"When tomorrow comes....." Oh wait! It's here!!

So for those of you that have been following our recent saga. Here is the best update I have for you. Laurens and the girls are finally coming to Canada!! As our senior pastor at the Meeting House put it: "YYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

How this happened was incredible. As you know, we were going to have to go to Dominican to get a visa or wait 19 weeks to get the citizenship visa.....as of this morning. With Laurens' flights booked tomorrow the possibility of them coming this week was looking slim, again.

However, God had other plans. Due to some e-mails we sent (we think) and the fact that they knew of our case after the earthquake, Citizenship and Immigration Canada coordinated with immigration Canada in Port-au-Prince and sent them the approved paperwork they needed directly bypassing the next 19 weeks!!. Praise God. Never did I really think that they would get this done prior to this weeks flight. It was amazing. It made the 5 hours on the phone and e-mail Friday afternoon worth it for sure.

We feel like we have been running a long long race and I can never say the finish line is here, but we have at least almost reached a rest stop. We are so happy to have all we need and look forward to being together in rest.

Thank you thank you thank you to all our prayer partners. We know that you have helped so much. It was so interesting to see the number of e-mails we spontaneously got today of people saying they were thinking about us and praying for us today specifically. God had placed a burden on many people's hearts to pray over this situation today and so many were faithful. Thank you. Thank you for how you have touched our lives.

This morning I was having my quiet time with God and like usual I prayed that I would see the scripture through the eyes of the Holy Spirit living within me and not with my own eyes. Today it lead me to a passage of Abraham's faith. In Romans 4, Paul explains Abraham's faith as believing in God. This is not believing in the sense that He believes God is real, he knows God is real. Rather, it is the believing of when you believe in someone. Like you trust them completely that they will do what they say they will. If God calls Abraham the father of faith and of all who believe in God, then I wanted to know more. In verse 18 it says "Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping" I wanted to know how so I kept reading, Verse 18-19 "- believing that he would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, "That is how many descendants you will have!"And Abraham's faith did not weaken, even though, at about 100 years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead - and so was Sarah's womb." OK now this is what gave me hope. Abraham did not give up his hope in what God had said to him even after YEARS. He was 100 and still waiting for babies.....This was very humbling as I had found myself complaining to God about my short end of the stick for 8 months, only 8 months!......So I read on;  Verse 20- 22 "Abraham never wavered in believing God's promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. " So this put a question to me. Did God promise something to me? Yes he did. He clearly made a path for us the last 8 months and he clearly laid a path to tell us what He had planned for us over these few months (that is a different story).  So the question was then was I fully convinced that God is able to do what He promises like Abraham? I realized that I was part way there, but I needed to fully commit. I needed to fully believe in the being of God, I needed to trust His integrity, His character, His faithfulness, His power. I knelt down and prayed. I gave Him all of my trust, all of my problems, all of my worry and had a peace come over me as I fully believed in Him, that He would fulfil His promise according to His will and timing. I continued the last part of this chapter and I read in Verse 22-24, "And because of Abraham's faith, God counted him as righteous. And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn't just for Abraham's benefit. It was recorded for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in Him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead." I wanted God to count me righteous too because I fully have faith in Him that he will do as He promises. 

Today I receive righteousness from God. Today He also fulfilled His promise as He knew He would. He did not make it easy. He does not promise to. Look at Abraham, he was 100 when God still had not fulfilled His promise for children! But He did fulfill his promise as He always will in His perfect timing. In recording this for you, as it says here in Romans, I pray that you too will be called righteous for your faith - believing in the person of Jesus Christ, God the awesome father and the Holy Spirit that dwells within you. He is the real deal and you can trust in Him fully. I can honestly say that my faith is stronger because of this and that brings glory to God. I pray that God will be glorified further by our story.

Our girls are finally van der Mark's...but the saga continues

Praise God! Ana and Mina are officially van der Mark's! Laurens is relieved to now have all of the official adoption papers in hand and the girls passports. Yea! We are very excited that they are officially part of our family. We feel so blessed that from something so horrible (devastating earthquake), things were sped up for us in this process and we have our little girls.

