He is Risen!!! Oh Hallelujah! He is Risen Indeed!

He is alive, and His Spirit lives within us! There was much much joy this weekend as we celebrated Christ’s victory over death and the sacrifice He made for each one of us. Toddler House had only a few moments over the whole weekend that a RaRa wasn’t within hearing distance. On the evening of Good Friday one containing many of our neighbours came and performed on the roof of our neighbours heads high enough above our wall that all the kids could see them. I was saddened to see so many peoeple we know involved and tried to imagine what it would be like to live my life in fear of irrational evils and impending doom, instead of in the freedom and joy that I have knowing my Lord and Savoir is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and has conquered even death that I might live!  The groups were not so close to our house nor did they perform as often last year and I was curious how this year’s immediate presence would effect our kids, whom openly “boooed” them. But instead of making them fearful and causing them to hide out inside the house they just stared at them... given the opportunity a short time later to sing praises to Jesus they sang as I have never heard before!! Their voices strong and clear one came up with the idea to sing louder than the RaRa’s everyone else agreed it was the best plan. They sang on and on and I don’t know that they would have stopped had bedtime not been rapidly approaching.

We did many of the usual activities this year. Friday morning we dyed 8 dozen eggs. It was hardly even messy, no overturned dye pots this year! We had lots of help as all the nannies came and helped with their care groups and all the volunteers came up for the morning to help out as well. Each child dyed an egg in the color they chose and though several were cracked with stickers holding the shells together in the end everyone thought they were beautiful.  

That day every child also colored an Easter basket on which was written “Jesus died for____________” and they filled in their name and then posted a picture of themselves underneath. We have laminated half of them and when they are all covered (waiting on some more laminate from the states), we will hang them in the dining room as a boarder. 

Easter morning the usual group of 16 got dressed in their church clothes under Joyce’s direction and headed off to a church service with Edlyne and Nadege. While they were away the little kids had Sunday School here at the house lead by Sé Ketlie. This was one of my favourite parts of the day.   Sé Ketlie did a lovely job reading the Easter story out of the big Creole Bible and for the first maybe 6 minutes everyone, minus active Cindy Love, was paying attention... after that she continued to plough through serious about what she was teaching, while little pockets of children at each table tried to listen and others played with their fingers, twisted their tongues around in their mouths, and all in all were done listening. Until the praising started. Little tiny hands flew up in their air as these little children’s mouths started praising God and saying “Hallelujah” with their hands held high for Jesus.   If you have ever been to a Haitian church anywhere you know this is a big part of their worship and even the youngest at Toddler House of 16 months knows how to wave her hands in praise. Laura couldn’t help herself and stood right up on her bench seat trying to reach even higher. Their energy was infectious and their praise so innocent and honest. When service was over the little ones went outside for their Easter Egg hunt... Kervens found the very first egg, he looked at it as though he almost didn’t believe it and then yelled at me and held it out for me to see! Wisleson was second to spot a green one, and with that he was done, he plopped his bum down right where he found it and tried to figure out how to pop it open (Joyce had explained to them that there was candy in each one). When Laura came to find me about 90 seconds later she had FIVE in her arms, FIVE, very impressive. She looked down at them, chose the bright green with her hand, opened up her arms, and let the rest fall to the ground. One was all it took to satisfy her, it just had to be green. Ghislaine saw this wonderful opportunity and immediately scooped up Laura’s left overs. After everyone had found some treats Joyce and I re-hid the eggs for the ladies. The kids stood back and cheered them on while the ladies ran through the yard searching. Marielle found 16 the most of all, and her caregroup kids walked around for the rest of the day bragging out her “their Marielle” had won.   When the big kids got home from church we refilled and hid the eggs for a third time... 160 in total and it only took 12 minutes for them to find every single one. WOW! Ilienne found the most with 17 in her bag on final count.

Odeleine, one of our 9 year old girls, wrote this about Easter in her journal:

Jesus at Easter Time

The man said show me Jesus and I will give you money. They want Jesus to die. On Friday they put Jesus on the cross with two other people. The boy ran with the nails. After three days Jesus rose again. We talk about Jesus at church. Jesus rose again. Mary cried for Jesus. Jesus died for everybody. Ermithe (her 7 year old friend) cried for Jesus. She did not want Jesus to die. The RaRa was happy because Jesus died. Jesus prayed before he went to the sky. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me.” Jesus like walking with little kids.  

