A Year in Review

Alright, I have done an absolutely terrible job at keeping up with this blog.  Embarrassingly, my last post was in November 2015.  But it’s January, and I can make some goals for 2017, right?

So what has happened since the last post?  In short, a lot!  I like “year in review” updates, so here is a simplified and long overdue version.

December 2015

We moved in this little one, our fifth child and our first (and still only) girl.  J loved to “scream cry” and did this for about two weeks straight while she was adjusting to her new home, house parents, friends, nannies, schedule, food, etc.

This little guy’s small operation was scheduled for November but didn’t work out for various reasons.  So he got it done in December.  Unfortunately, we were not able to be here for it, and it was very hard on us.  We made so many phone calls from buses and taxis that day.

This is the reason we missed it.  We got to meet up with my brother, Chris, and sister-in-law, Ashley, for a much needed vacation in Punta Cana.  Here they are on the plane before they arrived to meet us.

We also got to see our pal, Glenn, who we got to know through our church in Nashville.  We ate so much good food in Santiago.

We had our first annual Christmas dinner at our house with all our kids, nannies, and some friends. 

Check out the turkey!

Whew, that month was busy!

January 2016

We were gifted with Christmas money to take all our nannies and kids to the beach.  Our friend, Courtney, joined us.

This little guy celebrated his fourth birthday.

This little guy had a small procedure, which required a night at the hospital we won’t ever forget.  We spent the night in the same room with one of our nannies because of an emergency operation for her youngest child.  We were also there with one of our other nannies, who was there with her baby, who unfortunately ended up passing away at the hospital.

And we were also there with this cute little guy who we met that night because the hospital was overcrowded due to ongoing strikes.

Surprise!  He moved in with us.  This is Baby T, our sixth child.

February 2016

This month was pretty much spent adjusting to life with another preemie in our house and gearing up for our first trip to the States since moving here.  We spent three weeks in the States catching up with friends and family, eating tons of food, and trying to rest.

March 2016

Remember our nanny’s little guy who had an operation in January?  Well, he had to have another one in March.  We went to visit him in the hospital right before surgery, but he was delayed because he needed blood.  In Haiti, you can go buy blood or you can have someone donate.  So I got to donate for the first time in a long time since I am ineligible in the States (traveled too frequently to Haiti).  I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink yet that day since we were in a hurry, so I went to the street, had some street food and a bottle of water, and off we went.

We got to host our first visitors since living here!  It was so nice to see familiar faces in Haiti.  Bill and Mary Ann have been coming to Haiti for years doing short term missions, but they came on this trip just to spend time with us and encourage us.  It was such a nice visit.

April 2016

We moved in our seventh and last child, S.  For the most part, it was a smooth transition since he had already lived at COTP for a couple months before moving into our house.

We celebrated my 27^th birthday.  I chose to go to the beach (Why wouldn’t I?).  This was our first overnight trip in Haiti, and it was a wonderful getaway.

May 2016

Okay, we didn’t really celebrate Mother’s Day, but look at this adorable picture on Haitian Mother’s Day!  M and two of his nannies.

We celebrated F’s fourth birthday.  He loooooooooves tacos and sombreros, so we killed two birds with one stone and celebrated Cinco de Mayo the same day.

June 2016

This guy turned one!  He got to celebrate with three of his sponsors with a trip to the beach, presents, and cake.

Roni and I also got a nice Groupon deal for an all inclusive in the Dominican Republic a few hours from the border.  It was such a nice break.  Our house was very well taken care of by our friends, Al and Mindy, and our nannies.

July 2016

We don’t have many pictures from this month, so I think we were kind of in survival mode for a little while.  We did go to our first Haitian funeral.  Not a great reason to be dressed up, but here is a picture anyway.

August 2016

We celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary.

And I realized I lost over 40 pounds since living in Haiti.

September 2016

A and F started school.  They go to a Christian school that is taught in English.  We are so, so happy for them to have this opportunity.  And look how cute they look!

