Patay

Here is a picure of Zachery with one of his good friends. Zachery is also being adopted by a family in my church back home. He's a really fun kid and enjoys going for walks. We went for one today and bought some 'patay'. It's like a deep-fried pastry with onions, tomatos and some kind of meat inside. Our patays had chopped up hot dogs in them. They're really good and it's the lady next door who sells them so they're nice and close by! We tend to buy them a lot because they're so good and so inexpensive... only about twenty cents American each! 

Sisters of Charity

Well, my day began by dragging my suitcase downstairs, only to be crowded by toddlers who all had tears in their eyes because, when they saw the suitcase, they thought I was leaving. They looked so panicked and clearly upset, even when I assured them over and over that I wasn't leaving and that the things in the suitcase were for the babies!

We had another unique opportunity today. We had our driver drive us down to Port au Prince and we spent the morning volunteering at the Sisters of Charity orphanage right downtown. It's the poorest orphanage in Haiti, and they take in the poorest of the poor. The orphanage is run by the same organization that Mother Theresea started.

I was suprized by how clean they keep the orphanage! Every room was very well swept and all the babies were very clean. All the babies wore uniforms and each room's babies had a different colour of uniform so that the babies would always be kept in their appropriate room. The babies all wore cloth diapers and underneath each crib was a bowl of clorox, which gave the rooms a bit of an overwhelming aroma.
A lot of the babies were severely malnourished and extremely tiny. I held a little girl who was probably about two and a half years old. She was literally just skin and bones... I honestly wondered if she might just break when I picked her up! She was such a beautiful girl though. Even though her face was all sunken in and her body had almost no weight to it, she still had a beautiful smile and big brown eyes.

I also saw a little boy who had no eyelids and it looked as though he had been burned in a fire. Besides not having any eyelids, his eyes had some kind of clear membrane over them and beneath it, I could see him trying to look around. He was also extremely tiny and all of his skin looked as though it had been burned. I'm not sure if it was an infection or a growth of some kind on the back of his head, but there was definitely a big something sticking out of it! I've honestly never seen a human being look so awful! I could hardly believe that he was human. When I looked at him, I was reminded of what Dixie had said to us before we'd left that morning... that babies die daily at this orphanage and that the Sisters make a daily trip to the morgue....

We were there over their lunchtime, so I got to put on an apron and help feed the babies. It took a really long time though, because one of the babies I fed was not a fast eater at all. He only had two teeth though, so I think that might've had something to do with it. Their lunch looked pretty healthy, but I'm not sure that I would want to eat it. It was just rice with beans in it and some kind of red liquid poured over it to give the rice some more moisture and probably more nutrients too. Oh, and the ones with teeth got to eat some chicken too. I was so amazed at how well most of the kids ate. They practically absorbed the food, picking up anything that fell on the ground! Haha!
Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures, so this pretty palm tree will have to do.

As an update on Jessica, she seems to be doing well at the moment, but still has a lot of weight that she needs to gain. So please continue to pray! 

I Finally Fell...

The roads around GLA are pretty rough. They're really just full of big rocks and uneven ground. There's nothing very stable about them. It's actually become a bit of entertainment around here! People enjoy laughing at other people when they fall on the roads... there's not much mercy given, even though everyone falls at some point! Haha!
Well, last night it was my turn. I was walking back to the Toddler House, from the Main House. It was about 7:00pm, but it gets dark around 6:30pm, so we were walking in pitch dark. I could hardly even see my hand in front of my face! There are two streetlights on our road, but they aren't usually on because there isn't usually electricity at that time of night. I was just walking along with my two roommates, minding my own business, and carrying all my laundry that I had just finished doing. My roommates and I were talking about how God must find it very humerous to watch us stumbling down that road, when He can see everything. Then suddenly, the rock that I had stepped on slid right out from beneath my foot and I fell flat on my bum and scraped my arm on the cement wall that I fell against. Haha! The Haitian man who was leaning against the wall nearby, burst out laughing, as did we! I wasn't hurt badly, just a little scrape by my elbow, but boy was it a funny experience!

