Ernesto

In case you were wondering, Ernesto did not affect the orphanage. They experienced some high winds and rain, but there was no damage. All the children and the facility are safe and sound.

I wanted to Praise the Lord for this and encourage you about the power of prayer. The four mom's currently adopting from Three Angels, in this area, meet once a week for prayer. We pray over the adoptions, the safety of the kids, Three Angels and any other needs expressed. We have specifically asked the Lord to protect the Orphanage during this Hurricane Season and this week we were able to see His Hand at work. I am so thankful we serve a God who hears and answers prayers. His Word says to make our requests known with thanksgiving. He wants us to ask Him for the things we need and thank Him for doing it!! THANK YOU LORD!!!

Pictures in the Park

Today we went to Garvin Park for a Pictures in the Park Fundraiser. Todd and Kristina Burnett, friends of ours, are adopting a little boy from the same Orphanage and since Todd is a professional photographer they had this event today to help with the cost of their adoption. The kids had fun and Todd, as usual, did a great job. If anyone is interested, he is doing this again in October and may have one for us in September at Hornady Park in Petersburg.

Progress........

Hello all! I wanted to let you know of the progress concerning the adoption. This week one of the directors of TACR is in Haiti and will be submitting our files to the DHS (Department of Homeland Security). Their job is to determine if Noah is indeed an orphan and can be brought to the US. Obviously he is and we are believing this will proceed quickly. We are praying and believing he will be home soon. We are sooooooo excited and ready to have our family together!! Please be praying with us that the Lord will continue to give us favor and will cause the remainder of the paperwork to process quickly. We love you all and will continue to keep you posted. Be ready, we are going to have one big party when he comes home!!

Haiti.......

Well again, it's been a few weeks, but I did want to tell you more from our trip. On Monday, our last full day, a sibling group was brought in. A little girl, 5 and boy 3, I wasn't able to spend much time with them since Lourdesmia (one of the Nannies) was braiding my hair, but they are beautiful children. I could hear them crying as their parents were filling out the paperwork and the nannies had taken them upstairs. It's so hard to imagine what goes through their little minds. It was hard for them, but when it came time to eat, boy did they eat. The other's on the trip said they ate everything. It was obvious they were sooo hungry. Their little legs and arms were so skinny. I'm sure they have settled in nicely by now to the routine of the "O", but if you think of it you could pray for them that they will feel safe and secure in this new environment.

We were able to go to the Baptist Mission and Wings of Hope on this trip. We didn't tour the mission but did get to eat a hamburger and french fries and shop in their little gift shop, which was a nice treat and the view from the mission was incredible. Wings is a facility similar to St. Joseph's, were we stayed, only they care for disabled children. It is a wonderful facility!! Unfortunately, in Haiti, disabled children are thought to be demonic, so for the most part they are shunned. Wings is taking in those children and giving them a home to grow and develop. They have school, physical therapy, occupational therapy and massage therapy and have been able to see progress from these precious ones. Carolyn who has been at the "O", was preparing to move to Wings during our stay. It will be a wonderful place for her to develop more so than she could at the "O" with all that will be available to her.

The boys at St. Joseph's performed their dance theatre for us on Friday night and it was phenomenal. They perform in the states so if you ever get a chance to see it, do. It is called St. Joseph's Resurrection Dance Theatre. The boys are awesome and it brought tears to my eyes watching them perform so proudly, knowing some of them came from slavery, where they were beaten and severely mistreated, some from the street, where they had nothing and had to fight for everything, but now have a home where they are learning and growing into young men with a bright future. During the show there was a delay due to a storm that blew in. The theatre is performed on a level of St. Joseph's that is under roof but open all around. Jeremy and I were sitting on the front row with Noah and Asnica but we were over in the corner with only plants blocking us and we were soaked, water was actually rolling down our backs. The floor was so wet they had to stop dancing for safety so the boys wouldn't fall. It opened the opportunity, though, for Michael to share more of their testimony and what God has done at St. Joseph's and Wings. All in all even soaked it was an awesome night. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening!! The storm just added a little more excitement!!

