CTV Interview with Lineda's mom

Check this out! Amazing to see the different ways the word is getting out there!

CTV British Columbia- B.C. mom who adopted Haitian tot sends plea - CTV News, Shows and Sports -- Canadian Television

Earthquake

As most of you have heard by now there was a earthquake that hit Haiti yesterday afternoon measuring 7.3. Since then there have been over 40 aftershocks which continue to be felt. Port-au-Prince was hit very badly and from news reports is quite flattened. Mirebalais, where Haiti Children's HOme is located, was in contact with us abot 1/2 an hour after the quake reporting that everyone was alright and were all outside the house away from danger. We have not been able to communicate with them in any way since that time.
Relief groups are just begining to get a grasp as to the magnitude of this catastrophe, and it is seeming overwhelming as Haiti has no emergency response system...no teams, no especially trained personnel, no machines to lift the tons of concrete that have fallen. There are a huge number of teams being mobilized and arriving on Haitian soil to begin this huge job of first finding people and attempting to rescue them from where they are trapped. There is also of course the huge jbb of tending to the wounded and shocked.

There is much to pray about.

Please dedicate some time in prayer for the country of Haiti, its people and toil this is placing on such a fragile and destitute country. Pray that the people of Haiti will turn their eyes upon Jesus. That He will sustain them with His peace in the midst of all this turmoil.

Thanks to all of you who have written and called. I so appreciate all of you thinking and praying for me. I am admittedly stressed and concerned about the people I love and the people of Haiti who have become so important to me. I have been watching and reading all the news I can get a hold of, and sit with tears streaming down my face as I absorb what has happened to "my" Haiti. It seems very surreal...I have seen footage of places I have been a number of times and some of them only a few weeks ago, almost completely unreckognizable. It's really hard to be here...and to understand why exactly it is I am here once again when a disaster happens in Haiti. I am however finding consolation in the fact that it was "God's Haiti" way before it was mine. I would love to jump on a plane as soon as there are flights again, but I know that for whatever reason, God has made clear that I am supposed to be here right now. Please pray that His peace will reign in my heart.

Please keep updated!www.cnn.com
www.livesayhaiti.blogspot.com (friends living in port au prince..lots of news there)
www.haitichildrenshome.com
I will also post anything I hear and confirm on facebook.

AOnce again, I am somewhat exasperated to realize that I have fallen into having to do "catch-up" blogs every time I blog! But, that's just how things are around here! So here you are:what's been happening since the last time i blogged! (I started this post on Oct 18th....here I am finishing it the 1st of November....thus updates since I started this post are in this color!)



1. I got really sick with some crazy mix of malaria and this fever bug that has been going all throughout Haiti. It was NOT fun. I have NEVER been that sick, nor do I wish to feel that way again! I experienced every symptom in the book:fever, chills/shaking, profuse sweating, swelling, diarrhea, vomiting, insomina, nausea, aching all over, sore eyes, poor blood circulation resulting in purple toenails(well, under my toenails), inability to eat or drink, shortness of breath, etc etc etc. I was on IV's for 7 days, oxygen for 2, a crazy mix of IV antibiotics, anti-malarials, anti-nauseants, etc etc etc. I wish I had gotten a picture of how swollen my hands and feet were! That was a really weird thing that accompanied all of this! It all started with feeling sore and really exhausted and realizing I had a fever on Tuesday night. I felt a bit better the next day, though I was still feverish. Then by Thursday it was obvious that I was quite sick. I spent the first few days at the orphanage being cared for by Melinda, but by the time I was at the needing oxygen stage(Monday), they promptly loaded me into the truck(I could not even walk there myself) and took me off to Port. There we found a gem of a doctor named Dr.B(I nicknamed him myself) who promptly admitted me into the French hosital in Canape-Vert where I recieved really good care and spent 4 days getting better. I ate for the first time on Thursday morning, and my teeth hurt as it had been almost a week since I'd eaten! I was really blessed to recieve such great care both from Melinda and everyone at HCH, and then at the hospital in Port-au-Prince! I also had a great group of people all over the place praying for me, and I am so thankful! It was really a comfort knowing I had that backing!


I was definitely shocked at the price tag! Coming from Canada where our healthcare is basically free, having to pay a doctor and a fancy French hospital carried a good sized price tag let me tell you!


I feel pretty much back to normal for about 2 days now. It was hard the first few days being back as I quickly realized how weak I was from being so sick, and really had to slow down and not feel bad about sleeping all the time and jsut not really doing anything! So thankful to feel like a normal person again! God is so good and I know that He really carried me and everyone who was caring and worring about me through that crazy week!





