Alex is Out of Parquet!!!

So we just found out that Alex is out of Parquet. Here's what that means:
Great news! Your adoption of Alex has just been approved by Parquet. This week, we are preparing your dossier to enter the courts, in which we will create the civil court document and the Act of Adoption. This is when Alex will legally become your child and take your family name of HOEFER.
After the courts, we will ask National Archives for an attestation signature for the Act of Adoption and then we will legalize the Haitian legal documents in both the Department of Justice and Minister of Foreign Affairs (MAE). These steps together – courts, attestation signature, legalization, and MAE – should take approximately four months to complete.

We aer so thankful for this news. We were in Parquet for four months. Some families have been in for over a year. There is no rhyme or reason to this but I am so grateful to be moving forward. We are really praying he'll be here by the beginning of summer. That would be so amazing but I am learning more and more to submit myself to God's perfect (yet hard to understand at times) plan for Alex and our family. This has definitely taken me to a new level spiritually as I pray for our little guy and wonder and question. The age old questions I guess; but one of the first times I, myself have experienced them. Especially as I think about how good we have it here in the US and how good our kids have it. So good that we don't even know!

Anyway- thanks so much for all your prayers, so many of you are faithfully praying and that means more to us than you can know. In fact my aunt even told me that she and Mark and her kids pray every night for Alex to come home!! That means so much to us. Thanks Danny, Matthew, and Mindy. May your faith be strengthened as we know Hailey, Karis', and Avery's will be through this whole process! Since we've been back from Haiti is has been a lot harder to explain why this is taking so long to the girls, especially Hailey. In fact she has been crying at times and I have asked why and she says, "I just miss Alex. Why can't he come home yet?" We are praying that through this God does something big in our girl's hearts, a lesson they will have their whole lives as they see His hand move.

Anyway.....we got our December update. Melanie asked those who work with Alex to describe him and this is what they said. Definitely sounds like a mix of the Hoefer girls don't you think? :)
Alex is...
friendly
emotional
sensitive
observant
fun-loving

These Are The Moments

As a mom it feels like sometimes the days revolve around fixing food, cleaning it up, wiping up spilled juice, doing laundry, discovering yet another disaster, taking kids here and there, and breaking up fights. All while listening to whining and crying. In fact I told Scott one time to imagine he was working on a document all day at work and someone randomly pressed delete every 10 minutes without him being able to save any of his work. And then add someone crying in your ear begging to be held. He said, "I get it Abby. I could never stay home." Anyway.....all that to say that then there are those parenting moments that make it all worth while. Like last night as I watched Karis sing her little heart out at her Christmas Program. Karis lights up a stage like no other and to watch that little girl and be sitting next to the most wonderful husband in all the world and have two other little girls next to me...well I couldn't help but think how blessed I am!!

Teddy Bear Parade

Today Hailey had a Teddy Bear Parade at school. It was seriously one of the cutest things. All the kids decorated a "float" to pull their Teddy Bears throughout the school. Each classroom sat out in the hall and watched along with tons of parents. We feel so blessed to have Hailey at this school. Honestly I researched all the schools before moving here and came up with about 15 that I really wanted her at. Well little did I know she ended up in one of the best ones. I hear from people all the time how they wished their kids could go there or how great they have heard it is. I have never seen such a professional looking place- and I've been in a lot of schools. The teachers always look very professional and the kids are so well-behaved. If a line is going by in the hall and I need to get through they know to stop and wait and let us through. The kids hold the door for you on the way in and they are just so polite and well-mannered. I am amazed by how the class behaves....so good and they are all coming so far. I feel like we have Hailey at some private, expensive school. Not going to complain about paying taxes, that's for sure! Anyway this post is supposed to be about the parade.

Hailey was so cute when we were making the float together. We went to the Dollar Store and bought lots of decorations and then came home to make it. She really wanted just me with her, not the other two girls trying to help. "Me and Mommy need some lonely time," she said! Then as I was trying to give her some ideas she goes, "Just give me the scissors Mom and let me do this the way I want to do it!" Such Independence!! So I let her do it however she wanted- which can be hard knowing that some children's would look like they belonged in the Macy's parade because their parents do all the work!! But it turned out great!!

Gingerbread Houses and Cookies

Today I went to Hailey's classroom and helped them make Gingerbread houses. It was so fun. I remember doing this when I taught; so it brought back lots of memories. She has such a nice class!

Also I decided to start a new Christmas Cookie tradition. I let the girls go through my cookbook and pick one cookie they would like to learn to make each. Then I am going to make that cookie with them. We will take them all to Yakima when we go for some yummy treats to eat and leave for Santa. Today was Karis' day and she chose to make Italian Horn Cookies. Of course..the most interesting cookies I've ever made. They only had flour, butter, and melted ice cream in the dough! Then we filled them with jam. They looked really beautiful in the cookbook and well...you can see how they looked here in Hoeferidian. But I kept reminding myself that it's the process in these things, not the product. Spending time with Karis and letting her have fun in the kitchen is all that mattered! And they actually taste delicious. So good that she declared, "We are NOT leaving all of these for Santa!" Nothing like the Christmas Spirit.....