The trip was a huge success!! I am so thrilled I was able to share this experience with such an awesome group of people. I believe God isn't finished with the trip yet. I am expecting to hear of life changing testimonies from those who were able to go. Everyone went with such open hearts and a willingness to work. I know God will reward them for their efforts and who knows who may end up someday opening their hearts and homes to one of the precious children of Haiti. I pray our adoption is the beginning of many we are able to see!!

While in Haiti we did get good news concerning adoptions in general. To make a long, detailed story short, people are being replaced and processes are changing that should make adoptions smoother and possibly shorter for those in the future. That is a wonderful thing!!! We don't have any news specifically yet, but are believing God to bring Noah home soon, where he belongs!

Love to you all!!!

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!!

Time flies!!

I can't believe we have already been to Haiti and have been home for a couple of days now! The trip was incredible. I'm not even sure where to begin and probably like last time I will have to recap over the course of a couple of posts. So bare with me as I get accustomed to being back home. Both times I have been overwhelmed after arriving home. First over leaving my son and second over the blessings I have here. It's always hard coming home without him but I cherish every moment I can have.

This trip was a success in sooooo many ways. We finished many projects in a short amount of time. Jeremy met Noah and by the end of the week they were buddies. Kristina's meeting with Jonas couldn't have gone better. Shawn and Angela met their children, Steven and Angela. It was a busy, busy week!!

Thanks to all who donated supplies and or money. We were able to build shelves in two locations, a bathing station in the nursery, fixed the leaking roof and molding ceiling, painted, scrubbed walls, floors and toys. It was incredible the amount of work that got done. None of which could have been accomplished without everyone's generosity. So thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Flying Out!

Well, we fly out tomorrow. I haven't went to bed yet (obviously) and it's almost 12:00am so it's just about time. I am so excited to be going again, of course to see Noah, but also just to go. I fell in love with the Orphanage and all the people there and I can't wait to visit with them again.

This trip has been so much more involved than the last one. Last time I had myself and Mom to take care of getting bags packed, info distributed, etc. This time there are 10 of us and it has been crazy, but very exciting. Thanks to our friends Shawn and Angela, who are joining us on the trip, we have managed to fill all the bags tonight. Now we can enjoy spending time with our kids tomorrow before heading to the airport. Angela helped me finish the shopping today and we packed totes for almost 4 hours straight. Shawn came and helped Jeremy drill all the wholes and we wrapped it all up, ate dinner (at 10:30) and they went home to try and get a good night's rest. I appreciate them helping soooooo much. We owe them one, definitely!!

We are expecting to have a great trip and get a lot done at the O. The whole team is excited about being there and helping out. We appreciate your prayers during this week. I will try to post shortly after returning home on the 20th.

Love to you all!!

God is Faithful!!

I apologize for not posting for so long. I have been crazy busy planning for the trip in June as well as finishing the school year, graduations, holidays, etc. I wanted to take a moment to update everyone.

God is so faithful!! Our trip is now closed. We are full. YEAH!!!! There are 11 people going from the Evansville area. It is an awesome group of people and I am thrilled to be experiencing this with them. We appreciate your prayers for a safe and prosperous journey. Our plan is to clean, organize and make repairs at the Orphanage, as well as take some much needed supplies. We will be taking 22 fifty pound bags. If any of you are interested in donating supplies or money to buy supplies please contact me at 812-626-9600 or email me directly at mecundiff@juno.com and I can get you a list of the items needed.

Noah is getting so big. I got a new picture of him recently that I am including on this post. Jeremy and I are so ready for him to come home. We are beginning to prepare the boys' room and it is making it seem that much more real that he will be coming home. At this time we don't know exactly when, but are praying it will be soon. Right now, I am thrilled to be going to see him again and introducing he and Jeremy.

I also get the privilege of being in Haiti when my friend meets her son for the first time. One of the ladies going is a dear friend of mine and she will be meeting her son when we arrive. I know how excited and emotional I was meeting Noah and I can't wait to be there when she meets hers. I am praying she has a wonderful time with him just as I did with Noah.

Well I have to quit for now, another busy day.

Love to you all!

Underway.....

Well plans are underway for the June trip. Jeremy and I are both going although at this time we are still in need of people to go. We are just praying and believing God will lay it on the hearts of those that He wants to go. I can't wait to see our little boy again. My arms definitely ache to hold him again, but the most exciting thing for me is to introduce him to his "Papa". He new him by picture before we left, but I am so anxious for them to meet!!

