Continuing the Story - LONG POST!

Bad view of the Consulate from the street - our driver was trying to hurry us along - lovely, isn't it?














The Presidential Palace in Port-au-Prince - on one of the only nicely paved streets.





























Statue of Alexandre Petion; Petion was ruler of the southern part of Haiti from 1807 - 1820. This part of Haiti was made up of mostly fair colored Haitians who were born free. He distributed the land to the military.















Part of the UN complex; heavily guarded with razor wire and such; most of the nicer homes had razor wire, gates, dogs, and broken glass embedded in concrete on top of the walls surrounding the houses; our guesthouse also had a guard who manned the gate.

So the story continues...
We arrived for our visa appointment before the Consulate actually opened - yea for our driver, Samuel! We were shown into the Consulate and checked for hazardous material. Adah thought it was funny when she was checked. They took our phones and our cameras, and our driver said the Consulate would call him when they were done. We were the first ones to arrive, and we came before most of the employees showed up. :) The regular person who handles the adoption visas was not there (of course), but a substitute worked hard to get the paperwork in order. While we were there, we met another adoptive mom and her 8 year-old daughter. She had been in Haiti for four months waiting for her daughter to be released from the Ministry of the Interior (where we had been stuck with Adah's paperwork for almost 8 months!). The mom traveled down, leaving her husband and 6 year-old daughter at home because it looked like her orphanage was going under and the children being cared for there were in jeopardy. She said things were starting to get better, but I was thankful that even during our long wait, we didn't have to worry about the orphanage itself going under! She was finally there to get the visa, and I hope she got out the next day. Her daughter spoke excellent English, and the mom said she was already losing a lot of her Kreyol. It's a little sad that Adah will lose that part of her heritage as well. Realistically, we just can't maintain her skills, but we will try to get some video of her singing some songs.

We were told that our visa packets would be ready for pick-up at 2:00 IF the computers were working, and we were done at the Consulate by 8:15 or so. Another driver from Agence Nacia, the organization that processes the paperwork for adoptions, had already shown up to take us to Dr. Bernard's office. We went there to plan the rest of the day. Dr. Bernard suggested that we head to the orphanage since we had brought a lot of donations, and we also wanted to get some pictures for Adah and Nathaniel. Samuel brought us to a gate that led to an alleyway. The alleyway led to the orphanage (technically a "creche," since orphanages in Haiti don't adopt out the children), and we could only get there on foot. It wasn't paved, just a rocky dirt path, so Daniel and Samuel hoisted the HEAVY bags of donations onto their heads to walk to the creche. I wish I could have taken a picture, but I was busy holding Nathaniel, watching my step, and holding Adah's hand. Nathaniel had gone through his diaper (he has an umbilical hernia that makes it difficult to keep diapers where they are supposed to be!) and I was wet as well. Yuck. We arrived at the creche, and the first thing I noticed was the NOISE. This was a concrete building, and the voices bounced off the walls like crazy. They were happy sounds, which was nice to hear, but it sure was loud. They had been popping popcorn in the basement for a snack for the kids, over an OPEN fire. Yikes. We were brought up about four flights of stairs to the little kids' floor. The other floors are for the older kids who were in school. Everyone rushed up to Adah and Nathaniel at once, shouting their names and examining her baby doll. Nathaniel was taken from my arms and taken to his nanny, who helped me change him. She took charge of him the rest of the time so that I could take pictures of all the little ones. Adah's nanny found her, kissed and loved on her, and then asked me if I wanted her to fix Adah's hair. I gratefully said yes! Meanwhile, Daniel was handing out the bags I had sewn for the nannies. I included a little shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and lip gloss. Honestly, the reaction was not what I hoped for. I didn't expect abject gratitude like I had just done them the greatest favor ever, but I didn't expect the total INgratitude either. Immediately, arguments sprang up among the nannies about who had gotten a better bag or who had not gotten a bag at all. I didn't know whether to post this part, but I want to give a totally accurate view of everything that happened. Interestingly, over the past week that Adah has been here, we've been teaching her to say please and thank you when she asks for and receives things - this is something new for her. She's also very grabby and when we go out, she expects to get something and will pout if she doesn't. Maybe this idea of entitlement is a cultural one, although I could never claim to be an expert after spending so little time in Haiti. Dr. Bernard's house staff, who are under his supervision and interact with him daily, were much more polite in their dealings with each other and with us. It was very interesting. We left the donations of clothes, toiletries, toys, candy, and hair bows with the orphanage manager to hand out so that we didn't have another situation with the kids like we did with the nannies.