Posted: 25 Feb 2009

Itchy Itchy Chicken Pox

January was an interesting month. It was happy and sad, tiresome, hard, joyful, and promising. It seemed like every day we were saying “Good-Bye” to a child we love, and though something that we pray for daily, and a great time of rejoicing, it can be very hard to let go and watch them leave. I love reading emails from parents and seeing new photos of our kids after they have gone home to their “Forever Family”. But my keyboard has felt a lot of tears as the “missing” is still great especially during the first few weeks. These kids are so precious and there is no way (not that I would want that) to not let them take pieces of my heart as they go to their new homes. 

 Mid January the Toddler House generator broke down and as we waited for the mechanic to diagnose the problem and God to provide a solution we went without power for two weeks.   The ladies did such an amazing job keeping the routine going changing time schedules to fit the daylight hours. They drew water from the underground cistern by hand for cleaning the house, bathing the kids, and hand washing all the clothes.  They knew what needed done and did it despite the extra work involved. None of them ever complained to me about it, and I was humbled to see them work so hard with such great attitudes. I will say it again, I am so thankful that God has blessed us with such wonderful Haitian women to act as caregivers and to provide love and set a good example to our kids.   God provided a slightly used generator, the power of which exceeds what we need daily at Kay B, for a miracle price! He is always amazing! 

The first week of February chicken pox appeared at Kay B. It was February 4^th to be exact. A day which I will remember for years to come. We did not quarantine anyone, knowing that we would never know who already was infected, and hoping we could get through the illness quickly. The first week there were half a dozen cases, the second week about a dozen more, and this last week we had two dozen at one time with bumps and feeling icky. One morning as Joyce and I made the first rounds of the day we had 53 children with fevers. Thankfully most were low grade fevers and had we not checked the child’s temp you’d have never known they were sick, no slowing of pace. As the kids have been getting their spots it last 3-4 days usually before they start to dry out and heal over. The big kids keep boasting that they will not get it, they say and hope that they had had it at their Haitian homes before they came to live with us. One by one though they are getting it as well. They are all troopers and some actually think that being covered in calamine is somewhat special and not just annoying. As kids come down with it we let them lounge on the couch and watch TV, play with toys and coloring books in their beds (trying to bribe them into resting!!!) and have made many combinations of powdered juice mix and sprite for a fun way to keep hydrated. So far the two top ranking “Sick Time” movies are “Tinkerbell” and “The Bee Movie”.   We only have 19 kids left that have not had it… so hopefully next week will be our final one. I speak for all of us when I say I am looking forward to a regular sleep pattern again. Unfortunately our gatekeeper/all around handy guy, Jean Louis, first felt achy on Sunday and is today just covered in bumps! And our Elementary school teacher, Mademoiselle Elange, showed up for work this morning (great lady that she is!) with a fever and blistery spots. We sent her home immediately, but she would not leave before she handed out a few goodies that she had stopped and bought for her class on the way to work.

We postponed our Kanaval celebrations at Toddler House this year due to our recent chicken pox outbreak.   This afternoon our current group of sickies was feeling much better so we decided to go ahead and have a little party. Joyce, three of our volunteers, and myself spent a good 4 hours Saturday night decorating some fun party masks, 90 of them to be exact. With a few extra ribbon touches today they were ready to go. After lunch the big kids and Joyce strung balloons across the yard and creating a “used car sales lot” effect. And as we prayed that the sun would turn down its heat a notch clouds rolled in and with them a cool breeze. The little kids woke from nap and excitedly headed outside to see what all the commotion was about. We handed out musical instruments and masks to each child. Then proceeded to make music a.k.a. NOISE!!! I thought we could try some singing but our voices could not be heard above the music and we just played a fun beat. We marched outside and down the street, attracting a crowd who came out to cheer on our talented kids. Unfortunately our beautiful masks were a little too much cover for some of the kids who couldn’t see their feet and needed a little extra guidance.. . poor Sammy fell three times but refused to lift his mask and put it on his forehead to clear his vision he was such a trooper.   Wide eyed Delidson could hardly keep up with his feet he was so excited to be marching in the neighborhood and felt very secure being in the middle of all his friends. Marie Mica greeted most of the neighbors and had to be reminded to stay in the group and keep moving, socialite that she isJ.   After climbing back up the hill to our house I expected the kids to have lost some energy but they were still going strong. My ears were ringing by the time we wrapped it up and asked all the kids to sit down in their groups so we could have snack. Just before handing out the cupcakes though we passed out a party popper to each child and Joyce explained to them how they worked. As everyone counted to three they got their strings ready and PULLED!  I’d say half of the bunch went off at the same time? That’s pretty good I think. It was a special afternoon spent in a fun way with some really REALLY amazing kids! God is good!