No news yet....

As some of you know the Embassy was closed yesterday and today for Carnaval. We are hoping to hear tomorrow of our appointment and are praying they will set it for Thursday or Friday! We are all excited and ready for him to come home. A recent picture of Noah sums up how we all feel about this wait.....

He's even handsome when he's pouting! Do you think I'll still say that in about six months or so? Probably not. Very similar to the fact that Camden's pout was cute in this picture, but it's not so cute now. ; )


Have a blessed day and I hope to have more news for you tomorrow!! The Lord is good and is always worthy to be praised!!

Camden's project

Camden had to make a "robot" out of recycled materials for school.
He and Jeremy worked on it and I think they did a pretty great job!

I love the bunny ears. I'm quite certain that when the robot sees this picture,
he will be so embarrassed! ; ) Good job, buddy!

Now what?

So, many have asked, "Now what?" Some have said, "What's next?" Others simply, "When are you leaving?" I thought I would give a slight update of my plans. What we are waiting for now is a visa appointment. The file is in the Adoption Unit of the Consular Section at the Embassy. Once a file arrives in their office, the agent working with the parents must request an appointment. The appointment is scheduled and according to their website "After all requirements are fulfilled under Haitian and American law, the immigrant visa is generally issued on the following business day." I sent everything needed for the appointment to Haiti last month with Todd when he went to get Jonas. I had left everything there back in July, but just to be safe I sent it all again. You can never be too prepared in Haiti. ; )

Once we receive an actual date for the visa appointment I will book my flight. I am so ready for that HUGE step! I have wanted to go to Haiti since I received the call that he was back. However, I didn't want to spend a month or more there, not knowing when they would process his visa. You know.......been there, done that! And so, I wait. I wait for the appointment to be scheduled. I wait to book my flight. And as I've done since December of 2005, I wait to bring our son home!

While waiting we will be building benches to go with our remodeled kitchen table. As of now we don't have enough seating. We will also be looking for a different vehicle that seats 8. I will be unpacking size 4/5 clothes and making sure we are all set there. We will be buying a new pair of tennis shoes and packing a little bag of items for the airplane ride home.

I am still in such awe of the goodness of our God! He has given us the grace, peace and joy to endure this process. He has blessed us beyond measure with so many people that have encouraged us and supported us along the way. He has never left us. He has heard our cry......

Psalm 40:1 (Amplified) "I waited patiently and expectantly for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry."

Isaiah 40:28-31 (Amplified) "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint or grow weary; there is no searching of His understanding. He gives power to the faint and weary, and to him who has no might He increases strength [causing it to multiply and making it to abound]. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and [selected] young men shall feebly stumble and fall exhausted; But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired."

These scriptures have meant so much to me over these last few years. I had to share them. I know they are probably familiar to you, but I beg you don't allow them to become too familiar. Soak them up like it's the first time you heard or read them. The Lord WILL strengthen you as you wait, expect, look for and hope in Him!

One final thing, I want to thank the praise and worship team from Port au Prince Fellowship. They may never read this, but I have to express my gratitude anyway. During my many visits these past two years(since I found PAP Fellowship), I have been strengthened through their ministry of song. Many times I was amazed by the songs they would sing and how they would lift me up and encourage me and caused me to feel as if the Lord was speaking directly to me. Well, He was of course! So many times they would sing one of my favorites, Everlasting God. I'm not normally one to post lyrics of a song, but this one has been such a huge part of my "wait" that I have to include it. I pray it gets in your heart as it did mine and when you feel you can't wait another day you will sing.....

"Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord

Our God, You reign forever
Our hope, our Strong Deliverer
You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint
You won't grow weary

Our God, You reign forever
Our hope, our Strong Deliverer
You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint
You won't grow weary

You're the defender of the weak
You comfort those in need
You lift us up on wings like eagles"

Update

"The approval has been reaffirmed and has been moved on for visa issuance."

Praise the Lord!!