Anyway, I was so glad to see that the creche was a happy place and the kids seemed to be content, because the place itself was Dickensian. The babies were getting their baths; the nannies sat them on a chair in a tub and washed them that way. I got as many pictures as I could for the still-waiting families, and it made me so sad to see them all in their "cages," the cribs that are stacked on top of one another. The orphanage is so overcrowded because kids are not going home to their families due to the processing problems. A new orphanage is being built next to the guesthouse an hour out of Port-au-Prince, and Dr. Bernard says he hopes to have all the babies moved there by next summer. The nanny to child ratio is very good at New Life Link, and our kids had specific nannies who took care of them all the time. Adah's nanny was THRILLED that she had a mama and a papa, and she kissed and hugged us about ten times before we left. One of the most touching things during the visit was an older girl named Alexandra who came to me and asked to have her picture made with Adah. The creche makes an effort to pair older girls and younger girls with the same nanny so that they develop a sisterly relationship. Alexandra was part of the Hope for the Children of Haiti orphanage, the sister orphanage for older children. She gave me a note to give to Adah, and I read it when we got home. It was overwhelming. It was written in very good English (Hope for the Children of Haiti's goal is to graduate the children with skills that will help them better Haiti), and it expressed Alexandra's desire that Adah would grow in the Lord, love her new family, and never forget her. She said she was sad that Adah was leaving, but that she wanted Adah to know that she always had a sister in Haiti. Phew. That was emotional. One of the other older girls came by to ask if I knew her adoptive mom (I did) and she wanted to pass along her love for her. She wanted a picture with Nathaniel, so I have two precious pictures to give our children. I wanted to get one of Adah with her three favorite friends, but they were in school.

We left the creche, and Daniel tried to push the door shut. It wouldn't shut, so he was going back to shut it, but Adah was pulling on him with all her strength; she didn't want to go back. Later in the car on the way back to the office, she started crying. Poor Papa just held her and rubbed her back. This is tough thing for a little girl to handle. Driving around town brought us face to face with the utter poverty in Haiti. I posted pictures of the Presidential Palace, which is indeed beautiful. But we didn't get pictures of the sights that were common everywhere else. Trash was EVERYWHERE. Clothes were laid out on tin roofs to dry, if the dwellings had roofs at all. Otherwise, we saw socks hanging off rebar sticking out of cinder blocks. I am sure that we saw the worst of Haiti (except for Cite Soleil, the absolute worst slum) and had we gotten into the countryside, we would have seen some of the beauty I've appreciated on a missionary's blog. However, what we saw was depressing and oppressive beyond words. And that is what is normal in Port-au-Prince everyday for all those children we saw walking to school, all the ladies carrying bundles on their heads, and all the men standing by the road with shovels waiting for work. We are INCREDIBLY blessed to live in such a prosperous nation, and I admire the resiliency of spirit it would take to find any measure of happiness in a place which requires so much just to survive. And yet it's just normal life there, and I feel like a typical American snob talking about how depressing I found it, when clearly the Haitian people don't find it depressing at all.

