Monica in Florida, Michael in Haiti...

I am not sure if anyone follows this blog religiously, if so- I apologize for the delay in updates. It is hard to believe that it is now Saturday. The last few days have been like a blur. On Thursday afternoon, Michael and I hopped on a plane to Ft. Lauderdale. At that time, it was looking pretty good that Stanley would be home on Fridayish. Based on the information we got, visas were being processed and we had a good team of volunteers helping to coordinate flights, etc. Some parents decided to wait until they got word that their kids were in the air, but we didn't think we could wait any longer. On Friday, it became clear that we would spend the whole day doing exactly the same thing we were doing at home- staring at the computer. Our agency coordinator was able to get sporadic WiFi and was facebooking and tweeting so we just kept her pages up and pressed the "refresh" button every few minutes. She was actually turned away from the embassy, despite having an appointment and another orphanage took our spot!!!! After she was initially turned away, she communicated that with us and the parents/staff of LBB immediately contacted all of the officals that have been helping us and within minutes, the embassy said she could come back. By then, the kids were back on their way to the orphanage. She was told to come back on Sunday at 9 AM. She was then called back today (apparently to clear up paperwork and to process some of the files for her kids from another orphanage). 11 of THOSE kids went home today!

In the meantime, she was told that although she has this appointment tomorrow, that the paperwork will be processed but that the visas will not be issued until Monday! The other major hurdle is that the ministry group that our agency staff secured to work with us and help with logistics is having to take a less prominent role in the transporting of the kids because of pressure from UNICEF. For those of you that don't know, UNICEF is completely and 100% committed to keeping kids in their country of birth and will do anything in their power to block international adoptions. Their interference in Haiti is under the guise of wanting to prevent child trafficing BUT they are very aware that the children we are transporting were ALREADY in the process of being adopted and had been legally cleared for adoption by both the Haitian government and the U.S. government (complete with interviews with the birth parent/DNA test or death certificate of parent).

Our agency coordinator has been trying to run a one-woman show and it became clear that she would need some back-up. Someone to help her hold a place in line at the embassy, someone to help coordinate flights, someone to relay messages to the U.S., etc., etc. So, Michael and two other dads flew down today. Last night, as we were deciding who to send, I knew instinctively that Michael should go. He is so level-headed and calm and organized and selfishly, I wanted him to get his hands on Stanley! On the other hand, the thought of being worried about both of them and not having Michael for support was killing me. In the end, I know that he is better off there and we need to do whatever it takes to bring Stanley and his buddies home.

After many many emails with elected officials, etc., I am crossing my fingers that a few kids get their visas issued tomorrow but if not, AT LEAST by Monday morning. If all goes well, they will be escorting all of the children home- can you imagine that plane ride?

Anyway, thats all for now...