We've had a good but long day. We got up at 5:45 (after finally getting to sleep at our Miami hotel about 1:00 a.m.), went to the airport at 7:00; made it to our gate by 9:00, but the plane didn't take off until 11:50 (1.5 hours late). We finally got to the orphanage about 3:00 p.m. because our plane was late and then it took over 1.5 hours to get our luggage at the Haiti airport (only a bit longer than in Miami last night).
Anyway, R.J. is great! He was wearing his Big Brother shirt today for our arrival. He has been pretty shy and nervous with us. He won't talk much (not even to Joyce and Molly), but he sure does understand a lot of English when you talk to him. He also can read and write in English quite well. It's very impressive. At one point this evening, while he was being shy, he lay down on the concrete and wrote Charlie a letter in English, unassisted!!! He also read the bedtime Bible story aloud all by himself with help on only about 4 words.
R.J. LOVES his MP3 music player! He had it on most of the day from 3-8 pm. He looked through a lot of the gifts (toys and games, not the clothes yet) that we brought him, and we just kind of hung out before dinner, which was at 5:15. The weather is about 75 degrees F. and breezy here on the mountain in Kenscoff. Perfect!
The food for dinner was great! Something like taco casserole and salad and fruit and Pepsi. Jean Bell, who runs things for GLA in Colorado Springs is here, and she made the food. There were lots of avocados to eat, too, which made me very happy!! After dinner, Papa pushed R.J. up and down a steep hill/ramp within the orphanage compound on a two-wheel bicycle for about 20 minutes. Papa got very tired. Then, after giving Molly and Joyce the books and photos of R.J. that we brought them, they left for the Toddler House. (We're staying at the Guest House which is part of the Main House/Baby House compound.) That gave Mama, Papa, and R.J. some alone time (for the first time of the day) at about 7:00. We played Go Fish with alphabet cards, and R.J. won!! He started coming out of his shell a bit while we played cards, but he was really tired (he was up at 5:30 this morning), so after one game it was time for bed. Yes, it was only 7:45 p.m., but it was already very dark and seemed like about midnight to me and Papa.
R.J. was restless until Papa and I settled in for sleep too. Papa fell asleep in about 10 minutes. R.J. fell asleep in about 20 minutes. I waited until 8:30, just resting with my eyes closed, and then snuck out to post this.
We can't wait to get home to Charlie on Thursday. Pray that we make all our flights and that they're not running late like our two flights down here! Tomorrow morning we depart the orphanage at 7:00 a.m. for our Visa appointment at 8:00 a.m. in Port-au-Prince. We'll be back by lunchtime. Then who knows what we'll do after that?!
Anyway, R.J. is great! He was wearing his Big Brother shirt today for our arrival. He has been pretty shy and nervous with us. He won't talk much (not even to Joyce and Molly), but he sure does understand a lot of English when you talk to him. He also can read and write in English quite well. It's very impressive. At one point this evening, while he was being shy, he lay down on the concrete and wrote Charlie a letter in English, unassisted!!! He also read the bedtime Bible story aloud all by himself with help on only about 4 words.
R.J. LOVES his MP3 music player! He had it on most of the day from 3-8 pm. He looked through a lot of the gifts (toys and games, not the clothes yet) that we brought him, and we just kind of hung out before dinner, which was at 5:15. The weather is about 75 degrees F. and breezy here on the mountain in Kenscoff. Perfect!
The food for dinner was great! Something like taco casserole and salad and fruit and Pepsi. Jean Bell, who runs things for GLA in Colorado Springs is here, and she made the food. There were lots of avocados to eat, too, which made me very happy!! After dinner, Papa pushed R.J. up and down a steep hill/ramp within the orphanage compound on a two-wheel bicycle for about 20 minutes. Papa got very tired. Then, after giving Molly and Joyce the books and photos of R.J. that we brought them, they left for the Toddler House. (We're staying at the Guest House which is part of the Main House/Baby House compound.) That gave Mama, Papa, and R.J. some alone time (for the first time of the day) at about 7:00. We played Go Fish with alphabet cards, and R.J. won!! He started coming out of his shell a bit while we played cards, but he was really tired (he was up at 5:30 this morning), so after one game it was time for bed. Yes, it was only 7:45 p.m., but it was already very dark and seemed like about midnight to me and Papa.
R.J. was restless until Papa and I settled in for sleep too. Papa fell asleep in about 10 minutes. R.J. fell asleep in about 20 minutes. I waited until 8:30, just resting with my eyes closed, and then snuck out to post this.
We can't wait to get home to Charlie on Thursday. Pray that we make all our flights and that they're not running late like our two flights down here! Tomorrow morning we depart the orphanage at 7:00 a.m. for our Visa appointment at 8:00 a.m. in Port-au-Prince. We'll be back by lunchtime. Then who knows what we'll do after that?!
We'll post more after we're home. Time is short here and I need sleep instead of spending time on the computer, so check back in about a week. :)
