A day off!

This past week (or year) has been hectic and busy.  Both Nick and I have been running non stop, working from the moment we get up until we go to bed.  Our poor boys have gotten a bit neglected this week and they are starting to show it.

Techniqually there's supposed to be one long term staff at COTP at all times, and since Nick and I are the only ones here right now, we really shouldn't leave.  But we were tired, and Nick is about to leave for two weeks and needed to spend some quality time with the boys and I first, something that is IMPOSSIBLE to get here.

So today we left.  We took a trip to the pool in town to regenerate and it was great!

This is only the third time I have been to the pool since living in Haiti.  The first time was an epic fail.  Turns out a Church was doing baptisims that day and Nick and I didn't realize what was going on until too late.  Those poor men, every time they talk about thier baptismis they'll be reminded by the fact that there was some white girl in a bikini there watching!  Yup that's my life!!

The second was a few weeks ago.  I was complaining to Nick about how bored I was, how I needed to do something fun, how I was getting claustrophobic.  He volunteered to take a day off and keep the boys so that I could take a girls day and head to the pool.  I grabbed all of the interns from this Summer and we had a great day off!

Before leaving today I was a bit worried about how it would go.  Wedly hasn't been in the truck (except for one exception) since the day he came here 10 months ago, and that may have been his first time ever in a vehicle.  He's never really gone any where or done anything.  He loves playing in our inflatable pool with two inches of water, but he normally just stands in it and rarely sits.  I didn't know how he would do in a big pool.




And then there's Eventz, our little water dog.  We knew he would want to be in the water the ENTIRE time, but the problem is that the shallow end is 4 feet deep and we have no floaty toys or anything for them to play on!  We weren't sure how it was going to go and knew full well that we may come back even more tired than we were prior; but we were ready to cool off a bit and get some good food!

So we lugged up our crew, packed lots of extra swim diapers and kids snacks and made our way into the heart of down town, to a little block of paradise in the middle of chaos.

The boys were amazing and had a blast!  It only took Wedly about 5-10 mins before he jumped right in the pool and loved every minute of it.  Eventz was in the water the entire time as expected, but it was so hot that we wanted to be in with him so it was fine!  We came back feeling so much better than when we left!

I'm so thankful for a little time off to spend with my family.  These next few days after Nick leaves when I am the only long term staff down here are going to be ridiculous.  How am I supposed to raise two boys on my own while simultaneously running an infant care center with 48 infants and toddlers, and a staff of 80, especially during payroll time?  And this doesn't even include helping the people at the gate or setting up projects and activities for our short term volunteers.

Please pray that I am able to get through these next few days with dignity and grace and that I make good decisions (since there's never really any right or wrong ones).  I am actually kind of excited for these next few days, even though I'm going to miss Nick and be more than ready for everyone to return.

ADDITION: so a little bit ago Carla came upstairs and told us that Martelly, the President of Haiti was apparently in town today at the Hotel Kristof.  Nick instantly turned red.  We had originally gone to the Kristof, but when Nick went inside to pay, we were told that the pool was closed.  Nick said that there was a guy that looked directly at him and he thought to himself, "geez, that looks like Martelly."

As soon as I heard him say this I started harassing him!  So from what we've heard (who knows how true this is) if we get a Presidental Waiver, we'll be able to start our adoption even though we aren't fully qualified.  Nick has joked around since we decided to adopt Eventz saying that he was going to meet the President and convince him to let us begin the process.  Nick has even made sure there are a lot of picture of Eventz on his phone so he can show him what he looks like.

Today was Nicks day and he blew it!  We even had Eventz with us to prove how cute he is and how good of parents we are!  I'm trying to convince Nick to go back to the hotel first thing in the morning to see if he is still there!  We're pretty sure that it's about 1 in a million chance that this would actually be what we need or that if it were what we needed that he would actually sign it!  Oh well, maybe next time we casually run into the president without any security around, Nick will remember what he looks like and try to talk with him!