My 2 boys!!

I have these 2 great pictures of Austin and Aidan. It's funny how kids will be kids. Austin got this black lab puppy at Christmas time and he will play with it and take it with him. In fact----he's taking his dog for a swing ride. (Alyssa had markered on Austin's head) and the same week I had taken this picture of Austin----we had receieved some pictures of Aidan. We had sent him a dog earlier in the summer and in our July update GLA said he loved his dog and loved to cuddle with it and took it everywhere. In fact they said he was going for a walk with a care taker and wanted to go back for his dog!! It just makes me smile to think that Aidan may be coming from a different country---but when it all comes down to it---he's a kid---just like any other kids. One who loves to cuddle, have a stuffed dog, and I can't wait to be able to share other things in life with him.

IBESR

Our paperwork moved to the next spot!!! We entered IBESR---this is where all our paperwork is checked out and making sure all documents are correct. Pray that there are no gliches in our paperwork or that nothing was filled out wrong. This process takes about 4-5 months. Of course we're praying for the 4 or even 3 months. :)

We received a phone call that we had moved to this next spot while we were on vacation. It seems like all our news and good stuff happens while we're gone. Thank goodness for cell phones and being able to get ahold of us!!!! I think maybe we should just keep taking vacations and we'll just keep getting good news----right?!!!!!! We had a fabulous time at a cottage we rent up north. It's always a week of relaxing and just enjoying being together. The big hit this year was catching frogs. The kids would catch and 'take care of their frogs' all day long. The poor frogs----I'm sure they will never be the same. We also had lots of fun swimming and having tube rides. This is the first year the kids really asked for tube rides and got into it. Usually they would go---but it was nice to have mom or dad with them. This year they were excited to go on their own and Alyssa was even a little bit more of a show off while riding. She even jumped off the tube because she wanted to go swimming in the middle of the lake!!!

Of course going fishing was a big hit. I wasn't there---but the story was something like Alyssa was fishing and catch quite a big fish. She reeled it in and saw it and dropped her pole and everything because it was too big for her. Good thing Paul had a hold of the line already so he could save the pole and get the fish in. Of course she was all proud then of her fish!!!!

Vacation was a great time of enjoying life and just doing fun stuff.

We're looking forward to Aidan joining us and playing with him next year too!!!

Doesn't he make you smile?

Here is our little cutie!!! I just have to smile when I look at his pictures. He's doing well. His update said he's happy and a joy to be around. Some stats of him included the following:

Weight: 21 lbs 3 oz

Height: 30.5 inches

Adoption status: pre-IBESR.

Our adoption status hasn't changed since we received our referral, so we could use lots of prayers that our paperwork begins to move and go on to the first big step. I know it's all in God's timing.........and that "He can move the mountians"...........so we're praying over our whole process. We're also excited to hear that Bethany has done a couple more referrals of little boys to this general area, so we're excited to meet the other boys when they join their families too!!!!

Our Little Treasure!!

We received our first update from GLA. Aidan is doing very well. His smile has been coming through and he really likes playing with other kids. He's happy and it looks like he's full of character!
This is what else was written, about this months theme.........."As you know, Haiti shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic and is located the Caribbean. The Caribbean is famous for its tales of Pirate folklore. Scattered throughout the Caribbean there have been stories of shipwrecks, deserted islands… And buried treasure!!!" Which brought them to the photo theme of “We Found Your Treasure”!

Aidan Manuel Brinks

Yes--we are officially one of 'those' families---all our kids have an A!! No- we didn't try for that. Actually I had my list of top 10 names in which none of them were an A name. Yet Alyssa kept insisting that his name be Aidan Maxwell, well----Maxwell wasn't going to happen because Manuel was non-negotiable, but after saying Aidan Manuel and praying for him..........it seems to fit perfectly. I do have to say sorry to the Baggechs--they have an Aidan too, and don't live too far from us! Sorry!
We haven't heard any updates from GLA about Aidan. I know they are actually in transition of who is in charge of doing the monthly updates.....so hopefully we hear soon!!
This past weekend we were at a West MI Haitian gathering----it was VERY cool to see all the kids! It made me just want to pick them up and squeeze them, just how cute they were and wanting to have Aidan with us too. I'm so excited that in the next couple months there are up to 3 different people or groups going to GLA in which I can send pictures/stuff to Aidan and have them love on him. It will be great just to get lots of different pictures of him instead of just a couple.

The general process from here

I mentally have prepared myself that this is quite a long process.....yet now that we are actually connected with our little boy I think this is going to be sooooo hard. I thought I'd fill you in on a general process that takes place. It seems all greek to me, but at least we can follow steps!!!

1. paperwork goes to Minister of Foreign Affairs and also sent to a laweyer with the child's social history.
2. Dossier (our paperwork) is given to IBESR (takes 4-6 months)
3. Once approved it goes to Parquet and sounds like a bunch of legalizing (1-2 months)
4. Attestation of the signatures-----more legalizing (couple weeks)
5. Legalization of the Minister of Justice Dept. (couple weeks)
6. Legalization of Foreign Affairs
7. application of his passport (6-8 weeks)
8. all is reviewed
9. Apply for a visa (week)
10. get air line tickets to pick him up!!!

