Joy In The Journey

It is truly unbelievable to think how close we are after feeling so far away for so long!

Mom and all three boys went and spent a week at the orphanage early/mid july. This was sweet time for the boys to spend with Kahler Ann and Kiki bonding before they come home. During this trip Mom was able to pick up the newly printed passport for Kiki and help to clarify which paper was still needed. This brought us one step closer!

Dad and Mom both spent about a week and a half in Haiti the last week of July. Dad had brought his summer interns to Gressier to work with a friend at Respire Haiti and Mom was there on business with Haiti Serve. Thankfully, during this time she was able to obtain the last paper needed and turn it in to the embassy. Meanwhile, stateside, Kelsey and I scrambled to get the last few things done. Since Kelsey turned 18 in June we had to have our home study updated and she had to get her fingerprints done in Nashville. Thanks to Bob Corker and his colleagues, the print appointment was expedited by about a week! The same day (friday) that she had her appointment, I got the final draft of our home study and fedexed it to its final destination! This meant that EVERYTHING was out of our hands and all there was to do was wait.

That brings us to today, August 2nd. This morning my mom got the following email:

This means that all we are waiting on now is our Visa date. We should be getting the date in about a week. Once we have the date, Mom and Dad will buy tickets to PAP, go to the Visa appointment, wait for the Visa and travel papers to be printed and hop on a plane to bring our family together under 1 roof!! 

It is so hard to wrap our minds around the fact that after 2 1/2 years of ups and downs and joys and sorrows it is finally happening! There is truly Joy in the Journey!

While the past couple years have seemed like an eternity it has also been such a sweet opportunity to invite you all into our journey. We are so thankful for your prayers, donations and support!

This being said, I want to invite you all into prayer with us in the weeks leading up to their homecoming and the years to follow! Below is a list of requests we have specifically for the coming weeks and years:

• Kahler Ann and Kiki's transition from third world to first world, from Creole to English, from being with tons of friends all day to having a forever family and making new friends, and all the other trillion details that will take getting used to in this new world!
• The adjustment for us from family of 7 to family of 9. That we would love them well, out of Christ's love for us. 
• That they would feel the comfort of Christ as they are in a new, unfamiliar world away from their "family" at the orphanage (the only one they've known for the past 4 years of their lives).
• That the Lord would bless us with wisdom and understanding to relate to where they are at as best as possible.
• That they would feel immediately at home and make friends quickly.
• Their transition into American school, in a different language and probably at a higher level than they're used to.

Again, Thank you! We can't wait to bring them home and share our lives here with them. We also can't wait for the hundreds of people who have been praying for them all along to meet the kids we have fallen in love with!

There have been so many bumps in the road of this adoption. So many that it seems that they highlight the path more than the triumphs do but I am so expectant for the day when we see the fruit of every hiccup; when we see just exactly why God had it planned to happen in such a seemingly difficult way! Because, I know, there is a reason for every single high and low of the journey we have been on. Some have been revealed already, some will be days, weeks, even years down the road and some never will be. But regardless, the journey has been purposeful. Every last bit of it. 

Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
Matthew 18:19
>>>Thank you for coming alongside us to pray for the Father to bring them home!

For He will rescue the poor who cry out and the afflicted who have no helper. He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight.
Psalm 72:12-14

Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.
Psalm 82:3

-Kylie

Wow!  Has is really been six months since I have sat to update our blog?  Time is such a strange thing.  It passes so quickly when you are with your favorite people, children growing, sharing wonderful time with loved ones and it passes sooo slowly when you waiting, waiting, waiting on something.  The last six months have been filled with wonderful times and gut wrenching times.


Our adoption is almost complete and yet not yet complete.
Renee' and Kylie and Kelsey spent three days with Kahler Ann and Kiki in the parking lot of the Haitian immigration office to try to get the passports finished in February.(along with Melissa Hogue and Mike Smith and their adoptive children)  Well...suffice it to say that nothing really happened those days.  We left empty handed and disappointed.  The passports were issued about a month later.
Renee' returned alone in May to check on the papers at the Embassy but there was really no progress made and she did not get to spend time with the children.  She did however have some wonderful God appointed time with others while she was there.(God's timing is not ours again!)

In the meantime, we have had our fingerprints updated and getting ready to update our home study.

We are waiting on one of the Haitian passports to be re-printed because of a spelling error.  We are waiting on one document that was inadvertently left out of our file.  All of our papers are at the US Embassy awaiting the last two pieces of paper to be approved and passed on to the consulate.  We should then receive our visa appointment and be able to bring Kahler Ann and Kiki home at last.
Until then...we wait.

