Haiti Mission Trip 2012

It takes me awhile to write about our trips to Haiti.  Not because I am procrastinating, or because I am hesitant to share.  It just takes me a long time to process Haiti each time I come back to what one missionary I know refers to as "Disneyland."  Every trip I come back with more love for, and information about the people, the culture, the church that makes me reevaluate so many aspects of my own life.

For this post, I will spare you all of my deep thoughts, insights, and struggles...another time.  For now, I will just share with you pictures and highlights about our most recent trip to my second most beloved country.


We had several projects while we were there.  As in typical Haitian mission trip style, most of our plans were completely changed and rearranged.  Setting a foundation for a playground and basketball court for the kids was the work project, and the women were set up to teach, teach, teach.

Work on the playground

The kids need a productive, clean, safe place to play.

We had TONS of rock, sand and dirt hauled in to spread for the foundation
for the new playground. Here are our Sam and Alto working along side Tony.

Alot of the kids helped out.

  

If they ran out of shovels, they just used buckets. 

This is the finished product...ready and waiting for a playground. 

Girl's Retreat

Jillian requested that we hold a retreat for the girls while we were there.  It was a challenge, but it was well-planned and went great.  The girls all said they want it to last the whole 2 weeks we are there next time instead of just 2 days.

In Haiti, there is a struggle with works oriented salvation...being "good enough." Our theme was on how "God can Make you Clean."  We talked about several women who were full of sin.  In our minds sometimes, God only wants to use those who are righteous.  We studied how in the Bible God accepts us and uses us how we are. 

 Jami planned an activity where we made soap.  The girls loved creatively shaping it. 

Aubrey making "red cord" bookmarks with
our dear friend, Milona.

Discussing Rahab and if God can use women like her today.

After Brenda's talk on the woman who
washed Jesus feet, we washed the girls' feet. 

Several people walked in off the street asking
what we were doing...one woman said she had never seen anything like it.
She would be there for worship the following Sunday.  

Terrier Rouge

Our good friend, Gerome and a preacher named Jonathan started a congregation last year in a nearby town called Terrier Rouge.  They have had lots of interest in the gospel and are growing fast.  We spent several days preaching, visiting new Christians and teaching Bible class for (what turned out to be) the neighborhood.

This is Tony visiting with the first convert they had in this town.
She is 100 years old.  She was quite an inspiration to us all.

Teaching the little kids...the crowd kept accumulating off the streets.
They were so excited to be there.

I saw this little boy and HAD to hold him!  He lives next door to the church building .  He comes by himself and brings his little wooden chair to sit in.  He sits at the door and greets people as they come in, shaking their hands.  So many lessons to be learned from this little boy.  How many people do you greet each Lord's Day?

We decided to make some benches for their
congregation as they only had a few chairs to sit in.

Here they are...loaded up and ready to go.

Devotionals for the kids

We lead devotionals, for the older boys, older girls,
as well as the smaller children at the orphanage.
Tony is teaching here an object lesson
about the narrow and broad gate in Matt. 7:13-14.

Roseny, Milonia, and Nellie

Sweet Milonia is a young girl who has found her way into my heart.  She has Type  I Diabetes and suffers a great deal in Haiti.  Our team gave her mother money to start a business so she can provide for her two girls.
The men went over and helped her put a roof on her stand to hold her products.

There is much to say about this dear family...stay tuned. 

The Team and the kids

I don't have any pictures of the work I did while we were there.  I spent most of my time in the office organizing the files so CHCH can soon get licensed.  It involved hunting down a representative for each child to come and sign paperwork for them at the orphanage.The two young men I am standing between (Jude and Willey) were of immeasurable help to me.  One side affect of this job was hearing the story behind each of the children and why they ended up at CHCH.  It motivates me more to spread the only answer to Haiti's problems...the gospel. 

Nou Fini! (We are Finished!)...A Little Bit of Nesting

Well, it took us 3 weeks, a serious team effort, and every ounce of free time, but we got the kids' rooms done!  My nesting instincts are officially extinguished.  My goal was to get them done before we leave for Haiti so I can take the pics to show the boys where they will be sleeping when they come home.  As usual...my photography skills are lacking, but you get the idea.

The atrocity here that is pink (yes, we painted the bed pink) and green is the inspiration of the 14-year old who assured me she will still love it when she is 17.  The girls love it!  BTW...when you come to visit, bring your sunglasses, because this is where you will be sleeping.

Caleb and Alto will be sharing the camouflage room.  Caleb has his own room (albeit hopefully oh, so temporarily) for the first time ever!

We are hoping that Sam likes space, because his roommate ALWAYS has.  

The next step is to fill them with two more little boys.  Each day is a step closer is all I can say.

Now, to get to packing for Aubrey's Nationals jump rope competition this weekend (more to come, I'm sure) and our trip to Haiti (LOTS more to come!)

And Weeeeee're Out!

Just got word that we are out of IBESR!  This is by far the largest obstacle in the Haitian adoption process.  Check my timeline for the next steps.  We are now talking in weeks, not months or years!  Our realistic timeline now is that the boys could be here anywhere from 3-6 months.  This whole having six children on the same continent, playing in our yard, in our family thing is actually starting to become a reality.

