Listening

So, it's Friday!! Tomorrow is Mark's birthday--and next month we celebrate being together as a couple for *gasp* 20 YEARS!! How am I that old?? He must've married a baby...

Thanks for the encouragement and comments on my previous posts. It's weird and unexpected that I wonder who's reading and what they're thinking. You readers are putting my fears to rest.

I guess I will pick up our story with where I left off before. We finally decided to heed the call that we so strongly felt God leading us toward. We agreed that we must pursue adoption in Haiti. One thing that I have failed to mention so far is that Mark's sister adopted a daughter from Haiti nearly 8 years ago. She is the same age as McKenna and they live just a few miles away from us. I guess that helps to explain why we are so passionate about Haiti. We are going to pursue a sibling group of girls in the 4-8 age range--but we are totally open to what the Lord leads us to. Many think that this must be our way to get a boy! We love boys, but feel so broken over the horrible abuses that can happen to little girls. And if you know my husband, he is AMAZING with our girls. Even though he is a man's man, God made him the perfect daddy to model Christ's love to his daughters.

Well, after the decision was made we decided to tell a few very close friends and our family. I wasn't sure what reaction we would get, but it has been overwhelmingly positive! In fact when we told my parents, they were so excited and said that right after they quake they thought that we should try to adopt some of those kids! When I was talking to them, they really didn't even seem shocked or surprised~they already had an idea that we should do it! I can't tell you how much that encouraged me and built my faith!

A few weeks later we finally got in touch with Mark's mom who goes to Mexico and does missions work with her husband every winter. Mark began to tell her our plans, and we could hear her giggling in the background. I wasn't sure what that was about! Then she told us that several days earlier she had a strong feeling in her heart that we were going to decide to adopt and that it would be from Haiti! She said she tried to brush it off thinking that it probably was nothing, but then she got the feeling again--and even stronger! So she told her husband about it and then we were telling her our story over the phone, and it was just so amazing to all of us that God told all the grandparents before we even had the chance!

So we are now in the process of researching agencies and compiling official documents that we will need. Many of you know that Haiti is "officially" closed to adoption right now, and the story in the news about that church group coming in and taking 30 some children to the D.R. is only hurting things. We did find 2 agencies that will let us go ahead and begin the application process, but then our file will be put on hold until Haiti is open again. We have a lot to consider. One agency is not "religious" that I can see, but they are pretty well-known and offer a lot of help in the process. They also have comparatively low rates for their service. The other agency is also well-known and offers great service--and they are a Christian agency; however, their prices are much higher than others that I have seen. And I can't find anything that says they offer a reduced rate for families adopting more than one child. One more really cool thing that happened is that the contact at the Christian agency (which is in our state!!) is married to a guy that has been a family friend forever! She is emailing me with lots of valuable information, but warns that the country is very unstable and wants to make sure we understand the risks.

Aside from all of our agency searching we also discover that another close family friend who is a pastor in Washington personally knows a Haitian pastor/missionary/lawyer who has successfully helped several families in the Washington pastor's church adopt children from Haiti! We are awaiting a response from an email I sent...

Another thing that I want to make clear to those who may wonder---we realize that there is a need for Haiti to close adoptions until the status of all the "apparently" orphaned children can be established. We certainly would never want to take a child who was merely separated from their family members who might be able to care for them! However, it is our understanding from what we have read and heard, that Haiti had about 300,000 orphans BEFORE THE QUAKE! Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of that paperwork that proves their status was destroyed and buried in the rubble somewhere. We don't know much about all of this, but we are praying for those who are truly orphaned to be quickly identified and for their paperwork to be found or recreated so that they can be part of a family. There are some agencies (UNICEF) who seem to want to thwart the efforts of people wanting to provide loving homes and families to these children. It appears that they would rather have a child grow up in an institution/orphanage in their home country than have them adopted by a family in another country! I think that's crazy~ We fully agree that a child needs to know their history (not just the bad parts--the great things too!) and their culture. And that is our plan! How awesome would it be to train up Haitian children in the knowledge of the Lord and then make it part of our family's calling to travel back and forth to Haiti on mission's trips sharing the love of Jesus with the people that gave us our children! Awesome! Just wanted to explain a little further...

More later...