We Found Markenley! (Part Two)

The roads in Haiti are lousy. Picture what that might mean. Potholes, filth, chaos.

Now picture worse.

And worse, again.

See the people milling around, aimless without industry, seething with hunger.

Imagine the poverty. And sickness. Dilapidated tarps and tents for homes. Fear. Anger.

OK. Forget about trying to get this stark reality into your head. We can’t. The scene can’t be set.

Hollywood hasn’t done it, yet.

Unless you’ve traveled the streets (that’s what they call them) of Haiti, it’s beyond knowing.

It’s into this bedlam that Jay Louis and his friend ventured last Wednesday. It wasn’t that they were eager to wander the slum of Carrefour, on foot, for three hours near dusk.

God said go and so they went.

When providence took them, without an exact address, to the walls of the very orphanage where I had met Markenley a year ago, it didn’t stop there.

A woman came to the gate and they showed her a picture of the boy who has haunted my dreams.

It is the same face that I have been told, time and again, cannot be found among the hundreds of thousands of wandering homeless in Haiti.

Even those who run this orphanage have insisted throughout the past year that he is not among them. That he is not known.

But it was a place to begin.

Beyond it, there would surely be no hope. Without a whisper of a trail, he would be lost.

And so, in Kreol, Jay shared the story of a woman far away who could not forget. He held up the picture, poorly printed on plain paper in a cyber cafe in Port au Prince, two hours’ trek away – the face of a 10-year-old child who could be anywhere – or nowhere at all.

She smiled.

“That’s Edouard Markenley,” she said.

Holy mother of God.

But God wasn’t finished, yet.

“I know his sister’s cell number,” she added. “Would you like for me to call her?”

Wow.

Ever had so few words transform your life?

Mine will never be the same.

Cue jubilation!

One phone conversation and 18 short hours later, Markenley’s aunt brought him to the orphanage to meet Jay Louis.

Face to face.

Ever wonder how it will feel to stand before our Lord in person? I can’t even fathom the joy but, now, I do know something about the sheer magnitude of anticipation.

I don’t believe I’ve ever wanted anything as fiercely as I’ve wanted to reconnect with that child and make sure he’s okay.

The thought of him found leaves me giddy.

Giggling, smile-in-my-heart, can’t-believe-it’s-coming-true thrilled.

When they met, Jay Louis discovered many things. But, first, he had to find a way to ease away from the orphanage’s boundaries.

When the director learned what was afoot, she swiftly stepped in, believing money would soon line her pockets.

“Anything you have for him, you should give to me and I will see that he gets it,” she reportedly said.

This, regarding the child she had insisted was a stranger.

I wasn’t there, but the corruption rampant in Haiti is not new to me. When our team was there a year ago, it took the entire week for our shipping container loaded with medical supplies and tents to be released.

Everyone’s hand stays out.

Well, not everyone, fortunately.

Jay Louis and Sam accepted very little when we hired them to search and, quickly, God moved their hearts from profit to compassion.

They have nearly nothing themselves and yet their first concern has been for a child they’d never met.

When Markenley was told there was a white woman (they call us “blan“) searching for him, he knew it was me.

Though a year has passed with no sign of my relentless interest, he recalled the day someone took the time to draw him out and teach him how to use a camera. On that day, he had hugged me as I left, smiled and waved.

It nearly cost him a beating.

On that day so long ago, he had been sent to the orphanage to slip inside and bring home food. There was little chance, otherwise, for his extended family to eat that day.

Instead, I engaged him and monopolized his time. He returned to their slice of struggle, empty handed.

Though one family member had wanted to beat him as punishment, another intervened.

Many times, I have wondered about where he is, who he is with and what his life is like.

Now I know a bit.

It’s tough to get answers, though, when my connection with Jay Louis is through limited texts and broken phone conversations. His time there was brief – but he did visit where Markenley lives.

I have a picture now, taken just two days ago, of this precious boy flanked by the young men who went to great lengths to find him. Markenley, who had been sitting for a few hours with the new knowledge of my search, is beaming.

Many people have asked whether we plan to adopt him.

Let me be clear.

I would bring that boy into our home in a skinny minute. It’s as easy as breathing to picture him here, where education and fine dining and ready counseling are abundant and ready to save the day.

If only life was a Hollywood script.

But I don’t have to tell you that it’s not. The obstacles to adoption in Haiti are daunting. At first glance, they appear insurmountable.

And God gave Markenley a family.

Like many in Haiti, his extended family has banded together, flimsy in circumstance but united somehow in survival – an older sister, a mother who is mentally handicapped, an aunt, two uncles, grandmother, two grandfathers and four cousins.

Together, they live in a ramshackle room, tenaciously existing in what is left of a collapsed cement building.

Together. As in all together.

Thirteen of them. In one room.

With no sewage.

Sit with that one for awhile.

No electricity. No fridge. No shower. Dirt. floors. Little shelter.

Jay Louis says, “I can tell you that ‘it is not good.’ But actually it is horrible.”

My heart aches – with a wish to help him that is fiercer than ever and with joy to have the chance.

Already, my small group of girls from church – middle schoolers convinced that, despite their youth, they can make a difference – have provided a way for Jay Louis to go with Markenley’s aunt to purchase groceries. Next week, our friend Stacy will personally deliver to him new clothes and shoes and a gift for his family from us.

It’s not much, but it is a beginning.

Quite frankly, it feels profound to have a beginning.

So, from here, we will find our way. God led us to this place; I’m convinced it must be for a very special reason.

I’m beyond grateful to be in his life as God’s plan for Markenley’s future unfolds!