Updates and Such

Hey everybody,



Well, it's been a long time since we've chatted about our adoption, so I thought I'd keep you up to date. We've finally gotten through our home study (yay). And now it's time for the super serious part. During all these months that I've run Give1 I've had tons of time to learn about African adoption and culture and that's been so cool. I've definitely learned that when you adopt a child, you also adopt a culture, and that's what brought us to a bit of a pause. We always had planned on adopting a child from Ethiopia, and then when that was complete to adopt from Haiti. I've come to realize that there couldn't really be two more opposite cultures! The Haitian culture and adoption process is more in sync with our family. The reason we planned on adopting from Haiti later is because they have a policy that you must be 35 to adopt and we are not. There's some buzz in the air about that law being changed to 30, so we took a huge leap of faith and had our home study prepared for a Haitian adoption instead. Ok, and then the law did not change. And that's where we are now. With a prepared home study, bank account, and hearts... and we don't yet qualify. SO... I would love some prayers. For the Haitian law to change, which would allow so many more people to pursue Haitian adoption and find homes for those little ones. For our patience in the process. God is absolutely doing something here and I'm learning that I'm just not in control of it. I have no idea what's going to happen and peace constantly a little outside of my grasp.

{photos of Haiti by Baron Batch's creative nonprofit, 2nd Hand Images}

So that's our personal story. Now for some other Haitian news. Next week Give1: Haiti will open up. That was always part of the plan. Like I said, our adoption (whenever that may be)  is pretty well funded (thank you for all who have helped). I've been making custom artwork that still goes into the adoption fund for travel expenses and such, so if you'd like to keep supporting us, that's totally the way to do it. But we won't have that paypal button anymore. Right now we're looking for families adopting from Haiti. And since we don't have one yet I'll be blogging on behalf of our friend, Jen Hatmaker's HELP safe house project. I hope you'll join me next week in learning more about Haiti and it's adoption process. It's a beautiful culture, and I have so loved learning French and using more coconut, lime, and rum in my cooking adventures! :)