Anderlin's family & Going away party

Wednesday – our last full day and lots on the schedule.  After morning routine we headed to meet up with Carla and the social worker at COTP.  We piled in the truck with Reekins to go meet up with Anderlin’s Haitian family.  Half a mile or so down the road we saw his bio mom and dad walking down the road – they apparently thought we were meeting at COTP.    They hopped in the back of the truck and we went to see several homes and meet relatives.   They had a 2 ½ year old boy and a 4month old girl which was news to us.  His mom (Judeline Eugene) is 22 and his Dad (Richelin Altidor) 23.   That would put them having Anderlin at 15 and ~16.  Anderlin’s medical condition must have been amazingly hard to deal form them at their age and lack of resources.

We first saw Anderlin’s Dad’s Mom’s house.  Anderlin’s mom would come there because it sounded like there was some sort of family rift between her and her mother in law.   We asked some questions and took some pictures.  They indicated they didn’t have any background of health issues in the family except for an aunt (mom’s side)? Who had some paralysis in a hand that might have been from a stroke.

Anderlin's Dad and Grandma and 2 younger siblings.

Anderlin's Grandma's house (father's side)

We next went to a house next door (100ft or so away) where they were staying.  They indicated that someone was letting them live there that it wasn’t theirs.  There were some comments about wishing the best for Anderlin knowing that this will be the best for his future, that they are happy about that and some comments about hoping we can help them in the future.

Anderlin’s mother seemed very uncomfortable here – not sure if it was because the mother in law was there or because she was grasping the reality that Anderlin was leaving.  Maybe a combination of both.  Later when we went to her side of the family’s home she seemed much more at ease.

Next we did go to Anderlin’s mom’s family’s home in La Suisse.  Which was not far at all as the crow flies, but driving we had to drive “around the large block” to get there from Lagosette.

We were able to see the small home that both Anderlin’s mom and Anderlin were born in.  It had stick walls with mud on it and a metal roof.  The beams were like 3”, they were really cool – like crooked thick branches spiraling a bit.

Inside the home where Anderlin and his mom were both born. 

Outside the home Anderlin and his mom were born in

Great grandma (brown skirt) - other relatives

A lot of family came to see Anderlin.  Great Grandma, Great Aunts, neighbors etc.  Many probably hadn’t see Anderlin for 5 or more years.

Next we went back to COTP and had lunch.  We had mac and cheese.  Anderlin wasn’t up for much, not hungry or lots going on – not sure. 

After returning, Anderlin and Sarah made chocolate chip cookies for Anderlin’s going away party.  Dan met up with Roni and went out and took some drone shots of Roni running for use in future marketing for Roni’s annual marathon fundraiser.   It was a bit windy and could have used more time, but got some shots that will be usable.

At 3 we headed over to the Hope House for Anderlin’s going away party.  Nick and Nikki, Josiah, Avalyn, Kendrix, Carla, Roni, Steph, all the hope house kids, a couple of friends from neighboring homes, 4 nannies that had or were currently caring for Hope house kids, Rosmani (who took him to school for a year each school day), driver John stopped by, and several others. 

Rosmani took Anderlin to school every day for a year.

Jesula - the head nanny at the Hope House

Nick had an awesome prayer of blessing and thanks for all the people who have been a part of and invested in Anderlin’s life to open things up.  Then Anderlin passed out a cookie to everyone in attendance and Roni doled out Coca (Coke), 7-up, orange juice or water.  The orange juice was excellent (fresh squeezed it must have been, super sweet oranges or extra sugar). 

Rosmani brought a gift for Anderlin – a hanging stack of picture frames.  It was very special of her.  

Dan said a few words of thanks to all the people who had invested in Anderlin in his life to this point, especially to Roni and Steph for the years they have invested in him.

The group of Nanny's wrapped up the party singing a song.  It was a great ending to a great party.  There were a few more pictures of various people with Anderlin and then we headed out - back to our apartment where we hung out with Nick and Nikki for a bit before saying goodbye the them.

Anderlin and Steph

Port au Prince

Tuesday Dan needed to make a day trip to Port Au Prince while Anderlin was going to go to his last day of school. 

