Jason Wiebe Dairy

Once again we are waiting, but we decided to do some of our waiting in Florida!! 
Yesterday our hopes got up, since they flew the first plane of children out of Haiti since last week.  Julie’s name was not on the first list of children to fly, and were hoping that she would fly shortly on the next flight, then found out that the embassy didn’t have the background criminal checks (which had been sent in Jan 18).  So we all sent this information in to all the government email addresses having to do with the Haitian adoption process, also we contacted our Senator’s Aide and she sent it to 3 places also, so we hope they have it now!!!!  Now this morning we talked to Melinda twice, and she was told at the embassy that the Prime Minister left for the weekend so they didn’t expect anything to happen till Monday, and she could return to the US Embassy with the children on Monday.  She told us that the three children are soooo tired, so she will leave them at the orphanage on Sunday, and she will go to the embassy to see if there is any news, and then return with the children on Monday.  She said that as far as the lady at the embassy could tell, our Julie was to be on the next flight out of Haiti.  But of course, we realize that it may not happen on Monday, but we are planning to go to Sarasota, FL, and spend some time with my (Jason’s) folks and be closer to whichever airport they fly into.  We usually find news from Melinda about noon to 2:00 and that would be very short notice to get a flight to Florida the same day, so we decided to fly Sunday to Florida.  We might be crazy, but there is a reason!!
Keep praying, it’s not an easy job to get a child home from Haiti…

OK, so they supposedly don’t have all the information yet in Washington.  Melinda tells us that they need our fingerprint information yet.  We checked back on our sent emails, and it was sent on Jan 18, but we’ll send it again!!  But the good news was that at the US Embassy they told Melinda to keep coming back every day until they let them fly, so we’ll keep waiting…

We got a call that a plane full of children are about to leave Haiti!  Our daughter is not on the first plane but we are quite sure she is on the 2nd list. Hope to hear from the director again this afternoon whether they will fly today or later and where to…

But it is awesome wonderful to know that the Prime Minister in Haiti has been signing the papers and the children will be home soon!!!!!

This morning the Senator’s aide called and told us she had an email from the State Dept. that our paperwork was processed!  So that would have been great news if things were still like they were a week ago.  Julie would have soon been on a plane and we would be flying to meet her.  But now the Haitian government wants to sign off  on everyone before they will let them fly and no one knows how many days that will be.  We called Melinda (this means dialing about 15 times) and she was very glad to have the news.  Then we heard that the Canadian children were flying into Ottawa on Saturday so we got all excited to hear things were moving only to go crashing down on our roller coaster ride when we realized that only the USA has accepted this plan with the Haitian government.  The other countries are still flying their children home.  Melinda is planning to go to the Embassy again tomorrow to see if she can find out anything more.  If they want the 3  children there she will have someone bring them on the pickup.  All these precautions are because of the fears certain organizations have raised concerning children being smuggled out of the country.  Doesn’t make sense to me that once the paperwork is approved they still have to stay in Haiti.  Make any sense to any of you?

Today we felt like there was actually some progress made toward getting Julie home!  Melinda, the Orphanage director was at the airport at 6 A.M. but didn’t get a flight til 10.  She arrived in Haiti about 1:30 our time and had told Jason yesterday that he should try calling her after she had been in Haiti about 2 hours.  So after trying MANY times we got a hold of her.  She was at the Embassy but the security guard wouldn’t let her in because she didn’t have an appointment.  She asked us to try to get a hold of someone to call the Embassy and tell them she was outside with all the necessary paperwork and would the please let her in or at least help her make an appointment.  So we called our Senator’s aide and she put us on hold while she called the State Department which I believe is in Washington, D.C.  There ended up being some back and forth calling but in the end we were told that Melinda had been allowed into the Embassy.  We gave her a couple hours then called back (I don’t think it would work for her to call us as phone service is not the best over there yet).  This time I got her right away and she said she had left all the paperwork there for processing.  I asked if she was just going to wait for them to call her when it was ready and she said she would give them a few hours and if they hadn’t called her she would be back there.  She is not one to sit around and wait for things to happen.  I asked her if she was discouraged and she said, “Oh, no!”  She also said once the papers are processed, her understanding is that they will then go to the Prime Minister for a signature which would then allow them to issue travel documents for them to fly home.  She is just working with 3 children right now, one of which is our dear Julie.  We have no earthly idea when children will again be flying out of Haiti.  Melinda didn’t think any had left since Monday.  So I guess I will have another day of cleaning up the house, washing clothes and being ready to leave at a moments notice.  The sooner the better as far as we are concerned!
-Jason and Sheri