Hudson Vanderslagt

About a week before I came to Haiti, I learned of a family, of which my mom teaches their kids French. It turns out that they are adopting a baby boy from GLA. His name is Hudson and he is honestly one of the cutest babies here! He has such big eyes and he's soo expressive! He's a lot of fun to play with!

Today, when I went into the nursery, Hudson pulled himself up in his crib and stood up! I've never seen him stand before, but he was standing! I watched him pull himself up a few different times today and he seemed pretty proud of himself! It was soo cute!!! He even walked around the nursery, with me holding onto his hands! It won't be long till he's walking on his own!!!

I also have to share this story that happened a couple days ago. I was playing with Hudson, up on the balcony, and I had him in the Jolly Jumper. He really likes the Jolly Jumper and was having a grand old time. Suddenly I looked over to see Hudson smiling nice and big, with a big puddle of diarrea on the floor beneath him! He seemed to have no concern in the world as he continued to jump in his diarrea. Needless to say, it was quite a mess to clean up!

Toddler House Kids

These are some of the kids from the Toddler House. You can see Jelitan in the back, peeking out from behind one of the girls in the middle. Jelitan is one of the boys that is being adopted by the Adair family from my church at home. He's such a character! He always runs up to me for a hug and a kiss, every time I walk through their play area. Then that starts all the other kids running up for kisses. Some of them pucker their lips so big that I can see right into their mouths! Haha! I've gotten some very wet kisses!
 
These are some of the older girls at the Toddler House. They're so much fun to be around because they're so enthusiastic about just about anything! Yesterday, I told one of the girls that I would paint her fingernails. Ten girls later, I ended up telling the rest of the girls that they would have to wait for another day! Apparently, the word that I was painting nails travelled quickly and the girls had been telling all their friends to come up on the balcony to have their nails painted too! The girls were so proud of their newly painted fingernails, but they didn't seem to understand that they weren't supposed to let anything touch their nails until the polish had dried. Needless to say, I probably painted each girl's nails about three times!
  

El Rancho Hotel

Today, Dixie decided that it would be nice for all of us to take a break and go swimming at El Rancho Hotel in Petionville.
So, the Haitian nannies stayed with all the kids and we took the afternoon off to go swimming. It was a beautiful sunny day and the hotel was gorgeous. It was an outdoor pool, which was great for us because the weather was perfect! It only cost $4. to go swimming there too, and it was definitely worth it!
I have some more pictures of us in the pool, but you'll have to wait to see those. I can only fit so many on this blog at a time!
It was really good to get out and just relax and swim and enjoy the sunshine, and on the drive home, I saw my first traffic light since I've been in Haiti. What a day! 

The ICU

The first picture here is another picture of the big nursery. As you can see, there are a lot of little bodies that run around in there!

 
The other two pictures are of the ICU. This is where little Jessica is right now. She's being tube-fed, so please continue to pray for her health.
 
I really enjoy spending time in the ICU. The babies are really small in there, but they love to be held and I love holding them!!!
  

The Nursery

The nursery here is divided into three main areas. There's the ICU, which is for all the really malnourished babies when they first come in; the big nursery, which is for the all the normal healthy babies; and the in-between nursery, which is for the babies that are healthy enough to leave the ICU, but maybe not yet big enough to be in the main nursery.

These are some pictures of the big nursery. There's about a hundred babies all together, between the three nurseries. I spend a lot of time in the big nursery. I've gotten to know the nannies pretty well and the kids always run up to me with their arms up, whenever I walk in the room. I'm learning that I could use with a few more hands! Haha!

As you can see, there are a lot of clothes needed for all these little bodies, and we recently just got a bunch of new clothes from one of the adopting families. This is also the change room and bathroom in the main nursery. At night time, the babies are all bathed, and the nannies form an assembly line. One nanny takes off all the clothes and diapers, the next nanny bathes the babies, then the next nanny dries the babies off, and then the last nanny puts pyjamas on them. It's a precious sight to see!

