The road begins...

I'm not quite sure how to start this, all I know is that over the past couple of months I have found such strength and hope in reading stories of how so many others have faced similar challenges, as Shaun and I have. So through the process of that...I've decided to start my own blog. I'm hoping, more than anything, that others will find strength in the stories I share, as I found strength in theirs.  In addition,  I feel this is a great way to share this new journey of adoption with those that Shaun and I love so much.


So here it goes...God be with me.
The "journey", as I've called it, started almost two years ago, in December of 2010.  It started after after Shaun and I visited a place in Haiti, Children of the Promise.  Children of the Promise is an orphanage that my mom and dad have been serving at for several years, prior to Shaun and I going. We had been married for year two years, and were both beginning to get "baby fever"; however, we wanted to take one last trip before we started.  After praying, and talking about it, we decided to make "our last trip"- Haiti.  
As I type this, my eyes begin to feel with tears and my heart aches, yet rejoices.
We were forever changed, for many reasons, but mainly because of our Sabyna. The night we arrived to the orphanage we were given Sabyna to care for. Her mom had to make the toughest decision, yet best decision, to take Sabyna and her twin sister, Sabyne, to Children of the Promise, after their dad died in the earthquake.  Their mom was unable to care for them and she had to decide between keeping her daughters or taking them to an orphanage, where she knew they would receive the basic needs they needed to, hopefully, survive.

So, with an open-heart, we took Sabyna in our arms that night, and we were never same.
You see, there is something that happens to your heart, when you are given a baby, who has no one and they are looking up at you, in dead of the night...I can never find the words to explain it, I never have and never will.  What I do know is that Sabyna was our baby and no one can tell us any different. 
We spent the next 7 days, loving her like crazy, waking up to explosive diapers with her grinning in her play pen, from ear to ear, as she was covered in a mess, we spent hours rocking her, changing the messiest of diapers, sleeping with her on our chest, reading books to her...every minute falling more and more in love with her.  
Eventually, our week was up and we headed back to the States, knowing without any doubt that the Lord had given us a gift, the gift of knowing that our purpose in life was to adopt, to bring a baby in our lives and give them love that they would never know and more importantly, God gave us a love that we would have never know--had it not been for Sabyna.
He showed us such grace by giving us her.  
Although, she is no longer with us, I know that in her last weeks she was given so much love, and in that I can find peace.  
I don't understand a lot of things in this life, and I'm beginning to be okay with that, because I know that God works in all things for good. So, I don't have to understand,  in fact, I never will, but what I will do is continue to choose to place my faith in God, and trust in HIS plan, as hard as that is at times.  
In closing, I'll leave you with a couple of pictures.