And Life In Haiti Goes On...

(Dixie's Blog)

Last updated:8 February 2010

8 February 2010 12 Noon

I finally made it from my bed to my chair.  I have been so sick since Sunday morning!  I think it is some sort of flu.  I was up at 7 AM on Sunday morning.  About 9 AM, I became dizzy and nauseated and thought maybe it was because I had not eaten since I got up.  I am a breakfast person and I need to eat right after I wake up or I feel a little sick.  So I ate a piece toast and I was a little better than.  I did not go to church but I sat in my chair most of the day.  Then last night I was sick all night!  I am still really sick with flu like symptoms. 

I very seldom get this sick but I think the stress has just caught up with me.  We had another aftershock on Saturday night about 11 PM.  I do not see it registered on different web sites but it shook my bed and the rest of our staff says it shook their beds too!  I thought my stomach might be upset from worrying about the aftershocks!  But I think it is more than that.

So I called Magalie up to my room this morning an gave her a list of things that need to be done today.  She is making sure those things get done and also lots of biological parents are here today asking for information about their children who have left.  They are also picking up packets of relief supplies.

Please pray for me today that this flu will end today!  I do better when I can keep busy down in my office!  I do not do well sitting or laying upstairs thinking about what I SHOULD be doing downstairs!!!!

6 February 2010 8 PM

We received a 3 month old baby girl today who has a malformation of her legs just like our baby, Daphnee, who went to the USA for treatment had.  I wonder why this sort of birth defect is so common in Haiti?   It is not just club feet.  It is a congenital malformation of the legs from the knees to the feet!  Now, from the knees up, she looks normal although there may be a problem with the thighs too.  It is hard to know without Xrays!  She is a beautiful baby girl who is big and strong.  She raises her head up and looks around and is very bright and alert to what is going on around her. 

The mom is young and says the father died in the earthquake.  She says she is living outside and cannot care for the baby, Jerrensia.  She brought her for adoption.

We also heard that IBESR is taking dossiers of children who were proposed before the earthquake.  We have a couple of dossiers that fit this category and will be turning them in next week.

A new head judge of the Civil Court responsible for signing adoption decrees was supposedly named on Friday.  I have not heard who will be assigned to this position but this does mean that we can get the adoption decrees signed for those families, especially my French families, who cannot take their children home until they receive this paper.  This is very good news for them!

We are planning on bringing in lots of supplies to Haiti.  We have two cargo planes coming next weekend from Miami and John is out in Colorado preparing 2 forty foot cargo containers of donated items!  We have 200 tents, blankets, baby formula, diapers, food items, etc.  We will hand out things as soon as they arrive because the rainy season is coming soon and we want people to be in tents.

Molly and Joyce made a run to the grocery store for me today.  They went after our meat order for the kitchens.  It seems that there is no fresh meat at the store!  I do not know what we will do for hot dogs, chicken, beef, and pork next week.  I will probably have to go buy it in the street market!  This is the problem we will have in Haiti.  Much of our chicken is imported and food items like that are not getting to our markets.  I used to buy meat from street vendors and will do it again if I have to!

Will post photos of little Jerrinsia tomorrow.  I forgot to bring them upstairs with me tonight.

6 February 2010

Yesterday, I had to make a difficult decision.  We had 24 nannies for 18 children at the main house and 10 nannies for 3 children at the Toddler House.  Having more nannies than children, you would think the children would be well looked after and every need they had more than met by the care givers but that is not the case.  We have found that with all of these extra nannies, they sit and talk more or lay on their beds depressed.  The children are crying and not being held as much as they need to be.  So the decision was to lay off 20 staff members at the main house and 15 staff members from the Toddler House. 

Not one person complained.  They all knew it was probably coming and I truly think many are thankful to be going home to help their families to clean up and get settled.  We have offered to pay them half salary for now and pray that this is a short term problem.

I continue to contact organizations that I know may need short term placement of children to see if they need somewhere for children to stay.  Pray for our workers and pray that God will send children to GLA that need care.

We received 11 children along with their care givers from Children of the Promise in Cap Haitian. They are waiting on traveling papers for the children to travel to the USA.  They had thought to come to PAP with the kids and fly out to the States with them immediately, but the US embassy said it could be a week before they get the traveling papers.  Since we have so many empty beds, they are staying with us for a few days.

hopefully, we will find more ways to help children even if it is not exactly the way we are used to doing!

5 February 2010 8 AM

This morning a large cry of joy was heard throughout the orphanage and neighborhood!  Charline is a little 7 year old girl who was separated from her parents after the earthquake when she was taken to the Navy Comfort Hospital ship in the Port-au-Prince harbor.  Today, her father came to take her home! 

Charline is a very smart little girl.  She knew her whole name and the names of her mother and father.  She also knew the name of her school and church.  We went to the church and put posters of her photo and information all around the church.  We also went to a couple of radio stations and asked her family to call us!  Two days later, the papa called and was very happy to know that Charline was safe and well.

Charline has made so many friends while with us.  Everyone  loves her and a different language is no barrier where her personality is concerned!  She laughs infectiously and makes us all giggle and laugh with her! 

We gave papa a relief aid packet of a tarp, blankets, lamp, towels and rice and sent them on their way to reunite with Charline’s mother and brothers.  We were very happy to see the joy on her face when she saw her papa and was able to leave with him!

 

4 February 2010  11 PM

I cannot seem to get caught up!  When one thing is done, another pops up for me to do.  Today, we finally got a container out of customs that has been there since November.  We are just so thankful that the container did not slip into the ocean when the port fell during the earthquake!

The container had lots of baby food and diapers in it.  Pastor Joel Trimble has a church that supports his ministry in upstate NY and they donated all of the items in the container.  It was very nice to get diapers and baby food which is something we can always use.  The container also had paper supplies such as paper towels and toilet paper.  These are all supplies that are a little difficult to find in Haiti right now.

Slowly but surely, our volunteers who came to Haiti right after the earthquake are going home.  Cheryl Vanderwell goes home tomorrow morning and we will really miss her a lot!  She has helped get supplies together to distribute to staff and family and worked with our staff nurse, Susan, caring for babies in the ICU.

GLA in the USA has decided to lease an office and warehouse space to move our offices out of a home office space.  I will let everyone know the new address as soon as we have the space leased.

We gave out supplies to all of the staff today.  They are so thankful to receive tents or tarps and blankets and other items to help them survive outside. 

No new children came today.  We will just keep praying that God sends the children that need help our way.

I need to go to bed since I must get up at 5:30 in the morning to let the night staff out the gate.  Talk to you tomorrow.

3 February 2010 7 PM

We received 4 children at GLA today.  Mothers living outside with no tents, canopies, or food and 3 of the children were babies -two born after the earthquake!  One of the babies is for adoption and three are for help only.  The mothers are afraid for their small babies living outside.  I told them that we would take the babies for a month and then would decide after that what was needed.  We have received 6 babies since 1st of February!

I have really been praying about the problem with UNICEF. When I was downtown today, I talked to other schools and orphanages  and they are having problems with UNICEF representatives too.  It is like they have taken over in Haiti and appointed themselves as controllers of all activities for children!   But I have given this problem over to God.  I still feel some anger with them because of the injustice of having small children sleeping outside in poor conditions when there are orphanages that have empty beds waiting to take some children in, but I have given this over to God.  He does not need my help in getting these children out of the camps and into childcare facilities!  I have made everyone aware of the problem including UNICEF and IBESR staff.  Now, I will sit back and wait and see what they decide to do!

God never used UNICEF to fill the beds at GLA before and He does not need them now!  He is sending people in need to our gate every morning!  As the babies come in, we will do our best to care for them and keep them safe and healthy until their mothers can take them back with them again.  I almost said...back home...but most do not have a home anymore!

As I was driving downtown Monday with my workers, we passed the palace of justice and it is flat!  It was such a beautiful building and I said, "oh, how sad that such a beautiful building is gone in 40 seconds!"  One of my staff members answered, "Haiti has no justice and now the world will see that we truly have no justice!" 

The court clerk that works on our adoption documents was in Parquet doing work for GLA and was just returning to his office in the Palace of Justice when the earthquake hit!  His life was spared because he was not in his office.  My adoption worker told him that God was responsible for saving his life through the work he does for GLA!  Maybe his heart will be softer for the orphanages in Haiti now!

I find myself driving by buildings and wanting to jump out of the car and go up to them and yell, "Is anyone in there!", to see if anyone is alive inside!  I get something out of the refrigerator and think...oh, I bought that at Caribbean Market, which collapsed in the earthquake.  In my mind, I can walk up and down the aisles and see the faces of people that worked there and are dead now.  I cannot say that I am afraid.  I do not fear dying.  But now that I am have a chance to slow down just a little bit, I am able to process all that has happened in the last 3 weeks and I think of 200,000 people dead and it is overwhelming!  Please pray for all of us who were here during the earthquake and who have worked so hard since then trying to help the wounded and the homeless.  I truly think it is just now starting to hit us how much of Haiti was affected by this earthquake!

3 February 2010 9:30 AM

John and Steeve left on a plane last night at midnight!  Flights are coming into Haiti 24/7 now. They should arrive in Colorado by 10 AM Colorado time and will begin working on getting two containers ready to come to Haiti.

As Laurie was driving home with a security guard, he was telling her that he had gone to Leogane, which is south of Port-au-Prince, yesterday during the day.  He told her that few doctors or AID Relief agencies had gone to Leogane.  He told her people are literally laying in the streets waiting to die!  How can that be?  Leogane is only an hour drive from Port-au-Prince.  Agencies are concentrating on PAP when the epicenter of the quake was closer to Leogane.  The people in Leogane are talking about how the earth just opened up and a deep crevice ran down the road and people fell in and then the earth closed back up!  Now they say that if someone is missing that the Earth ate them!  How sad is this?

Come on, UNICEF, SAVE the CHILDREN, US AID, and United Nations  groups!  Go help outside of Port-au-Prince!  Set up clinics and deliver aid relief to those in need!  The AID relief is not helping anyone sitting at the airport in Port-au-Prince.

2 February 2010

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31 January 2010

Friday afternoon in Miami, we decided to do a final run to a Super Walmart and buy some more blankets and tents and then load everything into trunks to ship it in.  I had to be back at the hotel by 7:30 PM because the limousine to take me to the Larry King taping was coming at 8 PM. 

If you know anything about Miami, you know that most Ave run east and west and Streets run North and South….or is it the other way around???  Anyway, as we are heading back from Super WalMart, someone who will remain anonymous (but it was not Joyce) accidentally put 7th Street into the GPS instead of 7th Avenue for the hotel address.  So we wandered all over Miami trying to find out way back to the hotel!  Finally, we realized our error when we arrived in a really run down area of Miami and it said we had arrived at our destination and we KNEW we were not in the right location!  So with about 10 minutes before 8 PM the anonymous person put the right address into the GPS and it said we were 18 minutes away from the hotel!  I got so tickled that I could not stop laughing!  Then I started coughing and everyone in the car was afraid I would have a choking episode while I was driving!   What a trip!  I arrived back at the hotel at 8:15 PM and I raced upstairs to my room, combed my hair, put blush on my cheeks, and raced to the CNN studio in Miami!  Then I waited for 50 minutes until it was my turn to talk!!!!  LOL

I wanted to debate with UNICEF!  I was talking but nobody could hear me!  UNICEF is putting all abandoned children in a tent city!  When we have a beautiful facility with Haitian and foreign nurses, a pediatrician and a general doctor on call, teachers, school, and 70 trained child care staff that can provide for them so much better than UNICEF!  I wrote one of the doctors that is responsible for the placement of the children and told him I was upset and he wrote me back that he would talk with his health team and get back to me tomorrow.  Why is UNICEF taking over Haiti’s abandoned children?  IBESR should be responsible for Haiti’s abandoned children.

We did receive Harry who is 10 years old and has a hurt left arm and left foot.  His home fell on him and he is separated from his mother.  He is laughing and funny already.  At first, he was very homesick and crying for his mother but he likes us now.  We are making inquiries about his mother and hope to find her soon.

Charlene is 7 years old and very smart!   She says her house fell on her and she has lots of cuts, scrapes, bruises, and a deep cut on her foot but it is not slowing her down at all! 

Jude is less than a month old.  He was abandoned by his mother on a dirt pile but she really did not abandon him because she stayed to watch if someone picked him up.  He was just a tiny baby and premature.  An American medical team that was in Haiti helping after the earthquake took him into their clinic and  cared for him.  They transferred him to GLA.  But the mother came back to the clinic and said she MIGHT want him back after he is bigger and healthier.  He had seizures when he first arrived at GLA, and we are sure he had an infection of some sort.  He received treatment and is doing better now.

We arrived home at 8 PM Saturday night.  We came with 28 trunks, 14 suitcases, and multiple boxes.  Today, the volunteers have unpacked the items and started sorting them into piles.  Tomorrow, we will start handing out the items to the staff who have lost their homes and also to the community around us that is still sleeping outside.  Callebasse and Kenscoff were hard hit also and we will try to get a list of names in that area who need some tarps, tents, blankets, and lanterns and see if we can help them out.

