Sunday, June 25, 2006

Arriving in Haiti

When we arrived in Haiti, I was so excited!! I never dreamed going to a third world country would bring such joy. I was thrilled to be seeing Noah again, but there is something about this little country that brings joy to my heart. I feel I will continue to travel there even after Noah comes home. I remember in the airport waiting to clear Customs, Kristina looked at me and said, "Look at you, you are all smiles." And I was! We met Gail, a director of Three Angels and Angela, a volunteer I met on my last trip in baggage claim. I was happy to see them both! They are both awesome people and I feel blessed knowing them.

When we arrived at the O, I couldn't wait to see Noah. Last time I had to wait for them to get him ready, but this time I dropped my bags and ran in. Unfortunately he was mad at me. He looked at me and I could tell by the look on his face he recognized me then he purposefully turned his head away. Also he was eating lunch and the boy likes to eat, so I left him alone to finish. I went outside to watch Kristina meet Jonas which was awesome. They connected instantly and he called her Manmi (Mommy) as soon as they put him in her arms. At this point Jeremy couldn't wait any longer and we went inside to see our boy. He still wasn't happy with me but he wanted me to hold him and wouldn't leave my side from that point on. It took him a little longer to warm up to Jeremy, but that is completely normal. The children don't see a lot of white men and some of them, honestly, are scared by them. By Saturday they were buddies and Jeremy was able to hold him and play with him. I think it made Jeremy's day once when Noah saw him through the window and excitedly said, "Papa!!" The first few days was hard for Noah. We could tell that every time I put him down he was afraid we were going to leave. It made it a little rough but within a couple of days he relaxed and we were able to see the playful side of him.

So much transpired on this trip, I'm not even sure what all to write about and I don't want this to be the post that never ends so I will share one very exciting point and then end for now. As I mentioned in my first post after coming home, Shawn and Angela met their children, Steven and Angela. Well what is awesome about that is, they didn't know they were their children until after we arrived. They went on this trip completely open to what God wanted to reveal to them and said if He wanted them to adopt a child or children they were open to that and if not that was ok too. It is so awesome to have friends that are open to what God wants in their life so much so that they are willing to open their hearts wide and say, "Here we are Lord, what do you want?" Well He revealed to them rather quickly what His plan was. On Thursday evening (we had arrived on Wednesday) they announced in our time of devotion that they were going to adopt Steven and Angela. I was beside myself with joy!! Steven has a special place in my heart, because he is the one I talked about from my first trip that was brought to the orphanage. He is such a sweet boy! When we arrived he came running up to me and leapt into my arms, wrapping himself around me like a monkey. I was so happy to see him and to see how well he was doing. Angela is a little girl that was brought in a couple of weeks before we arrived, she is 8 as well and has a smile that lights up the room. It didn't take long for us all to fall in love with her. She truly was a joy to be around.

I am so excited to know Noah will have this common bond with these three children, Steven, Angela and Jonas. God is so awesome in how he has orchestrated these events and these four children who were born in a different country and left at the same orphanage will all be coming to this same city and will be able to grow up together. I am so thankful for that!! All the children at Angel House hold a special place in my heart so I am also thankful that I will get to watch them grow up and am blessed to be a part of their life.

I will continue to share bits and pieces of our trip, but I don't want to bore you so I will post more later. Thank you all for your prayers and we love you!!

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