Co-op News
From Haiti, with Love
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The co-op organized a baby shower on Feb. 25, helping with gifts, supplies and the endless stacks of diapers required when you have three kids under the age of three.
The Lipscombs and their friends worry about the long-term plight of Haiti and its more than 400,000 orphans, such as those in this Port-au-Prince alley. (Photo By: Sipa Press)
“He and his wife shared their story and their pictures with everybody that evening,” Moore said. “There were some tears of joy. How could you not be touched by the story? If ever there was a commitment to community, this was it.”
Things are settling into normalcy. Initially, Levi exhibited signs of separation anxiety when Angie left his sight.
“For a while, he wouldn’t let her disappear,” Lipscomb says. “He’s been through a lot. He just needs consistency. Now he knows that daddy comes home at a certain time, and he is ready for a big hug.”
Angie, a contract nurse, is a stay-at-home mom now, and Tyler, the 15-year-old, has taken to Levi, as have 10-year old Sarah Beth and eight-year-old Caroline. Four-year-old Meredith, who has relished being the baby of the family, is enjoying a new role as big sister.
Twins Gabriel and Gabriella are too young to understand their ordeal; years from now, their childhood memories will be of romping around a five-bedroom house with their brothers and sisters.
And they never will have to ask why they look or sound different. About 20 kids in the Gulf Shores area are from Haiti, all but two from the same orphanage. “It’s a little community within a community,” Lipscomb says. “That support structure will always be there.”
He stills thinks about Haiti, though, and its more than 400,000 orphans. The middle-of-the-night exodus freed space for children at the mission; at least eight have arrived, Lipscomb reports.
“But, you worry people will forget. Had we not been intimately involved in the adoption process, I might have been guilty of doing the same thing because very often, if it’s not here, if it’s not in my backyard, if it’s not in my country, it’s easier to overlook. We get worked up about the littlest things, and sometimes forget people have to deal with things 10 times worse or 100 times worse.”
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