As a sidenote update on baby Peterson, he is doing really well. He is gaining weight and growing into a healthy little baby! Thank you for your prayers and I ask that you would pray for little Jessica, a three month old baby that just came in today. She was brought to another orphanage, but referred here because of her severe malnourishment. Although she is three months old, she only weighs 4 1/2 lbs. She has a difficult time drinking her milk because she was born without a pallate in her mouth. Her mouth opens right up to her nose, there is nothing seperating it. Please pray that she would begin to gain weight soon! We are using a special bottle for her that only releases milk when she moves her mouth on the nipple, because otherwise she chokes on the milk. If that doesn't work, we'll have to tube-feed her. Thank you for your prayers for me and I trust that you will remember Jessica in your prayers as well.

Birthday Party!

Today, we celebrated all the birthdays in March! As you can see, we had chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles on top and boy, were they every yummy!!! :)

We sang Happy Birthday and they kids all stood around the little table and blew out the candles. It was so much fun! Then we played with them on the balcony (this is the balcony at the main house, the nursery). They had a blast and it was sooo much fun to be a part of it!!!
 

A Day in Port au Prince

This morning, I went to Port au Prince with some of the other volunteers here, on a trip that was organized by our Creol teacher (we have Creol lessons three days a week). Fortunately, things have really calmed down in Port au Prince and we had absolutely no problems at all. We drove passed the palace and also saw some really cool statues in some of the parks in Port au Prince. Then we went on a tour through the Haiti National Museum. It was very interesting! We learned a lot about the history of Haiti and saw a lot of cool arifacts, including the actual anchor from the Santa Maria, one of the first three ships to discover the Island. We also saw a real gold crown that one of the kings of Haiti wore. There was a lot of really interesting things... lots of swords and lots of paintings. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures in the museum, but I really enjoyed looking at all of the original artifacts and appreciated the opportunity to go to Port au Prince. I didn't think that I would have that chance when I decided to come to Haiti. Things have calmed down a lot here, I think the news really exaggerates things. It's not at all as dangereous as the news makes it seem! I have never felt unsafe here... but of course common sense is always necessary and we never take unnecessary risks. Thank you all for your prayers and concerns for me. I am having a wonderful time here, and I personally think that all of you should come and visit Haiti for yourself!

Going on a Feeding

Well, I have posted three blogs since the last one, all with pictures, and for some reason, they aren't being published. I can still tell you my stories though!
Yesterday I had the opportunity to join a group of teenagers from a couple other orphanages on the mountain, to make the two hour journey to give out rice to some of the more hungry people in Haiti. We drove about two hours through Port au Prince (which is much safer now, by the way) and to the east towards the Dominican. We stopped about a half hour before we would've reached the Dominican and were greeted by Haitians already seated in rows and waiting to receive their rice. We all jumped out of our trucks and led the people in some singing. Someone taught them a Scripture verse and a pastor gave a short sermon. Then we handed out the rice... two for every adult and one for ever child. Then we got back in the trucks, drove a little ways and did the same thing over again at a different spot. It was really great to be a part of the feeding. Jesus asked us that if He was hungry, would we give Him food? Then He said that watever we do to the least of these, we do it unto Him. So I can't think of anything much more honorable than giving food to people who really need it. It was worth the long, hot and bumpy ride in back of the flat-bed trucks, even though I felt as though I was going to throw up for most of the trip! I was able to be a part of bringing food to the Haitians and I made some good Haitian friends as a result!

Pictures!

