Visiting Compassion

Our final day in Haiti we visited one of the Compassion International Projects in Port Au Prince. It was amazing to visit after having sponsored Compassion Children for almost 8 years. It was a place of joy, laughter, and hope. The kids had just finished their school day and were very interested to see the Blan (white people) that showed up. My favorite thing to learn was that they have extra-curricular activities on Saturdays, including guitar and art classes. We were able to purchase some paintings that the students had done and the money from the painting went back to the student who created it so they can purchase more art supplies. The kids were beautiful and I'm so happy we were able to experience Compassion.

Real Life

Our last night at the Rescue Center we met this family. It was a strange moment because I've read stories about families that are struggling just to put food in their bellies. I've read blogs about them. I've tried to imagine what it would be like to be in their situation.
I just haven't ever seen it in real life.

These cuties are Ronel (7 years old weighs 28.5 pounds), Marie-Lange (2.5 years old weighs 13.4 pounds) and Wideline (6 years old and wieghs 26 1/4 pound). Wideline was at the Rescue Center when we arrived and had been there about 2 weeks.

Mom and Dad look so solemn in this picture (still not sure why Haitians don't smile for pictures ;) ), but they were so smiley and friendly in real life. When we met the oldest child, we thought that she was a HE, only because of how she was dressed, but realized the next morning that we were wrong. That was a bit of a surprise. When Mom came up to talk to me I was able to communicate that I have 5 kids and that I thought her baby was so cute. Then I realized that she was visably pregnant. WOW- was all I could think. I can't even imagine how overwhelmed they must feel.
I've had 2 "unexpected" children and it totally threw us for a loop. I can't imagine struggling to find food and then knowing you will soon have another mouth to feed. Plus it's dangerous for the baby that is still nursing and still needs breast milk so badly. So many things to overcome.

Lori took Marie-Lange upstairs when they first arrived. It was so hard to see her frail little body standing there. Her older sister told Licia they hadn't eaten anything all day. This was about 8pm. Can you imagine?

Her legs are swollen from lack of protein. Her bones are showing from lack of food. Hard to imagine that this is real life for them. My heart hurt for her and for her family and for every other family that is struggling just to eat.

This is how Ronel looked when she arrived.
It was tough to tell she was a girl. ;)
She was happy to have some cookies from Licia and she was quietly talking to their homeschool teacher, Anna.

This is Ronel the next morning. I hate seeing the hopelessness in her eyes. BUT it was amazing to see the after effect of all the kids that came into the center with the same look on their face and now they are smiling and gaining weight. I can't wait to see pictures of her and her family as they grow and find hope again.

Wideline's legs are still recovering from the kwashiorkor.

You can see every little bone. :(

Marie-Lange, the morning we left the RC.

After 2 weeks, Wideline still had moments when you could see she didn't feel well...

...and she was still so tiny and weak.
(at this point she lost a lot of her water weight and everything about her was tiny.)

But we started to see glimmers of happy.

Glimmers of hope.

And WE have hope that her sisters will be smiling soon too and that Real Life for them won't be such a struggle.

Back To School

I remember coming back from Russia and Africa that it takes awhile to "detox." Everything seems different and strange when you return and the contrast between extreme poverty and the wealth we have here is almost too much to take. For some reason this morning was when it hit me that I'm back in the U.S. Busy rushing around and driving my girls to their beautiful school building in my nice heated car. It's just strange. It made me think of the school building we visited in Cazale. This is the room for the 4th graders. Kids squeeze as close as they can to fit on these benches and eagerly learn with huge hope for a bright future. I wish kids in America could see this classroom and the desire to learn in the Haitian children, so they could see how MUCH they have and be thankful for it. I know this is just a day to settle back in to my reality. The U.S. is not reality....just my reality. My head is reeling with so many things. The thing I know for sure is that I'm going to use the experiences I had in Haiti to do whatever I can to make sure those kids in Haiti have hope for their future. They have so much joy right now and I don't want to see that EVER go away.

I will be posting a lot more about our time in Haiti soon.
So much to share yet.

