Our Princess Stephanie

What I wish I could be doing right now, hugging our sweet Stephanie. She's so kind, affectionate, and sensitive. The sad face is because it is almost time to say our goodbyes. The boys usually don't cry until I'm actually leaving but Stephanie begins getting very sad and tearful the night before. It breaks my heart to see such a sweet happy girl so sad.

Jude and Stephanie doing what they do best: being blaze (means silly or crazy in Creole). Jude is sitting on Karla's lap. Stephanie is sitting between Karla and Kim, I don't even want to try and guess at what the kids are doing. :) Kim's got that look like "Who is the crazy one on the team that is raising these nuts?" I'm sitting next to Kim at the edge of the picture with Lovenie sleeping on my lap and did not catch what was going on in this picture.


Presenting Stephanie with her locket. Inside this pretty heart shaped locket was a picture of me on one side and a picture of her Haitian Mother on the other. Stephanie was very touched by this. It's probably the only picture she has of us both. I want her to know it's okay to love the Mom that has raised her for so many years. She will always be a mother in this family also, theres room and enough love for both of us.

Packing up on our last night together. We were both so sad. Even Jude had a moment of not smiling.

She's just radiant! When I stayed with her last time I noticed she didn't have pajamas so brought her two pairs this trip. One was a set we couldn't resist- High School Musical. She LOVES this movie! When I pulled them out she squealed and gave me a huge hug and thank you. I never did see her wear the pajama pants but wore the top with a cute skirt.

She was very excited about these girly pajama's too. They are a satin blue with pink cats all over them. She's standing up on the bed for me to get a picture of the whole pajama set (her idea). It was really cute.

Just being pretty.

Stephanie curled up in the bed we shared with Lovenie, watching a movie on my portable DVD player.

Stephanie in the storage room right after the Mary Kay make-up our neighbor gave me to take got distributed. The girls had such a blast putting it on themselves and each other. She does look very pretty but I think we will save it for "dress up" for the next several years. :)

Stephanie posing for a picture with our sweet friend Emmanuel. So I ask his Mom (who reads my blog).... You want to start talking prearranged marriage now or wait a couple years? :)


Stephanie is just such a joy to be around. I wanted so much to have at least one really girly daughter in my lifetime and well... you can not get much girlier then our princess Stephanie! She's also so full of energy. She laughs and giggles a lot and we tease each other with saying "your crazy" and "no, I'm not your crazy" back in forth in Creole (Thanks Kez for teaching me this very important creole lesson!). She is quick to give hugs and is very playful and fun. I've also been so proud of her many times as you can ask for her to help with anything at all and she gets a huge smile and does what you ask and does it really well. She is an amazing helper.