Put on your seatbelt becasue this is a doozy! I have had email contact with this great family here in Houston that are kind of "mini celebrities." They were in the process of adopting a 9 year old boy from Haiti when the earthquake hit. Literally, the day after the earthquake the husband hopped a plane to Port-Au-Prince, hired a driver, drove to the orphanage where their soon-to-be-son was, picked him up and took him to the front steps of the US Embassy in Port-Au-Prince. They slept and stayed there for 9 days! Finally, on the 9th day the US Embassy gave their son a "pardon" to become a US Citizen and they were able to fly back to Houston. Is that a cool story or what? Well, the mom of this family has been a great connection for me since she has "been there, done that" in regards to Texas and adopting from Haiti. So very thankful that God has placed her in my path. She hooked us up with our social worker and then hooked us up with a French translator. sidenote: For those of you that are not familiar with international adoption....once your dossier (a huge stack of required paperwork and documents about your family) is authenticated on the state level, the US State Department level and the US Haiti Embassy level...it has to then go to the Government of the country that you are adopting from, but before you can mail it there, it must be translated into that countries official language, which for Haiti is French. Back to story: As soon as I started emailing this translator, I absolutely loved her. When she emailed me her contract...her very first requirement is that you email her a family picture, that way she can add it to their "family wall" of adoptions. These are the families that she is currently translating dossier's for. That way her family can be praying for us!!! A dossier is roughly 30 pages...give or take a few. Her fee for translating is $20 a page which comes out to be approximately $600. The day that you contract her, she takes a deposit of $200. Rick and I decided last night that I would contract her today. Well...this morning, I was in a huge hurry (imagine that) and was determined that I would have a joyful heart and have a positive attitude...as the last few days have been pretty stressful trying to figure out this bank letter, police clearance letter, psychological evaluation, and then scheduling notaries for all the above. I jumped in the car and headed down to HPD, but before I left the neighborhood, I suddenly realized that I forgot to email the translator and contract her. So, I flipped a Uey, ran in the house, emailed her, and took off again. I prayed and sang along to KSBJ the whole way to downtown Houston. I actually made it through downtown WITHOUT GETTING LOST. This was a huge feat for me. Found a parking spot RIGHT IN FRONT of HPD. And, when I got my number called, the lady behind the counter actually knew EXACTLY what I needed. I was in and out of there with three original, notarized letters in 45 minutes! It was a piece of cake or maybe a miracle! As soon as I walked in the door, I checked my email. I noticed right away that I had an email from the translator but to my surprise, when I opened it, she had put her phone number and asked that I call her as soon as I got it because she had some "really exciting news to share with me." Okay, really? I am thinking...what in the world? How could this girl have exciting news for me...I don't even know her? But, I have to admit, I was also very anxious to hear what she had to say. I didn't think my day could possibly get any better than it already was. DRUM ROLL PLEASE...when I called her, she told me that a family that had used her to do their translations when they adopted from Haiti had called her. They told her that God had placed it on their hearts to bless another family that was adopting from Haiti by PAYING FOR THEIR TRANSLATIONS and that family was US! Oh my goodness, I cannot even tell you the emotions that went through me! I was screaming, crying, laughing, speechless, completely overwhelmed, in awe and so thankful to this amazing family that does not even know us to be blessing us like this. The even cooler things, it that they want no recognition for this act of kindness, they want to remain completely anonymous. Thank goodeness, I was able to send them a thank you note through our translator. We are thanking God for His provisions and we are trusting in Him completely as we contnue on this journey. What an amazing confirmation that we are definitely walking that path that God has laid before us.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path. Proverbs 3:5-6
