UPDATE: Saturday night my sister found out that her boys were granted their visas, along with 20+ other children from the orphanage...praise God! Now we need to pray that they get safely transported out of Haiti and reunited with their forever families. Also, pray for the caregivers of these children. While they are extremely happy to see these children leave the country, there is little time to prepare themselves emotionally for the exodus of so many children at one time. These children have been loved and cared for by these dear caregivers for a long time, and the bonds are great. In many instances, the caregivers will continue on in country to care for the many other orphans who will now take the place of the adopted ones. May God bless them for their sacrifice of love!Sorry I have been so quiet on this blog as of late. It just doesn't seem right to write frivolous posts when so much death and destruction is happening in our world. The earthquake in Haiti has touched our family in a very tangible way, as I have two little nephews there in an orphanage who need to get out. My sister Stephanie has been in the process of adopting little Ian and Alec for over two years. She has made several visits there, the most recent of which was this past fall with my mom. Just last week she found out that the boys had been granted their visa appointment at the U.S. Embassy which was the final step before they could come home. The appointment was scheduled for next Tuesday, January 19. And then came the earthquake...UNBELIEVABLE!
As I type this, people in the upper eschelons of our government are working hard at trying to get special humanitarian parole status for children who already have mommies and daddies waiting for them here in the United States but are just lacking the necessary paperwork...which now may be lying under tons of rubble at worst, or in dead computers at best. The orphanage where my nephews have lived their short lives has a wonderful director who has been working around the clock to get some of the kids out. Miraculously, she was granted 12 visas in one day, but she wants 12 more. Please pray that our government will see fit to get ALL the children out of that country who have families waiting for them. It could take YEARS for the Haitian government to get itself back together enough to continue the paperwork for some of the families who are in earlier stages of this process. And in good times, the process already was taking years...
My heart aches for the children who have already known such devastation and now are having to live through more. My heart is broken for the thousands of children who are now left orphaned in addition to the thousands who were already orphaned. I thank God for the compassionate people who have given their lives to advocate and care for the "least of these" in the name of Jesus. If you would like to read my sister's blog, please visit
http://www.iansadoption.blogspot.com/. If you scroll down her righthand sidebar, she has links to other blogs where you can follow the stories of adoptive families and ministries in Haiti and other adoptive families in the US and around the world. But most importantly, pray without ceasing for this situation to be handled quickly and efficiently so the children can be spared further heartbreak and suffering.
God is good all the time...and all the time, God is good.
