I Miss the Old Haiti

Arriving at the Hotel!

Sitting in the Van!

The following post was written not long after I came back from my last trip to Haiti in October. After the last trip I started suffering Insomnia pretty bad and would get up in the middle of the night to read or write. This has been sitting on my night stand. Since the girls have come home I am sleeping like a baby except when Destina is in our bed and her elbows or knees are attacking me. I have not had a sleepless night since they have come home, but I am also not writing very much either...I will take the girls home over my late night writing!

HAITI OCTOBER 2009

As I stepped off the plane the air was stifling, the scenery familiar. I felt like I was coming home. I walked toward the airport entrance with my daughter I kept wondering what was going through her mind. Since this was my sixth trip to Haiti I had become quite familiar with the sights, sounds and smells that seem to attack all at once shortly after crossing the threshold of the airplane door, and the long stairway leading to what can only be described as an adventure of a lifetime.

This was Kelsie's first trip to Haiti and her first trip with just me. I was looking forward to this time with her to be able to share these memories of meeting her two little sisters for the first time. As we walked toward the airport and we could hear the band playing festive music I looked over at her and it was like looking at a deer caught in headlights. She was wide eyed and I am not quite sure if it was from wonder or fear. I just smiled this scene was familiar to me and I look forward to hearing that band play each time I come. As we entered the building I leaned over to her and with a reassuring look told her to follow me as I attempted to pick the quickest line through customs. As I was waiting in line I noticed small improvements to the airport over the last two years that I had been coming on this trip, new paint, more people working, it was very clean, but the thing that really caught my eye was the tourism posters they had hanging on the walls. Each poster depicted a different scene but had the same chubby girl in each one. In America I'm sure all the tourism posters advertising our lovely beaches would have had a picture of a scantly clad woman with a body so perfect it would make any American jealous. In Haiti they wanted us to see pictures of this child, chubby, which equals healthy, well fed. What an irony in that situation, we have the country with the highest obesity rate, yet we advertise how skinny we should be. In Haiti they have people dying of starvation and malnutrition, yet they advertise how healthy and pleasantly plump they are.

Once through the line it is out into another room where there is one long conveyor belt that snakes through the room with luggage on it. After renting a luggage cart we stood waiting for our luggage keeping our fingers crossed that it would actually be there. I noticed that Kelsie had started to relax a little and was taking in all the chaos of people coming and going with all their bags. I started to get a little nervous as I watched everyone collecting their bags and not one of my four bags were in sight. I did not want a repeat of my last trip where my bags were MIA! Finally on the last luggage cart they came, sighing with relief I loaded up our cart, told Kelsie to go first and guide our towering cart through the airport following the crowd that was traveling with us.

I had tried to prepare her for the "full immersion" into the world of Haiti, but unless it has been experienced first hand it is hard for an adult to grasp what they are going to experience, let alone a thirteen year old. When we walked out of the airport we were greeted by an army of Haitian men all wanting to help us with our luggage. It is quite an overwhelming site. I told her to tell anyone who wanted to help "NO" we didn't need help we had BIG! Big is the man that has helped our group get our bags that are loaded onto our carts from the airport doors across rutted and uneven sidewalks to the parking lot and loaded into the back of the pick-up truck or tap tap.

Once we left the safety of the air conditioned airport it only took about thirty seconds to become drenched in sweat. Even though it was October it was hot and humid and we were tired, dirty and sweating even before we got to the van. To start loading the luggage that is precariously piled on top of the tap tap, it reminds me of one of those cartoons where their is a small car and it is overloaded with stuff and appears as if it will tip over at any moment. It really does take skill and determination to load that much luggage into a small pick up truck. We climbed into the van that would take us to the hotel and in the van there are no seat belts and there are usually 2 or 3 more people per row than I am sure is recommended. It really is body to body with no personal space.

Kelsie was taking everything in and although she was not complaining I am sure she was thinking "What has my mom gotten me into?" I made sure she was sitting by a window so that so could take in all the sights and to catch the breeze as we made our way to the hotel. I pulled out the video camera and she had to hold it steady, as if that was even possible, while we were driving. In hindsight this was not a good idea it was hard for her to pay attention to where the camera was pointing and to be able to take in all the sights, and to make matters worse I kept telling her to point the camera this way, angle up, no angle down, make sure you don't get the window frame etc... I was not letting her enjoy, or maybe that is not the right word, take in her first ride in a crowded van driving through the streets of Haiti.