T got his first haircut.  Here is a picture when it was halfway done.

October 2016

Roni celebrated his 31^st birthday, and B celebrated his 3^rd birthday.

Here we are preparing for Hurricane Matthew the day before it was due to hit Haiti.  Fortunately and still shockingly, our area was totally spared from damage.  Southern Haiti got a lot of damage.  It was very unnerving watching the news and bracing ourselves for what could have been very bad.  Praise God we were spared!

November 2016

My mom came to visit.  We had all kinds of plans to show her our favorite spots, including a beautiful beach resort, but instead we got to share a hotel room when we all thought for a few scary minutes that we might not survive the flash flooding.  Here is a picture of my mom on a moto during the one sunny day she had here.

Remember how we were spared from the hurricane?  Well, we had over 40” of rain in about a week.  So many of you reading this have helped us help our Haitian friends who lost everything or close to everything.  It was a very difficult month for us because the rains lasted for weeks, and we saw a lot of people we love struggling.

Fortunately, the rains slowed down, and the month ended well when this little guy celebrated his 1^st birthday.  We no longer have anyone under the age of one in our house!

December 2016

This pretty girl turned two.

We had our second annual Christmas dinner, this time with some of the nannies’ kids.  It was a great time spent just relaxing and visiting with each other.

On Christmas Day, we had a fun time opening presents and playing with new toys.  THANK YOU to everyone who sent gifts-- sponsors, friends, and churches.

So, what are we up to now, you ask?  We are still super busy with our home but loving it.  We still have all seven kids with us.  Please pray for adoptions to move forward for them and their families.  We are also managing another child home while they are waiting for the next house parent(s) to accept the position and move in.  It is a very busy season, but we are loving our work here.

And what do we have coming up in the near future?  On February 12, Roni will run his second ever marathon, and this time, IN HAITI.  He is trying to raise $26,200, which is approximately what it takes to run our house for a year (groceries, diapers, formula, medical needs, nanny salaries, etc.).  If you are interested in watching a great video and donating to his run, you can click HERE.  I would be so happy to see him reach his goal!

And finally, we will be visiting the States in February/March for three weeks.  So if you live near Nashville or Pittsburgh and want to catch up, let’s talk.  :)

Thanks for hanging in there!  I will try much harder to keep this up to date.

And then there were four.

At the time of our last post, we had only one baby living with us in our temporary apartment.  A lot has happened since then!

We moved into the Hope House.

This was taken on our porch about a week before we moved in.

Kitchen/Dining Area

Main bathroom

Main bathroom - changing station

Master suite

Master suite - room for entertaining and relaxing

Our next two boys moved in with us at the beginning of October.

Our fourth boy moved in with us last week.

Baby M tripled in weight and somehow got even cuter.

5 weeks old

Almost four months old

Taking advantage of these bubble baths before he outgrows the sink  :)

As a followup to our last post, we have not yet found all of Baby M's sponsors.  You can read our last post for more details about how to sign up.


And finally... this guy turned 30!  Check him out with his only birthday present he was given on his big day.  Our neighbor rode her moto over to our house the night of his birthday, came inside and said she had a present, and pulled this out.

Introducing Baby M

We have been in Haiti just over a month now.  I could use this time to update you on the construction of our house and tell you stories of how we are learning to do life here in Haiti, but I would rather focus on something more important:  our first foster baby.

I will keep this short and sweet, but I would like to introduce Baby M.  Roni and I learned of Baby M the night of July 28, and we went to the hospital to bring him home on July 29.  We both knew we were bringing home a baby boy, but I was surprised when a staff member helped me pick out clothes and diapers that were for preemies.  In my mind, I was picturing a baby close to 8-10 months.  I guess we didn’t ask any questions—we just said “yes, we’re ready.”  We had three weeks to settle in, and we were ready to start what we came here to do.

 

We have quickly fallen in love with this little guy.  He really is a great baby, and we think he is pretty cute!  He has become a great eater and gained a full pound in the first week we’ve lived with him. 

