Merry Christmas!

The Nutcracker

22 Dec 2008
Saturday we had a very rare opportunity to take a large group of kids on an outing. A Haitian dance school was putting on “The Nutcracker Ballet” at a high school nearby. They heard of GLA through a random connection and offered free tickets to as many children from the orphanage as we wanted to bring. What a thoughtful thing to do!! Joyce and I at times will take kids out for a special treat but with only on vehicle, and only 10-12 children at a time. This day however Dixie also drove a car, and James, giving us the capacity to seat 22 kids, as well as volunteers and some staff! We took all the kids that were just under 5 years and everyone older. It just so happened that it turned out to be 11 girls and 11 boys, perfectly even. The girls got their hair done the day before, which was great, cause had we waited till Saturday morning to do it there would have been no way we’d have left the house at 9:30am. Everyone got to get dressed up in a new outfit including new footwear! Our kids are so many different shapes and sizes that it took a little time to find the perfect fit for everyone, but by the time Dixie and James arrived at Kay B to pick up part of the group everyone was standing at the gate and excited to go. The drive down took only a short 25 minutes (seemed like a breeze compared to the previous days travel) and there was even parking by the school where the ballet was hosted! We unloaded and found seats on the balcony level so the kids would be above everyone else and could see better. Then they all put on their florescent pick wrist bands (tickets) and waited expectantly. They waited and waited and waited.. and were SO GOOD about it. I could hardly believe how patient they were. An hour and a half after scheduled show time the music started. Only in Haiti. It was beautiful, the kids were captivated. I watched their expressions more than I watched the show.

Each one liked a different dance in the ballet, or a different costume. The dancers were very good, and the costumes were bright and colorful. At one point there were little 6 year olds standing just off stage in red dressed with golden angel wings. Evna could see them standing there and was so interested she missed the rest of the current scene and tilted her head to try and get a better look at these little girls that were her age. The program lasted about 90 minutes which was perfect for our group. They were starting to get tired. All the dancers came back out on stage and everyone stood up and clapped for them, and then to the surprise and excitement of many many children who were there they announced that each and every child would receive a gift. There must have been over 300 kids there from different orphanages and schools, and each one received a sturdy should green shoulder bag and a brand new soccer ball. What a treat!!! All greatly enjoyed it, and it will be a memory these kids take with them from Haiti and all the way Home, the Christmas they watched “The Nutcracker Ballet”.
Molly

Thanksgiving at the Toddler House

THIS IS A POST FROM THE TODDLER HOUSE REGARDING HOW THE CHILDREN CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING:

Most Thanksgiving’s the kids enjoy a little change to the menu and an extra large portion of some great turkey. But in previous years I don’t think they’ve really gotten it. This year we celebrated the Wednesday before American Thanksgiving. The wonderful ladies in the kitchen at the main house cooked & carved two beautiful birds for us on Tuesday, so we were all set to go. Joyce and I explained the traditions behind the holiday to the staff and the kids several times over Monday and Tuesday, and by Wednesday morning the house was hopping! Even the staff got excited telling us what they were thankful for. Joyce got everyone to work decorating in our regular Toddler House celebration apparel, balloons, streamers, and homemade construction paper signs designed by our kids exclusively for the day. Ghislaine, our head cook, prepared garden rice and fried plantain, while Joyce and I put together some fresh dinner rolls, snow dusted cupcakes, and fall leaf jello jigglers. Dinner was set for 12:30pm. Rose Mitha, Chalinda, and Peterson proudly finished off the last touches to the dining room decor before we kicked them out to begin serving. In an attempt to prevent a stampede and keep all the plates from meeting and untimely demise on the floor we dished all the food up before letting the kids inside. As six of us went about this the hand washing bucket was carried out to the play yard, thus the time had come. We began to hear chanting and realized that we were in over our heads, the excitement for the meal and the surprise of the decorations was too much for them to wait any longer. We hurriedly put the last spoons on the table (everything here is served with spoons) and began to let the kids in four at a time to go find a place at one of the five tables. With eyes ever so wide the first dozen walked in scoping out the plates, knowing they had the best pick. Everyone had their own top priority, they wanted the larger pile of rice, the meat with the bone, the orange sucker topped cupcake, or the seat on the end (minimal elbowing!). Finally everyone was settled in and though Daralyne and Cindy Love were sure they could sneak a bite before prayer without anyone noticing they were caught red handed and everyone had to sit with arms folded to keep from being tempted. Prayer was said with such enthusiasm by all, I have no doubts they were thankful for what God had blessed each with this year, and especially for the special meal He had provided. It was one of the quietest Toddler House meals in my memory. Seven year old, Ermithe, holds the new record for turkey consumption, thanks to many children not being able to finish and sliding their portion over onto her plate. The smaller children conked out soon after lunch and slept soundly until woken up around 3pm. But there was no stopping our older 20 children, who were too excited to settle down and played games, made crafts, and chatted about “Danksgivin” until late that night. I am so blessed to be a part of the Toddler House family and all its inhabitants. If space permitted, I would love to list them all here, because to group them all together seems to diminish in some way the importance of each individual person that makes us this family. But I fear it would bore many or perhaps amuse them in trying to pronounce the rich Creole names that so many of our children possess. In any case I hope that if you will be encouraged to know that your prayers, your love, and your encouragement to us help to make this house a home and a family to these amazing children for the time however long or short that God blesses us with their presence here.
Molly

