A Lot of Firsts

Sorry this is so late, but better late than never I guess.  Our trip to Port to work on our Permis de Sejour was really good.  We still had to send in one more paper, so we weren't able to finish it, but are at least closer.  We do not have to go back to Port which is good.  Hopefully it will all be finished soon.

We spent a few days with some of our friends there who run HIV testing clinics all over the country.  It was fun hanging out with them and having a few days off.  We watched a lot of tv and just relaxed.  Port is way different than Cap.  We drove by President Aristides house which was kind of interesting.  While on this trip Eventz had a lot of firsts.

• He went on an airplane for the first time
• He rode an elevator for the first time
• He took a bath in a real bath tub rather than a bucket like we use here
• He buckled up in the car for the first time (we don't use carseats here and most of the seatbelts in our truck are broke)
• He went into a REAL store with aisles and aisles of food, multiple checkout stands, etc.
• He saw light fixtures for the first time rather than just light bulbs.  These amazed him!
• It was his first time in Port
• He had ice cream for the first time, and even he couldn't decide whether or not he liked it.  He would make the weirdest face each time he ate it, but he always acted like he wanted more!
• And the one that got me the most is that he rode in a shopping cart for the first and probably last time ever.

I'm sure there are more firsts that I can't think of, but man, the shopping cart one just really got me for some reason.  I mean when we decided to raise our kids here we knew there would be lots of things they were going to miss out on.  But for some reason I never thought of them missing out on shopping carts.  It's something so simple that seems so natural, but my kids aren't going to get that.  By time Eventz adoption is complete and we are able to take him to the States to visit family, he will likely be much to old to sit in a shopping cart.  The only way he will have this experience again is if we take him back to Port.

I don't know why but it made me really sad to watch him sitting there, kicking his feet, completely over stimulated by everything going on, as Nick pushed him up and down every aisle, knowing that we would likely never have this experience again.  I wish we had our camera with us, but unfortunately did not.

However we did take a lot of pictures on our last trip to the beach.  A couple that stayed with us for three weeks and our new nurse Tori wanted to hike to the beach, so Nick, Eventz and I decided to take them.  The only thing between us and the beach is a pretty big Mountain.  Rikerns took us to the base of it and we hiked over, he definitely thought we were a little crazy when we told him what we were doing.  People along the way kept telling us we couldn't make it, but we did.  Well, kind of.  We actually ended up several miles from where we wanted too, but at least it was on the road to where we wanted to go, so we hoped on a tap tap (local public transportation) and it took us the rest of the way.  The hike was gorgeous and surprisingly not too hard, followed by an amazing day at an amazing beach!  We had beautiful views over looking all of Cap Haitien, saw some cool mountain villages, hiked through a lot of banana trees, and even did a little bit of bouldering.

Eventz and Nick taking a break on the hike

This pictures shows how unafraid of the water he is.  He crawls all the way in and doesn't care when it gets to his face. He's like a submarine.  Don't worry we picked him up right after this, we didn't let him drown!

Nap time is an essential part of beach day.

Eventz Crawling path!

Come on Mom, lets go back in the water!

Look at that smile, he just loves the beach!

Eventz ate cheerios while we played football!

We feel very blessed to be able to take these days off, recuperate, and spend time as a family!  Last week I spent more time away from COTP than I did here.  This is really rare for me; it isn't uncommon for several weeks or even a month to go by without me leaving the compound.  Last week however I spent 2.5 days in Port to work on our Permis de Sejour, 1 day hiking and at the beach, and then the following day I went back to Port with one of our children for an appointment.

It was fun while it lasted, but this week it's back to work.  I have to finish my last few photo shoots with the kids for their photo updates, organize those into their files, and upload them.  I will be putting a few of them on our picture blog because they turned out really good this month.  I'll let you know when they are up.  I also have a few things in the preschool that needs to be cleaned, as well as have preschool.  Formula program is this week, as is Nicks birthday!  It's definitely going to be a busy week, but thats what we are here for!

Ok, off to wake up Eventz.  He's getting two new teeth in so I hope he's not to fussy today.  Poor guy has been sick as well and has been miserable for the last few days.

Nikki