Once Our Eyes are Opened...We want to Spread the Word!

Last night I finally got a chance to talk to my best friend Stephanee via our new Skype phone. She told me that although she didn't know how it would all come together (She always says that, and the Lord always works in mysterious ways!), that they were planning on facilitating another year of Christmas for orphans from Ukraine. She asked me if I would help spread the word about some of the children that are hoping to come for Christmas. 


These hosting programs and the children they bring are dear to our hearts because we have seen how many orphans find their forever families this way. This is how Stephanee's two precious girls Katya and Ana came to their family. They first hosted Ana for Christmas several years ago and found out that she had an older sister. There were many unanswered questions, but their family chose to step out in faith and pursue Kateryna and Anastasiya's adoptions. We cannot imagine their family without Katya and Ana in it. 

Katya and Ana are the first two children on the left next to siblings Ben, Jadon, And Allee.

Since then, God has used their family to minister to others supporting and pursuing adoption (including us) in huge ways. When Katya and Ana came home they began praying for the rest of their friends to be adopted also. And almost all of them have!  And they came home to families in the same area! Talk about specific prayer request. God hears the cry of the orphan! Once we witness all these things..."Once our eyes are opened, we cannot pretend we do not know what to do..." Prov. 24:12. Our eyes were opened to other orphans. Other orphans like Katya and Ana once were. Other orphans like our girls in Haiti. We cannot pretend they do not exist. And we want to spread their stories! 


Shortly before we moved to Haiti, Stephanee told me about two boys that needed a host family for the summer. I was super busy trying to pack up our lives and didn't have much time to be involved. But I wanted to do something. So I simply sent out a prayer request by e-mail that these boys would find a host family. I was surprised (though I know I shoudln't have been) at the family that God chose to respond. The Patterson family has 10 children (7 are adopted). They are now in the process of adopting the two precious Ukrainian boys they hosted (to make a total of 12 children)! I guess the 10 children thing kind of threw me off for a minute, but after Lorraine was the first to respond to my e-mail, I thought, "You sure are a funny, amazing God". 


So today I was remembering Stephanee's request to spread the word about the next hosting trip and as I went to my blog to do so I saw that Lorraine Patterson had already beat me to it! Go Lorraine! Go God! Below is Lorraine's post from her blog at:
http://allarepreciousinhissight.blogspot.com/2011/10/christmas-orphan-hosting.html


Imagine spending Christmas in a cold orphanage without parents, without gifts, without stockings, without a Christmas meal, without loved ones to lavish you with love as you celebrate the birth of Jesus with family and friends.


There are 147+ million orphans in the world who will have no choice but to spend their Christmas alone, without a family, this Christmas.

You have the opportunity to make a difference.  There are TONS of ways to make a difference.  You can donate Christmas gifts to orphans, pack a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child, take a mission trip to serve orphans over Christmas break (here's Elisabeth piping in and saying that anyone who wants to do this in Haiti can come on over), donate to help a family bring their child home in time for Christmas, “adopt” a local shelter at Christmas, bring an older child who has aged out of the foster system into your family for Christmas…the ways to help are endless, really.

You could also consider hosting an international orphan this Christmas.  I just happen to know of a couple of sibling sets from an Eastern European country who have a strong desire to come to America over Christmas as part of an orphan hosting program. 

Would you like to help make their Christmas wish come true?

Meet M & S, ages 14 and 12 (siblings) 

who are BEGGING to come to America for Christmas!

And another sibling set, I & Y, ages 10 and 11, 

who would also LOVE to spend Christmas in America.


If you live in the USA and are interested in hosting either of these two sibling sets this Christmas, please immediately contact Stephanee at stephaneep@hotmail.com.

He Who Accomplishes All Things

"I will cry to God Most High, 

To God who accomplishes all things for me."

Psalm 57:2

Thursday October 20th, 2011

We woke up at 5:30 am to get ready for this awaited day wondering anxiously if it would actually happen. We had received a call from the orphanage director at 9 pm the night before saying that he didn't know if he could pick us up. We had met with him on Monday to discuss plans for Thursday and the plan had been for him to pick us up at 7 am. Now it was too late for us to ask to use the school vehicles or get a ride for that early in the morning. Besides the fact that we had no idea where we were going. The stated location of our destination was more than a bit sketchy and the only reference we were given was "Becentinaire". We knew we had never been there, nor was this term yet in our Creole vocabulary. It wasn't in the vocab of anyone we know that has been here for years either. But then maybe we were just screwing up the pronunciation and had too little info to be able to explain. So the fact that we didn't know if we would actually be picked up in the morning or if we would be lost trying to find someplace we had no idea about didn't exactly make for a decent nights sleep. Other wonderings contributed as well. We knew that Esmée's bio father had made it to the orphanage the night before. We knew that she had not seen him in years and wondered how this would affect her...and him. We wondered how we would feel about seeing them together. How she would act with him...with us? We wondered about what the girls had been told. We wondered if Marguerite's aunt had been contacted (she had not been the last time we checked) and if she would make it to the court date. We wondered what would happen if she didn't. We wondered what she would be like if she did. It was hard to get past these wonderings to wonder what would happen if we actually made it inside the court room...which made us feel unprepared.


