My
wife and I always dreamed of having a big family . . . of course
that was before we actually had any children and before the realities
of painfully uncomfortable and difficult pregnancies, of dirty
diapers, and of late-night feedings; not to mention the expenses
(the sheer amount of stuff accumulated with just one small baby
is incredible), the idea of paying for weddings and college educations
and on and on and on. We had one of each, a boy and a girl, both
healthy and sweet,and we decided, that would do just fine . .
. it would have to.
In
the summer of 2000, I went on a short-term mission trip to Russia
and met people bringing home their adoptive children. After a
few days being home from my trip, I cautiously approached my wife,
"You know, I've been thinking . . . if we ever wanted the
big family we always talked about, we could adopt???" The
conversation was over in a few seconds with a simple but polite,
"No. Not interested." The following summer I went back
to Russia (this time I met a guy bringing home his 5 and 7 year
old boys, who by the way only knew ONE word in English, "DADDY!"
they said with their hands in the air and big smiles on their
faces). I came home and had the very same, brief, conversation
with my wife and her response was the same, "No thanks. Not
interested."
A
few months later the President of World
Relief came to our church to speak and he talked specifically
about getting out of the boat for God, for doing something big
in the name of Jesus, for stepping out in faith. He taught from
the story of Peter and of Jesus walking on the water. We always
seem to remember Peter for sinking, and we forget about the beginning
of the story. Peter did what Jesus told him to do; he got out
of the boat. And actually, Peter practically invited the challenge,
"Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water."
I went home praying to that end. God, call me out of the boat.
A
few nights later I found my wife sobbing in front of the computer.
She had found some photo-listings of orphan children and her heart
was broken. Through the tears she told me, "I think we need
to start praying about adopting." After weeks of praying
and seeking advice and prayer from those closest to us, we knew
we were supposed to adopt, and that we were supposed to adopt
children that would otherwise be harder to place (older children,
and a sibling pair) and from Haiti. We found Wilton and Meremen
through an online-photolisting for the orphanage and they simply
stole our hearts.
A
few months of paperwork later, Jenny was able to go and visit
the children for the first time; I followed a few months later.
Our process, like a lot of people's, was not easy. The process
took two years from start to finish, and the time away from Wilton
and Meremen was spent with lots of tears, plenty of anxiety, and
a good deal of questioning God. We found ourselves angered at
the process, frustrated with God and fearful that our children
might never be able to come home.
The
"storm" of our adoption process was a one of epic proportion
-- during the paperwork process, my father lost a brief four week
fight with cancer and died at age 58, the orphanage was delayed
six months in renewing their adoption license; then a few weeks
later, the Haitian government shut down and the country went into
violent chaos (an ousted Haitian President Aristide, US marines
sent in to try and regain order and street gangs killing people
in the streets); the adoption department of Haiti (IBESR) shut
down entirely for months and quit accepting new dossiers the day
ours was to be submitted; the orphanage director where our children
lived was removed from his position and with the help of two other
adoptive couples (and the new director, Pastor Jean Fritz), I
went to Haiti to help keep the orphanage open and running.
We
had stepped out of the boat, we were tired and scared, and in
the midst of the storm, we were sinking in the waves.
We
prayed a lot. And we cried a lot. We tried to answer the "why
aren't Wilton and Meremen home yet?" questions from our two
biological children, while at the same time wrestling with God
asking Him the exact same questions.
After
two years in the process, our adoption approved, and our INS paperwork
completed, I was able to travel to Haiti to bring the children
home. For those of you that went through the process with us,
thank you. Thank you for reading my email updates. Thank you for
praying for our family. Thank you for your emails and your phone
calls and your hugs and your tears. You were truly part of bringing
Wilton and Meremen home.
