UPDATE

Hi Everyone, Sorry it has been so long since I have written again but things have been crazy busy as always and we have a group of 140 short-term missionaries here the past 2 weeks and many of the groups spent A LOT of time in the Miriam Center. It is great to have some people from my home area in PA and to see some familiar faces and meet new ones. There are many groups in this missionary team that have a heart for Miriam Center and the kids. They have been a great help with feeding, providing therapy, bringing in supplies, taking the children to church, taking the children on walks, etc. I will try to give you some quick updates on what I have been up to…. 1.SUPPLIES on Missionary Flights International ARRIVED- I am so EXCITED that all the supplies that were flewn in by MFI and coordinated by John Harvey’s group (1,600lbs of supplies) have all arrived. It was pretty awesome that their team was here to help unpack and see the supplies start being put to use. On that flight was cans of fruits and vegetables to puree for the severe and profound to increase nutrition. A 250kcal formula that is great for tube feeding and kids that we need to increase calories and/or have gastroinstestinal problems. They also brought in tons of disposable mattress pad covers for at night to help save the mattresses. Also 200lbs of simply thick was brought in as well. It was pretty EXCITING to unload all those supplies and know what it means for increasing the kids overall health and nutrition. The groups also left A LOT of supplies including peanut butter, toothpaste, toothbrushes, a few kids clothes, children’s medicine, etc. There was enough travel size toothpaste and toothbrushes for us to also pull out enough to bless our staff and my outreach program. 2.For Jonathan Sake Outreach- Outreach has been going great!!! The parents have been faithful in coming and completing their homework at home. The parents continue to be eager to learn and EXCITED about the toys/supplies they are able to check out. I have a couple fun stories. The little girl who I wrote about last update that her mother reported that she was playing in her food for the first time and I provided her with a spoon with instructions to practice having her hold it…well, she is now holding her spoon on her own and today in outreach we practiced with me holding her hand with the spoon in it scooping food to her mouth. By the end she was helping intiate bringing spoon to mouth after food scooped on. Today I had a family came all the way from Cap Hatia (6-7 hours) with their son who had Quadruplegic erebral Palsy because they heard we had doctors and help. When I found out how far they came I realized they were not candidates for our outreach. So I dropped what I was doing in the preschool and took an hour to train them on stretching, brushing, massage, and oral-motor techniques and gave them laminated handouts. I also gave them some toys, therapy brush, oral-motor supplies, etc. At the end they asked when they could come back. I told them anytime but when they do come back to come on a Wednesday or Thursday as their child is at a similar level as the children that come on those days. They said they would see me Wednesday. I am in shock…1 because of how far they came and second how much love they have for their child and third that both parents were there loving on that boy. It makes my heart so incredibly happy!!! After outreach I am spending 20-40 minutes 3-4x a week to train Presidue on different therapy techniques as he will be the Hatian running this program. He now has his own binders with step by step exercise to progress kids at all different levels that are laminated. So EXCITED about this program. The parents have only asked me for 2 things. The first one is a BIG NEED. These parents need Tap-Tap money to get to outreach every week. Many of these parent walks hours or take Motos which are unsafe with their children to get here and it is hard on them and their children. To pay tap-tap for all the kids we need about $150 a month. This would make life so much easier and practical for these families. The other thing the families ask me for on a regular basis is a Bible. It breaks my heart that these parents don’t have a copy of God’s word and that they want one so bad. I had one family pledge to buy 6 of them. The Bible’s cost $13 US dollars to buy them here in Haiti. I need 12 more people to pledge to buy 1 Bible and by the time I leave Haiti these families can have Bible’s :-) 3.FEEDING/NUTRITION- The continues to be one of the BIG focuses of this summer. It is easy to get discouraged because there is so much that goes into it and so many changes we are asking the Haitians to adapt to and change takes time and is a process. I have to choose to look at all the victories…even small ones to stay positive that we are doing something BIG for these kids. The supplies we got from the MFI plane have been very helpful with nutrition for Derson who is on a feeding tube. Currently I have him on a schedule where he gets Carnation instant breakfast in the morning, a special formula for feeding tubes for lunch and dinner and a protein shake at 10 before bed. I am starting to notice him being more alert throughout the day. We have been struggling with how to help Sandley but I feel in the last 3-4 days we have made a breakthrough with his nutrition. Sandley is almost 2 years old and only