Haiti Happenings

Mr. and Mrs.

2012-01-06T16:44:00.000-05:00

I introduce to you, the new Mr. and Mrs. Lacroix!

We met Samuel just a few months after moving here. Jared was desperately missing his days of working out and had been trying to find any sort of gym here. While on a walk one day we spotted him helping repair a house that had been damaged in the earthquake. (I can't seem to remember if it was me or him that noticed Samuel's arms and assumed they looked that way because he worked out. ha!)

Jared asked him if he worked out in a gym here, and the answer was yes. Jared asked where it was, and Samuel invited him to work out with him the next day....at 5 a.m. ! HA ! The next morning Jared ran at 5 a.m. to the house he had seen Samuel at and together they went to the gym. (the explanation of that gym deserving of a blog itself). And, they have been friends ever-since!

Samuel's wedding was at 2 o'clock on Friday. The details went down in true haitian fashion.

1:35 pm: I took this picture of Samuel as he was getting ready for his wedding.

They do look sharp I must say.

1:45: We left the house to drop Samuel off at the church.

2:00: The wedding starts. no bride at the church. no bridesmaids. really...no one at church.

1:54: Get Samuel to church. I look at the clock in our car. laugh. It's 1:54. Haiti. I love it.

1:55: We are instructed to go to his bride's home and pick her, her family, and bridesmaids up and bring them to the church.

1:58: We get to her house. (thankfully not far). Her mom comes to talk with us. Hair in rollers. Day clothes on. Tells us that Bride isn't there. Her brothers get in the car with us. Mom asks us to go get Bride at the beauty salon and come back for her.

2:00 The time the 'wedding starts'. We pull up to the beauty salon. We see the Bride walking out. Oh good, there she is! Then, I look again. It's not her. Another wedding party. awesome. Brothers tell us its the next salon. No worries- just down the road.

2:04: Jared runs into next closest salon we find. Full of women. None of them our Bride.

2:07: Turn the corner to find the next closest salon. BINGO. She's there :)

2:09: Walks out looking gorgeous. Not a care or worry in the world.

2:16: We pull up to the church. Somehow everyone else is there as well. Including mother-of-bride. san rollers in hair.

2:20: I go into church with Miles to find a seat. Including us and the 4 pastors up front I counted 17 people in the church.

2:30-3:00: People trickle in. Ceremony begins.

3:00: Bride walks in. In my mind an hour late. To everyone else...everything is right on time.

4:00: People still walking into ceremony.

4:30: Ceremony over. Half of the church is completely full! ha

The rest of the evening: Reception!

Jared made a great speech :) (There's something awesome about hearing your husband challenge another man to love and honor his wife daily).

Thankful to have our friend Robert there to translate for Jared. Jared's kreyol is awesome. He gets complimented on it all.the.time. (Mostly the compliment he loves the most is when I'm standing there, too, and others tell him that his kreyol is better than mine). But still, we all make mistakes. And our accents just aren't what they should be. So- it was a perfect time to have our friend Robert translate.

(Side note: Robert is seriously amazing. He speaks kreyol, french, spanish, and english fluently. and I mean fluently.)

SO glad to see Samuel's parents enjoy this special day with him! Although this picture may not be a good indicator...they were all happy, too :) I promise.

Aren't they a good looking couple!

And, I just had too. Miles is way too cute to not work a picture of him in here.

(Yes. Jared got to wear white gloves. Be jealous.)

This little guy was the hit of the reception. Everyone wanted to hold him. I may have went into hiding with him for 15 minutes or so to calm him a time or two ;). He is a people person. But not so much when his eyelids are heavy ! :)

Oh, and the day ended with Jared and Samuel having to drive all the guests home. Oh the differences in culture.

Jared was pulled over. He didn't have his license on him. He was told he would have to go to jail for 3 days. Then...after talking through that, the cop decided he would let him go for a fee. Jared had zero dollars with him. The cop asked if we had alcohol in the car to help him pass the rest of his night quicker. Negative. and can I say oh. my. word.

Needless to say, we had our share of laughs on Friday and were so glad to share the day with our friends.

Samuel has made it so much easier for us to live here. Especially for Jared. He is one of those people that everyone just can't help but love. God knew we needed him when we came!

Please pray with us over Samuel and Manoucheka's marriage. Pray that they would faithfully love each other and serve God as a couple, and follow his leading in their lives together daily.

p.s. I joke about the timing of his wedding day lovingly :) Samuel knows that we do things differently in America and that we thought some things were a bit crazy. He laughs about it alongside us. It's one of the things we love about him...that he can think we're crazy Americans at times...and vice versa. It's a great thing ! :)

little miss 6-yr-old

2012-01-04T15:23:00.005-05:00

I don't know how this girl that we've known since she was 4 1/2 years old is suddenly 6 !!

As you can see...she hated every second of celebrating her birthday ;)...

It was this past Sunday, and when we came with the cake in the evening this little girl had kept her dress from church on all day long and informed us that she just bathed and had her hair re-braided for her party :) love.her.

Ciara gives so much joy to our days. Her helpful spirit, love and spunky little personality makes the tough moments so worth it.

and boy did we find a winner with this cake! Remember miss Genese who eats no cake....

Yes, that would be cake frosting and crumbs all over her mouth. Pink frosting and sprinkles...how could she say no this time? All that pink did her in. It's a pretty popular color around here ;).

And one more thing about our birthday girl. She loves work. She's still on Christmas vacation from school and asks all the time for work to do. Lately, she really wants to wash clothes.

Since she needs to learn how to do this sooner or later...and the desire is there now...we told her to have at it. It's been a great chance for her to learn things alongside the nannies. Who am I kidding, I can't teach her how to wash clothes by hands correctly. She'll be the one teaching me what I'm doing wrong. It sounds so simple I know. But trust me...it is an art. I have never seen white clothes so white before. And I still don't know how they get their clothes to make that perfect little squish sound each time they squeeze out the water! Sorry...went off on a rabbit trail there.

The nannies wash the girls school shirts while she washes her baby dolls outfits before they go to school (aka table under the slide). She LOVES this. She is so much better than I am. Big surprise there. My first experience with this months after moving here left me with bleeding knuckles and raw hands for days. Machines have nothing on these women. They told me they could tell I must have grown up in a house with a washing machine before I moved here! HA. got me there ladies.

And she still looks adorable doing work, too :)

Ciara, we are so blessed to walk through these years of your life with you. You fill our lives and all of your sisters with so much laughter and joy! You are a great big sister that helps everyone out so much. We are so proud of you and love you! Happy Birthday :)

P.S. -- Please pray for Rosiany and Mariline as they both have the mumps right now. Don't worry...Ciara is on lysol patrol every night and sprays down every room in the house. Sometimes sprays others too in the mean time. Trying to teach her that good smelling disinfectant spray does not equal perfume. ;)

christmas weekend

2011-12-27T16:57:00.009-05:00

We had a a great weekend celebrating Christmas...

The preparations started on the 23rd..no girl can get ready for Christmas in Haiti without fresh braids. The ''dos' that come before hand never get old to me :)

Somehow I always get trapped like this it seems once a week. They always get frustrated that the braids fall out of my hair so easily. ;)

And we attempted sugar cookies together. Key word attempted. The darn heat really changes things sometimes. Like turning dough into a muddy substance for example. Thankfully the girls don't care when food doesn't turn out if it's anything cookie related. It's still a victory to them. And double thankfully I had a lot of extra flour to try and keep the dough from sticking everywhere! ha

The next day we all got dolled up and had a feast together to celebrate Christ !! (Did you know that Christmas is celebrated the 24th here?)

Yvrose and Lillian did some serious work in the kitchen. Watch out Rachel Ray.

The girls personal favorites...cheetos. Well, the wanna-be kind. Don't they look so fun like this!?

We enjoyed the rest of the day eating, reading the Christmas story, singing, playing games, giving our staff and girls some gifts, and finally getting some e.x.t.r.e.m.e.l.y. tired girls to bed at 7. Unfortunately, Jared and I aren't coordinated enough to throw a Christmas party for a group of people and be organized enough to actually get pictures of all of that's going on :) So, you can enjoy what we did get !! haha

The nannies favorite thing...random pictures that we had put up of them working throughout the past year. They loved it! It was so fun to watch their reactions as they found themselves in the pictures :)

And on Christmas day we relaxed and celebrated just the three of us.

We are grateful to celebrate and know Christ. It is the greatest blessing we can ever know. We pray that you were each able to celebrate that same gift this past weekend. God with us. God with you. It is a beautiful thing.

We spent time on Sunday talking about God's goodness to us this past year. We never get far without thanking God for each of you who allow us to be here. Who encourage us. Cover us in prayer. Care for the girls alongside of us. Support us financially. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be here. For allowing us to worship our Savior through life with these precious girls everyday. Although I may have my moments...It really is a sweet gift that I am so thankful for :) May God richly bless you.

bon fet genese

2011-12-13T12:07:00.005-05:00

On the 8th it was Genese's turn to celebrate :)

This little thang does not like cake. A delicious piece of chocolate cake sits in front of her and she won't. touch. it.

So...we went old school with rice krispie treats. I forgot how good they are. Add some sprinkles on top and you've got yourself a winner for a girl who won't eat cake.

The what-felt-like-hours spent practicing blowing bubbles this summer with the girls paid off for Genese when it came time to blow out her candles!

This now two-year-old is big stuff. Not only does she blow out candles on her own...she loves to sing, talk, dance, play outside, and repeat e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g.

And by repeat I mean yell.

It's a really ~~annoying~~ cute habit.

She expects kisses every morning and night. And she puckers up and won't stop until she gets her smooch. Sometimes she even intentionally puts food on her lips before she goes to kiss us. I think she may be spitfire #2 in training.

Genese loves her siblings so much. Almost nightly she prays for everyone. And I mean everyone. Even if one of the other girls are praying before dinner...Genese will undoubtably chime in. She starts going around the room listing off everyone's name and asking God to bless them. It is darn cute. She has something for Miles and even remembers to pray for him when he's not there. Somehow the prayers usually go something like this: Bless Ciara, bless Rosiany, bless Miles, bless Mariline, bless Miles, bless Kiara, bless Miles, you get the picture. There are no shortage of prayers for him ;).

And here's miss Kiara enjoying the party... she doesn't care what you give her. Cake. Rice Krispies. Doesn't matter. She will destroy them both. But in this case I'm not sure how much actually made it to her tummy...

The girls' were just a tad wound up that night. They love birthdays. In fact, lately they've been singing happy birthday to me on a regular basis. Two birthdays close to each other has made them think that singing birthday songs = dessert magically appearing from the kitchen. Sorry girlies- not the way it happens ;).

It was a fun night celebrating Genese. The girls were smiling and giggling all night. It's medicine to my soul.

Happy 2nd birthday, Genese. We love you!

happy birthday, kiara !

2011-12-05T11:01:00.004-05:00

I can't believe how time flies.

On the first of this month, Kiara turned one!

There is no shortage of love for this girl when it came time to celebrate. The nannies love her just as much as we do. Even those that weren't working that day wanted to be with everyone to celebrate Kiara's special day.

Kiara didn't need an explanation when it came time to dig in ! This girl took care of her cake in record time :)

Miles had his eye on the cake all evening. Kiara wasn't about to leave any for anyone though. Soon enough, you'll have a cake, too!

We're blessed with such a great group of women who love the girls as their own. Kiara holds a special place in each of their hearts since she has spent all but 7 days of her life with us :) We love her smile, and the way she giggles over everything! This girl is strong and walking all over and learning so much everyday from her big sisters!

and Crystal and Niclaudette will learn so much from you, too!

Miles and Jared were worn out by the end of the night. But, they better rest up...because Genese's birthday is coming up in just a few days!

Happy Birthday, Kiara. We love you !!

thanksgiving

2011-11-24T17:54:00.003-05:00

Miles successfully made it through his first thanksgiving today :) He even found himself a part of the cool carseat club...

It was a sweet thing to be celebrating together with 70 others today. (Thank you, John and Beth, for giving us all a place to find joy and family here, especially during holidays when we're all missing loved ones).

Our family is overwhelmed with all that God has given us to be thankful for.

Even in the moments this year that have been just downright hard...God has been gracious enough to allow us to see just how blessed we were in those moments.

God has been teaching our family a lot since we have moved here (some lessons learned easier than others) One of the biggest things is just how much he loves us and how much grace he continually pours out on us...when we are so undeserving. It really is too much for me to take in.

We're grateful for the seasons of life that he brings us through. That there are always sweet mountaintops after we trudge through the valleys. Thank you for being a part of all of those seasons with us. For how you've cared for our family and loved us through prayer and sacrificing financially, for emails, encouragement, and just a simple word to let us know that you are in this with us. Thank you. Along with the long list of things that we have to thank God for today and everyday...you all are included.

We pray that you have each counted Jesus and his love as your greatest gift this thanksgiving day. That in all seasons of your life, you too may feel his unending love for you and be joyfully overwhelmed by his goodness and grace.

Magalie

2011-11-04T21:08:00.002-04:00

Today Magalie (lady who washes clothes for us at the orphanage, and mom of the 5 girls that hang out with our girlies) was over at the orphanage just to visit.

While there, she had a seizure just as she was about to leave.

We knew that she had passed out/blacked out in the past, but didn't think it was anything more than that. We had thought that these instances were from a lack of good nutrition, sleep, etc. But, after talking with others today, we now realize that her 'passing out' before hand was most likely seizures as well.

Jared took her to a hospital afterwards, and after 3 hours of waiting they gave her a prescription that couldn't be filled today, because by the time they were seen it was too late in the day and pharmacies had closed (A common frustration that we expected to happen). So, tomorrow we are hoping to those meds first thing in the morning. Please pray it happens that way.

The hospital asked that Magalie go to another place downtown and receive an EEG scan, and once we receive the results from that, to come back to the hospital to figure out what the next steps are.

We are thankful that there is the ability to have that scan done here. We didn't realize beforehand that there was.

Thanks for all who prayed when I sent out an email with few details this morning. Please continue to lift up Magalie and her health. She is a woman that has become very close to us over the past years, and our girls, too.

meet nicklaudette and crystal

2011-11-04T12:25:00.009-04:00

It's about time I introduce you to two wonderful little girls.

They came to us right before we left for the States. It seems that is the way it usually happens :) Just when we think we've got our act together, or we're leaving for a quick trip to the states, another little one (or 2) comes!

So, meet Nicklaudette and Crystal.

This is Crystal.

Crystal came to us from hours away in the country. Her own mother tried to suffocate her, and her grandma stepped in and tried to help Crystal find help. Her grandmother herself couldn't care for her, so she sent her with another relative to the city (here in Port-au-prince) in hopes to find an orphanage for her or someone willing to care for her. So, this sweet girl is now in our care, too. She is 3 months old. Please pray that she continues to heal from some minor health issues that she arrived with.

And this is miss nicklaudette.

With her also being 3 months old, we are getting a small taste of what it would be like to have twins! haha. She came to us from friends of ours here who also have an orphanage of their own, but it is currently full. She was dropped off at their doorstep by her dad, after her mom had died from delivering Nicklaudette. Her dad did not want to take care of her, even with help from this other orphanage. So, she is now with us :) She is a bundle of joy !

Their older sisters love them and can finally tell them apart ! haha.

Here are some recent pictures of the other girlies. They had 2 days off of school this past week for holidays. With all girls home, we have to come up with something special to do because it can get a bit chaotic !! ha

Anyone remember making gak in elementary school ? Well, the girls had their own little science experiment last week and LOVED it !!

Ciara putting in the glue...

Dalindia stirring things up...

And mixing the funny stuff all together....

Ciara, Rosiany and Mariline were practicing the alphabet with it. They love school and we are so glad that they have the desire to learn all they can !

Dadou with her numbers...

And Miles.... well, you can see that he was real impressed by the whole thing! haha, maybe next year buddy.

2011-11-01T12:23:00.007-04:00

We're back :)

We were welcomed with Miles' 2 1/2 hour scream-fest. I think we're all ~~ready to move to alaska~~ adjusting back to the heat.

I've decided that I'd really love it if we had a jet. Take-off during each flight did for Miles what chocolate does for me, calms and satisfies :). Now if only our house could have a power take-off every night and nap time...a mom can dream, right?!

Okay on to more important things.

Our weekend of meetings with our board went well. We came away from the weekend feeling heard, validated, and encouraged.

CFM has some big decisions they are considering right now, and your continued prayers would be much appreciated.

As an organization, they are working to take steps forward in the direction that utilizes the organization's strengths while keeping our focus on what best helps the Haitian people. This ongoing effort could result in shifts in some current CFM focuses in Haiti in the future.

I just wanted you to know that Jared and I really appreciated how much we could feel your prayers working that weekend, and that we covet your prayers for CFM's current and future work in Haiti.

Please continue to ask God to give us wisdom as we all move forward in ways that are still being decided.

Thank you !

leaving on a jetplane...

