some pictures

Here are some pictures from the last few days. Kerwin reading his book, playing, getting dressed, and me attempting to fix the kite.

No more cooking!

The weekend is over and that means the Haitian cooks will be back to work tomorrow. Yeah! I am running out of decent things to make with the food that is here and I'm definitely tired of being in the kitchen. Mike had to watch Kerwin for most of the day by himself and he is not feeling well at all. Tonight he (Mike) had a temperature of 101. He is taking Tylenol and vitamins and staying hydrated. Pray that he will be well soon! Kerwin of course was as wild as ever today. He loves playing baseball and he seems to enjoy watching sports as well. I'll tell you what, this kid was handpicked to be a Haake. Today we watched Honduras play Mexico in soccer and yesterday Mike and Kerwins watched some kids playing basketball outside the mission gate. Kerwin loves to come and tell me what they have been doing. Oh yeah, back to the cooking. After I made dinner for about 20, we began to realize that the group that had been in the Far West was not going to make it back tonight because of a really bad rain storm they had out there. So, I put all the food away, cleaned up and went down to my room. We put Kerwin to bed and I had just taken a shower when I saw on of the guys from the Far West group. As it turns out they decided that they were going to come back tonight and they were exhausted and really hungry when they got back. They had a really aweful trip with trucks breaking down and wrecking and storms. So they were very happy to see the chicken and dumplins, corn pudding, and chocolate chip cookies. We were glad to see them as well. It's been kind of lonely around here without them.

We did hear from our liason for the adoption process. She is back in the states having surgery and she has said that she will be back to work on July 1st. So, it doesn't look like anything will be happening before then.

I'll try to take some more pictures tomorrow. I may even get crazy and try to do video. We'll see.

Everybody's gone

Well the rest of the group went out to join the majority of the team in the "Far West" this morning. That left us, Jose, and a few of the Haitian staff at the mission. So I made lunch and dinner for the remaining folks. The choices were pretty limited but I made due (pigs in a blanket with country green beans for lunch and ham and cheese omlettes for dinner )and nobody complained. Kerwin is really enjoying riding the little red tricycle around the mission. Mike began to feel sick today but he took an asprin and slept for a few minutes and he is feeling a bit better. Other than that we are all well. We played in the water today. There really isn't a pool but we splashed around with the hose, wash tub, and cups. We watched Toy Story again. Mike and Kerwin watched some kids play basketball this afternoon and we are watching soccer on TV tonight. We did a load of laundry. It's nice to have clean smelling clothes again. Kerwins birth mother stopped by for a few minutes to hang out and watch him play. We didn't have an interpreter so we didn't talk much but she doesn' t talk much when we have an interpreter so it wasn't much different. I think she mainly wants to just watch us. That's about it for today. It was pretty quiet. We'll talk to you all soon.

Toy Story and Kites

Kerwin's two new things are Toy Story and kites. The first time he watched Toy Story he was pretty into it. But yesterday he watched it for the second time and he is watching it again right now. He has started acting things out like the characters and trying to tell us things about the movie. He loves Woody because he is so expresssive. He thinks the action is funny like jumping and falling and flying. He is really enthralled with it. The kids around here make kites out of plastic, sticks, rags, and thread. They fly extremely well and there is at least one at all times throughout the day. Kerwin loves to sit and watch them. Today we found a kite on the roof of Heaven's Waiting Room. We tried to fix it up and fly it but it was no use. We were pitiful. Hopefully, we will get a real kite when we get home and we will do better (P.S. If anyone is still thinking of gift ideas: kite, sunglasses)

Janeil (director of the mission) returned to Haiti yesterday which was great since he had been in the states with some serious complications from a bike accident. He also brought in the part to fix the generator so we are much more comfortable today. I actually woke up this morning and I was not sweating. Today was the last day of school. Still no word on when we're coming home. Keep the prayers coming!