December Update

Sonise has recently been learning to crochet. One of the nannies at the main house has been teaching her, and Sonise is really enjoying herself. My grandmother loves to crochet and I know she will enjoy working with Sonise when she comes home.

Chalinda is very much enjoying the many new kids who have moved to the toddler house recently. Chalinda loves “mothering” the younger kids, some of her favorite children went home not too long ago. However, she is now quite happy to have lots of new little girls and boys who she can carry around and play with and generally spoil!

Neissa is quite the little hairdresser! She is always ready to braid the hair of any visitor who comes into the yard and is willing to let her. Neissa is often carrying around a comb for just this occasion, as well. Sometimes it is a doll’s comb and other times it is one of the combs that the nannies have used to braid her hair.

December Discouragement

Honestly, sometimes I feel like we are taking one step forward and two steps back in this adoption journey. There were 11 dossiers that came out of Parquet over the Thanksgiving weekend. I was hoping and praying that one of them was ours, but no.

Then I was informed that Parquet has been rejecting dossiers that do not meet the requirements of the new law which was only recently passed. Apparently there was to be no grandfathering people in! Of course, under the old law, you could have no more than 3 biological children but as many adopted children as you wanted, they didn't count! The new law states that you can have no more than 2 children, adopted or otherwise. Our dossier hasn't been kicked out yet... which unbelievably may not be a blessing because the two courts met and agreed that there would be a grace period for all dossiers in through Janaury 7, 2009. Any dossiers that had been rejected would be sent in bulk to get a PRESIDENTIAL DISPENSATION! Our dossier hasn't been rejected yet so ours will not be in the first bulk of dossiers sent for dispensation.

Then in a second e-mail I was informed that Haiti has added one more step to the adoption procees. Another Minister will need to stamp our paperwork after the courts and Minister of the Interior approve our adoption. This new step is expected to add another 2-4 weeks to the process.

I am not one given to crying but I feel like I could seriously lose it right about now! Please keep us in your prayers.

November Update

We got a long awaited update on how Sonise is dealing with the fact that she is going to be adopted by Jeff and I and will be going to the U.S. One of the women that Sonise is close with told the director of the orphanage that Sonise is very excited to come to the States. She really liked Jeff and I (WHEW!) and she is practicing English and French very hard. She understands English pretty well but has some trouble forming her responses in good English. It will come with time. She loves getting our packages and has put things up in her room that we have sent and looks at them every day. Sonise really wants to go to the USA and cannot wait until it's time.

As you can imagine, this is a huge relief to Jeff and I. While we were there in September, she was faced with the very real reality of leaving her country and her birth family. She was understandably overwhlemed.

This is a picture of Sonise opening one of the packages we sent to her. We send packages once a month and they take 4-6 weeks to make their way to the orphanage.

Sonise was not able to go to the Toddler House the last several weeks because of the chicken pox outbreak at the Baby House. Sonise was a big help with the sick little ones, unfortunately that exposure caused her to come down with the chicken pox herself. She had a mild case and kept herself covered in Calamine lotion to help with the itching. So once again, the girls' pictures were taken separately.





