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| Fedeline age 4 (Birthday April 25) |
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| Gladine age 3 |
We call this initial blog, "and so it begins" but in reality, it has been going on for over a year now as the search for our kids went thru several villages and past many beautiful kids to these two precious, sweet girls, Fedeline and Gladine. But today we say "and so it begins" as we are two days away from our kids getting into an official, accredited Creche' orphanage, (as dictated by Haitian law), that will mark the beginning of the legal process in Haiti.
But as I said the true beginning was in 2010 when we met with our Haitian lawyer, told him our plans, discussed money and decided then that rather than randomly have children assigned to us, we would use our many visits to Haiti to allow God to lead our search that hopefully has ended with Fedeline and Gladine. But there were others we felt may be meant for us, but God had other plans.
The first little guy was Jean Ellie who we met while helping rebuild his makeshift orphanage after a windy storm. He, like Fedeline and Gladine is living in a field, a different field, after his orphanage was destroyed in the earthquake. There were about 20 kids in this "camp" who had a very shallow well and used a broken down bus for both a shelter and apparently at times a bathroom. Both of his parents were living and his dad was excited about the possibility of Jean Ellie getting out of Haiti. For a day or two we were pretty excited but soon found out his mom was willing to give him up, for cash, which is a huge no-no and against the law. So we knew Jean Ellie was not the one God had chosen for us.
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| Jean Ellie |
On our next trip we met Lovely, a 17 year old beautiful, pregnant girl living in a tent city. She too was considering adopting to us. Kim and I met her in her tent city, we were again pretty excited but our enthusiasm was tempered because we were told in Haiti, woman were very reluctant to part with their firstborn, even at 17. Lovely did have the baby in December 2010 and on my next visit in January, I met with her, the beautiful newborn and the father of the baby. He was a very impressive guy in his early 20's, who actually thanked me for wanting to help them and for our interest in his baby girl. He said he wanted to do right by Lovely and the baby, and wanted to talk to his folks and see if they would help, if so, they were going to keep the baby. I left them praying his folks would step up because I really felt this guy had a great heart and was looking to make a wise decision. They did make that decision and kept the baby. May God protect and bless that young family.
On our first visit to the hillside that brought us to Fedeline and Gladine we met Donneke. She was a hoot! I can still picture her in her pretty dress posing for us with her big smile and big personality. Her mom was interested in adopting but as happens in Haiti, we became unsure the woman who told us she was Donneke's mom, was in fact Donneke's mom. We also learned Donneke may not have been an orphan or lived at this camp. We never heard from or saw Donneke again.
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| Donneke |
It was on this trip the mother of a two year old approached Kim and I asking us to take her baby. She said she could not care for her and she was concerned for her future. This poor woman was not talking about taking the baby after an adoption process, but wanted us to take her that day...right then. As she tried to hand her to us she said in broken English, "she is good girl, she will cause no problems". It was very sad to have to basically push this little girl back into her mom's arms and explain we could not do that. We remember the sad expression on this poor woman's face...then, to leave her to return to her old and dirty tent on this grassy hillside with a child she knew she was unable to care for. Really tough.
My last trip to Haiti I sat with Berline, the pregnant laundress working at an orphanage, (the same one our two girls will be living at until we can bring them home). She and I spoke for an hour, her telling me the story of the abusive father of her unborn baby. Through and interpreter she told me she was kicked out of the tent she and her boyfriend shared and now was living with someone who promised her shelter only until the baby was born. She seemed very anxious to allow us to adopt and told us once the baby was born, she would adopt him to us. This seemed perfect. With the father out of the picture, the paperwork would be easier, she had other kids and she already worked in the orphanage that the child would be living. I remember calling Kim as we drove out of Port Au Prince saying we had found our baby.
The day before valentines day while I was working in our garage back in Ohio, Kim came out to me and said, "It's a boy"..."Berline has given birth to a a baby boy". We kind of just looked at each other and said nothing for a second, and then began laughing, we were going to have a boy...or so we thought. Back in Haiti Berline did not call or come to the orphanage for several days after the delivery, and Sue, the saintly American who runs the orphanage was concerned and was actually going to go into the tent city Berline was living and try to find her. As it turns out, thank God, Berline was OK, but had completely changed her mind. It seemed the father-in-law, yes, dad of the abusive dad, decided he wanted to keep the baby...she was not going to give us this little boy. This of course was a low point because everything seemed to really make sense with this little guy. It also was beginning to seem as though we were never going to be able to truly transact business with the Haitians from the US, and we had no great alternatives as we could not afford to go back and forth either financially or with jobs. It seemed we were not ever really going to be able to identify kids across an ocean and across language barriers....then God sent us our angels, Jeff and Rita, but first, let me tell you the first time I met Fedeline.
I was in Haiti at Christianville, (CV) and there against the wall were 6 kids, all who had just returned from the doctor. Fedeline was really not feeling well but was happy to help eat a large hefty bag of popcorn. As hard as I tried I could not get her to even smile! All the other kids were smiling but she would not. Her day consisted of riding to the hospital with two other kids and an adult on a single motorcycle! they spent all day in a waiting room to get her medicine she needed for an inner ear infection. They then stopped at CV so I could meet them and help pay for the prescriptions. It was by this time very dark so we drove the kids back to the field and it was there I could tell why Fedeline was so quite. I remember picking up her limp body out of the truck as on the drive to her home, she had fallen into a coma-like sleep. I recall how hot her face and arms were as she burned up with fever. I passed her off to her mom and discussed adoption, which she said she was interested in discussing more. But how? when? I was leaving the next day and the communication capabilities of these people on this hill was basically zero. Our only hope was to try and work thru our Haitian translator but even that held little hope for really accomplishing anything. This was very frustrating knowing this sick little girl was going to most likely get sicker and we were helpless until our next visit....but then our friends Jeff and Rita went to Haiti and earned a spot in Liberatore lore forever. (An honor they will never be able to fully grasp!).
last week, Jeff and Rita went up to this ragtag hillside orphanage to help dig a well and while doing so, advanced our adoption far past where we ever could have dreamed or hoped..Jeff sorted out a lot of bad information we were operating with, ran down signed parental consents, pictures, birth certificates and in fact found another little girl in great need, Fedeline's "best friend" and first cousin Gladine! So in six days Jeff and Rita did for us what we could not accomplish in a year, and what we would not have ever been able to accomplish in many, many months and many trips! Our angels Jeff and Rita who we will never be able to thank enough and who will are the primary reason these kids are headed our way......
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| Children against the wall... |
So now this brings us to this Friday, April 1st, the day our girls will go into the Creche' orphanage.
I must end with this caution.....Many weird things can still slow or end this process. We have said many times, that we will be certain these kids are going to be ours the first night we tuck them into their beds here in Avon Lake, Ohio. And until that night we will be realists that Haiti is a very difficult place to transact business, there is a cultural divide and in the end we are talking about dealings that are very delicate and intricate no matter what country. There is a ton of paperwork on both sides and a process that requires every dotted i and crossed T. But Kim and I trust God's plan for Fedeline, Gladine and for us 100%. He has been so faithful to us and has loved us so much that all we can do is wait in joyful expectation of whatever He brings us. He is an AWESOME GOD!!!!
and so it begins.........