2011-10-11T15:48:00.003-04:00

Guess who's gonna get his first airplane ride this week !

should we stay or go?

2011-10-08T12:00:00.002-04:00

During the first week we had with Miles, I may or may not have looked at Jared in the hospital and forced him to repeat these words after me,

"Jalayne, I promise you, we are leaving Haiti after our commitment is up next year."

I may or may not have even been dramatic enough in that moment to make him repeat it to me three times in a row while looking me straight in the eyes so that I could actually half-way believe it. I can be really mature like that at times in our relationship ;).

But in all seriousness, the topic of how long we will live in Haiti and what our involvement will be is discussed in our household way too often. Sometimes we have to make rules at night that it can't be talked about simply so that our vocab consists of words beyond 'Haiti', 'too hot', and 'I wish there was McDonalds'.

There are days that we could happily live here for the rest of our lives. We see the girls and can't imagine life without them. We love the people we get to work with and want to always be around so that we can see what God will do in their lives. We realize that the way this country forces you to be dependent on God and not yourself does us more good than we realize.

And then there are other days that we'd give anything to have a flight out yesterday. That we just can't see past the trash and smells. The poverty wears on us and we can hardly take anymore. (I know that sounds so selfish...I'm not even the one living in poverty...Get over yourself, Jalayne. I get to sleep in my comfy bed each night with a full stomach and roof over my head...but sadly it's the way I feel many times).

Last year around this time we decided that our first year had flown by, and being that we were just starting the orphanage, we thought it would be best to stay for at least a third year. After year one we were just starting to feel comfortable will everyday life here, so we felt that leaving after two would be leaving when we just really got settled. So, we have committed to live here working for CFM (Christian Fellowship Mission) through October of next year.

So, what's after that?? Good question. If you have any visions from God on our lives, please...let us know! ;)

We've thrown around and prayed about many ideas over our almost two years here. The thought of leaving the girls here breaks our hearts. The thought of never living closer to our own family again breaks our hearts. In any decision we make...it is always bittersweet.

We have come to love the girls as our own. Or so we thought. But then I realized once we had Miles that there is just something about your "own" child that is different. Probably sounds extremely selfish once again, but it is hard to make our relationship with the girls the exact same that it would be in a family. We aren't the ones tucking them in bed anymore at night. We aren't there for each hurt they face. We try, but it can never be enough. And we have incredible nannies there to help them..but we still struggle knowing if this is best for these 6 precious girls. When you are talking about a life...something that is good sometimes doesn't seem good enough. We struggle already giving the 6 of them the attention and love they each needs...how are we supposed to do this when there are 12 ? We struggle thinking about the fact that if we leave after 3 years, then another couple will come down and become "mom and dad". And then, what happens three years after that? I don't know if I can live with myself knowing that could happen. We don't want these girls to feel abandoned all over again. And at the same time, we see so much great that could happen with things staying just the way they are now. But is great best? I don't know.

Therefore, in a week Jared (and hopefully Miles and I, too) will go and meet with our board in Florida to talk about our hopes for the future of the girls. We just want the absolute best for them each, and we aren't sure what that will look like yet.

So please, keep us and the board of CFM in your prayers October 14th, 15th and 16th as we discuss and pray over these decisions. Praying for all of us before hand that our hearts would be softened and open to what God's will is. Pray that we are all united on a decision at the end of the meeting and that we are all open to whatever God's leading is for the future of the girls.

At the same time, Jared and I ask that you would be in prayer for what our lives will look like after our 3 year commitment comes to an end. Whether that means staying in Haiti, moving somewhere else, going back to the States, continued involvement with the girls, etc. We really want to hear God clearly on this and we aren't sure what to do yet. We want to be obedient to his desires for our lives, not our own. As much as I would loove to live near a target and chick-fil-a again on many days.... if God wants me to sacrifice those things I need the strength to be obedient ;) ha. Please pray for wisdom and discernment for our family. That we and CFM would both be obedient to what God wants for our futures.

Also, please pray that Miles' passport comes before October 14th so that he and I can make the trip with dad to Florida :)

Thank you for being a part of what we are doing. For being willing to sacrifice financially to help us do ministry here, to spend time in prayer over our family and work, and for caring about our girls, the Haitian people and their lives. Each sacrifice makes a difference in what goes on here, and it does not go unnoticed by us. We appreciate you.

Welcome home, Miles !

2011-09-05T14:15:00.005-04:00

Our little warrior Miles,

We can't believe that it has only been 12 days since your birthday. Dad and I can't imagine life without you and are so in love with you. Seeing you for the first time was the. best. moment. in our lives. You have no idea how loved you are. Dad and I just stare at you and thank God for what a perfect gift you are to us :)

We knew that you were going to have quite the entrance into the world when God decided to close down the airport just so that Papaw, Mimi, and aunt Staci could stay to see you :)

We were able to come home just 7 hours after you were born, and couldn't wait to spend the day with you and show you your home !! Everyone wanted to see you. The nannies and your oldest sisters came over first thing and just giggled and loved on you. They all needed to hold their new baby :).

On Saturday it was more of the same for you. You were held and loved on lots by aunt Stac, Mimi and Papaw since it was their last day with us.

In the afternoon our midwife came over to do what I thought would be a quick check-up on you and I both.

We were surprised when we showed her the -what looked like blood- in your diaper, and she said that it wasn't normal. She went on to check you, and you were breathing twice as hard as you are right now, and had a fever of 101.2. She quickly told us that we needed to go to a hospital to have further checks done and my heart sank. One moment we were planning dinner and the next we were rushing around packing bags for a hospital stay.

Miles, I wish that I could tell you that I had complete trust in God at that moment. But, I was so scared. I knew in my mind that God loves you and that I could trust him to take care of you better than anyone, but I was struggling to truly believe it.

The whole way to the hospital all the what-ifs ran through my mind. I wept over you the entire car ride praying for God's grace and mercy over your life.

I was nervous over the choices of healthcare we have here. I wanted to have you in a hospital in the states immediately so that I felt a peace about the care you were getting. Sadly, I wanted to trust an educated staff and hospital to care for you more than I could trust that God was and is the greatest physician there is.

I was more and more worried as lab work wasn't able to be done since it was night time, and words like spinal tap, meningitis, group b strep, sepsis, kidney problems, etc. were being discussed.

To be safe, we had to start antibiotics even though we had no idea what was being treated. And thankfully, the antibiotics covered all of those different possibilities.

I wanted so badly to take everything away from you. I wanted to be the one lying in the bed with an IV pumping meds into my arm instead of yours. I wanted to be the one being poked and prodded all throughout the night. I couldn't stand watching you go through that. I still can't think about it without just weeping.

The next day we noticed that your eyes and tears were really yellow. Unfortunately, you were jaundice. We asked for more lab work to be done, and hours later realized that it still wasn't done because it was Sunday, and the lab technician only came to work for an 1 1/2 hours that day. Dad and I were so frustrated, and thankfully through a course of blessings from God, we were able to transfer you to a different hospital with better care that night.

When we got there, they realized that you hadn't been getting fluids through your IV. Something was wrong with them, and we have no idea how many hours you were going without the fluids. Therefore, you were now also extremely dehydrated. We couldn't take anymore.

A pediatric nurse that is here from the States with another organization offered to come down and stay with us that night to watch over you. (Thank you, Ashley). God sent peace when he sent her to watch over you.

You had to lay under bili lights for a couple days to get rid of your jaundice. And we had to stay in the hospital for 7 days until your antibiotics were finished. The lab work all came back showing that you were a healthy boy and that the 'blood' in your urine was no blood at all, just uric acid crystals. Totally normal to have in a newborn.

However, those results still don't explain your fever and breathing. God had healed something in you through your meds, or he just did it on his own. Either way, we are grateful :)

You had so many people praying for you, Miles. God heard those prayers and spared you. Dad and I truly believe that the enemy was attacking and wanted to steal your precious life. But, God in his mercy did not allow it.

God has stretched your dad and I a lot this past week, and we are weary.

We rejoice everyday that you are with us at home. We treasure getting to pray over you on our knees at night and just cry out to God thanking him for sparing you.

We love you so much and can't imagine life without you. God has been reminding me that he loves you even more than we do, and I can hardly take that in.

I have been fearful over a lot of things lately, and I am trying to trust that God's love is so much greater and deeper than mine, and that he wants no harm for you or our family.

But mom's flesh gets in the way a lot, and I am still trying to truly believe with all my heart that our God has nothing but good for us.

This morning I was praying that I can just believe that. That I can truly know God loves us more than anything. And wouldn't you know what I read in my Bible just after that...

"And I pray that you...may have the power...to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ." Ephesians 3:18

Miles, I pray that for you, too, buddy. You are so loved already. Loved by mom and dad. By your family. By so many people that you haven't even met yet. But the love that truly matters is that of God. Miles, he is so in love with you. There will be seasons that you might have a hard time believing that. And that's okay. I'm going through that right now. But it is the truth. Satan will try and make us think otherwise, but we can't listen to it. I know that this isn't going to be the only time I am going to truly have to release you to God and trust you in his care. There will be many more times I'm sure. But, we know that God will be with us then just like he has been lately.

My good friend reminded me this morning that sometimes we have to wrestle like Jacob did with Him until we receive a blessing. Sometimes we have to cry out like Job in our agony, or in desperation like King David. But, it will only be for a season. God will always brings you out of the valley.

We are so glad that we are home with you and can celebrate life each day together :) We love you, and are so blessed to be your parents.

* * *

Thank you to every one of you that was interceding on Miles behalf and praying for him and us through this valley. Thank you for going through this with Jared and I. I wish I could just sit and hug each one of you individually, telling you what a difference your prayers made. We're so blessed to know that we didn't go through this alone.

Thank you for your emails and calls. Thank you to our friends in Haiti that have become our family. For the meals, phone cards, breaks, visits, and so much more. We couldn't have made it through the week without you guys.

someone's laughing

2011-08-23T17:35:00.005-04:00

God definitely has a sense of humor!

Yesterday morning my parents and sister were supposed to leave for home. We were all disappointed as they were heading home without being able to see our baby born, but somehow trying to trust God's plan that this was best.

Well, we got to the airport and saw everyone standing outside still. Looks like we got there before the airport opened?

As we were getting out of our car to grab bags, two men come up to tell us that the airport is closed.

Obviously somewhere along the almost 2 years of living here Jared and I have picked up this habit that we don't believe everything that we are told at first...

I continued to ignore the guy at my shoulder that keeps telling me the airport is closed. Yeah yeah yeah, I'm thinking. Just let me get my parents in "line".

Well, he continues to say this to me laughing as I'm trying to ignore him. Then we notice many more people join in letting us know there are no flights because of the storm (hurricane Irene).

Are you kidding? I started cracking up laughing looking at the clear, sunny blue skies once I realized this seemed to be true.

I was disappointed that my parents and sister were going home and that our baby still hadn't come. And now their flight is cancelled ?!

Talk about second chance !!!

After we realized that the flights truly were all cancelled, my friend who had been talking to my shoulder looks at me laughing, "Believe me now?" Yes, I believe you now we laughed.

We had to go to the offices to get new tickets for everyone, and it turns out that they can't fly out until Sunday !

So...although our little man still hasn't arrived, I feel pretty confident in saying that he will be here before Sunday.

God is definitely having grace on us through this! And probably laughing at me, too, after how much I tried to have things in my own control this week, and it just didn't work.

No problem for God...he'll just shut down the airport for a day just for us... I've never been so thankful for a possible hurricane :)

photo shoot

2011-08-17T21:36:00.002-04:00

The girls had quite the photo shoot with one of the guys that came down in the last group that visited.

I could get weepy over looking at how grown-up they look and the fact that I can't help but think of their 'senior pictures' when I look at these.

Guess who is now standing up and trying to walk! Little miss Kiara...

Mariline cute as ever...

Rosiany is way too comfortable posing. She's hilarious.

Ornery Genese. This picture says it.

Love that little grin of Dalindia's...

And the queen diva of them all....Ciara :)

The women that were here also made these incredible scrap books for the girls. They LOVE looking through them. They were so excited when they first saw them...

They ask to look at them all.the.time.

I'm so glad that they have these special gifts that we can continue to add to over the years. And by 'we' I mean you wonderful women that made these in the first place! haha ;)

And to end on one last picture...this was me on my due date. And now I am sitting with my feet up tonight closer to 41 weeks than 40... and trying to hold onto my patience.

My parents and younger sister are here until tuesday to help out. PLEASE pray that our little guy comes soon so that they can see him before they go home !! And as always, thanks for keeping us in your prayers. It makes all the difference :)

Dr's visits and votes

2011-07-25T15:37:00.000-04:00

I get a lot of questions about having our baby here in Haiti. But no need to worry, I am covered in doctor's visits all. the. time.

Once a month I go and see a Dr. that lives in Petionville (ritsy/nice part of Haiti...I know, kinda an oxymoron). Although I don't know what a prenatal appt. in the states is like, I imagine it's a lot like these appts. I get an ultrasound every visit actually and love seeing our little guy on the big screen :)

Every thursday I go and see an awesome group of midwives, which is where I will be delivering. They are fellow missionary friends who have an incredible ministry of helping haitian women (and myself) receive great prenatal care and the peace of a safe delivery.

And every single day I get to see my favorite Dr. of them all. She checks me every morning, usually first thing. She listens to our baby's heartbeat and even checks it with her own ears when she doesn't trust her instruments. The other Dr's are great, but I'm most in love with my Dr. Dalindia :) ....

We can hardly believe that within the next couple of weeks we should be holding our little boy! For all of you that are completely nervous over the fact that we are having him here in Haiti, don't be :) My Dr. is super supportive of my delivering with a midwife, and is staying close by his phone and hospital incase we would need to deliver with him instead for an emergency. We are completely at peace with our decision and most of all glad that it will allow Jared and I to stay together the weeks before and after he's here. And the other benefit of having our baby here is that we will have a lot of family visiting before the end of the year. yay !!

Please pray for a smooth delivery without complications and for the coming weeks to be as stress-free as possible before our little guy makes his appearance!

On a side note, heartline ministries (my wonderful midwives) are actually going to be building a new, bigger maternity center in the near future. Right now, they are in the running for a really helpful grant to help get the new center on its way! Please, take a minute to click here and vote for their ministry. To read more about it, you can head on over to Tara's blog and read this post. They really deserve this grant. The women here work hard everyday and they give the haitian women what every woman deserves at their delivery... knowledgable help who truly fights for them and cares about them.

If this wasn't the truth, I wouldn't be delivering with them. If I didn't feel completely confident in their skills and comfortable with their care....I simply wouldn't be there every week. This ministry is the real deal, they truly care and are great stewards of what God has entrusted them with. And they treat every women in their program the exact same way they treat me. I am not privy to more care or info because I am their friend or a white person living in Haiti. They treateach woman that walks through their door with respect and love. Please, help other women receive the care that I get from them every thursday by voting for them! We've got the easy part, I'm not asking you to give any money to support. Someone is already willing to do that ! All we've got to do is vote !! And please, tell others about this and ask them to do the same :)

2011-07-07T14:39:00.006-04:00

This week we had a group visit from Montrose Zion Methodist church in Ohio.

They were busy entertaining anywhere from 70 to 140 children in City Soleil through a Bible school, and helping out at a medical clinic.

They spent some time with the community that Magalie (lady who washes clothes for us) lives in with a Bible story and craft time.

The kiddos learned about Jesus choosing his 12 disciples and telling them that they would now be fishers of men.

On tuesday night they surprised Jared and I with a baby shower for our little guy and a birthday party for this handsome man!

It was so thoughtful, and we were really surprised that a group would do this for us.

Thank you to everyone here this week, and all who supported them so that they could be here. This group has truly been a blessing to Jared and I and we are thankful for the friendships made this week. May God continue to reveal himself to each of you and bless you for your servant hearts.

dr's visits and votes

2011-07-02T15:20:00.008-04:00

I get a lot of questions about having our baby here in Haiti. But no need to worry, I am covered in doctor's visits all. the. time.

Please pray for a smooth delivery without complications and for the coming weeks to be as stress-free as possible before our little guy makes his appearance!

If this wasn't the truth, I wouldn't be delivering with them. If I didn't feel completely confident in their skills and comfortable with their care....I simply wouldn't be there every week. This ministry is the real deal, they truly care and are great stewards of what God has entrusted them with. And they treat every women in their program the exact same way they treat me. I am not privy to more care or info because I am their friend or a white person living in Haiti. They treat each woman that walks through their door with respect and love. Please, help other women receive the care that I get from them every thursday by voting for them! We've got the easy part, I'm not asking you to give any money to support. Someone is already willing to do that ! All we've got to do is vote !! And please, tell others about this and ask them to do the same :)

update from the girls

2011-06-25T22:28:00.005-04:00

Jared and I are on vacation this week in Florida with his family....so I'll let the girls do the work this week with updating on how they're doing :) ...

