Haiti Bound
Haiti Bound
Two weeks from now I will be in a hotel room, preparing to fly back to the United States with an entirely new perspective on Haiti and our adoption. I will have experienced Haitian culture up close and personally, willly have held orphans in my arms who may or may not ever have a family adopt them, and I will have worshiped with a local church right in the center of orphan care. I will meet women who dedicate their lives to scores of children not their own, and I will be broken.
No, this trip doesn't actually have anything to do with our family's adoption. Our paperwork is still sitting on a desk waiting to be submitted, where it will likely stay for another eight months. There is nothing I can do about this but pray, which I do, but in the meantime, my heart says I must do more!
If there is one thing I have already learned from our adoption journey, it is that adoption is not "the" answer for Haiti. In fact, it is only one of many answers. Many, many more children will be placed in orphanages than will ever be adopted, world-wide, and while I believe whole-heartedly that God's perfect plan is for every child to have a loving family, we live in a fallen world where that simply isn't a reality. Many, many children will age out of orphanages or foster care and move into adulthood without the stability of healthy family relationships to help guide their futures. They're not the cute, cuddly photos that tug at heartstrings, they are young men and women, with gifts and talents, facing an uncertain future. And you know what? God loves them too. And He has called the church to care for them too.
Please don't click to close this page just yet. I'm not going to preach at you. I have no desire to be on a soap box. The simple truth that I have learned so far is that we have to do more than just adopt a baby from Haiti. Adoption won't solve their orphan crisis. We must do more.
I have mentioned several times in this space that I now serve as an ambassador for GO Exchange. I LOVE this company with my whole heart. When we met them at Orphan Summit sixteen months ago, we had no idea how they would change our lives, and still don't fully know!
GO Exchange is an amazing company hiring moms and dads in Haiti and East Africa, training them to make beautiful things and selling the beautiful things in the US. Our goal is to employ as many as possible, knowing each employee provides for eight or nine other extended family members. Eighty percent of the children who find themselves in orphanages have living moms or dads who simply couldn't afford to care for them. They're not bad people, or even neglectful; they're desperately poor and hoping somehow their children will find a better life. GO Exchange seeks to provide sustainable, living wage jobs, to keep families together in strong, stable units, and to reduce the number of kids abandoned to orphanages.
But they don't stop there. All of their profits go to orphan care. Every last penny! Through local connections and churches, GO Exchange helps to provide not only educational opportunities, and daily necessities but also runs a training academy where orphan teens are taught job skills, so that when they age out, they have the opportunity to wok. Some of them, as many as possible, work for us at GO Exchange. They learn to sew and to work on sewing machines when they break down. Their work is shipped to the States where screen printers (who are part of our foster care mentorship program here), complete the project, and our warehousers ship them out. Their work is of the highest quality, and they've landed some really big contracts here, including one with with a nationally known cell phone carrier. We couldn't be more excited about this initiative, which gives hope and stability to hundreds of workers, and as the cycle continues, we'll expand to include even more!
One of the most common questions Steve and I are asked when we tell people we're adopting from Haiti is, "Have you ever been there?" Up until now, the answer has been no. But in a few short days, we'll board a plane to Port au Prince, with some of our favorite people, and we'll find out first-hand what Haiti looks like, feels like, smells like, and sounds like. We'll put names and faces to the stories we share as ambassadors, and we'll be changed somehow. I know we'll be changed because I'm praying for change, and I'm already feeling the first world-third world tensions tug at my very soul.
So what will we do there? Play!
We're going on a couples' trip. Most of the kids there never get to see men because the orphanage workers are all female. The guys in our group have been forewarned that they will be like celebreties with kids hanging all over them. Their job is to play and play hard - lots of soccer and physical play..
The ladies on the trip get to play too, but we also get to rock, hold, and nurture. This trip isn't about building a structure or doing repair work or painting. Its about spending quality time with kids who don't get a lot of one-on-one time with adults. I don't know how impactful our short visit can be with the kids; I'm just going to cling to the same philosophy I have about fundraising - I will offer the best I have to give, and trust God with the rest, knowing every little bit adds up to something bigger when the Lord has His hand in it.
My church has been bringing donations of tangible things most needed by the orphanage at this time - toiletries, clothes, closed-toed shoes, etc. The team members have made physical preparations by scheduling immunizations, purchasing bug spray and sun screen, and procuring antibiotics for everything from malaria to traveler's tummy troubles. Now the most important preparation is under-way; the part where we prepare our hearts and our minds for whatever God has in store. We want to give and to serve, but we also want to grow, to come back with opened eyes, softened hearts, and a passion born from Heaven that will not forget that "Religion God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep one's self from being polluted by the world."
Here is another public plea for your help to finish out this post. I'm not asking for money or stuff. God has that under control. I am simply asking that you include us in your prayers. We're jumping into the deep end, even if just for a few days, and beyond the travel logistical needs and the physical stuff, there is important heart/head/soul work to be done. Pray for our safety, our family back at home, and our courage as we seek to love the Lord our God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.!
"Give thanks to the Lord. His love endures forever."