weighs ~10lbs. Everything we tried to feed him came out in diahrea and went right through him. Even a gently formula mixed with rice cereal. A few days ago Justin asked if we were trying to have him eat too much at a time (3-4oz. was our goal) and so we started 3-4 days ago feeding every 2 hours 1 oz. of food and this has been working!!! Sandley has not had diahrea and has been peeing :-) The kids are getting more nutritious meals with more fruits and vegetables. The little guys meals continue to be less nutritious than the bigger kids meals but this is not a battle we are ready to fight completely and so I am currently making babyfood out of canned vegetables and fruits that were flewn in on the MFI flight to substitute for now. The kids are being feed with the appropriate size spoons AND the picture check-off system is working so that all the staff know who has eaten and who hasn’t and it allows the Americans to walk in and help feed and not know who hasn’t eaten. Stephanie Mosier has played a huge role in helping the cooks learn to cook new food for the little guys and big guys. Justin Clark has been huge in helping us get the food depot set up. 4.SEVERE and PROFOUND PRESCHOOL- This is definitely one of my favorite parts of the day. I just love watching these children get so much stimulation and 1:1 therapy time. I love how eager the mothers are to learn and apply what I have shown them. I started training the mothers in the last few weeks how to stretch, brush, use bolsters for tummy time, oral motor techniques/massage, and how to do a basic massage with lotion. A few weeks ago I made boxes and binders for each of the workers to try to make it more personalize since they have specific group of kids I will be teaching them to work with BUT today we realized this is too hard to keep organized as during preschool (especially when short-term missionary groups are here) the supplies are being pulled all over the room and it is hard to get them back to the right boxes. So today I re-organized the boxes so that the boxes were by item instead. This will just make it easier for all involved. Gildine is standing while holding onto something and starting to take steps forward with hands held. Gildine and Love-jinnie can sit all by themselves when weightbearing through hands for support. Andy, Emma, Lounide, and Jessica are getting good at lifting their head during tummy time over the bolsters. John Kerry, Chrit-TCherry, and Shamma love the vibrating chewy toys. I could go on and on about each child. I see each child making small steps of progress and having an increased quality of life thanks to Heather Meyer for starting the preschool and pouring into these beautiful children who have so much potential. I am so thankful God has allowed me to come alongside her to train the workers (Momma’s) and work with the kids. 5.BLESSING the Workers- One of our BIG things this summer/year is finding ways to bless the workers and help them understand how much we appreciate all the hardwork and love they pour into these kids. One way is that through Kimmy’s House’s help we are working to make sure all the workers get meals while at work. Heather even blessed them this week with a special meal this week. We had a team down here who asked to wash all the worker’s feet, lotion them, and put nail polish on them. They loved it!!! AND I loved watching them be loved on and appreciated. I went around a few days the past week and tried to give each of the workers a back massage. They LOVED it!!! I also had an MFR certified PT here who also went around and massaged the worker’s which was a huge blessing to them. WE have the most AMAZING staff at the Miriam Center. 6.Prayer Time- On Teusday we started our first time meeting together as a Miriam Center staff and praying/worshipping together. I am so EXCITED About this time we will have together 2x a week to pray for each other and the children and the Miriam Center as a whole. I am praying that God really uses this time to first of all bring himself glory, second of all bring unity and a stronger bond between the staff, and thirdly as a time of refreshing and filling for all of us. 7.Documentary- I am soooo EXCITED about a team from California that was here this past trip and filmed the different aspects of the Miriam Center and got interviews from the Miriam Center staff (American and Hatian) as well as the parents of outreach and some of the short-term missionaries who came to visit the Miriam Center. There plan is to make a 20-40minute documentary of the Miriam Center that will be used to help us raise sponsorship for our kids and raise money for BIG projects we want to do and to increase awareness of the Miriam Center and what we do. Prayer Requests 1.For energy, strength, wisdom, and provision to finish strong the rest of this summer and that what I set up is sustainable while I am not here. 2.For Presidue (the Hatian who runs outreach) that he would feel empowered to run outreach and for out times of training that I will clearly and effectively train him with the knowledge/provide him with the tools he needs. 3.For the health of all the staff in the Miriam Center to stay good and for protection from illnesses going around 4.For Heather as Stephanie is going home for the month of July and will be directing the Miriam Center by herself. For her to not feel overwhelmed and find balance to get everything done. 5.For Stephanie to have an AMAZING time of rest and rejuvination back home in Denver, Colorado during the month of July. 6.For Peace for me as when I think about the next 6 months and everything that has to fall into place for me to be full-time in Haiti by January stresses me out. Pray for wisdom to know when and how to do everything. This summer is flying by and I can’t believe I only have a little over 3 weeks left in Haiti for the summer. The only thing making leaving a little bit easier is knowing that I will be moving here full-time in January God willing and that while I am in the states I will be fundraising to move to Haiti full-time and advocating for the kids’ stateside. Thank you for your continued prayers and support. Part of this was written June 25, 2012 and part was written June 29, 2012