Ciara: School is over and I'm officially on summer break! I'm so glad that summer vacation is here. I'm so sick of putting on my now skin-tight uniform every day! I lost my two bottom teeth and can't wait for my new teeth to come in. I can count to 10 all by myself and I'm starting to know my colors, too. My mommy and papi speak a weird language to each other everyday, but I am starting to understand some of the things that they say. I know that 'I love you' means 'm renmen ou,' so now I say that to everyone instead. Even sometimes to strangers or merchants on the streets after we buy something from them. But don't get me wrong, I still like to be the ornery one of the bunch. Someone has to keep things happening around here!

Rosiany: I love to play soccer, and practice school work. I can almost count to ten by myself! It's so hot here, I sweat all the time. Sometimes it drenches my entire pillow and clothes just in one nap. I hate to wear pants that go past my knees. It drives me so crazy that I will roll them up if they aren't short enough. I love to pretend that I'm a cook with Ciara and Mariline. We make yummy food everyday with flowers and grass.

Mariline: It's hard for me to run as fast as my sisters do, but I love to be outside with them. I am totally potty-trained and get to wear big-girl undies. I love them. I think they are so pretty on me. I like to make funny facial expressions that make others laugh. I learned how to blow bubbles and am getting really good at it! I ask to play with them all the time.

Dalindia: My favorite thing to do is swing on our swing set. It's my favorite place to take a nap, too. Everyone keeps asking me to start talking, but I think I'm going to keep them waiting. Sometimes I say words back to them, but whisper it so that they don't hear me! I had 6 teeth come in in just over a month...now I can eat really fast :) I like to check on my baby brother in mom's tummy every morning. He's doing good so far. I don't like nap time very much. I'd rather stand up in my crib and blab with Genese!

Genese: I decided that I would start talking now that Rosiany and Mariline are here and talk all the time. My favorite word to say is 'krapo' (frog) and papi. I love yelling Papi's name. I probably say it at least a 100 times a day, but I don't think anyone minds. I am getting so strong and can climb up the ladder and slide down our swing-set all by myself! That's all I want to do is be outside playing. Oh, and I hate getting my hair done every Saturday, just like Ciara. I'd rather be running around the yard.

Kiara: I love it that I am starting to crawl now !! I love to crawl off of the mat when we play outside and eat grass. It's almost better than all the baby food that I've been eating. But, my favorite food is bananas. I smile and giggle all the time. I can also roll myself anywhere. I'm one talented 6 month old :)

perfect timing

2011-06-13T20:44:00.005-04:00

Last week we had a group visit, and it was nice to see many familiar faces. This group had a lot of medical pro's in it who came and provided major help to us and others last year after the earthquake. They returned to help a Haitian doctor with his clinic in Cite Soleil, and ended their week with a clinic at CFM's church (I'd love to put up some pictures...but our computer has been crazy lately and won't let me do anything with them..super annoying!).

The timing of their visit was so perfect, and we didn't even realize it. As they were checking our girls they were asking if Mariline has had trouble breathing or wheezing a lot lately. Thankfully at the time, she hadn't been. But, they gave us inhalers and meds in case that would happen in the future...

Well, yesterday morning Mariline woke up wheezing terribly and was having a hard time breathing. I would have been a nervous wreck, but the pediatrician here had just told us what to do with her if that ever happened. A similiar situation happened with Dalindia, too. All the symptoms they were asking us if she had...she didn't have at the time. But sure enough just after they left, she got really sick. But by God's grace we were prepared :)

It was a good reminder for me that God's timing is absolutely perfect ! He takes care of us so many times before we even realize it.

Thank you so much to all of you who were here last week. We appreciate all your help and had fun working alongside you on Saturday :) And thank you to everyone who is in constant prayer over the girls and especially their health. God is listening and answering!

2011-06-05T20:50:00.002-04:00

The past week we've had a lot on our minds. There was a situation with one of our girls and their relatives that had us completely drained emotionally. We are feeling a little better about things now and have part resolution to the issue, but we could really use your prayers.

We feel like through this, and other issues right now, satan is really trying to attack us from every angle, and he has no intentions of stopping. We feel like we are just trying to keep our head above water some days lately. We really need wisdom and encouragement right now to be honest. Some days during this week we have felt like the last people on earth that should be missionaries and starting an orphanage.

But, we know that God is bigger than our hardships and has good things in store. We are so thankful for our church here that spoke on just that today, how great our God truly is. We want our eyes to be open to those good things that God has in store and not what they can sometimes appear to be. Please pray for us and our future and that we would clearly hear from Him.

English and prayer

2011-05-18T14:03:00.005-04:00

Today we were given the opportunity to speak with a group of 13 women in City Soleil on the topic of prayer.

Our cousin's roommate works for an organization called 'We Advance'. Her focus is on women's education, and currently she is teaching a group of women English.

Last week in one of her classes the women began asking questions about praying in English. Our friend who leads the class asked Jared and I if we would be willing to teach class today.

We were excited for the opportunity to speak with these women about prayer. Many churches teachings and books on prayer that we've seen here are extremely structured about the subject. For example, if you are sick....you pray this, and you're healed. If you need protection, you pray something else. If you need food, pray this, etc.

That is not at all what we believe prayer to be, so we were excited for the opportunity to share with them this morning. We wanted them to come away with the understanding that prayer is a personal thing. And that because of Christ, we can communicate freely and personally with God.

We walked them through the Lord's prayer and discussed the meaning of it. We talked about the 'key' parts of prayer this shows us like Praising God, asking forgiveness, presenting your requests, and thanksgiving. We were able to share verses from the Bible about prayer and have the women repeat those with us in kreyol and english.

We weren't sure what to expect as we were told that the women are often unruly and not interested in the teachings. That they are just there as a social event.

Well, we were in prayer over their response to us today, and were excited to see them asking questions throughout class and complain when our hour with them was over! Either they really did understand our kreyol or they were just amusing us. Either way, I'll take it!

Please pray that the truths these women heard this morning will help them gain a better understanding of who God is, and help them develop a personal relationship with Him. Not one that focuses on do's and don'ts. While it was an English class...we pray that they learned much more than that today.

Rosiany and Mariline

2011-05-08T20:23:00.004-04:00

Things have been a bit crazy around here since I last blogged. I'll fill you in soon on everything else that has been going on. However, Jared's trip to Port-au-Paix that I last told you about went really well. Thanks so much for praying over it.

The trip stuck to true Haitian fashion as they drove 20 miles per hour during the last four hours of the trip thru bumpy river beds...and arrived to their destination just 2 hours after Jared's passenger, who was directing the way, said that they had arrived and would "be at the house soon". Oh Haiti... 8 hrs driving total and my hubby made it :) When I asked him if it was a good thing I didn't go, there was no hesitation from him. "Yes, a very good thing. You might have went into labor."

I've never been that far north in the country before so I was anxious to hear about everything when Jared got back. He described it much like haitian friends of ours here have. Jared told me that he knows it's hard to imagine, but the families in Port-au-Prince really do look rich compared to the families there. There is little little opportunity for people in this city of Port-au-Prince. But way out in the country...that glimpse of opportunity seems extremely hopeless.

The main purpose of the trip was for Jared to meet this woman and her two grand-daughters.

We've been in contact with them for several weeks now through the friend that went along with Jared to Port-au-Paix. We began talking with them when we found out the youngest of the two was extremely sick. And the grandma was told by a doctor that she would die if she didn't get to a hospital soon. So, we helped get the littlest one to a hospital and thankfully her conditions improved after about a week.

Jared wanted to talk with grandma and other locals face to face to make sure everything that we had been hearing was true. And as is the case always, some is. some isn't. And some you can never be certain about.

What we do know is that their mom's life was robbed in November by the horrible cholera outbreak. Her husband is believed by all the locals to have passed away as well during the same time from cholera, but his death isn't certain.

The two girls had always lived with mom and grandma. After mom passed away, grandma was left to care for them on her own...and it has simply become too much for her. The girls are becoming dangerously ill and she just can't care for them in her age and with her resources. Just 4 years shy of the average mortality rate in Haiti, she feels an urgent need to place her grand-daughters somewhere safe where they can be loved and cared for.

After much prayer, medical tests, etc. the two girls came to be with us yesterday.

Rosiany....

And Mariline...

Although we don't let any family members visit our home for security and legal reasons, we made an exception for their grandma since they live hours and hours away, and she won't be coming into Port-au-Prince again.

We showed her our home, where they will stay, etc. She kept telling us thank you over and over again. She raised her hands whispering praises to God as she walked through our yard.

Ciara is beyond thrilled to have sisters now that can talk !! (They're somewhere around the ages of 2-3 and 3-4.) She has been so great with them. Taking them under her wing and caring for them as her own true sisters. It's exactly what we pray for and God is being so gracious in letting us see that happen lately.

As Ciara was upstairs with me washing her hands she said, "Mommy...I need to show Rosiany and Mariline where they can wash their hands too! And that we brush our teeth here at night. And mommy, you need to give them a toothbrush, too! And their own toothpaste....."

It was so sweet to hear her concern for her new sisters. Praise God for this.

Even at dinner time she had to be the one that sat next to them as they ate.

She was super excited that they came on a Saturday because that meant popcorn and movie night :) I think the girls were just a bit overwhelmed from the day because they had fallen asleep well before 7:30.

"Rosiany and Mariline will miss me, right?" Their grandma asked as she left that day.

Yes, of course they will miss you. And we will do our best to help them as they grieve you and adjust to life here with their new sisters and family here. But you are always going to be their grandma.

It's always a bittersweet day when girls come to live with us. Our hearts are happy because we know that their future needs are going to be met. That they are going to eat three meals a day. Their bodies will soon be chubby :). They will sleep on a mattress at night, hear the gospel, go to school, be loved, and so on.

But it also breaks our hearts that those things always come at a price. Perhaps the price of the death of their parents. Abandonment. Neglect. Abuse. Poverty. And many times a combination of many.

The first days Jared and I are always filled with so many emotions we hardly know what to say to each other. We just stare at the girls. We think about all that has happened already, and all that will. We can get overwhelmed real quickly if we let ourselves.

That's when we have to just stop and let God. we pray. and we thank God that he has a plan. That he knows what he is doing. That he is trading their ashes for beauty. Even before we can see it happen.

Please pray for these two as their bodies are very malnourished right now. The doctor pulled me aside to let me know that even though Rosiany, the older of the two, looks much healthier, that she isn't. She is retaining a lot of water, but her sister has a different kind of malnutrition, which is why she looks worse. Please pray that their health is quickly restored. That God would comfort them and their grandma with all that they are going through. That we along with our staff can love them and care for them the way God would have us to. That the other 4 girls would continue to love them and adjust well to life with two more sisters :)

easter weekend

2011-04-24T18:42:00.002-04:00

In prep for easter weekend, we had been having talks with Ciara about Jesus and what he went through for us on the cross, the significance of his resurrection, etc. (Mark 15 and 16).

Well, apparently it went over her head, or we didn't do the job we thought we did! hah. On Friday morning she knew that we were having a special meal, and dying easter eggs. "Who's birthday is today?" She kept asking. "Who are we having a party for today?"

This allowed us to re-explain everything all over again :) haha. But, it was a great thing, because the neighbor girls were here Friday as well. And we have this awesome children's Bible in kreyol that we were able to read the story of Jesus' death and resurrection to all the girls from. Well, not us. Samyel read it to them actually. Our accent is too bad and we needed to make sure they understood the story! ha. We even had a time of singing together afterwards. It was awesome. (Unfortunately, I have no pictures...bummer).

Anyhow, we dyed some eggs and then hid them for the girls. Here's their finished products:

Can you find the egg??.... (I mean come on...isn't Kiara the cutest thing EVER!!).

Rose and Dalindia cracking their eggs open to enjoy :) I caught one of the other neighbor gals eating her entire egg...shell and all as soon as she found it!

I think it's safe to say they enjoyed it :)

It's always hard for me to wrap my mind around all the Christ has done for us. The power of his death, resurrection and his love for you and I. We were able to spend an awesome sunrise service on top of the mountain this morning celebrating that He lives!! I hope you were all able to celebrate our Lord's great glory and the hope that we have in him alone today.

Please keep Jared in your prayers tomorrow morning as he leaves to go to Port-de-paix. It's way out in the country....he thinks it will probably be an 8 hour drive. He's going with two others and he is visiting a grandma whose grand-daughter who has lost both parents. We've heard of the situation through a friend of ours that travels back and forth there, and we're told the grandma wants to find an orphanage for her grand-daughter. Please pray for wisdom as Jared talks with the family and hears about the situation face to face. And for safety as they travel there and back on Wednesday :). I'll be staying here with the girlies. I'm not sure I can handle a bumpy ride for 8 hrs. at this point! Pray that I can hold the fort down without him here !

Joshua Ezekiel

2011-04-05T10:41:00.010-04:00

Last week our girls began enjoying a very special gift that arrived...

Their very own playground!

Now, for Ciara especially she could hardly get herself to do anything but be on this thing. She didn't want to shower. Didn't want to eat. Only swing and slide. See the table underneath the slide? She asked us the day it arrived if she could start eating all her meals there :)

Looking at this playground makes a lot of thoughts run through my head. Especially now that we are expecting our baby boy in August. Let me share with you about just how special this playground is. It is a place that reminds me that God rescues. And that God is our strength.

"We felt that God lead us to the name of Joshua Ezekiel for a reason. His name means, God rescues and God strengthens. We know that God did just that. Joshua wasn't suppose to live to full term. There was a good possibility that if he did make it to full term that we wouldn't be able to spend time with him alive. God did rescue him and stregthened him so we could meet him, kiss him, and tell him how much we love him. And then He took him home to love and care for him unlike we could ever do here on earth."

Our friends Jon and Kristin wrote this on their blog over a year ago, after their son, only an hour old, was taken home to be with the Lord.

I'm going to let Kristin explain better than I can about what happened (with her permission), through thoughts taken from her own blog. This was written in October of 2009...

"At 9 weeks I had an ultrasound done and everything was normal and looked great. I had another one done at 12 weeks and the same. Somewhere between 12 and 19 weeks I have lost amniotic fluid. I haven’t had any problems with this pregnancy and there is no explanation to why this is happening. The condition is called oliogohydramnios. The radiologist read the ultrasounds and couldn’t find the baby's kidneys (or kidney tissue), a stomach or bladder. (They could be there, but just very dehydrated so they shrunk). A secondary problem is that the baby’s skull is misshaped (dolichocephalic) which is due to the lack of ammonic fluid. This is very rare in pregnancy and happens to 1 in 5,000 . The mortality rate is 80-90%. (Good news is he said that with the next pregnancy, this shouldn’t be an issue…this is just a fluke, weird thing).Ok, so where does this leave us. Sometime next week we’ll go in for another more in-depth ultrasound to see exactly what we are looking at. 1. IF the baby really doesn’t have any kidney’s we have decided that we will help the University of Michigan with their research of this condition. If we can help save one baby by helping we will. 2. The baby will continue to grow and develop until I could either carry it to full term or deliver a live or still born baby. If the baby lives it will be very sick and die within a couple of days due to the lack of lung development due to the lack of amniotic fluid in which it needs. This is the hardest part. I have no complications, I’ve had no problems. The doctor was surprised and wasn't expecting the results that he received today from the ultrasound. The baby’s heartbeat is so strong and the baby is actively moving, but is being kept alive by me. We are asking for specific prayer....That God’s will be done."

Throughout the entire rest of Kristin's pregnancy, her and her husband gave God all the glory. They remained faithful to Him despite their hurt, confusion, and questions. They encouraged us and many others by their faith. And Joshua wowed the Dr's visit after visit as he was healthy and kicked around perfectly :). Kristin carried Joshua to full term. Something the Dr's weren't hopeful for. Kristin labored and delivered (breach and face-up might I add!), giving birth to a perfect little boy, Joshua Ezekiel.

On Feb. 28th 2010 she wrote,

"God has been so good and so faithful throughout this pregnancy. Joshua was a miracle from the very day that he was conceived (we believe this for all babies). When we found out we were pregnant our prayer was that our child would be a faithful Christ follower and that his life would impact the kingdom of God. We also told God that this was His baby. We continued this prayer for Joshua's life till the very end. Even though we didn't get the miracle that we hoped for in the end, God blessed us with so many miracles along the way and He continues to bless us. I just read up on Joshua's medical diagnosis again last week. He shouldn't have lived to full term, let alone live outside the womb for an hour. He should have been physically deformed and he wasn't. He was physically perfect...even his little wrinkled left ear. God allowed Joshua's life to impact so many lives, including ours, and we are forever changed. How could one so little bring so many people to a better understanding of God? God used his life to bring healing to those who were hurting from previous losses, mending broken relationships. Our prayers were answered. God did NOT let us down. He did not fail us. He IS faithful, He IS true, He IS the Great Physician, He IS the Alpha and Omega, He IS our loving and caring father, He IS our protector, HE IS THE ALMIGHTY GOD !!!"

How can we pray for Jon and Kristin today?

