Almost Home

By the time all of this was over it was late.....very late, and we were hungry.  We drove all over Fort Lauderdale looking for a place to eat and finally we found a pizza joint that was open until 4 a.m.  It made the most sense to order the pizza and have it delivered to the hotel, after all-we still had things to do....such as book plane tickets HOME.  So we ordered our pizza and headed back to the hotel.  The pizza was supposed to be there in 45 minutes...an hour and a half later we got it-half price I might add.  We tried to find a good deal on a return flight and after much disappointment we booked the best thing we could find.  We were ready to get home, we hadn't even been gone for 48 hours but it seemed like a week.  We flew home on Wednesday and we were welcomed by  Grandma Dee, Darrian, Shaylen, and Jadeyn and then our church family at the Corinth Gym.  The kids were so glad to finally see Paxton and we were soooooo glad to be home.  Our family was now complete.

He was quite content just looking around at all of the action of the busy airport.  Veronica handed us a bag that the people in Haiti had sent with Pax.  Some bottled water, some random clothing items, one shoe, a sippy cup, wipes.  This made me sad in way.  I'm sure that they had little to give-but they did their best to see to it that Pax was taken care of as they sent him on to his new life.  It showed me how much they cared for him.   Veronica told us about how he turned into a maniac on the flight and we thanked her for bringing him to us.  She was an angel.  After we said our goodbyes we got the heck out of there.  We had our fill of that place and had what we had gone there for.  Thanks Veronica Diaz!  We strapped Pax into his first ever car seat and gave him a great big bottle of Pedialyte and off we went.  I guess I don't have to tell you what happened when we went back to the hotel do I?? That's right BATH TIME.  I cleaned him up and put a fresh clean sleeper on him and he was ready for bed.  He was a tired little boy. He had been through a lot in  the last week.

A Very Long Day...

Steven and I were up early the next morning - we showered and went downstairs to grab some breakfast.  I had made my mind up that I would patiently wait for a phone call from Lucy to let me know what kind of options we had to get Pax home, but downstairs as we were eating our breakfast, the news on T.V. was continuous coverage of Haiti and all of the damage, rescue efforts, etc. from the earthquake.  As I watched I began to lose the will to be patient.  I decided to step outside and see if I could get Lucy on the phone.  I did.  She had plans to get Pax out of Haiti that day but she wasn't sure when or how.   We secured a flight to Haiti for late that afternoon as a backup plan just incase something went wrong on the other end.  We spent the day with Steve, Amanda, and Joshua.  It was a Very Long day. We found out later that Pax would be flying into Miami escorted by a orthopedic surgeon who was returning from relief work in Haiti.  When the time finally came, we headed over to Miami airport to wait for the arrival of our son.  We got there WAY early and we had to wait several hours.  We passed the time as well as we could and we waited.  When the plane landed we moved over where we could see people as they came through customs and we waited some more.  Steven had spoken to the doctor (Veronica) on the phone so we were certain by this time that they were there, but getting through customs took a long time.  Groups of people in scrubs were coming through and I couldn't help but wonder what they had done, what they had seen, and how it was going to affect them as they returned here to the U.S.  Then a young, dark haired doctor came through those doors with our boy in her arms.  Her mother had been waiting for her and she came through and met us she was smiling and she handed me my son.

Monday

Steve and Amanda took care of the travel details, thank goodness.  Amanda even had family there that was willing to pick us up and take us where we needed to go.   We flew into Fort Lauderdale and Amanda's Uncle Phil and Aunt Joyce were there waiting.  We were starving and they drove us close to where the boys were supposed to be coming and we found a place to eat.  We ordered our food and Steve B. was making contact with the person who was escorting the boys home.  Sometime between ordering our food and receiving our food we found out that Joshua was being escorted from the Emabassy to the airport.  But Pax had to stay behind.  Somehow I was not hungry anymore.  There was a problem getting Paxton's visa finished in time for him to get on the plane.  He did end up getting it later that night but he had to be taken back to the guest house and brought back to the airport the next day.  I also got word that Lucy now had him and I knew that she would get him to me....somehow.  Joshua would be on his way soon and for now I had to tighten my boot strings and be happy that Joshua was going to be with his parents very soon.  We went to Amandas Aunt and Uncles house for a while and I think we  had to wait for details about Joshuas flight,  Joshua would be flying into a private hanger in Fort Lauderdale sometime that night.  We headed over there to find it and sat in the floor right outside of the customs door waiting.  Several people came through, some pilots, flying children over here from Haiti for medical care.   After the Burkes were united with their son we headed to our hotel, at like 2 in the morning.  Diana said Pax should be with us within the next 24 hrs. and I was hanging on to that.  24 more hours.  If I could just go to sleep and wake to a phone call letting me know that he was on a plane that would be great.  But no sleep....and no phone call.

