Happy Birthday Trey Amos!

We celebrated Trey Amos' first birthday last night at 9:00pm which is 12:00am Haitian time...officially December 29! Even Sam got to eat some cake!

December Update

From all of us here at GLA:

Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noël, vrolijke Kerstmis, schéi Chrëschtdeeg, frohe Weihnachten, Buon Natale, God Jul, Feliz Natal, Nollaig chridheil, Feliz Navidad, & Jwaye Nwèl! As we celebrate this year, I pray that we all remember the reason for the celebration—the birth of Jesus Christ!

“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” ~Luke 2:11

This month, instead of the usual story on your child, I have done something a little different. I have asked several of our long-term staff (Molly, Joyce, Susan, Stephanie) for the words they would use to describe your children. That list will be included with this update. I hope you enjoy reading the descriptions as much as we enjoyed describing your children!

Amos is...
curious
wide-eyed
snuggly
inquisitive
demanding
bright
tactile

This month we helped Amos celebrate his first birthday at our December birthday party! Amos enjoyed the extra time on the balcony and all the love and attention he received. I think, however, Amos' favorite part was the cake! He loved the cake and ate as much as he could. Amos also really enjoyed the party blowers--specifically a green one--and he held onto it the whole time, even while he was eating his cake!

Weight: 19 lbs 7 oz
Height: 74 cm/29 inches
Adoption status: Parquet

May God bless you and your family during this holiday season!

Melanie Wright, GLA Update Coordinator

And Melanie included a picture of us with our little boy.

Trey Amos' actual first birthday is TOMORROW! I can't believe it! A year old already!

Back in Canada

We made it back safely to Vancouver yesterday. We had a great time in Orlando with Kendra and Jon, even though, yeah, the weather was NOT what we expected for Florida! Well, anything's better than -46!

Ok, we couldn't resist...

Oh, and Jody, this is for you!

Last Day in Haiti

We're in Orlando

Hey everyone...I have not had time yet to upload pics of our last day in Haiti...but hopefully I'll be able to do it tonight. It was absolutely heartbreaking to kiss our boy goodbye and leave him behind! We were both complete wrecks.

Anyways, we made it to Miami without too much hassel. But our plane to Orlando was delayed by quite a few hours. And for some reason I couldn't log on to the WiFi in Miami International Airport.

Finally we arrived in Orlando and Jon and Kendra were there to pick us up from the airport. Yesterday we spent the day with them at NASA which was a lot of fun...although for some strange reason it is FREEZING here in Orlando!!! And of course Brady and I only packed summery clothes because we were going to Haiti and Florida...two places that are supposed to be somewhat warm in December! Anyways, I had to actually buy a hoodie at the NASA gift shop because I was so cold! So now I have a NASA hoodie...what a geek, eh? :)

Kendra and Jon both had to work today, but Brady and I are gonna go keep ourselves entertained. There is a lot to do in this city!

Please keep praying that Trey's file is FLYING through the system. We need to get that little man home ASAP!

Day 4 in Haiti--Afternoon

Trey Amos did some more hard core playing this afternoon and evening with Mommy and Daddy. We are so sad we have to leave this little munchkin tomorrow. We are leaving GLA at 10:00 a.m. to catch our flight to Miami. Sigh... We are just hoping and praying that our file will move swiftly through Parquet and Courts...which is a very real possibility considering that his file is in the Jeremie Parquet rather than Port-au-Prince.

Melanie, not sure if you're checking the blog, but we took Baby M up to the balcony today for a couple hours. He is so sweet and quiet. He was quite shy though and we didn't get too many smiles. He did enjoy playing with his playdoh for a long time, passing chunks to me to make into balls. We snuggled in the rocking chair for a while too!

Trey Amos is just SUCH a beautiful baby! Just look at that face!

Baby SC and Trey Amos were getting into trouble too!

After supper, Trey came down to join everyone for "Dutch coffee." (Bas, one of the volunteers here, is from Holland and his specialty is making super duper strong coffee for after dinner.)

