Bitter and Sweet

Thanksgiving has come and gone... it was a lovely day spent in fellowship and food with our families... but it was a day spent thinking of our girls non-stop.. wondering what they were doing... wondering what our first Thanksgiving with them here will be like.... dreaming... wishing... hoping... praying... Bitter & Sweet~ That seems to be how we spend everyday right now.

We are currently/slowly working on their bedroom... it's fun and exciting but creates a deeper longing in our hearts. I walk in there room almost daily and look at the two little empty twin beds and wonder what it will be like to go in there and see them snuggled in thier beds, playing in their room with their toys ....This feels like the longest pregnancy EVER! Not that I know what it "feels' like to be pregnant... but I do understand the longing- anticipation- excitment....

The furter into this journey we get- the more we can see how deeply invested our friends and family are in this journey too.... and that is a huge blessing and a great comfort to us. We talk non-stop about the process, the girls, our plans, our prayers..... on and on and on... and we are never faced with the feeling that the people close to us are tired of hearing it... we find they are just as anxious to hear, plan and pray! We are so blessed!

Milestones

This is such a journey of faith. Such a journey of high "highs" and low "lows"... such a journey that will tear your heart out... stretch you like taffy on an old fashion taffy machine (thanks for the symbolize Dawn!)... Today is a milestone for these waiting parents. Our Dossier has officially been delivered to the Creche in Port-au-Prince, Haiti! We still have 2-3 months wait before we can expect to be invited to travel and meet our girls... but this is a good, good day!!!!

We love you Sheldine & Nephtalie!!!

Heavy Hearted Parents

This has been such a rollercoaster ride... on Sat. morning I receieved an email saying our Dossier had been sent to Haiti... I was so overjoyed I sat at my compter crying!!! We were walking on air....so thrilled to have our Dossier finally on the move! Then comes Monday... another email from our agency telling us there had been a miscommunication and our Dossier is still sitting in Austin, TX. waiting for one document to come back from the Haitian Consulate... frustration... anxiety... saddness.... There is a document that came back from the Haitian Consulate stamped incorrectly... and to date, our agency still has not received it back ... nor can they get any information as to it's whereabouts...

We want to go meet our girls... to start bonding with them and sharing our hearts with them... it just feels like we will never get there... that there is no light at the end of this long dark tunnel.

We prayed this morning that we would continue to trust in God's perfect timing... trust that He is in control... trust that He knows exactly where that one missing document is....trust that He would hold us together through this ... trust that He has a plan and a purpose in all this ...

Our hearts are already in Haiti....... not much we can do but sit and wait... and pray

From 2 to 4

Today we began to assemble the room across the hall for our girls! We have a long way to go before we have the house organized... arranged.., and all set up for the arrival of our kiddos-- but we are so excited to have these project ahead of us... will keep us busy for sure!

It was surreal sitting in their room today... Darren sitting on one bed, and me on the other....talking about what bed each girl would choose... their little Clifford dog's (purchased by Auntie Tania & Uncle Dana... Meghan & Olivia)... sitting on each bed... we will be turning our house from a two person home to a lively- exciting- house of four!!!

Frustration and Longing

We are still waiting for our Dossier to finish up the process stateside! Two weeks ago today our documents were mailed to Washington D.C. for the authentication process. We have not heard back as to the status of that. After this step, our documents go back to Austin, TX.... then hopefully very quickly off to the orphanage in Haiti... THEN... our POA presents them to the IBESR (Haitian Social Services) for acceptance..... then we can travel!

This week is the family bonding trip that we hoped to be on. We are so excited for the families that are over in Port-au-Prince spending time loving on their kids... but our hearts hurt that we are not there with our girls! The next family bonding trip is the first week in December, so our prayer now is that God would open the floodgates for the finances to come through for the trip and for our documents to get moving and to the point where we have the invite to travel for that next trip. What a wonderful Christmas gift that would be!!!!

