Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Bureaucracy & Birthmom

The photo to the right is Pastor Rony's youngest daughter at the convention.
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In true Haiti fashion, there is confusion regarding Monday's court date for Troy. As he was driving down our road yesterday a moped flagged him down and handed him a piece of paper that said he failed to appear on Monday and the consequences of that, yada yada yada.
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Troy called the attorney who said "Oh no, they are messed up. I was there and the teacher did not show up so the judge signed my forms making note of that."
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I despise government bureaucracy. My heart rate increases just entering a government building. Without fail the employees are crabby and don't give a darn about serving a paying customer and without exception something will get messed up. It appears to be the same all over the world. Finally, we found a cultural similarity between our two favorite countries.
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Hopefully the attorney can get that straightened out soon.
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Troy had to go back into Port this morning. Luckily we laid down to chat with Hope and Noah at 8pm and all fell asleep, so by accident Troy actually slept a full night. (He had planned to work on expense reports half the night.) I didn't sleep the full night. Noah kept round-house kicking me in the head and then when I would gripe at him and threaten to move him to his own bed, he would say, "I love you Mama." When the alarm went off at 5am I was sleeping on two inches of the edge of the bed and Noah had a section two feet wide.
:-/

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Britt and Paige and Chris hiked up the mountain behind us yesterday. I am amazed that Paige made it again. They were all really tired afterward.
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Hope and Troy and Phoebe had a nice visit with the girls' birthmother. She seemed genuinely pleased at how big Phoebe is getting and Troy was able to talk to her for about 45 minutes without an interpreter. Sometimes just getting used to talking to a person helps, there are people Troy can talk to perfectly and people that he needs help with - depending on what part of Haiti they are from and the speed of their speech. She got kicked out of Cite Soleil during the UN clean-up of the "sea-side slum" and has found a new place to live in a safer area.
Troy talked to her about her part in the adoption and explained how important it is for her to do her part and not drag her feet. She knows the process well having gone through it four times already. She asked where we lived again and Troy just told her that we would come in to meet her anytime she wanted but that we are not able to give out our location. Troy is very tender towards her, for that I am glad. Maybe it is the mom vs. mom thing that makes me feel less patient with her. I truly care about her, but I don't feel ease when I'm with her. I'm glad Troy feels so patient and loving towards her, I think it is good. If there was a birth-dad to visit with I wonder if it would be as easy for him. Troy says, "no, probably not."



When Troy told her the girls look a lot like her she said all of her children look like her, but these girls look a lot like their dad too.