J!!

Well, since I've already done posts about R and A I thought it fitting that I do a post on J today. Today is his 10th birthday! We've been in the process for over 2 years now and J was only 7 when we first began to think that he was the child that God had for us. I can't believe he's 10 now. I had a HARD time with this yesterday. Sometimes I'm afraid this process will drive me nuts. I was staining/putting polyurethane on some trim boards for around the staircase and I was just crying. This is so hard. It makes no sense to me whatsoever. I'm not sure it ever will. I was actually angry at God and angry at the people in Haiti who are exerting their human power of position over our lives and preventing our son from coming home. It's been 4 months of waiting in MOI for a signature so that we can apply for the passport. It's insane. Anyway, I started thinking, what should I be doing in this situation? It came to me that I should be praising God anyway so that's what I did. I'm praising God that J is still alive to celebrate another b'day, even if he's not with us yet. Some other kids have passed away during the adoption process. We just never know what the day holds so today we are celebrating J's life.

He is a silly kid. One of the other adopting moms told me that she was visiting her child and helping another little girl do homework. J kept pestering them and she told him shoo, shoo, go play somewhere else. He sulked away and then she heard this awful crying in the other room. She went to find out what was going on and J was crying and said, "You called me shoo shoo." Come to find out, shoo shoo means girlfriend or girly boy. Whatever you do, don't call him shoo shoo.

This kid has one of the most expressive faces I've ever seen. There is no doubt how he's feeling because it's written all over his face. That eyebrow line can shoot up or scrunch down like you've never seen. He likes to make little jokes. The first time I met him, he locked me in the bathroom (with R's knowledge). He would always ask when we were going to do something. I'd tell him and then the eyebrows would shoot up or down depending on the answer. If the time was too long for him to wait, he'd say, "I can make time go faster," and then he'd move the hands on the clock. The kid can't read but he can tell time, general time anyway.

He loves to tickle and be tickled. That was one of the first things that the O director told me about him. His laugh is so cute that you want to make him laugh all the time. He was playing flashlight tag with T about 10 minutes after they met. Tickling was part of the game somehow.

I love his accent and the way he phrases things. He would always say "open it" for "turn it on." T says that's the literal translation. He also would say "here is it" instead of "here it is." And all the kids at the O like to try to trick you and then another one will say "is not true" which always comes out sounding like "ees not twue" with the emphasis on "ees". They were surprised at T's creole. At first J told him not to speak in Creole. Apparently he wanted his American daddy to speak in English. Then the Creole really came handy later and J was okay with it. The flight from PAP to Cap Haitian only takes 23 minutes. J grabbed his ears when we were taking off. I showed him how to pop his ears by opening his mouth wide. He spent the whole ascent opening and closing his mouth repeatedly. He was surprised to see the clouds right out the window and he wanted to open the window. He quickly got bored with the clouds and laid his head in my lap. By then we were descending and I told him to look for grandma. He popped up and looked out the window and said, "We are finished?" He's hysterical.

I tried to upload more pics of him but it takes so long and it times out. We have DSL but it's the cheapest, slowest DSL you can get. Anyway, here a few pics;

Look at those pecs on that scrawny little body! The date stamp on this pic is correct.

This is from Christmas time '06. The "camera smile" is firmly in place. Look at the scrawny legs.

I'm not sure why but this is one of my favorite pics of J. Love those dimples. And I love that he's trying to blow that thing and smiling at the same time. He had fallen and scraped his neck at that time. It was May or June '06.

Here he is with G'ma and G'pa.

And here with daddy and little A blowing bubbles in G'ma and G'pa's backyard.

We think this little guy is pretty special and can't wait to have him home with us. Keep praying. Happy B'day J!! We love you!