Sigh of relief

I haven't written much about the adoption recently for several reasons. First, there was nothing to write. We really have not had much news about the adoption for the past year, other than our two visits to Haiti. Second, though, I reached a point where I just had to focus on other things to keep from falling into despair. In case anybody was in danger of thinking I am a strong person who "is handling this all very well," let me assure you that it is hard. It is hard to keep a smile on my face when people ask me why the process takes so long. "That's just the way it is," I say, when I really want throw myself on the floor and cry just like Vivine would if she was here and wasn't getting her way.

It is hard to do my school work, church work or even my work-work (as I call the day job), all of which seems like a pointless distraction until she comes. For a while, it was even hard to look at pictures of her. My heart just broke every time I did.

Tonight, though, I am feeling much better. We just got a call telling us that our file is "in IBESR." That doesn't mean it's time to go and get her, yet. But it does mean that the Haitian government has acknowledged the fact we want to adopt Vivine, and has started the process to make it happen.

IBESR is like the Haitian Division of Family Services, or Child Protective Services, depending on what state you're in. It is the agency that will approve our adoption in Haiti. It will study both our documents and Vivine's background in Haiti to determine whether we are a good fit.

Now is the time to pray hard that we make it through IBESR without a hitch. Just tell God all the reasons that you think PC and I would make good parents of Vivine. Pray that God will put your arguments on the hearts of the people in Haiti. Also, pray for our lawyer, Met. Ledor. He is an amazing Christian man who already has performed a few miracles for us. Between God and Met. Ledor, we have two very good advocates working on our behalf.

The director of IBESR is Madame Jeanne Bernard. It wouldn't hurt to pray for her, too, considering she has a hurricane-ravaged country on her hands.

Once we are approved, IBESR will recommend that the Haitian courts finalize our adoption. After the adoption is final in Haiti, we will complete the necessary immigration papers to bring Vivine home. And then, finally, we will go to Haiti, finalize the adoption with the U.S. consulate (both countries have to approve the adoption), and come home with Vivine. Each step in the process takes a few months at least. (Plus there are a number of in-between steps that I haven't listed because I realize I am the only one who really cares that much.)

Yesterday, I felt like I was hanging at the end of a thread. I was on the verge of an emotional recession, to use some contemporary analogies. Just like a nugget of optimistic financial news can cause a major upswing on Wall Street, this little adoption update has brought me back from the ledge. I know the investors didn't get their bailout today, but I'm happy to say that I got mine.

I can be your hero

It's fall, which means the return of my most favoritest TV show ever, Heroes. Every episode of Heroes in our house is followed by a discussion of what superpower would be the coolest to have. We also have to talk about which powers are totally lame, such as the power to absorb everybody else's powers. I mean, what a cop out. (Speaking of lame powers, my brother has this unfounded childhood memory of a similar conversation between the two of us. He claims that I once chose the ability to read as my superpower. I have no recollection of that statement, but I have to admit that, if it is true, it was definitely the least cool moment of my life. My only defense is I must have seen a poster at school that said, "Reading is Power," or the like. I mean, if you see it on a poster in your teacher's room, it has to be true.)

After the events of the past few weeks, I have decided I have the coolest superpower of all: the power to stop hunger. It all started last year when PC got the urge to start a meal-packaging program at our church. We would buy nutritious food and package it into easy-to-prepare servings that we could ship to starving people in Haiti. A great non-profit organization, Kids Against Hunger, already had the recipe and the blueprints for just such a program. House of Hope, Vivine's orphanage,wanted to distribute the food in Haiti. We just had to come up with the money and the will to do it.

So we did what churches do best - we deliberated. For months we met and chewed the metaphorical cud over how to raise the substantial cash needed, mobilize the small army of volunteers, and other things that seemed like really big chores indeed. Then, a few months ago, God decided to start making things happen. Our first fund-raiser exceeded all of our expectations. In fact, the people who gave money also told us they were ready to package the meals, and soon. Unfortunately, we told them, we could make the meals, but we had no way to get them to Haiti because of a strike at the docks in Port-Au-Prince. Only the people who had special dispensation from the government could get their goods to Haiti at that time. Someone on the team said that we should go ahead and package the food anyway since everyone was so anxious to get going. So we planned our first session.

A packaging session takes about 20 people who form an assembly line to pour the ingredients in the bags, weigh, seal and box them up. Each bag has a cup of rice, a cup of soy flour, a tablespoon of dried vegetables, and a tablespoon of chicken-flavored vitamin powder. The mixture is much more nutritious than plain rice. It's vegetarian, and it's somewhat bland so it does not irritate hungry little bellies. One little pouch of it, shown below, can feed six people.


