Before Nick and I got engaged, Nick promised me that we would move abroad for a year to volunteer after I graduated college. He never really thought he would have to follow through with his promise and assumed that by time I graduated I would want to have a baby and not want to leave. I however never quit talking about it or looking up places online to move to. After I spent a month in Kenya in 2009, I became even more fired up about my goal to move abroad.
After touring the UN building in NYC, and seeing displays of children dying of preventable diseases, Nick finally was touched and he realized that we could do something to make a difference. That night we went back to our hotel room and started searching for places to go. We found COTP and an infant care center in Uganda. We emailed both and COTP was exactly what we were looking for.
The next 9 months killed us as we waited to move abroad. We STALKED the website and everybody's blog daily (ok, maybe closer to 10+ times a day) waiting for any update we could find. During this time God opened every door that could have possible prevented us from moving to Haiti and we knew that this is where we were being called to.
When we moved down here in June of 2010 Nick was supposed to be the maintenance man and I was going to be working with the children. Our roles changed a lot over the next few months. Nick quickly began overseeing the adoption workers and ensuring that all adoptions were being processed as quickly as possible. Nick kept taking on more and more office roles, until he became the new field director on March 1, 2010.
My role has changed a lot now that we have adopted Eventz. He is and will always be my first priority. I also run the formula program and the preschool for the older children as I have done since I arrived, however I now do more office work so that I can be home with Eventz as much as possible!
We feel so blessed to be able to live and work in Haiti. Our original year commitment was much to short and we have since decided that we will stay here until we feel we are called else where. We don't have any idea how long that will be, but are incredibly happy where we are!
Thanks to everyone who has made this dream a reality for us and to everyone who has sponsored and prayed for our time here! We can't put into words how much we are learning and growing from our work here. We thought we were moving abroad to make a change, but the biggest change is happening within us!
