The Million Dollar Question

When will your girls be coming home?

We hear that question all the time. Honestly, I am always happy to hear it, because it makes me feel that people are genuinely interested.

I remember when we started the adoption process on September 1, 2010. Just six months have past, but it seems like years ago. We were told then it may take 10 months, give or take a couple of months. Had that been the case, the girls might have been here as early as May.

Unfortunately we have experienced some unexpected delays. In Haiti, unexpected delays seem to be expected. We had minor delays with translation and legalization of our dossier. Hurricane Tomas shut the Haitian Government down for couple of weeks.

But the real issue has been the Haiti Presidential Election. Why does this matter? Well, we need several things to be accomplished by various divisions of the Haiti Government, and we need the Haiti President to sign his name on a piece of paper referred to as “Presidential Dispensation”. This is basically the President approving our adoptions.


Haiti held a primary election, featuring 38 presidential candidates, November 28, 2010. The top two vote getters were scheduled to advance to a final runoff election on January 16, 2011.

However, following the primary election there were reports of widespread election fraud. The current President, Rene Preval is not liked by the vast majority of Haitians. When the results were announced, Preval’s hand-picked successor, Jude Celestin had reportedly edged out the very popular Haitian pop singer Michael “Sweet Micky” Martelly for the 2nd spot, behind the well-respected Mirlande Manigat. This news was followed by weeks of riots all over Port au Prince. After two months of controversy, and based on the recommendation of an international organization of countries who reviewed the results, Jude Celestine dropped out of the race on January 26, 2011.

The final runoff election between Michael Martelly and Mirlande Manigat was finally held yesterday, March 20, 2011. The new President, instead of being in office in late January 2011, will be announced in the coming days and will hopefully be in office as now scheduled in May 2011.

Needless to say during this long delay and time of controversy, the Haitian Government has not been doing much of anything and President Preval has not been signing many Presidential Dispensations. For us, all of this equates to a four month and counting delay!


So back to the million dollar question, when will our girls come home? Unfortunately, I don't know the answer. That's one of the things that makes this process so tough. I can't give an estimate, or even a window of time based on anything factual as to when the girls might be here. We simply do not know. I use to say "hopefully by summer". Then for a while I would say "hopefully by this fall". Of late I have been saying "hopefully before the end of the year". But honestly, We just don't know.

Right now our prayer is that the announcement of Haiti's election results will be well received by the Haitian people, that the Haiti Government will get to work, that our attorney in Haiti will work feverishly on our adoptions, that the new President will take office as currently scheduled and quickly begin signing Presidential Dispensations including ours, that we don’t experience any more delays with our girls adoption process, and that our girls come "home" in a blink!

Be strong in the Lord and His mighty power. Put on all of God's armor. Then you can stand firm against the devil's evil plans. Our fight is not against human beings. It is against the rulers, the authorities and the powers of this dark world. It is against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly world. So put on all of God's armor. Evil days will come. But you will be able to stand up to anything. Put the belt of truth around your waist. Put the armor of godliness on your chest. Wear on your feet what will prepare you to tell the good news of peace. Also, pick up the shield of faith. With it you can put out all of the flaming arrows of the evil one. Put on the helmet of salvation. And take the sword of the Holy Spirit. The sword is God's word. Ephesians 6:10-17

God is Calling

God is here on this earth. He lives through all of us that believe in Him. We are God's hands. We are God's feet. We are God's heart, right here on this earth.

God rescues the weak and vulnerable through us, through our obedience to His word and what He speaks to our heart. Fear keeps us from being odedient. Fear of what God may put on our hearts - Fear that we may have to step out of our comfort zone - Fear that people will think that we have totally lost our mind.

God longs for us to overcome our fear, and align our heart and mind with Him. God does not call the equipped, He equips the called!


Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Proverbs 31:8

God Is Here

We look for visions from heaven, for earthquakes and thunders of God's power, and we never dream that all the time God is in the commonplace things and people around us.

If we will do the duty that lies nearest, we shall see Him. One of the most amazing revelations of God comes when we learn that it is in the commonplace things that the Deity of Jesus Christ is realized.

~Oswald Chambers~

God Appears in the Denistry

You may recall a post I made last November about Jesula falling at the orphanage and breaking a tooth (you can read that post here). As it turned out Jesula had broken both of her top front teeth. As there is not a dentist anywhere in the mountains of Haiti we just accepted the fact we would have to wait to have her teeth repaired when we got her home to America!

When Ashley, Matt, and I visited Jesula in January we got to see her broken teeth for the first time. We told her she was still beautiful but that when she came home with us one day we would have her teeth fixed. She said no, that she liked them that way. What that really meant was that she was scared about what having them fixed would entail. We also noticed while we were there that some of the girls occasionally made fun of her broken teeth.





Here is a picture from our January trip of our sweet Jesula with her broken teeth.

When I returned home from Haiti I showed Shawna pictures of Jesula's teeth. Shawna talked about how she hated the thought of having to take Jesula to the dentist to have her teeth fixed once she finally gets here. Shawna's worry was that Jesula would be scared, and with our language barrier Jesula would not understand what was going on. That mid-January conversation was the last we spoke of the broken teeth.

Then yesterday morning about 7:15 AM I got an unexpected text message. The message was from Pastor Brian of Harvest Field Ministries. Brian said there was a church mission team from Indiana at the orphanage, that included a dentist. He said the dentist would like to fill two cavities and smooth down Jesula's two broken teeth. The broken teeth would still need to be repaired later, but they would be smooth and straight across. They wanted to make sure that was okay with us. I told Brian that would be great and thanked him. I called Shawna and informed her of the situation. Well, Shawna was a nervous wreck. She was worried Jesula would be scared or in pain. Such a good mother!



A little later in the day I got this picture via text from Brian of the dentist working on Jesula's teeth. Notice the makeshift operating room, which is actually just one of the orphanage bunkrooms where the girls sleep. It appears they made an operating table by laying a board on some chairs. Check out sweet Jesula holding a mirror. She is wearing her favorite shirt with sparkling stars all over it that I gave her last October!

Brian sent me an update at 2:00 PM that said, "Jesula is doing great. Estimine and Jovanie are doing a good job of comforting her. Her front teeth will be straight in about an hour. I'll send a picture."

I called Shawna and gave her an update. Needless to say, she was still a nervous wreck. Shawna called me back an hour later wanting to know if I had another update. I told her I had not heard anything yet, that Jesula was in good hands, and that I would call her as soon as I heard something.

Well at 3:40 PM I got a picture message from Brian that said:

"Jesula's new smile! Courtesy of Dr. Bob."

Apparently Dr. Bob decided to go ahead and finish the job. He spent 4 hours smoothing down the broken teeth, and then adding porcelain to make her teeth just like new. Brian said, "It looks great, you can't tell they were broken. Jesula can't stop Smiling!"

Can I get an Amen? God is just so Great. He realized Shawna's fear of having to take Jesula to the dentist one day and took things into His own hands. We are thankful He used "Dr. Bob from Indiana" and for what Dr. Bob did for our sweet Jesula.

Finally, we called Jesula last night and talked for about a half an hour. She was SO excited. She talked non stop, a little English sprinkled in with a lot of fast-paced Creole. She asked to talk to everyone. But, as always, she would talk briefly to someone and then say "I talk to Popi". It was obvious she likes her new Smile!

I want you all to know about the miraculous signs and wonders the Most High God has performed for me. Daniel 4:2