I love babies

I wanted to add some of my thoughts on the week we spent at Children of the Promise (COTP) and more about what I will be doing there. Right now there is a nurse there named Rebekah, who has been there since January and will overlap with us in July for a couple weeks and then head back home to Washington. She's my age and worked with adults before going to Haiti, so that made me feel a little better about my lack in nursing experience with kids. Fortunately, Rebekah will be able to train me when we get there. She's a great nurse and was very welcoming to us on our visit. I'm sad that we won't be working together the whole time we're there.

So twice a day we passed meds to the kids. There are 3 HIV+ kids and 2 of them are on ARVs (which is great that they can get them for free!) But they need to take them on a strict schedule, so we did meds at 7am and 7pm. Most of the kids are great with taking their meds, with the exception of a few spitters:) My favorite part of the day was the kid's bedtime, because we'd go and give meds while Kurt brushed their teeth and then cuddle the babies and say goodnight. They're all clean and snuggly in their pjs and just love to be held...

As I've already told a lot of you, one of the best parts of the week was taking care of Alex. He was brought in on our third day there by his father and was only about 10 days old. His mom had died shortly after giving birth and his dad didn't think he could take care of him. At only 4lb 7oz, he was TINY but healthy overall. COTP agreed to take im for 3 months and then see if his dad was ready to have him back or go from there. So Alex spent the next 6 nights in our room and we got a little taste of having a newborn:) He didn't really cry when he was hungry yet, so I just set my alarm and woke up to feed him every 3 hours. But he was already gaining weight by the time we left (almost up to 5lbs) and starting to cry for food. I fell in love and can't wait to see him when we go back. They just emailed us some pictures of him and he's already looking chubby!

So to answer the statement of "I bet you'll come home with a baby" that I've gotten from many different people, I'll clarify once and for all that a) it doesn't work like that and b) you have to be 30 to adopt from Haiti. So we won't be coming home parents, but maybe someday...

COTP asks that pictures of their kids aren't put on other websites, so we won't be putting any pics of them on here, but you can see how precious they are on their website, http://www.childrenofthepromise.org/. And we can email some to you while we're there. They really are all beautiful. Adoption is such an awesome thing and it became much more real to us while we were there. Seeing the adoptive parents meet their kids and how excited the kids were for them to come was such a beautiful thing. I could barely keep the tears in. God's work is clearly evident at COTP, the children are accepted and loved and in great hands.

-girl that has a lot to learn