Mama ak Papa vini Ayiti vit!

One of the most amazing emails we have ever received and in the blink of eye we are headed to Haiti!!

For our precious FSM and FB friends...  2 days, 0 hours, 3 minutes and 196065 heartbeats away from our kiddos!! (yes, I updated this right before I hit post.)

Yesterday at church one of our sweet little friends (she is 5) came up to me and said "Mellie I understand you are raising money for your adoption so I want to give you this".  (Yes, she acts way older than 5!) To a child any amount of money is huge, they have no idea the value especially at 5.  The gift of her willingness to give brought me to tears. The widow gave her all and God blessed her beyond measure, I pray the same for this precious child of God.  Lee-Lee has always held a special place in my heart and I can assure you she will be there forever.  Sometimes God gives us something so little that gives us the reassurance He is in this "thing", trust Him.  I will hold on to this penny for the rest of my life.

We do need prayer for this trip.  Steve has not yet met the kids.  I have not met Monique nor have I spent a lot of time with the boys.  When we went to Haiti a year ago we had no idea we would adopt from Haiti much less kids we were playing with.

I can't imagine talking, laughing, loving and living together for 4 days just to say goodbye for an undetermined amount of time.  I am just not sure how to do this.  We need all your prayers this weekend.

Junior

Frantz

Monique

The next pictures we post will be of Steve, the kids and me!!!  How exciting is that?!  I am so excited!!!
We are still not fully funded so if you feel so inclined please send a tax-deductible donation to our church "Fellowship Bible Church" "I Choose You - Colson Family" at  1210 Franklin Rd Brentwood, TN 37027.  Be sure to write the check to Fellowship Bible Church and put I Choose You - Colson on the memo line.  We appreciate your support!!

In Him,
The Colson's
Steve, Melanie, Amanda, Joshua, Monique, Junior and Frantzy-Frantz!

Birthday, JoAnne's, IBESR and Haiti

Yes, they correlate sort of.

So...  I decided yesterday I would "run" to JoAnne's and throw this project together for the kids and get it shipped to Charlotte so our friends could take it to Haiti Saturday morning when they leave.  Well, I got side tracked.  Easy to do in JoAnne's right?

Haiti said yes!

Yesterday was Steve's birthday so as I am side tracked in JoAnne's talking on the phone to another adoptive family my personal cell phone rings (this will be Monique's cell phone for future reference), it is Steve.  Oh dear, the time is all I could think of.  It is after all his birthday and I am shopping at JoAnne's for a project I should have started last week!

Sweet, sweet Amanda answers the phone and she immediately gets the sense something is not right.  Steve asks if she read the email.  "What email? I don't read mom's email. Why? what's wrong?" By this time I am trying to get off the phone as the conversation was ending and I needed to buy my stuff and get home to rectify my husband's falling apart birthday! The rest is really a blur, something about reading my email, we might be out of IBESR and...

Can you say SCREAM?  Yes, I did.  Just once, one little or maybe not so little scream.  I was jumping up and down, crying and well I just don't care.  This is not news you get everyday, on your husbands birthday!!  Of course I was jumping, crying, screaming and...  I could  not focus but I did eventually make it out of the store with my purchases,  I will complete my project over the this weekend and I will take them with me next week when we visit our sweet precious Heaven Sent Haitians in Haiti!!  And Steve will get his birthday well maybe on Father's Day we will do a bigger better day for him!.

"Mama Blanc?" (he is always looking in the camera for me)

We just have legalization (times 4 steps) passports, visas and I am not sure what else but... we are over yet another hurdle in the adoption journey and we are so blessed to share it with you!

We are so close to being funded but we are just not there yet...  Would you consider a donation?  Just click on the image below and watch the thermometer rise!  Yes, you will see your donation that quick!

 

 Thank you again in advance for your prayers and support, we not only feel your prayers but we see God moving and we are so blessed!

 

Thank You!!

We want to extend a HUGE thank you to all our volunteers and all those who came out and ate with us today!

