Haiti Update

We've been able to talk to Papa every day and check in with him.  They've had a very successful week for the new Children's Village project. 

They were able to meet with the surveyor and find out about the water table.  They were able to make connections with the School of Architecture at the University of Haiti and those students were able to meet with the U of U students that had traveled down on this trip.  Brent said they spent a day driving around and looking at the damaged buildings and determining what was flawed so they'd know what not to do.

They put a sign up on the property      
(we'll have to get Brent to tell us what the sign says, since you can't read it.... it's something about the new children's village and how it's a joint venture with Haitian Roots, the U of U, Common Studios and Bel Haiti.  Brent said the sign is awesome, but the professor from the U said, "But it's BLUE"  ;)   )

He said the people in the village are VERY excited for this new development.

That's just the short list of the things they've done this week.

What they haven't been able to do is spare the driver for several hours to take Brent to where Jessica was last known to be.

However, Brent said that he's made some good contacts - some people that are willing to help us get this sorted out.

It's always bothered me that we had to pay hundreds of dollars to have DNA testing done to prove that Jessica's birth mother was her birth mother and was therefore legally able to relinquish her, but this man can just show up and take her from the orphanage and no one knows that he is the birth father.  Additionally, Jessica has 2 half siblings (one older, one younger) and all three of them have different fathers.  This man did live with Jessica's mother 4 years ago, but Jessica's mom didn't tell him she was pregnant before she left him and didn't tell him he was a father at any point in the last 3 years (I guess I"m trying to say that it's questionable that he's really her father).  The people that Brent's been able to make contact with said that what this man has done isn't legal in Haiti, either.  He's not on her birth certificate.  He doesn't have any legal right to her unless he can prove he actually is her father.  Apparently he was abusive to Jessica's birth mother, so she's afraid of him (even to protect her daughter).  At any rate, there may be things we can do in the legal channel in Haiti to address the fact that he took her and then wanted to sell her to us (yeah.... father of the year material all the way around)

I just wanted to post a quick update so you'd know that we haven't made the progress we'd hoped, but we have made other traction and that there may still be more to come in Jessica's saga.  Thank you for the prayers and support.  We really appreciate it!