WE'RE GOING TO HAITI!!

I feel like there should be a voice over the loud speaker at Adoption Adventure Land instructing us to "Please remain seated until the ride comes to a complete stop".  If that statement seems odd to you...you can check out my blog post from yesterday about what this crazy adoption journey often feels like to those caught up in it.  The end of this particular roller coaster that we've been on since September is now in sight and we can't wait to get off!

We're filled with joy that God answered our desperate prayers and the prayers of so many friends and family and is indeed allowing us to go to meet our sweet girls in Haiti NEXT WEEK!!  The U.S. Embassy in Haiti confirmed this morning that we can have our necessary appointment there next week and so all systems are a go for us to leave in just 6 short days!

We'll leave from Rochester in the afternoon on Monday, May 20th and fly to Chicago and then to Miami.  We have a "short" overnight layover in Miami and then get on a plane first thing in the morning on Tuesday, May 21st bound for Port Au Prince.  We'll be on that flight with 2 other families from the US that are also adopting from our orphanage and will also be preparing to meet their children for the first time.  It'll be great to get to experience all of this with 2 other couples that are at the same stage in the process.

We arrive in Port Au Prince at 8:40 am (7:40 am CDT) and someone from the orphanage will come to pick us up, along with the other 2 couples.  I believe that the orphanage is about 1 1/2 hours from Port Au Prince.  I have no idea what will happen when we do finally get to the orphanage but I assume that within a fairly short time of arriving at GLA (God's Littlest Angels orphanage), we'll FINALLY be able to meet, hug, kiss, talk to, and try not to cry all over Chelley and Naika.  We can't even begin to imagine what that will be like but we've heard that it won't feel real.  I heard this week that even years from now, those first moments with them will feel like they were all a dream, like we weren't really even there but just imagining it.  Regardless of how it feels, it WILL BE real and we'll be that much closer to being able to bring them home.

While we are in Haiti, we'll be staying in the guest house at the orphanage.  We will spend most, if not all, of Wednesday the 22nd back in Port Au Prince at our US Embassy appointment and waiting to appear and sign paperwork in the Haitian courts.  On Thursday, the 23rd, we'll have a brief trip and appearance in front of a local judge near the orphanage.  In between those trips, we'll spend every possible minute with Chelley and Naika, although they will need to stick to their usual schedule as much as possible and we'll need to respect that for their sakes.  As you can imagine, this is very difficult for them and the more we disrupt their routines, the more trouble they'll have when we leave.  We want to soak up our time with them but also join the orphanage staff in protecting their hearts through this process.  Bottom line, this really isn't about us, as much as it feels like it could and should be.  This is about those girls that are about to have their world turned upside down and that need us to protect and nurture their hearts in the process.  More about that later...

Then on Friday, May 24th, the moment will come when we'll need to say goodbye to those girls that have already planted themselves so deeply in our hearts.  God has spared me from dwelling on that moment and I know He'll provide the grace and comfort we need in that moment to be able to do what we need to do.  Countless other parents and children have done this very thing and have lived to tell about it, so I know we will too.  We do covet prayers for every aspect of our trip, but especially for this moment that is bound to be very difficult and painful.  We know that God is with us every step of the way, every minute, and that He is the God Who Sees.  He sees ALL of our needs and provides abundantly for us out of His endless grace.

We will fly out of Port Au Prince on Friday afternoon, with a stop in Ft. Lauderdale, FL and then an overnight in Chicago before arriving back in Rochester on Saturday morning, May 25th.  Then another round of waiting begins, as we wait another 3-6 months for the rest of the Haitian legal process to finish it's course before we get word that we can go to pick up Chelley and Naika and bring them home.

And so....the adventure continues...

Adoption Adventure Land -- An Experience We'll Never Forget

In previous conversations, I've compared our adoption journey to a roller coaster.  On closer inspection, it's more like an entire amusement park which I've fondly dubbed Adoption Adventure Land.  We've been living at this amusement park for 2 years now and we're currently on the most breathtaking ride yet.  We hopped on this particular ride on September 10, 2012, when we received word that 2 more little girls, Chelley and Naika, would be joining our family.  Prior to that, we'd been on the Paperwork Tilt-a-Whirl and had gone several laps on the Fundraising Go-Kart track and those had their own unique moments of joy and anxiety.  This Referral Roller Coaster was definitely our favorite and was cruising along nicely, until it suddenly broke.  We were left hanging upside down on one of those corkscrew turns for 7 months.  No one could really tell us when the ride would be fixed, or even if anyone was even attempting to fix it. 

