The Horne's Haitian Adoption Story

IBESR Update

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Tue, 22 May 2012 09:37:00 PDT

Back on May 7th we received word that IBESR decided to keep accepting files until May 7th. Our file made it in on May 4th. No idea on how long it will be to get through, but at least we made it in.

Kelly's April Update

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:17:00 PDT

Kelly is a strong and healthy little guy. He just began taking steps on his own within the last few months. He is so cute when he gets up and walks because he holds his hands above his head for balance. He has a very happy and easy going disposition and his smile is so very precious. It is rare to go into the nursery and find him crying. He loves to yell out when he is excited about something or wants to get attention.

Kelly is healthy and growing:
Height: 78 cm
Weight: 21 lb 8.5 oz

IBESR to Restructure during the next month

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:03:00 PDT

IBESR will not be taking new dossiers until the 1st of June in an effort to complete studying and authorizing the ones already sitting on their desks and also finish the ones that have been given dispensations in the last few weeks.

According to a source, the director of IBESR is wanting to clear the dossiers that have been sitting for some time waiting for approval. There were many in IBESR when she took over the position of Director in November 2011. None were signed until after February 2012 and so they are way behind.

We will continue to propose children and prepare dossiers so that on the 1st of June, dossiers can be turned into IBESR. We are looking at this as a good opportunity for IBESR to clear their work load and prepare for the new dossiers that will be ready and waiting in June!

Referral

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 22:09:00 PDT

Ambur, Steevenson, Roselaure and I would like to introduce you our next member of the family at some point in the future. His name is Kelly, the information is as of April 4th he was 1 year and 2 months old, 21 lbs 4 oz and is about 30 inches long. Kelly is a very sweet, and happy little boy. He is ready to greet anyone with his big smile and is overall very content. He has a healthy bond with his caregivers, and loves to receive their attention. Kelly has recently started taking some steps and is very close to walking on his own. He can pull himself up to stand and is very steady walking along furniture or along a wall for support. He loves discovering new toys, but he especially enjoys anything that is small enough to grasp in his little hands and bang together, such as blocks.

2nd Adoption

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:35:00 PST

Ambur has told me that I need to get this going again to keep friends and family members informed of what has been going on. On February 16, 2011 we started the process of our 2nd adoption by paying the application fee to the adoption agency. It took us awhile but we finished all our paperwork after about 7 months and sent the paperwork to be legalized at the Haitian Consulate in the middle of November. We then received that back and sent the paperwork to our adoption agency so they could go through it and then send it down to Haiti. Our dossier made it down to Haiti on January 6, 2012. Now we are just in the waiting game for a referral, a little easier this time because of Roselaure and Steevenson. I have to say that you don't think about the fact that you have been waiting for a couple of months because we have stayed so busy with them that there is no time to think about it. Also after waiting the first time for Steevenson's referral we have gained more of the attitude of it will happen when it happens.

2 Years Ago today

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 07:32:00 PST

2 Years ago today we Steevenson and I were sitting in the hotel room waiting for Ambur to call and let us know that she needed a ride back to the hotel because it was pouring down rain, I figured we would go to lunch then. It was a little before noon that Ambur comes walking in the door soaking wet from walking back to the hotel in the downpour. She was hysterical and that is when she told me what the doctors had predicted for Roselaure's future. That there was a 99% chance that she was going to be in a vegetative state for the rest of her life.

As a new dad I din't know how to feel, my emotions had been tossed all over the place that weekend and wasn't sure what to think or act, I just knew I needed to stay strong for Ambur, Steevenson and Roselaure. That night I was going to pick up my mom and Ambur's mom from the airport, where I was going to have to break the news somehow to them and let them know what we found out. I had to find a quiet and secluded area of the airport that I could sit down and comprehend what was told to us; which is when I had to call our contact at our adoption agency because I was unsure what was going to happen in the future and what could be done.