Sunday was pretty quiet for the most part and that was okay.  I was keeping myself busy.  I did periodically check my e-mail and kept my phone close, of course.  So later in the afternoon I checked my computer and there was an email from the Embassy, it said that our file was ready to be processed but they needed some information, pictures, etc. from us....What.....ready to be processed.....I didn't really understand but I sent them what they requested, and in a hurry.  I called Amanda, who had been napping......for like the first time in days.  Really.  She had the same e-mail.  Things were about to get CrAzY.  After messaging back and forth with the Embassy,  we found out that they were willing to process Paxton's visa and we could bring him home.  We did, however, have to get him from the guest house-to the Embassy-from the Emabassy-to the airport and escorted on a plane to us-and we had to get ourselves to wherever that plane was landing.  Now this was the hard part.  We were trying to develop a plan of how to get this done, Lucy was heading to Haiti and of course we needed her help.   Sunday night was insane.  I think we already knew that we would need to fly somewhere but we didn't really know where or how soon. As we waited to hear from Diana Boni, who was coordinating this as best she could, all I could do was clean and wait.  It felt like forever but it was early Monday morning when  Diana told us, along with the Burkes, to fly to the East Coast of Florida as soon as we could.   To make a long story short we were on an early afternoon plane to Florida before we even knew it.  There was a possibility that the boys would be flown in to Homestead Airforce Base, that night!

Sunday

On Sunday morning I went to church with my grandparents. I knew that people were going to be full of questions so I went prepared.  There was a certain sadness everywhere you went, people's hearts were really hurting for Haiti and it's people.  Brother Shane said a prayer for Haiti, and for people that had loved ones there, people like us.  I think it was the night before there was a news interview with Dr. Bernard on NBC and of course Amanda caught it but anyway in the video clip you could Joshua in the background and then later, right around minute 1:32 there was a little boy in a striped shirt sitting on the ground with a lady feeding about 5 or 6 babies with 1 bowl and 1 spoon.  Guess who's face was right there, zoomed right in where you see it really good, it was Pax.  No doubt about it, it was him.  What an answered prayer that was.  We had word that he was okay but to see his face out of all the children in Haiti.  What a blessing, I found out later that my husband had prayed specifically for that.  But Sunday didn't end quietly....

Now it's Saturday

Now it is Saturday and Steven is at work,  I am for sure in my heart that I'm going to get my boy soon.  I had no official word on this at the time but I felt God's hand all over this situation and I just knew that it was going to be soon.  I decided to work on my house that day because I was not nearly as prepared as I had planned to be for his arrival.  I had storage boxes full of stuff that needed to be sorted through, and clothes that needed to be washed-because what if I did have to go get him soon?  How much time would I have to pack?  My thoughts would get the best of me at times on that day and I would think What Are You Doing? It could be months before you can bring him home?  Years?  But no, I knew he was coming home soon so I continued my work.  And later, very soon later, I was glad that I did.

The Beginning- January 15, 2010

Now it was Friday and we were for sure the boys were safe.  The five story building that housed the orphanage was damaged but still standing and the children had been moved across the street using tents as shelter on a concrete slab.  They were soon moved to the guest house (where we stayed while we were in Haiti in September).  Steven and I felt much better about them being there because it was up the mountain a ways and away from the chaotic streets of earthquake aftermath.  We knew that they had very limited food and water and we were taking suggestions and trying to cover every angle on what we needed to do to get to them.  I remember trying to pray but I was so tired that my prayers didn't seem to make any sense.  I was getting constant text messages, e-mails, facebook comments, and calls from people who were praying for Pax and I knew that people were praying.  So for a while I just stopped trying and let these people intercede on my behalf.  I felt very peaceful about this.  People I didn't even know were praying for my son -this was so amazing to me.  A lot of the updates we were receiving came from a ministry team in TN that actually had an intern at New Life Link (where our boys were).  They made it in very quickly and our children benefited from this, a lot.

