Help Bring Ellie Home

 Arthur Adoption Fish Fry - Saturday, November 10th 3:00pm - 5:30pm - Shackle Island Fire Hall off Long Hollow Pike

Meet our Sweet Ellie - She is 8 months old and currently living in Tomassin, Haiti, she shares a small room with 3 nannies and 12 other girls ranging from 3 months to about 3 years old. We can't wait to bring her home to Tennessee. 

We began the adoption process 2 years ago and still have several months to go before Ellie will come home. However, we are nearing the end of this first step when we must provide the final fees to the creche to adopt her. We will incur additional misc charges after the final payment is sent but the full amount to the creche is due very soon. We are planning a Fish Fry Fundraiser with bake sale, silent auction and bounce houses. We are so excited to share Ellie's story with you. Please join us as we prepare to bring her home.

Can I scream from the rooftops?

Yes, I could absolutely scream from the rooftops this afternoon....I could scream for Joy, I'm full of excitement....Praising God our Father's name. God is absolutely amazing, I know this each and every day but TODAY, He has shown grace and moved mountains on our behalf.

The first step of our paperwork moving toward adoption in country is to enter IBESR. Well you can't enter IBESR without a referral.... so after our Dossier has sat in Haiti for 10 months we received our referral. Might I add God knew exactly what he was doing. (I'll catch on someday!) We were given the most precious beautiful baby girl EVER. Well guess what? My joy of receiving our referral in May overshadowed the fact that IBESR closed the week prior to us receiving our referral. Unsure of when IBESR would reopen we would wait but at least we were waiting with a face for this next phase.

This may be painful and you may wonder why am I telling you all this but you will see exactly why.
A new law was passed in Haiti over the summer that Haiti would become a Hague country meaning additional paperwork, finding an agency and added checks along the way. Great for the orphaned children in Haiti not so great for the families (like ours) already in the process.  Stay with me because the good part is coming..... The new law also stated that anyone under the 35 could not enter IBESR. So here we would wait until Feb 2013, Brad's birthday, to enter the first real step toward bringing our daughter home. Not to mention there is no timeline, it could still be two years from Feb. God's timing is perfect so we wait with anticipation and joy.

We got some hopeful news in August while in Haiti that our Dossier might be accepted into IBESR if reopened in October with an agency. This would require additional fees and new paperwork. So I began researching, spoke with Stephanie at A Love Beyond Borders...Haiti had yet to determine which agencies they were going to accept so we couldn't move far. It was looking more and more like we may or may not meet the October deadline. Two weeks ago IBESR reopened, to accept any Dossiers that had been there since May of this year. Okay we passed that by about, um, 10 months. But we were uncertain if we would get in due to our age.

So I couldn't stand it another minute, I had to email this past Monday to determine if our Dossier would at least be taken to see if accepted. We received an email the same day that they would try to submit this week and let us know. Ok......here is where God is gonna get some GLORY. I received a call at lunch today that we are in IBESR. We have a number, we are in. No we are not 35, no we do not have an agency (which we will probably end up getting because the lady I had spoken with two weeks ago was the one who called to tell me we were in...Thank you Stephanie!) but our God is GREATER, He is above all and can move mountains. Thank you Jesus for moving yet another mountain in this process of adoption. May your name be glorified through this entire process.

Sorry for the long post but the frame work needed to be set up for you to see this has been a long, long process and it was looking even longer until today. :) There will be many more milestones in this journey and each one will be amazing. I can't wait to continue sharing our story of God doing what He does best.    
  

Unsettled

This morning I find myself unsettled....As I sit here in the comfort of my home, awaking after a decent nights sleep in a bed and waking to sunshine, I turn on the tv and check Facebook to see if there have been any updates from a place many miles away. A place I never knew would be so dear to me. How can you visit a place once and be so changed? Only God that is how!!! 

I have neglected to post about our trip and wish I would have done so before now. I don't want this post to over shadow our trip to meet Ellie. But I feel I need to post about this time...Tropical storm Isaac has/is passing over Haiti and did so during the night. When the storm ends it won't be over. Will they have power, will they have food, will the water be contemned, will there be mudslides? How long will they experience the effects of the storm after it passes? These are all questions that I have for my daughter, her caregivers and the men and women of Haiti.

