Yep, We're Still Here

I know things have been quiet here on this blog, but believe me stuff is happening.  Haiti is changing some things about how they handle adoptions, which is good in the long run because it will basically prevent children from being trafficked.  I'm not going to go through exactly what these changes are, I barely understand them myself so I will spare you the details.  I will share that Haiti is in the process of choosing which American adoption agencies they will continue to use, only about 4 or 5.  We are waiting to see, hopefully sometime this week, if All Blessings is chosen.

What this means is, if ABI is chosen we can proceed with our adoption.....super exciting!  If they are not chosen, our paperwork will then be transferred to an agency that has been chosen and we can move forward with them, also exciting but I really love our agency and our coordinator....she's amazing and I'll be so sad if she can't do the referral for us.  

Some good news is that we have enough money to move forward with one child (YAY!!! Thank you God!!) and since things are a little on the rocky side with Haitian adoptions we feel we better make a move now rather than wait indefinitely.  Hey, you never know, there could be another little one somewhere out there in this great big world needing us!  Buuuut, we have a long way to go before we even entertain that thought some more! :)  

Prayer requests:

1. That we hear sometime this week (we were told we should know at the beginning of Nov.) if ABI has been chosen.

2. That we can get our referral before the end of the year.  I think my heart may break over this waiting, it's getting harder and harder.  :/  My kids are fed up too!  They've been praying him home for Christmas, which at this point will require a miracle! 

Thanks everyone! 

Gourmet Italian Dinner Fundraiser

There is going to be an Italian Dinner Fundraiser at our church, Hillside Chapel in Beavercreek, Ohio on October 7, 2012.  While we have successfully raised close to $10,000 ($4000 of which is from a Show Hope grant, which we cannot use for the international fee, it's to be used for travel time) we still need so much more.  Remember, we feel that God is leading us to adopt a sibling group......sibling groups do not move out of the orphanage as quickly as one child.  They also, almost always include an older child....who also does not move out as quickly.  I know from past experiences that we could be wrong on what God wants for us, but this is a desire that has been put into our hearts so we will continue to work our butts off for two precious ones.  

Simply put, we need a miracle.  Getting the additional $22,000 seems impossible to our human minds, but NOTHING is impossible with God, Luke 1:37.  I know we have asked so much of you, like donating, sharing links on Facebook and getting the word out to people in your circles, but please remember that you are not giving the Warners money.  You are helping the orphan, and our Heavenly Father loves the orphan, so please consider joining us for dinner, Oct. 7th. and being a part of God's call to help the orphan.

Psalm 68:5-6a
A father to the fatherless, a defender of the widows, is God in his holy dwelling.  God sets the lonely in families,

Will you help us, in any way you can, bring home two children who desperately need a family?  We are on a mission, but we cannot do this alone.  Pray with us for a miracle.  Our goal is to be matched with two children before Christmas, since having all the money and being matched prior to Oct 1st is obviously not going to work out now.  Just a reminder, we cannot be matched until we are ready to submit the international fee of $14000/child.  This is NOT an adoption agency fee, this is required by the country of Haiti.  We have spent $10,000 of our own money (with the exception of about $2000 in donations) and have raised $9800.....we are exhausting all options, humanly speaking, so pray.  

Also, be in prayer for social services in Haiti (IBESR) as they are still implementing some changes in how they handle adoption cases.  Our family coordinator is traveling to Haiti in a couple of days to be able to attend a meeting.  Pray that we don't have any hang ups in our process because of the changes and we can still meet our goal to have the money and be matched by Christmas.

I know it's a lot to take in, but this is serious business and we need your help.  Thank you.

http://www.hillsidecma.org/#/events/gourmet-italian-dinner

Climbing This Steep Mountain

International adoption is a lot like climbing a very steep mountain.  You know the mountain is huge and will take a while to get to the top but since you know what glorious view awaits you, you choose to start climbing anyway.  It's rough at first, especially if you've never done this before but you learn quickly to take it easy and work hard.  Once you start getting a feel for the climb you become more confident and before you know it you are making headway, gaining ground and getting closer.  Just as you start getting excited at the thought of being closer than ever and you are almost done,  your foot slips, what you thought would be a great help in your climb ended up being an unstable rock and it gives way.  Before you know it, you've fallen back, lose momentum and several feet.  Discouraged and bruised, still thinking of that glorious view, you get back up and start again.  You experience the same feelings of discouragement and excitement, slip and fall over and over, and it feels as if you'll never make it.  You are exhausted, battered and still determined.  You can't help but feel discouraged and even lonely at times.  You get back up and keep trying, keep pressing on.  Just when you think you are going to fall, there, right before you, are some stable places to firmly plant your feet and you gain momentum and get further than you have before, thankful for the help.

