Its a long summary, but I wanted to make sure to get in lots of details :-)
Monday:
This was a travel day for us. We left my parents' house bright and early at 4am to make it to the airport, in order to then sit for the mandatory 2 hrs before an international flight. Jay and I are both reading through a good book series, so it didn't bother us at all. In fact, the flights went by extremelly quickly and smoothly. Our American Airlines frequent flier miles made for a very inexpensive flight (we just had to pay taxes), but it did force us to add an extra layover in Atlanta. We kind of liked doing it that way because it split the trip up, gave us less of a layover in Miama, and still got us into Port-au-Prince at the same time.
Once in Port-au-Prince, we got our luggage, and met up with Rachel (the orphanage director). Having visited a few times now, the intensiveness of not knowing what to expect is gone and it feels more of like a reunion. We got into her new truck (no more stalling while going up the side of a mountain!) and headed to the baby house to go see David.
When we got to the baby house, it was getting dark (sunlight in Haiti is from 6am-6pm) and since the hurricanes, they haven't had any electricity so we only got to stop by for a few minutes. All of the kids were sitting quietly in the front room waiting for dinner, except for David who was climbing down ready to toddle out to Rachel's truck. He adores Rachel and usually comes out to greet her. He was all smiles, but understandably more reserved when Jay or I held him.
After saying goodbye to David until tomorrow, Rachel took us to Beth & Willem's house where we immediately felt at home (Beth is incredible at making you feel welcome). We turned in for bed around 9pm. In fact, every night we were there we did the same - it felt awesome to get a true night's sleep each night!
Tuesday:
Tuesday morning started out as a typical Haitian morning with the roosters crowing, dogs barking, & neighborhood donkey braying bright and early at 6am. We got up, Jay got his coffee, and we sat reading on the balcony.
What a beautiful way to start the day!
Rachel met us at the house and had David with her. From there we went to the older kids orphanage house. David's older sisters constantly wanted to hold and take care of him - its very sweet.
We stayed there through lunch time. And then Jay, David, Rachel, a driver, and I headed out to visit David's birthmother at her home. This was our first time to go to her house and Jay & I are really glad that we had the opportunity to go. It was about a 2 hour drive and David just sat on my lap for the whole time, occasionally napping. He's an amazing traveler!
When we got there, his birthmom, his 2 siblings that live with his mom, and a bunch of aunts were there as well as a lot of the neighbors. David hasn't been there since he left for the orphanage at 4 months old, and his birthmom had a good time showing him to everyone. We were welcomed with the traditional kiss on the cheek and smiles from most everyone - that definitely helped to make us feel welcome.
The neighborhood kids were all over us and got a huge kick out of the digital camera. Its clear that life there is not easy. His mom was telling Rachel that it had been more than a day since they had eaten. Yet, people are still people - there were smiles and hugs and life there. We hope to someday bring David back to visit again when he's older.
Wednesday:
Today was US Embassy day.
There are several stages that our paperwork still needs to go through before David is home with us. The last thing to do is file an I-600 form with the USCIS and then they'll issue a visa for David to enter the states. After the I-600 is filed, it can still be several weeks (to unfortunately months) before a visa is issued because the US Embassy wants to ensure that everything is a-okay with the adoption (ie, they'll interview the birthparent, do DNA testing to ensure David is actually her biological child, check all of the paperwork with a fine tooth comb, etc). We are still a ways away from being able to file our I-600, but there is a pilot program in Haiti in which adoptive parents can start the process while still in IBESR (the first stage). The hope is that this way the birth parent interview, paper checking, etc can be done earlier rather than later, hence speeding things up at the end. We had heard that things tend to go much smoother if filed at the US Embassy in Haiti rather than sending it to our local embassy in the States, so that's what we did.
The only hiccup was that our appointment at the Embassy was for 10am and they didn't call our names until noon. Otherwise, everything went smooth as could be. The woman helping us was very friendly. It felt so good to get that taken care of. Even though it doesn't move anything along quicker right now, it was nice to be able to do something at all, rather than continue to sit back and wait.
David sat on my lap for the entire time we were at the embassy, no toys or anything. Haitian children have incredible patience! We have trouble having Josh sit though an hour long church service, and yet David (actually every Haitian child we've seen) can sit for hours without making a sound. There are definitely a lot of cultural differences in raising children, (some better/worse than others) but this is one area where I can't help but wonder if Haitian parents have things figured out a bit more than US parents.
After the embassy, we ran some errands with Rachel and then went to the baby house for the rest of the afternoon. David had done really well with us the past few days, but was always a bit shy. Well, once he was in his own environment, boy, did he come out of his shell! He was running all over, smiling, laughing, blowing kisses, etc. Jay and I loved getting to watch him!
We spent the time there changing babies, feeding kids, holding them, and playing with them. Rachel and the nannies do a really good job with all of the tasks that need to be done there, but that many kids in such a small place makes for an endless amount of things that need to be done. Jay and I were glad to be able to spend some time just playing and holding the kids because we know that that's not something easy for the nannies to find the time to do.
As it started to get dark, they lit 2 pillar candles - 1 for each of the main rooms- and placed them in the center of the rooms. That was all of the light that was in the entire house. Rachel is hoping that eventually the city will get to their area of town to fix the electricity, but until then bedtime will continue to be at 6:00, because there aren't a whole lot of other options.
Thursday:
Definitely my favorite day! David got to spend the entire day at the house with us. No agenda, no to-dos - it was simply a day to bond.
We napped, read books, played, and just had a good time together.
Jay hung a white sheet from the clothes line out on the balcony and we took our own 'professional' pictures of David. I think they came out really well!
Here's a video of David and I:
And here's another shaky, sideways one of him running around:
Two other adoptive families flew into Haiti this day and so we had a chance to meet them that night. The adoptive dad of one of David's sisters was there and it was really good to get to meet him. They live within 1 1/2 hour driving distance of us, so our hope is that the kids will get to see each other throughout the years.
This was our last day with David since we needed to leave for the airport relatively early the next morning. It was hard to say goodbye and we're hoping that the next time we see him, he'll be coming home with us rather than us having to say goodbye again.
Friday:
Travel day again. I woke up about 2am with a horrendous stomach bug, which had me vomiting about once an hour until our plane touched down that night in Chicago. Talk about a lousy way to travel! If anyone walking through the Ft Laurderdale airport thought they saw a walking zombie, that would have been me. Luckily, by Monday morning the stomach bug had completely dissappeared. And in all honesty, I'm glad that it hit while we were traveling rather than on a day that we were with David.
We missed Josh a lot while we were gone and so it was good to get back to him. As usual, he had a great time with his grandparents. We spent the weekend up at my parents seeing friends and family, and we got back home to 'normal' life mode on Sunday night.
Wheew, there you have it!