Pumpkin Bread

Hope and I made pumpkin bread this morning! It is baking right now and smells delicious!! It's a new recipe(with a few changes I made) so we'll see how it goes!
My question for you is....just how many things can you lick while baking pumpkin bread?

1. The wooden spoon

2. The beater

3. The spatula

I guess three would be the answer!
However, if you like, you can sit on the kitchen sink and eat the unused pumpkin!

Mia loves to get married.

Some of you may remember she married Steve when she was at the Orphanage. Well, she got married again the other night, but, unfortunately, her fiance was M.I.A. She did not let that stop her. The show must go on.....

Bridesmaid ~ Hope

Maid of Honor ~ Alexis

Blushing Bride ~ Mia
The bouquet toss!
Mia sang Shout to the Lord!Alexis explaining which finger the ring goes on. Thankfully, Mia had a ring ready. It could have been a disaster, well with the groom missing and all. That's some great planifications if you ask me. Camden recited a couple of poems. Notice he dressed up for the occasion!

There was also a scripture reading by the Mother of the Bride, but the photographer failed to capture it. In attendance were the Father of the Bride, Sister of the Bride,
and two Dogs of the Bride.

Thank you, Megan and Stacy!!

We love Skype!! We love Megan and Stacy!! We love talking to our son!! Saturday morning we were finally able to Skype with Noah with the whole family present! As you can see in this first photo he looks a little confused. This skype stuff is hard for a kid to understand. He was quiet and not too smiley. However, once they gave him a telephone, he put it up to his ear and began to talk up a storm and as you can see was quite happy. It was so funny! He wouldn't talk to us without the phone to his ear. We were cracking up!


He and Mia had the same conversation about 4 times. It went a little something like this....

Mia: "Alo, Noah!"

Noah: "Alo!"

Mia: "Koman ou ye?" (How are you?)

Noah: "Byen!" (Well)

Mia: "W'ap vin lakay mwen?" (You coming to my house?)

Noah: "Wi!" (Yes!)

Mia: "Mwen sonje ou, Noah, anpil, anpil!" (I miss you, Noah, very much!)

Noah: "Mwen sonje ou tou!" (I miss you too!)

Then Hope adds in English with beautiful expression, "Noah, I miss you so much!"

The other kids knew he didn't speak English so they just watched and listened and enjoyed seeing their brother talk on the phone. ; ) He also played with a camera for a while and looked amazed that I had three cameras. ; ) So Megan and Stacy suggested we get him a phone, camera, and a big wheel. We've made a list, and as many of you know that list includes cheese puffs!! ; )

Thank you, Todd,

for some new pictures! I'm so blessed!

Settling in....

From what I hear Noah is doing great! He is settling in to the routine of the O nicely. There have been so many changes since he was there last, I'm sure he was thinking, "wait a minute. Is this the right place?" ; ) Todd Burnett has been at the O to pick up Jonas and fly home TOMORROW!!! I hope to have some new pics of Noah to post after he gets home! Todd sent me a messaging saying, "ur son is amazing." Well, of course he is, Todd! ; )

Many have asked, "what now?" so I wanted to update you a little. Noah's adoption is complete on the Haitian side. He is Wilbert Theophin Cundiff. By Haitian law he is our son! Praise the LORD!!! All we need is his visa. We are praying this last step will move quickly and our son will finally be home where he belongs!

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and well wishes! We are so humbled by the number of people who have been praying for us and for our son! Our God is faithful to His word! We stand in awe and continue to praise Him for ALL He has done!

The details....

It's Saturday morning, 10:02am and the phone rings. Caller ID says it's Gretchen, so I answer not having any idea what would follow.

"Michelle, the dad called Jimmy this morning and said he was ready. Jimmy is going to get him!"

"REALLY?!?!?!" followed by sobs, tears, and "Oh my gosh!"

More sobs, tears, and "Oh my gosh!"

I'm sure Gretchen was talking through some of this, but honestly I have no idea what she was saying. Sorry Gretchen!

She finally says, realizing I'm hysterical, "Ok, I'm going to let you go. You let this sink in and I'll let you know as soon as I hear something."

Sobbing, "Ok."