The Beginning- January 14, 2010

I call this The Beginning because it was the beginning to the end of a journey.  A very long 2 year journey to get our son home from Haiti.  So the next day, which was Thursday,  Amanda and I met with a couple of attorneys- one who specifically specializes in immigration and she was particularly familiar with Humanitarian Visas or Humanitarian Parole which is what we needed to get the boys into the country.  The Steve's went on to work that day as we were going to need money as well as visas to get these boys. Amanda and I met at her house that morning and went downtown to meet with the attorneys.  We got the proper paperwork submitted and we also sent requests to our local and some not so local congress people in hopes that they may be able to help us score the visas that we needed. 

The Beginning- January 13, 2010

The night of the earthquake we just sat around gazing at the T.V. and computer screens-as well as answering the phone and replying to text messages with what little.....and I mean little, information that we had.  Lucy, from KAS was keeping us as informed as she could.  I specifically remember talking to her around midnight as she gave me all the information she had at the time.  The next morning Steven and I already had plans to run to Owensboro (for what I don't remember) so we met up at Panera Bread with Steve and Amanda (Joshua's parents) and had lunch.  At that point I think we had gotten unofficial word that the boys were safe but I can't remember for sure.  Amanda called later and said the Messenger-Inquirer wanted to do an interview at their house in Owensboro so Steven and I drove back to Owensboro that evening to participate in hopes that the article may gain enough public interest to help us get our boys home.  At this point we didn't know much besides the fact that we needed visas to get them out of Haiti and we needed them fast.

The Beginning- January 12, 2010

Tuesday-January 12, 2010 started out as a normal kind of day, drop the kiddos off at school then I go to staph meeting (yes the misspelling is intentional).  Then I usually have lunch with a friend and go back to work until time to pick the kids up from school.  Pretty normal day.  That is until shortly after we got home on that particular Tuesday and I decided to check my facebook while dinner was simmering on the stove.  My dear friend Amanda-who's son Joshua was in the same orphanage as Pax - had just posted a comment about the safety of the kids at New Life Link and desperate for information on the kids.  Confused,  I picked up the phone and called her right away.  As she answered the phone she was trying to hold back tears and I knew something wasn't good. An earthquake had rocked the homeland of our boys, and the damage was bad....very bad.  Not to mention, the epicenter of the quake was in the area that the orphanage was located.  She gave me what information she had and we hung up as to keep ourselves open incase any information came in about the boys.  As soon as I got off the phone I turned on the television and watched news on the internet the rest of the night.  We were also able to follow some missionaries that were in Haiti at the time of the quake via Twitter and we kept in touch with the director of our adoption agency.  Basically the whole night was filled with gathering bits of information where we could, on and off the phone, on and off the computer, watching television, and getting Twitter updates, just hoping to see something that would give us some hope.  I felt at peace about their safety.....but I was a mom who needed to get to her son, and right away!

Crazy Days

Well,  I haven't had much time to update my blog lately but I have had a couple of requests for an update-so for my two readers, this is for you!!  As we have had a completely insane beginning to our year it ended up being a bittersweet blessing, through the tragedy of an earthquake that forever changed the lives of thousands upon thousands of people-we were blessed to welcome the newest addition to our family....Paxton.  I want to be able to share this experience with those many, many people who prayed our baby home so I'm going to blog as carefully as I can through the crazy days of this year as it is calming down a little, this is also for Paxton's benefit so when he is older he will have something to reference that is a little more accurate than my memory.  Check back tomorrow.....

We're baaack!

You may not have even noticed that we left, but we did.  And for an entire week at that.  The day after Christmas we headed out around 6:30 in the morning to cold, cold Northern Indiana.  We first stopped at Darrian and Shaylen's grandmother's house in Bremen, IN and left them there to spend some time with Mammaw Alice, Aunt Lori, and their cousins.  Then Steven, Jadeyn and myself headed over to Hammond, IN to spend some time with Steven's brother and his fam.  We visited Albanese Candy Factory in Merrillville....

We went to church on Sunday morning and then Cindy and I went out shopping on Sunday afternoon and I got almost all of my Christmas shopping done for 2010.  It was very cold and snowy so we spent a lot of time chatting in the living room where it was warm too.  On Tuesday morning we loaded up and went back to Mammaw Alices so we could spend some time there as well. 

The kids had Christmas dinner at Mammaws while we were gone, looks like they had a good time.....

Aunt Lori had a New Years Eve party with good food, and lots of card playing....

Mammaw is picture crazy, she has to get us all.  Many, many times!

We ended our journey around Lafayette, IN visiting Steven's BF Chad and his fam...but I guess we were tired of the camera at that point because we didn't take any pics. hmmm..Maybe next time.