Day of Prayer

For years my mother and father in-law have held a "Day of Prayer" at their home around the time of their wedding anniversary.  This event demonstrates to me the very essence of who the Probert's are and how they live their lives in a God-honoring way. I am so blessed to be a part of the Probert clan.

It doesn't hurt that the homestead's surroundings itself causes me to kneel down in wonderment and worship. That fact coupled with the decision to drop everything and spend time with God alone creates an atmosphere that is hard to pass up.

We spent the first hour before God examining ourselves. Several scriptures were provided to help us come before the Lord and let Him reveal anything in us that needed to be taken care of. The thought of the Lord being our hiding place permeated my heart. Psalm 32 speaks of this and I loved how The Message worded this passage. "God is my island hideaway. He keeps danger far from the shore and throws garlands of hosannas around my neck."

I was also reminded how Christ Himself intercedes for us. I was recently reading the passage in Luke just before Jesus was betrayed. Jesus was having a conversation with Simon Peter about how Peter was convinced he would never betray his friend. But Jesus told Peter that Satan had demanded permission to sift him like wheat and Jesus had prayed for Peter that his faith would not fail.  Peter failed.  I know Jesus intercedes on my behalf as well. I have failed too. This grieves me. Sin should grieve my soul. If it didn't, I would be concerned about my eternal security.  So Jesus and I had a little time today and I found rest in Him. Because there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus! And we move on, doing my best because of my love for Christ and nothing else. And He will supply everything I need to do my job! To bring glory to Him. That's why I'm here.

We came back together after that hour of reflection to share our thoughts, worship and share communion together. Our second session was to pray for those who are closest to us. Our family and friends. You. My prayer was the same for many, that the will of God would be revealed in your life and that you would walk boldly in that calling as the last days are approaching. 

And of course, I prayed especially for Lydie and Samson. I prayed that they would know that they are loved. I prayed that the peace of God would reign in their lives and that they would not be afraid. 

Back on track?

We have received notice from our adoption agency that Pierre will be taking over the Power of Attorney role at Maison. I'm grateful as Pierre is trustworthy and wants these kids to be home with their forever families as much as we do. My prayers go out to him because he is an incredibly busy man. Thankfully he has a team working with him to get our paperwork moving again.

Because a new Power of Attorney has been named, we had to re-do our Power of Attorney letter. That meant pulling up the old document we had saved on my computer, changing the name on it, signing the document in front of a notary and sending it to Des Moines to get that notarization certified. Because of the need for quick turnaround on this, Stephen actually drove to the Secretary of State's office in Des Moines on Wednesday to get it certified! Then, while he was in Des Moines he found a post office and had it mailed next-day air to Colorado! Whew! Stephen was able to drive to Des Moines because he's on his two-week intercession. I am just so happy that this all worked as well as it did.

We received confirmation tonight that our document had been received and was on it's way to get translated. Hopefully, very soon we will hear some good news about our paperwork moving once again!

Blog title goes here

I couldn't even think of a title for this latest post. I don't even really know if I can put this week's events into words. But, I'll try. It all started with the news on Monday that a dear man from the church in Allison that Stephen has spoke at many times had passed away. His 3-year battle with cancer was over. He had heard our family sing over the years and had requested that we sing at the funeral. Unfortunately, my dad would not be able to get off work so that meant it would be just mom and I.  Mom came over Tuesday night to practice. We planned to sing a song called "Look for Me" and the other song requested was "Blessings." Well, of course it was! The song that has kicked my butt so many times over the past month or so, the song I couldn't get through without tearing up, and now I was being asked to sing it. Yikes! God was going to have to do a miracle here.

Wednesday was my 35th birthday. Yes, I am now officially old enough to adopt from Haiti! Yippee! Let's just say I'm not exactly thrilled about this fact, but it is what it is and life goes on inching ever so closer to the dreaded 40's. My mom told me she will officially feel old when I turn 40. Thankfully, I'm not there yet. It felt very appropriate that I went to a wake on my birthday. Kind of put everything in perspective. The man who died was only 51. After a weekend of remembering 9/11 and then seeing loss up close and personal, I really got very introspective. And a little depressed.  Life is fleeting. We must cherish each day the Lord has blessed us with.

Thursday was the funeral. God and I had a little talk that the only way I was going to get through this was to be numb. Just concentrate on the job that I had to do, focus on the words and notes and He would take care of the rest.  "Look for Me" went as smooth as it could have, no mistakes, no sour notes.  Many of you might know that "Blessings" has taken on a life of it's own.  It has encouraged countless people and has struck a chord with many who are hurting for many different reasons.  The Lord carried us through, as He always does. (Why do we doubt His power?) I don't know how He did it, but He did.  Thank you Lora Story (writer of "Blessings") for your great words of wisdom and encouragement.  .."but the greatest disappointments, or the aching of this life, is a revealing of a greater thirst, this world can't satisfy. What if trials of this life, the rain the storms the hardest nights, are your mercies in disguise". I am so thankful this world is not my home.

