Oh Happy Days!

I have not posted as often as earlier in our adoption process, mainly because the last three months have been fraught with frustration for us. We have been dealing with a lot of miscommunication and misunderstandings as we have tried to receive approval for our fingerprinting and background checks.

I didn't want to bog people down with the stress and amount of down-heartedness that we have been feeling. ( although a few of you have been faithful and have walked beside us during this time and we thank you and love you!) We have suffered for three months trying to put the finishing touches on our dossier. Well, I can finally say the finish line is in sight....literally. It is highly possible that by this Friday our dossier will be making its exit from America and arriving in Haiti! ( I won't say 100 percent because nothing is in this adoption process, but we have forward movement! Always better than backwards!!!)

After our struggles and frustrations trying to acquire our final approval it is so exciting to again feel some process being made.

I am hoping the next time I get around to updating our process I can affirm court dates and even more forward process.

I want to finish by giving credit where credit is due. I have cried, stressed, sobbed and cried some more during these trying months. God has been our only strength. Christ our rock. As I've been recently reading through the New Testament, I am impacted by the strength of Paul, who admits and preaches gladly while being in chains for Christ. The trial and persecution he faced far surpasses all I have endured during our adoption process. And I am called, as Paul was, to find joy in my trials. I am blessed to be able to lean fully into the word and love of the Lord during our journey. In no way has this adoption been easy, but we do call it pure joy to be able to follow the calling God has asked of me and Daniel. I have no doubt, complete and utter faith that He will do all things for His glory and bring good to those who love Him. He will bring our son home...

Prayers, as always, are so deeply welcomed and appreciated.
Love and blessings to all,
Terry

Waiting and Waiting...a Brief Update

I have not posted in awhile, but wanted to send out a thank you to those who donated to our Hand in Hand Matching Grant. We actually beat the amount!!! Praise God and thanks again for helping us with our adoption:)

On another note, some changes are going on in Haiti and it has brought the process to a slow crawl. I believe that the changes are good and will be very beneficial to children that are being adopted from Haiti, but for those of us already in process, well, we are stuck waiting for the changes to go into effect.

Haiti is becoming Hague Accredited, which means that they will follow different guidelines for allowing children to be adopted from their country. This is good and helps police potentially fraudulent adoptions. Also, all adoptions agencies must be approved by Haiti if they want to do adoptions from the country. No independent adoptions are allowed anymore.

If you are interested in learning more about the process, check out the America World website for information on the Haiti adoption changes.

So, in a nutshell, we are waiting on changes to be made before we can progress much further. I am in turmoil on a daily basis, knowing that the changes are beneficial, but heart broken for our little guy to come home. I cry, feel discouraged at times and am sometimes fearful. But I trust and have faith in a mighty God who is good to those who love Him. I love my LORD and will continue to trust that He will help us complete all dossier changes, make the Haiti/Hague
changes progress smoothly and bring us completely through our journey with a joyful end. It's the waiting that, on occassion, brings me down.

Prayers are always appreciated, not just for us and our process, but for our son, who is still living in an orphanage, not knowing the completeness of a loving family.

God Bless,
Terry

A Little 'Hand in Hand' Goes a Long Way

We have a son. He lives in an orphanage in Haiti. We have held him, hugged him and kissed him. He is real and he is part of our family. But...There are hoops to jump through, time to wait and alot of money that must be paid for us to bring him home. Trying to come up with the average working man's yearly salary is a daunting task for any family adopting. It is the one, large and scary obstacle that stands in the way.


We have been blessed, however, by Hand in Hand Christian Adoption, Inc. with a matching grant! What is this matching grant, you may ask? Well, if our family is able to fundraise up to $3000.00, Hand in Hand will match us another $3000.00! That's a total of $6000.00!
That is approximately 25% of what we need to help bring him home!


If you've been wondering how you can help our family out, please consider donating to us through the Hand in Hand matching grant account. You can send donations to:

Hand in Hand Christian Adoption, Inc.
Daniel and Teresa Lacey
18318 Mimosa Court
Gradner, KS 66030


Please make checks out to Hand in Hand and only put our names on the envelope. This is for tax deductible purposes. If you have any further questions you can contact me at 801-803-1449 or find more info at www.handinhandadopt.org.

