Waiting on a Miracle…

My little superhero has Humanitarian Parole!!! He's coming HOME!!!!

At first, when I got the phone call late Monday afternoon, I couldn’t understand her words – she was crying and the connection wasn’t great, and all I heard was “leaving now… come back tomorrow…”

It had been a LONG and frustrating day at the Embassy – heck, even getting to the point of being allowed in the Embassy had been long and frustrating…  It seems all I’ve done lately is fill out forms, scan documents, send emails, and make phone calls – and the whole time we didn’t seem to be making any progress.

Renee had been texting me all day from inside the Embassy.  No one would tell her anything.  After she handed over our paperwork – just after 7 AM, she’d had no other communication with anyone all day.  She didn’t even know that anyone was actually looking at our papers – I told her that, after hearing it from my adoption coordinator…

By 4:30 she was tired, irritated, and feeling defeated.  Delmace was tired and hungry, and was a total mess – and a friend who had been with them, had just left and taken (by accident) the bag that had ALL the extra diapers and wipes in it..

So, when I heard “leaving now… come back tomorrow”, I just said something like – “Don’t worry about it, it’s OK, just go home now… We can try again tomorrow…”  But when she said it again – I finally understood her – “No, we are APPROVED! They told us to leave and come back at 8 AM to get the papers!!!”

And then I was crying too…  And after Renee put Delmace on the phone, he just wanted to know why both of us were crying…

So – what does this really mean? – and where do we stand right now?  It means Delmace got approved for Humanitarian Parole. He will get to come to the US as a “refugee” – I will be officially designated as his “sponsor” and after negotiating some more paperwork down in Florida, he will get to come HOME with me!!!  At some point (after the government figures out how they are going to handle these cases), I will get to finish the adoption process and he will legally be my son!!!

So, that’s where things were as of this morning…  Delmace and Renee arrived at the Embassy before 8AM… We were hoping that they’d be able to get on a flight that was to leave in the early afternoon – but that didn’t happen… We waited all day to hear whether the Prime Minister actually signed off on our papers. He has to authorize each child’s papers before they can actually leave…  When they started to organize kids for that early afternoon flight, we were told Delmace’s name was not on the list – and no one could tell us why…  They had to watch a slew of kids (including 6 girls they were supposed to travel with) leave to head to the airport…  I’m not sure if Delmace understood the significance of this mass exit – but Renee sure did… For Delmace it just meant he lost a bunch of his new playmates…

After a lot of emails, texts, and phone calls, we finally heard from the head of my adoption agency (who verified information with people in Washington DC and their data tracking system), and she said: Delmace is totally cleared to travel AND signed off on by the Prime Minister!!!  His name should have been on that list to go to the airport – in fact, it very well may have been on that list and we just didn’t know it (since Renee didn’t actually see the list)…  She was just told by the woman “organizing” the kids that his name wasn’t there – but apparently the woman had his last name wrong…  His Haitian last name is SEVENSON – and the woman kept calling him STEVENSON!  Renee kept telling them “no T, take out the T” – but we are now thinking that they didn’t listen…

So, then we spent hours trying to get this “name mess-up” straightened out… Lucy (the head of my adoption agency) was on the warpath at this point – she was calling and emailing Washington and Haiti, left and right…  The big problem was that we couldn’t get the people we needed to in Haiti, to actually read their emails and adjust their information…  As Renee said to me (via text), “Apparently we are in the middle of an international pissing contest… And we are the ones getting wet!”

After more rumors that another plane might be leaving later tonight were squashed – and several more calls back & forth to Renee and my adoption case workers – I had just about given up for the day…  Renee and Delmace were just going to sleep on the floor at the Embassy and hope for better luck in the morning…  I was sitting at the computer, trying to figure out how things had gotten so messed up and wondering if there was any way to straighten out this colossal mess – and then, Lucy called me back….

She had just gotten off the phone with Renee, who I’d talked to only minutes before, and she said that Renee was frantically gathering up their stuff because they had just gotten the word that they were going to the airport!  I’m not really sure what I said to Lucy then – I don’t remember who I talked to after that (I know I talked to a bunch of people)…  I just know that Renee called a few minutes later – and we both were crying…  and Delmace grabbed the phone and he was yelling and excited and so full of energy… and I was crying again because he’s really coming home… My boy is really coming HOME.

They are flying to Miami.  I am booked on the first flight tomorrow morning at 5:30 AM…  And hopefully, by shortly after 9 AM, I will be wrapping my arms around my special little superhero…  and hopefully – if all goes well,  I’ll be bringing him home to Boston by tomorrow night…

Hoping & praying for super powers to bring him safely HOME...

Today was such a difficult and frustrating day – but I know it was so much worse for Renee than it was for me… I feel so bad for everything that she has had to deal with over the past few days (and weeks)… When everything is said and done, and this is finally, finally over, I’ll never ever be able to repay her for all that she’ll have gone through to help bring my boy home – but, I am sincerely looking forward to trying!!!

Oh, and by the way…  that other little boy, Ronel – whose story I posted on my blog a few days ago – Well, Renee and Delmace were hanging out and chatting with him and his Dad earlier this morning…  Delmace shared his toys and lollipops with Ronel… From what I understand, they were able to get out on a flight today too – they’d been waiting to leave since last week…

And for those of you who know the kids at Wings, it turns out that Ronel is from the same Mission that brought Kelly to Wings…  Small world, huh?

OK – that’s it for now…  Hopefully, the next time I post here, it will be to tell everyone that Delmace is really and truly HOME…  Keep your fingers crossed!