Today is Special K Day! On December 27, 2009, after piles of paperwork, months of waiting and a trip halfway around the world, our Miss K was finally placed in our arms! One of the defining moments of our lives. We are so blessed to be her Mom-Mom and Daddy!
(please scroll down and pause (II) the background music before playing the video)
There are several “wild”, rescued donkeys at the farm where Mamatoo boards her horses. Perhaps due to former mistreatment, they are generally untrusting of and avoid interaction with people. Over the past few weeks, Miss A became intrigued by the donkeys. One afternoon, she stood at the fence watching them graze off in the distance as Mamatoo, Ken and Miss M went about their barn chores. After a while, they noticed that she’d gone through the gate and ventured out into the field. While Mamatoo and Ken called out to her to be careful, they were certain the donkeys would never let her get near enough to them to pose any danger. Miss A stood in the middle of the field softly calling “Come to me, Little Donkey. I won’t hurt you”, as the donkeys huddled under the trees on the far side of the pasture. Ten, twenty, thirty minutes passed and Miss A was still standing alone, patiently beckoning the donkeys to come to her. After about 45 minutes, it was time to leave the barn. Mamatoo walked toward the field to call Miss A in and, to her disbelief, Miss A was surrounded by the donkeys. She was patting one on his neck and feeding him horse treats out of her hand. Ken caught some pictures of our little donkey whisperer before Miss A told them goodbye.
A couple of days later, guess who was thrilled to play a donkey in the kindergarten nativity?
Just a Little Donkey
Just a little donkey,
But on my back I bore
The one and only Savior
The world was waiting for.
Just a little donkey
But I was strong and proud—
I gladly carried Mary
Through the chaos of the crowd.
I brought her to a stable
Where she made a tiny bed. . .
A place for Baby Jesus
To lay his little head.
I pray the world remembers
That special Christmas night
When just a little donkey
Carried Heaven’s Precious Light.
If you’re visiting to read the BIG news about our growing family, click HERE.
In other not-so-big news, I turned another year older last week. THREE-EIGHT!
A couple of months ago, I was skipping around the internet looking for some ideas for Miss M’s birthday party and on a whim, knowing my birthday was coming up, I did a search for “38th birthday”. I wasn’t really expecting anything particularly interesting to come up, but I stumbled upon a link to THIS post and was intrigued enough to click on it.
Well, after reading about Robyn’s 38th birthday celebration, I was inspired to celebrate MY 38th birthday in a similar fashion, by finding ways to bless other people in honor of each year that the Lord has blessed me with life on this earth.
Over the weekend, D and the girls joined me in a birthday celebration challenge to perform 38 random acts of kindness. We had a blast surprising unsuspecting people with unexpected gestures. Other than our mailman and the neighbors we delivered cookies to, we kept everything anonymous. We prayed that the Lord would place people in our path that He wanted to bless and that the recipients of our acts would see them not as gifts from us, but as blessings from Him just coming through us.
It really is better to give than to receive, y’all. This will go down as one of my favorite birthday celebrations yet. We had SO. MUCH. FUN!
Here’s what we did:
1. Drove around a local neighborhood early in the morning and moved peoples newspapers from the curb to their doorsteps.
2. Left coupons for free Krispy Kreme doughnuts and coffee on the tables in front of Krispy Kreme.
3. Miss M made a bunch of “homeless person care packages”, each with a new pair of socks, bar of soap, tube of toothpaste, toothbrush, granola bar and package of crackers. We gave one of those packages and a box of a half-dozen hot Krispy Kreme doughnuts to a homeless man. He grinned from ear to ear!
We're going to hand out the rest of the packages later this week to the folks that sleep on the steps of Sacred Heart Church.
4. Delivered a dozen hot Krispy Kremes and a hand-written and MNB-illustrated thank you card to the police station.
5. Delivered a dozen hot Krispy Kremes to the nurses working in the Emergency Room. We discovered that EVERYONE loves hot Krispy Kreme doughnuts!
6. Made a beautiful “new mom” gift basket stocked with a package of newborn diapers, a box of wipes, Johnson’s baby wash and baby lotion, an embroidered burp cloth, a baby blanket, pacifiers, a package of 0-3 month onesies, satin-covered baby hangers, a “Sleep Sound in Jesus” lullaby CD, and decorated with pink and blue balloons. We asked the lady at the desk of the labor and delivery and NICU floor at the hospital to have the nurses give it to the new mom they thought needed it most.
7. Left puzzles, packaged snacks, playing cards, an UNO game, coloring books and crayons in the surgery and labor and delivery waiting rooms at the hospital.
8. Taped quarters to coke machines in visiting areas of the hospital with a little note that said “Blessings!”.
9. Returned carts for people in the Wal-Mart parking lot.
10. Miss M and Miss A gave $25 Wal-Mart gift card to little old woman in the Wal-Mart checkout line.
She left the store as we were loading up in our car. We saw her eyes searching all over the parking lot as she walked, and we knew she was looking for those two little girls and trying to figure out who they belonged to. We all ducked down and hid and giggled as she walked right past our van and got into an old brown car one aisle over!