Good News

Once again, we have been quiet on this blog.  Not a whole lot has been happening, just a lot of waiting.  IBESR (social services in Haiti) has been going through some changes and as a result they temporarily stopped accepting dossiers.  The news was a little troubling and unsettling, but that's just how it is with international adoption.  We were told that they would re-open on August 1st but then got the news that it wasn't going to be until sometime in September.  Bummer.  We were starting to get a bit nervous because the news was so vague and who knew if they would re-open or just stayed closed indefinitely.  

On another note, we are very excited to say that we have about $9,600 raised!  Give1Save1 was such a blessing to us.....what an incredibly fun and encouraging week we had!  Thank you again to all of you who helped get the word out and for those of you who gave.  We still need that $28,000 in place to be matched.  

Okay, so here's the good news.  We just received word this morning that IBESR is once again accepting dossiers starting THIS THURSDAY!!!!  We are so excited, but now in even more of a hurry.  We need prayer warriors to join us as we pray for the following:

1. For a miracle.  For the rest of the money to come quickly so we can be matched and get our dossier in....PRONTO!!  Because even if IBESR closes again we can still complete our adoption if we've been matched and the dossier has been approved.

2. For IBESR to remain open not just for us and our sweet kiddos, but for all the other kids that are waiting for their families!  It's hard to think of all those children in an orphanage with no hope of being matched with a family, just because of the inconsistencies in international adoption and the Haitian government.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and please, we ask for prayers, for our God to move mountains.  There is so much peace in knowing that our God can do this..........if our God is for us, then who can be against us?  AMEN!!

Featured Family!!!

So excited today because we are the featured family today over athttp://give1save1caribbean.blogspot.com/2012/07/first-week-first-family.html?m=1!!!  Please check it out...we have a video of our story that you can watch and if you feel led you can donate a dollar, (or more is perfectly acceptable as well!)

Thanks for your support and please get the word to as many people as you can.  Total strangers are helping us out and it's amazing to see how God is working this out for us!!  You are doing something amazing for two precious little ones that so desperately need a family.

give1save1: We're Growing!

Hey faithful Desta readers!!  I wanted to introduce you to an amazing blog.  Below you'll find the link to their latest blog entry and what's going on in the Give1Save1 future.  They are creating a special Give1Save1 sight for adoptions from the Caribbean and hopefully soon it will be up and running because we are the first family to be featured on it!!!!  Woohoo!!  So please check it out and take the time to read it.  You can impact not only our adoption finances, but every family they feature because all it takes is one dollar.  We all have a dollar so there really isn't any excuse. One small, measly dollar a week and you are making a HUGE difference. The orphan crisis around the world can be greatly impacted through Give1Save1 and I am very excited to be a part of it and to help countless children come home.  Please, I implore you to become a part of the Give1Save1 family.  There is now no excuse to not be involved in following Gods command to care for the orphan.  Thank you!!

give1save1: We're Growing!: Hey Guys, Big news on the Give1 front too! In a few weeks when you type in give1save1 it's going to take you to a world map. If you're an ...

Show Hope

Today we were blessed in a big way!!  As you can see, our amount on our fundraising thermometer has gone up, quite a bit!  Show Hope blessed us with a grant!!  After being told there weren't enough funds to give a grant from three other organizations, this was definitely an unexpected gift.  We were blown away and are so excited!  We are giving thanks to the Lord and are excited to see Him working!  Other things are in the works and we'll be sure to keep you posted as things unravel! 

Yes.....

we're still adopting!  Things have been quiet since our dossier was completed because, well, there's not much to tell.  There is only so far you can go on your adoption journey when you hit a huge financial wall.  It's been hard and discouraging at times but God has really been using this "silence" to stretch me and force me to do nothing else but cling to Him.  There are things in the works that I'm not at liberty to share at this point and we are still excited to be a part of this amazing calling to help orphans.  Nate, the kids and I have an expectant faith that God WILL provide.  After all it's the orphan that needs the money not us.  Keep praying everyone and someday we'll all see just how He was working all along! :D

DTH

We just received word that we are DTH, which means we are (drum roll please).......DOSSIER TO HAITI!!!!  We are overjoyed and so happy that we only had to fix one document and it went through authentication and translation smoothly!  That's it, I'm just going to enjoy this victory and not dwell on that little issue called money.  ;)

YAHWEH

It seems that adoption is dominating my thoughts lately and have felt the Lords gentle reminder that I need to focus on Him and Him alone.  After all, without Him nothing is possible.

