The Journey Begins...

Well, it all began after our third child was born and Kevin and I declared "it is finished"!  We were done.  No more kids for us! There's a saying that goes "if you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans".  A few years later and a whole journey of working through my fears, we became a foster family.  We were feeling pretty stretched and challenged with fostering babies, but God started calling us to international adoption.  My standard response when I feel God leading me into foreign territory is to offer him my list of inadequacies.  But God's loving reply to me was that he wasn't looking for a super-mom who had mastered all the Fruits of the Spirt (thank goodness).  He was just looking for someone with a willing heart.


Over the next few weeks it seemed that everywhere I went I was running into adoptive families and stories about orphans.  An African children's choir came to our church during this time.  Although I had seen them a few times before and it had always moved me, this time their stories were breaking my heart and I couldn't stop my tears.  God was undeniably opening my heart to the plight of the orphan.  There was just one problem.  While I had told Kevin what God was doing in my heart, he wasn't jumping on the bandwagon with me.  Hmmm.  What to do?  Well, just like you need two parents to have biological kids, you need two parents to adopt kids (it's a little different, but you know what I mean).  So I did what every spiritually mature woman does when she's perplexed...I phoned my sister!  Tammy, who was busy working on her fourth international adoption reminded me that Kevin and I needed to be in agreement and that I couldn't manipulate or force him (rats!).  So I began to pray earnestly that if this really was what God wanted for us that He would be the one to speak to Kevin's heart.  


That very weekend we were at a Steven Curtis Chapman concert, and right in the middle of it there was a huge presentation on adoption! During the music video where they showed beautiful faces of orphans around the world I glanced over at my strong husband and saw him wiping tears off his cheeks.  Isn't God amazing?!


So now what?  Well, we felt the Lord calling us to adopt from Haiti and we both felt that we should get a sibling group - yes TWO!  And at the same time it was looking like we were going to be able to adopt our foster daughter!  I know you're adding it up right now.  I'll save you the math - it's six.  SIX children!  That number terrified us, but the thought that there were two special little people waiting for us in Haiti that God had hand-picked to be a part of our family absolutely thrilled us.  And my sister and brother-in-law assured us that, while we are living in the middle of our affluent Canadian lifestyle, adding two children to our family seems ridiculous, but when we are in Haiti, and we see the poverty and the multitude of orphans we will be thinking "Two! All we can take are two?!"  I know they're right and I also know from being a foster mommy that God gives us the strength to do the things he has called us to do.


So where are we at in our journey today?  Criminal checks done, medicals done, psychological assessment done (yes, we passed), reference letters done, employment letters done, letter from bank done, home study written, etc. etc. and everything translated into french.  We are just waiting to get our home study back from Children's services as well as our Approval Letter.  Then it's just Notarization, sending 7 copies of everything to Ottawa for Authentication, then it's off to Haiti!  Because my sister's last three adoptions have been from China, I am used to how they do it where you wait and wait, get your referral (match), and then travel fairly quickly afterwards.  However, with Haiti you get your referral fairly quickly (especially if you are taking a boy or a sibling group), and then you wait about 9-12 months before you travel to bring them home.


So that's our past, present and future in a nutshell.  I'll try my best to be diligent on posting any updates, and hey, if I can figure out how, I may even post some photos!


I'll close today's post with a great verse from Psalm 68 that has spoken to me many times through our journey of fostering, domestic adoption and international adoption.


"His name is the Lord.  A father to the fatherless...God places the lonely in families."