A blessed spring to all of our supporters,

   I am looking forward to seeing many of you in just a few weeks at our 10^th anniversary celebration.  If you are unable to come, I would love to come to your area and speak while I am at home.  Please contact Kris Killian at the email address listed below or check over my schedule to see if I will be close to you.  We have 5 new children; Grant-3 months, Shammoy-5 months, Neon-16 months, Usian-18 months and Shanice-4 years.  Check out the children’s page for updates and some pictures.  Not all of the children are pictured but a few.  We are also praising God that three of our children have been adopted and will be at the banquet.  Please come and hear their “miracle” stories and read about them in our spring newsletter here on the website.

   They say in America, “April showers bring May flowers.”  Well, that is usually not true in Jamaica but we have been blessed by unusual rains right now and so we are also praising God for that so we do not have to buy water.  We already have cucumbers, tomatoes, pumpkin and several other things up in our garden. 

   Different groups have been here busy with projects.  The girls’ porch has been painted, it is so cute.  We also have a fish tank going now and the children love it.  Our “pod” program has made such an impact on the children.  People who come to help have noticed a difference in the children.  It is like several little families moving around the house in their little caravans.  Even though Dean may have eye trouble, he knows who is in every pod and is now potty trained, thanks to his “pod” mother.  He is going to be starting school even.  Martika is going also.   

   I had the honor of being listed in the “Jamaica Gleaner” as one of Jamaica’s “Phenomenal Women.”  I don’t know where that all came from and certainly don’t deserve it, but if it is helpful to the Nest, I accept.

   I’ll be home April 20 – June 25 and I hope to see many of you then, especially at the banquet or at the special event in memory of Jake (see below). 

  Just mark capital campaign on your check or on the giving form. - Michelle

(The following article appeared in the Jamaica Gleaner to honor Michelle)

Michelle Robinette

She quit her job as a teacher at a special education facility to get involved in foster care. And she has no regret.  

United States national, Michelle Robinette, left her hometown in Minnesota, U.S.A., for Jamaica in January 1997 on a mission to carry out voluntary work at a government orphanage. Today, she has taken up permanent residence in rural Jamaica, where she operates the Robin's Nest Children's Home and Basic School in John's Hall, St. James.  

This phenomenal woman has been helping to cater to the nutritional, emotional and physical needs of children with minimal help from Government. However, she never complains, as her main focus is seeing to the well-being of the many children under her care.  The avid Christian believes that this is God's will for her life and says she has no intention of returning to live in the U.S. unless God says she should.  “My heart is here, knowing that I am in the absolute center of God's perfect will for my life. I know this is what he wants me to do and I have been allowed to do it," said the mother of five grown children and grandmother to 17.  

Many miracles

"I believe that there are others who were more qualified for this opportunity but they didn't do it. And I am so glad I did. I would have missed out on so many miracles."  Robin's Nest caters to children who have been neglected by parents, orphaned and those with serious medical conditions. The facility also cares for children whose parents wish to go back to school and are not able to maintain their children while they study.  She believes that "too many children today are being raised for the Gun Court, but I want to raise them for the community and work. It's my goal that every one who lives here will work, even if I have to provide jobs on my compound for them."  One of her future plans is to open a children's home for terminally-ill children.
 

Our son, Jacob had a twinkle in his eye and a zest for life from the day he was born. He loved being with people, especially children. When Jake was in high school he went on several mission trips and one of them was to the Robin’s Nest. He fell in love with the children there and was touched by their needs. In 2004, out of the blue, Jake was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease and it turned our world upside down. In June of 2005, after many treatments and prayers, Jake died from complications with the chemotherapy.

As a family, we struggled with Jake’s death but knew that God was in charge and something good must come from our loss. We decided that the memorials that were pouring in after the funeral needed to go to someplace with children. After finding many beautiful pictures of Jake and the children at the Nest, we knew that was our place!

On the first anniversary of Jake’s death, his brother, Josh decided to hold a benefit in honor of Jake and the proceeds once again would go to the Nest. So far $13,000 has been donated in Jake’s memory.

This past February, our family was able to make the trip to the Robin’s Nest for the very first time. We knew that God was calling us to carry on with “Jake’s Mission”.  It was somewhat of a bitter sweet trip for us, but necessary. We felt Jake’s presence as we ventured into a place that none of us would have otherwise been.

