Adoption testimony

I decided to write out our whole adoption testimony the other day, since I was requested to anyway by one of the organizations we are trying to obtain an adoption loan through. Since it's quite a long story, and some of you may have only heard bits and pieces, I thought it worthwhile to share on my blog. Many of you know that I'm not one to keep things hidden. I often share all of myself with others, no holding back. So I'm actually quite comfortable sharing my personal journal entries and thoughts. I feel like it serves as an additional opportunity for God to be glorified through our testimony. He is, after all, amazing! Here's what I wrote (beware of the length!):

January 22, 2012

Our adoption testimony is incredible to us. God has been in this process for us, step by step from the beginning. It began for us back in June of 2010, when we were in Haiti on our second missions trip there, leading a team of people from our church. I was playing with some orphans one afternoon, and God spoke to my heart very fervently in that moment. He told me that we were going to adopt from Haiti, and that the time is ‘now’. I prayed, “God, I don’t want to talk to my husband about this and put any ideas into his head. I want you to sovereignly speak to him this week without my intervention, and then we will know this is you speaking to us.” I also said, “And where would we even start in this process, Lord? This is such a corrupt country…there is child trafficking and unethical adoptions taking place. We don’t know who to trust! Where would we even begin??” Within one hour of the Lord’s and my conversation, I was speaking to a fellow American woman, a board member of the mission organization we were working with that week. The topic of adoption came up, and she said to me, “By the way, if you ever decide to adopt from Haiti, here’s the name of the woman you need to use! She’s the most trustworthy adoption connection in Haiti.” I knew the Lord was speaking to me in that moment, calming my fears and answering my questions.

At the airport at the end of the week, on our way home, I asked my husband, “Did God speak to you or show you anything significant this week while we were here?” He broke down weeping and confessed that he felt we should adopt from Haiti! You wouldn’t know this, but being his wife, I do: Aaron is very non-emotional, never cries, and rarely feels impressed with anything of significance, one way or the other. He doesn’t have many strong opinions, and his answer to my often passionate ideas is usually, “Just wait…you’ll eventually cool down and change your mind.” He is Mr. Steady, through and through. I’m thankful for this, but sometimes I get frustrated that my ideas never fly. This is why I knew God had to speak to him separately…for me to hear Him would not be enough. He needed to have his own revelation. Thus, God answered another prayer for me…we were now both feeling from God that we should adopt from Haiti! We both returned home with new vigor for what lay ahead!

I looked up the name that Linda Neal had given me. When I perused Barbara Walker’s website (www.reachouttohaiti.com), I realized with sad disappointment that she apparently was no longer doing U.S. adoptions. I contacted her anyway through her email link off the website, and waited a few months. I felt hopeless, like she must not have any intention of doing a U.S. adoption like her website stated. One day however, I felt the Lord prompt me to contact her again. As I viewed her website again, I noticed a contact number for her at the bottom of the site that I had not noticed before. I called the New York number and ended up speaking with her daughter Colleen for an hour and a half. She informed me that since we are not residents of the state of New York, an adoption through Barbara is not out of the question. Yes, we are considered terrible applicants due to the fact that we have not been married ten years, we have biological children and too many at that, and neither of us is yet 35. But, she said, it may still be possible if we can get a presidential waiver. I told her that we felt absolutely certain that God spoke to us about adopting from Haiti and that we are supposed to use her mother to facilitate our adoption. She agreed to pass along our information to her. This is how our communication with Barbara Walker began.

About $3,000 later, and after months of completing a home study, psychological evaluations, financial reports, medical exams, translations, Haitian embassy stamping, etc., our dossier was finally complete. But we were informed by Barbara to wait to send her our paperwork due to the fact that the new president was being elected, the country was in political turmoil and adoptions would not be proceeding until the dust settled. Finally, we were able to send our dossier to Haiti in October 2011. After multiple trips to the FedEx in Port au Prince, Barbara was finally able to discern that the employees were lying to her about our dossier not being there, when the tracking number clearly stated is was there waiting for pickup. We don’t know why they refused to turn the package over to her until she threatened to get them in trouble with their supervisor. To lose this package would have meant seemingly endless months of expensive documents being redone. Our prayer chain interceded faithfully until the documents were found! What a relief!

