~Our Haiti Faith Journey~

Here's our CC. He's showing you where he lives and where we just spent our last week!

We are back from Haiti and I think I'm ready to try and write about it here.

"I will never leave you nor forsake you." "Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you." "My peace I give to you."

These were a few of the verses that God used the day before we left on our trip. They were from a little devotional titled "Daily Light." And God used this little devotional throughout our Haiti trip.

There were so many ways in which God showed Himself to us. Starting with the very first plane ride, He placed people in our path to help and encourage us along the way. A lady we sat beside on our very first plane was going to Santa Domingo, the other half of the Haiti island, and she talked to us about Haiti and our adoptions and was so encouraging and fun to talk to.

Then when we got to Haiti, we realized that our driver was not there to pick us up. We almost got in a car with a taxi driver, but Tim didn't feel right about it. The man didn't act real certain about where the motel was that we were staying. So back into the airport we went, with him on our tails pleading for us to get in his "taxi." We got back in the airport and a man from a little "office" came up to us asking if he could help us. We told him we needed to make a phone call and he said he would help us do that. He ushered us into his "office" which had a bench and a little lecturn type desk in which he had a stool for sitting at. The room was bare, but for those 3 pieces of furniture and the "walls" were windows. He was extremely nice and spoke decent English. We found out he had been educated by English speaking people in the course of our conversation with him. He brought out a 2002 phone book and tried to find our motel's number. After a bit of asking and things, he finally tracked down a number and we were able to call and ask the motel to send us a driver.

After about 20 minutes our driver came in a little black pick-up carrying a very old looking sign with the name of our motel on it. We thanked the man from the airport profusely and Tim tipped him for his help, even though he tried to refuse. As we drove away from the motel with this new man, who didn't speak any English, I thought to myself, he could've heard from the first "taxi driver" that we were waiting for a man from this motel and he could've scrounged up this old looking sign from somewhere and be taking us who-knows-where.... My mind is sometimes my enemy! After quickly going from nice brick type roads to very rough dirt roads, in which Tim says any cow pasture around here would be easier riding, we saw some pigs and roosters and finally made it to our destination, VISA Lodge of Port-Au-Prince.

OH! By the way the only thing we brought with us to VISA Lodge was our carry-ons, because our 4 suitcases didn't arrive with us!

Funny, but we probably would've been just fine with taxi driver #1. We found out later that alot of the streets don't have names, so when Tim asked if he knew the address, that didn't mean a whole lot to him. He probably knew exactly how to get there. We were just very nervous about the whole thing. Remember, we've never been to a different country before. ;-)

We sorta' unpacked our couple of carry-ons and called Hal & Chris Nungester, the directors of our Creche that our boys are living at. They told us that the boys were eating supper and that as soon as they were done, they'd be right over with them! We decided to go upstairs to the motel's dining area and order pizza, hoping the boys might want to eat some with us. It wasn't long after ordering that Hal came up to our table with 2 of the most gorgeous Haitian boys ever! JP came directly to me and CC went to Tim, no hesitations! I think our SKYPE phone calls helped with that!

They did eat a pizza with us and seemed to enjoy a 2nd dinner!

We then went down to our room and gave them the little gifts we had, thankfully put in our carry-ons, for them. They loved the little bags of candy!


We quickly learned that they spoke mostly Creole, but knew how to say, "May I have some water, please?" "pee, poop, candy, and cookies." What else is there? =) Good words to know!

We were all pretty well bushed and decided to head for bed at 7:00pm!


Which we found out later was about the time they go to bed at the Creche too. So it wasn't any trouble getting to sleep for any of us! Other than being a little nervous about the locks on our doors... Tim said all you'd need was a pen-knife. But it was all about trusting God...the whole trip.

The next morning we found out that our luggage had made it, but we also found out that a meeting with IBESR didn't go well and JP would be returning to their offices the next morning unless they decided to issue his abandonment paper-work. So the rest of our day was filled with getting our luggage, visiting the Creche, and prayers for a miracle to take place.

The last night we had JP they were singing a song together and I recognized the tune. It was like playing "Name that Tune" alot of the time, because I would recognize the tune but either they would be singing it in Creole or with such a Haitian accent, I couldn't understand the words very easily. Anyway, I sat there for a few seconds trying to figure out the song and it came to me, "They're singing 'Blessed be the Name of the Lord!'" If you don't know this song, it talks about basically praising God in the good and the bad. I started singing it with them and when we came to the "You give and take away" part, my heart did a flop. "Oh Lord, do you really mean it?" Am I to praise You even if you take away JP? .... I sang on. And kept praying for that miracle.

God has a plan and we know He loves our kids more than we do. He supplies what we need when we need it. On Friday morning Chris came and along with 6 other boys in the same situation as JP took them to IBESR offices to be dropped off because of paper-work issues that, after a year and a half of trying to work with it all, couldn't be resolved.

We had a day with JP and found out he was a very social, happy-go-lucky sort who liked to sing and smiled easily.

He and CC were very close and JP liked to do whatever CC was doing in the very way he did it! Just like a big brother-little brother relationship.




It hurt to see him go. But God was faithful to help us get through it all. Looking back on it all, it almost seems like He gave us all a shot of numbing juice, so that we could fully immerse ourselves in getting to know CC and enjoying our time with him.

We learned that CC loves to play ball. He would say, "Souflet, booya" ---(sp?) which we learned means to blow up the ball. It was a beach ball and Tim had to blow it up every so often due to a slow leak. He played like he was "playing for a National Championship," Tim said.

He also like to sing and sang often! He liked to dance, write his letters on paper, color, and laugh! He also liked to "rough and tumble" --he was very gentle with his "rough and tumble" though.

The rest of the week was spent getting to know CC, visiting the Creche, and learning about what CC does there. We were able to be there for Sunday School taught by Hal, meals, Saturday clean-up/dress-up for parent visits, Church at Quiqueya Chapel, meals with the Nungester family, and some play-time, and baby-holding.

We were amazed at all that Chris and Hal do there. They have an incredible ministry and we are so glad that CC is with them, if he can't be with us.

I will probably post more later, bits at a time, as things come to me. But the main lesson I learned through all this is that God is faithful. He supplies our needs and our job is to trust Him and praise Him through it all.

On our last morning there in Haiti, Tim and I read the scriptures for April 1st and held onto each other as we let our tears flow.

Here are a few of them:
"The fruit of the Spirit is ...joy." "Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing;...exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation." "In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore." "For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

Our God is faithful!