How it all began...the Reader's Digest version... :-)

In May 2009, we made our first visit to the beautiful nation of Haiti.  While there, we had the opportunity to work with Haitian youth in by taking part in an afternoon youth retreat on the beaches of Jacmel and visiting a Boys and Girls Home.  It was on this trip that we both discovered that we had a heart for Haiti and that God had something special planned for us concerning this country. 

It wasn’t until January of 2011 that we discovered what that plan was.  I visited Haiti once again as part of a construction mission team to La Gonave.  After two days of long travel, I arrived on La Gonave and had the opportunity to visit the local orphanage.  As several children began to sing, I looked over and saw the beautiful little girl I would later know to be Catrina.  The moment I saw Catrina, I felt God tell me, this child is my daughter.  For the next few days, I prayed about this idea and received more and more confirmation each time I saw Catrina during the mission trip. 

After I returned home, Eddie was looking at pictures from my trip and he knew instantly that I wanted to adopt and was even able to pick Catrina out without any guidance from me.  For several weeks Eddie contemplated this idea and prayed over it and he was led to the same decision.  Since then, we have seen several signs pointing us toward bringing Catrina to the US and welcoming her into our family and our home. 

Last October, Eddie and I made a trip to Haiti to 1-find out if Catrina was even eligible for adoption and 2-to ask Mme. Soliette for her blessing to start the adoption process.  After a VERY busy weekend and God's hand over the entire situation, we returned home 5 quick days later as the legal guardians of Catrina in Haiti.  We had managed to speak with her birth mother and get her blessing, and her birth father (whom we didnt' even know existed until we got there) had been located and contacted for a verbal approval as well.  We also have a trust-worthy lawyer who we met with for the first time on this trip:

Upon our return, we promptly started working on our dossier (more or less the formal application to Haiti) and are still working on that.  For months now, I have been trying get that completed, but JUST as I think I'm finishing up, I find out about more paperwork that needs to be completed.  Yikes!  Currently, we have completed our homestudy (which was approved by the state of SC...waiting on our I-600A to process now for US approval), and we are awaiting an appointment to have our Psych evaluations.

It seems that everything always takes longer than expected and the "rules" are very unclear at this point.  However, God is so amazing and has been working this out so far.  We will certainly continue to trust in Him, and ae appreciate all prayers along our journey! 

So far, we've certainly had our ups and we've had our downs.  I can't go back and mention them all, but I'm sure I'll allude to them and explain them in future posts.  Moving forward, I plan to post any updates here so you can all check back and know what's going on at the moment.

Thanks again for all your love and prayers!