The next step was to choose the children we wanted to adopt. Barbara asked what age/gender we wanted. We told her we didn’t know, that we simply wanted whatever children God had in mind for our family. She then sent us a list of pictures and names, along with birth certificates and lab reports of available children she had at her orphanage. I tried to print all the children’s information off, but my printer would only allow the first child’s information to come through with his picture, that of Davidson. I told my husband, “How are we supposed to say ‘yes’ to some of these precious faces, and ‘no’ to the rest?” Aaron mentioned off-handedly, “Hey, whatever child we adopt….can we rename them ‘Anderson’?“ I said, “Anderson? Why??“ He said, “I don’t know…I just really like the name Anderson…and I’d like another ‘A’ name for our family.“ I said, “Well, I really don’t like the idea of changing their name(s), but let’s just cross that bridge when we come to it.“ We considered taking a trip to choose the children in person, but didn’t feel we could sacrifice the time away from our four young children, one a nursing newborn. We agreed that we should pray for something specific as a sign from the Lord to help us choose the right children, as some of our adoptive community friends had advised us to do. Aaron wanted to pray that within the week, we would run across people that bear the same names as the children we were meant to adopt. This was a tall order, especially since most of the names were highly unusual! We prayed this on Monday night, the day after receiving the names and pictures.

On Friday morning, I was speaking to a friend of a friend on the phone about her adoption journey. My friend had tried to connect us, so we could hear her friend’s story and she could hopefully provide some encouragement and wisdom for us in our journey. She began talking about her biological kids and said, “And then my son, Anderson…”. I can’t quite describe it, but I instantly knew in my heart that Anderson is a Haitian name, and that one of the children we were meant to adopt would be named ‘Anderson’! At the same time, I saw in my mind’s eye the face of the little boy named Davidson who came through on my printer, and felt convinced he was Anderson! This doesn’t make any sense, because I had all those names and faces memorized and knew each child by name. But I was somehow totally convinced it was the same child, and at the same time knew that his middle name would be ‘David’. Anderson David. I excused myself from the call and called Aaron to say, “God just spoke to me! It’s Anderson! From the list!” He told me to email him his picture. I went to the list of orphans in my computer and almost broke down crying when I didn’t see an ‘Anderson’ anywhere on the list! I felt bewildered at my mistake…yet how could I feel so certain that God had just spoken to me?

Aaron told me to continue praying and just wait on the Lord. We would regroup later. That night, as we headed to Iowa to see family, Aaron turned to me and said the following: I’ve been waiting all week to make sure this is the Lord speaking, but I feel certain now so I’m going to tell you. A week ago, when we first received the children’s names, I felt in my heart that the child we are meant to adopt is named ‘Anderson’. And I feel like his middle name should be ‘David’. Just then, I remembered what Aaron had said on Sunday, that whatever child we adopted he wanted to rename Anderson! I had forgotten all about this, but now realized that God already spoken to him back on Sunday! So here I ran across the name Anderson on my phone call with that lady, knew in my heart his middle name was David, didn’t realize God had already given that name to Aaron with the same middle name! But there was still a problem…there was no Anderson on the orphan list.

We decided to pray for two more days, and on Sunday afternoon we emailed Barbara to ask if by chance she had an ‘Anderson’ at the orphanage. Aaron also said that he didn’t feel it was coincidental that I saw Davidson’s face in my mind’s eye when I heard the name Anderson. He felt very strongly that we should adopt him and Anderson (if there was one). When I asked him why, he said, “I don’t know. I just know we are supposed to.“ I agreed, so he emailed Barbara. She replied back, saying ‘yes’, that there is a baby named Anderson! We were ecstatic to hear this news, because we immediately knew this child would be ours! We told her that we would take both boys and that God has supernaturally spoken to us that these boys are to be our children.

Weeks went by and the only confirmation we received from Barbara was that we could adopt Davidson. He was ready on paper, but Anderson had not come back to the orphanage. Many of the parents are instructed to keep their children until a space opens for them at the orphanage and the children’s paperwork is completed. This way, Barbara isn’t left with a child who isn’t paper-work ready and a parent who never returns to finish the process. So there is a guarantee that they’ll come back and their child will not be taken until they have completed the requirements. Barbara told us that since Anderson’s mom had not brought him back to her orphanage, we should either choose a second child who is paperwork-ready, or just adopt Davidson. We told her that we would adopt Davidson, then apply later for Anderson when he comes back. Miraculously, before Barbara had a chance to submit our papers, Anderson showed up again! She asked if we still wanted him, and of course, we said “yes!” She indicated we would have to wait longer, until Anderson’s paperwork is done before we can send in everything to the Haitian government. And then more big news: Anderson was only two months old! He was born October 5th, 2011, the very same week that the Lord spoke his name to us!
I had always said that at some point I would like twin boys, and one of the names I wanted to be Asah. When our biological son Asah was born July 29th, 2011, and we knew his name was to be Asah, I thought, “Oh well…so much for the twins.” I had no idea that the Lord had prepared a near twin to my baby in another country by a different mama, but only two months younger than Asah! I now call them my chocolate and vanilla babies.

