(Chapter 2)
My 3rd Trip to Haiti
The bonding and adjustment went so smoothly with Luc and Elizabeth, that in a matter of months we were thinking of adoption again. There was such a large age gap between the babies and our next oldest ( 9 years) that we thought a child who was between the ages of 2 and 8 would fit nicely into our family. We once again started gathering the paper work, this time for an adoption from Brazil. I had already been corresponding with some Christian women who had adopted from all over the world and one day there was an especially emotional post about a sibling group in Brazil that needed a home as soon as possible or face the possibility of being split up. We prayed about it and inquired about them and decided that if no one else would take them, we would! They ranged in age from 9 down to 2, perfect fit. However, the agency we were working with in Brazil never told us that just because you hear about a child or children, and want to put them on hold for you, doesn't mean you will be matched with them. We proceeded as quickly as possible with our dossier and made as many of the arrangements as we could for bringing five more children into our home. However, as often happens when we are not in the will of God, the door shut. One day on the new Brazil adoption list I was on, a couple with no children were so excited because their papers were already in court and they had been approved for a sibling group of five!! They were leaving for Brazil in 10 days and were so excited. I was devastated because I thought those children were ours. I had told the agency that if someone else were interested in giving the children a home, to please let us know and we would not pursue them. I had been assured that no, those children were not wanted by anyone else. As disappointed as I was, we still continued working on our dossier and decided that perhaps five children all at once would have been too much. Perhaps we were to just adopt one child. I did read the posts from the young couple as they were in Brazil picking up their new children. I realized that those children were not meant for us as I read about temper tantrums and broken windows in hotel rooms. Another little girl had caught our eye and we inquired into adopting her. We again stated that we only wanted to pursue an adoption of a child that no one else wanted. We were assured that this little girl had no one. In the middle of all of this, all adoptions in Brazil were shut down because of some sort of adoption scandal. After a few weeks, older child adoptions were allowed to proceed and our 7-year-old daughter was proposed to us. However, the agency also attached another email to ours...to another couple in another country stating the same thing! I was devastated. Steve told me to do nothing for 24 hours. After that time, I wrote an email to the agency stating that I felt what they were doing was dishonest and we would no longer be working with them. Within one hour of writing that email, I got an email from Dixie at God's Littlest Angel's asking me if I knew anyone who wanted a handicapped baby! I quickly replied that I did!!! She had a little boy who was abandoned and was missing a hand due to amniotic banding syndrome, but he was other wise healthy. She said that a couple in Canada was considering him and if they didn't want him, we could have him. We waited for a long two weeks and finally got word that the other family didn't want him and not only that...Dixie also had another little baby boy who had a cleft lip....and did we want them both??? I called Steve at work and told him we had TWO baby boys waiting for us in Haiti and we needed to get our dossier down there as soon as possible.
It was six months from the time we heard about Nicolas and Matthew until the time they were home sleeping in their own cribs. They came home at 8 and 6 months old respectively. This time I did not travel to Haiti because Luc and Elizabeth were not even two years old yet and I couldn't bear to be away from them for over a week. I also didn't think leaving them and then coming home with two new babies would go over very well, either. So, Steve and our middle daughter, 15 year old Stefani, would go to Haiti to pick up the boys.
The day finally came to take them to the airport and how I wished I were going, but I knew that I needed to stay.
(Steve needs to interject here....)
Here is an excerpt from the email that Steve sent from Haiti that week....
"Nicolas and Matthew are healthy and strong. I can feel the bones of Nick's fingers beneath the covering on his stump. It even feels as if he may be trying to move them. You will be amazed at how alert he is. He has beautiful facial features - soft, with very alert eyes. He was a pitiful sight when we first saw him, at the airport. He was unresponsive because of the heat in PAP. Matthew is a bundle of joy. Verrrry happy, just like Luc was! ....As soon as we got here, Dixie asked for me to look at a number of mechanical problems. I have checked the oil in the truck, its transmission and the generator. Fixed a broken wheel on the gate. Fixed the broken doorbell. And by the time you get this, I may have even driven up to the Baptist Haiti Mission in the Blazer for Sunday church. Frankly, I'm a bit chicken on these mountain roads. But, you knew that already. If I do go, I'll make sure Stefani runs the video-cam! Stefani is a great help to me. Today, Dixie drove into Petionville. We had 6 babies that needed lab work. Ten children needed photos. Beside Dixie, there were 4 other adults in the Blazer. Boy, was that an adventure! 15 people in that Blazer. Some cried, some wet, others just messed their pants. And that was just the grown-ups."
We counted down the days for the arrival of our two newest babies. The plane landed on time, but of course, they were in the back of the plane and the last ones out. Finally, they came down the ramp! Luc ran up to Steve and Stefani put Nicolas in my arms. He was SO tiny and so perfect. He smiled at me and I cried. I couldn't believe I could be so blessed. Matthew was a little bit harder to win over; he was so confused and upset by all the changes in his little life. Luc and Elizabeth adjusted to the new babies rather quickly. It was a good thing because less than two weeks after the boys came home, Nicolas needed surgery on his hand and we had to be at the hospital over night. I felt like my heart and my hands were full. I had the equivalent of two sets of twins less than 18 months apart. We had four children in diapers. We had 10 children!! Surely, our quiver was full now. But God had other plans...Stay tuned for adoption story number 3 from Sierra Leone, Africa.
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