Dear Dixie, Stephanie, the staff at GLA and FLASH,
I am writing this letter to thank you all for Carmelina – a wonderful perfect match for our family and just before our permit ran out.
I had personally given up hoping for a match. Miriam (at the agency Flash in The Netherlands) and I exchanged emails in January as I asked about a possible extension of our permit. Miriam responded that an extension was not possible without a match. I understood and left the matter there. Of course you cannot produce children out of thin air and we had kept up with the adoption process challenges in Haiti through the newsletters so knew the situation was getting more difficult.
So I was not looking forward to my 46th birthday - which was just 6 days away - when all doors for adoptions would be closed just because of my age. (The Netherlands has a rule that once you reach 46 years old, you can no longer adopt a child.) Then we received the life-changing phone call from Miriam. It was just after 6:00pm and I had come in from work and was peeling potatoes. My husband, Cees, was not in yet and our son Chistiaan was playing piano in the background, so it was hard to hear. When Miriam said who she was, I froze. Flash has never called us before.
Miriam very kindly did not keep me in suspense and told me right away that they had a match for us. I could not believe it. I don’t know what I said – I was speechless. I was so surprised, shocked in fact. I was totally not expecting it. The only thing I could think was that it was now too late to get our permit extended – the Ministry of Justice would never do this in 6 days. But then Miriam said it was already extended. Until 2011!!! I could not believe my ears. It was already extended. Whoopeee….