God is so awesome!! He has worked it out that our trip is now set for June 13th - 20th and Noah's birthday is on June 18th!! We are going to have one big party at the O on that day. I can't wait!! It's going to be so much fun!!

Please be praying that people will commit soon to the trip so we can continue as planned and get the remodel finished for the children. They deserve families and until then they deserve a nice place to live.

Love to you all!!

Trip of a lifetime

Hello to all! I wanted to invite you all on a trip of a lifetime. Jeremy and I are currently putting a trip together to go to Haiti in June. As long as we get enough of a group to go we will both be going on this trip. The orphanage is beginning some remodeling and adding on to their school. There will be a group going in May that will start the remodel and we will follow up in June to finish it. It would consist of a lot of painting and possibly a little construction work. We would stay about a week. The cost is only $1200 a person and that would cover your flight, room, food, transportation, water, etc. Basically everything would be paid for in that $1200. You might want to take a little cash on hand, but shouldn't need much since this would be a work trip, most of our time would be spent at the Orphanage. Jeremy and I are hoping to take some of you with us to share this awesome experience with those that are close to us. Please prayerfully consider this and let me know if you have any questions.

Love you all!!!

Three Angels Video.....

http://www.franklozano.com/production/threeangels.asp

If you go to the address above you can watch a video and it shows a clip of when Noah and I met for the first time. It is part of a documentary being prepared for Three Angels to first, help create awareness and second, help with fundraising efforts. I think you will enjoy it!

Let's Try Again!

Well, I don't remember what I was going to post the last time, but let's try again. I will try to remember more things from my trip.

There were 8 of us that arrived together and then one more joined us on Friday. It was a great group of people. Of course Mom and I, then two of the directors, Gail and Gretchen, which have really given up major parts of their life to take care of Haitian children. Two others were Bob and Fiona, which were meeting the two children they are adopting. They were a sweet couple and I look forward to keeping in contact with them as they begin their process. Carie, didn't know exactly why she was going, but had decided to go at the last minute and after being there realized what God had in store for her. She met 3 children that they are going to try to adopt. They are currently on a prayer hold. Frank joined us on Friday. He is an actor/videographer and is doing a documentary for Three Angels to help raise more support for their ministry. He was hilarious. Finally there was Angela, she is an amazing young girl, who has committed to living at the O for at least 6 months. She has a degree in education and is planning activities with the children to help them develop even more. They hope that the nannies will pick up on what she does and the activities will continue after she is gone. We enjoyed everyone. I couldn't have asked for a better group to be with.

On Thursday after arriving we spent a lot of time upstairs in the nursery. They typically keep the kids under two upstairs and the over two downstairs. So after Noah and I met, when he was asleep we decided to go upstairs and see what it was like up there. The nannies were all saying, "Ahh, Wilber' domi" (Ahh, Wilbert's sleeping). They kept asking me if I wanted to lay him down, but I said I was fine, and held him until he woke up. The kids upstairs were amazing. Many of the children at the O are under 2 so the nursery is a busy place. Several of the older kids followed us up there and we sat in the floor and played with them all for quite sometime. Gail pointed out that all the nannies were watching us and she said it was good for them to see us playing with the kids. Lots of times the parents come to visit their children, but don't spend time at the O, they come pick up their child and take them to the hotel. We actually loved being at the O and I think the kids all enjoyed us being there. Before dark(it's always good to be where you need to be before dark, for safety purposes) we headed to St. Joseph's to get settled in and rest before dinner. Dinner, by the way was wonderful. The food at St. Joseph's was delicious, we were fed breakfast and dinner there and it was fabulous. So much for weight loss. LOL!!!

Friday was parents day and my was it a happening place. This is the day parents are invited to come to the O and see their children or check to see if any pictures and updates were sent of those that have already come to the states. It was very interesting. These parents love their kids and many of them were running around playing with them or just sat holding them. It was great to see! We spent most of the day at the O playing. When we arrived at the O we headed to the backyard, which is where the Christian school is. We could hear the children singing, some in English and some in Creole, it was beautiful. The headmaster invited us to the front of the classroom to address the kids. He translated as we spoke, Mom and I couldn't help but cry as we told them how beautiful their singing was and how much we loved being there with them. They were quite intrigued by us (they don't see Caucasians very often) and the teachers kept having to turn their little heads around.