For continued healing as they live life apart from their sweet Joshua.

Praise God that he has blessed them with a baby girl due really soon !! Kristin and Jon continue to be faithful to God as unexpected complications have happened with this pregnancy recently. Kristin is now in the hospital on bed rest, due to complications with the placenta. However, the baby is healthy and we are all so excited about that!

For baby to stay inside the womb without complication to their next goal of 34 weeks. (About a week from now).

Jon and Kristin, you guys are such an encouragement to us and to so many others. We were so humbled when you wanted Joshua's memorial fund to somehow help the children here. This playground was purchased by the Joshua Ezekiel Memorial. Joshua's life is still bringing joy and life to so many others. It is so fun for me to sit and listen to the girls giggle and laugh and scream as they play here. Joshua's story will be told to everyone that comes here and plays on this playground :)

Our nannies all know who Joshua is, and they are in awe of you guys. They are humbled as well, and think it is incredible that you wanted to do something for the children of Haiti.

We want "Joshua Ezekiel" for these girls as well. For God to rescue them. To rescue them from the hurt and brokenness they've encountered at such a young age. For God to strengthen them. To live lives that are in full obedience to him, no matter the cost. For God to use them for his kingdom. That their life, just like Joshua's, would impact the kingdom of God.

Aristide and elections

2011-03-19T20:46:00.006-04:00

Former president Aristide (who was exiled from Haiti years ago) returned yesterday and brought a lot of traffic with him ! We were unfortunately stuck in it for awhile since he lives so stinking close to us. But we were entertained by those on the streets...

People were marching on our road, carrying Aristide's picture all throughout the morning. Shouting their support for him. And there was the most ridiculous truck driving around welcoming Aristide back over their way too many speakers. It sounded like we were sitting on top of them.

I'm not going to act like I know what goes on in this country, let alone that Aristide has returned right before elections, which are tomorrow. All I know is that we have heard some crazy stories about things that have happened when he use to live here.

One of our nannies yesterday kept saying over and over again as she watched the crowds walk by, "I don't like this. I don't like this at all." The church that one of our other nannies goes to has been having a nightly church service this entire week because of his return. They've been praying and fasting for peace with Aristide's return, and with the elections tomorrow.

Please pray for the same thing alongside us. Please pray for peace for this land and God's will to be done with Aristide's return on top of elections tomorrow.

our 4th girl :)

2011-03-11T08:49:00.005-05:00

Our 4th little girl came to us today :)

Meet Dalindia...

She's 18 months old and has a beautiful smile and giggle. She has fallen in love with baby dolls already. I was so excited to see that within a couple hours of being here, she was already laughing and playing outside with the other girls.

Dalindia lived in a tent city after the earthquake with her mom. (She has never met her dad...he's never been a part of her life or her moms.) Her mom would leave her alone in this tent city for days at a time with no one watching her. Dalindia's grandpa found out that this was happening, so he came and took Dalindia. After he brought Dalindia into his own home, his daughter left and never returned. Her grandpa is a younger man and has a wife and children (including 2 infants) of his own. He came to one of our nanny's that near him, knowing that she worked at our home. After visits, talks, Dr's appts., and much prayer...she is here with us today :)

Please pray for a transition that is smooth. For comfort for Dalindia and her grandpa especially as this is a new adjustment for everyone involved. For Ciara, Genese, and Kiara as they adjust to life with another sister. We love seeing Ciara interact with her. We are really seeing her step into the role of a big sister. Helping out. Comforting others when they're upset. God is doing such an awesome work in her heart.

Oh...and one more thing. We had a Dr's appt. of our own yesterday. Looks like these girls will all have a baby brother soon !!!!! ;)

Girls just wanna have fun !

2011-03-10T09:24:00.005-05:00

So... I know I'm not the most technologically savvy person in the world...so I apologize that my last posts are out of order. Somehow that last one I wrote ended up as a February 25th update I believe. Not sure what is going on ? This is Haiti...strange things can happen! ha. Or, I'm just pregnant and my mind doesn't work like it once did. I will take either excuse ;)

Anyhow, thought I would share some pictures with you. This week is Spring Break for Ciara, so her request was to have a sleepover.

The chaos, I mean fun, went down last night. Enjoy your peak...

There was pizza....

Jumping on the beds....

And everyone was strikin' a pose !

Please take note of "Tinkerbell" in the background. I'm not sure if any of the girls realized there was a movie playing all night long. I believe in this picture they were all too busy pretending to be merchants on the street. Not sure if they were selling us avacados or water that time.... :)

And...there was finally time for bed !!! But don't worry...they were all up by 5:30 this morning playing on their mattresses ready to get their full morning of fun together. They cracked us up !

Thanks for supporting our ministry here and for giving girls the chance to just be girls and have some fun !

Genese update

2011-03-02T17:08:00.004-05:00

Thank you so much for praying :)

We just got home this afternoon from a wonderful pediatrician ! Genese has bronchiolitis and has started medicine for it. We are so thankful to know what she has. Healthcare here can be so frustrating...so we are so grateful that we found a knowledgable pediatrician for the girls now :)

Her fevers are low to non-existant now, also. Ciara still has a persistent cough that won't go...so something tells me we know what she has, also ;) Finally !

Thanks for your concern for these girls and for your prayers over their health. God is taking care of them!

Genese

2011-03-01T10:52:00.002-05:00

Please pray for our little girl Genese today. She was up for the majority of the night with us fighting a high fever that isn't going away with medicine. We are searching for a pediatrician to take her to today. Please pray that we can find one for her and that her fever goes down.

life

2011-02-25T13:20:00.004-05:00

Wow...I have left you guys hanging with following up with everything lately, huh?!

On the bright side...after almost a week without a water pump we finally have a working one. And God was so good to us...he sent rain for a couple nights in a row while the pump wasn't working. That allowed us to have a storage of water which was a wonderful blessing!!

Our friends are here with us for a little over a week still. Please continue to pray for them as they continue to seek God's will for their future.

We visited the father and his 9-yr old daughter that I had previously talked about a week or two ago again. We went to talk with him about the next steps that we could take to send his daughter to school and get help for him while she's gone. Well, come to find out she is actually going to school now. It is paid by members of his church. But the thing is, her attendance is very sporadic depending on her dad's health for the day. And this is really all that the dad wants to do at the moment. It is always hard visiting him. We always leave feeling empty. We want to help, but it feels like there is just nothing to do. Many times there are pauses as we talk to him. Because he can't hear us. Or his mind just 'goes'. It is very heartbreaking. One of those moments that keeps you very humble as you realize how much we can't do. And how God is the only one in control.

Genese is doing much better. Back to her smily self that runs around the house all day long :) I have been fighting a nasty cold..but have been feeling a bit better the last few days. I can hardly believe that next week Jared and I will find out if we are having a boy or girl !! Crazy to think we're that far along..

Hope you all have a great weekend and are able to find some time to relax !!

a little competition

2011-02-23T14:10:00.005-05:00

There has been a bit of competition in our home over the past few days. And Ciara is not shy to let you know that she will win !!

For awhile Jared and I have been wanting to start memorizing Scripture with Ciara. This week, we finally put a few thoughts into practice. (Better late than never I suppose!)

We are memorizing Psalm 19:14...

"May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

When I was writing this verse out in kreyol I realized just how long it was going to be !! I was thinking...maybe we should start with something a bit easier. You know, like the "Jesus wept," verse.

But, this has been no contest for our little spunky thang. She practices this verse either with us or the nannies every morning before school, before nap time, and before bed at night ! The other night she let me know that she would have it memorized before me because she practices it longer at bed time than I do !! HA

So yesterday when I was practicing with her I shouldn't have been surprised that she almost knew the entire thing !! I had to give her a few starting hints. The one line begins by saying...I ask you Lord that the words that leave my mouth....etc. So, I say to Ciara, What can you ask God for? And she looks at me...bows her head...and starts praying, "Mwen mande ou pou pardone mwen Jezi (I ask you to forgive me Jesus)." !! HAHA. I guess she is a little to use to saying this after each of our discipline times! So when I gave her the same prompt I obviously use often with her...she automatically went into asking for forgiveness mode. It was too cute. Not sure if that's a really good or bad thing that this came so naturally for her ?!!? haha.

Anyhow, we were so excited because we didn't know how this would go over...and she loves doing it. This morning she came into our room and recited the entire verse!

It makes us so happy to hear her recite Scripture, and be excited about doing it. Now we are praying that not only do these verses stick in her heart and mind to make a difference, but that they do in ours at the same time!

update on life

2011-02-15T11:11:00.005-05:00

Here's what has been going on with us lately...it might get long because an update is overdue... sorry in advance!

Around our home:

Yesterday we received these very sweet Valentines from Ciara.

She spent the afternoon making them with one of our nannies :) Melt our hearts! Ciara is making huge improvements in her schooling. She can now count to 10 on her own which has been a huge struggle for her. She even knows now that 11 comes after 10 ;). And makes sure that is known every time she counts. She also loves babies. She is always asking to hold them :)

On Mondays and Thursdays a few neighbor girls are here with us because their mom does wash for us. The older girls and Ciara actually fight at lunch time over who can pray for the meal. This is the best kind of fighting I hear each day !! haha

Genesis had been having issues eating over the past weeks. And just finally this past week she has been eating SO WELL !!! It has been a huge answer to prayers for Jared and I.

Kiara is getting so strong. She's at the point that we put her down on a blanket and look at her a couple minutes later to see that she has squirmed herself off of it. It is so awesome to see her growing as a strong baby!

Visitors:

Our friends Andrew and Anna and their baby boy are here with us for a couple of weeks. They are spending time with us, along with another organization that they could possibly be working with here in Haiti. Please pray that God would give them direction and wisdom as to his will for their life. That he would show them if Haiti is where he wants them to serve Him, or if it is another country.

Health:

Jared's fevers have bene gone since last Sunday, Praise the Lord. But he, along with a couple of our nannies and Ciara have this annoying cough that won't go away, even with medicine. Supposedly a lot of people have it right now. Please pray that they all can have relief from this !

Also, I had another prenatal appt. last week. My blood tests came back showing that I'm anemic. The doctor gave me an iron pill to take daily. But, every time I try and take it, it makes me sick. Even today I went without it and was still sick. Regardless to say, I hate that little pill so I am just trying hard to eat a lot of foods that are high in iron. One thing is for sure, our baby has a personality already! Please pray that I can somehow keep my iron up at healthy levels.

More girls on the way ?!

Last Thursday I think it was we took 3 girls to the doctor's. Everything came back as expected :) Worms, and some slight infections. What we've learned is the usual here! haha. We are pretty sure 2 of the girls (they are sisters) will be coming to live with us soon. The third we are still trying to figure out her situation.

We have been so thankful for how much the girls here now look at each other as sisters and love each other. We feel like things are going so well with them, and to be honest are a little nervous at the transition of bringing more girls in. We know this needs to happen, but we love the family feel we have right now and don't want to lose that. Please pray that the transition of the next girls coming in will go smoothly. And that each girl will feel loved individually and part of a family here. Please thank God for his grace on our transitions so far and ask him to continue pouring it out on our home!

Oh and how could I forget...our biggest annoyance of the past 24 hrs. ..... our pump.

So, we have been without water for the past day. And a quick-fix isn't looking good. The part we need is supposedly going to take at least another full day to get. But, on the bright side we don't have to worry about the girls' drinking the water as they shower because we are using our drinking water for everything right now!! haha. Pray that this is actually able to be fixed tomorrow so that we can have our water back!! :)

Nenpot Bondye Vle

2011-02-05T14:03:00.004-05:00

Thank you so much for your prayers for Jared.

This morning was the first time since Wed. morning that he woke up without a fever. Praise God!! He still feels weak, but we we're SO glad he was able to get out of the house today fever free. Thank you so much for going to God on his behalf.

This morning we made some visits to families that have been asking for help for various reasons. The first visit absolutely broke me heart. We visited a father who has had multiple strokes, and his 9 year old daughter. (Mom passed away over 5 years ago). Dad can hardly walk because of the strokes, leaving all the house work, really everything, to be done by his daughter.

When we arrived she was out front over hot charcoal, cooking with a smile on her face. She had already walked that morning to go and get water for the day. She has never been in a school because she simply does not have the time. Let alone money. Because caring for her father is her life.

He is asking for us to help him in any way we can, and honestly we do not know the best way to do that right now. This man literally has no one but his daughter. If we send her to school, there's no one there to care for him. No one to run and get someone if he has another stroke. No one to put food on the table. To walk to the market. To sweep the floors. To wash clothes. To get water every morning. If she doesn't go to school, she will continue this life until her dad passes away. And most likely even after that. And then be left without an education. Without a family. Without hope. I'm not wanting to sound negative or dramatic here. That's just the simple truth.

He does not want his daughter to live with anyone else or go to an orphanage or anything like that. Which, we can completely understand. For goodness sakes, I would want to hold on to all I had, too.

It's hard knowing the reality of them having many more years together doesn't look promising. It broke my heart as we had to talk with him about preparing for everything. Thinking ahead about his daughter's life. And what her life would look like if he wasn't there. As tears welled up in his eyes he told us, "Nenpot Bondye vle..." Whatever God wants...

Although we know God is in control, it was a hard moment as we discussed with him the hard truths about what happens to most 9, 10, 11 year old girls here that are on their own. That have no one to turn to. No one to care for them. Girls left to sell themselves because they have nothing left. Because that feels like their only option to survive. Working as a restavek because that is their only option. That is not what God wants.

There are sometimes here that I feel like my heart becomes calloused to situations that should break it. This morning brought me to tears as I was reminded that God's heart breaks when ours does. And that ours should when his does as well.

We left this morning with no answers. Not really knowing what to say or do. Simply praying over him asking, "God....help. We need you to heal him now. He needs you to heal him now. His daughter needs you to heal him now... "

Please ask God to show us how we can best show Christ's love to this family. To show us the most beneficial way to help them. And for these strokes to stop.

"...For I am the LORD, who heals you." Exodus 15:26

2011-02-03T19:06:00.003-05:00

Please pray for Jared tonight...

He's been having fevers off and on for over 24 hrs now. He went to a hospital today to check and see if it was malaria or anything like that. Thankfully, everything came back normal, which we are super thankful for.

But, it's still hard not knowing what it is. One moment he feels fine and the next it's the exact opposite. Please just keep him in your prayers as he isn't feeling well again tonight and these fevers keep coming and going !

Thank you !

Another sweet blessing!!

2011-01-28T11:50:00.002-05:00

We are excited as another sweet baby will soon be here with us :)

Well...kinda soon that is.

Because we're having a baby in August !!!!

We are so excited! Everyone that works with us had it figured out within a couple days of us being back from the States because of the way I was feeling. I think it was the second day we were back one of our workers looked at me after I came downstairs later in the morning and says to me in her broken English....Maybe baby coming ?! You can't fool these women! haha

Please keeps all three of us in your prayers now :) Please pray that I and the baby continue to stay healthy!

As far as any more children coming soon...we will just have to wait, pray, and see. Last week we had a complicated situation with a 3 year old girl that we thought was going to come here after her dad signed all papers of responsibility over to us. But, to put things briefly, after a few days he changed his mind. We will never force someone to make this life changing decision, so, she will not be coming to live with us. Please keep this sweet little girl J--- in your prayers, too. She lives with her aunt after her mom passed away in the earthquake. And her dad is in his 60's and doesn't even live with her. Please pray that God would protect her. Provide for her. And bring her to himself throughout her life :)

Thank you so much for supporting what we do here in prayer !! It really does make all the difference.

Never a dull moment...

2011-01-18T19:48:00.003-05:00

This week Jean Claude Duvalier, (Baby Doc) returned to Haiti. Supposedly today he was arrested for corruption and the embezzlement of funds years ago...and rumor has it was freed hours after questioning. (www.miamiherald.com). And most of our friends that we have talked with said they would vote for him as President again because there was electricity all day long and no need to lock your doors when he was President. Funny that most of them are remembering these things as children or teenagers at the time...

Ciara has kept us on our toes since we've been back. We love the girl like crazy. And she really is a sweetheart. But, boy does the girl know how to test us. Please, give us your suggestions! We have rewarded good behavior, punished the bad, been through countless time-outs, and stess-outs !! HELP! Please pray that God gives us wisdom on how to discipline her and for patience through learning how to parent a 5 year old!

Kiara has two little cysts on her chest and I didn't know what they were or what to do for them. I was relieved this week when a woman from a group that was here told me her child had the same thing when they were little. :) It's awesome how God tells us what we need to know just in the right time.

Genese is growing like crazy. We have seen lots of improvement in her motor skills lately. It's so fun to watch!

Since we have been back we have been approached by 4 different families asking for help for their children, or possible placement in the orphanage. Today we visited a 3 year old girl in City Soleil. Her mom passed away in the earthquake and her aunt has been taking care of her. Tomorrow we are taking her to the hospital to have some tests done. Please pray that everything goes smoothly, and that if the Lord wants her to come live with us that he would make that clear to us :)

We are so thankful for each of you that make it possible for us to be here. Since we have been back these last two weeks Jared and I have really realized what a blessing it is to serve God here in Haiti. It really feels like home to us now...and we are SO glad to be at that point.

