A Month Ago, Continued

The night of the earthquake, our pastor and dear friend joined us very late.  I remember being so spent, I felt like a zombie.  Steve and I sat on the couch and just listened as he sat on the floor and quoted/read scriptures, prayed, and kept saying, "God has done this."  This ended up being a fairly good thing for him to repeat, because it caused me to remember that this same God that ordained the day, loved me.  Loved Joshua.  Shall we take good from Him and refuse the difficult?  The problem was, I was mute.  All I could do was listen and talk to myself in my head.  I was too exhausted to be spiritual, or even non-spiritual! 

Right as he was walking out and whispering to Steve (I do remember thinking they are probably discussing my mental health or lack thereof!) our stateside director called and let us know that she had finally received a sketchy communication from our Haitian director and that he was alive.  He had not/could not go to the creche, though, so we would have to wait to hear more about the babies.  We finally went to bed.  I couldn't wait to close my eyes and sleep...and hope that I would wake up to find it had been a nightmare. 

The next day, we were told that our director had heard that the kids were ok, but he couldn't get to them.  They were unsure if the children had water.

The next few days, my Mama Bear instinct kicked in, and I believe God gives that instinct for difficult times such as these.  A whirlwind of appointments, news interviews, and meetings to decide what our next step was.  We originally believed we would need to apply for Humanitarian Parole and got the ball rolling on that.    We also made sure that a doctor friend of ours signed off on a power of attorney before he left for Haiti, just in case the opportunity arose for him to bring our son OUT of Haiti.  We did not sleep much at all and feared leaving the computer as we waited for the latest update from JCSIS or Haiti.  The phone was constantly ringing with an update or something new to consider/do.  Our brains were in absolute overdrive and often someone would speak to me and I would have them repeat it just to allow my brain to catch up.  It was a crazy feeling. 

In the meantime, in Haiti....

Joshua's creche had just welcomed a nursing student intern.  She was from TN and had been there only a week prior to the earthquake.  Once the earthquake hit, her family went on an adventure to find her and bring her home.  Once they got to Haiti, they contacted our Haitian director, and together they were able to finally reach the babies.  The babies and staff were found across the street from the creche in makeshift tents on a concrete slab that had been built for a coming church building.  Amazingly, the 5 story creche was still standing, though buckled and cracked.  They transferred the babies and staff to the guest house.  It was a 2 1/2 hour drive, and their bus broke down.  But, they finally made it.  The intern's dad was also in process to adopt a little girl and worked for a fairly well-known ministry back here in the states.  Somehow, a news connection was made as he waited in Haiti to bring his little girl home.  We were so happy to see a New Life Link family get a view of their boys on the National news, and for us, just to see the guest house was comforting.  A night or so later, we were able to glimpse Joshua's backside playing with a plastic chair as the dad, Mike, was interviewed once again.  The situation they were in was safer, and yet the food and water was severely rationed. 

Soon, God would amaze us with an incredible course of events that shows that He works all things.  Yes, we believe that God is sovereign.  Yes, we believe in His Holy Providence.  We believed it before, but sometimes, God does the amazing as a reminder to the Holy God we serve.