As you can imagine, he is using a lot of formula and diapers.  Finding 12 sponsors at $35/month will fully cover his expenses to live here with us.  We have already found one sponsor, so we only need 11 more.  Can you be one of Baby M’s 12?

To sign up for child sponsorship for Baby M or any child at COTP, click HERE.

We hope to post pictures of the Hope House soon.  In the meantime, please pray that Baby M continues to adjust well, remain healthy, and gain weight.

Children of the Promise has given explicit permission for the posting of photos on this site.  Photos taken of children in the care of Children of the Promise are not to be posted publicly without explicit permission given by Children of the Promise.

I apologize for letting two months pass without another blog post.  People have been asking us if we were going to send out an update, but I don’t think either of us have had the energy or motivation to do it.  Please bear with us during this crazy time of transition.

May 22 was my last day of work.  This was a hard day because I had to walk away from a job that I loved and the best coworkers anyone could ask for.  This day was most difficult because late that night we got a phone call with news that my brother, Mike, had died.  We had a lot of tough goodbyes, but saying goodbye to Mike was by far the toughest.  This is the main reason we got backed up on thank you cards/emails, blog writing, and well—everything else.  Even though we postponed our move to Haiti by a couple weeks, we still left a lot of loose ends.  If we didn’t get to say goodbye to you, it wasn’t because we didn’t want to see you, but life got pretty hard for those weeks leading up to our move.  We were dealing with the loss of a brother on top of leaving jobs, saying goodbye to friends, leaving our home of six years, saying goodbye to our church family, shopping, packing, fitting our entire lives into one vehicle, traveling, saying goodbye to family, selecting new health insurance, getting vaccinations, buying medication, and all the other time consuming tasks that go along with moving to a third world country.  Grief is hard.  Moving to another country is hard.  Experiencing both of these at the same time is really, really hard!

Despite the really hard stuff, we had a great sendoff for our move.  Old friends and new friends in Nashville made sure our bellies were so full of good food and drinks and that we got plenty of encouragement during our last two weeks there.  Leaving Nashville was much harder than we ever could imagine.

We then spent two weeks in Pennsylvania trying our best to relax but also see family and friends.  Despite the loss of a brother, my side of the family still gathered as planned to make a week of memories together.  It was very healing for us to all be together, but it certainly made it much more difficult to say goodbye.  I think we ran out of tears by the end of our month-long goodbyes.

We had one last night of fun spent in Pittsburgh with family and friends and ate everything we wanted to.  I was having a high anxiety moment just before we got to the airport, and my brother, Chris, comforted me by saying I could just back out and he could turn around and go home.  These were the same comforting words he gave me as the music began playing at our wedding.  :)  Obviously I do not always take his advice.

We have been in Haiti for a full week now, and we have lots to share.  Stay tuned for another update soon.  If you are praying with us, please continue to pray for energy and peace as we are transitioning and grieving on many levels.

-- Steph

One Month

Hello Internet World,

Once again, we have neglected our blog.  Life has been very crazy for us lately as we are working as hard as we can and tying up loose ends before our move.  I feel like we had our first real weekend in a long time this week, and it was AMAZING to relax a bit.  We have been busy shopping, purging items we don't need, trying to see friends and family, working long hours, learning Creole, attending an attachment training and orphan care conference (awesome stuff!), meeting with and presenting at churches, fundraising, running a marathon (Roni), and just every day stuff.  Whew!  As a side note, I love to cook, but I don't think I've ever eaten so many meals at restaurants or from the freezer as I have in the last month.  :)

A friend from church asked us when we were headed out of Nashville this morning, and we told her June 10th.  She then proceeded to point out that we have exactly ONE MONTH left in Nashville.  We totally did not realize this, and it sounds so crazy to think about!  We are excited, nervous, scared, happy, sad, and probably lots of other things as well.  We will be leaving our jobs by the end of May, which will leave time for a mini vacation (two nights in a nearby city), packing, and seeing the friends and family we have lived with for the past five and a half years.

