Trip to Haiti

It is going to be hard to put into words all that has taken place while we have been here in Haiti for this past week, but I will do my best. It was immediately a culture shock when we stepped off the plane, which you can only prepare yourself for so much before going. It was quite an adventure getting through baggage claim as our claim tickets were thrown away at the Miami airport...ooops! But evidence of God going before us was there and we claimed our bags and made it through without any problems. YAY! We were met by Mansour, the director of Holt Fontana, and we were on our way. We stayed at Kaliko Beach Resort about a mile down the road from the Fontana Children's Village. It was a beautiful place right on the beach. The staff was kind and gracious to us Americans, the meals were AMAZING and the views breath-taking.

Tuesday we had to go see the local judge to sign a "paper" basically stating we are who we are and that we promise to care for the kids upon adoption. The "paper" was just a sheet in a composition notebook with our passport numbers and names written down in it with a line drawn for us to sign. Then FINALLY it was time to meet the kiddos. Another path paved by God, they all knew who we were and were attached to our sides for the remainder of that day. The girls immediately started braiding my hair! As we are overjoyed that they took to us well, we definitely took on more that we should have for the first day. We decided to take them back to the hotel to swim...WE WERE CRAZY...the first hour was great while swimming, but when swimming was over, it got pretty chaotic. We had to keep them trapped in our bungalow with absolutely nothing to do :( We only had 3 channels on the TV (ESPN, FoxNews and TNT). Isemina didn't seem to care what was on TV, she was just happy to be watching it. Anne and Noe, however, wanted to play with every light, push every button, unzip every zipper on our luggage, and play with the bottle of water. Then it came time to leave. We were suppose to have a driver pick us up, but no such luck. We headed out with three children in our arms and hiked the road back to the Village in 90+ heat. It is between 1/2 mile to 1 mile to the Village from our hotel and it is all uphill! But we made it and we left the kiddos and walked back down.

Wednesday was filled with a trip back to Port Au Prince which began at 5:20am and did not end until 6 pm...ugh! Port Au Prince is CRAZY! It is people upon people in the streets, on tap-taps (Haitian taxi's that are actually pickup trucks with jacked up toppers on them)and three lanes of traffic on a two lane road with huge potholes everywhere. As Mansour said, "If you couldn't dance before you came to Haiti, you will when you leave." Let's just say I got an ab workout trying to stay upright in the seat. Until you have experienced traffic in Port Au Prince, you have not experienced traffic. I am not a fan of playing chicken on a continual basis while driving. BUT, surprisingly we saw absolutely no traffic accidents. Haitians have some sort of understanding with each other while driving that is unbelievable. Since I couldn't stand watching where we were going while we were in the car, I took the opportunity to watch the people, look at the villages off of the main roads, take in the back alley markets that you could get a glimpse of if you were lucky. Haitians are beautiful people, but you can certainly see the despair in some and hope in others. You immediately know the ones that have had to work extremely hard all of their life to gather their items to sell at the market and be there day after day. The same goes for those that have had the blessing of receiving an education and finding employment. But I think the biggest surprise, if you will, is that there is such a misrepresentation of Haiti that is communicated to the USA. All of the news stations just want to show the tent cities and some of the more impoverished communities, but there are soooo many beautiful places in Haiti. What the news shows is such a small portion of what is Haiti. Thursday we slept in and decided to take the morning for ourselves and head to the Village at lunchtime and spend the afternoon. During breakfast on Thursday there was a family (American) sitting at the next table and the woman (Mickie)turned around and asked us where we were from and why we were in Haiti. So began the conversation and a fast friendship. Tony, Mickie and their son, Jacob are from Mississippi and moved to Haiti in August to be full-time missionaries to a small community East of Port Au Prince. They were such an encouragement to us...another road clearly paved by God! We did have a relaxing morning and headed to see the kiddos at around 11:30 am. Noe was in their house and came running out when he saw us and we were on our way to find the girls who were having English lessons in the playroom. We spent a bigger portion of the day at the Village, but we had one of the workers translate for us to see what the kids wanted to do and guess what...they wanted to go swimming!?!?!?! So we headed to the resort again. This day went a little better, still crazy, but Jason and I had a different strategy than the time before. :) We took them into the ocean first, which they were quite hesitant about, but were willing to sit on the beach and let the waves roll up on us. When they grew weary of that we went to the pool for about an hour. Up until this point everything was great, then came time to go back to the bungalow and get ready to leave *sigh* I was able to get all of them out of the shower much quicker (still took 10-15 minutes). You would have thought that Jason and I would have learned from the day before to put all glasses, wallets, computers, and what have you, away...NOPE...not us. It was all out for six little hands to grab...AAAAAAHHHHH! The driver was supposed to be at the resort at 5:30 pm. Well, 5:30 came and went and at 5:45 we embarked on the hike back to the Village. All the kids wanted to be carried and would not hear of walking. I had Isemina and Jas had Anne and Noe. A mile uphill without carry a child is long enough, but when you have to carry someone, it is EXHAUSTING! So what began as a very good day on Thursday, ended very poorly and with us feeling very inadequate and incapable of tackling this task that is set before us. BUT, God is so faithful. Mickie, whom we just met at breakfast, after dinner came over and gave me a hug and asked if she could pray with me. Through sobs, I said, "Absolutely!" What a blessing. Friday we relaxed again in the morning and went to the Village and ate lunch with the kids. After huge platefuls of rice and beans, we spent the day at the Village, coloring and playing with the toys there. MUCH BETTER! Jacob downloaded a French-Creole app on my phone and I was able to use that to communicate some with Isemina. She seemed incredibly happy to see that I was trying to speak to her in her language. I was able to tell her that she was my daugher - "Ou mwen fi". A big grin came across her face and she said "Oui". I went down the list of Jason being "Papa" and Kyle and Kory being her "Fre's" and that we were a family "Nou fanmil". It was wonderful. We were also able to finally give them the gifts we brought for them. They were so excited. Isemina beamed when she heard the book read to her, Anne and Noe by their big brothers. Noe was especially proud of his backpack and strutted around the office. It was HILARIOUS! We wrapped up the day by coloring and playing with Legos. We left around 4:30 pm. Leaving this time was not so easy for a couple of reasons...1. all of the english speaking staff left the Village at 2 pm and, 2. all the the kiddos cried and didn't want us to go. :( I am not sure if the received the message correctly that we had to leave but were coming back, but I have to trust God that they did. It was a long emotional walk back down that hill.

Saturday we were up and ready to be picked up at 8:30 am with hopes of stopping by the Village to spend 30 min. with the kids, say our final good-byes and then head to the airport. No such luck...our driver was late, again. He didn't arrive until 9:15 so Jason and I didn't have peace about stopping by the Village for 5 minutes just to say good-bye so we just headed to the airport...my heart breaking all the way there. As much as I wanted to love on Isemina, Anne and Noe some more, I was also ready to get back home to Kyle and Kory. All of our flights were on time and we landed in Mpls at 10:45 pm and took off for Wausau. We rolled into our driveway at 2:00 am....home sweet home! A bed never felt so good!!!!! The trip was a wonderfully emotion-filled God-paved way. Eph. 3:14-21 14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.