Well, I finally talked Shane into going to Haiti with me. Okay, maybe God had something to do with it, but regardless, Shane now has a stamp in his passport that says "Haiti". Nathan and Evan have one as well. The four of us just got back from a 10 day trip to Haiti.
While we were there we visited 7 orphanages, 2 churches, 2 schools, and 1 medical clinic.
We went with my friend Linda, another adult and 11 teens.
We flew out of Houston Friday night to Miami. Almost the whole team met up in Miami and spent the night in the airport. All the kids got to know one another by playing hide and go seek and tag in the airport. We attempted to sleep some, but it didn't work. The cleaning crews were loud, the automatic clock that went off every 15 minutes....."the local time is now 2:45 am"....and the freezing cold A/C didn't allow for any sleep.
We left Miami Saturday morning and got to Port au Prince at 8am. Our team brought down 26 pieces of luggage that was mostly donations of school and medical supplies. We stayed at Walls Guest House for 2 nights in Port au Prince.
Our first Saturday we spent at Bresma orphanage. This is where I was on my last trip to Haiti. It was so great to see some of the kids again. I was very sad that Jefte was in the hospital though. I had so looked forward to Shane and the boys meeting him. I did get to see "My Kids" again, Ketia, Jarinel and Claudia.
I fell in love with that sibling group on my last trip down. Now Claudia is going to a family in Colorado, but the other 2 are still available for adoption. It was good to love on all the kids.
We brought down bubbles and sidewalk chalk for them. That was fun.
We were so exhausted from the travel and lack of sleep that we all headed to bed not caring too much about the heat. It was hot. No A/C, but thankfully lots of fans.
Our 1st Sunday we went to Port au Prince Fellowship where John McHoul of Heartline Ministries, pastors. We met Troy and Tara Livesay there and went to their house for lunch after church. That was awesome to finally get to meet them in person. As an avid reader of their blog, it was equivalent to meeting anyone famous! They graciously served our team lunch and then we got to go tour the Heartline Ministries orphanage and women's program. I loved being able to see in person some of the places we, as a family, support.
Monday we were able to get to all 3 of Dr. Bernard's creches. He gave me the address of the NLL house, which I gave to our driver, but when we got there I kept saying "this doesn't look familiar at all". The driver kept insisting it was the place. Come to find out that Dr. B. had moved the NLL kids to this new house and I didn't know it. I thought we were going to the same place my girls had lived in. It was fun to show the nannies there photos of my 4 girls and see how many of them remembered my girls. We also got to go to the girls HFC house and the boys HFC house. Shane, Nathan and Evan finally got to meet Alexandra in person. We sponsor her at HFC and she writes us many letters.
Then we headed up to Mountain Top Ministries where we stayed for the rest of our time in Haiti. Willem and Beth Charles run that ministry. The boys and men worked for 6 long days in a dry riverbed picking up rocks and throwing them into a dump truck, which then dumped then into a pile near some wire cages that our team assembled. Then the rocks had to be stacked in the cages to form a retaining wall so the road to the village of Gramothe would not be washed out again like it had been in June. Hard, hot work. The girls participated in this work also.
I spent 2 full days at Rachel's orphanage. She has 16 kids there with the oldest being 3. This was so great for me. I loved it. Some of the girls from our team would go with me over there and help feed, change, play with the babies.
One day I went with Linda and 3 of the girls and walked up the mountain (and I do mean UP) to the clinic where we unloaded the medical supplies we brought and organized them. It is an incredibly steep road. I'm pretty sure some of the Haitians lapped us a few times by going up, then down, then up again, while we stopped every 100 feet or so to rest!
Friday night Shane, the boys and I got to have dinner with Dr. Bernard and Claudette. That was very nice to visit with them.
Saturday, after finishing up what we could with the retaining wall, we went to the baptist mission for lunch and shopping. Then we visited Wings of Hope, a home for disabled children and adults.
Sunday found us at the church on the mountain. This was so great to experience worship in Creole. Willem asked Shane to come up and preach. He even gave him a tie to wear! Shane did a great job and Willem interpreted for him. We were able to witness the dedication of Sophia, a 3 year old girl from Rachel's orphanage whose adoptive parents had come to take home. They were in church, as well as her birth parents and family. They had a dedication service for her. Very touching to see ALL the family together praying for her. After church we were able to pass out some of the 150 backpacks full of school supplies that we brought down to the kids who were in church. They were so excited. And I have to point out that without fail, the boys went for the purple and pink backpacks! This was amusing to us.
Monday brought us back to the States and our families.
