The boys made a list of things that are different here in Haiti than in the U.S.A.
More differences were announced by Evan but Ethan said he was only going to write one page!
Here’s what made the list.
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* “Inverterator” is a 7 year old’s combo of inverter and generator. We shall talk about those things another time. |
Choosing to remember!
Life is hard in Haiti. You see it on the news. We see the news every day in real life. It is easy to get tired of seeing the hard, smelling the sewage, cold showers, power failures, being drenched in sweat, rain on laundry day, turning away beggar boys… and how that makes the heart ache.
How just a walk outside the gate makes the heart ache.
We don’t like to take pictures and post about those things.
But we have decided to choose to remember…
that Haiti was once called “the Jewel of the Antilles”
and that there was a reason for that…
and even though we usually see the hard and it is easy to forget
that we are living on a Carribean island…
Just a little farther beyond our gate
And through several street rivers… (That’s us in the vehicle and Eric driving in Haiti for the first time!) |
…we can find that reason.
These waters and the mountains surrounding them are what greeted Christopher Columbus when he discovered the island known today as Hispaniola and set foot on what would become the nation of Haiti. |
Columbus discovered paradise…and so did we! |
And very large crabs! |
And rocks covered in sea slime! |
And how much fun Aunt Emee is! Elisabeth’s sister Emilee surprised us by flying in on Friday which was another good reason to spend Saturday here. |
And to play water Frisbee! |
Until someone gets stung by one of these! |
And everyone got out of the water to see (and touch if they were brave enough)! |
That poor someone stung by the very large jellyfish was Eric! |
So then we stayed closer to shore! |
And on shore |
And off shore |
where brothers and sisters played in the jellyfish free waters! |
For a long time… |
Until it was time for lunch! |
Our beach buds (other teachers from our school) |
For Betsy |
Our girls ate two heaping plates each and this fish didn’t stand a chance! |
Time for more play! |
Come and get Dad! |
And line up… |
to be thrown in the air |
and caught |
and taught how to swim |
and to enjoy this paradise! |
We saved you a spot! |
And to drive home later than planned…cause who wants to leave paradise? |
And to sleep all the way home…
until we got back into Port au Prince
where there are way too many
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And as we drive through river streets and try to avoid those ravines in the dark with no street lights and finally get home to cold showers and wake up drenched in sweat to no power and the smell of sewage filling the hot house…
We choose to remember!
What do you do when…
What do you do when…
You have 4 children
(2 of which don’t speak much English)
and they are bored
because it is raining outside
and there is no such thing as a tv
and the batteries ran down on the Leapster
and the power is off so the computer died
and you are trying to cook dinner
but 4 children are all around you in the kitchen
and they want to eat every food item in sight!
Well, I don’t know what you do
(if this ever happens to you)
But we…
Make ji! |
We make ji (juice) with lots of limes, water, and sugar! |
Here is the ji we made Friday night. |
And then we did it all over again on Sat. morning! |
And everyone kept busy… |
And liked making and drinking our ji!
Want some? |
And just so you know…all those limes were premeditated, prewashed, and prepared for such a time as this! And just so you know…all these cute pics of swimming, smiling kids hugging each other and having a great time isn’t always the reality around here. But we are making do with what we have and this week it was limes! We are thankful for your prayers for the transition time for our family and it has truly been great! But that doesn’t mean that we haven’t had hard moments. Moments when we don’t know what to do. Moments when I didn’t have a premeditated bag of limes ready and waiting. Moments when I want to run and hide and read the Connected Child 50 more times! We believe that our previous trips to Haiti have allowed for the amazing bond we have with our adoptive girls. They are doing really great and so are our boys! However, we have many many issues to overcome that limes will never solve. Now that we have had some really awesome family bonding time, we are ready to get to work on the issues we do see (while knowing there are many more waiting to surface from the depths of pain in our girls hearts). We don’t know when we will be able to have the girls from week to week, and so working on issues is difficult at this point, but we are praying that whatever time we have with them will be well spent working on the heart issues for all of us. We would appreciate your continued prayers that we will seek God’s heart in all of these things and for His grace to get through each day (with or without limes)!
Mommy’s Day Off
It was last Tues. The day after our first eventful weekend with our girls and the day after I had returned and spent the day with them (and the chicken) at their orphanage. We are sitting around the breakfast table talking about our plans for the week. It was stated in those plans that “on Friday you boys get the day off from school”! Eric said, “But I don’t”. Friday was parent/teacher conference day. Ethan pipes up and says, “Well Mommy gets a day off EVERY day!” They think because they see me in the house when they leave and usually when they return home from school that I’ve just sat around eating and sleeping and blogging all day long.
