Happy Family Day

Eventz in Daddy's back pack on a Moto Ride!

Today Nick, Eventz, and I are celebrating.  One year ago, the three of us became a family!  I remember coming back to Haiti after announcing we were adopting, and being so eager to see my beautiful little baby boy!  I sat in the stuffy, small airport in Port au Prince, watching every minute slowly tick away on my watch, wanting time to speed by so I could give Eventz hugs and kisses.

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally walked into my new apartment, asked the nanny that was watching him that day where he was, and quickly walked into my room to see an incredibly tiny little guy sound asleep in his play pen.  I just stood on the side and stared at him for the longest time.  I wanted to pick him up, tell him the exciting news; that I was his new Mommy; and give him a hug and a kiss, but decided that could wait and instead I just enjoyed the moment!

Eventz demanded I play in this position and
refused to let me get up!

Last night I read through some of my old blog posts about Eventz, and it killed me to see how big he has already gotten.  My once tiny baby is now a running, exploring, adventurous toddler who loves to learn!  In many of these posts, I talked about how I was trying to get Eventz to say Mama.  He refused for the longest time and would only say Dada.  Now however, Mommy is one of his favorite words and he says it all the time, always with a smile on his face!

Yesterday was all about Eventz.  We let him lead us on an "Adventure Walk."  He just wandered where ever he wanted, and we followed close behind.  He lead us to the shop, played with stuff there for a while, and then ended up going over to the neighbors where he ran around for about an hour!

Nick and I are only just now beginning to learn how difficult this adoption is going to be.  I had always thought we would let him live with us for a year and then at least start the 2 year process to make him legally ours.  I expected us to be able to go to someone's office, tell them our story, and either be approved or denied to start the adoption.  However, there is no way to know whether or not we will be approved until we actually submit all of our paperwork; which is several thousands of dollars; and since we don't met the Haitian requirements, theres a good chance that would be denied.  At this point it looks like we are going to wait the four years until we met the requirements before we even try.  This means 6 years before he'll be able to leave the country.

We are still hoping and praying that the Haitian laws change, but know they likely wont!

Regardless, we are so blessed to be spending this time WITH our son!  Nick and I just can't believe how well he fits into our lives!  He has a combination of both of our personalities, and if it wasn't for the physical appearance, you would never know he wasn't biologically ours!

Eventz now knows what a lion, kitty, puppy, goat, sheep, and cow say!  His favorite toys are his plastic lions, which he carries ALL over the place and 'roars', and his toy quad, which he pushes around and says 'zroom' to!  One of my favorite things Eventz does is go to the edge of the balcony, stand on his tippy toes so he can barely see over and yell "Ni, Ni" (Nick, Nick)!  Apparently he has seen me do this a few times, and now when he wants Daddy, he simply calls for Ni to come up and play with him!  Eventz is completely bonded to Nick and I and loves to give us hugs and kisses!  He knows that we are Mommy and Daddy and he knows he's well loved!

However, God never ceases to remind me what sacrifice had to be taken in order for him to be ours.  On our Family Day, Eventz Dad came to visit and began talking to me about Eventz baby sister, who is one month old.  I was reminded that Nick and I aren't the only ones that love Eventz, that there are two other people out there that love him even more than we both do.  That they love him so much, they made the incredibly difficult decision not to parent.  Everyday we love him more and more and are so incredibly thankful that he lives with us and is ours to care for.