Here is a collection of my photos from our JRA Haiti mission trip. I pray that the children capture your hearts and you will dig deep to learn more about how you can sponsor a child with Missions of Mercy. Our church family sponsors 1,000 children in Cap Haitien, but I held so many more in my arms who need our help!!!

I spent 5 days in Haiti.  We spent 5 days loving, hugging, kissing, playing, praying, singing, blessing over 1,000 children in Cap Haitien.  We witnessed conditions that were unthinkable and unimaginable and incomprehensible.  We touched street people who have never seen a white face.  The most difficult question pouring through our hearts was “why?”  How can a loving God allow this kind of suffering?  How can children homeless, without a family to keep them safe, suffer day after day abuse from a city who despises them?  Why feels like a word too small for the huge problem the beautiful people of Cap Haitien and throughout Haiti deal with on a daily basis.  The miracles I saw when we visited the 5 churches sprinkled in the heart of the city gave us hope that God was there.  We met a pastor who was born and lived in Cap Haitien all his life.  He has spent the past 30 years praying that God would send his people help.  A rescue mission.  The real kind of help that would minister, heal and bring hope back to the people he has served faithfully for 45 years.  Mission of Mercy teaming with our church, James River was the miracle he prayed for.  Ninety children in his community are now being sponsored and receiving daily food, lessons of God’s love, and support from strangers in a not so far away country.  Haiti is our neighbor, located only 60 miles from USA.  It was an honor to serve the people of Haiti with 13 brave-hearted friends:  Melinda, Steve aka Jack Bauer, Adam, Randy, Casey, Julie, Clint, Debbie, Jeanne, Tami, Cindy and Wendy.  Thank you Rick and Mama Yoli for your love and guidance and wisdom.  We are grateful for the amazing work Mission of Mercy is doing in Haiti and all over the world reaching one child at a time.

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. Proverbs 31:8a

What an incredible time we had in Florida.  My family.

Bloggy friends, I’m so sorry I’m behind on my regular blog posts. We are home from FL, but started back with a bang. H started Junior High and cross country all in one day. M is a Sophomore dreading only one thing: waking up early again in the morning. Zoie missed her big bro & sis today! I leave for Haiti this weekend, but I wanted to ask you to pray for me and the group from my church I’m traveling with. I will not be able to bring my laptop, but will post plenty of crazy stories and photos when I get home next weekend. Stay tuned!

Here is our itinerary and group goals:

* Gain a perspective of how child sponsorship works
* Learn about the Haitian culture
* Learn how partnerships with churches work
* Through meeting their sponsored child, begin to get a feel for the impact they are making
* Gain knowledge of the cycle of poverty and Mission of Mercy’s philosophy to break that – economically and spiritually
* Grow in their spiritual walk and relationship with Jesus

We will be arriving in Santiago, DR, but will cross over to Haiti early Monday morning and travel to Cap Haitian to work with our 1,000 sponsored children. I started taking my malaria pills, but praying we don’t have any drama with mosquitoes. I don’t want to be featured on “Monsters Living Inside Me”

Looking forward to blogging soon!
OREVWA (good-bye in Haitian Creole)

We are officially back in the game. We got the call on the way to the airport from AWAA. “Congratulations again on your acceptance into the Ethiopia program!” New voice, but I got the same feeling all over again. Am I pregnant now? Michael and Hannah have made me swear I will never again say to complete strangers… I’m 18 months pregnant! The look on people’s faces made it so worth it, but I think I humiliated my poor kids in the process. OK, OK, I promise! I’ll play it cool this time around. We are ready to embark on another crazy amazing journey to love.

Bloggy friends, it’s time to make the BIG BLOG ROLL CHANGE. I’m so honored to be on your blogs and would love for you to add my new website: mycrazyadoption.org to continue updating you on our family, fun, and new adoption. Don’t worry if you forget… SimplyLove will kindly escort you over to the new site in 6 seconds. Is that cool or what. The new blog will read like a magazine from top to bottom… take a peek and let me know what you think. You can STILL leave me comments…. now its easier than ever!!! They are like little presents that make my day brighter:) My blog posts will still show up on your rolls on my new My Crazy site.

My CRAZY AWESOME brother, Mike has made the transition smooth for me. It’s crazy raining outside here in FL, so we thought it was the perfect time to make the big blog move together!!!! I have some new rules set by my sibling… I can’t add 10 exclamation points after things that make me happy. I can’t bold big words or use improper grammar or add a ton of………………. these little buggers.

The REAL reason I have a new blog… prayerfully we will launch our new non-profit and start making a huge impact with adoptions. I’ll give you the scoop soon:))) ohhhhh yay, I can’t do the happy smile thing either. Oh well, I love a new challenge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Goodbye Blogspot!!

I’m stealing time.  I’m hiding out in the coffee shop crossing my fingers that I can post due to the massive storm outside.

It’s a 70th birthday bash for my mom.  All 17 of us are enjoying fun in the sun!  Enjoy the pics:

My mom is turning 70! We are spending a special week with the birthday girl with our entire family in Florida. What an amazing gift… thank you gramma!! We feel like we’re getting a present, too:) Hopefully I can steal away to post some fun pics!!

I wanted you to know the behind the scenes from my “Spill the Beans” post last week. Roger and I fell in love with 2 older girls over a month ago on the AW WC list. We were originally going to wait for Zoie to turn 2 before plunging in the adoption adventure again, but we felt very ambitious to quick start the process. Love at first sight.

We are at the very beginning stages… actually still waiting to get the phone call that we are approved again. It’s so different than when we first started the adoption process several years ago… waiting for Zoie. I feel like an old pro now.

The really crazy part, both girls had been on the waiting list for a long time, but last week both photos had new words under them. It hit me like a brick.
For weeks, every time I would peek at W’s photo … I was praying for her new mommy & daddy, but I really thought we had a shot.
Honestly, I had no idea my heart would respond *crash* when I saw those words… File Under Review.

I knew we were too late. I wept and then it hit me hard & fast…no regrets.
God has already planned WHO these beautiful girl’s parents will be.
He’s planned it and I can trust His plans are perfect. His timing is perfect.
Forget about feeling like an old pro… I’m back again, daily renewal, waiting, dreaming, hoping and trusting.
I want to wait for our blessings. They’re out there waiting for us:)

We are requesting 2 older girls, unrelated, ages… 3 to 12.
It’s so exciting to see how God will direct our steps. It feels soooo good to be back in the crazy adventure of adoption.

Bloggy friends… we wanted to share with you Zoie’s re-adoption day LIVE! My sweet H was the film maker, but she accidentally cut it off at the finale. ooops! What a special day!! A few adoption “peeps” have asked me if the process to re-adopt is difficult, but as you can see it’s simple to do. We had an amazing lawyer help us from A to Z. Thanks Mr. Farris!!

Kanakuk Golf Kamp was such a blast for M! He broke some of his personal records and met some incredible golfers along the way. We appreciate EVERYthing the staff and counselors poured into these young men for 2 weeks.

Let me know if YOU make the 70,000 hit tonight:)

Yayyy… Merica Stum!! You were the big 70K hit and you win 2 children’s books written by yours truly:))) Mookie will be coming home with you soon!!