Meanwhile, I was still feeling a bit uncertain about adopting Davidson, since I was going off Aaron’s gut instinct about him at that point. I was starting to make baby blankets for both boys with photos of our family sewn into them. I prayed on my way out the door to JoAnn fabrics, “God, I would really appreciate a confirmation about Davidson. I heard you speak to me about Anderson, but I’m just going off my husband’s feeling right now concerning Davidson.” As I was standing at the cutting counter, the woman who was assisting me glanced down at my small 5x7’’ piece of yellow paper with my quilt sketch scribbled on it. At the top of the sketch, I had written “Davidson Joseph”, which was to be sewn into his quilt. She glanced across at my paper, and exclaimed, “Hey, that’s my name!” I said, “What?” She said, “Davidson! That’s my name!” I stood there confused for a moment, then quickly realized that God was giving me the confirmation I had asked for. I said, “Davidson is your name??” She said, “Well, not my first name. It’s my last name. But that is my name!” I asked her if she wanted to hear a crazy story, and proceeded to share with her why this was so significant. Her eyes filled with tears and she added something about how she normally wouldn’t be able to see at that distance, but her eyes somehow saw only that name on my paper! I returned home with another great story to tell of another answered prayer.

We decided it was time to go meet our new boys. We made plans to go to Haiti January 12-16, 2012. When we first landed eyes on Davidson and the translator explained to him that we were his new Mommy and Papa, he looked rather surprised and immediately raised his arms to me. That began four days of not letting go. He was transferred to Aaron, then back to me, then back to him, and back to me. He wanted to be held by us the entire time we were in Haiti. He slept with us, ate with us, and played with us. He woke up the second morning calling Aaron, “Daddy”, although we have no idea where he learned the American term for papa. We were careful not to pay much attention to other children at the orphanage so Davidson would understand we were there for him. We savored and enjoyed every moment with our big boy. We quickly learned that he loves anything having to do with food or drink, so we used this as a bonding tool. He may have gained a few unnecessary pounds, but he also gained lots of love!

We were surprised that Anderson was not at the orphanage. Upon arrival, Barbara told us that he would come with his mother the next day and we could keep him for the weekend. Eager to meet both he and his mother, we waited until the following morning. Early the next morning, Aaron shouted to me, “Anderson is here!” I came outside as quickly as I could, dying to get a look at my new baby boy I had not seen any pictures of! I was shocked when I saw his mama carrying a wee baby, so small he looked like a newborn baby, not a three-month old. I quickly saw how malnourished he was, so small and frail I was immediately afraid for his health. He looked dehydrated and emaciated, and very still. After introducing him to our family on video, I began to cry at God’s goodness. It suddenly hit me that Aaron and I stood side by side, gazing back and forth at our two new boys, in total wonder and acceptance of God’s perfect planning. Total peace, total love…no prejudice, no judgment, no disappointment. Only thanksgiving and rejoicing, and overwhelming love for our boys. In that moment, I experienced the fullness of what it means to be adopted into God’s family. Color-blind, all-encompassing love. As I gazed back and forth at them, I saw two boys, beautiful as a quiet midnight with white sparkling stars for eyes. How could I feel they are mine as much as my own biological children are mine? I then realized this is a love only available through the Holy Spirit….a love so many never allow themselves to feel. I reveled in the beauty of it. My sons are mine. Our sons are ours. I smiled adoringly in my husband’s eyes and he in mine, grateful to be One in this moment.