Young Love

Tonight's Bedtime Conversation:

Karis: Mom I love Lucas. (The adorable neighbor boy that she plays with.) When we grow up I will marry him and then I will kiss him on the lips.

Hailey: Actually Mom, they already kissed on the lips. Me and Larissa (his sister) saw it.

Me: Did you Karis?

Karis: Can't remember. (Karis is a terrible liar. It was written all over face. She gives up very quickly.) Is it all my fault Mom?

Me: Well who kissed first?

Karis: We both did at the same time. Then we wiped it off.

Hailey: (In her I am the oldest child and I am in charge voice. I know all and I always do the right thing.) NOOOOO......she didn't. Number 1: She and Lucas kissed on the lips. Number 2: They did not wipe it off. And Number 3: They did Mom, they did kiss on the lips!

Me: Well Karis, no more kissing until you are much older. Like ready to get married. And if you do kiss though always tell me OK?

Karis: I will always tell you but if a boy asks to kiss me on the lips again I will say no. Yuck!

And this all happened two weeks ago. I can't believe I am just now hearing about it!!

Salt Lake City

So we just got back from a little mini-vacation to Salt Lake City, Utah. We had never been there before and since it is now just 5 1/2 hours away we thought it would be fun. OK Scott had to actually go for work so I thought it would be fun to take the girlies on a free vacation. It's always nice to stay in a hotel, eat out at restaurants, and not worry about cleaning now isn't it?! I was also thrilled because Salt Lake has a Nordstrom and I hadn't been in one since the summer. As we walked in I said, "Breathe it in girls....we're home..." Something about Nordstroms, they always smell the same...so many good memories we have there! Anyway mostly what I did was return things I bought at the sale that Avery refused to wear.

We also went to a kiddie indoor ride place that the girls absolutely loved. We didn't tell them we were going in case it didn't work out so when we pulled up and they looked in the windows and saw all these little carnival rides they were so excited. It had rides just like the fair but they were all inside and no lines. It was great. And you buy a bracelet and get to ride all the rides. I even talked them into a bogo since it was evening and we only had a couple hours. Always need to get a deal.

We also went to Temple Square which was so amazing and so beautiful. It was all lit up everywhere you looked. My pictures don't at all do it justice. The girls thought we were at a Princess Castle and we just went with that. I could not believe how many people were there...definitely a touristy spot. All in all it was a great little get-away!

Turkey Time

So this post is all out of order and messed up but I can't figure out what is wrong with blogger. I can't see the pictures so I will try my best to explain them.
So for Thanksgiving we decided to stay home. It was a really nice quiet time although I did miss my family. The drive is so long that we thought we might as well stay home for Thanksgiving and then have Christmas at home to look forward to. Anyway our good friends Matt and Kristi from Portland came and that was great! We had so much fun. The first picture is us decorating a Gingerbread house. The Second picture is us at the Festival of Trees on Thanksgiving night. It was really fun to go see all the different decorated trees and the different themes. I love the pic of the girls riding on Scott and Matt's shoulders and holding hands!

The 3rd pic is Thanksgiving day. Scott was in charge of the turkey and did an amazing job. He marinated it all night and even poked garlic cloves throughout it. It was moist and delicious. I did everything else and it all turned out just fabulous! Although I made way too much food.

Next we have Avery the day before Thanksgiving in her outfit she picked out and put on herself. A shirt, tutu/dress, leggings, and a skirt. We definitely have a touch of Karis on our hands.

Then we have Hailey at her Thanksgiving feast at school. Too cute.

And last but not least we have the lovely decoration Scott put in the house up in the little alcove thing that we have been trying to figure out what to put in. It is just wrong on so many levels that I had to take a picture of it!

Our Weekend

Sorry Grandma- no pictures to post but thought I'd write a little about our weekend. We actually had very few plans which was really nice. Scott was off Friday so I went to Bible Study for my Mops group. It is cool because we meet every other Friday for Mops and on the off week a few of us have a small group Bible study. I am getting to know these women and really enjoying them. Afterwards I went out for lunch with one of the pastors of the church where we meet and I think I made a new friend. We hit it off really well and she is really fascinating to talk to since I think she is my first female pastor friend. She is a new mom also so we had lots to talk about!

Saturday was cleaning day and let me tell you....I used to wonder why my mom wasn't the happiest on cleaning day....now I know why!! It is so frustrating to work all week, cleaning, doing laundry, fixing meal after meal, and just trying to keep up. Then you start cleaning and realize how much of a mess the house is in, especially a certain two little girl's room. It was at the point where I was ready to dump everything in a garbage bag. How can they create such a mess with no regard to cleaning it up?! Here's how messy it was: I cleaned all the bathrooms (5!), dusted and straightened the whole house, vacuumed it all, cleaned the craft area, and was doing laundry at the same time, in the same amount of time it took Scott and the girls to clean their room. Now part of this was the lack of motivation on the girl's part and part was the mess. But we finally got it all done and once again vowed to make them clean every night. Hope we can stick to it this time! I guess I should be glad the girls have so much fun with their toys and use them so creatively right? I mean they could be laying around watching TV instead- which sometimes I wish they would! :)

After I went with a friend hiking. We went to the Foothills and that was really fun and a really nice hike. The sun was out so it wasn't too cold and hiking with a friend and chatting is always so fun.