As we left the school and headed back to the O, Noah's little clan was standing at the bars of the windows yelling, "Weebear, weebear." Like, he's back!! Every time they yelled he would say, "eh" I wish I would have had the video camera on, it was the sweetest thing. I will never forget those little voices. The little ones, like that, probably never know when somebody leaves if they will be back or not, but every time we came back they were so excited to see their, "Weebear".

Friday night we sat on the balcony at St. Joseph's. It is beautiful up there and we talked about how there are no televisions or computers or any other distractions and time seems slower. We sat and talked for a long time and just listened to the sounds of the city. I loved those times, we had so much fun. It's sad that we let television steal so much of our time. Time that could be spent, laughing and talking and listening to the sounds God gave us to enjoy, like our children's voices & laughter or the sound of our loved ones talking about their day or just the sounds of earth. I think we miss a lot because of the distractions we allow. Just a thought.

Saturday was another great day. We took the some of the girls from the O and Noah, of course, to an Italian restaurant. It was a great little restaurant, that was sort of in a basement behind another restaurant. We walked through one place, back outside, down a ramp and down a few stairs to this restaurant, but the food was awesome. Probably the best Italian I have had. Who would have thought I would have to go to Haiti to have some good Italian. The kids were great. We sat and waited for our food for quite sometime, much longer than we would have in the states. We actually laughed and said, you know if we were home we probably would be complaining by now or maybe already left, but it was different there. We just enjoyed our company and waited. The kids were so good. They all sat and talked to each other and looked around. They were amazed by a big screen TV that was on across the room. They have a TV at the O but rarely have electricity so this was a novelty to them. We also went to the street market for as long as we could. Americans are a rare thing there so you pretty quickly draw a crowd, especially once you buy something. Haitians believe all Americans are rich, so they begin to swarm around right away, just in hopes that we would buy something they had for sale. It wasn't long until, Jimmy(our bodyguard for the day) said Ok, it's time to go, NOW. We loaded in the Van but before we could even leave they had circled the Van and were trying to sell us stuff through the windows. We finally managed to leave and headed back to the O.

Noah played with his little buddies some on Saturday. It was sweet to see him having a good time with them. Friday he never left my side so it was great to see him playing. They had their own little car wash going, with a sippie cup and a toy car. Remember imaginations.... I think that was before TV and Video games. LOL!!!

Sunday was a beautiful day! We headed up the mountain to a resort. Gail had met the Owner/Manager on the plane after her last visit. She had invited us to bring some of the kids up for a day. It was awesome! They had a little party set up for the kids. They got to ride horses, jump on a trampoline, play on some playground equipment and afterwards ate hot dogs and french fries. They gave them each a toy and they truly had a great time. This was quite a day for many of them. Some have rarely been away from the orphanage, let alone get to do something like this. I wish you all could have seen the joy on their faces, well except Noah's, the horses freaked him out. To him they were the biggest, "Wa Wa" he had ever seen. Wa Wa(King) is the dog at the O and most of the kids are afraid of him even though he is a sweet dog. He is just big and when he tries to play with them, they think he is going to eat them. I think every animal we saw, Noah would say, "Wa Wa". I think I spent most of the day saying, "le sava" (it's okay).

Thanks to a God of protection we made it safely up and back down the mountain. And I really mean thanks to God, it was quite a trip. The roads are not the same as we have here. In fact in the states this road would have been considered, "off roading". Yet we had 19 people in a small 15 passenger van heading up this "road" to a resort. By small 15 passenger van I mean small. It was kind of like squeezing 15 seats into a mini-van. In two rows the third seat folded down and over so you could get to the back row. And leg room, what's that. Even my Mom who's all of 5 feet tall had no room for her legs. LOL!! It was quite a vehicle. My Expedition seemed huge when I got home. We were very tired when we got back to St. Joseph's we all showered, by shower I mean stood in a shower with a nozzle of cold water at our knees, a bucket and a tin cup. LOL!! I didn't realize how awesome warm showers are. The rest of the evening we hung out at St. Joseph's and I began to realize the end was drawing near. I tried not to think about it, but I knew it was approaching and although time seemed slower, the end was coming quickly.