So we wondered all through the night and the next morning while waiting outside in formal attire with backpacks full of children's games and snacks to pass the time...should we ever get there. We waited outside until 8am when we received a text that we would be picked up in "a little while" (which can often mean longer than a little depending upon traffic around here). It was either nerves or the allergy pill mixed with the pills I am taking for a nasty rash or a combo of both that made me feel like I was going to throw up. I decided to go inside and lie down until "a little while" had passed. I opened my Bible and asked God to give me something...anything to get me through this day (if we made it to court or the discouragement that would surely come if we did not). I flipped to the Psalms searching. I read several stopping on Psalm 57:2. It was what we needed. We've been crying out to the Lord about our adoptions for the past year and 1/2. Our only security is found in that He will accomplish all things according to His will for us. We can wonder all we want, but we must cling to the One who doesn't wonder...He who accomplishes all things.


We were picked up outside the gate around 8:30am. We were very dissapointed that our girls were not in the van. They had been left at the orphanage. We wished we would have been told because we were toting two heavy bags of refrigerated items for lunch as well as games and art supplies to last all day intended for them. However, we were pleasantly surprised that in the crowded vehicle were two of our friends  from San Antonio, TX who had not been able to make court the day before. Hence the reason why things had become more complicated for picking us up and one reason why the girls were not present. Eric climbed in the back of the van and I squeezed in the front with Cindy Foote. I knew Esmée's bio dad was one of the unknown faces behind me and turned around to try and guess which one he was. I guessed wrong. We made his aquaintance and shook hands. Our eyes met. I told him in Creole that I was happy to meet him. He smiled sweetly and shook his head yes. I noticed that he is a man of small build and his eyes were shy and kind like my Esmée. I liked him. Eric began conversating with him and another man we found out to be Esmée's cousin and godfather. I noticed that there was no female present that could be Marguerite's aunt. I asked about this and was told "she is coming". More nerves ensued.


We drove down and around crowded streets before finally stoping at our destination...a side street on a street that looked like most other streets in front of a tent city next to a puddle of mud and a rotting trash dumpster. I stared at the other side of the street where there was plenty of parking space and no rotting trash dumpster. I am pretty accustomed to the smells around Haiti. They typically don't bother me. This bothered me...especially after we had been sitting for over an hour and us blans (white people) were told to roll up our windows and not get out of the car. Whatever. The non blans in the back had already left their crowded sweaty seats and Eric had exited with them. I decided the concern to stay inside the vehicle "for our protection" must not apply to me since the ealier suggestion was for Eric and I to somehow find this lovely spot ourselves. Marguerite's aunt had arrived on the scene and I wanted to go visit with her too. She was precious. Her stature was short in comparison with our Marguerite's tall lanky frame, but her dancing eyes, happy smile, and joyful disposition were the same. She was happy to meet us too.


We now know enough Creole to be able to communicate a very little bit well. We did this (which we think delighted them and broke the ice), but we didn't have to try too hard because Esmée's cousin spoke English! We asked as many questions as we could before we were summoned back to the vehicle. We asked Marguerite's aunt (her mother's sister) about her birth mother. We knew she had died when Marguerite was very young but the cause of death was unknown to us. Her aunt said that it was just a "terrrible sickness" and that "she could not speak it was so bad". She didn't like to talk about it. Her eyes danced with pain. We were reminded once again as we stood outside that tent city by that dumpster that adoption (like childbirth) is born out of pain. But it is a pain that is remembered by all, not just the one that gave birth. We asked how her birth father had died. She said she didn't know him. We knew Marguerite's birth parents were not married. There is little information about her father and because the mother's side had custody of Marguerite after her death, further information about him is not needed for court. She told us that she was very happy we were adopting Marguerite. We asked Esmée's dad about her mother's death. We basically got the same answer. That she had died from a bad sickness (it was most likely not diagnosed in either case). We still don't know exactly when she died (if it was before or after Esmée came to the orphanage). Esmée's father is younger than we expected. He is 33...my age. I thought about all he must have already gone through in the past 33 years. I thought about how this must be painful for him...to loose so much...his wife...his child...to be reminded of it again today. But that this day held as much hope as pain...and it felt like hope was winning. There was hope in his kind, sad eyes. I thought about how much he must love his Delenda (our Esmée) to make the two day trip to come to court (and he has already done this once before and has to do it once again at the U.S. Embassy in the near future). I thought about how no one is forcing him to do this, but that he truly must want a life for her that he hasn't been able to provide for many reasons (most probably beyond his control). I wondered how he felt when everyone else could sign their names in the book, but he didn't know how to write his name. I remembered back to last December when I taught Esmée how to write her own name. I felt sad that no one had ever taught him. But more than that I felt proud of him. How much courage did it take to come there...to have his thumb marked with ink so he could "sign" his name? I thought about Esmée...how courageous she is too. I am proud that this man is her birth father, and I pray that her life will be all that he ever hoped for her and more. 