We are without a computer right now so it's been hard for me to stay up-to-date on this as I'm using our cousin's computer when it's free. I will write again as soon as I can!

Rosemond :)

2011-01-18T19:31:00.000-05:00

Sorry about the last post...hopefully this picture works!

Celebrating healing

2011-01-09T12:37:00.003-05:00

After three weeks in the cold we were excited to be welcomed home by the sunshine :)

It was perfect timing to be back as friends of ours at Heartline Ministries (the people who held an incredible clinic days after the earthquake last year) held a celebration party on Thursday for all their past patients. It was so fun to see everyone walking around with smiles. Celebrating and praising God for their healing. Healing for many people that was so much more than just physical.

This little man could make me cry every time I see him. Rosemond is such a special young boy. We are so glad that we were able to watch his healing process. Thank you to everyone that prayed him through it. Thank you to Heartline for treating Rosemond as family...as you did with all your patients. Rosemond's grandmother actually works for Heartline now, which is such a blessing to those two. I am so thankful for all the love that has been poured into Rosemond's life by many people over the past year. What was so awesome about seeing everyone at the party on Thursday is that everyone has an incredible healing story. There is not one person that did not experience the healing power of Jesus Christ.

As the year anniversary of the earthquake is soon here...Jared and I will be praising the Lord for his goodness, protection, and healing.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-22T21:31:00.002-05:00

So, here's our best shot at getting out Christmas cards to everyone this year :)

Thank you for your support, encouragement, and love to us this year. We are so blessed and are thankful for the blessing each of you have been to us.

We hope you all have a great Christmas celebrating our Savior !

Love,

Jared, Jalayne, Ciara, Genese, and Kiara

We've made it !

2010-12-17T08:13:00.002-05:00

So, this is a little late, but we made it safely to the States! Thanks for all your prayers. It was unreal how smoothly everything went. We were able to fly out on our original flight...the first flight on American Airlines out of Haiti in days. Now, we are just trying to stay warm :)

Many have asked so I should write that we have many wonderful nannies taking care of the girls while we are away. Another trusted male friend and worker of ours is staying in our home at nights.

Ciara has been having her ups and downs. Yesterday was a good day for her, but I may have heard a rumor that the day before she was running away from our nannies during nap time!

The littlest ones are doing well. They don't really notice that we are gone as much as Ciara does. Please pray for wisdom for our nannies as they care for the girls, and that Ciara has some grace on them !! haha.

Thank you so much for your prayers for getting us here !! God is so good :)

another sweet pea has arrived :)

2010-12-12T17:52:00.003-05:00

This is 12 day old Kiara.

Yes, Kiara. Now we have a Ciara and Kiara. Holy tongue twister.

Her dad came to us yesterday asking for us to take her, because his wife passed away just a few days after the delivery. He doesn't feel that he can provide for her alone, and doesn't want her to stay with relatives because all too often children that aren't biological children here become the last in a family to be cared for.

Therefore, she is here with us.

Please, pray for Kiara. Pray for her father as he grieves the sudden loss of his wife. Pray for Ciara and Genese as they adjust to life with their new sister :)

2010-12-11T11:28:00.003-05:00

So, I guess my last information wasn't all that accurate. Maybe this isn't the blog to get the facts from. haha.

The airport wasn't closed, American airlines cancelled flights here through the 13th (We're supposed to fly out the 14th).

The last two days have been great for us. We've been out on the roads, found some stores that were open, and are able to get stocked up on things for the girlies here before we leave. We haven't seen any fires for 2 days now.

The streets and bottom of my feet look like they've been rubbed with charcoal. I guess all the smoke from the burning tires the past few days is leaving its mark. It's disgusting that there must be so much of it in the air it's landing in our home on our tile. And probably in my lungs, too, if I had to guess. Gross me out.

Rumor has it today is a "day off" from the rioting. And tomorrow it will be announced if Martelli is able to be in the run-off as well. If not, riots will begin again on Monday. Now, this is total rumors so don't quote me on this.

We're praying things stay calm. And all though so many haitians have reason to be upset for all they've been through this year, and how unfair it is to have a government that you can't trust

Airports Closed

2010-12-09T13:30:00.002-05:00

We just wanted to update everyone and let you guys know that since yesterday the airport is closed. We are supposed to leave Tuesday morning to spend Christmas with our families. We are asking for everyone to pray for things to settle down and work out for flights to start again so we can come home for Christmas. Thanks ! :)

Elections and parties

2010-12-08T11:08:00.004-05:00

Early this morning they announced the two leading candidates for the presidential election. Mirlande Manigat received 31% of votes, Jude Celestin 22%, and "Sweet Mickey" 21%. (You can read more at miamiherald.com)

So now, another vote will occur in January (15th or 16th is what I've heard) between Manigat and Celestin. Celestin is not favored by the people here as many believe corruption was involved in saying that he was in 2nd place. Campaign signs of his were lit on fire early this morning, probably all day today. Supporters of "Sweet Mickey" marched the streets by our house this morning, but very peacefully here. There were a few tires burning and some other things in front of our home this afternoon, but nothing too bad. I think that our road is blocked off actually. It seems most of the protests have been farther from our home towards Petionville.

Please continue to pray for peace. And that God's will is done with who is elected as President in January.

While groups are outside showing their opinions to the results....we are inside partying today.

No school because of everything today, so everyone is here to celebrate Genese's 1st birthday !!!!!!!

While we hate many of the truths that exist in Haiti, the reasons that brought Genese to our home...we love having her here. We love knowing that her future is one of hope and blessing. We love seeing the healing take place in the girls here through the power of Christ. Genese is such a happy girl. Always smiling and giggling. Even starting to walk on her own this week !! Happy Birthday to Genese! WE LOVE YOU !!!!

Our attempt at a group pic...this is as good as it gets!

Oh, and I need to mention that little miss ornery Ciara has been doing much better lately :) Only down to a few punishments per week! haha. And, she went from hating prayer time to praying on HER OWN now. Sometimes when we start praying she'll interrupt a few words in exclaiming, "Let me pray! I can pray by myself!" She has made a prayer of her own and sticks to it..."Thank you Jesus, bless papi, bless mommy, bless my teacher and the food. amen." It melts my heart, every time.

Thank you, Jesus.

Last week

2010-12-02T12:13:00.006-05:00

No school last week because of election drama, so we had a little more time with Ciara which is always a fun thing :)

She learned how to make chocolate chip cookies! She kept calling them crackers, but once she tasted the finished product she realized they were much better than crackers !!

She was quite the chef...

Ciara had been begging us to have her friends over for a sleep over. And last Sunday we kept hearing people weren't allowed on the roads because of elections. (Come to find out, private cars were allowed) So, we had a sleepover party here and church with the girls in the morning. It was a fun time together!

Somehow no matter where you are in the world, jumping on the bed never gets old...

We also had an afternoon swim last week. It is still strange to be that the girls can be outside swimming in December! It has actually cooled down lately into the 80's and upper 70's at night. And I can't believe I say it...but I'm actually cold at nights. Jared and I are flying to the States next week to SNOW we hear !!! Lord help me when I am in the teens temperatures in a week!!!!!

It took Genese and Roselanda a little while to warm up to the water!! haha.

Thanks for all your prayers for us !! We've had a wonderful past couple of weeks.

elections

2010-11-27T20:33:00.002-05:00

Please keep Haiti in your prayers tomorrow as the Presidential elections take place. We've heard that we aren't allowed on the roads until 8 am tomorrow? Really, who knows the truth to that.

But, we will be having a church service in our home regardless as Ciara had a slumber party tonight with the neighbor girls. So, we will make a church here with all them tomorrow....with pancakes included of course :)

Please pray that God's will is done and that tomorrow is a peaceful day.

2010-11-24T21:22:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving !

One of many things we are thankful for is the love that we have been shown through all of you.

Thank you for your prayers. For your emails. Your encouragement. Your financial support. Your interest in our lives and the haitian people. We are so blessed to have such an incredible group of friends and family that support us here in Haiti.

As americans in general, we have been beyond blessed with the lives we have. We hope that you all have a special day celebrating and praising God for all he has blessed us with!

2 became 3 :)

2010-11-15T15:41:00.005-05:00

SURPRISE !

We have a new little one with us...

Her name...well for the first 24 hours we were calling her little baby girl. lol. Then we decided on the name Jenez (kreyol for Genesis). But, we found out today that her actual name is Aliquesh. Or something to that affect. I couldn't really understand! lol.

Her story in short...

Friday night a friend called us and told us that when she woke up she saw a baby girl laying in the front of her house. She hadn't seen her before, asked around if anyone knew her or saw who dropped her off and no one had. She sat outside of her house with her all day long waiting to see if anyone came by asking for her. After it was dark out she called us asking if we could care for her because she hadn't found any family of this child, or anyone that knew about her. So, we brought her to our home and asked our friend to continue asking around about her.

We learned that she has a mom who is an orphaned 22 year old in 9th grade. Her mom does not want her, because she can't provide for her. After a morning of talking with mom we agree that their situation is not good. Mom can not provide for her. at all. We actually felt this weekend like Jenez may have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. So I asked her mom about it today and she told me that she would give Jenez alcohol to drink when she didn't have food for her because that was the only thing that would put her to sleep or stop the crying, which our nannies tell me is very common for moms to do here.

So, she is with us :)

Saturday Jared and I planned a fun day with Roselanda and Ciara and we couldn't go back on our plans so we took the 3 girlies to Baptist Mission. A place about 1 1/2 hours from our home. The girls were troopers!

Roselanda checking out the bunnies. Ciara assured me that these animals she had never seen before were cats. lol

Playing on a toy train...

Going down the slide!

Lunch time! I actually felt like I was in a food court. And I also got a very real taste of what it is like to have 3 children as I was dishing out lunches. Let's just say Jenez is quick and her meal and ketchup was all over the floor and me before I knew what happened! Yes, I think everyone was staring...

We enjoyed a quiet car ride home after a fun and busy day !!

photo update

2010-11-11T11:20:00.006-05:00

I blame my lack of updates on the fact that our computer is driving me insane lately. Some days it decides to start, others it doesn't. Convenient, huh.

Anyhow, here's some pictures to show what we've been up to while we've been silent!

This cutie pie took her first steps about a week and a half ago! She is getting so strong, we love it!

We celebrated Nahomie's 13th birthday....

And Chedna's 3rd! This was the first birthday 'cake' she's had. And don't you love our candles?!

A team from Virginia came and made a new basketball court for the boys' at CFM's boys' orphanage. It looks awesome !!

The boys even helped out :)

Although Ciara is struggling behaving at school, she thankfully comes home and loves it. Her favorite thing to practice drawing right now is circles. It's so sweet how proud of herself she is when she accomplishes something.

Hurricane Tomas left his mark in our front yard....

A generous response to our education blog has sent Felinda to school...

And Mirae. Along with a few others who I don't have pictures for yet :)

Cholera is continuing to get worse and there are a few patients at the hospital our cousin Karen is working at. Please pray for mercy.

2010-11-05T19:39:00.003-04:00

God definitely answered with gifts of grace today.

The wind was stilled and we had light rain under a cloudy sky all day.

What a loving, powerful God we serve. Even our oceans are under his command !!

Thank you so much for praying. Let's together pour out praises to his throne tonight thanking him for his grace and mercy.

hurricane tomas

2010-11-04T09:26:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone

Just a quick note to ask that you please pray hurricane tomas out of here with us today! From what I've read it is supposed to pass by the west of Haiti, but it will still bring major rains that will be a huge threat to every here living in tent cities.

Thank you for your prayers of protection!

Mark 4:41 "...even the wind and the waves obey him!"

happy anniversary to us !

2010-10-28T18:29:00.002-04:00

We can't believe that we've been here a year today !

Time has flown by SO quickly.

We want to thank each of you that have helped us get here, encouraged us through the hard times, and kept us lifted up in prayer. It means so much to us!

Thank you for being a blessing to the people that we are in contact with everyday. They appreciate you too, and often thank God for you as well :)

We really couldn't do this on our own. Thank you so much for helping us daily. We appreciate you!

2010-10-22T18:29:00.002-04:00

We have a few quick prayer requests:

First off, some of you have sent emails asking about the cholera outbreak here.

Yes, there have been around 150 confirmed deaths from cholera within the past few days. We are telling those we can what they need to avoid eating right now, and to only drink clean water.

Please, pray that it stops spreading and that everyone here can quickly become informed of how to protect themselves.

Also, a friend of ours, Jezuna had twin baby boys within the past week. She was only 7 months along when she had to have a c-section because of complications. Two days ago, one of the boys died. She was forced to leave the hospital she was in because they didn't have enough beds for all of the women with babies. So, since she had been there for a week, she had to leave. Her one baby died at home, and she now went back to a different hospital to find care for her other son, worried that the same thing could happen to him.

Please pray for comfort for Jezuna and her family during this grieving process. For protection of her son. And for finances to be provided as the healthcare costs for her son are raising each day.

We so appreciate knowing that you are concerned about our friends here. Thank you for praying!

the complexity of education

2010-10-12T19:06:00.008-04:00

As two previous teachers, we were really happy to see this last week!....

Ciara, Juanese, Melissa, and Jobid all ready for their first day of school! We were anxious as to how the day would go with school here being so different than what we were used to. And with these kiddos being 4, 5 and 7 years old, and never being in a classroom before. We gave Ciara the choice if she wanted to start school (you can start as early as 3 here!!) and she smiled and said yes. So, we have been crazily getting uniforms, books, book bags, ribbons, barretts, you get the idea around for the past week. What an event!

Jared and I aren't used to this. Uniforms, shoes all black, etc., or your child can be sent home from school! They aren't messing around here. Even the unruly kiddos get spanked at school. I'm sure you can guess which one of the 4 came home every day last week telling us she got spanked. We've got quite the character on our hands.

I read an article that said 80% of Haiti's school were destroyed in the earthquake. Not sure yet if I believe that, but the point is that schooling isn't an easy thing here. It's expensive and the average family cannot afford to go.

Jobid's family for example consists of 4 children. Each year their mom rotates who is sent to school because she only has enough money to send one child each year. Thankfully, this year two are going because of a generous donation from someone that made a special connection with Jobid on their group trip.

Their first day of school, we were walking in their community, and there were only three kids in their entire community we were at school. You bet, the three kids standing in the picture besides Ciara.

I feel like I can't even write this well enough to express what it is like here for children to go to school. It is an absolute privilege. It is anywhere in the world, and was for me too. It's just that I don't think I have ever really started to grasp it until now.

Your average family here is struggling to provide food for their children daily. They walk early every morning to find the nearest water source, fill a 5 gallon bucket with water, and then carry that 40 pounds of weight on their head to cook with and drink for the day. They share with their neighbors in need and the next day often find themselves as recipients of others rice and help. They survive. Day after day.

And then there is this thing called education. But to most in the community we are involved with it is just that...a thought. The mothers themselves can't read because their parents were never able to send them to school. They stayed home to cook, clean, and care for others in their community, teaching their children to do the same. They speak kreyol among themselves but many aren't even sure how to write it. That is their education. They can whip up the best meal you've ever tasted, recite scripture after scripture from memory, but ask them to read that verse and their facial expression quickly changes.

So education is a nice thought, but it's not very realistic. When you're main priority for the day is to spend 6 hours hand washing clothes and another 4 cooking rice and beans for your neighbors and family, it doesn't leave time or resources for much else.

We don't get it. There are no free schools here. Even for us, a white american couple who has resources galore, it requires financial planning and saving to be able to send a child here to school. First you have the registration fee, then enrollment fee. Don't forget to buy the material for their uniform, pay a local woman to make it for you, find and buy all their books, buy shoes that are all black, socks and barrettes that match the uniform. Then, your child has a chance of going to school. This comes to a couple hundred dollars depending on the school they go to. Which is easily 2 months pay for someone with a good job. And more than the average person here sees in a year.

So, I am telling you all this in order to speak out for those who really don't have a chance unless we help.

This is Felinda.

And her friend, Mirae.

These girls frequently stop by and visit us.

Neither of them have even been to school and with the school year starting this month, they've been asking us with each run in if we can help them start.

So, I am asking you guys. Can you help? It doesn't have to be anything huge. 5 dollars. It can always go towards purchasing the required ribbons for their hair, books, socks, shoes, etc.

We would LOVE to make their day by telling them yes, someone wants to help you go to school! Can you help us make that happen?

2010-10-11T20:39:00.002-04:00

What an encouraging day today was :)

Ciara, or c-wawa as she is now called by the neighbor girls, had a very happy day today.

