"I know the plans I have for you" says the Lord...

I made it safely to the island Friday night.  SO glad to see so many friends!  :-)

Before I left the mainland, I had quite the unique opportunity to be at an orphanage in Port-au-Prince while they accepted new children (something that happens only once every 15 years or so at this orphanage).  What an experience!  I'm still processing (even now) exactly what God wanted me to take away from this, but I know it certainly gave me a sneak peak into my own child's past.  How scared she must have been the day she was admitted to Mme. S's orphanage! 

Starring into the crying eyes filled with wisdom that are our daughter's past, I definitely realized the need for a grace that God is still developing within me.  How exactly do you console a screaming child who you fully know has every right to be upset that the mother who has been her whole world has left her to be raised by someone she's never met?  At the moment I encountered this, it didn't matter that I don't fully speak the child's language...there were no words to console her anyway.  I simply held her close, gently hummed and swayed while praying...crying out to the Father of the fatherless...hoping that my soul's longing to ease her pain would somehow intercede within her spirit, easing the weariness that I will never truly grasp. 

Throughout the morning, I prayed for each child I bathed or helped feed or watched get weighed and measured.  Prayed that God would ease their pain, use their new home to draw them into His loving arms, and provide a future for each both in this life and the next. 

The scripture that kept running through my mind throughout the morning was Jeremiah 29:11:

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

See, one of the beautiful things about this orphanage I was visiting was that many of the older kids were so eager to provide for the new incoming kids.  They were the ones with whom I was bathing, feeding, dressing, and weighing/measuring the new children.  They could truly console the crying baby to promise them that everything really is going to be alright...and some of those words of comfort are etched into my memory for good. 

Each of these older (first generation) children at this orphanage is in high school or university.  Many of these first generation kids are in the university in the US or in medical school in Cuba.  An orphan having much of a future at all in Haiti is unheard of!  The fact that 100% of the children from this orphanage were ether already furthering their education or were preparing to do so is nothing short of a miraculous proof of God's power and provisions! 

After an emotional morning (which I completely internalized!  I was NOT about to make things even harder for those sweet kids!), I was dropped off at the PAP airport to meet up with an incoming team to head out to La Gonave.  After waiting outside the airport for about a half hour (a thought that would have very much intimidated and flat out scarred me at one point), I easily found my incoming team and off we went.  After the standard 2 hour ride in the back of the cattle truck, a quick layover at Dan & Joy's, and an hour and a half ride on the Breezy Sea, I arrived to rejoin my team on La Gonave.

I tried to spend Friday night catching up with my precious host family on La Gonave, but found myself passed out on the couch around 8 pm, completely drained from busy day of travel and emotional internalizing.

Saturday morning, I assisted with about 2 hours of gardening (yes, I did warn her that I kill everything I touch...and they still wanted me to help!  ...Now that's desperation, eh?  :-), my team headed out to the CV, where I got to see our girl!  Oh, how sweet it always is to see my daughter after having been away for so long!  I can't even explain the elation that runs through me when she comes to me with wide eyes, grin, and arms!  It was SUCH a blessing to get to see her so soon after arriving on the island!  It's SO hard to know she's right there and I can't be with her!

More details to come, but I imagine this is enough post to solve insomnia for most!  :-)  For now, please just pray that God will continue to move our adoption along so we can bring C home soon!  For all the elation I feel at seeing her again, it is even harder to leave her here each time I visit.  More than ever, I long for the day she gets to leave La Gonave with us!  Additionally, please keep the orphans of Haiti in your prayers.  That God will fill them with His love and provide for their needs in ways we can't even begin to imagine!

One more baby step...but we'll take it!

You'll rejoice to know that despite an unforeseen set back, we got enough money to pay for Project English! Praise God with me! :) He is SO good! He will ALWAYS come out on top!

Additionally, after many months of hard work, paper gathering, praying, and ultimately trusting God to provide, I had a successful meeting with USCIS today st the American Embassy in Port au Prince! Our I-600 has been submitted! Birth parent interviews are scheduled for October 21. Please be in prayer that both bio parents will show up at the appointed place...close to the appointed time (that's a Haiti thing...more on that later).

