Quick update

Hey, quick post here. We're doing fine and having a nice time together. It has rained a lot and the roads are awful but we went out to eat with a team yesterday and J was able to go swimming. We played a little baseball this morning.

They have added a step on to the MOI step. Since we are one of the first to have to do this step they have no idea how long it will take. Therefore I am scheduled to fly home next Monday without J. I have to say good-bye to him again. The last time we said good bye to him we were sure that it wasn't for long. Ha! That was 19 months ago. I'm not looking forward to saying good-bye but I am looking forward to getting back to my family and life. I have some ideas of what we need to do/buy before he comes home and I've enjoyed my time with him. I've also met some neat people and have hopefully been helpful for preparing for teams. So, I'm ready to come home. That's the change, subject to plan.

Weekend update

I only have a second to write a note. The power went off and this is running on the inverter. I'll update tomorrow and explain the pics when the power is on.

Ok, Monday morning. MFI put a retreat on for the missionaries that they serve in Haiti. It was very good. I'm not a missionary here but I still enjoyed it. The pastor that came has a small church in Man O War Cay, Bahamas and he was excellent. He was animated, used good life lessons and had good life application ideas. There was also a quartet of young college age kids that was very good. Their harmonies were excellent even when singing acapella. Super nice young men. I didn't realize when I came down that I was going to get a retreat weekend too.

J did well through the services. He colored and made some friends with some other kids there and was even invited for a play date if we can work it out.

He has been super snuggly in the mornings, usually climbing into bed with me. Thankfully, he has not been wetting the bed. He'll snuggle up as close as he can get and soaks it up. He wants me to pick him up and hold him but he's just too big for that. I'm sure he missed all that over the years.

The meltdowns and "tuning outs" are becoming less and lasting much shorter. He definitely struggles when things don't go just the way he thinks they should.

Today we are washing sheets and towels and making beds for the next team. They arrive tomorrow.

News from home is that it has been very cold there. I am still enjoying the weather here. It's been around 70 at night and about 80-85 during the day. It's hot in the sun but it's very shady here so very nice. A got a main part in another play. She is excited about that. R started back to school and I haven't gotten an email from her (hint, hint) but I think she is enjoying the classes.

Here are a few pics. This is the quartet. They were from a college in FL.
This is the team loaded up to head to the airport. They had a rough ride and we followed and laughed. The guy with the water bottle lost the lid and tried to keep it from spilling for a while and finally gave up.

This is a hillside of homes in Cap Haitian. I don't know how the houses stay in place and I don't know how the people get to them.

This is one of the dogs at G'ma and G'pa's house. She always her tongue sticking out. I know it's not the best pic but she's a little shy.

Here is A. J dressed her up like a princess with flowers in her hair and on her royal robe (a towel).

And this pic is for R's bf. J slept with the Spiderman a couple of nights and he also set him up in the buggy one night. Too funny.

Haiti

A beautiful country filled with flowers,


and scary spiders (this one was dead when I found it).
My dad's team left on Tuesday. J and I spend one more night in the dorm and then "moved into" G'ma and G'pa's house yesterday. We also got the dorm ready for the next group of people. J jumped right in without being asked to and started helping. We had a really sweet cuddle/bonding time this morning when he climbed into my bed (thankfully he hadn't wet his). I was singing a song that we were singing together yesterday and blowing "zerberts" or "raspberries" on his neck/back/cheek/tummy. He's been real good about doing his school work and I think he is thriving on the one on one. He has his moments of course but it's going pretty good over all. Oh, I'm thrilled with his imagination. It's great.

This is a pic of my dad's team as they were arriving at the airport to go home.
This is them taking off. I was kind of sad, but I'm still glad to be here with J since he can't be at home with us.

Airport days are long and Abbie is great at entertaining herself. Plus, all the airport staff are her friends so she pretty much gets what she wants. Not that she's spoiled or anything. Both kids were in one of the passport stamping booths (no one was coming in) and they were playing "buy your ticket". I got a couple of kleenex tickets. See, their imaginations are very active. Here they were playing with a little turtle on wheels that they were sending back and forth to each other.


The last few days of our stay in the dorm we smelled a dead rat in the laundry room. We couldn't find it and figured it was in the ceiling. This guy found it the day after the guys left. Here he is, ready to take down the rat.
Yup, up in the corner above the water heater.
Lovely, isn't it?
Well, those are a few of my thoughts/pics about Haiti. I have so much in my head but no time right now to put it down.

So far

Well, so far the kids are playing pretty well together. J had an upset stomach this morning that resulted in me having to clean out the sink in the bathroom. I'm just glad he made it to the sink and it was contained. He seems better now, thankfully. I hope we have no relapses. Here is a pic with the water gun we sent him for Christmas.

I love this pic. The two of them together in recliners. Too funny.

J and A painted shirts.
This is J's.

G'ma bought a bounce house from someone who was moving back to the states. J and A love it.