I know I'm not in control of anything really, but this gives new meaning to trying to protect something so precious that is so far away. The answer is only Jesus....it has always been only Jesus and I know that but I continue to be reminded of that during this entire process. I'm broken by how far away my daughter is and I can't console her from the storms or even touch her sweet face. My emotions are so all over the place. I want to hop a plane and go to Haiti this minute, I want to bring Ellie home to an environment close within reach, I want her to experience life in our family. Why is this so hard for me when she really doesn't even know where we are or that we are even coming back for her. She is so little, so innocent, so precious, a true blessing!

I could go on and on but I am asking God to hold her closely over these next few days and weeks. I need you Jesus to help me make it through these next several months or even a year to get to the day when I get to cradle Ellie in my arms in her room. God will get the glory from all of this and our family will see these times as a reminder of God's unfailing love. Thank you Jesus for your word, your love and your outstretched arms to cover a gap no mother could cover on her on.





 

Haiti Bound

The day has finally arrived when we will see our baby girl for the first time. I can't describe the feeling I have as we sit here in the airport waiting to board our first flight. It's early, I've had about 2.5 hours of sleep and my two sweet made kiddos are at home nestled in their warm beds with their Mimi. However, my other sweet girl is many moons away and she will wake up this am without anyone to hug or kiss her. But after this short 4 hour flight, I will hold her and pray she will experience the love a mother shares with her kids. So for 2 days I will cuddle and love her so big. Praying for the moments to pass slowly and that we will enjoy every moment we have with her. I will come back home to my precious kiddos and go back to our normal way of life here but I will never be the same after today. My heart will reside in another country far away for up to the next 2 or 2.5 years. Yes, we will make trips to visit but we will leave with empty arms. 

I will cherish this trip and the trips to come until God decides it is Ellie's time to come home to her forever family! We love you Ellie, today we come to you with open hearts and open arms! 

Anxiously Awaiting.....

I think, anxiously awaiting is the best way to describe the way I spend my days now, that may even be an understatement. I check our email and Facebook page several times a day looking for new pictures or updates from families visiting their children in Haiti. I did this same thing almost compulsively before we received our referral. I thought it might get better once I saw her face but now I can't seem to look at it often enough. I'm not sure that the compulsion will go away until our sweet Ellie is in my arms, at our house, in our family forever. 

Each month our creche send a brief update on height, weight and a new photo. Today I saw Ellie's monthly update, I knew it was coming this week so I have been extra aware of our email inbox. :) I read the update on height and weight and scrolled quickly to the bottom to see her photo attached. My emotions start, first so happy to see her face, see her growing and doing well. Next alittle sadness because she looks like she has grown so much since her last photo. The more I begin thinking about it, I then begin thinking of the missed opportunity for bedtime hugs and kisses, morning smiles (those were such sweet times for me when my kiddos were little seeing their smiles first thing in the morning). and snuggle time. Missing the making of these memories is going to be tough but I have to move past these thoughts, I know she is in good hands. God has chosen the perfect time for Ellie to enter our lives and home. I must look to Him to fill these empty spots in my heart for our girl. I was reminded this week through devotionals that God goes before me each and every day before I wake, He will not let anything overwhelm me as long as I take everything to Him. I have to give Him Ellie because He GAVE her to us. I will place my complete trust and faith in Him. 

I will continually wait anxiously for many milestones to come: our first trip to meet our girl in August, those post with new pics and monthly updates, emails notifying us that we are one step closer, bringing Ellie to meet her brother and sister for the first time.... but I will do so knowing God is ahead of each one of them. 

So with that the count down begins....41 days until I board a plane to Haiti. And the SMILES begin again because you can't look at this face and not smile.        

          

Who is your Author?

