We just love being able to share our Angel House kids’ “gotcha” stories!
This one belongs to Garry.
Garry leaving Angel House with his escorts, who delivered him and two other children safely to their waiting families!
Garry, our quiet and thoughtful dreamer, went home to his family a few weeks ago. Much like Jean Jules’ story, Garry’s is unusual because of the extraordinary circumstances created by both the global pandemic and unrest in Haiti. We were fortunate yet again to have some wonderful friends offering to escort this sweet little boy home to his family in the United States, so he had watchful eyes on him every moment of the way. Garry’s family and a Three Angels representative were waiting at the other end of the flight to welcome him HOME, and the rest is happily ever after!
If you’ve been wondering about Garry and his family since they’ve all been home together, you’re not alone!
Garry’s mom kindly shared some updates with us, so keep reading to get a peek into Garry’s new life.
“Garry has been home (about two months,) and generally speaking, everything is going better than we expected. He is a joyful person— he greets the day with a smile on his face and is ready to explore. He is a VERY curious person and loves seeing how things work—garage doors, bike pedals, etc.— and he is super-interested in anything mechanical. We may have an engineer in our midst!”
“Additionally, he loves to self-quiz himself on English. We like to read books and I'll point out different things on the page like "bike" or "boat" and he'll repeat after me. And before we turn the page, he'll go back through and point out everything he knows. He is extremely motivated to learn English, and it's been a fun way for us to connect.”
“Garry started part-time preschool (recently) and it had its ups and downs. He was SO proud to go—we think because he remembers Reginald and the other kids being able to get in the car to go to school—and he felt like a big boy himself. We found that Garry must be empathetic because he cries when others cry, and there was a child with severe separation anxiety that had a domino effect on Garry and another little boy. It made drop-off hard the next two days, but on day three he had a great day and especially enjoyed the singing and dancing.”
“Garry's favorite things are cars. We hear the word "machine!" said with excitement about 100 times a day. Pointing them out has been an excellent way to learn English, especially colors. Every morning he asks to go into the garage to say "Bonjou" to the “machines” and he goes in at night to say "Bon nwi." He points to which one is Daddy's car and which one is Mama's, but it's been interesting to note that over time they also have both become Garry's cars.”
“We call him “Mr. Pitt” in reference to the Seinfeld character, Elaine's boss who ate a Snickers bar with a knife and fork. Garry really likes to keep his hands "prop" so he tries to eat everything on his plate with a fork—tortilla chips, cashews, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. He'll use his fork on anything!”
“In true Texas fashion, Garry's favorite food has turned out to be breakfast tacos! He likes everything involved—eggs, bacon, cheese and tortillas. He's never met an egg he didn't like, and he is a huge fan of most meats and pastas. He won't touch any vegetables and is light on fruit, with the exception of mangos and mandarin oranges, but we're working on that.”
“Garry’s big sister, Riley was an only child for nine years prior to Garry joining our family. Her transition to sharing the attention seems to be more difficult than Garry's transition to us. We are making an effort to have intentional time with just her, sometimes both Scott and I will play a game with her or watch a show after Garry goes to bed, or sometimes (we’ll do) something fun like ice cream one-on-one out of the house. Also, the start of the school year has been helpful in maintaining some of Riley's own space and feeling of normalcy.”
“Another challenge is that Garry is only three years old and new to life in the US, so we have to watch him like a hawk, especially around electrical cords and the washing machine—they are just so tempting! Scott and I are so tired at the end of the day like we haven't ever felt before. Probably because we're old now—HA!”
“We celebrated Garry's third birthday (August 8) a week after he came home. It meant so much to us to be able to share that milestone together. We went ahead and celebrated birthdays one and two, too! Garry loved it and wore his party hat all day long, even on our dog walk.”
We think this sounds like a pretty great beginning to a beautiful family story, don’t you?
Congratulations, Garry and family—we are so thrilled for you all!
