Thank you, Jesus...

The living situation for many of the people who attend Pastor Nahum’s church is extremely primitive and downright impractical during the rainy seasons…it’s barely humane.  With not much support, Papa Nahum is hard pressed on every side as he attempts to provide the children of these families food and the opportunity to go to school.  He gives everything he has but, the combination of his limited resources and such a high-volume of needs, there are times when he has to say no because there just is nothing to give.  Many of the homes of the people in the village are made of sticks and mud, with a thatched roof and mud floor.  You can imagine that it does not provide much protection for the family during the rainy season. 

A family of seven once lived in this house pictured above.

I will tell you the story of why this home is very personal to me.  This run-down, modest home is where the mother of my twin baby girls gave birth to them on March 9, 2010.  Ten days later this is the same home where their mother died.  With no way to feed the babies, the father, named Leon, took the twin girls to Papa Nahum.  Before we were ever introduced and with no certainty of how he would provide for two infant babies, with a heart for orphans, Papa stepped out in faith and received them into his home. 

In one day everything changed for Leon’s family.  The little mud home that housed a family of seven was now dwindled to a home of only four...Leon and his three remaining sons.

This is the back side of Leon's home and his kitchen.

This is a friend of Leon's inside his home preparing them food on the mud floor.

Papa kept these babies and provided for them for one month before God crossed our paths.

During this time only God knew a family from Weatherford, Texas would one day soon link hearts and lives with these precious people in Gilbert, Mirebalais. 

This connection didn’t happen by chance.  This was the result of the hand of God moving as a result of both our family and Pastor Nahum seeking the face of God. 

As a result of this journey…of humbly offering all of my broken pieces to be used by my heavenly Father, I have tasted His love and discovered the blessing of walking in the middle of a miracle. 

I know I say this all the time, but you are going to have to humor me as I say it again…

You can’t make this stuff up!!  Thank you, Jesus! 

There is a mighty and holy God and He moves in the lives of His children.  I’m just sayin’

It looks like this:  You decide to fix your eyes on Christ and depend on him for everything.  You start wanting things you never wanted before.  Then you start freaking out a little because the things you want seem humanly impossible.  You get over your freak out moment and refocus your eyes firmly on Jesus.  Your heart goes through transformations…you die more to yourself and Christ becomes more  alive in you.  Your intimacy with Jesus grows stronger every day.   Your dependence and trust in Him increases.  You start to desire the things He desires and you believe Him for these things.  Jesus becomes your everything and the possibilities for your life are limitless.  You witness His faithfulness in your life…He provides where He guides you.  You find peace knowing He is in control of all things.

This trip to Haiti was different from my first two trips in that it was not directly related to our adoption.  As you know Papa Nahum no longer has my babies.  With much love he allowed me to have them transferred to GLA, and under their guidelines, the adopting families may only visit two times during the process…once when you go to sign the I-600 (we are hopeful this will happen in a few months) and once more when we go to pick them up and bring them home.  I can imagine these rules are necessary to prevent parents like myself from trying to move in with them during the wait! 

Our decision to adopt has opened doors to so much more than we ever imagined.  As I stated on May 3, 2010, the LORD laid on my heart that once our adoption failed with Gaelle, that it was always about more than one child.  You can read that story here. 

So in the spirit of glorifying God, I can say this has indeed always been about more than one child.  It’s about even more than the adoption of our twins.  It’s about every lost soul and our hunger for them to know our Savior, Christ Jesus, and for them to enter into a personal relationship as a child of God....it's about many children.

Although the trip was not intended to be related to my adoption of Raphaella and Wanna, God placed various people in my path on this trip that gave me hope and further confirmation for our adoption…just a few bonus gifts from the hand of my Father.  Thank you, Jesus!

On my flight from Miami to Port au Prince, I sat in an aisle seat about ¾ to the back of the plane.  The flight attendant walked down the aisle and passed out paper work for us to fill out for customs which is required for entry to Haiti.  One of the questions they ask is for us to give the address of where we will be staying while in Haiti.  The lady sitting on my row directly across the aisle from me reached in her purse and pulled out a pamphlet.  She was getting the address off of it for where she would be staying.  I couldn’t help but notice it was a God’s Littlest Angels pamphlet.  This is the orphanage where my babies are.  With curiosity and excitement I asked the lady if she was in fact going to GLA and if she was going to volunteer.  She introduced herself to me as Carol Williams and informed me she works at GLA.  I couldn’t believe it!  She knew exactly who my babies were, how they were doing, and where our paper work was.  I told her to give them a big hug and kiss from me.  Meeting Carol and having the chance to talk to her on the flight…knowing she lives with the twins…it was all very sweet and made me feel just a little bit more connected to my babies.  Thank you, Jesus! 

There was still another connection to my twins made while I stayed with Papa Nahum.  It was Thursday afternoon.  We were making friendship bracelets with the children.  Papa’s phone rang and it was someone who was Haitian because he began speaking Creole.  He talked for about five minutes and then brought me the phone.  Uhhh…my first thought was, “Papa, you have way overestimated my Creole speaking skills”….there’s no way I could have a conversation on the phone in Creole.  He proceeded to tell me it was Magaly, GLA’s Haitian administrator, who was responsible for coming to transfer the twins and to do follow up paper work with the father throughout the process.  At this point, Papa puts the phone to my ear and walks off…I said, “Alo Magaly.”  Then I asked her in Creole if she spoke English.  I could tell she was laughing at my Creole attempts and answered, “Yes, I speak English.”  That was good news for me!  We had known of each other for these last several months, but it was nice to be able to introduce ourselves and speak together.  Just another little gift from the LORD.  Thank you, Jesus!

I know I will see Leon, the biological father of the twins, every time I go to Haiti.  His little mud house is in the village just down the road from Papa Nahum’s home. 

One of the highlights of this last trip was getting to visit with Leon again.  The first time I met him in June, he was very down…he didn’t know me …he didn’t know if I would be true to my word…for all he knew, I was saying sweet words to tickle his ears with no intentions of following through.  This trip to Haiti was different…Leon had a different spirit…a trusting spirit.  You see, I had told him I would be back to visit and so when I showed up again on this last visit, it was a sweet moment.  The eyes of Leon and his sons lit up as they looked through the photo album I made for them that had their picture of us together from our previous trip along with all of the pictures of Raphaella and Wanna that I had received. 

Having Papa Nahum translate what I wanted to say to Leon

When I went to visit Leon’s home, I met his brother…Raphaella and Wanna’s  uncle.  

Raphaella and Wanna's Uncle



Speaking Creole with the Uncle across the fence.


We shared some laughter with my weak attempts of speaking Creole and then as Papa Nahum and I left Leon's little mud home, I was in awe that God gifted me with such a personal knowledge of the twin’s heritage.  Thank you, Jesus!