Busy few weeks

Hi everyone…I am sorry it has been so long since I have written in my blog or sent an email update. The past few weeks have been extremely busy and once again my plans for the summer changed… Relying on the verse… “For I know the Plans I have for you declares the Lord…” He is El Roi the God who sees…and I don’t know why he keeps changing my plans but I TRUST Him & know His plans are better than mine.

So a little over a week ago I had a meeting with Janeil Owens the executive director of NWHCM whom I work for and the Miriam Center is apart of. I went into the meeting just to discuss my vision & plans for the Miriam Center, my plans for the summer, & to just make sure we were on the same page. We had an amazing 3 hour conversation that lead to great brainstorming & a new plan of what my summer will look like. A plan that we feel will have greater follow through & sustainability throughout the years to come.

So as we were talking through things…we realized the most important thing for me to focus on this summer is a plan that will enable the Miriam Home Children to receive therapy/educational play throughout the year. I had started working on this by training Nahum who is going to be our OT for the Miriam Home but I have been having some difficulties with follow through on what I am asking & following a schedule. And truthfully 1 person trying to do therapy on 32 kids that all need therapy multiple times a week just is not feasible. So Janiel & I came up a plan that will incorporate my workers purposefully playing with the kids all throughout the day which consequently means working on their goals and setting up individual children box’s that will allow Americans who come in for a short-term trips to pull a box with the kids name, picture, biography, most appropriate positioning, there goals, & a variety of toys to help meet those goals all in one place. This enables a non-skilled person to now engage a child in purposeful play. It breaks down the barrier of I don’t know how to engage a child or how to play with a child down in the Miriam Center…I don’t know how to position them…All these barriers will be broken which will result in more Americans coming to play with the kids. This also allows the workers to have 1:1 time with kids & pull boxes as well. This has been my big project of the week. It is almost completely finished & ready to have its trial run later this week. I am so excited. We are also looking at expanding out the back of the current Miriam Center where there will be a big version of the current bird cage that will allow a space for these 1:1 to occur.

We have set up a rotation for the workers based off the rotation Courtney’s mom & Amelia set up during her 3 months here in Haiti. The kids have “mom’s” that travel with them through 3 rotations throughout the day. This makes sure the kids get moved & repositioned & get to spend an hour & half in 3 different environments. What I added to this rotation was that I made bins of appropriate toys for each group that will be dropped during each rotation & next week plan on going in & teaching the workers how to purposefully play with the kids to help each child grow & make progress toward their goals. So often only when American groups come in do the kids get to do fun activities & the workers sit back & watch. I feel like so often they watch the fun then have to clean up after it. I wanted to make it so that it is the “mom’s” who get to do fun activities & through this I believe deeper boding with the kids will happen & I pray a new excitement to work with the kids will also surface.

From previous blogs & emails you know that God changed my plans & really gave me a heart & vision for For Jonathan’s Sake (FSJ) this summer. I have been working on writing a Bible Study on the names of Christ to share with the parents to help them love God more & in return love their children more. Well…during my discussion with Janeil it was clear that I really needed to focus on getting the toy bins for the kids & training of the workers grounded so that all throughout the year the Miriam Center children will be progressing towards their goals. I am still going to run FSJ everyday but have decided not to make each an individualized home treatment plan as was my originally plan. I will still run Bible Study & teach the parents positioning & stretching. I will be providing the parents with a handout on stretching & teaching them how to stretch their kids everyday. I will also be sending them home with a plastic mat that they can lay their child on to get them out of the dirt as well as a homemade bolster out of big cans to allow them to position their children on their stomachs. At first my heart ached because I was not doing as much for this program as I wanted to but through other people God showed me that this is huge! Over the next year if they stretch their kids everyday, their kids are not lying in the dirt, & they can position their children on their stomachs that this is a lot. Also, I have set up a toy drop where one day a week they will have access to toys even when I am not here.

So here is my analogy of what we are doing with the Miriam Center. It is like building a DELICIOUS Sandwich. The last 3 years we have spent creating the “bread” for the Miriam Home and this summer we are filling our sandwich with the meat. Over the rest of this year we will be adding condiments like special education (Stephanie) and OT (Naham) and PT (Presidue). It is really excited to think of how DELICIOUS this sandwich is going to be. I have to be alright with right now that we are still at the bread stage of For Jonathan’s Sake & next year the goal is to lay the meat which looks like individual boxes for each kid that the parents come in & can pull their box to work with there child…pretty much so the system we just set up for Miriam Home children. So over the next year my goal will be to raise money & buy the supplies to form these boxes.

My role when I am not in Haiti will continue to be writing therapy companies for donation, going around speaking & sharing what God is doing here, & learning new therapy techniques to bring into Haiti. This year it looks like I am really going to focus on being in contact with group prior to them coming into Haiti. I want to set up with groups ahead of time & help them plan what their interaction with the Miriam center will look like. I want to give them specific kids that our “their groups” kids for the time they are here & send the kids bio ahead of time & have them begin praying for those children. I want to explain the boxes. I also want to give them a list of big group activities they could do with the Miriam Home children & have them plan for that. So if they want to do shaving cream parties they will prepare like they do for VBS & bring in the supplies. I also want to encourage groups to do VBS’s with the Miriam Home children. I am really excited to see what my role will look like in the states but really feel that God is going to use me while I wait to be full time in Haiti.
Stephanie our special education teacher has arrived & has been busy helping with the projects & we have been setting up the Luke 2:52 school which has been quite the job but extremely exciting as well.

Today we have been busy finishing everything up as Courtney has arrived back Home in Haiti. It was so fun to see the children prepare. They made a sign that said welcome Home with drawing of the sign language to spell Courtney’s name. Ju-Ju & Den helped me make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies which was a blast. I have a whole new picture of licking the bowl…lol They both after helping push each cookie dough off would lick their fingers & then re sanitize their fingers before the next one….It was a blast. Then this evening we had movie night & cookies. It was so nice to take the day to finally be with the kids. The past week & a half has been full of work & not so much play. The next 3 days till the next group comes in is all play with the kids…..AND I am super-duper pumped.

One of my highlights today as well was that Janeil & the male interns came down to test out my box system for the kids & it was such a joy to see them interact with the kids & have fun!!!! I am so excited about the box system.

So of course, since I haven’t written in a week I have left a lot out BUT quick overview…Plans have changed again…lots of new plans came about…many have already been implemented…God is BIG!!! YUP! EXCITED!

Thank you for all your prayers & support & I will get back on blogging every other day. Sorry for the big lapse.