He's Walking

Eventz officially started walking today!!

I was cleaning up the house when all of a sudden I noticed Eventz was standing up by himself.  I called him over to me and he took 6 steps!  It about broke my heart.  I was so excited that I grabbed him up real quick, ran out to the balcony and yelled at Nick to tell him the news.  Nick came upstairs and Eventz took 9 steps towards him!  We were both so excited and glad we were there.  I had this horrible feeling, that I'm sure most Mom's have, that he would begin walking when he was with his nanny or something.  But he didn't and we got to see it!

I don't know how the kid went from refusing to stand unassisted to taking 9 steps 2 days later, but he did it!  I knew he wouldn't try until he could master it, and that is exactly what he did!

Eventz also did something new during dinner tonight.  As he sat in his high chair, he burped and then said "uh oh," and then burped again and said "uh oh," and then did it a third time!   I have no idea where he learned this from, but it was pretty funny!  He's such an ornery little guy!!

Marck Update

Well it's been over three weeks now and Marck is still living at COTP and we are falling more and more in love with him and his parents everyday.  We had a team of doctors come out and do an ECHO on his heart.  He does in fact have a heart condition and we will be working on obtaining a med visa for him.  There is a team of visiting doctors coming to Santiago, Dominican Republic in August, so we are hoping to have all of his paperwork in place and get a surgery scheduled for him by that time.

Marck is still on oxygen 24/7, but is down to only three liters compared to the 8-15 liters that he was on for a long time.  His stats are improving and we are hoping that soon we will be able to take him completely off of oxygen so that he can go home until his surgery.

His Mom has been by his side the entire time.  Today is the first day that she has left, but she will be back in a few hours.  She is such a devoted Mother and would do anything for her son.  I don't know how she has stayed in that tiny room for so long with out leaving, I would be claustrophobic by now.

Kisses from Daddy!

Marck may only be 6 lbs, but he is definitely changing lives.  I can't even begin to count how many people have come to see him.  There is constantly a visitor or two, or some times twenty, who are here to pray with him and see how he is doing!  

He loves to look people right in the eye and hold on to peoples fingers!  He has the cutest little smile in the world!

His Mom has spent countless hours on that floor rocking him!

What COTP is able to do for this little life and his family is amazing.  With out the care our nurses provide for him, he probably wouldn't be here today.  Oxygen is one of the most expensive things at the local hospital.  There is no way that this family would have been able to pay for an oxygen machine for this long and they would have been sent home.  Not to mention all the money for meds, tests, food, etc that we have been able to provide for him.

Celebrating Haitian Flag Day!

Please pray that we are able to get all of his paperwork in order so that he can have his surgery.  Also pray that his Stats continue to stay high and that he can return home soon!

First Step

Eventz has been almost walking for about 3 months now.  See he's kind of a stubborn kid and doesn't like to even try things until he knows he can master them.  For instance when I was trying to teach him how to eat snacks, he would just look at the cheerios on his tray and have absolutely nothing to do with them.  Then all the sudden, one day out of the blue he just picked them up and started eating them as if he had been doing it for months.  He didn't have any trouble with it at all.

In the same way Eventz has REFUSED to stand unassisted.  Any time I would try, or he would even think I was going to try to let go of him, he would bend his knees and sit right down.  He could stand up and push his toys, or our kitchen chairs (which the people below us enjoy listening to all day everyday) all around the house without any problem.  He can even hold on to our hands and walk with out it phasing him.  But standing on his own, no way Jose, he was NOT going to have anything to do with that.

I've been saying for the past three months that he probably wouldn't have anything to do with walking, and then all of the sudden would just do it instantly.


Well yesterday we had two of his friends up for a private pool day on our balcony and both of his friends were standing up.  This made Eventz really excited and he felt the desire to stand as well.  He bounced around a lot and tried to stand up next to them, but just couldn't get it.  After pool day the three kids were playing in our house and when I tried to get Eventz to stand on his own, he did it!  The past day and a half Eventz has been standing for longer and longer periods of time all on his own.  And this afternoon he took his first step!  I mean seriously, he went from not even standing to taking a step in a matter of a few hours.  I bet within a week he is walking some what comfortably.

