Wednesday, October 13, 2010
ADOPTION UPDATE
I am happy to report that the paperwork part of our adoption process is nearly over! We are well into our home study and hope to have all of our dossier douments ready to go to Haiti in few weeks! Thanks to all who have been praying for us and who have helped us get this far so quickly! God is surely blessing this and we are grateful to so many!
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010 was intended to be a relaxing day after a week of serving the church at Savan Pistache, in Port Au Prince, with our team from Grace Baptist Church. Today, we would be traveling into the mountains of Haiti to visit an orphanage and to see another part of the country. Our team would spend the afternoon with the fifteen girls that live there. The trip to Camatin was an adventure of its own as our bus winded its way up the mountain through small villages and narrow roads. When we arrived the girls came out meet us, some shy at first but they quickly warmed up to this new group of faces. It was hard to believe that these precious girls survived a terrible earthquake just eight month ago which destroyed their previous home and took the life of a four year old, Atanie, who lived there.
I had prepared a bag full of suckers and "silly band" bracelets earlier in the week. I found a spot on the porch to sit down and hand them out to the girls. They all were excited to receive these gifts. After a while I opened up a pack of the bracelets that were in the shapes of alphabet letters. One little girl in particular came to my side and took interest in what I was doing. We began to spell out the words, FAITH, HOPE, LOVE and PRAYER on the floor. It wasn't long before she crawled into my lap and I showed her some photos and games on my Iphone. She spelled out her name, ONISE, on my phone so I would be able to pronounce it correctly and gave me a big smile when I got it right.
When the group decided to take the ten minute walk up the hillside to see where the girls go to church and school, I told Onise that I would be back soon. It was a short but steep walk up to the church site and the view from there was spectacular. After a little bit, I was surprised when a hand grabbed mine and I looked down and there was Onise! She and another girl had walked all they up there to join us. She held my hand the rest of the time there and we walked back to the orphanage together.
Not long after that we gathered up our things and prepared to leave, I noticed that Onise wasn't smiling any longer. I had a team member, Brian Lloyd, tell her in Creole that I, "Would come back to see her very soon!" Hearing this, the smile returned to her face. On the road back to Port Au Prince, a feeling came over me that I can only describe as having left something of great value back at the orphanage. I prayed about this feeling and at that moment God changed my life and the life of my family forever. For it was at that moment that God revealed to me that Onise belonged with my family. As we continued to wind down the mountain, I had a vision in my mind of her sitting at our dining room table in Knoxville. From that point forward, I knew I had no choice but to return to Camatin and bring her home.
I had prepared a bag full of suckers and "silly band" bracelets earlier in the week. I found a spot on the porch to sit down and hand them out to the girls. They all were excited to receive these gifts. After a while I opened up a pack of the bracelets that were in the shapes of alphabet letters. One little girl in particular came to my side and took interest in what I was doing. We began to spell out the words, FAITH, HOPE, LOVE and PRAYER on the floor. It wasn't long before she crawled into my lap and I showed her some photos and games on my Iphone. She spelled out her name, ONISE, on my phone so I would be able to pronounce it correctly and gave me a big smile when I got it right.
When the group decided to take the ten minute walk up the hillside to see where the girls go to church and school, I told Onise that I would be back soon. It was a short but steep walk up to the church site and the view from there was spectacular. After a little bit, I was surprised when a hand grabbed mine and I looked down and there was Onise! She and another girl had walked all they up there to join us. She held my hand the rest of the time there and we walked back to the orphanage together.
Not long after that we gathered up our things and prepared to leave, I noticed that Onise wasn't smiling any longer. I had a team member, Brian Lloyd, tell her in Creole that I, "Would come back to see her very soon!" Hearing this, the smile returned to her face. On the road back to Port Au Prince, a feeling came over me that I can only describe as having left something of great value back at the orphanage. I prayed about this feeling and at that moment God changed my life and the life of my family forever. For it was at that moment that God revealed to me that Onise belonged with my family. As we continued to wind down the mountain, I had a vision in my mind of her sitting at our dining room table in Knoxville. From that point forward, I knew I had no choice but to return to Camatin and bring her home.
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