Tomorrow, I will go to the French Embassy and IBESR trying to find out what can be done for the French adoptions and for the abandoned children.  Pray for me as I run all over downtown tomorrow trying to get some answers.

29 January 12:10 PM

We went out and bought more blankets and supplies to take back to Haiti.  It took 6 shopping carts and 2 taxis to get it back to the hotel. We bought every blanket that we could find because our staff has told us that everyone is freezing sleeping on the groud and they need blankets. Today, I rented a van to go to other Walmarts stores to buy more blankets.  We will also go to Costco to get some food to take back with us.  We will return to Haiti on Saturday afternoon and then start handing out supplies on Monday.

Everyone is so nice to us.  We went to Dollar Rent-a-Car and the people at the counter did what they could to make our rental go smoothly.  We will return to Haiti on Vision Airlines again.  I do not know what we would have done without them during this crisis.  If they had not brought charters into Haiti, we would not have been able to take the American adopted children to Miami or have returned to Haiti with supplies.  Now, they are taking us back into Haiti after taking the adopted children into Canada  I could not have left if I had not know we could get back in!

As we left Canada, we went through securtiy in Toronto.  I had not been through security entering the USA since all of the trouble they had on the flight to Detroit.  It is WILD!  I feel sorry for anyone traveling to the USA.  It took 2 hours to get through the whole security line!!!  I was upset.  How many times has US born citizens been part of terrorists attacks on airlines?  So why do we have to be patted down, step on special mats that are checking for who knows what, and have our clothing and hands swabbed for explosives??  The lines were HUGE!!  We had 3 hours between planes and we needed that much time to make it through security! 

No Matter what the different countries do to make security better, the people who are crazy and try to get things on planes...will probably find a way.  And the rest of us will just be extremely inconvenienced! 

The different medical groups in Haiti are now calling for nurses instead of doctors.  They need nurses to help care for the patient that have had surgery or just with wounds. 

I am supposed to be making an appearanceon the Larry King Show on CNN tonight at 9 PM.  We will be talking about the displaced children and how to find their parents. 

 28 January 2010  8:50 AM

There are some things I keep forgetting to mention.  I am still trying to track down TETANUS vaccine!  You can probably imagine the problems with people being cut by the metal rods sticking up out of buildings.  These metal rusty bars are prime tetanus environment.  I cannot find anyone to donate the vaccines for the Haitian hospitals and clinics!  Please, help me find some vaccines.  If bought, they cost $30 per dose!  To me, that is ridiculous!  The cost seems too high when you can get DPT (diptheria, pertussis and tetanus) combination for about $18 per dose.  Does that make sense??

We are aso collecting items to ship to Haiti. See thes Haiti Relief page for new items needed.

We have received 2 children now from the Comfort Ship.  The little girl who came yesterday, knows her name and the school and church where she attends.  Ernst, our driver, went to the church today with her photo and the history that she knows about herself.  The pastor will announce her information on Sunday and we hope that her family will come respond and come to take her home.

We still have not found Harry's mother and are waiting for his mother to go to General Hospital inquiring about him.  We have given them a photo and his name and hope that we can find his mother soon.

Molly, Joyce, some of the other staff, and I traveled to Miami today.  We went shopping for tents, tarps, blankets, and other relief items to take back with us on Saturday.  It will be good to get back to Haiti and not have to leave again any time soon. 

 Laurie told me today that IBESR and UNICEF came to the orphanage yesterday asking about children that had been admitted since the earthquake.  They took names an photos and asked what we were doing about finding the parents of the children.  They then gave us a sticker to how that they had been there and we were cleared!  Cleared for what?  I do not know.  I have more to tell you all about today, but will blog more in the morning.  I need to get some sleep and rest.

27 January 2010

The Canadian Embassy in Haiti had told us that we could not fly on Tuesday or Wednesday.  They told us it might be Thursday before we flew to Canada with our 20 children being adopted by Canadian Citizens.  So, I went upstairs to take a nap and I think I may have slept 10 minutes when one of my workers came and told me the Canadian Embassy was on the phone.  Yep, you guessed it!  They wanted us to come right then with our 20 children to the Embassy and sleep there with the children and leave the next morning at 9 AM!  Now, why sleep there if we are not leaving until 9 AM?  Do any of us know why a government does the things they do???

They called at 2:45 PM and wanted us there by 5 PM.  Well, we got there by 6 PM!  It takes some time to get everything ready to travel with 20 children and enough things for 24 hours!

We slept at the Embassy.  All in one room.  I sat in a chair all night.  Needless to say, I'm tired right now!  We left the Embassy at 7:30 AM and went straight to the airport and boarded the plane.  The drive to the airport was sad.  down in that area there are lots of buildings down.  It seemed that about every other building had damage or was flat.  It made me sad especially when I know there are bodies in some of those buildings! 

Nothing ever goes perfectly, but the trip to Canada went good.  There were a lot of people on the plane to help us and they provided diapers and food.  All of our warm clothing for the children went into the cargo hold instead of in the cabin with us!  Our baby formula went in the hold as did all of our diapers!  All of our clothing went into the hold!  So, it didn't go smoothly but it all worked out ok.

It was COLD and SNOWING when we arrived in Ottawa at 1:40 PM today.  The parents were all waiting in the lounge when we entered the building and we were able to speak with them and transfer the children to the parents.  The parents were all ecstatic that their children were finally there!  By 3:30 pm, we were in our rooms!  Molly and Joyce then went back out to buy me a sweatshirt because I forgot mine in Haiti!  The girls are so good to me!  I appreciate both of them so much!

We leave Ottawa tomorrow morning at 7 AM and will arrive in Miami at 2 PM.  We will the start collecting more supplies to take back into Haiti.  We are anxious to get home so that we can continue to take in more displaced children. 

We are headed to the restaurant here in the hotel.  Will blog more later after a good nights sleep!

25 January 2010   11:55 AM

There was some problems with the Canadian transfer of the children.  We did not hear from the Canadian government until Friday.  I had just arrived in Miami with the American children.  My days are running together and it is difficult to remember one day from another!  The Canadian Embassy personel told my staff that there was a flight going out on Saturday night and they wanted GLA children on it.  My staff told them that this was impossible until Joyce, Molly, and I could return to Haiti.  We had told some of the older children that we would return and see them.  We felt it important that GLA children all went together and that they traveled with familiar people and not strangers.  We did not want any of the children traumatized.  These children  have no voice.  I am their guardian and as such, I am their voice.  I want what is best for them and being handed over to complete strangers at the Haitian airport is not what is best for them.  By waiting 3 days, the children will be traveling with Molly, Joyce, Susan, and I and we will hand them over to their families.  We are all just trying to do our best in the worst situation!  

25 January 2010   945 AM

I knew that I might forget to thank someone very important and sure enough I forgot Vision Airlines who came to Haiti twice to bring volunteers and supplies and then again to take the children and staff to Miami.  They have worked tirelessly to get us back into Haiti also.  I did not want to forget to thank them!

25 January 2010  8:30 AM

Joyce picked up her phone yesterday and it was Ketlie (Gwo Manma) in Haiti!  She told Joyce that Joyce and Molly had told her they would only be gone 1 day and she was worried that they were not coming back...ever!  Joyce assured her that it was just because of the scheduling of the flight being delayed that we were late getting back!  We are doing every thing to get on the next flight in.  It shows you how scared and unnerved our staff is about everything right now!

We spent all day yesterday in communcation with Aaron and Tanya Ramsay who was trying to get us on a flight into Haiti.  We even tried to get on a flight into the Dominican Republic and would have walked across the border.  That did not work out because the border closes at 6:30 PM and it would have been too close trying to get there and then we would have had to spend the night at the border.  Finally, the charter airline confirmed a Monday flight for us.  Our group has grown to 12 people.  We have 2 workers from other orphanages who have joined up with us and 2 doctors who would like to travel wih us. 

I am really homesick for John, my kids, and everyone at the orphanage....and for Haiti.  I will be very happy to step off that plane!  The phone is already ringing with phone calls from Haiti!  The staff is trying to get the dossiers ready to go to the French Embassy so a decision can be made if those children can join their families. 

We also received word that the Navy Comfort ship wants to transfer premature babies to GLA! 

and life in Haiti goes on...

24 January 2010    9:10 PM

We finally received confirmation that our flight back to Haiti will be on Monday.  We are all very anxious to return home and get the rest of the children out of Haiti to join their families.  We will be escorting children to Canada on Monday night or Tuesday.  We are waiting for confirmation from the Canadian Embassy on the exact time.

I just want to be in Haiti.  I want to see the kids and the staff and know that everyone is ok.  The aftershocks continue and there was one today that registered 4.7.  My staff is scared everytime the earth shakes.  I think they are suffering from trauma.  When I am there and remain calm, they are better able to handle the shaking.  Molly's staff is better whe she is in the house too.  Please pray that all will go well with our travel tomorrow and we will all arrive safely.

24 January 2010  11:10 AM

I forgot to tell you that one of the babies that was brought out was very sick before we came and we feared that we would have to leave he behind.  On the way to the airport, she was taken to a hospital that had a team of American doctors, they looked at her and gave her fluids and thought she was stable enough to travel.  it turns out that she had meningitis.  She went directly into a hospital here in Miami and her adoptive mother came to the hospital to stay with her.  The last report we received was that she was stable.  

I want to personally thank everyone that was so kind to us throughout this process. Our sincere Thanks to:

First to Aaron and Tanya Ramsay for being there and making things happen!

To Tanya, Jill Wilkins, and their team in Miami who worked hard with little sleep to make our arrival and the meeting with between the adoptive parents and children go so well!

To our volunteers that arrived in Haiti to help during the evacuation of the children and the arrival of humanitarian aid.

Pastor Joel Trimble for video services and finding buses for all of the kids to get to the airport in Pap,

everyone at the PAP airport for allowing us to sit on the grass and be inside on the runway, to Vision Airlines that provided the charter jet and all of their employees that held babies on the flight! 

To Miami International Airport staff and administration, who went beyond what was usual to make our arrival all of the way through the reunion with the parents and finding us a shuttle to our hotel.  I take my hat off to them and I cannot express our gratitude with just these words!

To the Marriott Airport Hotel for their welcoming spirit and great hospitality.  I will stay here again!

To limo service that CNN hired to come and take us to their office.  The driver took us to Walmart to buy tarps and tents after the show and we appreciated it very much!

To everyone that had any thing to do with making this happen! 

 24 January 2010 6:30 AM

I tried all day yesterday to blog without any success!  I thought my days might be quieter while I was in Miami, but they are just as busy as when I am in Haiti!

Our trip from GLA to Miami was pretty exciting!  I slept 2 hours Thursday morning and then was up trying to get things ready for us all to leave.  I was on the phone and coordinating cars, people, and children up to the moment we got in the cars to leave.  Thankfully, all of the staff did their jobs perfectly and we had cars and vans for everyone, all paperwork was in order and packed into a suitcase, clothes and food was packed, and the kids were bathed and dressed on time!  That in itself was a miracle!

About 11 AM that Thursday morning, we had another large aftershock that sent the women running out of the house!  It took everyone to get them back in to finish getting the kids ready.  Pastor Joel Trimble came with his video camera and took video of the whole process of loading the children and he went all of the way to the airport and into the plane with the children.  Hopefully, he will post some of the video on You Tube.

We were late leaving for the airport and thankfully, the traffic was not bad.  The drivers took a shortcut to get us there but it was through an area hit hard by the earthquake.  Our older children had not seen any houses that had fallen during the quake.  Seeing them personally, really affected some of the older children and they were very sad when we drove by.

This time, we did not have to spend hours in the heat of Port au Prince like we did when we went to take the Dutch children to meet their plane.  We were there for 8 hours that day.  FRiday, we were there about 4 hours.  We were also allowed to get out of the vehicles and wait on a nice grassy area.  We made it a great adventure for the children and it helped so much that I took 10 staff members with us.  The older children kep asking me..."Are you going too Mme John?"..."Is Molly going too Mme John?"  When I told them that yes, we are all going!  They were happy and very few of the children cried when they joined their families.  We were all there and it was just as if they were in Haiti. 

The Miami Airport and several missions in Miami sent some volunteers on the plane to help us.  We had been told that there would be extra passengers who would help us take the children out, but they did not show up.  So each of the volunteers and staff had 3 to 4 children to take care of.  Needless to say, it was an INTERESTING  ride!

We arrived in Miami about 12:30 AM Friday morning, we spent 7 1/2 hours in Immigration.  Yes, it took that long to process all of the children!  The airport personel were so nice.  They brought toys, baby formula, diapers, wet wipes, and food!  They even came in and held babies!  GLA kids are usually so well behaved when we go places and they did not disappoint us here either!  They sat for that whole time or laid in the floor and took naps with very little whining and crying!  I think we adults whined more than they did!!! 

But it was all worth it when the children were united with their families!  The airport had provided us with two conerence rooms where the parents could sit and wait and where we could bring the children to change them and get them ready to meat their parents.  We had run out of clothing in the middle of the night and our spare clothing had been taken to another location, so we desperately needed to change some kids before they met their new families!

