Day One...

Thursday the 12th we left the house at 0 dark thirty which was 3:50am CT & after Don's shuttle service picked up Tim & Jason, we headed to the airport. Our flight to Chicago was at 6am. From Chicago we flew to Miami (still don't get the flying north to go south bit). We had a short lay over at Miami & then headed to PAP which for once was on time. We landed in Haiti at approx. 4:10pm ET but by the time we went through customs, got our bags, loaded the vans, & arrived to the guest house it was dinner time. We ate dinner & got our room assignments.

By this time it was around 7:30pm & the team leader thought it would be best if we didn't go to the O that night. I put on a dramatic show, explaining why we needed to go that night & at least see our children even if he thought it was too late to bring them back with us that night :o) It must have been convincing because he changed his mind & we went to the O for about an hour. Although I as well as the other parents were disappointed that we didn't get to bring them back that night, we were thankful for the hour that we got to spend with them. Phoebe was very happy to finally meet her siblings & they were extremely excited to see her. Phoebe picked all three of them up & carried them around. She didn't have any problem picking Caleb & Samara up but Shakira who is very light but very tall, was somewhat of a challenge for her :o) Shakira was so excited to see the both of us that she kept jumping up & down which was somewhat overwhelming to Phoebe but she handled it well.

After lots of hugs, kisses, & pictures, I had to explain to Samara & Shakira that they wouldn't be coming back to the guest house with us that night but that we would see them first thing in the morning. They were disappointed but handled it well. Caleb however, cried as soon as I put him down & started to walk away. We then returned to the guest house & got ready for bed. Normally the roosters don't start their carrying on until around 2 to 3am, this time for whatever reason, they decided to start not much after our heads hit the pillow which was around 10pm & it lasted until around 7am. Unfortunately they maintained this schedule all week. I didn't know there was such a thing as noc turnal roosters!!!