Beach day, Christmas & Sleepover at Camatin

January 8, 2010

This will be a day that I will never forget. It was such a special day for the team members and the girls. We started the day by picking the girls up at Coq Chante and then heading to the beach. We have fun playing at the beach but it was obvious the girls were ready to head back to Camatin for their first sleepover. Before spending the night at Camatin had been reserved for the girls in the process of being adopted. I always hated leaving all the other girls behind at night but it was a special time where we could spend one on one time with them and that we we could focus on loving on the other girls all day at Coq Chante. All of the girls had been inside of Camatin before but few had stayed there (no one knew that day that soon many of the girls would call Camatin home). They spent the rest of the afternoon at Camatin playing, running around and taking baths. That night Mona, Jean Luke, and some of our other helpers for the week had planned and cooked a special Christmas dinner for the girls. It was probably more food than the girls have seen and eaten in their lives. After dinner we gave the girls their Christmas gifts. Each girl had one wrapped gift (for most of them they had never unwrapped anything before) and also some toiletries and other fun things in their care package. It was so fun watching their excitement as they opened their gifts. The rest of the evening was spent playing with their new toys and watching a video before heading to bed after a long day. I shared my bed with Odette, Christianie and Guerline. I was glad that for one day we could take them out of their regular environment and just spend the day loving on them, playing with them and hopefully in the end showing them how much Jesus loves them all.


Guerline with her backpack that is a big as she is

pigs on the beach (something I had never seen before)

sweet kids that were playing next to us

Benita (the ziploc bag cracks me up)

Odette- you can see her chicken pox among the water drops

Lucas and Yollande

Atanie, Lorie, TIffani & Saintemene

Saintemene


Christmas feast (watermelon, fruit cake, french toast, potato salad, slaw, goat, salad, and more. . .

Yollande

Atanie & her princess Tiana doll

Saintemene

Girls enjoying their popcorn and soda

Marie Michelle

Valancia

Christianie

Malange

Madestine

Dieula

Linia

Onise

Me & Odette

Gladys

Benita

playing dominos

One of my favorite picts of Atanie- she was hiding from me in the bed

Guerline & Odette playing with Odette's legos we got her for Christmas

January 4-11 continued

January 9th

We spent the morning at Camatin with the girls and then headed back to Coq Chante for the afternoon


the spider that Wousamy found in the storage room


Love these pictures of Yollande

January 10th, Church day

Because this was such a small group and we didn't have as many projects to do as we usually do I was thinking on Saturday that even though I didn't want to leave the trip was seeming long. But after all I experienced on Sunday I was so glad that God gave us this last full day at Coq Chante because it was one of my favorite of the trip. We had church at Coq Chante that day. I sat in the back of the church and had such a sweet time watching the girls and the people of Coq Chante church worshipping with everything in them. Going to church each trip has always been one of my favorite parts of the trip. During the church service Benita's brother Milando kept peeking at me from a few pews up. He went out to the bathroom and when he came back in he climbed up in my lap. In a few minutes he was asleep in my lap for the second time that week. I enjoyed every second I had with him that day & fell apart when Kevin said it was time to give him back to his mom because they were going home. It took everything in me to hand him over. There is something very special about that little boy! After church some of us stayed for a long time talking playing, and taking pictures of some of the children and ladies in the community. I had such a good time and that whole day felt like I was exactly where God wanted me to be.

Some of the pictures:


Nicolette & Christianie (Atanie & Linia's baby sister & mom)

Ismael (Atanie & Linia's brother)

Lauren and Christianie

Tiffani & John Ismay (Atanie & Linia's older brother)

Me & Michleyn (she is a sweet little girl that lives in Coq Chante community & we have gotten to know & love over the years)

Onise's little sister- she is so pretty



some of Onise's brothers and sisters

Onise's mom and baby sister

After the afternoon in the church it was hair washing time for the girls. A couple of the girls had an infection in their scalp so all the girls were getting treated to either clear it up or prevent them from getting it. We took group pictures of them and their "big" hair.





The rest of the afternoon was spent playing legos, games, singing, Kevin playing horsey with the little girls (I will try to post the video), and some tears as we loved on the girls & they knew we would be leaving early the next morning.

That night Atanie came to Camatin with us and it warms my heart knowing how happy she was that last night of her life. We along with the other girls spent more time laughing with her that we ever have. She is a precious little girl that touched my life along with so many others and she will never be forgotten.

Monday, January 11th

Our last morning was spent finishing packing then loading up to take the adoptive girls back to the orphanage and we were headed to the airport. Like the last day usually is it was filled with many tears and hopes that this would be the last time we would have to say good-bye. I spent the truck ride praying and telling her about all she had to look forward to when she came home soon. I told her that her Daddy & Taylor couldn't wait to see her again and that Abby & Molly couldn't wait to meet her. When we pulled up at Coq Chante school had already started to we only had time for quick hugs and good-byes as the girls got ready to go to school. As we pulled away I spent the whole time looking back up the hill at the orphanage praying that soon I would be pulling away from the orphanage with Odette on my lap headed home. Only God knew what all of Haiti would face the following afternoon.

She is OFFICIAL

Odette legally became Odette Adrien Coleman on December 16th. Like every other step that we have gone thru since we started this journey the process to adopt her here in the US was much longer and harder that we thought it would be. Because she was here her adoption changed from an international adoption to a domestic adoption so we had to redo our home study. An international home study lasts for 18 months where a domestic home study lasts only 6. Then we had to wait on a letter from the USCIS that allowed us to finish our adoption process. All of the other 5 families got their letters within a few months of the first letters that went out. Ours took much longer for some reason and when we finally received ours it was the wrong letter so we had to wait two weeks for the correct one to come. Our lawyer worked hard to get everything together and we had a court date of December 13th. We counted the days for a couple of weeks and then the morning of the 13th we woke up to snow and ice in Knoxville and found out that the Chancellery Courts were closed for the day. So we rescheduled for Thursday the 16th at the same time as the Zimmermans and the Stouts were finalizing their adoption. Again on Thursday we woke up to ice in Knoxville. Court was opening 2 hours late due to the ice so after a crazy morning of trying to figure out exactly what time our court time was we all made it to the court house. From there we had to wait almost 2 hours to be seen. A friend texted and said "So ironic... waiting!!! Should it "end" any other way!" Which is SO true. Nothing in this process has been easy, it has been a whole lot of hurry up on our part and then a lot of waiting. God was sweet in working out the timing of the court date so all three of the families left waiting to finish their adoption could go and finish together. He was so faithful in finishing the work that he started in our families. Once we got in the Chancellors office it took longer for all three families to get in the door than it did for paperwork to be signed. So around 12:45 pm that day Odette officially became a Coleman followed a few minutes later by Islande Stout and Valancia Zimmerman.