We waited in the back of the vehicle for about 2 hours. We were waiting for someone to bring something that would tell us we were ready to go into the Magistrate's court. We never actually went there though. The documents were brought to us in the back of the vehicle by an official assistant and we all signed right then and there in the back of that van.

"Court" in the back of the vehicle

Marguerite's aunt is signing the book.

Delenda's (Esmee) cousin is assisting her bio father by inking his thumb so he can sign.

Pictured are our girls 3 realtives that were present. Delenda's bio father is signing.

Eric signing the blue ink book.

Then we left the dumpster behind and drove a little ways to a much better parking spot in front of an official looking building. This was where Dean Court was going to happen. We all headed toward the entrance. We were told that only the adoptive parents were to proceed into the building. We thought that we would see the others (our girls relatives) later on in the proceedings, but it turned out that they were not needed and they were sent home. We were sad that we did not get to tell them goodbye. We do not know if we will see them again. Maybe someday...we hope too.


We were ushered into a small but decent office waiting room. There was air conditioning! We were happy to be out of the hot vehicle. It was lunch time. We started to think about if we should eat something or if we should wait because we didn't know when we would be called in to see the judge. We waited. We had not waited long before the air conditioning along with the power ceased. Someone came to get us to take us out of the building because we were told there were going to be "black outs". We said we didn't mind and asked to stay where we were (we didn't know if we would ever get to see the judge otherwise). We sat in that hot and very dark room (our room had no windows), for the next 4 hours while men in full suits walked in and out with flashlights checking the computer at the desk in front of my legs. Eric and I shared a bagel sandwhich intended for the girls and I drank a Torro (Haitian version of Red Bull energy drink). I regretted the Torro when I had to go to the bathroom. We had to wander through the dark, seemingly vacant building to find someone with a key and then had to hold our  (Cindy went with me) breath. We were still trying to catch our breath when we returned to our couch in the dark room. We met a lovely couple from Canada sitting in the dark room next to us who is also adopting. They told us that they waited (not in the dark) the day before from 7am-4pm and no one told them that the judge was not even there. So they were back today. We had been told that the judge had left. We all started praying that she would come back!


Eventually (hours later) we were taken to another waiting area outside the judge's office. The Canadian couple got to go in first. We were happy for them. They came out with smiles saying, "she is tough, but her questions are fair enough". My mind went blank when I tried to think of the answers we had practiced. All I could think about was how yucky I looked and felt and how yucky our paperwork looked that was sitting in my lap. 

What our dossiers looked like when they were delivered to Haiti in May 2010.

Shiny, neat, together.

What our dossier looks like now.

Sort of picturesque of how we feel after going through this process too...

Disheveled, bent, battered, torn, loose around the edges, but still hanging in there.

We were called next. I felt bad for our friends because they too were supposed to have these court appointments the day before and their flights left in the morning. Worse case scenario, we could have come back. But we stepped forward and sort of numbly entered the judges chamber. She didn't smile. She didn't even look at us. She spent about 5 minutes flipping through other paperwork (it wasn't ours because we were still holding ours), before acknowleging our presence in front of her. Intimidating? Uh, yeah. It was. And I forgot everything I was supposed to say and felt like an idiot. But somehow we got through her questions. There was one when Eric and I got really nervous because we didn't know if our answer would match what the paperwork said for our girls ages. We answered according to what we thought the paperwork said. She raised her eyebrows and said, "They are both 12?" We said, "Yes". We don't really know how old Esmée is. She says she's 9. The paperwork says she's 12. She doesn't look 12 so we knew this would make the judge question that. We held our breath. She moved on.


The numbness I felt turned to hold my tongue madness (and I disagreed with the Canadian couple who said her questions were "fair") when the judge finally asked, "Do you expect to love these girls as your own children?". I felt like saying, "Do you expect that we would have made 5 trips to Haiti, spent countless hours on that paperwork you hold in your hand, spent over $20,000, moved to a 4th world country where our girls are, oh by the way we just sat in this hot, dark building for the past 5 hours and a smelly, sweaty van in the hours before that...and you have to ask us if we will love these children"? But I didn't say that. Eric answered with a simple and sufficient, "We already do".  She didn't look impressed. She asked (actually she didn't ask, but assumed), "This is your first trip to Haiti?" (while holding our passports). We said, "No". She looked up. Eric said, "This is my 3rd trip to Haiti". Her eyes widened. I said, "This is my 5th trip to Haiti". She didn't seem to hear me, and said, "So this is your first trip to Haiti?" I said (louder), "No mam. This is my 5TH trip to Haiti". She lowered her pen and stared at me gasping, "5 trips to Haiti"! I said, "Yes! 5 trips to Haiti because we LOVE these girls!" She started signing. She looked up and said, "Congratulations. I believe you will give these children a good home. Good luck." WE PASSED!