2. The day after I first started feeling sick, Pat and Melinda had to go to Port for something, and of course, wouldn't someone show up needing help. A father with a set of newborn twin boys showed up, having just lost his wife and not knowing what to do with his two little boys. I felt quite yucky and didn't want to touch them and make them sick too, so between looking at them and getting Minnie to come and help me out, we talked to Melinda and then called Mathieu over to come and talk the dad about what his options were as far as HCH is concerned. He had already decided he needed to give them up as he had no way to care for them. The father was not a young man, already having some adult children, and I felt bad for him as he looked so lost with these little babies. It was a bit difficult to get things sorted out as the dad had no form of identification whatsoever! Thankfully, Mathieu, our adoption guy and Haitian director for HCH, deals with this stuff all the time and came and took care of it all. We got the twins bathed and cleaned up as they were a little dirty, and thankfully they latched right onto a bottle and drank it all down! Their names are Monel and Moliere and they are quite cute! They are about a month (almost 2 now I guesss!!) old now and are quite cute!



3. Remember Loner? The little guy that came down to us from Lori and Licia up in Cazale? He's doing really great...still has some problems with chronic pneumonia and has a reflux problem, but he is getting quite fat and has everyone in the house in love with him!



4. The one year olds that moved downstairs over a month ago are loving being downstairs, and Kervens and Kendy are now walking all over the place, while Jolanda has just realized how fast she can crawl and that standing up is actually kind of fun! Adam is happy to stand up, but any attempt to get him to stand unaided ends up with him on the floor upset and just wanting to scoot instead! Just a couple days ago Adam decided he needed to catch up with me..and there he was hot on my heels looking so very cute as he concentrated so hard not to fall down.



5. Minnie started school with the kids and they were so excited as a volunteer that just came brought in their new school books. So, they have all been talking for the last week about how they have "bel liv" (pretty books)! Minnie has been quite happy to see that they had not forgotten near as much as she was afraid they would, and they are all well on their way into this years schooling! Gerald and Robinson have joined the ranks full time in the classroom, and are so pleased with their big-kid books and are quite industrious. Golson-3, has decided that he too thinks school is pretty fun and does his best to sneak up there whenever possible, so Minnie has taken to bringing him up on Fridays when it's more of a relaxed day in the classroom, and he is so proud that he gets to go to school too! Last Friday Minnie gave them all mini notebook and a pencil crayon to call their own, and my afternoon was spent drawing cars and boats and houses and trees and flowers and bikes, and well....what I drew kind of looked liked those things I suppose! But the kids were happy!



6. There are two great volunteers here right now. Two friends, Melissa from LaCrete,Alberta and Rachel from somewhere in Virginia. They are both jsut great and have jumped right into things which was so wonderul with things being so crazy here when I was sick...and of course there were sick kids in the midst of all of it!



7. Speaking of sick kids, please keep Derson in your prayers. He's a little boy, 9 years old, with inoperable hydrocephali(water on the brain). He has been holding his own for a long time, but lately he started refusing to eat, and was on IV's for a while, and is currenlty being tube fed and needing a catheter as his bladder is not working properly. We moved him upstairs where we could keep an eye on him. He is doing better than he was a week ago, but it's so hard to know how he really is doing, and what extremes to go to as it is quite possible that his body is shutting down. Please keep him and us in your prayers as we wait and see that the future brings for this little boy. As of Oct 27th Derson is doing much better and is once again feeding himself and giggling at the antics of the other children. He was able to go back to his room downstairs and we are thankful for his fill recovery!



8. As most of you know, Melinda is getting married November 27th! Please keep her in your prayers as she plans a wedding in the midst of the normal chaos around here!



9. I have decided that if I do get into nursing school for January, I will be going home in December. I have been thinking about this for a long time(since I was in physio school) and it seems that it's now or never. I am not at all happy thinking about leaving, but I know that this is something God has laid on my heart, and that though the timing seems so not great, in reality the timing would never be great as far as leaving here is concerned. There are a lot of details to work out and I am quite attached to being here....love a lot of people I would love to stick in my suitcase and just bring along. Please pray for me as I wait and figure out all the details!



10. Yestarday I met a Haitian family from Germany here visiting Haiti. Their two girls speak French, Creole, English and German...all fluently! Amazing! SO-o-o jealous!



11. We've gotten a couple more adoption files and there are a couple more on the way! Exciting to see more kids find families! PLease keep the throng of little boys we have in your prayers...there are currently 13 little boys between 1 month and 3 years, as well as a 5 year old, two 8 year olds and a 14 year old all needing families! We have a lot of boys in this house!