Yummy!

Putting together these food pouches is a good time, as you can see. And it goes fast. In two weeks, we packaged enough food to feed 27,000 people one meal each. (Or 9,000 people for a day. Or 1,285 people for a week. Hunger math just never gets old...)


Fun, fun, fun


Maybe this guy is having too much fun...

The best part? A week before our first packaging session, House of Hope received special dispensation to ship a container of stuff to Haiti. Our food will be on the container, which leaves St. Louis the second week in October. The news could not have come at a better time. Remember hurricanes Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike? They all took a turn beating the life out of Haiti so that the hunger situation there is now worse than ever. Everything came together at the right time, as if some one knew exactly what Haiti would need and who could provide it.

If you want to help out with Kids Against Hunger, you can either send money to my church, organize a fund-raiser, volunteer to come help package food or pray that the food gets to Haiti and into people's tummies safe, sound and soon. Regardless of how you do it, you can be a super hero, too!

Saving knitting

Have you ever worked for more than a year to knit a gorgeous lace shawl, only to discover two small holes in it when you were almost done?

You haven't? Well, you might be wondering, then, what you would do if you ever encountered such a predicament. Obviously, you would gather 50 straight pins, a pair of tweezers, a yarn needle and the top of a bank box and fix that shawl.


I should have been a surgeon.

This is only one of the reasons I haven't blogged much lately. But all of that is about to change. Old blabber mouth Lynde (as my family calls me, thanks Kerry) is making a comeback!

I'm back!

Well, sort of. Last weekend, my master's program transitioned between quarters. That means two of our classes ended on Friday, and the next two started Saturday. (No rest for the weary, right? Only 333 days until graduation...) The funny thing about my new classes is I can't tell the difference between them. What do you think?

Financial Analysis and Reporting
Financial Management

It's like when you finally think you have figured out how to tell apart identical twins because that one's right ear is slightly lower than the other one's and you triumphantly call out low-ear's name and the other one turns around and says, "What?" At least the classes have different professors. I call them "Cutie Pie" and "Boring Guy." They talk about the exact same things, but one makes finance sound just as precious as can be, while the other one makes me hate the person who invented money. The big challenge now? Not handing BG's assignments to CP, or vice versa.

Leave a message after the beep

You've reached Lynde's blog. She is not available to contribute this week because she is busy getting a master's degree, running a feeding program for starving people, planning a women's Bible study, keeping up the house and working for a living. Her precious moments of free time will be spent praying for strength. (But not too much strength because then she might hurt someone.) Lynde will return to the blog next week.

Leave a message, or check out one of these other fine blogs:
An Inch an Hour
The World of Jaime
AdamHedge.com
Jason's Clan

All's well at House of Hope

I know folks are concerned whether our little Vivine is safe from the continual hurricanes that are blowing through Haiti these days. Today, one of the House of Hope leaders told me the girls and the house are fine. The house is on high ground and rarely suffers when hurricanes come through. Much of the rest of Haiti, however, is in pretty bad shape.

Ironically, House of Hope is getting round-the-clock electrical service right now - something to do with the fact that there is a national crisis. Typically, the house only has power for about eight hours during the day. So the weather outside is scary, but at least Vivine gets to sleep with a light on.

Celebrity sighting!

We are fam-uh-lee

My very own MFM (Most Fabulous Mom) and accompanying DSD (Dear Step-Dad) came to St. Louis for Labor Day weekend. My folks stayed in a nearby Renaissance Hotel for the weekend. They got a free room upgrade because the front desk lost their reservation. Little did we know, that the upgrade also came with this:


Proof I learned nothing about news photography while working as a reporter.

The second yellow blob from the left is Chase Daniel, the quarterback of the University of Missouri's football team. This weekend, Mizzou played the University Illinois in the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, but the team stayed in the same hotel as my parents. It only took a little bit of stalking to get a glimpse of the players as they walked to the bus. PC definitely made eye contact with Chase Daniel. A subtle but powerful fan-to-player power nod, which might have affected Chase's mojo in the winning game, might have taken place. In addition, we saw Coach Gary Pinkel in the parking lot. Can you say, Mizzou-RAH?

In other news, the American Bridge Association also had its annual meeting at the Renaissance. We did not camp out in the lobby to see those players.


I bet that was some party.