We waited with our friends for about another hour before the judge decided to see them. Judge was in a hurry to leave by that point and they didn't get the silent treatment or as many questions. Judge did ask Cindy what her family thought about her having a black child (I wondered why we didn't get this question)? Maybe it's because we showed the judge a picture of Eric's parents standing next to a picture of our girls hanging prominently on their wall. Cindy said, "we already have a black child and they love her".  And she was out of there real fast. :) 


We left that hot dark building and felt like celebrating. We were one step closer in this forever process to our girls being forever family. But it was a long day and like our adoption process everyone just moved on to the next thing. For us that meant being dropped off on the side of the road near our entrance so we could get home to our boys. For our friends that meant going back to the orphanage to pack and say their goodbyes to their soon to be forever kids. We hope it's soon. For all of us. We pray it's soon. Lord, please! We cry out to You! We know you can accomplish all things! Thank you for getting us through this day! Thank you for getting us through every day! We know that all these things are for Your glory. Not only that they will be used for Your glory but that You are working now! For us! You are on our side! You accomplished all things today! You will accomplish all things tomorrow! You will accomplish all things forever! We pray for soon! We pray for forever!

Court Dates

Sunday October 16th we received a text saying that we had court dates scheduled for Thursday October 20th and to be ready. We will be in Haitian court (most likely all day) with our girls and their relatives that signed their relinquishment forms. Please pray for those relatives to show up! And please pray for us to receive gracious court officials that look favorably on our adoptions. Pray for our girls as they see those relatives again (we've never met them) and us as we do not really know what to expect. 

Last night a friend who was going to court the two days before us shared this verse with us. 

"He said: "Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! 

This is what the LORD says to you: 'Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. 

For the battle is not yours, but God's." 2 Chronicles 20:15

It is so very easy to be fearful in this adoption process. Please pray with and for us that like Jehoshaphat we will remember that there is no reason to fear....for the battle is the Lord's!

Girls Meet Aunt Emee!

Aunt Emilee is the first in our big family privileged to meet miss Elita Marguerite and Esmée...so we thought she deserved her own blog post displaying our first and favorite moments!

First Hugs!

LOVE at first sight!

And LOVE for the goodies aunt Emee brought with her!

Happy hands

Happy feet

Adoption Rocks...

especially at the beach!

where there is yummy food...

like fried plantains! Yum!

Still smiling (and sleeping) after a long day at the beach and bumpy car ride home!

These two speak the same language!

 Making up for lost time...

with phonogram lessons on the roof at the girls orphanage!

Love us some zaboka (avocado)!

Time to say "wè ou pita" (see you later) at the airport!

We love you and miss you Emee!
Thank you for coming all the way to Haiti to see us!
We are so thankful for our two special weeks with you!

Who's next?

Boys Meet Girls!

"God sets the lonely in families." Psalm 68:6

Evan Daniel, Esmée (Delenda) Noel, Ethan Andrew, and Elita Marguerite

Click this link to read all about our first times together on our family blog!

We praise the Lord for blessing us with this wonderful time together! We also praise the Lord that the need (from the last post) for the remaining $1,000 needed for the girls final adoption fee has been met! And we praise the Lord for those who prayed and those who gave and those who love to see orphans placed in families! Thank you! We love you!

Adoption Progress...Is the end in sight?

September 1st...3 days before we left for Haiti we received long awaited news on our adoption progress! We are out of IBESR! IBESR (also referred to as "the black hole") is the place that our paperwork had been "processing" for the past 4 1/2 months. No other progress can happen on adoptions until the paperwork comes out of IBESR. Once it goes into IBESR you have no choice but to wait and pray that everything will be approved and that eventually it will come out! So excited we are out...so what is next?
Well when I look at this list things are looking really great. I crossed out what already has been accomplished so you can feel the triumph with us!


BASIC OVERVIEW OF HAITI ADOPTION PROCESS


1.  Get your homestudy done.

2.  Notarize documents for your adoption package to be sent to Haiti.

3.  Send notarized documents to Secretary of State to be authenticated.

4.  Get notarized, authenticated documents translated into French.

5.  Send I-600A and supporting documents to USCIS.

6.   Send French and English documents (adoption package) to Haitian Consulate to be legalized.

7.   Send your adoption package to Haiti.

8.  Send first payment of Haiti adoption fee to Haiti to begin adoption process of a particular child.

9.  Orphanage director compiles child’s documents.

10.  Haitian lawyer reviews adoptive parents’ and child’s file.

11.  File enters IBESR (the social services dept of Haiti).

12.  IBESR director approves this adoption.

13.  Orphanage director works to attain child’s Haitian passport.

14.  You file more USCIS forms.

15.  USCIS approves this adoption.

16.  Child gets U.S. VISA.

Ok so this looks like we are twelve steps down and only 2 more to go...right?

