The Story of Kiefer Thomas Patterson, Part 1

Prior to the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, God drew our hearts to Hait and informed us that He would be sending us a child or children from Haiti. We didn't know who or when, but we were confident that God was going to bring us children from Haiti. We researched Haitian adoption, and we thought we'd never qualify since Haiti prefers that adoptive families not have biological children, or, at the most, two biological children. We weren't sure how we'd convince the Haitian government to accept our family as an adoptive family, but we wholeheartedly believed what God had shared with us....that He was going to bring us children from Haiti. We inquired about a special little boy who stole our hearts, but we really didn't think we'd ever be approved to adopt him. And even if we were approved, it would most likely take years to get him home since Haitian adoptions normally take from 2-4 years to complete.  We decided to commit to pursuing our Haitian son, clinging to the words God had shared with us regarding His will to bring us a Haitian child or children, and knowing it might be years before our son was home.


January 12, 2010: The massive earthquake rocked Haiti's world and our world was also forever changed, but nothing in comparison to what the Haitians experienced (and are still experiencing today and for many, many years to come).  God began the expedited process of getting our son home. This was the craziest adoption ever with the processes and requirements changing daily, but such a blessing to see USCIS (citizen and immigration services) working so hard to rescue so many children and unite them with their adoptive families. Many Haitian orphans made it out of Haiti within the first few weeks after the earthquake, and our government and the Haitian government worked countless hours trying to process adoptions and unite children with their adoptive families. Category 1 children (those whose adoptions were already finalized in Haiti, but the children hadn't yet been united with their parents) seemed to be first priority, and our precious boy was Category 2 (matched to adoptive family prior to earthquake, but the adoption wasn't tet finalized).  The Haitian office that processed all international adoption dossiers collapsed in the earthquake, as did most governmental offices and thousands of homes, stores, offices, hotels, etc., so one can only imagine the chaos amongst the tragedy as many worked furiously to save lives while hundreds of thousands were lying dead under collapsed buildings.

We prayed our son would be kept safe as he slept outside under sheets and make-shift tents since his orphanage had several walls collapse and was structurally unsafe to sleep inside. We prayed God would move mountains to bring our son home. We rejoiced when we received word that our little man would be united with us in Miami on April 1!!! Yes, God moved mountains to get our son home in GODSPEED!!! We were shocked, elated, surprised, grateful, and still a little disbelieving.  We would be able to breathe and believe once he was safe in our arms.

To be continued...

Here's a photo of Kenwechtley (AKA "Cookie Monster") at Ruuska Village in Haiti.