These past two weeks have been a little hectic around here. The Pierce’s (the Jacmel field director and his wife) have gone home for the month of May to see the birth of their first grandbaby. So that means the same responsibilities, with less people. So we’ve been quite busy these past few weeks.
I have been in charge of the Baby Nursery, making sure the nannies have all that they need for the day (diapers, wipes, formula, clean baby clothes…). In addition to being in charge of the Nursery, I’ve also been the campus nurse :-). We had a scare, the first day the Pierce’s left, a nanny came to us to tell us that one of our preschool boys has had a fever for 3 days. I checked his temp and it was 104.2!!! We gave him some Tylenol, which brought it down some, but we ended up taking him to the free Cuban hospital and they gave him an antibiotic. I’m not quite sure how this whole hospital is funded (I guess from the Cuban government), but we went in the next day with three more sick kids. We got two chest x-rays and saw a doctor for three of our kids and we didn’t have to pay a dime!! Can you imagine?!?!? The doctor was really nice, but he was talking in 3 different languages: Spanish, English & Creole- it was pretty crazy but we understood each other! So a few days after the Pierce’s left, we had about 8-9 kids on antibiotics three times a day (in addition to Jezimond’s wound care three times a day from his cleft palate surgery)- so I was pretty busy. I am so happy to say that they are doing MUCH better and are all off their antibiotics.
Andrew has been helping Zac (our maintenance intern) with various projects around the compound. If you know Andrew well- you know he’s got a servant’s heart and is willing to help out with whatever!
A little update on Faith, for those of you interested. She is doing pretty well! She just got her first cold yesterday. I’m not sure how you get a cold in Haiti- but she got one (I think from her Dad :-). It’s really not too bad though- just a runny nose and an occasional cough. She is growing like crazy though- last Sunday she weighed 14 lbs 3oz and her legs are getting pretty chunky! She’s also starting to laugh a little, which is really fun.
HUGE PRAISE ITEM: our Deuce made it to Haiti!!!! Pastor Lex (the Haitian pastor in GG) has a broker who is helping to get it out of customs. If everything goes smoothly, we should have it out of customs tomorrow!!!
We also have the ok to go to GG this week for a few days. We’ve rearranged our Kreyol lessons to be on Monday, Thursday, Friday this week. That way, we can leave early Tuesday morning to go to GG and come back on Thursday. We’re excited to be able to go and see the kids as well as the new site and it’s progress. Drex told us that they’ve got all the posts in the ground for our chain link fence (to go around our temporary housing) and most of the septic tank dug. After they finish those two projects, they’ll get started on building our temporary house. That way, we’ll have a place to stay when we come and visit for a few days at a time before we actually move there. We’re still shooting for June 20th to move the kids into the new housing. We will probably end up moving to GG the week before that, so we can get acclimated and figure out where to buy different items that we’ll need right away. We are so excited and can’t wait to be a part of these kids lives!! At the same time, we’re a little overwhelmed at the task before us, but that makes it even more exciting because there is no possible way we can do it in our own strength so God is going to have to get the glory!
We were able to go to church today with the rest of the kids here in Jacmel (except the babies). We watched the babies from 6:30-8:30am and then went to church at 10am. They had enough nannies there today that we didn’t have to stay and watch the babies. So we were excited to be able to go and worship with the rest of the kids! It was really neat because we’re starting to pick up more and more Kreyol and we’re able to understand a little more each week :-). This past week we learned numbers in our language class- so we were able to follow along with the Scripture as well as the songbook numbers. We also recognized three songs today: As the Deer, And Can It Be and God is so Good. We got to church a little late, so Andrew and I had to sit in different pews. Then in the middle of the service, the lady sitting next to me wanted to hold Faith- so that was fun! All the nannies here love her and call her by her new nickname “Lafwa” which means faith in Kreyol :-)
This afternoon, two more interns arrived to help out for the summer: Rebekah & Cameron. After they got settled in, we were able to go to the beach with a bunch of the kids. It was a perfect day for the beach because it was pretty hot out!! Everyone had a great time- including Faith.
I know some of our friends have been asking for a list of items that we could use down here. If any of you have items that you would like to donate, please email me so that we can hook up with you when we come back to the States in July. I’ve emailed Renee (Lex’s wife) to ask her what the kids in GG need the most. Here’s what she said: they could use new bathing suits (boy & girl – ages range from 5-16, with 7 girls and 24 boys), belts for the boys and hair accessories for the girls (they use the plastic colorful barrettes). She also said that they go through sandals pretty quick, so if any one would like to donate some good quality sandals, that would be great too! Those of you reading this who haven’t asked for a list of items, then please disregard this message. I don’t want you to misunderstand me and think that we are begging for more money or items. Thanks so much for all your help!!!!
Praises:
- A HUGE PRAISE: Our Deuce made it to Haiti!!! It should be out of customs by tomorrow afternoon (if everything goes well :-). Please pray that it would go smoothly on Monday though.
- Most of our kids are feeling better and are over their sicknesses.
- We’re half-way done with our language class- YAY!
