Reality Check

I pulled this photo off of the blog of a nurse in Haiti. My thoat has a lump in it and I'm hard pressed for words. These are twin baby girls who both way just over 3 lbs. They weren't just born; they're belly buttons are completely healed.

In case you wonder how serious the poverty is in Haiti, here's a real look at it. This is real. Real babies that are literally starving to death.

When our boys' mother passed away, they thankfully made it to an orphanage that could provide formula for them. I don't know the story of these girls, but they are someone's children.

God, please help these little ones tonight. Please get them the care and love that they need. Please keep my heart broken and my hands open. Please never let me forget the picture of these little ones. Amen.

8 Years

Wowsers. Chuck and I have been married 8 years today. In some respects I'm not sure where the time has gone, but in other respects it's been a long time. We've had more than our share of ups and downs, but we've had God in our marriage for 6 of those 8 years, and that has made all the difference. In 8 years I've lived in 7 homes in 6 cities, and 3 states. We have been blessed beyond measure and continue to be.

We will celebrate these 8 years by eating Chicken Enchiladas (Chuck's new favorite dish) at home while watching two episodes of Lost (gotta love Tivo!). Our cats will snuggle with us and we will think about our boys in Haiti. This will be the last anniversary we celebrate without our boys.

Thank you to everyone who has been an encouragement to our marriage. We strongly believe in the bond of marriage set forth in the Bible. 4 years ago we were on the verge of divorce and an awesome Christian marriage counselor helped us out. Thank you, Kevin Coward, for accepting God's call on your life. We can't celebrate an anniversary without thinking of you and thanking you.

April Pictures

Samuel

Noah

They are getting so big!

Answered Prayer!!

Chuck and I arrived home about an hour ago and I found an answer to prayer in our mail. We got a letter from the Department of Homeland Security giving us a date to come in and be re-fingerprinted. We made our request to be re-fingerprinted much earlier than we should have due to the timing of our trip to Haiti. Thankfully, DHS had grace with us and we will be re-fingerprinted on May 24th. Thanks for your prayers!

While I'm so thankful to share this, I wish I was sharing that our files were signed out of the Prosecutor's office. Please keep praying for that. It doesn't look like there was any movement there this week.

Today I've been plagued with thoughts about all the things that could go wrong with our adoption (biggest fear is that it will fail). I don't like to ask for prayer for myself, but I need it. I want to give those thoughts to God because I can't handle them. Being away this week really helped keep my mind off the adoption. But, as soon as I was on the plane my mind centered on the adoption again.

Our flight home tonight arrived at 11:05 p.m. and a family that we know through an adoption ministry group was welcoming their son home tonight. So, we got some Starbucks (That would be why I'm still wide awake at 2:30 a.m. Gotta love the Carmel Frappacino!) and waited for Janie and Nian to arrive. They got in at about 12:30 a.m. Nian is their 4th child, and 2nd child from China. It was so much fun to see him playing with the Welcome Home helium balloons. I dream about that day for us.

Well, that's all for now. I'm going to try to go to sleep!! It's only 43 days until Haiti!!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter. I often pray that God will continue to move the reality of what Jesus did for me (and you!) deeper into my heart so that I can love Him more. I believe He did some of that for me today. I pray that all who read this pause for a moment and know that Jesus loves you so much that He died on a cross for you and on the third day, He rose from the dead to be our King of all Kings for all eternity.

Chuck and I are headed to Nashville tomorrow through Friday for a church planter equipping lab. What on earth is that you ask? It's a conference where they will teach us just about everything we need to know to start a church. Chuck is very excited. I'm trying to be. Last year we went through a stringent assessment by this same group of people and it was very close to torture. I'm praying this week will be very different than what we experienced last year. :) They are good people, really!

Please join us in prayer this week for our adoption process. I believe so deeply in the power of prayer. I believe just as deeply that we have an adversary named Satan who wants nothing but destruction for us on a daily basis. We ask that you join us in praying that our files be released from the Prosecutor's Office this very week. Please help us pray them out!

One last thought: 49 days until we are with the boys in Haiti!!

T.G.I.F.

Thank God it's Friday! Good Friday, in fact. Because of the holiday this week in Haiti we won't get any news. I'm thankful that beginning on Monday Haiti should be back in full swing working so that hopefully - prayerfully - just maybe we can get some news. No promises, but at least it will be a possibility. It gets so much harder to wait as we get closer to the end. I'm so thankful that I haven't been like this the entire time! Today is 51 days until we are snuggling the boys! It is also my brother's 40th birthday. Happy Birthday, Shawn!!

Holy Week

In Haiti they really know how to celebrate the holidays - they close down! This week is Holy Week in Haiti. The office where our paperwork is at will be closed all week.

I was so very sure that we would get news last week, but we didn't. So yes, once again my heart got stomped on. Many families from our orphanage did get news - 16 files were released from the Prosecutor's Office. I'm very happy to see such movement out of that office and so excited for those families! I'm also quite bummed that we weren't part of it. But, God has a plan in this. It's all in His time.

Some ladies from our church threw me a babies shower on Saturday. It was so much fun. We were so blessed with so many needed items. Sunday morning I experienced a condition that I will call "present hangover." I guess all that unwrapping on Saturday was too much for me!

Chuck was sick on Saturday and today I am sick. Between seasonal allergies and the flu today I've been not so great lately. Hopefully tomorrow the Claritin will have kicked in and the flu will be gone. I'd like to get out and go a few places tomorrow. Plus we have gift cards with which we have a few final items we need to get for the boys.

My final thought for this post is 55 DAYS until we are in Haiti with the boys. This is the last year the Easter Bunny won't be coming to our house!