We Want You!!

We want you to help bring us home!

We have new products on our "Support Us" page!

These bracelets are only $10 each (plus shipping)
With EVERY bracelet sold Blanket America donates a blanket to Haiti
and the profits go towards our adoption. 
This is a WIN, WIN buy!!

We are anticipating being out of IBESR by the End of June and possibly sooner!  We must have ALL our funds when we exit IBESR.  We are very excited about getting out of IBESR because it will mean we get to go to Haiti!!  Steve will FINALLY be able to meet our children and we will FINALLY get to meet Monique.  We are the most anxious to spend some time with our children.  We just can't wait!!

We have one more BIG request - airline miles...  Do you or anyone you know have airline mile certificates that you or they want to donate??  This will cut down on our total costs dramatically. We would appreciate it very much!!

Thank you so much for your prayers, donations and willingness to walk this journey with us.

In Him,

The Colson's

Steve, Melanie, Amanda, Joshua, Monique, Junior and Frantzy-Frantz

Sobering Moments

We received the paperwork we need to file our I600 forms.  We thought with each step of the process we would be more and more excited.  We are happy do not get us wrong, we are so glad the process is moving forward.  We are not sure what this means in terms of waiting time, we know these papers usually do not come so quickly.  With this paperwork also comes the realization a mom loves her children with such depth she has chosen to sacrifice herself, her feelings, emotions, hopes and dreams to give them a second chance.  She placed her fingerprint on a piece of paper in hopes it would turn into an opportunity she is unable to give her children any other way. WOW!
As we comb through the full relinquishment of parental rights, consent to adopt and medical papers in French, translated into English and certified our hearts ache for this mom and all those like her.  We don't know how she feels, we can't even imagine losing the other unexpectedly and then giving up our children too.  The love and respect she has for her children, to give them to a family in hopes they will provide and make a difference she can longer make is beyond our capabilities to comprehend.

We also learned in all this paperwork the boys are a year younger than we were originally told!  Junior will be 9 this year in December and Frantzy just turned 4 on March 2nd, not 5!  Monique is in fact 11 and we are praying her home by October so she can be home for her 12th birthday on October 15th!!
With each passing day we long to hold our children.  We can't imagine what it will be like to go to Haiti, stand before the judge claiming these precious children as our own and then having to get on a plane back to Nashville without them.  We have large "sappy" hearts and  we can't imagine gathering up the courage to tell them "see you soon".  What does that mean?  To us it means we will be back as soon the paperwork is finished, we will not wait a day longer than we have to.  But is it 6 weeks, 8 weeks, 4 months?  No one really knows.  We do know our children have been in the orphanage FAR too long already. 
We have to look at the bright side.  Monique has a best friend for life - Ruth.  Monique and Junior have touched the lives of so many young and old!  They are there serving God, we can see it and we hope they can too.  Frantz makes a difference too.  We do not want to leave out our little  man.  I know he caused me to pause and pray when I was in Haiti, not even knowing God had already chosen him to be mine.

We love and miss our kiddos more each passing day.  We are praying for God's speed to bring them home quickly.  We are also praying for the finances.  God gave us peace about this adoption when the journey started, we are not fearful, we know He will provide.  Please, if you feel God nudging you to skip a coffee and donate, the button is on the right.  There is also tax free donation information a little further down on the right.  Every $1 counts.
In Him,
The Colson's
Steve, Melanie, Amanda, Joshua, Monique, Junior and Frantzy

CORRECTION!

OK... I no sooner hit post and we received an email...

WE ARE IN IBESR!!!

whoooooo, hooooo!!!

We are like kids in a candy store without a budget!!!

Hurry Up and Wait! and "Notes" to our Kiddos

Being prior military you would think Steve and I would have this "hurry up and wait" process down pat. No, we don't.  I mean really!?  Have you looked into the eyes of an orphan lately?  What about these three?  Oh, it hurts, it pains my heart we have to "wait", they have to "wait".  We "get it" but it doesn't take away the burden on our hearts to be able to just bring them home!

Junior, Frantz and Monique

Seriously we are waiting!  We wait for updates from others who go and visit their kiddos or just go on missions trips.  We wait for email updates from other families who are further along in their process than we are in ours or those who (bless their hearts) are further behind us in their process. We wait for updates from the orphanage on how the kids are doing and growing.  We wait for all the good news!  We relish in each piece of news like we never heard a word about it before, each picture as though it is the first one we have ever seen and each email hoping it is the one to let us know we are OUT of IBESR! (keep in mind we are not even in IBESR yet!)

