Today We Heard Those 3 Little Words: "Got Humanitarian Parole"

The last email we received from our adoption coordinator looked a little like this:

WE HAVE HUMANITARIAN PAROLE, IT IS OFFICIAL!!

We are bringing the kids home!!

Our thanks to the people of JCICS, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security who have worked out the details to make this possible.

What this means:
It means that they're working with adoption agencies to get as much proof as possible of which parents were matched with which children in Haiti. (This means you really need to go register your adoption if you haven't - see jcics.com/haiti.htm for details or message me and I can forward more information to you.)

It means that if we can prove that our adoptions meet the criteria (which are very reasonable considering all the circumstances) we will be able to bring our children home. They won't have automatic US citizenship like they would have if we'd finished the process the "normal" way, but they'll be home. We'll work out all the rest of the paperwork on their citizenship and to formalize their adoptions later.

NOW - we just need to find them.

We did receive word that several of the children that were unaccounted for have been found. Connections are so spotty and communication so rare that it's hard to get much information.

For now, please keep praying for Collin, Vania, Abi, Joey, Jordan, Nathan and Jessica to be found. Pray for them to be brought to the Petionville LDS Chapel (which has become a makeshift safe haven). Pray that the doctor we sent the funds down with will make it to them soon. He has run into all sorts of problems trying to get there. The last word we got was that they were going to fly into the Dominican Republic and DRIVE to PAP. That's a LONG trip without a catastrophic earthquake. Pray that their way is sped and they are able to get to the people who need their skills and who need the funds we've sent with him.

Pray they're able to find Jessica - that her birth father is able to find Harry in this disaster. We had received word that he wanted to bring her back - that they were working that out with him before this hit. Please pray for angels to guide that process.

Pray, continually, for the men and women from so many countries, who are risking their own lives to be there on the ground lifting those who cannot lift themselves. Pray they can find those who are still living. Pray the supplies reach the people who need them most. Pray that those giving aid - in all the many ways they are serving - are sustained and given the strength they need to keep working.

Pray the world does not forget next week when "compassion fatigue" sets in. Pray that our sister, Haiti, stays on our minds.