Sunday funday

Well, what we did on Sunday wouldn't normally fit the title of "Sunday funday" as I've heard some people use it...but it sure was that for me!

One of the highlights of our time visiting the girls was the first Sunday we got to spend with them.

This was on November 25th and we had been in Haiti for nearly a week at this point. The girls had really warmed up to us by that point, but were definitely still showing a parent preference. When we brought them back to the orphanage the night before we left pretty outfits for the nanny to put on the girls for church the next day. We picked them up Sunday morning and brought them over to the guest house since Alison was running just a few minutes behind on picking us up. We didn't mind anyway because we were enjoying time with our cute girls, but we ended up being really grateful that we had those extra few minutes because we had a little impromptu photo shoot on the steps at the guesthouse. They are some of our favorite pictures of the girls from that trip. They were both so cute and cheerful and Il especially hammed it up for us. I can't include any of the pictures we took except this one, but it's to help me remember how fun those moments were...

How cute is El playing with her pretty shoes??!

After spending the last week in such a limited area it felt really nice to venture out and with our girls on our hips. It was fun to see everyone dressed in their best walking to churches and kids running around. It was also nice to see a bit more of the area in Kenscoff right where we were staying. Those mountains are so beautiful and the trees and plants and flowers are so lovely. On our walk to and from the church we attended we passed by this church that people were attending and it was pretty unique so I wanted to include a photo of it...

I don't have any pictures from the church service we attended, but I can write a little bit about it. We arrived a little bit late and went up to sit in the upper balcony. Alison met her husband (who is Haitian) there and I didn't know until after the service that we were sitting behind Nathan's wife and daughter too. Nathan is the rep for our agency who works in conjunction with Nisthone to help keep our paperwork moving along so we can get our girls home!

The pastor spoke (in Creole of course) and there was singing and music. Musicians from another congregation set up and did a bunch of music as well. We have done church with kids plenty of times and had a diaper bag packed with a few things to entertain the girls, water sippies, etc. Things got a lot louder than I am used to from our church services and we were surprised that both of the girls just fell asleep in our arms. When we were leaving we did see a few of the older kids from the orphanage attending church (nannies bring them) and we enjoyed our leisurely walk home.

On our walk back to the guesthouse we switched twins, meaning I carried El and Mark carried Il. You could tell that they weren't too sure about things, but that they also were insecure with being in a new place and just wanted to be held. We soaked in the chance to spend a bit of time holding the twin that each of us have spent less time with and enjoyed it. In the picture below I am holding El as she watches some of the local children run past...

I have a picture of Mark holding Il in front of this backdrop that I love. Il is wearing an orange top and skirt and it looks so beautiful with these orange blossoms. How beautiful is this country?

When we got back to the guesthouse the girls seemed quite pleased to be there and we pulled out some toys to play with and turned on some kids bop music. We'd noticed that the girls love to dance and thought they would enjoy music while playing. We got such a kick out of watching them dance and play. Each time a new song (with a new beat) would come on it was as if they involuntarily had to move their bodies until they were in sync with the new beat and then they'd go about their business of playing, intermittently shaking their hips and moving their arms to the music with way more rhythm than I will ever have. 

All of these memories from this day: Seeing them in the cute outfits I bought for them and imagined them in for so long, the fun photo-shoot, walking through Kenscoff to church, holding them during the service, dancing and playing toys later...the nostalgia from all of these things combine together to make one of the most memorable days we had during our 2 weeks there.

I remember late that day sitting on the couch with Mark watching the girls play together and feeling comfortable. Just grateful and at ease. And I realized how easily I could see them playing like that in our home, with our boys. And my heart was so overwhelmed with happiness.