The next day we had the mom's watch Steevenson as we made a trip over to the hospital to hear what the doctor's had to say. It was not the news that we wanted to hear, that we should make arrangements when the hospital stay is over that for Steevenson's well being we would need to find a place to take care of Roselaure. From our conversation to us it sounded like they thought we should just go back to Indiana and not worry about her. How would we be able to do that to Roselaure, we did have to leave her after a staying there for a week because there was no way we could afford to live in a hotel for a month and we also had to think how Steevenson would react to that, just after one week he was already adjusting to staying in a hotel. We only shared to our immediate family what was told to us by the doctors, which on some respects I am glad we did but also thought at points that we should have shared it to more people. In the end we had enough people praying for her to get well that she did get healthy enough to come home and beat the odds.

We went from there is a 1% chance that she will be able to run around and act like a normal child to she is definitely above normal child. I know I have said it before but I am so thankful to all the staff at GLA, Cheryl Vanderwell, Nicole Lee Wills and everyone else that helped her in Haiti to Miami, all of the staff at Baptist Children's Hospital that helped her, all of the staff from Bethany Christian Services that prayed for Roselaure and helped us through on a phone call or email, and I would like to thank all of our Family and Friends that helped us get through that time, especially including our GLA family.

Roselaure riding the rocking dinosaur

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 08:22:00 PST

1 Year Later

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 19:13:00 PST

At first I didn’t want to think or write about this, but some people let me know it will be good to do this and as I thought about it; it will be. On January 12, 2010 Ambur and I didn’t find out about the earthquake until about 6:45 at night which was good because we were able to eat dinner and then find out about it. From that time on through the early morning I was glued to my computer and for the next 7 days. We honestly thought that this was going to push our adoption back even farther and at the time we weren’t expecting to bring Steevenson and Roselaure home until sometime this year with the speed our paperwork was moving with adding Roselaure on to Steevenson’s adoption.

I was following everything that was going on with Haiti and we were doing everything that we could to get our kids home asap. I got so worked up that on Wednesday the 20th I got up tried to eat breakfast and felt like I was ready to throw up from the stress. But it turned out that day was a good day, Ambur had gotten home and I had known the children could come home but we had no supplies. We made a quick trip a couple of stores in order to get the stuff we needed just in case we received a call in a couple of days. Little did we know around 7-8PM that night we would receive an email that stated we need to be in Miami the next day. I know that while Ambur was making phone calls to people and I was running around because we needed to get flights booked and make sure we had everything that they told us to bring down with us.

We had to be to the airport for our flight at noon and while we were waiting for our flight I received a call from our Melitta Payne at our agency and she told us that Roselaure was ill and would need to go to the hospital. So I rushed to get access to my work email and get the insurance setup for the kids, we flew to Atlanta and while waiting received another call that Roselaure was critically ill. From that point until early the next morning we had no idea how she was doing and we started to think that she was doing just fine.

At around 7 or 8 AM the Bethany workers came rushing down to the terminal and told us that we both needed to get to the hospital for Roselaure, the problem is one of us had to be there to get Steevenson and we had already decided that I would be able to find the hospital if needed and drive there with Steevenson. Ambur rushed to the hospital with Johnny Carr and I waited for Steevenson, at one time I heard from Ambur that Roselaure would be fine and then after my phone was almost dead I was told I needed to call Ambur as soon as possible. I was told that she had bacterial meningitis and it didn’t look good. I went from overjoyed to having Steevenson in my arms and healthy to thoughts of what is going to happen to Roselaure. It honestly was hard to see everyone so happy and my thoughts we everywhere at those moments.

When I got to the hospital and saw Roselaure my heart just dropped because as beautiful as she was I honestly thought at that point that she was not going to make it. I had to go back to our hotel with Steevenson and try and get him some sleep only to find out that the Mariott by the airport didn’t have a crib. So then on the phone to my mom to call the travel agent they know out of the Miami area. We were able to get a hotel right next to the hospital with a crib for Steevenson to sleep. That night I was on the phone and internet until late at night talking to family and letting them know what was going on.

