A Day trip and $50 bucks!

This whole adoption process is driving me nuts! I thought we were all done with our paperwork and we were until we decided to adopt 2 instead of 1! Since I have been back from Haiti I have been working on getting approval to adopt 2 kids. I had to go to my doctor and have her write a letter stating why I am too old and I am not healthy enough to have my own children. In the eyes of the Haitian government why would I want to adopt if I can have my own??? Next I had to write a letter, to the president of Haiti, stating that my oldest child is not living at our home anymore. That brings us down to only 3 biological children living in the home and makes our file look better! (Yes we think of Jayden as our own and treat him no different than our bio kids!) Next we had to have our social worker up date our home study and approve us to adopt 2 kids. All of this had to be notarized and then sent to the state to be authenticated.

We also have to get government approval to adopt 2 children instead of 1. I checked the web site for the appropriate information, I called the hot line and both places directed me to make an appointment with the Seattle Office. I did this and our appointment was today, we spent the day driving to Seattle sitting in a waiting room and when it was our turn the nice lady at the counter told us that they do not handle adoptions that we needed to contact the Yakima office (4 hours away!) She was nice enough to call the Yakima office and they said we needed to write a letter attach a copy of our approval form and a copy of the up dated home study. We got back in our car and drove home wrote the letter and put it in the mail it would have been nice had the lady I talked to on the phone told me that, or if it would have said that on the web site! So $50 in gas and a day wasted, hopefully we are one step closer to getting our approval for 2 kids!

New Background

So I just spent the last couple of hours changing my background. I did it from scratch it is not a ready made background. I am not quite sure if I like it, it might be too busy. So I would like your opinion, I may listen to it or not, but feel free to let me know what you really think about my background or if you really could care less!

Shopping Haiti Style!

Shopping in Haiti is not a one stop shop! One might have to travel to various spots to pick up needed items! Below is a snapshot of some of the local shopping available in Haiti!

Pier 1 Imports

Best Buy

Burlington Jacket Factory Outlet

Walgreen's (there's one on every corner)

Payless Shoes and Luggage

Discount Appliance Center

Dinning Tables "R" US

Sleep Country Haiti

McKenzie Update

McKenzie has been on the East Coast for 2 weeks now! The first week was spent at a training camp in North Carolina. This past week she and 3 other girls drove from North Carolina to Illinois for a camp there. After that camp they drove to St. Louis where they had a day to kill so they went to Six Flags and the Arch. Today Kenzie and 1 other girl flew from St. Louis to PA where another girl is picking them up and they are driving to Washington D.C. for the night. In the morning they will drive to VA for another camp. She has made a big circle around the Eastern Sates. She is seeing places that she never would have seen. She is having fun on this huge road trip and having a great time with the other girls!

And I don't know why all of this is underlined I tried for 15 minutes to find out how to "not" underline and as you can see was not successful. So if any of my really computer savvy friends could tell me how to fix this that would be great!

Mormons in Haiti

This was our driver while we were in Haiti. Much to our surprise he was a Mormon too! As we tried to have a conversation with him, with his broken English and our non-existent Creole, we found out that he has 5 daughters. We said to him "We love President Monson" when he showed us his magazine. His reply back to us was "No, we love President Monson! President Monson came to Haiti in 1983 and opened Haiti to missionary work"! Our driver has been a member for 25 years! It is a small world.

Katie was Awesome!