I love His name Yahweh.  I am that I am.   So Powerful, so Almighty.  He was never created.  Always was and always will be.  He needs nothing or no one.  He IS.

As I was spending time with Him in His word tonight I came across this scripture, John 18:4-6.  This passage is about Jesus' arrest.  4. Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, "Who is it you want?" 5. "Jesus of Nazareth," they replied.  "I am He," Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) 6. When Jesus said, "I am He," they drew back and fell to the 

ground.

Did you catch that?  When Jesus said "I am He"  the soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and Pharisees collapsed to the ground.  At the sound of His name.  The very ones who were about to arrest Him.  That power is in me!  His Holy Spirit resides in me and when Yahweh looks at me He sees His precious Son.  What grace and what love. There are tears spilling down my face as I type.  I am so underserving.  What a gift.    

 YAHWEH.  The power in His name is hard for my mind to comprehend yet He allows me to say it in a whisper, or to cry it out, or in those moments when I can't find the words, my soul speaks to His heart and He knows.  He calls me daughter and I call Him Yahweh.  I am that I am. 

Thank you Jesus.

 

New Fundraising Goal

We just wanted to make it official.  We are now raising funds for two little ones!!  The amount on the gauge includes the international fee for each child ($14000/per child) and the fee to pay once the children move through social services in Haiti.  As you can see, we need a lot of prayer!  Still waiting on those grant places!  Thanks for your support everyone!  Keep those prayers coming! :D

Excitement and Frustration

What was supposed to be an exciting phone conference with our adoption coordinator ended up being frustrating as well.

We had a call set up to happen at 11 am on Wednesday this week.  The purpose of this call was for our coordinator to get to know us a little better by asking us a series of questions.  She does this because she is the one that matches families with the children in the orphanage.  During the conversation I mentioned how one of our biggest fears was to get the pictures and profiles of a child and have to say no because of lack of funds.  She then proceeded to tell us that she would rather us be close to having all the money (for that blasted international fee that is) before she has this conversation.  The reason is because the referral will happen very, VERY quickly and she wants to be sure that we can move forward as soon as the referral is given to us. Getting these orphans out of Haiti is urgent!  Oh, and one more very important fact that we learned is that we will be getting two.  TWO!!!!

That is the exciting part, the part that brings us so much joy.  At the same time we are also saying, two.  TWO?!?!  How will we ever get the $28000 we need for them? By the way, if I haven't made this clear before I will say now that this is NOT an adoption agency fee, it's the fee required by the Haitian government.  Hence the frustration.  So what we learned is this.  We won't be matched until we have the money.  I could just scream with frustration over this.  It's like someone is holding our children for ransom.  You can have your kids as soon as you fork over the money.  We are so broken hearted over this.  We are so close yet $28000 away.  Our coordinator said that her sibling groups almost never move out of the orphanage.  They are waiting.  Being older children they understand why they are in an orphanage and hope that they find their forever family soon.

So pray.  We have a couple of grant apps out, one of which we've already been turned down for, for lack of funds.  Ugh.  Still waiting to hear from two others.  We are going to be a part of another fundraiser as soon as we can get a video of our story put together, which is required by the people in charge.  These grant places and fundraisers are a blessing but they are limited as well and do the best that they can to help.

There are two little souls that belong with us, but they can't get to us because of the money.  We need prayer warriors to stand with us and go before the Lord and pray these kids home.  Pray for our hearts as they are heavy tonight.

These are just a handful of the precious ones that live in the orphanage we are adopting from.  They are sitting on boxes of donated dry mild powder which will aid in combatting malnutrition.  Two of them could be ours.  

Remember, you can help by clicking on the donate button to the right or clicking on the puzzle fundraiser link provided to see if you want to help that way.  

Praises!

