Monday, December 27, 2010

While I am Waiting...

I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am hopeful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait

I will move ahead, bold and confident
Taking every step in obedience
While I'm waiting
I will serve You
While I'm waiting
I will worship
While I'm waiting
I will not faint
I'll be running the race
Even while I wait

I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am peaceful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it's not easy
But faithfully, I will wait
Yes, I will wait
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve you while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting on You, Lord

Thank you John Waller for writing such an incredible song.

So this is where we are; waiting. We are confidant in God's timing for Wisler's arrival. We did get a recent update that Pastor Riguad would be sending out updates on dossiers sometime after January 6th. So we wait. We pray for Wisler and the workers at the orphanage. We pray for ALL the children and for Haiti...
We have had the opportunity to skype with Wisler a few times thanks to our wonderful friend Tina who is living and serving at the orphanage. Those times were a precious gift...to see our little boy smile, and hear his voice....
Please continue to pray for us and for Wisler....thank you all for your support and love. We will be doing more fundraising in the coming months to cover travel expenses and final payments to St. Andres Adoption Agency.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Yard Sale!!!!!!

Yard sale Friday morning only 9-1ish, getting rid of all the huge items left over from our June fundraising sale---the raffle items will be available as will many crafts and furniture--desk, chair, kitchen table, microwave cart, bookcase and I can't remember the rest. All the $ will go towards travel expenses to Haiti and the orphanage....

Sunday, August 15, 2010



My Second Trip to Haiti
August 6-10, 2010
(make sure you check out the new slideshow on the sidebar)









Well as some of you may know I made another excursion to
Haiti.
This one was extra special as I brought our completed dossier and final
payment with me.
It was a wonderful moment to hand it off!!!


My time at the orphanage was wonderful. God really blessed us with small comforts like not making it too hot and allowing the power to be on
more often than not --which meant that the ceiling fans were running!!!! It was cooler than the last time we visited--only a heat index of 107-112 with a nice breeze.

Wisler was so excited to see me. He ran out of the orphanage and up to me with a huge grin. He immediately hugged me and took my hand--"mum" and tugged me along to our room.
We spent some wonderful time playing cards (I learned a new card game), playing memory match super heroes, coloring, singing and just snuggling. It was an incredible time together.



We are praying for a miracle--that Wisler will join us for Christmas. Please join us as we pray for this. We were told it could take 6 months to two years BUT we serve a God who is bigger than any government...so He can do it!



Sunday, July 11, 2010

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress..." James 1:27

Most of you whom I have spoken with have heard my heartbreak for the people of La Saline---the area where they make mud pies and eat them to quell the pain of starvation. While we were in Haiti we met up with two pastors who want to change that...we have asked them to keep us posted on what they do. Jack sent us an email today and I wanted to post it along with a video of Pastor Riguad explaining the mud pies. Keep in mind this is real, it occurs daily in our world---just outside the walls of the orphanage where our little boy Wisler lives.

here is the video:


And here is Jack's email

I spoke with Pastor Rigaud this week about how to address the problem with La Saline kids eating “mud pies.” He believes that the best way to address this issue is by starting a school for the kids, including a kindergarten (age 2 and up). He believes that he could start with a facility of about 9-10 classrooms, a kitchen, a storage room and a cafeteria. With that, he feels that he could accommodate about 500 children (kindergarten and elementary) in some form and include feeding the kids as part of the program. The deal is that the kids have to go to school to qualify for the food which then sets some level of commitment on the part of the kids and parents to participate. Additionally, it provides hope that kids can improve their socioeconomic position by obtaining an education.

This approach is essentially the same model that he has employed in his school adjacent to his large church, except this one will be in the slums of La Saline. There will be a need for funding the construction of the facility, to hire staff and purchase food in the long run. Tom Apsey (my traveling companion) and I met with some other leaders from our church this week and we are going to attempt to get something moving in the way of planning and fund raising. It is too early to launch anything but we are working to place some structure around the concept and move forward.

Pastor Rigaud told me that he is planning to move forward with the school with whatever resources he can get. The government has deeded him land in La Saline which he would utilize for this purpose. He also mentioned that we could establish some sort of program to provide food for the kids in the interim as the construction, staffing and enrollment process will take some time to get off the ground. Michael Dunbar, the minister who made our introduction to Pastor Rigaud, is visiting Haiti next month and will hopefully gain some additional insights. We may send someone down at that time as well, but that is not finalized.