Please pray for their hearts and all of ours as we all wait.

Kahler Ann is now 9 years old and Kiki turns 6 June 10th. 
Brady, Cooper, Colby and I(Renee') are set to travel down to spend a week at the orphanage in July.
We look forward to our time together and dread the goodbyes...

Thank you for loving us well and being in this for the long haul!

Today is Dec. 2 and our hopes and dreams of having the kids here by Christmas are seeming slim to none.  Renee' is in Haiti as i write and got to spend the day and night with the kids yesterday. She was at the American Embassy Monday morning to try to stir the waters on our papers and found out that they were not there to be stirred. After a phone call to our orphanage and our Haitian lawyer we found out that we had been given wrong information. Our stuff was dropped several weeks ago at Haitian immigration not US immigration. That was a real disappointment to say the least. THe short story is that we hope to have them at USICS by end of next week of the beginning of the following. We hope that is the case. It can still take many weeks (according to some, 60-75 days) once on there.  We are hoping for less but know it could be more.

This I do know: - It will happen eventually, the kids are in a good place in the meantime, God is in charge, I'm not crazy about His timing but have total trust in Him in this, waiting is hard, we are all ready to have these 2 little ones in our home.

Longing for the near future and the forever...

It has been quite some time since we have updated.  We have had lots of things going on in our world.

Today I am thankful for our hope in Christ for our future life...
As many of you know, my mom went home to be with the Father recently and we all miss her soo much!  She has left such a loving legacy in our family.  It does break my heart to know that our children from Haiti will never know Grandma Ann.  She was a Godly, Kind, Thoughtful Grandma!
We are so excited to announce that our 8 year old daughter's name is:  Kahler Ann Giflore Moldrup
We named her Kahler to honor our friends, Glenn and Nancy Kahler and well...it just fits with Kylie and Kelsey nicely.  The Ann is in honor of my mom and my sister Rita Ann who got to meet the Father first!
(and we do live in the South where you really should have a double name:)

The passports are final, the passports are final!  Yea!  Yippee!  Its about time!!
We are so thrilled that the kids Haitian passports have been issued and now all of their paperwork has been deposited at the US Embassy for final approval and visas.  We are in the home stretch now but know that it could still be a while.  Weeks?  Months?  We really don't know.  Please pray for our kiddos to get approval quickly and be able to be home soon.

Every time I go to visit, they have grown an inch!  Every time I go, I hope it will be the last time that I have to leave without them.

We are all trying to be patient but it is so hard.  Please pray for our friends, the Hogues who are bringing Wilby home to Kansas City.  Their paperwork got hung up in immigrations and they have not received his passport yet, even though it was submitted before ours.  We want Wilby home as much as our own!
 
I will post some pictures soon from Steve and I's last trip in September.  It was a very short visit but I was so thankful that Steve got to connect with the kids again.

Thank you for your prayers, we greatly covet them. We are so thankful for all of your encouraging words and prayers, they are helping to hold us up!  We know that these children are HIS and we are thankful that HE has them in His hands on this journey and always!

Renee' (A longing mama)

More Baby Steps...

Our papers continue to move forward little by little.  We have had quite a few steps taken since our last posting.(sorry it has been so long)    I(Renee') had an appointment at the US Embassy at the beginning of August to file our official papers there.  Everything went very well and was approved by the officials.

All of our papers have been through the legal systems now and are being translated into English so that they can all be taken to the US Embassy for the parental interview.  It is set for late September.
We will then apply for their Haitian passports and then wait for final approval from US and Visa to travel.  Not too many more baby steps and we will have our children home!

We are confident in God's timing but of course would love for it to be speedy.  All that to say, even though we don't have too many more steps...they all take time.

Great News!!

We received the e-mail that we have been waiting for from the orphanage director today...our papers are out of the first major step, IBESR and have moved on to the judicial courts in Haiti.  We are so thankful for this news and for steps forward to bringing those sweet kiddos home!  I will be seeing the kids for a day in August and can't wait to wrap my arms around them again.  Someday, it will be each night as they go to bed that we all get to wrap them in our arms.  I'll end with that hopeful thought! 
Thank you for your continued prayers, we need and appreciate them more than we can say!

MOVEMENT!

We just received an e-mail from the orphanage director today that said, "Our papers should be approved and out of IBESR(Haitian Social Services) soon and on to the Judicial Courts."  I hope that soon isn't too long!
We are not really dependent on a "time-line" at all, we are just so happy for movement.
Please pray with us that the process could possibly be swift from here on out!  Our adoption advocate and the orphanage directors have been amazing about keeping things headed in the right direction.
Yeah God!  We are resting in his peace today...
"And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:7