The hardest part is leaving the kids.

We are just over a month away from our second Haiti trip.  We are both excited to get back to Haiti and to serve alongside the amazing people of Mission of Hope.  But with every week that brings us closer to our departure, the anxiousness of leaving our boys increases.  Saying goodbye to them and knowing that we'll miss out on their smiles, their cuddles and all the other joys they bring everyday is the hardest part of leaving. Right now they are both snuggled in cozy jammies, watching a Christmas movie wearing pirate masks.  We both really hate to leave them.  Our time in Haiti won't change that either...we'll miss them all day and we'll be so excited to get back home to hug and kiss them.

On our final day last May in Haiti, we were certainly excited to see our sweet boys, but our hearts had a new heartache that overwhelmed us.  Tears streamed down my face and Dan knew exactly what my heart was feeling.  The hardest part is leaving the kids.  Every mile back to Port au Prince takes you past children that deserve safe homes and healthy families.  About six months later the site of children that remind us of the Haitian children still cause us to pause and ask the impatient question 'When will our family be complete with our Haitian children?'  See, we chose an adoption agency in June and by August the entire country of Haiti had postponed all adoptions until January 2013 at the earliest.  Someday our adoption will finally begin and roughly 2 years later our family will include our Haitian child(ren).

Until then our relationship with this beautiful country will always have the same theme - the hardest part is leaving the kids.