After frantically trying to get papers together and fervently praying that God would burden our lawyer to get the appropriate papers to our translator, I arrived safely in Haiti yesterday just after noon. I was "assisted" by three different people at the airport and passed off like a runner's baton in the less than 300 feet to the proper car, so i could tip them all...ahhh, welcome to Haiti!

I met with our translator, who had received the necessary papers less than 24 hours earlier, to get the French and English copies of our daughter's birth certificate and the minutes from our  October 2011 experience with lower court.  This was the first time i had met our translator. I must say, he has to be one of the kindest, most genuine Haitians i have met! (Let me know if you need a translator! He's awesome!)

After that, I met with our lawyer on the side of a road in the Delmas area of PAP. Here, i provided all the documentation (and money, of course) for MOI and our girl's passport...all if which she requested after 7 pm the night biggie...the night I was packing for my trip...really?! As if i just have these things laying around? Tuesday night was filled with a LOT of emotional highs and lows. God would provide, the enemy would attack, Eddie and I caught in the middle. However through God's grace and a little help from our friends at the Bair Foundation), we pulled it all together. 

Today, I can't help but hope we are closing in on the final stages of this adoption...after 32 LONG months, hope is nothing short of a miraculous gift from our loving God!

Tomorrow I head out to La Gonave to rejoin my team and to serve God with the island folks. No more mountain retreat for me, though my stay at the Bethel Guest  House has been wonderful (see the view from my room below! Awesome!). I hope to also update you more on my trip to the Embassy...once i have a keyboard, rather than a phone... :D

For now, please praise God for safe travels, His love, grace, mercy, and provisions, and the mighty work He is doing in and around me! I pray that He well continue to work through me in whatever way He prefers, and that He will continue to move our adoption along!

Opportunity to HELP!

Mme. S has always had this incredible vision to raise the orphans of Haiti to be productive Haitian citizens.  In fact, the direct statement she has made to me on several occassions is "I keep going because you never know...I could be raising the future President of Haiti who will fix it all."  What a motivation!  What a passion!  What a dream! 

Eddie and I were brainstorming ways that we could make a difference for Mme. S and her children.  Afterall, not only is this the woman with whom God has currently entrusted my child, but also because we love Mme. S and her vision!  We love the other kids at the Children's Village (CV)!  We, TOO, want to do whatever we can to make a difference in the lives of these precious little ones and in the future of Haiti!

SO, Eddie and I committed to find a way to provide summer English classes for the older children (those already taking English lessons in school) at the CV.  The goal is not only to maintain their current level of English-speaking throughout the summer months, but to ideally actually improve their abilities by building on the foundation laid in school.

"Why English classes?" you ask?  Obviously Catrina will also be taking these classes, so that would be hugely beneficial for us. However, this wasn't really the driving force.  According to The World Factbook, more than 2/3 of the labor force in Haiti does not have a formal job (some estimates place this percentage closer to 90% even).  The ability to speak English is a huge advantage when entering the workforce in Haiti, as many of the jobs that are available are offered by Christian organizations (aka. often managed by missionaries...who most likely speak English).  Another very relaible business in Haiti is working as an English translator.  God placed in our hearts a desire to figure out a way to help these kids become better English speakers so that they have a better chance at a future.  In ths process of working so hard to provide a way for our child to come home, we've managed to fall in love with dozens of kids who we are also eager to help in anyway possible.  This small contribution touches many lives, rather than just that of our child. 

Eddie and I worked with Mme. S (who LOVED the idea, by the way!!!) and the folks at Okipe to get an English teacher to come out to the CV three days a week for 2 hours each day.  Mme. S loved the idea SO much that she actually wanted the teacher to come 5 days a week!  :-)  Wouldn't that be amazing! 

The cost for the entire summer is going to be only $900.  This covers the two hour classes, three days per week, for the 3 months the kids are out of school.  $300 of this amount has already been covered, and the Charleston Vineyard Community Church has agreed to match the remaining amount. 

That means we need only raise $300!!!

