Introducing the Hartzell's.....finally the long awaited email !

We have really waited on pins and needles, imagining many scenarios that could have played out, about the day that Judith and Kerby found out about their new forever family !  As I said in my last post, we were told they were going to be introduced to us and receive our "family book" that Molli jo put together for them, on Judith's birthday which was April 1st.  We waited all month and heard nothing from the orphanage, which of course got our minds thinking of scenario's that were not ideal. BUT saturday morning I got that all exciting name in my inbox.....  Molly for the orphanage had sent us a beautiful description of Judith's special day and a great description of how they introduced us along with pictures of the big event !!!  
Needless to say we spent a great deal of Saturday and really the weekend distracted, excited, and also tearful.  I can't really describe what it is like to know that they have seen us and learned a little bit about our family and I really can't explain why it is such a huge deal for us, but it is.  It really makes us feel so much more connected to them and just makes things feel so much more certain.
I am going to copy some of the letter from the orphanage, not all of it as some of it should remain a little private for Judith and Kerby's sake.  I will also post what we think are some of the most gorgeous pictures ever !!!   :)  The family book is a scrapbook that Molli jo made for them. They each got a present from us. Judith's is the black and pink outfit, locket necklace, and more necklace beads.  Kerby got the green and navy outfit and a pack of legos.


Here is the letter :

Hello Rori & Ryan,

So Judith anticipated her birthday all week long….  She even painted a picture of what she wanted her cake to look like, originally bright orange .  But then when it came down to it and she told me what she wanted it was different.  Purple cake and pink frosting.  Joyce got her a special sparkler candle to go on the top which freaked her out, she thought it was going to light the table on fire! 

Judith’s birthday party celebration involved the oldest kids at the GLA Toddler House who also happen to be the kids in her morning English class, so the whole class got the morning off in honor of her day (also in trying to keep it on par with Kerby’s birthday just the week before and they had gotten the morning off due to the teams)  At 11am we started her party.  Joyce and I met with Judith and Kerby before the planned celebration.  

We told them of you, something like this:   “You do have a new family.   The two of you together.  Your family is very excited to take you home with them and teach you all the things that their family does and how they do it, to love you, to call you brother, sister, son, and daughter.  Your family has had to do a lot of paperwork, and talk to a lot of people, and wait a long time already.    Now all their papers are here in Haiti and we have to wait for your papers to be done. It will take a lot lot longer before your family can come and get you, but they wanted very badly for you to have photos of them like they have photos of you. So you can begin to love them from afar like they love you.”  The whole time they are just silent.  No questions just starting at Joyce and I, Kerby grinning, Judith smiling timidly.  (That right there gives you a little window into their personalities.)   

And then we let them open their photo album.  Judith grabbed it up and you could tell she didn’t want to be the second one to notice anything about the photos.  Kerby just took it in.  I won’t go into more detail because we filmed it and I will email it through YouSendIt.com right after I send this out.  They would have poured over it forever… but then we told them the gifts were from you as well and they pounced. 

They were so thrilled with your pkgs, and the clothes fit them very well.  Great job on the sizes.  They changed into them right away.  Kerby wore his for the day and then carefully put it away for special times.  He wears the shorts off and on, but usually pulls out the shirt just for days he really wants to look nice. Judith wears her outfit as often as it is clean.  And considering we do laundry every day she wears it almost that often.  

They posed for photos, just radiating joy.  Then when Joyce asked if they were ready yet for the kids and the party, they both agreed, and Judith ran out and called Eunise, Edelyne, Johanne, Montesuqieu, Rilinxe, and Endy to come.   The first thing they wanted to do was show YOU off of course.  They showed their album to the kids they are closest too, and just briefly explained who was in the photos.  It was really much quieter time than I expected, everyone was happy for them, real photos of a real family, it was really happening!  They are the first in their peer group to have an album and faces to put with their new family.  I think they would have just looked and looked but we steered them back to the table and the rest of the party continued though it was definitely nothing special after the news and items that preceded it.  Judith opened her presents.  Happy and grateful for each thing as she unwrapped them.  She asked Kerby to stay and sit with her and would have even let him open gifts for her if we had let her.  They really needed to be next to each other, and even later that day when they usually would have been playing apart they stuck closer together.   Then we had cake.  Joyce lit the special candle she had gotten her and Judith jumped back.  She told her that the cake was going to light on fire with such a big flame and then laughed unsurely at herself and how close she was getting to it.  We sang, and sang, and let sparkler burn down till it was almost out and then she blew.  She served the first piece and then let me take over.  The kids had cake and by this time it was after lunch so they all ran down, got their plates and then settled in to watch “The Princess and the Frog”.  It was the first time they seen it, and we had to monitor it because of the “magic” that every child is surrounded by people believing in in Haiti we have to be very careful about what pretend magic we show in movies.  Judith liked the movie, but with the amount I had to fast forward in it, I am not sure they all understood it exactly.  Its magic is too close to the evil magic they have all heard about so I’ve passed the movie on and we won’t be watching it again.   The kids like to stick with the Air Bud movies for now.