First of all I wanted to say thank you to those of you faithfully praying for us.  I am not exaggerating when I say that we have had such a peace about this adoption.  We don't have the entire international fee in place but we know without a doubt that God will make that happen.  God has blessed us and reminded us that He is taking care of things.  We had money from friends and family trickling in at a steady pace for about two weeks, it was so fun and exciting and humbling at the same time.  He is Good.  We have also been able to really enjoy this process, which is something I would not have been able to say truthfully several months ago.  

Today the Psychologist called, the actual doctor, how weird is that?  I usually have to go through at least two people to get answers from a  doctor.  Well anyway, that doesn't matter.  He called because he got the letters done!!!!  Nate and I are able to go tomorrow to pick them up AND I'm hoping that while we're out we can get the dossier docs county certified.  After that we send the dossier in to our agency, it goes through state certification then it's off the Haiti!  Keep praying that all the documents will be accepted.  

We are praising the Lord for having the $2350 to send in the dossier, it's an amount separate from the international fee we are trying to raise funds for so the amount on our fundraising gauge is strictly for that, which is so great.  

As for our family challenge, so far this month we have been able to save $390.  I don't think that we'll be able to save more than the last time we did this, which was $500.  I was hoping to save $600 but oh well I'm still happy to have something to show for all our hard work.  This money will not be going to the international fee, it will be used to pay for the state certification process and translation of the dossier.   We are still very thankful.

Now I am off to update the puzzle blog and add the eleven pieces we got last week!!  If you feel led to help us give an orphan a forever family please use the donate button or use the link to jump over to our puzzle blog and sponsor a piece or more for just $10 a piece!!  Thanks!

Prayer requests

Please join us in prayer for the following:


1. For that last dossier item to get here (psych eval letter)


2. For Haiti to accept the dossier and for us to not have to do something over, I think if I have to say the words "notary" or "county certified" again I'll just scream.


3. For the funds to keep rolling in.  We applied for adoption grants and are hoping and praying that they can help us out and raise a lot of what we need.


4. For those of you who read our blog, you are already aware of the international fee per child.  $14000.  We are only raising funds for one child because well, we don't know if we'll get two and we don't think it's wise to ask for money for two kids.  Chances are we will because siblings needing adoption and to stay together are in abundance in Haiti.  Pray for provision and for us as our trust in the Lord just loves to waiver from time to time. 


Thank you for walking with us and for all the love and support!

More Blessings

We have been blown away this week.  I already shared with you about the blessings we received Sunday and Monday but the rest of this week has been wonderful as well.  Today we received a $125 donation and someone sponsored a puzzle piece!!  We are so thrilled at what God is doing and the generosity of family and friends.  My tear ducts have been getting a major workout this week.  

Other than the pieces being sponsored and donations coming in, we really don't have big news yet.  We FINALLY got our psych evaluation completed and should be getting the letter, (THE LAST DOCUMENT FOR OUR DOSSIER!)  in about a week.  I went to my beloved notebook which contains all my keep-me-sane-to-do-lists to see what I still need to accomplish for this dossier and there wasn't one!!  Woohoo!  All I need to do is get the pile of papers county certified and send it off to our agency and let them take care of the rest.  We are praying to have it shipped off in three weeks.  I was hoping to have the dossier done by the beginning of March but the end of March ain't so bad.  :)  I am anxiously awaiting the day that I can type my celebratory post declaring that the dossier is on its way to Haiti!  So stay tuned........

God Loves to Surprise Us!

  I'm just going to cut to the chase.  In just twenty four hours we received $885 dollars in donations!  Some for the puzzle fundraiser and some just for a donation.  


It's been an interesting couple of weeks for me.  I really started struggling with doubt that God could provide the money we need.  I let worry overtake me at times.  I prayed and prayed that He would help me stop worrying and that I would remember that He knows what He's doing.  As the days went by I noticed that I was worrying less and less.  Which is kind of like a miracle because I'm a natural worry wart.  I basically just decided that adoption is God's heart and He will make this happen and I allowed myself to relax and be excited about my new child without the dark cloud of worry looming.  


This past Sunday within an hour 4 different people came to us and gave us donations that totaled $495!!  It floored us.  It took us a minute to compose ourselves so we could participate in worship.  I just stood there looking at the words of the song through my tears and kept willing myself to breath and swallow back the weeping that wanted to bubble up inside of me.  I was so surprised.  I was so humbled.  God blew us away.  


He also surprised us with the gift of affirmation.  In several different ways, through conversations we had a church and during the sermon, God was so sweetly telling us that yes this is what He's called us to do and yes, go to Haiti for this child.  


