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

David and Jemima

We have a few women in our program that have given birth in the last week and a half. Clernise came today with her 10 day old baby girl, Jemima. She weighed in at 7lbs 1oz! great for a Haiti baby. (pictured to the right)

Chelor, another woman, gave birth a few days ago and, from what we hear, is in the hospital. We are not sure what is going on there and have not been able to check on her.




The third woman is Nathalie and she gave birth on Sunday. A few of the women that came to our program today said that she wasn't doing well and couldn't get out of bed. Her feet had been really swollen on Thursday when she was here and her blood pressure had been a little higher than normal. So today we set off to check on her. She was in her mom's house (it isn't really her mom but someone that kinda became a "mom" to her when her mom passed away) which is where she had given birth and seemed to be doing ok. Her feet were still swollen and her blood pressure was very high so Beth and Karla are researching to see what it could be from and what we can do for her here. Her baby boy, David, was born breech but was doing very well. He is a little peanut weighing in at 4lbs 11oz. He is a beautiful little boy! Pictured below is Nathalie nursing David and a close up of David

Day of Adventures

Karla, Marissa, and IToday was really fun. We sat in on Britt's preschool class then went and had lunch with Hojara's. After that Karla, Lisa, Marissa, Elaine, and I went walking down the ravine and visited some people that we knew or that Lisa knew just from living around there. We spent a couple of hours walking around, got nice and sunburnt, and took lots of photos :)
Adnai



I really enjoyed just getting to walk around and talk with the people. There is always a group of kids trailing behind when there are white people walking around! It's so funny. And they LOVE having their pictures taken.

We have two women that we've been in contact with over that last month or two that have no place to live. One is Olivia's mom and the other is a 17 year old single mom whose daughter is 14 months old and weighs only 13 lbs (11 months older than Annie but only 2 lbs heavier!). Lisa has found these two women a place to live in a small one room house together and has been giving them food. Olivia's mom has 4 other kids she is trying to take care of and has been sick lately. The single mom is now coming to our sewing school and doing amazing! She loves it and her little girl is getting better every day. Lisa needs to find people that will help sponsor these two women. I believe it's around $200 a month for food/shelter for both women together. She needs some of the money tomorrow to pay for the house. If anyone would like to help, please let me know. (email me!) You wouldn't necessarily need to commit to a monthly sponsorship but a one time gift would be really helpful too! If you can not give money please lift all of these women and their families up in prayer! They definitely need it! This is a photo of the 14 month old little girl. Her eyes are gorgeous!

Fun times ahead...

This week and part of next week should be full of adventures. Karla and Marissa got in yesterday and we did tours of the houses, went to Beth's house for dinner, then hung out with the girls and watched a movie and ate popcorn.
Today, after church, the plan was to go to the Visa Lodge hotel with the Lynch's, Hojara's, and Rod and Brittany. Well, The Hojara's, Rod, and Brittany got to the hotel and sat down to eat lunch while waiting for us and realized there was no water in the pool. Well....typical Haiti. So they called us and we decided to see if the Tlucek's would mind all of us coming to use their pool. They are incredibably hospitable and didn't mind at all. They even barbequed hot dogs for us then made brownies and homemade ice cream for dessert! In my opinion it was way better than going to the hotel :)
The plan for tomorrow is to leave with whoever takes the Lynch kids to school and go to Rod and Brittany's house. Brittany does preschool with 8 kids from the Manassero's boys and girls homes so we will help out with that then go down into the ravine with Brittany and Lisa. I'm looking forward to it!
I will post pictures soon.