We have met so many families online adopting from Haiti, Ethiopia, China, Russia, and... We have families in our church adopting from many countries as well.  These are friendships we are sure will last a lifetime. We know Monique, Junior and Frantz have friends in the orphanage and we know these are bonds that will also last a lifetime.  These are friends who have helped each other over come the loss of family, the trauma of not only an Earthquake but also a Hurricane. 

Besties - Junior, Monique and Ruth

While we wait, we are blessed and we need to count those blessings, give our praise to the Lord for each and every one of them trusting God will be bringing each orphan home to their forever families in His perfect time.  We pray for our children and the orphans of the World, they all need our prayers!

Our family is specifically praying for funding and for our children to come home by Monique's birthday October 15th.  One year ago she was living on the streets while her brothers lived in the orphanage not knowing if she would ever have a family or if see would ever see her brothers again.  On May 1st 2010 she was re-united (on paper) with her brothers.  God's plan for their adoption had begun and a few days later she was re-united with her brothers at the orphanage where they wait together for us to be able to bring them home!

Notes to Our Kids

"MoMo"

Monique - "MoMo"  You are beautiful, worthy to be loved and you deserve to be "home" on your birthday my sweet love! We pray everyday for the paperwork process to go smoothly and quickly!  There are days that you are all I can think about.  I try to work but my mind is fixed on you, praying for you, hoping for you to come home soon.  We pray that some how you will be able to come home at the same time or very close to the same time Ruth gets to go home. We know Ruth's family and we plan to help you and Ruth stay in close contact with each other.  Amanda and I can't wait to help you pick out clothes, do your your hair and paint your nails! We are going to have fun doing all sorts of "girly-girl" stuff together! My sweet love you will be home in God's perfect timing and we can't wait! We love you!

"JoJo"

Junior - "J.J.", "JoJo" You are so handsome and you too are worthy of love and deserve to come home!  We can't wait to learn more about you and see how gifted you are with cameras and playing sports!  Josh plans on helping you and your team with whatever sport you choose to play!  Papa (daddy) and I will be there too!  We do not want to miss you playing!  I know you are a deep thinker and I see in some of your pictures you are sad.  I understand but I hope you can have faith we are waiting and hurting with you.  Please do not be disappointed in Mama (mommy) or Papa (daddy), we are doing everything we can to bring you home as soon as we can.  I know we do not visit as often as other families, we want to but we can't.  When you are older you will understand until then trust that we are there with you in spirit.  You are an amazing young man and we can't wait to hold you in our arms right here at home in America.  My son, God's timing is perfect. We love you!

Frantzy-Frantz

Frantz - "Frantzy-Frantz" = "Franky-Frank" You are a "fat mess", which in the United States is a compliment.  You have such a free spirit, are fun and loving - WOW!  We cannot wait to bring you home so you can unleash your free spirit here in Middle Tennessee!  This mama (mommy) loves you with all my heart! We can't wait to hug you and hold you, take you to your first day of school and oh the fun we will all have watching you grow up!

While we wait, we write, we pray and we imagine all the good times we will have once we are together as the "Colson Family".  We love you Mo, Jo and Frantzy-Frantz!!
Mommy and Daddy

Happy Birthday - Frantzy-Frantz!!!

 Happy Birthday Frantzy-Frantz!!

Yes, today our Frantzy-Frantz turns 5!!  WOW

Frantz

Some of you have met Frantz and you know he is ALL boy!  He is busy and not much slows him down except maybe doing a little artwork and hopefully some school work.

Junior and Frantz

We can't wait to bring them home so we can begin experiencing life with them!   We hope and pray God's plan is to bring the kids home soon!

Monique and Frantz

We are still raising funds so if you are looking for a gift for someone check out our blog we have some cool Heaven Sent Haitians gear and we have some other products that are just great gifts!  

We love our kiddos and can't wait to bring them home!!

Crying, Generosity and a Snid Bit

Wow, I can't stop crying!  The love of Christ for His children has and prayerfully continues to pour into our family.  We can not describe our gratitude.  There are simply no words.  Thank you will never be enough.

God gave us peace from the beginning He would provide for our adoption.  Now that was easy to believe in the moment, we had the income for it and planned on adopting one child.  One layoff, one major surgery and three kids later we did not waiver.  We have not been swayed by the costs, God gave us peace when we started the journey.  This is His journey for us not ours.  He knew when He gave us peace about adopting He had already chosen three, it was our mistake to think He planned on only one.

Here is our progress...  WHOOOO HOOOOO!!  We are going to try to post where the money has gone and is going we just haven't figured out how and where on the blog we want to put it.  If you would like to be on our email list please go to the contact us page and sign up.