I (Dan) got up pretty early, showered and headed out to the Mango tree to meet Reekins so he could transport to the airport in Cap.  Reekins is a great guy and has been driving for COTP for a long time.  He was driving when Sarah and Celeste came to COTP after the  earth quake in 2010.  We jumped in the truck and headed out a few miles when Reekins got a call from a couple of the international staff that apparently were expecting to go town as well – so we circled back and grabbed them.

Check-in was uneventful.  A jovial man who was very outgoing chatted it up with everyone.  Apparently he had missed his connection back to Turks and Caicos due to a full flight and was heading to Port Au Prince to try to catch a different flight.  He said that he had been coming to Haiti for various reasons since he was 9.  He currently is a building contractor on Turks and Caicos.  Those were the islands that we vacationed to after our Haiti visit in 2017. 

I asked him about the Hurricane that had directly hit the island after we had left in 2017 (like a week after).  He said it was pretty bad, but that the country has bounced back great.  He said often the beaches are destroyed by hurricanes, but said some of theirs actually got better.

While waiting the guy from Turks and Caicos kept pointing out that there were so many mosquitos in the air-conditioned waiting room.  Thankfully they were not biters.

The airplane was a dual prop with a seat on each side of center isle.  Not full, probably 20 people out of 30 total.  

Arrived in PAP (Port au Prince) about 30 minutes after taking off and headed straight out to the arrival waiting area.  Ivange was there on his phone – he’s the same guy I’ve worked with before in PAP for Wedly’s adoption trips.

We waited for a bit till his car arrived.  It was a 4 door small mini-SUV type.  Interesting that there were bare wires hanging out from under the steering wheel – but there was a key in the ignition.  Windshield had a lot of cracks (of course mine at home has a ton as well – something that is on the todo list).   I also couldn’t figure out what he was doing, but he would periodically turn the ignition off for a bit and then back on (while we were driving).  The car would beep and go through its turn on beeps and everything, but nothing ever changed on the driving.   Only in Haiti?

At the embassy, the process was pretty short and simple.  Went through security which took our phones and my bag w/ laptop.  Inside there were probably 30 Haitians waiting, but we went to a separate window for Adoptions.  The lady was there to help in just a minute or 2 and spent 5 minutes explaining the documents she gave me (passport w/ Visa, exit letter, paper work packet for the border police).  She was super nice.  Some ways the trip seemed a little pointless, but I think its important for them to verify that they give the paperwork to the right person and that they were actually in country (to prevent child trafficking).  

On the way back to the airport had a bit of a fun driving experience.  The driver was taking a side route I think to skip a traffic problem that we encountered on the way (caused by a flooded street where cars had to drive through 18" of water).  But our alternate route ended up going through a street that was only one lane because the right lane was getting new 12" thick concrete laid.  In front of us a truck got stuck trying to get over a berm to the left.  For some reason they weren't able to push him forward.  So our driver was going to try to get one tire up on the new concrete to the left by piling up a few rocks to make a ramp (like 3 good size rocks).  He gunned it a little and WHAM we stopped solid in our tracks as the frame smashed into the concrete.  That didn't work.  First I wasn't sure if the car had been damaged functionally as they lifted the hood for a bit.  Then other drivers from behind us (none happy as there was a big line up going no where) - came up and pushed the truck back off the berm and then forward so there was room for others to try to 4x4 over the berm (our turn next).  We made it no problem, which is why I still wonder why the truck had so much trouble.  Anyway - added a little excitement to the drive home.

Arrived back at the airport about 4 hours early for the flight since it only took a couple hours.  Ivange dropped me off at the restaurant across the street where I killed time with on and off again Wifi and through a 15 minute power outage.  Took the 25 minute flight back and Reekins arrived 5minutes after I exited the terminal to take me back to COTP.

Sarah’s day: Anderlin woke up cheerful and we went about his morning routine. We ate some breakfast, read some books and then headed out for his last day of school. This year he attended school on the COTP campus and was taught by Mr. Gary, a local Haitian man. There is only one other child in his class, his good buddy Bensky. For the first hour, I hung out with him, helping him with his letters and reading the two boys their devotional – one we happen to have at home. I made my exit after an hour so that I could meet with Roni and Stephanie to ask any remaining questions we might have. It was good to be able to talk openly about our boy.