Yesterday, another surprise, we received a check in the mail for $40 for 4 pieces of our puzzle!  I was thrilled, but God didn't stop there.  Last night around 8:30 I received an email notification of a donation of $450!!!!  Man do I cry a lot these days! :)  What a blessing and oh how much that means to us that God is providing and friends and family are will to partner up with us to get this child home!!  In the notification this person added a sweet note with the bible reference of Matthew 18:5 which says, "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me."  Love that.  Enough said.

Puzzle Progress

We are overjoyed today and we are celebrating God's goodness.  Click on the link to our fundraising blog for the latest.

www.haitipuzzlefundraiser.blogpsot.com

:)

Fundraising

If you look at our fundraising thermometer, it's significantly lower than it used to be.  I can assure you that the 2300+ has either been used already for all those smaller fees or in our savings account.  Since that money needed to be used elsewhere in our adoption journey I thought it would make sense to not count it toward our international fee goal.  In the near future I will make a separate thermometer that displays all the money that has been raised with the total amount needed at the top so  that we can see the bigger picture.  The 220 dollars is from our puzzle fundraiser which is strictly to raise money for the international fee.  I have provided a link to the right if you want to participate in this fun fundraiser.  It's so easy, jut ten bucks for a puzzle piece.  That's it!!  Thank you!  

Middle of the Night Musings

I'm up.  It's 4 am.  I have a sick child and to try and go to bed and sleep is laughable.  So here's how it went down.  My mom sense kicked in and began to awake around 3:40 am.  There's a light in the hallway.  Did I leave that on when I came to bed?  Is Nate still in here or is he up?  No, didn't leave a light on, yes Nate is still here.  So I get up and check the bathroom just in time to direct my child to the toilet, this child is VERY inexperienced with stomach bugs.  :)  Ah yes, it's take action time.  Does it hurt or feel sickish?  Is it bad or just annoying?  Do you want to try to drink something?  Let me get a bucket and get you back into your comfy bed.  Oh and do you want me to set up the iPad so you can watch something on Netflix?  Phineas and Ferb?  Okay buddy, you got it.  He also gets his mother and father at his disposal.

Even though I don't like seeing my kids sick, I find it a privilege to take care of them.  I love taking care of them and comforting them when they feel bad.  I know I'm not the only parent that feels this way.  Then I think of the sick kids that don't have a mommy or daddy to get up with them in the middle of the night, let a lone stick an iPad in front of them to watch a cartoon.  I find that I feel frustrated a lot because I can't adopt them all.  I don't have enough money to get the proper medical care all millions and millions of them need.  So I pray for them.  I put them in God's hands and hope that someone will be there to show them a parents love, even if it's just temporary.  So while my son lays next to his bucket and laughs at the cartoon, I'm sitting here praying for the children who don't even have a blanket to snuggle.  Pray with me.

Pictures and Prayer Requests

First of all, I'm sorry for the look of this blog.  I don't like it one bit.  I was trying to change it up for Haiti and the giraffe background wasn't cutting it.  I have no idea how I managed to mess it up and I'm trying to figure out how to fix it without screwing it up even more.  Ugh.  Now on to more important stuff.

We have access to pictures from the orphanage we will be adopting from and I can't stop looking at them.  There is one particular picture where the children (who look to be about 2-4 years of age) are sitting on top of boxes that were recently donated to their orphanage.  They received boxes and boxes of dry milk.  The kids that are 3 or younger will get 2 cups of reconstituted dry milk twice a day to help ward off malnutrition.  They have their little hands up in the air cheering for their dry milk donation in this picture.  They have so little and are thankful.  I'm excited to be on this journey and humbled God is using us.

I'm excited because after this adoption is final, it's really only the beginning of our journey to help the orphans.  Think of all we could do for this orphanage with our money and resources!  It's so exciting!

We have to have psychological evaluations for the Haitian dossier, we need eight passport photos for each of us and pictures of our home and family and we are done with the dossier!!!  Eeeek!  

Here are some ways you can pray for us:

1. For our psych evaluation to go smoothly and that it won't take forever to get the report to put in the dossier.

2. That all our dossier docs are approved and that we won't have to re-do anything and we can get it sent off to Haiti.

3. We have the money to send the dossier and to take care of the smaller fees such as USCIS (immigration) application fee of $720 and the $85 per person fingerprint fee and passports, which is a huge praise.  Just keep praying for that international fee to build up.  

