August update

Last week we received our August update and I forgot to post it, so here it is. I cannot stop but laugh when I read the comments about her. I think she is just like her mama!!! I already feel the bond and know we are going to be an AWESOME TEAM!

As far as our dossier update... It will be 4 weeks Thursday that we are in MOI. I was told that it could be 4 to 6 weeks so Come On Dossier... Move to Passport Printing NOW!!!!

We have now completed Kyanne’s playroom, so all is ready. There is nothing left but our sweet precious baby to come home.



Here is the update:

Sleepy Greetings from God’s Littlest Angels, Victor and Sylvie!


As the summer winds down and we face another hurricane season, we feel blessed that Tropical Storm Emily and Hurricane Irene that were headed our way did not hit Haiti as predicted. Please continue to pray that the storms this season will bypass us just like Emily and Irene. Please know that if Haiti does get hit with a bad storm all the children and everyone at GLA will be safe but much prayer would be needed for the families still living in tents and the rise in cholera that tends to happen after heavy rains and flooding. Everything at GLA has been coming along well. We continue to be busy with our daily activities as well as planning a major fundraising effort. Many volunteers have come through our gate this month and they have each done a great job. They spend much of their time loving on your kids and helping to further the building process at Fort Jacques.


It seems that bedtime can go from the most stressful to the most relaxing time of the day in matter of hours or even minutes for some kids. I am going to highlight bedtime for this month’s update, as it is a special time in every child’s day, even here at GLA. Because we are close to the equator it gets dark every evening between 6 and 6:30 depending on the time of year. Lucky for us, here in Haiti, there is not a giant fluctuation in that time so getting the kids into a year round bedtime routine is fairly simple. At both the Baby House and the Toddler House bedtime seems to be marked with a loud burst of energy as all the kids are fed, bathed, and let loose to get that last bit of energy out. Then all seems to suddenly go silent as the babies and kids settle into their beds, say their prayers and are tucked in.


The nursery is a bustle of activity as the babies finish their supper and the nannies begin to get each one ready for bed. In my opinion, it is the most active part of the day in the nursery up until all the kids are in their respective cribs.


After supper is finished the nannies begin an assembly line of bathing, powdering, diapering, and clothing each baby. It is really quite a site to see. One nanny will bath, another powder and lotion, another diaper, and another put on clothes. It is a true team effort by all the nannies working. Once the babies are changed and ready in their pajamas, the smallest ones are put in their cribs with a bottle and the older one are allowed to run around on the ground while the rest of the children finish their bedtime preparation. Typically by 7:00 all the babies are placed in their cribs, some sleeping, some drinking milk, and others playing with the baby in the crib next door. This is, personally, my favorite time of day to spend time in the nursery. All the kids seem contented and happy for the most part. They will bounce up and down in their mattresses and pull them selves up to greet you with a smile and a bedtime kiss.


Berline has had a great month! She has gone from a shaky walk to a confident master. She will now race across the balcony or nursery without any hesitation on her face at all. Currently her favorite activity on the balcony is the johnny jumper. She could just bounce up and down for hours and she has even been known to fall asleep in it.


As I mentioned I love going into the nursery in the evening when the babies are in their beds. Berline has always been one of my favorite faces to see because she just lights up with her precious smile when you just talk to her. As you know she is a favorite around the nursery and she knows it. If something is not going exactly her way she will throw a little fit. She will just cry and cry until she realizes no one is paying attention to her and then she will give it up. There is not mistaking that your little girl is cute and she knows how to use it.


Going along with the sleep theme... Berline is a great napper. She takes a nap in the morning and one in the afternoon, usually a half hour to an hour each. When Berline is tired it is pretty clear to everyone. She gets quite whinny and demanding. She will be running all around with all the energy she has then all of a sudden she will just be unhappy. She loves to swing when she is tired and she always goes for a good cuddle.


Berline’s sweet smile never ceases to amaze me. I am so excited for the day you are sending me updates about how she is doing in Canada!






Berline is healthy and growing:


Height: 73 cm


Weight: 20 lb 10 oz

On God's time or My time?

I found this blog post this morning. So very true! I would not be able to say it any clearer so here is what she said ‘For nine months a woman carries a baby. Waiting long months and laboring long hours then she gives birth. For a woman adopting you carry a child in your heart. Waiting long months, or years to get your child. Seasons pass and dreams die. Laboring long hours over paper work and documents. Sometimes it seems if the day will never come. You prepare your heart, home, family and then you just wait.’


So please GOD… I have been waiting exactly 3 years, 1 month, 3 weeks and 4 days to be exact for Kyanne to come home. I AM READY. I WANT HER NOW. I want to be the one she cries to when the rest of her teeth grows. I want to wipe her nose when it’s runny. I want to be the one picking her up when she falls. I want to be the first person she sees when she wakes up. I want to squeeze her so hard every day and tell her how much we love her and how long we have loved her. I know and I can feel it already in my heart that she knows and remembers our time together in Haiti. This beautiful little girl is so lucky to have 2 mothers that love her so much. Her birth mom loved her so much that she brought her to GLA to give her a chance in life. I think of that woman ever day now. I guess today is going to be a very emotional day for me. I already have tears in my eyes and it’s not 8 am yet.