Anyway, Adah recovered when we got to Dr. B's office, and we settled down to wait for the visa packet to be ready. Nathaniel was ready for a nap, and he actually laid down on a bed that Dr. B. has in the back room of his office. I laid down on a couple of chairs put together, and Daniel and Adah hung out. Daniel discovered that our daughter is a genius (no, really! :) ) when she began drawing people in our family and writing their names above their heads. She drew Cora, and then wrote "Cola" above the head because she can't say CoRa. She was also writing the alphabet and Daniel was telling her the English pronunciations for each letter. She was more interested in teaching him the Kreyol pronunciations. She listened to my iPod for awhile as well. :) She liked the Kreyol Bible songs, but she liked my workout music more, including the Army cadence songs I use for running. Around lunchtime, we heard beautiful singing and realized the office staff had broken for devotions. They were singing a hymn with guitar accompaniment. We smelled something baking, and it smelled delicious. The office manager brought in some lunch, and it was some sort of meat pastry, like we used to have in England. The meat was spicier, though, and very good. Adah was HUNGRY, and she tried to eat three of them, which would have left Nathaniel with none. I managed to save it for Nathaniel. We chatted with Dr. B. a bit about the state of adoptions in Haiti (not good) and the solutions (there are none). Typical of the communication we've experienced thus far with our adoption, someone from the office had gone to PICK UP our visa packets and we didn't know they were there until Dr. B. casually announced that they were making copies of the paperwork. That was IT, the last of the paperwork, the only thing we needed to go HOME!!!!! We got on the cell phone to make plans to return home the next day instead of Saturday. We got the new itinerary by email at Dr. B.'s office, and we returned to the guesthouse by dinnertime. Adah and Nathaniel both fell asleep on the way up the mountain. We passed a quiet evening with dinner, bathtime, Bible reading, prayer, and then bedtime. Daniel and I began to pack, and I began to feel a sense of urgency that I just wanted to get HOME as soon as possible. I wanted to leave right then if I could!

The next morning, we said farewell to Dr. Bernard and his wife Claudette, got a good picture in the stairwell of the guesthouse and headed down the mountain. Adah was sick again from nerves, and this time the plastic bag came in handy! She got sick over and over, poor baby, and then fell asleep. (She definitely wasn't sick with a tummy bug or anything; she was FINE other than her nerves!) Samuel had the radio tuned to an American station, and they were starting to broadcast Focus on the Family. Get this - the topic was adoption. Here we were bringing our kids home, and we were listening to Focus on the Family IN HAITI on adoption. Several people were giving their adoption stories, and we were looking at each other tearing up. :) We arrived at the airport without any problem, found an airport attendant willing to help us, and got through security with Adah only throwing up once. We settled down to wait for our 10:20 flight. Daniel chatted with several Mennonite missionaries who were traveling home on furlough. Nathaniel did his best cute faces for everyone. We walked out to the plane, and Adah went crazy with delight when she first saw the plane. She started dragging me with her because she was so excited! Alas, excitement was not good for her tummy either. She threw up again, but not much came up (I know, too much information). The rest of the flight went without any problems, and I was never so happy to land on U.S. soil in Miami. We didn't have any problems with immigration, but we didn't realize that we would be detained for an unknown length of time in customs. Yikes!!! Another adoptive mom who brought home two little ones from Guatemala had already missed her connecting flight. The customs officials were NOT helpful and were in fact pretty rude. Thankfully, we did make it out of there in time to get to our connecting flight to Atlanta. The flight was ahead of schedule until we got onto the tarmac. Somehow we left an hour late. I was too busy dealing with Nathaniel's naughtiness and I didn't realize. Daniel and Adah were in the front of the plane and I was in the VERY back. She only threw up once before the plane even took off, and then they had a grand time the rest of the flight. Nathaniel and I had a battle royale, however. :) He wanted to get down; I insisted that he couldn't. He gave me everything he had with two year old behavior plus orphanage behavior- hitting, scratching, and biting. At least there was no screaming. :) I thanked my friend Kelly for making me a sling so I could tuck his arms in, cinch him down, and hold him very tightly to keep him from misbehaving. By the end of the flight, we had come to a truce, and he started falling asleep. The lady next to me and the lady in the next row up were so sweet and encouraging to me. One of the ladies said, "Honey, you don't have to apologize for nuthin'. I know about kids, I raised ten of 'em myself." :) Because of the delay in Miami, we missed our flight in Atlanta, and the next flight didn't leave until 9:15. So much for getting home early. I had pretty much had it by then. :) I called Mom and whined to her. Daniel kept it together for both of us, booked us on that flight, and got some food in us. Thank you, Lord, for giving me a husband who sees what needs to be done and does it. Thank you, Lord, that he takes such good care of me. He let me go off by myself for a bit to take a breath. On our last flight, the two people who were sitting in seats next to me were willing to exchange seats with Daniel and Adah so we could all sit together (they got the bulkhead seats that Daniel and Adah had, so we didn't feel too guilty about asking them to switch! :) ). Daniel helped me deal with Nathaniel, but he was SO much better the third flight. And Adah was an old hand at flying by then - no throwing up!!! We were giddy with thankfulness - and exhaustion! We landed in Raleigh at 11:30 or so. Adah experienced cold weather for the first time, and she didn't care for it! I don't blame her. Daniel got a Mountain Dew, put both car seats in the car, and prepared to drive home. I called a friend who lives in Kuwait since it was breakfast time by then for her. :) Adah struggled to stay awake, because she wanted to give her sisters the lotions she picked out for them at the Atlanta airport. Nathaniel fell asleep right away. Adah recognized the house from a picture I brought down, and she announced "lakay mwen!" when we arrived. "My house!" She ran inside, asked which way to go, ran upstairs, asked which way to go, ran into her room, got right in Abigail's face, and said loudly, "Abby gale! Abby gale!" She gave out the lotions, asked if the bed under Cora's was hers, promptly undressed, and got into bed. We coaxed her out to go to the bathroom, got Nathaniel ready, put them both to bed, and then got ready for our first night ALL under the same roof.

