We are back from Haiti...

Meeting our little man Betson was the BEST! There is too much to say so I will just hit on the highlights.

Our first meeting with Betson was when we walked into his room area and he was spitting in a bucket...hahaha. He was brushing his teeth and what beautiful teeth they are.

We arrived on Saturday morning and we were suppose to go to the lower court on Monday. We left the guest house to go to Dr. Bernard's office about 10 a.m. Once we got there a lady in the waiting room knew Betson. Of course we could not understand her but we did hear her calling his name. We were walking past and then one of the office ladies told us it was Betson's mom. We went back for him to hug her or something and we were NOT prepared for what happened, Betson wanted NOTHING to do with her at all. We went on into the office area and Smith sat us down and was informing us about our process for that day to sign papers. There was issues down at the court and they were gonna send the clerk to Dr. Bernard's office. They explained we could be waiting all day for him to arrive.

While we waited for the clerk to arrive they wanted to take Betson from us and bring him into the waiting room with his mom but he would not let go of my husband Kazen. They tried several things and he would not budge and kept saying "no!". They finally decided that they would bring her into him and I decided that I would go to the bathroom because it might be easier on her with the "new mom" not there. When I returned there was conversation going on with her asking us to help her out of the tent city. Kazen explained that he would need to speak with Dr. Bernard about that and if we could do it we would follow the proper channels. We had a chance to speak with her about Christ and asked if she wanted to be converted (that is how they understand being born again) and she did so Kazen prayed with her. We don't know if she was converted or not but be in prayer that she was.

While we were meeting with Betson's mom, Betsy, the clerk had arrived. We had only been in Dr. Bernard's office for 1 hour!!!!!! We both signed that famous blank notebook paper and also signed an actual legal document. They also had Betsy sign something. After that we went into Dr. Bernard's office and we took a "family" picture along with some of the strangest pictures ever. He took a picture of her handing Betson over to Kazen and then Betsy handing Betson over to me. I am guessing this is for proof that we did not steal him???

Once Betsy left the office Dr. Bernard told us that we were going to do something he had never done before. He was going to send us to the high court BEFORE our documents were in IBESR and try and see if the judge would sign off on the adoption. For those that do not know this is the trip we planned for Kazen to come back on his own and do. We sat around in his office for probably only another hour then one of the office ladies brought us to the court. We went and stood in a hallway while she went into an office for only about 15 minutes then we went to a waiting room. We were in there for under an hour when we were rushed into the judges office!! When were got in there she asked us a bunch of basic questions about our family and why we wanted to adopt etc. During our Q&A she signed the side of one of the forms. Kazen and I just looked at each other.... She then asked where the person was that brought us and I told her the waiting room. She said to get her. When she came back she asked her something about IBESR and she explained that our documents have not been put through yet. The judge seemed to scold her for a bit about that and then our lady just said "Thank you, Thank you" (actually Merci Meric). We also thanked her and left her office. When we got out the door she told us that it was DONE!!! She was completely in awe that we were able to get her to sign without us already being in IBESR. We completed in roughly 4 hours what some people have taken months and months to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now let me tell you that aside from our family and friends that have been praying for us specifically during this trip we had a very sweet lady that was with us in Haiti that had it on her heart that morning to pray specifically for us to receive favor that day. Monday, July 18, 2011 was a specific answer to a specific prayer. We could not accomplished all that we did in one day without the favor of God on us that day.

The rest of the week with Betson was AMAZING. He is such a sweet, high spirited little guy. We have described him that 90% of the time he is so good and when he is bad that other 10% of the time he is BAD!!! hahaha That boy can throw some fits and let me tell you all 55 people that went on the trip with us can testify to that. We understood that he was going to test our limits but when he did there was such a barrier in communication that we just had to let him sit down and scream and get over it.

On Friday morning we had breakfast at 8 and were to leave the guest house for the day to shop and then go straight to the airport at 9. At 8:30 we decided we needed to bring him back down to the creche (where the kids live there on site). We brought our interpreter Moto with us. We had Moto tell him that we loved him very much and we were only leaving for a short time. We would be back to see him and to bring him home. Kazen and I, in creole, told him numerous time that we loved him. We turned to leave and he dropped to the floor crying. We just kept walking... We had only about 30 seconds of breaking down outside the creche. I had gotten enough of my crying out the night before while I was packing all our stuff. Brooke went down about 10 minutes later to tell him bye (she was not around when we went) and she said he was not crying anymore but just sitting there sad. It was hard but we were prepared that we had to leave. We know that he is God's hands until he can be in ours.

In Him,

Tina

PS...IF YOU LOVE BETSON (hahaha) There are a few ways to help us bring him home. 1) You can make a Love Donation through Paypal on this site, 2) You can purchase a "Have a Heart for Haiti" backpack for only $5, 3) You can buy coffee (http://www.justlovecoffee.com/​crazycoffeylife) or you can buy goodies that I sell,