Listen to our Haiti kids praise Jesus!

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Merry Christmas Haiti

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many." - Mark 10:45

2010…What a year this has been! We are so very thankful that He has crossed our paths and that you are a part of our lives and His story. 2010 has revealed His story to us in ways that we pray we will never forget. This time last year we began to pray seriously about adoption, and adoption has certainly been the theme of this year. Nearly one year ago we began the process of adopting two precious girls from Haiti. Our adoption story is long and complicated and we ask for your continued prayers. Many have asked us, "Why are you doing this?" Adoption is a beautiful picture of what Christ has done for us. He paid our ransom, gave us new life, and is preparing our forever home! We don’t have to adopt, and we don’t expect our sacrifice will always feel worth the cost. Yet, how much did Christ sacrifice for our ransom? “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5). Why would He leave His home in Heaven, come to earth, be born to serve and to die, just so that we can experience life? Our adoption experience has enabled us to see the true meaning of Christmas in deeper ways than ever before. We pray that we will never again take for granted the life that has been given us. We have learned more than anything this year to “wait on the Lord”. 2010 has almost come to an end and although we wish we were also at the end of our adoption journey, this reminds us that in our earthly life we will always be left longing and waiting for our forever home. We do not know the times and dates that He has set, but we are trusting in the One that knows (and is) the beginning and the end…and everything in between.

Adoption and the Gospel go hand in hand in such an unmistakable way that it is almost difficult to be part of one without the other. We praise our Lord for the many adoptions (both physical and spiritual) we have been blessed by in 2010. We cannot begin to count the opportunities to share the Gospel and the love of Christ this past year both in Haiti and at home. We have seen many of the youth we are honored to work with come to Christ this year, and many in turn leading others to Christ. What joy we have in seeing the next generation seeking and serving our Lord! Our most precious of these times has been experiencing the salvation of our own son, Ethan, who was adopted as God’s son June 25^th, 2010. We are so proud of both of our boys who are hungry to learn all they can about God’s Word and His world. They have been our biggest supporters throughout our adoption process, and we are forever grateful for the grace, love, and support we have experienced from our family and many friends. We were blessed to experience our 10^th year of marriage in 2010, and we are so grateful for the gift of each other. Most of all we are thankful for our Savior who came to earth to give us the hope of eternal life, and has blessed us with all these things. Thank you Father for giving us the One who gave it all. “Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” (Titus 2:13).

Because He first loved us,

Eric, Elisabeth, Ethan, and Evan Ream (and our Elita Marguerite and Esmée in Haiti)

Ti Fi Mwen (my little girls) & Haiti Happenings

"Love is an ever-fixed mark 

that looks on tempests and is never shaken."-Shakespeare

"Ti fi mwen" as I affectionately call them are so ready to come home, and we still have no idea when this hope will become a reality. We still have no definite timeline although I am told their paperwork should move to the next step this month (December). This month has only brought more devastation to Haiti, so we are not expecting much progress in the very near future with many delays due to the posponed electoral process. We could really use a miracle about now and pray for this constantly! We do have great expectations from our great God that holds Haiti in His mighty hand!

My "Little Miss Maggie"
Our Elita Marguerite is growing up!

My "Little Laughing Pill" 
Our Esmée is growing up too!

Elisabeth's 3rd trip to Haiti December 

5-14, 2010

Answered Prayers...

Safety is not the absence of danger; it's the presence of God.

I was just reading over my last pre-trip post asking prayer for "safety and sicklessness", and a great bonding time with my girls. We have prayed for these things in general on every trip, but for some reason I felt this trip required more intense prayer for these things...Now I know why.
I had such a precious time with my girls and I can't imagine us bonding (at this point) more than we have (more on that below...) I was unexpectantly blessed by a new friendship in Betsy the visiting nurse at HCRM. We laughed and cried together over the children, the dangers surrounding us, and the reasons our Lord had brought us to this place at this time...and we were so thankful that He brought us together there at the same time!

Me and Betsy (Kids got a hold or our hair...obviously!)

No one knew that the results of the elections would provoke such riots. And I had no idea that the current President's home is two doors down from our orphanage, and so became a hot spot for the ensuing danger. We could hear gunshots and rioting during the night, and see and smell the smoke in the morning. There was much talk of the Embassy coming to airlift us American's out of Haiti, and the crew I traveled with was more than ready to leave the danger zone. I honestly felt such peace and protection each day and actually found most of these events quite exciting. I suppose the Lord prepared me for such a time as this by giving me Indiana Jones for a Dad! The others all had their plane flights canceled or bumped when the airport closed down and they all decided to buy flights on a different airline fearing it may be their only chance to get out of Haiti. Praise the Lord I was able to leave on my original departure date on my original ticket (though the airport was another story...dropped off curbside (alone) in the middle of the roaring chaos of everyone trying to get out of Haiti was not exactly exciting after having just left my precious children behind.) I also was very thankful to stay "sickless" despite the fact that both of my female traveling buddies became ill and I was with many sick children each day. So thank you for your prayers during my trip...God was very gracious to me!
Click to watch a report on what was happening in Haiti during my trip.

