Suffering and Faith: Healing and Faith Growth Through Moise’s Story of Adoption, Loss, and Hope

Suffering and faith are not theories in this episode. They are lived. I'm sitting down with Carol, a mom whose life was radically changed when she said yes to hosting a critically ill baby from Haiti, and then walked a long road of caregiving, disability, heartbreak, and surrender.

Carol shares how Moise came to their family with almost no notice, arriving in two days for life-saving open heart surgery. Within four days, he stopped breathing in her arms. After surgery, doctors discovered severe brain damage from a virus in utero, along with deafness, cerebral palsy, vision impairment, and intellectual disability. With four kids at home, ages 3 to 8, Carol and her husband faced a brutal choice: adopt him with significant medical needs or send him back to Haiti, knowing it would likely be a death sentence. They adopted him, trusting God's grace for the next step.

Carol also shares other layers of loss, including adopting a daughter with Down syndrome who tragically died at two and a half, and later adopting another son with a genetic disorder and a severe bleeding disorder. As Moise grew older, his world shifted again. He lost his vision, lost communication because he used sign language, and became wheelchair bound after a hip dislocation. Then, during his late teens, he became aggressive and violent, and Carol describes the terror of living with constant unpredictability while also protecting a medically fragile younger child.

You'll hear the heartbreaking reality of how few supports exist for adults with severe developmental disabilities, and the moment Carol had to leave Moise at the hospital so he could be declared homeless to access placement. After four and a half years in a state-operated facility, God answered her prayers and moved him to a home seven minutes away. And then, unexpectedly, Carol entered the final season of Moise's life. One year ago, she walked into the hospital and knew they were at the end. With a clear family decision not to place him on a ventilator, Moise came home on hospice. Surrounded by family, he took his final breath, and Carol describes a peace on his face they had never seen before.

On the other side, Carol speaks honestly about grief and identity. She grieves not only Moise's death, but his whole life of pain, because survival mode never allowed space to mourn the daily losses. And still, she can say this: God was present in the waiting, and God was faithful in every detail.

This conversation is for the listener who is carrying a long trial, raising a child with complex needs, walking through grief, or wondering if God is doing anything in the furnace of affliction. Carol reminds us of hope that does not depend on an outcome, and a faith that can hold both sorrow and eternity.