Sunday I went to two different churches. That's a whole other story but we are kind of looking around at churches again. We love where we are going but frankly it is sooooo big. Our girls are having a really hard time connecting at Sunday School because there are so many kids and it seems they are always different. Also it is about 20 minutes away so the people we have met seem to live the other direction making everyone even farther and therefore harder to connect with. It is really important to us that our girls have a church community where they feel really comfortable. Like we had in E-burg! That meant so much to us and I guess we just want to recreate that somehow. I know it takes time and effort but I think it would be easier in not such a huge church-like around 1,000 would be nice, instead of over 3,000.

Scott and I were talking about how being a Christian it can be harder to find a church. If we were LDS we would go to the church near us and be happy about it. But instead we have so many choices that its hard to decide. We like one church but not the music, like the music at one but too big or don't like the preaching. Man its easy to get really picky! So we decided what was the most important to us and we are just going to let the rest go or at least just find one that goes with our core beliefs and be content with it.

So we decided to try somewhere closer and I think after several trys (which I could do all kinds of posts about but probably better not. Let's just say there are all kinds of ways to worship and believe and I think we saw quite a variety. In fact we were at one that the girls were literally running up and down the aisles dancing and screaming with other children while the adults didn't seem to notice or mind. Most were acting the same. As we tried to quickly escape the girls started sobbing, "We love it here, don't make us leave!" It was a little awkward. (Oh and I am not saying that's not OK. Just not what we are comfortable with. I know the Holy Spirit was there and was pleased by their worship. I'm just glad there are lots of different churches for different different people.)

All this to say I think we have found one we like! I went to one alone because it is so much easier to try it without having to check the girls into childcare or to try and focus with them with us. The one we liked we actually met a girl in Hailey's class whose family goes there and they met us at the front, helped us check the girls in, and sat with us. So nice. Let met tell you security is tight at churches around here. At this one we had to give our fingerprints and have all our photos taken. We can only pick up the kids if our fingerprints and photos match! Love it!

Oh and one more thing. We went to the YMCA in Caldwell- about 20 minutes from here on Sunday afternoon with our neighbors and their girls. It was amazing. Had a big swirly slide, a lazy river, a splash pad, and a very shallow kids pool, along with a big warm pool and a lap pool. The girls had sooo much fun. Avery floated in the lazy river for so long in her life vest happy as could be, then got out and got dressed and promptly fell asleep in Scott's arms. It was a really fun weekend and nice and relaxing too!

School Stuff

All three girls are loving school so that is so nice. We just had conference week so I thought I would blog a little about that and then Karis' field trip to Red Robin today.

Hailey: The teacher said she is "every teacher's dream". She said she always does whatever she says, works hard, is self-motivated, and very teachable. Just what I wanted to hear! She is very quiet also. She struggled when we first got here with reading which surprised me because she did so well in Kindergarten, but it turns out they teach reading completely differently than she was used to learning it. I told the teacher what she was supposed to do when she came to a word she didn't know in Kindergarten and she said, "That is basically the opposite of what we teach here." But once she started to get it she has done great. In fact the teacher said she has made leaps and bounds and is now right where she should be so that is a relief. Thankfully Hailey never realized she was struggling and thought she was doing great all along. :) She does struggle a little with math and number sense but I told her not to worry, girls aren't supposed to be good in Math or Science either for that matter. Just kidding....don't worry I didn't say that, nor do I believe that! However as my mom said, "She comes by the lack of number sense naturally. She got that from her mom and Grandma." So true...math was always a struggle for me too!

Karis: Surprisingly Karis also had a conference! This is preschool for goodness sake! Anyway I was a little surprised because the teacher described her as "quiet, sweet, and always on task". Really?! How can that be the same girl who is loud, oblivious to her surroundings here, and can never remember to pick up her toys? I was quite glad to hear that she behaves so well at school. Not that she doesn't behave here but she sure is a free-spirit.

Avery: No conference but she is doing great. Really quiet still but starting to get in and play with the other girls some. The teacher says she loves table-time the best which doesn't surprise me. She could spend hours here coloring and cutting and gluing. She does much better during structured time than free-time with groups of kids so I am hoping eventually she will come out of her shell a little and enjoy being a little more social.

Pictured above is Karis' field trip to Red Robin. She loved it! They had a tour, got to pour their own drink, met Red Robin, made a chef's hat, and even got lunch. Fun times for sure!

This Is So Cool!!

When we went to Haiti the week before last I told you all how we met another couple. Read this story and see what happened after they visited! My friend is the "nursing mother". She had to leave her little baby to come to Haiti to sign paperwork to adopt her next little baby. This was not an easy thing for her but look at what happened!