When I got back to the house that afternoon, I felt I deserved comfy pants and coffee. So I sat down with my laptop, Kitty purring by my side and opened up my email to see these beautiful faces. Oh what joy after so much sorrow and sadness.

Stephen and I officially celebrated my birthday today. I picked him up at 3:30 and we decided to see the movie "The Help." I highly recommend this movie. It will make you laugh, cry, and want to punch the screen several times. It's hard to imagine that just a few short decades ago we were segregating and discriminating people because of the color of their skin.  I could say a lot more about this subject, but I'll leave it at that.

After the movie we went to the Olive Garden. Wouldn't you know it but the table right next to us had a little guy that was acting just like Samson. We enjoyed his antics and his playful banter. I turned to look at Stephen and our eyes met filled with tears. Once again, our hearts ached for our children so far away from us. Children that we have only spent three days with but our hearts have knitted tightly together with each passing day. When we got home, we had an email from Patrick waiting for us. God is good isn't He?

For the first time we have measurements of the kids! Check these out!


Lydie:
Weight: 23 lbs
Height: 82 cm
Head Circumference: 46 cm

Samson:
Weight: 22.3 lbs
Height: 77 cm
Head Circumference: 48 cm

And some more new pictures!!!

Patience and Grief

The last two weeks have been a new level of difficult. Not just for us, but for all the families that are currently adopting from Maison.  We've all been discouraged at the lack of movement or news since Kiki's death. It is also my feeling that we knew the kids were sensing the loss of Kiki too.  This was validated by Angie's latest post.

But then, Wednesday we finally received a couple of updates from our adoption agency. We received a personal letter written to all the adoptive families written by Pierre, director of Maison and brother of Kiki. As I read the letter out loud to Stephen, I broke down. The gravity of the situation hit me full force. I have experienced great loss over the past few years and have had dear friends of mine suffer loss as well. It's part of life on this broken world we live on. And then the words of the song "Blessings" came over me like a warm blanket. God knows our hurt. And I believe in a short period of time, all will be redeemed and restored. What once was broken will be renewed. What once was lost, will be found. He's the only one who can truly heal and restore. He mends hearts and lives.  In the meantime, we fight and we rest. We fight for the things we know are right and we rest in Him knowing that He's all that we need. This world is full of wickedness and evil and loss, and it is not our eternal home. It is a temporary dwelling and we must press on.

The fight to bring our children home is completely and utterly out of our control. It requires a level of patience I have never experienced until now. Biological mothers know that in about 9 months a new life will enter their world. Adoptive mothers have no idea when their children will be home. Am I bitter? That last sentence might have sounded that way, but I'm not. I'm blessed. I'm blessed that the Lord chose me to be the mother of Lydie and Samson. What an honor! We are walking this road with our eyes wide open. We know that sometimes the road is not easy when they get home, but we know it's a road the Lord has chosen for us so we walk with boldness.

The last few pieces of information we received from our agency were these:

-Pierre is trying to get special permission to pick up our paperwork from the office it is currently in. Haiti won't release these things to just anyone so it's been a challenge for him to get our Dossier returned. This has been very difficult news for the families stuck in IBESR especially. Please pray that the offices grant Pierre permission to receive the files.  As far as we know, we were in the courts system where the adoption decree is written and our children legally become our children in Haiti's eyes. So we might be hearing some very big news soon! Of course, we will let you all know as soon as we know.

-Maison will be hiring a new adoption processor in about 4-6 weeks. When that happens, we will most likely have to re-do our power of attorney letter. This means we will have to get it notarized, certified, translated and legalized and sent to our adoption agency where they will mail it to Haiti. This document will be added to our file so our adoption process can be finished.

-This is a paragraph pulled off of Patrick's latest newsletter. It contains some very hopeful information!

 As many of you know, dossiers are being processed much more quickly these days in Haiti. In large part, this is due to the fact that several European countries have temporarily stopped adoptions out of Haiti. Thus the Haitian government is currently only processing about half of the dossiers that they typically do. Several of our families are benefiting from the low number of dossiers in Haiti and are moving through the steps extremely quickly. In fact, we are very hopeful that a few of our CCAI families will be spending Christmas this year at home with their beautiful Haitian children!

Thank you all for your prayers, in Jesus name, we press on.

Kiki

The man who has worked so hard for us to get our children home to us, is gone. We got late word tonight that our lawyer, Kiki was found dead in his home this morning. Nothing is easy in Haiti.

We have heard from one of the other adoptive parents that he was having terrible back pain all week and went to the doctor and had a shot in his back and was feeling better, but unfortunately for some reason, he passed away. This is the letter from our adoption agency and a notice posted by For His Glory Outreach. I don't know what else to say except we're in shock and our hearts grieve for the people at Maison.

Dear CCAI Haiti families,

Earlier today we received the sad and unexpected news that Kiki Alexis, the processor of adoptions for Maison des Enfants de Dieu orphanage in Haiti has passed away.  His departure from this life was sudden and unexpected and we are all very saddened at this news.

Kiki was the brother to the orphanage director Pierre and assistant Franckis, and played a vital role in all adoptions processed through Maison.  He will be missed greatly.