Life in Haiti

We've been here three days and had electricity for one. Kerwin was in the middle of watching Toy Story when the computer died and there was no electricity to plug it into. The water went out this morning while I was soaped up. It did come back a few hours later but the power is still out. There is one little backup-backup-generator that is being used to keep the water going and the computers running. So, what else is new with us. Kerwin has been using the computer. We have a little educational CD-ROM that came with one of his books and he is learning to point, click, and drag. He is imitating lots of new signs and is making up some of his own. He is learning to call us mom and dad and to say please and thank you. He is beginning to try to tell us a lot more things using his signs. He enjoys playing baseball. He has a really good arm. We are working on the batting. There is no school today, it is some kind of holiday. Tomorrow is the last day of school for the year. We've been wanting to swim but the old pool is gone due to remodeling and the new one is not finished yet. Plus with the water scarcity it wouldn't really be a good idea. Kerwin is definitely over his fear of the dogs. He is now petting them and feeding them whenever he can.

Yesterday Mike went with some of the group to the island of Tortuga. They ride on little sail boats and he almost got sick (one little Haitian girl did) on the ride back. They did a VBS with the kids and then went swimming with them. He loved it all except for the boat ride.

Mom, my spider bite is healing fine. I haven't left the compound except to go to school so not much going on with me.

No word as to when we'll be back. We love the notes from home keep them coming.

We're here in Haiti!

Hi everyone,

We are here safely in Haiti and everything is going well. The trip in yesterday went very smoothly. We arrive at the mission around 2 in the afternoon (they are one hour behind us right now even though they are further east). I was the first to see Kerwin as the bus had too many people to make it up the hill and Mike was one of those who had to walk the last couple hundred yards. Kerwin could sense that everyone was really excited and I think he knew that we were coming. We was very excited to see me and wanted me to take him out of Heaven's Waiting Room (HWR) immediately. We were on our way out when Mike got there and he recognized him and went to him right away. He is walking for longer distances without help but he falls down a lot. He has learned several signs while in school and will occasionally point to things things and tell me the sign. He uses some expressions like when he wants water or needs help. He is constantly on the go. He likes to just walk back and forth and look at what people are doing. He will sit down and play with you or do an activity but not for long. He had a great day with us yesterday and was very tired at night. When it was time for him to go to bed we had to go back to HWR to get his school clothes and to say goodnight so that the ladies knew that he was staying with us. He cried the whole way there. However, when he realized that he wasn't staying he got so excited. Then we went back to our room, put on pj's, brushed teeth, and got in bed. We looked at his picture book that Rachel and I made that shows what is going to happen as we leave here. He was very interested and wanted to sign all the people and things in the pictures. Then we said our prayers and turned out the light. It took him a little while to fall asleep because he was so wound up. He fell out of bed twice because he is used to sleeping in a bed with bars around it right on the ground. Mike had thought of this before we put him down so we put an extra mattress below his bed. I was so thankful he thought of that. The first time he fell he didn't even wake up. The second time he crawled over to me. He went to school today. This is his last week. That's about it for now. God's been good to us. We love being Kerwin's parents and he is ready to have a mom and dad. It is so wonderful to read all our your thoughts and prayers. And I wanted to tell my Bible Study women that when I got into our room and started getting things in order, I walked in the bathroom and on the wall were 3 pieces of paper with this written on them

1)God is who He says He is
2)God can do what he says He can do
3)I can do all things through Christ who give me strength

AMEN!!!!! I was so excited. Then I went into the room and was cleaning off the shelves. Up on the top shelf was a really big Sign Language book that hadn't been used in months. I had to drop to my knees and thank God right then. He is with us!!!!

On that note,
We hope to talk to you soon.

(Sorry, no pictures we couldn't get the computer to recognize our memory stick)

Our Adoption Story

As some of you may or may not know all of our story, I thought it would be a good idea to post it on here. All of this started when Becky went to Haiti on a short-term mission trip to Northwest Haiti Christian Mission in April 2006. She had a wonderful time on her trip, serving in many different ministries, one of which is an orphanage for children with special needs. One of the children in particular named Kerwin made quite an impression on here. Kerwin is deaf and has cerebral palsy mostly affecting his legs. These disabilities make it hard for him to live a normal life in Haiti, but Becky was impressed by how smart he appeared to be and what potential he had. As she returned home, Kerwin continued to be on her heart and mind in the months after she returned. After much prayer and consideration, we felt that God was calling us to pursue adoption of Kerwin. We received permission from the mission to adopt Kerwin on August 26, 2006 and have been continuing through the adoption process ever since then. God has continued to push us through the obstacles and barriers we have faced along the way, and we will be leaving on Sunday with the hope and anticipation that we will be able to bring him home this summer.