We have had so much encouragement along with some discouragement in the past couple of months.  Many of you have asked what we are still in need of right now.  Before I go into that, let me just take the time to say THANK YOU to all who continue to pray with us and have supported us in forms of verbal encouragement, financial support, pledging money towards Roni's Run for the Hope House, and helping us fill up a moving truck with baby supplies and household goods.

We can not do any of this without the support of others.  We are pretty far off from being fully funded for our first year.  We had a goal of 30 boxes of diapers, and we greatly exceeded this goal along with so many more supplies (gift cards, crib sheets, pack and plays, books, toys, kitchen supplies, etc.).  We then asked our supporters to help us raise $2,620 as Roni ran a marathon to raise funds for the building of our home.  We exceeded this goal with your help, raising $3,700.

Now we are asking for one clear thing in these final four weeks:  Can you help us reach our goal of 20 monthly supporters before we move?  Right now, we have seven supporters who have committed to giving on a monthly basis, ranging in amounts of $25 to $300 per month.  We do not have any specific expectations for dollar amounts, so if you can only give $10/month, or if you can give $1000/month, we will be blessed by your support.  Most donations for the marathon were $26.20, and added together, they totaled $3,700, which is a big number.  However, many of those donations were one-time, which will not carry us through our service in Haiti.  We need consistent partners who will continually remind us that people believe in the mission we are a part of.  Will you please prayerfully consider being a monthly supporter?  We will be happy to share specific numbers with you and would love to have a conversation with you in person or over the phone.  To give, you can click the tab above called "How can you help?"  Please be sure to put "Bhullars" in the designation box so funds are appropriately tracked.  Email us anytime with questions at the address listed in the "Contact Info" tab.

Steph and Roni

Minnesota Trip

We have really slacked on updated our blog, and I apologize.  Life has really been busy lately.  We have both been working quite a bit, and we also traveled to Minnesota to meet some important people with COTP and do some orientation over my spring break.  We were also able to bring a moving truck of baby supplies and household items so that they can be put on the shipping container soon.  To all of you who purchased items off our wish list, donated baby supplies, gave us cash to buy household items, or sent us gift cards, THANK YOU!!!  You all are so awesome and so generous.  It was so much fun to get items from family and close friends, friends we haven't talked to for a while, and people who don't even know us.

The two weeks leading up to Minnesota were rough.  We were worried about who to ask and how to ask for items for the supply drive.  We were also worried we didn't have enough time to get things donated. Mix this in with long hours at work and financial stress, and it is not a good combination.  Add to it all the emotions of moving to a foreign land and not knowing quite what to expect.  And then throw in the not so comforting thought of not having a store to buy things in Haiti, which leads to all kinds of lists and hours of browsing on Amazon, trying to think of everything we possibly can.  Seriously, we even ordered a laundry drying rack, which will hopefully get used a lot.  We kept justifying items by saying that our future selves would thank us.

In good Bhullar fashion, we woke up at 2:15 am to pack the morning of departure.  Thankfully, most items had been loaded onto the moving truek earlier that day, thanks to two of our good pals.  We were on the road by 4:30 am.  It took us eighteen hours, but the drive was beautiful most of the way.

We had no idea what to expect in Minnesota, and the orientation went exceptionally well.  We came back reassured that we will be working for the right organization in the right roles.  I'm not sure we were ever treated so well as guests.  We got to visit with the current stateside director and his family, the founders, a board member, the finance staff, former COTP missionaries, a new COTP missionary, seasoned missionaries from Africa, adoptive families, supporters, and so many more really great people.  I'm sorry to say that we didn't even take one picture in Minnesota.  We really tried not to use our phones much when we were there, so having no pictures is just a side effect of that.

Thanks again to all of you who made all our worrying seem like a waste of time.  You have already blessed all of us who will live in our home in Haiti soon.