2 Years Ago today

2 Years ago today we Steevenson and I were sitting in the hotel room waiting for Ambur to call and let us know that she needed a ride back to the hotel because it was pouring down rain, I figured we would go to lunch then. It was a little before noon that Ambur comes walking in the door soaking wet from walking back to the hotel in the downpour. She was hysterical and that is when she told me what the doctors had predicted for Roselaure's future. That there was a 99% chance that she was going to be in a vegetative state for the rest of her life.

As a new dad I din't know how to feel, my emotions had been tossed all over the place that weekend and wasn't sure what to think or act, I just knew I needed to stay strong for Ambur, Steevenson and Roselaure. That night I was going to pick up my mom and Ambur's mom from the airport, where I was going to have to break the news somehow to them and let them know what we found out. I had to find a quiet and secluded area of the airport that I could sit down and comprehend what was told to us; which is when I had to call our contact at our adoption agency because I was unsure what was going to happen in the future and what could be done.

The next day we had the mom's watch Steevenson as we made a trip over to the hospital to hear what the doctor's had to say. It was not the news that we wanted to hear, that we should make arrangements when the hospital stay is over that for Steevenson's well being we would need to find a place to take care of Roselaure. From our conversation to us it sounded like they thought we should just go back to Indiana and not worry about her. How would we be able to do that to Roselaure, we did have to leave her after a staying there for a week because there was no way we could afford to live in a hotel for a month and we also had to think how Steevenson would react to that, just after one week he was already adjusting to staying in a hotel. We only shared to our immediate family what was told to us by the doctors, which on some respects I am glad we did but also thought at points that we should have shared it to more people. In the end we had enough people praying for her to get well that she did get healthy enough to come home and beat the odds.

We went from there is a 1% chance that she will be able to run around and act like a normal child to she is definitely above normal child. I know I have said it before but I am so thankful to all the staff at GLA, Cheryl Vanderwell, Nicole Lee Wills and everyone else that helped her in Haiti to Miami, all of the staff at Baptist Children's Hospital that helped her, all of the staff from Bethany Christian Services that prayed for Roselaure and helped us through on a phone call or email, and I would like to thank all of our Family and Friends that helped us get through that time, especially including our GLA family.

Roselaure riding the rocking dinosaur

1 Year Later

At first I didn’t want to think or write about this, but some people let me know it will be good to do this and as I thought about it; it will be. On January 12, 2010 Ambur and I didn’t find out about the earthquake until about 6:45 at night which was good because we were able to eat dinner and then find out about it. From that time on through the early morning I was glued to my computer and for the next 7 days. We honestly thought that this was going to push our adoption back even farther and at the time we weren’t expecting to bring Steevenson and Roselaure home until sometime this year with the speed our paperwork was moving with adding Roselaure on to Steevenson’s adoption.

I was following everything that was going on with Haiti and we were doing everything that we could to get our kids home asap. I got so worked up that on Wednesday the 20th I got up tried to eat breakfast and felt like I was ready to throw up from the stress. But it turned out that day was a good day, Ambur had gotten home and I had known the children could come home but we had no supplies. We made a quick trip a couple of stores in order to get the stuff we needed just in case we received a call in a couple of days. Little did we know around 7-8PM that night we would receive an email that stated we need to be in Miami the next day. I know that while Ambur was making phone calls to people and I was running around because we needed to get flights booked and make sure we had everything that they told us to bring down with us.

We had to be to the airport for our flight at noon and while we were waiting for our flight I received a call from our Melitta Payne at our agency and she told us that Roselaure was ill and would need to go to the hospital. So I rushed to get access to my work email and get the insurance setup for the kids, we flew to Atlanta and while waiting received another call that Roselaure was critically ill. From that point until early the next morning we had no idea how she was doing and we started to think that she was doing just fine.

At around 7 or 8 AM the Bethany workers came rushing down to the terminal and told us that we both needed to get to the hospital for Roselaure, the problem is one of us had to be there to get Steevenson and we had already decided that I would be able to find the hospital if needed and drive there with Steevenson. Ambur rushed to the hospital with Johnny Carr and I waited for Steevenson, at one time I heard from Ambur that Roselaure would be fine and then after my phone was almost dead I was told I needed to call Ambur as soon as possible. I was told that she had bacterial meningitis and it didn’t look good. I went from overjoyed to having Steevenson in my arms and healthy to thoughts of what is going to happen to Roselaure. It honestly was hard to see everyone so happy and my thoughts we everywhere at those moments.

When I got to the hospital and saw Roselaure my heart just dropped because as beautiful as she was I honestly thought at that point that she was not going to make it. I had to go back to our hotel with Steevenson and try and get him some sleep only to find out that the Mariott by the airport didn’t have a crib. So then on the phone to my mom to call the travel agent they know out of the Miami area. We were able to get a hotel right next to the hospital with a crib for Steevenson to sleep. That night I was on the phone and internet until late at night talking to family and letting them know what was going on.

Since we had enough clothes for 2 days and we were thinking we were going to be in Miami for the whole month she was in the hospital our moms came down with some supplies and to help us out for a while. The day they came into town Monday the 25th Ambur was at the hospital in the morning and we were told that Roselaure was basically going to be a vegetable for the rest of her life and that we would not want to take her home. There would be no way we would be able to take care of her and give Steevenson the quality of life that he needed. Ambur actually walked back to the hotel in the pouring rain and was drenched when she got back. I would say that day was the worst day we both had,, to be told that your child basically had a 99% chance that she was never going to be able to take care of herself she would not be like the normal go to play soccer child. That was so hard to tell our moms when I picked them up from the airport but one thing that did help is I was able to call the adoption agency to talk to them and let them know what was said and they were a big help.

We had a long stressful month because we needed to come home with Steevenson and leave Roselaure down in Miami. Even though that was hard to do being so far away from her we wouldn’t have left her if we didn’t know that she was in such great hands. The staff and doctors at Baptist Children’s Hospital took such great care of Roselaure like she was their own child. After the month she turned out to be just fine and since has grown so much. One of the hard things to think about with the earthquake is while so many people lost their lives in Haiti it took the earthquake to save Roselaure’s life, if there was no earthquake Roselaure would not have made it out of Haiti in time to survive.

When I was able to bring Roselaure home, Steevenson was sleeping when we put her in her crib. I wish I had a video of him when he woke up, because you could just tell that he was very happy to see me and then all of a sudden he saw Roselaure and you could tell he was thinking I thought I got rid of her and he was not happy with me for a little while. But since then they are so close and he does try and take care of her as much as possible.

Even though the year started off very hard on us it has been a great year and we have had a great time with Steevenson and Roselaure. It has made us look forward to spending more time with them and we have hopes of being able to expand our family through Haiti in the future.