12. Lately I have been having this hate relationship with beans. No love, all hate. I have never been a big fan of beans..the kidney, pinto, black, lima, yucky kinds. And here in Haiti, the main staple is rice and beans and beans and rice and rice and beans and beans and rice. And if it's not beans and rice, it's rice with bean sauce! No joke! 2 years of this very mundane diet have started to take a toll on me, and there are times when I see that bowl of rice and beans that I literally just want to pick up the whole thing and throw it off the porch! We do eat N.American style foods for supper, but the main meal of the day is very Haitian, and while there are Haitian foods that I really do love to eat, my tolerance for beans has run very thin! I feel kind of shallow and picky, but this is a reality for me...mom, I think I now dislike beans even more than you know! They are a wonderful source of protein and such, and provide a simple healthy way for Haitians to eat! But, I do not like black beans and rice. I do not like them in a house. I do not like them with a mouse. I do not like black beans and rice. I do not like them. Lori I am. (courtesy of Dr.Suess...I really feel a deep sense of comraderie with Sam)



13. It has been ridiculoulsy hot here. It's October now...well into October, and it's supposed to be cooling down. But no!! Instead it's hot and muggy and discgusting! And they keep taking the power! You know it's bad when a two year old suddenly stands up in his bed and starts dancing and chanting "yo by kouran, whey!" (They gave the power, yay!!). The last week or so it has started cooling down and you can actually feel a little cool in the evenings! Makes for a really great sleep!



14. I recently had a delivery of After Eights, Hawkins CHeezies, supplies to make seafood spread, and a lovely spread of other things via some volunteers that arrived. I believe I have eaten half a box of after eights since I turned my computer on an hour ago. Gotta get them before the ants do!



15. I cooked onions in the microwave last night. We ran out of gas for the stove, and were just about done making supper....it worked pretty well actually! I have learned all kinds of tricks since being in Haiti! Not to mention I can now whip up a batch up really fluffy biscuits for 40 in minutes!



16. Please pray for our milk situation. For the past few months we have been very thankfully blessed to have a huge supply of milk in storage provided to us from our friends at CAM(Christian AId Ministries). However, our supply is almost out, and they don't have any shipments coming that they know of, so we may be back to having to buy milk once again. With 31 kids under 3 needing milk at least 3 times a day, plus babies on bottles, that's a whole lot of milk! Plus the older kids who get milk once a day!





17. We had some very sad news come our way a week or so ago. Remember Yvenson, the little preemie that came last September about the same time as the hurricane? Well, he turned a year old just a few weeks ago, and I am not sure of all the details, but there are some rumours about meningitus. We were all very shocked and saddened to hear this, and can't imagine how his mother must feel as she was so happy with her little boy that made it despite being such a fragile preemie. Please pray for his mother Wilda as she is grieving.



18. I am tarantula hunter! I used to be so terribly scared of these critters, until I learned all you have to do us get a stick and swipe across the ground and hit their legs which are incredibly fragile, which then break and they die! Haha! So now when the kids find one, I no longer run after a guy to come and deal with it, I find a stick and send that little critter to gloryland! Though I wil admit if I woke up with one on my leg or something, I might very quickly turn back into a wimpy screaming girl!

13 Cakes Later

The birthday gang chanting "GATO, GATO, GATO. GATO!!!" (cake, cake, cake cake!!!)

The Decorating Committee
Gabo(wanna be decorator), Melinda, Pat, me, Valdo, Cherub, Margaret.

(Nancy and Sandra had already escaped the birthday bash bedlam!)
Baked cakes all day Thursday, started decorating at 8a.m. Friday morning, finished 13 cakes by 4:00 p.m. just in time for a 5p.m. PART-A-A-A-A-A-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y!!!!

Jamesky 2: Nemo by Sandra

Lony 8: Lion by Margaret

RoseLissa 2:Bumblebee by Lori

Lineda 2: Ladybug by Cherub

Golson 3: Frog by Cherub

James 8: Train by Lori

Adam 1: Fish by Valdo

Kendy 1:Touring Car by Nancy Overholt
(It was very scary!!)

Julie 2:Dragonfly by Margaret

Kervens-1: Heart by Nancy

Ester-1:Heart by Nancy

Amanda-11:Heart by Melinda

The June/July/August Birthday Party gang, with a few extra newly one year olds who had birthdays earlier this year.

September catch up!

I know. You don't even have to say it. At least I am finally here.

I know that last time I blogged it was a catch up blog, and well, here we are again, catching up from the last catching up!