My dear and wonderful dad... I am begging you to make this happen NOW! I know there’s a reason for waiting and a time for everything… but this is my time and it’s TIME for Kaynne to COME HOME. XOXOXOOX

Here’s a picture that I got of Kyanne. This was taken last week by a volunteer at GLA. She still looks very happy.

Kyann's Baby Shower (July 24, 2011)

From the first time we decided to adopt, Nicole and Renée were ready to throw me a baby shower. Now that the time has finally come, Nicole started asking when I wanted to shower. I wanted to wait after the summer, around September or October. She kept on insisting that Kyanne might be coming home sooner and we need to get everything organized. They both convinced me to do it in the summer. We picked July 24ths for the date.


What Sylvie wanted and what Sylvie got is not quite the same, but at the end, it turned out to be the BEST shower a mother would have ever imagine xoxoxo.

What Sylvie wanted: I wanted to do this really simple and have only the close families as a get together at our place. I did not want to go in a community center (Hall) or any of that type. I did not want to have door prizes and have kitchen cloths or face cloth as a gift for the guest LOL!

What did Sylvie get: I got the most beautiful shower ever!!!! My step daughters, Nicole and Renée convinced me that we had too many people in our families that we could not do this at our place. If it would have rained, we could have never been able to fit everyone indoors comfortably. We were able to get the community center and we were able to fit all 75 people comfortably. We had a brunch type shower. Being a healthy eater, I was not sure how I would handle the white pancakes, white bagels etc... Nicole and Renée made me realise that we would probably be a hand full that would actually care about the food, the rest of the gang, it would just be normal to them. Instead of worrying, I just brought along with me a few of my food supplies and all was good. They did a great job with the brunch buffet.

Nicole and Renée had prepared games that were educational on Haiti and our adoption process in general.

I am so gratefully to have a supportive family and friends. Without them, I don’t think I could have survived the past 3 years. Everyone bought nice gifts for Kyanne. When we got home with the gifts, we cleaned up Kyanne’s room and organized everything. Let me tell you! Now it fells real! I had goose bumps all over my body. My little girl’s room is all ready for her. We can get the call anytime now and we could leave in a heartbeat to bring her home.

It’s not perfect!

Almost 2 weeks ago when we got the news that we were entering MOI/Passport stage, we were at Home Hardware getting paint for the playroom. We did not touch the paint until last Tuesday. Renée, Chris, Amanda and I decided to apply a coat of primer since it was raining. Nicole was gone to the movies with her friends so we decided to go ahead without her since it was just the primer. We will save the expert for the paint.

With that being said, yesterday, Aug. 22, it was another rainy day. I texted Renée and she said she would come and help paint. When we got home, Nicole had in her mind that she was going to clean her apartment and she didn’t feel like painting. The one thing that I hate doing is painting and there I was with Renée opening the gallons of paint. I’m just the type that when I start something I need to finish it right away. That’s why I suck at painting. I try to finish it before I even start the wall. I knew that we would not be able to finish the room in one evening. Oh well, we started with the purple and finished the evening with the pink. We will do the yellow wall when it rains again. So there we were, all proud that we were actually painting and the comments started... The coat of paint was dripping on the wall, we painted the ceiling at some places and we had paint on the floor. To top it off, when I was trying to do the touch ups with the brush to stop the dripping; I was using the wrong brush. I was doing the touch up for the purple with the brush I used for the pink and vice versa. Hey! The room is not perfect but nobody else had the time to paint it so we did it and I am proud of our job. When I’ll be upstairs playing with Kyanne in her playroom, I’ll be able to tell her that Mommy and Renée painted her room hahaha! When we were done for the night, Victor said Kyanne will think she’s still at the orphanage because it’s all the same colours as in the nursery. She’ll feel right at home.

I'm on a HIGH and I ain't coming down.

Today… early in the morning, my phone rang and it was Toys R Us that called to tell me that my Peg Perego SI stroller was in. I did a whole lot of research before I decided on a stroller. For some reason I needed the perfect one. A lot of people were telling me to get the ones with only 3 wheels but that’s not what I wanted. I got some very good advice from a co-worker and we decided on this one. It has handles so I can put my bags when I go shopping, its light weight and folds easily.

At lunch we went to Winners and I found the cutest outfits for Kyanne. I am on such a high and I am just enjoying getting things for her. When I got home, Renée and Amanda were home. Renée said she was going to cook supper for us. When Nicole arrived we asked her if she wanted to go upstairs and finish up Kyanne’s room. We needed to put the wooded letters that spells her name that they got me at my baby shower on top of her bed, a few shelf’s and a painting. As a team, we watched Nicole do all the work LOL! She’s such a great sport hahaha! We then decided that we were going to paint her playroom all different colours. Nicole took out her colour chart and decided on nice bright colours.

