You are not the authour.

I read this quote on someones blog recently which sums up adoption quite nicely.

"Adoption is a story.  You are not the authour."

This is so true and I must remind myself of it often.  I'm always trying to control things and all that does is cause stress, strife, and disappointment.  If only I would learn that I'M JUST NOT IN CONTROL!  We serve such a mighty God and all I have to do is follow His lead.  He won't lead me somewhere and then just leave me.  He's always by my side and like He tells us in His word numerous times, He will never leave us nor forsake us.

As time ticks by my desire for those kiddos gets stronger and stronger and the wait gets harder and harder.  I have no idea when my kids will come home, no idea what stage of the process my paperwork is in, and no idea how this is all going to turn out.  All I know is that we serve a God whose plans and ways are greater than mine.  A God who already knows how it's going to turn out and a God who knows how hard it is to wait.  So I'll try to sit back and wait patiently (because really that's all I can do) and I'll live for today, enjoying the many gifts God has already given to me.

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."  Romans 15:13

Photos!

Fun times on the roof.  On the left is one of our wonderful translators!

On the way to the orphanage.

One of our favourite nannies.

Boys just love to wrestle.....

Another of our wonderful translators.

Heading for Home

While waiting to board the plane at the airport in Port-au-Prince there was an announcement over the loudspeaker.  "We have an overbooking situation if anyone is willing to give up their seats and fly out on the next flight tomorrow morning please come to the ticket counter.  We are offering a $700 travel voucher."  I'm all about saving a buck (OR $700!!!), so I look at Joe and say "That's our tickets back here to pick up the kiddos paid for!!!"  Joe looks like he's pondering it and then looks at me and says, "And what do you suggest we do when we step out of this airport?  Our drivers gone, and where pray tell do you suggest we spend the night?"  Okay he didn't quite say it like that but I like the way that sounds and it pretty much conveys exactly what he said to me!

Not fifteen minutes later the same lady gets on the loudspeaker again and gives the same announcement only the travel voucher has gone up to $800!  Again I look at Joe and again he seems to be pondering and suggests that maybe we stay at the airport for the night but in that same split second of pondering he changes his mind thinking that doesn't really sound like a very good idea either and he adds (just for effect I'm sure) and I'm not staying here for one more night!

Maybe ten minutes later and still we have an overbooking situation and no one seems to want to stay another night.  It's up to $850 now.  I don't say anything this time.  Who am I kidding, yes I did but now I think Joe's getting tired of me!

We finally start to board the plane and we find our seats and Joe immediately buckles up.  (I'm pretty sure he was trying to tell me something...)  The plane is almost full and yep you guessed it we still have an overbooking situation.  We still need three people to give up their seats and now we'll give you a $1,000 travel voucher.  Okay that's it!  Joe are you serious, we're not going to stay for one more night to get our flights back here for FREE and then some!?!?!?!?!?!  Joe looked at me, looked down at his seat belt, pulled it as tight as he could (again just for effect!) and said, "We're not staying here for another night, we're going home!"  Enough said I realize Joe's right and we're going home so I decided to give it up and buckle my own seat belt as well.  US here we come!  It really wouldn't have been a good idea to stay for another night even the people behind me were making jokes about the travel voucher and how there's no way they would take it either!

Show Hope

This is one of the Tee Shirts we are selling as part of our fundraising.  Joe wears his a lot.  I was taking pictures of him and our girlie and didn't even notice that she was pointing to his shirt.  I don't think I could have gotten a better picture if I'd planned it!  I'll show you the whole shot when she comes home!

Underneath is says "A Movement To Care For Orphans" in case you were wondering!

Joe spends a lot of time on lying on his back these days and each time he did he would have kids all over him, (much like at home really) unless.....our daughter was around and then she would shoo all the other kiddos away so this was a nice time to take pictures of the two of them.  I have a great shot of Joe wrestling with a wee boy I'll have to post for you all to see.

Photos!

I have a lot of pictures to share with you all but group shots without any identifying info. is all I'll be posting until our babies are home with us.  I hope you enjoy the glimpse I'll be showing you within the next few weeks.

Oh come here and give me a hug already......

Okay so this isn't a group shot but it's only half a face!

Market/Grocery Store

We went to the market a few times while we were in Haiti.  The market is a very small (by US standards) grocery store.  The last time we went it was just Joe and I and our translator.  We selected our purchases and went to check out.  The lady rang us up and said $70.  $70!!!  Really???  Joe only had $60 cash and that should have easily covered it.  Our translator was hurriedly doing a currency conversion on his phone.  In the meantime Joe had given the money changer his money to convert to the Haitin gourde and was scrounging around in his money belt for some more change.  Jonas (translator) asked Joe how much he had given her.  Joe said $60 and Jonas gestured for Joe to stop looking for more.  Fishy.....   The lady took the Haitian money ($60 US) and then handed Joe some change!  I guess she rang us up every day and just said $70 every time!!!  Cheeky buggers.

It would probably pay to have Haitian money the next time we go so it will be easier to see if we're being ripped off or not!  Thanks to God we had wonderful translators who had our best interests in mind.

Perspective

So while waiting for Michelle to do her photocopying (at the second copy shop) and we were waiting for a long time (this is the bathroom wait I talked about, you know, the one where Joe insisted I drink an entire energy drink before we left for the day...) we started to bake inside the truck.  Some of us stepped outside for a bit of fresh air.  Not me, I stayed right where I was inside the truck, not that that was any safer than standing outside but it felt like it was.  Anyway, as we were waiting, a half naked woman ran down the street acting really rather strange.  We just blew it off and one of our translators said (very matter of factly I might add) "She's possessed by demons."  Well that just took on a whole new meaning.  Here in the US, if we saw that, we'd say "She's crazy."  But there they say it like it really is.  I mean what is crazy anyway?  I'm not talking about people that do silly (crazy?) things to get a rise out of people or a laugh, I'm talking about the people that are really messed up.  We give them a label and the doc. puts them on meds.  In Haiti they probably send them to the Vodoo Priest.  Which is kind of the right idea, just the wrong place for healing.  Maybe if we didn't try to leave God out of the picture in so many instances we'd be going to the right place for healing and not see so many "crazy" people!