All God's People Say Amen!

Wonderful friends and family we cannot begin to describe our joy and love we feel from all your support this past week. Through all your givings we have 2 full suitcases full of items to donate to our child's orphanage and raised close to $4,000 in funds! This will pretty much cover our travel costs! We feel SO blessed and we also feel God's loving hands through you all! We have gotten a true view of a church family coming together to help those in need!

All we can do is sing:

You are not alone if you are lonely
When you're feeling afraid you're not the only
We are all the same in need of mercy
To be forgiven and be free
It's all you got to lean on
But thank God it's all you need

AND ALL THE PEOPLE SAID AMEN
AND ALL THE PEOPLE SAID AMEN
GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD FOR HIS LOVE NEVER ENDS
AND ALL THE PEOPLE SAID AMEN

If you're rich or poor, well it don't matter
We grow strong and our love is what we're after
We're all broken but we're all in this together
God knows it's summer and fall
And He so loved the world He sent His Son to save us all

Blessed all the poor spirits who are torn apart
Blessed all the persecuted and the pure in heart
Blessed all the people lonely for another start
For this is a kingdom
The kingdom of God 



We leave this Wednesday for Haiti and we will be there for 14 days! Please stay tuned for more updates!!!! 

We Have a Girl!

Hey everyone I wanted to write down this roller coaster ride we have been on for a week!

It all started last week while we were in Texas. We got a phone call from our adoption agency telling us that it was looking good for us to get our referral later that week! We would be matched with a little girl! Our agency also told us that we would probably be traveling to Haiti by the end of the month.

The rest of the week was spent:
Looking at Haiti plane tickets
Trying to plan a fundraiser
Trying to wait patiently for our referral to come in so we could learn more about our little girl

So Wednesday passed... and nothing.... Thursday came and we got an email saying that our referral was in, but just not in the hands of our agency. Friday came and we were told we'll be getting our referral on Monday. So Monday came and we sat impatiently waiting for any information about our girl. That day I got an email that said we will probably not get anything until Tuesday. AHHHH!!! This is kinda how the whole adoption process works! Why it's so hard not to get your hopes up, but so painful when things don't come like they are supposed to!

Anyway, our country rep sent an email Monday with the French version of our referral... Which doesn't do us any good except that there was a picture of our little girl!!!! So we finally got to SEE her!

Finally today we got our referral.

Meet Benithy
 She just turned 3 years old in June

Her beautiful big eyes and chubby little cheeks! Cannot wait to snuggle her in a week or so!

Right now she is at the Creche Chances for Children http://chances4children.org/ You can check out their site there. When we go to visit her we will bring with us a ton of needed items to donate to their orphanage. When we go on our bonding trip to see her we will get to stay in the guest house at her orphanage!


Here are our next steps coming up:

1. Fly to Haiti and stay there for 14 days. There we will bond with our child, fill out legal documents, and do some interviews. By the time we are finished she will legally be a White family member!
2. We will have to come back without her on this trip.
3. Then in about a year we will travel BACK to Haiti with The Bash to pick up our daughter. I don't know why we have to wait a year. I'm guessing it has a lot to do with the Haitian government and the way their country works. It's going to be SO hard to walk away from our daughter. As hard as it is going to be, we are going to try our VERY BEST to look at this as one step closer to bringing her home.... and not focus on the amount of time.... Try and look forward to tall the wonderful years we'll have together... and not all the times we have missed so far. God has provided us with what we have needed so far, I have no reason do doubt that He will provide for us here too!


Prayer Requests:
Safe Travels
Open the heart of Benithy to let us in!
Strength and Patience during our year wait between visits
For us to get to go FASTER than a year to go get her
Funds for all these events in the next few weeks
People in Haiti/ their community
Chances for Children and the work they do there
Our family


Thanks again for the overwhelming love and encouragement during these hard times of waiting and now during this crazy time! Whatever you have done whether it was give money, time, encouragement, let me ramble on and on about it to you, let me cry to you about it, prayed for us and our family, read these blogs, told a friend about it.... whatever you have done for us.... we cannot even begin to tell you how much it means to us. We are absolutely overwhelmed with your love! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Again and again.... Our daughter has no idea how blessed she is going to be with this community she has around her!


-The Whites

It MAY be something.....

I juggled writing about my phone call yesterday to everyone or not... because... I have to preface this with what our country rep told us.... Don't get your hopes up... BUT.....

