Moments

There are multiple times each week when in a brief moment of uninterrupted eye contact or a conversation while passing one another in the kitchen or driveway that we say to one another with our eyes or our mouths "this life is so weird"! (See party invitation post.)

And while it is weird, it is also good (and hard) and interesting and fun and never boring.

Last week Troy described a  moment to me. He talked about having Isaac's (first) Dad, Mom, and little brother in our truck, driving to show them a house that was built for them just outside of Port au Prince, and getting stuck in deep mud.

He talked about the very peculiar feeling of watching our son in the joyful, bouncy, carefree attitude of his first father and also observing his rarely seen sad side in the much more morose disposition of his mother.

Troy wondered if working along side Isaac's 57 year old biological dad to pull a truck out of the deep mud was not one of the weirder moments of 2011 ever. 

Isaac is understandably concerned for his family and occasionally asks if they could maybe just come live with us. Hopefully getting them out of their tent in a very crowded PAP tent city and into this much better house will put Isaac a little bit at ease.

We're doing everything in our power to honor these precious people (and Isaac) ... but we're stopping just shy of attempting to create the elusive utopia that exists only in our sweet and innocent son's mind. :)

This situation raises a lot of questions and issues in our minds. We definitely want to help them, but without creating dependency. We wonder if we would have done things differently had we known back then that Isaac's parents were still (kind of) together and only placed him at an orphanage due to economic reasons. (Isaac's Dad left his Mom for a time when she was pregnant and shortly after he was born and that is why she decided to place him in an orphanage and sign papers. We did not learn this until years later. They are back together again.) These are hard things to consider, but important ones.

How amazing is it to even be given such opportunities to know this family?

Please join us in prayer for the Antoine family as they move and transition to a new life outside of Port au Prince - for wisdom as we seek to help without hurting - and for the hundreds of thousands of people that are still living under sheets and tarps without advocates or opportunities to move elsewhere.

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