Haiti 2012

I went to Haiti last month.  It was difficult because I'd been having so much depression and anxiety, but it was still a wonderful trip.  One of my favorite things was when I got to do this:

 A tearful and joyful reunion with little V.

 Here little V shows me her photo of her graduation from her first year of school.  Her report card was awesome.  They said she is extremely bright, happy, intelligent, and full of life.  Little R is not so sure of me but little V remembers me well and R became comfortable quickly.  Big V looked healthy and beautiful.  I was so happy!

 If you don't know who these people are--the woman in red and the two little girls...well...they are so close to my heart that I can't even write it on a public site so you can email and ask me.  All three of these females are so special to me but there is something about little V that just kills me. I love her so much it hurts.

 Maybe it is because I made her a promise when I first met her at only this age:

I promised that I would always look out for her and keep close to her.  That I would do my best to help her have opportunities and a happy life.  I cannot explain the deep connection I feel for her.  Some people do not agree with the relationship I have nor the things I do in regards to this mother and her daughters.  Unicef would have an aneurism.  I understand where they are coming from.  But...to them...and to any others...all I have to say is, well...to hell with you.  Nothing will stop me from doing all I can to keep my promise. 

Some Before and Afters

For those of you who don't know, my sister-in-law Natalie is really amazing.  She's amazing in a lot of ways.  She is kind and fun and a great friend to me.  She's an awesome mom.  She also started a business to help out with the family finances and she has become an amazing success as a "Mompreneur!  Check out her blog here:  Natty by Design 
or here: http://nattybydesign.blogspot.com/


Natalie knew that I'd been having a rough summer and that I had a lot of projects that I just didn't have the energy to finish.  Her specialty is painting old things and making them look new and beautiful!  My kitchen cabinet doors had been sitting in the garage since we moved in.  I had a table with no chairs.  I had an awesome dresser for Lila but hadn't painted it yet...so Natalie (with the help and support of my brother-in-law Zac, of course) flew out to our house for a quick weekend.  She worked her tail off and helped me get things done!  She had to leave before everything was dry so she didn't get to see the rewards of her labor.   Here are some before and after pics:

First Before:  The cabinets were more honey colored than they appear here.  We did not like them.

 

Second Before:  I worked my tail off before we moved in and got the skeleton done but we spent over 2 months with no doors or drawer fronts.  It was lovely:

 First After:

I wrote "first after" because I love my cabiets now! I think they look amazing!  However, the cream walls don't do much for the kitchen with everything else white.  We've been planning to paint the kitchen and is one of my next projects...for sometime in the next month...or...year.

Before:  I found some really nice, sturdy, wood chairs on Craigs List for really cheap!  But they needed some obvious help.

I chose a teal green color for them.  Jason was not sure about my bright color choice at first but now he is getting used to them and I think he even likes the fun color in an otherwise very neutral area.  The 4 black chairs ($5/each) had been refinished many times and looked super trashed but they were still very sturdy and I'm glad we have some extra chairs to bring out so we can eventually start inviting families over to eat with us.

Here is Natalie hard at work, getting everything ready to paint.  It was REALLY hot!  I don't have an after photo of the dresser yet but it is darling.  Thank you so much, Nat, for your generosity!

Goldilocks the Tazmanian Devil

 I like to call Lila Goldilocks because her curly hair has so much true gold in it.  But she much more closely resembles "Taz" from the old Warner Brother cartoons.  She whirls through the house.  Within 5 minutes she will have dumped out a train set, climbed onto the table and colored some markers on herself and the table, then thrown said markers onto the ground with out their caps, climbed onto the counter by the sink to break some dishes, dumped out the Scrabble game, poured my face powder all over herself and then thrown  something into the toilet. 

 Regrettably all this whirling-dervish-ness often ends up with something like the huge lump she currently has on her forehead.

 Grace is a wonderful big sister to her.  Lila adores her older siblings and goodness you should see the claps and screams of joy when they come home from school!  But she wears them out a lot, too.

 But, no matter.  This stage soon will pass and I remind myself many times every day not to wish away any of these moments with these little ones.

Back to School

Oh dear...there is so much to write about the last month but it was so emotionally exhausting that I don't know if I can do it.  I hope I will.  Especially about Haiti.  But every time I come back, my heart is so raw that it takes me quite awhile to heal before I can talk about it much.

For now I will just post a little about back to school.  I talked to the principal at my school for quite awhile before summer started to tell her my concerns about Addie and also the other 2--what I hoped for and what I felt they needed in a teacher.  I am very happy to report that Addie was assigned to the teacher known to be the very best and the most kind in the entire school.  After meet-the-teacher-night, she was so excited for school to start.  I wasn't sure how it would go but she's doing great.  Andre's teacher, as I requested, is a young black woman named Ms. Chatman and she has a ton of sass and is super fun.  I really wanted Andre to have this kind of exposure and its awesome.  I've often read in transracial adoption books that adopted black children have a hard time relating to African Americans but I think Andre is now getting so much exposure so early that it is not going to be a problem for him to relate to kids from any race or culture.  He's amazing.  Grace's teacher seems wonderful, as well.  Sadly, she is undergoing chemotherapy right now for breast cancer and has lost her hair.  I'm giving her some of my "shandanas". :)

One really convenient thing about our neighborhood is that even though it only takes about 5 minutes to drive to the school, we are just far enough away to ride the bus.  It comes and picks up the kids right at our front door and brings them back to me at the same spot.  The first morning Jason stayed home with the littles and I drove the kids to school to help get them to their classes safely.  First Andre went in, then Grace, then Addie.  I was seriously just sick to my stomach to watch each of them nervously look around, sit quietly at their desks and then wave to me.  They all looked fine.  But for me it was too much.  After I hugged Addie super tight and her teacher assured me over and over again that she would take good care of her, I quickly left before she could see me cry.  Then the tears started coming and wouldn't stop.  I don't have the words with me or the energy to write down all the emotions of taking the kids to yet another new school and to see their brave faces as they embraced yet another new challenge.  And I worried about Addie making any friends or being bullied and I thought about our kids in Haiti...and well...anyway...I'm really proud of my kids.  They are doing so well at taking things in stride.  Much better than I am, it seems!

On their way into the school with fingers indicating their grade.

 

Off the bus right after school.  They all had a great first day!

 

Miles was pretty upset the first day when he didn't get to go to school with the kids.  I finally convinced him that "homeschool preschool" is "real" school.  He has a backpack which he fills with his preschool book, several reading books, his alphabet chart, markers, and various toys.  It is really heavy!  But he carries it around most every where--ready for school any time any place!  He gets it first thing when he wakes up in the morning and goes to choose his snack for the day out of the same basket the other kids get to choose (a baggy of goldfish crackers, pretzels, etc).  We could put Miles in preschool this year but I couldn't stand to do it.  What is wrong with me?  My first kids I couldn't wait til they were old enough to go!  Next year I think I will have to find something for him to do (well I actually already found a preschool twice/week but decided not to do it this year) because we have all-day kindergarten here.  What a shock to his system that will be!  Especially if I don't have him ever leave me for one minute of the day.  So...I think we'll do it next year.  But for now I just always want my babies as my babies as long as possible!