I am such a terrible blogger! I just now found the time to finish. We were going to blog Friday night but the internet was down all day Friday. As a matter of fact, we ran out of local minutes on our cell phone and only had international minutes left. We wanted to order a pizza but could not call because we were out of minutes. We could have gone to Digicel online to top off our minutes but the internet was down. We ended up calling my mom with our international minutes and we had her use our international calling card number to call the Dominos in Kingston to order a pizza for us. We laughed about this for an hour. Thanks Mom! :)

We got to Maxfield early Friday morning to have one on one time with Bevaughn before going to the school for the presentation. The presentation was at the Basic School at 10:00. The guest speakers were two women from a government office there to do a lesson on Jamaican culture. We learned about a dance called the Dinki Mini that people do after someone dies. We also learned about an instrument called the Banta that is played in the “dead yard”. Mark and I also learned a song called “Hold em Joe” when the entire class sang, and danced, and played instruments. There is an amazing little boy named Daniel that really knows how to play the drum. It was VERY impressive. Bevaughn was very well behaved through the presentation and even participated at the board. Omar wanted to lay across my lap the entire time and get loved on. I encouraged him to raise his hand and volunteer to play the shakers and he did. He is SO cute! I am really praying for Lance and Cindy to be able to adopt Omar and sister. Lance and Cindy live in Wisconsin and it would be so great to meet up with them so that Bevaughn and Omar could spend some time together. After the presentation, we spent time with Bevaughn on the playground, blowing bubbles and looking at books. We walked around and sang “Hold em Joe” and held hands. He said “Momma bike, Momma two cars (actually it sounds more like cyaar)” When Mark would stop to play with the other children he would yell “Daddy come!” We are so attached to him and he seems to very attached to us. He is such a well behaved and loving boy. And I know that I have said it before, but he is the greatest gift that we have ever been given. Leaving him Friday night was just about the hardest thing that I have ever had to do in my life. We hung our first family picture above his crib and cried the whole way out of the building. As we stood outside hugging and crying, a woman came out and talked to us. She told us that Bevaughn has come such a long way since he was a baby and that she and the others all love him very much and that he will be taken care of while we are gone. She also thanked us for loving Jamaica and for coming. She and the other ladies always seemed so shocked every time we would ask them if we could help with anything. They really seemed to appreciate every bit of help that we were able to give. We tried to explain to Bevaughn that we would be back for him as soon as possible and that we love him very much. I’m just not sure how much he understands. I know that he has good care takers that will continue to explain to him that we are coming back. I miss him so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We left our hotel Saturday morning at 8:00 to head to the airport. We both cried on and off that morning. We flew out of Kingston at about 11:30 after a fuel pump issue. We landed at JFK, had just an hour layover before we flew to Detroit. We landed in Detroit around 9:00 and then began our drive home. We ended up getting home around 1:30. Too much travel for one day! We ended up sleeping until 1:00 today :)

I can’t believe that we both go back to work tomorrow! What a trip it was. Kingston was far more than I ever expected. The people are amazing and spending the week at Maxfield has forever changed my life. I got up this afternoon and immediately starting going through the house looking for things that we can donate to them. Every time we get back from Jamaica, I look around and think “Man we just have WAY too much stuff!” It’s time to get pushy as far as the adoption goes and time to figure out what we can do to help the other children at Maxfield as well. We’ll just take it one day at a time and pray for God’s help and direction.

Because it takes SO long to upload pictures and video to Blogspot, we are just going to upload the album and videos to my facebook.

We miss him already!