Monday we stayed at the O and talked about possible improvements and played with the kids. We headed back to St. Joseph's in time to watch the boys dance practice. Some of them drum and some dance. It was pretty amazing. They range from as young as 5 to 20 and spent 2 straight hours practicing. They travel around different places and perform, so it's very important to them. I'm not sure if I have even told you what St. Joseph's is. Encase I haven't it's a boys home. Michael has lived there for over 20 years now. It started out as just a 2 story home, but now it is 7 stories, they added 3 stories up and 2 down the hill and they run the guest house. There are probably 20 boys that live there as a family. They were some of the most respectful and sweet boys I have met. I could have brought some of them home as well.

Monday evening was nice and relaxing. After dinner Mom and I packed our bags so in the morning we could just spend time with Noah. He played in the room while we packed. This night he actually pointed at Jeremy's picture and said, PaPa. I was so proud! Later we headed up to the balcony with Carie, Frank and Bella Mia(one of the girls Carie is planning to adopt, she is 4) Noah fell asleep pretty quickly and Bella Mia sang to us, This is the day the Lord has made, Joy down in my heart and We wish you a Merry Christmas(my personal favorite). I love to hear them sing these songs with their little accents. Sweet, sweet, sweet!!!! I stayed up as long as I could that night, because I knew when I went to bed it was over. When I got up it we would only have enough time to eat breakfast and head to the O for our cab to pick us up.

As I said before leaving on Tuesday was hard. I sobbed as our plane left Port au Prince. However I am so thankful for this trip. I know it was God ordained!! He orchestrated every moment and it was awesome. Now we wait for Noah to be released from IBESR(Haiti Social Services) and then he can come home. We truly believe we will find favor and he will be home soon. Thanks again for all of your prayers, although some days are hard, I am doing much better. Thankfully, the sorrow may last night for the night but His joy comes in the morning!!!!! I know morning is coming and the joy of having Noah home will be here soon!!!

Love to you all!!!

NOOOOOOOOO...........

Ok well, I just spent 2o minutes typing another post about my trip and lost it all, so I will have to go for now and I will post it again later. Sorry!! A quick note, if you click on the Three angels link on the right you can see a few pictures from our trip. On the events page there is a picture of Noah(Wilbert) and I meeting for the first time. Browse around its a great website, with a lot of info on what they do in Haiti.

Wow!!!

I am so overwhelmed right now! I'm going to try to pull it together enough to post about my trip because I know some of you are waiting to hear. First of all it was a wonderful trip. I couldn't have asked for it to be any better. It is currently peaceful in Haiti compared to what it has been the last couple of years. It still doesn't compare to the states. We had to have escorts everywhere we went but we encountered no problems of our own. We witnessed a woman being beaten at the Grocery store and men with automatic weapons intervening but it was stopped and the remainder of our stay was peaceful. We are so blessed to live in a country where we can go just about anywhere we want to and feel safe.

I know you want to hear about Noah and I will try to tell you all about him, but it is a very emotional time for me right now, having left him in Haiti. Our meeting was wonderful!! I was waiting outside the "O" while the nannies dressed him. He had just had a bath and they wanted him to look nice for me. I was shaking and crying at the thought that he was just inside the door. After all this time I was going to be able to hold him and my emotions got the best of me. Finally Gail came out and said, "There's someone who would like to meet you." I slowly walked in and there he was, sitting in a small chair just waiting and looking at me. I slowly walked over to him and knelt down beside him. As I went to pick him up he put his arms up and we were together at last. He laid his little head on my shoulder and within a matter of minutes he was sleeping in my arms. It was such an amazing moment for me. I believe he knew his Manmi(Mommy) was there. From that moment on he didn't leave my sight. He stayed the nights with us at the guest house and even when we went to the "O" in the daytime he never got very far away. By the second day he was calling me Manmi. Jeremy and I had prayed before I left that God would help Noah to know who I was and that he would feel safe and secure with me and the Lord definitely answered our prayers. They tell me he has never responded to anyone like that before. God is sooooooo awesome!!!!