"Michelle, I think this is what you have been praying for."

"Oh my gosh. Ok."

I hang up the phone and run upstairs to Jeremy, who is in the shower.

Still sobbing, "Honey. Jeremy."

He opens the door with this look like, "oh honey, what's wrong?"

Sobbing I tell him of our conversation, if that's what you want to call it. ;) He reaches out, dripping wet, and pulls me to him and we begin to thank the Lord for what we fully hope is happening.

Sneaky Camden opens the door on the verge of tears, "Mom, does this mean Noah's coming home?"

We didn't want to tell the kids until we knew he was at the Orphanage. So I replied, "Well, his dad says he still wants us to adopt him." We've had too many instances of thinking things would go one way and they went completely different, so we hoped to spare them of any more tears.
In no time at all, Mia was behind Camden, asking as well. We only told them, at this point, that Jimmy had seen a picture of Noah and his dad was saying he still wanted us to be his family, and off to Jordyn's basketball game we went, trying to act normal(well, normal for us).

11:00am goes by
12:00pm goes by
1:00pm yep, goes by
2:00pm goes by
2:16pm I text Gretchen, "Nothing?"
3:42pm "Talked to Megan Jimmy's not back yet."
3:43pm "K, thanks!!"
4:18pm "Jimmy says he is getting him right now. ?"
4:18pm "Ok!!!???"
4:31pm Gretchen calls, but Jimmy's still not back.
6:04pm Gretchen calls to say she can't get through, but promises to keep trying
6:10pm Gretchen: "Michelle, I just talked to him on the phone."

We talked details with a few interuptions here and there of me saying, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, he's there?!?!" Gretchen would excitedly responded, "Yes, he's there!"

I told Jeremy and a few minutes later we let the kids know. Jeremy says to Camden, "Well, buddy, are you ready to move to the top bunk?" Camden simply bowed his head with silent tears, followed by a slight nod. We immediately came together and prayed. We thanked our Lord for this miracle and asked Him to bring Noah home soon. Everyone was so excited. About 20 minutes later Mia comes to me, buries her head in my neck and crying says, "Jesus, bring him home."

Needless to say, our evening was filled with tears, laughter, great joy and rejoicing, phone calls, texting, blog posting, and e-mails. Thanks to our wonderful Megan who is serving at Angel House currently, we received pictures with a simple message, "He is really here!" Thank you, Megan! You have been so great!!!


A little while later I was able to call and put him on speaker phone. We talked with him for 20 minutes! He sounded so great!! He said, "Alo, Manman!" (Hello, Mama!) Then a few minutes later he said, "Ki kote Papa'm?" (Where's my Papa?) It was such an amazing phone call, mostly spent telling each other, "I love you. I miss you." He asked to speak with Mia too. She was pretty excited and even got to talk to one of her favorite nannies. When I talked to the nanny she said they were so happy and simply kept saying, "Mesi, Jezi. Mesi, Jezi, mesi!" And of course I responded, "Yes, mesi, Jezi, mesi!"

This is during our conversation. I think he looks kind of happy and TOOTHLESS!!

Somehow we finally were able to get to sleep that night, but woke up with the same smiles on our faces and a thankful heart for what the Lord had done! Please continue to rejoice with us! Our God is so good and faithful to all generations!! We continue to trust Him completely with the completion of this miracle! Praise the Lord!!

Our son!

Whew....

Christmas is over! It was a whirlwind, but lots of fun. The kids were in two church programs, we had 5 days of Christmas gatherings, cookie baking, Camden's birthday, runny noses, coughs, a puppy and presents galore!! It might be easier for me to just show you pictures and give a little snippet.

Camden's Birthday!
My big 7 year old! I can't believe he is 7. Where does time go? He had a great birthday!!

Christmas Program #1

As you can see, Camden is making sure everyone is doing their job correctly. Jordyn feels a little to old to be doing this. Mia is unsure of what is transpiring. Alexis is doing her best to keep an eye on the little ones and Hope well she is just terrified of all these people looking at her, displayed by a look of Mom do NOT leave me here.