Sorry that we did not leave a post last night. We JUST now got in from Maxfield so I wanted to sit down and catch everyone up on the happenings in Kingston. Yesterday was a long tough day. We were so emotionally drained that we could not even think to type. Yesterday morning we taxied to downtown Kingston to our appointment with Mrs. Tummings. Going through downtown Kingston is really an eye opening experience. We met with Mrs. Tummings at 10:00. Mark and I were both pretty nervous but I think that we did a good job at hiding that. She was very nice and explained her concerns about Caucasians adopting Jamaican children. She wanted to make sure that we understood the importance of keeping Bevaughn in touch with his culture. We told her that we completely agreed and we even showed her the life book that we are making for Bevaughn. For those of you that have not seen the book, it explains his beginnings and what a tough decision it must been for his birthmother to place him for adoption. It explains his life at Maxfield Park, and it included lots of pages about Jamaican culture. We also explained to her that we would like to bring him back to visit at Maxfield each year when we come to Jamaica. She told us that we seemed more prepared than most of the adopting couples that she has met. She gave us some more information on Bevaughn’s beginnings and some details on his abandonment. The unfortunate part of the meeting was that Mrs. Corothers apparently has not been communicating with Mrs. Tummings as far as where we are in the adoption process. Mrs. Tummings explained that his birth certificate would have to be ordered in order to finish Mrs. Corothers’ final report. I told her that the birth certificate had been ordered in December and no one has heard anything about it since. She said that she would speak to Mrs. Corothers as soon as possible. The only problem is that Mrs. Corothers is on vacation for the rest of April. After the final report has been made, the report is sent to Mrs. Tummings for approval and then we have our court date. Fingers and toes crossed, we should be able to come back in June or July to bring him home. As of yesterday, Bevaughn completely came out of his shell. He is calling us mommy and daddy and giving hugs and kisses and wants to be with us every second of the day. Yesterday we colored some more, played on the play ground and of coarse read more books. We also played with all of the toddlers and kicked the ball around the room. Mark seriously impressed the kids by spinning a basketball on his finger. Bevaughn said “My daddy”. Bevaughn is such a funny, smart, and very particular kid. On the play ground, he picks up the sticks and puts them in the area where the sticks are burned. Everything has to be tidy and in its place. He makes sure that my purse and book bag are always closed and if he gets something out, he puts it back where he got it, he always wipes his mouth when he takes a drink, he takes himself to the bathroom and washes his hands without being asked, if he drops food on the floor, he picks it up and throws it outside.. I could go on and on. He is very sweet and pretty serious.

(Organizing and zipping up the bags!)

(Playing on the tires with daddy)

(The first Jamaican basketball star!)

(Beauty Salon)

(Our baby is so great about sharing)

The caretakers say that he was a serious baby as well. …I could go on an on. He is amazing. I keep asking myself what I ever did to deserve such a wonderful blessing. We left last night right before his dinner time. We were halfway down the driveway and I heard a child crying and I knew instantly that it was him. We walked back up the drive a little and sure enough Bevaughn is standing at the gate screaming and crying. He even yelled mama. The workers said that he stood there for over an hour and did not eat his dinner. My heart broke like nothing I have ever felt. I sobbed uncontrollably and continued to cry the entire ride back to the hotel. When we got back to the hotel, we instantly showered. We had been slobbered on, bit, pooped on, peed on, and God only knows whatever else we had on is. There are possible cases of pink eye, ring worm, etc….. SO worth it though. I think that I kissed and hugged every kid in the place! After we cleaned up, we walked to a restaurant downtown called the Hot Pot. It was SO good. Mark got the curry lamb and I got the brown stew fish. It was two whole fish..I even pulled its eyeball out with my fork. Sweet! They were playing very depressing 80’s slow jams and I cried a couple of times. After we ate, we headed out to get a taxi and talked to a man named Ivan for sometime. He reminded me that everything happens on God’s time, not ours. I really needed to hear that. He, along with the security guard at out place both said that they “like our vibes”…funny. The people in Kingston have been so friendly. The taxi driver last night even called me “Darlin”, I couldn’t help but laugh. The security people at the children’s home have been very protective over the last few days. The will not let us leave the gate while waiting for a taxi. Today, she wouldn’t let us leave to walk up the street to get a drink. She sent someone with us. I guess I understand. I heard on the news this morning that there was a shooting last night on Maxfield Ave.

(Lunch time for the toddlers and schoolers)

We woke up this morning around 7:30, had breakfast and headed out. We walked to a shopping center called the Sovereign Center. We were looking for sunglasses for Matthew and something for Bevaughn. We found the sunglasses and got Bevaughn some Spiderman sunglasses as well. He has been totally into our sunglasses for days, so we thought that he should have his own. He loved them and he put them on everyone. If pink eye is going around, they will all have it. Ooops. We had no idea how far away this shopping center was. We walked, and walked, and walked. If the sun was out, I would have had a heat stroke for sure! We did pass the Bob Marley museum and took some pictures of the outside.

