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.