Thursday, 10 May 2018

Adoption update


We filed our adoption papers with the court on Monday.  As part of the process we have to serve the minister of children’s services with the adoption application pack.  We were able to do that on Monday but the court clerk has to wait for 20 working days until they can give the papers to a judge to make his decision.

As it is a rural court there is only a judge in court on 25th of each month, so we are looking at 25th June for a decision unless the minister of children’s services sends a letter to the court stating they have no problems for the adoption to proceed before 25th of this month.

So now more waiting but at least now we have a bit of a timeline.  We have been invited to speak at Bangor worldwide at the end of August so will be speaking in various churches in August.  Right now our plans are to travel to Northern Ireland once the adoption is complete and Jacob has his new birth certificate and passport.  Then we will stay until our speaking is finished and head back to Haiti at the end of August for another school year. 

Here is our current summer speaking schedule for August 

Sunday 12th - Glenarm Baptist am and pm
Sunday 19th - Ballychrochan Baptist am 
                        Straid Congregational pm 
Wednesday 22nd - Millisle Baptist 8pm
Sunday 26th - Bangor worldwide at Hamilton road Presbyterian church 
Thursday 30th - Bangor worldwide Satellite meeting at Magherafelt 

If you would like us to share at your church or small group please get in touch! 


Thursday, 3 May 2018

Loads of time??

I thought moving out to Youngstown, which is pretty much in the middle of no where and there is not much to do, especially when the ground is covered in snow and its minus 20 celcius outside, that I would have lots of time to catch up on things I never get time to do in Haiti. I had a whole list, sort out my photos from the last year, catch up on blog posts which I never got a chance to, work on the Bethesda FB page and much more.  I got none of it done.  Turns out having three small boys takes all of your time, even if you are at home all day!  Hence the lack of updates.


first baby calf of the year which Sam was very excited about!
Yesterday we received our final document we need to file our adoption application with the court. Today I hope to go to Drumheller and file the application, there are a couple of things I need to do , like serve the minister of child and family services and prepare an affidavit and I am hoping to get them all completed today.  After that we wait until the judge makes a decision.  He may decide to do a home study and / or have a hearing but we are praying its a simple decision and we don't need to do either of those things.



Bill left for Haiti on 25th and will be home this Sunday.  Its no joke single parenting especially with the boys all being so young but Bills family have been helping out and its now warm and sunny so we have been able to go outside which makes things much easier.  Sam may be the most exhausting because he asks a million questions a day, many of which I don't know the answer to.  I honestly don't know where he gets them from.  Here are a few from yesterday...

What happens if your eye pops out?
What happens if your mouth falls off?
What is inside my head?
What does my brian look like?
Who made God?

However, my favourite quote of the day

'Mummy God should have made you like one of those aliens who have three arms.  Then you could feed baby Jacob, get me a drink and help Joel at the same time.'

One of the things I wanted to share with you was about Dr Rodney's trip to Canada in February.  What a month to send a Haitian man to Canada!  It was a lot of work organising and planning the trip but I got a lot of help from a couple of OMS people in Alberta.



We are so thankful Dr Rodney had a great trip, it was very cold but there were no delays or travel disruptions.  The purpose of the trip was to raise more support both financial and prayer and to encourage teams and individuals to come and work alongside our staff.  I couldn't believe it when OMS Canada emailed me with the donors so I could write thank you cards,  Dr Rodney was able to raise over $80,000 (CA).  This is enough money to buy medicine for almost  a year! To God be the glory.

Bethesda has been struggling financially for quite a few years, around 45% of our monthly income comes from patient fees the rest comes from supporters.  Having these funds will really help over the next year.  Its been amazing to look back over the last year and see how God has provided the funds for the PT building, the electrical project and the new X ray machine which is almost fully funded and now this trip to Canada.  It is clear to me God is blessing Bethesda and has bigger plans to come.



What's next?

 This is most definitely the question we have been asked the most since we left Haiti at the beginning of December and I can honestly say un...