Random Acts of Kindness and Just Randomness

At least one day a week we go to Costco I do not have an extra freezer so I can only buy what will fit into my fridge, so I usually do a big Costco run twice a month and then a necessity Costco run the other 2 weeks for bread, milk, eggs and now of course mangoes! Also, it is our little lunch date to get a slice of pizza and a drink on the cheap. So yesterday we headed out to Costco it is usually just Scott, me and the little girls and by now the Costco employees just smile at us they probably wonder why we are there every week! We did our shopping parked our cart got in a huge line for pizza and then the fun standing around waiting for a table to open up because apparently eating lunch at Costco is a popular thing. As we were standing there a nice older lady was at a table all by herself she signaled to us to come over and join her because she was almost done, she was a nice lady and didn't ask any weird questions, we thanked her and she finished and went on her way. The other random act of kindness at Costco happened after we had finished eating and we were getting ready to head out to load the car and I realized that I had not bought any candy for EASTER yet and I went back to buy the 100 lbs of tooth decay in a bag and as I was waiting in line the nice older lady (a different one) that was in front of me noticed that I only had one ginormous bag of tooth decay and she said for me to go in front of her, it was not like she had an overflowing cart she only had about 10 items, I declined at first and then she insisted I thanked her and went in front of her and thanked her again as I was leaving...2 random acts of kindness towards me in less than 30 minutes! That stuck with me all day and I have been trying to be more kind to those around me as well!

Now for the complete randomness...cuz it can't all be kindness all the time....while we were eating lunch after the nice lady left there was a group of ladies sitting at the table next to us and they started asking questions (weird ones) about the girls and telling us random things about them, one of the ladies recognized Scott from being on TV, after answering their questions with a smile on my face the whole time (see I can be nice) one of the ladies asked

"Is there a place where I can get me one for free now?"

Still smiling I told her no sorry they are not "free now"....we finished our pizza a little quicker...still smiling and high tailed it outa there!

Bath time and Mangoes

These pictures were taken from Scott's phone but he was watching the girls the other day and this is what he found...the girls were in the tub giving their babies a bath without water, it was really cute and they like to do this when they are playing with their babies.


We saw mangos at Costco and Destina was so happy to get them and have mangoes. Both girls love to eat mangos it is a great treat!

Yeah these mangoes are really good!

Our New Normal

The girls have really settled in and we are adjusting pretty nicely. We still forget that it takes us a lot longer to get loaded into the car to go anywhere and we have had to adjust to the demands of a 2 year old. Destina has a very tender heart she loves Avrie and is such a great big sister. If Avrie wants something she has she will either give it to her or find something equivalent. Avrie knows how to work her sister as well, she knows how to push her buttons. Destina gets so sad and upset when Avrie "ket me" in other words "blinks at me" it really hurts her feelings. In Haiti blinking at someone is like the equivalent of flipping someone the bird, and don't ask me how a 2 year old knows what this means and how to use it, but she does! The rest of us just ignore it hoping that she will not get the reaction she is looking for and eventually stop, but when she does this to Destina, Destina immediately starts whining and comes to find us and "tells" on her.

Avrie has to do everything that Destina does, if Destina has a piece of gum Avrie has to have a piece. If Destina pours water over her head while in the bath Avrie will pour water over her head as well, she is Destina's little copy cat. Destina has figured this out this week and has been having some fun with it doing crazy things and watching Avrie follow her. Avrie can't say Destina so she calls her "Tia" it is cute but Avrie is the only one who can call her that if we call her Tia she tells us "Memen not Tia".

English is coming along both girls pretty much understand everything we tell them as long as we keep it pretty simple. Both girls talk with a mix of each language in every sentence, but there is more English added in almost every day. Destina is trying out new phrases that she hears and pointing out letters on signs as we are driving. School is going pretty good for Destina there is one girl in her class that has not been very nice to her, and most of the other kids kind of ignore her because she is different, I think it has more with the way she talks than the color of her skin. Some kids were talking about her at the lunch table the other day because she stuck all 4 fingers in her mouth to scrape off every last bit of her Cheetos they thought that was weird and couldn't understand why she did that. She is still coming home from school happy but very tired she even asks to take a nap.
I still marvel at how much Avrie has grown in the last 6 months even in October she was still pretty skinny now she is a chunk and I love to see her chunky butt and thighs running to get into the bath tub, it is a miracle that she is here with us and as healthy as she is. I am sure both girls have gained weight since they have come home, clothes that were loose are now snug.