On April 24th, 2013 I was ready to release my safety buckle and hope for the best.  I just wanted off. this. ride.  All of a sudden, on April 25th, the roller coaster started moving again and we were instantly transported to one of the highest points we'd experienced thus far.  We could see for miles and were just so happy to be moving again that we didn't really mind the craziness of the ride.  Of course, everyone knows that what goes up must come down and so we came cruising down the hill and coasted while waiting for our travel dates.  Almost 2 weeks later, we received travel dates that were less than 2 weeks away!  Could we go to Haiti to meet our girls May 21st through the 24th?  Um, YES, sign us up!!  And so we swept up to the top again, our stomachs in our throats but big smiles on our faces!!

Now, we're cruising around another hairpin turn, holding on for dear life and waiting to be told that the U.S. Embassy in Haiti can see us next week and that we will indeed be able to get off this ride and go meet our girls in 8 days!  We've had plane tickets on hold since Wednesday, May 8th but haven't been able to purchase them without US Embassy confirmation of our appointment.  I'm getting a little lightheaded from holding my breath around this curve and really hope that we just have one last high tomorrow before coasting in to a stop in Haiti next week.  Staying on this ride of ups and downs and twists and turns for another few weeks seems like an eternity, even though I know we will survive it if we have to.

There are certainly more rides for us to experience in this adventure before we'll be able to leave the park together with our whole family.  We don't know yet what those rides will look like or what fears and joys they will spark in our hearts along the way.  All I know is that when this is all said and done, I'm going to look for a nice, boring merry-go-round somewhere!

Of Sparrows and Sovereignty

The God who spoke the universe into being gave me a gift today, through His word and through His creation.  It's a gift worth sharing, that I hope will be as encouraging to you as it was to me.  To bring you along through the journey that I took this morning might make this post longer than I would like, but hopefully, it'll be worth it.

Recently, I've been working through a list of passages in the Bible that declare the truth of God's sovereignty.  This list has been helping me to remember and lean on what is true about God, instead of leaning on my own understanding.  The two passages that I read this morning are seemingly unrelated in context and content, yet for me, on this day, they were familiar passages woven together in a completely new and miraculous way.

The first was Isaiah 46:9-10, "Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me.  Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, 'My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.' "

This was a powerful reminder that God is in control, that He alone knows the end from the beginning, and that His purposes WILL be accomplished.  In context, this passage alludes to Cyrus, the pagan ruler that would not be born for another 150 years, but that God would use to deliver His people, and it reminded me that no ruler or government can thwart God's will...not even the president of Haiti.  I came away from this passage with a properly aligned perspective of my big, holy, powerful, sovereign God who knows and controls things far beyond my limited and sinful understanding.

The next passage on the list was Matthew 10:29-30, "Are not two sparrows sold for a cent?  And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.  But the very hairs of your head are all numbered."

For some reason, this instantly spoke to me of my two "sparrows" in Haiti and I was overwhelmed by God's intimate knowledge and providence for all creatures, including the smallest and seemingly insignificant.  In Jesus' day, sparrows were so insignificant that one alone had no value, only two of them together were valuable enough to be worth a penny.  By the world's standards, the poor and fatherless in Haiti (or any country) are often considered to be insignificant, of little value...but not in God's economy.

Matthew Henry's 18th century words brought home this message to my heart this morning.  "Verse 30 shows the account that God takes and keeps of all the concerns of all his people, even of those who are least regarded and of least consequence.  If God numbers their hairs, then how much more does he number their heads, taking care of their lives, their comforts, and their souls?"

So, there I sat in my living room, reminded that my God is greater, stronger, higher than any other and that His power far exceeds any human authority and then, in the next moment, He stooped down and whispered to my heart, "I see them, I know them, I've numbered the hairs on their beautiful brown heads, and I will provide and care for them as only I can.  Do not fear for your sparrows, they can not fall and skin their knee without my knowing about it.  They are more precious to me than you can imagine. I am God and I am taking care of their every need."

Oh, the comfort that God's timeless and yet very personal words brought to me this morning.  This is our God.  Holy, sovereign, powerful...and tender, gentle, loving, reassuring.  And as if those truths weren't gift enough, a little while later, in the midst of grammar, spelling and fractions, I looked out to see not one, but two, sparrows sitting on the tree branch just outside our window.  A priceless and unforgettable moment on this journey...