Wrong. 

More detailed confusing steps are below.


IBESR approves the adoption. That's where we are at now.

Dossier goes to Parquet Office.  (or Commissary)
a.  Homologation
b. Parquet
c. Justice Palace
d. Exequature
e. Civil Register
f. Authorization for signature of Adoption Decree
g. Parquet Legalization  (This is the  second “First Legalization”)

7. Courts
a. Ministry of Justice (Second Legalization)
b. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Third Legalization)
c. Attestation of Signatures on Adoption Decree

Archives

Immigration submits papers to Minister of Interior to get approval to make child’s Haitian passport.

Minister of Interior gives passport authorization to Immigration.

Immigration prints passport.

DHS
a. Adoptive Parent files I-600
b. DHS interviews birth parents
c. US Embassy approves visa application.

US Embassy prints child’s US visa.

We are now waiting to get our Haitian and U.S. (at the U.S. Embassy in Haiti) interviews. We should be able to get these done in the next 6 weeks here in Haiti once our orphanage director schedules them. These court appointments will cover some of the items in the longer list above. We made sure to bring all the necessary paperwork from the states needed for these appointments, but please pray that our move to Haiti will be seen as a positive thing and that no major changes will be asked of us in our paperwork that would lengthen the process further. Most of the changes we need to make are requirements on the U.S. side of the adoption process (USCIS), but we will be asked in Haitian court if there are any recent changes to our job and residence. Please pray for wisdom in answering questions and for gracious court officials in these proceedings that are favorable of adoptions and who will be able to see how much we love our girls and that we can provide for them.

Now we wait some more. Sigh. We are here in Haiti! If only our girls were with us here in Haiti! Please pray that will become a reality for us soon! We haven't seen them yet and they don't know we are moving here...just that we are coming! We have been waiting to visit them on a day when we can spend more time (Lord willing that will be on Sat. Sept. 10th) and not confuse them by having to leave them after only a few hours. We want the boys to have plenty of time the first day they meet their sisters and we want to be able to have time to talk to our orphanage director about our next steps in the process. Please pray for all this to happen soon and that it will all go really well! Our hearts are full of anticipation! Ethan said, "I am meeting all these new people and I like them alot...but all I really want is to go meet my sisters!" Evan said the prayer last night at the dinner table. I choked back tears as he prayed, "And please help us to find our girls so we can see them". I guess he thinks we don't know where they are since we haven't gone to see them yet. This whole situation is very confusing to all of us. It is even more confusing to the people that are just now meeting us in Haiti and can't figure out why we just don't go get the girls. It is complicated. That's about all we are able to share. And they usually understand because on some level they understand Haiti. At least that Haiti is complicated. But we love Haiti! And we are loving living in Haiti!

Ethan and Evan (us and our stuff) finally arrive in Haiti!

Urgent need and prayer request! Once we exited IBESR (last week) we were notified that the 2nd half of our adoption fee (final payment) is now due. Our orphanage director must have the money in order for our adoptions to progress to the next stage. There are several fees he has to pay in order for the paperwork (done by the lawyer) to be completed for us to go to our court appointments and for the final stages of the adoption process. We owe $6,000 at this time. We have requested and received the grant dispursement letter for our $5,000 Abba Fund grant. Praise the Lord for this provision! We recently sent another sum of $1,400 for the final remaining "care fees" for our girls (which we owed for up to one year while in the adoption process and we were a few months late in getting those sent). We now have $28 in our adoption fund and with our move (and support needed for our family in Haiti) we are not able to come up with the remaining $1,000 on our own. We do have more funds raised through the 2011 Chosen Marathon for Adoption (needed to cover passport, visas, and immigration fees at the end of the process), but we will not be able to receive this money until November at the earliest. If God leads you to help with this needed expense of $1,000 (should be the last!), please donate to our Paypal on this blog (which deposits into our separate adoption fund account) or you can send a check to our home address at 2035 Club Crossing, New Braunfels, TX 78130 (which we currently have a forwarding address on that will be sent to us in Haiti).

Thank you so much for your continued prayers for our family! Updates and pics from our move to Haiti are posted at: reamteaminternational.blogspot.com.

Fundraiser Finale!

Our "Adoption Rocks" Girls...Help bring them home with these final fundraisers!