Thanks for your patience!  Hope that this gives you a little window into what happened, and I hope the video will send to you without much difficulty.  It should be fairly small in file size, it is 2.5 minutes long. 

Photos are attached. 

Blessings to you on this Easter weekend…. 

Molly

April Updates.....

There is nothing quite as exciting as opening up my email and seeing the inbox say "GLA-Updates" and knowing that there is a great surprise behind that email.  Every month the orphanage sends us a written update with what Judith and kerby have been up to during the month, information about height and weight, and then a fresh new batch of adorable pictures.  This month was no exception!

I must say thought, I was a bit disappointed because I have been trying so hard to be patient and wait for the email update to see if the information regarding Judith's birthday and the kids responses in finding out about us and receiving our family book was included.  It was not.  We still don't know if they told the kids about us, what their responses were, how Judith's birthday was, and pictures of the kids opening their birthday gifts from us.  We were told they would tell the kids about us on Judith's birthday, April 1st, but we have heard nothing and it is killing me.  I have worked so hard to be patient mostly having some self-control because I thought "well, it will be in the monthly update" but its not.  I am feeling my self-control disintegrating.  Patience Rori, patience...all in good time I suppose.

I am however grateful for the update that we did get.......

Happy Good Friday.....and thank you Jesus for what is to come on Sunday!  We serve an amazing and gracious God. We have so much to be thankful for in what Jesus sacrificed for us. Praise Jesus for who He is and what He has done. All He asks in return is to not only know who He is, but to have a relationship with Him, to love Him, and to love others and be in true relationship with them.  Fall in love with Jesus....the reward is more than can ever be imagined !!!

Time flies !!!

Wow, how did it become April already?  How has the time gone so quickly?  I wish that I had more to update on than I do, but we have made some headway on the adoption front.  Kerby turned 10 years old on March 20th. We all had a bit of mixed emotions with not being able to be with them. We had a little birthday party for him while we were at the beach in our trailer. We sang happy birthday, thought and talked about him all day, and then had ice cream cones. Molli, Mason, and Mark enjoyed having our own birthday party for Kerby and hoping it is the last one he celebrates without his family.

Molly from the orphanage sent us AMAZING pictures and a beautiful description of his day. All I could think was "man, I hope his new mom can give him such a great birthday party".  He awoke in the morning singing "Happy birthday to meeeee" and the day sounded like it went up from there.
Molly (orphanage Molly not our Molli) also told us that they decided to wait and not give Kerby his gift from us until Judith's birthday (April 1st)  and at that time both kids would get their gifts together.  Molly also said that after a lot of discussion, they decided they would give the kids our "family book" and begin to introduce them to who we are and begin the process of giving them information about us.  This is a really big step in the process.  Obviously huge for Judith and Kerby and not so small for us either!  We have been waiting on pins and needles for information about Judith's birthday and how the kids did in learning about us. Molly had said she would send us all that information---we are still waiting to hear something.

 I work really hard to not let my mind settle in the uncertainty of what not hearing anything from Molly yet means.  I could easily cross over into thinking the kids must be having a hard time with it, they must not like us, etc.....God stops me and reassures me that He, and only He, has this process covered. I will only create obstacles for His plans if I continue to throw myself in the way and not completely turn things over to Him.  Let Him use me, not have to move me out of the way.  I just so deeply pray that Judith and Kerby's hearts were settled, peaceful, and that they felt unexplainable love when they were introduced to us through our pictures and words. I pray that it did not create fear, sadness, or more uncertainty for them. I truly cannot believe how you can love someone so much when you haven't met them yet, but I do....we do.   We love Judith and Kerby in a way that doesn't make sense other than to know that Jesus Himself placed that love within our hearts for 2 children that were meant to be a part of our family.