R's bf sent a Spiderman down for J. It used to be his but he thought J would like it. Yeah, he slept with it the first night.

Here is my dad's team. A is a part of every team.

They were ready for church after we got over the barfing issue.
Well, that's it in a nutshell. We are adjusting to each other and doing all right. We had a few little meltdowns and he does love to contradict but we're working on that. This is so different than parenting a bio daughter. I'm glad to be here though I miss T and the girls a lot. Keep praying for us and that the adoption process would get finished and we could come home. Thanks!

Hello from Haiti!

Surprise! We made the decision for me to go down with my dad's team and stay at T's parent's house for a while. I'd like to stay until the adoption is final but I don't know if that will be possible. I was supposed to leave on Monday and as of Thursday last week we still didn't know if the papers that I needed to travel with him were going to be available. Good news. Our file is finally back in MOI, where we were 19 months ago, in May of '07. And that made the papers available, so here I am. Zoiks! I already miss T and the girls and the rest of my family and friends terribly. I miss home. But I'm so glad to be here and be with my family and friends here. J and the little girl that lives with G'ma and G'pa are having a blast already. They are playing so well together. I've noticed that J has matured some and seems more secure. When I ask him to use words and demonstrate that he does it. Before he did a lot of pointing and grunting and facial expressions to tell us what he wanted. Words are very nice. I hope that continues. He is liking having all the guys on the team cater to him. Bampa is loving it. He teared up meeting J for the first time. Here are the two grandpa's with J.

This is on the plane from Port to Cap. This is my "wind tunnel" look. I was standing under the wing of MFI's plane when a small jet type plane started up. Yes, it was a wind tunnel.


Okay, this is the van we took from TN to FL. We were packed to the gills.


This is a dam in the Artibonite valley. Thankfully it's still intact after the floods.
This is some of the erosion that is so prevalent in Haiti.

Ah, the Citadel. An awesome work that's 200 years old. It was built by King Henri Cristoffe to guard against an invasion by Napoleon. I flew right by it yesterday.
I can't possibly process everything in my mind right now. Please pray that our file moves quickly and that we can get a passport, DHS final approval and a visa. Visa's are kind of a challenge right now and we need prayers. Thanks!

Happy New Year

Our New Year's eve party was a blast. I took videos of the tree blowing up and I can't post them from here because our internet is too slow. R took some good pics of it but my stone age computer won't read the card. She is having to put them on a flash drive for me. Sigh...I feel old and my technology is old too.

I wanted to be able to share some great news with you about our adoption but it's snafu. Apparently when the O worker went to get our file yet another mistake was found. We don't know yet if it's a 2 day fix or a 2 month fix. My head knows that God is sovereign and He is in control and has a plan, but my heart is breaking none the less. How can this be? We are going on month 40 of waiting. I can't dwell on it or it makes me depressed.

Maybe I'll do some highlights from '08. Let's see. R graduated high school, with honors, 7th in her class. She also bought her own car (yay!), started college and got straight A's her first semester, along with 3 day measles, mono, and laryngitis. Do you think maybe she's burning the candle at both ends? She still works part time at the same place that I work and sings and plays keyboard at church.

A got her learner's permit and makes her mom's hair turn gray while she drives. Zoiks! She continually cracks us up with her wit, whether she's trying to be witty or not. She "talks" for the tv commercials that T mutes. She loves God and loves her family and friends. She loves to decorate her room and cut her clothes up (occasionally) and sew them back together (or tie them) and make them into something new.

T likes his job. He continues as a deacon and sound board operator at church. He's a wonderful man I love him lots. We struggle through the adoption process nightmare together and his heart breaks along with mine. He rides with A to school every morning and he hasn't lost it yet. Bless him.

I'm still working part time, leading music at church and muddling through the adoption. I love God, my family and friends and am thankful for each one of them.

Okay, got R's pics now so we can share a little of what went on last night. If I get to a place where I can upload a video, I will. But for now you'll have to just look at pics.

We started out with Haitian Soup Joumou. It's a basically a vegetable soup with a pumpkin base. It's a tradition in Haiti to make this on New Year's Day and share it with your company. It looks kind of gross in this pic but it's actually quite tasty.

There was a "how many chex mix can you catch in a row" race. I have great video of this but again, you'll just have to look at pics.

That guy needs to look out or he could get hurt. This is a serious game.

We had monkeys, or boys rather, hanging on the steps.

And this little guy was quite enthralled with the skating rink. He was even singing along to the some of the songs. Too cute.

Then it was time to go out in the cold and blow up the tree. Here's some of the crowd that gathered to witness the tree's blast off.

Aww, they love each other. They really love each other.

We didn't have access to good fireworks so it took a while to get the tree going. Once it did it went pretty fast.

There were firecrackers going off and someone had the bright idea of putting bottle rockets on it so those went off occasionally. I don't have any pics of that (I have great video though) but I love this pic that R took.

Here, it's starting to burn down some.
And this is what's left of Christmas tree 2008. It went out with a blast.