Obviously the details of this initiative are not completely ironed out, but at least we have a start. Feel free to offer any ideas or suggestions.



So please if God is calling you --step up a little one needs you.


Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Another Trip!!!!!

I will be returning to Haiti August 6-10 to visit our little man. I am so excited...
We are very close to being done with our paperwork. There are just a few last things to do and wait for. We still need close to $3000 to pay the lawyer in Haiti. So please continue to pray for us and for the finances....

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

The Haiti Trip



Words will not accurately describe this trip. There are none. Even the pictures and video we took fall short of conveying the joy, sorrow, poverty and destruction that we saw. I can tell you my heart is broken for the Haitian people and their plight but I am overcome with amazement by their joy and faith in their dire circumstances. We saw tent cities...miles of them...clusters of them....shelters made out of scraps of trash....gray sewage water runs down the streets---the hot, humid air combines with the smell of raw sewage, burning trash and death and it stifles you. In another small cluster of tents the children are starving....they eat mud pies-- salt, water, a bit of butter mixed with water (not clean water mind you) and dirt dried in the sun. There is no nourishment for their little bodies but at least there is relief from the pain in their tummies. They die slowly and painfully from starvation, I suppose getting a disease and dying quickly is a blessing. The walls of the orphanage hold the poverty at bay but only by a few feet. A step outside puts you in contact with a stream of raw sewage that runs parallel to the first cluster of tents. Our children in the orphanage are safe. Plucked by the hand of God out of the poverty, death and destruction and put into this place of refuge. This is a view from the roof top of the orphanage. There are layers to the city. Here you can see the buildings--metals roofs, broken concrete--what you can't see are just below this are the tent clusters.
Wayoum Timoun is an oasis. The children are very happy, fed, clothed. They have access to clean water, school and church. They have an incredible staff of women and young men who care for their needs--and of course there is Papi--Pastor Riguad. He is the surrogate daddy to all 60 plus children.






When we first arrived I was completely overwhelmed with emotion. Rich introduced us to Wisler as mum and dad. We could not talk. We were so nervous--afraid he would not like us, I had all these Creole phrases ready in my head and could not talk... all I could do was cry. He immediately took our hands and led us upstairs to the roof and guest quarters. It is a very special privledge for them to up on the roof near the guest quarters. Only the chosen are allowed. To try and break the ice (after I got myself under control) I took out the scrapbook we made him. He seemed really unsure at first but warmed up once he saw the picture of the moto bicyclette at Grandma Kay's house. He was so sweet repeating the names of everybody as I introduced them. It was a wonderful moment. Brian and I needn't have worried so about him liking us...God conceived him in our hearts and us in his.

Later that night we had dinner all together. Wisler was so proud to lead us down to dinner. He held our hands...and as other kids walked by or said something to him he said "mum dad Wisler"--and the other children would point to us and ask "mum dad Wisler?" and when we confirmed it they would scamper off chattering away. It is a big deal to be chosen. The rest of our trip is a blur of crazy fun and heartbreak. Wisler loves playing with our camera equipment so we let him take tons of pictures and take video. He is also quite a ham on camera and really enjoyed getting creative with his poses.


















Wisler loves basketball so McGyver...uh I mean Brian made him a hoop out of wire he found on the roof, duct tape and mosquito netting. He loved it. The kids played bball for several hours.



We loved spending time with our little guy. We made crafts, had a sing along with Spring, went out for ice cream, snuggled and tickled, played ball, read stories and just cherished every precious moment of bonding time. It was incredible and bittersweet. It was very difficult to leave our little man---we know he is well cared for and safe, but there is nothing like a mama and dad.
It helps to know where he is and what he is doing as we have been a part of his daily life. We know God is in control and will bring him home in His perfect timing. In the meantime we are 3/4 done with paperwork...just need to: finish notarizing, authenticating, translating and send off the dossier. We paid our first installment and now have a copy of his abandonment decree and will soon have copies of his birth certificate and medical records.


















