As soon as I heard about the earthquake in Haiti, the first person I thought about was my friend Amanda whom I met on my trip to Uganda last spring.

Throughout the trip, she told us stories about growing up in a family that valued ministering to the poor and underprivleged, especially those in Haiti. She told us about the numerous mission trips she had experienced, and introduced us to her one-year-old “son” Isaac that she was planning to adopt from one of the orphanages in Haiti. Because of the long adoption process, she had been able to visit him several times, but knew it could be years before she would be able to bring him home to America. [I find it so sad that the process is so difficult, involves so much paperwork, and takes so long... there are so many wonderful parents here longing to adopt internationally. I have heard that the wait to adopt from China is up to six years now.]

Fast forward to January12, 2010. Amanda was actually IN Haiti at the time of the earthquake on yet another missions trip. You can visit her blog and read about her experiences here. For the short version, Isaac and the orphans survived the earthquake, but their building was destroyed and all of the adoption paperwork that had been in process was lost. Amanda had to come back to the U.S. without her baby boy, not knowing what would happen to him and all the other children she had come to know and love throughout her visits. I am so so SO very happy to report that because of some heavy lobbying by a senator, Isaac was granted Humanitarian Parole and was able to fly to the United States to be with his mama. I can’t imagine the joy that must have filled Amanda’s heart knowing that her baby was safe and coming to live with her forever! I am so happy for you Amanda and so proud of everything you are doing to continue to help the people of Haiti.

To watch a quick video of Amanda and Isaac’s homecoming click here…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 12:44 pm and is filed under Adoption, Africa, life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.