After they left, I put together some soup for our lunch and headed back to school to pick him up at noon. With the afternoon to ourselves, we kept it pretty quiet and colored a bit, read, made a balloon parrot, did the dishes, and wandered over to the playground to play for a bit. He asked quite frequently when his daddy was coming home. His good buddy Fanelson was also coming over to check out Anderlin’s new digs (Fanelson needing the reassurance that his friend was safe in his new place), so Anderlin was anxious to see him as well.

When I (Dan) arrived back at COTP, Roni was with Fanelson who was riding his bike around.  They were heading to our house to see Anderlin so he joined them.  We all came out side because Anderlin and Fanelson wanted to ride the 4-wheeler.  I took them around a few loops – though then I offered for Anderlin to take control.  However when he went to give it some gas he pressed two hard and it jumped forward and I almost fell of the back because I wasn’t holding on very well. I guess that didn’t go very well.  Roni and Sarah had a good laugh.  Needless to say, I took the controls again and then we did a bunch more laps.  Fanelson and Anderlin have been together for a number of years and have been great friends to each other.  Their separation is going to be the hardest thing of all of this I think.

A bit later Courtney came by for a bit to talk about any questions we had with Anderlin’s medical history.

Sarah made spaghetti for dinner and we had toast from the loaf of bread, though the toaster required some manual attention as it popped up way to soon.  This might be a good time to mention that the apartment we were in was more than adequate, though it did have some idiosyncrasies.  We had to prop the fridge up with rocks in the front for the door to open, but then the door always wanted to swing open on its own so we kept a stool in front of the fridge.  The hot water didn’t work in the bathroom sink, but was fine in the Kitchen and shower.  It was a nice place for us to start integration of our new family member.

This evening’s bedtime ritual went a little better – though after I (Dan) sang for a bit he broke into tears again for a bit (it’s a good thing, not the crying because of my singing but the crying expressing sadness in general).  But he didn’t cry long and fell asleep a bit quicker tonight – probably 25 minutes.

I guess we'll need to return. :-)

Monday morning we woke up early and showered in time for Roni to show up and walk us through Anderlin’s morning routing starting about 6am.  His morning bathroom routine is a very important part of his day and including bath is probably 20-40 minutes, though it is easy to see that it could get optimized in the future and he can be more and more independent with it as well.  This was something that probably has held the most unknown for us and some apprehension.  All in all was pretty straight forward.

A little after 7am the Stolbergs arrived in their truck with Kiley, an accountant from Dallas who helps with the finances.  Our plan was to head to the Citadel so Anderlin would get to see it (and Kiley hadn’t seen before and was flying out the next day). 

Unfortunately Nick had just seen a post from some Haiti friends of his that a George Fox mission group had tried to go to the Citadel the day before and the road was blocked in multiple locations due to demonstrations (manifestations) supposedly by people living up on the hill because they weren’t getting power.  That group hiked up from way further down anyway, but not something that was going to feasible for our group.  Uggh, fairly disappointing as the plan and hope had been to enjoy getting some cool drone footage at the Citadel.  It is an amazing setting and just super ideal for drone video and pictures.  Of course the wind or clouds could have also had different plans.

The consolation prize which was still nice was ruins of the Sans-Soucci Palace at the base of the mountain (just past Milot).  Typically we’ve just glanced at it and decided not to stop on our way to the Citadel, so this forced us to get out and check it out.  It was nice.  Anderlin and the drone will have to get to the Citadel next time!

Nick had to complain a bit before they agreed to charge us less than the price that usually gets you to the Citadel as well.  :-)

After we completed our exploration and photo shoot we piled back in the truck and made the trip back.  We ran into Roni out on his run for the day (8 mile this day I think).  He's planning a COTP to Citadel and down to Milot run in the future (20miles?).  I guess we were wimps in not just walking up to the Citadel even though we couldn't drive the road. 

Back at Nick and Nikki's we hung out and waited for Wedly's Papa Wilnes, his wife Marie, their brand new son Obex (Wedly's little half brother!) and Events' papa who were coming for a visit and lunch. 

Obex was very new, only 3 weeks old, so we felt a little nervous that they made the trip from Don Don (1.5hr or so and pretty rough at times).  But they seemed like it had gone fine and Nick ended up having a driver take them all the way back in a car when they went home.

