kiddo update

There are things here that give me hope and there are some things that are incredibly disheartening. Here are a couple examples:

First, Marline...she's been with me and Anna about 2 1/2 weeks now and she is looking SO GOOD and is quickly gaining weight:

This picture is from the first day she was here. She is sitting next to Darlens...he is a 16lbs 3 year old and she is 5.

I took this picture of Marline tonight...for some reason me and Anna noticed that she suddenly looks chubby! We were freaking for a little while and telling her how fat she looks and she was smiling like crazy. Her belly get so full from all the food she eats that her innie bellie button turns to an outie. The only thing I am concerned about is her heart rate...I noticed that her heart was beating fast so I counted her BPM. Her heart rate is about 150BPM normally and about 120-130BPM resting. Not sure what this means but I am concerned about. I've been praying that the Lord would heal her...I am asking you to do the same.

Now to Ojean...he was one of the first kids we started taking care of when I got here. 

He was pretty bad and we weren't sure if he was going to make it through the night...he did, and started to do really well (yes, that's a girls hat...I was overtired and I thought it was funny apparently. oh gollie)

I saw a nanny from the RC holding him today in the clinic and he looked terrible...Lori put an IV in him and now we just have to wait to see if his little body will be able to recover from all of the terrible things it has had to endure. Please be praying for him.

Finally for tonight is Donah. She came in today...she has AWFUL Kwashiorkor (her kidneys are shutting down and excess water is building up in her body due to lack of protein in her diet). This is one of the worst forms of malnourishment...her organs just begin to shut down. Kwash starts in the feet and works its way up...her eyes are now starting to swell. Notice how shiny her skin is...it will most likely start to peel off and become raw.

She is staying with me and Anna for a while.

She also has a terrible rash/infection that hurts her with the slightest tough or movement. She is in incredibly rough shape.

Please pray for this precious little girl.

I believe Your my healer,

I believe You are all I need,

Jesus, You're all I need.

unto us a child is born (literally), Port au Prince and other happenings

So last week on  Wednesday morning I was just stepping out of the bathroom from getting ready for the day when Anna yells at me to get down to the clinic because a baby was being born. I assumed that meant it was about to pop out at that moment. Well, the baby was crowning but it took another 3 hours to actually get it out. ish. Here's the short of it...the girl's (18 years old) water broke the day before at noon and she had been in labor all night and unable to push the baby out. They finally came to the clinic a little before 8am because they didn't know what else to do. We figured it would happen fast because you could see the baby's head but that was not the case. The little confined 30ft by 20ft room we were in was SWELTERING! We would step outside the room (mind you it was 10-11am in Haiti which is like HOT) and it felt incredibly cool compared to the room we were in. It was quite literally a sauna in there (it was hot for us but I am sure totally and utterly sucky for the girl in labor). We were scared that the cord could be around the baby's neck or various other terrible things and that it was potentially dead. Anyway after 3 more hours of pushing in the clinic the baby boy popped out (he seriously flew out!) He was a bit purple and had fluid in his lungs. Lori managed to get enough out for him to take little shallow breaths. Then me and Anna gave him oxygen and continued to suck the fluid out. He started to get some color back and after like 30-45min after giving birth, mom and baby were on their way home.

It was quite the event to experience, I'll tell you that much! I immediately took a shower afterwards because I definitely got some placenta juice splashed on me.

Here's baby:

Mom and baby before heading home:

The next day I was able to take a motorcycle taxi to the beach to see a dear friend. It was all very spur of the moment/last minute but Lori and Licia were awesome about helping me get there and back! It was so fantastic to see Michelle and spend time with the people on her team. They were so fun and inviting...it was such a refreshing day. Praise the Lord.

In other news...I went into Port on Sunday to go to church. The roads on the outskirts of Port that we have to take to get into town are full of tent cities. I can't even imagine what it would be like to spend hot days and rainy nights under a tarp. Pray that the hurricanes and tropical storms stay away...it could easily be a second major disaster in the making.

This tent city continues on to the right and wraps around the side of the mountain

This is one of the many tent houses in Cazale (where I'm at).

Some of you may have heard of me mentioning Marline (sounds like marlin, the type of fish)...she is the 5 year old I have been taking care of this past week. I have put off helping Peterly to care for Marline because she wasn't eating while she was at the rescue center and wasn't doing so well. She was pretty sad looking for the first week...she never smiled and always had this incredibly sunken, sad look on her face.