We had a well organized reunion, the children did well with it all.  Nobody was afraid or crying.  Parents were overjoyed.  It was a miracle that these children got to come home without the process being finished.  Some of these parents would have had to wait another year or more to take their children home under normal circumstances! 

The GLA staff was so exhausted that in a way it helped us send the children home with their adoptive families.  We were sort of numb and our emotions were numb too!  Some of the children had been with us 6 years, others 4 years!  That is a LONG time and those children...it was hard for them to leave!  Most of the children did really well and others will be sad for a little while, but we are all so glad they are with their forever families and safe.

We all went to our hotels and collapsed.  I slept 5 hours until Haiti called and woke me up!  And then went back and slept 8 more hours!  I will never get that sleep back that I lost...but this sure helped!

Saturday, I had to go to the CNN studio here in Miami and talk for 5 minutes about orphans and the ability to adopt the new ones.  I explaind that all new orphans from the quake disaster must be placed in orphanages until it can be determined that they are truly orphans and family does not come forward asking for the children.  Only if President Preval and the international community can come to an agreement to let the orphans be adopted.  I do not foresee UNICEF especially letting this happen without a lot of noise from their side!  I would love to see the orphans adopted, but we just need to pray that this is possible later after things have settled down in Haiti.

We also went shopping and bought tarps, tents, blankets, towels, and lanterns to hand out when we get home.  We spent some of the donations that came in and bought enough to help our staff that lost their homes and the surrounding community.  We are also going to help some of them rebuild their homes at least for the ones that owned their homes and for the others, we will try to relocate them to a different housel. 

Our flight back to Haiti was changed to Sunday. 

Sunday

We are still waiting for confirmation that we can fly back to Haiti today.  if not, we will fly into the DR and drive across the border.  I will update this as I know what is happening.

22 January 2010   3:15 AM

Yes, that is right, it is 3:15 AM and I am blogging before I go to bed!  It has been a long day.  It started at 5:20 AM when I got up and continued until now!  First the earthquake struck at 6:10 AM and then I have been running ever since!  I went to the US Embassy this morning and started the paperwork for 83 visas.  I left there and went to try and find the place I was supposed to meet the Canadian Broadcast Company by the airport and never did find it!  The directions they gave me were totally incorrect.  So I finally gave up!

Traffic was horrible! It too hours to get from one place to another. 

Oh, my goodness!  I just had fatigue wash over me...   maybe I should go to bed and finish this tomorrow.  My eyes are crossing and if I have errors in my typing please forguve me!

20 January 2010  6:25 AM

Another large earthquake struck here about 6:10 AM. It registered 6.1 on the scale!!! It shook the house but only for about 10 seconds.  The children are again outside on the driveway.  There is no way they will probably come back in today!  It rained last night so it is cold and wet out there. This is NOT an aftershock...this was an earthquake to all of us!! 

When will I be able to sleep with my bedroom door shut again?  When will I be able to put my foot rest up on my recliner and not sit in fear that I cannot get out fast enough if there is another earthquake?  How long before the earth stops moving and I stop being dizzy all of the time?  How long before every little shake of the house does not make my heart beat faster?

We had 14 people come yesterday to help.  All thought they had prepared themselves for the aftershocks...it did not work!  They jumped out of bed and were just as scared as the rest of us who had lived through the 7.0!

I am headed to the US Embassy to get visas.  Please pray that a visa is issued for each child and we can get the children out of Haiti to their families!

We are all so ready for this to be over!  I am afraid to live in this big 3 story house!  I am claustorphobic and the thought of being buried under concrete is almost too much.  I am rethinking the design for the new orphanage!  It may be only one story!!!

19 January 2010  11:45 PM

Today was a good day! We received 2 truckloads of water! We can bath and do laundry now. We also received supplies from the Dutch Marines and our Humanitarian Relief Plane arrived with part of the supplies. The rest will come in tomorrow..maybe! 

People in the community lined up at the gate watching the food and supplies being brought in. I am glad we have security staying the night. Tomorrow, we will start making up food packets for houses around us. Rice is now $10 USD for a 5 pound bag. The prices are horrible and unaffordable for the average Haitian.

I seemed to do nothing but run around today. I do one thing and then another and then forgot what I was doing before I was interrupted! A British TV crew came to interview Susan. They told me that Susan is a national sensation in Great Britian! Susan HATES having her photo taken or any sort of attention. It took a disaster to make her allow her photo taken and for her to talk on television! LOL I spoke to them about how much I have appreciated Susan being here. I do not know what we would have done without her to run the nursery during this time!

Stephanie and Amanda have made so many photocopies that our copier shut down because it overheated! Thankfully, when it cooled down, it came back on. I do not know what we would have done with that photocopier!

Melanie has been getting photos and children ready to leave to join their forever families. Lois and Brad have been doing whatever is needed and keeping the kitchen running and people fed. Laurie has been going all over Port-au-Prince and to the airport ever since Wednesday. John has been helping everywhere.  We are all ready for a break and a rest! But we cannot rest until the children go to their forever families!

I ask that you all pray for the children in the orphanage that are going to France and Canada. We need to pray that they will allow the children being adopted by French and Canadian families to go to their adoptive families now and finish the paperwork later! God can make this happen. 

I continue to speak to CNN, Canadian Radio, British TV and Radio, Newspapers, and even a group of French reporters! Thankfully, God has given me the words to say. I hated talking in front of groups as a child. I am so thankful that God changed me as I matured.

The inside of the house looks like a tornado has hit it! Everything is covered in “things”! I hate clutter and especially when we have so many visitors here! We may have to take a few hours one day to help the housekeeper straighten up. Just for my sanity…

We have not had any large aftershocks for 24 hours! The continuous aftershocks were really wearing on all of our nerves! We could not sleep. We also felt dizzy and sick from the constant movement of the earth under our feet. Today, has been better.

I absolutely could not sit at my desk one more minute abut 2 PM today! An extreme exhaustion came over me. My arms were heavy and my neck was too weak to hold my head up! I told the staff that I had to lay down for an hour. By the time I got upstairs to my bed, I was so dizzy that I could not walk a straight line! I laid down for an hour and did my Sudoku Puzzles, slept for about 15 minutes and then felt much better! I was scared to death that I was getting sick and there was no way that I could be sick right now!   I also had not had any of the choking episodes that I had from October to December for quite some time until the last few days! I think they came back just because of the exhaustion! Pray that they will go away again and not get any worse!

In some papers, Haiti is now on the second page. I hope the world does not forget Haiti! People are still being saved from buildings. We need the world to remember Haiti. Do not forget us!

I am late blogging today.  I am working 6 AM to Midnight every day.  I am tired.  Will hopefully blog again tomorrow.

And Life in Haiti goes on…

18 January 2010  10:45 PM

Is it ever going to get better?  The day starts at 6 AM and ends at Midnight every day! I do not mind the long days, but pile high stress on top of that and it is too much!   Everybody forgets to eat because we are so busy!  Every country where we do adoptins wants scanned documents before they will approve the children to enter their country and we need to email them ASAP!  Scanning documents here is not easy.  Making photocopies of 800 documents take a long time!  Stephanie, Melanie, and Amanda have worked so hard on getting documents pulled and copied or scanned and have worked two solid days and need a third day before they will all be done! 

I was interviewed by CNN news again this morning.  I think it went fairly well and I was given enough time to tell about the need to get the children to their families.  The US, as usual, issued a statement about allowing children to come to the US and it is long and detailed and confusing!  We just want to know can all children in process go???  I think they can but will find out when we get to the US embassy with the documents!

Today has been hard.  I am tired and "fussy".  I have no patience with passive people today.  I want people talking to me that are on fire to get these kids out like we do!  If you cannot fight for the children, please do not call me right now!  See, I AM REALLY "fussy" tonight! 

The Dutch plane comes tomorrow to take 100 children to the Netherlands.  We mst be down at the airport early.  We then will wait for a flight bringing in some relief supplies.  We are very thankful that supplies are coming.  A couple of other orphanages are coming to share in the donated goods.  They are almost out of food. 

We also heard today about an orphange with 60 children in it south of Port-au-Prince that collapsed and the children were killed.  So much suffering and misery!  The devastation runs from Port-au-Prince clear to Jacmel!  The media is not showing you that far south yet, but it is bad.  I do not know if we will ever know how many people died from this.  People are still dying from their injuries!

We also heard of another orphanage with 80 children where the orphanage was destroyed and the children are all living outside.  they are running out of food and water.  We will try to get some to them as soon as possible.  People have been so good about donating.  We are thankful to have some funds to help community that is suffering!

I must go to bed.  I need to be up early again.  We have all promised ourselves a couple of days of sleeping in when this has settled down!  And we are going to do it, too!

And Life in Haiti goes on...

17 January 2010 10:45 PM

It has been another long day!  We have been trying to make copies of all of the dossiers, scanning some to send to adoptive parents, and making lists for foreign governments!  It has been rather overwhelming and Stephanie, our adoption coordinator, has been working continously trying to get it all done with other volunteers and staff helping her.  It is difficult to prioritize what needs to be done because it is ALL urgent stuff!

This afternoon, we had the Dutch ambassador and consular general come to tell us that 100 children being adopted by Dutch families have been approved by the Dutch Ministry to enter The Netherlands.  The Dutch Ambassador and Consular General have met with the Prime Minister of Haiti and were hopeful that the Prime Minister will sign for the children to leave Haiti tomorrow afteroon.  A plane is coming to Haiti from The Netherlands to pick up the children from 3 different Haitian orphanges.  PLEASE PRAY THAT THIS WILL WORK OUT AND THE CHILDREN CAN LEAVE TOMORROW!  ALSO PRAY THAT THE PLANE WILL BE ABLE TO LAND AT THE AIRPORT AS SCHEDULED!

We also had a camera crew fromThe Netherlands come who wanted to film the children leaving on the Dutch flight.  They will come up to the orphanage tomorrow and travel with us to the airport and follow the children onto the airplane.

At the same time, we had a mission who had heard about our need come with some diesel and water.  It was not a huge amount but every gallon we are so thankful for!  Since people have heard about our situation, we have heard from people who want to help.  I feel like we will receive enough water to survive.  God has always been very good to us!

Tonight, Jill and Joe Wilkins, their son Chancelet, and I appeared on Larry King Live on CNN.  I wish I had had 2 more minutes to explain more about what was going on!  The time goes so fast!  CNN called again this afternoon and asked if I would consider being on another segment at 9:00 AM Monday.  They were not certain if the segment would be approved, but if it is then I will try to tell more about the situation in Haiti with getting the adopted children out.  Join me with praying that the people who need to hear about the situation were watching and God will touch their hearts to help the children and their adoptive parents!

It is late and I need to get to bed.  Tomorrow will be a very long day!  OH, I wanted to tell you that this morning I was in the bathroom when a large aftershock hit.  NOW, I know how the water gets splashed out of the toilet bowl!  Quite an experience!!!

17 January 2010 10:45 AM

Today, I am walking around in a fog.  The exhaustion has finally caught up with me and everyone else!  I went to bed thinking  I would get a good night's sleep and at 2 AM the nurses woke me up to start an IV on a sick baby!  Which just shows that these children are fragile!  If I did not have nurses working here and have some medicines in our cabinets, what would we do?  If I needed a hospital, it would be difficult to find one!  We have 3 more children with vomiting and diarrhea today plus some of the staff.  Is it just stress?  Is it a virus?  Is it something else?

Of course, after starting the IV, then I could not get back to sleep.  I tried doing my Sudoku puzzles but I just could not think logically enough to solve them!  Finally I went to sleep and then John's alarm went off at 5 AM and the dogs scratched on the door at 7:30.  So another night of broken sleep. (PS. any families wanting to bring me a little gift?  Bring a sudoku puzzle book.  I find them a great stress reliever!) 

I look in the mirror and my hair needs a good washing,there are dark circles under my eyes, and my eyes are bright red and blood shot!  Yikes, who is that person staring back at me?   LOL

Everyone but Laurie, Susan,and I have gone to church.  We need church today.  We need the comfort of routine and being with other people.  Unfortunately, Susan is the only nurse for the babies, Laurie is trying to find water and fuel and answering the phones and I am trying to get some paperwork done that we will needed on Monday!  The pastor and his wife will come to the orphanage later to share a little message with us which will be very nice.

I feel like I am walking through sand or knee-deep mud today!  I know it is just from being tired, but I have so much to do that I cannot quit quite yet!  Hopefully, I will be able to take a short nap this afternoon to help get refreshed a little.

If I repeat myself, forgive me.  Days, Hours, Minutes are all starting to run together for me!  Can it truly have been 4 1/2 days since the earthquake happened? 

For those of you who are following our aftershocks, here is a great web site to watch: Earthquakes.

For all of you who are writing asking me about the welfare of biological parents, don't waste your time at the computer!  There is no way of knowing anything unless they contact us.  I have been having some parents call asking about the children and the orphanage!  We are trying to keep a record of anyone who called but it will be weeks before we can communicate this with adoptive parents.  I know for your peace of mind, you would like to know, but it just is not top priority for us right now.  Sorry...

