December 3, 2008 part 1

That morning I woke up to the girls already awake and getting ready for school. We spent the day working on building a closet, varnishing the feet for the boxes and starting on the benches. Today was the day we went to Odette's house. Odette's mom was at the orphanage most of the day waiting for Eddy to return. When he did me, Odette, Kevin, Benita, Eddy, and Odette's mom walked to her house. It was probably a 15 minute walk. It is hard to gauge time in Haiti. It moves a different pace that it does here. It was almost dark when we got to her house. Her papa was happy we were there. He went inside to get some chairs for us to sit in. So we sat down outside their house. I was trying to look around at everything and take it all in but it was getting so dark. I wanted to take pictures but realized that it may seem kind of rude to walk up in the dark and start taking flash pictures. I was there to meet the family and then take pictures after that. I have felt very ill-equipped to do this. I don't know how to do it ant I don't have it all figured out. As we were sitting at Odette's house I knew I wanted to find out about her family, how many brothers and sisters and what were there names and ages. They are going to be part of my family and will always be a part of Odette's family and I don't want them to forget Odette and I don't want Odette to ever forget them. Eddy wrote down the names and the ages of the parents and children. I noticed that there were no older children at the house so I asked where they were and found out the older children were going to school in the city. I was glad to hear that the older children were going to school, it makes me think the family is doing better than I anticipated since the older children are able to go to school. Odette's papa was definitely more relaxed than the day before and said that it meant a lot to him that I would come to their house and visit with them. He said we were now a big family. The family I left from that day were different than the ones from the previous night. I could not have done that without the encouragement and friendship from Brian and Kevin. They have been invaluable to me. I thank God for friends like that.

We walked back from Odette's house after taking some pictures of the family (in the dark). As we were leaving I was looking for Odette and couldn't find her. She was up ahead walking with Eddy and walked with him most of the way back. I didn't know what she was thinking or feeling after being back at her house. I noticed that she if very fond of Eddy. Eddy loves those girls and they love him. It gives me a peace about Eddy handling the adoption. He said he was ready to get started as soon as we were and said if we could get him the money he would go on Monday to take Odette's parent to the city to sign abandonment papers. This is the first of lots of money. It is getting more and more real.




This picture is of Odette & Dieula with Ricot (Pastor Juste's son), Eddy (Pastor Juste's son-in-law) & Evelyn (the nurse that checks on the girls). This way you will have a face to go with the names of our Haitian friends as I write about them. When Odette goes to the city for check-up & immunizations during the adoption process she will be staying with Eddy, Ricot & their families at their house. They love all the girls and it makes us feel good knowing they will take good care of Odette while she is with them.