Soup Joumou Recipes

Haitian Soup Joumou is more than just soup--this is a symbol Haiti's independence.

Before 1804, the black Haitians were forbidden from touching joumou, a flavorful and aromatic pumpkin savored by their white French masters. When independence was gained, what better way to celebrate than to enjoy what was once forbidden?

So, this is what Haitians traditionally consume Jan. 1, Haiti's Independence Day.

Thanks to the Real Hope For Haiti Rescue Center for this version of the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 lb corned beef or beef stew meat (you can use chicken or goat as well)
water
1 1/2 lbs pumpkin, peeled & diced
2 turnips, diced
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 sprig parsley
1 sprig thyme
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 cup milk
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon butter
3/4 cup rice, washed (uncooked, not instant)
salt
3/4 teaspoon pepper
2 to 4 teaspoons butter

Instructions:

In a saucepan, cover beef generously with water and boil over medium-low heat, partially covered for 1 hour.

Drain and chop beef into bite-sized pieces.

In a saucepan, bring 4 cups of water to a boil; add pumpkin, turnips, beef, onions, parsley, thyme, and 2 cloves garlic. Simmer until pumpkin is tender (15 minutes). Discard parsley and thyme.

Transfer pumpkin to food processor with 1/4 cup stock and puree. Return to saucepan and heat through.

Add milk, nutmeg, butter, and rice; cook until rice is tender (15-20 minutes).

Season with salt and pepper, and mix in remaining garlic.

Serve hot with a little butter in each bowl.

Serving Size: 4


Thanks to Joshua and Liz Daby for this version:

1 lb beef
1 medium butternut squash
1 to 2 cups cabbage
2 carrots
1 cup spinach
1 large onion
4 cloves garlic
6 to 8 cups chicken broth
½ tsp cloves
Black pepper/salt
½ cup macaroni
1 habenero

Instructions:

Brown the meat in some oil, add chopped onion and garlic, sauté.

Add chicken broth, spices and peeled chunked squash.

Add whole habenero, bring mixture to a boil then cover and simmer up to 1 hour.

Add carrots, cabbage (shredded) and spinach.

Cook until carrots are just about tender, add macaroni and cook 5 to 7 minutes more.

This should be thick, the squash falls apart and becomes part of the broth.

Please send contributions for the blog to jodie.eyberg@gmail.com.
We'd love your recipes, "how we were called to adopt" stories, etc.!

Jock & Lisa's Adoption Journey -- So Far ...

We were married in 1999, and began to try to grow our family soon after. About two years into our marriage, we sought medical assistance, not knowing the emotional roller-coaster we would face of hope in fertility treatments and loss of multiple pregnancies. The Lord used this time to learn from these experiences and to grow a closer bond than we ever could have imagined. The door had been closed to us having biological children, but He opened our hearts and minds to adoption as a means of growing our family.

After several months of researching various options, we had all but settled on adopting from Haiti, when Lisa read a personal interest story on her company website of a family that had adopted from Haiti. With Haiti being a relatively unknown country from which to adopt at that time (2005), this was the God’s confirmation to us that we were to adopt from Haiti! So, we continued to research the possibilities.

In early May 2005, we decided on an agency, began working on our application, and started gathering paperwork for our dossier. The day we’d planned to mail the application form to the agency, we learned that Lisa was pregnant. This threw us for a loop! The agency we’d chosen was not one that would allow your adoption to continue if you became pregnant, so we did not mail in the application that day. One week later, Lisa was in emergency surgery for an ectopic pregnancy.

During the next couple of months, while getting Lisa healthy again, we felt strongly that we should be adopting independently, not through the agency. So we began researching our adoptions, and came upon For His Glory. We did some more research and prayed over this option, and felt that this was where God was leading us – this was where our children were. We started the application process, and continued learning more about dossier preparation and the adoption process.

In August 2005, as we were waiting on the reference letters needed for our application, we received a call from a relative in another state regarding a child that may need an adoptive family. We prayed over this, yet another change in course, and truly believed that our children were in Haiti, but that we needed to be available for this child first, and follow this path where ever it would lead.

