Wow!! Time has flown by!

Wow!! I cannot believe that it is Tuesday already!  It seems like I just got here a couple days ago.  I have been keeping busy with the kids and helping Tina with whatever she needs help with.


Friday July 15
     Thursday night I met up with Cory Nichols and a team of 24 in Fort Wayne at the Envision Life Center to catch a ride with them up to Detroit.  My dad ran into some of the team two weeks before when he was at Sam's Club; they were outside selling car wash tickets to raise money for their trip to Haiti!!  He talked to them and found out that they were also flying out of Detroit on Friday.  Dad gave them my name and got a few of their names so I could look them up on facebook.  I heard from Cory about a week before I would be leaving and I asked him about his mission and if they might have enough room for one more.  Come to find out they were on the same flight out of Detroit as me!! AND they had room for one more :)  God works in amazing ways!
    The flight out of Detroit was delayed by about an hour, which made me nervous because of my short amount of time I had for layover in Miami as it was.  We ended up landing at 11:30 (my flight was at 12:15) so I had just enough time to catch the SkyTram, ride it over to my stop to meet Chuck at the gate at about 5 til noon, just in time to board the plane!  The airport in Port au Prince was complete chaos since 3 planes landed at practically the same time!  We drove up a mountain in PAP to Pastor Roro's cousin's house (she is a doctor) and stayed the night so we could meet the team from Brazil, Indiana at the airport on Saturday.  This was their third day without power so we had to shower out of a bucket...and wouldn't you know it that not quite two hours later the power came back on!  There was the cutest little three year old girl living there that Chuck and I had the chance to play with.  I have some really adorable pictures of her wearing my sandals that I will have to put up here sometime soon.


Saturday July 16
     We woke up early and had breakfast because we had to go back down the mountain to look for transformer parts in PAP for Tina before picking the team up at the airport.  We had to hurry because all of the stores that had the parts closed between 11:30 and noon.  We waited for the team to land and loaded them up in the bus for the four hour ride through PAP and over mountains to get to Tina's.  We stopped along the side of the road to buy a big bunch of bananas and some mangos for later.  I was soo excited to get to the house and see Tina and the kids!!


Sunday July 17
     Sunday was much like the Sunday I was here in May-we went to church for 3 hours and then went to the beach after lunch with some of the kids.  I sat by Immaculun in church and her sister Malina sat on my lap part of the time and on Immaculun's the other part of the time.  I helped Tina make lunch-our special macaronin and cheese, hotdogs, baked beans, and bread.  It was super yummy :)  We were not able to take as many kids as we would have liked because some of the kids had mumps and some were still getting over them.  Tina told me which girls I will be taking care of once Jessica and I move into the Family Life Center:  Mary Stanley-13 yrs, Immaculun-11 yrs, Sherlee-6 yrs, Christna-5 1/2 yrs, Malina (Immaculun's sister)-2 1/2 yrs, Annika-17 months, and Naomi-8 months.  I got the chance to talk to the team members and learn about them more.  They are a really neat bunch of people.


Monday July 18
     Today Deb and Lynn went with Tina and me to the school for the Formula Program.  We saw a decent amount of parents today, but not as many as Tina has seen because today was just a formula day.  Naomi took a nap in my lap <3 she is such a little sweetheart!  We went into Jacmel to the hospital to check on Tina's newest baby, Jocelyn, and had a small heart attack because the baby was not there!  The nurse said that she just sent the baby home with Madame Charles so we stopped at the pharmacy to pick up formula for her and went home to see her.  Today was the team's first day at the construction site.  They are helping at Greg's future house where he will be moving with the boys.  They are also helping pour cement at the houses for the elderly.


Tuesday July 19
     Tina gave me a new job last night. I am in charge of giving all the kids their vitamins and any other medication they may need.  I played upstairs with the babies this morning and held Naomi a bunch.  She is starting to try to crawl; she gets down on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth but hasn't quite figured it out yet.  I started to not feel well at lunch today so I didn't eat much.  I went to bed thinking I was just tired.  The team came back from their workday and I was still in bed and my stomach hurt.  I got sick and Tina and Chuck both said they thought I was probably dehydrated.  So Tina put this electrolyte stuff in my water and I tried to drink as much as I could.


Wednesday July 20
     I got up this morning and gave the kids their vitamins and then I went back to bed after the team left for the worksite.  I stayed in bed until about lunch time and Andreline made me some bouillon like the night before and I ate some crackers with it.  Mark stayed home today too because he was not feeling well and was more than likely dehydrated.  After an afternoon nap I was starting to feel better so I went with the team to go see Charlotte at the tent city and then we went to her shop.