Katie was a great help on this trip! At first I was worried, I have not traveled with Katie as much as I have traveled with McKenzie. Katie proved herself time and time again that she was mature enough to make this trip. She did not complain one time. She helped with the kids everyday with a smile on her face. She spent 6 hours at the orphanage one day helping Nichole take pictures of the kids and that might not sound too difficult but it was very hard. The heat was stifling hot, the only food and water they had was what they brought with them. There was no bathroom facilities that were usable by our standards (unless you consider going in a bucket out behind the trees acceptable)! She had to try and communicate to these little children, who don't see white people very often, that she wanted them to pose and smile for the lady with the weird contraption held up to her face! Once they saw the picture they were more eager to pose. She had to do this for about 20 children. The children needed to be changed into their "very best" outfits then changed out of them when they were done. Nichole said that she could not have done it without Katie! Katie didn't get a good nights sleep even one night. She had a wiggly 4 year old next to her in bed who woke up several times crying because her hand hurt from the scabies or needed to go to the "tolite"! She did not complain about having to ride scrunched up with all of the suitcases at her feet in the back of a pick-up truck all week long. She didn't complain about the food, she just quietly pulled out her pop-tart and ate that for most meals. She was a trouper the whole trip! Katie you are awesome!

Transportation Haiti Style!

This is us getting dropped off at the airport on Saturday morning, and it is the same truck that broke down on our first day in Haiti.
We made it home, it was only 20 hours of travel for Katie and I. I had my thyroid radiated in the middle of May and the Dr. told me that I would be radioactive for a few months and needed a letter if I was planning on traveling out of the country. Thank goodness for that letter or I would be in some jail awaiting trial for trying to smuggle radioactive products into the country! I set the first alarm off as I was coming through immigration they had to escort me to this room that was packed with people and I started to panic a little inside knowing that I only had an hour and a half to catch my next flight. Luckily for me they expedited me to the front of the line and I just had to show them the letter and they let me go. Then we had to go down and get our luggage and go through customs . It was kinda a funny this alarm was going off and the 3 people in front of me had to be pulled aside and have there luggage checked by the sniffing dogs and then it was my turn and I didn't realize it was me setting off the alarms for the 3 people ahead of me. The guy asked where we came from because so many people were setting off the alarms. So I apologize for freaking the 3 people ahead of me out I didn't realize I was so radiant! This guy took me into his office I showed him my letter and he had to call the hospital just to make sure that I was telling the truth. Once we finally got through all of that we had to go through security again and barley made our flight from Miami to San Francisco. Lucky again for me that I was dehydrated from being sick and not drinking enough liquid that we didn't have to go to the bathroom because we did not have time! Our flight from San Fran to Seattle was fine we had time for the bathroom and food.
We got home about midnight showered and doused ourselves in scabie cream and crawled into bed. Our suitcases are still in the garage, they were too gross to bring into the house. Everything will have to be washed (and my washing machine is still broken by the way)! Katie had 19 bug bits on one leg, hopefully none of the mosquitoes were carrying malaria or anything thing else toxic!

Vladimer and Jean Claude

Vladimer and Jean Claude have been our waiters this week. They were also our waiters when we were here in January and they said they remembered us. When I didn't show up for breakfast it was Vladimer that asked about us and brought us our breakfast to our room. We have had fun talking to them and they have helped with the kids by translating what they are saying for us. They liked practicing their english skills with us also. I think they liked us because we were good tippers but they were super nice to us as well! We told them we would be back in October, and I told them I would bring the pictures I took of them back with me!

How old do you want them to be?

How old do you want them to be? That is the joke of the week around here. Everytime we ask "how old is this one or that one" that is the anwser we get back. It has been our running joke. Destina is actullay 5 right now but because she is small we are altering her birthday just a bit so that she will have an extra year before she starts school. So instead of her March birthday she is going to now have a September birthday! It is to her advantage that she gets that extra year before she goes to school. We are also able to give her a middle name. I choose Destina Margaret Gordon after my mom, since she was also born the same year my mom died.

We also don't have an excact birthday for Gracie so we get to pick her birthday also. I choose September 14th the day my mom died. I think that is pretty close to her real birthday she seems to be about 8 to 9 months old right now. That will also give her the advantage of starting school a year later.

Our last day

This week has gone by so fast! Today is our last day. We leave at 7 am tomorrow. Yesterday I was sick and the internet was down for most of the day. Yesterday Harry the Orphanage guy came to our hotel to take Brent and Lori to the orphanage to pick up a little girl. (check out their blog at countdowntohomecoming.blogspot.com for their story) When Destina saw Harry she got very nervous and started to cry. She thought he was going to take her back to the orphanage. She would not make eye contact and was very sad when her friend Malot left and was worried that he would not come back! Tomorrow is going to be hard!