BIG DECISIONS….TRAVELING….RAISING SUPPORT…MOVING….FAITH

June 15, 2012 BIG DECISIONS….TRAVELING….RAISING SUPPORT…MOVING….FAITH As many of you know in 2007 I traveled to Haiti for the first time and fell in love with 13 children in a disability orphanage called Heavens Waiting room (now Miriam Home). My first summer in Haiti I left very much so impacted by the poor conditions these children were living in (dark room, cage like beds, little stimulation, and children forming contractures and bed soars) BUT I also left overwhelemed by how much joy and happiness these children had and see an AMAZING staff with so much potential. Ever since 2007 my deepest desire and calling from God has been to fight for these children and my Haitian staff to make sure that they are seen, that their needs are met and provide therapy to the children and training to the staff and parents. As bad as I wanted to move to Haiti full-time in 2007 that was not God’s plan. I still had Alot to learn in the states. I needed to finish getting my Masters in Occupational Therapy, needed to gain some more experience job wise and through continuing education classes. I needed to move away from home and learn to stand on my own two feet and rely on God more fully. The past 2 years God has taught me so much through different circumstances such as stepping out in FAITH, trusting him, relying on him, coming out of my shell and gaining boldness, learning to make decisions, seeking Him for comfort, wisdom, joy, peace. Has it been an easy road from to 2007 to now…NO WAY…BUT would I walk down the same path if I could go back and do it over…DEFINITELY…WHY???? Because God has placed each event, person, job, friends, situations, etc. in my path to refine me and prepare me to be where I am at today. So really the question is where am I at today…at this moment. Well, I am EXCITED to tell you that God has finally given me PEACE and is opening doors for me to FINALLY go full-time to Haiti. THAT’S RIGHT…I think God has been preparing me for “Such a Time as This”. The past few days especially but also the past few months many things have happened and I am stepping out in FAITH…Trusting God. So many emotions are running through me right now…EXCITEMENT (that I finally am about to enter into my dream), FEAR/ANXIETY (over raising funds, finalizing everything, and all the unknowns), JOY, etc. So I am going to take a few minutes to try to help you understand how I went from thinking I was still at least a year or more away from going full-time to where I am at now. As many of you know, I have been working to pay off my student loans. I have a very strong belief that my supporters should not pay off my loans for me but that their donations should go fully towards ministry. I have worked the last two years to pay off about half of my school loans. God has slowly been softening my heart and reminding me that He is in control and not me and I cannot put stipulations on Him. Ultimately He decides when I go full-time to Haiti not my loans and not me. I have heard many different opinions on this like…”if you did not go to school to get your occupational therapy degree you would not be able to serve the way you serve in Haiti and the only way you could get your degree was to take out loans and thus it is ok for your supporters to help you pay your loans”….”you could just put your student loans in forebearance”…you should not go into missions till you our out of debt”…etc. Well, I have come realize that none of these are the ultimate right or wrong answer and it all comes down to God and His plans and His timing. Scripture says that He knows the plans He has for us and that his timing is perfect. When I came to Haiti I had decided and had verbally accepted a job in the Lake Tahoe area and was planning on moving back up to that area to save money for 1 more year and put in savings to pay my loans while I served in Haiti for a year. I had it all planned out that I would come back from Haiti spent 3-4 weeks in Pennsylvania with my family, fly back to Vegas and pack up my apartment and move to northern Nevada and start my new Job September 4th. And spend the year raising support and saving money while being surrounded by friends I had made the year before and I knew I had a spiritual family and support up north. Well, I have come to realize that those were my plans and not God’s…About 2 weeks before leaving for Haiti I put in my 2 weeks notice in Vegas. 