At this point in time we ask all our families to keep Kiki’s family and friends in their thoughts and prayers as they grieve the loss of their family member and friend.  We ask for your patience as we work with the orphanage to determine how in-process dossiers will be managed at this point in time, and in the future.  We are working closely with our friends at Maison and For His Glory Outreach to move forward with a plan for continuing to serve our families. We will pass along this information as soon as it is determined.

CCAI remains committed to all families in the adoption process, and is forever grateful to Kiki for all he’s done for Haiti’s beautiful children.

With heavy hearts,

CCAI Haiti Team

Patrick, Kim, and Judy

Dear Naomi, Jean Kuislin "Kiki" Alexis It is with great sadness that we inform you our dear brother in the Lord, Jean Kuislin "Kiki" Alexis, has passed away and gone to be with the Lord. Matthew 18:5 tells us that "whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name, welcomes me." Kiki welcomed the Lord daily as he served the orphans in Haiti through Maison. Through his ministry and work with Maison, Kiki helped hundreds of children be united with their forever families and many more to have a safe place to live with food, water and medical care they would not have had otherwise. We are so thankful to have known Kiki and to have worked alongside him in the ministry the Lord had called him to. Please be in prayer for his family and the staff and children at Maison during this difficult time. Since Kiki's life was poured out to serve the children through Maison, we ask that memorial gifts be sent through For His Glory with "Kiki Memorial" in the memo, and we will ensure that your gift is applied toward the continuation of his work. If you are a family currently in the adoption process of a child at Maison, we will be notifying your agency as to the changes that will be made in who will be processing adoptions for Maison as soon as that can be determined. Thank you for your patience in this area.

Other things

I tried to keep my blog dedicated to adoption stuff so those who are interested in the process don't have to wade through stuff they don't really care about. But today I thought I would let you in on what we've been up to this summer. 

We really didn't have much of a summer as Stephen started a new job in a year-round school in Cedar Rapids. He is now the Instructional Coach at Polk Elementary just minutes from my office. I am loving the lesser drive time and he has enjoyed the new challenge. He's already been in session for a month or so. He will be getting an "intercession break" the last 2 weeks of September. His job as best as I can describe it is coaching teachers on new instructional initiatives the district wants implemented in the classroom. He still works with kids sometimes but typically in smaller groups. He is always doing something different and spends a lot of time emailing and coordinating different things. The nice thing about Polk is there are a lot of kids there who look more like Lydie and Samson. He's come home with some very cute stories and it's been a nice change for him to be in a more diverse building. 

A couple weeks ago my whole family got together to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday. It was definitely a highlight of the summer. My sister was able to fly home and surprise mom and spend a few days here which was a treat. Mom had nearly 4 days of one surprise after the next and I think by the end of it she was a little overwhelmed! We fished, got pedicures, had a campfire, talked, laughed, sang together, swam, ate and loved on our beautiful mama! It was so wonderful. I always have a hard time recovering after times like those. It's hard to get back to reality and the daily grind. It's times like those that you wish time would stand still for a little while. 

On Tuesday, August 16th, Stephen and I traveled to the Iowa State Fair with his parents so the Probert Farm could be honored as a Heritage Farm. This means the farm has been in the family for 150 years. It was a wonderful honor for the Proberts and I was so proud to be a part of it. Of course, when you go to the fair, you have to eat! And boy did we eat! 

At the end of June/first part of July Stephen and I took a vacation to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We drove to Chicago and caught a Cubs game then drove up the eastern side of Lake Michigan to Mackinac Island. We discovered on our trip the most of our vacations have always been to visit family members and this was the first time we were actually just vacationing as just the two of us. We knew this may be the last chance before the kids come and that's okay! The weather was perfect and we had a great time together. It was a healing time for us as the last school year had been pretty rough on Stephen. He had also taken some classes after school had ended and this was the only time we had before he had to start at his new school. 

And of course, summer is never complete without volleyball. Every Thursday night we piled into the Reed van and  headed up to St. Lucas (one hour north of Independence) and played. On the last night of tournament play (we won our bracket!) Stephen's elbow caught my forehead and the bridge of my nose. For a split second I was afraid my nose had broken. Thankfully it wasn't and I didn't even get a black eye! 

It was a great summer. Our last summer of freedom so to speak! But we have had 14+ summers of just the two of us, time for a new chapter. I'm ready!

New pictures of Lydie & Samson

Stephen and I have been quite busy with family activities, volleyball tournaments and work. It's so nice to come home after a day of work and find new pictures and updates! Patrick took these pictures for us. This is what he said:

Hello! I hope that you are doing well and surviving the heat wave in Iowa. I have attached several pictures of your beautiful children. They are both doing well. Lydie has been transformed into a very active toddler since I last saw her. She was happy and very active. You will have your hands full to say the least.

Samson was also good. He’s looking a little rough after undergoing a bout of Mulluscum. However, please keep in mind that all children in orphanages get Mulluscum and it goes away in a matter of a couple of months. There are rarely any permanent discolorations or scarring from it. Both of my children had Mulluscum and they have no visible marks from it.