Neissa and Chalinda are doing well. Chalinda is practicing her English with her teachers. The caregivers report that she is protective of her little sister and watches out for her. Neissa was on a tricycle and another little boy went over and tried to take it away from Neissa. Chalinda would have none of that and went over and made sure Neissa got to ride the bike!

Neissa is also working on her English. When the woman who writes the monthly updates went up to the Toddler House, Neissa walked right up to her and asked her if she loved Jesus. When she said "yes", Neissa then asked if she loved Satan and the worker said "no". That made Neissa very happy. She told the worker that all the children at the Toddler House loved Jesus and knew that Satan was very bad. :)

It is such a blessing to receive these monthly updates and get a little glimpse into how the girls are doing. We are still in the second of the two courts. We appreciate any prayers that our paperwork gets out of Parquet and our adoption is approved. I am praying specifically that our paperwork is approved by Thanksgiving. Wouldn't that be something to celebrate!?!


How beautiful are our daughters!?! We are going to have our hands full!

October Update

We just got our October update fron God's Littlest Angels. The girls are doing well. Sonise has been unable to go to the Toddler House recently because of an outbreak of Chicken Pox at the Main House where she lives. Currently there have been no outbreaks at the Toddler House and they do not want to risk the exposure. So Sonise is getting her schoolwork sent down to her for the time being.


Sonise is pictured in a dress that I bought for the older girls at the Toddler House. She cracks me up. I bought three nice dresses for her which all fit, by the way, but she keeps nabbing the other girls' dresses. She still looks beautiful though!

One More Step Forward!

The next step in the adoption process was for the girls' birthmother to go to the US Consulate for the orphan investigation. This is a basic interview with the birthparent to verify that she placed her children of her own free will, that she was in no way coerced into doing it. The Consulate also verifies that the children also qualify as an orphan under US law based on the information the birthmother provides. Well, I just got an e-mail from GLA telling us that the girls' birthmother went to the US Consulate for the orphan investigation interview last week! This is a huge relief as her original appointment was on the 22nd of September and she did not go. The appoitment had been rescheduled for today and I have been on pins and needles all day. Here it was done last week! We should be receiving a notice from USCIS in a week or two with regards to the orphan investigation. I guess that will be the next step!

I had sent an e-mail to the Toddler House asking how the girls' did after we left. In addition to answering the questions, I got some new pictures. I will share them with you as I share their story.



Here are the girls with Jeff and I.














Here is the infamous Chester. This dog is so great. Half of the kids love him and swarm him with hugs and kisses, while the other half run in terror if he so much looks in their direction.








The girls are doing well. They all had various reactions to resuming life as normal after a weekend with mom and dad. Neissa did very well, she needed some distraction the day we left but then seemed to fall back into routine.

Chalinda had the hardest time. Joyce and Molly both sat and talked with her many times trying to help her process the visit and the time between it and when we would return for her. It seemed to help at times and she would want to just sit and cuddle in silence after sometimes with tears sometimes just silent. Other times after a talk she would just stick her noise in the air march up to her room and close the door. She is not over the injustice of having to wait to go home yet (as that is what she feels it is), she’s still trying to find peace in the knowledge that she can’t begin her new life with us yet but she is doing much much better than the first two weeks after we left.

Neissa and Chalinda both received a package we had sent prior to traveling and that was something that helped them. Chalinda immediately started writing letters back to us, with Joyce’s assistance. We received these only yesterday. She wrote all 6 of us a personalized letter! It is all I can do to get my kids to write the same letter three times to each of their sisters! We were thrilled and all walked around last night with goofy grins on our faces.

Neissa asks about us when someone or something reminds her. The other day Chalinda was trying to set up a relay race and it jogged Neissa’s, she came over and reminded Molly that that was something Jeff did with them while he was here. She seems to have been able to handle the visit and going back to orphanage life okay. She shed a few tears when we left and wanted to know over and over again why she wasn’t going too. But after some cuddling and talks the girls and Molly made cupcakes and by the time that was over she was ready for a nap and done with her sadness.

Sonise tells Chalinda that she wants to be a part of our family, wants a home, and a place of belonging. She looks forward to starting life in the US though she is also very scared and unsure if she will feel accepted.