1 week before I left I found out my new boss for my job up north had resigned which made me anxious/nervous not knowing who would be taking her place and who I would be working under. Then 4 days before leaving for Haiti found out that I needed to be completely moved out of my apartment and into storage before I left for Haiti instead of moving when I got back. It was craziness. AND now I am laying here writing this smiling knowing how God was all over this. When I arrived at the mission, I walked into A LOT….ALOT of CHANGE…some good, other hard…It has been an interesting somewhat hard summer. The mission is definitely in a period of going through the fire and refinement…and although God has called 4 families and a few other staff to leave and stop serving with NWHCM…for some reason He has increased the call on my life to join the Miriam Center staff in country and serve “NOW…For such a time as this.” He has made clear that now is the time. He has made it clear that I am to walk through this storm…fire…refinement process….whatever you want to call it alongside my mission family…TRUSTING fully in the beautiful end point. The things that happened in last 48 hours that made this clear. First of All Kimmy’s House has been here the last 4 days. For those of you who don’t know, kimmy’s house is a mission organization that is all about global disability orphan care. Their ministry partners with other ministry to carry out care for these special children and staff. They were our biggest advocators and supporters for our new building project in Bonneau where we have been working for 3 years to build a new disability campus for the Miriam Center. They are the organization that built our playground on that land. Unfortunately that land has been dubbed un-buildable and we need to look at other options for space and expantion. They have been wanting to take a more active role and become partners with the Miriam Center and NWHCM to enable us to meet the needs of our staff and children and missionaries. The past few days have been AMAZING going through meetings where we honestly laid everything out on the table…we looked at the needs of the Miriam Center, the children, the staff, the missionaries. We made a hierarchy of needs and made plans to what needs to be done to meet those needs. They took the time to listen and observe not only missionaries but Haitian staff and as I write this they in PdP getting clean collagen water to set up a water system in the Miriam Center so that our children and staff are guaranteed clean water. I could go on to tell you all about what was discussed, the plans we have, the needs that need met and all of that but that is not what this email is for and it is not time yet BUT I will tell you that we serve a BIG God and that BIG BIG things are to come in the next few months and year. That This is a year of pouring a strong foundation/blueprint for what good, Christian disability care looks like and really focusing on meeting our staffs needs and the childrens basic needs of hygiene, nutrition, sanitation, and space. Back to how I am making the decision to go full-time to Haiti. The other night after one of our meeting to discuss things with Kimmy’s house God just really laid heavy on my heart the need to call a friend/co-worker and discuss my job situation. In my head I had made a verbal commitment and I wanted to be a women of my word BUT I felt that God was calling me here now BUT I didn’t want to leave everyone in a bind. So I texted her to see if she was up for a phone date and she was. Unfortunately the electric came on over an hour late or maybe it was good because I spent that time in prayer over the conversation and asking for God to make clear what his will was and to open doors He wanted open and close doors that He wanted closed. Long story short I needed 3 people to give me their blessing to not take the job and God did that. So at the end of my phone calls with those people I sat their in shock realizing…I am jobless, homeless, all my stuff is in storage and having a strong desire to be in Haiti full-time more than ever and yet with a peace that transcended it all. So God! So where do I go from here…when do I go full-time…Well my new goal is to move full-time to Haiti by the new year (January 2013). With that said I will be leaving Haiti July 20th to go home for a friends wedding and spend some time in PA with family and friends. In that time I would like to do some traveling and speaking to start raising a monthly support system. I am looking at joining Kimmy’s House who would help me with managing my money and raising support and keeping my supporters informed on what I am doing while I am in country. I will also being use that time to set up a therapy/medical specialist network database to send monthly updates, therapy needs, and to have it ready to start making aware the needs we have and open communication and opportunity for therapists/medical professionals to come in and serve for 1-2 weeks throughout the year. My goal is to have 1 team a month come into Haiti. I am also working to set up with a few colleges to enable fieldwork students to be able to come to Haiti and receive college credit for doing their fieldwork in Haiti. I will at some point need to go back to vegas and sell my stuff and move back across country. I plan on joining a travel therapy company and work one 3 month stint to raise money to put in saving to continue to pay off my loans while I am serving in Haiti. I plan to be in Haiti 9 months out of the year and to be stateside 3 months out