I have moments, although not often, such as during spring break when I am sitting in our 5th wheel in the wind and rain at the beach with the kids  (tight quarters :) ) , that I can get a glimmer of a panic feeling thinking "oh my, how are two more children going to fit in here?  Can we really do this?  Do Ryan and I have what it takes to make this work and raise 5 children who love Jesus and contribute well to this world?"......... What truly amazes me out of those moments is that God has immediately answered me. For some reason up to this point during this process, God has chosen to not leave my doubt or questions hanging for more than 24 hours. It is almost like clockwork. Now I am not saying that God has to answer me immediately etc., but I am in awe of how clear He has been. He does not let me settle into a place of fear, uncertainty, or questioning for very long. I realize these are just words that I could say regardless of how strongly I really feel them, but words are all I have to share my experience. I truly can't explain adequately how strongly present God has been during this adoption walk....I have not had to even begin to look for Him, He is just STRONGLY there.  Expressing myself in words is not my strongest gift so I apologize that this is not eloquently written.  My friend Rochelle has a gift with words like no other and God has connected me to her and her words so often express almost exactly what I am feeling in my heart.  I don't have Rochelle's gift, wish I did, but I don't.  Maybe that makes me appreciate her gift even more.

So back to the update.  We had to update our homestudy to account for the increased ages of the kids. It has taken months to get this paperwork done again- months !  I am really now officially sick of the paperwork.  I know our dossier is finally fully in Haiti and am hoping and praying that it has been submitted to IBESR (Haitian social services), but I don't know for sure.  The next step involves waiting for our first court date. The first court date has now been moved to after your dossier has been all the way through IBESR. It used to happen while it was in IBESR, so that means we make our first travel date later than we would have.  A bit of a disappointment, but one thing I have learned so far is that when dealing with an adoption in Haiti, you really just have to "roll with it" or you might have to be institutionalized by the time the process is completed.  God know how much I like planning and structure and He is getting quite a chuckle out of me in this process......he-he  :)

Well, I will post some pictures of Kerby's birthday and some update pictures from March.  We should be getting our April update within the next week or two and I promise to post those right away.  God is good and His plans are so much more than we could ever really imagine !!!

Choose to make it a great day !

Here is a link to Judith singing a solo :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afnzuUcWTEo

AND

Here is a video link to copy and paste of Judith and Kerby singing !!!!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17590820/VIDEO0007.3gp

Beautiful new update....

Getting the new monthly update from GLA orphanage is about one of the most exciting things to happen to us around here!  We wait all month until we get a little glimpse into what our children, who feel so far away, have been doing over the past month.  The updates make us feel so much closer to Judith & Kerby...so much more connected.

Today we got our February update.  Judith and Kerby are both doing so very well.  The theme this month was "love" and they focused on what the kids love...love to eat, favorite color, favorite toy etc.  Judith loves pink, brown dogs named Buddy, flowers, and pizza with hotdogs and cheese on top.  Hmmm, hotdogs on top---that might be a new one for this family :(  Kerby's favorite color is yellow and he loves yellow dogs named Buddy, basketball, and riding bikes.  The update coordinator says she loves to spend time with Judith and Kerby and that Kerby is so gentle and loving. She said that both kids are so kind to other children and always include them in activities.  A group of individuals from a church in Iowa spent a week at GLA recently and made a youtube video of their experience.  One of the ladies described her most precious moment as being when a "girl named Judith" stood from the group and sang them a solo before they left.  Who knew...Judith can sing !

Not only did our update come today but so did our paperwork that we have been waiting months for so that we can move the adoption forward.  We were so very excited about that.  The paperwork did point out to us that we had been given the wrong birthdate for Judith and her birthday is not April 19th but rather April 1st---which happens to be Ryan's moms' birthday !  A special day indeed.

I attached some of the pictures from this months update.......  What amazing, beautiful pictures!  What a gift from the Lord and how very thankful we are to get to be a part of their lives.  We really are blessed.

Birthday gifts, family books....and new friends!