When we came downstairs, Victor was home and he had the stroller. I took it out of the box and it was exactly like I had pictured it. I just love it! So now we were off to Home Hardware at 10 to 8 pm to get the paint. When we got there we realized that it was closing in 10 minutes so we told them what we wanted and I would pick it up tomorrow. While Nicole was talking to the guy to mix the paint, I checked my emails... since I had not done so all evening because I was busy and there it was!!!! The GLA email that I was waiting for. I was jumping up and down and nobody realized what I was doing and I was not able to talk. I was just jumping and trying to download the message. All I knew at the time was in the title... ‘Good News’ Well... I wanted to see it from my own eyes... I wanted to see the words... you are out of Courts and in MOI/Passport!!!!!!!! Amanda noticed that I was acting weird and asked me what was going on and then I started saying... I got the email! I got the email... this is it... she’s coming home. Thank god that we live in a small community and everyone knows we are adopting. The guy for the paint congratulated us. Renée had her dad on the phone for questions for the pain and I grabbed the phone from her to give him the news. I read the email 3 times and then we went out for an ice cream to celebrate and brought some for Victor and the dogs. When we got to the ice cream place, I stayed outside to call Liette. I could not wait another minute without her knowing. She’s next so she has to know!!!! She was not there so I emailed her in case she was out for the evening. The girls were laughing at me because I was not able to complete my sentences. I had a permanent smile on my face. Amanda even made a comment... my blinker on my car was acting up and was making the clicking sound at a high speed level. Anyways, she said, Sylvie is sort of like her blinker, she is on high gear right now LOL!

When we got home I wanted to show Victor the email and I could no longer find it in my inbox. I grabbed my laptop and still was not able to see it. I honestly thought I was losing it. The girls were just laughing at me. I checked the deleted items inbox and was not able to find it. Nicole said maybe this was all a dream... I had to sit down and really relax for a minute. I was ready to email Melissa and ask her to forward me the email again. When I calmed down, I finally did a search and found it. I was some happy! So once again I got the email when I was busy enjoying living in the moment. So word of advice: Don’t sit and wait for things to happen. Live your life in the present and things will happen! I am so blessed to have a wonderful family that are all as excited to bring Kyanne home like me. I am on a high right now and I don’t think it’s going to go away. She’s really coming home.

So tomorrow, I am ordering the baby sling and I am getting the baby bag. I should be all set after. The only thing left to buy is pampers and more cloths and shoes. Bye bye for now!

MOI/Passport stage!!!

Well, I was wrong, I did not know really that it was MOI/Passport stage when I saw the email... it said Great News! I am posting the email I received and will blog later how it all happened. This is it!!! Home Stretch!



Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:23:17 -0500
Subject: Great News!
To: Sylvie Cormier
Cc: elaine.babineau@gnb.ca

Congratulations Victor and Sylvie!

Berline's file came out of attestation today! Over the next few days, I
will be getting her file ready to submit to the Minister of Interior's (MOI)
office.

Once the file is approved by MOI, the passport will be printed with
Immigration. Based on the one other file that has reached this stage, it
could be about a month or a little bit longer in MOI, and then another
couple weeks for the passport to be printed.

I am so happy that your dossier has made such good progress in the last few
months! Congratulations once again on being so much closer to coming to
pick up Berline. I know you still have a little ways to go, but you are on
the home stretch now!

I have attached a document which lists some things that we suggest you might
want to bring with you when you come to pick up Berline, so in case you want
to start preparing, this might be helpful.

I'll be sure to keep you informed as soon as I have anything to update you
on in the coming weeks!

Have a great evening!
Melissa Friesen

Shopping for Kyanne

We are now 5 weeks in Courts… I know it’s in the works but we are in stage 4 of 4. Bring it on… I NEED that email that has in the subject line ‘In MOI or Entering Passport Stage’. Yesterday I was sitting down in a boardroom for a meeting and checked my email before the meeting started. I almost jumped up when I saw that I had an email from GLA. I honestly thought it was ‘THE EMAIL’ I then realized that it was Melissa getting back to me with Berline (Kyann)’s clothing / Shoe size. It was still a happy email, but just not the one I wanted.


Yesterday morning, my coworker said there was a 70% off sale a RW&CO. I decided to jog to the mall instead of going to hot yoga and see what they had. I actually got nice pants for $15 a pair. Once I got out of the store, I was right in front of Mexx!!!! I decided that I would go take a quick peak in the children section and there was a 50% off sale there as well. I came out with nice stuff. It was actually the first time that I actually purchased lots of cloths for Kyanne. I always seem to think I have to wait to know what size she is but I decided to buy 18 to 24 months. It was really ironic that once I got back, I received the email from Melissa with her size. She is still fitting in a 12 month so when we go pick her up, I will buy smaller size cloths that are warm because we are not having much of a summer this year. I cannot imagine how cold it will be in September.