And you are VERY thankful ;)

So, what's been happening????

-we had 5 one year olds move downstairs.(thanks to the people who provided us with the funds to get 9 new cribs...they arrived and are full!) That has been interesting! I can never get over how much our dynamic has changed since I arrived 2 years ago(oh yeah, my 2 year anniversary in Haiti has come and gone, since August 9th). We have 41 kids and only 13 of them are over 3! I think that lets you know a little of how things can be around here!

-a new Steevenson arrived, sent to us from Lori and Licia up at Cazale, weighing all of 2lbs and a few ounces...his mom went into premature labour while away from home, ended up at Licia and Lori's and then came down here to make use of our incubator. We weren't sure for a while how he was going to do, but he's pretty stable now, though he still has trouble keeping a steady temperature. He's getting 18cc of formula by tube, and is hanging out in the incubator which we have jerry-rigged with a heating blanket as it's not running the best right now. Pat and Melinda are in the states for 2 weeks, so Valdo and I have been busy taking care of him....I should say Valdo as he has been amazingly attentive and is spending the 2 weeks while they are gone caring for him, really only asking me when he is unsure about something. And is doing a great job! I am so thankful for him as it is stressful running the house, without having to be ever watchful of a preemie 24/7!!

Valdo with two of the preemie triplets that came last July

-we have 2 super awesome wonderful stupendous gals here from Ontario. Cherub(who I met the first time I came here in 2006) and her sister Margarat are here for 7 weeks and they are the best thing since sliced bread! Seriously! They see something and just do it, and understand how to make things easier, and are not afraid to get their hands dirty. One things that helps me a lot too is they are comfortable re-directing bad behaviour, and lately our little gang of 5-7 year old boys has been quite naughty!


-RoseLissa started standing up straight right around her 2nd birthday, still holding on of course, but very awesome! She continues to get stronger and more able to do things, though her latest feat of climbing up on a bench on her belly and flipping over to her bum makes my heart jump every time! The combination of being 2 and suddenly being able to start doing what her friends do is a crazy combination....and she's jsut a little determined! Her two smallest toes have now gown normal flat toenails, and the nails on her other toes seem to be following suit. She still has 5 toes that have no nail growth at all

-Minnie is coming back on the 11th! I am so excited to have her back, and the kids are ecstatic to be starting school soon! Please pray that she does not have any more health problems and that her parents have a good visit here for 2 weeks.-Melinda is getting married towards the end of this year, and will be living off the compound with her new family. Please keep her in your prayers and she prepares to start this new chapter in her life, and for the changes that will take place here at HCH


-Melinda got to put a needle in me again. I had been feeling tired for about 2 weeks, and then one day I woke up with diarrhea that would not stop and by that evening I was short of breath and quite week. She took no time at all jumping on the oppotunity to stick me...apparently I was a little dehydrated as it took 3 litres of fluid before I even had to pee!


-I recently endeavored to re-endeavor so master doing black hair...i had started a while back, but didn't have too many girls with long enough hair, and Kettline jumps around so much that it's a workout, so I had let things go for a while. Since then, I have started again as the toddler girls have long enough hair now, and am happy to announce that I am getting pretty good! The best was when Haitian lady commented that she was sure it was a Haitian who had done RoseLissa's hair!Yeah for me! I am not as fast as the ladies here, that's for sure, but the kids are very paitient with me for the most part!

This is called "shou" which means "cabbage". The way it's done here is by taking a small section of hair and braiding it, the attaching that braid into the next so they stay flat against the head. You make as many rows as you want and then they all meet at the crown of the head. This is the 2nd time I have done this style and it turned out pretty alright!

-the other night we watched a movie and hippo's, elephants and monkeys. I had forgotten how funny it is to watch an animal movie with over 20 todddlers...i really heard nothing the movie had to say, due to the kids all shouting "Lori, gade!!"(which means "look") every time an animal moved! Hilarious way to pass an hour!

-I have decided that there is a silent alarm that goes out the minute Melinda and Pat go to the states....because every time , without fail, old families come asking about their kids who have been gone for 10 years and get mad that I don't know who they are talking about! Really sick kids show up, and I have to decide how best to help them with the knowledge I have learned since being here(it's scary sometimes having people depending on you like that, but when there is no other option for them, the least a person can do is try!) or like it happened the very minute they were leaving, a 13 year old boy showed up with a huge gash in his leg where he had fallen on a piece of iron while playing soccer. They had stopped at the clinic in town but found no-one there, so a girl that used to bring her baby brother here for milk, came and brought the boy down here. I managed to get it to finally stop bleeding and close it up as best I could. He's been very faithful about coming back for dressing changes every morning at 11 a.m. Walking about 30 minutes . Each way. Haitians are amazing.