What a privilege it is to be a SMALL part of helping a baby have a chance at life!
This is written by the NICU nurse at the orphanage Benjamin lives at...I am the "mother"

Over the past few months, we have only admitted children whose cases have been critical. It is taking up to 2 years to process adoptions and with donations down and space at a premium, the staff here have a responsibility to guard the well-fare of the little ones that are all ready with us; to ensure that we do not have to compromise on the quality of care they receive.This gorgebaby boy (don't be fooled by the peach tones!) came just before the power outage,at a little over a week old, and weighing 5lb 13oz. His Mother had died shortly after he was born. He was dehydrated, jaundiced and showing signs of weight loss. His family could not afford to buy infant formula and so he had received only water since he was born.Baby N's case was therefore critical and he was admitted right away. A few days after he arrived he developed a cold and began having diarrhoea and vomiting. The NICU nannies and our head Haitian nurse were very clear about what they wanted to do for this little one.

The previous week, we were blessed to have a nursing mother come to visit her adoptive son, here at the baby house. The lady's birth son had not travelled to Haiti with her and so she was expressing milk, so that she could maintain her supply during her trip. She donated the expressed milk to us, to be frozen and used to help any fragile baby we thought could benefit from it.The Haitian staff wanted me to thaw some of this milk for Baby N. This is quite remarkable because Haitians are not fans of giving a mother's milk to an infant that is not her own. The ladies here, though, have seen a great many premature infants thrive on breast milk, while others have struggled to tolerate formula. They had seen that Breast milk was easier to digest, and they were very open to hearing about the immune boosters in 'Mummy milk.'After just two days of being fed breast milk, Baby N was no longer showing signs of illness and he was gaining weight. What a precious gift this Mother has given to this sick, orphaned baby! We really are so grateful to her.

This really encourages me. God's timing is so perfect with my friend coming to the orphanage at just the right time before this little baby was admitted!!

Today Alex Is Three

Today is a hard day. I am happy that Alex is three and healthy, but sad that he isn't here with us. But today I am choosing to just have hope. The second half of this verse really spoke to me:
2 Timothy 1:12
"For I know the One in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that He is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to Him."

Last year at a Bible Study the speaker was talking about how we all have treasures and dreams and some of those treasures and dreams we have to wait for. But God is the one who gave these to us and He is the one who will keep them safe until they are ours. It really spoke to me that God will protect Alex's heart and Alex himself while we wait to bring our little treasure home. So much of this adoption process I don't understand. In fact as I was talking with Andrea about it this week she said, "Sometimes life is just hard and we will never know why". That is so true. Awful things happen all the time and we always hear that there is a reason for it. I do believe there is a reason but I also don't believe we will always know what that reason is until we are face to face with Jesus.

In my mind I can't ever think that Alex not being with us is OK. But I know God is watching Him, God has a special spot in his heart for orphans, and God is working in ways that I can't see and in ways that are way bigger than this adoption. I remember going through something really hard that I didn't understand once before and someone telling me that God is working so much more than what I can see with my eyes. I also know and believe because I have seen that God can restore and redeem years to us. I must choose to hold on to hope that in some way He will restore these years to Alex and to us. I wasn't sure if I could blog about this day but I thought I should. I want to remember this when our little boy is sitting on my lap and I want to be able to have his story to share with him some day.

We made a special package and put it in the mail for Alex. We went to Build-A-Bear and made a doggy for him that we all talked into. He can push the paw and hear: "Mommy loves Alex, Daddy loves Alex, WE LOVE ALEX". We each said our part with the girls all together at the end. They all took a heart and rubbed it on their heart and made a wish and put it inside the dog. I also filled the box with bouncy balls, inflatable balls, soft balls, and candy for his little roommates. We also bought a Cars collection of cars since he seems to enjoy cars. And then Avery added one of her balls to the box. I put in some pictures of when we were with him and some scented lotions for his nannies. I really hope the box gets through customs before Christmas!!

Bruin Visits!!

First off a big thank you to all the comments, emails, and phone calls I have gotten in the last week since visiting Alex. I can't thank you enough for all the encouragement and mostly for the prayers. Those of you who have been praying and are now praying even harder- thank you so much!! It means so much to us. I keep going back and reading all of your encouraging words. This has been a lot harder emotionally than I planned, but I am feeling better. For awhile there I couldn't go more than an hour or two without breaking down but now things are feeling better. I don't think I will feel right though until Alex is home, but I trying to focus on what we have here- a lot of blessings- and praying for him and for all of the kids in Haiti waiting to come home. After being in Haiti, Scott and I really feel a passion for the people of Haiti. At first I said, "One is not enough! We need to adopt more!" Who knows where God will lead us though- we have all kinds of ideas about things we could do to help though. Just being at the orphanage was so inspiring to us. We'd love to go spend several weeks there with our kids helping, cleaning, holding babies. I can totally see the girls and me leading some sort of crafts and activities while Scott does handy-man type stuff around the orphanage. Hopefully in a few years we will have the opportunity.