Today we listened to a 2 hour telephone conference for parents adopting from Haiti given by a number of different government departments all working to get these children home.  They say the Haitian president is completely in favor of these children coming home if their adoptions were already started before the quake.  They do not expect this to last long about not issuing travel documents.  They say people are working around the clock trying to get everything organized to bring the rest of the children home.  About 500 have already come to the US and about 200 more to go.  So the question is not IF but WHEN.  They clarified that all rumors about putting a stop to letting these children come home is NOT TRUE!  When we talked to the congressman in Florida working on our particular case this morning he still thinks Julie may be home before the weekend!  We also filled out paperwork today to say that we will sponsor her to give at the airport so she will not be placed in a child care facility.  That included making copies of our latest tax returns.   And we took good naps.  How wearying this all has been on mind and body.  But now it is just waiting, no more worries about IF.  We have so much to be thankful for that Julie is safe and fed, because we realize not all adoptive parents awaiting their children were not so blessed.

Our orphanage director couldn’t get a flight to Haiti til midnight tonight.  Hopefully she can make it to the Embassy tomorrow as they are still issuing Visas and then when the travel documents are being issued again everything would be ready to go.

Today has been another roller coaster ride! The morning started out
exciting with our Orphanage director, Melinda, planning to go back to
Haiti on Tuesday and begin working heavily on getting Julie and 2 other
children to the USA. Our Senator’s aide also talked with us and said she
was still trying to get our case going and we should let her know of
anything new. Melinda also told us the Congressman in Florida is working
very hard on this case and our Senator’s aide was going to get in touch
with him and perhaps work together on this. He wants to work with the
state department in Washington, D.C. to expedite the process for these
three children. Then in the afternoon we became aware that the President
of Haiti now wants to review each case. If we understand it right, the
Embassy will continue to review cases and issue Visas but no travel
documents will be issued until permission from the Haitian President. We
believe a certain organization is raising fears of child trafficking
though there has been no evidence of child trafficking. We have no idea
how long this will add to the process.
So, though this is an update we are asking God to step in and remove
mountains…not only for us with Julie but there are still many anxious
parents and children left in Haiti that need to be in homes where they
will get more love and care. We know many of you have already been
praying for us and Julie and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
The strange thing is that we both feel quite calm about this new
mountain now that we have settled down from the panic when we first
heard it. We want God’s will to be done and we know that prayer is powerful.

Today we are finally personally in touch with the director of our Orphanage!  We have talked 3 times with her today and she has a plan for getting our daughter home. Now we need to pray it will all work out for the best…soon. Hopefully before this week is over she will be in our arms. Thank you all for the support!

Finally my worries and the lack of info from Haiti got the better of me so I called my cousin, a missionary in Haiti and asked them to check on our little Julie. So he called today and said he and his wife had held her. He said she was a perfect match for our family because she looks like ME! And has dimples like my husband, I must add!  And a Chatterbox like our “cookie baker son”. She has plenty to eat and though she is sleeping in a tent is doing fine. Our director came to the USA on urgent business and will be back in Haiti Tuesday to continue the paperwork. So my heart is eased to here Julie is fine and we will TRY to patiently wait for her home coming…hopefully within the next week.

Yesterday we heard the terrifying news that Haiti had another quake measuring 6. something .  Now the situation has changed completely!

Our little girl’s Orphanage is no longer liveable.

40 childrern without a home.

The director is back into trying to get Visas for all the children. We beg God to please let it be so. The director is worn out and needs help from a Higher Power to accomplish the huge task before her. Friends, family and our church has all joined in prayer with us to bring our little darling home…