Thanks so much to everyone who has given, even the smallest bit. We know that you are walking with us, praying for our little boy to come home. It takes a village to raise, love and bring home a child. God Bless you all:)

Much love,
Terry

Sleeping in his bunk at the orphanage.

April...A Time of Referral, Baptism and God's Work.

So many things seem to be happening full steam around me, but my brain and body are still on 'Haiti' time (as my friend Angie so rightly put it!). Things are whizzing past me and I don't feel like I'm hanging on very tight! In other words, too much to do and I have no sense of time!!!

But here are some things that have been going on in our village since we returned from Haiti on March 30.

Our official referral documents came in! We are in process of working (and waiting) on adding a sweet, cute, healthy 2 and a half year old boy to our family! Due to confidentiality reasons, I cannot post any other information about him. But he has a name and face! We have a son waiting for us in Haiti!

However, April has been filled with other amazing things. Tayler was baptized on Easter Sunday this year. All I can say is when your 15 1/2 year old son commits his life to Jesus and willingly gets baptised without poking, prodding or doing it because it's the rule, it is the most amazing experience for a parent. Seeing your child take ownership of his faith...well, I've been thanking God for drawing Tayler and making my son His child.

Also, I have to praise God and give Him glory for constantly walking with us. A small, but powerful story: Part of the paperwork that we received for the referral had the amount that we needed to pay up front to the agency. Weeeeeellllll....this very scatter-brained woman mis-read the statement and only sent in half the payment! EEK! We needed to send in twice as much. Well, our savings and personal loan had been tapped out so we were kind of sweating what to do. We had part of it in cash to send, but needed $800 more. I was getting to the point of selling, pawning, begging, whatever it would take.

Well, funny thing. Our credit card statement came in. The bank raised our limit. Can you guess how much??? $800 EXACTLY! Coincidence? I think not:) This has happened several times over the last 6 months since we started the adoption process. God has been opening doors. If people question why we are adopting or why are we allowing ourselves to go into debt again, I can honestly say God wants us to adopt! He will help us tie up the financial end as it comes at us. Some way, some how.

Anyway, that is a small update on what is up in this village:) I want to send a hug and thanks to our prayer warriors and financial supporters. I can NEVER put into words what it means to us. You are a HUGE part in helping to bring our little boy home!

(The pic is of Daniel and I holding him, but can't show his face so it's been cropped, but we got to meet him!!)
God Bless,
Terry

My Reflections on Haiti

We have been back for nearly a week from Haiti and I've had time to absorb, think over and pray for all I experienced on our trip. There was so much, so overwhelming, I don't know that I can ever truly put into words what I lived that week.

The 1st day we were exposed to orphans at the facility for 'older' kids (5 and up) and I was unsure how I was going to react. This is something I've never before experienced in my life. Fortunately for me, the kids knew! They crawled all over us, loved on us, which in turn put me at ease and let my love for kids flow more smoothly.

The 2nd day we went to the baby facility. There were babies as young as 2 months old. I wondered what their futures would hold, brand new and innocent to the world, growing up institutionalized... I am hopeful for these babies however. People adopt babies more often than some of the 6, 7, or 8 year olds that we played with the day before.




Day 3 was diffucult. More diffucult than I can say, but I will try and convey what I mean. We went back to the older child facility and spent the day with them. Somewhere in the back of my mind, through the beadmaking, storytelling, games and coloring, I knew I would probably never see these kids again. I will never know what they become. A child in Haiti is like a wounded gazelle among the lions. My solace was in knowing that the Orphanage Director does his best to look out and provide for them. In an unstable nation, however, there are too many unknowns. I sobbed in the back of our taptap after 11 year old Lucina read Bible stories to me and I found myself clinging to the hope that Jesus was there and protecting these children. That somehow they would know and feel that. That no matter where their paths may take them, they have a Father in heaven who loves them, even when their parents could not.

The 4th day took us back to the baby facility and we again visited, colored with toddlers and held babies. By this day the team was so emotionally drained, it felt like we had nothing left to give. But the kids still managed to keep us busy and we spent a full day loving babies one more time. Holding babies that will never remember you has a profound effect. There is alot of disassociating and disconnecting that can happen within a child's brain if it is not held and loved in the early months of life. We felt blessed and privileged to do this for these babies.