We are soon on our way to Haiti and have some sweet fundraising items we need to sell before we leave! We still need to come up with $720 for our I-600 fee, $800 ($400 per child) for visa fees, and $100 ($50 per child) for IBESR fee at the end of the adoption process. We recently found out about the $720 and that the $400 was "per child". We paid our I-600 fee at the very beginning of the adoption process before submitting our paperwork in Haiti, but because our girls are not biological siblings we are now told that we will be required to pay an additional fee (this is a U.S. paperwork fee) for the additional child being adopted that is not "from the same family". Same story for the additional visa fee. 


Please check out our new fundraising items that we hope will help raise a portion of these adoption expenses. We are excited about them and we hope you are too! If you would like to purchase one or more of the following then please send me an e-mail with your order and address to eeream@hotmail.com. 

Our biggest fundraiser going on right now is the Chosen Marathon for Adoption. This amazing event is happening October 29th, 2011 in our hometown of New Braunfels, TX. We have many friends and family members signed up to run on our marathon team! You can support our team "Chosen and Much Loved" and help us raise money for our adoptions by giving a tax deductible donation through the marathon website or by mail. Go to marathonforadoption.com and click on "Donate" then "Team" and follow the instructions. 

And here are our newest fun-raiser items!

$10 for "Beauty for Ashes" 8x10 print (multiples available)

Hiking up a steep hill in Haiti I came upon this rubble from the Jan.12, 2010 earthquake and noticed that flowers were blooming in the midst of the destruction.  The following verse came to mind as I gazed upon this sight.

"To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified."
Isaiah 61:3

This photo is a physical reminder that beauty can come from these ashes, and this beauty from the ashes was the catalyst for the flowers of Haiti photos also included in the print and below. These examples are photos I took of the actual print and are clearer and prettier in real life. 

$10 for "Flowers of Haiti" 8x10 print (multiples available)

$20 each or $50 for all three sets of Megan's Creations
(one of a kind handmade baby booties and hats)
My sweet friend Megan wanted to do something to help raise funds to bring our girls home. She didn't have money to give but donated her precious time and talents in making these beautiful sets for baby by hand.
These would make great baby shower gifts for a baby girl. Thank you Megan!

Megan's Creations front view
 

$40 for these 4 bags of Just Love Coffee (Ground)
This is our awesome fundraiser coffee which sells for $12.95 per bag + $5 shipping. We won a fundraising contest and received coffee in abundance. While I would love to hoard it all for myself, it is not pracical to take this much coffee to Haiti in our limited luggage space...especially when coffee is one thing that I love in Haiti! So we are sharing our abundance at a discounted rate for our coffee loving friends in the States! If you are one of our regular coffee customers or have always wanted to try it but thought the price was too high, this is a great way to get some great coffee!

$40 for these 4 bags of Just Love Coffee (Whole Bean)

Missing There, Missing Here

It is hard to put into words all that the Ream family has been up to lately. I suppose if I had to sum up how I feel about all that we have been up to I would say that my heart is on a daily rollercoaster between missing there (Haiti) and missing here (the good ole USA). I'm missing there bad. I miss Haiti. I miss my girls. Understatement. I ache for my girls. I ache for the feel of their hair, for the sound of rattling beads as we walk hand in hand, for the touch of those beads on my arm as I watch them sleep in the early hours of the morning. I miss Esmée's laugh, Marguerite's bounce and sway as she enters the room, dressing them, feeding them, teaching them, praying with them, just being together. I am seeing a pattern in these in between times. About a week after I leave them I hit rock bottom. The ache feels close to a death. While we know we will see them again one day, we don't know when that day will be...and the missing is overwhelming. I wait for time. Time eventually overpowers the ache. But the ache doesn't go away. Ever. It is always there, every hour of every day. There. Here. No matter how far apart we are, my girls are never far away from me. A few months go by. Time helps, then time backfires. The overpowering ache begins to build again. This is because there was not a death. The ones I miss and long for are very much alive. We keep hope alive...oh so alive for the day we will be together again. The girls always ask when we first arrive, "When you come back?" instead of "When are you leaving?" They survive on hope. But "hope deferred makes the heart sick..."(Prov. 13:12). It has been 4 months since we left our girls last, and my heart is in the"sick" stage. 3 months in between visits is about the max before the unquenchable ache overpowers. It was 3 months in between my first and second visits. It was six months between my 2nd and 3rd visits. Then 3 months between my 3rd and 4th, and now we are looking at 6 months elapsing between the next....which Lord willing will be the last. You have no idea how excited I am about that. We haven't told the girls we are moving to Haiti. I hope no one else has spilled the beans. They made us promise last time that we would bring their brothers the next time we come, so we have sent them word that we are coming in August with their brothers...but now we won't get there until Sept. making this another awful 6 month wait. Hope deferred for another month. I am holding on to hope for the day in September when the girls look up at us and ask, "When you come back?" and we say, "This time we are not leaving Haiti until you can come with us!" Until that day I will be missing there, but cling to the rest of that verse which says..."but longing fulfilled is a tree of life". Ready to eat me some fruit from that tree! 

