Please Pray for Avrie!!!

I don't usually send out prayer requests, but this is urgent. I met Michelle Gordon in Haiti last October with her husband, Scott, while they were visiting their sweet little daughters (in the process of being adopted), Gracie and Destina . Their first little girl whom they were adopting, a little angel named Ellie, had become ill and died. When they arrived in Haiti for this trip (in October) they discovered that Gracie had become very ill. I took this photo of them. They nursed her the best they could while they were there. Gracie struggled for a few more months and then passed away in January. The family was devastated but, eventually they decided that they would press forward and accept the referral of a third baby girl. They named her Avrie. She turned 2 in April. When Michelle was in Haiti at the end of January, Avrie weighed 19 pounds--small but doing well. Michelle excitedly waited for this parent trip in June to see her daughters again. She arrived in Haiti on Sunday and found that Avrie is very, very ill--down to 11 pounds! My 3 month old, premature son weighs more than she does! Avrie has parasites, and bacterial infections, scabies and ringworm. Her life is really hanging in the balance right now. It is so so so not fair that little children just an hour flight from the US have to live like this. The Gordons are doing all that they can for Avrie-- took her to the hospital and she is on lots of medications. Please pray for Avrie. And please pray for the Gordons!

Three Months Old

Finn turned 3 months old yesterday. He is not really as chubby as he looks in this top photo but I had to show off his cute little smile. And he is growing very well. He is over 11 pounds now--that is more than 3 times his birth weight! He continues to be the sweetest and most docile baby I have ever seen. I am just head over heels for this little guy of mine. And with these photos I think we can officially say his eyes are blue, don't you think?

Dear Hair,

Thank you for coming back the last few months. I really did miss you. I thought I was mostly over you but having you come back has really made me feel good. This last week, though, you are giving me indications that you don't want to stay. Why? What can I do to convince you that this is where you belong? I wish I knew. Perhaps you'll change your mind and stay on a bit longer. And if you want to stay for good, that is great with me. But if you decide to go, please invite my positive attitude and self-confidence as a bald woman to come back because I really don't want to have to go through the search again.

Dear Loumy,

The other day when friend Maddie came over to play and I was putting sunscreen on you all, you broke my heart. You said to Maddie, not knowing I'd overhear, "I wish you were from Haiti, Maddie. That would be cool if you were from Haiti. I wish somebody else was from Haiti around here." You said the last part with that joking little voice you use, but I could see in your eyes as you looked at your skin compared to hers that it hurt you to feel different.

I think that most of the time you know how truly handsome you are. I hope you know that. I don't think you have a problem with the color of your skin or the color of anybody's skin. You made dad and I laugh in the car on Sunday when we were playing "I Spy". It was Dad's turn and he said, "I spy with my little eye something brown..." and before he could even finish giving his clue you shouted gleefully, "ME!!!" It wasn't you, but it was a good guess and it made me think again about how aware you are becoming of things that I didn't think you would be aware of for much longer. You know your skin is beautiful, its the being different part that is hard some times.

I am so grateful that you are my son. I think that in Heaven you must have been so noble. The Lord had a plan for us and your part was going to be extra difficult. I can picture you volunteering to do it to save your siblings any pain. That is how you always are now, so I'm sure it wasn't any different then. Even today when I was telling Addie that she needed to clean her room, you said to me resolutely, "Mom, its okay. She doesn't need to do it. I will clean her room for her." I didn't let you do that, but you would have done it just to make her happy and me happy. You like to do things that you think will make our home more peaceful, even if it means a sacrifice on your part. You were meant to be a part of our family. We need you and we love you.

I hope you always know that the Lord loves you. I wish I could take away any of the times where looking different hurts you. I wish you could also know how every place we go I see women smile with delight at how absolutely gorgeous you are.

I also wish that everybody could know how clever and funny you are. You love to be silly and you are getting so smart. And sometimes you say things that are very funny with out realizing that they are funny. Last week when Dad's PlayStation 3 FINALLY arrived in the mail, you cheered and shouted, "I knew it! I knew it would get here before Isaiah was resurrected!"