Two weeks from now I will be in a hotel room, preparing to fly back to the United States with an entirely new perspective on Haiti and our adoption. I will have experienced Haitian culture up close and personally, willly have held orphans in my arms who may or may not ever have a family adopt them, and I will have worshiped with a local church right in the center of orphan care. I will meet women who dedicate their lives to scores of children not their own, and I will be broken.
No, this trip doesn't actually have anything to do with our family's adoption. Our paperwork is still sitting on a desk waiting to be submitted, where it will likely stay for another eight months. There is nothing I can do about this but pray, which I do, but in the meantime, my heart says I must do more!
If there is one thing I have already learned from our adoption journey, it is that adoption is not "the" answer for Haiti. In fact, it is only one of many answers. Many, many more children will be placed in orphanages than will ever be adopted, world-wide, and while I believe whole-heartedly that God's perfect plan is for every child to have a loving family, we live in a fallen world where that simply isn't a reality. Many, many children will age out of orphanages or foster care and move into adulthood without the stability of healthy family relationships to help guide their futures. They're not the cute, cuddly photos that tug at heartstrings, they are young men and women, with gifts and talents, facing an uncertain future. And you know what? God loves them too. And He has called the church to care for them too.
Please don't click to close this page just yet. I'm not going to preach at you. I have no desire to be on a soap box. The simple truth that I have learned so far is that we have to do more than just adopt a baby from Haiti. Adoption won't solve their orphan crisis. We must do more.
I have mentioned several times in this space that I now serve as an ambassador for GO Exchange. I LOVE this company with my whole heart. When we met them at Orphan Summit sixteen months ago, we had no idea how they would change our lives, and still don't fully know!
GO Exchange is an amazing company hiring moms and dads in Haiti and East Africa, training them to make beautiful things and selling the beautiful things in the US. Our goal is to employ as many as possible, knowing each employee provides for eight or nine other extended family members. Eighty percent of the children who find themselves in orphanages have living moms or dads who simply couldn't afford to care for them. They're not bad people, or even neglectful; they're desperately poor and hoping somehow their children will find a better life. GO Exchange seeks to provide sustainable, living wage jobs, to keep families together in strong, stable units, and to reduce the number of kids abandoned to orphanages.
But they don't stop there. All of their profits go to orphan care. Every last penny! Through local connections and churches, GO Exchange helps to provide not only educational opportunities, and daily necessities but also runs a training academy where orphan teens are taught job skills, so that when they age out, they have the opportunity to wok. Some of them, as many as possible, work for us at GO Exchange. They learn to sew and to work on sewing machines when they break down. Their work is shipped to the States where screen printers (who are part of our foster care mentorship program here), complete the project, and our warehousers ship them out. Their work is of the highest quality, and they've landed some really big contracts here, including one with with a nationally known cell phone carrier. We couldn't be more excited about this initiative, which gives hope and stability to hundreds of workers, and as the cycle continues, we'll expand to include even more!
One of the most common questions Steve and I are asked when we tell people we're adopting from Haiti is, "Have you ever been there?" Up until now, the answer has been no. But in a few short days, we'll board a plane to Port au Prince, with some of our favorite people, and we'll find out first-hand what Haiti looks like, feels like, smells like, and sounds like. We'll put names and faces to the stories we share as ambassadors, and we'll be changed somehow. I know we'll be changed because I'm praying for change, and I'm already feeling the first world-third world tensions tug at my very soul.
So what will we do there? Play!
We're going on a couples' trip. Most of the kids there never get to see men because the orphanage workers are all female. The guys in our group have been forewarned that they will be like celebreties with kids hanging all over them. Their job is to play and play hard - lots of soccer and physical play..
The ladies on the trip get to play too, but we also get to rock, hold, and nurture. This trip isn't about building a structure or doing repair work or painting. Its about spending quality time with kids who don't get a lot of one-on-one time with adults. I don't know how impactful our short visit can be with the kids; I'm just going to cling to the same philosophy I have about fundraising - I will offer the best I have to give, and trust God with the rest, knowing every little bit adds up to something bigger when the Lord has His hand in it.
My church has been bringing donations of tangible things most needed by the orphanage at this time - toiletries, clothes, closed-toed shoes, etc. The team members have made physical preparations by scheduling immunizations, purchasing bug spray and sun screen, and procuring antibiotics for everything from malaria to traveler's tummy troubles. Now the most important preparation is under-way; the part where we prepare our hearts and our minds for whatever God has in store. We want to give and to serve, but we also want to grow, to come back with opened eyes, softened hearts, and a passion born from Heaven that will not forget that "Religion God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep one's self from being polluted by the world."
Here is another public plea for your help to finish out this post. I'm not asking for money or stuff. God has that under control. I am simply asking that you include us in your prayers. We're jumping into the deep end, even if just for a few days, and beyond the travel logistical needs and the physical stuff, there is important heart/head/soul work to be done. Pray for our safety, our family back at home, and our courage as we seek to love the Lord our God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.!
"Give thanks to the Lord. His love endures forever."
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