Once the coast was clear, we sat up and Miss M exclaimed“It just makes my heart go WOW to do something nice for a stranger!” That pretty much summed up our whole day--one heart-wow after the next!
11. Drove through a random neighborhood and placed poinsettias on people’s front doorsteps. The girls delivered one to a little boy and his mother who were out on their front porch.
12. Walked into a laundromat and handed 4 quarters to each of the 3 people in there doing laundry.
13. Left a big bag of cat food on the doorstep of an eccentric old guy who has taken responsibility to make sure all stray cats in our neighborhood are fixed and fed (and named after all the girls he's loved before).
14. Gave a cold bottled water to our mailman as we passed him making his rounds.
15. Baked cookies and delivered them to 5 of our neighbors.
16. Scattered a roll of 100 pennies around the Munn Park fountain and wrote “make a wish!” in chalk.
17. Delivered hot pepperoni pizzas and a hand-written, MNB-illustrated thank you card to the firehouse.
18. Ordered (and paid for) dessert for the two ladies dining behind us at Chili’s (and asked the waitress to deliver it after we were gone).
19. On our way out of Chilis, the girls gave a $25 Chili’s gift card to two ladies and a little girl. Before she could get away, one of the ladies grabbed Miss M and gave her a big hug and asked “Why did you do this?” She answered “Because it’s my Mama’s birthday and we are doing things for others as a way to celebrate it.”
20. Miss M and Miss A gave a $25 gift card to a woman checking out at Publix. Her mouth dropped open as she looked around for the little girls' parents. “Have a great day and a Merry Christmas” our girls giggled as they ran back to our getaway van.
21. Handed out cold bottled water to hot, thirsty runners and walkers circling Lake Hollingsworth.
22. Paid the toll on the Parkway for the car behind us.
23. Taped quarters to the machines at a self-service car wash.
24. Picked up trash at the playground near MamaToo’s house. This one was Miss M’s idea—she said last time she played there she remembered “walking on trash”. haha!
25. Purchased a couple of inspirational greeting cards. Picked two names out of the property appraisers database, prayed for them and wrote them short encouraging notes (but did not sign them) and dropped them in the mail.
26. Rolled up a dollar bill and tied it to three helium balloons. Let them go.
27. Hid short notes of affirmation and encouragement in the pages of a few books at Books-A-Million. Also placed a $5 Books-A-Million gift card that said “to you (yeah YOU!) From us (and no, you don’t know us)—Be Blessed!” on a random shelf at Books-A-Million for a fellow shopper to find.
28. Stopped and offered assistance to a family whose truck was broken down on the interstate (oil light came on and the father was returning with oil).
29. They appreciated the gesture but didn’t need help at that point, so we went to the McDonalds at the next exit and purchased two $10 gift cards so they could get something to eat as they resumed their travels.
30. Passed by a car wash and stopped and handed out bottled water and packaged crackers and snacks to the folks doing the washing.
31. Purchased a bouquet of flowers at the grocery store and left them on the windshield of a woman’s car.
32. We sponsor 3 children through Compassion and one little girl through Wiphan. We LOVE our sponsored kiddos in Zambia, Rwanda, Kenya and Ethiopia. We keep their pictures framed in our home, pray for them daily and consider them part of our extended family. It’s a way to feel connected to places that have made an impact on our lives, and to teach our children about poverty and making a difference. We decided to start sponsoring a little girl in Haiti in honor of my birthday project.
33. Through Compassion’s Gifts of Compassion program, we purchased a goat for a family in need. Goats can be bred to provide a source of milk, meat and household income.
34. Purchased mosquito nets for a needy family through Samaritans Purse.
35. Purchased a dozen baby chicks for a needy family through Samaritans Purse.
36. Miss A and I spent 20 minutes being door holders/greeters/Merry Christmas wishers for tired, busy Christmas shoppers at the entrance to the mall. I was surprised at how appreciative and friendly most of the people were! Lots of smiles and “Thank You!”s. One lady even gave Miss A a hug and kiss on the forehead!
37. Handed out balloons to children at a downtown festival.
38. Purchased a $5 Starbucks gift card and asked the barista at the drive-thru to give it to the couple in the car behind us. WE purchased 4 peppermint mochas and 3 children’s hot chocolates and took them to D’s mom and dad’s house where we serenaded them with Christmas carols and then visited with them as we all sipped our hot drinks.
Whew—all that kindness wore us out! But it was great! At the end of the project, felt like we were more blessed by it than any of the people we did things for. And even after we completed our challenge, we found ourselves continuing to scope out the world around us for opportunities to brighten someone's day.
I would encourage everyone to celebrate their birthday this way. Do it! You won’t regret it! Visit Robyn’s website The Birthday Project to be inspired!