He interacted much more when we were away from the "O". He would talk and play and venture out a little more. When we were there it was more like he was afraid if he left me, I would leave him. I hope now that I am not there he realizes I will be back for him. By the end of the week he was speaking a little English. He would point at Jeremy's picture and say Papa and he said all the kids names in a 2 1/2 year old Creole way, but it was very sweet. He was saying Thank you, Be careful and best of all I love you. Meeting him felt the same as when my children were born. You long for the day when you can hold them and see what they look like and you wonder what their personality will be like then the day comes and all you can do is look at them and cry. That is exactly what it felt like.

A lot happened while I was there. An eight year old little boy was dropped off and that was heart wrenching. He cried off and on for days. Sometimes I would see him sitting alone in a corner singing a song with tears streaming down his face. I can't imagine what that must be like for him. Everything that he has ever had or known gone in one moment. When they changed his clothes it was hard for him. It was like they took away the last thing he had. I spent some extra time with him just trying to bring comfort. He was a sweet little boy with a very broken heart!!

I had the privilege of meeting Noah's birth father. He was a nice looking man, tall and thin and he loved his son. In our meeting he told me he didn't want to bring Wilbert (Wilbear) to the orphanage but he did, so he wouldn't lose him forever by death. He told Noah he would always be his son but now this was his mother. I of course was crying and I thanked him. I assured him that Wilbert would know that his father loved him and saved his life by giving him to us. I will never forget the sadness in his father's eyes as he realized this might be the last time he would ever see him. I told him I hoped to bring Noah back someday to see where he was born and if so we would try to get word to him but there is no guarantee that we would ever be able to find him because he doesn't have a home and is forced to move around a lot. I will pray for him that God will watch over him and bless him for this wonderful gift he has given us. We will be forever grateful for what he has done and for the sacrifice he made to save Noah's life.

I am going to have to stop for now. I will try to post more later. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for me. Please continue to do so as being home has been harder than I expected. I knew it would be hard to leave and it was as I could hear him screaming for me inside, but being home has proven to be just as hard. My heart is broken but I thank God that He is faithful and though this sorrow may last for the night His joy comes in the morning. I know it won't be long and morning will come and our Noah will be home with us forever and what a day of rejoicing that will be. Thanks again for your prayers and my love to you all!!

Counting Down

Excitement is taking over! I am counting down the days to hold Noah in my arms. It is now less than two weeks, the flights are booked, the arrangements made and I have begun gathering supplies to take with me. I am so looking forward to my trip that I have to admit it consumes me at times. I am so thankful that God has led us on this journey, although it is a process sometimes full of unknowns and tears, I wouldn't change it for anything. I look forward to the day when I am not only traveling to visit our son, but to bring him home where he belongs. Today I received pictures taken earlier this month when the parent liason traveled there to bring two girls home to their families. He is growing so much and it hurts to be missing out on it. However God is faithful, and I know Noah is coming home soon!! I probably won't get a chance to post again until I return, so thanks to everyone for your prayers. Love to you all.

Proceeding as Planned

Well, I am proceeding as planned. I have booked our flights and we should be leaving March 8th. I spoke with the Parent Liason today and our Noah is doing well. She was there last weekend and she said he is doing very well and coming out of his shell a little. For the first time she got to hear a good "belly laugh" from him. Up until this time he had giggled at the most. He came to her and wanted her to hold him and smiled spontaneously. I know this seems simple to us, but for this little guy coming to the orphanage was hard on him. He was extremely sad at first and as you can tell has been a bit withdrawn. I can't wait to see his smile and hear his laugh.

My Mom has decided to join me on the trip. I am so excited to share this experience with her. From what everyone says it is a life changing experience and I am thrilled to have her with me. As I said we will leave March 8th arriving in Haiti March 9th. We will be staying in St. Joseph's Home for Boys close to the orphanage. As long as everything goes well, Noah will get to go with us to St. Joseph's in the evening and sleep with us as well. This time is going to be so precious. I can hardly wait. We will also be doing some work on the "O" while we are there, that is if they can pull me away from Noah. LOL!!! Our return flight is March 14th. Please be praying for us, as I know leaving Noah there is going to be hard. Praise the Lord for His grace though!! It will be sufficient!!

I also will be taking supplies to donate to the orphanage so if anyone is interested in donating items, please let me know via e-mail and I can send you the list of items needed. Thanks to all of you who have been reading my posts and praying for us. We trully appreciate it!! God bless you all!!