We're Home

Just wanted to let everyone know we are home. We are really missing the kids and Haiti, but happy to be back with our families and home safe. I'll be posting a lot more about our trip in the near future. Thanks for following our adventure!

New Cloth Diapers For The Babies

A group from Northwest Iowa made cloth diapers for the babies out of donated T-shirts. They are colorful and adorable and they looked so cute on the babies.

Visitor

I bet none of you have this in YOUR kitchen right now. ;)

Lunch Time

Cupcake Crayon and Sticker Fun

Not much time to write, but wanted to at least get some photos up. I'm excited to be able to share more when I'm home, but for now at least you get photos. :)

We got to snuggle lots of kids today (the first pic is me holding the little guy with the really swollen legs and feet. He is just too cute to not hold. Can you believe he is six years old?) and we helped in the clinic again (got to experience some interesting and somewhat gory medical things again, and I actually enjoyed it!) and we got to play with the Cupcake Crayons and stickers we brought. Licia explained to the Nannies what they were. REALLY wish I spoke Creole. I'm determined to learn before we come back again.

Here are some pics and hopefully I'll get one more post in with more pics. Tomorrow is our last day. We all miss our families but it is going to be very hard to say goodbye to these guys.

Cuteness and more...

We got up really early this morning to see the line of people that had been waiting, some since yesterday afternoon, to get into clinic today. Some people walk 8 hours or more to get here. Many sleep outside to save their spot in line. Last night we saw people making beds out of cardboard and garbage to sleep on outside the gate. Lots of people had babies and young children with them. I hope this would make anyone never complain about having to wait at the doctor's office or about our healthcare in general. I'm pretty sure NO ONE in America has ever walked 8 hours and then slept outside the doctor's office to make sure they could get help!

Everyone gets a number so they know when their appointment is and then the clinic nurses work all day long to make sure everyone is seen. I actually got to assist in some pretty interesting medical things today. I'll post more about that later.

Can't remember his name, but come on???? How can you resist that face??? If you come experience Haiti at the Rescue center, THIS is the cuteness you have to look forward to.

This is Nickenson. He stays with Licia's sons' homeschool teacher so he can gain weight and get meds because he is HIV positive. He's almost a year old. Everyone was excited because he gained 4 ounces this week. Every little bit counts.


Fritz is new in the clinic (10 years old) and is severely malnourished and had 3 sibling that passed away. He has an awesome quirky sense of humor and has been fun to get to know. He came on a long walk with us through Cazale tonight.

I've posted this guys photo in the posts before this, but I wanted to show what severe kwashiorkor looks like. His has actually improved in the last 2 days, but his legs and feet are so swollen and his skin is starting to break down. He's sitting on my lap in this picture and he always wants one of us to hold him. He just melts into you and it's SO hard to put him down. He's about the size of a 2 year old, but his parents said he's six. His vocabulary is like a six year old, but he's so tiny it's hard to believe. I'm guessing the malnutrition has just stunted his growth that bad. When he's not in severe pain from the swelling (then he quietly wimpers and it breaks your heart) he has the biggest smile and wants to play SO bad. He's the little guy in the post before that was playing soccer. So stinkin' cute!

Deny, who's portrait we did for Artist For Hope, and some more cute kids.

This is Johnny. Pronounced John-EE in Creole.

This little guy has the same personality and cheeks as my youngest daughter. I miss her, so I've been loving on this cutie instead. Most of the time there are about 3 or more kids trying to get you to pick them up or climb in your lap. It really doesn't get much better than that. I'm so thankful for the Rescue Center and all they do for these kids!

Mamba time!

We went to market today. This is the meat counter.
Just like Hyvee, aye? ;)

Lots of kids eating dinner. Some of the kids are still wearing their pipe cleaner creations we made yesterday. :) The green bowls are ones we brought down in the crates.

This little guy was admitted into the Rescue Center today. He's in the beginning stage of kwashiorkor and was running a high fever. We watched the process of how he was admitted into the RC and talked about what would happen next.

This little girl, Elna, is one we've been snuggling with the past several days and she was able to go home today. She was SO happy with her Mommy and a new baby doll.