Snid Bit



Frantzy-Frantz

 I was asked to share this portion of the story again so I will. This is only one small portion of our process that makes you say, "I know that I know God is in this and He loves us."  I knew from a small child I would adopt older children and I wanted a large family. So when God brought us two biological children with difficult pregnancies that led to bed rest and premature births decided two healthy biological children was a good place to stop and start realizing God placed adoption on my heart so long ago for a good reason.  From the time Josh, our youngest, was two I began praying for God to please bring me another child I had the perfect name boy or a girl but I was hoping for a girl.  I found myself begging at times, please bring another child I can name my special name.  When we received our referral for the kids we were so excited, we loved their names wouldn't change them, etc...  I love names, their meanings and look them up all the time. A few days went by after the referral and I had the time to research the kids names Monique - Counselor, Juniyo - Truthful, and Frantz - Free (all very fitting).  I then realized we knew Monique is Monique, Juniyo is Junior but I didn't know what Frantz translated into English as so I looked it up.  It's simple, it's Frank.  So where is this going?  I prayed for 11 years for God to bring me a child I could name Frankie.  Funny how He chose a child for me already named Frank? No, God loves us so much He goes beyond answering just our prayers.  He knew I would hate to change an older child's name once it came down to it. When we were in Haiti we called Frantz Frantzy-Frantz.  He loved it and so do we!!  God answered my prayer better than I could have ever hoped for, He gave me Frankie-Frank, a large family and He is providing just as He gave us peace for.

Our children are:

Worthy of Love

Courageous

Counselor

Truthful

and Free

We know God planned that!

In Him,

The Colson's

Steve, Melanie, Amanda, Joshua, Monique, Junior and Frantzy-Frantz

Excitement in the Air and Confessions of an Adopting Mom

We have no "real" news...  Our dossier headed to Haiti as we posted and it did in fact arrive on February 1st.  Dr. Bernard has confirmed that he has received the dossier, it is complete and he has received the initial deposit.

Junior can't wait to come home!!

Why then are we excited?  We have NO idea!?  We have been excited since the beginning of November.  Can't explain it!  What I can be so bold to say is March keeps coming to mind and when it does the butterflies really flutter in my tummy! We have hopes that means we will enter IBESR by then?  Who knows what Gods plan is, only He knows.  What we do know is He has awesome plans for our family and we are excited for them!

There have also been quite a few families suddenly moving along in the system.  Some are getting their dossiers Haiti (finally!), some are entering IBESR, getting out of IBESR, etc... This is exciting because this wasn't happening in November!



Frantz - described as busy and difficult to get a picture of!

You know it is taking everything God has to keep me here in America!  I mean really, I want to just hop on a plane, fly to Haiti, pick up our kids and fly home.  Unfortunately and well sometimes fortunately I have been known to do some pretty bold things.  We know God is control or I would have already done it.  Ohhhh, how I want to!  Yes, I think about it, I dream about it and ponder if I would really go to jail? 


Really, what do you mean you can't just come get us!?

We are looking for airline points/miles that can be donated for some or all of our travel.  If you have extra miles or know someone who does who wouldn't mind donating them we would be so appreciative!

Until my next burst of excitement and confession - may you be blessed as you have blessed us!! 

In Him,

The Colson's

Steve, Melanie, Amanda, Joshua, Monique, Junior and Frantzy-Frantz

Forward Progression, Whoooo Hoooo!!!

Yes, it has been a while since we posted.  We do not want to inundate your in box and we haven't had any real Earth shattering news or progress so, it has been a while!  Please check out the rest of our blog for updated videos and pictures of our kiddos, support page, etc...  We try to update those pages regularly even if we are not posting a current message on this feed.

We are football fanatics so the following analogy comes with no apology for the folks out there reading and following us who might favor a different sport, football is "our" sport along with figure skating, hockey, basketball, track/field and we are sure with the addition of three more this list will be growing too!

Paperwork ready to go!

We have spent the last 8 months on the offensive side of the "ball".  We have been blocked, tackled, pushed back several weeks at times but we never allowed a full "sac".  We like any professional offensive team have stayed true to protecting the "ball". In football the offensive team sometimes counts heavily on forward progression moving the ball forward 5 yards but being picked up by the defense and carried back 10 used to be a loss on the play.  Today they are given the 5 yards forward.  We can say that we have made some serious forward progression. Our hope and prayer is that forward progression will weigh heavily in the days to come.  Our forward progression is remarkable, our dossier is Haiti bound!!  Whooo, Hooo!!!!!

