Creole Brunch

Exciting Week

There are all sorts of happenings going on here, in the states.  I repeat here in the states...  No news from Haiti on our paperwork.  So we are still caught up in "red tape".  We are perfectly patient and continue to cry out to God for His timing to be sooner than later.  We did send our I600 forms off yesterday.   We decided if we were in red tape in Haiti we might as well be in red tape in the US too!

Amanda Carlie Colson - Amanda is now a Senior.  She completed and passed all her finals last week! Yeah!!!  She has a phenomenal GPA of 3.87 and even has 3 college credits under her belt.  (That was not even an option 25 years ago!) Amanda has decided to take two classes this summer so her senior year will be dedicated to French II and dual enrollment classes.  Amanda decided to major in pre-medicine and hopes to minor in both music and French.  We  will start visiting colleges in just 2 weeks.  Wow, where has the time gone? We are so proud of her and her accomplishments Figure Skating, Music and school.
 
Joshua Aaron Colson - We are excited Joshua has his 8th Grade banquet Tuesday night...  Joshua will be a 9th grader as of Tuesday May 24th at noon. WOW!!  Joshua has his track banquet this evening where he and his team mates will be celebrated for breaking the school record in the 4x400 relay, twice.  The second time was on his birthday.  The first beat the record by 11 seconds and then beat their own record by 5!  We are so proud of him!

Today and tonight!! We get to meet Ruth's mom today, YEAH!!!  I am super excited about that!  We will be picking up Laurie at the airport and then heading to the BGM fundraiser.  So excited about this event!!

Dr. Bernard will be speaking at the event as well as one of my favorite artists - Lady Antebellum.  We will be meeting all our fellow adoptive parents, those in the process and those already through.  So many are able to come and it is with such delight we will be able to finally meet.

We are also sending an additional $8,500.00 to the orphanage leaving our balance at $20,500.00 we are a little more than 1/3 of the way there. Thank you to all of you who have donated and continue to support on a monthly basis.  We are also going to have another fund raising event through the 1 Seed Planted organization on June 5th.  Mark your calendars, come out to volunteer or to enjoy the awesome food!  We promise either way you will be blessed!!

We decided on names but aren't sure we really told anyone...

Monique Alana

Junior Emanuel

Frantz Isaiah

Even though we cannot wait to bring our precious Heaven Sent Haitians home we sit today in a peace that surpasses all understanding.  There is no other way to explain how we can just sit and wait.  We are the perfectly impatient family. We are so grateful to serve a God who can give us peace in a situation we have absolutely no control over yet it is a situation that breaks our hearts just as it breaks His.  Stay to true to yourself and who God has called you to be.  He will get you there, wherever and whatever there is.

In Him,
Steve and Melanie

Proverbs 31:8 "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute."
Matthew 18:5 "Whoever receives a child in My name, receives Me." 

Soon and Very Soon...

You know He is never late and He is never too early...  He is always on time, His timing is perfect!
I say this because I constantly need to be reminded, I am His perfectly impatient child.

When I woke up this morning, it was no different than any other morning.  I woke up and immediately began praying for all the orphans in the World and for all the people in the adoption systems to have their hearts broken for these orphans.  That some how God would move the mountain of adoption red tape and bring His children home so they would no longer be labeled as orphans.  When I say praying it is more like demanding, pleading and even sometimes begging.  God's word says to go "boldly" before His throne so I hold nothing back!  He knows my heart anyway so I let it fly this morning.

They are not orphans,  they are Your chosen children, chosen before the foundations of the Earth were formed,  that just have not yet made it home.  Lord, bring your children home!  How hard is it anyway, You just say the word and it is done so do it! The children need to come home, they need to be home!!

My morning routine is typical, I am a creature of habit...  Prayer, a little reading, regular morning stuff, etc... So once I made it to our little office with my coffee I of course was ready to post my daily verse on facebook.  I logged in and saw the messages still waiting for me from the night before plus 1 and thought wow how popular am I?  I posted my verse and went on to read the messages... 

"We are out of IBESR"...  Praise God is all I can say, He is answering my prayers, one by one!!   Yes, we are still waiting for our email from the orphanage but God is showing me just how faithful He is.  In my desperation and plea for Him yesterday and this morning He had already responded by answering my prayers for these families to bring their children home.  He is faithful and with every family that exits IBESR we are one file folder closer!!  AMEN!!!

My praise goes to the Lord, He is awesome, mighty and worthy to be praised! 

Soon and very soon...

I believe!

SAVE THE DATE

JUNE 5TH

God's Promises

When I was a little girl God placed the seed of adoption in my heart.  "It" never left, it didn't even take convincing my husband or children to adopt so my logical deductive reasoning mind processes this as a PROMISE.  He would not have placed "it" in my heart if He wasn't going to do "it"!  God is not in the business of breaking promises either.

None the less, I find myself having a "downer" day.  I was reading a friends blog and my mind begins to day dream of our children and then thoughts of why, who, what, where, when and could I have said, done or could I be doing anything differently to bring our precious children home.  Then I come back to no, I have peace about that much.  Then there names came across my mind Monique Alana, Junior Emanuel and Frantz Isaiah and then the verse...

"Do not be afraid, for I am with you;
   I will bring your children from the east
   and gather you from the west.
I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
   and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring my sons from afar
   and my daughters from the ends of the earth—
everyone who is called by my name,
   whom I created for my glory,
   whom I formed and made.” 