Who is the Author of your days? Do you make decisions on our own or do you trust in your Heavenly Father to guide your every step? I can't say that my husband and I have always consulted God before we made decisions but I'm proud to say that we do today. We started this blog in 2010 after God had placed the orphan crisis on our hearts through our church and my husband's mission trip to Haiti. We wanted to take the step to Choose God over wordily things and possessions. After much prayer, we decided to pursue adoption.  At first it started out we have extra food on the table, we have love to love another child. However, God slowly took what we thought we had to offer to a new level. It was no longer about us but about Him, how God sent His Son to take our place for our sin and adopted us as His own. We both enjoyed the song we sang so many years at church Today (As For Me and My House) we choose to follow you. Today is no different than 2 years ago when we decide to create this blog, we choose Jesus.

And today.....May 7th God wrote another sweet, sweet chapter in our lives.....He ordained this day oh so long ago but we were given a glimpse of His glory today! We were given a picture of our precious 2 month old baby girl, whom we have waited over a year and a half to see her face. Prayed for morning and night....we now see her, the beautiful little child God created for our family. God is so good!!!!

I say all this to say sometimes, we get in the way of God's plans or try to turn in a different direction. It is so hard to know sometimes what to do even after praying. We had just made the decision that after waiting 8 months in country that we might need to look to other creches' in Haiti that had waiting children. We didn't take this decision lightly, we prayed about it and didn't always come to the same place. There were days my husband said God is telling me to wait, to be still. My heart as a mother was telling me I had a child who needed me, I needed her. Don't get me wrong, I am very blessed and love the two "gems"children I have but as a mother I knew of another child. God had grown this child in my heart not in my tummy. There were days when we had to fight the enemy as he tried his best to tell us this wasn't God's plan for our lives. Today God showed the enemy differently. Today God showed us His plan. Thank You Lord for your plans and your perfect timing!

God has a plan for each of us, we would have been blessed if we hadn't chosen to adopt but I'm so glad that we did. God has shown us over and over through this process what He is capable of doing. We get to grow in our faith and see God move these obstacles and mountains we face to get our daughter home. I know we have just begun this walk, we will face times of sadness that our daughter is so far away and the whys of it all but how great to know if we call on the name of Jesus, He will carry us through. God's unfailing love is the greatest gift!

We have friends who will be in Haiti next week so I will be posting pictures of our girl soon. I will not rush the time between now and when our new addition comes homes. Just remind me I said that in a few months on those rough days!

Time to Post

Today seems like a good day to post. I haven't posted in months because I haven't had any news to share.  We are at 6 months waiting.... It saddens me terribly that we are still waiting but I know God has a plan for our beautiful baby girl to join our family at the perfect time. I made the decision to send an email to NLL about a month ago, just to make sure that we hadn't fallen through the cracks since there had been no communication in over 4 months. I told myself I just wanted to hear something from them, that was all, no expectations.

To my surprise I got an email that same day stating they had not forgotten us, we were just waiting for a little girl to be brought to them without siblings and we had one family in front of us. At this point, just hearing from them wasn't enough. Even though that is what I said I wanted, I wanted more. I actually found myself disappointed by the email. I have days/weeks when it is harder to accept than others...this week has been a tough week. Just knowing we may have another two years in the process after we accept our referral, it could be another 6 months before we get our referral.

I wonder sometimes why my flesh is so impatient. I long to see her face, to feel I know something about her...when I pray for her I want to see her face in my mind. I find myself checking my email all day everyday just for the hope that I will have an email telling me we have a child for you. Here I am hoping and praying for a child to find her way to NLL, she could be taken to the creche where she will no longer live with her parents or there is a chance she could be alone wondering the streets. I try to justify that she isn't being cared for the way we could love and care for her. I am convicted that she will have to encounter suffering or a lose to become mine. Which in turn reminds me, Christ encountered suffering for me and I have to lose myself to gain Him. What a beautiful picture of my Savior. "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20 

I know God loves our precious girl more than I can imagine and His plan is so much better than ours. This is something I constantly have to remind myself of through this entire process. I have been blessed with many moments of realizing God makes everything perfect in His timing. My prayer today is God will give me peace about our wait...YES, I'm so ready to see her face and don't want to wait for another 6 months but willing to wait because it is going to be so much better than I can ever imagine.