SO....

Don't get your hopes up... but

I got a phone call from our country rep with some MAYBE news.. I say maybe news because Haiti is not very helpful in knowing where or what exactly is going on with our paperwork over there. Not sure if we are close to getting matched or at the bottom of the pile. We don't know if they've even LOOKED at our dossier or not! There is a lot of random logistics in all of this... so I'm going to say it all in the simplest way I can...

The orphanage that we signed with (right before everything changed and you don't really sign with an orphanage anymore) is called Chances for Children. (look them up online they are awesome). Anyways within that orphanage they tentatively "matched" us with a GIRL at their orphanage. They wrote that in on our cover letter (submitted to their government with our dossier) as a suggestion for our family. Anyway, her dossier has started to move/ get processed!!!! Which COULD mean that things are moving closer to our referral stage/matching stage! I say could... because there is no real say as to what that means really until we get the letter/ phone call from them saying we have been matched, BUT it is encouraging none the less.

I realize it could mean nothing. I realize it could mean everything. More than anything... it's just nice to hear SOME news about our process at all. During these months of waiting sometimes you feel like it may never happen EVER!

So, without much speculation... we MAY get matched with a GIRL soon! (By soon.. I mean months... or something... who knows what soon means in this process???? not me!!!)  Amen!

The other bit of news is that the person in charge of placing/matching kids is going on vacation soon... so... we still may be awhile...

Thank you AGAIN and AGAIN to those who have continued to keep us all in your prayers. You may not hear a lot from us, and we may be plugging along day to day, but our hearts are still longing to bring our child home! So to all of our prayer warriors I just want you to know that it is working. It is helping us get through this time of waiting.. and will continue to carry us through the rest of this long process! I love you all! :)

Yep... we're still adopting... it's just taking awhile!

I recently ran a marathon. It was the best thing ever! The training took my mind off of things, gave me a goal I could work toward, and helped me COMPLETE something.  When we set off on this journey this was not a part of the plan, but as I was faced with another LONG wait I knew this would help me a ton... and it did!

Right now we are still waiting... it could be tomorrow that we get a call.. it could be another 6 months..... We have no idea. So we have taken on the mind set that we are going to live each day enjoying the blessings we have now, but ready to take on the new blessings whenever it comes. We have almost had to put our adoption to the side of our plate instead of having it sitting as the meat and potatoes of our plate. It was consuming my brain and life TOO much and causing some anxiety and pain! So we are still SUPER excited to bring another child into our home, but trying to not let it consume every minute of who we are.

Mind you once we find out who our child is we go to Haiti for about 2 weeks for our bonding trip, and then we have about another year wait until we get to bring our child home to us! Are we tired of waiting? YES! I must say that as I have traveled more down this road it has gotten easier. Not because waiting is awesome. Not because I've become more patient.... but really because all we can do is put our trust in God and know that He has that. We have no control. We have NO say... But it is always comforting know that the creator has us in His hands. There we shall sit... nestled in... :)

SO if you think I've dropped off the face to the universe I have not... IF you think that we forgot about you... we have not! We are just still in the same place as 6 months ago... Waiting! Thanks for waiting with us in prayer and kind thoughts.

Here is a good picture to explain the process right now:



Again thanks for all your love and support! We would not be as confident and as at peace with this process without you!

Strength Will Rise When You Wait Upon the Lord!

Psalm 27:14 ESV

Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! 

Psalm 145:15 ESV 

The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. 

Psalm 130:5 ESV 

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; 

We continue to wait. We continue to trust the timing. We continue to believe that our Haitian child is worth every heart breaking moment without them now. We continue to pray for our child. We know that in due time our family will be united with our most special child. 

Our dossier is still in the process of being approved by the Haitian government. Right now Haiti is in a LOT of turmoil. There are a lot of protests going on, which makes it hard for some people to get to work! Our agency has told us that people's adoptions are still being processed. So things are still progressing and not at a complete stand still. Which is good! We are still looking at another 5-11 months for our dossier to be fully approved. Hopefully we will get matched during that time, or quickly after. 

Right now we are at the point that some of our documents will need to be renewed. So we'll be looking at all our documents that were submitted, and see what we need to do to renew them.  I guess that makes us seasoned adoptive parents.... in that we are on our second time through this process... without our child. It sounds like a lot of parents adopting from Haiti are to expected to renew their documents 2-3 times throughout the process....

