Little Did I Know: June 2015

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Our Oasis

10:39 PM

On our first trip last year to Haiti Olivia and I were so blessed to have been able to spend our two weeks at a wonderful guest house. We became close with the house manager and had such a great time walking places with her and really seeing some of Haiti. Going back for this short trip and knowing we would have Macy with us at least some of the time, we did try to go back to the same guest house but it was booked. The orphanage director recommended we stay at a hotel this trip since we'd have Macy and could use the pool, etc so we went that route. The hotel we stayed at was AMAZING. It was hard for me though staying in such a lavish place, which uses water like crazy (we saw two pools and are pretty sure there was at least one more, the grounds were immense), and just outside their front drive were shacks with metal roofs where water is a scarce and treasured commodity.

Here is a glimpse at our residence for our stay...

The large pool and outdoor, elegant restaurant is in the background here:

The smaller pool right by our room:

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Haiti Day Two

9:32 PM

Our second day there Olivia and I had a lot more time to spend at the orphanage, spending loads of time with Macy...

Loving on a couple of very special boys...

Twirling round and round...

Hanging with the other kids...

Finding a new buddy...

Melting with her smile...

Being silly with our sponsored guy...

And sharing lunch with Macy and her housegroup...

We were told that she was super excited about us coming and her leaving and it really showed. I was a bit blown away. Pleasantly surprised. More in love than ever.

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Friday, June 26, 2015

Traveling to Haiti

11:22 PM

While we had a great time in New York City, the main event was yet to happen. We were headed to Haiti!

We woke up bright and early Saturday June 13 to await our driver to the airport. As he helped us in the car with our luggage, I couldn't help but notice his accent and asked where he was originally from. You guessed it - Haiti! How cool!

Arriving in Haiti was surreal. In many ways it felt like we were just there and in many ways I felt every bit of the rough road we had traveled the past 15 months to finally be at this point. Last year getting through immigration and an airport in a different country were anxiety-filling. This year I knew what to expect and it was a breeze in comparison.

We went directly from the airport to the orphanage to see our girl. As I began to recognize familiar sights and knew where I was my heart started racing thinking I would be seeing her again after so long. Some of the kids were outside and there in the middle was Macy. She covered her face, hiding a huge grin and then came to meet us and hug us. It was wonderful.

We stayed an hour and a half that first day. Reacquainting with one another and loving on each other. Then we left to check in to our hotel and settle in for the night. An amazing amazing day.

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Thursday, June 25, 2015

New York City

10:39 PM

I'm WAY behind with blogging... I KNOW... and I'm SO SORRY! I'm so busy during the day and by night I'm just wiped. I apologize!!!! :) I'm going to try to start and write one post each night. Macy is doing SO GREAT! She is sleeping well and so far once she's asleep she's out for the night, so I feel more comfortable starting a blog post and knowing I'll be able to finish it.

BUT... before I post about our trip to Haiti and our homecoming, I'm going to start with New York City. Because on the way to Haiti, Olivia and I were blessed enough to stop over for a day and a half and spend a little girl time. I knew that once Macy was home a vacation wouldn't happen for a while. I also knew that we could fly to Haiti through NY and it wouldn't really cost much more than flying through FL. With all the changes coming up and with Olivia being such a trooper to come and help, not knowing how our trip home could go with Macy's grief, etc, we went for it.

We spent one and a half wonderful days. Wore our feet OUT. And had so much fun!!!

We LOVED Finding Neverland!!!

Still a great shot, just bummed it's blurry!!! (Michael Morrison!)

Met Buddy's sister Lisa!

The Today Show and Fall Out Boy!

Today Show posted her on their account!

Central Park

FAO Schwartz - they're CLOSING!!! :(

YUM!

Vanilla Birthday Cake ice cream!

"Thanks Mood!"

Marvel Avengers exhibition at the Discovery Bldg

The Disney Store

Watching Jurassic World!

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Saturday, June 06, 2015

The Graduate

9:04 PM

Ladies and Gents...
we've got ourselves an EIGHTH Grade graduate!
Now WHEN did THAT happen?!

High School here we come!!!

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We're TRAVELING!

8:58 PM

Finally. Finally I can write the post I've waited to write for over FIVE YEARS. We are traveling to bring our little girl HOME. There's so much I could write about this. All the grief and heartache that went into the past few weeks. The tears. The frustration. The never ending wondering if we will travel that week. The work. The emails. The phone calls. But right now it's all behind me. Right now we're focused on this week.

We are leaving to bring our girl HOME.

We had been hoping this week that things would get corrected in our final paperwork and approval process so that we could leave tomorrow. Long story short (for now?) we ended up having to push things back a bit. We will arrive in Haiti one week from today. And we will arrive back HOME on Wednesday, June 17 - my birthday of all things. What a PERFECT God-given gift!