It Started with Jean

This Haitian adoption journey started with a little boy named Jean (pronounced ‘zhahn’ in French.)

Jean is a shortened version of his full name, but it was this name that captured my attention when I saw it typed below the picture of a beautiful dark-skinned boy with luminous brown eyes in a waiting child photolisting from Haiti.

You see, the name Jean means “God is gracious” and is the French version of the name John … or, the name Ian. Ian is the name our children and we chose almost two years ago for our fourth child, the dearly loved but faceless little boy we have hoped to adopt for so many long months and have searched for in so many different countries.

While this particular Jean captured our hearts at first glance, he already has a family working towards adopting him. But seeing him was not a coincidence; the agency who displayed his photo on their site is the one agency that responded to the almost dozen e-mails I sent looking for an agency that would work with Americans overseas. Shiloh Adoptions is a non-profit, Christian agency in Kansas which is “committed to bringing together adoptive parents and orphans from around the world through God's gift of adoption.”

In Haiti, Shiloh works hand in hand with a ministry which encompasses more than just orphan care and adoption.

If we had not seen Jean’s photo, we might never have known of this ministry. Now that we do, it is our desire to play one small part in it by focusing our adoption efforts on a little boy from the rescue center in Port-Au-Prince.

We do not know his face yet; nor his age; nor his background. All we know is his name: Ian, “God is gracious.” And it is that graciousness of God that we are depending on to allow us to see this dream to fruition. It will take funds that we do not yet have; it will take time that we wish was shorter (probably one year or more); it will take perseverance to complete a dossier that some have described as weighing over 11 pounds when all copies are made and mailed!

This blog is a recent creation, intended to be dedicated solely to Ian’s adoption. It will be a place to share our progress, our frustrations, our hopes and our joys. I hope you will visit often!