Another Wonderful Birthday in Haiti

Well today is day 2 of my trip in Haiti and for the 4th year in a row have celebrated my birthday in this amazing place. It has been quite a day filled with so many great times and times I facing my fears and seeing God come threw.

Sot his morning I got up at 6:00AM and got ready for my day followed by devotions & breakfast (sausage gravy & biscuits). After breakfast I started a new Beth Moore Study called Believing God. It was exactly what I needed to start out my day as I was overwhelmed thinking about all I had to do with absolutely no idea where to start…everything was out of my comfort zone & I was feeling very under qualified. I needed to set up Miriam Home schedule, work on For Jonathan’s Sake stuff & talk to Presidue (my Haitian who hands out the food & basically runs the program when I am not here), needed to talk to Naham ( my Haitian hired to train to be an Occupational Therapist) about his schedule, etc.

Day one of my Beth Moore Bible study focused in on what it means to have active faith that is alive & moving. It talked about the great power that comes when we have this kind of faith…We have access to the same power that conquered the grave. Then it asked the question what are you currently having trouble trusting &/or having faith in God with…well lets see…lets start with the list up above  First thing this morning I had to surrender ALL to God & remember God does not call the qualified…He equipts the unqualified in order to show his power & glory.

I went down stairs to get all the kids files (Miriam Center & FSJ)…which surprisingly only took me 15 minutes to get my point across without a translator  Thanks to God! I then went up stairs to start looking through files…made it halfway through one before got side tracked. It was really cool to see the evaluation forms I had spent a month creating from scratch had been used & with success .

Naham & Presidue came up to see me & we ended up meeting & talking for over 2.5 hours. I got filled in on how things have been running in the Miriam Home & FSJ Program. I sat down with Presidue & together went over his new schedule, I got ideas for the new Miriam Home schedule, and am in the process of making Presidue’s new schedule and Presidue is on getting everyone in FSJ back her so we can hopefully get fully up & running next week. I then spent an hour typing up the new schedules and then reviewing it with Naham to make sure he thought it could work. I am really excited for the rotation that we created so that throughout the day the children will be exposed to different environments and activities. They already had a great rotation going and I just tweaked it so a lot will stay the same. I also introduced both of them to all the assistive technology I brought in teaching them how to use the switch toys, how to switch adapt battery operated, how to use the IPAD and other communication devices.

I then started talking to Naham who asked if I was qualified to teach…basically he was asking if I could train him to be an OT…I said yes, that is what I am here to do  He is soooooo eager to learn and that turned into over an hour conversation of me sharing my passion and vision for FSJ and for all disabled children & their families. I then introduced him to the 20+ textbooks I brought in and he already asked to take one home to read it tonight. I am starting with training him in sensory as I believe it is the base to all else . It was so refreshing to see how excited he is to learn & really wants to gain the knowledge base to help these children. We actually started talking and lost track of time & missed lunch…ooops.

The beginning of the afternoon was spent organizing supplies and the Luke 2:52 school…and trying to adapt some battery operated toys (which was unsuccessful). It was so much fun to see some of my workers eyes light up as I unpacked…to see them play with the toys like kids on Christmas morning. I had one worker pick up a phonics game and for about 30 minutes worked on learning the alphabet in English and words on the one communication board.

At about 3 I decided I was going to go play with the kids with the IPAD. I began taking the kids 1 to 2 at a time out to the Bird Cage for some quality time together. It was so much fun to see their eyes light up, to hear their laughs, their smiles, and the eagerness to learn. I saw more then ever the potential the IPAD has…it open a whole new world for these children. We played straight up till dinner 

Dinner was amazing spaghetti with homemade rolls turned into garlic bread, chocolate cake, and SWEET TEA!!! MMMMMMMMMM… Yes I filled my entire water bottle up with sweet tea to last me the rest of the night…probably why I am on a sugar high.

After dinner I had the wonderful opportunity of sharing the story of the Miriam Center with a family that arrive today and jumped right in helping feed the Miriam home children before dinner. I learned it is their 19th time in Haiti but first time at the mission. They have a daughter who has an orphanage on the other end of Haiti and they have some disabled children and a deaf school. It was so wonderful to share where we have come from and what a reminder of just how BIG GOD is.

We then had devotions and since we had a new group of over 70 arrive today had introductions and rules time. I then ran to get a quick army shower and then went to give out goodnight kisses. I would have to say this may have been the highlight of my day. I go in and start giving kisses…I get to Walden who starts giggling uncontrollably and turns it into a game…Markinely runs up and jumps into my arms and lays his head down on my shoulder to go to sleep. I started playing games with Walden who was laughing so hard he could hardly breath and when I would stop he was say start rambling on and say HEY…HEY.. and try to say my name…Moise was getting so excited he was jumping up and down with a big smile…this went on for a good 10 minutes before Joshua and Joseph came in for the tackle. It was a joyous moment. Job began crying and would not stop so for the past hour as I have been writing you he has been on my lap & we have been having some great bonding time. He fell asleep about 10 minutes ago and is snoring 

Please Pray for Den-Den who has chicken pocks…many of our children had it but are better…Den-Den is miserable and just does not feel well…I finally got him to smile today while playing on the IPAD but tonight he was crying. So please pray that he would be free of itches and pain & that he would heal quickly.

Funny side note…or not so funny…I thought I got the chicken pocks from them today as when I woke up I had no bug bites and now have red dots all over my back and arms…progressively getting more all day. I have been told it takes a week after exposure to get them and mine are too big and swollen like to be chicken pocks…so I guess I am too sweet and got eaten ;-)

Thank you for all your prayers!