FIRST HAIR CUT IN THE US

I loved Sonel's hair and didn't want to cut it...but, it was getting too hard to pick out. I don't know how people deal with little girls hair. His hair was sooooo tight. Well, I finally cut it, with some advice from Tanya (thanks). I've watched my husband sheer our sheep and it was pretty much the same. You just take it slow and it comes off in hunks. His hair was a little over 3 inches long. It hadn't been cut for 9 months. He looks so handsome now and his hair feels so soft. I'll keep it cut from now on. A lady I know who came to the US, from Haiti, when she was 14 said that Sonel would look like nobody was caring for him, if they saw him in Haiti, with his hair like I had it. I thought it was so cute, but he is as equally adorable now. Here are a couple pictures.

Hope holding Sonel's hair up to a ruler.



It would actually be over 3 inches long!

Look at how cute he is! Notice the food (egg) on his shirt. He always uses his shirt as a napkin.

Haiti

I just found this on another blog and I would like to share it on my blog also. This is Licia talking about the Rescue Center where Sonel came from. A group of us visited there 2 years ago and it is a life changing place. We have known Licia's family for about 15 years. They all have such a heart for God's work. Be blessed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjN-EZUDx4w

OUR FLORIDA VACATION

We had a blast. I have quite a few pictures to share. It felt so good to be warm. We came back to an Arctic freeze! The high temp. yesterday was below zero and today I think it reached 3 degrees.

Here is Sonel seeing if he could ride his bike. I bought this for him when he first got here, but his feet couldn't reach the pedals the whole summer. He has grown so much, he didn't have a problem at all riding it now. So we packed it up with our bikes, for Florida.



This is Sonel showing off his blue tongue while we were driving.



Sonel didn't like driving so much. After we got back into the truck after a rest stop, he started bawling so hard he couldn't speak. I kept asking him what was wrong, I thought he was hurt. Finally he got out the words "Florida's so far".



This is my sister, Debbie, and Sonel feeding a white peacock. A lady was telling me that they walk around in the trailer park all the time. Sonel was brave and feed it from his hand. After I took this picture, the thing tried to attack him. It jumped at him with it's spurs (like a rooster) and my sister screamed and we all took off. Sonel calmly said "That's not good". We laughed so hard as we were running from the thing.


This was at Clearwater Beach.



Getting ready for swimming!

Sonel just got splashed in the face by a wave.

I think I know why there was sand in every part of the camper...

Hope looks like she is levitating!

This was Sunshine Skyway Bridge. We went over this several times.
This angle makes it look freaky.

Hope and Sonel's "SAND CAR". My sister and I created this beauty.

My cuties.

This was our last sunset before we left.

I appreciate every one's prayers for Sonel's life. I rest assured that his life is in God's hands.

Brenda

This post is hard for me to type. When we signed on to be Sonel's host family, we knew he had parents, but we knew before he came that his parents told Lori that they did not want him back. I hadn't even met him yet, and my heart broke for him. After he had been here for several months, my husband suggested that we see if we could adopt Sonel. (That has been my desire forever, but we haven't been in harmony on the subject.) I was thrilled beyond words that my husband wanted to adopt. When Lori contacted his parents about a possible adoption, the father had a list of demands...he wants us to send them money every month, Sonel would not be allowed to call us Mom and Dad, we would have to take Sonel to Haiti several times a year to visit them, and when he is 18 he has to move back and take care of them until they die. Sonel's dad is 72 years old and his mom is 34. They are not married. Lori told them that this was illegal and couldn't be done, then he told Lori that they want him back when he is well.
I pray every night for God's will to be done in Sonel's life. I want what's best for him. Living in the US isn't what's best, but being loved is. I want him to be loved. I show him picture ID's of his mom and dad and talk about them. He knows them, even though he hasn't seen them, since they dropped him off at the Rescue Center 2 days after his 4th birthday. He's 5 and 1/2 now. Sonel talks total English now and today he told me that he's not going back to Haiti. ( I've told him several times that he came here to get his feet fixed and his mom and dad want him to come back when he is all better.) I told him again that his mom and dad want to see him. He just kept saying that he's not going back. It's going to be so hard for him, and my family. Hope has already bawled about it a couple times. One time Hope and Sonel were playing and Hope was asking Sonel questions and he was answering in a microphone. She asked him his name and where he was from. Then she asked him if he liked Haiti and he said "No, Haiti hurt me" . She said "What" and he repeated it. My heart sank. PLEASE pray for Sonel. Please help me pray that he has a happy life. I know that there is NOTHING that God cannot do.
Brenda

Sonel Update

My cousin, Mia and her daughter, Whitney, came for a visit. Mia is also my hairstylist (the best ever!). Sonel has visited her several times at the Salon, but he never would talk much. She got to see him act like the jabber box that he is.

We had a wonderful Christmas. It's always so much fun to watch kids squeal with excitement as they open their gifts. Of course, for Hope, it was her best Christmas ever!!! (She says that every year.) Poor Sonel, he woke up on Christmas eve and came into the living room saying "It's Christmas, it's Christmas". I told him not until tomorrow, and he cried for probably an hour about it. We have a little snowman that we move each day, on a calendar and Hope moved it for the next day, before she went to bed. He kept telling me to come look at the "snow". I had bought everything really early this year, so the poor child had to look at presents for a month without opening any. He was so excited and had a good time and played all day. His favorite toy is a wooden train set. Here are a couple pictures from our day.

Setting up the train set.

Sonel "playing" the Glockenspiel.

We will be leaving for Florida this Tuesday. Sonel is equally excited about that. He keeps saying "We're going on vacation to Florida". We're driving, so it will be a couple days before we get there, since we're from Indiana. I can't wait to get out of the cold! Sonel will finally get to wear his Spiderman sandals that I bought, when he first came here, on the beach.

Brenda

TOO CUTE

Every time we head to town, Sonel asks about going to Chuckie Cheese's. The thing that makes it so cute is...he calls it Chucker Chesus!

Sonel was SPEECHLESS!!!

Last Friday we went to Dr. DeHeer's son's school to talk to the third grade class. First, I showed a few pictures of where Sonel came from and pictures of his surgery. When I finished talking, the children wanted to ask Sonel some questions. Mind you that I prepared Sonel for this 'event' in his life, a few days ahead. On the way to the school I even bribed him with a Happy Meal. But I told him he couldn't have the toy until we were done talking to the kids...and that he HAD to talk to them or I wouldn't let him have the toy. Well, the first question came and all eyes were on Sonel (they wanted to hear him talk so bad), he sat there rolling his tongue around in his mouth! I had to answer every single question for him, because all he did was tricks with his tongue! When we were done I told him he could at least tell them "bye". The room was totally silent and Sonel managed to say "bye" to the kids and when he did, there was a BOOM of applause and cheering! Well I had to give him his toy because he did speak to them. As soon as we went out the front door...he starts yapping up a storm! WHAT A STINKER. I promised the kids in the class that I would make a video of Sonel talking and put it on the blog so they could hear him. I will make the video, I've just had a really busy schedule the last few days. Tomorrow I'm taking Sonel to "StoryTime" at the local school and then I have to do some work for my web site, so I WILL get the video done, but it will be in a few days.

Brenda