Maybe we will go next time. We will definitely go to the beach next time too. It has been so weird being in Jamaica and not going to the beach. We don’t want to miss a minute with Bevaughn. We made it to Maxfield and Bevaughn was sleeping. We walked over to the nursery and helped out with feeding and holding the babies. There are only 7 babies; 5 girls and two boys. They are all so precious and so giggly. They melt your heart. Two of the baby girls are half Indian and have the curliest hair. One of these girls has a heart condition as was just released from the hospital. She is a very loud breather.

(What a sweet baby. The nursery worker said that Mark should be his daddy :) )

(New Spiderman Shades)

Bevaughn woke up and we spent some time talking before snack time. The snack today was caramel popcorn. Way better than yesterday’s roasted red pepper crackers. The kids did not like them at all and I caught Bevaughn slipping his into another kids bowl when the kid wasn’t looking. Sneaky. It was raining for most of the day so there wasn’t much to do outside. He wondered around for an hour sharing his sunglasses. He is very good at sharing. The rain did let up and we went outside and blew some bubbles. He looked really confused when the bubbles popped. All of the kids ran out to see and got in trouble for going outside. The caretakers keep saying; “Leave Bevaughn alone with his parents. When your parents come, you will not want anyone around either.” Heartbreaking. Some may never know what parents are. There are 18 year olds on the campus that have been there since birth. We do want to spend time with Bevaughn but we also want to give love to the other kids. Sometimes you have to sneak them some love (and treats) when no one is looking J We decided to stay tonight until bedtime. I even got to give him a bath. It was such a special moment.

(Catching bubbles)

(Teeth chattering after bath time)

(Potty time for the toddlers)

He is so adorable! I love his cute accent and I hope he doesn’t loose it completely. We want to get to Maxfield early tomorrow because it is our last day. We were also invited to see a presentation at the Basic School at 10:00. There are 4 teachers at Basic School and they are all wonderful. I just don’t know how we will leave him tomorrow. We are attached to him and he is clearly attached to us already. All of the kids call us his mommy and daddy. The other kids are also getting attached to us. I gave everyone of them a goodnight and hug and kiss before we left. Omar asked if he could have three hugs and kisses and wanted to know if he was the best hugger..how cute. His sister’s name is Marie by the way. I thought that they were saying Mary. I am really going to miss Omar and Amalvo. Amalvo needs so much love. He can really be a stinker at times but if you love on him for a few minutes, he is as good as gold! Off to bed.

Omar and Marie (not Mary)

Butterflies in my "Tummings"

We were woken up again this morning at 6:00am by what sounded like a construction crew building something outside our door. This has happened every morning. Actually, this has happened almost every time we have been to Jamaica. The sun rises as early as 5:30 and by 6:00 people are raring to go! Mark got the short end of the stick twice this morning…after he made my bagel the toaster overheated and he didn’t get his bagel toasted. Right after that, he went to take a shower and the water was shut off. Poor guy :( There is a serious drought in Jamaica right now. People as old as 80 say that they have never seen a drought like this. As a result there has been a water shortage. Makes for some super sweet mangoes though!!

After breakfast we walked to town to find a bookstore to get Bevaughn some more books. As I said before, this kid is book crazy! We found some super cool books, like J is for Jamaica. A is for Ackee…B is for Bammy….C is for Callaloo… etc. He loved it and I did too. After the bookstore we headed over to Maxfield. There has been a different security person there each day so there is always some confusion about who we are and our purpose for being there. The security woman told me to call the office myself so I did and a very nice man named Richard said “Yeah Mon, the ones with the suitcases of supplies..come on in.” He greeted outside the office and walked us into the building. He told the care takers that we had arrived and they said that they would get him ready and bring him out. Richard said that he will be praying for our family and that he is very happy for us and Bevaughn.