Whew! This has been a book...I didn't intend for it to be this long! On my next post, I will put up pictures of our first week together and talk about some firsts. We are SO enjoying being a family of eight, and it is already as if they have always been here. I am thankful to be able to say that Nathaniel is doing MUCH better with his behavior. We've had lots of snuggles and Daddy has been using his Daddy voice. Nathaniel doesn't normally try to strike out now when he doesn't like what's going on. I sure was worried that we had A LOT of work to do after that second flight from Miami! We are working on making better eye contact with him, and we know that attachment and bonding is a LONG process. We are enjoying his giggles and belly laughs tremendously. Adah has also amazed us with her strength of spirit. In a few short hours on the flight from Port-au-Prince to Miami, she went from understanding everyone around her to not understanding ANYONE around her (in addition to the fact that she is now surrounded by white people!) and she is still laughing. She plays wholeheartedly, and she tries to join in with whatever the kids are doing. She actually likes our dog (that is HUGE!) and gives him bonbons (cookies). She also likes to help around the house, asking where certain plates go and taking them to the table. On the down side, she has a serious pouting problem that we will be working on. :) She didn't want to wear the dress I picked for her this morning, so she started crying. Daniel and I remind each other that she is emotionally much younger than five, but we're still starting to set boundaries by telling her that the number three rule in the Houseworth household is no whining. :) There are only three rules, and No Whining made the big three.

Next post...the doctor's visit. It was worse than we thought it was going to be, and we are glad it's OVER :)














Adah jamming to the workout music on my iPod.














Nathaniel with his nanny at the creche.


















Adah with her nanny - a very smiley and sweet lady!














One of the cuties in a school uniform at the creche. They LOVE sunglasses, and we walked into the 2 year old classroom to find them singing Christmas carols with sunglasses on! :) I wanted to post more pictures from the creche, but I didn't want to do it without parents' approval. I thought this little one was incognito enough.















Daniel discovering how truly brilliant our little Adah is. She is in our equivalent of the first grade, so she writes in cursive - she just turned five!

Well, I better go pay attention to my family now. We're finally decorating our Christmas tree tonight!

Love,
Casey