Continued from Part Four...

The day we returned home, I flew to Idaho for a reunion for another orphanage. I had become acquainted with and developed a friendship with their wonderful, intuitive orphanage director. She invited me to meet some of the board members and staff because I was considering becoming a volunteer for their orphanage. One perk would also be to meet Mr. Cadet and his assistant. I asked him why he did not sign our file as he had promised. He was surprised and spoke for a mo-ment with his assistant. Then they both said, nearly in unison, that they remem-bered our file and that it had indeed been signed on the day Mr. Cadet had promised. I cried, I thanked him in Kreyňl, I thanked him in English, I laughed, and I cried more!

I e-mailed the director of the orphanage that night asking if the information was correct. It was true! Why did she not tell us sooner? She was waiting for our adoption to be finalized in civil court, which had taken place on the very day we heard from the IBESR Director himself that we had exited IBESR earlier in the week. Nathaniel was officially and legally our son! It took several hours before I was able to contact my husband. We laughed and cried together over the cell phone waves, he at home and me in the middle of a soccer field in another state.

Due to a few snafus in obtaining Nathaniel's passport and two hurricanes, we fi-nally arrived in Haiti on October 31, 2005, which was a “mere” 17 months after we saw his photo on a website.

Nathaniel is home and thriving. Becky and her family are in the process to adopt two more beautiful children from Haiti--another son and a daughter. They hope to have them home by late spring.

If you have adopted from Haiti, we would love to hear your story! Please email me if you'd like to share it.