Thursday July 21
     I woke up feeling much better today.  Gave the kids their vitamins...I have to be mindful of who I have already given them to because they will line up wanting another one! haha  I spent most of the day playing with the kids upstairs. Took some pictures that I will be getting up here soon.  Once the team came home for the day we all went swimming and then we came home to homemade pizza baked by Andreline!!  It was so yummy!


Friday July 22
     I woke up feeling like myself. :) Yay!!  After eating breakfast, giving the kids their vitamins and getting around, I went into town with Tina. 

My Friend In Haiti

Hi, this is Charles better known in Haiti as Chuckie. I wanted to take some time to first thank all of you that have supported Mary and her adventures in Haiti. The Lord is calling her to do His work in Haiti and she is following Him. Second I wanted to let you know how much of a blessing she has already been to Damou and all the people in Haiti she has come in contact with. She has done all that has been asked of her and more and is already taking on tasks that will free up Tina and Jessica. Her loving personality and hard work will be much needed in the months to come.
Please continue to pray for her and the decisions she has to make in the future. Pray that she will see that she is needed here and ask for God's to put her plans here in Haiti for some time to come.
God bless all of you and I hope to see all of you in Haiti!!!!!

Back in Haiti!!

Well, I am back in Haiti!!  I will post more tomorrow, but I wanted to get something up here for everyone to prove that I'm alive and well in Cyvadier, Haiti :) GoogleMap of Tina's House  In this link you will see the private beach on the left side of the map where we swam almost every day when I was here in May and I will be swimming there often while I am living here.  On the right side of the screen you can see a rectangular house-that's Tina's house, the Family Life Center!!  There are 30 children currently living here. Tomorrow I will fill you in on Tina's plan for the Family Life Center :)  I have to get to bed now so I can help with Tina's formula program at the school in the morning.

The 'Short' Version of My Experiences in Haiti in May 2011

           I had some life-changing experiences when I was in Haiti and my heart was broken while I was there.  This is the short version (haha!) of my experiences while I was in Haiti and how I responded in turn.

            For one week I lived with my team members at an orphanage that housed 25 children and is run by Tina and her niece Jessica.  The construction team completed a house in the Village of Hope that will house a few elderly people.  The medical team, which I was a part of, worked at Pastor Roro’s medical clinic in Peredo.  I had the opportunity to help with Tina’s formula program, which provides one can of formula a week to families in need of assistance.

            Day 3 at the medical clinic began just like the day before:  Dr Jim, Dr Randy and the two Haitian doctors were in patient rooms, Laura was taking people’s blood pressure and talking with them as they waited to see a doctor, Diane was with Okie and his dental team in the dental clinic room, Destiny and his optometry team were in the eye clinic room, and Erin and I were with Marie, the Haitian nurse, in the pharmacy filling prescriptions. We were caught up with prescriptions and I wanted to take some pictures, so I walked around the clinic for a little bit.  I came out of the dental clinic after observing Diane assisting Okie pulling out a girl’s molar and went to the pharmacy to talk to Erin.  Instead, I found Erin outside of the pharmacy feeding formula to a teeny tiny little baby using a syringe.  I found out that the mom, Cristella, had walked 2 hours from her home in the mountains to bring her 18 day old baby to the clinic because she knew it was his only chance of surviving.  Her husband was a victim of the cholera epidemic and passed just less than a month before Josiah was born.  He was the main breadwinner and without him Cristella surely had a hard enough time feeding her 2 other children, ages 1 and 5, let alone herself.  Without getting the proper nutrition she was unable to produce milk and could not feed her baby.  She asked Tina if she would take care of Josiah because she knew that it was his only chance to survive.  Tina agreed to take Josiah and he became the 26^th child at the orphanage.

            This really opened up my eyes to the extreme poverty that so many people are living in.  It made me want to do something, anything, to help.  So that is why I am returning to Haiti on July 15^th to live in the orphanage.  I will be helping Tina and Jessica take care of the kids.  I may also help out with the formula program and with mission teams who come and stay at the house.  I am unsure of what exactly God has planned for me when I get down there but I am putting my complete trust in Him.  I also do not know how long I will be staying there but am thinking 4-6 months.

            I have to pay $200 a month for food and housing in addition to my airfare.  Fortunately my church has been able to provide for me financially.  So all I am asking is for your prayers and support as I follow God’s plan!