Love at first Sight

The following is part of a letter we sent out shortly after arriving home from our medical mission trip last May.  It describes the first few days we spent with Ben and Ephtonline. Wish words could capture the intense emotional connection we felt with these children! 

The first night we were in Haiti we met a little boy named Ben.  He grabbed a hold of our hands and hold of our hearts.  With just that touch, I felt it in my gut, my heart, and my soul!  The next day on the way home from church, I was so overwhelmed by our experience at the local Haitian church in Les Cayes.  How there could be such a language barrier and I could know absolutely nothing that was being said yet feel so close to GOD!  The SPIRIT poured into the church, its people, and in turn, us.  I remember thinking WOW- GOD is doing something miraculous here.  My thoughts went to why HE had brought us here.  Joe and I, on our first medical mission trip, something we had been wanting to do for so long....and it was here He had brought us.  I prayed for the knowledge of what it was HE brought us here to learn.  Instantly my thoughts flew to Ben.  A sudden peace came over me as I thought of the slight chance God had brought us to this place at this time in our lives so I could be his mother.  My heart was filled with a Mother's Love, which at times I had feared I would never feel.  My whole life seemed to be leading to this one day when Ben would become our son!  HEBREWS 11:1 What is faith?  It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen.  Next thing I know, we had arrived at the church at Cambry (the orphange where we stayed and the children live) and we were sitting down on the back row.  Joe turned to me and said "hey baby, it's Ben".  He was there tapping us on the shoulder.  Joe lifted him over the pew and we celebrated our first service together.    Less than 24 hours after Ben took a hold of my hand, we knew we were meant to be a family.  The next day at the clinic, after Ben had a tooth extracted by the dentist with Joe by his side, we learned he had a "sister".  We met a little girl named Ephtonline.  Suddenly the family we had seen as three grew to four.  Instantly Joe and I knew they should both be a part of our family. 

Joe and I have been trying for 8 years to start our family.  Last year we suffered a great tragedy when I miscarried twins and had an ectopic pregnancy.  After 8 years of trying to conceive the pain of losing our babies was almost too much.  But the LORD got us through!!  Lamentations 3:32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion. So great is his unfailing love.  If our twins would have survived, we never would have been in Haiti to met Ben and Ephtonline. If the orphanage in Jeremie would have been ready, we never would have been in Cambry to met Ben and Ephtonline.  God has a plan!!  Sometimes in this life you feel like you are exactly the place you are supposed to be at exactly the right time.  After all the pain we have been through the past year, we felt exactly where we were supposed to be at exactly the time God had intended us to be there.  God will never stop working in our lives! Philippians 1:6.

We feel we could give each other so much love; we could bring so much joy to each other’s lives.  We are desperate to get the adoption process started.  Then the Lord said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me?  Tell the people to get moving!"  EXODUS 14:15.