Why Haiti?

(Please take time to watch the videos that are on the linked blog)
I read this blog this morning. It brought me to tears as I watched the videos, and talked to Julia about her siblings. How do I know that the children they showed on the news aren't one of mine. Why is adopting from Haiti so much more difficult than other countries? Why do the leaders of Haiti think that these children will be better off staying in orphanages where they don't have the love of a mother and a father? Why do they believe that children laying in beds all day long without medical care and suffering from malnutrition will be able to one be leaders of their society? Why do they believe this when these children aren't going to even survive unless they are allowed to be adopted.

I get asked often "Why Haiti?". How many children in America who have been abandoned by their parents are suffering from typhoid? How many children in America are suffering from not having food to eat or clean water to drink? How many children in America are living in conditions that we ourselves aren't living in?

There aren't many. Do you know why? Because our government has laws that protect children. Our government takes children away from places where these things happen and legally requires parents to take classes and make changes or children get taken away permanently. Does that mean that there aren't children who need parents in America? No. Those children definitely need parents. Those children definitely deserve parents, but that isn't where God called us. America is not where our hearts have been led. Our hearts have been led to Haiti.

When you look at the conditions these children live in, even in the best of orphanages, you can't help but cry. In America, we get angry when we see American children living in conditions like this there is an outcry about how Child Protective Services should take these children out of these situations. We get upset about how parents are giving chance after chance after chance to get it together while children stay in these conditions. Who is fighting for the children in 3rd world countries? Who is petitioning the government to help these children? The government in Haiti wants to keep children in these circumstances because they are the future of Haiti.

What would our country look like if many of our children lived in orphanages, suffered from malnutrition, were coming down with typhoid and malaria, and suffered from attachment issues because there was no one to care for them? Is that a country that you would want to live in 30 or 40 years down the road when those children were old enough to be in control? Is that a society that can be sustainable?

So we're choosing Haiti because God led us there.

We're choosing Haiti because God has burdened our hearts for the people of Haiti.

We're choosing Haiti because even though laws want to keep us from loving these children, we've been called to.

We're choosing Haiti so that we can raise our children to love the least of these, to teach them about their culture, and so that they can go back and be contributing members of society.

We're choosing Haiti because it doesn't matter where in the world you live you deserve to have a family.

We're choosing Haiti because these children need someone to fight for them.

Who does God want you to fight for?

Oh the Journey...

I'm beginning to realize that this journey is going to be long. I knew it was going to take time. I expected nothing to happen overnight.

I'm not sure how to explain this, but it almost seems like the emotional toll something takes on you changes how long something feels. For instance, if you have to wait two years to say go to Paris on vacation it could seem like time flies because of the excitement built up in the waiting.

Don't get me wrong, there is excitement waiting for your children to come home. But the waiting and wondering if they are safe, if they feel loved, if they feel hope wears on you.

We don't even know who are kids are yet, but I already find myself wondering these things. I already find myself worrying. Getting frustrated when I don't hear back from our agency in my time frame. (There were staff changes and hearing back from people took time).

Part of our application is filling our our income, and my income has not only changed since I became a stay at home mom but it has changed through out the past few months. I was doing childcare at church and that changed. I was watching a friends baby and that changed. And these changes changed our income. We had to be honest about our finances and as soon as we felt like something was happening permanently we would fill out our application, and then it would change and we would have to re fill it out.

For me that was an emotional struggle because I just want to have it turned in. I want to have it complete, begin our home study, and find out who our kiddos are. And all of it is taking longer than I wanted.

And the journey is still on step one when I want to be halfway down the road by now.