It is time for an update on our family and our crazy journey. After a harrowing 6 months, we have finally come back to Canada for a much needed rest. Like our friend Rachel, we did not have time to think to deal with the earthquake due to our busyness post quake. As others left around us, we continued to be strong and pushed forward, consumed by the intense work that we had to do. Slowly over the months, we started to get people in place to share the workload and we were able to prepare plans for moving forward.
Over the past 6 months, we had incorrectly assumed that we were dealing with the horrible trauma well. I in particular, had stuffed down deep inside all the death, mangled bodies, pain, suffering and smells that I had dealt with in order to function. I had ignored the effect of the massive traumatic truck accidents we continued to have after the earthquake. I had compartmentalized the grief, the wailing, the suffering of my patients, holding people while they die and the emotions that go along with it in order to function. In doing so, we reached a point where relationships started to suffer. We had no more emotional energy left for anyone outside of our family. I in particular had built up a wall of safety and security around my emotions so that the floodgates would not break. It was a protective mechanism as I was not yet ready to face the horrible images, smells and emotions that went along with the work I had to do after the earthquake. We had nothing left to give. It took Brad, the president of our mission to pull me aside and point out my lack of emotion towards other staff and some teams, to put a crack in the wall that did not want to be broken. Also like our friend Rachel, once things became more manageable at work, that crack started to open and we realized we had a lot to deal with.
Since then it has been quite a journey for our family. We decided it was time for a break however as you all know, we are adopting Haitian twins who have been in our family for a year. Some of you know, that their paper work was ready to be submitted to the authorities Jan 10th (2 days before the earthquake). The papers were not submitted in time. We were faced with potentially years before they would be legally adopted (even pre earthquake it took 2 1/2 years typically). Since then the Lord has blessed us tremendously as the earthquake actually sped things up and provided opportunities for us to connect with people that have helped us with our files. It was not completed however by the time we needed to break back in Canada and the girls are not allowed out of Haiti. This meant that Laurens and I had to split our time in Canada, each of us taking 1 month with no time to spend together as a family.
As you can imagine after what we have been through this has not been enough time nearly to process anything (throw in family expectations etc) and we desire more than anything to decompress as a whole family. I never knew that after going through something this big, that by 4 weeks you are only starting to realize what you have been through. We are starting to heal but without us being together (we are each other's true best friends) we have barely touched the iceberg. This brings us to the most important part of this e-mail. The girls papers and passports are almost done. I mean any day! This is a true miracle! Because of this, we have postponed our flights back and we are praying that this will come to fruition so that we will be staying to heal and "deal" for 2 months before going back to Haiti. We have decided to see missionary trauma counsellors here in Toronto and we are excited to break down the walls and go back to Haiti strong.
We need you more than ever right now.
Please pray today and into Monday for:
1. The girls passports to be completed (they are at the office today)
2. That the authorities give Laurens the original papers that he needs to get their travel visas (this is a huge prayer as getting these papers is more difficult than it sounds)
3. That all this happens in time to book the only direct to Canada flight from Haiti this coming Thurs. (otherwise they have to wait until the next Thurs.)
Please pray in general for:
1. Our mental healing
2. That we get the rest and family time that we need to be strong for the Lord
3. That God is glorified through our family's story and through the miracle of the twins adoption
Practical Needs that you may be able to help with. Please e-mail us(click on the e-mail to the right) if you are able to help in this regard:
1. Assistance for funds of the flight. Because of the late booking, all regular seats are gone and the tickets for Laurens and the girls to join us are $2000 more than they usually are.
2. A vehicle to borrow for 2 months that fits 7 people
3. Mattresses for us to borrow to sleep on (in our empty house)
4. Very small kitchen table chairs x4 (we don't have a lot of space)
5. Stools for breakfast bar x 3 (wow we have a big family)
Thank you so much for your support and prayers through this difficult year
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