Made in Haiti

You all know I am in the process of adopting a little boy from Haiti. While going through this process many of you have seen things about Haiti that you found interesting and have shared with me. So many lives are affected by adoption and it's sad knowing that parents feel they no other choice than to give up their child because it's the "only way" of having that child get a chance at a good life.

I cannot begin to imagine what it would be like to make that decision. The raw emotions while that thought is in your mind. The numbness one might feel as they hand over their child. The emptiness that must follow them around for life. What an ordeal for anyone to have to go through.

Mary Walton told my mom about this program in Haiti that has people making jewelry out of cereal boxes to help them support their families and giving them a chance to keep their kids and make a life for them. Well, of course, I looked into that (Any program that makes jewelry out of CEREAL BOXES has to be pretty dang cool).

It is called The Apparent Project. It is an initiative designed to enable parents to provide for their children, to help prevent child relinquishment and abandonment.  People donate cereal boxes, cracker boxes, soda boxes, etc and they turn them into beads, then into bracelets, necklaces, key chains, etc. Then they attach a little paper with their picture and story and send them to whoever wants to sell them as a fundraiser.

The money they make from the sale of these bracelets goes directly to the artisan who made it. They have a certain percentage they are required to put into savings and then the rest is used to take care of their families. What an amazing mission this is. I am happy to be a part of it.

That being said. I have over 100 bracelets I am selling for them. There cost is $10 each and I would love to help these incredible people save their families. I want parents in Haiti to be able to keep their kids so they grow up knowing who they truly are and that they have parents who worked hard to keep them.

I have posted some pictures so you can get an idea of what they look like. Please message me if you are interested in supporting me and this cause. (A portion of all sales does go directly towards my adoption fund as well). Will you help me and help keep some families together?

Apparent Project Brochure

Apparent Project Mission

Insert HEAVY sigh here

With hope in my heart at the beginning of this year I was excited to think this was going to happen soon. Then, this morning, I received this email........

Dear families,

 

We hope you had a nice holiday season. 

 

We received some rather unpleasant news right before the Christmas holiday.  Although we have active cases in Haiti and no irregular cases or complaints in Haiti, our agency did not appear on the approved agency list issued by IBESR.  We feel that this was an oversight. 

 

Our Haitian representative has been to IBESR several times since then and because of the holiday and vacations, no one of any authority has been there who could help.  We are requesting the first available appointment with Mme.Villedrouin and someone from CHI will be traveling as soon as that is granted.

 

We don't think this will have an immediate effect on families in the process due to the slow nature of IBESR.  We hope to have this resolved very soon and will let you know as soon as we have more information.

 

Take care,

Kathy

Makes for a heartbreaking start to my day. I am not sure where I am (with the process) at the moment, but I continue to wait and pray that things happen in the time they are supposed to for me and my little nugget. Prayers welcome.  

Looking back and going forward

2014 has come and gone, and I still am childless. As I look back to the beginning of this year, I was full of hope and excitement with all the movement in my adoption. I was preparing for the final walk through of my home study and moving forward with all sorts of different required paperwork. There was so much positive in the process.

Fast forward to December 2014. Thinking that I would have him by now. I find that I know the feeling of having missed out on buying/creating a costume for Halloween, missing out on giving an extra thank you on Thanksgiving, and missing out on the excitement of Christmas with my little boy. Knowing they have the little guy all picked out makes it even harder to accept. I just want to scream, "ARGH" every day I don't get that email.

I know that I have given the timeline of this adoption to The Lord, and I know it will happen when it is supposed to. That does not make it any easier to be alone. I continue to pray for strength to stay focused and be optimistic daily.

So many things have happened this year. I have moved ahead in my running and really focused on half marathons. I have done my best to be a good teacher at church. I have always tried hard to be a great friend. There are many things, that happened, I am truly grateful for. There are certain things that ended, which affected me more than I would have ever believed.

It makes me wish I knew the plan for me, both in the adoption and in life. I wish I knew who, what, when, where and most definitely, WHY.

I know where my heart lies in different areas of life, yet, the hardest part is accepting that I don't get to choose how things play out.  There is absolutely nothing I can do to make this process move faster. The only thing to do now is to focus on me and preparing myself even more. With that said, I focus on making my new years resolutions. Hoping to become a better person (physically, emotionally and spiritually), a better friend, and hopefully, a great mom when the time finally comes.

Here is to hoping that 2015 is the year I have my own little family.

A time to give thanks

I am not even sure where to begin with this post. This has been a year of so many people helping me out, in so many different ways. From simple daily affirmations of support, to donations of all types, to fund raisers being held for me (that I didn't even know about). Thank you seems so small. With no idea how to truly say what my heart feels, I must stick with the standard THANK YOU.

Thank you to those who every day, tell me how excited they are for me in my journey and ask about it.

Thank you to those who have given their time, talents, and items they donated for sale.

Thank you to those who have given me cash donations. It's overwhelming to accept money from someone, but to know that person loves me and believes in me enough to help me in this way helps me through it.

Thank you to those who have given me endless aluminum cans, metals, and other things to recycle and get cash for. Over the last two and a half years, this has really added up.

Thank you to my close friends who hear me talk about my adoption to everyone that asks, they have heard the same story numerous times and have never once complained about it.

Thank you to my mom, who is my biggest supporter in our family. She has worked hard to make sure the house will be ready for her newest little grandson. She shares my story with all her friends over the phone. She might be just as excited as me. Thank you MOM.

Thank you to my Heavenly Father who has given me the patience throughout this process. I have no idea when I will hear about my little boy. I don't know when I will find out who he is, what he looks like, or what he is like. It is because of Him, I make it through each day without being frustrated that it's taking so long.

With that said, I am so thankful for this opportunity to become a mom. I am thankful for the lessons I am learning in the process. Patience being the biggest lesson of them all. I am hoping that patience will spill over to a three year old little boy that I am hoping to hear about soon.

You are all such an incredible part of this journey in my life and I am so grateful for the people it has brought into my world.