I really think that they are changing him into nicer clothes before they bring him out because we can never see him as soon as we walk in and he is wearing much nicer clothes than the other kids. The kids in the brown uniforms are the “schoolers” that live there but go to school next door during the day. The toddlers like Bevaughn are dressed in regular clothes and are kept in what I would consider a very small room. One with no toys that I can find. When we get there, Bevaughn is in the room with the other toddlers and then sent out to be with us. I think that he must be so confused as to why they have been changing his clothes everyday and sending him out, away from his friends, to spend time with two strangers. His friends will see him sitting on the bench down the hall from them and yell his name.

The schoolers were wild and rough today! They literally attacked us, 10 at a time hanging on Mark and myself..they wanted to pull our hair and slap our arms and legs and try to pull on our noses. I had kids trying to pull my earrings and hair out all at the same time! They also loved touching our hair. Bevaughn was being a little protective again, guarding us and the book bag where all of his books are. An older girl named Princess whacked Bevaughn upside the head and he took his shoe off and chased her with it. We as well as the care takers had to be very stern and make them line up on the bench. These kids are in serious need of love and attention. Again, we decided to leave while they were eating lunch because the kids would not focus on eating. We sat underneath the mango tree again and ate our PB and J’s. While we were eating, we ran into the two Basic school teachers. We told them about the school supplies that we brought to make sure that the supplies ended up in the right hands. I passed her later and she said that she located the school supplies and was very grateful.

We read our new books today and the old ones too. Bevaughn looked at his life book again and the new pictures that we added last night. He just laughs when he sees picture of himself and his friends. We colored some more and spent more time on the “play ground”. While on the playground we met some older school children that were such a pleasure to talk to. There is a 6th grade boy named Matthew that has an incredible spirit. I really enjoyed our conversation. I want to find some sunglasses for him before we leave because he has some sort of issue with his right eye and the sunlight hurts it. One of older girls gave Bevaughn a mango. He REALLY likes mangoes.

Matthew

He is opening up to us more and more everyday. He will walk up and put his arms out to be picked up and is very good at giving hugs. No kisses yet. When we look at pictures he will point out that I am mommy and that Mark is daddy. His care taker said today that he is a very sensible child. I totally agree. He is very well behaved, other than yesterday when he tried to hit Omar and another boy with his crayons. He is very go-with-the-flow and mellow. He likes everything put back in the book bag when we are finished with it and he puts all of his crayons away. I did think that it was a little weird when he started wiping off his crayons with a wet nap. That’s even too OCD for me. We stayed about 6 hours today and then he fell asleep on Mark. I walked around with him for a while before we put him in his bed.

We had seriously talked about the possibility of adopting Bevaughn’s friend Omar. Omar is such a cool kid. A woman at Maxfield said that we should adopt Omar but the kicker is that he comes with a 2 year old sister. She pulled me into meet his little sister while she was asleep in her crib. They are both so cute, but three children at once is just a bit too crazy. We are hoping that they are legally free for adoption and that we may be able to assist another couple in adopting a sibling pair. That would be SO awesome. We would love to see these two get the family that they need and deserve.

Omar (in the middle)

Mary (Omar's sister)

I really didn’t want to leave Maxfield today. Each day it is getting harder to leave. Friday will be a bummer. I just hope he knows that we WILL be back to get him ASAP.

We came back to our room, borrowed an iron for out interview clothes tomorrow and talked to the manager, Mrs. Henriques, for some time about the adoption process in Jamaica. We then walked to town again for some more Hardo bread and other staples, came back to our room, ate dinner, and are now calling it a night. I have to admit, I am a bit nervous about the meeting with Mrs. Tummings tomorrow.

Thank you to everyone that is praying for us right now.

We belong to HIM!!!

We ended up going out last night and walking around New Kingston to see what was going on with the Carnival festivities...we went into weird local outdoor lounge that played dentist office music..straight from the 80's??? We finally learned how to play Dominoes! We played four hands with two locals. I think one may have been a little ticked that Mark won the last two games. He suddenly wanted to pack up the Dominoes and quit. I had a feeling that was going to happen :) After Dominoes, we headed back to our place, made a grilled cheese on Hardo..of coarse and took a dip in the pool before bed.