Pray for us. Pray for Wisler. Pray for all the children at the orphanage that they find mums and dads to love them. Pray for more money to expand and reach more children. Please check out their new website....and if God leads you ....help.
http://www.haitibethlehemproject.org/Home_Page.php

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Adoption Update


Well many have asked where we are in the adoption process and what the timeline is for getting Wisler home. We are currently at the end of our homestudy process. We have our last interview/home visit tonight. We are very excited to be almost done this step! After tonight's visit our case worker will write up our home study report. This could take a few weeks. While she is working on that we are currently gathering the rest of the document we need for our Haitian dossier. Once we have ALL those documents we have to have them notarized then translated into French. Then several of the documents need to be sent back for authentication. Once this is done we will take our dossier and send it to Haiti with the initial four thousand dollars. After that we will need to raise approximately another four thousand to pay for the Haitian lawyer (three thousand) and to Homeland Security (I think it around six hundred) and then various other fees for medical exams for Wisler and travel costs. So we have a long road yet. We are hoping to have all our paperwork done and send out our dossier and initial payment by July 1. After that we will work on the other payments. Once the money is all sent off the rest is in the Haitian government's hands. We were told it could take anywhere from 9 months to 2 years. We are confident in God's timing --we serve a God who can move mountains--He can take care of the government no matter how corrupt!
We are incredibly thankful for God's provision as He walks us through this process. He has provided so much in the way of emotional and financial support. We are still planning the sale for June. It is tentatively set for June 18-19 but we will have to see what the weather does. We are going to have an enormous craft section (thank you all crafty folks!!!) a bake sale and yard sale items. We will also be raffling off several items that folks have made. I am blown away daily by how many people love Wisler already... how many of you are adopting him into your lives so readily and lovingly. I can't wait to see him in June ( we leave June 3 -7) and tell him about all the people who can't wait to have him home!
God is the author of this story we are just being obedient to His call for our lives.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Wisler's Story
Wisler Estimable is 6 years old. He was found by Pastor Riguad last May (2009) holding the hands of his two brothers as they wandered the streets of Port au Prince. Pastor Riguad, who runs Wayom Timoun Orphanage in Port au Prince, discovered that the boys' mother had died and their father had left them. Pastor took them in to the orphanage where they are being cared for by a loving family of God's people.

Our Story
Many of you are wondering how this all transpired. Well it is not a short story but if you want to spend time reading it then have at it! Brian and I have discussed adoption since we first were married. It was something we knew we would do...that it was a call on our lives...it just was in God's timing. We have discussed it more in the last year...weighing different options...asking ourselves all the crazy questions...international? local? boy? girl? infant? child? The list goes on. We started researching in the Fall but did not yet feel led to move. Then the earthquake in Haiti happened and I thought hey why don't we adopt from Haiti? Well after some research I discovered that immediately following the quake the Haitian government had closed all adoptions. I was disappointed but my prayer was: "God if this is what you want then have it fall in our laps..." Well needless to say that's exactly what happened! One day while perusing my FB newsfeed I saw my friend Spring was adopting from Haiti. I thought that's cool. I am glad they re-opened adoptions ...and I did not think another thought on it. I am not sure how much time passed after that but at some point Spring posted that they had just discovered that the little 8 year old boy they were adopting had two younger brothers! My heart felt like it was zapped with lightening. I knew without a shadow of a doubt this was the falling in our lap prayer being answered. I emailed Spring and through the course of several weeks Brian and I spent a lot of time praying, talking and listening for God's plan. Finally....He told us and we got confirmation from Spring's family (they had been praying too as to how many God wanted them to adopt) that we would adopt Wisler (pronounced with a short i and french e-kind of a long a sound) the middle boy. Since then God has opened every door...not to say it has been easy by any means but we are fully confident that He will see us through and Wisler will arrive in his new home in God's perfect timing. We are heading to Haiti June 3-7, 2010 to go meet Wisler. It is a requirement from the Haitian government that both parents meet the child before the adoption can progress. We are very excited to go meet our little man. The boys are anxious for him to get here so he can play legos and army men. Ean has even said he will share his trains with him! Kids are great!

As we move through this journey we are praying for God to provide the money needed. We know He will. We are planning a yard sale, bake sale and craft raffle. We are also making this website so that those of you who wish to make a donation to help us bring Wisler home can do so.

If you would like to help us out I have set up a paypal account under my email account louisej12@gmail.com
OR you can snail mail us a check @
13 Giroux St.
Auburn Maine 04210


Thanks in advance and help us get Wisler home!!!!




Help us bring Wisler home...
You can Pay pal to: Louisej12*gmail.com (Replace the * with @ )