Time is flying right now as we are done with school and working diligently to get the kids' rooms ready.  The girl's room is done...pictures to come of the pink and green atrocity.  They LOVE it!!!  One down two to go.

Whew!

Just Jumpin'

Here are the videos from Aubrey's regional jump rope competition in April (I know, I'm behind...)  Aubrey's faithful friend, Karina went along for support as did my Susan.  We met up with my great old friend (well, she's not old, but our friendship is) Loree...and had a great time!  Aubrey is so blessed to have so many who love her enough to sit in a dark gym for nearly 10 hours watching jump rope.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8oVvzfc-So&context=C42a134aADvjVQa1PpcFP6K821CZwWSiMr35zXHqWSqYwd-j90gtQ=

Soooo proud of our girl!  She works so hard at practice, at home, and well...pretty much doesn't go anywhere without a jump rope.  She qualified to go to the national competition in Long Beach, CA the end of June.  Oh, did I mention the weekend before we leave for Haiti?  It's gonna be a fun and crazy summer!

Adoption Update!

Exciting news! We got an email today that said our adoption files have received presidential dispensation. In short, this means that the longest, most arduous process of our adoption is complete. We are getting ready to exit the "black hole" of Haitian adoption called IBESR. It is so-called because an adoption file can sit there for months (ours was there for 7) or even years with absolutely NO WORD on what is happening. It can be a very agonizing wait if you don't trust that the entire process is up to God and completely in His control.

So now, we are starting to feel that it may be OK to do things like set up the boys' rooms, order school curriculum for them next year, etc.

Chances are slim, but there is a small chance we may not have to say, "goodbye" this Summer when we go on our mission trip in July. Praying things will go that quickly...but if the latter part of the process is anything like the former...we're still in for a serious wait.

In July we will be 2 years into this process. Our boys, who were 3 and 6 at that time, are now 5 and 8. They are growing like weeds as are my biological children. We just can't wait for all this growing to start happening with us!

July 2010

March 2012

Jesus Took it Too Far

In case you haven't noticed, since 2 summers ago, a majority of my blog posts have been about a small town in a country nearly 3000 miles away. Yes, this country has overtaken my prayers, my thoughts, my reading time, my family, and my life in many ways. I have left Haiti unable to look at my life and the world the same.

I now struggle with things I never did before; like the fact that what it costs me to go out to eat with my husband (about $30-$40) can support a child in Haiti for a month, buy life or death medications for someone who needs them, or feed a starving family. This perspective makes living in the affluence of America somewhat difficult. It makes buying a new couch, paying someone $80/hour to fix our car, or even paying for music lessons for my kids seem extreme and unnecessary.

I've stopped verbalizing these struggles as it seems to be offensive to most of those around me. "we don't live in Haiti," "you can't feel guilty about everything," "we don't have to be so extreme" "you're taking it too far" are all typical responses I get. Well, in response, I would live in Haiti in a heartbeat if I thought that was God's will at this point in my life, I don't feel guilty...just convicted (there's a big difference,) and Jesus "took it pretty far" in my opinion.

"So therefore, no one of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions," (Luke 14:33) Jesus says to those whom He wants to count the cost of becoming His disciple. "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be My disciple." Notice Jesus says CANNOT be my disciple. We wouldn't argue with Jesus when he said "...unless one is born again, he CANNOT enter the kingdom of God" but we rationalize away these two CANNOT statements by Jesus all the time. Yes, Jesus actually means that the cost to follow Him is your own life and He actually means you need to be willing to sell all your possessions if that's what it takes to follow Him. Yeah, Jesus took it too far by our definition.

This is the part where I'm supposed to give you a way out, put you at ease by saying that none of us (including me) could actually attain these things, so let's just try the best we can. After all, we have to have boundaries...too much commitment and we could seem obsessed. I don't want to give myself or you a way out. Jesus didn't give His listeners a way out. He said He wants it all from us and nothing less. None of us are actually attaining what Jesus is telling us to do in these passages. But let's at least admit the uncompromising truth regarding what He wants from us when we choose to be His disciple.

This is a family in Haiti that has caught my heart specifically. Milona (the older daughter) has diabetes, a dangerous disease for a child in America with good health care much less in Haiti with virtually no health care. She is strong, a survivor, and ends up in an ill-equipped Haitian hospital at least twice a year fighting for her life. There are millions more like her all over the world who lack basic needs that we all take for granted; food, clean water, health care, shelter from weather. Did Jesus take it too far when He asks us to make sacrifices for even the least of these?

The Power of "I Love You"

After a 30-minute car ride to the beach with the boys, Sam immediately bypassed playing in the crystal blue water and started writing in the sand as soon as we got there as if he had been planning what he was going to write long before we arrived. I uncharacteristically happened to have a camera in my hand so I casually took a now priceless picture.

I learned during this last visit that there were two things Sam has been working on writing in English. His name (Sam Francois) , and "I love you." It didn't hit me until this week (which has been overflowing with challenges involving these 3 simple words) how intentional all of this was on his part.

He had been contemplating since our last visit (4 months ago) what he wanted to communicate to us....and this was it! The words are powerful, aren't they?

As a child, you understand somewhat the power of love. As a parent you truly understand for the first time the power of love.

Please pray for us as we strive to truly live out loving all of our children in such a way that there is never any doubt in their minds how much they are truly loved.

Sam