Everyday as we drove through the city, I tried to take snapshots with my brain as well as the camera. I want to remember the colorful taptaps, the beautiful women carrying baskets on their heads, the men selling their goods on the roadsides, the uniformed school children walking to school. The piles of rubble and trash that litter the streets, the cows, goats, chickens...absolutely everything. In a week, all these pieces of Haiti, good, bad, beautiful and ugly, had worked their way into my blood. A week later, I am still longing for and miss Haiti. Why God, am I missing such a poor, needy nation?




He has repeatedly answered me: In a nation like Haiti, where people live day to day, the only hope they truly have is the hope that is provided through Christ. I felt God in Haiti like I never felt before. We can donate, visit, build and educate these people, but their hope truly only lies in the Haitian people coming to life through Christ.

God loves Haiti and it's people. I love Haiti. I pray He uses me to help spread His glory through my newfound home away from home.

God bless,
Terry

My First Haiti Experience

Haiti is a mix of incredible beauty and hideous poverty. The people are stunningly beautiful, smooth cocoa skin, big infectious smiles and they seem to exude an unshakable optimism.

Yet these same happy people are living in conditions that have forced some to make choices most Americans would never dream of having to make.

I spent the day with children who live at an orphanage. Children who's parents are deceased or have relinquished their parental rights. A deceased parent cannot make a choice, but those who relinquish rights have had to make an agonizing choice due to circumstances they find themselves in: earthquake, job situation, or the countless other reasons they cannot care for their kids.

Whatever the circumstance, I cannot fathom having to make the choice these parents had to make. Nor can I imagine being the child left in an unknown place without the only comfort ever known.

With all that stated, my first experience with these orphans was....undescribable. Unless you do it for yourself, nothing I say can convey the varying emotions you feel interacting with orphans.

I hugged precious little girls with pretty braided hair. I tied their ribbons in when they fell out.I told them I loved them because they would tell me first, looking up at me with their big, brown eyes. We blew bubbles, colored pictures, handed out snacks and played jump rope.

Our fabulous group of men had the sports arena covered! They played soccer, baseball, basketball and frisbee. I think there was even some wrestling matches going down with some of the older boys! It was a fun time with a spunky group of kids.

It was almost a perfect day. The hard thing was leaving them there, knowing that, even though the staff does it's best for these kids, these little ones don't have a mommy or daddy to tuck them in, no parents to reassure them that they will be there in the morning and that they are a vital part of a loving family. I cannot think of anything on Earth more important to a child than a families unconditional love.

I am excited and looking forward to the remaining days of our Haiti trip with these kids. I get to be a small part of showing unconditional love to kids that don't experience that. I am more motivated than ever for our adoption to be completed and for our child to come home.

But honestly, I am most excited to see how God is going to change me and our entire team to forever reach out and touch the lives of orphans in Haiti and around the whole world.

The Light at the End of the Dossier Tunnel

Well, it's almost complete.

The stack of paperwork that is approximately 6 inches high that details every little thing that is the Lacey family.

Birth certificates, marriage license, sheriff's letters, reference letters, medical letters, taxes and bank letters, bank statements, homestudy, psychological evaluation...the list could go on and on.

Well, we will be shipping off that stack of paperwork in the next few days to our adoption agency and we will be through the thickest part of the 'paper chase'.

And although it has been alot of work trying to round up all of the paperwork, I don't regret or wish it had been easier. It actually had the affect I think God meant for it to have. It has tested our strength and, after reading our very positive and encouraging homestudy, has shown we have what it takes to add another member to our family.

As Daniel and I get ready to set off to Haiti this weekend, I realize that God's timing in all of this has been perfect. Our paperwork labor has paid off and our homestudy is being sent to the orphanage (if it hasn't arrived already) so that the Orphanage Director can be working on a referral for us. We may quite possibly be meeting our son this weekend if they don't require more of our 'official dossier' to be submitted wholly first. I am keeping my fingers crossed, but God has timed everything beautifully. If we have to wait, of course we will, if not...well, I can't wait to meet our Oscar next week!

Please pray for our trip to Foyer de Sion orphanage, the children there and the team that is going to serve them. May it have a positive impact on these kids and may they all find a loving home. The need is great, so pray that others rise up to help be the 'care in their time of distress.'

God Bless and thanks to all the support that has come in during this exciting time in our lives!
Terry