Getting to Haiti...and arriving in Kenscoff

Wow.

I literally cannot believe that it's January and I'm only now finally sitting down to write about our visit to meet our girls!!!

I thought that I would blog about things while I was in Haiti, but there was so much to process and it was emotionally and physically exhausting. Mark and I did a pretty good job disconnecting from things and focusing on our time there. Of course there was diabetes stuff we needed to field and we enjoyed FaceTiming with family several times and loading pictures to share, but other than that we pretty much just focused our time either on the girls or on processing everything with each other. And then I got sick, but let's take things one step at a time for this re-cap!

First of all! Getting everything packed and ready to leave the country is always a lot of work. This time the stakes felt so much higher. We've anticipated this trip so much for so many years and I wanted everything to go smoothly and be perfect. I wanted to have the right activities to help interact with our girls. I wanted to have cute clothes (in the right size) to put on their cute little selves. I wanted to bring plenty of snacks for us and the girls...and wanted the snacks we gave them to also be healthy and give them nutrients. I wanted to come prepared with every necessary immunization done (that was a whole thing to get completed...long boring story), and I wanted to come prepared with every possible medication we could need while there. I wanted to be sure to maximize the items in our checked bags to be able to bring as many donations as possible to our orphanage. I wanted to have their flip books just perfect (with pictures of our family, home, etc all lamented and on a ring for the girls to flip through). I needed to type up grandparent instructions for both sets of grandparents with every necessary detail (especially on diabetes). I wanted the house to be clean and comfortable for my mom to stay here while we were gone. Everything just was a struggle to get done (and I didn't even touch on the excitement of getting proper travel arrangements made, documents submitted while out of state, etc since I covered that in another post)...and of course we wanted to be sure to celebrate Thanksgiving early with Mark's side of the family the day before we left.

I spent hours on the phone trying to track down my immunization records (why did I not do this way in advance??). It took my multiple tries printing pictures to have the order done right and then when Mark took the pics to get hard lamination done the machine jammed and ruined one and we had to re-do it. Paperwork packets (times 2) took forever to finish. Life happened in between everything else...including a fiasco with Max at school that had me feeling in a panic about leaving him here and going to Haiti.

Obviously I'm on this side of things so just listing everything out leaves it void of the angst, stress, anxiety and downright sleep deprivation that accompanied it all. Oh...and a case of pink eye that hit the day before we left of course. On the flip side - amidst all of this chaos we were also soooo excited to be going to meet our girls!! I spent more time that I should scouring the internet for pictures of them and just staring at their cute faces.

In the end, everything important got done...and even several things that weren't really important in the grand scheme of things.

On the morning of Sunday, November 18th we got the boys all ready in church clothes and took the younger two and dropped them off at my parents house so they could attend church with them. Mark's parents would be taking Noah to church after dropping us off at the airport and everything went smoothly with dropping us off with all our luggage!

Our two checked bags of donations each weighed-in exactly at the 50 pound weight limit and our checked bags were both over the allowed size for our airlines, but we decided to just chance it in order to bring everything we wanted to bring for 2 weeks of bonding with our sweet girls.

We flew American Airlines to Dallas and then on to Fort Lauderdale. We had a hotel booked right in the FLL airport, but after a flight delay, the need to stop to buy water (we were advised to do that upon arriving so we'd have it when we got to Haiti in case the demonstrations got out of control and we were stranded in the airport), and very long time to get our luggage...we got to our room much later than anticipated.

By the time we were settled in our room we only had a few hours until we needed to be leaving our room early for our next flight. I then faced the dilemma of sleeping pill or no sleeping pill. I don't generally rely on sleeping pills but with my exceptionally wonky sleep schedule, the time change, and how overactive my brain was about meeting the girls in the morning (and worries about the political climate in Haiti) I knew that I wouldn't sleep without one. The problem is that sleeping pill should be taken when one can dedicate 8 hours to sleep. I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to get up when I needed to. I went back and forth and Mark just kept telling me I'd be fine and to take it. So...I took the sleeping pill. And that's about the last thing I remember until I was sitting on the plane the next day. I have no recollection of taking this photo, but the part of my brain that needs to document must have been working!...

Yep. I boarded the plane to meet our daughters totally drugged. Not how I would've pictured that going.