We didn't make as much as we wanted but we still know God is in control!  He gave us peace about our adoption, the finances and process so we know He obviously has another plan. 

We can say we are $2,700.00 closer than we were yesterday and we are so thankful!! 

For those of you who support us prayerfully, emotionally, financially and...  We just can't describe how grateful we are for each of you!!

Keep July in your bonnets for our next event!

Blessings,
The Colson's

Fund Raising Event TODAY!

We realize a lot of our friends and family are out of state, out of town or just have alternate plans today but we want to invite you all to a part of our adoption fund raising event today!  You can easily send a tax deductible donation to our church in our name (see details in the side bar to the right) or nondeductible donations can be made by simply clicking the donate button and following the directions. 

We are excited for what God will bring today! We always meet make new friends, learn of others adoption journey whether it is their own or the adoption of their child. grandchild, niece, nephew or...

We thank you in advance for your continual prayers and support in bringing Monique, Junior and Frantz HOME!

Creole Brunch

Exciting Week

There are all sorts of happenings going on here, in the states.  I repeat here in the states...  No news from Haiti on our paperwork.  So we are still caught up in "red tape".  We are perfectly patient and continue to cry out to God for His timing to be sooner than later.  We did send our I600 forms off yesterday.   We decided if we were in red tape in Haiti we might as well be in red tape in the US too!

Amanda Carlie Colson - Amanda is now a Senior.  She completed and passed all her finals last week! Yeah!!!  She has a phenomenal GPA of 3.87 and even has 3 college credits under her belt.  (That was not even an option 25 years ago!) Amanda has decided to take two classes this summer so her senior year will be dedicated to French II and dual enrollment classes.  Amanda decided to major in pre-medicine and hopes to minor in both music and French.  We  will start visiting colleges in just 2 weeks.  Wow, where has the time gone? We are so proud of her and her accomplishments Figure Skating, Music and school.
 
Joshua Aaron Colson - We are excited Joshua has his 8th Grade banquet Tuesday night...  Joshua will be a 9th grader as of Tuesday May 24th at noon. WOW!!  Joshua has his track banquet this evening where he and his team mates will be celebrated for breaking the school record in the 4x400 relay, twice.  The second time was on his birthday.  The first beat the record by 11 seconds and then beat their own record by 5!  We are so proud of him!

Today and tonight!! We get to meet Ruth's mom today, YEAH!!!  I am super excited about that!  We will be picking up Laurie at the airport and then heading to the BGM fundraiser.  So excited about this event!!

Dr. Bernard will be speaking at the event as well as one of my favorite artists - Lady Antebellum.  We will be meeting all our fellow adoptive parents, those in the process and those already through.  So many are able to come and it is with such delight we will be able to finally meet.

We are also sending an additional $8,500.00 to the orphanage leaving our balance at $20,500.00 we are a little more than 1/3 of the way there. Thank you to all of you who have donated and continue to support on a monthly basis.  We are also going to have another fund raising event through the 1 Seed Planted organization on June 5th.  Mark your calendars, come out to volunteer or to enjoy the awesome food!  We promise either way you will be blessed!!

We decided on names but aren't sure we really told anyone...

Monique Alana

Junior Emanuel

Frantz Isaiah

Even though we cannot wait to bring our precious Heaven Sent Haitians home we sit today in a peace that surpasses all understanding.  There is no other way to explain how we can just sit and wait.  We are the perfectly impatient family. We are so grateful to serve a God who can give us peace in a situation we have absolutely no control over yet it is a situation that breaks our hearts just as it breaks His.  Stay to true to yourself and who God has called you to be.  He will get you there, wherever and whatever there is.

In Him,
Steve and Melanie

Proverbs 31:8 "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute."
Matthew 18:5 "Whoever receives a child in My name, receives Me." 

Soon and Very Soon...

You know He is never late and He is never too early...  He is always on time, His timing is perfect!
I say this because I constantly need to be reminded, I am His perfectly impatient child.

When I woke up this morning, it was no different than any other morning.  I woke up and immediately began praying for all the orphans in the World and for all the people in the adoption systems to have their hearts broken for these orphans.  That some how God would move the mountain of adoption red tape and bring His children home so they would no longer be labeled as orphans.  When I say praying it is more like demanding, pleading and even sometimes begging.  God's word says to go "boldly" before His throne so I hold nothing back!  He knows my heart anyway so I let it fly this morning.

They are not orphans,  they are Your chosen children, chosen before the foundations of the Earth were formed,  that just have not yet made it home.  Lord, bring your children home!  How hard is it anyway, You just say the word and it is done so do it! The children need to come home, they need to be home!!

My morning routine is typical, I am a creature of habit...  Prayer, a little reading, regular morning stuff, etc... So once I made it to our little office with my coffee I of course was ready to post my daily verse on facebook.  I logged in and saw the messages still waiting for me from the night before plus 1 and thought wow how popular am I?  I posted my verse and went on to read the messages... 

"We are out of IBESR"...  Praise God is all I can say, He is answering my prayers, one by one!!   Yes, we are still waiting for our email from the orphanage but God is showing me just how faithful He is.  In my desperation and plea for Him yesterday and this morning He had already responded by answering my prayers for these families to bring their children home.  He is faithful and with every family that exits IBESR we are one file folder closer!!  AMEN!!!

My praise goes to the Lord, He is awesome, mighty and worthy to be praised! 

Soon and very soon...

I believe!

SAVE THE DATE

JUNE 5TH

God's Promises

When I was a little girl God placed the seed of adoption in my heart.  "It" never left, it didn't even take convincing my husband or children to adopt so my logical deductive reasoning mind processes this as a PROMISE.  He would not have placed "it" in my heart if He wasn't going to do "it"!  God is not in the business of breaking promises either.

None the less, I find myself having a "downer" day.  I was reading a friends blog and my mind begins to day dream of our children and then thoughts of why, who, what, where, when and could I have said, done or could I be doing anything differently to bring our precious children home.  Then I come back to no, I have peace about that much.  Then there names came across my mind Monique Alana, Junior Emanuel and Frantz Isaiah and then the verse...

"Do not be afraid, for I am with you;
   I will bring your children from the east
   and gather you from the west.
I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
   and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring my sons from afar
   and my daughters from the ends of the earth—
everyone who is called by my name,
   whom I created for my glory,
   whom I formed and made.” 

-Isaiah 43:5-7 

God will bring our children home!  This is after all His plan, we are on His clock and this is for His glory!

As I finished reading my friends blog there it is smack dab in the middle of her blog, the verse! Thank you friend for blogging today about your adoption and placing the perfect scripture, the scripture we read so many months ago that helped us choose our youngest' middle name, one of the verses that brings peace to the ever so emotional journey of our, the Colson JAMS, adoption.

Please continue to pray for our children, our hearts and the finances to bring them home when He is ready to bring them home.

Save the date JUNE 5th....  :o)

In Your Letter

The past few days have been awesome!  New pictures and videos of our kids, college fair, Josh turns 14 this week, school is almost out for the summer and a letter...

Monique and Frantz
Frantzy
Junior, Monique and Frantz

Ahhh... The college fair - LOVE it!  We now have peace about our daughter, Amanda going off to college in the fall of 2012.  She has chosen a major that although it will negatively affect our pocket book it will not as much as the original goal of being a pediatric cardiologist.  In the end she will be Dr. Amanda Carlie Colson and will be able to accomplish the similar desires without having to give up family wich is very important to her. 