Bella

Avrie is so funny, we were doing her hair this morning and I pulled out this headband and she started clapping and saying "Yeah" as soon as I got it on she stared shouting "Bella Bella" over and over. I guess she likes this headband! And that really is the extent of doing her hair most days!

I told her we needed to take some photos and she was so happy again to have her picture taken she would look at each picture and laugh. She loves dancing and playing in her room with her kitchen making us rice. She knows how to work the water on the fridge door so she usually has her pots full of water in her kitchen!

This must be her favorite pose because when I told her to stand by her kitchen this was the pose she wanted to do over and over. The girls love the kitchen that our friends gave to us! Thanks Marriott girls!

All Tuckered Out!

Kindergarten is a lot of work, Destina came home ate some more lunch and then she wanted to listen to her music and play in her room, so Avrie and Destina headed off to their room and I thought I had at least 5 minutes of "me" time. About 15 minutes later I came up to check on them and this is what I found. The music was going and the kids were not! They were both sound asleep, now it really doesn't get any better than the kids taking a nap on their own. Too bad it doesn't happen this easy every day!

First Day of School

Today was Destina's first day at school. She started kindergarten and was so excited to actually go. We have been talking about it for over a week, I wanted to make sure it was something she was ready for and wanted to do. I think she sees all the other kids leave everyday and felt that she was missing out. Also, I think that since going to school is such a privilege in Haiti she was extra excited to be able to go and be part of the privileged, at least in her mind.

She woke up at 6:30am talking about school, she was bathed and ready to go by 8:oo am then had to wait another 45 minutes before going. We did a little "school clothes shopping" last week but we forgot to buy her a new back pack so we were scrambling last night to find one that was not too big or worn out, she was happy with the one we found.


Avrie was not really happy, she knew Destina was getting ready to go somewhere and she wanted in on the action putting on her own shoes and asking for her jacket. She wanted to be in on the picture taking too. She cried when we left for school and she had to stay behind with dad.


I stayed at the school with Destina for the first hour then left and came back for lunch. She had a good day, but got a little nervous at recess she didn't quite know what was going on. She had a great first day meeting her new teacher and the kids in the class were nice to her. She couldn't wait to pack her lunch this morning she wanted her lunch to be just like Jayden's.
She came home happy and we can count that as a success!

All Under One Roof!

McKenzie came home for a week to spend time with her sisters. Destina remembered her from 2 years ago when she saw the picture of her and Kenzie from the orphanage taken in Jan 08 her eyes lit up and she knew who she was.
If Mckenzie had not gone to Haiti with us on that trip and spent the day at the orphanage getting to know the kids we would not have Destina in our home. After that day at the orphanage McKenzie came back to the hotel talking non-stop about this little girl that she became attached to and her name was Destina. I said "no way, I am not adopting 2 kids and certainly not an older child." When Ellie died 5 months later I knew we were supposed to adopt again and that Destina belonged in our home, I had not even met her but knew she was mine. I met her about 4 weeks later and loved her, she is so much fun to have in our home. She has her moments I don't want anyone to think that this whole coming home and adjusting has been perfect without struggles but the joy and life and happiness and laughter she brings into our home far out weighs the struggles.
Avrie is like a little piece of heaven on earth we absolutely love having her home. She makes us laugh all the time, again not without her struggles as well but she is adjusting so easily and fitting right in. We are at the point that it is almost hard to remember life in our home without them. I used to hate to read about how fast time has gone once the kids are in the home, when I was sitting and waiting every minute for any news, time could not have gone slower for me then, but now I find myself saying "I can't believe how fast the time has gone!"
Life is crazy, it is noisy, it is chaotic, it takes us twice as long to get out the door than it did before, I feel like my house is never clean, but all I do all day is clean. But we are loving every minute (well almost) of every day! And this week with McKenzie home has been so much fun we love having her here!