I love this photo of my husband, Tim with our youngest child, Talley. This is from our first trip to Haiti. In fact, it was taken on Talley’s first birthday … on July 13, 2006.

Before we started our journey to adopt from Haiti, I had begged Tim for months to adopt a newborn baby. He semi-agreed at one point, but a few weeks later admitted that he was seriously regretting his agreement. He felt like he was done with babies and never wanted another child under the age of three.

Eventually he agreed to adopt Georgia,... more

Every so often, I’d like to share a little about what it is like to be in Haiti from my personal perspective. The other day, I was answering the question about why it takes so long for an adoption to be completed in Haiti. One of my responses was “the Haitian Attitude”. I used dining in a restaurant as an example. After I was finished sharing a snippet about that, I had to chuckle to myself. There is nothing quite like dining in Haiti. It’s not that the food is so unusual (though chicken spaghetti or hotdog spaghetti are a little... more

I’d like to tell you about our sweet baby Ruth. About two months after we started Georgia’s adoption paperwork, we decided to add another child from Haiti to our family. We were given the referral for a little girl born in January of 2005 and we named her Ruth. Had she lived, she would have turned one year old this month.

Here is an excerpt from my personal blog:

June 4, 2006

Last Friday when Tim and I were driving around doing adoption paperwork, we were discussing whether or not Tim should come to Haiti with... more

Here are a couple more news stories about the UN from Haiti over the weekend:

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) - Twenty-four hours of clashes between UN forces and armed gangs in the Haitian capital's sprawling slum of Cite Soleil have left at least five people dead and 12 wounded by gunfire, the UN mission in Haiti said.

"Four people, all likely gang members, were killed in clashes Wednesday at dawn between the blue helmets and gunmen," said a spokesman for the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).

Six people were... more

News about Haiti’s inclusion as a member of the Caribbean Development Bank from the Nassau Guardian:

Recent inclusion of Haiti as a member of the Caribbean Development Bank may hold economic benefits for its Bahamian neighbor.

Arrangements for the poorest nation in the western hemisphere to take full membership in the Bank were completed last week, effectively vaulting Haiti's status in the region at the same time improving its long-term economic outlook.

"We have been working assiduously over the past two years to bring Haiti into the (Bank's) family," said its President Dr Compton... more

Continued from Part Two...

It was very upsetting for Tim and I. Now we're wondering what we could have done differently to avoid her having to ride the emotional roller-coaster right along with us. We hardly ever talk about the girls to the babies. We do have photos here and there. They have seen the videos. They have been told we are leaving to visit Georgia and Talley. But we really don't talk about them very much. In fact, it seems like the... more

Continued from Part One...

An excerpt from my online blog:

December 1, 2006:

Something sad happened tonight. Don't worry, it isn't anything terribly bad. Let me go back a few months. One day I was shopping at Walmart and saw a cute little black baby doll with a basket and bottle and other accessories. It was right before we went to Haiti for the first time. I wanted that doll for... more

A fellow adoptive mom was sharing her terrible day with an email-list I frequent. Her little daughter had had a dream that her new siblings were home. When she awoke and realized it wasn’t true, she was traumatized. It became clear to her mother just how much her daughter was missing her new baby brother and sister (who are still in Haiti). She emailed the list asking for advice.

It reminded me of a few experiences I have had with our kids when we are in the middle of an adoption. When Sahara was three years old, we were in the process of adopting Ryland. We... more

Continued from Part One...

Two months after our daughter was born, we decided to adopt from Africa. My husband told people in casual conversation. We quickly chose to adopt from Ethiopia and picked our agency. Everyone knew we were adopting well before we received referrals for our new children. With our older son and daughter, we picked them off of a video of waiting children. We showed the video to anyone who would watch it. For our little baby boy, we received photos... more

How do you tell your loved ones and friends that you are adopting a child? Do you wait until you have a referral and a photo to share? Do you tell people as soon as you sign up with an agency? Before you sign up with an agency? Do you just tell them, as if it is a casual thing? Or do you make a big deal out of it—maybe take your parents to dinner and spill the beans; or invite everyone over for a party and have a cake that says, “We’re Adopting!” on it? I am sure that it varies from person to person, and from adoption to adoption. It probably... more