Making Plans

Exciting news!! I am making plans to go see our son! I found out last week that there was a chance I could go visit him for a week in March. As long as everything goes as planned I will be leaving on March 8th, I'll arrive in Port au Prince, Haiti on the 9th and will stay through the 14th.

I have to be honest at first I didn't want to go until I could bring him home. I was going to try to get Jeremy to do that instead(that's not very nice, huh). It was too heart wrenching for me to think about being there with him and then leaving him there. It almost worked. Jeremy was actually planning to go this weekend for a short visit, but it didn't work out for him to go.

God has changed my heart. I am so excited about getting to spend this week with him. I can't wait to meet him face to face. I have his picture and he has ours, but I am so looking forward to holding him, kissing him and telling him how much I love him and can't wait to bring him home. I know God will give me the grace to come home, and the memories I will make with him, I believe, will get me through the waiting. I'll post again when I know that I am going.

Blessings to all!!

The Minds of Children

Well there isn't a whole lot to update on the actual process currently. We are still getting the final documents together to send to Haiti. At that point we wait for their government to release him and ours to accept him. I thought I would give a funny story from the mind of our child. It is funny how children think. We have been talking to our kids about the adoption for quite some time now. We didn't tell them at first however when we started the paper work we told them about it. We've been talking to them about having a little brother. We have talked to Camden about moving the bunk beds into his room so when Noah comes he could sleep on the bottom and Camden would get to sleep on top. He was excited about that. We've talked about him being able to play with Noah when he gets here, etc..... Well I felt like everyone had a good grasp of what was about to transpire.......


Apparently not!! The other night I was putting Camden to bed. We read a story and we were talking again about, "when Noah comes". I mentioned again how nice it would be for him to have someone to play with just like the girls get to play together. The following was a conversation that stemmed from that.

Mommy: "Maybe you should go through your toys and get some out that you want to give to Noah, so when he gets here he has some toys that are his. Then you will have toys and he will have toys and you can both share."

Camden: "He will have toys at his house."

Mommy: "This will be his house."

Camden: "You mean he's going to stay here!!" (note: this was exclamation more out of confusion than excitement)

Mommy: "Yes."

Camden: "What about his Mommy?"

Mommy: (fighting tears) "He doesn't have a Mommy, I am his Mommy now."

Camden: "What about his sisters?"

Mommy: (still fighting) "He doesn't have any sisters. Jordy and Ali are his sisters now."

Camden: "But I saw those kids and babies in the pictures."

Mommy: "Those are his friends that he is living with until he gets to come home."

That was the end of that conversation. He was satisfied with that. I laughed as I told Jeremy about this conversation. I really thought we were doing a good job of preparing him. Obviously I was wrong!!!

It amazes me how much a four year old can understand. He didn't realize Noah was coming here to live, but he did know that there was something wrong with a little boy not having a family.

God's Provision

When the Lord began to lead us in the direction of adoption, we were very excited, but at the same time we thought "ok Lord this could cost thousands of dollars." You know one of those moments where you feel like you need to remind Him that you don't have thousands of dollars sitting in the bank with no where to spend it. Like He is unaware of our financial situation. I knew though that if God was truly telling us to do this then He would provide a way. As I said before, from that moment we began to research things and began finding out what costs were involved. There were many times that doubt would try to rise up. Thoughts of, "there is no way. The first step alone is well over a thousand dollars and it goes up from there." But yet on the inside of me was a knowing that God would provide for what He was asking us to do. So we continued. You know for that year of just researching I would pray about the adoption and I had asked God to bring in the finances that we needed, to help us to know what steps to take and give us wisdom concerning our finances so we could save up in preparation. I would love to tell you that in that year God brought in every penny that we needed. However I would be lying. LOL!! I didn't see an extra penny for that year, but we continued to press on and knew when the time was right it would all work out. Finally the day came when we felt like it was time to begin taking steps in that direction. We had been saying we were going to adopt but had not actually begun any of the paperwork. It was finally time. I felt like the children of Israel, it was time to leave Egypt. Remember though we still didn't have the money, but we both new it was time to take that step of faith. So I began to make contacts to find someone to do our home study. The cost involved ranged from $1,000 - $2,500, of which we didn't have. I had been putting money in what has become my "Noah Box" but it still didn't have enough in it to even cover this first step. At any rate, Jeremy said, "Make the appointment." So I e-mailed the social worker and set a date, asked about how she needed to be paid, cashier's check, money order, etc. I'm sure she thought we had the money to pay her. I guess we fooled her. LOL!!!

