This Week's Featured Charities...

Mercy Corps: The Portland based charitable organization Mercy Corps has deployed an experienced emergency team to rush critical supplies and other urgent assistance to survivors. There are up to 3 million people that are affected by the earthquake in Port-au-Prince. Families need your help — food, shelter and other supplies — in the aftermath of the worst disaster to strike the region in years. To make a donation go to: https://donate.mercycorps.org/donation.htm and select: Haiti Earthquake. For more information about Mercy Corps, visit: http://www.mercycorps.org/

Edge Outreach: One year ago this month an EDGE water team was in Costa Rica when the area was hit by a 6.2 magnitude earthquake. The team was allowed into the earthquake area to assist the Costa Rican Red Cross and Salvation Army. Within six days EDGE had 6 water systems providing 38,000 liters of safe drinking water each day for earthquake victims. Edge Outreach will be sending three teams of 6, and nine water systems to Haiti January 20. Output from these systems should be over 67,000 liters/day. The cost is $73,000. They also need air miles. Call the office at 502-568-6342 to donate air miles. To donate, visit: http://edgeoutreach.com/

Earthquake in Haiti

A 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti today followed by many large aftershocks. The epicenter was located just outside Port-au-Prince, the city that Droiy’s orphanage is located in. The earthquake could be felt in Dominican Republic, which is about 25 miles away from Port-au-Prince at the closest border crossing. There will be many people impacted by this disaster as Haitian buildings are not built to withstand earthquakes.

Please pray for the people of Haiti and for the children of the New Life Orphanage where Droiy is located. The United States is already planning to send people and aid. We have emailed the orphanage directors and asked if there is anything we can do to help. We will keep you posted.

Step 1 Home Study

The first step in adopting Droiy is a home study. We have to pass the criminal background portion first. That, of course, should not be a problem. We get to finger printed! So cool! Ben’s been fingerprinted at least 5 times for school and the like, so I guess it’s not too exciting for him. But it’s a whole new world for Sarah.

The rest of the home study is a pretty long process. Both Ben’s parents and Sarah’s sister and brother-in-law had to go through it for their adoption/foster parenting process. The study begins with references and long questionnaire. Some of the most interesting questions we are asked in the home study are:
What are your fondest childhood memories?
For Ben, that would be family river trips during which he spent a week camping on the river (Rogue, Deschutes or Snake) with his family. For Sarah it would be growing up in a foreign country and going to Portuguese elementary school with my sister.
What are the three most important personal values you would like to pass on to your child?
Faith in Christ
Making family a priority
Importance of education

Next they make sure we are physically fit as parents to care for children and verify that our home is set up to take care of this child. Finally of course, there are all the financial issues. The adoption agency makes sure we can afford the child. Interesting how one does not have to be certified to afford to have a child by natural means…

Anyway, we are so excited to begin the process. Fingerprinting starts Tuesday!

Here's a little background info about Haiti

Haiti and Dominican Republic (DR) occupy the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean. We went to DR on our honeymoon in July so that we could also visit Haiti while we were there. We took a day tour across the Northern Coast of DR and Haiti and saw an extreme contrast between both the economy and geography of the two countries. While at first DR may seem poor, it is nothing compared to the impoverished nation of Haiti – the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere. The United Nations has been in Haiti since 2004 and as you can see from the picture of us at Dajabon (at the top) there are still UN tanks and troops that maintain a presence around the border.
We had a heart for the people of Haiti even before hearing about Droiy. Our goal was to visit Haiti and work in the orphanages of Port-au-Prince during Ben’s time off from school. The orphanages serve a great need in that country. About 80% of the people of Haiti live below the poverty level, surviving on $480 a year or less. Therefore they are not able to take care of their children and they give them over to the orphanages. More than half of the population over 15 years old is illiterate and only 20% of the population attend school past 6th grade; however, in the orphanages children do have a chance to have a better life. They receive an education until they can no longer be cared for or they are adopted.

We're plannning to adopt Droiy

We found out a few months ago that Ben's little sister (Jenny) has a brother in Haiti who is 2 years old. He is in the same orphanage she was in when she was first adopted. We contacted the orphanage and told them we want to adopt him - his name is Droiy.

Dr Bernard, who runs the orphanage, has told us we are too young. Haitian law says you must be 35 and be married 10 years to adopt a child. However, sometimes exceptions are granted by the government. Dr Bernard believes in miracles and so do we! We have faith that God will allow us to adopt and that the Institute of Well-Being and Research (IBESR-in French) will grant us an exception if it is His will.

Please pray with us as we start this process. It is expensive and time consuming, but we can’t wait to be parents of this beautiful little boy!