We had an awesome Haitian lunch that Nick and Nikki had a Haitian lady cook for us.  Rice, Beans, chicken sauce.  It was very very good.  Everybody ate their fill and more.

The gals spent their time holding and oogling over Obex - they weighed him in I think at 5.3lbs.  He was a bit early.

We were able to hand off a bunch of clothes for his first year which they were very appreciative of.
Here are a few pictures of Wilnes, Marie, Obex and us.

Late afternoon we departed.  The three of us used Nick and Nikki's 4 wheeler to head back to COTP with one of our bags.  

We just hung out the rest of the evening in our apartment.  Dan cooked pancakes and sausage (from Nick).  We read and went through bedtime routine (which is bath, brush teeth, Bible, and books).

Anderlin daily requests the action Bible to be read - though he follows I would say partially.  It is all a little complicated to explain to him I'm finding.

Each evening gets a little easier putting Anderlin to sleep.  First night was some tears and took 45minutes to fall asleep with Sarah laying there.  This evening was some tears and 25 minutes to fall asleep.

Dan stayed up late (most nights) working on videos, pictures, work (a bit), and blog.  Tomorrow is a trip to Port au Prince to the embassy for paperwork.

Sunday

Sunday morning up bright and early after a shorter than desired night sleep.  Another round of drone video of moving the tractors, with a different perspective this time.

Then we joined the Stolbergs for breakfast with Nick sharing some awesome Crepes.  Threw our stuff in their CRV (since we’re staying at COTP from here on out) and headed to church (also at COTP). 

Nick brought Josiah’s keyboard, but we found that trying to make the drive to COTP with the keyboard placed on the roof didn’t work.  A minute in (surprising it was this long) it fell off the side.  Thankfully still functional with no noticeable damage.

Dan led a few worship songs (they are currently without a worship leader, so use videos otherwise), with Nick running the power point.  Anderlin sat on Sarah’s lap observing.  Roni and Steph joined with Fanelson and Silas.  We watched an online sermon from a church in Indiana and later found that the pastor who was preaching has adopted several kids from COTP also and is in the process of adopting a 3^rd.

After church we walked to the playground along with most of the kids from church and a few others.  Anderlin again enjoyed going down the enclosed slide, wanting to be scared as he exited the bottom. 

We took the CRV back to the Manna house to unload our stuff.  After setting things up a bit we went back and picked up Nikki, Evens, and Avalyn to head back to Nikki’s for lunch.  Roni and Steph joined as well – they had yet to be out and see New Roots.

This was Anderlin’s first visit there as well.  He took right to exploring.  He is not shy about investigating, touching, asking (usually after touching!).  He was a bit of a whirlwind checking all the toys upstairs, playing Evens’ guitar, and heading out on the “moto” (plasma car) on the back porch.  He enjoyed himself.

We had cheese burgers, they were delicious, and Anderlin had no issues downing a full burger and finishing all of his carrots, corn, and apple sauce.  Nick gave Roni and Steph the tour of the property while we went with Nikki to the swing set that Nick just recently put in a bit further at the back of their property – in a nice grove of trees providing good shade. 

We rode back with Roni and Steph in COTP's pretty new Chevy 4door truck.  With AC!

Back at COTP we walked under the Mango tree, grabbed a picture with two of Anderlin’s good friends Bensky and Adlin.  

One of  the COTP nanny staff that
stopped Anderlin for a hug.

We went back to the house at Manna and just hung out for a bit reading books and checking out everything in the house.  Lots of questions – Anderlin is very inquisitive which is no surprise.  We’re going to have so much explaining to do.  It will be good, it will be fun, it may be tiring.  J  He speaks good and can communicate pretty well, but his vocabulary is going to grow a lot over the next months.

Working on balloon animals

 For dinner we went to the Hope House where Steph had cooked another request of Anderlin’s:  Sloppy Joe’s.  We also had green beans w/ some sausage.  It’s fun eating with the kids.  So much character in each of them.

After dinner Sarah broke out the balloons and proceeded to make balloon animals.  She is really good at it.  As the kids finished their dinner they were able to request the animal they wanted.  Sarah would construct it (from the instruction book) and Roni then contributed his artistic abilities by adding the eyes and other accents with a sharpie. 

