We are COMPLETE!

For two and one half years I have longed for this picture.  To see our family all together in our home.  These last 7 days, since returning from Haiti, have been some of the most delightful and joyous times of my life.  I literally am giddy!

I can't even begin to describe what life has been like.  How I wish I could bottle this time up and treasure it forever in my heart, not losing a single detail.

Let me just say, THIS IS THE WAY TO GO!  I mean... a child who is potty trained, can feed himself, can be reasoned with, sleeps through the night, wakes up to go potty then goes right back to bed...
Not to mention my body not being ravaged by giving birth.  I am full of energy!  I can enjoy every crazy moment of this time of life.  It is the WAY TO GO!

Adoption should not be PLAN B.

Adjustment, what adjustment?  It's as if this child has lived here his entire life!  It's as if he has been cracking us all up his entire life with his silly dances, his funny sayings, his loud squeals of delight, his tender heart, and his grateful spirit.  He is unbelievably well balanced and secure in his mama and daddy.  Which says a lot about the kind of care he received at the orphanage, Maison.  No, an orphanage is not a family.  But they come darn close.  The kids coming out of there as some of the most emotionally healthy kids I have ever seen.  Kudos to Pierre and Mary France, the directors!

I will write the details of our exit from Haiti, as there was some drama involved, at a later time.  For now, I just want to celebrate this little boy.  Because that is what he does AWL DAY...CELEBRATES LIFE!

Here are some of the details of the last 7 days:

- Jackson, Kenzie and Brooks have welcomed him and received him far better than our expectations.  They are patient with him, they laugh at him, and they truly enjoy him.  They have learned to give and give some more, and that is sooooo good to see in my kids!  I couldn't be more proud.

- Kervens is already WAY INTO his daddy.  Probably my favorite thing to hear coming out of his mouth is his creole accented, "DAH-DEE!" that he yells to find Eddy around the house.  Precious.

- Our family (everyone except Eddy) is really getting into Creole.  We LOVE speaking the language!  Oh how I wish I could keep it a part of our lives.  But I don't have much hope for that unfortunately.  Sad.  It is a beautiful, easy to learn language.

- Kervens is picking up English WAY FAST!  It is unreal.  Every day he says things that amaze us.

Yesterday, when I was making dinner, he said, "Is dat for me?"  We all gasped.

Today he bounced around upstairs with his siblings repeating over and over again, "Dis is so fun, dis is so fun, dis is so fun."

He is saying "yes" more than "wi" now.  =(

When we got him, he was very accustomed to potty talk, saying the words "ka ka", which means poo poo.  So, now he just says the following sentence...probably 100 times a day..."Mama says no say ka ka."  Then smiles his sweet smile.  His older siblings have caught on to the fact that he has just found a way to say his bad word without it being wrong.  Pretty clever if you ask me.  =)

- We are now working on not screaming so loud.  He squeals out of pure glee, but it seriously might shatter some glass in our home if it continues!  Holy LOUDNESS!  At one point today I broke out into laughter because our home was SO LOUD!!!  I mean, our bio kids have a tendency to be loud anyway, but we had them pretty well trained to keep it at a tolerable level.  Well, this little dude has taken every child in this home to a new level of loudness.  We have multiple riding toys going around inside our house (which we have not allowed in the past).  We have four people dribbling basketballs around our house now.  IT IS CAH-RAY-ZEE!

- He has shown no signs of mourning the loss of his friends and orphanage family.  I am sure he will have to process that at some point, but we have not seen it yet.

- We have had three basketball games in the last three days.  Jackson was in a basketball tournament that I did not want to miss, so we went.  The first game, Kervens was determined to get on that basketball court and play with the boys.  He ended up in the middle of the court during the game, threw a basketball onto the court during the middle of the game, and somehow talked Eddy into holding him while he coached some of the game.  He just could not get close enough to the action.  I spent my entire time chasing him.  I was exhausted!  I thought my days of watching Jackson play basketball were over!
The next night, I had to explain to him that we cannot go on the court during the game, and he was amazingly obedient.  So, he sat in my lap and sang and played with me the entire game.  What a joy!  We did about 1,000 "ride a little horseys".  Phew!
Then tonight, he sat next to me and played with the kids all around him the entire time.  I actually got to watch the game!  It was amazing to see the difference in just two nights of watching.  This kid is so adaptable!  At the end of the game he got to go out on the court, and instead of chasing the basketball like we thought he would do, he went to the middle of the court and busted a move....just jiving by himself.  It was adorable!

- He keeps trying to sleep in the bunk room with all the other kids.  But as soon as I tuck him in, he says, "Ale domi avek mama." Which means, I go sleep with mama.  Of course, I am thrilled!  So, he is still on our floor next to our bed.  He may be there for months.  I am in no rush.  I love waking up to his sweet face next to me.

- He woke up this morning and came to my side of the bed and crawled in.  I have dreamt of cuddling with him in our bed for so long!  He was precious....learning how to snuggle.  Then, of course it turned into a tickle fest with daddy!  Oh so fun!

- Everyone keeps telling us that he is cute in pictures, but even cuter in person!  I think his personality and smile add a lot to that assessment of him.

- I just feel so blessed.  Why us?  Why do we get to parent this child?  He is such a gift to our family!

PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW!