Our First Week Back

We arrived back in Haiti last Tuesday, so we have just completed our first week back. I thought I would go over some of the highlights and lowlights and some of the things we have been doing since our arrival.  So here is our week in a nut shell:

• Sophie was 100% completely at home as soon as we walked through the doors of our house here.  She spent the first hour here just walking around the house grinning and basically just saying hi to her room, her toys, and everything else in the house.  It was really funny.
• We had to change our route home from the airport last Tuesday because there were burning tires in the middle of the road on Tuesday in Port Au Prince because people were protesting some of the president’s new policies.  I have to admit it was a little scarier with 2 babies in the car with us, but we were never in any danger.
•  It was really good to see the kids and they were very excited to see us.  My first observation is that the kids are doing about as well as they could possibly be doing, and our employees are doing an incredible job of being there for them.
• All of our kids love each other very much.  Dada loves Elijah about as much as I have ever seen her care about anything, Misthafa wants to constantly do Sophie and Elijah’s hair, Woodly always tries to hold Sophie (who incidentally hugs him immediately), Sophie knows many of their names now and just walks around the house sometimes saying Malayika’s name (Kika) over and over again, Dinna and BiGuedy would each hold Elijah as much as they possibly could, Sophie pretty much has Herbison wrapped around her finger (every time she says sit, he pretty much sits with her and plays), and the house moms are all super protective of all of the kids including Sophie and Elijah.  I could mention every one of our kids and how they interact together, but you get the idea.  It is really fun to see how much they love each other, and Sophie and Elijah absolutely adore them.
• One of our house moms moved to Chile, and we held interviews yesterday to fill her spot.
• The kids had exams last week, and they are all telling us they were easy.  The best part about that is that they have the rest of this week off and we could hang out together a little more.
• The kids have pretty much constantly wanted to be at our house hanging out and spending time together, so they always just show up.  It has been a little challenging getting settled, but it has been really fun catching up with them.
• A friend of ours, Bill Kliesch, came down this past Sunday.  He is a Gideon in LaGrange, GA and brought 177 Bibles that we are going to pass our to Christianville School tomorrow and we gave out the ones he purchased personally to our kids last night.  It has been a lot of fun spending time with him and getting to know him a little better.
• Jessica’s parents got here yesterday and they are going to spend the week here and celebrate Sophie’s 2nd birthday with us on Thursday.  How many of you have gotten to celebrate your birthday in another country?  It is really nice to have people down, especially when it is friends and family that come to help out and just be together.  When you have babies here and it is difficult to get out and around other people as often as you would like, having visitors is even more valuable.

A lot more has happened since we have been here.  We have had numerous visitors (there is a knock at our door at least every 25 minutes), spent time with our friends and employees here, and in general done a pretty good job of getting back to “Haitian normal.”  Sophie and Elijah are doing well and sleeping well for the most part.  They get up extra early here (around 6 for Elijah and a little after for Sophie) but so does pretty much everyone.  Thank you for your prayers, and stay tuned for more updates over the coming days and weeks.