Beauty in their brokenness.
In Haiti children with mental or physical disabilities are generally shunned and many are abandoned. Voodoo says to get rid of the child while many people believe they are evil and that the child is punishment on your family. But God says something else. He sees beauty in their brokenness.
Being a pastor in Haiti is a dangerous profession. When a pastor is seen with Americans, he or she can be targeted by would-be criminals because it is assumed that the Americans have given the pastor money. After Pastor Dare had been with Americans, he was followed and someone broke into his home. He tried to tell the robber that he didn't have money. He apparently didn't like that answer and shot Pastor Dare in the neck. Miraculously, the bullet went straight through without rupturing any major veins and missed his spine. God had spared him!
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Our story of adoption starts with the pain of infertility.
Almost every young person thinks they will become a parent someday. After Steve and I got married and decided to have a baby, things didn't go as we always thought they would. Testing showed that I had a medical issue that could keep us from having a biological child. Month after month was a reminder of shattered dreams... Actually, that's not even true. Every day was a reminder of shattered dreams and a reminder for me that my body couldn't do what it was created to do. Never knowing when something would put me back into the pit...seeing a baby at the mall, learning that someone had their 5th baby, hearing a celebrity had a baby they didn't plan on. It is heart-wrentching. People who haven't gone through infertility offer advice... "Just relax" or "Go on a vacation", like its not a medical issue. People who don't know ask, "When are you two going to have children?" or "Isn't it time for you to have children?". Night after night crying myself to sleep asking God, "Why?" Steve did his best to offer support but even he didn't understand the depths of my pain. Doctor appointments, surgeries, medication, and finally! Our pregnancy test is positive! Shale was born on April 25, 1998. Our first child! The best day!
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We knew we couldn't just leave them behind.
The pain hit my heart as we flew out of Port Au Prince, Haiti. I looked down and saw the city, knowing we were headed back to our easy life in our comfortable home in our safe town. Luken's words kept ringing through my ears, "Here, children sleep where pigs sleep". My heart broke for the children we had met living in the rubbish that makes up part of Cite Soleil. We knew we couldn't just leave them behind.
We had been with children in extreme poverty before; different slum, different country. Maybe it was the accumulation of them that made this departure harder. I'm not sure. But I did know I couldn't just return to our normal.
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It took us three attempts to get into this city.
The first try, our trucks were stopped by a road block that a gang of teenagers had constructed out of logs and tires that they had pulled across the road. There were riots throughout the city protesting the high gas prices that day. We didn't realize how dangerous it was until we got back to the U.S. and googled the images that showed vans being tipped over and set on fire.
The second attempt was close. We picked up a gang leader (who is needed for entering the city) who jumped in the van to escort us into Cite Soliel. As we drove into the first sessions of the slum, a friend of the gang leader ran up to us waving his arms to get away. We learned later than there was a gang war going on and that there was gun fire.
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