Brent and Lori also brought their computer and so we were able to skype with the kids yesterday! When Destina saw Kelsie, Ryan and Jayden she know who they were because we have been looking at their pictures all week. She squilled with delight as she saw the kids. She tried to feed them a piece of her bread and they pretended to take a bite and then she would look at her bread to see if they had actually taken a bite then she would laugh and do it again. It was amazing to see the excitment on her face.

Little Gracie is qutie the sweetheart and now that she trusts me she doesn't scream everytime I put her down or change her diaper. I had to take her earings out because her ears were all infected. I should have done that sooner! She is a very content happy baby.

Words I have learned to say in Creloe

I don't speak the language as you know, but since I have been here I have become fluent in about 5 words! "Destina tolite" "Destina Pee Pee" "Destina OK" Dentina Gand Goo" hungry!
As you can see I should be fluent byt the time I come home. It is different trying to communicate with at 4 year old than it is with a 1 year old!
Destina had a little too much food yesterday and starting at midnight she cried for 2 hours "mama wee" She had quite the tummy ache. Lucky for me my language skills were well honed in and I could ask her if she needed to use the batheroom! At 2 am she did and she felt better but every 2 hours she would wake up and start crying "mama wee wee" and using my vast language skills once again I was able to get her to the bathroom every singl time not one accident! She has been watching and mimicking us and we wear our shoes everywhere! In the middle of the night as she was rushing to the bathroom she would stop to put her shoes on then take them off when she got to the bathroom door it was very cute but I was not so concerned with her shoes!
This caused another sleepless night Katie woke up at midnight to help me and thought it was 8 am I sent her back to bed! And having one sick child is bad but on the off hours for Destina to go to the bathroom Gracie would poop herself! It was a pretty aroma filled room last night! Finally at about 6 am we were all sleeping and slept right through breakfast! It was really cute we have 2 waiters that are so nice one of them told our friends here that I had not been to breakfast yet and he was worried about me! He brought breakfast to our room!
Katie is helping at the Orphange today! It should be interesting for her.
Some of you might have got the wrong impression our baby's real name was Cristela but since they have not started the paperwork for her we can have them change her name to Gracie here and that saves us a big fee when we get back to the US.
We are doing good kind of resting today but I got some great pictures!

My third kill

Just in case anyone thought I was joking about the cockroaches! This was my latest kill made last night at 2 am! As I was bending down to make the kill with a shoe the whole back side of my pajama pants ripped, now I have a little more airconditioning! That is a dime that I took the time to find at 2 am to compare the size!

We are adopting a fish

Destina who we found out is actually 4, was terrified of the pool yesterday when we got to the hotel. Today when she saw her friend Malot swimming in the pool with his family she was not going to be out done! She was in the pool at first with arm floaties then after about 10 minutes they were off. After about 10 more minutes she was jumping off the side of the pool, splashing everyone, and atempting to swim with her head completely under the water, and going from Katie to me and back again! This little girl we found out today has been in the Orphanage for 3 years, she is still very shy, but we are communicating pretty good and the waiter at the hotel restraunt is helping us.

Our other little girl's name is Gracie Cristela! They say she is one but she looks to be about 7-8 months old. Ellie's nickname was princess and hers is queen as in drama queen! She kept me up until 3 am crying. She wanted to be held and would start crying, more like screeching, everytime i put her down. When she is hungry she screeches! She is the sweeky wheel for sure so she should be fine! She is very content when being held!

I killed a huge cockroach that ran into my room this morning when I opened it to go out to breakfast and I screeched I think everyone heard me! Then I killed another one in the hall way in the afternoon, but it was better than having it run across my back like what happend to our trip coordinator this morning!

