Haiti Chose Us

Happy New Year!!!  This is going to begin as a continuation of my last post. So here we were.... we made the decision to adopt and immedately we were lost and confused. As I stated before we had no idea where we were going to adopt from, we wrestled with Demostic or International. We made the decision to go International due to the living conditions, future oppertunities, and sharing the gospel with a child in a third world country who may never have lived to the age of 10. Theses children are living in a country where all hope has been lost. Here is where I will remind you WE ARE SO BLESSED!!!!  So Haiti had crossed our minds since that trip with God's guidance had changed our entire family. However, Haitian Law states that you must be married for 10 years and one applicant must be 35 to adopt. We had the ten year marriage under our belt but age possed an issue. So we were out. Let me just tell you how crazy some countries are....you would think this process would go much smoother since these children have no home. Litterally there are dumps in these countries where people can just drive up and leave their kids. I mean they are eating trash off the side of the road and only then can we hope they are taken in to an area orphanage with room for them.

In November, Long Hollow was having an adoption weekend where several people would be available to discuss their journey and different agencies. We said we were going to leave church knowing which agency we would use. The reason this is so important is because you have to know which country you plan to adopt from before you choose your agency because each agency doesn't serve all countries. Just the day before we found out several families had inquired about adopting from our orphanage in Jeremie. There would be a meeting after service on Sunday. We went with an open mind and found out that we could apply for a waiver since we weren't 35 and we wouldn't need an agency since the church would handle everything with our partners in Haiti. Here's your sign...only a 2 x 4 could have hit us harder. Haiti it is....and we are super excited.