I finally got my computer connected to the internet here, so now you can see pictures of what I've been doing!
Here's a picture of me on the balcony at the toddler house. It's such a great view!
Here are some of the crazy volunteers that I dare to hang out with. Here they are playing Dutch Blitz, a game that we take very seriously around here! We spend most of our evenings playing games upstairs in the toddler house.
This is a picture of the toddler house. You can see the gate that the kids like to lie behind and watch what's happening outside. The younger kids just giggle in delight and run away whenever anyone approaches the gate!
Here are some of the kids, just inside the gate of the toddler house. They have so much fun with each other. They're never lonely!!! 

Robbie Learns to Walk

About three months ago, little Robbie was brought to GLA and he was in really bad condition!!! We're not entirely sure how old he is, but we're guessing around three years old. He was severely malnourished when he arrived here, so his stomache was really bloated. His head was a decent size, but his legs were really thin and almost limp... he sure couldn't use them! It's been really fun getting to know him, since I've been here. He has come so far since he's been at GLA and this week he even started to walk on his own! It's so wonderful to see him smile and yet so sad to think of what he would've been like if he'd never come to GLA. He's such a happy boy now and prayerfully he'll be adopted soon and have a 'forever family' of his own. Robbie loves to play on the balcony, especially with hats and balls! Oh, and he loves his baths!!!
Thank you all so much for your prayers for little Peterson. His rash seems to be getting better, but he still needs prayer. Please continue to pray for him, and I'll be sure to keep you updated on how he's doing!

Four Babies in a Bathtub

Sometimes when we have the kids up on the balcony, we like to bring out the blue plastic bathtub and give them baths. The kids just love it and it's so fun watching them play in the water. When the nannies give them their baths each night, the kids don't have time to play in the water, so it's nice for them just to enjoy sitting in the water on the balcony. Well, today we decided to see how many kids we could fit in the tub, and we had four little boys sitting in the tub, with soap in their hair and huge smiles on their faces. It was such a precious sight! We actually made a big mess all over the balcony though, because when all those kids started moving around in the tub, the water overflowed and went everywhere! It was great fun though. The kids really had a good time and boy, did they ever smell good after their baths!

The Volunteers

Some of you have been asking me about the volunteers that work here. Who are they and what age ranges??? Well, right now there are ten volunteers here. Trish and Melissa are my roommates from Manitoba and they're 23 and 26 years old. Miss Vicky is a middle-aged lady from Michigan, Glenn and June are a middle aged couple from Edmonton, Alison, Molly and Andrea are all Americans and are in their early 20's. Chris is the only young guy here, but he's pretty cool about it. Doesn't seem to mind hanging out with all these girls! Haha!
Those are the volunteers that are coming and going. Unfortunately all of these people will be leaving before me. Most of them have been here since January. Chris leaves on Friday, Molly on Monday, Andrea the week after that and so on. It'll be sad to see them all go, but I know there are sure to be more volunteers coming. There seems to be a steady trickle of volunteers, in and out of GLA.
There are also a lot of full time staff. John and Dixie own and operate the orphanage, another Molly runs the toddler house, La Dawn runs the adoptions, Joyce does a bit of everything, and Lauri handles the accounting. These are all American and Canadians, but there are also a lot of Haitian staff who do a lot of work around the orphanage, including cooking for all the kids, cleaning, and being nannies to the kids. As you can guess, there is a LOT of work needed to run an orphanage of 163 children!
Please be in continued prayer for all of us... we sure do appreciate it! Pray for continued unity and growth in our team! Thanks!

Guidelines to Toddler House Survival (for volunteers)

Living at the toddler house, here at GLA, has proven that you must always be on your guard. The following are a few guidelines which will help any future volunteers adjust to living in a house of sixty children:

1. Wear pants or shorts that have ties on them and be sure to double knot the ties. The children tend to pull at whatever they can and yes, one time a girl did pull down the zipper on my pants and proceeded to tell me what colour of underwear I was wearing! Now, I always double knot the strings on my shorts and it's a good thing, cuz they do tug on them!!!

