Petit-Homme 11 Years Later

Today is the day. 11 years ago a wonderful woman gave birth to a little boy we know as Hunter Jaymes. Hunter has been home since the age of 2 months...now completely unheard of in Haitian adoption....ANY International Adoption....

Hunter is an intelligent, artistic, dry sense of humored young man. He has been in our lives so long that we forget that he has not a part of it forever.

I remember the day I first met him....we met Claudette in Miami on July 4th, 1997 to pick him up (Americans didn't travel much to Haiti back then for adoption). We were told our papers had some problems and the USCIS office wanted to close for the Holiday. One USCIS officer was considering sending him back to Haiti to work it out after the Holiday....Claudette prayed for them to get us and let us see him and for a resolution to be met without him having to return to Haiti.
A USCIS officer came to the outer area to find us and took us back to the area where he was. There for the first time I saw my Petit-Homme (little man) for the first time face to face. What a little wide eyed baby.
He was small, 6lb 10 oz and 18 3/4" long at 2 months....a peanut.
Curtis was great enough to let me hold him first...good thing cuz I probably would have fought him for it...hehe Claudette handed him to me and I just looked at him and he looked at me intently. I cried and looked like a complete idiot, I know it.
Another USCIS officer, this one an African American woman, came over and asked what was going on with the case. After having it explained to her she scoffed at the one officer who so coldly wanted to send him back to Haiti and took the file from him. She smiled at me and told us that she would get things cleared up and he could go with us, if it took her all night to get it straightened out. I swear, that woman was an Angel sent by God that night! She ran all the papers thru and got us on our way.
We hugged and thanked Claudette, a woman that I did not know would mean so much to me later in life...oh what great gifts the Lord had in store for us. We tried to take a photo with the USCIS woman, but were not allowed....very sad because I can see her in my head but cannot show Hunter the woman who helped us get him home that night.

Now, 11 years later, he is the beginning point of such a wonderful ride the Lord has put us on...one that has fed the ride of many others...he is truly a gift.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOO BOO!!


















Hunter, Summer 2006















Hunter doing one of his favorite pastimes, 2006



















Hunter being crazy with the camera, 2007





















Hunter the young man, 2008