I follow a number of blogs about Haiti including 3 from Canaan Christian Community in Montrouis, Haiti and 3 from GLA orphanage etc.  One night, a month or so ago, there was a link to a blog that I began reading. Well, at 3:30 am I was still reading every posting and was in complete and utter awe of what I was reading. So much of the story was so very similar to Ryan and my story. I was really overcome with the fact that God has led me to feel an immediate connection to Rochelle, the author of this blog. I have since contacted her and we have emailed multiple times and talked on the phone. She is adopting 2 twin baby girls from the same orphanage as us (which I didn't know when I began reading her blog!). It has just been an amazing blessing to have connected with her, truly a blessing !

Well, I spent the day yesterday wrapping Judith and Kerby's birthday gifts and packaged the gifts and the family photo album that Molli made for the kids. Rochelle gets to go to GLA orphanage and spend a week with her babies for their first court date as the Haitian portion of the adoption progresses. Rochelle is taking our gifts and family book with her so that the gifts will be there in time for the kids birthdays. If I were to mail the gifts they would not make it in time for the birthdays. What a wonderful heart Rochelle has to be willing to do this for us !  We are so grateful !  Rochelle told me she was looking forward to meeting Judith and Kerby and that she would love on them while she was there.  What reassurance and peace that gives my heart and I so look forward to hearing all about the visit when she returns.

By the way.....Judith got a new pair of capri pants, tank top, and sweatshirt.  Molli made her a locket necklace with bead that was adorable with a picture of Judith & Kerby inside.  Kerby got a pair of shorts and a new shirt along with a new lego toy.  I hope they like them and feel special when they get to open gifts from a family that loves them !  The kids know they have a family but they do not know who we are, what we look like, where we live etc. yet.  The director of GLA will take the family book out until they decide it is the right time for them to get the book and learn about our family.  I sooo wish I could be a mouse in the corner when that time comes. I just pray for peace and comfort that can only come from the Holy Spirit when they learn who we are...that they immediately feel how loved they are!

God is truly amazing!  He works in amazing ways and was able to connect me with Rochelle.  I look so forward to seeing the journey that God has for Rochelle and her family and am so thankful that He connected us.

Choose to make it a good day today.  Pray for opportunities to be the eyes, ears, hands and feet of Jesus throughout your day!

with love,
Rori

Molli jo's "passion project".....

A desire that all of us as mothers have for our children is for them to grow into individuals who love Jesus and who are able to think outside themselves and be a servant to the Lord.  These are characteristics that we all must continue to work on throughout our lives and ones that I wish I possessed more often.  There isn't much better than when we see a glimmer of those qualities in our children and we can stop and acknowledge that within them. So often I find myself "correcting the missteps of my children" and realize I don't always give enough recognition to the amazing qualities that my children demonstrate--- those gems that each of all of our children have !

Molli is in a leadership class this semester at school and is required to work on a "passion project" for 4 months. This project can be of her choosing and can be an awareness campaign, service project, fundraiser etc.  When Molli came to me and said "what should I do?", I told her that she needed to think about something was she was "passionate" about and go from there.  She immediately said "well mom, of course I am very passionate about Haiti !"  She went on further to describe that her real passion was for the starving and suffering children in Haiti.  Molli is doing an awareness campaign and collecting donations for 2 different malnutrition programs in Haiti. Plumpy Nut and Medika Mamba are 2 different fortified, peanut butter based treatments that are revolutionizing how malnutrition in 3rd world countries is being treated.  Molli's plan is to briefly introduce this project in church and throughout the community. Molli (with a little help :)  ) made a video for her project, which is calling The Plumpy Project..... and I have attached the video below.  It gives a mom such a wonderful and hopeful feeling to see a deeper spirit  and a love for others evolve within a daughter..........

not mere coincidence.....

At first this post may not sound like it is going to make sense and you may wonder where the story is going, but hang in there because at the end it will all come full circle.....I think !  

The thursday before Christmas, Mason and I were doing some last minute errands downtown when we got a call from Carrie, our wonderful social worker. At this point in time we were anxiously waiting to hear back about our acceptance from the orphanage regarding Judith and kerby for our family. Carrie asked me to pull over and said that there had been a little "curve" in the road. Long story short, our social worker informed us that they just found out that Judith and Kerby have a little brother  who is 23 months old. He was airlifted out from Haiti the week after the earthquake and they were trying to locate him and find out if he had a family etc. Our social worker wanted to know what our thoughts were if he was in foster care and didn't have a family. Would we be willing to adopt him too and possibly fly to get him in the next couple weeks? WOW. That was a lot more than a curve, that was like a 90 degree angle in the road at 100 mph !!!!  

