More on Conleigh

For those of you who don't know the story of how Conleigh came into our lives, I'll share a bit of history with you. Last fall, D and I began praying and talking about starting another adoption of some kind. We were pretty sure it would be from Haiti because we wanted our children to not feel alone in their adoption stories, to have someone else in our family who had experienced some of the same things. Also, part of why we chose Haiti was because of it's proximity to the US and our ability to travel there with our children as they got older. Anyway, around this time, a missionary family was fostering a little girl in Haiti. They had been foster parents in the States and desired to do so while they worked in Haiti so they contacted an orphanage and asked to be foster parents. This family began advocating online on discussion boards for a family for this little girl. We both saw the woman's post and independent of each other made a mental note to share it with each other. We then talked about it and started looking for more information on the orphanage and the little girl. To make a long story short, we made a verbal committment to Conleigh in November of 2008 and then began assembling our paperwork. Unfortunately, the family who was fostering Conleigh had a family emergency and had to return to the States so Conleigh had to return to the orphanage.

On this trip, we met Conleigh for the first time. She is 16 months old and a precious, precious girl. She has beautiful Haitian features specifically huge almond eyes and a small flat nose. Unfortunately, when we were there, she had a bug bite on her eye that she kept scratching. (Or possibly impetigo?) She is petite but chunky. Her mobility is quite amazing and I really thought her problem solving skills were exceptional. She definitely knows what she wants and then figures out a way to get it using her brain or her body. I can also tell that the orphanage is overwhelming for her at times. She doesn't appreciate the noise and the constant presence of other children. But she is being loved and taught about Jesus which are blessings to us.


Please find below a few of our favorite photos of Conleigh Deme. What a beautiful girl, what a blessing from God!