Anderson began to open his mouth in the direction of my chest, somehow sensing available nourishment. I asked his mom if she wanted to feed him, and she half-heartedly resigned herself to the task. Poor, exhausted soul…so worn out, hungry, tired. Four other children waiting at home. Eager to find a new home for this one. After feeding him on one side, he was clearly still hungry. My heart yearned to meet his every need, knowing all too well I had plenty for him, so I asked if I could feed him some more. She agreed with an understanding smile, and I began nursing my son. Black on white, we made a good pair, the two of us. Like coffee and cream. He began reviving, and became content. He looked at me and smiled. Then he cooed. We shared a special moment while his mother looked on with a wistful smile on her face. She seemed content that he was in my arms and we were both happy. After eating a meal we provided for her, she leaned over her knees and fell asleep. I sat there with my baby, adoring him for hours while we waited for Barbara to return from errands to complete the mother’s paperwork.

Leaving our boys was a challenge. We wanted to bring them home, but it’s not yet possible. God’s grace is enough though. He made a space suddenly available for Anderson the day he arrived, when the day before there was not yet a space. He orchestrated the living arrangements to be better than we had hoped. Both of our boys together, under one roof, with our favorite foster mama available at the orphanage. Away from the commotion of visiting missions teams, in a quiet setting where they both receive individualized care and attention. They live in a quiet settlement of three one-room foster homes, with one bathroom shared between all, a small well, and a little swingset. Mimose, their caregiver, is sweet, understanding, and kind. She will take good care of them until they can come home. God is so good to us.

This is the majority of our journey up until now. I’m sure there will be more to tell later! Thanks for listening.

First trip to meet our boys!

Aaron and I arrived back from Haiti Tuesday, January 17th. We were so exhausted from our trip, especially the part about sleeping overnight on the floor of the Ft. Lauderdale airport on our way home! Each time I go to Haiti, I make new notes about things not to forget the next time around: warm, large, thin blanket that doesn't take up too much room in my suitcase (for airport sleeping), hand sanitizer, small water purifier, flip-flops or water shoes (for
showers), bandannas and hair clips, snacks that I'll actually feel like eating, lots of dollar bills (for tips and small purchases), washcloths. Overall though, we packed pretty well this time.

I want to share my journal entry I wrote on our trip home. Although it doesn't capture everything we experienced, it gives a taste of what it was like:

"We're in the airport in Haiti, on our 3rd trip here, waiting to return to the U.S. It was very difficult to say goodbye to Davidson and Anderson. 'Bubba', as we call him, cried hard when we left him on Mimose's front steps. He grew so attached to us while we were there, wanting to be held nearly the entire time. He spontaneously began to call Aaron "Daddy" on our 2nd morning with him. We never taught him this word...he must have picked it up either from Aaron's voice in the Elmo book he recorded in for Bubba, or from hearing other kids call their U.S. parents that. We had continually referred to Aaron as Papa, but Bubba prefers 'Daddy'.

He is certainly a big boy! Any time he is upset, food always seems to calm him. Mimose thinks any time he cries he is hungry. So this is what he's been used to. We will have to retrain his eating habits when he comes home by monitoring his portions and not always rewarding him with food. Aaron and I feel so incredibly blessed that the boys have the very best caregiver possible. She is so full of love and compassion and is truly attentive to the children. We gave her some baby clothes for Anderson to grow into, a bottle, formula, diapers, a soft book toy, lotion and baby wash, lots of clothes for Davidson, a Curious George backpack full of crayons, a coloring book, a sticker book, photo album, and two personalized audio books. He also has a stuffed giraffe and a baby blanket I made for him with pictures of us all on it. So the boys have lots to remember us by. I'm making a list of things to bring next time I go, for both boys and Mimose. Aaron doesn't think he can take time off work, but I plan to take at least 1-2 more trips before our adoption is finalized (hopefully early Fall 2012).

We already miss our boys so much! They already feel like part of our family. I didn't expect to feel this attached so soon. I think I emotionally prepared myself to have low expectations before meeting them so I wouldn't be disappointed. I am very pleasantly surprised at my feelings. I feel great that we accomplished what we set out to do by going to Haiti this trip: begin the bonding process with both boys.

Little Anderson is just the most precious thing! His eyes are so full of expression and already seem to be filled with joy! He looks at me with his huge, sparkly eyes, and just adores me and coos to his Mama. I enjoy him so much. From the time he arrived with his mom on Friday, January 13th, he has revived so much. He was so spindly and weak when he first came, and dehydrated. I can tell his skin is filling in with some soft fat underneath the surface, and his ribs aren't quite as apparent. He does cry the biggest tears though! His lower lip comes out so far before he begins to wail, and he lets out these adorable little gasps with hiccups when I try to comfort him. What a sweetie. he loved being held in the gray sling I made for him out of a sheet, and also being held in a carrier I brought for him and gave to Mimose. Hopefully she'll make good use out of it as she goes about her day."