This path required us to become licensed for foster care and adoption in our state, but about half-way through the training, we learned that this child would be returning to live with his biological family. We had a certain peace about this loss – that he was not meant to be a part of our family, but that God was using this as a path towards another child/children. We continued the training, as we were learning useful parenting skills. We also thought that, while we were not comfortable with foster parenting, having the dual adoption license could possibly open doors… which it most certainly did!

Within one month of obtaining our state license, we got a call about a little girl. This surprised us, because with the comfort level of placements we’d specified it was unlikely that we’d get a call. We had a few visits with this little girl and prayed about whether this she was meant to be a part of our family. Over a course of a few weeks, this was confirmed for us - she was our little girl. She was placed with us in March 2006, and we finalized her adoption on Adoption Saturday, November 18, 2006. What a blessing this was, after starting trying to grow our family in 2000, and opening our hearts to adoption in early 2005.


Well, even before our daughter’s adoption was finalized, we felt the tug on our hearts to again seek an adoption from Haiti. We prayed over this for several months, and in March 2007, decided to again start paperwork to adopt independently through For His Glory, and began immediately working on both our application and our dossier.

Quite a whirlwind the paperwork gathering was! Our application to For His Glory was completed, submitted, and accepted, in May 2007. Our dossier was completed in June 2007, and promptly sent to Haiti at the end of the month. We signed the referrals for our two darlings at the end of July 2007, which started the processing in Haiti.

In February 2008, we had the pleasure of meeting the director of For His Glory and the director of the orphanage in Haiti, when they were traveling to our area doing some fundraising. They encouraged us to travel with the mission trip in March. Though the trip was only two weeks away, we couldn’t turn down the chance to meet our precious angels. However difficult it was to leave at the end of the week, we’re so blessed with that experience – we wouldn’t trade the time we had with them for anything! We have since traveled to Haiti two other times – once just Lisa, in July 2008, to sign our I-600, and both of us again on a missions/work trip in March 2009.



Our dossier is now in MOI, awaiting approval for passports. We are praying for a speedy exit from MOI, and for the immigration processing, including the birth parents’ interviews, to also go smoothly. This has been a long journey for us, but we wait on the Lord to fulfill His purposes which He’s called us to. We’ve had many trials along the way, but we know that the Lord is working them all for our good (Romans 8:28). The process of Haitian adoptions is neither short nor easy, but we know this will be well worth it in the end. We pray every day for our two children in Haiti, and cannot wait until that day comes for them to bless us and our home with their presence!

Blessings,
Jock & Lisa

Please send contributions for the blog to jodie.eyberg@gmail.com. We'd love your recipes, "how we were called to adopt" stories, etc.!

Easy Chicken Creole

Easy Chicken Creole

Ingredients:
1 large onion, chopped
3/4 cup diced green pepper (1 medium)
1 large clove garlic, crushed
3 Tbl. oil
2 Tbl. flour
1 (6oz) can tomato paste
1/4 t. hot pepper sauce
1/2 t. salt
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
1/2 t. sugar
2 1/4 c. chicken broth
black pepper
hot cooked rice

Directions:
In a large skillet, saute onion, green pepper and garlic in oil until tender, stirring occasionally. Add flour; cook and stir just until flour starts to brown. Stir in tomato paste, broth, sugar, salt and pepper sauce. Cook and stir until mixture comes to a boil and thickens. Simmer uncovered 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in chicken and season with pepper. Heat until hot. Serve over hot rice.

Recipe from Town and Country Creole Cooking: Traditional and Modern Recipes of Haiti by Betty and Wally Turnbull

Please send contributions for the blog to jodie.eyberg@gmail.com. We'd love your recipes, "how we were called to adopt" stories, etc.!

Mabel's Story

By Mabel Garcia, Argentinean mom

I am a single mom who always wanted to be an adoptive parent. International adoption made this possible for me.