In the meantime of missing, we have been been in the trenches of spiritual warefare. We are grasping for the tree of life, but our baskets are coming up empty. We know that God has called us to move to Haiti. We know that He has called us to pursue these adoptions. We know that He will continue to provide and that His will shall be accomplished. We are not doubting these things, but the Deceiver has sure been busy trying to knock us off our feet. The other day I got a bitter taste of how Job must have felt when he received one super bad news report after another. While the first messenger was still speaking to him a second came and gave him more bad news, then a third and fourth with more of the same. Nothing but bad news with no light at the end of the tunnel...such has been our week. We knew this would come. I won't go into details on this post (the list is too long and posting publicly for all the world to see isn't a good idea anyways) but I would like to ask for much prayer at this time. The enemy does not want us to move to Haiti. The enemy is clinging to our girls and will do everything in his perverted power to keep them in their orphans night. We know who wins this battle. He has already overcome. He told us that "in the world we will have tribulation". We do not despair. And although it is hard to "be of good cheer" right now, we are comforted that the Victor in this battle has already been decided. And we are on the winning side. Darkness has already been overcome by the Light of the world. Our eyes are fixed on that Light...even in the midst of the darkness...because we know the Truth. "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world..." (1John 5:4). "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God..." (1 John 5:1). WE BELIEVE! "And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" (1 John 5:5). "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life." (1 John 5:19-20). We know that one day we will eat of that fruit! "To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God" (Revelation 2:7).

Missing here is a new phenomenon to have to balance. It is not one of the punch in the gut, feeling like Job things, but it is a bittersweet addition. I suppose being in the sick stage of missing there helps lessen the ache of already missing here. These are uncharted waters. I feel like one day soon (perhaps the day we get on the plane) the tide of missing here emotions that is slowly closing in will sweep me away. I am not there yet. But I know it is coming. I am wondering how severely we will miss the temporal things. We have been out of our house for 2 weeks now. This has been hard (mainly physically and relationally...is moving ever easy?) but this is a really good thing for our transition time...removal from our stuff...from our pet...from our previous daily routine...from a good chunk our lives as we knew them.  But it isn't those things that I am already missing about here. I am already missing the sound Erin humming a tune over the kitchen sink, hearing Jesse say, "It's all good" for the 15th time in a day, Emilee's laugh, Eleisha's face of a million expressions, Lala's chubby thighs, Ellie's big brown eyes, watching Ba (Dad) playing with my boys, everything about my Musy (Mom), my brother Jon filling up a room with his presence, Mema and Papa visits, spilling my guts to Steph over coffee or whenever we can steal some time, my joy Kelli Hine, Ben Ritche at my table saying "All Jesus". And those were just my missings of the last 10 minutes. A dozen more dear ones will cross my thoughts and put an ache in my heart in the next 10. Missing here makes it difficult for me to get through the church service without a watershed. Makes it dificult to see Jodie Cowan pop her head out of the children's room and rush over for a hug that I know will be one of our last for awhile. Makes it difficult to peek into the Sunday School room and watch Evan and his sweetie Emilee Easley playing together for maybe the last time for a long time. Makes it hard to hug Emilee's mom, my dear friend Ariana.  Makes it hard to hear about the new youth pastor interviews and know that soon someone else will be teaching the kids we love so dearly...just missing that it won't be us. Missing here isn't bad. It just means that we have been blessed. Blessed by love. Love that comes from Him who first loved us. This love is eternal. This missing is temporary. Someday we will all be together again. We will eat of the fruit together. Perhaps longing for that is what I am really missing. Missing Heaven. 

"Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Romans 8:37-39

Though it tarries...

So it's been a long time since we have posted an update on our adoption progress. This is because it has been a LONG time since we have heard anything about our adoption progress. We have been in IBESR (the system in Haii that the paperwork has to go through) since mid April.  We were encouraged when 6 of our girls friends being adopted from their orphanage by friends in our area came out of IBESR in late May. All of the families adopting these kids submitted their dossiers the same day as us but entered IBESR 1-2 months before we did. There are others that entered IBESR before us that have not come through yet, and so far it seems the average timeline in IBESR is 3-5 months. We know some that have come through in a month and others that have been in for nearly 6 months now. We have been told repeatedly that it pretty much just depends on the person processing the paperwork...whether or not they care about the piles representing persons sitting on their desk. We learned that there is a new IBESR director and that anyone who had not come out before the new director took office should expect to experience delays. Delays. Let me say that again. Delays. This word used to infuriate me. I mean we are talking about orphans in often inhumane conditions...waiting. Waiting while their families that could provide for them wait to be able to do so because of red tape. Still not feeling any reaction. DELAYS. Perhaps making it bigger will do the trick. Uh, nope. Am I just numb to this word by this point, or is it because God has been teaching me that delays...even the ones that seem anything but good...the gut wrenching ones that make me scream WHY?, Lord WHY?...are His mercies in disguise?