4. We have four grant applications filled out but just not sent because we are waiting for the final copy of our home study, because they all require a copy along with several other documents.  Pray they have funds to help us out!

Thanks everyone!

The Need

If you have noticed, I changed the fundraising meter to one that was big enough for the new amount we need, for now.  It's a lot isn't it?  When I look at it my heart sinks and let me explain why.  The seventeen thousand needed includes a $3000 fee for when our future child/ren paperwork and our paperwork moves out of Haiti's Social Services known as IBESR.  The $14000 is for the international fee per child with the acceptance of a referral.  Meaning, when we get our precious child/ren's picture and profile we must have the $14000 to send to Haiti once we say yes, these are our kids.  Here's the kicker, it's $14000 per child.  PER CHILD!!!!! Understand that that amount is not the adoption agency fee, it's Haiti's government fee.  I guess I could have put $31000 on the meter, and I would but we are not even sure we'll get two children, so I did what seemed reasonable to me.


 There are other fees that need to go to the agency but thankfully their fees are so much more doable from our budgets standpoint, so we are concentrating on the fee that will be crucial.  The thought that we will be matched with a waiting child and then put them on hold because we lack the money to bring them home just about breaks our hearts in two.  We have been working very hard on filling out grant applications but even now we wait.  Some places only accept apps once every quarter and because of the great demand of adoptive families needing help, the funds are limited.  So we wait, ugh, I'm starting to loathe that word for real.  One thing I have learned is that God is working, I have to trust that He is, he adores the orphan and wants nothing more than His children to be His hands and feet and go to them and show His unending love for them.  He WILL make a way.  But, He wants us all to do our part.


  Thank you for those of you who read our blog and follow our journey, it means so much, but what would mean so much more is your prayers for us,for the money and more importantly our little one/s in another country waiting, that they are getting the food and water they need and they can sleep at night.  And pray for him/her or them to be able to start dreaming of a family because God is working to make that dream come true for them!  Watch this video, maybe it will help you understand Gods heart and ours as well.  Thank you.

Where God Leads, We Will Follow

We have officially begun the process for a Haitian adoption!  We are thrilled at what God is doing, and are so excited to know that He is taking care of details, we just have to be totally on board with what He wants.  It's been amazing to remember back when adoption was just a conversation and how it would be really great to adopt from Haiti.  With the earthquake still fresh on our minds we were, at the time, thinking of all the people in need, especially the children.  My sister and her husband were a host family for a little girl from Haiti that came to the states for medical care in 2009.  She came with club feet and some other issues that I can't recall right now, but because of difficulties she ended up having to have her legs amputated.  Once she healed from that it was time to go home for a few years before coming back to the states for prosthetics.  She arrived back in Port Au Prince, Haiti two days before the earthquake.  We still don't know whatever became of her, but we do know how much my sister and her husband and kids loved this little girl.  That has never left us and we thought of her when we discussed adoption.  Once adoption became a clear calling for us, I researched Haitian adoptions and found one law that stated we couldn't adopt because we had more than two children living in our home.  The door was closed.  Or so we thought.  That's why after more research we fell in love with Ethiopia.  Then things happened, see my other blogposts to get more detail, in November that led us to the waiting children list, which led us to this orphanage full of waiting  kids, which led to me calling and finding out that there are three Haitian adoption laws and we fall under one of them!!!!  I was ecstatic and overjoyed!  So after much prayer and more waiting we took the plunge and so here we are.  It's so awesome to me how God works.  Our first initial thought was Haiti exactly a year ago, and decided on Ethiopia.  But now we are back to Haiti.  God just brought us full circle and gently guided us in the direction He wanted us to go all along.  --enter skeptical Brenda--  Now I'm saying all this with a  little reservation, because we thought we knew what God wanted for us when the possible disruption adoption was going to happen for us, and that rattled us spiritually.  But I try not to concern myself with that and look back at all the events that led us to this place we are in now.  God is still in control and if for some reason we're missing it again, I'll just trust that He's still working and getting us to the kids that need us the most.  This has been one heck of a roller coaster ride and it's been hard on us emotionally but we're getting through and still need lots of prayers!!  Also, don't hesitate to push that little donate button on the right or buy some coffee from the Just Love Coffee link on the right as well, to help bring our kids home!  I hope this post isn't just some confusing rant, just trying to keep it honest and keep everyone in the loop!