We were so excited in fact that Laurens thought he would have no problem getting back to Canada on Tues. so we booked his flights. All he had to do was go to the Canadian embassy to get the travel Visa and he would be off. But wait!! It could not be that easy could it? It could not be like they said after the earthquake. "As soon as you get the following documents, bring them all in and we will issue you a travel visa right away". Of course not!

Upon arriving he was told that a little while ago they stopped doing travel visas to Canada for Haitian's from the Canadian Embassy in Port au Prince........due to the damage in the building, they had decided to move this service to.....Santo Domingo Dominican Republic (8 hours away). They forgot to tell us.

So here we are stuck again. They will only issue Laurens a citizenship Visa for the girls provided we have Part 1 of our citizenship approval in hand that comes from Nova Scotia. OK, this we have applied for. Good! This was supposed to be at our place in Canada before Friday. It was not! Bad! We called and were told that instead of the 8 weeks they stated on the letter, they are on a 27 week delay for citizenship part 1 approvals. We have 19 weeks to go! :(

We have put out e-mails to all our contacts and are praying that someone will know a way to get Citizenship and Immigration Canada to give the approval now instead of 19 weeks from now.....we are so close to reprieve yet so far.....God only knows why, but we know there is a reason. If you have any pull in this department or have any ideas, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Our desire is to have time to heal in Canada as a family before heading back to Haiti where we will continue the work God has for us there. If you are new to this blog, we encourage you to read through the last few blogs to see the work we have done pre earthquake, through the time of the devastating earthquake, and the aftermath up to now. You may get a tiny glimpse of why we feel we need some time  off.

 "Oh how great are God's riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!" Romans 11:33

The drama continues

I know many of you are wondering if Laurens and the girls have made it to Canada yet. Don't worry. I will let you know when thy have made it!

The drama continues as the process to get passports that should take a day has taken over 4 weeks. We are not surprised by this, only frustrated. Every day things are "so close" yet not finished. Through all this though we know that God has His perfect timing. There are so many little things that pop up that I can see God knows so much better than I. He works all things for our own good and we are trusting His word in that.

Laurens now has verbal confirmation that both girls passports are completed. Yea!! Not a total sigh of relief for us yet as he still does not have any papers in his hands. That is when I will have a sigh of relief. When all papers that prove adoption and passports are in hand.

Anyway, the latest drama is as follows. As you know, we are adopting identical twins. Now to me (knowing them intimately for a year) they don't look that identical anymore. To the untrained eye however......you can think you are talking to the same twin until she looks at you like you have two heads (this is because it is actually the other twin you were talking to earlier, and this twin has no idea what you are talking about). Well this is the problem in immigration today. They do not believe it is two different children! After they finished the passports, they said they have to do an "investigation" to make sure they are 2 separate children! Laurens is offering to bring the children in front of them to prove it (which he may have to do).

I guess I am naive about why you would possibly want to do 2 adoptions and 2 passports for the same child. I am trying to think in devious terms and I can't even think of a corrupt reason why someone would do that. Sooooo anyway, with tomorrow's flight wilting away (flights now being only every Tues to Canada), this is where we stand. God can do a miracle and get the passport issue cleared, get all papers in hand, get Laurens to the Canadian consulate, get the travel visa, and have Laurens make it to the airport by 1:30pm tomorrow.....but we will be trusting in Him that He will do what is best for us.

I have tried reasoning with God, I have cast Satan away (every step of the way), I have pleaded with God, I have read both old and new testament scripture to find out how others in a situation such as this pray, and I have worked through them all. Laurens and I have been away from each other for almost 2 and a half months at a time when we need to be healing together and I can only think God has a reason and a plan and I need to trust in Him. I know our reunion will be all the more sweeter because of it.

Please pray that this investigation does not delay the situation for too long and that they would make it back soon. If you are a prayer warrior, tonight and tomorrow morning are great times to pray a ton for a miracle :)

Please also pray for Laurens as he has hurt his back today lifting a huge gate that had fallen on a security guard. The guard was flattened and stuck under the gate. The gate crushed the guard's body breaking his finger and lower leg. SInce he could find no one else around to help at the time, Laurens had to lift and move the large and heavy fence off of the guard himself to relive the guard's pain and set him free.

Just another day in Haiti