2. If you're going to give a hug or a kiss to one child, be prepared for the chorus of 'ti bo' that will result. It means little kiss and all the children will follow you and moll you until you give each and every one of them a kiss. Some of the children will also jump on you from behind and hang off your neck, while at the same time a couple more children will hang off your arms and neck from the front. In this case, just say "leg em" very sternly and give a stern look. It means "Let Go"! Then say "no ti bo!" This will get them off you immediately, because they understand that you will not give out any more kisses until they let go of you.

3. If you ever dare to carry food through the toddler house, either hold it very tightly inside a bag or hide it securely under your clothes. The children can be very agressive when it comes to finding treats on volunteers and trust me, if they find your food you won't get to keep it. I once brought a cookie home from dinner at the main house and had to wrap it in a napkin and hide it just inside the waist of my pants, so even when the children molled me, they never found the cookie!

4. Beware of the rats! Yes, there are rats living at the toddler house. Apparently they live under the stairs and actually crawl up the stairs at night when it is dark. Although I have not yet seen them, I can hear them running around outside our room at night. We all sleep with flashlights beside our beds in case we need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Since the electricity is always off at night, we need our flashlights to scare off the rats, should they interrupt our journey to the bathroom. Only twice have I been brave enough to leave my room at night, and that was only because I had to go to the bathroom so badly that I was in extreme pain. Other than that I refuse to leave my room at night. We sleep with our door closed to keep out the rats and our window closed to keep out the bats, cockroaches and whatever else might decide to fly in. Trust me, even with the fan, it gets really hot in our room!

5. The guard is your friend. Even though he might look scary and he carries a gun, he's on our side. There are a couple guards that take shifts watching the toddler house. They're all very nice. Last night we even played a bit of soccer with our guard. Oh, and don't touch the guard dogs. They stink!

With these guidlines to prepare you for life in the toddler house, you should be well equiped to handle just about anything that comes your way! Good luck!

Shopping in Petionville

Today I decided to join three other volunteers in travelling down the mountain to do some shopping in Petionville. We began our journey by walking uphill... basically straight uphill... to the main road and then continued to climb until we reached another main road. Then we stood there on the corner waiting for a tap tap to pick us up. A tap tap is a Haitian version of a taxi, only it's just a truck with a roof on over the back and benches placed along the sides in the back, and also down the middle. Finally a tap tap did stop and pick us up and we managed to cram ourselves into the already full back of the truck. I counted and there were about forty of us inside the truck, with more people sitting on the roof. It was great fun! One of my roommates from Manitoba, Trish, ended up sitting on my lap for most of the ride because there really was nowhere else to sit! We each paid about sixty cents American for the ride. It was a great cultural experience!!!
When we arrived in Petionville, we walked down a road that was just full of street vendors selling all kinds of beautiful paintings, wood carvings and all sorts of tourist things. We were of course immediately surrounded by all the men who wanted us to buy from their stands. I was suprised, but the all spoke great English. I think they get a lot of practice, because I noticed they all gave us the exact same lines. They all called themselves 'Mr. Cheap' and promised to give us a good price. In the end, I did buy a couple paintings.
We also walked to that wonderful ice cream store and had ourselves an ice cream cone. The ice cream tastes so wonderful here, because of the Haitian vanilla that is so intensely flavourful!
Unfortunately, although we had a wonderful morning in Petionville, we arrived home to the grim reality of living in Haiti. A little baby was brought to GLA this morning. He was ten days old and only weighed two pounds. His parents had brought him to the hospital at the Baptist Haiti Mission, but I guess they couldn't help him, cuz they told the parents to take him down here. He only lived here four about four hours before he died. It can be very difficult emotionally to handle all that goes on at GLA sometimes. There is a lot of difficult things to handle, but there is also so much hope here. I'd hate to think of where all these children would be if they weren't here at GLA!
Please continue to pray for little baby Petersen. He's the little three week old baby that I held all the way to his psycology appointment. He has quite a high fever and has had for about three days now. I noticed it when we got back from the psycology appointments, and told the nurse. She started giving him medicine right away. He also has some kind of rash or something that's spreading over his face. Please pray for this little life that is struggling to survive. Pray that God would miraculously heal him and that he would be able to grow up in a good home somewhere.
Thank you so much for all your prayers!

