Monday, November 14, 2011

Where do we go from here?

After returning home from my second trip to Haiti I told my family all about the quiet little boy named Makendy. I didn't exactly know why my heart still ached for this little boy, but I couldn't get him out of my mind.

My husband, Mike and I spent many hours talking about Makendy and what our purpose was in his life. Mike began to fall in love with a little boy that he had never even met. This is when we made the decision to travel to Haiti together so that Mike would have the opportunity to meet Makendy.

As much as we looked forward to experiencing Haiti together it was a tough choice to leave our four children at home and travel to a third world country under turmoil. We had some people that were very critical of our decision and this began to eat away at me as we prepared for our trip. Were we being irresponsible? Were we bad parents? Were we blindly taking this step and not thinking about the consequences? Well, this is when I learned a great deal about my faith and about Satan.

I began questioning my faith because Satan was using people that I know and love to challenge me. No one ever said that being a believer in Jesus Christ was easy. So far, these were some of the most dark and difficult times in my spiritual journey.

As I fought through the spiritual battle going on in my head, I realized that I needed to shut off the noise and listen to my heart. God placed Haiti on my heart many years ago when we began sponsoring a little girl from World Vision. God opened doors for me to go to Haiti and minister to the people there. God placed a little boy from a Haitian orphanage in my life. And, now, He was nudging Mike and I to travel back to Haiti so Mike could meet Makendy, the little boy who stole a piece of my heart. This was not our
timing or our plan. It was God's timing and God's plan.

Mike and I, along with two friends that have been to Haiti before, traveled to Haiti at the end of November 2010. This would be my third trip to Haiti in a year. Our time there went well and we were able to spend some quality time with Makendy. It didn't take long for Mike to say that this little boy belonged in our family. This is when I realized that Makendy was a Lempke. He was not just an orphan who stole
my heart with his big, brown eyes. He was our son. Given to us by God!

It was then that the real work began. Where did we go from here???

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