Bye Bye Summer

Well, we have survived the first week of school :) Zane is in 6th grade. Zoe is in 4th grade . And Carson started the first grade. That means all three have reached full day status ! Which gives me a little bit of me time during the day and time to get something done around here after 11 years of keeping up with the kids during the day. A much needed intermission before we have another little one running around :)

It has been another quiet week on the adoption. In October it will be a year since we put our application in at Wasatch & quite frankly I thought we would be much farther along than we are now. But.... it is what it is. I'm impatiently waiting for dates for the parent trip in October. I can't wait to see Vania & give her a big hug & kiss. We should be hearing something soon, I hope.

The kids took the underwater pictures . I tried getting first day of school pictures but to no avail the two older kids are too cool for those now. So instead of posting the " mom really !! I bet you are going to post these on your blog " pics. I thought I would post happy end of summer pics :)
Have a great weekend !
Bambi

Last Blast

Ripley's Believe It Or Not, Niagara Falls

This past weekend we traveled to Niagara falls for one last summer blast before school( which started today :) Adam & I spent a weekend at Niagara Falls 2 years ago for our 1o year anniversary. This time we decided to take the whole family. It's a place I would recommend visiting if you ever get the chance just to experience the beauty and magnitude of the falls . We had a lot of fun & there is plenty to do . Here are a few of our favorite things........

Movie Land Wax Museum

Making giant pixie sticks

The American Falls

Maid of the Mist

Greg Frewin's Magic Show
He actually brought Carson on stage to help out with one of his tricks . Very cool !

Horseshoe Falls / Canadian side

Haitian Spaghetti

When making Haitian spaghetti, you have to fry/sautee it.
You will also need onions, garlic (mashed or minced), a couple of cloves, thyme sprigs, and a little bit of spaghetti sauce.

Boil spaghetti with salt. After boiling the spaghetti (al dente, you don't want it too soft cus you will be cooking it again), drain the water and remove the spaghetti from the pot. Add some olive oil to the pot and add the onions, garlic,cloves and thyme. Make sure not to let the onions and garlic burn. You want the oil to take on the flavor of the seasonings. Next, add your cut up hot dogs and sautee them for a few minutes. Add your spaghetti and let it cook in the olive oil for a few minutes as well. Add A LITTLE BIT of spaghetti sauce (you can also use the spaghetti sauce and a little ketchup to add a touch of sweetness), just enough for the spaghetti to take on an orange-ish color (i'm sure you know Haitian spaghetti is very dry and not at all saucy).Cover and cook a little bit longer. Before covering, you can add onions that will sort of steam. They won't be soft, but they won't be raw either.

As a side note we are closely watching the forecast now that hurricane season is in full swing. We are praying that Haiti would be spared this year from any further storm damage. I have added a link to the top of my sidebar where you can monitor the hurricanes on radar. Please take a look :)And keep praying with us !

Sale Successful

This afternoon we wrapped up our garage sale to benefit the Hope for Little Angels of Haiti Orphanage. We had a great , HOT couple of days. It's been 90 + degrees and humid so it has felt a lot like the weather in Haiti :) All together we raised a little over $ 200.00 . The kids were able to raise $60 of the $200 just on popsicles and lemonade. We are very proud of them ! The best part of the garage sale besides raising money was meeting all the people. Everyone was very encouraging and interested in hearing about Haiti. We have a few things that we will be taking to some of the resale shops to see if we can get a little additional money, but we are very happy with the outcome of the sale:) Here are a few pics......

Zane scoping for potential buyers.
He road his bike up and down the street checking out the competition and making sure our signs could be seen. He must be our PR person:)

Zoe getting the popsicles ready.
She was also our treasurer& kept track of all the money raised :)

Mr. Carson our quality control inspector & crowd control ! He either had his roller blades on, road his bike through the sale or played with the toys ALL DAY :)

The REAL bosses ( SHHH .. don't tell them )

The crew in action. Our mail lady even pitched in :)

Take Action !

Dear family & friends,

We received this e-mail from our agency regarding proposed legislation for the Haitian adoption process.

Dear Wasatch Haiti Waiting Families and associates;

I am passing along information from JCICS that I just received, the JCICS Haiti task force has been working tirelessly to help with the problems mounting in Haiti. The following is the result of their efforts and they are asking all of us to join in to see that changes are made.

“The efforts of the JCICS Haiti Task Force have at last come to fruition. This morning the office of Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA) with the support of Senator Sam Brownback (KS) sent a Dear Colleague letter to all members of both houses of the US Congress. It is time for our parents to act in support of the pending Haitian adoption law”.

Please share and post the letter below as much as possible. The Dear Colleague letter and the pending law need our maximum support. Have your families and friends get involved, we all need to work together to make changes in Haiti. Please make note that JCICS is asking that phone calls be made within a 72 hour window for maximum affect, the dates are listed below.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Chareyl Moyes

Haiti Program Manager

Wasatch International Adoptions

801-334-8683

www.wiaa.org

chareyl@wiaa.org

As you know we are looking at at least 2 years right now before we can bring Vania home. The Haitian adoption process is in need of change.
Please take a look at this site www.jcics.org/Haiti.htm to read the letter from JCICS ,dated August 12th ,on how you can help Vania and the many other waiting children come home to their forever families.

August Update

Yeah for updates !!! We got an August update today for Vania. The report said she is happy her skin looks good and she has no signs of serious illness. Looks like they replaced her earrings :) We noticed she only had one earring left after her first day with us so we just took out the other one. I can only imagine what they must have thought when she arrived back at the O. Her hair wild with a barrette bow fastened to the front and no earrings. I'm glad to see her hair is done so nicely and her pretty earrings are back on :)

As far as movement on our file, it says we are awaiting IBESR placement and IBESR numbers. This sounds like no movement to me, but we have asked if our agency is able to find out why we haven't entered IBESR yet. To know why would give us some peace. I know that there are many possible scenarios to why we haven't entered yet , but I'm looking for something other than "WE are STILL waiting to enter IBESR " to tell people when they ask " Where are you in the process ?".

So glad to see her sweet face today !
Bambi

Garage Sale

Making signs for the garage sale is serious business !

This week we are getting ready to have a garage sale. We were finally able to dig in this summer and get the basement and crawl space cleared out. Yippee ! All the proceeds from the garage sale will be donated to Vania's orphanage , Hope for Little Angels of Haiti. The kids will be taking donations for popsicles and lemonade as their way of contributing to the fundraising (and having some fun as well:). Please pray for good weather this Friday & Saturday & a good turn out. Every penny counts !
Bambi

Remembering Callia

Today would have been Callia's ( Witchina's ) 2nd birthday. She was our first referral from Hope For Little Angels of Haiti Orphanage. Callia will always hold a very special place in our hearts. It was her sweet picture on the waiting child list that led us to Haiti for adoption. A week after we had submitted our dossier to Haiti she passed away.We are forever grateful for this little angel. Happy Birthday Callia :)