I am sitting her listening to my laundry ladies signing and clapping along to their radio which is broadcasting Christian music.  It is very uplifting to hear them singing and rejoicing!

We are trying to keep the children's routines as normal as possible.  They are all doing well.  Probably better than all of us adults!  God has given children such a powerful ability to adapt to certain situations and especially if their routines are kept as normal as possible! 

And life in Haiti goes on...

16 January 2010 10:45 PM

I forgot to tell you about one of our nannies, Jocelyne, who has been with us since 1998.  First she was a mother with her tiny baby who received services and since then has been an employee.  She was at GLA when the earthquake happened.  Her family lives down close to the sea in Carrefour, one of the hardest hit areas.  She had no word for 2 days and finally received word that her niece, her niece's playmate,  and a young girl that lives with her were in a two story house that collapsed.  They were caught in a very small space.  her niece has a leg that is very swollen and hurts and also her back is scraped up.  the playmate was not hurt.  The other little girl cannot walk and is critically injured.

Finally, Joycelyne was able to leave on Friday to go and try to find her family.  Irlande, her sister, also works at GLA but at the Toddler House.  She was in Carrefour when the earthquake happened.  James, our foster son, drove her to Carrefour and left her where she could walk to her home.  Her home is completely gone!  She found her two sons, her niece, and Irlande and collected them up and walked back to Petionville!  Now Petionville is probably 4 miles from Carrefour.  Her niece, 5 years old, with her injured leg, walked that whole way.  There were no taxis to take them.  They carried Jocelyne's baby who is dehydrated and having diarrhea. 

They arrived at the orphanage at 10 PM exhausted and in shock!  When Irlande saw me, she just walked up and hugged me!  She said she saw terrible things.  She said that things are so devastating.  It was so sad.  It broke my heart!  Joycelyne brought them here because she does not want the children to die!  they have no water or food where they were.  At least here, they can drink and eat....for now. 

They are so thankful that they are alive! 

16 January 2010 8:30 PM

Today has brought less phone calls which I have been very thankful for!  Thankfully, all of the stress we are under makes me not hungry!  A good side effect of stress, I guess!  Of course, what do they say?  A person under a lot of stress cuts 10 years off their life span!  Well, with all of this stress, it will probably cut 20 off mine!!!  LOL

I have very good news!  We sent 5 children to their "forever" families tonight!  The children are going to Brussels, Belgium and will meet their Dutch parents there.  All but one of the children had their passports and visa approvals.  The one that did not had the Dutch ministry approval to come.  Her parents were here and had arrived on the day of the earthquake.  They did not want to leave their daughter and the Dutch Government allowed them to leave with her with a judge's approval and all of her completed paperwork!  Our other families that left on the same plane had to leave their children behind.  They said that it was so difficult knowing what was going on and the shortages that we were having.  They knew they would have to leave them and were okay with that under "normal" circumstances!  But today...with the earth shaking every few minutes and the destructions just a few miles down the road...was almost impossible for them! 

Our families in the USA, Canada, France, Luxembourg and The Netherlands have all worked hard to get their governments to allow all children reliniquished by their parents and proposed to adoptive families to be united with these families under humanitarian reasons.  This MUST happen.  I fear for the children if it does not! 

New Life Link director, Dr. Bernard, showed up at our door during the CNN interview with Wolfe Blitzer which I think went pretty well.  I might,  if asked,  have preferred Anderson Cooper, he is SO Cute!  Everyone here in Haiti at GLA thinks he is cute and so does my staff in Colorado!  But that is ok, I am just glad to get the message out about the children!  But oh...I would have LOVED to talk to Anderson Cooper!!!    Would have brought a bit of sunshine to my day!!!

Dr. Bernard's orphange is unsafe to enter.  He has brought all of the children to his home in our area.  He did not have enough drinking water and the children were thirsty.  So we are sharing 55 gallons of drinking water with them.  There is just so much misery in Haiti right now!

But GOOD NEWS!  Some people who heard the CNN interview and have water in Haiti have called and want to share with us!  Let us hope that we can get some water soon.  We only have about 3 days worth of water at this point and we are really concerving all items.  Many of the volunteers have not had a shower since Monday or Tuesday!  We are in survival mode.  Showers with a bucket and half food rations for now.  We are almost out of sugar...so no cereal for the children!  Rice, rice, and more rice.  That will be our diet for now!  For a girl from Illinois...potato country...this might be difficult!

After a large aftershock lasting about 5 seconds this morning, the nannies spent the rest of the day outside.  We had a little talk because they were hysterical and we talked about havin faith that God will protect us.  If we have another large tremor, even I might go outside for awhile!  But I told them that over the years God has protected GLA and it's babies!  In 2004, when President Aristide left Haiti, God protected us!  In August and September of 2008 during the hurricanes, God protected us!  Tuesday, 12 January at 4:53 PM, God protected us!  I told them that lots of people were praying for us to be safe.  They talked about all of the houses that have fallen down since the major shock on Tuesday.  The aftershocks are earthquakes on their own and the already damaged buildings cannot standup to them!  But we told them...our building is safe.  Rely on God.  But they all went outside anyway! 

I told them not to run when the quake hits, but if they do take 2 children with them!  We can at least save some of the children if this happens again!  They tend to run and leave the children behind!  Someone sent us an article that said to lay on the floor beside something and you migh survive.  We will see if they will do this!

OH, I have the cutest story to tell you!  It is a dog story for all of you dog lovers like me!  Some friends who are Haitian American were evacuated out to the US by the US Embassy.  They could not take their two little daschunds wtih them.  These little dogs were Hurricane katrina survivors who they adopted.  Now they have been left behind in Haiti!  Our daughter, Laurie, is friends with them and they got word to her to please go get the dogs!  They said that a plane would come later to take out all of the pets that had to be left behind!  (I know some of you will frown at this story, but I would hate to leave my pets behind if I had to go, so I can sympathize with these friends!)

I am super tired!  Tomorrow, some of the volunteers and staff will go to church and some will have to stay here and work.  We have a lot of things that we must do before Tuesday.  We have a humanitarian plane coming in that one of our board members and his company, Messengers International ( http://www.messengerinternational.org/ ) have arranged for a charter flight to come to Haiti loaded with baby supplies and emergency supplies.  It will also include tents, blankets, etc.  We will give these to another organization to distribute downtown or where ever they are needed most.  We will distribute some in our community.  We want to thank Aaron Ramsey and Messenger International who made this life saving flight possible!

I know I will forget some of the stuff that happened today.  Every day is running together now.  Tempers are short.  We are all tired.  My sister-in-law has a devotional group on Facebook called Morning Coffee Devotional.  Her words are always encouraging and helpful.  Today, she wrote:  Forty seconds brought destruction.  Seven words can bring LIFE.  It takes seven seconds to say the seven words of the publican.  "Lord, have mercy on me a sinner!"  

How true those words are.  I am thankful that I know Jesus Christ as my Savior.  I have the peace of knowing that if something should happen to me, I will be with Jesus in the end.  I know some people reading this blog might not believe that but I do and my faith is strong.  It has kept me sane through all of this and able to fight to get these children to their adoptive families and to keep everyone safe.  God gives me comfort.  He gives me hope that tomorrow will be better.  He wraps me in His arms and comforts me when I am scared.  You do not believe God is real?  I KNOW He is real and he has his arms wrapped around this orphange keeping us safe.  Thank you Jesus for loving all of us and for protecting us during the earthquake.

15 January 2010  5:30 PM

Before I say anything about my day, there are some things I forgot to post that I want you to know! 

        1. Did you know that during an earthquake all of the water in the toilet bowls splash out on the floor? I do not think I ever thought about this! But I do think it is one of those interesting facts!   

   2. Those of you who might be wondering if I am still on that stupid diet…the answer is NO! Tuesday, started out as a stressful day and at noon my whole office staff ate cheeseburgers and French fries! At 4:53 PM, we had the earthquake! I am glad that I had that cheeseburger, because if I had died and the last thing I had tasted was a fake chocolate soy based mix with water "milk" shake, it would have been awful!  Needless to say, with all of the stress that we are under, I am NOT doing this diet again until things settle down!

I thought today would be quieter.   Reporters are on the ground in Port-au-Prince. TV coverage of rescues and such are going on. I thought I could stay off the telephone and actually do some work! But it did not happen. We still have some reporters and lots of people wanting to send in humanitarian aid. One of our American board members has arranged for a 737 jet to carry in to Haiti for GLA 12,000 pounds worth of donations. Some of these will be for our orphanage and others will be given to agencies working down in Port-au-Prince to distribute. Some of the items arriving will be blankets, tents, hygiene packets, first aid items, food and water. They will also bring diapers and baby items. This will help for a while. We are very thankful for the help.

I am continuing to plan to petition the Haitian government to allow the children to leave Haiti. It is difficult to find anyone to talk to. Their minds are on rescue work and “humanitarian” efforts. But helping these children is a humanitarian effort too! We do not know that tomorrow is going to bring here. Where do we buy food, water, fuel, cooking fuel, and supplies? Will we see the children going without food before the end of the month? Will the relief effort be enough? I do not know. I guess the future holds all the answers.

Does it never end? We just received a call from the Fermathe Hospital asking us to take a premature baby from a mother who is having seizures and was a earthquake survivor. We also received word that one of my staff members is trying to reach the orphanage with her children, niece, and sister-in-law who were all hurt in the earthquake and they cannot find food, water, or medical assistance. And the aftershocks, rolling of the ground, and trembling, continues!

If fear it is just a small taste of what we can expect in the next few weeks.

I can hear my staff outside my office window singing and praising God. What a sweet sound to my ear and how comforting this is to me.

And life in Haiti goes on….

14 January 2010  11:55 PM

It's really 12:40 AM but I didn't want everyone to think I did not blog on the 14th!  I know that I wrote something earlier but it is NOT here!  The web site monsters must have eaten it, because it has disappeared! 

Today, I just want to cry!  I just want to crawl into a corner and curl up for awhile.  I may just have a good cry later...I think I deserve it!  My hands have shook all day from stress. All of my staff said the same thing today.  I think the shock is wearing off and the stress of surviving and keeping the children safe is taking its toil on all of us.  The stories and photos we are seeing is so sad.  Our staff has lost lots of family members.  Our cook said he had 11 families members who died!  Some of staff has not come to work.  We are fearful for them.  They live on the side of a hill in Port au Prince.  Another staff member said that most of the houses in this area are collapsed.  Please pray for these people.  Especially for Madeleine and her family.  

I finally got sleep last night and even slept through a big aftershock at 7 AM this morning.  I was tired!  My day started early and I have not stopped all day long.  Phone calls, skype conferences, and just running the orphanage has been more than enough work today.

I think the news people will now go on to stories of things down in the city.  We were their only contact in Haiti for 48 hours almost.  Now they have crews of journalist arrive and they are going down in the midst of things to get first hand reports.  Maybe we can stop talking on the phone now and return to our work!

Members of our US and Canadian board are coordinating relief efforts and donations are being collected to bring supplies into Haiti for the orphanage and surround area. A chartered plane is coming in on Monday with some volunteers and some supplies.  We are struggling to take care of all of the babies since many of the workers have not come to work. 

The international efforts will of course be centered down in the worst areas but there are people who lost their homes and family members around us.  We will focus our relief efforts up here in the mountains for now and bring food, water, and also help rebuild homes here.  We will also be preparing to take in more orphans as needed. 

Our families from Canada, Holland, and Luxembourg are all being airlifted out of Haiti.  We took the Canadian family to the airport tonight to catch a French flight.  They missed that flight but the airport personell said for them to stay and they would get them on a flight out of Haiti.  The rest of the families will leave tomorrow.

We continue to have aftershocks.  Will it never stop shaking???  When I told my staff that they might last up to a month, they all moaned and said "NO!".  They do not like them either!  As I am writing this , my desk is shaking!  I HATE THESE AFTERSHOCKS!  I said after the hurricane that I thought that was the WORST thing and I never wanted to live through that again, but I think an earthquake has now become my number 1 least liked thing!!!! 

Well, it is 1:10 AM and I need to go to bed!  If you want to see some earthquake photos that Laurie took downtown, keep checking www.godslittlestangelsinhaiti.org .  I just do not have time to add them to our web site PLUS we have had so many visitors to the web site that it keeps going down!  So Tom Vanderwell will put them on the blog for me.  You can thank Tom for finally getting these to you.  I have had good intentions since Wednesday to get them posted!

I want to thank everyone who has posted on my facebook and written me emails.  Even if I do not answer, know that I am reading everyone and it means a lot to know that you want to help and are praying for us.  It truly does mean a lot to me!  I also am very thankful for all of the donations that have come through Paypal and through the Blog site for the Haiti Relief Fund.  It is a little overwhelming to think of the outpouring of funds to help the children and those effected by this disaster!  Thank you!