So, as you can see it's quite a process. I know many of you have asked about why it takes so long. I'm praying the process continues to work out details so they can cut times down, so for now we will pray for his arrival as soon as possible, and that none of our paper work has glitches in it.

Our little boy is currently in an orphanage called "God's Littlest Angels", or GLA. They seem to do a fabulous job with the kids. We have followed other peoples adoptions and they seem to get great updates and pictures, so I'm excited to keep hearing more about him. Paul actually was able to see GLA on one of his trips to Haiti. He said it was a huge place and very well done. Of course there are tons of kids around so there is lots of chaos, but that goes with the territory.
Below is a link to their web sight, so you can check out some pictures of the place.

http://www.glahaiti.org/adoption_news

Well, thanks for all the encouragement. Hopefully you hear from us soon as we pick out a name yet!!!

Then the Referral Came........

On Tuesday April 22 we got a referral. There were ALOT of emotions that came with this referral. After coming back from spring break, part of me was actually feeling like, "what are we doing? and Are we doing the right thing? and Should we do this?" I think there was just so much over whelming feelings and also having had alot of time pass since our initial excitement that it just wasn't what we were expecting to feel.



This is where the story gets to be amazing and God is good!!



My initial feelings were that we couldn't do this. I was ready to throw in the towel and not proceed anymore. In fact in BSF we were studying Jesus in Gethsemane and just saying "take this cup from me, but not my will but yours be done". That was my prayer for a couple days. I went through many emotions and wondering why we have to deal with such hard decisions.
On Sunday as we were walking I said to Paul, "I can't do this, so here is God's fleece.....if this is His will, then someone needs to speak directly to us and not rationalize with us about why we wouldn't do this." Well, wouldn't you know it, we got back in the house and a friend had called. She said she was thinking about us and after her story about her experience, basically it was that everything was going to be good. We'd love this child and couldn't imagine life without him.

Okay---So God knew I needed that! We actually put a list together of 'why we would' VS. 'why we wouldn't' adopt. The 'why we would' list kept getting longer. To name a few, his age---there are tons of 2 year old boys in the neighborhood; his name---it fits right in with having an M for a middle name; the timing of our referral---- God knew exactly what bible studies I'd be studying at the exact time of our decisions; God knew we would be doing training on ''adoption expectations" and needed to hear that-------which was originally scheduled for January (but cancelled due to a snow storm); God gave us awesome Dr.'s to discuss stuff with. Everything was looking like this was God's path.............yet it scared me.

The most amazing part was on Wednesday April 30 I was ready to say NO. I just kneeled down before doing my bible study and prayed for one more assurance because I just couldn't do it. I proceeded with my bible study and God didn't give me one assurance, He gave me multiple assurance. In fact, He gave me 14 specific verses or messages that this was His will. A couple key things were John 15:16 "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit. Fruit that will last" and Luke 19: 21-27--Doing God's will and listening, God will bless us for following His will. And the promise that He anointed us and equips us. He means for us to be used with great effectiveness. He has given life experiences intended to turn into testimonies. God is good!!!

I'm an so thrilled to see how God's plan in going to unfold. We accepted our referral on Thursday May 1.

So let me introduce you to...........______ Manuel Brinks. (first name is not decided yet)
His name is Manuel, which we'll use as his middle name. He is 2 years old, his birthday is Feb. 14, 2006. GLA states, he is a happy boy and likes to smile. He is shy around those he doesn't know. He likes to cuddle and be played with. He likes to feed himself and play with other kids. But he gets angry if kids try to take his cookies. So I'm sure Austin and him will be fighting over who gets the most cookies!!! Oh....and he likes his thumb. Alyssa will think that's cool!

We so look forward to what God has planned for our adventure and this little boys life. It will be a while yet before we can pick him up. In fact I dare not say even up to 1 year, but our prayer is that we can spend Christmas or his birthday with him!!! So pray that the government process will speed up for his arrival at home.

Spring Break

Our family had gone to Haiti over spring break. It was really unrelated to our adoption. A group from church went to visit villages with GLOW ministries. An original thought of ours was to take the kids with us when we pick up our child, but having talked with other families and also the orphanage director, they really don't recommend that. I see their side, that the child needs to bond with us before just bonding with our kids. Our desire was to have our kids experience a little bit of Haiti, just so they have a little flavor of it, and things are totally out in the open that this child would look different than us. Not only that, it was just a trip that kept life into perspective. We've really been challenged with how we live since our church has challenged us with a year of Jubilee. It was a great trip, I'm really glad we were able to do that.

When we got home from the trip, there was a message on our answering machine in which the director was just verifying some of our information and that they were in the process of translating a referral, so we'd being hearing soon from them. So for a whole week we had to think about it!!!!!...............