Valdo and I taking care of a nasty scrape

-yesterday a young woman showed up with her six month old baby who I could tell instantly was suffering from the effects of kwashiorkor(protein deficiency malnutrition) as his cheeks had that "look" (puffy and kinda stretched) and as soon as I pulled the blanket off the state his hands and feet were in confirmed that diagnosis. Steeven(yes, this seems to be the name of the year) mother had recently found herself in a bad place as her own mother died and the people that they had been staying with kicked her out. She's seen her son going downhill for about 3 months as she is not producing enough milk, and recently realized she needed help. She was prepared to give him up, but after I talked with her and told her we could help her with milk she was alright with taking him home and coming back in two weeks to reasses things once Pat and Melinda are back. These situations never get any easier to see...and in this case, the mom needed as much help as her son. Please pray for her and her child as they face such difficult circumstances.

Swollen feet

Steevenson Jean Paul

-a bunch of the guys around here are involved in a community soccer league that is only about a month long, so we've gone to watch/play in a few games, which also makes a fun outing for the older kids. The weirdest thing happened the first day. I got introduced to the local witch doctor, who lives just a stones throw from here, and a few minutes later just about dropped my jaw when he told our team they needed to pray so that the the game could get started!! Such a contradiction!! We couldn't help but make a few jokes about who he would be praying to, and if we won, who it would be who gave us the victory?!?!? The sad reality here in Haiti is that there is such a cross between voudou and christianity, and it can be very difficult to recognize the differences as there is such an overlap. For the record, the game ended 0-0.

Hot. Heat. Sun. Sweat. Gross.

It's hot here. Can't believe how hot actually! There is nothing like suddenly realizing sweat is running, not dripping cuz it skipped that step, but running in rivlets down your legs. If you ever need to be reminded what it used to feel like when you peed your pants as a kid, come on down and join the fun! Even the Haitians are complaining about it. It's somewhat incredible actually! The saving grace is that we have had pretty steady electricity through most if it, and there are plenty of fans and one very lovely air conditioned room to escape to once in a while. However, that being said, leaving one of those places of refuge requires a person to venture out and for the umpteenth time feel that same feeling when a big truck goes flying by you on a hot day, and you have to absorb the heat of the air and the exhaust all while gasping for air through the dust. Yep, it's just lovely!

Besides the heat, things have been going quite well. We have been blessed with a couple cooler evenings, and that really makes things much better! The kids are doing well, though we have had to deal with the diarrhea that comes with the heat, and then runny noses and fevers here and there. But for the most part, they are doing quite well!

I didn't write about this yet, but the two babies that I wrote about 2 or 3 posts ago both died within a week of each other. They both had severe complications due to perferated bowels, and they were jsut too weak to make it through. It was a lot deal with, as at that same time I found out that my dad had passed away as well. My parents divorced when I was about 12, and I have not had much at all of a relationship with my dad for the last 15 years, so it was a difficult experience, trying to deal with and absorb all of that while being here in Haiti. Spent lots of time thinking and praying and deciding what to do as far as attending the funeral. It's very wonderful to have a great mom who spent lots of time talking with me and supporting me as we decided what to do in that regard. I ended up deciding to stay, and I am thankful that I feel peaceful since that decision was made, both before and after the funeral.



Two new children have come our way this last week or so. One is a brand new baby girl named Claudia, whose mom died very unexpectedly during childbirth. Her family did not know what to do as they were in such shock and asked us to take care of her for a week. They came back at the end of that week and asked if we would keep her as they did not have a way to care for her. So, we have a very cute chubby little baby girl who has joined the ranks in this house very heavy on the boy side! As well, this week Lori and Licia up at Zach's Clinic in Cazale called and asked if we would be willing to take over the care for a little baby boy named Loner. Terrible name huh?!?! He's 2 months old(though Melinda and I are sure he's older cuz he's so aware) and all of about 4lbs. He'd been at Zach's for about a month and a half, and they are so full there and he needs so much special care, and he would just not put on any weight. So, Loner came down and joined us here for the time being. He's very weak, and Pat and Melinda took him to see a doc who is quite sure that he has whooping cough, so this little man could sure use your prayers!

Speaking of Loner, he needs to be fed. So, this post stops here! More to come soon!

Pajama Picture Shoot

Andre

Lony

Levi

Ketteline

Carlos

Melodie

James

Golson

Evan

Robinson

Samuel

Eddison