We received a letter from our daughter, Monique.  Monique's favorite color is pink!  We have a girly girl!! Yeah!!! (I love Amanda do NOT get me wrong but she wouldn't wear dresses either and Monique loves them!!) She has the neatest handwriting I have seen for a child her age in a long time!  She puts Amanda and Josh to shame.  LOL  Monique thanked us for the clothes, let us know the boys favorite colors and she sent their love and kisses!  In her very first paragraph she says we are sure what is most important to her.  "I love you very much. I made haste to write you.  I like my school and my favorite subject is writing.  I aim to be a doctor in my future."  We might just have Dr. Monique Alana Colson too!  WOW are we headed for broke or what!

Monique in the outfit we sent her.

Junior and Ruth (Monique's bestie)

Junior likes the colors blue and white, Frantzy likes red (that's my boy!) and they will like their room painted in the bright colors of our choice.  We wrote in our last letter to them that we are working on their rooms and asked for their favorite colors.  Wow, we have amazingly respectful children with hearts of gold!

"Do you want your shirt back?" No, Frantzy Mama Blanc gave it to you.

Honestly, we have done nothing to deserve or earn the two very awesome biological children that God has so generously gifted us and I assure you we have not earned three more perfectly awesome children either.  We are humbled by the blessings the Lord has bestowed on our family.  The more pictures and videos we see the more we can see so much of us in these children God chose for us before He considered creating the foundations of the Earth. We are in awe and perfect amazement at how even across the ocean God is knotting our hearts and souls together.

Josh said the other day "I am not gonna lie, I just can't wait for them to come home.  You can see it in Monique's face, she is going to me a track star.  Just look at her smile, she is a track star!"  He can't wait to help the boys in their sport of choice and...  His list is endless.  Such a selfless heart for a 14 year old!  Frantzy gives the shirt off his back and his oldest brother would leap a tall building if it would bring his little brothers and sister home.

We are on our knees praying for our dossier to be out of IBESR.  We pray every day for the directors in charge of orphans across the world to have compassion for these children and to send them home.  May the Lord break their hearts for what breaks His and may it cause them to send His children home.

We thank you in advance for walking this mighty adoption journey with us.  Our road is long but the Lord hears our cry.

Isaiah 30:19 For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more.  He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry.

Achey Breaky Heart

We can say that right?  After all we grew up in the 80's and Billy Ray lives here in Nashville so...

Yes, my heart aches.  At times it aches so bad I find myself calling out their names out loud.  I know with this season the weather is nice, the windows are open and even our neighbors hear my cry.   I don't care.  My hope is when I cry out the sound transfers across the ocean as a huge bear hug, that some how our children know we love them more than they will ever know.
The realization of the new government is sinking in.  The "changing of the guard" so to speak.  We are praying the current IBESR director will feel compelled to sign off on ALL those dossiers sitting in and around her office.  I am not sure when she leaves her office but once she does it is anticipated the dossiers will not move out of IBESR until July.

Why must children wait?  Yes, we are waiting and I am perfectly impatient but a child is counting on a forever home and they have to wait on a signature? 
Our children are old enough to see the time pass by.  I hope when they are older they will advocate for orphans speaking from experience.  From what we are told our kids are just like us, they are Colson's and they will fit right in.  So I will not be surprised if one or all of them take up a cause.  When a cause strikes a passionate cord within a Colson's soul there is not much that will stand in the way of change.  We are praying for their passions now so look out World!!

Yes, I am on a soap box.  Brothers and Sisters in Christ I urge you to pray with us and other families adopting from Haiti.  Our children need to be allowed to come home and not to sit in limbo for 2 more months while the directors change offices.  The Lord's timing is perfect and He will hear our prayers.  I urge you to dedicate one small prayer a day to orphans around the World.  So many are caught up in red tape and it is just not fair to the children.

Ephesians 6:18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.

Efèz 6:18:
Pandan n'ap fè tou sa, pa janm bliye lapriyè. Mande Bondye konkou li. Lapriyè nan tout sikonstans avèk pouvwa Sentespri a. Se poutèt sa, pa kite dòmi pran nou, kenbe fèm nan sa n'ap fè a. Lapriyè pou tout pèp Bondye a.

Please pray for us.