Am I Crazy?

I just got home from walking to Burger King with the kids for lunch. It is about 1 mile each way. And it is HOT!!! (And uphill both ways! : )) Matthew & Alisha rode their bikes both ways. They are tired! Kevin was lazy and rode in the stroller. He slept on the way home, but he was so hot that he left sweat marks in the stroller where his head and leg were. Poor baby! Michael rode in the stroller on the way there and part of the way home, then I let him walk the rest of the way home. It was a long walk for him, but he made it and now he is taking a nap. Please pray that he will learn to communicate with us and follow directions.

John Deere Pics

Some Firsts & Some Pics

I went for my first bike ride with four kids by myself yesterday. Wow! I was so tired at the end. Matthew & Alisha rode their bikes. I had Kevin in a baby carrier on my chest and my Michael in the bike trailer. I tried to keep a hat on Kevin to protect his fair little head, but... He had other ideas and threw the hat on the ground in the middle of the first street that we crossed. Luckily, it wasn't a busy street and there was a stop sign so it wasn't too big of a deal to stop and pick it up.
The kids are loving the chance to swim in the pool (thanks to some friends from church that gave us the pool and my in-laws for buying us a new liner for it) and playing in the sandbox. I think they are all glad that Mommy is home for the summer.
Michael loves to sing. He knows quite a few songs in English so it helps us connect when we sing together. He loves singing: ABC's, Jesus Loves Me, Deep & Wide, God is so Good, and B-I-N-G-O. Today we walked down the street and the kids played with some of our neighbors. It is cool because this family that we visited with goes to another local church and shares our beliefs. That is very important for me to have other kids for my kids to play with that are being taught the same things. Plus we both have four kids. They have a boy six weeks older than Matthew, a boy about six weeks older than Michael, and a baby girl that is about 5 weeks younger than Kevin. Their other daughter is older than Matthew, but Alisha loves playing with her.
Michael is really starting to adjust more and more to being in our family. He is starting to go to bed on his own (Praise the Lord!). Naps are still a trial, but the nighttime is getting better which is a true blessing. He climbed in bed on his own for the first time when we told him last night and he didn't get out until just before 7am. Not bad.
Oh, and I just want to share that my wonderful husband and I celebrated 8 wonderful years of marriage yesterday. It is so cool that God gave me a husband that was willing to go with me on this crazy adoption journey and has been so supportive of our family. Thank you Lord for providing the right husband and father for my family.

Band-Aids

Alisha fell and scraped her knee while we were on our evening walk tonight. So when we got home, I cleaned it up and put a band-aid on it. A little while later, Michael comes over to me. He pulled up his pant leg and shows me this little boo-boo on his leg. It has been there since he came home, but it looked like he had picked at it. But he showed it to me and then looked at the band-aid Alisha was sporting and then pointed out his wound to me again. I cleaned up his boo-boo and put a band-aid on it. His little face just lit up. He was so happy to have a band-aid like his sister. It is so funny what little kids like.

Does He Understand?

I would love to be able to be inside Michael's thoughts. Sometimes he seems to understand everything we say, and sometimes he just gives us a "dumb" look. When he wants to come to you, he understand "come here", but when he wants to do his own thing he does not understand "come here". I also wonder how much he understands about us being his family. He has been here less than a week and he know us by name. He even knows his new name. He had a blast giggling and being silly with Alisha on the couch earlier today.
I made my first trip to the grocery store today with four kids. We parked right next to a firetruck. When we got out of the car, the fireman that was sitting in the truck asked the kids if they wanted to see inside the truck. He even let them climb up in the truck. Michael enjoyed that very much. Then I put Michael in the seat of the cart and Alisha in the back of the cart. I put Kevin in an umbrella stroller and Matthew pushed him. We didn't do a huge shopping, but I needed a few things to make it through the next few days. And I didn't want to waste our time when Aaron is home by having to grocery shop with him in the evening.
Matthew confided in me today that he is very sad that him and Michael do not understand each other. So we talked about how much fun they had in the sandbox the other day and that in a few more weeks they will start to understand each other more.

Kevin's Eyes

I just love this baby's eyes. If you click on the picture, it will get bigger and you can really see how wonderful his eyes are. He has my dad's eyes.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well, we have definitely been busy the last few days. Friday morning the kids were getting on each others nerves, so we decided to go out. We took Michael and Kevin's first trip to the zoo. It was a very warm and tiring day, but it was good. Michael seems to like the stroller. I think it makes him feel secure. When we told him we were going out, he went out the front door and climbed in the stroller. But he didn't argue when I told him that we had to go in the van first. Today, we went and bought sandals as his feet were a lot bigger than we expected. Then we went in the pool for the first time. He has no fear of the water and did not care at all that it was cold. He is still afraid of the cats and dogs but is doing better with the cats and even pet the one cat a little. It is definitely a challenge to deal with the language issue and we have to be patient with him since we know he doesn't understand everything we are telling him. Our little book of Kreyol has been very helpful at times. We just can't figure out what he is saying to the animals. He keeps pointing to them and saying what sounds like "poo poo caca". So if anyone knows what this might be in Kreyol, we could use some help.

Our first full day home

Well, the start was smooth. But we have had some rough points today. Michael has to learn to share and not throw toys. And the other kids have to be reassured that they have not lost there place. Everyone is a bit overwhelmed at the moment. Please don't take me wrong. It has not been that bad, but we all definitely need to adjust to the new makeup of our family.