On the day before the appointment I had saved $900. I knew Jeremy would be getting paid the next day so I had it planned in my head that we would take the extra $500 we needed out of his check and just be more cautious with our spending that month. We could work it out. Well that morning, my Dad called and asked if I was going to be home. He said he wanted to come by and give us some money for Noah. Now Dad didn't know how much we had or needed for the home study (I'm not even sure he knew anything about the home study) and he didn't know the social worker was coming the next day. However, when he came by, he handed me a check for $500!!!!!! I, of course, was extremely emotional, so much so I forgot to tell him that he had just given me exactly what I needed to pay the social worker that was coming the next day. You see God is sooooooo faithful!!!! There have been others who have given so generously to us, and I am so thankful. I am giving this example of Dad's gift just to show you how God can work things out. He knows exactly what we need and when we need it!!

As many of you know we created a cook book dedicated to bringing Noah home. This was an idea that came to mind one day when I was praying about the adoption. So thanks to so many that sent recipes we were able to create a cook book with over 200 recipes. We had 100 printed and hoped to sell those to help with the other costs involved. Well within one week all 100 were sold and we were having 50 more printed within a couple weeks those were gone and we had 50 more printed. Now those are almost gone. God has blessed this project in ways we never dreamed. His Word says He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think according to the power that works in us (Ephesians 3:20). He continues to blow me away at how good He is and how much He loves us. A young girl at the printing office asked me about them, because we have been keeping them pretty busy the last few weeks. When I was talking to her she asked how we had been selling them. I was able to share with her that it was a God thing. "We" hadn't sold that many, it was other people. My Mom took some to work and they were gone within a day, Jeremy's Dad and Step-mom gave some as Christmas gifts and their insurance agent bought one for $100, my Dad and Step-mom took one to church and sold over 20, Jeremy's Aunt Beverly sold 11 at work, his Aunt Leslie gave some as gifts and her sister-in-law took it to work and sold 20, a good friend of ours and Jordy's piano teacher took one to her church and sold 17, another friend of ours, Deb and her sister Vicki were taking them to work and selling them and it goes on and on. It has been the generosity of others, putting it out there, making it available and people we don't even know have been buying them. God is so awesome!!!!

I know this has been a long post, but I get so excited when I see God's provision. I would like to leave you with some words of encouragement. There maybe things that you feel like God is leading you to do and you might be thinking, like Jeremy and I did, "how is this going to work." Well let me tell you, if God is asking you to do it, He will make a way. I'm sure the children of Israel thought there was no way when they came to the Red Sea, but the Lord caused a strong wind and the children of Israel were able to walk across on dry ground. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. If He tells you to do something, He will make the way!!!!

Finding Noah

You know how you hear of people finding love on the internet. Well, I'll go one better. I found my son on the internet. For the first year, 7/4/04 - 7/4/05, we did a ton of research. I looked into different countries, different agencies, etc.... and one day I was watching a show on TV about adoption on the Discovery Health channel. One particular couple was going to Haiti, now I have watch this show several times and saw several adoptions from a variety of countries, but there was something about this one that tugged at my heart. I began to do some research on Haiti, and the children available there. I was shocked at the number of orphans in this tiny country, because you don't hear of that many adoptions from there. However there are hundreds of thousands of orphans in a country about the size of Maryland. I was hooked, something told me my son was there. This was different than when I knew the Lord spoke to my heart as I described in my earlier post, this was more of a knowing, as a Mother sometimes does. I began to make some contacts with different people and found an agency I thought we would use. They had pictures on their website of "waiting children". I would look at those pictures and there was one little boy with sad little eyes that got my attention every time. Little by little I was drawn to him and finally one day I ask the agency contact about him. When she sent me his information, I sat at my computer and cried. Not necessarily because his story was so sad, but because I believed I had just found our son. I shared the information with Jeremy and his response was, "What do we need to do?" We decided a couple of months later to adopt independently, so I made contact with the orphanage I thought he was in, hoping I was right, and indeed he was there. I had found Noah!!