Going Home!

Today, three children got to go home to their 'forever families' in Holland! It was a very emotional morning as everyone was saying good-bye to these children who really didn't understand what was going on. Two boys are going to one family and a girl is going to another family. Two staff members from GLA, Molly and La Dawn, are escorting them to Holland to meet their families. Normally the parents come here to pick up their children, but if the parents are not able to come to Haiti, then the children are taken to their home country by GLA staff. I was suprised at how hard it was for me to say good-bye to these three kids! Even though I've only been here for a week, I've been giving these kids hugs and kisses every night. The two boys would always run up to me in the courtyard at the toddler house and ask for a kiss! They're so adorable and such happy boys! I'm so excited for them that they are going to be with their 'forever families' tonight! Please pray for them as they adjust to living in Holand and please pray that all the other children who are waiting for families would get to be with them soon! Right now we have more children in the orphanage than we do families wanting to adopt, so please also pray that God would bring along the right families for these children! Thank you so much for all your prayers. I truly do appreciate them!!!
I'm glad you're part of my 'forever family'!
-Stacey

Pizza and Chocolate Cookies!

Tonight was the greatest dinner ever! Although the lunches here are typical Haitian food, we get American-style food for supper, which is great! Tonight we had chicken and mango pizza with chocolate-brownie cookies for dessert! Oh, my goodness!!! I can't even tell you how wonderful it was to bite into those cookies... and the pizza was really good with the mangos too! I praise God for all the little things that He brings along in a day just to give us delight! I am so grateful for my tastebuds!!! Being here really does make me appreciate more all the things that God has given me! Please continue to pray that God would be teaching me through all the things that happen here in Haiti, and that I would really grow closer in my relationship with Him!
Oh, and when you're at home eating all those wonderful things that are available in North America, just think of me in Haiti and be really grateful!

Psycologist Appointments

Today we took eight of the newer children to their psycologist appointments. All the children have to be seen by a psycologist before they can be proposed for adoption, so the children that we took with us have not been in the orphanage for very long. I was holding a three week old baby who just arrived here a few days ago. His mother had been sick and passed away. His father had sold everything trying to help the mother get better, and when she died, he had absolutely nothing left and no means to take care of this little one. The little boy, Petersen, only weighs six pounds, so he's really tiny! I held him the entire four hours of our trip. I even had to change his diaper and since all the kids here have diharea, that was no fun job! I change at least a couple diapers every day and I haven't seen one solid poop!
I couldn't believe how well the children behaved, while in the psycologist's office! The oldest was about five years old and other than the baby, the rest were around one or two years old. They were obviously bored, but didn't complain at all! I only wish children in North America could behave as well as these children did for those long four hours! On the way home, just to commend the kids for behaving so well, we stopped and had ice cream. Haitian ice cream is sooo good! I had chocolate and vanilla swirl. Mmm!
Well, no pictures yet, but I'm told that John (him and his wife own the orphanage) will be returning from the States next week and he's the one who needs to set my computer up for the satalite internet here. I'll have pictures to post as soon as I can use my computer agian!
Bye for now!
-Stacey