-Isaiah 43:5-7 

God will bring our children home!  This is after all His plan, we are on His clock and this is for His glory!

As I finished reading my friends blog there it is smack dab in the middle of her blog, the verse! Thank you friend for blogging today about your adoption and placing the perfect scripture, the scripture we read so many months ago that helped us choose our youngest' middle name, one of the verses that brings peace to the ever so emotional journey of our, the Colson JAMS, adoption.

Please continue to pray for our children, our hearts and the finances to bring them home when He is ready to bring them home.

Save the date JUNE 5th....  :o)

In Your Letter

The past few days have been awesome!  New pictures and videos of our kids, college fair, Josh turns 14 this week, school is almost out for the summer and a letter...

Monique and Frantz
Frantzy
Junior, Monique and Frantz

Ahhh... The college fair - LOVE it!  We now have peace about our daughter, Amanda going off to college in the fall of 2012.  She has chosen a major that although it will negatively affect our pocket book it will not as much as the original goal of being a pediatric cardiologist.  In the end she will be Dr. Amanda Carlie Colson and will be able to accomplish the similar desires without having to give up family wich is very important to her. 

We received a letter from our daughter, Monique.  Monique's favorite color is pink!  We have a girly girl!! Yeah!!! (I love Amanda do NOT get me wrong but she wouldn't wear dresses either and Monique loves them!!) She has the neatest handwriting I have seen for a child her age in a long time!  She puts Amanda and Josh to shame.  LOL  Monique thanked us for the clothes, let us know the boys favorite colors and she sent their love and kisses!  In her very first paragraph she says we are sure what is most important to her.  "I love you very much. I made haste to write you.  I like my school and my favorite subject is writing.  I aim to be a doctor in my future."  We might just have Dr. Monique Alana Colson too!  WOW are we headed for broke or what!

Monique in the outfit we sent her.

Junior and Ruth (Monique's bestie)

Junior likes the colors blue and white, Frantzy likes red (that's my boy!) and they will like their room painted in the bright colors of our choice.  We wrote in our last letter to them that we are working on their rooms and asked for their favorite colors.  Wow, we have amazingly respectful children with hearts of gold!

"Do you want your shirt back?" No, Frantzy Mama Blanc gave it to you.

Honestly, we have done nothing to deserve or earn the two very awesome biological children that God has so generously gifted us and I assure you we have not earned three more perfectly awesome children either.  We are humbled by the blessings the Lord has bestowed on our family.  The more pictures and videos we see the more we can see so much of us in these children God chose for us before He considered creating the foundations of the Earth. We are in awe and perfect amazement at how even across the ocean God is knotting our hearts and souls together.

Josh said the other day "I am not gonna lie, I just can't wait for them to come home.  You can see it in Monique's face, she is going to me a track star.  Just look at her smile, she is a track star!"  He can't wait to help the boys in their sport of choice and...  His list is endless.  Such a selfless heart for a 14 year old!  Frantzy gives the shirt off his back and his oldest brother would leap a tall building if it would bring his little brothers and sister home.

We are on our knees praying for our dossier to be out of IBESR.  We pray every day for the directors in charge of orphans across the world to have compassion for these children and to send them home.  May the Lord break their hearts for what breaks His and may it cause them to send His children home.

We thank you in advance for walking this mighty adoption journey with us.  Our road is long but the Lord hears our cry.

Isaiah 30:19 For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more.  He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry.

Achey Breaky Heart

We can say that right?  After all we grew up in the 80's and Billy Ray lives here in Nashville so...

Yes, my heart aches.  At times it aches so bad I find myself calling out their names out loud.  I know with this season the weather is nice, the windows are open and even our neighbors hear my cry.   I don't care.  My hope is when I cry out the sound transfers across the ocean as a huge bear hug, that some how our children know we love them more than they will ever know.
The realization of the new government is sinking in.  The "changing of the guard" so to speak.  We are praying the current IBESR director will feel compelled to sign off on ALL those dossiers sitting in and around her office.  I am not sure when she leaves her office but once she does it is anticipated the dossiers will not move out of IBESR until July.

Why must children wait?  Yes, we are waiting and I am perfectly impatient but a child is counting on a forever home and they have to wait on a signature? 
Our children are old enough to see the time pass by.  I hope when they are older they will advocate for orphans speaking from experience.  From what we are told our kids are just like us, they are Colson's and they will fit right in.  So I will not be surprised if one or all of them take up a cause.  When a cause strikes a passionate cord within a Colson's soul there is not much that will stand in the way of change.  We are praying for their passions now so look out World!!

Yes, I am on a soap box.  Brothers and Sisters in Christ I urge you to pray with us and other families adopting from Haiti.  Our children need to be allowed to come home and not to sit in limbo for 2 more months while the directors change offices.  The Lord's timing is perfect and He will hear our prayers.  I urge you to dedicate one small prayer a day to orphans around the World.  So many are caught up in red tape and it is just not fair to the children.

Ephesians 6:18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.

Efèz 6:18:
Pandan n'ap fè tou sa, pa janm bliye lapriyè. Mande Bondye konkou li. Lapriyè nan tout sikonstans avèk pouvwa Sentespri a. Se poutèt sa, pa kite dòmi pran nou, kenbe fèm nan sa n'ap fè a. Lapriyè pou tout pèp Bondye a.

Please pray for us.

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