A Special Connection

Here is a picture of String Cheese holding Loumy just minutes after we walked in the door, bringing him home from Haiti.

Recently I have been thinking a lot about siblings that come together in special ways and the cool connections that they can have. My friend, Lori, is adopting from Haiti. She recently went with her husband to visit the little boy they were planning to adopt. Before they left, they decided that there was another child that was meant to be in their family. Their three-year-old son was the one to first make this evident to them (then, I'm sure, they did a lot of praying on their own to have it confirmed to them). Read the super cool story of Malot and Jessica here.

Today I walked out of my bedroom and found String Cheese had dressed her baby brother, Loumy, in his pjs and was reading him a "bedtime" story (although it was early afternoon) while Deedle was still napping I felt grateful for the special bond that those two share. SC has always been a very good big sister to Loumy. There seems to be none of the rivalry that often exists between her and Deedle or Deedle and Loumy. Although she does get frustrated at times, mostly there is just a really super sweet love between SC and Lou. Thinking about Malot and Jessica and seeing this tender little scene in the living room reminded me of the connection that my two children shared before Loumy ever joined our family. And, for this post, I will go ahead and use their real names the rest of the story. Some of you have heard the stories before, but I felt like recording them here:

This was recorded in my journal shortly after my son, Isaiah, passed away in Haiti in Nov of 2004:

"The night I found out about Isaiah’s death I felt that we had probably gone through what we needed and I didn’t picture being able to go forward with another adoption. Grace constantly asked when her baby “brudder” Isaiah was coming home from Haiti. She speaks so well for not even being 3 yet and seems to understand things well. The morning after we learned of Isaiah’s death, Grace saw his picture on the table and asked about him. I said, with tears in my eyes, “Gracie, Isaiah isn’t going to come home from Haiti. He died. That means he lives with Heavenly Father and Jesus now.” Grace became very upset. She said, “No! Go get my baby brudder! I want baby Isaiah to come home from Haiti!” I was surprised at how upset she was. It only made me cry more so I said, “It’s okay, honey. He is really happy with Jesus now.” Grace was still mad, then something came over her and she just turned and walked away.

A few minutes later Jason walked out of the bathroom, having just shaved for work.
“Did you tell Grace Isaiah died?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Did you tell her we were adopting another baby?” he asked.

“No.”

“Well she just came in the bathroom and said, ‘Daddy, baby Isaiah died. He lives with Jesus. Now we need to go get my other baby brudder.’ I told her again that we couldn’t get her baby brother because he lived in Heaven. Grace said, ‘No, Dad, we have to go get my OTHER baby brother. My baby brother Andre.”

Since then we have felt strongly that we will adopt another son and that it will be very good for him to know that he has a brother who is in Heaven that was also born in Haiti. Maybe he will feel a special connection to Isaiah. And it feels as though we are to name him Andre even though we already have an Andre in the family. "

In this photo, Grace starts sharing secrets with Andre just minutes after his arrival home.

When I found out what the name, "Andre" meant, I felt that Grace had been very inspired. Isaiah means, "The Lord is My Salvation". That was very cool to me because I have come to know that through the Plan of Happiness and the Atonement of my Savior, little children that die before they become accountable for their actions are saved. Isaiah has already received salvation through the Lord. The name "Andre" means "strong". That was a big comfort to me. Whenever I would receive a call from the orphanage coordinator, I would immediately become frightened that something had happened to Andre. The fact that Grace knew what his name was to be and that his name meant, "strong" gave me comfort and helped me have faith that he would remain "strong" in mind and body until I could get him out of Haiti and take care of him myself.

Another incident happened just after I got home from visiting Andre for the first time in December of 2004. It was extremely difficult to leave my tiny new son in a crammed orphanage that did the best that they could but did NOT have enough hands. This is what I wrote about after coming home:

The next morning I put the girls in the double-stroller to

go out for a jog. I bundled us all up but it was extremely cold. It was just gray. And it

was silent. The gray and quiet was nice as I jogged along. Then Grace said,

“Mom. What is that crying?” I stopped the stroller and listened. We were down on

the river trail now and all I could hear was the soft rolling of the water.

“What is that crying?” Grace asked again. I said, “I don’t

hear anything, sweetheart.” “Yes,” said Grace. “There is a baby crying. It’s baby Andre.”

I literally crumpled to the ground and sat by the stroller weeping. I sat that way for

quite some time on the cold pavement—looking at my two little toe-heads with their big

blue eyes peering out from bundles of blankets and snowsuits and thinking about

my dark-skinned son 1000s of miles away in an orphanage with out the love

and attention of a mother. Most likely he was crying.

In this photo, Grace and Loumy spend some time getting reacquainted on his first full day home.

Anyway, these stories have always been special to me because I know that sometimes little children are so much more open to the Spirit because they are so pure. I have always loved that these two have such a special connection and hope that it will always be that way for them. Maybe that is why I needed to record this here. Grace and Andre, if you are much older now and are reading this on your own one day, I hope that your Spirit will be touched and you will remember how much you love and care for each other. Always be good to each other. Always be examples. You loved each other before this life. Help each other through this life so that you can make it back to your home, as you promised each other you would do before you came to this Earth. And I will try to help, too!