Venturing out to find food and water the morning after they opened the roads (which you can see are burned from the previous days rioting). We didn't go far from the orphanage but were able to get to a little market nearby.

The following is a synopis written by our friend Pierre (from another orphanage in Haiti) about why all this violence is occuring. Please pray for the final results of the elections in Haiti to bring healing and hope, and for laws to be passed that will make adoptions in Haiti more efficient.

Elections in Haiti by Pierre Alexis, Orphanage Director    Elections are always one of the most difficult times in Haiti, and this year is no exception. Outside the gates of the orphanage there is a mounting storm of violence as the people of Haiti react to results of the election. After a year marked with such tragedies as the earthquake and Cholera, our country is feeling hopeless, trapped and angry. The current violence in Port-au-Prince and the larger rural towns has gone beyond the point of police control. The riots have completely shut down the airport and eyes are turning to the international community to bring some solutions. Let me explain why this is happening. The Haitian government struggles in organizing elections with transparency and objectivity. On November 28, the Haitian people went to the polls to choose Deputies, Senators and a President to lead their country. The electoral council that is responsible to organize the elections has been facing a lot of opposition since the beginning of the process. In Haiti, the President in power always does whatever he can to control everything to ensure his political party will win. The current government's party is called "INITE" (Unity). It is largely supported by President Preval. He absolutely wants Jude Celestin, who is the INITE candidate for President, to win the elections, but Jude is not very popular. The popular presidential candidates are Mirlande Manigat and Michel Martelly (Mickey). On Tuesday, December 7, the electoral Council proclaimed the primary results for Deputies, Senators and President. It was a very tense atmosphere when the Haitian people heard how the results were tampered with. No one has yet won because the winner needs 51% of the votes to have a clear victory. Mirlande Manigat is at 31%, Jude Celestin at 22% and Michel Martelly at 19%. The results provoked the anger of Martelly's voters and all of those who don't want Jude Celestin to be elected President.

My fellow Haiti adoptive mom's and I like to refer to the elections as "the fourth plague" in the lineup of the Earthquake, Cholera outbreaks, and Hurricane all this past year. We have often felt that our adoption stories are reminiscent of the Exodus story in many ways. My response to this was, "So there are going to be six more plagues?" to which they said, "Well, they are coming pretty fast!" We pray that Haiti will turn to the one true God for deliverance, and also that He will perform miracles to set our children free! It often seems that our adoptions are an impossible thing, but we know that "nothing is impossible with God", and we are trusting that He will complete what He has called our families to in His timing. The tumultuous atmosphere in Haiti and still having no timeline can be both a cause for dispair and a comfort.  We are anticipating that God will do big things in the near future! We know that we could still face a very long wait before our dear ones come home, but also know that this could happen tomorrow if God ordained it so!

The election riots also put another spin on my trip. Normally, we have to fight for time with our busy orphanage director "Pastor"who is helping to facilitate our adoptions. I was hoping to be able to accomplish something with his help on our adoptions while I was there. The bad news is that the roads were closed and all the governmental offices were shut down during the election riots and there was nothing that could be accomplished on adoptions. The good news is that because we were all stuck at the orphanage, I had much more access to Pastor than usual. I was able to ask him many questions regarding our adoption and others, discuss our upcoming mission trip, and just get to know him and his family better. Each time I go to Haiti I gain a better understanding of the homeland of our girls. I know there was a purpose for this time, and I am so thankful for it.

Now to my favorite part...Ti fi mwen! My little girls were so surprised when I showed up unannounced!