This little girl has started to transform...at the end of last week I discovered that she had a double ear infection (which was probably one of the reasons for her sad state). A little antibiotics and hydrogen peroxide has really changed her demeanor (the high protein food and endless kisses have probably helped as well). It has been so precious...she usually smiles a ton when she has just eaten and taken a poo (just like the rest of us). Anyway, she is doing so well and I am so proud of her and excited to see her continue to get healthier and more full of joy. (PS the reason I never dress her is because as soon as I put her in a cute little dress she gets diarrhea all over it...so we just stick to a plain ol' diaper) 

And here are some randoms from this past week:

Ojean is back in the Rescue Center and doing great! He makes a cute girl eh?

Some of the local kids checkin' out the blancs on our walk

Trey and Henley (and Anna) have discovered the Roller Coasters of Haiti...sliding down the eroded mountain sides.

It's the beginning of week 4 and I am doing great. I am really starting to settle into things here at RHFH and am starting to get to know some more of the people in Cazale. At church on Sunday at Port-au-Prince Fellowship, the Pastor, John McHoul gave a sermon about brokenness. It was a fitting sermon considering that everyone there was a human being (haha...but seriously). He quotes some of the Scriptures that talk about the Lord being near to the brokenhearted. My heart just soaked it up...there have definitely been plenty of times in my life when I have personally been broken before the Lord because of pain in my life. But, there is so much healing from that that the Lord has done in me...I had to be broken before He could begin to make me whole. This season in my life is not for me to be broken about my pain...it is for me to be broken for the pain of Haiti. Brokenness in many ways.

...show me how to love like You have loved me,
Break my heart for what breaks Yours,
everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause...

machete amputation, plants and a bunch of cute kids

Wow...so the days here go by crazy fast and I wish I was updating this blog WAY MORE than i actually am. Okay, I definitely need to work on that. So there is lots of stuff to talk about but one of the more intense events of this week was a guy who had his hand severed by someone else with a machete. Apparently it was revenge from the person who's hand got cut off by this dude.

His bone was cut in half beneath that flap of skin. (it was basically like watching Discovery Health channel in real life)

They couldn't find a taptap (taxi) to take him to a hospital to do an amputation so Zach had to drive him in the back of his truck. (the lady with him is his mom)

we finally got him to a clinic that could do an amputation after a 25-30min car ride.

On another note... Ojean is back with us after he went to the Rescue Center for a little while and we are also caring for Mirlene. Ojean still has some kwash (when fluids build up in their body...which is why his legs look chubby). They are 2 of the sicker kids at the RC and need tubes so they can get more protein and stay hydrated. The socks are on her hands so she doesn't pull the tube out of her nose.

Mirlene sat outside with is while we planted Vetti Ver (a plant that helps soil erosion)...you can see that her feet are swollen...kwash starts in the feet.

This is Killer the cat (also known as Kliwer cause Trey can't pronounce "killer" so well...he named it that because it kills the rats)

And here are some pictures from inside the Rescue Center...these are all the older kids (aka not the babies)

Climbin' on Anna

A peak inside the RC

And another picture of Peterly just because he is so precious

Randoms from my second week in Haiti

I saw my first tarantula...it was SICK! luckily by the time I got close enough to get a decent picture it was dead.

We took Carlos from the Rescue Center and brought him on a walk with us one day...he freaked out at first but did ok after a little while.

The`mosquitoes like my fresh blood

This is a view of some of the sellers that sit outside of our gates...this is the gate from coming out of the guest house/old Rescue Center.

It rained pretty hard for a couple hours one day and the new bridge could barely handle it...we'll see what happens if any hurricanes come. We are only like 20-30yards from the river.

There was a HUGE crowd watching the bridge overflow...I thought the lady with the mismatched raincoat and hood looked pretty classy.

This is Romial...he came in on Wednesday and was already near death from neglect and starvation. He was blind because he had been suffering from malnourishment for so long. His parents had brought him in several times in the months before and they were told they needed to admit him to the Rescue Center but they refused. He died yesterday afternoon and is finally in the arms of the Father who never left his side. Precious boy, you can now rejoice for you are in the presence of your Papa.

This is my little buddy Peterly...I've been taking care of him for several days now. He is two and a half...he is healthy now but he still is not able to walk. I am going to be working with him to help strengthen his legs so he can begin to walk.

This is Peterly when he first Came to the Rescue Center

I can't believe I've been here 10 days already...the time is already flying and I am trying to soak up everything that I can. I am going to start working more closely with the development group here. Please pray that the Lord would give me wisdom to help empower them to make changes in their community here in Cazale. They have so much potential!!