Planes Tap Taps and scabies

There is just too much information for me to have one title. I will try to make this quick because I have not slept in days! On our way to Haiti our plane from LAX to MIA was late which meant that I was going to miss my flight to Haiti! The group I am traveling with had to go on ahead without me! That left Katie and I to brave the Haiti airport by ourselves! We were rerouted through JFK and we did not get to Haiti until 1:30 local time when we were susposed to get here at 9:30 am. I could go into the crying at the ticket counter but i will spare you the details. The nice man that was helping me spent 30 minutes trying to get me to MIA in time for my flight and did the best he could do! We arrived here safely found our bags which came on an earlier flight and found our driver without a hitch!

We got to the hotel did a quick recon and then headed out to the Orphanage with the rest of our party(who had to wait for us to come in)! On our way we rode in a Tap Tap which was an old Toyota pickup truck. They add benches down the side of the truck and call it transportation. So we were all in the back of the pick up truck it is sweltering hot and the truck breakes down in the middle of this busy road! Other cars are honking at us and people are coming to the back of the truck to see if we want to buy any nasty rebottled water - it was brown water! We told them that we were not thirsty even though we were actually on the verge of dying from thirst! We handed out suckers to the little kids that came by our truck and it was really quite a fun adventuure for the first 5 or 10 minutes. Then the sweat started poring down every possible spot, soaking my clothes all the way through, and more people came to the truck begging for money and that is where the fun ended! We were out there for about an hour while they tried to fix the truck but no luck! (Luck has not been on my side so far this trip) They finally had another driver come with another Tap Tap and we were off to the Orphanage!

When we got to the Orphanage they brought out our 5 year old girl! She was wearing the same dress she was wearing back in Jan when we were here! She is darling, shy, with a smile that lights up the room! Then they told us that there were 2 one year old girls and that we could pick which one we wanted! That was tough! In the end I choose the first girl they brought out to us, even though the 2nd girl was wearing Ellie's yellow dress! It was a hard decision but now that we are back and she is cleaned up I feel that I made they right decision!

The scabies part comes in when we noticed that almost all of the kids at the Orphanage have them! They are tiny little bugs that live under the skin and create these little bumps! So I will probably come home with some unwanted guests! Honey call the Dr. and get an Rx for them please!!

PS. Jennifer the shoes were a perfect fit and she loves them they match the Mulan PJ's!

PPS spell check is not working and I am sleep deprived so no busting on the SP! (mimi)

My Baby is Gone!

Kenzie graduated today! We are so proud of her and all that she has accomplished in her short life and we know that there are many more great things on her horizon!

She also just left to go to the airport! She is flying out tonight for North Carolina. She will be a cheer camp instructor for the summer, then off to college in the fall!

We love you Kenzie and miss you already!

Anniversary!

This week one year ago we started the adoption process! When we started this we thought we would have a child home by now. Sometimes it is better to go into a situation blind and dumb and not knowing what lies ahead. We had no idea that the process would take so long. Even on our end everything seemed to take much longer than it should have. When we finally got our paperwork done and sent to Haiti in November we thought "Well maybe by this time next year we will have child home." We didn't think we would loose our first referral after only 2 weeks, the birth mother came and took her out of the orphanage. I can't imagine the agonizing decision to leave a child, then decide to come back and risk everything to try and raise that child.

Then to loose a child that we had loved and cared for and thought was in a safe place (which she was) to something that she never would have suffered had she been here is heartbreaking. Not to mention the months of praying that our paperwork would get into the system and the week that she dies it is finally ready to go! We miss her terribly!

Now we are leaving for Haiti in 6 days! We still do not have a formal referral. We have been told that there is a one year old little girl in the orphanage. They are trying to get all the medicals done to get us the referral, which will probably happen when we get there. And if all this isn't crazy enough we have decided to adopt 2 little girls instead of one. The other little girl is 5 and was at the orphanage when Kenzie was there in January. She kept following Kenzie around and asking her "Are you my mama?" Kenzie wanted us to adopt her back in January and I just said that there is no way we can do that! Well, we are doing that! Are we crazy? Possibly!