Since we had enough clothes for 2 days and we were thinking we were going to be in Miami for the whole month she was in the hospital our moms came down with some supplies and to help us out for a while. The day they came into town Monday the 25th Ambur was at the hospital in the morning and we were told that Roselaure was basically going to be a vegetable for the rest of her life and that we would not want to take her home. There would be no way we would be able to take care of her and give Steevenson the quality of life that he needed. Ambur actually walked back to the hotel in the pouring rain and was drenched when she got back. I would say that day was the worst day we both had,, to be told that your child basically had a 99% chance that she was never going to be able to take care of herself she would not be like the normal go to play soccer child. That was so hard to tell our moms when I picked them up from the airport but one thing that did help is I was able to call the adoption agency to talk to them and let them know what was said and they were a big help.

We had a long stressful month because we needed to come home with Steevenson and leave Roselaure down in Miami. Even though that was hard to do being so far away from her we wouldn’t have left her if we didn’t know that she was in such great hands. The staff and doctors at Baptist Children’s Hospital took such great care of Roselaure like she was their own child. After the month she turned out to be just fine and since has grown so much. One of the hard things to think about with the earthquake is while so many people lost their lives in Haiti it took the earthquake to save Roselaure’s life, if there was no earthquake Roselaure would not have made it out of Haiti in time to survive.

When I was able to bring Roselaure home, Steevenson was sleeping when we put her in her crib. I wish I had a video of him when he woke up, because you could just tell that he was very happy to see me and then all of a sudden he saw Roselaure and you could tell he was thinking I thought I got rid of her and he was not happy with me for a little while. But since then they are so close and he does try and take care of her as much as possible.

Even though the year started off very hard on us it has been a great year and we have had a great time with Steevenson and Roselaure. It has made us look forward to spending more time with them and we have hopes of being able to expand our family through Haiti in the future.

More Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 11:24:00 PST

A lot of pictures, Grandma was in town and loves to take pictures of her grand babies.

From what we heard is Grandpa picked the hat up at Walmart and put it on her and she would let them put it back. She does like to wear hats at times and she like this one.

More Christmas Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:40:00 PST

Steevenson was on a sugar high!

Christmas 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 11:13:00 PST

We had a great Christmas and the children enjoyed all the gifts they received. It was a very long weekend for Ambur & I but we enjoyed the time that we got to spend with Steevenson & Roselaure. We are so thankful that we were able to spend Christmas with them this year when we were certain before the earthquake that we were going to be spending this Christmas as just a couple again. But it was great and tiring to be able to spend it as a family. We are looking forward to many many more joyous holidays.

More to come later, I promise...

Order Your 2011 GLA Calendar NOW!

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 05:49:00 PST

The 2011 GLA Calendars are here! I think the photos are even better than last year! I wish I could put 2 or 3 photos for each month because we have so many great photos that I would love to share with you.

This a wonderful fundraiser for the orphanage and we would love to see one of our calendars in every home! The cost is $18 USD and that includes shipping! We will ship to Europe too!

Help support the children at the orphanage and receive a beautiful calendar to remind you of GLA and Haiti!

For payment information please click here.

Halloween

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 19:07:00 PDT

We had a good time trick or treating, Steevenson does not like the Tiger hat on Roselaure. We think that he was afraid the Tiger ate her, but he was fine once he saw she was still under there.

Pumpkin Picking

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 22:28:00 PDT

About a week ago we went pumpkin picking in the backyard and got our 4 pumpkins.

Potty

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 20:00:00 PDT

Today Ambur had the day off and Steevenson went poop on the potty twice wore some underwear to see how he would react to going pee in them. She was able to get Steevenson to tell her when he had to go pee and he went pee multiple times on the potty today.

Steevenson is our little frog for holloween and Roselaure is our little Tiger.