OK that had nothing to do with the blog title so back to that....Most of you know my good friend Andrea who I met in college. She became my roommate after some interesting experiences first semester. Thank the Lord she moved in because college suddenly got a whole lot better, but that's a whole other post! Anyway we have been friends through it all since then. We navigated through the horrid dating scene and eventually stood up for each other at each other's weddings. In fact not only did I get to be the Maid of Honor but Hailey and Karis got to be flower girls. Well fast-forward to now and Andrea is the proud mother of an adorable baby boy: Bruin. He is six weeks old. From the moment Andrea was in the hospital having him I have been itching to get my hands on this boy! I originally planned to fly down to be with her but the circumstances didn't work out with us going to Haiti and trying to get me to Portland without the girls- Scott working, who will watch them, etc. etc. So amazingly Andrea decided to brave flying here by herself with Bruin!! Very impressive. He did great on the plane although he did have a huge blow-out right before taking off from Portland and Andrea had no clothes in the diaper bag and had to buy him a men's t-shirt to wear. The joys of newborns!

He did great here although man, I forgot how much work a newborn is! So much holding and feeding and changing. Although Andrea is handling it like a champ. I was so impressed with how laid- back and just go with it she is. Nothing seemed to phase her including every time we were in the car he literally screamed the whole way. And the crazy thing was that twice it put Avery to sleep! He reminds me of Hailey in that he won't nap for more than a few minutes unless he is being held. I tried to encourage Andrea by telling her that all changes but I couldn't remember when. Isn't it funny how quickly we forget these things?

We did lots of fun things: went to the mall, went out to eat lunch, went out for ice-cream. It was so nice just to hang out and chat and hold the baby. He is so adorable and the girls adored him. You can see in one of the photos they are changing his diaper and clothes. They were all over him constantly kissing him and holding him. In fact they were begging me to have another baby. Promising me they would help take care of it. Ummm...I remember hearing that about the dog....

It was so sad when Andrea left. We were all crying at the airport, except Hailey who was saying, "Stop crying! She's going to miss her plane!" Karis cried the whole way home, "I want Andrea!" So sad to be so far away now!!! Hopefully we will get to see her again soon. Thanks for coming Andrea and letting us meet baby Bruin!! We love him and you too of course! (Oh and don't forget Ben,the wonderful father and husband. Hopefully he can come next time too!)

Spending Time With Alex (Read the post below first.)

Day 2: Alex had school from 8-9 so we only got to see him for a few minutes that morning. He just lit up when he saw us and started saying, "Mama Alex" to his friends to make sure they knew who we were! We followed him into his little classroom and he was so cute and so smiley. Then we left to go down to the main house where we went over our paperwork with Stephanie another missionary from the US. After we did that we had about an hour until we needed to go the US Embassy to file our I600 so we went up to the baby nursery to hold a baby. I have never seen so many babies at once. I think they have 85 right now including one who had been brought in that day brand new. All around you hear crying and smell poop. Most of the kids have parasites so they have really smelly poop and they poop a lot. I can't imagine how many diapers they go through.

Scott and I walked in the room and instantly babies are crawling at you, trying to climb up you if they can, pulling on our shoes, and holding up their arms and crying. We would hold two at a time. Finally we decided to each take one up to the balcony to play. It was fun but so overwhelming. The needs were so great. Thankfully volunteers come to GLA just to hold and play with babies, so several were there doing just that.

Then we went to the US Embassy, we were there a couple of hours and got all of our paperwork filed. Catherine and Kevin went with us and once again it was so nice to have them for moral support. We also met another couple when we were there who we stayed with us at the guest house who are also adopting. We instantly bonded with them also. Both couples we met have other children also so we felt like our situations were very similar. We shared together, cried together, comforted each other, and promised to pray for each other. It was really neat to meet these people. Another person we met was a mom who was actually bringing her little guy home to the Netherlands so that was fascinating to get to know her and to see how her little boy was reacting to leaving the orphanage.

After we got back from the US Embassy we were able to spend the rest of the afternoon with Alex and also with Melinda and Jeff - the parents from Canada adopting Wilde. It was so fun to get to know Alex better. We gave him some gifts and he absolutely loved one of them, a little yellow car that you shake and then it goes. He did it over and over and over. We also gave him an Elmo phone which he loved and a Diego toy that didn't make any noise so he wasn't quite as into that! We also brought M&M's and it was so sweet....he would take them and throw them over the balcony for his friends to eat too. We were amazed at how selfless these kids were. They have so little but were so willing to share.

This picture makes me sad. As the day was coming to an end we walked down to the gate and Alex became more and more somber. He just clung to Scott's hand. We had to leave to eat but then we did get to come back that night so that was great. When we got back all the kids were in a group and all of a sudden he comes running up to me laughing and holding out his arms. So priceless. I tell you I have cried more this week than I can remember ever crying this consistently. This is such an emotional journey. When it was time to go to bed that night as I handed Alex to his nanny his little lip went up and he started crying. It was awful. I was not prepared for him to realize or to care, I didn't think it would mean so much to him but he really does seem to know who we are.