What else can I say!?! My heart aches for them.



Here is a picture of the girls' making cupcakes after we left.

The Trip!

Neissa (4), Chalinda (10) and Sonise (14)

We have been home for a month... shame on me for not posting sooner but as you read you will come to understand why!

First and foremost, the girls are wonderful! I cannot say enough good things about God's Littlest Angels and the care, love and education they provide for the children in their care.

Jeff and I were pleasantly surprised to be greeted at the airport by Sonise and Chalinda. They had told Molly and Joyce that they did not want to wait at the Toddler House for us, they wanted to meet us at the airport. How awesome was that!?!

Chalinda sat in the far back of the SUV. She held onto either Jeff’s hand or my hand (and at times both of our hands) the entire trip up the mountain. Sonise sat next to me. She was shy and more quiet, reluctant to use her English, and I suspect more than once wished I would just stop talking to her. Nevertheless, she smiled throughout the trip. Neissa was at the Toddler House to greet us. We went up to the second floor of the guest house to allow for time away from the other children and get to know each other.

The first thing we did was to pull out the scrapbooks I had sent down and look through them. The albums had been well loved, I will say no more! They all knew who the people in the pictures were and were eager to ask questions and talk about them. I has also brought down four lengths of ribbon with the heights of the kids and myself marked on them. Sonise, Chalinda and Neissa were eager to find out who they were taller than. I marked their heights on all the ribbons and gave one to each of them and brought one home for the kids.

The girls are so great. Sonise is an awesome young woman. While she can understand English, she is not confident in expressing herself in English. She did however warm up to both of us and began speaking more and more as the time went on. She was appropriately affectionate with Jeff and I. While she was too big to sit on our laps, she was happy and eager to sit next to us and loved getting hugs and kisses. We spent many hours playing Jenga!, dominoes and putting puzzles together. Sonise kicked my butt in Jenga! She was loving that.

Sonise does not live at the Toddler House, she lives about a mile down the hill at the Main House. Every day she walks up to the Toddler House for school. Sonise has a great relationship with the kids at the Toddler House. I often saw her down among the kids mitigating disagreements. The kids listen to her and respect her.

Sonise likes things to be neat and orderly, as does Ani. This is key as they are going to be sharing a room! Sonise helped make dinner and clean up after dinner without complaint and did a great job. If she saw something that needed to be done, she took care of it.

Sonise is concerned about fitting in, here in the States and our being there brought a lot of that concern out. She also has mixed feelings about leaving her birthmother and siblings behind. We did openly talk about that and she was happy to learn that she will be able to keep in touch with them through the orphanage. I also told her that when she is older, if she wants to come back for a visit, that would be fine. This seemed to ease some of her fears.

Chalinda is a precocious ten year old. She is bright. She has been attending school at the orphanage for the last 13 months and is doing 3rd grade work. I was impressed. She is also completely fleunt in English, both in comprehension and spoken word. Jeff often used her as an interpreter as he organized relay races, etc.

Chalinda craved physical attention. She often climbed up in my lap and wanted to be rocked, which was great. She was very engaging. In many ways she reminded me of Gregory and by the second day I realized why. The second day, the gloves came off and she challenged me when I asked her to do something. She was testing me on the second day! Good thing I have had a lot of experience with this and I stuck to my guns and she eventually complied with a good attitude. She is going to fit right into our family!

Neissa is a doll baby and she knows it. She works the cute thing for all it is worth. She also enjoyed being rocked and carried around. And most days she ended up taking her nap in my arms. Neissa is also in school for an hour or so a day. She comprehends English but will only speak it if she really wants something. I was tuning out a lot of her talking as I had no idea what she was saying, then all of a sudden something would register and I would realize she was speaking to me in English. For example, she wanted to play with a specific toy or wanted me to sit down or something like that. She and Aaron are either going to bump heads or, heaven forbid, team up and play the "too cute for words" thing for all it is worth.

Our stay ended up being extended by a day and a half because we got caught in Hurricane Hanna. It was not supposed to hit Haiti, it was supposed to go north, but I guess the hurricane didn't know or care about that. Then to make matters worse, it stalled over Haiti, being held in place by Hurricane Ike which had hit the week before and was at that time over Louisiana. Even the locals kept saying they had never seen anything like it before... figures, the week I am there something completely out of the ordinary in a devestating way happens!

