Parents Visit

My parents were in town for a week. It was great to show them around Haiti. We went to the beach, the orphanage, the tent city, the feeding clinic, the baptist mission, the capital etc etc. 

It was great to show my parents the O and some of the babies that we have come to love. 

My parents at the feeding clinic, talking with some of the kids. 

My mom teaching a friend karate. 

MJ

There is a new MJ in the house. Having grown up in Chicago during the real MJ era, there has only been one MJ for me but, CT has recently discovered the music of Michael Jackson along with his dance moves. You will have to read his letter to his class for more info. 

 At first he had his back to the pool and was dancing for the DJ's, but then he turned around and the whole pool was watching him.

Haitian B-Days

 Five of our Six children have had their Birthdays while we lived in Haiti. The other one missed if by only a few weeks. For all but one of them we have had guests in town so that made them even more special. One we were even able to be back in the states for and celebrate with everyone including the his Aunt whom he shares a B-day with. 

We have a tradition of saving all of our cards and hanging them up for the month. Lucky for us our cards were delivered to us this time.

Good thing she does not eat and does not know just how horrible my homemade cake was.

And now all three babies are three, and so far three is looking more busy than two. 

Class Notes

This will be the last week for class notes as the school is out at home now. Maybe now we will start writing grandparents notes...

Dear class,how are you? What have you been doing. I jumped of a waterfall that was 20 feet high so that's what one of the pictures is of.  Then you will not believe this you know beaches? Well i went to one and guess what? After we went to lunch and I had like 500 rolls. We went back and I saw the DJ that they usually have and i thought well i should ask him to play Billie Jean so i asked but he wouldn't play it so i asked again and then the third time he let me ad he said "Man listen a lot a people ask me to play songs so I've gotta play their songs" and I was all well can you play mine next I asked. Will you dance? And I was like sure for you guys? And they were like ya us. And I was like ya. So then I started dancing. and I did a move where I turned around and right in front of me the whole beach had came to watch. All over there were Haitians staring at me cheering go Micheal Jackson, go Micheal Jackson and I was like wow I've gotta dance better. So the song ended and i went to go find my family and people were coming up to me saying hey Micheal Jackson or good dancing Micheal.and so i went to go see my family and right when I was about to leave a my dad came up to me and said someone wants to meet you so I came over and saw this man and looked at his badge and it said manager. And I almost fainted because this man owned this beach that was like 10 miles in perimeter. And he said man you did the peep of a job out there. Come get some ice cream. So he let me chose a large ice cream and I choose chocolate cookies and cream with sprinkles. then we went to Rosalie house and wait tell you here this 8  people sat in one bed. and we tried coconut juice it was horrible but i had to pretend I liked it, you know Moms.

                                                                                    sincerely,

                                                                                        CT

Dear Class-

I miss you so much. I am going to miss you so much when you go on break. We got a little baby named Hannah. We were her foster parents. She stayed with us for a long time. And now she had to go and I really miss her. We went to Roslels house, it was very small. And we had coconut and sugar cane. We went to the beach by her house. We went to a giant waterfall, CT jumped off it. Also, we went to another beach and there was Michael Jackson playing and CT danced in front of every body that was there. And my Nana and Grandpa are here. It was Breckins Birthday, we got party poppers. As you can see I am having so much fun. 

Love, IS

Ms. Lee-

I miss you so much. I want to come home and be in first grade and give Ms.Lee a hug goodbye. 

The picture is of Hannah of me sleeping next to her. Hannah was so cute. I miss her so much, because she was so cute. We were being her foster parents now she is with her forever family. The tadpoles were so cute and fun, we got them at the feeding clinic. They growed big, then they got dumped out or ate by Kinley, we don't know. Kinley is our cat, she is so nice. The other picture was a scorpion it was so giant Mom had to step on it with two shoes. Another picture is a guy cutting sugarcane with a machete. We were at Roselies house, it is like a Haitian house. They have a sheet covering their door so they don't get all the bugs in. The cops here look so weird, because they have little tiny armor and big giant pistols that can shoot through 18 people and the 18th would just get injured. My Nana and Grandpa came, I've been playing with them. 

Love, TJ

Happy Haitian Mothers Day

Yesterday was Mothers Day in Haiti. I know some Mamas who I am sure are missing their babies on this special day, so here are some pictures to share. Sorry I did not catch all of the children. I will take some more pictures later this week. 