Apparently when Mark woke me up I was glassy eyed and did everything really slowly. He kept saying that we needed to hurry and apparently I was super laid back and kept saying that we had plenty of time (very not me). He said it was super strange. I moved really slowly and he had to carry my bags and hold my arm to steady me up a large flight of stairs like I needed special assistance. We were utilizing a free month trial of the "clear" program...you pre-register and then use a dedicated (short) line through security and don't have to show any ID. Instead you do an eye scan or fingerprint. Apparently when I was trying to do the eye scan my gaze kept slowly drifting away and the attendant had to repeatedly kindly redirect me. I remember none of this, mind you! So embarrassing!! Mark ended up checking our carry on bags because it was too much for him to manage those and me...and we knew we'd catch flack for their size too.

Anyway, I guess that whole sleeping pill thing is just part of our story, but I will NOT be doing that again. I'm so glad things wore off during the flight at some point and I was right as rain once we landed in Haiti. Here is a picture of one of our first glimpses of Haiti. We grew to love this country so much before ever even setting foot there.

Things went smoothly getting our luggage. All 4 pieces arrived safely (I was worried once I realized we'd checked all of our belongings). We were able to decline the persistent offers to help us with luggage (which you'll pay for) and Alison from c4c was right outside the airport doors with our driver Jean Robert (not sure if I'm spelling that right). Alison has a guy she always hires to load luggage in the van and we were happy to toss a couple bucks his way and be loaded up and on our way!

We were very relieved to hear that the streets were relatively quiet as the protests had been pretty intense in the days prior to us arriving. There had been mention from Alison about checking with our airline about their policy in case we had to reschedule and Chareyl did say there was the possibility that the U.S. could close flights to Haiti and we could end up stuck in Florida until we could get out. We were very grateful that we were able to avoid any demonstrations on our way to the orphanage. There was a very high police presence (who were heavily armed), but the streets were less busy than normal since people were staying home so that got us out of Port-au-Prince faster than normal actually.

We stopped at Giant grocery store on our way up the mountain. We stocked up on some food for lunches, snacks and to get us through the Sundays when our cook would have the day off. I was surprised by the large variety of everything they had there and we enjoyed picking some things up (and avoiding looking at prices).

Most meals we ate were prepared by the amazing cook who we paid to make breakfasts and dinners and that was a real treat, but it was also good to have some basics and some hot cocoa at nights when it was cool in the mountains!

The views on the way up the mountain to Kenscoff took our breath away. So stunningly beautiful.

Mark sat up front with the driver and I sat in back with Alison while we drove. I tried to soak in everything we were seeing of this beautiful, complex Caribbean country that gave us our daughters. The drive wasn't too long (less than an hour) and before we knew it we were unloading our luggage at the guest house! Our driver entered the yellow gate being manned by the armed guard and pulled right up near the cement stairs we could descend with our luggage to the guest house.

The yellow building (now the guest house) used to be used for the orphanage, but that was later moved just up the street to its current location and now the building is used as a guest house for teams of volunteers for c4c (chances for children) and their various projects and for adoptive families.

The building right next to that one (behind the same gate) houses a medical clinic that is open to the community, storage for their feeding programs, a sewing area for women that are employed there and an area for the beaded jewelry that is made locally. Behind the guesthouse is the area where all day long women are washing and hanging laundry in a grassy area with the lush backdrop of foliage and mountains. Chickens and roosters roam the grounds (and the confused rooster crows all night long...no exaggeration).

Alison gave us a brief tour of the guesthouse and as we were the only family there at the time we took first pick on bedrooms. We took the first one as it had the easiest access for us coming in and out of the building frequently with the girls.

We didn't do too much to settle in as we were excited to go meet the girls! We headed outside, left the yellow gate and walked up the road of dirt and rocks. Straight across the street from the guesthouse was a steep hillside where we often saw grazing animals.

On that dirt road we often saw school children, people carrying all sizes and shapes of water containers, people with pigs or donkeys, and small motorcycles carrying various numbers of people...using their engines to go up the hill (toward the orphanage) or with their engines off to save gas and coasting down.

Also, when walking up to the orphanage, on the right hand side of the "road" there was a colorful, old, abandoned Tap-Tap. I will remember to get a good picture of it the next time I go. We arrived at the green gate of the orphanage and had Alison snap a quick picture of the two of us before we walked inside.

We were both so anxious. So curious. So overwhelmed. To finally be at that green gate.