Going, Going, Gone......

And just like that, 46 days have passed.  Forty-six days ago there was a little boy in Haiti that I spent 3 days with.  I fell deeper and deeper in love with him as the days and months wore on.  I waited, waited and waited some more for the day to come when I could go and bring him home.  Who was I to him?  No one really.  He did not know me.  I know God was doing a work in each of us separately as He prepared to bring us together as a family, but truly I did not know this little boy of mine and he did not know me.

We have had 46 days to get to know each other.  We have had a wonderful 46 days. Some days were hard.  Some were full of silliness.  Today....boy, I have all sorts of conflicting emotions going on inside of me.  So many people have months and months at home with their kids.  Some are always home.  God knew way back in August of 2011 as I began this process and he started to weave together my family that I would have limited time away from work.  He knew this when he was preparing the children that he would bless me with to parent.  Rather than be sad today, I trust that the Lord has this all in His hands and He has plenty of work for me to do from 7-3 each day with my 5th grade students. My little boy is going to be more than ok!  He gets to spend two days with Grandma and then beginning next week he will be in school from 7-3 where I am sure he will grow leaps and bounds more than he would with just me at home!  He will be with 3 teachers and 10 other kiddos what we have both grown to love over our 3 weeks of visits.

I am sure there is more to learn about each other, but we know each other now.  The smile he gives me now is not the smile he gave me 46 days ago.  When we look into each other's eyes, there is love, security and a bond.  I love him with all of my heart!  He makes me so proud!  Little things he does just make me thank God for blessing me with such a wonderful and special gift.  He is such a bundle of personality and I cannot wait to continue watching him grow as we begin to spend our days apart.

Pray for me!  Pray for him!  Pray for Grandma over the next two days!  Also pray for those 3 teachers and 10 others kids.

Thank you for sharing this journey with me!  I pray that before Christmas I will have some more exciting news to share with you!!!!  Have a blessed THANKSGIVING!!!!

My favorite little buddy in his class at school :-)

Sorting colored bears

Riding the bike at church...he thinks he's doing it all alone...thanks to his honorary big sis :-)

Popcorn with cousins

Donuts with friends from Haiti :-)

LOVE THESE 3!

First trip to Barber Shop

First haircut in the USA

Mr. Personality

Being a cacoon with his cousin

All this playing tires me out!

Remembering Tyesha

A visit to her grave

A visit to Feed My Starving Children

He knew just what to do

Mommy made sure I got LOTS of sleep!!! Monkey did too!

This is the new addition to my room since I don't always stay in my bed...Mommy gives me a few chances but then she puts me in here....the cats like the new addition too.

Yep, today's nap was in this...I don't like this but sometimes it's what I have to do!

My backyard!  Cannot wait to see more lights around town!

I am not too sure about this cold!  Mommy caught me reading under all the covers.

Yep I'm under there. 

Our last day together before Mommy goes back to school.

Reading GOOD NIGHT MOON :-)

ONE MONTH HOME

Wow, one month.  31 days.  At the end of this first month my house looks tidy and all of the dirty laundry is currently being washed!  This is happening cause Mr. Mack refused his nap today and could barely keep his eyes open through the 5 o'clock hour!  So I have spent the last two hours cleaning, washing and it's just 7:55 pm! What shall I do all night?!?  Maybe sleep!

First carwash

In 31 days, a lot has changed in Mack's bedroom.  As of today, he is in his toddler bed and there are also bunk beds in his room :-)  He likes his room, which is mainly only used for sleeping, reading, and rocking in the chair.  He has slept in his own room for 8 nights now!  He sneaks into my room somewhere in the middle of the night and then stays laying down until I sit up (7 am....which will change to 5 am in a week and a half!) and at that point he babbles away something I cannot understand but I am sure it's something like, "Good morning Mommy!  I slept great and I am ready for the day!"  He always has a huge smile on his face and he can't wait for me to get out of bed.

Current configuration in his room.

He loves his cats and my day 31 they generally love him.  He loves baths.  He loves lasagna and he loves gummy vitamins!  He also LOVES Avery!  This month he has enjoyed his time with his cousins, his auntie Amy, Grandma and Grandpa and his two buddies from GLA.  He also has visited the school he will be attending and he loved that!  We will visit on Fridays until he starts full time.

He wanted all of the lasagna that was left from when my aunt made it.  He ate most of that too!

Jumping on a really awesome jumpy thing with his GLA buddy.

First visit to school

Busy boy

He has 4 days left of his icky, icky medicine that causes lots of drama each time I take it out of the fridge.  He declares, "NO!" and then finds somewhere to hide.  It is tricky to get it into his mouth but once I do he gives the most pitiful look and even though I am the one administering the ickiness, he just wants to snuggle after it's gone down.  I cannot wait til the 4 days are over and I pray that he needs no more of this medicine EVER again!

First visit to the MN zoo

He continues to love shoes and is so frustrated that he does not know how to put them on by himself.  Baby steps buddy.  He put his pants on by himself today and then proceeded to hop around the house as his legs were in one pants leg!

Playing the piano with his new friend at church.

Today was a VERY hard day....BUT, these past two weeks have been so much smoother than the first two weeks!  During those weeks it was hard to see the next day.  After a couple of weeks pass, he fell into the routine of things and just seemed so much more comfortable.  I no longer have to carry him everywhere with me.  I still carry him quite a bit, but I am able to go from room to room without him needing to be stuck to me, which is good.  We can be in the same room doing different things now.  I can even run upstairs once in a while to grab something, assuring him that "Mommy will be right back!"

I am thinking he misses his crib and all his buddies at GLA :-)

My mom has watched him a couple of times so that we can see how he does when I leave and then return and he is doing well.  He does not want me to leave...once I leave he plays and enjoys himself...when I return he is very happy to see me :-).