And I was surprised that they are not such little girls anymore. A lot of growing can take place in 6 months! It took me awhile to find them once our vehicle pulled into the orphanage. Jeff and Colson (the sweet boys we love that we have mentioned in previous post) were the first faces to greet me with huge smiles and the last to hug me goodbye (the boys got up at 5am to come and see me off). They got their hugs and ran excitedly to announce my arrival. Esmée was the first they found and she just stared for what seemed like a whole minute before leaping into my arms. Miss Maggie (Marguerite's new nickname since the kids often leave out the R's in names and it sounds like they are saying "Maggite"...but she now signs the majority of her artwork "Elita Marguerite") was nowhere to be found, and had a very similar response to Esmée once she was finally located. The look on her face said, "What are all you people yelling at me about?" then she turned around and saw me. I was pleasantly surprised that we were able to just pick up where we left off, and for the next 9 days it seemed in most every way that I had always been their Mom. Because I came with a smaller group (and because the girls and I were inseparable), they stayed with me upstairs this time. We got in our pajamas together each night, and each night and morning I would find my toothbrush lined up with theirs all pasted and awaiting our ritual.

They begged to take a bath (if you can call freezing cold cups of water dumped on you a "bath") each day (usually twice a day) and I must say that I have never seen such excitement over Q-tips! They loved listening to the music on my iPod and iTunes and I loved watching them sing and dance. I think we should start a new reality tv show called "Orphans Got Talent". Every one of those kids can dance like a superstar! My girls and any one of their friends could seriously teach the Zumba class at my gym! Yes, often their moves are shockingly inappropriate, but impressive nevertheless. We will have to work on the inappropriate part later. We didn't really have any big communication problems this time, but I knew it wasn't the time to cross that bridge just yet. The girls English is really coming along, and the Creole I tried hard to use helped quite a bit too, though I can't seem to remember much now.

We had many a dance party in our room as well as tea parties, doll dressup, nail painting, arts and crafts, movie watching, book reading, modeling, and plenty of picture taking. And Skyping with Dad, brothers, grandparents, and other adoptive friends and family Skypes were always the highlight of each day. It wasn't all fun and games, but we also found much joy in schoolwork, laundry, caring for the babies, taking naps, and even cleaning up our messes.

School time.

Clothes drying on rooftop.

Taking a break from our work.

One night Pastor came down to speak at the children's worship time. He spoke much about "change" and that if we know Christ our lives should reflect a change in the way we act. I caught the jest of some of what he was saying and he translated for us as well. He gave an invitation for the children to receive Christ as their Savior, and our Esmee was the first (that I noticed) to raise her hand. Several others followed. He then asked if one of us American's would like to lead the children in a prayer with him interpreting. I volunteered and then asked Pastor if he had shared the gospel with them already. He said that he had (but I didn't get that interpretation, so I made sure to do it again in the prayer :). I found out later that one of the guys had recorded this sweet time, so here it is! 

I was not sure why Esmee raised her hand and prayed that prayer, so I asked Pastor to clarify through translation later that night. He says she says that "I used to hit and say bad things with my mouth and I don't want to do that anymore". So I am not sure if she and some of the others were praying for repentance or salvation...but God knows their hearts!

 Another big highlight was Mama learning how to do my girls hair! It took me 2 hours and 2 frustrated coaches, and a very patient volunteer (Esmee), but finally I got my fingers and my brain to synchronize and a corn row appeared! My girls were so very happy about it and when their friends and nannies asked who did their hair, they beamed when they pointed to me. The typical response was at first a look of disbelief, then with approval in their eyes, and a big smile, I knew this was a bigger deal than I had imagined. This encouraged me to practice each day and made for some sweet times with many of the girls that shared in this experience. Here are some pics so you can share the experience too!

Her "Before" Pic

Esmee's hair is very short, difficult and time consuming to braid. I am thankful that Elita is so great with her hair as I know I will not often have a spare 4 hours when they come home!

 

1st "After" Pic

And see the doll in Esmee's lap? This is how the girls learn how to do hair. If there is ever a doll to be found, it is constantly having its hair braided. I have observed 4 year olds corn rowing their barbie doll's hair and my girls new doll got about 15 new do's in the 10 days I was there!

And last, here is one of the many videos the girls and their friends recorded on my computer. It isn't great quality, but it does show a little bit (and I mean little) of my girls personalities. If I could sum them up in one word it would probably be "hilarious". So even though my trip was full of threatening dangers, I spent the majority of my days laughing till I cried at these hilarious ones, and just enjoying being with them and all the children so very much.

Click for video of the girls showing off their personalities a bit!

Once again it was very hard to leave them behind, but I believe they do understand this process and that they believe we will come again soon and one of these days take them home with us. We had a great prayer and snuggle time in my bed the night before I left. Esmee slept with me and Elita was on the top bunk but she climbed down after just a few hours sleep and squeezed her sweet self in beside me for one last snuggle. The girls pretended to climb into my suitcase and we all laughed (to ease the pain). They know we are coming back in March with our youth mission trip and they are excited that it won't be as long as last time until we see them again. Lord willing, and with a miracle...maybe sooner!