favorite quote

I kept forgetting to post this after our day at the beach but it still makes me laugh. It's about an hour and a half drive to the beach and you see a lot of interesting things on the way. Our last beach day was made even more interesting when we passed by a totally naked person walking down the road as though she were fully clothed. Parker(8) and Maddie(10) were riding in the back of the truck and when we got to the beach Parker jumped out and ran to Sheila. "Mom, guess what?! We saw seven dead animals and one naked person!!!"
You never know what you're going to see...

Rice Box

Who knew a box of rice could be so much fun! Beth and I put a bag of rice in the little sandbox last night and the boys went crazy! They were pouring rice from cup to cup, throwing it in the air, dumping it on each other's heads, and trying to eat it. Other than the fact that the nannies probably hate us for the mess it makes, the rice box was a huge success!

Never a dull moment

So this week and next week Vitani, our laundy/cleaning lady for the girls house is off, which means Beth and I have to take on the task of laundry there PLUS Guerline, our head nanny who does laundry at the boy's house, has missed two days which means we've also had to take over her jobs. One of which is making lunch for all of the kids. It makes our days much more crazy!
We also have a lady in our women's program who is not breastfeeding well and her baby isn't growing. He's almost a month old and still only 6lbs. So she is going to be coming to the girls' house every morning and staying there all day so that we can mae sure she is nursing and we can teach her what she needs to be doing.
Our days seem to be really busy lately and the weeks are flying by! 7 weeks from yesterday and I'll be on a plane back to MI. It's a little scary to think of how fast it's going!

So cute!

*edit* somehow i forgot to add this other photo but she's so cute i had to make sure i posted it!

Thanks to Karla for bringing a few of these shirts and the headbands!

Happy Easter!

We had a great service up at Boutillier. It was nice and chilly in the morning! We sang and prayed over PAP and had a small breakfast then headed back to the church for our normal service. Afterwards we dropped the kids off at their houses and we went to Tlucek's for a dinner with about 65 other people. We were all exhausted from getting up at 4am but it was a good day! Ali and Jeff
Yvie
Jenny and another boy praying up at Boutillier

service at Boutillier
Ra-Ra band on the way down the mountain
Kesline, Jenny, Jeffery, Yvie, and Ali

Day at the beach.

The Lynchs, Lisa, and I took off at 8:30 am for a day at the beach. Because it was Good Friday the traffic was almost non-existent and it was a great drive. The ocean felt perfect and we had a great day laying in the sun, swimming, jumping off rock walls, and kayaking! Parker, Sheila, Dan, Lisa, and Maddie
The Lynchs and Lisa bought some lobsters to make for dinner. 7 lobsters for $20 and they are fresh out of the water when you buy them!
Maddie, Parker, Me, Lisa, and Sheila jumping off the rock wall.
Maddie and I kayaking
Now it's Saturday and we are all fried. We had sunscreen on but ran out...oops. We've all been lathering up in aloe! We've decided that beach day should be once a month. I highly doubt that will happen but it would be nice :o)

Surprise visit

Manna Relief has given us vitamin type things for our kids to take that are supposed to be really helpful. Apparently these vitamins are very expensive in the states but we get them all for free. On Monday Beth got a phone call saying there were some people here from Manna Relief and they wanted to come by and see the kids. They ended up putting on a puppet show, singing with the kids, passing out balloons and toys, and giving us a ton of vitamins. The kids LOVED it!

I'm excited for this weekend! On Friday I am going with the Lynchs (and I'm sure a bunch of other people!) to the beach. We are all ready for a day of relaxing by the water. On Sunday we are doing a sunrise service at Boutillier, a look-out point over Port-Au-Prince. It's an amazing view and I'm sure it'll be even more amazing at sunrise. This photo was taken when my friend Debi was here and went up to the Baptist Mission for lunch and then to Boutillier.