There is serious political turmoil in Haiti right now.  The elections are not progressing,  there is the return of the dictator "Baby Doc" and the potential return of another past dictator.  We cannot be certain what any of this turmoil can mean for Haiti, our children, adoption or... Political unrest always leaves uncertainty across many Nations.  Our country is concerned with "Baby Doc's" return and how Haiti handles the situation could affect the US and what we as a Country might choose to do.  The US has asked Haiti to remove one of the candidates from the election but Haiti has not responded or followed through with the request.  Regardless, this is a situation warranting prayer along with so many other prayer needs weighing heavily on each of our hearts.
We know as much unrest that is happening in Haiti there is equal or more in Ethiopia, South Africa, the Dominican Republic, China, North and South Korea and the list goes on.  We even have unrest right here in America.  We also know if you are reading this there is a tug in your heart for people and we urge you to follow that tug.  God is trying to take you by your hand to lead you on a path that you could never imagine and one you will never regret.  Maybe it is praying, donating a dollar or maybe donating your time or resources for a cause totally unrelated to adoption. Follow Him, He is the greatest leader ever.

There have been so many scriptures that have been sent to us for encouragement or that we have come across in our daily reading and we would like to share a couple with you. 

James 1:12
12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
Endure, keep your eye on the prize and remember there is not a trial you will face that God will not be there with you through even into eternity.

BaBellla, Junior Dr. Bernard and Ruth (Monique's BFF)

Isaiah 41:13
"I AM holding you by your hand - I, the Lord your God. And I say to you, 'Do not be afraid, I AM here to help you.'" God has never left you or forsaken you nor has He left His orphans.  He is there holding the hands of our children and He will bring them home safely. 

Please pray with us that whatever happens our forward progression "counts".

In Him,
the Colson's

Happy Birthday Junior

Nine years ago today, God chose to bring Junior into this World and for it to be Junior's most special day!!  We are honoring him today with extra prayer!!  We hope you will join us!!

Support Junior on his birthday!

"Wait" - Oh, Yay!!!

Saturday we had a little meltdown.  Yes, we have a very tender hearted one in the house who thinks about what Monique, Junior and Frantz are going through on a daily basis.  "I just can't imagine not having my mom or dad with me."  "I mean I love kids, people and what goes on in their hearts and I just want my brothers and sister home so they can have what I have and they won't have to wonder or worry anymore." "We don't have a lot of material things but what we have as a family can't be measured."  As parents we cried with our son because at 13 to love so compassionately 3 children he has never met who live an ocean away is not only amazing but unfathomable for most kids his age.  God gifted Joshua with a heart that beats to His rhythm and it is a true gift. 

So this has everything to with Church and why it is important to go and hear the Word God has just for you.  The message at church yesterday was more for us than anyone we think based on our previous day.  Do you ever feel that way?  Like God could send everyone else home because He was barking up your tree today?  As if He gave the pastor a home video of your family over the past few days or weeks?  Well, yesterday was Colson day at Fellowship Bible Church!

"Wait" was the message.  Josh just sighed in his seat but as the message went on he started to see just what God had for us.  Most who know me know I love to surprise my family with special gifts, moments, things they would least expect.  I anticipate the very moment of the unveiling with such excitement I most often times can hardly contain myself - waiting.  I ponder if they figured it out already, what will they think, how will they react, and I am so built up by the time the moment arrives  nothing will ruin it and it is always so much better than I ever could have imagined.  I love surprising my family and the people I love!  Josh has seen this in me over and over.  What does this have to with church and God?  Everything!

God is asking us to "wait", anticipate, dream, look forward to, prepare, ponder, build up and expect something so great we will surely not be disappointed.  So we will wait with great anticipation of what God is teaching us in this process, what wonders He has for us (all 7 of us) and we will not be disappointed.  God has been preparing us for this adoption, these three beautiful kids for years!  We know He is excited waiting for that unveiling moment and we are certain He won't be disappointed and He won't disappoint us!

God is so good!!

We were able to swallow this "wait". The four of us decided we would wait as long as God has determined. We swallowed hard but agreed. We did this while we did a little errand running after church and guess what was in the email when we got home?  "I have completed your home study and it is in the mail".  Whoooo  Hoooooo!!!  Yes, our home study is on the way!!  Yes, we can "wait", no we do not really want to.  We want the thrill, the excitement, the joy of having our kids home right now today but God has a bigger better plan and we will do our best to keep our eyes on it.

It is all still a matter of time...  Certification (to be completed by Friday), translation, fingerprints, etc...  We choose to look at it as just one step closer to bringing our kids home!!  The process should start to go a little faster now.

Thank you for supporting us in which ever way you have committed to.  We feel your prayers and we see the adoption fund is growing.  We appreciate you walking with us, you all are ALL amazing and we are honored to share this journey with you.

In Faith,
the Colson's

Please see our "Support Us" page for items you can purchase to help support our adoption.  We add things so keep checking back!