Missing our Noah

Hi All....I decided I needed a blog...why? Everyone has one, and I like to keep all my friends and family informed...but I do have a myspace and I never update that, so, we'll see if I update my blog very often.
As you know we are in the process of adopting little Ricardo (who we call Noah) from For His Glory orphanage in Haiti. Oct. 2005 I got the call to adopt again, we had looked into in 2002...but it wasn't time....so we waited. Well this time Todd and I both felt the call to adopt. At first I thought that we would just adopt from the foster care, because there is such a big need. I felt that would be easier. We felt that God was saying, "no, your child is in Haiti.."That seemed so big and scary. But we proceeded and God really opened doors, I won't go into it all, but would love to talk to anyone about the whole story anytime. I found For His Glory's website and was immediately drawn to the stories and the heart of the director. I called her, and she was amazing. We committed to FHG on Dec. 20 and then saw Ricardo's pic on Dec. 21 and he has been our son ever since. I love to think about how in Oct. when Ricardo's birth mom was praying about how she would care for him, God was putting Him into our hearts and he was meant to be in our family.
Well, we got all of the paperwork done and by the middle of April it was in Haiti. We got out of first legal May 3, and have been waiting to go into IBESR, the Haitian gov't. for processing since...God is truly teaching me patience...nothing in Haiti is easy, or predictable....but there is somewhat a timeline...like you enter IBESR 6-8 weeks after you exit first legal...well as of today we are at 5 months and 17 day...but, hey who's counting? Part of the paperwork needed to enter IBESR is a social history done by the birthmom...but they cannot find her. That makes me really sad, I was hoping to get to meet her and let her know that I will love her baby like my own and will tell him how much she loved him...so, needless to say, they had to try to locate her, they couldn't so the next step was to have the judge come out to declare him a true orphan...well after a couple months, he came out, but Noah was in the hospital with asthma. Finally on 9/22 the judge came to see him...the next step, is to get the mayor to sign him as a true orphan and then get a social worker to write his social history. Anyway, wait, wait, wait...meanwhile Noah keeps getting sick, so we are working on getting him a medical visa, so we can get proper care for him. So, if anyone knows a hospital that will treat him for free...that would be great.
Well...VERYYYY EXCITING NEWS...2 weeks from now...Nov. 3rd we leave for Haiti!! Todd and I and our 4 kids..the orphanage is having a mission trip and we are soooo excited to meet Noah, and all the other kids too. We are excited to be able to serve at the orphanage and just seeing Haiti and experiencing all that God wants to teach each one of us. We will be there for a week as a family then Todd will leave on the 10th, take the kids home, go to an event at church on the 11th, go to church on the 12th...hand the kids over to my Mommy and then fly all night Sunday night, and will be back in Haiti on the 13th. The 15th is Noahs 1st birthday, so we will get to be with him. We are excited about that. I am going to take tons of pics and videos. We will leave Haiti on the 17th...I don't know how I will be able to leave...God will have to carry me home. Anyway, that's it for now...bless you all! Love, Renee