Bonjou!
On February 18 (18 Fevriye), we left Ian and Tessa in the very capable hands of our dear friends, Zach and Sara Fugate and drove to Chicago. Heather was nauseous on the trip and actually vomited when we got to the hotel. I was afraid we were in for a rough week. We stayed overnight and on Sunday we flew to Miami. After a late dinner at Ping's Wok, we retired for the evening, knowing we would have to be up very early to fly to Port-au-Prince. We met some new friends in the lobby who are also adopting and we left for the airport.
We had been warned about the airport in Port-au-Prince, but I confess it was not as bad as I had envisioned. We were greeted with Caribbean music at the entrance (provided by Digicel), lightening the tension right away. Immigration and customs were a breeze. We had been told about the waves of people wanting to help with our bags, but we were told to "just say 'no'" and keep walking until we saw "Big", a man who helped with our bags. He called our names and I said "no", but he called out again and said the name of Angie, and so we followed him.
After we loaded up in our van, we toured Port-au-Prince. In some ways, I was more shocked than I expected, for example at the number of people. In most ways, though, I confess that I was less shocked. The squalor was less than I anticipated. There were certainly areas of garbage and a lot of rubble, but much of it was cleaned up and more orderly. Traffic was organized chaos. The traffic laws we follow here don't really apply there. They rely much more upon their horns and aggressive driving tactics to get around. Cars, motorcycles, and tap-taps whiz by just inches from one another, yet there is no apparent road rage like here.
There are vendors everywhere selling every imaginable ware--bananas, car parts, plastic chairs and more. We did see one fight break out, but we kept driving. Midway, we hopped out to take pictures of the collapsed presidential palace and we were immediately surrounded by vendors.
Eventually, we made our way to Maison des Enfants de Dieu, the orphanage where our children live. We waited anxiously on the porch for the kids. Vladimy came out first. He immediately crawled into Heather's lap and they embraced for at least a couple of minutes. Then I got to hold him. He is definitely a snuggler. Yoldine came out next. She was a bit more guarded at first, but she did sit in our laps too. Very soon, she grabbed Grace's hand and took her on a tour of the orphanage. We got to play with lots and lots of beautiful children.
The orphanage has a large courtyard, covered mostly in gravel. The kids live in cement bunkrooms with several other children, mostly sleeping on crib mattresses. In the courtyard, the nannies do the cooking and laundry. The kids eat at long tables in the courtyard, often beans and rice or a variant. Their portions are large, which makes me happy. Vladimy eats all of his, but I observed Yoldine giving part of hers away a couple of times. The beans and rice we had, which was served with a creole sauce, was truly excellent. I would eat that regularly.
Later on, we all went back to the hotel. It was a comfortable place, but very different from most $200/night hotels I have stayed at in the past. No A/C, couldn't drink the water, and no hot showers. But I loved it there. We soon jumped in the pool. To our surprise, Yoldine was insane in the water, but Vladimy was much more hesitant. I think she would have stayed in the pool all the time. Vladimy would be in for a few moments, but then quit. He was happier playing around the edge of the pool.
The children's personalities were in many ways as I expected. Vladimy laughed 98% of the time. He talked, in Creole, non-stop. We asked Yoldine if he talks all the time. She said, "oui." He played with lots of different toys and enjoyed it when Heather read to him. He has some food issues. He eats a lot and holds his food tightly in his fist. He was frequently heard to be saying, "Manjay", which means "eat" or "food". Another eye opening thing for us was that in Haiti, they apparently do not tell children no very often before the age of five. So, correcting behavior was often a challenge, though there was clear improvement through the week.
Yoldine, who started out very quiet, came out of her shell quickly. She is a goofy, funny, happy girl. She loves playing with the doll, having her hair done, and dancing. She attached very well to Grace particularly. She also loves "the game", in other words my ipad. We asked her if she wanted pizza or spaghetti for dinner and we got an emphatic "OUI!"
We spent the week mostly playing games, communicating as well as we could, and just loving our kids. It was so much fun to learn their personalities.
Thursday we had to go to the embassy and we were there for 4-5 hours. I got dehydrated and was dealing with caffeine withdrawal, unfortunately. The process was long, but we made it through. We also had to go to court. We stopped in the middle of a large market place with hundreds of people and had to get out, thankfully under the watchful eye of Sufran, our security. We walked into a dark room, the size of a bathroom with a desk, a fan, and three people. We had to sign our names to a notebook that had pages handwritten in creole. I may have signed a recipe for fried plantains, for all I know.
Thursday night, we had to bring the kids back to the orphanage. Yoldine's guard went back up. Vladimy wept. They each kept a part of our hearts and I cannot wait for the days to pass to see them again. I really would like to have all of my kids together, even there, if God will's it. We don't know the timeline yet, but I promise it will not be fast enough.
We are now back in the U.S.A., part of us anyway. We would treasure your prayers for our family. We ask that God would allow the time to pass quickly until we see them again, that He would watch over us all, and that His "what" and His "when" would come to pass.
Here are two videos I clipped together.
At Maison-February 2012 from Jason Kanz on Vimeo.
Haiti Adoption February-Hanging out with the kids from Jason Kanz on Vimeo.
Here is a link to our public facebook albums.
From Maison
From the hotel
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