But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:19 Hello from Haiti! The above scripture has been going through my mind over and over since arriving yesterday. We are having an amazing time. Jean Daniel is perfect. I am trying to memorize everything about him. From his cute deep little voice to how he sings praise song with his mommy to his beautiful thick eyelashes, his cute chubby little feet and toes, his stinking cute laugh, to how he holds on tight to me and doesn’t want to be apart, to how he constantly calls out for me, on and on…every detail. I don’t want to forget anything. Our adoption and our bond with him is a total God thing. For both Eric and I, the moment he first met us he held on tight and completely captured my heart. I am completely in love with this precious little boy. Skype Sundays are wonderful but the JD that we talk to on those days is nothing like the JD in person. He has amazed me. He can count, sing his ABC’s, call us mommy and daddy and he LOVES to talk. In fact he never stops. I really need to learn Creole because I would love to know what he is saying. He does repeat so much that we say now and he is now saying I love you and so much more. He also loves to sing. We have had so many precious moments singing praise songs together. I love it. He is a worshipper. He looks up towards heaven when he sings too, it is amazing!!! He also is going to be a drummer, I just know it. He takes his toys and constantly beats them in different rhythms, it cracks me up. He is amazing and he is mine. I am pondering it all in my heart. I have so appreciated all the prayer that has gone up on our behalf in regards to our adoption. I am writing this blog entry as I watch my precious boy sleep. I am asking all you prayer warriors to please intercede. Tomorrow we have an appointment to see the dean in the court. This is a very important meeting. Please pray for favor. Please also pray that they contact his bio mom and she comes tomorrow. If they would not locate her she would have to come back another day and that would add time to when he comes home. I don’t want anything to hold him back. Please, please pray. Wednesday we have an appointment at the US embassy to file some paperwork. This is also a very important meeting. You can also pray for favor with all of the government officials. Lastly pray for our hearts. I know JD will be home in a few short months but I can’t even fathom leaving him here in a few days. It breaks my heart. Please pray for strength and peace. Please also pray for strength and peace for JD’s heart. He hasn’t wanted us out of his sight since we have been here. I don’t want him to think we have abandoned him. Pray that angels surround him and comfort him and give him peace and that he knows he has a family that loves him. Pray that after we leave that he even dreams about us and feels our love and feels God’s love every minute of every day until we are together again. I know God has done that so far. It has been a year and a half since I was here last and it seemed like no time had passed when he saw us yesterday. We were showing him pics of his brothers and sisters and I pointed to Jacqueline and said Sissy. Jacqueline was with me when I went to Haiti 19 months ago. Instead of repeating sissy he said Jacqueline. It was amazing. He knows his family. God is so faithful. Please intercede with us. God is a defender of the fatherless, there are many scriptures that prove it. Please pray them out loud with us. Psalms 10:14 ….thou art a helper of the fatherless. James 1:27 (amp)External religious worship (religion as it is expressed in outward acts) that is pure and unblemished in the sight of God the Father is this: to visit and help and care for the orphans and widows in their affliction and need, and to keep oneself unspotted and uncontaminated from the world. Those are just a couple scriptures. There are more. I am claiming them on behalf of my son. That God would move swiftly and mightily on our behalf. That we would have supernatural favor on every step of the remaining part of our adoption and that we will be amazed at how quickly he comes home and until that day comes that he will hold all of us in his loving arms and give us comfort, strength and peace. Will you pray with us too?

Recapping the past two years and The long awaited email arrived!!

Wow, First of all let me say that I am going to be a lot better about updating this blog. I also want to apologize because it has been so long, I am sure this will be very long! So much has happened since the first post which seems such a long time ago now. 2 years has gone by since we started this roller coaster ride. There have been ups and downs, joy and sorrow, but yes if given the choice I would do it all over again. My precious little boy is worth all of it.

Since I last blogged I met our precious son face to face. It has been a whole year and a half since that moment. There were quite a few people upstairs at the orphanage while we waited for JD to toddle up the stairs. Our church group was there with cameras ready to catch the moment and boy was it a moment. In the midst of all the people JD came right to his momma. The camera snapped at the exact moment where mommy and son looked at each other with the biggest smiles you can imagine as I am holding him in my arms for the first time. He then looked over and saw his big sister. For the next several minutes he wanted to go back and forth between the two of us. It was an absolute God moment. Total confirmation that this was my son. Those precious few days with him will forever be in my heart. I want to memorize every detail about him from his beautiful eyes to his chubby little fingers, his curly hair and his cute little feet. I wanted the pictures to remain etched in my heart because I knew that once I left I didn't know how long it would be until I saw him again. Leaving was heartbreaking, little did I know it would be a whole year and a half until I would get to see him again.

After we left Haiti we worked so hard to get our dossier ready and to get the funds to send it to Haiti. God provided everything we needed and less than a month after we came home it was on it's way to Haiti. The whole process is very confusing to me even in the midst of it so I will spare all of you some of the details. October 2010 is when our paperwork hit Haitian soil. In July 2010 our paperwork went to IBESR (Haitian social services) which is the longest most tedious step. We have biological children so according to Haitian law the President of Haiti has to sign a waiver which is called a Presidential Dispensation, this happens during the time you are in IBESR.

This part of journey has been very hard and emotional. I've spent months Checking my email multiple times a day, praying fervently, crying and pleading with God to please move on our little boy's behalf. I don't know how many times Eric saw me checking my email, each time he said "Don't you trust God?" My answer: "It's because I do trust God and I know that He is able that I check my email, I know our good news will be there!"

The Joyous Day Arrived!!
Finally last Friday an email popped up on my phone with the words I had waited almost 9 months to here. It was from our lawyer stating she just left IBESR and they had a list of dispensations and on that list was JEAN DANIEL LABAT!!! Needless to say I yelled "oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh" ( I just happened to be in the restroom at work lol) I really don't think my smile has left for very long since receiving this news!!

So this is where we are now. We are waiting for a call any day to let us know that we need to come to Haiti to appear. I am so excited to see my little boy and hold him and love on him and let him know that he is coming home soon. We can't bring him home this time. We still have another process after that that takes a couple months and then he will get his visa and passport and then he will come home. Finally, we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel! We went out and bought some things for his birthday and Easter and some clothes for him for when we go to Haiti. I walked through the store and the tears kept threatening, good tears. Finally, it was getting closer and finally it seemed so much more real, He is coming Home!!

Thanks to all of you who have prayed for us and encouraged us and even cried with us.We appreciate all of your prayers very much! Please continue to pray that the rest of the process will fly by and soon he will finally be Home! I promise to be better about blogging and keep all of you informed on our last leg of the journey, the journey Home!