But what if this process had been easy? Not that we have ever heard of ANY adoption from Haiti being described as easy. Adoptions from Haiti typically take between 2-3 years. This is the norm...sadly. We knew this when we submitted our dossier after Haiti closed humanitarian parole in April of 2010. We were hoping this would not be the case post-quake, but we knew it could be. We do not know of a single child that has come out on a traditional international adoption (what we are doing) from Haiti since the earthquake. We have watched kids come through humanitarian parole, student visas, and medical visas...but not adoptions....YET! While I may not be having a reaction to the word "delay", I do struggle with internal (sometimes external) reactions to others (who know didly squat about Haitian adoptions) who make comments and conclusions about why it is taking so long. I don't mind anyone asking. I don't mind explaining. I don't get my feelings hurt easily. But there isn't a week that goes by that someone (usually with a doubtful, you are ignorant to keep fighting for this adoption look) says, "Do you actually think they will ever come home?" Faking a smile I say, "Yes", while cringing inside at their poor word choices especially times like when we are at the airport welcoming the upteenth child coming home (not from Haiti) to families that started their process a year after us. Adoption is hard nomatter what the circumstances, country, or wait time. We get enough unlovely comments about the fact that we are adopting older children..out of birth order...that are black, that we are buying our children, that we are moving to a hopeless country that will never climb out of the hell it is in, that we are crazy to do so. I've never said we aren't crazy. I think you have to be at least a little crazy to do these things...or just crazy about following the Lord in whatever He leads you to do and wherever He leads you to go nomatter what it may cost. It is sad how few Christians actually get that. They say they believe it. But they don't get it. I'm not saying we get it fully, or obey fully, or trust fully. We don't. But I wish that there was more compassion and encouragement going around the body of believers in what the Lord calls us to do or calls us to endure. Let me put it this way. If your friend or family member is struggling through the wait of unemployment or an illness that doesn't have an end in sight, do you say, "Do you actually think he will ever find a job?....Do you actually think they will ever get better?" Maybe they will. Maybe they won't. Only God knows tomorrow. But seriously people. Think before you speak. Note to self to do the same. How bout instead of asking "why?", instead of asking if they will ever come home, if they will ever learn to read, if we will ever get through the many"issues"...what if you just prayed for this precious little girl? Pray what is written on the sign she holds that "He will cleanse their hearts. He will make them whole". Only God can do that. We need your prayers. We need your compassion in the hard times.

Many times when we ask "why?" we don't get answers. But God has been gracious in giving us a glimpse of the why and how this has been a mercy in disguise in many ways. If we had been able to use an agency for our adoptions, if things were not so complicated, if we had not had to do so much research on our own for our adoptions for so many months, there is no way we would have the connections and dear friends in Haiti that we do now. And it is through these connections and friends  that the Lord has opened our hearts, enabled, and provided for us to move to Haiti. It is a mercy that we have had the time we have had to prepare to bring orphans into our family. Knowing what we know now about our girls past, personalities, and the issues we will surely face would have been much much harder to face if they had come to us quickly in the way we originally thought they would. Many of these issues of great concern that I have prayed over and over in the past 18 months will be drastically reduced by the fact that our girls will be able to transition to our family in their own culture. God knew all this. All those months of asking why. God knew. He knows. We are blessed when we see these glimpses of His glory. When a tiny piece of our brain comprehends that He really is working together all things for good.

This morning I was sitting on the porch of my sister's country home reading Habakkuk. I didn't set out to to sit on that lovely porch in the cool morning breeze with Habakkuk in my mind, but I kept thinking about the word "delay" and set out to seek God's word on the subject. So I looked up the word "delay" and couldn't find it in the back of my Bible, but found the word"tarry" instead. I think I like tarry better than delay anyways. I am thinking Tarry should be the name of a future child. You can talk me out of that later. Back to Habakkuk...which we won't be naming a future child after. I stopped here for awhile.

"Though it tarries, wait for it;

Because it will surely come, 

It will not tarry."

Habakkuk 2:4

Is anyone else puzzled by this verse? First it says "though it tarries...". Then it says "It will not tarry."in the same sentence. Huh? Seems like a contradition to me. I sought the big Bible scholar expert notes to see if they had a hunch as to what this is really saying. Summarizing what I found...God knows His plan and the outworking of all things in accordance with His purposes. While awaiting the fulfillment that will surely come, we must rest in the fact that the fulfillment lies in God Himself. It will not take any longer than God has planned. Our plans have changed. God's have not. We don't always understand, but we know that He understands it all. Thank you Lord for helping us to trust you while waiting. Thank you for giving us glimpses of Your plans for us and how You truly have been working all these things together for our good and for the fulfillment of Your glory. Thank you for Your Word that says, 

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

So are My ways higher than your ways, 

And My thoughts than your thoughts."

Isaiah 55:8-9