I felt bad for the people. The orphanage is made out of concrete and other than things that were not secured being blown around and having to deal with the blowing rain, the orphanage fared well. The general population did not. There was no warning, as again, Hanna was not supposed to hit Haiti. The lucky people have corragated tin roofs on thier houses, held in place with rocks. They didn't know to add more rocks! Trees and power lines were down everywhere. Livestock had to fend for themselves (and you know how that bothered me!)

The weather itself didn't concern me all that much. I never once felt threatened or that we were in danger. What had me frazzled beyond belief was that I was able to get one e-mail out before we lost all communication to the outside world. I sent my dad an e-mail asking him to watch the kids until I got home (and I was being told at that point that I wouldn't be able to fly out for 5 more days!) I had no way of knowing if he had gotten my message or not. I was an emotional wreck. Luckily he did get the message and my sister took them to her house and all ended up OK. Honestly, it took me a good week to emotionally recover from that!

It was hard to say good-bye to the girls. Neissa and Sonise seemed to take our leaving in stride. Chalinda was not a happy camper. She stood and faced the wall, refusing to look at us or give us a hug. She understood that we had more paperwork to do, but just wasn't happy.

So that is the story of our trip. Life here is back to it's chaotic self and there are days I wonder what it is going to be like with 7 kids! But I guess I will find out soon enough!

August Update

Well, the big news for this update is that Jeff and I are off to Haiti on Friday, August 29th! We will be able to spend time with the girls on Staurday, Sunday and Monday. Then on Tuesday we have an appointment at the US Consulate to file our US paperwork. We will be home on Wednesday in time to get the kids off the bus.

We are all a little frazzled as school starts this Wednesday. So between running around for school supplies, touring new schools and getting ready to leave we are a little crazed. Look for a post in early September with pictures and stories on our trip!

The big news at the orphanage is that the toddler house got a new dog! His name is Chester and he is described as a gentle, loving puppy. The older kids especially enjoy him; the younger ones are not quite sure about Chester yet. Chalinda is definitely one of the kids who is not afraid of Chester and enjoys playing with him. Chalinda likes to play fetch with Chester. The workers told me that since she did not have a ball, she was throwing a little popsicle stick house craft which Chester was more than willing to retrieve. Well, you know that after reading this I had to run right out and get dog toys!!! Neissa really loves Chester, but she is not quite brave enough to play with him just yet. She will join the group of kids playing with him, but she will jump away whenever he starts to head her way. Then she follows him again, laughing and chasing after him.
As you know this is good news for us that the girls are getting exposed to a dog and are learning to love him. Maybe then Minnie will not come as quite a shock!

Here are the most recent pictures of the girls:

NEISSA

CHALINDA (I swear she gets prettier every month!)

SONISE

The 3 Girls Together

We are out of ISBER!

We got news today that as of yesterday, our paperwork has moved out of the first of the two court systems it must pass through in order to complete our adoption! I truly was hoping against hope for this to be done by November or December of this year, so having it out in early August is truly a blessing! The next court is more unpredictable, people have languished there for up to 11 months. Recent waits have ranged between 3 and 6 months. I know God is in control and I can see His hand in all of this, so I am relying on Him to get this done!

The orphanage director has now given Jeff and I permission to travel to Haiti to meet the girls. We are super excited and have begun looking at possible travel dates. I will keep you posted.


We send the girls' care pakages once a month with letters and pictures and a little something special. Below are pictures of Chalinda and Neissa opening their packages. Sonise is in another building so I don't have pictures of her yet. But I have been told they are coming.

Wow! What a day!







We sent each of the girls a storybook about animals. Considering the number of animals they will be living with, we thought it would be a good way to prepare them! This is Chalinda looking at her book. The caregivers said she opened it and immediately began sounding out the words!





Neissa got a picture book about animals. The caregivers read it to her.







This is Neissa drawing on her MagnaDoodle we sent.





This is one of the English speaking volunteers reading Chalinda her letter from me. I also included scrapbook pages of the extended family in this package. That is my mom and dad's page on the table.



