We are a family

On the way to U.S. Embassy in Haiti to apply for visa.

I know I need to post something to the blog, and I have a lot to say, but I just don't know where to start. We are home - all THREE of us. Vivine is napping in her bed. She has been asleep for almost two hours. Is that normal for a 4 year old? Should I wake her up? Is she even still breathing? Will she cry when she wakes up and I'm not in the room? Maybe I should just go in there and wait for her to awaken. Thoughts like those have been flooding my brain ever since we crossed through the security checkpoint in the Haitian airport and were on. our. own.

The trip to House of Hope was the best we have ever had. (Maybe because all we did was hang out with Vivine and the girls and not do any work. I'm not going to feel guilty for that.) We had a little scare on Friday when we went to pick up her visa. The printer was broken, and wouldn't be fixed until Monday, two days after our scheduled departure. I asked if we could wait another hour to see whether the printer could be fixed now. Lo and behold, we had the visa 20 minutes later. That's Haiti for you.

Vivine seemed to really enjoy the trip home. She slept through most of the two plane rides. In the airports, we kept her occupied with coloring books, fruit snacks, and a Magna Doodle, which, in my opinion, is the most wonderful invention in the history of the world. Seriously, I now hold the Magna Doodle in higher esteem than the Internet, cell phone or printing press.

Being Vivine's mom feels very natural to me, like this is what I was meant to do my whole life. I can't imagine another framework for parenting. What do people who don't adopt children from Haiti do? All I want in life is for her to be happy. She might never be as happy to be our daughter as we are to have her for our own, but I'm going to work really hard to try to get close.

Leaving on a jet plane

Our bags are packed, and we're ready to go! Say a prayer for safe travels and a smooth visa appointment on Thursday. Watch the blog for updates after we return on Saturday.

It's true

In case you haven't heard (via Facebook or text messaging or my dad calling you), we are going to Haiti next week to get Vivine! We leave Tuesday, the visa appointment is Thursday, and (God willing) we will come home on Saturday. All three of us.

PC and I have declared today, Saturday, Sunday and Monday the Happy Days. Right now is the perfect time in our lives. We've gotten what we wanted, but we haven't had to deal with any of the ramifications. It's like that great feeling between being accepted to college and the first day of school, or between getting a new job and your first day of work. For the past two years, a sour, cynical, shriveled old hag has been living inside me, keeping me from hoping too much for this. She constantly reminded me that it could all. go. wrong. But now that we know Vivine is coming home, I don't need her anymore. She has been evicted. I feel like a new person. The hard times are over. Let the good times roll!

Oh, it gets better

So....someone from the orphanage took the missing paper to the U.S. Embassy today. It was exactly the paper they need. It just wasn't in the right language. Apparently, the American Embassy has this annoying rule about documents having to be in English. Details, details.

Our lawyer is getting the document translated and should return to the Embassy tomorrow. And I am really, really being a big person here and not posting a snarky remark about the education of lawyers in Haiti.

The saga continues

On Thursday, I got an e-mail from the U.S. Embassy. It stated that our dossier was missing an important paper it has to have for the "final review." After an evening of stressful phone calls back and forth to Haiti, we think we have things sorted out. Our lawyer is supposed to go to the Embassy on Monday and take the needed paper.

I swear, this thing is dragging on longer than the summer "thriller" plots on Days of our Lives. You know, the ones where a woman takes three weeks to fall down an elevator shaft, her lover takes three weeks to realize she's missing, her husband takes another three weeks to realize she's cheating and then the fire department takes until Christmas to pull her out. Pray for us. And pass the wine.

Seattle, the nice town

PC and I just got back from a great vacation in Seattle. We visited my bro, aka Bubba, whom I definitely don't see often enough. It was so much fun! It was like being a kid again, only better because now we have the Internet.

Seattle is such a nice town, y'all! On Friday, I left my purse at Starbucks and didn't notice until we got back to Bubba's apartment. I freaked because my purse contained everything someone needed to steal my identity in about 3.5 seconds. (It also contained my gold princess phone, which I confess I was more worried about losing than my identity.) Anywho, somebody at Starbucks turned my purse in and didn't touch anything - not even the $34 cash in my wallet!

Seattle is also a very quiet place. Everyone talks like they're telling secrets all the time. Bubba and I are Texans, and Hedgpeths, which means we have two volumes: loud and louder. We did a lot of catching up, all of which was overheard by every patron of every coffee shop, restaurant and movie theater we entered over the course of five days. I hope we at least sounded entertaining, if not smart.

Amazingly, it didn't rain once our entire trip. The sun shined every day, which ruined PC's and my plans to find a real vampire. Oh yes, we're reading the Twilight series, and we were totally stoked about spending five days in the Cullens' backyard. Alas, they must have all stayed inside to avoid twinkling in the sun. (Twilight vampires don't rot - they sparkle.). We didn't even see a lousy werewolf. But it was not a total loss, because the nice weather let us enjoy lots of other fun stuff:


At the waterfront, holding the cargo ships.


Bubba at the beach, looking tall.


We built this awesome fort. Not really, but we did discover it and climb in.

We found an old-school slide, the kind you can break your leg on. Ready, set, go!


Whee!


That's how it's done.



View from Bubba's balcony. For real, dude.


Kodak moment.


PC came, too.


View of Mount Ranier, which Bubba climbed earlier this year.

Haiti mail

Received Friday in response to my latest nagging:

Dear Mrs. Langdon,

Please be informed that your file is presently under review. As soon as a decision is reached you will be notified.

We thank you for your patience.

Regards,

Department of Homeland Security/JF
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

It's the first time in 26 months that anyone on the other side of the adoption process has thanked me for being patient. Or e-mailed me just to keep me updated. Thanks, USCIS! (Now, can we speed this thing along?)