We have been adjusting and praying about her behaviors as she is sleeping very often and more often than not defiant. We know a lot of these things are natural for all she is going through, but it is sometimes difficult to remember all she's been through during the moments that she constantly tests us and lets be honest, drives us a bit crazy at times! haha

Anyhow, today Ciara didn't take a nap at all !! Magaline's girls were all here today and they played and played and played. It was awesome. Ciara was smiling and laughing more than we have ever seen today.

She made a rude comment to Chedna today that we actually secretly loved. I know, probably not a good thing but you look for joy where you can find it! haha. Ciara got upset at Chedna because she was holding Jared's hand. So, Ciara looked at Chedna and said, no! You can't hold his hand. He's not your daddy! I think someone is starting to break :)

Just wanted to let you all know that before I forget to share it. We are seeing glimpes of light :) Please keep praying for God's healing in her life, in every way possible.

2010-10-07T10:44:00.003-04:00

Our last week has been a whirlwind...

We are loving having Ciara and Roselanda here with us, and are experiencing a small taste of the challenges of parenting an 18 month and 4 year old! For any of you that have an idea how time-outs are supposed to work when you are required to hold the child down in the chair in order to get them to actually sit there...let me know! Really though, we love it, and all the crash course learning that is going on.

Both of these girls, along with the neighbor girls Melissa and Juanese have had a rough last couple of days. They are all very sick. Ciara hasn't been able to keep anything in her tummy since yesterday :(. And Roselanda has thrush along with a respiratory infection. Juanese and Melissa are dehydrated and running high fevers. They've all been here together today. Well, separated as much as possible, but together! ha. and we are keeping the makers of pedialyte and lysol in business. Please ask God to touch these little girls bodies and heal them today.

Here's Ciara from the other day when she was feeling better. She smiled for this picture to show off her clean teeth after she brushed them! She LOVES brushing her teeth. I love it....

And Miss Roselanda....I know, I know the bib she has on here is super cute. Thanks to our good friend 'Ely Lane' for the gift :)

Again, we appreciate each of you and your support so much. Please keep these girls' health in your prayers!

Our first girl has arrived !! :)

2010-09-28T17:37:00.005-04:00

A special little somebody is in her new bed for the first time tonight. She actually fell asleep before Jared and I were even finished praying with her.

Meet Ciara.

This is her with her grandma who used to take care of her. (Now for those of you who remember me talking about a Clara from City Soleil...this is her! Once we finally got her birth certificate the other day, we realized we'd been calling her the wrong name for weeks now!)

Miss Ciara is 4 years old. She is abandoned by her mother and father. She doesn't know her father, and her mom abandoned her almost 4 years ago...when she was a baby. She moved far away to the country, not wanting any responsibility for her baby. And her mom, (Ciara's grandma) didn't know what to do, so she assumed the caretaker position. Her grandma, however, does not have the means to care for her which is why she is with us now :)

Ciara has a sweet little spirit that we feel has been damaged greatly. Two weeks ago she came to our home for a few hours to play and eat with us. When we had her come to the table with us to eat she buried her head into her arms and began to cry. Our wonderful cook, Yvrose, jumped right in to help out. Probably seeing the look on my face that cried, "H.e.l.p., I don't know what to do!" Yvrose began asking her if she was embarrassed and telling her that she didn't need to be. Ciara whispered yes, she had never eaten a meal at a table before. Break my heart...

After that, a friend of ours that was here at the time went to play with her with a stuffed animal, again she began to cry. She was afraid of the stuffed animal...something else that was a first for her.

Today, I was so excited to show her her new bed, clothes, etc. that we had for her as she came here with a stained torn dress and sandals two sizes too small for her. I asked her if she liked her bed (okay so actually we made six beds all with different colored sheets, telling her she could choose to sleep in the one she liked best! We were trying hard to win her over and have been waiting too long to see our first girl here :) To my surprise she said no. She told me that she would rather sleep outside. I didn't press anymore, assuming this is where she was use to sleeping at her home and I assumed this was where she felt comfortable. Later in the day, she told us multiple times that that her mom (grandma) would hit her if she tried to sleep in the house at night. That's why she wants to sleep outside. We reassured her that would never happen here. That we all sleep inside and want her to as well. She continued to disagree and also added that she was scared to be inside incase another earthquake happened. But, as you read above, she is currently sound asleep in her new bed. The fact that she was exhausted tonight helped us win the battle of sleeping inside versus out quite easily.

We are so excited to have Ciara with us. So excited for her future, seeing her personality unfold before our eyes, seeing what God has in store for her. Thank you so much for all your prayers for her, and to all the details coming together to bring her here. It was quite a process, but now having her here I don't feel the need to go into details. All that matters is that she is here.

Please, continue to lift Ciara up in prayer. Pray that she would experience freedom and healing from all that has happened in her past. The things we know and don't. Pray that we can have extra measures of grace from the Lord given to us as we attempt to help raise children!! Pray that we would faithfully serve God in the way we care for these girls, and that the mistakes we make along the way would be covered in God's grace and mercy.

We also have this little girl with us right now as well :) ...

How can you forget Roselanda...one of Magaline's 5 girls that spends much time with us. We decided alongside her parents that a couple months with us would be best. She is 18 months and still not walking and weak. We are hoping to see that change within the next months. Her stay is not permanent but we are also thrilled to have her here !

We feel such a peace tonight about Ciara and Roselanda being here. And that has been a prayer of ours. That we would feel a peace about the girls that are here and know that God has brought them here. We are SO thankful for everyone's prayers and that our home has officially become home to some very special girls :)

I'm excited to see what our coming days look like! Thank you so much for helping this happen!

Still waiting....

2010-09-22T15:54:00.003-04:00

I think I have been avoiding our computer lately because I don't want to have to write another blog and let everyone know that we are still living here by ourselves :(. (Well, minus Josie, Jenna, Chayelle, Renelia, Mackenley, and Nahomie) haha. But, still. We are ready for some girls to come join us :)

Matthew (the guy doing the legal stuff) is working with Clara's grandma right now trying to locate her birth certificate. This is needed before we can bring her in legally. We need to see the birth certificate, find the person whose name is on it as being responsible for Clara, and have them sign a document giving legal responsibility over to us. Well, Clara's birth certificate is out in the country. And they are having quite a time trying to locate it. Please pray they they can find it soon and bring it to Port-au-Prince so that Jared and I can become responsible for Clara and she can begin living here in her new home with us.

Our patience are thin and we are having a hard time knowing that we have been here for almost a year and the orphanage still isn't started. Please pray for us to not be discouraged!

On a different note, Jared's cousin Karen arrived this past Friday. She started working at Medishare (a hospital here in port-au-prince) yesterday. Pray for her as she adjusts and is walking into a lot of responsibilities at this job! She is planning on being here to work for them for 6 months, and I think they have already given her enough work for at least 2 years. Welcome to Haiti, Karen! hah !

Oh and we are trying to get Melissa and Juanese (Magaline's two oldest girls) registered for the new school year. Neither of which have ever been to school. Similar setback with them...none of these girls have birth certificates because they were all born at home, and they never had enough money to get them made. So, Jared and I are in the process of trying to make Birth Certificates for them. Interesting process. Please pray that everything comes together for these soon so that they can be in school on the first day, October 4th.

Thanks for your faithful prayers for our ministry here. We are able to keep going on many days because of the encouragement of friends and family.

2010-09-15T18:37:00.003-04:00

Here's a quick run-down of the last week or so:

Magaline and baby Eliana are still doing well. Magaline passed out one night while our friends Jake and Carly were still here. Jake and Jared took her to a hospital the next day and were able to get iron pills for her that have helped a lot. We have continued to check on them daily, and mom is doing well, breast-feeding Eliana. However, she doesn't have the most patience when it comes to feeding time. We're working on that. I am trying to convince her that she needs to sit with Eliana for awhile, and that 2 minutes isn't enough time for her to get enough milk. But, with her being the one with 5 children and me not having any...I see why she doesn't respond immediately to my "words of wisdom". hah

Thanks to generous gifts by a handful of you, we were able to register some kiddos we know for school that will start October 4th :)

And Samuel officially started English school on Monday. He now uses the phrase "What's up" and "What is this (dis)" daily ! haha It reminds us how funny our accent must sound and we are trying to improve that!

Juanese and Clara's ( 2 girls from Cite Soleil) tests came back and everything was good. We are now working with a man named Matthew who takes care of the legal work for the orphanage that some friends of ours have. He will be the one who goes to court for the girls to have them legally handed over into our care :) Friday, he will be working with Clara's family. Please pray that he gets all the answers needed and that things go smoothly. Once Matthew gives us the okay, Clara will come live with us :) !!! We are so excited and hopeful that this will happen within the week. We're also glad that Matthew can begin teaching this process to Samuel who can help with the other girls we bring in.

Today Jared and I were able to take a few hours and drive to a mountain and just sit and listen to silence. Ohhhh how I've missed that wonderful sound. We spent a lot of time in prayer over our future here and would appreciate you joining us in those prayers. We can't believe that we have been here almost a year already, and it seems crazy that it is time for us to think about what our next commitments in Haiti will be. Please pray that we hear God's voice in this and that we obey no matter what he asks of us.

On a personal note we have another nephew !! yay :) Cohen David Coblentz is now here. Congrats to Eric and Briana!

We hope you are all loving the beginning of Fall ! Enjoy that cool breeze for us :)

and the name is....

2010-09-07T19:32:00.002-04:00

Eliana :)

It means God has answered my prayer...so we thought it was rather perfect for her!

Mom and Eliana are doing well! Praise the Lord. And the other girls' love their new little sister.

Tomorrow morning we are going to City Soleil to pick up the two girls' there that need to have some medical testing done...and after that hopefully start the process to bring them into our orphanage! We are excited and anxious for tomorrow...please keep the day in your prayers :)

And Then there were 5

2010-09-05T21:52:00.005-04:00

What a day !

Everything started off "normal"...a day at church, grocery store, and hanging out with the boys' at the orphanage this afternoon.

We got home a little before 5:30 and I look out the screen door and see Melissa and Juanese with another older neighbor girl walking up. Melissa and Juanese make frequent visits to our home, so it really wasn't anything different. However, then I realize they just yelled to us that their mom is in labor !

I am immediately thankful that our friends Jake and Carly are here with us this week. Jake, who will soon be a doctor has plenty of experience delivering babies, and Jared and I had actually been praying ever since July (when Magaline originally told us that she thought her baby was due) that when she had the baby, God would have someone here that would know how to help her deliver safely. Once we knew Jake would be coming in Sept., we just started praying that she wasn't due until then, and that she would have the baby during the time that Jake was here.

Well, what a God ordained moment tonight was! Jake ran to our medical supplies and grabbed a few things before we headed over. We had no idea if she just started having contractions, or was truly in the midst of her laboring. We were planning on taking her to the hospital if there was time. But, when we pulled up everyone around started yelling at us to run into the house. There, we found a crowd of woman yelling at Magaline, telling her to push. I saw that the baby's head was already out, and as Jared and Jake made their way in to help in front of me, Jake immediately began to work. He saw that the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby's neck and that the baby was not breathing. We all just started praying because we didn't know what else to do as Jake worked. He managed to get the cord off of her neck and work the baby the rest of the way out...but the baby continued to lay lifeless for almost 5 minutes without crying. We continued to pray, and Jake continued to try and get the baby to start crying. After a long scary silence, Magaline's 5th (yes, 5th!!!) baby girl began to cry !! We were all SO excited!

It was such a perfect plan of God tonight. God truly saved that baby's life through the hands of Jake tonight. Everyone in that area kept talking all night long about how glad they were that our Dr. friend was here :) According to them, Jake doesn't need to finish his schooling. He is already a Doctor.

We stayed, helping get baby and mom cleaned up as well as their home. And it was an awesome thing to witness. All of the women who live around Magaline were all helping bathe her, clean her floor, make dinner for her and the children, etc. The Haitian people are a beautiful example of what it means to serve each other.

Mom and Dad with Baby!

Please continue to keep Magaline in your prayers as she is still learning what it means to be a mom. (She is only 22 yrs. old). Pray for her health along with the baby's. Oh, and p.s. Magaline asked me to name the baby! I was so caught off guard that I told her I need a night to think about it. So, I will let you know the name when we can decide with her! hahah

Tonight, we brought the other 4 girls to our house and are having a sleepover, to try and make things as easy as possible for mom. We'll keep you updated on how everything goes...

2010-09-03T14:49:00.003-04:00

We have had a lot of ups and downs lately with thinking that girls will soon be here with us. Here's an update with each of the girls we are in communication with...

Jessica- The sweet 2-3ish year old who we found out has HIV is currently staying with friends of ours, Tim and Toby. They are terrific people, who have their own girls' orphanage. They have been a huge help to us and are taking responsibility for finding a place for Jessica that will provide good care for her...until then, she is part of their family :) Please, remember to keep Jessica and this awesome couple in your prayers as the daily decisions are never easy, and as healing is something our God has plenty of experience in !

Freshlie- When we went to take her to the hospital to have tests done last week, an uncle (23 yrs. old) was there who we had never seen/heard of/or talked to before. He raised many concerns about sending his niece to an orphanage (as he himself was raised in one...and had just got out 8 days before we talked with him), and didn't like the idea of giving her rights over to us. Long story short...we weren't going to force anyone into anything that all the caretakers in Freshlie's life weren't comfortable with. So, we gave them time to think again about all that was said. After a couple days, her uncle called us begging us to take Freshlie again, etc. Realizing that neither he nor his aunts have the ability to care for her. After a few days of more prayer, Jared and I decided that we would go back and take her to the hospital to have tests run, with their permission. When I arrived that day, Freshlie wasn't there and we couldn't find anyone but the uncle at the house, who didn't know where Freshlie was. We called her aunt and she told us that a lady that they somehow came in contact with wants Freshlie to come and live with her. SO...decisions now lie in the hands of the aunts once again. The younger aunt desperately wants Freshlie to be with us...but now they feel this other lady involved needs to be okay with it to. It has been a draining situation. We are still praying for God's will to happen with her. We are a bit nervous about the thought of Freshlie going to live with someone who her relatives don't know at all...but then again we realize that is all we are to their family as well. We just know what statistics of Haiti are with girls their age living with people they don't know...and many times it leads to the child becoming a restavek. (child slave-many times sexual abuse involved as well). All that to say...we are praying about Freshlie still and trusting that God will work out all things in this situation for good.

2 cutie pies in City Soleil- What seems like years ago...we visited a few girls in City Soleil that our cook Yvrose's nephew knows. He runs an incredible children's program in City Soleil (the slums of Haiti) trying to help the children there turn toward good verses the famous crime. Because of his connections with the community there, he has had numerous people come to him with requests that "if he ever knows of someone that can help their niece, grand-daughter, child, etc. let them know". So, we visited a few of these girls. And two of them have been on our minds ever since. After many prayers, we decided to go back and visit them again today, setting up a time to take the girls to the hospital and have medical tests performed. Wednesday of next week is when that will happen, and we are hopeful once again.

Licenses- These are the last of legal documents we have been working towards getting since we've moved here !! And hallelujah an end is in sight :) (at least until october, when we have to start getting some of them renewed !! haha) Right now, we have a box truck in port at St. Marc, but we can't get it out until we have proof of our Haitian Licenses. We have spent countless hours in these buildings this week, and finally I have mine in my possession, and Jared's is still being held hostage. Please, pray that he can get his before next Thursday, when we are hoping to make the trip to St. Marc to get the truck out !! And praise God that these are the last of the documents that we need....at the moment :)

I know I have been behind in keeping you all up to date...but somehow the week and months here pass by so quickly although our days can be l-o-n-g. Thank you so much for continuing in steadfast prayers for us and our ministry here, even when you might not be sure what to pray for or what's going on. Jared and I can't be here without them, and without God pouring his support out to us through each of you. THANK YOU !

2010-08-26T22:06:00.002-04:00

So yesterday our friends took Jessica to another hospital in downtown Port-au-Prince to get another test done to verify she has HIV. While they were there, a Haitian friend of theirs who does all their paperwork went to the area where Jessica's family lives to ask some questions.

He was able to find out and verify that Jessica's mom died of aids and her dad is still alive but also has aids. I called our friends yesterday afternoon to find out what the results were. They were unable to get the results of Jessica's blood test back the same day, but they are assuming, after hearing the news of the parents, that she more than likely does have HIV.

I asked them what the next steps will be for Jessica if she does have HIV. I was glad to hear that they said they were going to keep her and care for her until they find a place for her. They are not in a rush to dump her off on someone else and want to make sure they find the place that will be best for her. The director of their organization knows a place nearby that does great care with HIV children, and Matthew, their Haitian friend also has contacts with a few organizations that can help.

The good news is there are places out there to take these children who we may not know exactly how to care for, the question lies on if there is room for Jessica in any of these facilities.

Please pray that they are able to find a place for Jessica and that she will get the care she needs.

2010-08-24T21:46:00.003-04:00

Today was a hard day for us. This morning we woke up with the anticipation of having our first girl in our orphanage tonight.