Little do they know!…Perhaps I should let them know by not doing this!
My Tuesday…Then it rained. |
Children like Jamie and Sophie who will go home to their forever family in IL soon! |
Still Thursday. Evan gets out of school at noon so Audrey had to take me back to the school to pick him up and we decided to have lunch with Ethan and Jenna as well. Then we headed out to stop by the Apparent Project.
If you don’t know what that is click here to find out!
And around the corner we got to say hello to some very talented basket weavers! |
And then…it was Friday. And we all did have a day off. Well, all of us except for Eric who was very busy with those parent/teacher conferences. The kids and I were invited (by dear Audrey) to go out to eat and then swimming at Jennifer’s (Quisqueya Art teacher) house nearby. Audrey picked up our girls on her way down to the school (where we both had our conferences with our kids teachers) while the kids played and then we set off to
And marveled at how the 3 families represented here ended up with both Haitian and American kids for this day and how good it was for them all to be together! |
And marveled some more at a very dramatic response to the automatic hand dryers in the bathroom! |
And then we went to the pool where the girls stayed on the sidelines for awhile… |
And finally ventured out… |
To bug brothers… |
It was a really funny sight to see two big girls wearing baby floaties floundering around the middle of the pool where little kids with no floaties were swimming. |
It took Ethan a minute to figure out why he wasn’t going anywhere. Haha! |
And kids swam so hard they were eventually all fighting over the floaties! |
But all in all… |
We had a great day off! |
It was a day when orphans didn’t feel like orphans.
And when new friends felt more like old friends.
And when Haiti didn’t feel so much like Haiti.
Expect the unexpected…
I didn’t know what to expect from Monday…other than feeling sad about leaving my girls back at their orphanage. I did expect to stay for a few hours and love on some of my favorite precious kids before my friend Audrey came to pick me up. But if you asked me Monday morning what this day would hold there is one thing that I never would have expected.
I expected to see this sweet face |
and these |
and schoolwork being done |
and big chocolate eyes |
and dimples and smiles that melt my heart. |
(didn’t quite expect Esmée to jump in and do schoolwork right away, but I was proud she did) |
I expected to have a lap full of kids |
I looked up at Nanny with a smile and she pointed down at this. And at that moment the only help I wanted to give was to help this live chicken flee his predicament! |
When I couldn’t save him, I prayed for a swift death. It didn’t come. He is still alive here. |
And here. And he was flapping and kicking and blood went everywhere. And it got on me. |
And then he was thrown in the pot with the lid on to bleed to death. Now finally deceased. |
And my girls were laughing at me |
and showing me that they were not afraid of dead chicken. |
Could this be the same little girl that tried on 5 different outfits and fussed over her hair this morning? |
And since I was feeling stupid already… There you see them. The hands that look like they have no business being anywhere near this picture. |
And here you see my expression which says, I cannot believe I am doing this. I want to vomit now. But I can’t because... |
Jeff’s sweet eyes were watching me… |
and Guerline always makes me laugh! |
Sorry chicken. If your life was in my hands, I would not now be holding your head. I have lived my life fighting the saying, “If you can’t beat em’, join em’.” But for today I lost that fight. |
But I am thankful that the plucking part is over. |
Until the cutting part began. |
Seriously. What was I thinking with Betty Crocker cookie mix? |
Well, the moral of this story is to always expect the unexpected in Haiti. And if you are ever in Haiti, never offer to help (without giving stipulations) unless you are ready to get your hands dirty. Very dirty.
And I would like to ask the question of someone who might know anything about profit margins concerning chickens (because I was thinking this question during the entire chicken killing and mutilation process)…how much money is actually saved by doing it this way vs. buying the end product at the store? I know it is fresher this way. But oh the trouble! Oh the yuck! I can’t see how any small difference in cost would be worth it (unless you actually like killing and mutilating…like my girls seem to). I mean, I know someone has to do it. And I do like eating chicken. And I had just eaten chicken cooked and served by the same Nanny that killed this one…which means she probably did the same to the one I ate. But it will forever bother me until I know what the profit margin is between doing it this way and the way I like to do it by buying it from the shelves of the supermarket….where it doesn’t squawk and flap and fling blood on me. Anyone want to answer that question?
Then I got another summons that Audrey had arrived to pick me up. I told Audrey what had happened to me and she asked why I “helped”? I said, “well I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later in Haiti so I might as well get used to it. Audrey has lived in Haiti for a year. I have lived in Haiti for a week. She has never had this experience with a chicken. And she informed me way too late that I didn’t have to have this experience either. Let’s just say I will think hard…very hard before I say,
“Ou pa bezwen m’ ede ou? M’va ede ou.” Ever again.