So here’s the latest news in the story of Jaline and Marie Line. After not hearing from our lawyer for another two weeks, I finally heard from him last week. He has been struggling with an infection from his diabetes. Battling an illness like diabetes takes on a whole new meaning in a nation like Haiti. Please pray for the health of Jean Maudrel, our lawyer.
We hope the long awaited move of Marie Line is finally here. Jean Maudrel is finally planning on moving Marie Line to the crèche where Jaline is currently staying, this Saturday. I must admit it’s tough to get too excited with that news since she was supposed to be moved two months ago. Yet we pray that she will finally move to the crèche with her sister Saturday. As I put Sophie to bed a night ago, I asked her what we should pray for, and of course she said we should pray for her sisters. When I asked if there was anything specific that we should pray for, she asked that I pray that Marie Line would be able to move to the crèche on Saturday.
I had to pause in my head and reflect about the magnitude of that moment. What would it mean for Marie Line to finally move to the crèche? It would mean that for the first time since December Jaline and Marie Line would be reunited. Think about that… these precious sisters haven’t seen one another for eight months. Jaline still has no idea that her big sister Marie Line is coming to live with her. She doesn’t know that they are going to be able to grow up together. We couldn’t tell her, because we had no idea when they would be reunited or how the process would work. We still don’t know for sure if it will finally happen on Saturday., as we have encountered delays in the past, but when it does… What a day of rejoicing that will be. When Marie Line last saw her sister, Jaline was three and a half and was severely emaciated. Today, her little sister Jaline has gained a great deal of weight, is stronger, is healthy, is learning to smile more often, and is learning from her daily schooling.
While I ponder the joy of Jaline’s progress, I also need to share one more thing I prayed for with Sophie. Daddy prayed that his little girl, Marie Line, would have enough food to eat the next day, would have clean water to drink, and that the Lord would protect her that night as she slept on the cement floor, exposed to a variety of hazards. Yep, we’re praying that there will be enough food each day and that the water will be clean. These are the unfortunate realities of daily life in Haiti, for orphanages and children everywhere… My heart breaks for my little girl as I know the struggles she is enduring, but I have to pause and reflect upon the reality that the problem is so much more widespread. What does this mean for me/us long term? I have no idea, but I know that this isn’t a journey that calls us to raise these two little girls and forget about the hundreds of thousands of children who will be left to contend with the daily struggle to survive in Haiti.
We watched a movie a couple nights ago, about the girl who lost her arm from a shark attack while surfing. While the messages were a bit forced at times, there were a couple things that hit home for me. The reporters asked her after she returned to competition, struggling as a one armed surfer, if she knew could go back and avoid the shark attack, would she not go surfing that day. Her response struck a chord with me. She said no, because then she would not be sharing her story with others. While we wait, I continually reflect upon all the things I have learned through this journey and the ways my relationship with Christ has deepened over the past year. I also reflect upon how the story of Jaline and Marie Line has affected so many of our friends and family and many people we don’t even know. I’m sure there are some of you reading this right now that Samantha and I don’t know, or have no idea that you are following our journey. My prayer is that each of you is growing with us as we follow the story of what the Lord is doing in the lives of these little girls and our family.
Please pray for the move of Marie Line! I have been amazed by the power of prayer in my own life over the past year. We have been so blessed to have people all over the country praying for our little girls. I know there are people I don’t even know praying for the girls and lifting their path up faithfully. If that is you-THANK YOU! We are so thankful for all of the people who have invested one way or another in the future of two of God’s precious children. There’s nothing more reassuring for a desperate father than to hear someone share that they are lifting up his children in prayer.
We did receive news last week that the judgment on Marie Line’s birth certificate is now complete and her birth certificate is ready to submit to the Haitian government. Our lawyer has stated that our dossier with all the girls’ documents will be submitted to the Haitian government within a week or so. Please pray that everything will fall into place for the documents and that they will move swiftly.
The progress we can see has been slow lately, but we trust that there is a reason for these delays. In our simple perspectives, we often miss all the things that are happening in each of us to prepare for the adoption and the things we all need to learn along the way.
I’ll leave you with a short video I took of Marie Line in April.
Todd