The kids met Santa!
These are the only two I managed to capture a picture of. Come on, guys, give me a break. I have five kids. I'd be taking pictures all the time to catch everything.
Wait a minute......

Christmas Program #2
Program #2... Camden was a shepherd, Ali and Mia were wise women, Jordyn a narrator, and Hope an angel, or "angle" in her words. They did great!

Cookie baking day with Meemaw, TT, and cousins.
The older girls enjoyed joining the adults this year.

Hope kept busy making sure we were working through our list. ; )

Then came Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's!
Mia can't wait to open presents!!

I gave Jeremy a present early. Our latest Cundiff addition.....Jersey!

Christmas Eve
We had a surprise visit from Jeremy's Dad and Stepmom this year, so Christmas Eve was spent with them and his grandparents. We don't typically get to see them during the Christmas season since they live in TX. We thoroughly enjoyed having them with us!!

Wow, Jordyn, when did you grow up? Just yesterday you were falling down the eisle of TT & Uncle Brent's wedding....ok, so maybe that was 11 years ago today(New Year's Eve), but it sure feels like yesterday! Happy Anniversary, guys!

Finally Christmas Morning!!


Jeremy shares with the children the true meaning of Christmas and how Jesus was our gift from our Father and that's why we give gifts during Christmas. We started a new tradition this year of waiting to put our star on the tree until Christmas morning. It was wonderful to take time out during the chaos of presents to talk about the true reason for our celebration.

Everyone loved their gifts! Ali was so happy to have her pink DS!!

Mia got the baby she was hoping for!!

Jordy found the perfect present for Camden! ; )

Hope LOVED this Gabriella costume. She wore the wig all day....even to Grandma's house!


Jordyn also was happy to get her green Ipod! I think Ali was excited for her too! ; )

Daddy and Hope enjoying some of Hope's treasures later at Grandma's(I had removed the wig by this time)!

Off to Christmas with Meemaw and Papaw Doug!!
Or is it Meemaw and the Storm Trooper, I'm not sure.

Last but not least, Christmas with Dad!
This celebration always begins with Dad reading The Christmas Story from Luke 2.


Geez, Dad, how many grandkids do you have? Wait, most of those are mine.
Never-mind.

Resting...
As you can see here, we are all tuckered out! I'm sure after this post you are too!
We pray you had a wonderful Christmas, enjoying family, friends, and most of all remembering our Savior!

Merry Christmas!

Things will be busy in the next couple of weeks, so I wanted to take a moment to wish all of my readers a very Merry Christmas(or maybe a "Monkey Christmas")!! Either way, try to take a moment, in the midst of all the baking, gathering, and presents, to remember the reason we celebrate this joyous holiday! Thank you Jesus!

John 1:14 "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

A Hope first

Hope had her first birthday at home yesterday! Our baby girl turned four! She had a great day! Thanks to the threat of winter weather, it was a small gathering, but for Hope it was perfect. We had pizza(one of her favorite things), cake, ice cream, and presents!


When she opened her presents she became so shy. For many of you, you know this is not a Hope normal. ; ) I think she was a bit overwhelmed by the 100% focus on her. In fact there was one moment that melted my heart completely. We gathered around her and sang Happy Birthday before she blew out her candles. She sat and listened with this beautiful smile on her face. Once we were finished, she knew what to do. Out the candles went and immediately she buried her head in her hands. I knew she was crying. It wasn't a cry with any noise, just the kind with tears. I walked around and knelt beside her, wrapped my arms around her and whispered, "Happy Birthday Hopey! We love you." She wiped her tears away and we proceeded to cut the cake. She truly was overwhelmed by the moment.


So, like I said, our baby girl is four! We were so happy to have her home for this special occasion!

We love you, Hope! I pray you are blessed by the Maker of Heaven and Earth! I pray you come to know Him at an early age and will follow His plan for your life. I pray you will serve Him with all your heart and will KNOW in whom you have believed! I pray you will trust Him at all times and will continue to have a heart for prayer, in Jesus name, Amen!