of the year to raise support and work on therapy networking for Haiti in the states. By traveling 3 months out of the year I will intentially be placing myself a new environment to meet new therapists/medical professionals to share what I do and to meet knew people and make connections. I am also looking at what it would look like to do 1 3 month travel stint a year to raise the money to pay my monthly student loans…so my time home to raise awareness and support would also be my time to have a job to put money away to pay loans. I hope this makes sense. So PLEASE let me know if you having any churches or groups that I could come speak at while I am stateside. With that said 1.) I am asking all of you to pray about considering making a monthly or 1 time donation to enable me to serve in Haiti full time (instead of running my fund through my home church I will run them through kimmy’s house and so once I get that all set up I will send you an email with that information and how to start making donations. 2.) I am asking you to be advocates for me and tell your friends and family about what I am doing and ask for their support. 3.) If you attend a church I am looking to travel and share what I do in Haiti and what I plan to do in the coming year to raise awareness and support (financial and prayer) 4.) I am also asking for prayers as I discern timing with everything and trusting God for the finances and details of selling my stuff, moving the stuff back to Pennsylvania, finding a travel company or job for a few months. Please let me know ASAP if you would like for me to come speak at your church as I will need to schedule a time and plan transportation and everything. Thank You for all your prayers and financial support because I could definitely not be able to do what I do in Haiti without each of you. I will keep you up-to date on my plans and the doors God opens and where I am financially and where I will be speaking. I will also do my best to keep you up on what happens in Haiti the next month. I am humbled to serve such a BIG, Sovereign, AWSOME God.

MINISTRY UPDATE

Ministry UPDATE from June 15 The past few weeks have been busy as always but lots of EXCITING things happening. 1. For Jonathan Sake-Outreach- I just love my families in this program and the fact that I have been able to train them do therapy with their children and I can already see a deeper bond forming between them and their child. It warms my heart so much to watch these parents fall more and more in love with their children. We are on week 3 of working our way through our therapy handouts, taking supplies home to use during the week, and having homework to do at home. It is going GREAT so far and the parents love it and the kids are already showing the results. Week 1 we learned stretching and therapy brushing, week 2 we learned oral motor and facial massage, and This Week we are learning full body massage. The toy lending/therapy supply lending system is going great. The parents love having supplies to work with at home. Today I had a parent tell me that her child who has very low tone and doesn’t do much of anything put her hands in her food and was playing with it for the first time this week. I was so EXCITED and told the mother how AWSOME this was. I went and got her a child’s spoon and gave it to her and told her to start doing hand over hand to have her child scoop food to her mouth and have her work on holding the spoon. My heart had so much joy today as I was able to teach that mother to do massage with her daughter and to see how focused the mother was to make sure she learned it was able to carry it on at home. :-) Staring tomorrow I am going to be working with Presidue to train him on therapy techniques to train the parents on after I leave and to help him feel comfortable taking over for me when the summer is over and he takes back over. He is EXCITED to learn and I am EXCITED to teach. 2. Severe and Profound Preschool- The past week I have been more going in and doing music with the mothers (workers) and the kids. Playing guitar a few days that guitar man did not show up and when he was their I danced with the kids. I have also been doing 1:1 therapy with the kids just working a lot on getting the kids who can sit to practice sitting and showing the mother’s that they can. Today was my first day of starting to train the mothers on the same handouts that I have been training the outreach parents on. Yesterday I worked on making their binders and boxes of supplies so that each mother had their own for their 5 kids. Each box had a bag of oral motor supplies, a bag of massage supplies, toys, vibrating brushes, bubbles, lotion, etc. Today we learned stretching of the upper body. My goal is to everyday teach a little piece till we get through all the handouts in the next week to week and a half. Then my goal is to break them down into their groups with their kids and go around to teach them the best techniques to use on each of their kids. Then after music time everyday the rest of the preschool time will be 10-15 minutes of 1:1 time with each of their children working with them to make them stronger based on what is best for each. I am really EXCITED about this! 3. Feeding and Nutrition- Well, we are still fighting this battle but it has started to become overwhelming for all involved and concerns of sustainability have come up. We have simplified the