The Jones

Changed Forever

Changed Forever

Here are some pictures of Daralyne Pierre, who is now officially Daralyne Pierre Jones. Her

adoption was finalized on Monday, December 5, 2011.  She is going to be 6 in February. 

Our story was one where we had been going through the process of adopting Dara for 2 years. We worked withGLA through Bethany Christian Services, who were both wonderful in helping guide us through the process.  GLA was there for anything we needed and they kept us well informed all along the way.  The week before the earthquake, we had gotten the sad news that Dara probably would not be able to come live with us until 2011.  Then, everything suddenly changed.  The day the earthquake happened, we were unaware until Barb sat down to check email.  On our internet provider's news page, there was news about the earthquake in Haiti. Within seconds Barb was on the GLA site and saw the blog update from Dixie that they were all safe and sound. What a relief it was.  And then the worrying set in. How long would they be safe, would there be enough food and water, would there be more earthquakes... and what did all of this mean to us bringing Dara home?

The kids, employees and volunteers at GLA all had to be so scared.  We kept up with them through Dixie's interviews on the news, and she was so great about updating her blog.  We felt fairly good about their situation, but were still so worried. We just wanted Dara and all of the children to be able to come home to their forever families.

Changed Forever

While Dixie was working to get the children out of Haiti on her end, we were busy working

on our end.  We spent time talking out congressman, our state representative and our senator.  We were interviewed on the news in Nashville, Tennessee... all in the hopes of expediting Dara's trip to be with her family.  We were worried sick.  We just did not know what was going to happen. 

Finally, we got a call from Senator Corker's office saying the children from GLA were going to be coming to the United States.  Next we got an email on Wednesday, telling us to be in Miami on Thursday night to meet GLA and all the children they were bringing to the United States. With the help of friends were were able to take our whole family to Miami to wait.

That was the longest night of our lives.

We were filled with excitement, worry about the children's saftey, and the uncertainty of whether they would really be coming.  We waited all night with the other families and finally on Friday morning we were able to smother Dara with hugs and kisses. 

When Dara saw Barb she hugged her tight and breathed a huge sigh of relief. 

Changed Forever

Changed Forever

If you’d like to talk about helping God’s Littlest Angels, please contact Laurie Bickel at 719-638-4348 or lorlor@glahaiti.org or Tom Vanderwell at (616) 884-8901 or tom@glahaiti.org. Thank you!