Gotcha Day!!

It was one year ago today that we picked up our girls from Haiti. I can't believe that it has already been a year!!! I remember the day so clearly that Jay and I knew that God was telling us we were to adopt. Here is our story.

Rosemy and Naomi 1 year ago.

Rosemy and Naomi today.

Our story started in the fall of 2004. One afternoon when our oldest son Adam was in school and the baby, Ruby, was taking a nap, Dillon and I were watching Adoption Stories on Discovery Health channel. That particular day the story was about a family from Canada that was adopting a boy from Haiti. When the episode was done, Dillon looked at me and said “we need to bring one of those kids home”. I told him that I thought so too. That night, I told Jason about the TV show and what Dillon had said. Jason said that I should see what I could find out about Haitian adoption on the computer. I went to my mom’s house and looked up Haitian adoption and didn’t find any leads. Then, when I had shut down the computer and started walking out of the room, a voice said “Go back and type in ‘orphanage”. So that’s what I did. When I typed that in, FOR HIS GLORY adoption outreach came up. This was a christian adoption outreach serving the people of Haiti!! I couldn’t believe my eyes! I printed out all the information on the website, including pictures of waiting children and brought them home to Jason. We looked at the children and prayed about adopting. I knew we were supposed to adopt a child, but Jason wasn’t as sure. He continued to pray about it and I continued to pray that if the Lord wasn’t leading us to adopt, that He would take these strong feelings away. The feelings that I was having continued and even grew stronger. Jason still wasn’t sure, so one Saturday night, we prayed together and Jason asked God to give him a clear sign if we were to adopt. The next morning at church, a woman was called up to give her testimony about adopting a daughter from Guatemala and that they thought that they were done but God spoke to them and told them to adopt another child. The focus of her testimony was that we all need to listen for God’s will in our lives. After the woman was done speaking, Jason looked over at me and gave me a knowing smile. I knew then that we were going to start our adoption journey.
We prayed and asked God which child from For His Glory we were to adopt. I felt that the Lord wanted Jason to pick the child. When Jason had looked at all of the children, he felt that the Lord was leading him to Edna, a 4 ½ month old baby girl. I decided to call the director of For His Glory, Linda Kohn to inquire about this child. When I talked to Linda, there was a wonderful connection. She shared about how the Lord led her to become involved in Haitian adoption and her love for the country and people of Haiti. When I told Linda that we were interested in adoption, she asked me if I had a child picked out off of the website. I told her that we felt that Edna was our daughter. Linda told me that after talking to me she knew that I was the perfect mommy for Edna. She had recently had several inquiries from families that already turned in their applications to FHG about adopting Edna, but she never felt a peace about them. We didn’t even have our application filled out yet and Linda told me that she is taking Edna off the available children list and putting her on the forever family list because she knew that we were her parents.
We were scheduled to go to Haiti in April of 2005. Unfortunately, our trip to visit our little girl was rescheduled to May because of the violence in Haiti. I often looked at the website to see all of the children on it and any new ones that recently came to the orphanage. One day, I was looking at the new children and a little girl caught my eye. Her name was Rosemy. She was a beautiful little 3 year old. I instantly fell in love with her. I mentioned her to Jason in passing, he said there’s no way we’re adopting two! So, I didn’t pursue it.
It was May 2005. We were finally going to Haiti to meet Edna. I was terrified of flying, but I guess it wasn’t so terrible. We stayed one night in Miami and then flew into Port au Prince the next day. When we arrived in Haiti, I was so nervous. I had never traveled out of the country so the whole experience was new to me. Jason, however, loved the adventure and excitement of being in Haiti.
We arrived at the orphanage about an hour after we got off the plane, and we were brought directly up to the baby room. I’ll never forget the moment when Linda handed Edna to me. She was so soft. She was beautiful and she bonded with us wonderfully. We were able to take her back to the hotel in the afternoons with us and she stayed with us at night. It was wonderful laying next to her small soft body.
Every day we spent a good part of the day at the orphanage with all of the children. There was this one little girl that they called Nadoue, who was always with us. She loved to play with Edna and hold her. She always sat by us and was very sweet. We really felt a connection to her. About three days had gone by, and we were going to the market with Linda and a couple of other people from the mission trip. Someone had commented about the little girl that was always with Jason and I, and I said I think her name is Nadoue. Linda said “Oh yes, that’s Rosemy, her nick name is Nadoue.” When Linda said that, I my heart stopped. I couldn’t believe it. This little girl that I was so drawn to on the website is the little one who has attached herself to us at the orphanage!! When Jason and I got back to the hotel that night, we talked about the possibility that God could be calling us to adopt Rosemy. We decided we had to pray and seek His will. The next day our group took a trip to the Baptist Mission in Haiti. When we were waiting in line at the restaurant for our drinks, Linda commented to us that she had a dream that night that Rosemy and Naomi were biological sisters. We then sat down the next day at breakfast and were talking to another adoptive mother and telling her that we were considering adopting another child. She too, was considering adding another child to their family. She said to us that she was praying asking the Lord to show her His will and she felt that He was telling her that “yes his will would be for us as His children to give a home to another one of His children." We knew after that discussion that we were do adopt Rosemy. God had perfectly worked it for us to add her to our family. We had already been approved for two children. Our dossier was just about to enter IBESR, but hadn’t yet. If it had entered IBESR, we would have had to wait three months after Edna came home before we could reenter our dossier into IBESR to adopt Rosemy .
We finished putting the paperwork together to add Rosemy to our dossier and it was several months of grueling waiting until we finally got the call that our girls were ready to come home to us. I received the call a couple of weeks in to March of 2006. Our wait was finally over!!!!! Jason and I scheduled our trip for March 17 and returned home from Haiti on March 19, 2006. On their arrival home Naomi was 1 ½ years old and Rosemy was 4 ½ years old. Our time of waiting totaled 16 months.
The first few months after the girls came home were very intense and extremely tiring months. Neither of the girls new English and they didn’t like our food at first. Ruby started to have extreme anxiety that we were going to leave her behind (we think this is because she is very little and it was extremely busy and she thought she would be overlooked when we would leave the house). The week we arrived home Edna, who we renamed Naomi, was very sick, she had a temperature of 105.F we took her to the ER and they overlooked the fact that she had a very bad ear infection. So she struggled with this fever for a week before we took her to our regular doc and they saw right away that she had an earache. That only added to the stress of our new family coming together. Not to mention Naomi had giardia and e-coli bacteria that made her tummy sick. But that was gone after a round of antibiotics. We haven’t had many issues with the girls bonding to us as mommy and daddy or with their brothers and sister. They both seem to totally accept and love the new family that God has given them.
The girls picked up on the English language and within 4 months were completely speaking English. They now love to eat nearly everything that we eat. It seems like they have been here forever. Some of the blessings that we have experienced from this adoption are, watching the girls celebrate their first birthdays with us and running through the sprinkler on a summer day with out a care in the world. Or going outside on the first snow day of the winter and seeing them experience snow for the first time! Some other blessings that Jason and I have experienced are learning to completely trust God in everything and rely on Him for everything. Personally, I feel blessed that God is growing me and teaching me to be more patient and wait on Him.
Rosie and Naomi are very happy and loving girls and we feel so blessed that God chose us to be their Forever Family!!