Then it was up to the balcony for more snuggles before bedtime. Trey has a second wind up there usually around 8:00 and gets pretty giggly and silly.

Day 4 in Haiti--Morning

I took the laptop up to the balcony to post some pics from this morning because it takes an awful long time to upload the pictures every night. I'm not sure if it's because the WiFi is weak or the pics are too big (since we have the camera on the second-best setting!)

Anyways, Trey Amos played all morning again. He had a nap almost right away when we took him out to the balcony.

Here's the little munchkin in his Birthday outfit from Auntie Chrissy. Hopefully he'll get a chance to wear it on his Big Day too, but we thought we'd at least put it on him this morning. Here he sits with his doggie, Buddy, and his NEW doggie, Otis...oh, and of course the beloved barrels.

Oh my...Trey Amos seems to have taken quite a liking to Baby E. She is a beautiful little girl and they're in the same nursery.

Amanda and Missy took some family portraits for us with the mountains of Haiti in the background.

And once again, it was time for lunch and naps.

Day Three in Haiti

We had another amazing day with Trey Amos today! We are really getting to know this little guy's personality and he's really coming out of his shell. He LOVES to cuddle, but he also loves to be rambunctious. He enjoys a little bit of rough-housing...and let me tell you...if there's something he doesn't like, he'll let you know! That high pitched squeal sends Mommy and Daddy into a tailspin trying to figure out what's wrong...but there's never any tears...and as soon as he gets to go back on the floor, or gets picked up, or whatever he wants, he's fine again! Ah yes, he's got his parents bending to his every whim already!

Trey Amos can also be really silly and quite a little show off! Usually this involves holding something in his mouth without his hands, copying noises, imitating facial expressions (including sticking out his little tongue!), or putting his face flat into the cushion on the wicker sofa and pretending he doesn't care that we're there. He's so funny!

Anyways, he started off bright and early in the jolly jumper. He likes to jump and then lift his feet up while the jumper bounces and spins around.

He always has lots of cuddles and snuggles for Mommy and Daddy. Actually, all the kids here do. When we take other kiddos out to the balcony, they all want to sit and hug for a while. They just don't get enough of that on a daily basis. For example, right now there are only two volunteers here...Missy and Amanda...and they each get eight babies for one hour a day. That's sixteen babies who get ONE hour of volunteer time...and there are 68 babies here! So obviously, it's just not enough. Trey Amos is going to need tons and tons and tons of one-on-one time when he gets home to help make up for all that was lacking in his first year/months of life.

Okay, Grandpa and Grandma S....those toy barrels that fit inside each other are an absolute HIT! (I can't believe it...it seemed like it might be a totally boring toy...no offense.) Not only does Trey love them, but every kid we had on that balcony today had to play with them. Trey Amos usually puts them in his mouth or bangs them together...but Baby SC was actually putting them together like they're supposed to!

And here Trey is opening Grandpa and Grandma VR's birthday card! He was quite enthralled with the picture on the front!

Oh and what could be more fun than sticking your face into a huge beach ball? I can't think of anything.

Baby AJ was just a little charmer again today! He was looking at Momma and Poppa's book and then started a game of throwing it on the floor and making Brady pick it up...over and over again!

Here are two little munchkins "sharing." Actually, another little boy took something away from SC today and SC looked at him and held out his hand and said "MAMAMA!" as if, "Hey buster, give that back...it's mine!"

After supper we took Trey Amos down to the dining room to show him off to a family that had just arrived from Michigan to pick up their eight year old boy. Then he got to meet Blaze and Bruno, who are Lori's two dogs. Here he is with Blaze, a female Akita. And he also petted Bruno, the male Great Dane. They are two beautiful dogs and both only six months old. Trey wasn't scared at all...which is great because he's gonna have to get used to Samantha when he comes home! Mind you, Sam is SLIGHTLY more hyper and SLIGHTLY less well-behaved than Blaze and Bruno. Just SLIGHTLY!

And of course we ended the night playing on the balcony, star-gazing, and finally rocking off to sleep. Zzzzz.....

See you tomorrow!