I can.

Overwhelm number one was a hugely positive blessing!

Eight suitcases/bags of clothing, shoes, medicines and diapers donated by our church, community and homeschool friends!! We managed to get each bag to weigh in right at 50 lbs. I wish you all could have been there when the packages were unpacked! The new church shoes were especially welcomed.Thank-you so much all those who contributed, I felt like you were all there a little bit with us!

Getting to Haiti was our second overwhelm.. starting from a conference at Myrtle Beach we headed out late Sunday morning for Virginia. Getting out of the hotel took longer than expected and although traffic was steady we forgot how VA traffic really is!Thankfully we have another huge blessing in the shape of our Virginia family and Cindy had delicious pasta, bread and desserts waiting for us when we finally pulled in. Play time with the much loved cousins was too short ... but we have found that three weeks straight would still be several years too short! The family went to bed and we all crashed on the floor and sofa, watched "The Sound of Music" for three hours and then dragged weary bodies into the van for the trip to the airport...

Suitcases tweaked so each was within weight and we were really on our way.. Miss H complained of a sore throat as we boarded the plane.. by the time we got to the Miami USO it was a raging throat and we were concerned it might be strep. Steve took her too the clinic in the airport while I watched the child at the USO.. having a pot of soup accidentally tipped all over me, changing clothes and washing and drying the outfit I was in all before we had to head to our gate. Steve and H returned with septacol spray and sore throat lozenges. The spray turned out to be an essential blessing later in our trip as it had an antiseptic and anesthetic quality...

Through the security gates again.. we were fast becoming almost competent in removing and regaining shoes, bags and belts...and then we were on our way..

Thankful Tuesday

I'm having a thankful day today


I'm thankful for our troops who work in all conditions to dutifully serve our country here and abroad.




I'm thankful for their families
who endure separation and pain while they serve

I'm thankful for our key spouses who keep our families connected with each other, the base resources and, who give their time over and over at all hours of day and night to support our families.

I'm thankful for my friends and neighbors who like to come and just hang out, drink a cuppa and put the world to rights.

I'm thankful for fabulous family who love us, support us, visit and spend time with us and bring joy and laughter and connections to our lives.

I'm thankful for my new adoptive family friends, men and women who have walked this path before us and encourage us to keep going, and those who are new to it as well. We go through the wait together and, God has blessed us with such a huge love for each others children, it is truly a blessing to be on this mountainous road with them.

I'm thankful for the wonder of the internet and for photos of my Haitian sons, the next best thing to holding them is seeing them being held.

I'm thankful for the other senior spouses here on base who support each other with words, wisdom and.. food!

I'm thankful for the Commanders spouses I have met. For their love and dedication to their families and for the hard job they do, often alone, as their spouses serve.

I'm thankful for my children who pick up the slack and have to show a great deal of love and maturity as we move, settle and serve where we are planted.

I'm thankful for each day.

I'm thankful that we have our basic needs and many of our wants met.

I'm thankful for a pastor who preaches the word faithfully every Sunday.

I'm thankful for the donations we have received from folks knowing we are heading to Haiti.

I'm thankful for the sun.

I'm thankful for the rain.

I'm thankful for allergy meds!

I'm thankful for programs that let me track our schooling progress easily.

I'm thankful for washing machines and dryers, ovens and crock pots and electricity!

I'm thankful for wool and the ability to spin and knit it, and the way it feels in my hands as I create a new item from the fibers.

I'm thankful for "the wounds of a faithful friend" folk who are willing to say what I need to hear and not what I want to listen to.

I'm thankful for a van large enough to take our family and friends to the circus and to ice cream.

I'm thankful for my new camera!

I'm thankful for the donations we received to buy a new sewing machine to take to Haiti with us.

I'm thankful for a God who knows how we are going to get it there.

I'm thankful for coffee :0)

I'm thankful for the chapel and the AFRC who make sure we have resources to help tough times become times of growth.

I'm thankful for friends who let me talk about Jesley and are OK with me crying, or laughing, or not really being able to express any emotion at all.

I'm thankful for real grief that hurts but stays right where it needs to.

I'm thankful for real joy that fills and bursts and overflows and brings healing.

I'm thankful for God's word and the spot it hits every time I read it.
I'm thankful for the color
green, it's soothing properties and it's lush promise of Spring and Summer

I'm thankful for Dr Bernard and his work with the widows, orphans, families and children in Haiti despite great pain and an exhausting schedule he is faithful.


I'm thankful for the opportunity and resources to travel.. I'm thankful our house sold.

I'm thankful for my sons and their humor and energy...really.. I am!

I'm thankful for my daughters and their diligence and companionship.

I'm thankful for my husband who works diligently to provide for his family and is so open to loving more children.

I'm thankful that it has been so easy to come up with nearly 40 things to be thankful for..what an over flow of abundant peace and joy God's grace provides.

I'm thankful for faith, hope,and love shown on the cross at Easter time for such a one as me.. I am indeed thankful!