We brought along with us 4 extra suitcases with school supplies and much needed “blue socks” that others had donated.

I can’t even begin to share with you the overwhelming feeling that our family had as we traveled up the road to see for ourselves this special place called the “Robin’s Nest”. We spent the day getting to know the children personally and helping with small tasks around the home. We fell in love with the children immediately and knew that our journey to carry on with this very special mission had just begun!

Join us for the 2^nd annual Benefit in memory of Jake on June 14^th, 2007.

Wayne & Cindy Anderson

Click here for an informational flyer

NIA’S STORY

   Nia’s story began in 2001, when a pregnant, single mother of two daughters, decided to make a birth plan to place her unborn child for adoption.  While this may not seem like a controversial decision, in Jamaica societal and cultural pressures work in such a way that children born to parents who are unable to care for them are commonly placed in the state run children’s homes where they remain for years or even permanently.  The mother had been helping out at the Robin’s Nest and decided that she wanted a different life for her new baby, as she was separated from her husband and unemployed and had to scrape by each day to make ends meet for her daughters.  She did not want her baby to end up at a state run orphanage, where she would face less than adequate care as well as an unknown future. She wanted to place her at the Robin’s Nest instead.  During the pregnancy, Michelle saw to it that the mom received good pre-natal nutrition and care and in April of 2002, baby Sillah was born.  The hospital staff was astonished as she was a rarity – full term, healthy weight and high Apgar scores. 

   As my husband is Jamaican and we were unable to conceive a child, we decided to pursue a Jamaican adoption. We were told that adopting from Jamaica “is not hard, but it is not easy.”  In 2002, our search brought us to the Robin’s Nest.  We named the baby ‘Antonia’ to recognize my Italian background – her

Aaron's Story (The following article is printed with permission from the editor, Dori Moudry, Lakes Area Review)

It took the courage and persistence of one woman from rural Minnesota to rescue an 8-1/2-year-old boy from abject poverty and, perhaps, from death. Sara's quest to save Aaron began nearly seven years ago, in 2000.  "I was on a mission trip in Jamaica" she said. "and Aaron was brought in to be seen by the pediatrician on the missionary team. The doctor asked to talk to his mother.  "I was holding Aaron, and I told his mother he was a beautiful little boy. She said if he was so beautiful, I should just take him. If I didn't take him, he was going in the garbage."
   Sara didn't doubt the woman's words. Aaron was born handicapped to a single mother of many other children living in a Third World nation. His home was a shanty, where he was left in a corner to cry from his hunger pangs. "I'll never forget when I first met him, he smelled like smoke (from the nearby cook fire)," Sara said.  Following their first meeting, Sara left infant formula behind to help feed Aaron.  "A week later, members of a Canadian mission checked on him," she said. "The formula was gone, and he was near death," Sara said. "They bundled him up and took him on a 4 or 5 hour trip to Robin's Nest in Montego Bay. Aaron was 15 months old and he weighed 11 pounds. He was basically being starved to death.  When he arrived at Robin's Nest, they had to use catheter tubing with a syringe to drip formula down the back of his throat because he was too weak to swallow.
   Sara returned to Jamaica in 2001 to make sure Aaron was thriving in his new environment.  "I needed to see for myself he had survived what he had been through," she said.  The next time Sara returned to Jamaica to check on Aaron was in 2004.  "Between 2001 and 2004, I had tried different avenues to bring him here, but everything fell through," she said. "In 2004 I asked those in authority, 'What do I have to do to get him out of the country?' They told me adoption was the only way.  I signed the papers, came back home, and told my husband."  Her husband was a little surprised by the news.  Although he and Sara had talked about adopting Aaron, he didn't think it would happen all at once during that particular trip.  "It was a shock," he said. "I hadn't ever gone down there, hadn't ever held him. I had seen pictures of Aaron, but I was pretty much just going on her word. I just stood behind her because she had so much faith in it."
Following her 2004 visit, Sara resolved to bring Aaron home to Minnesota.  "They put his crib in my room," she said. "The separation was so hard (when I had to leave), it tore both of us so much, that I didn't want to go down there again until I knew he was coming back with me."

