it's the little things in life...

I don't remember being so excited about a package coming to the house ever!! We received our POA's today from Chicago!!(Power of Attorney papers)  Thank you Robin for being our transport!  These papers are just the beginning of many papers that must be notarized, certified, authenticated, translated and legalized... I will be taking these to Haiti to give to our attorney on Wednesday so that she can begin working on our case.  I will also be taking two of our good friends papers to deliver for them.  The Smiths and the Hogues are two families that will be traveling these unchartered waters with us.  We are grateful to have such awesome people to journey with!

Our story began...

I don't even know where to begin, to tell this story takes some time.  Steve and I have been married for 22 years and have been blessed with five wonderful biological children.  We have always been open to the idea of adoption, fostering or just helping out with children in whatever way we can.  We had never felt a specific call or leading in this area until February 2009 when I went on my first trip to Haiti.

I had been to a couple of developing countries before and seen first hand, extreme poverty but I had never seen any thing like the conditions in Haiti.  It is truly beyond words and even photos can't give the full picture.  I was so touched by the people, their desperate situations and the Lord filled me with an amazing love for them.  I knew that "this was it" and that this was where we were to adopt from.  I came home and shared with Steve what I was thinking, feeling and what the Lord had layed on my heart.  He was immediately in agreement and we began to pray together about the direction we should take.  To say the least, our children were super excited about the prospect!!

Now...any adoption is long, tedious at times, and can be very complicated.  Haiti is exponentially so!  We began to research the best way to go about the adoption, agencies, private attorney or what?!  We spoke with many people about their experiences and learned that Haiti is a very difficult place to get things done with any sort of speed.  We spoke to some people that had been in process for three years and this was very discouraging and yet we still felt called to Haiti.

We had the opportunity to join a team that headed down shortly after the earthquake.  This is when we first went to Children of Hope Orphanage and Hospice.  We knew that we wanted to adopt a sibling group.  This is where we met and fell in love with our children, Giflore who was six at the time and her little brother Kiki who was three.  They are amazing kids~and we began talking to the directors of the orphanage about these children and told them that our intent was to be their forever family.

In the mean time, another sweet gift was given from God...I began a job with a local foundation that is working in Haiti.  It is called HaitiServe.  You can check us out at http://www.haitiserve.org/!  It has been a huge blessing in so many ways!  It has also given me the opportunity to travel to Haiti regularly on business and get to see our children too!

We were told that the children had the correct paper work for adoption and that it would be relatively quick and straight forward.  We later found out that the orphanage did not have their Creche license and therefore, could not facilitate adoptions.  The orphanage filed the papers and now has their temporary license and can begin processing adoptions.  One hurdle we are over. 

Through many friends that we have met during our travels and involvement in Haiti, the Lord has led us to an attorney that I will meet with on Wednesday in Haiti to officially get things moving on that end.  We are so thankful for this connection and believe that she will be a Godsend!!!

One of the biggest blessings of this process so far has been the people that the Lord has put in our path both here in the US and in Haiti.  Thank you, thank you Lord that we do not travel this path alone!  We are so thankful to Terry Douglas for introducing me to the beautiful people and country of Haiti.  Thankful for friends who are encouraging and willing to walk every step of the way with us.  Teams that embrace and  love our children with us.  Friends that translate and drive us in Haiti.  Friends that support and believe in adoption and our family enough to give in every way.  Friends to walk with as we all journey together to bring all of our children home from Haiti!  Friends and family who are praying for our WHOLE family.

We will follow, be obedient, trust, cry, rejoice, pray and long for the day that we will hold our children in our arms in our, their home, here with us.

I promise I won't be so long winded after this!
Renee'

A long road we will not walk alone...