menu for now to make things easier for the cooks. The kids eat the same meals Monday-Friday breakfast lunch and dinner. Every morning they are getting scrambled eggs, peanut butter sandwhich, bannana. Lunch is Hatian stew or rice/beans, and dinner is spaghetti and hot dogs. Originally we were grinding the same food the older kids were eating for the little kids but since power is not reliable and the hand grinder does not do peanut butter sandwhiches well the little children are back to getting la boue. We are trying to make it healthier by adding peanut butter and bannana’s to it. Today was the first day that we requested that the cooks start grinding the food again as food preperation was taking 2 hours each meal (total of 6 hours). We have definitely made a dent in the nutrition but have a long way to go. The supplies that John Harvey helped us fly in on Mission Aviation Flights cleared customs and we are just waiting to get them transported from PAP. I am hoping they will come on the top of the bus of missionaries coming tomorrow. I am very grateful that Kimmy’s House brought tons of Gatorade meal replacement powder that is going to be very helpful for adding calories and protein to some of the kids meals. The depot is set up for the first month and Justin is doing an AWSOME job running it. He is working to help us get some other needed supplies in their that we will use on a regular basis like La Boue mix and peanut butter. We also made a feeding board that will be helpful for the workers to keep track of what kids get feed what food and using what utensils should be used. It will also double as a way to mark off when that child has eaten so children don’t eat twice and miss getting feed. Thank you to all those who helped take pictures, print them, laminate them and put the board together. 4. Kimmy’s House- Kimmy’s House was here for a few days last week and it was wonderful to sit down and discuss ministry needs and talk through how to meet them. So many great things came out of Kimmy’s House’s time here but feel the need to wait to write about them until we start implementing them :-) Which some will be happening sooner than later. Well, one I can tell you about is the Water. Kimmy’s house has purchased a clean water system so our children will have access to clean purified water on a daily basis now which will be AWSOME for their compromised immune systems. 5. Prayer Requests a. There is A LOT of sickness going around the mission right now and a lot of the staff our down with one thing or another. Just praying for healing for all so we can get back to fully serving God where He called us. b. For the parents and children of my outreach c. For the workers of the Miriam Center d. For the Children of the Miriam Center e. For Wisdom and Guidance on the details of moving to Haiti full-time f. For the ability to find time everyday to be with God and allow Him to fill me up so I can pour out. g. For our partnership with Kimmy’s House and all the projects that they are helping us with. For Wisdom and Guidance and God’s provision and blessing. I know I missed A LOT but need to head to do some other stuff. I hope this update finds you all well!

June 1, 2012

June 1, 2012 It has been a crazy busy 6 days to say the least. I will try to keep it short and sweet yet informative at the same time. 1. Heather Meyer has been really sick. She had Typhoid a weeks ago then later found out she had malaria and even after finishing her malaria medicine was still very sick and have seizures. She was flewn via MAF to Danita’s Orphanage (where she was a missionary for the last 2 years). Friends from Danita’s then took her to the hospital in Santiago, Dominican Republic. As of Yesterday She was still in the hospital with hopes to be released after the weekend. The plan is for her to stay at Danita’s till she is completely better health wise. While she is healing I am taking care of her little Hatian boy Peterson who a year ago she took from the Miriam Home as he was so sick and nursed him back to health. Since she got Peterson he now weighs 25lbs (gained 12lbs!!!). He is my first new roommate. My second new roommate is Chris-Cherry who is Pepito’s son. He has Cerebral Palsey and is 3. Pepito went with Nahum to Pourt-Au-Prince to get his passport. The boys have kept me very busy with making sure they are both feed (both on special diets), clothes, diapers changed, and happy :-) I love them both so much!!!! As I write this Peterson is sleeping on the bed and Chris-Cherry is playing in the pack and play. 2. Feeding and Nutrition for the Miriam Home children.- I have been taking time to help feed the hardest children at both lunch and dinner in order to figuere out the best/safest way to feed each child (positioning, spoon, consistency of food, techniques with utensils, etc.). So far I have worked with 4 kids specifically and have a plan for them. We also picked 6 of the most malnourished children to focus on increasing their calorie intake and nutrition to hopefully increase their weight (Shamma, Andy, Job, Rachel, Bertho, Stanley.) Our first attempt at this started 2 nights ago with feeding a night bottle with whey protein in it. None of the kids would drink from a bottle so we are having to use syringes. I was so blessed that the first night 4 of the interns came down and helped feed the kids. My favorite moment of that night was the fact that one of the