Please continue to pray for our family. Pray for patience for us, but especially pray for all of those in Haiti right now. It is dangerous and unsettled there (even more so than normal). Thanks again for all your continued support! We feel it each and every day! :)

Prayers for All

I don't know if you have been following the news much at all, but there has been a lot of unrest and hard things going on in Haiti. Here is an email from our country rep that fills you in the best:

I wanted to take a moment to update you with information that we have received from our in-country partners today. As you all know, about a month ago, I sent you an update regarding the political climate of Haiti.  I know that we have all been praying as the Haitian government continued to make decisions and work through challenges. The potential elections did not occur yesterday, and this has caused unrest in the Port-au-Prince area. The unrest has resulted in riots some of which have become violent in nature. There is potential that the unrest could cause different governmental offices to close for several days. All of our in-country staff, homes, and children are safe and doing well. Our in-country partners are keeping us abreast of the situation as things arise. I would like to encourage you to continue to use this an opportunity to pray as I know you have been doing. As you continue to pray, please know that we are praying for your family as we wait on updates to come. 

Please keep the people and the country in your prayers right now. Not sure what this means for us as far as adoption goes. I guess we'll just have to wait and see (seems to be the name of the game lately). I do imagine it will make our process all the more longer (right now we are looking at 2 years still).  I hope you continue to keep us in your prayers and the entire country of Haiti. 


THANKS!

When?

This story starts with a lot of whining so please keep going through it to the end.. I promise there is a good light through it all!

This past month about 500 friends (obvious over exaggeration) have announced they are pregnant. To be honest I am super excited for them. I love to see growing families. I love to see my friends getting to have big healthy amazing families. But I would lie if there isn't something deep down inside... I believe it's called jealousy... that rears its ugly head when I see/hear it. My normal self is jumping for joy for my friends and family... My annoying self is feeling so sorry for ME....

Well about 2 weeks ago things hit an all time low I would say. It all started with small group that Monday. I held my friend's newborn baby. I watched my husband interact with their son. Just admiring how awesome and loving he is toward all kids. Watching my own son koo and kiss and "pet" this little baby I was holding. I looked at my family and how perfect that all felt... and thought... Why? Why does all this love we have to offer not get to be used. (Poor me...)

That weekend we traveled to NE for our annual cookie bake. On our way home yet another friend announced they were expecting. A friend I have talked on many occasions about their struggle to get pregnant. I have prayed for her and her family countless hours and days that they may find success. THEY DID!!! How amazing.... I was overjoyed for them... and then quickly feelt sorry for myself. Again... why? Why are our prayers not being answered?

That Sunday I led a study on God's love... and in church we sat and sang and talked about God's love... and it took every ounce of strength to not cry out... WHERE? Where is God's love? I feel no love. I feel SOOOOO alone in this. I feel as though he has left me out to dry. I pray and give and pray and give and trust... When do we feel the love? When do we get that? For one of the first times in my life I was mad at God. Mad that we had persevered for 3 years through all of this... only to have 2-3 more years left in our adoption process. I was mad that God would place such a yearning on my heart... and then not deliver. I was mad. I was frustrated. I was feeling so very alone. I cried a LOT that night. So much so I think THE MAN may have been worried I was going to shrivel up like a raisin. :)

The next day I woke up. Still heavy laden. Still completely exhausted from all the hurt, frustration, anger, and pitty for myself I had laid out the night before. Went to workout, school.... normal day stuff. I got into bed that night and opened up my devotion and this is what I read:

Psalm 62:1-2
God, the one and only-
I'll wait as long as he says.
Everything I need comes from him,
so why not?
He's solid rock under my feet,
breathing room for my soul,
An impregnable castle:
I'm set for life.



To me, this was God's way of speaking directly to me. Everything I had cried out to Him the night before was covered and delivered to me right there in His own words. I closed my Bible (after reading it to THE MAN) and said a short prayer of thanks to God for always bringing me back to reality. Always reminding me of His presence here in my life. I still have NO idea why, when, how, where.... All I do know is that I can put my trust in the One who has been faithful and will continue to be a faithful leader in my life. I'm blessed with what I do have, and look forward to the child that will bless our family when the time comes. My eyes looking to Him for strength and guidance.... May you do the same in your struggles and pain. :)

Amen