Prayer:
- Please continue to pray for our kids at GG. There are still several of our kids at GG who need sponsors- pray that God would lay it on people's hearts to partner with these children.
- Pray for God to give us HIS wisdom as we are looking to take on a huge responsibility of ministering to and taking care of these 31 kids. The more I think about it, the more I realize how inadequate we are to do this. We have a 4 month old daughter, and in less than a month, we will be responsible for taking care of 31 kids- some of whom are teenagers!! Overwhelming, huh? Please pray that God would lead us and show us how to care for these kids with His love and to teach them to follow after Christ wholeheartedly.
- Please pray for the staff that we’ll eventually have at GG. Pray that they would be strong men and women of the faith.
- I’m including this one separately because it’s been weighing heavy on our hearts. We would really like to find a Haitian construction supervisor to help us with our temporary housing as well as our permanent buildings. This position is extremely helpful- especially when it comes to building things Haitian style that we know nothing about. Please pray that God would bring us the man He would have for this position to help us out!! You can also be praying for the construction of these temporary buildings- that it would be smooth and that we’d be able to get these kids in there by June 20th.
- A few paperwork items. We still need to get our residency papers completed (in order to stay here longer than 90 days without leaving the country.) We also need to get a license as an orphanage for the GG site. We’re not sure about all the details with each of these- but pray that God would help us in knowing where to go to get some of these things accomplished.
- Continue to pray for our language learning. Andrew’s learning style is different from what our tutor is using. So we would ask for you pray especially for Andrew to have the patience and understanding as we continue to learn Kreyol.
- And of course- continued health for Faith. Pray that as the rainy season approaches (which brings mosquitos) that God will put His hedge of protection around her!
Thank you guys so much for your prayers and encouragement!!! I think that’s about all of the news I can give you from this end for now. I hope you guys are doing well!! By the way- we’re planning on coming back to the States (SC & NY) for 2 weeks towards the end of July. We haven’t nailed down the dates yet, but that should be coming soon- we will let you know!! Thanks again for all your support!
I know some of our friends have been asking for a list of items that we could use down here. If any of you have items that you would like to donate, please email me so that we can hook up with you when we come back to the States in July. I’ve emailed Renee (Lex’s wife) to ask her what the kids in GG need the most. Here’s what she said: they could use new bathing suits (boy & girl – ages range from 5-16, with 7 girls and 24 boys), belts for the boys and hair accessories for the girls (they use the plastic colorful barrettes). She also said that they go through sandals pretty quick, so if any one would like to donate some good quality sandals, that would be great too! Those of you reading this who haven’t asked for a list of items, then please disregard this message. I don’t want you to misunderstand me and think that we are begging for more money or items. Thanks so much for all your help!!!!
Praises:
- A HUGE PRAISE: Our Deuce made it to Haiti!!! It should be out of customs by tomorrow afternoon (if everything goes well :-). Please pray that it would go smoothly on Monday though.
- Most of our kids are feeling better and are over their sicknesses.
- We’re half-way done with our language class- YAY!
Prayer:
- Please continue to pray for our kids at GG. There are still several of our kids at GG who need sponsors- pray that God would lay it on people's hearts to partner with these children.
- Pray for God to give us HIS wisdom as we are looking to take on a huge responsibility of ministering to and taking care of these 31 kids. The more I think about it, the more I realize how inadequate we are to do this. We have a 4 month old daughter, and in less than a month, we will be responsible for taking care of 31 kids- some of whom are teenagers!! Overwhelming, huh? Please pray that God would lead us and show us how to care for these kids with His love and to teach them to follow after Christ wholeheartedly.
- Please pray for the staff that we’ll eventually have at GG. Pray that they would be strong men and women of the faith.
- I’m including this one separately because it’s been weighing heavy on our hearts. We would really like to find a Haitian construction supervisor to help us with our temporary housing as well as our permanent buildings. This position is extremely helpful- especially when it comes to building things Haitian style that we know nothing about. Please pray that God would bring us the man He would have for this position to help us out!! You can also be praying for the construction of these temporary buildings- that it would be smooth and that we’d be able to get these kids in there by June 20th.
- A few paperwork items. We still need to get our residency papers completed (in order to stay here longer than 90 days without leaving the country.) We also need to get a license as an orphanage for the GG site. We’re not sure about all the details with each of these- but pray that God would help us in knowing where to go to get some of these things accomplished.
- Continue to pray for our language learning. Andrew’s learning style is different from what our tutor is using. So we would ask for you pray especially for Andrew to have the patience and understanding as we continue to learn Kreyol.
- And of course- continued health for Faith. Pray that as the rainy season approaches (which brings mosquitos) that God will put His hedge of protection around her!
Thank you guys so much for your prayers and encouragement!!! I think that’s about all of the news I can give you from this end for now. I hope you guys are doing well!! By the way- we’re planning on coming back to the States (SC & NY) for 2 weeks towards the end of July. We haven’t nailed down the dates yet, but that should be coming soon- we will let you know!! Thanks again for all your support!
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