interns sponsors Job and feeding him was also the first time she got to meet him. She came down yesterday during the day and asked to hang out with Job. It really warmed my heart (as many know Job is my special boy:-) 3. Food Depot- So about 2 months ago Stephanie and Heather realized that our kids were not getting the nutrition that they needed and the older kids were going to bed hungry most nights. As a Miriam Center staff we have set out to change this. The first way was to determine why the big food depot on campus didn’t have food for us by the last 2 weeks of the month and because of that we were using our market money (which is for buying the fruits, vegetables, and meat) was being used on rice, beans, spaghetti noodles, etc. We have asked permission to get all of our food at the beginning of the month (Stephanie calculated based off a months worth of data she collected how much we would need). Stephanie and I are sitting down this afternoon to plan a new menu for the kids (this is challenging as we have limited electricity and the sever and profound children need mush like food). We also only have a budget to spend 23 cents per kid per meal. We are really praying what to put on the menu and how to get the children appropriate nutrition with the budget we have. The plan is to make an ideal menu and test run this month how much it would cost per month to feed the menu. This month with the money I brought in we will be able to pick up any extra costs. Kimmy’s house is also bringing in divided plates and measuring cups so we can work on serving more appropriate portion sizes and thus serve more nutritious meals. I am really excited to get the whole food situation figured out (how much food we need, how to keep it safe, how to cook it, how to get the right nutrients, etc.) 4. FOR JONATHAN SAKE- I have had A LOT of fun with outreach this week just working with the kids and parents but mostly getting to tell them the EXCITING things in store this summer. I have been working with Presidue (the Hatian who runs this program) to set up a toy loan program where parents can take toys home for the week to play and interact with their kids and then return them the next week to get new toys. We are starting this on Monday. I have had multiple outreach parents ask me for Bibles and so I am working on finding a way to get them each a creole Bible by the end of the summer as a gift. Next Monday I will start training the parent how to stretch and brush their children. Each week we are going to add on a new dimension and I am making them each a binder to take home with picture handouts and the creole for each new therapeutic technique I reach them 5. I am slowly working on the wheelchair problems. Today Walden’s chair broke in a way I was unable to fix it BUT Justin (our handyman) was able to figuere out a way to “fix” it with plywood and some screws. I am really praying my crate with the wheelchairs arrive soon!!!! 6. Thickened liquids- I had talked the workers about using thickened liquids with the severe and profound children to decrease aspiration and to increase liquid intake to prevent dehydration. I have been so busy the last few days since telling them, I had not started anything. Well, today the mothers Stephanie and told her they needed the thickened water. So today during severe and profound preschool we had our first drink break. :-) I am hoping this evening to have a second one. The best part was my workers initiation with it today! 7. John Harvey and Missionary Flights International- John Harvey is a pastor of a church in Florida and He has been AWSOME in allowing me to send him supplies to carry in. When he got a huge donation he had connections to get items flewn in for me via Missionary Flights International. It is a HUGE blessing all the items coming in. Please take time to read his blog that gives more details ☺ All I have to say is BIG GOD!!! http://onelifeadventures.org/blog/ 8. PERSONALLY- I am doing well, tired BUT good. The days here go by so fast and it is hard to believe I have been in Haiti for over a week and a half. The days have been super duper hot and at night since I have a room in the Barnes’s house when I first go to bed it is great because the air conditioner but shortly after I go to bed the generator goes off and thus so does the air conditioner. I have been using a Ryobi fan which takes the edge off the heat. All of us missionaries are in agreement it is super hot for this time of year…which only means the summer will get hotter. I am loving the time I have got to love on the kids. I am still struggling balancing work, fun times with kids and personal time for devos. I have been horrible with eating meals in the kitchen but have great friends who keep me accountable to eating wether they save me a plate for when I finish feeding kids or make sure I break out snack food and eat. (Thank you Stephanie and Justin!). The ice machine is broken and so my biggest craving since being here has been a glass of ice :-) I have been drinking too much coke but I love the fact that they are cold…lol. Basically I am loving being here and already dreading when I have to leave (even though I am excited for some time in PA with my family and friends). Well Chris-Cherry is having a fit because I am ignoring him ( we are sitting outside on our bed mattresses because too hot inside). I think he needs some TLC (Tender Loving Care).