Haitian Church and the Orphans

Going to a Haitian church was a really great experience! We walked there with the toddlers, dropped them off at their 'Sunday School', and joined the other adults in the main service. There was a lot of singing, several choir pieces, a long sermon and even more singing and communion to follow. It was a two and a half hour service! The building was build of cement, including floor, walls and ceiling. It was absolutely jam packed full of people! We all sat bum to bum, on wooden benches, with our shoulders overlapping. The lady on the end of our bench was half falling off, during the entire service... but no one complained! I couldn't believe how many people were crammed into that room! Everything was really loud too! The sound system was not good at all and it screeched a lot! The preacher was very animated and literally shouted his sermon into the microphone, which was extremely loud, especially because of the cement walls! But I loved being there! It was soo great to worship God with Haitians, and in the Haitian culture. It was also great to see how much they love the same God that I do!
We had fried chicken for lunch and I spent the afternoon sleeping and tanning on the roof of the toddler house. It was very relaxing! I've started a routine of giving all the kids hugs and kisses before bed, so that took up most of my evening. There are so many kids just desperate to be held. It can be emotionally exhausting, but also so fulfilling!!! I have never received so much love in all my life! I can't even tell you how many hugs and kisses I give out in a day, or how many I get back. Every time I even walk through the toddler house or the nursery, I have so many kids lifting their arms up to be held. One time I made the mistake of sitting on the floor of the nursery and had literally about ten kids trying to sit on me. They are very grabby and pushy too, so I have to be careful that they're not hitting each other in an effort to sit on me. I make sure that I give each of them a hug and a kiss and they just love it! It is so rewarding just to see their faces light up when I walk into the room. They already know my name, even though they pronounce it more like 'tasty'. Right now, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world! I have eight kids that I spend individual time with each day, so that is mostly what my day consists of. We take them up on the balcony to spend time with them. There are Haitian nannies who take care of feeding the kids and putting them to bed and stuff, and us volunteers make sure they each have the love and individual attention that they need. Trust me, that's a full time job in and of itself!
Well, it's time for my creol lessons, so I'll have to say good-bye for now!
-Stacey

Warm Weather, Cold Showers!

Yes, that's right. Although the weather here, is very hot, there is no warmth at all in the showers! This is something I was not prepared for!!! My first night here, I stood in the shower shivering! There wasn't much water pressure from the shower, either, so I had to fill a bucket of cold water from the tap and pour it over myself. Needless to say, I had the fastest shower I've had in a long time! I took a picture of the shower, but I'm having trouble getting my computer to connect to the internet here, to I can't post the picture today. Hopefully, I'll have it all worked out soon.
I'll be going to visit the Baptist Haiti Mission this afternoon, and delivering some packages to Deborah Baker, a missionary from my church. I'm looking forward to seeing her, as well as looking around the mission. I'm told they have a little market there and even an American-style restaurant. It should be lots of fun!
Until next time!
-Stacey

I'm in Haiti!!!

Well, I"ve finally arrived in Haiti! I spent last night in the Ft.. Lauderdale airport, but it wasn't too too bad, cuz I met a group of christians who were also travelling to Haiti. I hung around with them and we found some couches to try to sleep on. I only got a half an hour of sleep though, because of the constant announcements over the speaker!

I am soooo excited to finally be in Haiti!!! It is soo warm here.. I'm wearing shorts, a T-shirt and flip-flops! I absolutely LOVE the orphanage where I'm staying! I was VERY warmly greeted by all the children and the first one to run up to me and give me a great big hug was Jalitan, one of the little boys that the Adair's, from my church, are adopting. I also gave Jalitan's big brother Zachery a big hug. They both stay in the toddler house, here at God's Littlest Angel's (GLA). There is also the main house which has all the babies in it. There are sooo many babies and toddlers... 160 altogether!

Well, I should get going now. It's almost time for lunch!

Gifts for Haiti!

As you can see by this picture, I have been generously loaded with much needed items to bring with me to Haiti! Most of my personal belongings are being packed in my carry-on.
Thankfully, I am feeling much better today and am really excited to finally arrive in Haiti!!! I appreciate all your prayers and ask that you would continue to pray for me as I travel. My flight is scheduled to leave from Detroit at 6:30pm and I have a two hour layover in Charlotte, on my way down to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I'll arrive in Florida at around 11:30pm. I'll be spending the night in the airport and then my next plane leaves Florida at 7:30am. Finally, I'll arrive in Haiti at 9:21am. Thankfully, there is no time difference! I have also discovered that the airport in Florida should have wireless internet, so I'm looking forward to using that! Maybe some of you will be online!!!