And then my work really begins!  The kid is already all over the place.  When we are down stairs under the mango tree he constantly crawls everywhere, over to our staircase, over to the staircase of the other building, over to the baby house, inside the pharmacy, etc.  He doesn't stay put.  I can't even imagine how much faster he'll be when he can walk.

My Baby is growing up too fast!

He can now say the word Uh-oh, which he finds a way to incorporate into our day, oh I don't know, probably about 200 times a day.  No joke he says it all the time.  It's ADORABLE!

And he gives THE BEST HUGS IN THE WORLD!  He has done it for several months now, but he wraps his tiny little arms around our necks, leans his head against our shoulder, and squeezes us.  Sometimes he sits up, looks us in the eyes, and then pulls us back into him for a hug.  Other times when we are on the ground playing with him he will come over and lay his head right in our lap.  Or at night when we are getting ready for bed, he will come over and lay his head right on top of my head for a long time.  I just love these moments!

Eventz is all boy.  Any time he hears a tractor, power tool, moto, etc, he turns to look at it.  He always tries to crawl UP the slides, and only likes to go down it on his belly.  He loves the water more than any kid I know and could play in it all day if Mom would let him!  Eventz is a HUGE daddy's boy and always wants Nick whenever he sees or hears him and gets upset if Nick leaves the house.


He eats an incredible amount of food and now weighs 19 lbs 15.2 oz!  He's huge and growing everyday.  Eventz is currently sporting a nice little afro which I love.  He's got great hair.  Seriously, I have had several random Haitian men that I don't even know tell me how much they like their hair.  It's so soft and adorable!


Earlier this week Eventz had his first bilingual moment which really excited me.  Eventz has been waving for a while, but as we were getting ready to leave the baby house one day I said "di orevwa" (say goodbye) and he started waving to all the nannies.  I have never asked him to do this in Creole before and I normally say it in English, but he knew what I was saying!  It made me really happy and all the nannies loved it as well!

On Monday Eventz biological parents are coming to officailly regive up their rights to him.  They did this once last summer after he was admitted, but the wrong birthdate was written for Eventz, so it has to be redone.  That's the trouble with my son having two birthdates, makes things confusing.  Luckily as far as I know he is the only one of our children with two birthdates, so hopefully no one else will have this problem!  I'm really excited for my son to actually be up for adoption!

Anyways check out this adorable video of Eventz!  He's such a blessing to our lives and we are so excited to get to be his parents!



Untitled from Nick Stolberg on Vimeo.

New Blog

Hey All,

As you can see my blog has changed a little.  I just want to show you some of the new features it has.  If you scroll down, on the right hand column you will see a section called "Our Family"  and then pictures of us.  If you click on those it has a short story as to how we got here and why we adopted Eventz!

If you keep scrolling down, towards the end of all the items on my side bar, you will see the picture that used to be in my header of some of the kids walking and holding hands.  This is my "blog Button."  If you are a blogger and want to share my blog with others, you can copy that link and add it to you blog so that you can refer people over here.

Thanks and enjoy the new look!!

Nikki

Mothers Day

Well my first Mothers Day didn't go quite how I had always thought my first Mothers Day as a new Mom would go.  I always figured I'd spend the entire day with my family, have a nice meal together, and maybe do something special and fun.  I thought we would talk, laugh, eat, and take pictures together.  We had planned to go to the beach for the day, but being short staffed, having lots of very sick kids, and being right in the middle of the solar panel installation, this just wasn't a possibility.

Although Eventz is and always will be my biggest priority, God had a lesson for me to learn last Sunday. He wanted to remind me that I am not only a Mother to one adorable little boy, but a Mother to 43+ amazing little children.  My Mothers Day was not spent with "my Family."  I spent no more than 10 minutes at a time with my son, and even less time with my husband.  My Mom was even down here, but I spent no time with her.