My dear, sweet, beautiful, Haitian Sensation, I am so happy we belong to each other!

Love,

Mom

Journal Stuff

The past few weeks have been so busy. I am sorry that I have nothing at all clever to say, just some documenting to do for my own journaling purposes.

Mahri came to visit two weeks ago from VA. The kids all fell in love with her. She is one of those rare friends that you come across and realize that you have known before. String Cheese felt a special connection to her. Mahri always makes me feel so good about myself that I want to be stronger and better and somehow I am able to be when she is around. We had a great time and the kids are begging for her to come play again!

Loumy had his first soccer season. He took it VERY seriously. He has a lot of skill for one so young but it hasn't transferred to the field just yet. He mostly has a very serious scowl on his face as he runs quickly near the ball. It was a short Spring season and by the last game he was getting much more involved. He really loves sports and the idea of being part of a team thrills our little man.Deedle has played a full year now and seems to like it fairly well. But I'll tell you, it was not good when a little girl from another team pulled on her shirt to try to get to the ball. I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but Deedle is rather fiesty. I'll leave it at that. She likes to kick the ball, although is not necessarily concerned with the direction. And she gets really ticked off at the end of a game if she hasn't scored. But she enjoys it well enough that she wanted us to sign her up for next year. And I must mention, though I have no photos at the moment, that String Cheese is turning into a very good little player. I am so proud of her. She is quick and getting more and more skilled all the time.

Finn even came to "watch" their last game. Thanks to the soccer mom who held him for me since I also had to coach Deedle's team.

It is dance time again. We've been having lots of practices and rehearsals for various performances. The first was today and then there will be a big one in June where the girls will each perform two dances. They are doing tap this year with Mrs. Peek. She is so cool and reminds me exactly of Jackie Hearn. I hope that she doesn't have to retire soon because she is an awesome teacher. Deedle danced to "Woody's Round Up" from Toy Story 2 and SC danced to "Tip Toe Through the Tulips", which Mrs. Peek played for them on a record player while they practiced. :) Now that's my type of dance school! Old school.

When I asked Deedle to pose after her performance today I heard her saying softly to herself, "Sassy. Sassy pose." I'll say.

And now I will have to start a new post because it is way too hard to move the pics to where I want them!

So Big!!!

At Finn's appointment yesterday (just over 10 weeks now) he weighed in at 8 lbs 11 oz!!! Typically pediatricians like to see babies double their birth weight by 4 months. Since Finn started at 3, 8 we are WAY ahead of the game. Nice growing, baby boy!!!

P.S. Have I mentioned how much I adore my baby? He brought so much happiness and peace with him!

8 Weeks and Chubby Cheeks

I am loving having my baby Finn so so so much. I pretty much just hold him all day every day. When I do put him down, he is so sweet and good. I don't know exactly how much he weighs. I have a digital scale and I tried to figure it out by weighing myself and then holding him and weighing myself again. So, let's say the scale said I weigh 400 pounds (fairly accurate at this point), I would pick him up and it would say 406.5. Then I tried again and it said 407. So I tried it again and it said 406.5. Then I got way too depressed from getting on and off the scale so I stopped. Anyway, Finn weighs somewhere close to 7 pounds now. He is growing so fast!

To celebrate his 8 weeks of birth (or just because we all happened to be together at my parent's house) we took some photos of Finn with his 3 boy cousins who were all born within 4 months of each other. My niece, Amber, also had a baby girl during this time but, regrettably, she lives on the on the opposite end of the country.The boys with their mamas are Jesse & Nancy, Israel & Ashley, Lewis & Kristen, Miles & Me. Jesse and Miles are first cousins. Israel and Lewis are first cousins and cousins-once-removed to Jesse and Miles (because Kristen and Ashley are my nieces). But our kids don't know any difference between which people are their cousins and which are their aunts/uncles in this family sometimes because...well...the age differences and all that. Too much typing. The End.