God is good.  He has protected us and we all praise him.  Our nannies sing about their love of Jesus.  They sing of His goodness and faithfulness.  I feel so blessed to be here at this time and having the nannies minister to me through song and their total reliance on God!  Makes me feel humble.  I do not know if I would do as well in their shoes...

 

13 January 2010 7:30 PM

I have been interviewed more since this earthquake than in my whole life!  I cannot talk anymore!  I did make the nannies bring the children back into the orphanage.  It started to rain tonight.  Laurie said that the flies in PAP are horrible!  There was a woman who with a newborn baby that had died when their house collapsed.  The mother was sitting outside an asked Laurie's group, "do you see my baby?"  The baby was laid out on the collapsed roof of the home.  People are in shock.  They are walking around in a daze.  The parks and open areas are full of people.  They are sleeping there.  They are afraid to return to their homes because they fear they are unsafe.  The aftershocks do not help either!!

I am finally going to bed in my own bed even if there are still aftershocks!  First time to sleep since Monday! 

We are praying for Haiti, for safety, for rescue teams to come quickly, for humanitarian aid to enter easily and not be held up in Port like it usually is.  Please join us in praying for these things

13 January 2010 5:00 PM

Well, it has been 24 hours now since the "earthquake" hit Haiti!  At 11:30 AM this morning, it was reported the Haiti had already suffered over 40 aftershocks ranging from 4.5 to 5.9 in magnitude and 14 aftershocks that were over 5.0!  I find that totally amazing!  I believe it and this does not count all of the little tremors that just shake the windows, my computer monitor and chair!  All of us are dizzy and have motion sickness from the constant shaking!  It never stops!  If it is constant is it truly an aftershock???

The nannies came in this morning and did well until we had a large aftershock.  Then the nannies ran down the stairs with 2 and 3 children under their arms and outside!  So all morning most of the children has spent outside. 

Then at 5:15 PM, we had a LARGE aftershock!  Scared everyone and they had just come in to feed the kids, so they went running out again!  I think they will probably spend the night outside...again!  My nerves are about shot with all of these tremors!  They are way too many, and keep going way to long!

Laurie just returned to the orphanage after being downtown.  Her photos which she will post on facebook are pretty awful.  The dead are being pulled out of the rubble and laid out on the sidewalk!  Some places had so many dead bodies in the that blood was running out of the houses and into the gutter.  Laurie said it was like water running down the gutter!

The photos show houses just crushed.  They are pulling survivors out of some of the stores and houses.  This breaks my heart!  We are needing donations to help.  We think there will be many orphans after this is all over.  We need to do our part and take them in when they are found.

We need bottled water, fruit bars, blankets, clothing, and shoes!  We are looking into getting a container sent to Haiti.  We also need diapers, formula, wet wipes, etc.  Please join us in delivering aid to Haiti.  To donate you can click on the DONATE button to the left or go to www.godslittlestangelsinhaiti.org and donate to the Haiti Relief Fund.

13 January 2010 1:20 AM

At a few minutes before 5 PM on 12 January 2010, a large earthquake hit Haiti.  The center was a few miles south of Port-au-Prince.  On the map, it looks like we were not far from the center here at the orphanage if you draw a straight line between the center of the earthquake and the orphanage.  We have heard that the gravel pit across the valley from us partially collapsed which we have worried about for a long time!

As things started to shake, I knew it was an earthquake and I jumped up trying to get out of my office.  Items were falling off my bookcases and even the monitor of my computer fell off my desk!  Many of my good glassware fell out of the hutch in the dining room and food that was being cooked for the children flew off the stove and landed on the kitchen floor!  Statues fell off the shelves, items in the pantry fell too!  But not 1 egg was broken out of 6 dozen sitting on the pantry floor!  Kids fell, staff fell to the floor because the house swayed so much!

Dr. Claude was out in the driveway playing basketball and he said that the orphanage swayed about 2 feet back and forth for 30 to 40 seconds!  he was afraid that the building would fall!  Thankfully, the building stayed standing and John cannot find any cracks in the walls which is pretty amazing!

All I could do was pray that the house would stay standing!  John was yelling at us all to get in a doorway, but we could not walk!  Finally we got into the doorway and stayed until the major shaking stopped.  Everyone went outside after the earthquake.  We had multiple tremors after the big one.  They came about 10 minutes apart and last a long time!  the staff refused to return to the house and eventually, we brought all of the children outside and put blankets on the ground.

The internet phone has not stopped ringing.  BBC, NBC, the Today Show all have called multiple times!  It is 1:45 AM now and they are still calling!  I am so exhausted but we do not want to go to bed.  The nannies came in at 10 PM but we had two strong after shocks about midnight and the nannies and babies are sleeping outside on the ground on blankets!  It is cold tonight.  The temperature is about 60 degrees if not colder!  I pray that the cold is not too cold for them!

My son, Mark, was at school in Port-au-Prince when the quake happened.  His school is on Delmas which is one of the worst hit areas.  A missionary family finally was able to bring him home about 10 PM.  They said that there were multiple houses down that you could see from the street. Caribbean Market was destroyed along with so many other buldings!  Walls were collapsed and there are dead people lying under them!  Please pray for Haiti and for all of who are here!  We had 8 visitors come today.  What a welcome, huh?

We continue to have aftershocks.  We have had 3 in the last 5 minutes!  I have never heard of aftershocks like we are having!   They are almost continuous and lasting for a minute or more each time!  I do not like this! 

We will know more hopefully in the morning.  I do not know if I will sleep tonight or not!  I will post photos later on Wedneday.  I am just too tired right now to post photos!

 

9 January 2010

 

Well, it is finally the end of the work week!  Monday through Friday this past week seemed to never end!    I can tell you that everyone in the office were ready for Friday evening this week!

Friday was Stephanie's birthday.  Molly baked her a cake and they had pizza and cake for supper.  It is always fun to have birthday celebrations for our volunteers and staff.

Today, we are taking down Christmas decorations!  We like Christmas decorations and have always kept them up through New Years.  Since school started right after New Years, this is the first weekend we have had to take tem all down.  I wish it was acceptable to keep Christmas Decorations up all year long because we would probably do it!  Nothing is prettier than tiny flashing colored lights!

Our son, Patrick and his wife, Holli, along with their children JJ and Lilly, are feeling God's call to come and work at the orphanage!  They are trying to sell their home in Colorado and come and run our guesthouse.  They have to raise money for their support while in Haiti which they are doing now.  We will be happy to have Patrick and his family with us in Haiti.   But as we have told them, we believe in God's will and if they are meant to come to Haiti, then God will allow it to happen. 

Brad and Lois Reimer, who have been working at GLA since September 2008, are leaving in April to return to Canada.  We have appreciated their hard work while here.  They have been running the guesthouse.  Brad has also been in charge of contruction in Fort Jacques and Lois has been in charge of the kitchen at the main house and is our volunteer liason.

Tonight, we are having turkey for supper!  The local market gave us a turkey for Christmas and we are going to enjoy it tonight.  Even I can eat turkey and I am going to enjoy it very much! 

Have a good weekend!

5 January 2010

It has been a very hectic day here at the orphanage.  I can tell that the holidays are over for sure!  We had 6 visitors who arrived and 3 of our American staff returned from their vacations home. 

A baby girl arrived today from another orphanage.  She is 9 months old and HIV positive.  She is malnourished and sick.  With good nutrition and medication, we pray that she will turn HIV negative in the next few months.  Please keep her in your prayers. 

Everytime I started a project today, someone came to my office door and I had to stop and go do something that could not wait!  It started early this morning when Madame Bernard, our head nurse, came to tell me that the lock on the medicine cabinet would not open!  Sure enough, we had to get a hammer and give it a "love tap" before we could get into the antibiotic cabinet!  Then we found head lice on a new baby!  This is our worse nightmare!  Thankfully, we had some lice shampoo and treated all of the babies in her room quickly!  I think I would rather have chickenpox again than head lice in the nursery!!!    Gives me goose bumps just thinking about head lice!  YIKES!

I am on my second day of my diet and Laurie is sitting beside me eating potato chips!  I am determined to last 30 days on my really strict diet and then I will start on a less restricted diet after that.  I really wish our cooks were not so good!  It is really difficult to not eat when we have such good food every night!  So please pray for me to have will power to stick to this diet for the next 30 days! 

1 January 2010

Happy New Year to everyone!  May you all have good health, happiness and prosperity in 2010. 

I truly believe that 2010 will be a better year than 2009 for our economic situation.  I feel a real peace about it.  Already, God has answered our prayer about our finances and in the month of December, we received some large donations that helped our budget a lot for the next couple of months.  I want to thank everyone that sent a donation.  You truly have made a difference in GLA's finances!

Back in October, I had a flu that involved a fever and lots of coughing.  I think it was probably the Swine Flu and it left me with something called Vocal Cord Disfunction.  From October until now, anytime I coughed, I would choke.  I could not breath!  My vocal cords would close and I could not breath in any air.  It would last about 15 to 30 seconds.  But they were a LONG 15 to 30 seconds!  It was like my throat would go into spasm and I could not draw in a breath.  It was frightening to me and everyone in the room with me when it happened!  Our pediatrician at the orphanage also had the same thing!  She was hospitalized on large doses of prednisone and antibiotics and after 2 weeks, she was well.

But not me!  I was on Prednisone a total of 6 weeks and just weaned myself off of it.  I went from 20 episodes of choking a day to now having 1 every 5 days or so.  But now, I am having side effects from the prednisone!  My blood sugar is high and I hve to take some medication to lower it. I also have excessive sweating even in the cool weather!  Both of these symptons started just before Christmas and I stopped the prednisone about the same time.  The literature says these side effects will go away when I stop the medication but it can take a month to get out of my system!  If it's not one thing....then it seems to be another!  So my New Year's resolution is to cut down on all sweet things and try to diet.  Please pray for me about this because it so difficult for me to diet!  Our cooks are just too good!  But I need to do this!

We have a wonderful Dutch man here right now named Bas.  He is married with children at home but a few years ago, he decided to sell his business in Holland and spend more time with his family and to also do humanitarian work around the world.  We are very fortunate that he decided to spend 2 months here at GLA.  He has painted our guesthouse, the Toddler House and the new house we are building in Ft. Jacques.  I basically told him he could paint things any color he wanted.  I have only raised my eyebrows a couple of times and he is very sensitive to my likes and changed the colors I did not especially like!  He also has cleaned the kitchens, tiled some floors, and we love having him here!  God truly sent him to us.  He looked into going to a Dutch organization in Haiti but they did not answer his calls.  So he searched on the internet and GLA came up first and we answered his email right away!  I am so thankful that everything worked out for him to come and give of his time to help the children.

OH and of course, we had Soup Joumou (Pumpkin Soup) today!  If you eat pumpkin soup on New Year's day, you are supposed to have good health, happiness, and wealth for the year!  Our soup joumou is so good!  It has beef, potatoes, carrots, spaghetti, radishes, spices, and of course, PUMPKIN!  It is so yummy!  Then we had Tacos for supper...those of you who know me know how much I love tacos!  Tacos is one food that I craved when I was pregnant with my children!  LOL   So before I start my dieting...oops...they say you shouldn not call it dieting, but call it a life style change! 

Well, it is 11:15 PM and I am headed for bed.  I hope that all of your New Year's were nice and relaxing like mine was!

and life in haiti goes on...

 

27 December 2009

Christmas Day was wonderful!  We had so much food for the staff and they ate every bite!  Our visitors could not believe how much food our ladies could eat in one setting!  LOL

This was a good year and I was so thankful that we were able to give the staff gifts of food that will help feed their families.  They received bags of food that probably weighed 50 pounds!  They should be able to eat a week with the food that they received.  I would much rather give them food for their Christmas gift than a personal item that only they can use.

Usually, we do not allow visitors during Christmas. We like to have a quiet, family Christmas.  But this year, we allowed some special people to come and spend Christmas with us and it has been fun!  They helped get the bags of food together for the staff and helped with food for all of us. 

We invited people from church to come and share our lunch today.  Pastor Joel started the crusade in Cite Soleil tonight and so we asked them to come share our fried chicken dinner with us.  Joel invited Pastor Jeff Givens and his family to come to Haiti and participate in the opening of the crusade.  Pastor Jeff is from Alabama and is a very spirit filled preacher!  He lived in Haiti for 10 years as a young man over 20 years ago!  We all enjoyed Jeff's stories about his life in Haiti all of those years ago.  He sang some songs for us that he wrote when he was living as a single man in Haiti.  They were so funny and we all laughed so hard!  It felt good to sit around and sing and visit with new friends!

Molly and Joyce will return tomorrow.  Laurie left today for Tampa to visit some friends over the holidays.  The government offices will be working again after this next week.  So hopefully, we will see some movement of dossiers next week.  Our lawyer is out of Haiti until the beginning of the new year. 

I just feel that 2010 is going to be a GREAT year!  I am praying for the economy to improve and I believe deep in my soul that it will improve. 

May God richly bless you all! 