My day was however spent with my other children.  Children who needed someone to be there to be their Mom for the day.  I was exhausted after being up all night with two fragile little babies who were having bad diarrhea, vomiting, and scary high fevers.  One of these little boys has actually died before while having similar symptoms and had to be resuscitated.  I knew that at any second, he could get that bad again.  Mothers Day was spent taking care of these two boys and another little girl to ensure that their health would improve.  It was spent changing diarrhea diapers and getting vomited on.  My day involved helping our nurse attempt to put an IV in one of our babies to try and get them rehydrated.  It involved breathing treatments and checking temperatures.  It was spent having a staff meeting to discuss what changes we needed to make immediately to help improve the health of our babies.

It was spent checkin on a little boy who has a heart condition who needs to be on oxygen 24/7.  Running into his room each time our power shut off to make sure that his stats stayed high.  It was spent talking to his Mother to ensure that he was eating enough and staying hydrated.

My day was also spent burying one of our sweet babies who didn't have a Mother.  Rikerns, the guy who digs the graves, and I were the only ones at this little girls funeral.  She didn't have a Mother.  Her Mother had abandoned her a few months prior.  Was she abandoned because her Mother didn't love her or wasn't a good Mother?  NO, I don't believe that for a second.  In fact, I'm sure it's just the opposite.  I'm sure that she loved her so much and wanted what was best for her, and knew that she could not provide that.

Each morning when I get Eventz out of bed I get a sweet hug from him.  Nick and I get to read him a story, pray with him, and give him kisses before bed.  We play with him all the time and are able to watch him grow and develop on a daily basis.  Many Mothers long for these experiences with their children, but are unable to have them.  I am blessed to be able to spend every day with my son!

I may not have spent Mothers Day with my son, but I was able to spend it with my other children who needed me more.  I'm learning that it's not about the big moments, but the small ones that are more important.

Like the other day for instance.  Nick was watching Eventz so that I could get some work done.  After searching the whole compound for them, I finally found them taking a nap together!  Is this not just the cutest thing ever!

Up and Running

As of Saturday afternoon our solar panels are up and running!  It was a very exciting day and we all celebrated as we made the switch.  The entire project from start to finish went as smooth as we could have asked for.  Our team of electricians have worked hard and completed the project in an incredibly timely manner.  They are still here for a few more days and have been continuing to work on other electrical projects around the compound.

A few of these projects are putting outside lights all over the compound so we can see at night, upgrading our network, and installing two solar hot water heaters on two of our different buildings.

Being able to run off of solar is a huge blessing to COTP and will allow us to pour even more into our babies as our monthly budget will now be lower.

Once again we would like to thank each and every person involved in helping this project come to fruition.  There are so many people who have donated money or held fundraisers to help cover the costs of this project.  Several companies have donated supplies or given us an incredible discount to help keep the costs of this project down.  And of course there is the team that came down and helped install the panels!  We would also like to thank everyone who has prayed for this project as we have seen God's finger prints all over it and could not have asked for this to go any smoother!

Moving the inverters upstairs.

The Invertors in the new Building

The Charge Controllers

Moving the Batteries

The Battery Bank on the Roof

All the Panels installed!

Solar Hot Water Panel

Solar Hot Water Tank

Parts Department!

Permis de Sejour Part 3

Permis De Sejour Part 1
Permis De Sejour Part 1 Continues
Permis De Sejour Part 2


Well the drama regarding our Permanent Residency card continues.  After our trip to Port au Prince in phase two, we were supposed to get one piece of paper in order to finish the last little part of our application.  We had tried several times to get to the bank to add my name to Nicks Haitian account, but it never worked out.  Going into town is often an all day event and we would have had to have someone to watch Eventz.  Each time we had it planned, something came up.  This is normal here.

Rony, our adoption worker called Nick on Monday and said that our application expired that day and that our paper had to be submitted or we would have to start all over!  Yup, some how we were expected to go into the bank, add me to the account, get the piece of paper saying that I was added, give it to Rony who would ship it to Port, where one of our workers there would pick it up and hand it off to the guy who is helping us with our process so that he could take it to the immigration office and add it to our application, all before the day was over!  Because things in Haiti ever work that smoothly.  TIH!

Nick and I hopped on the Moto, went down town and surprisingly had my name added to the account very quickly.  We then gave the paper to Rony to have sent down to Port au Prince that day.  We still have not heard wether or not they will accept this or if we will have to start all over!  Ahh... Haiti!!!