I’m back!  I went to Haiti for four days, this time without Rich, but with 6 other wonderful adopting parents. This visit to Haiti was different, and I have spent the last 24 hours trying to articulate why.

The first time you visit a place like Haiti, there is such an enlarging of your heart and mind, such Kingdom perspective that happens, that although you are witnessing very hard things, it is still really, as my friend said, a kind of “mountain top” experience; it is life-changing.

There is an element of  “romance” to it, despite the pain of what you are seeing.

The second time, at least for me, was different.  For one thing, I felt strangely at home.  Secondly, imagine a new venture or project you are gearing up for.  Imagine the inspiration, the excitement, even though you know a lot of work is going to be involved.  Then, imagine weeks or months down the road, the newness of the venture is over, but you are still working away at the project.  This was sort of how Haiti felt to me this week.

This is the reality of Haiti, with the romance fading.  It is easy to come back home after a “mountain top” trip, and gradually have the impact of the visit wear thin.  Upon arriving next time, you realize more fully, that while you were living your comfortable life, all of this was still going on.  It’s hard to articulate, but I’ll keep trying! LOL!

It was of course wonderful to see the people of Haiti again!

And most especially to spend time with the boys.

The second reason this trip was different, was because the older boys are getting more comfortable with me (Augenson and Wisler, the other brother),  and began testing boundaries, while Wisly was very sick and I was taking care of him.  The visit stretched me, to say the least!  Needing to parent with some boundaries, while extending love and building trust, all the while with a sick 3 year old in my lap.

The last reason (for now!) that this trip was different, was that the language barrier was so much less!

There was nothing Augenson and I could not talk about, it was NEARLY as easy to talking to my kids at home.  We covered a lot of ground, talked a lot of about what life in our family is like, and the things he wants to do as he gets older.  Once we used a translator as he saw another family doing it, and it looked fun to him, but we didn’t really need one this time.   My Creole improved so much, I even caught the gist of the sermon at church (although I definitely missed most of it, I caught enough to understand his point!)

By the time I left, Wisly was nearly back to himself.  You can see some pretty lively video of him singing on my Facebook page! 🙂

I am sure as I ponder this trip more, I will have more to write, but this is the best I can do in my currently sleep deprived state!  I have to add, that my kids had a vase of flowers, my special-treat chocolate GF cookies, cards and water color paintings all set up to welcome me home.

It was a wonderful homecoming!