Pictures from Trip Home and First Day Home

First Night

Well, it took a little bit to get Michael to stay in bed. I ended up getting out a playpen and using that. It did not contain him though. The first time we put him in it, he climbed out shortly after we walked away. He was scared of the stuffed monkeys hanging from the curtain rod, so I took them down. Then he was afraid of the stuffed animals on the net in the corner, so I covered them with a towel. I finally had to lay on the floor next to the playpen. He then laid down and was asleep within a minute. I waited a few minutes before leaving the room. He slept 12 hours!!!!!!!!! So did the Matthew and Alisha. Kevin slept pretty good. He got about 8 or 9 hours. So it was very nice to get some sleep. When Michael woke up, he climbed out of the playpen and walked out to me in the living room. He had wet through so his shirt was soaked and he was freezing. He refused to wear the long pajamas and socks that I had on him last night. So he slept in a t-shirt and a diaper.
We are having a good morning so far. He is still scared of the cats, but he is starting to call us by name. He knows Kevin and is calling Aaron, papa and me, mama. More pictures will come later today.

We are home!!!!!!!!!!!!

We arrived home a little after two.
Kevin did not like being away from home, so him and I did not sleep much. The other three kids went to sleep rather quickly. Aaron woke up a few times to Kevin's cry. Michael woke up with diarrhea. So we went through a pair of shorts almost as soon as we put them on. And then had to be changed again before we left the hotel. We left the hotel around 9:15. When we got outside of Columbus we stopped at McDonald's for breakfast. Michael ate his pancakes very quickly and had to be changed again and went again in the bathroom. He was very fascinated by the lights in the restaurant and the two toilets in the same bathroom. He also is enjoying washing his hands. We then stopped at Walmart and got plastic pants to put over his diaper and some pedialyte. The kids each slept for a few hours on the way home. So the trip was very good. We got home and Michael made it in the door only to freeze and act very panicked. He had spotted our one cat laying in the living room floor. So the cats have been put away for right now. We ate lunch and then gave Michael a bath. He has a bit of a cold, but is doing okay. He is watching a baby einstein video. Even on the video he makes sure we know he does not like the cat. He likes Matthew sitting by him and just got very vocal at the fact that Matthew walked out of the room. He kept yelling, "hey". So we are teaching him names. Thanks for all of your prayers. I'll post more pictures later.

Praise God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did anybody take note of the verse of the day today!

“Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him. A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.” (Psalm 68:4-5)

What an appropriate verse for today. By the way, I don't pick the verses, it comes from a website that automatically picks a verse for each day. So God chose that verse for me today.

We are at our hotel.

We have checked in, swam in the pool, and now we are relaxing (as much as possible with two hyper/excited kids and a baby). We will leave here in just a few hours to drive over to the airport and meet up with Michael. Praise God for bringing us to this point.

Pray for a number of our friends that have been waiting longer than us to get their kids home. I have very mixed emotions knowing that their children are still in Haiti. Please pray!

Michael is through imigration in Miami and is now a US citizen. We are now on our way to Ohio.

He is on his way!

Michael's plane left PAP at about 9am (PAP time). I can't wait to hear that he has landed and has made it through immigration.

Michael is Coming Home Tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!

Please pray for a safe journey. Michael got his visa today and is flying home tomorrow. We should meet up with him at the airport after his plane arrives around 11:50pm (EST) Praise God for His love and care.

Please Pray with us This Morning

Our orphanage director is going to the embassy at 9am to try to get Michael's visa. She has the form they wanted. So they have promised to print the visa as long as their machines are working. Please pray that the machines are working and that they actually print the visa. We are hoping to finally have all of our kids together tomorrow evening. Please pray and praise God for what He will do.

Congratulations Matthew!

My little boy graduated from Kindergarten last week. Praise the Lord for giving him a good teacher and allowing him to have a great year.

Matthew,
I am so proud of you. You accomplished more than I ever imagined and I love you very much.
Love,
Mommy

“The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.” (Proverbs 23:24)

Happy Father's Day!!!

Well, I never dreamt that my son would still not be here for yet another holiday. But we did have a nice picnic with both grandfathers and my husband celebrating each of them. Thank God for the father that he chose to give me. I learned a lot from my dad and I am very thankful for that. Thank God for the father he has given to my children. I love watching as each of them are finding something special that they like to do with their daddy. Kevin just lights up when he talks to his daddy. Alisha is daddy's little princess. Matthew loves playing Wii with his daddy and having "guys nights" with daddy.
Praise God that He has offered to adopt us as sons. Our heavenly Father is the most awesome father. Praise Him for His wonderful gifts of love.

No visa yet

Our orphanage director went to Michael's visa appointment yesterday. The US accepted everything except they said she was missing one form. So they gave her a new appointment on Monday and told her that if she could get that form from us then they could issue the visa (as long as their machines are working). So please pray that things would go smoothly on Monday and that Michael will be on that plane on Tuesday coming home to us.

Visa Appointment

We got word today that Michael has a visa appointment on Friday at 8am. He should get his visa that afternoon. Lord willing I'll have all four of my kids home with me at this time next week!! Praise God for His help. Thank you to the orphanage director who helped get this appointment scheduled.

Waiting for their brother

Please continue to pray for Michael's visa to be issued in time for him to make his flight a week from tomorrow. He has some very excited siblings. Of course, Kevin doesn't have a clue (but he's cute so I had to share the pictures). But Matthew is extremely excited about his brother coming home and Alisha is excited about going to a hotel. I'm not sure if she completely understands everything that is going on. Please pray for Michael's visa, trip home, and a smooth transition.

We Still Need You to Pray

We are still waiting for the US to issue Michael's visa. Please pray that we will hear good news soon. We are trusting God to allow Michael to be on that plane and on his way home to us on the 17th, but we still need all of you to continue to pray for us.