On October 2008, they assigned me a sweet heart, Egenson who is currently 44 months old. As per the new regulations, I had to travel to Haiti in order to sign before Judge. On October 17th I met my child for the first time.


As soon as we met, we both realized that we were born to be together. Egenson said “bye bye” to his friends a few minutes after we met without even telling him that we were going to a hotel to share a few unforgettable days together. He knew that his moment had arrived. He saw that happening many times with other kids and that was “his” moment. That was my moment as well and the first time I was called mammy!

Without an invitation, the toddlers came as well. May be they smelt the candies…One, two, five for each one and tons of 3 and 4 years old kept moving on where we were. I did not have enough hands for giving them sweets but I brought hugs for each one. They loved both!

I visited the orphanage and it was great to see the kids of most of parents of the orphanage’s web site. I met them before meeting their parents! 15, 20 or even more babies under two were crying, eating, and crawling in the next two rooms. More nannies than anywhere else were busily feeding and papering kids. There were a few babies in another room, recovering of sicknesses and they looked at me with curiosity and big eyes, may be surprised to see a new face coming. My son was beside me all the time watching my movements just in case…

The older kids did not hesitate to come and they did not forget to say “thanks” after receiving the candies.

Pierre drove us to the hotel. An amazing week was ahead. My son and I had a brief conversation before jumping to the swimming pool. I spoke Spanish and he did it in his sweet Creole. We understood each other perfectly and we both agreed that we were together to enjoy the challenge and adventure of being mom and son for a week. “Egenson is a very active boy” Pierre said and in fact, he is. He was amazed with every single discover of his new world, from my tender kisses to the huge bed that we shared with his toys, cars, soccer ball and candies.

It is great to learn from our children. They always have something to teach us and Egenson showed me that he could adapt himself perfectly well to my rhythm. Now, far away from Haiti, I understand that during that week, he felt he had to do a lot to be accepted and he made the effort to understand Spanish, he tried different food, he woke up with me, he slept when I went to sleep, he became the most important person of my life and the reason to live day to day.

We might have the share of worries about adopting older kids. Would the children fit in with others, would they fit into the school system, how old would be considered too old, would they learn English or another language, would they be employable, and of course would they fit into my family and would they accept us, what if we don’t get along? During my visit, one day I brought 4 girls to the hotel to enjoy a day together. They are 4, 6, 11 and 14 and real nice, helpful and polite. They were very talkative and they did not hesitate to ask me whatever they had in mind. They speak fluent English, they love swimming and we spent an unforgettable day together.

We visited the orphanage couple of times during that week and my son was more than welcome! Kids screaming and running beside the car were waiting him may be to hear his stories of his days with a mom? Egenson jumped from the car and went to join the group of “vandals” while the nannies run behind them trying to keep them together.

My dear baby, my son, my teacher, my all…I miss you so much that I can’t wait to be with you forever! God bless every moment of your life. I was blessed with you…

Preparing

The first groups are preparing to go down to Haiti in accordance with the new request that parents appear at court. We do not yet know how that will go. Please keep the travelers in prayer as well as Pierre, Kiki and the others involved in keeping the adoptions moving.

The New Board

Changes

There have been recent changes at FHG.

Kim Harmon is now president. Most of you know her story. She went to Haiti the first time to support her daughter Natalie who was adopting from FHG. Kim and her husband ended up adopting four children themselves! Since then she has brought another one home and is now in the process of adopting a sixth child from FHG so she is certainly in tune with Haitian adoption news and frustrations.

Pat Flowers in vice president.

Greg Constantino is treasurer secretary.

Please uphold these officers in prayer as things fall into place for them.

Adoptions will continue as normal and hopefully we will have news soon about whether or not families have to travel for court.

Haiti

Life in Haiti is tough.

Many people have no income.

No home.

No food.

For His Glory Outreach is making a difference in Haiti.

Over 100 children call Maison des Enfants de Dieu home.

They receive three meals a day.

They have close friends.

Nannies care for the children.

The children attend school at the O.