Meeting the boys

We will be traveling to Haiti January 12-16th to meet our new boys. We just bought our plane tickets and we can't wait! Barbara informed us that they will both be there at the orphanage, so we can begin the bonding process with them. I'm adamant that we get our first meeting with them on video, so I'm hoping to post that eventually, if my more technologically-saavy husband will help me load it. Abram saw Davidson's new picture the other day, with him looking rather sad in a Santa hat by a Christmas tree. He said, "Davidson's sad, Mommy! He needs a toy so he can be happy." I said, "What toy do you think Davidson should have, Abram?" "A giraffe! He needs a giraffe." So as I was checking out at Hobby Lobby shortly after this conversation, I spotted a very soft plush giraffe sitting on one of those shelves in the checkout aisle. With a 40% off coupon, I only spent $6 on this darling toy for Davidson. Abram was so pleased when I showed him!

I have a lot of sewing work left to do on the boys homemade baby blankets before we go. I think it will have to wait until after Christmas though. We have fifteen people coming to stay for a week on Sunday after we get back from spending time with family in Iowa. Merry Christmas to you all! May your days be filled with joy and laughter!

Amazing, amazing, amazing!!!

The other day I was emailing back and forth with Barbara in Haiti. She told us sad news, that baby Anderson had not come back to the orphanage. I guess it was the sort of situation where his mom brought him in to be adopted, was probably encouraged to continue caring for him but make periodic trips back to the orphanage to gradually complete the paperwork process for him. It's the sort of thing that can't be completed in a day, but in a series of events involving doctor's physicals, lab reports, pyschological evaluations, birth certificates, etc. All we knew about the little guy is that he's a baby, and then never heard anything else until Barbara mentioned to us a couple days ago that he hadn't come back. She wanted to know if we would like to just go ahead and file our paperwork for Davidson since he's all ready on paperwork, or if we wanted to add another second child who is ready on paperwork. We told her that God told us that the 'other child' is to be Anderson, and we will proceed with Davidson alone and when Anderson comes back (because we knew in our hearts he would), we would have to file for him separately (which could have extended our adoption process much longer).

So I'm at my brother's house in Kentucky for Thanksgiving right now, and I lethargically check my email before heading off to bed after hours of card games with my cousins. I gasp in shock as I read another email from Barbara stating that "Anderson is back!" She asked us if we want to go into IBESR now, which is the Haitian paperwork process (with a VERY long wait) or if we want to wait until Anderson is paperwork-ready along with Davidson and adopt them both together. She also said that he was born October 5th, 2011, so he's not even two months old!! He's even younger than our little Asah (4 months)! We were shocked to hear this, because the Lord spoke to both Aaron and I about him the very week Anderson was born! Aaron heard God speak to him about an 'Anderson David' on October 2nd, and I heard God speak to me about an 'Anderson David' on October 7th. Our precious guy was a forethought and an afterthought. God knew him before the foundations of the earth, in his mother's womb, and had a specific plan to set immediately in place for him after his birth. What a miracle!

Just the other day, when I felt sad to hear he had not come back to the orphanage, this all happened while I was making homemade baby blankets for both boys. I was ironing on pictures of our family for them to familiarize themselves with our faces, and I told my mom, "Even though Anderson isn't even considered a possibility for us in the natural right now, God has set him apart for us...so I will continue to make his blanket in faith that he will come back to the orphanage soon. After all, God has said that he is ours!!" Mom agreed with me, and I proceeded happily with my sewing, knowing in my heart it would just be a matter of time before both boys come home to us.

What a testimony, once again, of God's faithfulness and all-knowingness! He had this all planned out day by day, with not one wasted moment. Just this week, Barbara was going to put our paperwork into IBESR, and just in time, we are able to include our other son so he doesn't have to wait longer than necessary to come home to us.

Thank you Jesus, for the best Thanksgiving ever! I'm so thankful for my boys! And all my children whom you have marvelous plans for!