We were not getting answers as to where the younger brother was so I began searching articles and everything I could find on the internet. I found the brother--- he was part of a group of 12 children that got airlifted out but didn't have adoptive families, known as the "BRESMA 12 or Pittsburgh 12".  He has been living in an orphanage in Pittsburgh for the last year but was adopted by a family in Colorado and moved there within the last few weeks. ---I can tell you more about that amazing story later :) Judith and Kerby (and the younger brother) lived in an orphanage called BRESMA before the earthquake. Their dad took them in and out frequently (putting them in when he couldn't feed them or care for them etc.) the dad had taken judith and kerby out of the orphanage the week of the earthquake. After the earthequake all of the children from BRESMA were airlifted to the US because their orphanage was destroyed. A couple weeks after the quake then Judith and Kerby were put into GLA orphanage (where we are adopting from). That is how they were separated.  

Back in January 2010 about 3 week after the quake, I called a lady, named Virginia,  in town that a "friend of a friend' told me adopted from Haiti right after the quake. One of the things she mentioned during our conversation  was that she used an adoption agency from Kentucky. I never talked to her again, out of sight out of mind thing. Well when I was online looking for the younger brother, I came across an article that said that the BRESMA orphanage used an agency from Kentucky and "light bulbs went off". I wondered if  Virginia's daughter, who I had not thought much about since talking to her for a few minutes over a year ago,  might be from the BRESMA orphanage and if it was possible she would know the brother or even Judith and Kerby. I called her again and she said "yes, I know Judith & Kerby's brother. He was on the plane coming home after the quake with my daughter. He was very sick and near death"......I sent her pictures of Judith and Kerby and she showed them to her daughter. She emailed me back and said her daughter was "over the moon" because Judith was friends with her while they were in the BRESMA orphanage together. She used to have to do Judith's hair because her hair was short and they didn't have mirrors and if Judith did it, it was just "terrible". She said she didn't know Kerby well, because he was "a boy".   

Yesterday I got to meet and have coffee with Virginia. I had the best time and LOVED hearing her story. When she saw some of the other pictures I had of Judith and Kerby, she said she remembered them from her visits to the orphanage. She said Kerby was always smiling and was a active boy. I asked her if that was code for "ADHD" tendencies, and she laughed and said no, just a health boy who liked to do boy things.  She said she felt confident in saying he would probably like sports here in the US.  She said she remembered Judith to be quiet, reserved, and shy.  Virginia also has a connection to Freddy's parents and asked me if they had contacted me yet. I didn't want to ask too much more information and decided it was best to let that information come out as the brothers parents would like it too. We were both really excited that the kids would have a connection and found it quite amazing that the dots were connected. She also informed me that what makes it even more amazing is that she had to switch agencies 4 times during her adoption process, so for me to remember the Kentucky one is certainly not an accident.  We have plans to keep in touch and I really enjoyed my time with her.

So amazingly, her daughter Lulun was adopted from BRESMA orphanage using an agency from Kentucky, and our kids are being adopted from GLA orphanage using an agency in Portland........and they both ended up in not only the Pacific Northwest, or state of Oregon, but in little ole McMinnville. It is not like Mcminnville is Seattle even. Truly amazing and certainly not a coincidence.  God has been working like this for the last year in the amazing way He is orchestrating this journey. The only words I have to describe it is just true AWE. I feel like I am in a "lazy river" pool and just laying back and being moved along by the current.....just a willing participant but I am certainly not steering the ship.  

We have signed release papers so that the younger brothers family can receive our contact information which the hope is that we can have a relationship with them and keep a relationship between the kids.  I will update as soon as we hear anything.  When we finally get to meet Judith and Kerby I would love to get to tell them that we have a relationship with the brothers family and that they are going to get to see Freddy again !  What an answer to pray that will be.

 God just continues to be faithful and continues to work in amazing ways !

Choose to make it a good day -- Be thankful for all that we are given and ask God to allow you to be His eyes throughout your day today !