Here We Go!!

Brian left this morning heading back to Haiti taking a group of 22 to serve in Ti Marche.  So excited because no one has ever gone there and focused on them before.  Sweet, sweet people.

Molly being Molly

As for the chaos...  It has started.  Molly struggled last night knowing Daddy was leaving.  There were lots of hugs, kisses, and tears.  This morning as she got up and started getting ready for school her first question was "is Daddy already in Haiti?"  I told her he was on his way and she, very dramatically, rolled her eyes, sighed, and said "oookayy."  She then turned around and walked out and was fine for the rest of the morning.  It's kinda funny to me that Brian always wonders if Molly really even likes him.  She misses him so much when he's gone and gets so excited when he comes home.  I just don't think she can possibly understand what Daddy does over there.  And what is Haiti?  She just cannot wrap her 6 year old brain around it.  That's okay, there are moments I can't wrap my 35 year old brain around it.

I'm hoping that we'll be able to take her with us when we go get Merline, whenever that will be, so she can visualize Haiti and know the people we love so much.  It certainly helped Riley to go down and Emmie as well.  Both of them really seem to "get it" since going and spending some time.

Riley and Jean - total buds!

I will never forget what Riley said after he came home, "I understand why Daddy has to go.  I really just thought he was going down there and hanging out with friends."  Wow.  All we said to him just didn't matter until he went there himself.  Riley is our tender-hearted, intuitive kid.  He loves hard and hurts deep.  I fully expect him to be working in Haiti someday.  The picture to the left is of him and his friend, Jean.  Jean is actually a part of the Haitian National Police.  Major tough guy.  Every time I'm in Haiti Jean asks if we can talk to Riley so we call and the light on Jean's face is so cool.  Brian says Riley's face is the same.  I love that!  Jean looks tough, he is actually a mule of a man, but he is really just a big ole softie!

In the truck in PaP

When Emmie went to Haiti she was supposed to stay a week.  That ended up changing.  We had to change plane tickets and she stayed for 2 weeks and still didn't want to come home.  She said she missed those of us left here, but I'm really not sure.  I just recently found a music video, and I use that term loosely, that she and Merline made.  An entire Taylor swift song with moments of "Yo, who's at da do?"  It was quite obvious language wasn't really an issue for those two!  During those 2 weeks she spent a crazy amount of time with her sister and her Daddy in a truck driving around Haiti running errands.  Here it would have been 2-3 hours probably, but Haiti traffic is a different animal so time in the truck was a major chunk of time.  Emmie loved every smelly, bumpy minute of it!  Don't really get it, she gets car sick when we drive 8 minutes to the grocery store here.

Merline at the beach in Jacmel

What can I tell you about Merline?  She is the sweetest kid!  Since we have started the adoption process of Merline she has changed.  Merline was so needy just a year ago.  She was sometimes even hard to deal with because she was clingy and whiney when I loved on other kids at the orphanage.  She didn't ask for anything.  She just wanted to be held.  She's changed.  She now goes and gets other kids and puts them on my lap and then sits next to me, perfectly content.  She asks for new sandals and then when we take them she puts them on another girl who needs them, then she walks around in broken flip flops.  She loves Froot Loops, which is good since we have cereal night here at least once a week. : )  I can't wait to get her here and watch her personality come out!

Four kids, whether they're all here or not, are sometimes a handful.  The ones here are physically challenging and the one not here is emotionally challenging and they are all mentally challenging!  I'm just praying we can have fun in the midst of all the chaos.