Introducing Jessi

Baby Jessi was born on March 11 to a lady in our women's program. In a previous entry I said that Elamide had a c-section and we were told the baby was only 3lbs. WELL Elamide showed up today with a beautiful 7lb 10oz baby girl that she named after me! She's so cute and looks JUST like her mom!We've had lots of women in our program giving birth and many that are right near the end of their pregnancy. I love having all of these newborns around!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Another new baby

Elamide, our lady who went into labor during sewing class, had a c-section on Thursday. She has a baby girl and we are told she's only 3lbs. We were all shocked because Elamide's stomache was so big but apparently she has a tumor or something also. She will be having surgery to remove that in the near future. We probably won't see her til Tuesday but hopefully the baby and mom are doing ok!

a lot of random info

This is Samuel. He's a happy little guy that comes every Tuesday to the Women's Program with his mom. Baby David. He hasn't gained any weight since Thursday but he's doing well. He kept smiling (and filling his diaper...) yesterday. He's beautiful!

Clernise and Jemima. Jemima gained 9 ounces this past week and looks great. She is well on her way to being a chubby baby!

Another new baby boy. He's just over 6lbs and 11 days old. I don't remember what his name is but his mom is Clerciane. He looks like a little old man :)

Karla and Marissa left this morning. It was fun having them here and they really seemed to enjoy their time. I hate watching them say goodbye because that will be me 2 months from tomorrow! I've been with the McHouls for 4 1/2 months already and been in Haiti for 7 months. Just 2 more to go and it is flying by!!!!

I just got an email from Lisa....The house for Werna and Sanise is completely paid for and they have some extra money for beds and food, etc. Praise the Lord!

Almost every single kid in our house has a cold which means I do also. I guess it's unreasonable to think that I won't get sick when I live with 20+ people! Hopefully it'll pass through us all quickly.

OH, we had a lady from our program that also comes to sewing class go into labor yestrday morning. She was in a lot of pain so Beth gave her a check up and we sent her to Doctors Without Borders because it was already planned for her to have a c-section when she went into labor. We asked the other ladies this morning and they said Elamide had a baby girl yesterday. I'll post photos of them the next time we see her.

Sheila had a very pregnant lady show up this morning saying she couldn't take care of the baby when it was born because the father had died. She's coming back tomorrow to talk to John to find out the whole story and he'll let her know if we are taking the baby or not. Pray that the baby will be safe and taken care of if we don't because she doesn't want this baby and someone that was talking to her said she'd probably just throw it out so she doesn't have to care for it. It's so sad!

On a happier note, Sanise and her little girl Jeerzie are doing great! They are both improving every day and Sanise is very appreciative of everything. She's working on making a skirt in sewing class and proudly shows it off every day.

Update

Nathalie and baby David are doing well. Nathalie's swelling in her feet had gone down and her blood pressure was down 20 points from where it was. These were all good signs. We are still going to be watching her but are hoping she is out of the woods now. David was up to 5lbs on last Thursday and we'll see him again tomorrow. Hopefully he is still gaining weight. He was a bit jaundiced for the first week and we're hoping that will have gone away too.

I've had one person offer to send money for Sanise and Werna. Lisa is really excited and is praying that she has all of the money by the time she is back in Haiti (she left on Friday and will be back on Thursday). I think I wrote it wrong in another blog entry but Lisa needs $400 total for the whole year. Not $200 a month like I had originally said. The $400 pays for both women to live in the house. This photo is of Sanise and her little girl. Ekrissa and Brittany. Brittany's parents are adopting Jenny and Jeffrey and it was her preschool that Karla, Marissa, and I visited. Jenny and Jeffrey

Marissa, Karla, and I went up to Petionville on Friday after spending the morning at Sisters of Charity. We did LOTS of walking and shopping. Marissa and Karla both got things that they wanted to take home and we all got lots of sun! These 3 photos are from the market that we walked through so that Karla could buy some shoes :)

Phat Cat's Clothes

I think I posted some photos back in late November/early December from when we had the rapper Phat Cat here. He was a very large man but SO nice. We all really enjoyed having him around. He and his friend stayed at John and Beth's for about a week while putting on concerts at different places around Port-Au-Prince.

Well....while sorting through a TON of fabric for the women's program, we came across some shorts and a shirt that Phat Cat had left here. The photos capture the excitement that followed....

The men in my life