Our Paperwork Reached Haiti!

Hello Family and Friends! On Saturday March 12th our dossier (all of the paperwork we've been working on since end of November) was sent to Haiti. It was hand delivered by a friend of a friend who is on a mission trip at the orphanage this week.  He packed about 10 lbs of our paperwork in his suitcase, and personally delivered it to Dr. Bernard.  Late Saturday night, Dr. Bernard emailed us saying that we would receive our referral for a 0-3 year old female in the next 30 days. We are sending this message, not only to update you, but to ask for your prayers during these next few weeks while we patiently wait for our referral. We are leaning on this verse from Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your way acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths."  We can feel God leading us every step of the way!

Stay tuned....We hope our next blog post is an announcement of our daughter.
**I took the picture of the Haitian sunset on the last day of my mission trip last summer.

Best Valentine's Day Ever!

     Do you still believe in random acts of kindness?? I do.... Chad and I celebrated Valentine's Day dinner at Kohana.  After dinner, we walked over to the Starbucks at Barnes and Noble Book Store.  We brought our adoption paperwork to discuss a few loose ends.  After ten minutes, a man came over to us and said "Excuse me, I overheard you talking about your adoption. My wife and I have a heart for adoption.  We would like to write you a check to donate to your adoption, who can I make it out to?" Yes, a random stranger came up to us asking to contribute to our adoption!! Can you believe it?! When we asked him Why us?, he said that God had prompted him at that very moment.

     I never thought something like this would happen to us.  The timing was perfect.  We are just about to transfer a first instalment of $4,000 to the orphange in Haiti.  We were short on funds, and had been praying that we would be able to come up with amount needed.  We had just talked about this 4 hours before the stranger made his contribution.  God definately hears our prayers!
**This is a picture of the youngest paitent that came through our medical clinic in June, what a cutie!**

A Boy or a Girl??

I have had lots of you ask: Where we are in the adoption process, What sex are you adopting, What's the age??? So, here is the update....  We are requesting a little girl, 1-3 years old.  Hopefully the little girl will be younger than Levi.  We are about  3/4 of the way through our USA paperwork : this includes our home study, FBI fingerprinting, psychological evaluation, collection of a ton of paperwork, and having paperwork notarized/county and state certified.  The next step is to have everything translated into French.  Haitians speak Creole, however their national language is French.  After the translation, we will then send 4 of the documents to the Haitian Consulate in Chicago.  Once we receive those back we will send all of our paperwork to Haiti (about 30 pages called: dossier).
We are adopting from Dr.Bernard at http://www.newlifelink.org/.  The children that are being adopted from our church's orphanage in Jeremie will be sent here too. New life link is like a transition home for orphans.  The orphans will receive improved medical care, have running water, better living conditions etc.  There is a guest home attached to the orphanage where Chad and I can stay.  Many missionary teams stay here too.  We will hopefully have our referral in the next few months, and learn details about our daughter!

P.S. The picture above is from my June medical mission to Haiti. These orphans were holding their charts and waiting patiently to be seen.  One thing that was heart breaking to see, was the women and children wearing their "Sunday best" to come to our clinic.  We treated 100s of people from the village (along with all of the orphans).  The people dressed up to come and see us, they squeezed their children into shoes(that were falling apart or too small) and had them in "dressy clothes".  The were so respectful and grateful for our treatment. Some waited 8 hours and walked for miles, and never complained once.  This just brought tears to my eyes.  We take for granted being able to drive right over to Walgreens for some cold meds or prescriptions, everything here in America is right at our disposal.  I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to see how others live.

Why Adopt?

Why Adopt? We know that many people will wonder why we are adopting, when we have two beautiful children of our own.  Our life here on Earth is so limited.  An elderly person will tell you that the years fly by.  So, why not rescue a child from a life of despair, starvation, and abandonment. We have room in our home and more than enough room in our hearts, if we are willing to open up both. We know that the path will not be easy, but this does not prevent us from pursuing it. Adoption is a leap of faith, entering unknown territory.  We know that we have the love and support from friends and family, but most of all we will be relying on God for strength and endurance on this journey.    

"I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you." John 14:18
(this is a video clip I took in June when we first arrived at the orphanage, please scroll down & put music on pause before watching)

Bringing Her Home

In September 2009 our church http://www.longhollow.com/ began a Crazy Love Campaign. We learned that our church would be partnering with the Global Orphan Project to build an orphanage in Jeremie, Haiti. I knew nothing about Haiti, besides that it was an island shared with the Dominican Republic. Special offerings at church were collected to fund this project. Our family engaged in this campaign and the word "orphan" became a regularly used word in our home. We began saving money to support this orphan village. The land was purchased in Jeremie late in 2009, and in January 2010 we broke ground in Jeremie. A church, orphanage, school, clinic, and bathrooms were all built. I decided to go on a medical mission trip to Jeremie  with others from church, in June 2010. It was an amazing trip, and changed my heart forever. Our family continued to pray for what God had in store for us. He is leading us on a journey to adopt a little girl from Haiti. Thank you for reading our blog and supporting us.