Somebody found the toilet paper and decided to unroll it and taste it.

Steevenson walking for one of his 1st times

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 19:20:00 PDT

Roselaure

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 17:57:00 PDT

I was going through some pictures tonight looking for a video to post and saw this picture of when we got home at the end of February. Isn't amazing how well she looks and how much her hair has grown in just under 8 months when the doctors cut it. She is now saying between 20 & 30 words, walking fast and doing everything the doctors didn't think she was going to be able to do. She is the best eater in the house and so far isn't picky on what items she wants to eat like Steevenson is. I wish I had video of when they do this together but at dinner the past couple of nights Steevenson and her will say bite back and forth and laugh together. It is just so great to see them getting along.

Walk

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 05:44:00 PDT

I was a bad grandson and forgot and was too busy at work to wish Grandpa Yoder a happy birthday, so happy birthday Grandpa. Last night we ate our dinner and went to enjoy a nice walk and since the weather was nice we decided to bring their shoes and let them play at the playground down the street. Roselaure went down the slide with my help of course but she does like the swing a lot. She is also learning to climb and will climb on a chair by herself and will listen most of the time when we say sit down even though she may sit in the wrong direction. She scares me with the chair though, so that is going to go to the garage for the time being.

Horne Family

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:24:00 PDT

You can now officially welcome the two new members of the Horne Family.

Steevenson LaMar Horne (Picture from January update that we just got yesterday).

Roselaure Mae Horne (January Update)

More Pictures from Roselaure's B-Day

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 19:19:00 PDT

Roselaure's B-Day Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 09:54:00 PDT

We had a great birthday weekend for Roselaure, Grandma & Grandpa came into town. I was really happy to make a brisket and pork loin on the smoker to eat and on Saturday I was happy to roast the corn over the fire. It seemed like all the kids had fun and even though we weren't able to go swimming because we were to busy just being able to celebrate Roselaure's 1st birthday was wonderful. Roselaure enjoyed her own cupcake and of course Steevenson who didn't want anything to do with his at his birthday wanted to take Roselaure's.

Enjoy the pictures.

More to come later

Roselaure

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:34:00 PDT

After we got back from vacation we started standing her up away from us and worked on getting her to walk, she would do a couple of steps at first and then become afraid and sit down. Plus her crawling method was feet flat on the ground, but way in the air and hands on the ground. By the end of last week she was walking and she has been walking since, but if she wants to get somewhere in a hurry for now it is still drop down to the floor and crawl over there. So below is some video of her walking like a big girl, she is now drinking milk so we have three kinds of milk in our fridge. Steevenson's lactaid, our fat free and her whole milk plus plenty of juices. I think we have more liquid in our fridge than anything else. Plus this Saturday we are happy to be celebrating her first birthday, the little miracle girl that has such an infectious smile just like her brother.

Roselaure's 1 Year Check Up

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:40:00 PDT

When we got back from vacation we took both kids in for Roselaure's one year check up and she is doing good, she weighed in at 20 lbs 11 1/4 oz and measured at 30 inches long. She got a few shots but will go back after her birthday to get the remainder of shots. We also had the doctor get us a oral liquid medicine to help take care of the ringworm she has and it seems to be helping really good. The cream we were using wasn't doing anything at all. We finally got Steevenson his TB test and as I was holding him and the nurse was doing it Steevenson jerked and it came out and squirted me a little, so round two was for me to still hold and Ambur to hold is right arm since some had gone in his left arm. This time it worked and everything came back just fine, barely a bump at all.

Pictures that I took when we were out there

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 20:17:00 PDT

Grandma took most of the pictures but I remembered that I took a few also. It was a great trip and we are looking forward to going out there again next year.

Last Day in Maryland

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 20:10:00 PDT

Friday the 9th was our last day in Maryland and it was a good relaxing day, I got to sleep in and go up and take a little nap in the afternoon.