Big decisions!

When Nick and I moved down to Haiti, we knew that more than likely we would end up staying for more than our original year commitment.   A few months in, we emailed our director and told her that we were interested in staying at COTP for 2-3 years.  We had decided that we would wait to tell our parents this until they came down to visit us, because after meeting the kids and staff, as well as seeing how happy we are there, we felt they would better understand what led us to making this decision.

Our time in Haiti has continued to be amazing, and we decided that we no longer liked our 2-3 year commitment.  After a lot of discussion and prayers, we decided that we could see ourselves living in Haiti for 10, 15, or possibly more years.  We see ourselves raising our kids in Haiti. 

After we decided that we wanted to stay in Haiti for an extended period of time, we began talking about the possibility of adopting an adorable 8 month old boy!  Nick and I are proud to announce that we are the parents of Eventz Benjamin Alexander Stolberg, our first son!  He is tiny, adorable, and amazing!  We feel very blessed to have him be apart of our family, and to have the privilege to raise him.

Last Wednesday we left Haiti some what abruptly and spent 5 days in Minnesota talking to the board and our directors of our desires to stay in Haiti for years to come.  (We both only had shorts and flip flops, and with the weather in the low 30‘s, we froze!  Luckily there are Walmart’s there so that we could get some warm clothes).  We both have a lot of visions of what we would like to do to create a change in Haiti, and how we will live our lives there.  After presenting these ideas to the board, we feel confident that God will open and close the right doors for our future.

All the details are still a bit fuzzy as we wait for the board to decide what are the next steps, and whether or not we fit into the long term picture.  One thing that we know for sure is that God will provide for our family.

We arrived in Washington today, completely unbeknownst to our parents.  After spending some time visiting with them, we informed them of our plans to stay in Haiti and adopt Eventz.  I can honestly say, I don’t think that any of them were “that” surprised.  I’m sure that they all knew there was a chance we would stay longer.

Adopting Eventz is going to be a difficult and exhausting task to complete.  Haitian adoption laws are VERY strict, and Nick and I not only don’t met these requirements, but won’t met them for several years.  Realistically it could take us 10+ years to make Eventz legally our son.  This means that we will not be able to travel with him, or take him out of Haiti for a long time.  There are a lot of uncertainties that go along with adopting him.  Adoption laws could change at any moment, and make it impossible for us to finish the process (we actually can’t even start the process for some time).

Nick and I aren’t staying in Haiti only to complete our adoption.  We also aren’t adopting because we are staying in Haiti.  Both of these decisions were talked about separately and are both things that we feel called to do.

We have been away from our son for 7 days now, and are very excited to get home to Haiti to spend time with him.  I will be leaving on the 9th to go back and Nick leaves on the 18th.  We would love to visit as many of our friends and family as possible while here as we aren’t sure when we will be back in Washington, together at least.  We feel that until Eventz is comfortable in our home, one of us will always stay in Haiti with him at all times.  Since he is so young we are hoping that we will both be able to leave for short vacations within the next year or two!

Please pray that Eventz adjusts well to being a member of our family, and that God will continue to open all the right doors for the 3 of us!  Also please pray for Eventz continued health.  He was recently in the hospital and quite sick.  He is doing much better now, gaining a lot of weight, and catching up developmentally.

We are beyond excited to be parents and love our son very much!

Nick and Nikki