GLA does a really good job of preparing these kids for their parents. They talk about us all the time and tell the kids over and over that they will not live at the orphanage forever but with their families. In fact some of the kids play, "the white parents are coming" and they pretend to be the parents and the kids run up to them and then "go home" with them. I love that.

The next morning it was time to go. They got him up early so we could have an hour with him. It was a precious and very hard time. He really hung onto me and I couldn't not cry. Molly translated for us as we told him how much we loved him and that we would be coming back for him and other things we wanted him to know. I pray he remembers those words and that God comforts him as he waits. I was so encouraged by Molly and Joyce. They promised to love on him and take care of him. They said they were going to make that day his special day and watch movies with him in the special room and let him eat all the snacks he wanted. We are so grateful to have them there loving on him and caring so much.

Here he is with Wilde. We really hit it off with his parents so we plan on getting the boys together once they are home. I am so excited for that! There is so much more I am forgetting but this is already so long so I will caption a few more photos and then be done as my arm is going numb!!

I love how cuddly he is.

I think Scott looks so happy here!!

This is where he sleeps, the bottom bed with 3 of his friends. A nanny sleeps in the room with him. I am thinking that we will have to cosleep with him when he comes home or he is going to be scared since he has never slept alone. The girls have all agreed to trade off sleeping with him too! But then Avery said, "I will sleep with him but I get my own bed and he can have a mattress next to me."

He has some amazing nannies who take care of him and love him too. They are Haitian women so we weren't able to communicate much but I could tell they were compassionate and loving.

This is his preschool room. He will start learning English when he is 4. Of course he will be home before that right?!!! Please pray he comes home soon. Everyone wants to know when he will be home and frankly we just don't know. We are in parquet and then have to go through courts so it will still be awhile. I am praying for a miracle though!! I have such a peace that he is in such a good place though. It doesn't replace a family but it sure is a loving and good and safe place to be for now.

And one more thing.....seriously.....we got the cutest one ever didn't we?!!! Could he be any cuter?!

Meeting Alex

Well we are back from Haiti and what a trip it was. I can not even describe most of it and do it justice but I will try. I was so nervous to go to Haiti. When we started the adoption process we planned to go to Haiti to bring Alex home. When we found out we had to go because of a law change to sign paperwork, meet him, and leave him, I about lost it. I dreaded meeting him and then leaving him and rightfully so. However, I will say I wouldn't trade the last few days for the world. Meeting our precious boy was more wonderful than I could have imagined. I have such a peace about him being our son. He is perfect for us and for our family. I have been told over and over what a sweet boy he is, but to finally see it with my own eyes did so much good for my soul.

The picture below is the first thing we did in Haiti. Let me rewind a bit....we left Monday night and flew all night to Miami. When we arrived in Miami we met up with another couple who is adopting and some volunteers who were going to work at the orphanage. I was so nervous to meet the couple- Catherine and Kevin- who were adopting also. When we met at the gate both Catherine and I started crying and hugging each other. We had an instant connection. There aren't many others who know how hard this feels so to be face to face with another mom as we embarked on this together was priceless. Scott and Kevin didn't start crying though. :) We boarded the plane to Haiti and then I really started to have a hard time. I wanted to talk to my mom but was too emotional so Scott called her. Then I ended up being able to call another friend who has been through the international adoption process twice and done the meet, leave, and come back; so she was able to reassure me and let me know she was praying.

The flight to Haiti was 2 hours and when we landed I started crying again, as did Catherine. It was so nice to not be the only basket-case!! We navigated through the airport fairly well and found our driver who had a sign with our names. We were told to not go with anyone who didn't have God's Littlest Angels ID or to not let anyone take our bags. As soon as we got out to the car people were all around yelling, "I'm hungry!" and pointed to my bag of snacks. It was heart-wrenching but that was only the beginning. I can't even describe driving through Haiti to the orphanage. Poverty like I have never seen before. People everywhere, garbage, shacks of houses and stores. And the driving. OH my goodness...it was crazy. We had so many near accidents it was unbelievable.

As soon as we arrived at the orphanage we were greeted by Melanie- the girl who takes pictures and writes updates every month. She gave us lunch which was so good. Some sort of rice and sauce and fried plantoon I think-banana. Very good. Then she told us we had our appointment with the judge. So we got back in the car and drove some more. Up and up we went and around and around until we came to the court which is pictured below. We signed some paper after the clerk typed for about 15 minutes. Eric our social worker was with us and did all the talking. He also photographed us signing as proof we were there. Then we went back to the orphanage for the moment we had been waiting for.
Alex lives at the toddler house which is up the road from the main house so our driver took us there. I can't even describe the emotions going through me as we walked into the gate and I looked around at all the children and heard them yelling, "Mama Alex, Mama Alex". GLA is so wonderful in the way they do things...they have a special room where parents meet their children in private. So Joyce (one of the girls who runs the orphanage- she is 26 and is from Canada) took us upstairs where Molly (another girl who runs the orphanage from the US) was waiting with Alex. We walked in and I started crying and sat down next to him on the couch and so did Scott. He was holding a book we had sent and wearing clothes we had sent him. He just kept patting the book. Then I asked if I could hold him and he let me. I would compare this moment to when our girls were born and I first held them. As you take in the weight of their little body, their smell, and gaze into their eyes, all the emotions I felt after giving birth I felt as I held this little one born of my heart. All my anxiety melted away as I bonded to him. After a few minutes Molly said she would leave us alone and she told us there was snacks for him and toys.