Got up this morning with a BAD stomach thing but I wasn't going to let this ruin my day. Mark walked to town and got a SIM card and some Pepto for my stomach. We ate breakfast (German made corn flakes and the best bananas on Earth). There really is nothing like a Jamaican banana. We loaded up our supplies and headed off to Maxfield. When we arrived, Bevaughn was at the clinic getting his final check up for his "foot". For whatever reason, EVERYONE said that he hurt his foot. Turns out it is really the back of his knee. Knee, Foot..practically the same thing :) We waited for him to return for about 10 minutes. In the meantime, we called Mrs. Tummings at the CDA. We have an appointment to meet at 10:00 on Wednesday. Unfortunately we will not be allowed to take Bevaughn to the beach this week. It is against the policy until we are given custody. We're a little bummed. We brought beach toys and swim trunks just in case. We will definitely go the beach when we return to get him!

When Bevaughn came in, he immediately walked up to us and just sort of stood there for awhile staring. I scooped him up and gave him some hugs and kisses.






He liked the kisses much better today :) We read a few books. Man, this kid loves books! I wish we would have brought more books. We are actually going to go to the book store in the morning before heading over to Maxfield. After reading, we colored for awhile. Bevaughn likes his crayons lined up in a tidy row. When he takes a crayon out of the row, he puts it back in the same spot that he took it from. When he was finished coloring, he put all of the crayons back into the bag and tried to close it up. It was too cute. A boy after my own heart!






He talked more today! He pointed out things in pictures and he actually answered a few of my questions. He also laughed and smiled a lot more today. The sunglasses thing works EVERY TIME! He also liked to look at pictures and video of himself and his friends.




When he gets around his friends, he is pretty loud and likes to initiate conversation with all of them. He also knows everyone's name. He REALLY likes Omar. We took a short video of Omar coming in the door while we were coloring. He got a little possessive of us and didn't want Omar or anyone else coming over next to us. The look on Omar's face in the video is HILARIOUS! Omar is such a cool kid!



Coloring was interrupted by lunchtime, so we packed up the coloring stuff and spent a few minutes with the other kids before they ate. The schoolers come over from their classrooms and eat lunch with the toddlers. They ate rice with some veggies and cut up hot dogs. It actually didn't look too bad!




The kids were kind of getting in trouble for not eating because they were paying too much attention to us, so we decided to walk around the property and take some pictures. We took some picture of the play ground. The condition of the play ground makes me want to cry. There are only a few swings that aren't broken and the slide is almost completely broken. It is in such a bad state. These kids deserve so much better. We sat under a mango tree and ate a PB and J. Mark actually sat on some mango. We were cracking up as I was wiping off the back of his shorts with a wet nap. After lunch we went back in and spent some more time with the schoolers before they had to head back to class. Their teacher was doing a lesson on prepositions. She is a really good teacher!








After the schoolers headed back, we asked Bevuaghn if he wanted to go outside and he said "yes". We sat on the swings for awhile. He laughed and smiled and then started to yawn and then started to nod off in the middle of swinging. I said "Do you want to come to momma and sit on my lap?" He got down off of the swing and walked over to me and put his arms out. He sat on my lap for awhile and fell asleep. Mark made me take him inside and put him to bed. The sun was getting ready to start baking us. If it weren't for the sun, I could have stayed there all day. I took him inside and put him in his bed, took his shoes off, and said "Goodbye". Oh yeah, apparently he knocked out a front tooth sometime between now and last November. I guess we can just let him go toothless for the next two years or so.. do they make baby partials?





We got back to our room and napped. My stomach is finally starting to feel better..thank goodness. Mark thinks his cooking made it better :) We're ready to do it again tomorrow!