Three years ago TODAY, we announced our journey to Miss K! This Christmas marks two years since she joined our family. We cannot imagine life without her and we are blessed beyond words to have the joy and honor of being her Mommy and Daddy. The miracle of adoption changed our lives.
We have been praying for some time now about growing our family again through adoption. While D was in Haiti in August (you can read about his trip HERE), he fell in love with the country and began to pray about being more involved there in the long term. Over the past few months, these prayers have become intertwined and we are now excited to announce that we are on another journey to Haiti. . . a journey to our son!
A new chapter in our family's story has begun. . .
A little bit about the Haiti Adoption process. . .
We looked into adopting from Haiti years ago, but Haiti has traditionally been very strict about its requirements for adoptive parents—that they be married at least 10 years, be at least 35 years old, and have no biological children—and we didn’t meet any of those criteria at the time. On top of those requirements, Haiti has historically been notoriously slow at processing adoptions. Before the earthquake, they were averaging 2-3+ years from referral to homecoming. In contrast to many countries, where adoptive parents may wait years to be matched and then finalization happens over a few months, matches come relatively quickly in Haiti due to the fact that there are many waiting children who are available for adoption and comparatively few families who are seeking to adopt; after the match, however, the rest of the process generally drags on and on and on and on and on. Waiting--particularly after you've seen and/or met the child that you've been matched with--is HARD, and this discourages many families from pursuing an adoption from Haiti.
Haiti placed a hold on new adoptions following the earthquake and since they re-opened earlier this year, their government has been re-working its adoption laws. No one knows yet whether the changes will bring more efficient processing or longer delays, but we are preparing for a long road. At this point, because we have two biological children (apparently the number of adopted children a family has is a non-issue), President Martelly himself will need to issue a "presidential dispensation" approving our adoption. While there are no guarantees, we have been advised that because we meet the age and length of marriage requirements, he will likely sign off and it will “only” add a couple of months to the overall timeframe. But no one really knows. We are expecting a rollercoaster ride, with a lot of uncertainty and some bumps and surprises along the way. If you know what a planner I am and how organized and structured I tend to be, you know that this is WAY out of my comfort zone. I’m really going to have to let go of my desire to control all the details lean on the Lord in this adventure! Over the past few months, God has given me a peace about adopting from Haiti despite all of the unknowns and has confirmed to my heart that He has a plan and it is in His hands.
We submitted our application to our agency, Holt International, on October 27—exactly 3 years to the DAY after we submitted our application to AGCI and kicked off our journey to K (the date thing was totally unplanned—we didn’t realize it until we glanced back at our Ethiopia timeline the night before we sent in our Haiti application!). We are currently in the “paperchasing” stage. A social worker is preparing a homestudy and we are getting physical and psychological(!) exams, background checks and fingerprints. We have questionnaires to fill out, reference letters to request, homeland security and immigration approvals to obtain, and loads of paperwork to compile. That will take a few months We hope to have our “dossier” of paperwork completed sometime this spring. Though the Haiti dossier requirements seem more daunting than the ones for Ethiopia, the race is on to turn it all in by March 27—the day back in 2009 that we sent in our Ethiopia dossier! At that point, the road will veer off in a direction completely different from the one we took on our journey to K (we thought 14 months from start to finish was long! Ha!). Our agency will send our dossier to Haiti where we will be matched with a little boy (or maybe even brothers!, we shall see) fitting our parameters (which we are still praying about), whose paperwork will be combined with our paperwork and begin to make its way through the Haitian social workers, government, courts, and finally to the US Embassy. We hope to be matched within a few months after our paperwork gets to Haiti, and expect that it may take another 2-3 years after that for the Haitian courts to legally declare him our son, Haiti to issue him a passport, and the US Embassy to give him a visa to come home. The process may be shorter. It may be longer. It will all be on “Haiti time” and we have faith that it will all be in God’s perfect time!
While we wait. . .
While we wait, we will keep ourselves busy enjoying our girls (while the adoption process may seem long, time with them always seems to fly by!), praying for our son and his first family, preparing our home for the arrival of a little boy, planning trips to visit our son, visiting him!, learning some Kreyol (the official language of Haiti and the language our son will likely speak when he comes home), practicing some Caribbean/West Indies recipes (yum!), partnering with ministries and organizations working in Haiti, and hopefully becoming more involved with our vibrant Haitian community here in Florida. We may even throw in a trip or two to Africa! While our son will always be on our hearts and minds, our goal will be to not be so focused on the destination that we don't fully appreciate the gift of the journey.
Please Come Along With Us on this Journey. . .
We are excited and hopeful about adopting again and are falling deeper in love with Haiti and its people every day. As we move through this process, we are certain that love will deepen and develop into an eternal connection to this beautiful, tragic, mysterious country that will forever be a part of our son’s story and our family’s life. Thank you for sharing this journey with us! Please drop by our blog from time to time to follow our progress, and please keep us in your prayers along the way!