After Dinner we said good bye and headed to our house.  After Roni put their kids down, he came over to help walk us through Anderlin’s bedtime routing.  Things went well and we got all ready for bed.

The bed for Anderlin was in the room next to ours.  We tucked him in and Roni said goodbye for the night. Right as he left the tears started flowing a bit.  Mixture of sadness and fear I think, but impossible to know exactly the emotions that are swirling.  Sarah then held Anderlin for a while singing to him. 

We were able to move our bed over and make room for Anderlin’s mattress.  Sarah then laid with him and sang for a while, and then just laid there on our bed right next to him.  Anderlin would be quiet with eyes closed, but then would raise his head and look for her to make sure she was there.  Took about 45 minutes for him to fall asleep.  A reminder that this is not an easy change for Anderlin…

Easing in

Saturday morning I (Dan) woke up a little early to head out and grab some drone footage of the New Roots employees moving a bunch of the chicken tractors.  Was a beautiful morning with a little bit of fog (smoke from burning garbage) drifting through the trees.

After breakfast with Nick, Nikki, Events, Josiah, Avalyn, and Kendrix we headed out for a run.  We took the 4-wheeler up the pot hole ridden road a mile or so to a beautifully paved section of road and took a 4 mile run.  The temperature was getting warm, but still was pretty nice.

On the way back we were joined for 1/2 a mile by some bubbly kids laughing and joking with us, though we had no idea what they were saying.  

After we got back to the 4-wheeler, we took a ~10 mile round trip route back to New Roots - was a great way to see more of the surrounding communities.  Was very nice - such a beautiful day and love watching the everyday activities of the surrounding communities.

We got back and cleaned up, arranged more all the various items we had transported so we could deliver to their eventual destinations and then enjoyed lunch with Nick and Nikki (New Roots Chicken burgers - yum).

After lunch we hopped on the 4 wheeler and make the 20 minute trek to Children of the Promise (COTP).

We joined Anderlin a the Hope House.  He was eagerly anticipating our arrival. 

We spent a little bit playing with the other kids and then went over to the house on the quieter "Manna" side of the COTP compound and hung out at the house so Anderlin would get a little more familiar with it.

At 5 we went back to the Hope House to Celebrate Anderlin's birthday (it is on Monday the 7th, so celebrating a few days early).  Nick and family joined for the party as well.

We had a huge meal of Tacos (hard and soft) with chicken, beans, rice,  cheese, salsa, and guacamole from avocados that Nick had picked up.

After dinner we had cake.  Anderlin blew out his candles and then opened a couple presents: a tractor and trailer to carry his animals around and a Teenage Mutant Ninja turtle and a few others things.

We told Anderlin we'd see him in the morning for Church and we headed to wrap up at our house with a call to the boys who we very much miss.



The emotions are high.  Anderlin is focused hard on starting this transition, but this is a huge change for him.  He has known one home for the last 3 1/2 years with mostly the same foster brothers and sisters and foster parents.  His life is incredibly simple currently compared to what he will be transitioning to.  He has spent the majority of the last years in this simple house, with daily excursions for walks and fun on the playground - but otherwise limited exposure to an outside world that is in itself so much different than what he will integrate into.

Our life is significantly more complex, and will become even more so complex in different ways with Anderlin.  We've known that generally, and can anticipate some, but still don't know what exactly it will mean.  It is very strange taking in a child as your own who you are just barely beginning to know.  Trusting that God will join him to our family, that we'll attach, care for him as our own.  We have experienced this once already and know it happens.  But will it happen?  We believe so, but trusting is scary.   Keep praying for us all.

Arriving & Meeting Anderlin

The rest of our flights also went great.  Other than the fact that we had 3 stops & flew all night it was all in all a great trip.  Sarah was able to grab some Zzz's in Miami where we had a few extra hours which was good for her to catch back up at least a little.

As we landed in Cap Haitien, it was strange to let the realization settle in that we were really back here.  Depends on the moment as far as how long it seems that it has been.  In some ways it was just yesterday, in other ways the process part has been long, but then in reality it was 18 months ago.