The First Day of the Rest of our Lives

We woke up this morning around 8:00. Mark made fried (brown) eggs on the best bread ever! I seriously look forward to coming to Jamaica just to get the Natural Bran Hardo Bread! Anywho...got ready, walked down to the road and caught a cab. Made it to Maxfield Park around 10:00. We walked down the long drive to the building and I started to cry. I was totally overwhelmed with emotion. I got myself together and made it to the building where the babies and toddlers live. The kids had church this morning and were getting changed out of their church clothes, so there were a few youngsters running around in their undies carrying shoes. It was so cute. We talked to one of the care takers while Bevuaghn was being dressed. She told us that she showed him our pictures and explained that we were mommy and daddy and that she talked to him about Murphy, which is a little strange to him because they don't keep pets. We sat down on a bench for what seemed liked an eternity waiting for him to walk out of the room...and then he did. In his tiny little jorts (jean shorts for those of you that are out of the loop), a little striped shirt and brown sandals. He is so much smaller than I thought he would be! I don't even remember the following few minutes. We were just a little overwhelmed. I put him in my lap and snuggled him and hugged him and kissed him more times than I could count.




He was a snuggler but not so into the kisses! He seemed a little confused but mostly very shy. His care taker basically told us not to get used to him being quiet because he is very loud when he is playing. She told us that he was on par for his age and actually wants to go over to the pre school even though he is not old enough for pre school. She said that sometimes the teachers will let him stay and he comes back and repeats everything that the teacher says. She also told us that he likes Mac-n-cheese and dumplings and he really like corn meal porridge with milk and sugar. We also found out that they call him "Bevi".



He was fine with sitting on my lap snuggling but her didn't really want to talk. Mark put his sunglasses on him and that made him smile...everytime. Mark took his picture and showed it to him which made him smile as well. Other than that, we couldn't get to many smiles out of him today.



It was also his nap time and I think that he was pretty tired. Mark showed him a few picture books that he was totally into. He can count to 10 but he wasn't really in the mood to count. He did point at the pictures and whisper what the the pictures were of..like turtle and frog. He is such a sweet boy!!! We didn't get to stay as long as we wanted to today because he was getting very sleepy and he needed a nap. I think that it was a good introduction for all of us. When we were leaving, his care taker asked him if he wanted to go with us and he walked over to us, put his arms out, and told her "Bye". We left and again, we both cried. We are in love! We are taking the supplies to Maxfield tomorrow because the office will actually be open. I can't wait to see him. He is the most perfect, precious thing. I am so glad that God chose us to be his parents. We will take more pictures of him and Maxfield Park tomorrow. We didn't want to overwhelm him today. We will get a SIM card tomorrow and call home, Digicel has been closed since we got here.



On another note, we had no idea that Carnival was going on today in Kingston. The parade was literally right outside of our gate. We went down and video taped it. One of the craziest things that I've seen. The parade leads to a giant park that is right across from our place. It goes until tomorrow morning. Luckily we been to Jamaica enough times that we are now able to sleep through very loud bumping music into the wee hours of the morning. We are going to go get in the pool now and then probably join the Carnival for some tasty Jamaican food..that will make up for the dinner last night!

Engine Trouble and a Dangle Down :)

We left KY Friday night at about 11:30 and arrived in Detroit about 4:00am. Flight to Atlanta was good. We were pretty sleep deprived and slept the whole way there. Atlanta to Kingston was another story. We were like 100th in line for take-off and the plane behind ours noticed that our plane had a mysterious dangle down on the landing gear. The mechanic came and fixed it and then we were back in line for take-off...until the engine lost oil pressure and the mechanics came again....two hours later we were in the air. We landed in Kingston around 3:00 and made it through immigration and out of the airport around 5:00. We were so tired that we just sat outside of the airport and stared at the Blue Mountains for few....needed time to adjust. Made it to our room, which is very nice by the way(it has a kitchenette so Mark can still make my breakfast) :) This place has so many levels and different balconies. The one on the roof is the best! The view is amazing.




We went to the grocery store and walked around New Kingston for awhile. Ate at Pizza Hut of all places...that's where all of the locals were, so that's where we went. They have Jerkaroni, Jerk chicken, Jerk sausage, and even Jerk pizza sauce. Hilarious!!!



We came back to our place, sat on the roof top for several hours and then called it a night. Can't believe we were at all nervous about coming to Kingston. It has been a wonderful experience so far! We meet Bevaughn tomorrow! Holy Crap!!!!!!