Sunday

Sunday was such a LONG day.  It honestly felt like about 3.
I woke up earlier then our 430am alarm.  The anticipation of finally going left me with little sleep, some anxiety and a recognition that our first meeting would not be like I had envisioned it would be.  We would be landing in PAP to meet Josie and Roby and head to church to hopefully catch the end of the service.  Our original flights had us in on Saturday so coming in on Sunday and getting to see the kids at church for those first moments was ok, but not how I had worked out the meeting in my mind, originally.  I have learned countless times in a million ways, that very few things in life turn out just like we imagine them.  Sometimes they are much better and sometimes not.  I don't get too worked up about those kinds of things anymore, so my focus was to just be in the moments that day without worrying about what I think they should be like. 

Chad and I were not seated next to each other on the flight into PAP which was terribly disappointing.  That was a lonely, emotional landing crammed between two strangers in the very last row of the aircraft.  Chad was about 10 rows in front of me and I had told Chad before we could meet in the customs line, but I realized halfway through the flight when I was filling out the customs forms that he had my passport in his bag. He waited for me and we made our way through customs and down to baggage claim.  Everything went smoothly, although a bit slow.  We stopped at a Digicel store to switch out our SIM card which I will for sure be doing next time!  $5 for internet all week and I probably have some time left.
FINALLY, we made our way to the door and Josie in a glorious white dress comes rushing towards us!  I had so missed her beautiful face!  We hustled out to find Roby and made our way to church.  It was all so beautifully familiar.
Walking in the side door at the front of the church during the pre-sermon hymns...I immediately saw Amessanitha, in her white choir dress and red belt in the front row. 

A small smile and wave was all before we sat down a couple rows back.  No grand meeting, big hugs or tears.  Just a little wave.  It took me a few seconds to find Nickson as he was a row in front and on the other side.  He was either unaware we had come in or didn't show any recognition until the service was almost over and he turned around and smiled when I waved at him. After the service, we said hello and hugged and sat together on the pew somewhat awkwardly.  Not really knowing what to say, but feeling like I wanted to say so much.  Seeing the other children from the orphanage was amazing.  I recognized most of them although they were all so much more grown up!  Amessanitha ran around a bit and chatted with friends.  Nickson stuck to Chad's side. Even wiggling his arm around Chad's at one point. 

Josie got everyone situated and her two boys, Jordan and Jonathon, Chad and I, Roby, Amessanitha, Nickson and Dania all piled into Josie's truck and headed home! It was a tight ride and we didn't mind one bit!  We unloaded our bags, Josie showed us our room which was a beautiful master suite and we pulled out the things we had from home for them.  I had been so torn on what to bring to give them a piece of us to keep in this waiting time.  I put together a sketchbook with our family photos and each of our families' "family tree" style.  It was probably overwhelming by sheer volume of humans in our respective families. :-)  We all wrote out some answers to basic get to know you questions: age, school, favorite things, what I want you to know about me, and the kids recorded videos saying hello!  We also brought a small gift for each of them.  Autumn wanted Amessanitha to have her Haiti-made favorite necklace that my mom had given her years ago.  She wrote the sweetest, tear enducing note with it.  Caleb sent along a white stuffed dog with a KU hat for Nickson.  He explained in his note that this was his favorite basketball team and the weird bird was called a Jayhawk.  He also sent his electronic Yahtzee game.  :-)
We sat down with Roby and the kids to go through the book and gifts.  We just did Chad and I and Elijah the first night because Roby was translating and Amessanitha was writing it all down!  It was all very sweet.  We had little conversations back and forth with Roby helping us tremendously!  It was our first moments of family connection and it felt amazing.  We had them tell us their favorite things and asked about their school and activities.  Things we learned: Amessanitha loves to dance and sing! We told her she could take dance lessons. That made her face light up!  She loves math and is incredibly bright and mature.  She is taking English this year and worked really hard all week helping us with Creole and working on her English.  Nickson does NOT like math, but loves French and we found out he is left handed and quite artistic!  Nickson is quiet and reserved, but found him to be goofy and so joyful! It was so fun to find these little gems about them.  Roby left in the afternoon and we managed without him, but it was with far less actual communication.  We pulled out our Creole/English books and were able to connect over teaching each other.
Josie had asked us if we wanted to go to a concert that evening and I misunderstood and thought it was a concert the children's church choir was singing in at the mayor of Delmas estate.  Turns out it was a full blown Gospel concert!  The children did not sing, but the church was a sponsor for the event so we had amazing seats and had so much fun!  Broke our own rules the first day by being out after dark with large crowds!  The kids all had so much fun!  

The event went late with one performance after the other.  Josie got us snowcones and popcorn for Nickson!  By 9:00 or so, Nickson had fallen asleep on my lap twice which I did not mind AT ALL.  The second time, I pulled him up and just held him.  Dreams do come true.  By then, we didn't really know how many more performances there would be, but I asked Josie to go.  We headed out and Chad carried Nickson to the truck. The whole first day was so surreal.  I kept finding myself staring at them. Holding their hands. Putting my arms around them. Looking at them top to bottom.  Trying to make myself believe they were actually ours. 
Not unlike the first looks at your newborn baby...