With arrival came some anxiety of claiming our massive amount of luggage and trying to get through customs without losing our wallets.  Our last trip with the 3 boys this was a pretty stress-filled time.  Tired, hot, hangry kids - waiting in a super small room with a very chaotic process of all the luggage coming into a small room and everyone trying to swap positions to get their bags.

this time however - they had doubled the size of the arrival area and it was so much better.  Course having done it before and not having to manage the boys (especially a certain 2 year old at the time) didn't hurt.

Our bags came out pretty quickly (they were last on our previous trip).

As we were walking to customs, a gal turned to me and asked me if we were the Stuarts.  Shock on my face I'm sure, she indicated that she (Silvia) was getting picked up by Nick as well and saw our empty stroller and figured who we were.

Then customs - as I mentioned before, we had 4 70lb bags, 2 full size backpacks, 2 small backpacks and a 20lb stroller.  We got all of them over to two custom search agents and hoisted our bags up for them to dig through them.  They dig through some and only had one thing of Nicks that they wanted to know what it was.  I told them it was a computer thing (technical term) and they seemed satisfied.  They ended up waiving us through without trying to extract anything from us.  Yeaaah.

Next we worked our way out to the waiting helpers ready to carry our bags for us.  I had a cart we  rented ($2) which held 3 of the big bags.  Sarah used the stroller for the backpacks.  We were able to manage it.  Was great to see Nick right there ready for us.  We headed to his truck in the parking lot and loaded the bags on top of a fresh load of bagged grain that Nick has just picked up for his chickens.

Dan rode to COTP on the top of all the gear to ensure that none of it got taken off the truck while we headed through town.  I was glad to have the job - its a great view, air feels great etc.  Sarah rode in with Nick and Sylvia and we headed to COTP - its about a 25-30 minute drive.


We arrived at COTP and after Nick let Roni know we were there, we headed out to the Hope house to see
Anderlin right away.  We met on the front porch.  We both got down by him and said that we were super glad to see him.  Stephanie (Anderlin's house parent) asked him if had something to give us and he gave us super good, super long hugs.    Of course its been a year and a half since we've seen him, but he had grown noticeably.

Anderlin pretty quickly wanted to go on a walk.  He hopped in a wagon and per his direction we headed to the playground.  Anderlin hopped down on the ground and headed to the zip line.  He crawled/slid across the pea gravel and we noted that he had a new move and I think was showing off a little - crawling fast and then doing a half roll/somersault.  Hard to describe, but it was slick.  We went from zip line to several of the swings with Anderlin wanting to show us what he could do.

Next we got back in the wagon strolling around the campus more.  Each person that we would run into Anderlin would ask him who we were.  Anderlin would proudly announce "This is my Mom and Dad!".

Anderlin took us to where he goes to school and showed us the books they read.  Sarah spent some time reading to him.

We we walked around the campus more with one of us pulling the wagon with Anderlin in it and the other one holding Anderlin's hand while we walked.  Over at the other side of campus (Manna) one notable thing was Anderlin noticing a bunch of little lizards on a tree so we stopped and watched and chased.

We ran into Carla and two other gals going out on a walk outside the compound (with double strollers and kids) - and Nick was there as well and we joined them on their walk out on the road.

We then walked back to the Hope House where we hung out a bit with the kids.  They've all grown so much.  6 year old Fanelson is the boss of the house, super sharp little guy - just taught himself to ride a bike so he was showing us his skills.  Cyrus had grown super tall and Bonnet as well.  Little Theo was the only one that seemed about the same - cute little guy.  After spending a couple of weeks with all these guys a summer ago we know them all pretty well.

Late afternoon we prepared to head out, wondering how Anderlin would do.  Roni thought he we might get some tears, but they do a great job of setting their expectations and making sure that Anderlin knew how things were going to play out so we gave good hugs and headed out with Nick to head back to Nick and Nikki's farm.

We arrived and dropped off all our gear at the guest house then headed over to the main house and had a great dinner with the Stolberg family.  Also received a tour of the house since the last time we saw it there was only some just poured foundations.

After dinner we enjoyed some great games of Sequence which was a great time with Nick and Nikki.

Lastly we headed back to the guest house, divided out all the stuff we had packed, and then were successful Skyping back to the boys and Grandma which was good for all of us.
Then we hit the hay.  Full day, good day.