25 December 2009

I had hoped to sleep in today, but it is 6 AM and I am up and going already!  Last night, everyone at GLA went to Pastor Joel and Yvonne Trimble's home for a Christmas Eve candle light service.  First, we started off with dinner.  We had turkey, lasagna, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, corn, dressing, and I cannot remember what all else we had!  They had a fire going in their fireplace AND all of the doors open!  LOL  Only in Haiti!

The Candle Light service was very meaningful.  Scriptures were read and songs sung.  After the service, we sat around and listened to a visitor who had lived in Haiti 30 years ago sing songs about Haiti that he wrote while a young man.  We all had a good laugh and visited for hours.  We did not arrive back at the orphanage until 11 PM!

We will open presents with our family this morning and eat a late breakfast about 10 AM.  All of the nannies and nurses will also share with us for a special breakfast.  Then about 3:30 PM, we will have a Haitian meal.  We are going to have a buffet for all of the staff and visitors of "Haitian" food.  We will have goat, lambi (conch), fried pork, and BBQ chicken along with rice and vegetables!  Our kitchen staff has been working hard all week  preparing things.  Everyone cannot wait to eat the good food!  I can smell things cooking already!

Later today, I will do a little bit of work.  I have 4 proposals to give today.  I love giving proposals on Christmas Day!  A couple of these families have been waiting for over a year for a baby girl!  What better Christmas gift for these families?

Well,I better go.  Everyone is up and anxious to open presents!  Merry Christmas to everyone!

 

23 December 2009

9 PM Update:  The storm passed this afternoon about 3 PM.  We mopped floors and cleaned up leaves all day long.  We have not seen this type of wind and rain since the Hurricanes of August 2008!  The Toddler House lost their avocado tree and the blow up Santa someone donated for their roof!  Their front gate was also blown off the hinges.  We also lost a baby during the night.  He was a baby born to a very young mother and was born with a bilateral cleft palate and lip with other birth defects.  He was only here 2 days and was 15 days old on admission and had not been fed since birth.  I am very happy that the storm has passed and things have quieted down tonight! 

We woke up this morning to gale force winds and lots of rain!  At 5 AM, my fan went flying out of the window by my bed and woke us all up when it crashed to the floor!  The weather map shows a large tropical storm moving over Haiti from the south going toward the north east.  It looks like it came from South America overnight. 

The wind is so strong right now that it has blown all of the paintings in the stairwell off the wall!  There were toys on the balcony where the children play that were blown off and we have no idea where they have blown to!  Some children in the neighborhood will truly believe that Père Noël (Santa Claus) has come to visit when they find toys have fallen from the sky into their yard!!! 

We had no warning from the TV nor radio that this storm was coming.  The staff tells me that everything is closed and I am just praying that things settle down and the government opens today!  We need some paperwork from different offices and if we do not get the papers today, we may not get them until after Christmas!

I know this is affecting the people in the mountains and the low areas probably much worse than us at GLA.  Please say a little pray for Haiti and the Haitian people for safety today as this storm passes over us.

13 December 2009

Well, I'm finally home!  John will come to Haiti next Sunday.  He will be visiting his father in Florida for a few days.  He has not been well lately and John really needs to pass by and see him.  It was great visiting our families and seeing adoptive families and supporters, but it is wonderful to be back home in Haiti!

Christmas has come to the orphanage while we were gone! The staff and our son, Steeve who absolutely LOVES Christmas, decorated the houses and nursery. I do not know if we will be having gifts for the children this year due to finances, but we will be celebrating with special food for everyone. We will do our best to make Christmas special for the children, especially the older children who are able to understand about Christmas.  They have the Holiday celebration after Christmas since Joyce and Molly will be out of Haiti over the Christmas holiday.

Many people should be receiving newsletters this month.  I have faith that God will touch people's hearts and donations will start to pick up this month.  We need funds to pay for food, baby supplies, and salaries for our Haitian staff.  Please keep these needs in your prayers also.

The last 7 weeks has been seen lots of things happening at the orphanage!  Our daughter, Laurie, is especially happy that I am back home! 

While I was gone, we had a nanny die, the generator broke down, the electrical system in the main house had a problem while a baby was on oxygen, one of our foreign staff families resigned, there were car problems, Vivianne and Steeve went through the sliding glass door and had to have more than 100 stitches between them, one of the babies had a seizue and  bit through his bottom lip, and it just seemed like one problem after another! They also had several children go home to adoptive families and many families came in to go the courts!  But they did well without me here.  This is the first time both John and I have been gone together for this long!

Tomorrow, I start reading emails and catching up on paperwork.  I also have to meet the new babies that came in while I have been gone.  Hopefully, by the end of the week, I can catch up on emails!    But remember that  my email rules apply!  LOL (read my older postings for the email rules!) 

I feel renewed and fresh from my time out.  It was a busy time but also just helped being away.  Let us pray that 2010 brings a new adoption law for Haiti and that adoptions will move forward quickly.

And life in Haiti goes on...

 

 

8 December 2009

Last night, as we were flying back to Colorado, we had a stop over in Dallas.  As we were sitting eating dinner at a restaurant in the airport, we received a call from our daughter, Laurie, in Haiti. It was 9:15 PM in Haiti. Our son, Steeve, and Vivianne, who has live with us for at least 8 years, had an accident when Vivianne hit the sliding glass doors connecting the computer room to the outside.  The glass turned out not to be safety glass and it shattered!  Steeve went to help her and was cut on his head by the shards of glass hanging down. 

Vivianne was cut on her face, arms, and legs.  She has 3 very deep cuts on her face.  It took the doctor two hours and she used over 100 stitches to close all of her wounds!  Steeve thankfully was not hurt as much but it did take about 10 stitches in the top of his head.  The doctor said it looked like he had been scalped!

Laurie said it sounded like someone in the kitchen had dropped all of the dinner plates when the window exploded!  Vivianne collapsed from the shock after she ran through the glass.  It was a very bad accident but I think angels were watching over her and Steeve.  The glass could have fallen from the top part of the door and cut Vivianne in half or severely wounded her!  Please pray for both them but especially for Vivianne.  We are praying that her face does not scar.

I think everyone will be glad when I get home on Friday so I can be the one making decisions when things like this happen! 

7 December 2009

We are done with our tour of churches in Illinois.  We spoke at our last one last night.  John and I are very tired and ready to travel back to Colorado today. And we are leaving just in time, it is snowing outside today! We will be in Colorado until Thursday when we leave for Haiti.  We've really enjoyed seeing friends and family here in central Illinois.  My mother, who is 89 years old, let us stay at her home for the first week and then we moved over to our daughter, Katie's home.  It has been fun being here and cooking for her family.  The kids tell me, "Grandmommy, it is nice coming home from school and smelling food cooking!"  My daughter KNOWS how to cook, just doesn't like to cook food from scratch too often!  She prefers the quick and easy cooking from a box!  Plus she works all day and does not feel like cooking when she gets home!  Such is life in modern day USA!  

While here, we have also been working and put all new flooring down in their upstairs which is the children's bedrooms.  We are not around to help our children very much and so it's nice that we are able to be here to help them do this.  John fortunately knows how to do a lot of things that helps them not have to pay for someone else to do it for them!

Thursday, is my birthday.  I will be 45...again!     I have been 45 for several years now and might be 45 for several more!  LOL   I decided to celebrate it in the USA this year.  John and I might actual go out for dinner together and without children!  What a novel idea!  We NEVER go anywhere alone.  Even on this trip, we have had people with us at all locations.  

I will be back in Haiti on 11 December.  I will be so happy to be home, see my family, the kids, staff, volunteers, and everyone at the orphanage.  I will also be glad to be in my own bed finally after being gone for 6 weeks!  I need to go back to Haiti to recuperate from all of this traveling and work that we have done while back in the USA! 

My email rules will apply when I get back to Haiti.  So if you wrote to me while I was gone and want an answer, please write again!  (Look at past postings for my email rules!  )

I am assuming that....Life in Haiti is going on....without me!

26 November 2009

Well, it is Thanksgiving Day and I finally found a wireless network I could connect to!  John and I are in Monticello, Illinois staying with my mother.  I knew I would be able to sleep when I got home to my mom's house!  I actually slept for 9 hours that first night!  I have not slept for 9 hours in years!  I just hope it continues after we leave here! 

Thanksgiving is a huge thing for my family.  Right now, the kids and some of the adults are playing basketball and they just finished playing bingo!  Besides all of the turkey, ham, potatoes, corn, dressing, and desserts, I am very thankful for all of our friends and family this Thanksgiving Day.  I am thankful for al of our staff in Haiti.  I am thankful that all of the children are safe and healthy at this time.  I am thankful for all of you who read this blog.  And I am very thankful for just finally being able to sleep! 

We do not have to visit churches until Sunday but then starting Sunday, we are pretty busy until we leave on December 7.  Pray that people will be open to our message about the children and the needs of the orphanage. 

22 November 2009

Well, it is 3 AM and I am wide awake...again!  I have had the worst time sleeping on this trip!  I was so tired when I went to bed and as soon as the lights went out, I was wide awake! 

This weekend we have had a retreat for the board members of GLA USA.  The retreat was at a wonderful hotel in Denver that was only $35 per night and each room is a mini suite. It is really nice for the money.  The board has spent until 10 PM on Friday and 7:30 PM on Saturday, brainstorming ways to raise funds, make people more aware of GLA, and how to just better run the ministry.  It has been a great learning experience and also has really helped me to better understand just how much our board members are there to help and guide us.  They have had some wonderful suggestions for us in our present financial crisis and it is nice to have them working along with us in our ministry work.

We will finish up today at noon and then head back to Colorado Springs.  I have 1 1/2 days to finish the December Newsletter before we leave for Illinois to visit more churches.  Please keep me in your prayers as I try to stay healthy and get everything done that needs to be done during this busy time!  I am still not completely over the virus I got in October and continue to have throat spasms any time I cough.  I have learned to deal with my vocal cords closing off and shutting off my airway but it is never a comfortable feeling to not be able to breath for several seconds at a time!!  It is getting better but please pray with me that it will go away completely!!

Many of you received my mini newlsetter telling you of our financial needs.  Please consider how you might be able to help GLA with a small financial gift at this time.  Keep the children and the orphanage in Haiti in your prayers and that God will bless us with the finances we need to feed and care for the children.  God has been good to GLA throughout the year and I have faith that He will continue to provide for the children through friends, adoptive families, and donors. 

My staff in Haiti are doing a great job keeping things running smoothly while we are gone.  Molly is in charge and I hear that she is doing a great job.  I remember when John and I could never both leave Haiti at the same time!  It is very nice to have staff that can now step in and run things for the 7 weeks we will be gone!  This is the longest time both of us have been gone together EVER!  

And life in Haiti goes on.... 

15 November 2009

We are winding down our trip through Canada and Michigan.  We only have two more speaking engagements today.  Then we head back to Colorado for a week, before we start our next tour!

I can't seem to sleep tonight.  We were in Sarnia last night and got to see many friends from the Canadian mission group, ACWAM.  We finally got to bed about midnight and I was awake at 3:30 AM and cannot go back to sleep!  My mind is just too busy tonight.  We are speaking in a church at 10 AM this morning and then must leave by 1PM to arrive in Grand Rapids,Michigan for a 5:30 PM church service. They tell me it's about a 4 1/2 hour drive! The pace for this tour has been grueling but fun.  I have so enjoyed seeing all of the children with their forever families.

The Selah/Avalon concert in Michigan on Friday night was a huge success.  More than 700 people came to the concert and over $20,000 was raised through ticket sales and donations!  This is pretty amazing and the concert was GREAT!  I am not much into going to music concerts but I enjoyed myself tremendously and visited with so many people. 

This whole visit has really lifted me up and reminded me exactly why we have gotten involved in building families through adoption.  Seeing the children with their forever families, happy and so full of personality,has made this trip so meaningful to me.

The purpose of this trip is not just to raise funds but to also raise awareness of God's Littlest Angels and the needs of the children in the orphanage.  We are struggling financially at the orphanage.  Children are staying at the orphanage an average of 2 to 2 1/2 years.  The cost of food, housing, water, fuel, schooling,  and supplies just keep increasing.  We are struggling to meet expenses each month.

Please pray daily for the children, staff, and that our financial needs will be met!

And Life in Haiti Goes On...

 

12 November 2009 

John and I are back in the USA for 4 nights!  We are in Grand Rapids, Michigan at Tom and Cheryl Vanderwell's home.  They adopted Ti Kenny (Isaac) and Midjina (Abby) from GLA.  John is feeling much better after I started him on an antibiotic and lots of cold medication!  Today, nothing was planned, so it is a day of rest for us.  So we folded programs and brochures getting them ready for the benefit concert Friday night featuring the contemporary Christian groups, Selah and Avalon.  We are excited to see how successful this fundraiser will be!  So far, more than 400 tickets have been sold and we are asking you to join us in prayer that God will double that number before tomorrow night!  How exciting that would be!

This has been a wonderful journey for me.  I have seen children that left GLA more than 7 years ago!  To see how they have grown and to hear stories about how they have adjusted to life in North America has been enlightening and very funny at times.  Some of the things the children say are just so cute!  

