Church Video

Our church made this video and played it today.

The First Week For Alex At Home

The next day my parents came to meet him. He was pretty quiet but warmed up to them. My dad was giving all the kids piggy back rides and he ran right up to have one too. That really surprised me. Honestly so much of the last week feels like such a blur. Kind of like after a new baby is born. Trying to get into our routine, figure out what/when he wants to eat and sleep and things like that. He only speaks Creole so that has been a bit of a challenge but I think we are communicating well. He points to what he wants and we show him what we want him to do and he seems to do it.

He and Avery are buddies! It is so cute to watch them play. They are only 2 months apart so at the same place developmentally in a lot of areas. Alex is really, really into Scott! The first few days he was really clingy to Scott- kind of like Avery has been with me for the past 3 years. So we laughed about how now we each had a 3 year old on our hip! Also we took him to the dr. and he looks great. He is 29 pounds so in the 30% for weight. Avery happened to go to the dr. this week too and we found out she is now 27 pounds and in the 3%. That is great news though as 2 months ago she was in the 1%! We did have to have a blood draw with him which was very traumatic. It is so sad because I didn't want to lose the trust we have been building but I think he recovered OK. We are sleeping with him and plan to do that for awhile. The dr. and all the books say to build attachment you need to in some ways do what you would do with a baby. Sleep with them or close to them, snuggle and carry a lot, feed when hungry, etc. He has a queen bed so we think we will move him up to his room within the next week or two but then one of us will sleep with him. Or maybe it would be easier to keep in our room. Who knows..we are just taking it day by day!

Alex has a sweet personality. Joyce told me that he can be a bit stubborn and quite sensitive and we have definitely seen that. If he gets upset he cries really hard, especially if we are not letting him do something. He does tend do get over it quickly though and move on to happier things. He also really struggles when someone leaves. When my parents and Josh and Katie left he was hysterical. When Hailey leaves for school he is hysterical. Probably because when he has said good bye before he never saw the person again. We are praying he will quickly learn to trust that people come back and that we will never leave him. He gets so excited when one of us comes back- it is so cute!

I am also noticing such a difference between boys and girls. Like I can see why they make all the boy toys out of metal or plastic. He drug his Little People fire station up to the top of the stairs. I thought, "How cute-he wants to play with it upstairs." Ummm..no. He threw it down the stairs and then yelled, "Yeah!" He also really likes to keep all of his things in a box or a backpack and carry them around the house.

He is eating OK. Actually for a Hoefer child pretty well. You all know we don't have the best eaters here. In fact I knew he was all Hoefer when I offered him breakfast and he shook his head, walked over and patted the fridge, so I picked him up and he pulled out a gogurt. One of his favorite foods I guess. He also eats a banana everyday. Doesn't quite know what to do with other fruit. Sucks on oranges and then spits out the pulpy part. He is into bread, hot dogs, cereal, and LOVES pancakes.

Nighttime is so cute. We get he and Avery both in their jammies and mix up a protein drink for them. Then we all read stories together. The big girls just love him. In fact he can do no wrong so far. If he is trying to do something like open up powdered drinks and eat the powder or crawl on the table and I redirect him they say,"Be nice to him Mom!" As if I am being mean. They think we should let him do whatever he wants. Wonder how long that will last. :)

OK I know this is random and probably not grammatically correct for those of you who notice such things but at least I have some thoughts journeled now. This week has been so surreal. Scott and I keep saying how this huge weight feels like it has been lifted off of our shoulders. We have - especially me- worried that this process would never end and we'd never have him home. It is such a relief to have this boy here. We could not love him anymore. Truelly we feel like we birthed him. God does something so amazing when He puts families together!!! We are so, so grateful for all the people who have supported us through this process. All the prayers, calls, emails have meant so much. Thank you to all of you for going through this journey with us!!

Alex's Arrival

These photos are in random order with no captions. So sorry...just trying to get them online for the non-facebookers to see!









We arrived in Boise after flying all day on Friday. We had left in a hurry on Wednesday and thankfully the sister-in-law of the year came through and drove here with just a couple hours notice to watch the girls. We are so thankful for Katie and Josh!! They met us at the airport along with some friends of ours, several news crews, and people from Walt Minnick's office along with his wife. I have dreamed of this moment for so long. Walking through the gate of the airport and introducing Alex to his sisters. It was very emotional. Alex slept through the whole thing. The first thing Hailey said was, "He looks just like Avery!" Love that!