He cannot stand the sun coming in the car windows but he also cannot keep his hands off the window shade and pulls it right off so these sunglasses were the ticket!  

We went to vote for mayor and he got his first I VOTED sticker :-)

Book time with Grandpa

Getting love from Grandma :-)

Reading to Mommy

He is not voluntarily speaking any English yet except for "ALL DONE" which he tells me all day long...after eating, when we're driving, when we are visiting somewhere, and when he is in a time out, lol.    He continues to speak a lot of Creole throughout the day.  He understands almost everything I say to him and this is evidenced by him following directions I give him like, "Go sit on the couch," "Go to the back door and get your vest," and "Take your coat and boots off and put them away."  He does all of the things I ask him to do in English.  It will be exciting to see his English take off and I believe this will happen quickly once he is in school with 9 other kids all day.

He loves this buddy from GLA so much!

He went to his first airport party this week and we made a big event out of it.  I woke him up at 9pm which he thought was just crazy and then we went to pick up my friend and her daughter who is Mack's buddy from GLA.  We then went to the airport to welcome home another little guy from GLA who is now in Minnesota!  It was fun to see Mack at the airport.  I wondered what his mind remembered of the night he came home.  The two were so excited, expectantly watching the glass doors for their friend to come out:-)

Time to go to the airport buddy!

Now we are excited!

Watching for Trey to come down!

He of course cannot comprehend what Thanksgiving or Christmas are gonna be like but I am so excited he is home for these holidays!  We have been listening to Christmas music all week and Friday the tree in the back yard will be covered in lights!  He loved the snow on the one day we had it and he pulls the sled around the grass now.  The 50 degree weather right now is fine with me!

Thanks for all of your prayers!  There of course is so much more to tell about this first month but I will end it here.  Eleven more days home with him before I head back to school.

National Adoption Month

As you are hopefully aware, I have had the adoption of two children going.  I still cannot not share any more information than even about #2 but I do need to raise more $$$! I am extremely grateful to those of you who donated, came to the garage sale, bought coffee and bracelets and MORE!

It is National Adoption Month.  We ALL need to care for the people of our world.  We are not all going to adopt.  We are not all called to!  There are many ways to care for the fatherless (and motherless!) in our world!

There are people who go and serve at orphanages.  There are people who sponsor children while in the care of an orphanage.  There is an organization that has devoted itself to helping with adoption airfare.  Delta airlines (which didn't work for me and Haiti) offers 50% off of the child's flight to their forever home!

I have been called to adopt.  I have been a part of sponsoring children all my life.  First through my parents and then on my own as an adult.  I am asking you to please consider giving to the cause of bringing another orphan to a home/family.  Ornaments should be arriving from Haiti today or tomorrow!  That is one way to give!  Also, to the left you will see a paypal button.  That takes you directly to my tax deductible account for adoption #2!  It was a long process to apply for this account but I was granted one!  If every one of my Facebook friends gave $20 all of #2's expenses would be covered!

Giving can also be done through the mail by sending a check to:

Lifesong For Orphans
Kraft Adoption #3660
PO Box 40
202 N. Ford Street
Gridley, IL 61744

Thank you for your consideration!

James 1:27

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Week Three

It's something how looking through pictures from the week makes me feel a lot better about the week!  It was a very CHALLENGING week for me and for him.  There were lots of triggers going off.  I pulled WAY back, out of visiting mode.  I admit I began to let others see him WAY TOO SOON!  He does fine around other people if he is not the center of attention.  When we are around others and he is just left alone then I truly feel further attachment between the two of us.  When he becomes the center of attention something changes....especially afterwards.  I saw A LOT of regression this week, but again, after looking over these pictures I can recognize a lot of growth and even can see that we have taken giant steps forward even from this past week's steps back.

A big trauma of the week was his International Adoption Clinic appointment. He was truly a super star.  He handled the whole thing in an amazing way, BUT we were there for 5 hours!  (they say to expect 2 hours).  He was not the same kid kid for about the next 36 hours.  His security level with me dropped.  Doctors, of course, need to be hands on...the problem is he saw so many doctors/nurses this day that it was way too much for him.  It is an amazing clinic, FYI, at the University of Minnesota, it was just very hard on him.  

The rest of this blog is going to be pictures highlighting our week.  He has seen some people.  The visits are very intentional, even if spur of the moment.  His visits with his little friend from GLA have been HUGE highlights for us both!  Enjoy!

Two of his buddies that were at GLA with him and both live nearby!

Having fun with the camera - KISSES!

He was a good sport for me in posing by these pumpkins :-)

Lunch with one of his friends from Haiti and the trying on of costumes.  Going trick or treating was out of the question due to how things were going that day, but he had fun being a pumpkin with his owl friend at the house.

Mr. Cool Guy in the leaves from our beautiful tree! 

Needed to make his glasses just like Mommy's.

Hanging out on his trampoline!

We had a little photo shoot with my mom at the end of the week on a very beautiful afternoon!

LOVE THIS LITTLE BOY!

Catch me if you can!

Sometime I just can't believe he is here!

Cute little guy :-)

Enjoying looking at the sky while on a stroller ride :-)

He's not gonna stop throwing this ball at the 10 ft rim til he makes it!  LOL!

Really serious about this shot!

And lots of giggles today too!

OH that face!  Priceless!

So, it's the end of week three at home and soon the start of week 4.  We begin a two week round of some really icky medicine tomorrow to take care of intestinal parasites.  He is loving his gummies needed for all of the things he needs more of like calcium and vitamin D in particular.  Overall he seems healthy and he is very happy when he is happy.  Keep praying for us please!  I have three weeks left with him before I go back to school!  Thanks!