Happy news!  Lily and her new mom Elizabeth have made it home! Please continue to pray for those separated and still waiting. And for the adjustments ahead for this new family:)

I’ve never met her. I’ve not even seen a picture of her. I know about her. She’s a mother. For me- thats all it takes, to connect us.

Right now, maybe she’s patting her pregnant tummy and wondering if it was hunger pangs, or her baby’s first movement,  that she felt.  Maybe she worries about the health of both her unborn child and the toddler next to her. Maybe she worries what trauma will be remembered long after today.

For sure, she waits.

While she waits, maybe she holds the hand of the tiny Haitian girl.   They wait to finally be “officially”  mother and child, but their hearts are already one.. They wait to go home and be united with husband and new father.

As I write, they are still, at the US Embassy in Haiti. Waiting.

For paperwork.

Maybe it’s because I’m just shy of full blown OCD, or have too much time on my hands or am nosey, but the image of them waiting, so close to home but so far, won’t leave my mind.

Maybe it’s NOT because of  those things.

Maybe it’s because I’ve waited too.  I’ve been a part of the process of praying and waiting and raising funds and experiencing disappointment and excitement, while friends adopted from Russia.

Maybe it’s because I waited while friends were stuck in Russia, one document from becoming a family.

I watched as God and his people used creativity, passion and connections to get that piece of paper to Russia. I waited while a friend flew from Michigan to another state to take the papers to be hand delivered by another couple on their way to Russia, to adopt their own child.  We prayed.

I remember sitting on the kitchen floor,tears rolling down my smiling face, ear pressed to the phone listening as two little ones met over the phone for the first time.

I waited at the airport, for that flight home to arrive.

I wept as I saw a mother and child and grandparents and family and friends united.

I waited.

Much the way this mother in Haiti is waiting.

She needs help. She needs the Prime Minister to SIGN THE final paperwork.

Thats all.

What’s taking so long?  I don’t know.

I do know this, every mother matters.

And doing something, can make a difference.

What I can do, is share their story.

When I read it- I was touched. I wanted to DO SOMETHING.

I made some calls. I talked to the father.  I talked to someone working with Haiti. I sent some emails, I tweeted some people, I posted to facebook.. looking for those connections that might make a difference and end the waiting.

Will it make a difference?  I don’t know.

But it makes a difference to ME, because I know that I did what I could.

If I were there- holding that tiny hand, I’d desperately want  someone, to do something.

The sad fact is there is not just one mother waiting in Haiti with her legal, already in process before the earthquake adoption paperwork. There are 180 families waiting.

At the US Embassy, Haiti.

For paperwork.

What can you do?

Pray.

Think about your’re sphere of influence. Do you know someone who could help? ASK THEM TO HELP.

Can you share their story? Link, tweet, tell.

Dear Lord- I pray for those trapped physically and by red-tape in Haiti.  I pray that you’d make a way where there seems to be no way.  I pray that you’d renew hope.  I pray that your peace and protection would be present.  Lord I pray that you’d protect children from illegal adoptions and dangerous trafficking. I pray that you’d bring wisdom and peace to chaos.  Lord- I pray that as Lily and her new mother wait- you’d hold their hands.  amen