We met with our friends this morning who are currently caring for the girl, Jessica, as well as her uncle to receive more answers about her family history, etc. Once things were finished we decided that Jessica would come over tonight at 6 and start her life here with us. Our friends who are caring for her right now had all the medical tests taken care of already, and results for all but one back already. So, they wanted to make sure they got the last test back, showing it was negative, before they brought her over tonight.

Well, this afternoon we received a phone call from our friends who had just received her last lab results. They showed that she tested positive for HIV.

Many months ago while setting criteria for the girls' to come to the orphanage, we decided that with a lack of medical knowledge between Jared and I, we are not capable to care for children who may have HIV or AIDS.

Well, today when we heard that little Jessica tested positive, it ripped our hearts in two. Not to sound completely insensitive, but before this it was just a matter of a rule. If they test positive, we will find another ministry that can help them who specializes in that.

But, after spending time with that special child, holding her in your arms, hearing her laugh, seeing her need for affection...it really puts things into perspective.

Jared and I are struggling as we think about the way Jesus lived his life and who he reached out to as he was here on earth. I know that he would not hesitate at all to care for this girl. It is just so hard as one little result on a test has changed everything for us...for her.

There is a very small chance that the results are incorrect, and another test will happen again tomorrow to verify the results. Please, pray for guidance. And that no matter the results, that we along with our friends can make the best choice for Jessica's future, and that most importantly we would hear God's voice and be obedient to it in the matter.

Week of Firsts!

2010-08-23T18:57:00.003-04:00

My parents and sister came to stay with us last week, and boy was I pleasantly surprised as my dad and Jared tackled building beds! The one day we were out searching for beds for Renelia and Jared's cousin Karen who is coming down to stay with us for 6 months. All the beds we saw were 200 dollars or more. Well, one night as we were getting ready for bed Jared says, I think I'll build the beds we need with your dad tomorrow. I'm thinking....okay....my dad has never built a bed and I know you haven't...this should be good!

Well, come to find out the 2 of them are quite the craftsmen !! And it saved us a whole bunch of moolah :) Even better !

Here's the two pros at work

Jared tried it out already...so it should work well enough to support Renelia and his cousin Karen. :) (On a side note, Jared's cousin is coming down in about a month to help here at the orphanage and at Miami hospital...She is an anesthesiologist and has a lot of medical background. We are so excited to have her here for a number of months!)

And, us ladies finished them off by staining and varnishing. It was a good surprise to have these done!

We are very anxious as the official start of the orphanage seems to be right around the corner !! Last week we received a call from some friends of ours who have a girls' orphanage in another town. A 2-year old girl was dropped off at their house by an older woman who does not want her. Our friends don't have room for her in their orphanage, but committed to caring for her for a week and to try and find help for her. We talked with them today and visited the girl. She is a little cuddler and I loved it! She is sick right now with pneumonia, worms, and scabies. Tomorrow we are meeting with them again, this time joined by the woman who dropped her off at their house. We are very excited as we feel God has brought this girl into our life, and excited to think about how her health and life can soon change for the better.

Please keep us in your prayers tomorrow morning at 8ish as we meet with them again, and for our relationship with Freshlie as we get tests and legal work completed for her!

One last thing, We want to thank the kids at Gospel Community Church who wrote cards for us. We enjoyed reading and hearing from you guys. Thanks for the encouraging letters! We can't wait to see you all in December!

2010-08-14T12:22:00.003-04:00

This week we had a group from Minnesota come and visit. They helped us finish our storage depot and room for Renelia and her kiddos. Oh, does it feel good to be done!

Here's the outside before being painted...

And one of the inside rooms before shelves were made and we packed them full with medical supplies, tools, and many other things that our home has been storing for many months...

The outside !!

Ken and Micah helping build some shelves...

A finished room!! yay !! Medical supplies, etc....

And our new tool storage...

It is SOOOOO nice to have this done!! And has taken so much stress off of us to have this all out of the house/orphanage now. Finally, all rooms of the orphanage are ready to go. HOORAY !

And, Isabelle and the others fell in love with Rosalanda and her family just as quickly as we did. We also spent time in the community where they lived as Jared and I are trying to build relationships with the people there.

The group also visited Renelia's sister and the people living close to her, and blessed them with bags of rice and beans. This area had many homes that fell during the earthquake...leaving many without family members, so it was a special time fellowshipping with them.

Thank you guys for being here with us and giving us a fun and productive week. And to your church for all your support. We enjoyed meeting new faces and now having some friends from Minnesota :) Hopefully it will give me an excuse to get the the mall of America sometime in my life !! HAHA

Now, Jared and I are heading back to the airport to pick up my parents and sister who will be living our life with us for the week. We can't wait !! :)

2010-08-05T10:42:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was an exciting day for us !

We started our morning with another visit to the immigration office, a building that has become quite familiar to us over the past months. We've been making frequent visits with a lot of paper work to get our Haitian ID. Yesterday, we went to visit just to see how things were going and make sure the process was still actually moving forward. And to our pleasant surprise....they were finished !

I know many of you are wondering where we are in the process of finding girls and bringing them in. Well, for the past probably month or two we have been taking trips to City Soleil talking with people who have a girl they would like to have in our orphanage. Yvose, a wonderful cook that works for us now, has a nephew that lives in City Soleil and he has been helping us out a lot with this. We meet up with him and go and talk with families that have come to him asking him to find help for their children, niece, etc. There are a couple girls there that we are praying about whether or not they should be brought into our orphanage.

But to bring us back to yesterday. Yesterday afternoon we were able to go and see where the 4-year-old girl that I wrote about the other day lives. (We were supposed to do this on Tuesday, but it didn't work out for them). We found out about this girl through Renelia's sister. Renelia's sister knows this 21 year old girl that has a niece who she is trying to find an orphanage for. Well, her niece is 4-year old Freshlie. Freshlie's mom died in the earthquake, and was taken to live her 74-year old great aunt after the earthquake. Her dad is also believed by everyone to have died in the earthquake as well, because no one has found him since. Freshlie's aunt is still trying to finish her way through school and has no means to provide for her. And her great-aunt is simple trying to provide for herself. It is not easily for the elderly in Haiti to live, especially when you add taking care of a child.

Our plans are to see Freshlie again on Monday, and take her to the hospital to have a number of tests performed. As long as she doesn't test positive for AIDS, things like that, we plan to set a date after that to bring her into our home :)

We are VERY excited about this. Please continue to keep these situations in your prayers and ask God to pour out his wisdom and discernment. And Praise God for the hope of getting the orphanage started soon !!

2010-08-02T19:26:00.004-04:00

Yesterday we were reminded of another awesome miracle.

Remember our friend Rosemond?

He was one of the patients we had to take out of the Israeli hospital in order to get Bernard in way back in January. Once we saw him and that he was not at all healed, even though discharged...we took him to our friends clinic at Heartline Ministries.

They have been wonderful. And feeding him well too I must say! haha. I love that this boys' personality never changed through it all. I remember the days that he was here I was so worried, asking him all the time what I could do for him, if he hurt, how he was feeling, if he needed anything, etc. And he would always respond....yeah, I'd like a cookie. hahah I knew with an attitude like that, he would be just fine :)

It's been almost 7 months of healing now for him and he is doing great. His grandma is still with him in the hospital and right by his side. I asked Rosemond if he is excited about this house that they get to go back to soon, and he said not really. He knows that everyone he use to play with in that area were not as fortunate as him, and won't be there when he returns. And honestly, the clinic/hospital he was at has become home to him with the wonderful help and staff they've had throughout it all.

After church yesterday he wanted to come to our house...and with a face as cute as his you really can't say no. So we spent the day with squirt guns, games, and eating. It was so fun being able to hangout with him all day...and see him run around and play and just be a boy. We loved it! And Mackinley (Renelia's son) really loved having a boy his age here!

Please continue to keep Rosemond and his grandma in your prayers through their transitioning, and for his continued healing.

And PRAISE GOD for them !

oh and p.s. Tomorrow we are visiting a 4 year old girl for the 2nd time to talk with the people she is currently living with...and to find out more about her situation. Please pray for wisdom and a clear answer with her :)

2010-07-28T16:29:00.001-04:00

Here's some of the highlights over our past week or 2....

Jared is now a godfather! Chaelle (Josie and Jenna's baby girl) was dedicated at church a couple Sundays ago, and guess who got to be a part of it :) Another man was supposed to do it, but didn't make it to church on time! lol. So, Jared stepped in. Now Jenna and Josie refer to Jared as the godfather :) haha

A group from Hartville Mennonite Church was here this past week and worked a lot at CFM's boys' orphanage, as well as our place. They did some more painting and cleaning, and also added doors to storage boxes the boys have. They're perfect.

And of course, there was a pizza night. Jared's dad is known as pizza Marion down here so I guess he has to live up to the name each visit! Gracie even made awesome pinatas filled with candy for the boys!

Renelia's grandma stopped by this week and saw Renelia for the first time after the earthquake. She thought Renelia hadn't made it...so you can imagine how sweet the reunion was for them. We loved spending the day with her...

Oh yeah, the group also brought down this awesome kiddy pool. Let me tell you what...it's not just for kiddos !!

As far as us...things are going pretty well. We are still in search of girls' for the orphanage. We've made visits to a couple different girls, and we will fill you in on that soon.

As a prayer concern...please pray for our inverter !! (It gives us electric when we don't have EDH/street power). It has totally been dead the past few days. Someone has been here almost everyday since to fix it for us...and each time they say it's fixed...well it still isn't working. Let's just say that.

We hope you are all enjoying summer :) Know that we appreciate each of you and your support SO much !

2010-07-24T20:02:00.002-04:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that I've got ahold of an antibiotic and am taking it for my legs. It is a staff infection. Thanks for praying for me! :)

Visitors are so much Fun!

2010-07-19T13:16:00.004-04:00

Hey Everyone! So I know we are a little behind on getting you up to speed on our life. So here is our attempted to share some of that with you. A little over a week ago we had the privelage of having a few of Jalayne's old co-workers and two other women come down and visit with us for a week. They stayed with us here at the orphanage and were able to have a glimpse of what our lives are like down here.

Here is a picture of Jalayne and her friends hanging out at the house with the girls who come over a few times a week while their mom washes clothes.

While they were here we took the girls to a near by playground! they had so much fun playing...

We were even able to buy them some ice cream to finish our time off at the playground!

While the girls were here we were able to organize this room! We have had a bunch of medical supplies and since neither Jalayne or I have any medical background we didn't know what half the stuff was! Well, one of the girls, Erin, is a nurse and was able to help us organize it all. It looks so much better and will be a lot easier to move it into the depot when it is finished now that it is already organized!

Another picture os Melissa, Juanice, Shedna, and Rosilanda eating mangoes from our mango tree! It is so cute to watch them eating!

It is so cute watching Shedna with Rosilanda. She always wants to help Rosilanda do everything. Here she is trying to help bathe Rosilanda.

We had a great week with them here. It was a lot of fun to have friends here to talk with about life and just be able to hang out and play games. Thank you guys for coming down and spending the week with us! We had so much fun with you here! Cami, Erin, Becca, and Katie, you are always welcome here again!

Now we have another group here! My parents (Jared) are here with a group from Hartville Mennonite. They just arrived Monday evening. It was a crazy time getting them at the airport.

It started raining and we were all drenched. Finally after waiting for two hours they arrived and all 32 of us piled into three vehicles with all of their luggage! We arrived at the mission house to find the battery on the generator was dry and didnt have any water in it! After a good 45 minutes we finally got the generator running! Everyone settled in and around 8 o'clock we were finally ready to head down to the girl's orphanage for dinner!

It has been great having them here. THe projects are already underway and everyone is working so hard and seems to be having a good time. We will update later with pictures of what has been done!

One prayer request we have right now is for Jalayne. She has been getting these sores on her legs and hasn't been able to figure out what they are and hasn't been able to get rid of them. Gracie, one of the group members said she thinks it could be a staff infection. We are going to try and see a doctor friend today to figure out what it is. Pray that God will heal it and that we will be able to figure out what it is. Thanks for your prayers and continued support! More later!

2010-07-17T16:54:00.003-04:00

Wow, I can't keep up with time here. Lots has been keeping us busy lately, and I have been bad with the updates.

Last weekend we were able to finish buying a new church outfit and school shoes for each of the boys' in the orphanage. Yes, I know this project was for Christmas...and its closer to Christmas of 2010 than '09 right now, but hey we've had a few interruptions! lol

Thank you, to each of you who helped give these gifts to the boys. They love them!

Steven....

Carlos....

Liders....

Louisius....

Louisius and Wadnell scanning the market for their choice of shirt and pants...

Kendol...

and Wadnell...

Much more has happened in the past two weeks, and I will try to do better with keeping you up to date! Hope you all enjoy your weekend :)

mir.a.cle

2010-06-29T19:12:00.012-04:00

miracle: an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural

powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.

Boy was I glad to see these three beautiful people this week that experienced just that.

Renelia, McKinley, and Naomi have been released from the hospital in Santo Domingo and are back home in Haiti !

Excited doesn't even describe it. 5 months without them has been way. too. long. We got to see them Monday at Renelia's sister's house and then they came here to enjoy dinner with us. I hugged Renelia forever, just standing there overcome by that happy-ugly cry that once it hits, you just can't stop it! I know you know what I'm talking about.

It hit me as I was hugging her that I was literally holding onto a miracle.

As she told us about all she remembers since January 12th, you cannot deny that God was there. I wish each of you knew Renelia personally so that you could understand just how much God literally saved her and her childrens' life.

The earthquake happened on January 12th, but Renelia remembers nothing until that Saturday...the 16th. Waking up in a hospital unable to see because her eyes were swollen shut for the next several days. Not knowing where she was or what had happened. there's so much more. but I can't even describe what she went through. I know that I myself don't even understand. And I sure don't want what happened to her to be just some story. This was a divine intervention from the Father above.

After their home collapsed on the three of them...Renelia was unconscience, buried under rubble with her children who were crying out in fear by themselves for 7 hours before someone was able to remove enough rubble off of each of them to get them out.

With extremely serious wounds, they were taken to a hospital 3 hours away immediately, thankfully receiving help as some of the first earthquake patients. If you realized how beyond crowded/chaotic each and every medical facility in Haiti was that night and the next days to come, you would fully understand that this is miracle #1.

For the next 5 months they were sent from hospital to hospital together. For Renelia, she lay helplessly as staff reshaped her head that had been crushed by fallen concrete for the next several months, enduring surgeries and endless pain to learn how to move her neck again, and save her head. For Naomi, her first month was spent bed-ridden, followed by 2 more months in a wheel-chair, surgeries, and learning how to balance and walk all over again. There were also surgeries to removed steel rods that had pierced through their arms, and rocks that had been injected into their bodies. God saved McKinley's eye with surgery and he thankfully still has sight with his own two eyes.

They should not have been here to talk with us and enjoy dinner with us this week. Let's be honest, at very best I should have been talking with paralyzed and brain damaged friends.

But, God chose to protect and heal. To provide and comfort.

The more I heard from them, the more I shook my head at what a literal miracle it is they are here. The more I heard, the more my heart sung praise at how great our God is.

I love this testimony of God's power.

And what I love even more is that it doesn't take a natural disaster for God to work miracles. Am I thankful for this miracle, OF COURSE. But what I am also thankful for is that I know God wants to continue to show his miracles every day.

He can restore broken marriages.

He breaks addictions.

He heals the sick.

He frees the burdened.

I know all to well that there are many things in life that seem like they can never get better unless we have a miracle.

Well thankfully, we are all just a choice away from knowing the miracle-worker.

And that is exactly what He wants to do. Work a miracle in your life.

I'm serious.

Read it again.

In your life.

He is deeply interested in you.

So go ahead and ask for your miracle. He is the only one who can give it to you anyways. And believe it in faith that it will happen. Because that is how God works. Beyond all known human power. Because he is so much more than that.

"Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God? You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples." Psalm 77:13-14

another week gone

2010-06-25T10:44:00.003-04:00

I can't believe it's nearing the end of June ! A lot has happened in a week, and I've been slacking to let you know about it all.

Another group was here to visit :) This time a youth group from Sarasota, so they were ready for the heat! CFM is based out of Sarasota, so we were able to spend time with some familiar faces and a few of our board members.

During their time here they added a fresh coat of paint to everything at the boys' orphanage :)

And they cleaned behind the mission house, cleared trash, weeds, etc., and helped moved families out of their tents and into their homes.

Not sure if you remember, this is where a handful of families have been staying since the earthquake. Thankfully, some have returned to their homes after the annoyance of living in rainy tents became more powerful than their fear to sleep under a concrete roof. Unfortunately, there are others whose homes were completely destroyed by the earthquake. Jezner and his family were one of them...