It has been good for the kids to see me too.  I am a person that their parents have told them about and many have seen my photo but do not remember me.  When I come, it is like they can touch a little bit of their history and have a connection to Haiti!

Please keep the concert on Friday in your prayers.  We have a mad dash back to Canada on Saturday for a gathering in Sarnia, Ontario and then Sunday morning, we will speak at Bethel-Maidstone Church.  We then have to drive 4.5 hours back to Grand Rapids, Michigan to speak at a church on Sunday evening!  We fly back to Colorado on Monday. 

Be in prayer also for the family of one of our new nannies in Haiti.  Rosena had only worked for us about 2 months and went home sick one day and died.  She was young with a baby son at home.  We think she might have been diabetic and just did not know it.  By the time the family took her to the hospital, she was in a coma and could not be helped.  It was very sad for all of us and the staff.  This is the first time we have ever lost a nanny like this!

 

9 November 2009

John and I are in Ontario visiting families who have adopted from GLA and also speaking in churches, Christian schools, and at Bible Study groups.  We arrived in Toronto on Thursday, 5 November and have been busy every night since arriving in Canada.  Today, we are staying in a small town called Simcoe.  We are visiting a family that adopted a baby from us back in 2004.  His name is Logan and he was so excited to see us because we came from Haiti like he did!

It has been really exciting seeing the children in their "forever" families!  Our oldest child here is 9 years old and was adopted a little over 7 years ago.  Time passes so quickly and when I see the children growing up, I cannot believe how big they are!  In my mind, they are still babies!

Tomorrow, we leave Canada to go to Grand Rapid, Michigan.  We will be there 4 days.  Two contemporary Christian musical groups will be putting on a benefit concert on Friday evening.  Please be in prayer for the concert.  We need more tickets sold and for the word to get out so people will come!

We then return to Canada for two more visits on Saturday night and Sunday morning.  Then it is back to Michigan for a Sunday night service.  We fly back to Colorado on Monday the 16th. 

We are trying to raise support for the orphanage and make people aware of our needs.  Keep us in your prayers as we continue to travel through Canada and Michigan.  Pray that funds will come in to help cover expenses at the orphanage.

15 October 2009

Please say a prayer for our American and Canadian staff.  We have had a lot of illnesses going around the house.  I have had a terrible cold and cough for the last week and still wake up coughing at night.  John and I have to leave in 2 weeks for a long fundraising trip through Canada and the States.  I desperately need your prayers to get over this illness so that I'm at my best before going on this fundraising trip!

10 October 2009

This has been a very difficult week at the orphanage. Two of our generators are broken down and three of our cars are broken down! I had to go rent two 7 passenger vehicles just to keep things going at the orphanage. We need vehicles to transport children to appointments, do airport runs, buy food, and just do our daily work!

We desperately need funds to help replace the broken vehicles that cannot be fixed and the large generator at the main house. The main generator broke last Friday while we had a baby on oxygen. The baby turned blue without the oxygen and we had to run her up to the Toddler House for the night so she would have oxygen to live.

On Saturday, we were able to go to Fort Jacques and bring a generator from there to the main house to get us through until the broken generator can be fixed. Unfortunately, the part they need to fix it is not available in Haiti right now.

We are very grateful to the French Association and our French adoptive families who have given funds to replace the small generator at the guesthouse. 

 A generator is mandatory especially at the main house where we care for the really sick children. Without a generator to supply the medical equipment, over the years many of our children would have died!

Please, we need your help to fix the cars and generator. Would you consider making a donation through PAYPAL today to help? 

We have always said that we would never be able to help as many children as we do if we did not have GLA supporters who loved the Haitian children as much as we do!

22 September 2009

I cannot believe that it has been 2 months since I wrote on my blog.  I am not a very good blogger!    I did not return to Haiti until the 1st of September.  I spent an additional 2 weeks in Colorado at our home with only our son, Steeve, with me.  It was very nice and relaxing.  At the end of my stay, Laurie, my daughter, came out to Colorado because she was not getting over her Hepatitis A very quickly.  She was continuing to work in the mornings even at her sickest and I felt she needed to come out and just lay on the couch for a couple of weeks.  She is doing much better now.  She will be coming back to Haiti very soon.

I had only been home a week and had not even caught up on my emails when I got a kidney stone and was flat on my back on pain meds for several days.  I hope and pray that I NEVER get one of those again!  It was horrible!  I have just been down in the office for the whole day since Monday.  I was unable to work full time for almost a week.  Thankfully, I am doing well now!

We have had lots of families come to Haiti and go in front of the local judge to sign since Judge Rock Cadet decided he would not sign the finalization of the adoption decree without them coming.  The month of October is full with parents coming.  If you have not come yet, we are taking parents in courts and parquet first and then will work at having other parents in IBESR come to visit.

Last week, while I was sick, I spent a morning at the US Embassy at a meeting on adoptions.  Judge Cadet was present at the meeting and I had an opportunity to talk with the Consulate General of the US Embassy about the problem in the courts.  I was told that the US Embassy had sent a delegation to talk to Judge Cadet about the problem twice.  They are wanting him to allow parents already in process to be allowed to finish the process normally.  He has not agreed to this but he is listening to their concerns about how this is affecting the length of adoptions and the families.

I had asked the Association of Creches to meet with Judge Cadet back in June.  I had heard that he was thinking of doing this and I felt like we needed to influence that decision.  He needed to hear how some of us feel that families coming can affect the children's psychologically.  I know not everyone agrees but I feel this way.  Some orphanages allow parents to come and take their children out to luxury resorts for a week and then return them to the orphanage.  That is hard on an adult to return to their "real" world.  It has to be extremely difficult on a child.  I am so fearful that they will feel like they are abandoned again when the adoptive family leaves. 

When the adoptive families come to GLA to sign at the courts, they are only staying about 3 days.  We do not allow the children's routine to be changed but the parents are more than welcome to be with the children in the orphanage all day long.  Our children are so used to having volunteers that come and go that having the adoptive parents here is not unusual to them.  The children sleep in their own beds and eat with their friends.  So far, it is working out very well.

We had 3 passports come out of Immigration today.  One had errors but we are just so glad to get 3 passports out of Immigration!  We also received 3 dossiers out of MOI!  It was a very good day.  I also paid for a years' subscription to Le Moniteur and so now will get every newspaper they put out.  We have just been going in and buying the ones that have our children's names in them, but I just feel more secure getting every one of them.  They still are very slow to publish the approved dispensations.  I wish they would go faster!

We received quite a few children into the orphanage while I was gone and several of them are very malnourished.  They are doing better now that they have food, but still will need a lot of TLC to be ready for proposals.

26 July 2009

Well, I am packed and ready to go to the States this morning.  I was up until 1 AM finishing the GLA Newsletter which was supposed to be done in June!  I worked from 5 AM yesterday morning until 1 AM just to get everything organized. 

As usually, here I am with 45 minutes until I need to be at the airport and I am in my office writing on my blog!  James, who is driving me to the airport and who is notoriously late for EVERYTHING, is telling me we need to leave, so I MUST be late! 

I will be back the last of August.  If you need to get in contact with me, just send an email to my regular address and Stephanie or Laurie will send it on to me.  Laurie has Hepatitis A, but is already starting to feel a little better although she is the color of a pumpkin!!

I better go and will post next from sunny Colorado where I will attending our annual fundraiser on August 1st!  I cannot wait to see Steeve, Mark, John and Gus!  Daphnee is going along with me for medical care in the States and Vivianne and Wadson are also traveling with me today!  Talk to you soon!

20 July 2009

This past month has been a whirlwind of activity.  Today, there are 32 staff and volunteers sitting down to eat at our table and tomorrow there will be 34!  We've received several babies and children into the nursery this past month, and yesterday when we got home from church, there was a 29 week gestation 2 pound baby girl waiting on our front porch!  Every day has been so busy and it seems as if each day is just one crisis after another! 

It has been extemely stressful trying to take care of Sabrina and getting her paperwork ready to go to the USA for surgery.  But thankfully, she left last Wednesday and had surgery on Friday!  She is doing well at this time and we need everyone's prayers for her to start showing signs of improvement in her condition. 

Daphnee who was born with club feet received her visa today and will traveling to the USA with me on Sunday, 26 July.  She will be going to South Dakota and have casts put on her legs.  These casts will slowly bend her feet until they are straight.  Daphnee was so sick just a few weeks ago with septicemia that we almost lost her.  It is truly a miracle that today she is well enough to travel for treatment for her club feet!

Jonathon is over 8 pounds now.  He will be going home with his mother on 31 July.  What a miracle it is that this baby boy who was technically dead soon after being admitted to the intensive care unit is alive and well today! 

Life is never boring and many times overwhelming, but oh the reward of seeing these children survive, get healthy, and go to their forever homes is worth it all!

 

 

26 June 2009

Today is a very sad day for those of us at GLA.  Those of you who have visited us in Haiti know our big Akita named Nikki.  (he is the gold and white dog)  Nikki came to us almost exactly 10 years ago as a little puppy.  He was a very good and faithful companion and guard dog.  Even at his age, when one of the family came home from a trip he would dance around like a puppy and be so happy to see us! 

But the 1st of June, he slipped on the tile floor and fell and tore he meniscus muscle and tore his tendons in his back leg.  He went through 3 different surgeries and was at the vetinary hospital for many days.  Poor Nikki had never been away from home and he became so sad and sicker every day.  He has alway been our daughter, Laurie's, best buddy.  Unfortunately, John, Laurie, Steeve, and Mark are all in the States right now and so were not here to help me.

I brought Nikki home yesterday but he was not doing well.  He suffered all day and finally died about supper time.  When you live in an orphanage with this many children, it is difficult to find a good dog that you can trust completely around the children.  Nikki was good with visitors and children.  My heart is very sad and I will miss him very much. 

18 June 2009

This week has been very hectic at the orphanage.  We have lots of visitors here and several babies sick right now.  Every day is an exhausting day.  Last night, my daughter, Laurie, and son, Steeve, were packing to leave for the USA early this morning.  They had to catch an 8:30 plane.  But of course, they waited until 10 PM last night to pack.  That meant that we did not get to bed until midnight!

At 3 AM, Steeve woke me up to tell me that there was a HUGE frog sitting in our bathroom in the apartment!  And he was right, there was a brown frog that was at least 3 inches wide by 4 inches long blocking the way to the toilet!  We have no idea how he got into the bathroom because the windows were all closed!

Our cat, Daisy, got out of Steeve's bed to come and see why were were all up at 3 AM and saw the frog.  Her eyes got real big and she ran into the room and started playing with the frog which caused him to jump all over the room!

Of course, since Steeve woke me up, I need to use the facilities!  I am telling the cat to leave the frog alone until I was done.  But nooooo!  She made him jump and touch me and made me scream!  YIKES, I hate touching frogs!

We closed the door with the frog and the cat in the bathroom and tried to go back to bed.  Ten minutes later, the night nurses are knocking on my door to tell me that one of the babies was sick and I needed to come down.  It took me a while to get back up to bed and I opened the door to the bathroom to see what was going on with the cat and frog and the frog had turned GREEN!  I thought maybe he was dead but NO, he jumped out into the hall and now was loose in the apartment! 

By this time, I was so exhausted that I decided to just go to bed and let the frog stay in the hallway.  Of course, I was so hyped over the sick baby and the frog that I could not go back to sleep and 30 minutes later, Steeve's alarm went off and we had to get up to get him ready to go to the airport. 

Steeve went looking for the frog and found it back in the bathroom.  After chasing it all over the apartment trying to catch it in a bowl (yes, I did this because Steeve refused to touch it!), I finally caught it and took it out and set it loose. 

I started my day with 3 hours of sleep!  The sick baby was better today.  And I am now officially home alone without my family who is in the USA.  Well, if you can call being alone when I have 75 staff members, 80 babies, multiple volunteers, 2 dogs and a cat being alone!!! 

But I think chasing the frog around the apartment at 3 AM was a true "And Life in Haiti Goes On" moment!

7 May 2009

We have received a lot of children in the last 2 weeks, eight children altogether.  One of the babies that came is a premature baby named Jonathon.  He weighs 2 lbs 10 ounces (1.3 kg).  He was born on the 17th of April and had a twin brother who died on Saturday. 

Now, Jonathon is kind of a miracle baby.  After his brother died, his mother wrapped this teeny tiny baby in a towel and started walking trying to find someone to help him.  On the road, she found a woman who knew about us and that we helped babies.

When Jonathon arrived at the orphanage, he was ice cold.  He was barely breathing and his temperature would not even register on any thermometer that we had and our thermometers went as low as 93 degrees F.  Immediately, we started oxygen, IV, and put him in the incubator to warm him up. It took almost 18 hours to get his temperature stable.

Then on Tuesday afternoon, Jonathon decided not to breath and his heart rate became irregular.  All night we stimulated to get him to breath and by Wednesday morning, he was exhausted and stopped breathing altogether!  Then the staff started giving him CPR and continued for 2 hours.  It looked like all hope for little Jonathon was gone.  he was unresponsive.  He was dark.  He was gone....

