Soccer Camp-Day Four

I don't have much to say about Day Four. And that's all there is. Here's a pic.On another note, the kids did one of their last crafts today. This one was REALLY hard, but the end results looked great!

Soccer Camp-Day Three

Pretty awesome stuff today. They practice most of the morning, working on essentials, them have 2-3 World Cup matches of 15 minutes each at the end. After each the kids sit down in their groups and the coaches make a few individual kids (different each time) stand up and be acknowledged for the some awesome display of skills in the previous game. Guess who got acknowledged today? That's right - LOGAN!!!! They said he got 2 World Cup saves, had a couple great tackles and 2 goals! Yup! Soccer Superstar! He kicks butt on the soccer field and plays harder than I've ever seen him play!

I also saw Jazz execute a few tackles, a save and assist in a goal. Super awesome! They're having fun and loving it!

How to buy a child in 10 hours

People have often asked us, "Why Haiti?" That question is considerably more difficult to answer than what people might think. Africa and all of its troubles are featured in countless reports, articles and fundraising efforts, but Haiti (which is far worse off in many respects) is largely ignored by the US. Truth is, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and its child trafficking and slavery issues rival that of any country on the planet. It is discomforting to know, devastating to watch and see first hand. Check out the article, pictures and video from the NBC Nightline exclusive that aired the other night by clicking here. While watching and reading, try to remove yourself from the comforts of your spoiled, self-centered, American life and ask yourself, "What if I were so poor I could not afford even the smallest bite of food to keep my child alive? What if the only option I had was to give her to someone whose promises of a better life I believed, but knew deep down were not as true as spoken? What if fate had chosen for me to be born Haitian instead of American?"  

Once you have watched and read, I encourage you to not just walk away saddened, disturned or worse, apathetic. Do something. For HIS Glory Outreach is a ministry that supports an orphanage and community outreach program in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  Though they currently have well over 100 children in the orphanage who they feed, clothe, provide shelter and education for, they must still turn away over 80 children per day.  For the cost of a single Starbuck's latte a day, you can have a hand in helping them provide a safe environment for these abandoned children.  Check out their website and follow the links for donation.  And check out this video, which explains a little more about the plight of the children and what this ministry and orphanage is doing to help. (Double click the video to start viewing)

Doing nothing, being apathetic, only serves to perpetuate the problems and seal the fate of these precious children.  So click, become educated, do something.

.....because the more you know......(bing bing bing BIIIIING)

Toothless Wonder

So, in the 6 weeks Jasmine's been here, she's had 2 teeth knocked out.  Yes, knocked out.  Granted they were loose to begin with, but only slightly loose.  The first was the week she arrived and it was Logan's foot to her mouth.  Then, last night, a very excited puppy jumped up and clobbered Jazz in the mouth with her head.  Out popped the tooth and down flowed the blood.  Mmmmm, blood.  I mean, really....

Soccer Camp - Day Two

Bruises, Bad Days and Brits

Day 2 was hotter than day 1 by far. Mostly overcast, but still enough sun to fry an egg on the sidewalk. Ridiculous! I arrived, as usual, about 15 minutes early to watch the kids play their "World Cup match." At kickoff, Logan faced off with a much bigger boy and promptly received a kiss from the soccerball square on his cheek. The kid was much bigger and I could feel the impact from where I was standing. Luckily, Logan did not see me, or it would have been all tears, but he sucked it up and tried to continue until the coach told him to go sit on the bench and chill. That's when the tears came, but in a markedly lighter rain than had I been present. Jasmine woke up today and was playin like she meant it. All in all, a good day of scrimmage.

Soccer Camp - Day One

So, Jazz & Logan are enrolled in this British Soccer Camp.  Kinda cool - they fly in british soccer players to coach the kids & teach them about their culture and the proper way to play football.  The kids had a great time, but were FRIED because the camp is from 9-12 - a HORRIBLE time of day for Florida.  Look for more pics in the days to come!

4th=Fun!

This is effectively our last weekend with Jazzy, so we tried to make it as fun as possible. The 4th was filled with playing at the pool, arts & crafts, movies (introduced to my childhood FAVE Princess Bride for the first time!) and outside our front door, fireworks at night.

Saturday, we took off early in the morning and drove over to Mill Dam Lake. It's a bit of a change, for native Southern Floridians to make the trade - beach for lake, but it was nice. Tons of shady oak trees, dripping with Spanish Moss, a white sand beach, beautiful clear, blue, fresh water and about 18 signs warning us of the presence and danger of black bears! Like I said - different, but nice. Trading sharks, man-o-war, sea lice and sand lice for black bears and alligators. Did I say alligators? No! Never in fresh water lakes of inland Florida! ;0) We had so much fun swimming and building sand castles, grilling and just being together.

Sunday, we awoke to please of Cuck E. Cheese and succumbed to the visceral whines. After a morning spent within the 4th dimension of hell (cheesy, disposable toys included), we made a quick stop at McD's for happy meals. More crafts, video games and fun throughout the afternoon and a beautiful dinner made by Jeremy to round out the evening.

Tomorrow is the beginning of soccer camp and nearly 2 hours of roundtrip driving per day for me. Kill me now. I have become what I dreaded most. I am. A Soccer mom.

Our boys are coming HOME!

We just got the phone call last night that told us the exciting news that our Haitian boys finally received their passports! This is HUGE as it means they will be coming home with our friend in 3 weeks! 3 WEEKS!

Though we've been working through this process for 2 years now, the reality of their impending homecoming is increasingly hard to wrap our brains around. 4 boys. WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!?

To friends and family: thanks for praying, listening, crying, laughing and supporting this insane journey. We really couldn't have made it through with some of you!

Now a request. We still need a little help! We have prepared, but things have happened to cause some of that prep to go out the window - like rats eating a huge hole through the mattress we had bought and were storing for one of the boys. Point is, though we prepared, we still need a few things. If anyone has any of the following items laying around that they're not using, we would really appreciate the help! We need:

1. A twin mattress
2. A toddler car seat or booster seat
3. 2 wooden dining room chairs or folding chairs (we had a couple disasters with dining chairs recently and are now short for our new family of 6)

Additionally, if any of you feels compelled to donate, we still need to purchase the third row seat for our SUV so we can have a car that actually fits our whole family. There's this great company that makes 3rd row seats for SUVs and that's about the only alternative we have right now. So please, if you feel so led, hit that donate button on the right hand sidebar.

This has been an incredible journey and we love and appreciate everyone who has been there for us and helped us along the way. You guys ROCK!