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Late one night alone in my office, I met EJ.
In the quiet incandescent glow of my computer screen, I discovered an Internet site with a photolisting of children available for adoption in Haiti. One of those was a darling five-year-old boy with huge brown eyes and a dimpled smile. "EJ is a charmer," the accompanying description said. "He's the first to hug the workers at the orphanage each day and is easily one of the fastest learners in our classroom."
To my surprise, I instantly felt a connection to EJ. In a moment's time, Haiti no longer was another country with starving, homeless children. Rather it was the homeland of this precious child. I could almost hear him calling out to us: "Mommy, Daddy … I love you. Please come take me home. I need a family. Please … "
Up until this point, any family discussion on adoption had been brief and esoteric. We were busy, after all—my husband, Don, with teaching and coaching; me, with my writing. Besides, we already had three beautiful children—a number we planned to stop at after our youngest boy, Austin, was born with a heart defect that required surgery when he was just three weeks old. All that changed the moment I found EJ.
I called Don into my office and for the next hour we talked about the possibility of adopting this sweet child. There were no disagreements. EJ belonged in our family. Now we needed to present the idea to our children.
I printed EJ's photo, and the next morning Don and I introduced him to Kelsey, Tyler, and Austin. Setting his picture up in front of an empty chair, I asked our kids, "How would you like EJ to be your brother? He's five years old, and he lives in Haiti."
"Well," our only daughter, Kelsey, 12, said thoughtfully, "he looks friendly."
"He's five?" seven-year-old Tyler chimed in. "That's right between me and Austin."
Two-year-old Austin just grinned and pointed. "That my brother? Huh Mommy and Daddy? That my new brother?"
We studied EJ's picture for days. At night we prayed about him, connecting, building a bond that grew stronger with each glance at his face. He was living at the Heart of God Ministries orphanage in Port-au-Prince, so we contacted workers there and learned more about him. Finally, with full hearts, we made our decision to pursue adopting EJ.
Over the next several months, we completed a daunting amount of paperwork for the Immigration and Naturalization Service as well as a Haitian dossier. Through every step we were driven by EJ's face. In fact, it wasn't long before we were driven by another little face as well—that of a six-year-old boy named Joshua who was at the orphanage with EJ. The photolisting said Joshua was a happy child who excelled in academics and sports. He had great leadership qualities.
"Kids, what would you think about having two new brothers?" my husband asked our three children one evening. "EJ might like a brother who's more like him—another little boy from Haiti."
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