Davidson Joseph

Here is our precious Davidson! We were thrilled today to check the mail and realize Barbara had sent us some pictures of him! He was born on Valentine's Day, 2010. So he's about 21 months right now. The picture of him with no shirt on and the red cooler in the background was taken just a month ago. We're so excited to meet him in person. I'm working right now on making sewing baby blankets for both he and Anderson, whom we have yet to receive information on. Our hope is to bring the blankets when we visit them this winter sometime. Abram looked at a picture of Davidson tonight and said, "He can walk!!" I guess he was expecting a baby. He wanted to walk around with one of his pictures while he talked to Davidson in a sweet, older brother voice. So sweet!

Something really neat happened the other day at JoAnn Fabrics. That very day, I had told the Lord, "God, I would really appreciate a confirmation about Davidson. I know Aaron felt so strongly we are to adopt him, but you have yet to speak this to me in a clear way. I've just been trusting that he heard from you on this."

So a lady was cutting my fabric at the counter, helping me with all my calculations for the boys' blankets. I had a little notepad in front of me with a penciled layout of Davidson's blanket. At the top of my blanket sketch, I had written 'Davidson Joseph' in small print. As I was talking to her, she glanced down at my paper and said, "Hey, that's my name!" I said, "What? What do you mean?" She said, "Davidson! That's my name!" I said, "Davidson is your name??" She shrugged her shoulders and said, "Well, not my first name, but Davidson is my last name! But that is my name!"

Now, for those of you who are wondering why this is significant, check out what I wrote a few blogs down about the confirmation Aaron and I prayed together for regarding the boys. We had run across an 'Anderson', but still hadn't met a 'Davidson'! The Lord clearly spoke to me in that moment, and I simply knew this was Him giving me the confirmation I had asked for. I said to the lady, "So do you want to hear a crazy story?" She said "Sure!", so I told her about our adoption and what we had prayed. Her eyes filled with tears as she realized she was playing a role in all this and God had spoken to us through her. She then mentioned something about how her eyes just happened to see just those words on the page, and told me something about her glasses and how she normally wouldn't have seen that on my paper. God speaks in mysterious ways, even over fabric-cutting! Praise Him!

Dossier Drama

Wow, what a frustrating few days! After my last exhilarating blog entry, we plummeted downward with one of Satan's attempts to throw our adoption off-track. But God, the faithful One that He is, brought us out of that valley and into His glorious light once more. Here's what happened:

Barbara Walker emailed me, telling me that she'd been to FedEx in Port au Prince multiple times trying to pick up our dossier. They kept telling her that the package was not there, nor did the tracking number exist. I immediately went online to track our package. I thought it had arrived a week and a half before and figured she had gotten it already!

The next two days we waited while Barbara continued attempts to find our dossier. I contacted FedEx multiple times and a trace agent was working on finding our box.

Finally, yesterday (October 15th), after notifying numerous people to pray for God's intervention and after spending much time in prayer ourselves, Barbara emailed me saying she finally got the package after being rude to the workers and calling the director. Why they were telling her it wasn't there the whole time and refusing to give it to her is beyond me. But God was so good to provide this necessary breakthrough in getting our costly and highly important papers to Barbara. Praise God!

And she emailed us today about our little Davidson! Only, it sounds like he's not so little! She says they call him "Bubba" because "he's so, so big!" We're supposed to get a picture they took of him yesterday soon. I'll post it when we have it. We can't wait to see and meet our little/big 'Bubba'!

We're still waiting to hear news on Anderson. I'll post that, too, as soon as I hear something. That's all for now!

Called by God

'Davidson Joseph' : Beloved son of David, an asset supported by Jehovah.

'Anderson David' : Beloved boy.

'Nieuwsma' : New man.

Just the other day, Aaron's dad and stepmom were telling us that they were hoping one of their future grandsons would be named 'David' after him. Little did we know, God Himself had already named two of their grandsons after him!

Several months back, I told Aaron that I have a very strong feeling that God has hand-picked the children we are to adopt, and that we are to raise them up to know and love the Lord, equipped with the armor of God and an excellent education in order that we might bring them back to their homeland to become part of Haiti's future. I feel strongly that they will one day become very influential leaders in Haiti. I believe this is why God has selected our family to raise these boys....because God knows we will return to Haiti. Our goal is not to raise these boys to become 'Americanized'. We will be raising them with the purpose God has placed on them, as we do with all our children, keeping their future calling in mind.

These boys were called out to be loved, to be supported by Almighty God, and raised in Him. Bring them home to us, Lord! We'll be waiting and ready.