Fast forward to November of 2006 when Sara and her friend embarked on a journey fraught with obstacles.  "The whole adoption process will be three years old in January," Sara said.  "I sent my original packet of materials down there, and parts of it would be lost. In their offices, they have stacks and stacks of paper, and they would just pull out what they saw with his name on it.  "The rules change as you go along. With the initial packet I sent, we followed everything to the letter, and then they would tell us that they wanted certain items notarized, for example, when they hadn't requested it before."  
   Sara is quick to say she wasn't the only one working on Aaron's behalf.  Robinette advocated on her behalf and a woman from New York who had adopted a child from Jamaica helped guide her through the process. The maze-like path she had to navigate through each bureaucratic organization was truly amazing. For one thing, paperwork kept getting lost, necessitating extra trips.  Aaron's biological mother's died.  "There was no death certificate for his mother, so they advertised in the paper, and received no response, so they declared him an orphan," Sara said. 
   Another hurdle was the need for a full frontal picture of Aaron. Because Aaron seldom makes eye contact, his head was slightly turned in the photo. A woman had to write a letter allowing the picture to be waved, or allow them to use the picture from Aaron's passport.  Finally, on the eve before their flight home, Aaron was granted a visa.  "The only problem there was that they listed him as female instead of male," Sara said. "We had to wait a half-hour for them to retype it so it was accurate."   Sara called her husband and told him they were done with the paperwork, and she and Aaron would be coming home.  "On Saturday morning, we packed our bags and headed to the airport," she said. "We didn't want to give them a single moment to change their minds" (Third World country, Third World beliefs, crime, traffic).  As far as they know, it's just as hard for native Jamaicans to adopt children from Jamaica as it is for people from the United States or other countries.
   Aaron can't walk or talk, but what he can do is laugh, smile, and show affection. He is able to scoot around, and he sleeps through the night.  "He's smart, he processes, he understands things we tell him," Sara said.  “We just need to get through that barrier; why doesn't he walk, why doesn't he talk."   Considering Aaron used to live in a home with 25 other children, it has taken him a short amount of time to become accustomed to a quiet household.         "I believe that if we ever get to a hurdle we can't get over, that's God's way of telling us to stop," Sara said. "But I've never found a hurdle I couldn't get over."  Sara said she is a believer in miracles.  "Sometimes it doesn't matter what you have planned," she said. "God has his plan for you, and you don't say 'no' to that plan."

Sheila's Story

In 2001, a newsletter from Robin’s Nest arrived at our home picturing an adorable baby girl only a couple months old, born premature, abandoned in a cardboard box by her mother, and a survivor of surgery to remove 148 maggots from a sore on her head.  Individual readings of the newsletter left both my husband and me interested in the same child … Sheila.  Unable to conceive, we had just adopted our son, a 10-year-old “miracle,” from another Jamaican orphanage. We agreed to pray about Sheila and God’s plan for her life and ours.

In 2003, our family returned to Jamaica on a mission trip.  I was blessed to meet two-year-old Sheila for the first time. Holding this delightful little girl in my arms, I remember praying, “Please God, let it be.”  Even though I was told the father was not interested in releasing Sheila for adoption, I knew God had another plan. I even remember our son sharing pictures of Sheila declaring, “This is my new sister!”

We returned home, Sheila engrained in my heart.  I could still hear her giggle, feel her tiny hands on my face, and see her dark brown eyes. In a letter to Sheila’s birth father, I shared my heart and our story of adopting our son and included photos of our new “Jamerican” family.  After reading the letter and talking with Michelle Robinette, the director of the orphanage, the father agreed to let us adopt Sheila.

Little did we know, the rest of the journey would take 2½ more years. A three-month process to obtain Sheila’s birth certificate took almost a year.  We learned that the birth mother, even though she had abandoned her daughter, still had rights, and was required to sign the consent papers.  The adoption officer wouldn’t allow the mother to sign without a waiting period, which led to several months of uncertainty before the mother finally signed consent.

Once our file was approved by the adoption board, we spent a week in Kingston praying and “begging” our way through an adoption system that is far less than consistent.  The office at our own American Embassy, where we were to begin our process by filing our petition, was closed for three business days.  Many other details didn’t go as planned, but God was faithful and answered our continual prayers by providing us with a wonderful driver, a familiar and safe hotel, safety in Kingston, unexpected appointments, and connections with people in a country where we knew very few. He also blessed us with a faithful, loving staff at Robin’s Nest to get us through the rough spots.