But God had other plans for Jonathon!  The staff decided to stop CPR but I had been praying for God to give us a miracle.  We did not want Jonathon to die!  God put a drug in my mind to try and after CPR was stopped, and all hope was gone, we refused to give up!  So I had them start it again.  His little heart was still beating, but he just was not breathing but a grasp here and there.

The medication was given and God heard all of our prayers and gave us a miracle!  Jonathon started breathing and then started moving and a few minutes later opened his eyes and looked around!  Then he started crying!  Today, he is doing much better. 

We started this ministry when a 1 lbs 15 oz baby was left to die because nobody thought she would live.  We did not give up then and we did not give up on Jonathon now because God hears our cries for help and answers!

28 April 2009

Last Saturday, we went to our property in Ft. Jacques and had a weiner roast!  John and Brad made a fire pit and laid out logs from some of our big pine trees killed when the hurricanes came through the area last Fall.  We took all of our foreign staff and some of the neigborhood kids.  I think there were 34 of us!  We also had an adoptive family from Canada who came along too!

It was nice being up there with all of the trees and the fire.  It was actually even pretty cold that night!  We roasted hot dogs, sang, danced, and just had some nice clean fun! 

A weiner roast brings a little bit of North America to Haiti and makes us feel like we could be back home!

 25 April 2009

Working at the orphanage is something that I love.  Watching poor, sick, abandoned children come into the orphanage and blossom under the care of our nurses, nannies, and volunteers is very rewarding.  Literally, we save some of these children's very lives!!

Adoptive parents can be very emotional.  Their emotions run very high and sometimes very low.  It is difficult them to be patient and wait for an adoptive process that can run on for months.  How can anyone understand a foreign government that does not have the same urgency to see these children in their forever homes as all of us do???  The families sometimes think the orphanage staff should be able to go to government offices and "force" them to sign dossiers!  I wish it was that easy!

So when we receive a letter from a family who are very grateful for their proposal, it makes us feel very happy.  The family that wrote the letter below only had 6 days before their adoption agreement expired and they could not renew it because The Netherlands has a law that you cannot receive a proposal after your 46th birthday! 

But as I often say, God's Way is Perfect!  We were able to propose a little girl to them six days from the mother's 46th birthday!  This letter tells of the mother's joy!  I wanted to share her joy with you today.

Dear Dixie, Stephanie, the staff at GLA and FLASH,

I am writing this letter to thank you all for Carmelina – a wonderful perfect match for our family and just before our permit ran out.

I had personally given up hoping for a match. Miriam (at the agency Flash in The Netherlands) and I exchanged emails in January as I asked about a possible extension of our permit. Miriam responded that an extension was not possible without a match. I understood and left the matter there. Of course you cannot produce children out of thin air and we had kept up with the adoption process challenges in Haiti through the newsletters so knew the situation was getting more difficult.

So I was not looking forward to my 46^th birthday - which was just 6 days away - when all doors for adoptions would be closed just because of my age. (The Netherlands has a rule that once you reach 46 years old, you can no longer adopt a child.)  Then we received the life-changing phone call from Miriam. It was just after 6:00pm and I had come in from work and was peeling potatoes. My husband, Cees, was not in yet and our son Chistiaan was playing piano in the background, so it was hard to hear. When Miriam said who she was, I froze. Flash has never called us before.

Miriam very kindly did not keep me in suspense and told me right away that they had a match for us. I could not believe it. I don’t know what I said – I was speechless. I was so surprised, shocked in fact. I was totally not expecting it. The only thing I could think was that it was now too late to get our permit extended – the Ministry of Justice would never do this in 6 days. But then Miriam said it was already extended. Until 2011!!! I could not believe my ears. It was already extended. Whoopeee….

She then said we could plan a meeting – I thought we’d have to do it right away as we’d have to agree before my birthday, but that was not necessary either. You guys had this all figured out already – including all our names on the permit!

Then she said she could tell me a little bit more about the child. Of course I wanted to know, but I did not think we were allowed to know over the phone, so I didn’t like to ask. It is a little girl she said…my heart jumped.  Just what we wanted! And she is nearly 3. Nearly 3, I repeated, wow, nearly 3, how wonderful, nearly 3, how cute.

I got off the phone. I ran downstairs jumping and laughing. My son was watching TV (of course once I was on the phone he took the chance to stop playing piano!). I hugged and kissed him and laughed and jumped around. He laughed at me and kept asking me what was up. But he doesn’t know about the adoption so I just said it was really good news and that I’d tell him soon (and of course he soon forgot)….

So we scheduled the meeting as soon as we could – Cees, my husband,  was able to change his schedule on Thursday so we could go that week…

Then we “met” Carmelina, what a lovely name. Well, actually I had seen her in the GLA newsletter from March 2009, since her picture was in there and she was the only “nearly” 3 year old who was a new arrival. I had thought, well it just might be her. And it was!!! What a beautiful little girl, what lovely big brown eyes. How healthy she looks! But how sad for her to be separated from her mother.  It must have been very very hard for her mother to give her up. An act of love.

When Miriam asked us at the end of sharing with us all the information on Carmelina, “can I tell Dixie it’s a yes”, I looked at Cees, expecting he’d want to discuss it, and he just said very simply “yes”.  I was surprised and very pleased (of course it was yes for me J.).   

We feel it is a blessing.

So thank you to all of you who made such an effort in such little time on our behalf. We feel like Carmelina is a very good match for our family and we hope we are worthy of her. We do not know what it is like in Haiti, but we can imagine that her arriving on your doorstep on January 9^th and then all the tests and evaluations and paperwork that needs to be done, followed by the proposal on Feb 20^th was a heroic efforts on GLA’s part. That followed by Flash moving quickly to ensure the Dutch side was in order, also not a given by any means.

We recognize that the road ahead is still a long one and anything can happen in the meantime. But we have hope now. Thank you for giving us that and thank you for the care you are giving to Carmelina and the support you are giving to us.

Kind regards,

Angela, Cees and Christiaan

23 April 2009

Today, I started my day with 1500 emails in my In-Box.  1500!!!  I actually do work on emails every day.  I probably answer at least 40 per day.  And I still ended up with 1500 unanswered emails!  How can that be?

So today, I decided that I was going to go through my emails and put them in folders and answer the ones that needed answering.  Now, you have to understand that I have a few rules when it comes to cleaning out my IN-Box when there are so many emails.  Rule # 1: If it has been there more than 3 months, it automatically goes into a folder.  I figure that either the person that wrote me has given up by now or they wrote me again and I have already dealt with the email!  Rule # 2: Sort all of the emails by name rather than date they came in and answer the latest email from that person!  Heah, works for me!  Rule #3: When you get overwhelmed with the huge number of emails just Highlight and Drag the emails into folders and Do NOT stop and read them all again!  Rule #4: If you do not know the answers to the questions in the email...it is ok to ignore it! 

Following my rules, I was down to 14 emails at the end of the day!  Now, there will be some people that did not get their questions answered and some who wrote me the same email 6 times before they got their answer, but there was no way I was going to be able to answer 1500 emails when i get between 40 and 60 every day!

So if you wrote me an email and I did not answer, I am so sorry.  Try sendng it again and -hopefully it will not end up lost in my endless IN-Box!! 

13 April 2009

Melanie WRIGHT, our update coordinator, has been sick for a couple of weeks.  She sent March's updates, but was very sick the last week of them.  A few days ago, she turned very yellow and we think she has Hepatitis A.  She will be unable to work through April and into May.  Some of the staff will be covering for her while she is sick and we will send out photos and very VERY short update information.  Please keep Melanie in your prayers for a quick recovery.

11 April 2009

This week I had to go to Port-au-Prince to the main Customs Office.  We have a container waiting in the port and the customs duty that they asked was almost $4000!  I dreaded having to go down to the office because it is clear down by the wharf area and back in a terribly dirty and run down area!  Of course, before we could go to the office, we had to pick up the agent whose office was across town from the Customs Office! 

It took 1 1/2 hours to drive from the orphanage to the Customs Office!  The traffic was horrible!  As we were winding through back roads to go to the Customs Office, I realized that Ernst was taking me by the area called "Belaire"!  Belaire is where many kidnappings took place during Haiti's dark period following the 2004 coup d'etat.  When I expressed concern, he said that it was a nice area now and the gang members were gone.  I can tell you that I was glad when we passed through the area and were downtown!

We arrived at the office and then sat and waited for 2 hours!  At least it was air conditioned in the office.  In fact, the air conditioner was blowing so hard that my hair kept blowing all over the place and security in the room would not let me stand up and go to a different area in the office!  A kind man sitting by me finally changed places with me and he blocked the air from blowing directly at me.

We finally got into the Director's office and he listened to our story about being a orphanage and not being able to pay $4000 for the container.  We probably talked to him for 3 minutes and he told us to write him a letter asking for a discount on the custom duty fees.  Then it took us another 1 1/2 hours to get back to the orphanage!

Nothing is ever easy in Haiti!  I've said it many times.  In December, we went down and he approved a discount without anything in writing!  We'll know to have our letter with us next time.  I came back home, the agent sent me a letter by email, I put it on our letterhead, sent it via the driver the next day, and the agent took it to the director!  Of course, everyone closed their office on Thursday at Noon and will not open again until Monday or Tuesday of next week because of the Easter holidays!  Pray for our container to come out next week so we can get our generator and new washing machines and dryers!

The volunteers spent most of Friday coloring eggs for the Toddler House.  The kids will have a special Easter day celebration.  We pray that all of you also have a special Easter Holiday.  Remember the meaning of the holiday.  Jesus gave his ALL for you and me!

April 1, 2009

Our trip to Baie d'Orange went very well.  We went with 18 people which was great because the extra hands were needed when we started giving out the food packets to the people.  We had enought food packets to give to 700 people.  We also went with 80 packets especially for children which included oil, rice, sugar, corn meal, beans, milk, and cookies!  We also gave 6 families goats!  We had hoped to give 35 goats to families but not all of the goats showed up for the distribution!  We have made arrangement to go back and meet the official in a local market town about 1 1/2 hours walk away from area.  They will then herd the goats back to Baie d'Orange.  I think that sounds like a LONG walk but the people assured me that this wasn't very far at all!

We went to Baie d'Orange on Saturday and then spent the night in Jacmel that night.  We were to return to GLA on Sunday afternoon.  But while in Baie d'Orange, we noticed that only a few children that came to the food distribution were really severely malnourished.  When I said this, I was told that on Monday there was a clinic for the malnourished children in the area.  So, on the spur of the moment, ten of us decided to stay and go back to Baie d'Orange on Monday! 

There are two clinics in the area but neither are permanent clinics.  The one we went to had 400 children that they see each week!  This was only for one small section of Baie d'Orange!  They divide the children up, so some come on Monday, some Wednesday and the rest come on Friday.  They are checked for illnesses, weighed, and given PlumpyNut packets.  These are peanut butter and powdered milk with lots of vitamins and the kids love them!  I would love to get a source of PlumpyNut individual servings so that we can help the children more!  I feel a great need to help this area build a permanet clinic building.  These people must travel 2 1/2 hours or more to Jacmel to get medical care.  We found out there are 9 health agents in the area, but their supplies are very limited.  The area is very large and the communities of houses in the area are very spread out.  

Many of the children at the clinic have red hair and some are swollen from lack of protein.  We took 6 bags of rice and 250 cans of milk for the staff to give out to the children and their families.  We know it is not much, but it was all we could do and every little bit does help.

On the way to Baie d'Orange, our truck lost a bolt out of the wheel and the tire wobbling all over the place!  We did not know what to do!  We asked the people, who ride horses or walk everywhere they go, if there was a mechanic in the area.  Of course, they said "no", but there was a man who owned a pickup truck about 5 minutes away.  Maybe he could help us!

When we arrived at his house, he laughed and said that all of his tools were 2 hours away and sorry, he could not help us!  So we went very very slowly and headed down the mountain.  Now, remember, the wheel was wobbling and the steering was loose. The mountain road has sheer cliffs off one side of the road!  It just got worse and worse and my nerves were wearing very thin.  Finally, I reached my husband, John, and he told us to stop, take the tire off and see where the bolt might have come from.  At that moment, I stopped my car and told everyone in it that we needed to pray.  I prayed for God to send some Angels to help us.  We needed some Angels because we were out in the middle of nowhere without a way to fix the truck.  Wadson, one of our drivers, was in the truck.  I was in the Montero with 9 people.  Everyone was afraid to ride in the truck!  Five minutes after we prayed, God sent us two Angels in Mack dump trucks!  It is TRUE!  They stopped and told Wadson to get a stick of wood and stick in the hole where the bolt had come out!  Wadson did it and it was a miracle!  The tire stopped wobbling and we made it down the mountain after 4 1/2 hours.  We were safe and the hotel had a mechanic who came and fixed the truck enough to get us back to GLA the next day.  So if you pray for Angels, be prepared for the unusual!  Of course, it makes us kind of worried to think that these big dump trucks that we meet every day on the road might be put together with sticks and wire! 

 

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