Their (Jezner, his wife, daughter, 3 sons, and granddaughter) home is beyond damaged, and two of his grandchildren still lay buried in the rubble. It hit me as we were standing at his home talking about everything just much peoples' lives have been changed. How intense the pain and hurt must still be, and yet you can look at the people here and forget about it so easily. Because they just keep pushing on. They have to go on. And many times without a pause. It breaks my heart.

We've been looking for a house for his family to rent, but haven't been able to find much. Please pray that this can happen soon so they can all live together again in a home ! :) Thankfully now, they have a couple different friends homes they have transitioned into short-term until CFM is able to find a home for them. Please pray we find something quickly!

On a personal note, Jared and I have another new nephew !!! Titus Aaron Coblentz arrived this week and we can't wait to meet him !!

pray with us

2010-06-19T10:42:00.003-04:00

This weekend we are really seeking the Lord in what his plans are for this orphanage. Please do the same with us as you are led. Be in prayer over his calling and plans for us here and our obedience to it. Each of you are making an impact here with your help, prayers, resources, etc., and right now we are asking for faithful prayer support over this. We want to be sure God's will happens in the future and that decisions are made after much prayer and seeking his face collectively !

Thank you so much :)

There's no place like Home

2010-06-17T21:41:00.003-04:00

Well, We have been here almost a week without a group here and we have been enjoying everything they have done for us. The work around the orphanage is still in progress. We have a storage depot that is in the process of being built, our grass is planted and is slowing growing and filling in, and we are finally getting sidewalks put in at the front of our home.

This week we have been busy trying to finish up all the documents to get our Haitian ID's. We will go to Immigration tomorrow to finish the process. We need our ID's to put our vehicle into our name. We cannot do that until we have a Haitian ID. It will also help with many other formalities and legal paper if we have them.

This week we were able to move Shedna, Rosilanda, their mom and dad and sisters, Juanice and Melissa into a new home.

Below is the picture of the inside of their tent. Mom and Dad and the 4girls all lived in here together. It was small, smelly, and dirty.

Here is a picture of the "front porch" area of the tent where Mageline (mom) would cook.

Now they are living here! This is a one room home with a little kitchen area off the side and this little front porch for them to relax on outside.

Here is a picture of the inside of the room. Jalayne and I were just so amazed to think of how much better this one little room is compared to the tent they were in. It is just so hard to imagine.

We are so excited to have them living in their new place. It is only a few minute walk from our place. Today was their first full day in their home. We invited them over today for lunch. We had so much fun having these girls and their mom over today. Here is a picture of the four girls and mom, Jalayne, and Jenna and Chaelle before we walked them back to their place.

Having these girls with us today made us so excited for when we will have a house full of them here with us. We are so excited and praying for God to direct us to the girls he wants to live with us.

Please pray that God will direct us to the girls he wants to live with us. We feel very strongly that the girls who live with us need to be truly orphaned or abandoned. It is so hard to find girls in that situation, but we just don't feel like God called us here to take in girls who already have families. Pray for wisdom and direction in this decision. Thank you all who have been praying for us, came to visit, and who read our blog and continue to follow what has been happening with us. We are so encouraged by everyone and so blessed to have awesome friends and family who lift us up regularly in prayer!

finished products

2010-06-12T08:44:00.010-04:00

This week has been incredible. So much was accomplished and more of the orphanage is looking like a home :)

The bedrooms are officially finished and ready for the first girls to crawl into these beds! I couldn't help myself, we had to put sheets on one of the beds just to see how darn cute they'd be! We're praying it's not too long before we can tuck a girl into bed here :)

Our dining room has been transformed! Benches to sit on, artwork, and a pantry that fits all our food that was on the floor and folding tables and pretty much anywhere else in here. I LOVE this room now !

Natalie writing Psalm 34:8 on the wall...

All finished...

And our fabulous pantries...

They even decorated the backs of them for us with a little love..

Finished shelves in the girls' bathroom....

And a nice cabinet to cover up our electrical boxes....

I'm sure I've missed some of the things on here. This group did SO much for us ! It looks great here and I am enjoying taking it all in this morning :)

We are so thankful for a home church that supports us so much. Thank you for giving your time and resources to encourage us so much this week. We love and appreciate you !

no slackers allowed

2010-06-10T15:35:00.011-04:00

I think this must be the motto of this group, because they are crankin out the projects each day! We are definitely reaping major benefits from many perfectionists on this team :)

While you've been going about your days...I have been enjoying days that feel like Christmas yet once again!

Check out all our new goodies...

Screen doors upstairs and down! goodbye mosquitos....

benches for our dining room and shelves that will go in girls' bathroom....

Bunks all ready to go! stained and varnished...

and cupboards for our dining room :)

We had a special thing happen this afternoon. Our friend Evelyn who has been living in a tent since the earthquake decided that it was time to go back home. Home is a building she hasn't been in for almost 5 months now. Thankfully, her home was not badly damaged in the earthquake, but she has been too afraid to live there since. However, with all the rains lately and simply missing a home, she has decided to move back. Our group helped her move back in and spent time in prayer for her and her home, and ended our time together singing hymns. It was so neat to see and experience this. Here's Evelyn happy to be walking back into her home. Thank you, Lord!

and here's us sitting together at dinner tonight...on our new benches!

better by the day

2010-06-08T21:52:00.006-04:00

Today was awesome! SO much was accomplished...

Getting the outside of Josie and Jenna's house painted to match ours :)

Staining and beginning to varnish all the bunks...

Benches are being made for our dining room table...

and shelving is being made all throughout the orphanage. This is the BEST!

More pictures to come as our own edition of HGTV makeovers continue.

We all worked like crazy today and were ready for bed early tonight :)

cgc team has arrived :)

2010-06-07T21:55:00.002-04:00

A group from our home church in Indiana just arrived this afternoon! We had a bit of drama today at our mission house with the pump not working. But, thankfully it was able to be fixed shortly after they arrived. We were able to enjoy dinner with them tonight at our house and then took them back to the mission house where they can get some much needed sleep! They have been traveling since 3 this morning.

Please, pray for our week and that lots more would be accomplished and that we would be safe and have fun while doing so!

goodbye ugliness !

2010-06-04T17:17:00.002-04:00

I dedicate this picture to all those who have been drenched in sweat and sore from sun burn as you've worked so hard to help get our yard in shape to plant grass.

You have made today possible. A green yard is in the making. OOohhhh yeah !!

Can't wait until a bunch of little girls are running around here !

p.s. yes, those men did squat like that to plant the grass for about 8 hours today. I don't know how they do it. But, am thankful they did!

putting on the miles...and pounds!

2010-06-01T12:13:00.012-04:00

So the update is a bit late...but our internet was down over the weekend. So I guess that's how I'll justify it. But, we spent Friday and Saturday out traveling :) Sunday was pretty much spent trying to help our bodies heal from the hours spent driving on "roads" if that's what you want to call them. Talk about back ache. I have never been so thankful for road crews in all my life.

Friday we left to visit Au Cadet. This is the home of Jesper and his brother Willer.

They have been an amazing help to us over the past weeks, helping us get our yard ready to plant grass! Woohoo :) His family lives in a place on the mountain that is about a 45 minute walk from the nearest road. So, it is a very poor area there. CFM has a church in Au Cadet as well, so we decided to spend the day visiting Jesper and Willer's home, and the people of CFM's church.

After a long, sometimes 5 mile per hour drive up the mountain, we made it!

This is a depot for CFM's church that was started being built in January I think it was. Thankfully, when the earthquake passed this held strong for the most part. Only the left wall fell.

This one's for you, dad. I ran into a fellow farmer there and was just shootin the breeze with him for a bit ;) He now knows all about you and your crops! haha.

We were able to give rice, beans, sandals, toothbrushes and toothpaste to church members, and others in the community. Children on the left, Adults on the right. Thank you to everyone who's given time to load containers, donated items and money, etc. Everyone is grateful for you and your generosity.

Hinch was our destination on Saturday.

Jenna's sister, Jolaine, just had a baby boy at the beginning of last week. Not sure if you remember, but Jolaine and her husband Didi were one of the couples staying at our house after the earthquake because their home collapsed in it. They are currently in the process of building a new home. Well, Jolaine went to live with an aunt of hers in Hinch because they have a nice hospital there until the baby came. Didi works here in Port-au-prince so he was not able to be there when Jolaine had their baby boy. Four days had went by and he still didn't have a way to see them! So, Jared and I decided we needed to help him see his new baby boy and that we would take a trip with Josie, Jenna, and Didi to see them :)

When we arrived, I was greeted at the door by Jolaine who hasn't seen me since March. As soon as she saw me she exlaimed, "Jalayne, you're big! You're fat! I am so happy to see you like this!" I was cracking up. If only all women in the world reacted like that to a spare tire hanging around your waste! haha. And if only we could all take it as a compliment... lol. I guess the rice sticks to ya...literally.

Here's Jolaine with her then 4 day old baby boy... Terry Oliver...something (I don't know there last name. lol)

She explained the whole delivery and labor to me. Let's just say if you're a woman...be thankful you've given birth in the States.

After lunch, some of their family took Jared and I to a waterfall nearby. It was gorgeous!

There were even caves at the top of the mountain that we walked/slipped/hiked to. lol. It's hard to hike in chinsy 2 dollar flip flops! hahah. I shouldv'e thought that one through a bit better...

While we were in the caves all these "birds" were flying over our heads. Thats what they called them. But no one will convince me that they weren't a bunch of ugly little bats circling our heads. Talk about heart attack.

There were tunnels you could see throughout the cave. We were told they were built by the slaves years ago. They said the one here goes through to the Dominican Republic, and that there are these caves all over Haiti that take you throughout the country. Interesting, huh?! I'm just not willing to crawl into these tunnels to see if it's true...

It started pouring rain as we were out so we were drenched by the end of the day. But, it was such a fun day ! :)

We were thankful to see some other parts of Haiti besides the city. But, oddly enough it felt good to be home on Sunday in the city and back to the noise and traffic. I guess you could say we're adjusting :)

photo update

2010-05-25T20:10:00.012-04:00

Last week's group has left, but they were here just long enough to spend their last day helping us unload another container! It was quite the drama getting it here, but it finally arrived. Because it was a 40 foot container, there was no way to get it to our home. (We live down a street that a semi has no hope of getting to). So, our neighbors were gracious enough to let us bring the semi into their yard and back it up to our wall!

Here is Jared on our make-shift staircase up to the container.

It was a miracle that it made it here...check out the back tires...or should I say lack of...that were driven on for 2+ hrs. just like that the whole way here!

Jared's aunt Ruby had made Valentine's cookies for all the boys' at the orphanage and sent them down here to see if they would make it okay. Well, Ruby.... I think these pictures answer your question quite clearly !! hahah!

If only we could have got them out of port sooner...

We were so thankful to see this finally here....

A brand-new dining room table that will easily fit all the girls someday!

Our bunks bed are officially here! They are so perfect. They were even big enough for Eric to take a quick nap in :)

Here's the brilliant man who designed our bunks...

And a few pics from the group playing with the boys' at the orphanage...

Smitty (the one in the middle) wanted this picture because these three boys are brothers, and they thought it was so cool to have their picture taken with Jared and two of his brothers.

We had a great week with everyone and Jared and I are now getting our house organized again and are spending some time distributing food and clothes from the container this week and next.

We hope everyone is enjoying the Haitian temperatures we hear you are all having at home now !! :)

the Lord reigns

2010-05-20T21:58:00.003-04:00

Today has been a long and great day.

I was able to enjoy a wonderful day at the beach with the group that is here. While Jared and his uncle Rich were able to go to St. Marc and make great progress with the two containers that have been sitting in their port for over two months now. Praise God!

Long story short...the container is being driven into our neighbors yard as I type, allowing it to be ready to unload tomorrow.

Tonight the group here spent time with us praying over our building and its surroundings. It is such a beautiful thing to hear praises being said, shouted out to God all over our home and yard. It was such a wonderful feeling to claim this place for Christ again tonight with our friends here. I could do this every night. If you want to feel a glimpse of heaven in your home...invite your friends over and just pray for each other. Over your homes. Over your neighbors. Over your lives. Ask and rejoice that it is God's and he is using it for his purposes.

Of course, while we were doing this, it ticked off Satan to hear the Lord's name be praised. To see us coming together in unity to pray. And of course, him being the complete idiot he is tried to distract us with a phone call saying that the driver of the container wasn't able to pass through a town, because it was being held there for some reason. After getting together with the group and praying, Jared drove there only to find that things had been cleared up already and the driver was on his way here. There was just "confusion" before. Thank you, Lord, for bringing that clarity!

"The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice." Psalm 97:1

better than HGTV

2010-05-18T15:59:00.011-04:00

I feel like I have won a total home makeover for the past two weeks! This is the best.

Our weed field has disappeared and is looking more and more like a yard each day, fresh paint is making the rooms feel more at home, fans are installed and keeping the place much cooler! And one of the best parts...the girls' bedrooms are looking just like that, with brand-new bunks!

Thank you to Bethel College and to Eric for putting together fundraisers to raise money for these beds. They are awesome! (And of course, thank you, Allen. The master-mind behind the bunks.)

We can't wait to tuck some cute little girls into bed here....

Drawers that will be installed under each bed...
And Linds...this is for you. He has been trying to show off all week. Wish you were here so I could hear all your witty comments to this! haha Only kidding Seth, you are a wonderful brother! And I'm glad you're the one moving these blocks and not me, because this is where this nasty tarantula was found last week. Or did we forget to tell you that?!

The never ending job of getting rid of rubble and weeds.
Please, pray for the team as they are here. They are working so hard and it is HOT! Pray for their health and protection. And please, say a prayer for our friends that just left. We have heard that many of them aren't feeling too hot. :( . Not a part of Haiti that I was hoping they would leave with...

More of my better than HGTV home makeover to come :) ...

Round 2

2010-05-16T21:32:00.003-04:00

Our friends left yesterday and we miss them already! (Thank you guys for an awesome week and for encouraging us :) We are so thankful for you...)

We are able to spend another week with a new group that came in today! All 19 are here safely and will help us make bunk beds, among other projects, this week. We cannot wait to see bunks in the future girls' rooms. And now 2 of Jared's brother are here so I know there will be no dull moments this week! haha

Also, a quick update on Bernard. Last week Jared was able to take him to Handicap International again for a consultation where they took measurements of his foot to begin the process of his prosthetic. We are SO glad to be at this point in the process, as is Bernard! Praise God for his healing and goodness !

a different perspective

2010-05-12T20:22:00.005-04:00

We are having a great week with our friends! They are so into being over-achievers it's ridiculous! They have created their own blog to tell about their experience with us this week. Enjoy how fabulous their pictures are.. (our friend Andrew is a brilliant photographer)... I thought it would be fun for you guys to read about our week through the thoughts of our friends that are here with us !

Enjoy reading here:

www.operationrestorehaiti.blogspot.com

one step closer !

2010-05-09T21:11:00.003-04:00

"The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made." Psalm 145:9

God has been so good to us over the past days. Some friends of ours arrived yesterday to help us get some work done this week. We are looking forward to having fun with them while being productive!

Yesterday morning was a huge answer to prayer. We were able to meet with 14 women and interview them for work here! We have been struggling to find women who would be a good fit for the orphanage, and now we have more than enough to choose from.

Some of our friends here are changing direction a bit in their ministry, and will no longer have work for these women...who were previously all helping take care of children! Perfect now, for us :)

Thank you for praying for God to bring workers to us! He has definitely answered that prayer. Now, we ask that you would join us in praying for wisdom as we decide who the best will be to work here. And, that God would bless all the other women as well that we can't hire with work elsewhere.

We are so excited about how encouraging it was to interview these women. Praise God with us for his goodness and compassion !

a few more photos

2010-05-04T22:04:00.006-04:00

Part of our day was spent at the market again buying church clothes and school schools for these boys. What I love about how many times we have been there now, is that we always go to the same people, and they don't even bother negotiating the price with us any more. They know we will only pay a certain amount and that it's not worth the "turn our backs if the price to too high" show anymore...so it is much less drama to go shopping!

Nosbert... Mr. Sophisticated

Eliphef....he was posing like crazy for us this afternoon!
Ricardo.... too cool to smile...
And Ben...sweet as can be!
Thank you everyone who made donations back at Christmas for these outfits. The boys LOVE shopping for them and wear them with pride. Perhaps even a bit too much at times! :)

happy shoppers !

2010-05-02T20:26:00.005-04:00

Can you recognize this gentleman all dressed up for school...and without his crutches? Bernard said goodbye to his crutches and is doing great! We are going with him on Wednesday to work with Handicap International to get an insert made for his shoe which will help him walk with even more ease :)

If you remember, before the earthquake we started taking the boys' shopping for a new church outfit, and shoes for school. Well...that has been on hold for about the past three months. And trust me, the boys had reminded us of it almost every day we saw them for those past months!

Finally, we are back at it :) Here is Jacque with his new outfit...
Jerry happily posing for you....
Jeanhibert...
and Justene...
We had so much fun. It was nice to be able to do this again with them, and we look forward to a little more shopping again this week :)