Precious Phonecall from Haiti

We were able to call the kids while our adoption coordinator, Diana, was visiting there early October. She does not yet have a cell phone with speaker phone capabilities, but she did her best to interpret for us. As she searched for "our girl," she put Pierre on the phone. He said timidly, "Ah lo?" Bruce greeted him and told him it was "dad." Pierre responded again, "Ah lo?" It must be awfully strange for them to hear these foreign voices on the end of the line and not be sure what to say. Bailey jumped in to say, "Hi Pierre!" He excitedly answered, "Hi Mom!" When I asked him how he was doing, he said, "I'm good." And he sounded good, as well, as he said hi to Nate and Bailey as if they were long lost buds. Then, Ange-Laurette got on the phone, with her much-improved English. She seemed to understand most of what we said, answering, "I'm fine. Me love you, too." When Bailey emphasized that she missed her, Ange-Laurette genuinely responded, "Me, too."

We asked Diana to tell them that Nate is taking good care of Pierre's soccer ball and truck....that Bailey's friends are excited to meet them...and that we will visit in January. She shared their comments: Pierre said that he needs to come to South Dakota because he loves South Dakota (that on a day we were getting our first snow and freeze!). Ange-Laurette wanted us to know that she prays for us everyday. Both were eager to tell us how hard they have been working in school. They would send school work with Diana to give us and we would be proud.

We asked Diana to tell Pierre that it was ok that he was sad on our last visit to Haiti. She quickly explained that he would not be at all embarrassed for crying...that is an American thing. :) We asked her to describe Ange-Laurette's hair for the day. Ange-Laurette described the pony tails and barrettes, adding how happy she was that it was getting so long. I asked her to have Diana take a photo for us. Ange-Laurette shocked us all by saying, "Diana already did!"

We were all beaming ear to ear! Their joy was obvious and the connection between all of us was so real. Bruce said, after we said our long goodbyes, that he could actually picture them here in our home with us, for the first time! Later that week, we received these priceless photos of our babies. We cannot thank Diana enough for moments and photos like these!!