My handsome boy!

Fundraiser Bracelets

These bracelets and necklaces are made in Haiti and $4 of each sale goes back to the person who made them.  The rest goes towards our adoption.  If you would like them shipped to you, please consider an extra $2 donation to help cover the cost.  If you are interested in helping selling for me I will send extras for you.  Please include your shipping address in Paypal.  Thank you!!!!

Adoption Progress

I just returned from a week in Haiti and feel like I made some progress.  I'm still waiting for the President of Haiti to sign the new adoption law but I am hopeful it will be soon.  In the mean time I met with Fritzon's dad who is excited and supportive and said Fritzon's mother will be too.  Same went for my meeting with Wanna's mom.  I took Wanna with me to see her mom and it was heart breaking to watch her withdraw into herself.  I'm not sure what was going on in her mind but she didn't want to talk to anyone while we were there and Wanna is a very outgoing child.  I'm sure it was overwhelming.

After waiting for almost 2 years to begin all this, simply because of the age issue, I have finally found someone willing to work with us.  I have contacted countless agencies in Haiti the past 2 years and no one was willing to work with us because of our age and even if they were the cost of the adoptions through all these agencies are so much. 

I'm still struggling with raising the money needed for the Haitian fees but I believe it will work out.  If you are interested in helping I have 2 fundraising things going on now and I'm always open for ideas.  One is selling Haitian made bracelets from the Apparent Project.  The first $4 goes to the Haitian that made the bracelet and the rest goes towards our adoption.  If you are interested in buying some or selling some for us please let me know.

If you want to help let me know!  Thank you for all the prayers and support.  I hope I can post a picture of the entire family bringing in next year together!

When Love Takes You In

I'm not sure how I've never heard this song before but I just cried as I listed to the words of Steven Curtis Chapman's, "When Love Takes You In".  What an amazing beautiful song about the love that takes in a child into a home.  Here's the video and lyrics.  If you don't understand adoption just listen to the words and think about being the child that is praying every night for a family.

I know you’ve heard the stories
But they all sound too good to be true
You’ve heard about a place called home
But there doesn’t seem to be one for you
So one more night you cry yourself to sleep
And drift off to a distant dream

Where love takes you in and everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
When love takes you home and says you belong here
The loneliness ends and a new life begins
When love takes you in

And somewhere while you’re sleeping
Someone else is dreaming too
Counting down the days until
They hold you close and say I love you
And like the rain that falls into the sea
In a moment what has been is lost in what will be

When love takes you in everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart

And this love will never let you go
There is nothing that could ever
cause this love to lose its hold

When love takes you in everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
When love takes you home and says you belong here
The loneliness ends and a new life begins
When love takes you in it takes you in for good
When love takes you in

Adoption Poetry

Here are some poems I wrote many years ago.  Until I was in my mid-twenties and married I struggled with deep issues of abandonment.  As a child who was taken from her mother at a young age, placed in foster home after foster home, rejected and abused by an adopted mom and rejected often by peers, I had a lot of build up issues.  I'm happy to say that most of them are gone and replaced with a deep desire to help others simply because I don't want anyone to feel the pain I felt and because I love God and this is a desire I believe He has put in me.  I wouldn't change any part of my life or what I went through because I am happy to be exactly where I am, doing what I'm doing, loving the family I love and living the life that destiny brought me.  I choose not to live in regret because one changed event would mean a different set of circumstances and I can't imagine that (nor do I have time to try to).  Enjoy!

A Place for Me?

A place all my own

that's all that I long.

A place that's mine,

a place I belong.

Is there such a place?

I'm not even sure.

A place that's safe?

A place that's secure?

Will there ever be, 

a place just for me

or is this a dream

that will just never be?

A Real Love

When you tell me that you love me

When you tell me that you care

I want so much to believe you

I don't want to have to be scared

Scared that you're going to leave me

Scared that you'll walk away

Scared that those were words

You never meant to say

So help me understand

Please help me to believe

That this is a love that's real

That this love will never leave

Auction - Juicy Couture Yellow Fluff Handbag

Juicy Couture Yellow baby Fluff Handbag

Preowned

White Leather flowers on both ends

Rhinstone gold chain Charm pullie with the Juicy J logo

Bid to help us raise adoption funds.  

The bidding will be open from Dec. 5 - Dec. 6. at 5pm.  
Simply reply with your e-mail address and bid amount and at 5pm, Dec. 6th 
the one with the highest bid wins.  

Happy bidding.

What's the point of adoption?

So I have recently been harassing my FB and Twitter friends for donations to help with our adoption.  I shared the blog before this on on my wall and was asked by a teenager, "What's the point in adopting?".  He said he wasn't trying to be rude, he just didn't get it.  I was actually very sad that he didn't know and if he doesn't know then how many others don't understand the need for adoption.  Here was my response:

I'm not sure what your home life was/is like but think about times in your life when you were scared....who was there to make you feel better? When you accomplished something great, who was there to congratulation you or cheer you on? Was it family? Now imagine not having any of that. Imagine never getting tucked in at night because there are 50 other kids and only a few workers who treat you like a job, not a child. Imagine that no one listens to your dreams, your hopes or your fears. Imagine turning 18 and going into the world and you have NO ONE to turn to when times get tough. You have NO WHERE to go at Thanksgiving or Christmas....no one to celebrate with. Why would anyone want to withhold that from a child? Being in foster care or a children's home or an orphanage is not the same as having a family. When you aren't a part of the family you know that you all alone and whether it's true or not, deep down you believe that no one wants you or loves you. Would you want to go through life thinking that no one loved you enough to call you their child? If I could I would take every child in or find a good, loving home for every child so they never had to feel like that. I know how it feels and no one, especially children should have to feel that way.

I've filled my life with a lot of distractions and unnecessary things.  I've pursued personal goals and accomplished many of them but as I get deeper into my own adoption and as I connect with others going through adoption or helping families with adoption the more the fire in the core of my being burns with desire to do more.  This may be IT.  This may be what I've been destined to do with my life.  I love technology, I love people, I love Haiti, I love to help those in need, I love orphans and hurting teens......put all that together and I can become an advocate, a doer and leader in adoption and connecting families together.  All these things I've filled my life with have been preparing me for this season and while I'm scared to fail I am so excited to see what God can do with me.  Please pray that I will do what I'm called to do and I will do it well.