The room we were in was next to a balcony and down below all the other children were playing. He very quickly started to get up and run to the balcony and yell something down and then come back to us. Then he started going through my purse and holding things up to show the children. You could tell he was quite proud of himself that his parents were here. We took pictures and watched him play and then it was time for him to eat dinner so we left. They didn't have us eat with him because I think that is too bonding at this point and since we weren't taking him home they didn't want us to do things with him that parents do who are taking their children home. They did a really good job of preparing the kids for this though and since it is happening to all of the kids there it is good that they are able to understand.

One thing I wasn't prepared for was the language barrier. He really couldn't understand much of what we said I don't think. Molly translated for him in creole but other than that we just had to go with nonverbal, which was fine. His little voice is so cute!! We video taped him quite a bit when we were there so that has been fun to watch. OK, I am going to finish on the next post.....

We Should Buy Stock In Disney

And if you are wondering why just look at the girl's Halloween costumes. We have Aurora-Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, and Minnie Mouse. And in case you are wondering what a banana is doing in the photos, that is actually our dog Gracie! But getting 3 girls and a dog all in costumes to look at the camera and stand still is next to impossible, so this is the best I could do. The girls had a wonderful time trick-or-treating last night. Our neighborhood goes all out. So many orange lights up, dry ice, sound effects, and tons of blow up decorations, not to mention all the other creepy hanging things and graveyards we saw!

The girls were pretty brave up until Halloween night. All this month their favorite thing to do was to walk around the neighborhood looking at all the "scary" decorations. But last night in the dark was a different story. We started to walk up to one very decorated house and all of a sudden loud music played that whahh sound and lights came on a decoration. It was creepy! The girls screamed and Karis dropped her candy bucket which went flying everywhere. All 3 took off running so fast. I of course was laughing hysterically. After that they would only go up to the non scary houses. They also had tons of fun being home and passing out candy to the trick-or-treaters. Something new for them since we didn't get many in our neighborhood in the Burg! It was a really fun night and the best part was coming in from the cold, turning on the fire and getting cozy and letting the girls munch on candy. Avery is so funny, she would lick or bite a piece, change her mind and open a new one. Too many choices! Karis and Hailey of course ate their whole pieces. And I followed Helen Gene's advice (mother of 5 all grown up and healthy), "They are only little once, Halloween is once a year, let them eat whatever they want. They are kids for goodness sake!"

Halloween Party, Birds of Prey, and Karis' Stats

First things first so I don't forget. Karis had her 5 year Dr. appointment. She weighed in at 42 pounds (60%) and was 42.5 inches tall (50%).

Yesterday we took the girls to the Birds Of Prey Center here in Boise. Since Avery has loved birdies since she was very young, we knew she would love this and she did. We got to see a bird show where the birds did tricks. One was people could hold out money and the bird would come get it out of their hand. Now since I am totally freaked out by birds I assumed there was no way our girls would do this. Well, I assumed right with the older two but Avery was totally into it. She held out the dollar bravely and the bird came to get it. As soon as the bird came though she threw it so he had to get it from the ground.

I was amazed how smart the birds were. The only thing though was the lady running the show didn't want any noise or movement. The girls were sooo good, silent basically, but would occasionally kick their legs, as all children do. Each time she would tell them to stop, that it would scare the birds. At one point the bird flew really close to us and Karis gasped, so the lady reprimanded her: "The bird isn't going to hurt you, but if you gasp, he will think something is wrong, and be scared." I couldn't look at Scott because I could feel the laughter bubbling up inside me and knew we would both lose it if we made eye contact. Anyway after that we toured the building and the girls learned quite a bit about birds and eggs and such. A nice excursion it was.
On Thursday Hailey had her school Halloween party. Actually Avery had one that day where she wore her costume and got to bring treats, and Karis' school had Spider Day, but the weekend before had a Trunk or Treat we went to which was really fun. We all went to help at Hailey's party, although there were so many parents there that I basically did nothing. The girls all got to do some of the crafts so that was fun. Avery doesn't do well with chaos, so I really should have had her stay at Preschool (they can stay for the afternoon and play for a small fee) but it went OK. She mostly just wanted me to hold her so it was a little hard to interact with Hailey and her stuff.

I tried to get a picture of Hailey with her teacher but Hailey is shy and her teacher is not so it was kind of funny. Her teacher is hilarious. She was like, "Hailey! Let your mom take my picture with you, please, you know I love you bunches, do it for me!" Her teacher is AMAZING. Everyday she walks her to our car, hugs her and says, "I love you." If Hailey says, "I love you" she goes, "I love you more!" She is such a great teacher and so fun too!! The kids adore her and Hailey has learned sooo much this year already.