This is Chalinda with one of the small gifts we sent. Each child in the orphanage has a cubby where they can store the gifts from their adoptive families. Of course sometimes things end up in the general population, but how great is it that each child has their own special place to store things that are important to them.

Truly I cannot say enough about God's Littlest Angels orphanage!

July 2008 Update

A team of volunteers from Canada is currently at GLA. One of the advantages of having a team there is that they often like to spend time at the toddler house playing with the kids there. This past week several members of the current team spent their mornings at the toddler house, playing with the kids and also involving them in some special activities. Neissa had a lot of fun playing these games. One day they brought out a plastic bat and beach ball and started playing “baseball.” The kids took turns hitting the ball and running to the one base that had been set out. Neissa was pretty excited about her turn, and she did a great job hitting the ball. Another activity they had for the kids was the giant parachute. They got that out and the adults and Chalinda and some of the other kids stood on the outside shaking it up and down. Neissa was underneath of the parachute with her friends, laughing and having so much fun! It was a great activity for everyone!

Chalinda recently had the excitement of playing waitress for a special “nanny appreciation” lunch that Barb put on before she left. Chalinda, and several of the other older boys and girls, got to put on aprons and serve at the meal. They were so excited with their honor and took it very seriously. It was a lot of fun for all of them, as the nannies got all dressed up and the kids got to do their part. Chalinda loved it!

Sonise has had a good month, expanding her friendships with the staff and volunteers.

Sonise, Chalinda, and Neissa

June 2008 Update

Sonise is doing well and she seems to always enjoy being with others. She is often on the balcony with the volunteers, playing with the kids. At night she spends her time in the kitchen, sometimes helping out, sometimes just talking to the ladies working there. The other day when a group of people were driving back from the toddler house after school, Sonise asked for the car to be stopped… she wanted to buy candied nuts from one of the roadside vendors. She got her nuts and she willingly shared with others in the car.

Chalinda is an intelligent girl who can be a bit mischievous at times. When the caregivers are playing with the kids they will often tickle them or chase them and such. The other day while they were tickling some kids at the toddler house, Chalinda snuck up and started tickling them! Chalinda even called one of the boys over to come help her.

Chalinda is also working hard at learning English!

One of the caregivers this month reported:

Neissa loves to have fun and love to laugh! She is one of my favorite people to tickle because she has such a great laugh and such a great personality. The other day I was playing with Neissa and Claudia, one of her good friends. They were sitting on exercise balls, holding my hands and rolling all over the place. They kept laughing and they were having so much fun. I was having a lot of fun and I was mostly just watching them!

May 2008 Update

This is the most recent picture of the girls. They are growing so fast! Sonise is 14, Chalinda is 9, and Neissa is now 5.

Joyce & Molly sat with Sonise, Chalinda, and Neissa the first time they saw our photo albums. The girls had known that they had a new family for quite some time, but they felt it was best to hold off on the more concrete details until our dossier was there. Now that things are moving the girls have sucked up every detail of information about us that they can get. Chalinda had many questions as she went through the album. First off she wanted to memorize the names of all her new siblings, secondly the names of all the pets. She is quite excited about the animals at her new house. Chalinda was also very interested in knowing about what school will be like at her new home and if she would take the big yellow bus, as in the album photo, to school like her new siblings. Though Sonise and Neissa were much quieter while looking at their pictures all three girls were glowing and it was a big moment for them.

We had sent birthday packages down for Neissa and Chalinda. A week after seeing their photo ablums for the first time, our packages arrived for the girls. Chalinda and Neissa opened theirs with Joyce and Molly after Chalinda was done with school. They COULD NOT believe the quantity of balloons we sent. They blew up (with help) about 25 of them right then and immediately started passing them out to their friends. The smaller of each set of sandals was a good fit for the girls and they were quite happy with the idea of being able to hold onto the other pairs for when their feet got bigger.

This month Neissa celebrated her birthday at the orphanage's May birthday party. The kids had a fun time with balloon animals, music, and of course birthday cake! Neissa had fun playing with her friends and with the balloon animals.

As you know, Haiti shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic and is located the Caribbean. The Caribbean is famous for its tales of Pirate folklore. Scattered throughout the Caribbean there have been stories of shipwrecks, deserted islands… And buried treasure!!! SO the orphanage settled on the "We Found Your Treasure” theme!