Typically, when I have talked about Haiti and adoption, it has been about our own son, Kelly, whom we are waiting to bring home from Haiti....but today I want to introduce you to the other "Kelly" I found in Haiti.
Kelleigh Black is her name. She was the friend I never knew I needed when I set out on this adoption journey. I don't even know where to start with describing her. She is one whom, when you meet her, you can't help but find strength. She is a nurse by trade but to her family and friends she is far greater...being a nurse is simply a disguise in which she is able to touch the worlds around her. Kelleigh Black loves LOVE. Maybe that is why she came to Austin, TX from Maryland and got a tattoo that says "Love Wins"...or because her story from the beginning, tells of one that loved extremely, to the ends of all things. She is a woman who has faced suffering even at a young age and yet found all the circumstances of life to be seen through the eyes of love. She will make you (or me or Karla or JoAnn or Christi or maybe it was Jill) laugh so hard that you pee your pants. She is crazy! She touches people's lives wherever she goes and brings freedom to hearts...but what lead her to me, or rather me to her, is that she followed alongside her magnificent husband with her 2 brilliant sons to find their other sons who lived in Haiti.
We met in March 2011 on a bonding trip with our sons...the first for both of us. Quickly, stupidity and a passion for justice bonded our souls...and for both of us...what started as a journey to find our sons...immediately humbled us...finding that these Haitian boys would touch our lives far more than we would theirs...a journey that would change our souls forever.
A bonding week that turned into a month that turned into more bonding trips that turned into more months and then a year that turned into 2. The journey of adoption was proving to be more than we signed up for. And soon we were discovering our own adoption, the one that led us here in the first place. In fact, many families joined us and this journey became more about our community than our individual stories. It was beautiful!
There are far too many stories to tell...too many miracles to recount of what our God has done...too many laughs to relive....But we hold them close to our hearts
Tonight, I am overwhelmed at this friendship that God would give to me. And not only of Kelleigh, but of her family, extended family and close friends.
ESHET CHAYIL!!!!!
Today and tomorrow all of us ,as well as many who have gathered over the last 2 1/2 years of her Haitian journey, will assemble our eyes to watch she and her husband come home with their sons from Haiti. Tonight, they landed in Haiti and the waiting ended. They have waited well and taught us much.
Tomorrow they will start another journey. We all hold our breath and then we exhale as we watch HOPE fulfill the longing in hearts....and the Blacks enter into forever together.
I am reminded of my Lord...who promises that there is coming a day...when he will renew all things and not leave us as orphans but come for us and bring us into eternity forever and all things suffered will be bound and glory will rise to the King of all Kings, Jesus who is our Lord and our hope.
So while we wait, we have a dim picture today in this family...All praise to Him today. He is enough. He has made a way and will continue this ministry called, Adoption. Glory to Him, He alone is our Hope and in fulfilling our hearts brings us into the tree of life!