Well, off for the Halloween festivities. The girls are already asking, "Can we go trick-or-treating?" It's going to be a long wait, so we'd better find something to do!

BRRR....

So today for the 2nd week in a row I got to spend my morning that is supposed to be my morning off mothering duty, going to the Pumpkin Patch. Not that I mind spending my precious 2 hours that are mine and mine alone walking with a group of preschoolers through a field to choose pumpkins. Anyway today was Avery's day to go and since last week was cold I thought this week, "Forget the cute pumpkin shirt and tutu, we are dressing warm." Well, we didn't dress warm enough!! It was freezing. I found myself acting like I was in Ellensburg, complaining about the freezing temperatures and checking my watch every 2 minutes hoping an hour had passed. Avery was more of a trooper than me but not much. Since she likes to be carried during all new situations she wasn't into me putting her down. So I held her, the pumpkin, the camera, and the water bottle, oh- also my Starbucks! In the bitter cold while my hands were going numb! Avery also wouldn't let me take any pictures but I managed to get a couple. She eventually chose a pure green pumpkin, but I was not permitted to photograph it. I must say I am so grateful to be back home in our warm house eating nachos made from Doritos for lunch. Oh the life....

Also don't be offended if I deleted your previous comments. The paranoid in me got to thinking what if someone mentioned in the previous post stumbled upon my blog. I would be mortified and feel terrible if it hurt her feelings, which I would imagine it would. Anyway it is over and done with, life goes on, and no one seems to remember the incident besides me. As a mom sometimes it feels harder to let go of injustices to your child than yourself. Anyway.....moving on.....

Where Does My Four Go?

OK this will be a little backwards but here is Karis yesterday on her 5th Birthday. Quite excited because Auntie Rach sent her a Hannah Montana outfit. Scott and I were thrilled because Hannah Montana is just the girl we want her to emulate. If only she could talk, dress, and act just like Hannah then our parenting job would be done. Thanks Auntie Rach!! The picture next to it is her opening her presents. She got her main present from us early so she could wear it to her party....a Jasmine outfit that she has longed for for months. She was thrilled wearing it around Boise yesterday because several people told her she really does look like Jasmine. Amazing....a child can resemble Cinderella and Jasmine. Only Karis! OK while Ella was here the girls got to go get their nails done and Ella got her hair cut at the Children's Salon. Ella was not thrilled with this endeavor at all. She did enjoy the nails I think because she chose purple and seemed a little happier. We went to the mall for hours before that and the girls had a wonderful time running around. In fact Ella found a purple, lacy piece of lingerie and declared in a loud voice, "My mother would love this. She loves purple!"

Several people thought all four girls were mine. I told them the older three were but the little blond three year old girl screaming and throwing things across the Disney Store in a rage belonged to my sister. I figured since they don't know Becky they'd never know the difference. After that we met Scott at the Cheesecake Factory and he took the mini-van of girls on home so Mom and I could do some serious shopping. And that we did! Wait till you sisters and sister in law see what you are getting for Christmas. I purposefully picked out things that would look good on me in case you don't like them.

"Where does my four go?" That is the question Karis asked the night before her Birthday. She was almost in tears wondering where her 4 would go. Then she asked, "Can I keep it in my heart forever?" That's our Karis Girl. Such a feeler she is. Anyway she had a great 5th Birthday. The celebrating started Tuesday when Grandma and Cousin Ella arrived on an airplane. The girls had soooo much fun. Ella is a child with a lot of personality so she fits right in. She is generally happy, go lucky, and quite social. I will say I have never seen our downstairs such a disaster from the hours on end of playing. She is also so loving. Always crawling on us or giving us a big hug and kiss and saying, "I love you." or "You are the best ___ ever." The girls requested we keep her and she could just go home and visit her family sometimes. I told them I didn't think Becky would go for that! And having my mom here was so great. She helped with the party, helped decorate the cakes, and pointed out all kinds of bargains for me. Scott and I enjoyed chatting and laughing with her at night as she always has a good catering story to tell. And the girls just love being with her. Since she raised so many kids she totally understands the chaos and isn't bothered by the girls acting like little girls! As far as guests go she is very low-maintance!! I can't wait to have her come back!

Her party was lots of fun though. We did several princess crafts and all the girls came in princess clothes which I didn't manage to get a picture of for some reason. I tell you I haven't been very good about that lately. We also went to the Pumpkin Patch with Grandma and Ella and we dressed the girls matching but it was so freezing I never got a picture. Anyway we had a great time with Grandma and Ella and the girls want them to come back now. We also went to Red Robin for dinner and afterwards there was a trunk-or-treat in the parking lot with all the police officers so we did that, it was raining, the girls had no coats and just the ballet outfits they wore to dinner, but thankfully they looked like costumes. We had no bag so they dumped all the candy in Grandma's purse! Good times for sure!