So this is where you come in.  If you can give $20, that will become $40.  If you can give $100, it becomes $200.  Please pray about what God might want you to give toward the future of these children. 

How can you give?
The easiest ways to give are:

• Make a check out to "Vineyard Community Church" with the memo line designated as "Project English" and mail that check to:

1377 Palm Cove Drive

Charleston, SC 29492

--OR--

(psst...this is the Vineyard "Donate" button; please use this one - not use the one to the right - to donate to "Project English")

Please note that all donations made through the Vineyard Church are tax deductible!  :)

We know everyone has a cause that is near and dear to them, so if you can't help, we fully understand!  Even so, please continue to pray for each of these sweet children and the plan taht God has for their lives.

Thank you in advance for your kindness, generosity, love, and prayers!

With God ALL things are possible!

Over the past two and a half years, Matthew 19:26 has been our life verse and a source of certain hope and strength. Every now and again God reminds us of just how true it is! Our God is awesome; He can and does move mountains!

I haven't had a chance to post since our May return (waiting on all the photos...Awesome trip!) or the exciting news since then that C's birth father went to PAP to sign off on the adoption, but we got news tonight that I just can't hold back! I'm bursting at the seams to praise God for His love and mercy! Here goes...

WE GOT DISPENSATION!!!!!!!

What is dispensation, you might ask?  President Martelli (president of Haiti) has reviewed our case and signed off that we may precede with adopting our girl!  If this didn't sound like a big deal, put simply Haiti-like every country-has a set of laws that define WHO is allowed to adopt their children...we didn't meet...ANY of these criteria. Missing one of the criteria requires a presidential dispensation...not meeting ANY of them is even scarier. However, MY GOD who brought this child into my heart and life is faithfully and mercifully moving mountains to bring this child into our home! And so...WE PRAISE HIM!

GOD IS GOOD!!!!!!!

What next? We have to continue to wait for our paperwork to flow through the various courts of Haiti, collecting the necessary signatures, then we head to Haiti to finalize our adoption, then we wait on the US to approve our adoption, then we being our sweet girl home! Slowly, but surely things are happening, but trust me when I say THIS IS HUGE!

God is working...and so...WE PRAISE HIM!

Haiti Bound & Praying for a miracle!

We haven't really had any news in quite some time (hence the lack of posts...)

This year, in just a few short weeks actually, Eddie will hit the big 4-0. When asked what he wanted to do to celebrate, the only thing that made sense was to go visit our girl...with his dad! So, here we are, sitting in the Miami airport, grandparents (Catrina's) in tow, waiting to board the next plane to Port Au Prince.

As of this week, we have been in IBESR for a year, with no news...but as always, God's up to something! He's up to something good!

We are meeting with our lawyer today at 1...and praying for and expecting a miracle! Please join us in prayer for this miracle and safe travels!

Photos from my January Trip

As previously promised, some photos from my trip!  Sorry they took so long!!!  Enjoy!

Catrina with some of her many friends at the Orphanage :-)

You may recognize Sunday (the guy on the left), as he is Nadelta's little brother...the guy on the right is actually a photo-bomber!  HA!

Gotta love Little Stanley!  ...and another photo bomber...what is with these kids?!  :-D

SO well behaved!  Mme. S runs a tight ship!  :)

The art of self-amusement

She would be SO embarassed I put this here, but I couldn't resist!  How cute is she?!

Puzzling...  :-)

Making Valentine's Day Cards

Some things are universal.  Teenage girls love dressing up and doing photo shoots!

One of the many times I was seranaded with a trash guitar!  Gotta love the creativity behind it!

Who wouldn't just fall in love with this sweet little gal?!

Finally, some long awaited movement!

As I'm sure you are aware, we were pretty down after my last visit to Haiti.  It was so hard to hear that after 8 1/2 months, our file hadn't even been started!  Yikes! 

Last week, at long last we were able to get in touch with our lawyer (praise God for Facebook!).  She had some meetings on Friday (for which many of you joined us in prayer...THANK YOU!) and we found out today that our dossier is at the Presidential Palace awaiting dispensation.  Praise God!  Please rejoice with us today and continue to pray!