After the introductions we piled into the van. When we got in- and had the girls all buckled up I said, "Girls- look what God has done. You have prayed for Alex to come home for almost 2 years. It was such a long wait but I want you to always remember this. God is faithful. Even when things are taking forever, He is still working." We pray our girls do remember this huge faith lesson.

When we got home Alex walked right in and started looking all around. He then spent a lot of time in the sippy cup drawer getting cups out and stacking them. He played ball with Scott and Josh and ate some food. We tried to give him a bath but it ended up being a sponge bath as he was terrified to sit down. He was also (and still is) scared of Gracie, so we have been trying to keep them separate but slowly introduce them. It is getting a little better. He then went to bed in between Scott and me and slept all night. The next morning he was a little scared but we were able to soothe him and he got up for the day. I will continue in the next post.

So Much To Post!

Dixie- yelling "Your Babies are home!"
Joyce and Molly- the wonderful girls who run the Toddler house





The last 2 or is it 3 weeks have been such a roller coaster of emotion. Hearing about the earthquake, finding out Alex was OK, hearing he was scared, that they were running out of food and water. Wow....what an emotional time it was. I spent about 4 days frantically emailing and calling everyone I could think of and actually got some great responses. Fox News came and did a story, NBC Nightly contacted me and then most helpful of all was a guy named John who works for Congressman Walt Minnick. He was so compassionate and so helpful- talking to me even through the weekend. His whole office got involved and made tons of calls on our behalf. Dixie said that is the reason these kids are home...the family's congressmen/women calling and not letting it go. We are so thankful for them.

As we grew more and more panicked Josh (my brother) and Scott were coming up with all kinds of ideas for how to get Alex home. Take a boat in, fly by helicopter from the Dominican Republic. Seriously..we had some plans in the works. But then Praise the Lord...humanitarian parole was granted!! We found out Monday night and then on Wednesday found out they had a plane to get the kids out. We flew all night Wednesday night, then hung out in Miami with other adoptive families and waited. Finally the next day we met our precious boy!!! Words can not describe what I felt when I finally held that boy in my arms. The most prayed for, celebrated little boy! The boy I have longed to hold, the boy I have sobbed over and literally begged God for. Wow.....a miracle is what it would take to bring him home so soon..and a miracle it was. I will post more tomorrow. Gotta go to bed now!

Haiti

There is too much info to even post but I thought I should let all you non-facebookers know that Alex and all of GLA is safe. We are now trying to get him home. I been calling and writing senators, congressmen, Oprah, Dr. Phil, the news etc. If any of you are so inclined would you please also? The more who call the better. Please read this blog from a volunteer in Haiti. She describes the night of the earthquake and it is heart wrenching to think of our little boy terrified and sleeping outside. He should have been home with us!!! It is time!!!

This About Sums It Up

I could go on and on about how fun Christmas was, the wild times with cousins, the fun with Papa and Grandma, the delicious food, all the gifts that were opened, etc. etc. But this picture pretty much captures it. After the chaos of watching 9 little ones age 6 and under unwrap presents all morning this is what the afternoon looked like. Kevin and Roc and Scott and Avery crashed on the couch. While the rest of us refereed small children and attempted to help with food preparation.

Christmas Eve

We just got back from spending a week in Yakima and it was so much fun! We once again stayed at the deluxe all-inclusive Grandma Ruby Inn. It was so nice to have our own quiet spot to go to each evening to put our lovely little obedient children down to bed. Since they knew Santa was watching they nicely went to bed each evening about 2 hours after we'd put them in bed, given them yet another snack and drink of water, and finally threatened to give all their new toys back. Karis however did inform me, "You can't send our toys back...you don't know where the North Pole is." Let's just say they were a little wound up this last week!!

Anyway Christmas Eve is when Santa comes to our house. Our girls are far too terrified to go to bed knowing a large, bearded man could be arriving at any moment so several years ago we changed the tradition and it has stuck. Auntie Rach reads the girls a story downstairs and what do you know....Santa quickly comes in the house and leaves the gifts. This year our even less brave one Avery totally lost it at the thought of him even coming at all and went hysterical. So hysterical that I actually told her that Santa is pretend and that Daddy had the gifts in the car. She promised not to give the secret away and still hasn't. What a girl she is!

Anyway since the fear was so heightened that evening Santa just left the gifts outside the door of Grandma Ruby's house and they were thrilled to discover them. All princess things for Karis, Mickey and Minnie mostly for Aves, and a variety for Hailey including her first Webkins. What a fun night it was!!

Cookie Making

Avery chose to make these peppermint chocolate cookies and they were delicious. As you can see she thoroughly enjoyed them!!