My Birthday

Today I had a wonderful birthday. It did not go as I had planned but God had bigger and better plans. My morning started out with Courtney popping her head up to my top bunk and wishing me a happy birthday  A great way to wake up! Then they made my favorite breakfast in Haiti pancakes. I spent the morning adapting a baby bath tub into a positioning seat for one of our children in Rou’s corner our terminally ill child orphanage. I used lots of ductape. I finished the morning with sitting in on the pediatric PT that is here adding onto my evaluations of the children. Courtney spoiled me and made me mac-n-cheese for lunch with chicken in it. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM :p and Melissa bought me a dark chocolate milkyway candy bar.

In the afternoon the plan was to load up my 9 higher functioning children into a tap-tap in their wheelchairs and take them to get ice cream BUT it downpoured and so we are going to try to go tomorrow. Instead God opened up a BIG door. I found out that we had a team of orthotists and prosthetics here. I went over and talked to them about coming to look at a few of my children. I also told them that I have a big trunk of AFO’s do they have the equiptment that we could remold them and try to fit them to my kids. They said YES! And they Gretchen an orthotist came over to the Miriam Center and spent 2 hours helping me evaluate my 7 or 8 of my children and the next 2 days we will work on making and fitting different devices to help them walk better, prevent contractures, and to prevent skin breakdown. I am super excited that Steven, Tamara, and Ju-Ju may be able to walk, that Job and T-Willy are going to get hand splints. The team is also going to go home and try to make 2 chest vests for Rachel and Job to help them breathe better and help correct their scoliosis and prevent it from getting worse. It was one of the best birthday gifts, the hope of seeing my children walk and the ability to prevent contractures! Thank you God!

I spent the beginning of my afternoon loving on my For Jonathan Sake children for a little while and then loving on the Miriam Home children. Their smiles melt my heart. This evening Courtney and I had dinner on the roof and looked out at the amazing view. Courtney made me amazing double chocolate fudge cookies and they were AMAZING! I am so glad that today did not end up being my last day here at the mission and that I have 6 more days to love on my children and to continue laying a foundation for the rest of the summer and the year. I have so much to still get done and a lot of paperwork to finish up. I really need to buckle down on the paperwork part of things.

Devotions tonight really touched my heart. In the middle of the devotion a man came forward and said he needed to interrupt devotions that a man was walking for the first time in a long time. He came to the orthotists this morning with an amputated leg. Today they made Him a new leg and taught him how to walk and he was walking out praising God. We all went down to the court yard and cheered him on. We watched and cheered him all the way to the gate. It was a very touching moment. I saw that man in early this afternoon and he was just being fit for the leg.

It was a great day!

My next post will be taking the kids for Ice Cream