My son and I returned to the States as planned on Saturday, October 14, 2007 while my husband and Sheila stayed behind to finalize her visa.  At 8:30 p.m. on October 18, 2007, Sheila and her “daddy” arrived at the Des Moines International Airport.  She was finally HOME!

Sheila has been home for 3 months.  The agony of waiting for her homecoming has strengthened us and faded into the blessing of having her home!  Praise God for HIS plan!

Trip Report A week in Jamaica with the kids of Robin’s Nest

(Used by permission, taken from an article by Bruce Strand, Staff writer, Elk River Star News)

   The kids at the Jamaican orphanage were “incredibly sweet,” said Kim Thull of Zimmerman after spending a week there with a volunteer church group.  “They put their hands up for you to hold them, and don’t want to be put down; they’re always smiling and peaceful, not sad or negative. That’s home to them, that’s what they know. They’ve got 27 brothers and sisters.”
   Thull joined a delegation of mostly members of Elk River’s Central Lutheran Church to help out at Robin’s Nest over spring break, April 1–8, on a mountain near Montego Bay on the northwest tip of Jamaica in the Caribbean.  The orphanage was started eight years ago by a Minnesotan named Michelle Robinette. Volunteer groups from the United States, including many from Minnesota, stay a week at a time. The Central Lutheran group was larger than most. It included five adult men, which Michelle told Kim was “very rare.” Two teen-aged boys helped, too.  The fellows proved the old adage that it’s nice to have a man around the house. 
   They fixed a leaky roof by chipping away old concrete and tossing it over the edge of the roof before pouring new concrete over the course of three days.  “I really don’t know how they got the wheelbarrow up there for mixing the sand, cement, and water, but probably best I don’t know, said Carol Greier, who led Central’s first trip to Robin’s Nest last April. “It’s always a challenge to figure out how to accomplish the job without the tools you would be using at home, but it adds to the experience.”
   “It rained right after they got the roof fixed, and Michelle was so happy,” said Thull. “That was the first time it rained when there was no dripping.”   Greier said that was one of the trip’s highlights in addition to seeing and playing with the children.   The group from the Elk River area also built cupboards for the Robin’s Nest kitchen, some electrical work, hung some new doors and performed yard work.

   Of course there’s always time spent helping with the household chores of sweeping, mopping, cleaning bathrooms, dishes, and loads and loads of laundry. The orphanage must do about 17 loads of laundry a day to keep up and there’s no dryer other than the natural elements on the porches.  “You haven’t lived until you try to match socks for 27 pair of little feet,” Greier said.
   The effort emanating out of the Elk River church started with Kelby Klimek, a 16-year-old Elk River youth who attends there and took on a kingdom assignment after one of his pastors challenged the congregation to take up ministries. Klimek’s idea grew out of a desire he has to help Minnesotan children awaiting adoption. That desire still exists today, but also blossomed to include this effort to help orphans in another part of the world. The first mission trip to Robin’s Nest included Klimek’s family and 15 others. This year’s group totaled 20 and included non-members Thull and Katie Waugh of Champlin.
   Those from Central Lutheran included Erica Cooper and two children Robert, 16, and Lauren, 13; Kelby and his parents, Carol and Larry; Donna Mathison; Bev Moberg; Al Nynas; Ashley Ranten, 18; Ed and Kristine Studniski and their daughter Jaclyn Studniski, 10; Dick Taylor, and Rod and Marlys Thorson and their children, Tyler, 8, and Courtney, 14.  Future trips have not been planned by Central Lutheran, but there’s plenty of opportunities for more trips by Central and a number other local groups or families that want to visit and help out, Greier said.
   Robin’s Nest works with many groups and even families in order to obtain the assistance the orphanage needs to have success.  There’s a baby room with six cribs, a boys room with four bunk beds, and a girls room with a combination of cribs and beds. Each group has its own porch. They have an outdoor swimming pool and swim daily.  The workers are each assigned a “pod” of about four kids to look after while they play. There are trucks, dolls, legos and other toys to play with. The Central Lutheran group brought a bag of basketballs and soccer balls; the kids had balls before but they were getting worn out.  The children range from three months to 11 years. The home is licensed for 30 at the moment.  Some were left there temporarily while their young mothers tried to improve their situation. Some were victims of abuse, sent there by the courts. Some are orphans.  For information about Robin’s Nest visit the organizations website at.  www.robinsnestchildrenshome.org