Time & Money

As we share the awesome news about where we are in this whole journey.. the news of our girls waiting for us in Haiti... I find that two questions I get asked the most are, "how much more time?" and "How much more money?"...two very tough questions to answer!

As far as the timeline we are looking at.. there are so many unknowns and so much that is out of our hands. BUT- we know who's hands things lay in! Our Dossier is current still in our agency's office getting translated. On June 24th we mailed our Dossier to Children of All Nations. Our Dossier has gone through the certification process and is now in translation- upon completion of translation, it will go to the Haitian Consulate (state side) for authentication- back to CAN's for them to organize it and forward it to the IBESR in Haiti (social services). On August 3rd we received the referral call/email and were given two weeks to make our decision. We actually knew in our hearts that who ever was on the other side of that email- well, they were our kids! August 16th- referral acceptance and referral payment sent to Children of All Nations. It is hard not to be frustrated by the length of time it's taken our Dossier to even leave the states... we still do not know how much longer it will take for this to happen. After our Dossier get's to the IBESR... we are unsure of how long it takes at that point for us to be cleared and invited to travel to meet our girls. There is so much of his journey that we "walk by faith & not by sight"... actually... ALL of this journey is by faith... We have photo's of our girls... videos we have seen... and here we are... miles and miles and miles away from them.... longing to be with them... This is HARD!

For the financial side of the adoption... we still have a long ways to go! Our next payment will be due in November - $1800.00 - that is just the living expense of the girls that we agree to pay. We will pay $1800 every three months until we bring them home. This money goes directly to the orphanage for our girls! There are document fees coming up that we have no idea when they will become due- and those are going to total roughly $5000.00. (court documents and their passports).... Plus travel expenses for at least two trips to Haiti. We have to stay in a hotel that will run us $150 per night... pay for food, airfare, immunizations before we go..etc... Again, this walk has been fully by faith and not by sight. If I go with what I can see... we won't make it.... when I look back at how far we have come in this last year... I'm amazed !!! Every deadline for payment sake-- we have had in our adoption account exactly what we needed... When we mailed our referral acceptance payment... we were back to about $110 in our account... we are doing fund-raisers galore to help this account grow. We have been so blessed! It's amazing how our friends, family, church and communtity have come around us in support... emotional support, financial support and covering us in prayer! We are humbled and eternally grateful!

Fund-Raising!

Currently we are doing the bottle drive. We have an account at the PI Redemption Center- "Condon Adoption".

October 7th - Scentsy Party @ my sisters house in Fort Fairfield- Consultant Ashley Dyer is donating part of her commission off this party directly to our adoption fund! THANKS Ashley

Thirty-one Gifts- On August 1st - I took on a second job selling for the company Thirty-one Gifts. I a doing this as a way to generate a second income to help aid our adoption. If you are intested in placing an order, you can go to my website www.mythirtyone.com/scondon or if you want to host a party... give me a call! 554-7399

And if you feel in your heart to just simply give- we have linked a paypal donate button right at the top of our blog page!

With so many unknown day's ahead in this journey... we look to Him daily to give us the strength, patience and endurance we need to just make it to the next day! What a gift this journe is... even in the trying times... the emotional times... the sad and heartbreaking times.... it's still a joy and a blessing... on the other side... our forever family !!!

Our girls in action!!!

I LOVE FACEBOOK!!!!

Just over the last few day's, we have been linked up with a bunch of families that are in the process of adopting from the same Creche (orphanage) that we are adopting our girls from. This has been such a HUGE blessing to us!!! We have "met" people that know... have seen...and have been praying for our girls!!! Just last night we were directed to a youtube video titled "Toddler Crackers" and were able to see both our girls on video. I can not even describe the feelings and emotions we both had. The desire to meet and hug and love on our girls is getting stronger every second of the day! To see them moving and talking (even if we couldn't understand a word they said) eating and smiling... what a joy... blessed our hearts!