Baby Grace

Baby Nicholas, this is kind of an old picture, but he has not been feeling well.

The O has two new baby girls,  

And this new little girl is doing so much better. 

Baby Giselle

Baby Patrick

Baby Nora

Baby Alex

Tent City

We knew that our kids would be seeing new things in Haiti and hoped that they would be gaining a new perspective on how the rest of the world lives, but we were surprised to have this conversation with BJ yesterday morning.
We were sitting at breakfast and totally out of the blue BJ says-
"If Uncle Pauls house falls down (our landlords name is Paul, I have an Uncle Paul BJ calls them both Uncle Paul) then we will live on the street in a tent city?"
The funny part is he was totally fine with it, like yep this is just what will happen. 

Week of Goodbyes

It is only Thursday and we have already had some major changes this week-
- Rachel went home. We will miss her in so many ways.                                                                                  
- Jenna and Nathan went home with their family after 2 years here. The kids are really going to miss their "best Haitian friends".
- Hannah went back to the creche. Her adoptive family is going to be in town this week to meet her. We are praying for them and for her and trying to enjoy our long night of sleeping without missing her too much!

It helps that my parents arrived last night and are making all replacing all of our sad feelings at everyone leaving with happy ones!

Roselie's House

This weekend we were able to go and see Roselie's house. It is near Les Cayes on the Southern coast. We have been really anxious to see her home and meet her family and son since we met her, so this was a much anticipated trip. The area that she lives in is beautiful. It is very rural and full or beautiful greenness everywhere. 

This is a picture of her home. It was basically 3 rooms. One with a twin bed, one with a few chairs and a table that was full of cooking tools and a tiny one with a bucket that I assume was being used as a toilet. No running water, no electricity. 

The bedroom.

Here is Roselie, in light blue, with 4 of her 5 sisters. Three of the sisters and their children all live in the house. Her sisters also care for Roselie's son. Basically the sister in the orange cares for all the children while the other sisters work. 

All of the family came to visit with us, cousins, nieces, nephews. It was a little overwhelming.

The people nicely shared some of their coconuts and sugar cane with us. 

Hannah loved the sugar cane. 

We walked around their village. Roselie's son held Justin's hand most of the time. 

We went to her church also. I think it was about 120 degrees inside and totally full of people singing. 

Port-Salut

This weekend we went to Port Salut. It is about as far West and South as you can go in Haiti. I am really glad we were able to see this part of Haiti. The drive was beautiful through thick forests and mountains and coastal villages. 

Because it was a holiday weekend we had a tough time finding a hotel. But, finally found one that had a big room with four beds. It was perfect. Except that it was on the water, literally on the water. Our room was built right on the rock of the seashore. It had these huge windows that did not latch well and the waves were literally beating the side of our room all night. Couple that with no power and a child who is terrified of the dark and 10 people in a room with no A/C and you can see why we only stayed one night!

BJ looking out the dangerous window into the deep blue sea.

The fisherman out our window collecting dinner.

Part of our bedroom with the sea in the background.

More of the hotel.

TJ who is a little dyslexic in writing in the sand.

CT with his new favorite accessory. A Michael Jackson hat. This kid cracks me up. He caught a really colorful, tiny lizard.

 A river we walked over in town. 

 The beach at sunset.

IS getting buried with some help by her little brothers and sister. 

CT and TJ playing with a piece of coral they found in the sea. 

Bare Hands

The other day Johnny caught and killed a pretty large Tarantula outside of our house. Roxy of course found it and tried to eat it. TJ was asking how Johnny killed it. I told him with his bare hands. BJ who overheard the conversation held both of his hands up in claws and asked "Johnny has Bear hands?"

Waterfall

Here is our family at the Waterfalls that were just outside of Port-Salut. We had read about them on a website and are so glad that we decided to go check them out. 

Check out this view, does it get any better than this? This was one of those "Haiti is beautiful" moments. 

CT jumping off the waterfall. Quote from CT "When Rachel was jumping off I was so scared for her and when I jumped off it felt so magical, it felt like you were jumping off Mt. Everest and then you hit the water and it knocked the senses back into you. It was the best thing I have done in Haiti."

Even the little boys got into it running to the water and laying themselves down.

One problem is that it was down a steep, slippery hill. Not to worry there were plenty of Haitians around to carry our children. It was all I could do to still breath as I walked up the hill, but this guy ran up barefoot with two of my kids. Thank you Haiti for making such strong men!